Here’s a short three minute video on how to build cool props for your D&D game. In it, I discuss building a light-up portal for some nasty beast to enter from a foul world.
Here’s a pic of the portal in use:
Like this video? Consider using this link to purchase a Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 or a Player’s Handbook 3 or use this link to purchase anything from Amazon.com.
or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Combat Challenge.
There’s a very good e-book on Lulu that describes the attitudes and philosophies of the 0e D&D Dungeon Master called “A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming“. In it, the author describes a concept called “Rulings, not Rules”. Essentially, in old school D&D, there wasn’t a lot of specific mechanics for things. This left interpretation up to the DM in conjunction with the player to decide what was possible with a limited wish or how exactly a thief can detect a pit trap.
This gave a whole lot of power to the Dungeon Master who would, ideally, use this power to make for a very exciting game. It would be clear to a player that the DM is ultimately the one to decide what does and doesn’t happen.
4e doesn’t eliminate this completely, but with a system as rules-heavy as this one, much of the control of a situation comes down to the statistics and powers of the player. Rather than coming up with an ingenious way to detect a pit trap using some water, the player describes what his or her character is doing and rolls a skill check. Want your big boss to go after the squishies? Well, not if he happens to be marked by your fighter!
Combat in 4e D&D has clearly moved in the direction of giving more control to the player. Players have tons of ways to control a battle field, control a monster’s aggression, and inflict a rainbow of debilitating status effects upon your poor beasts.
I am not here to argue the case for giving DMs more or less control in 4e. Instead, I think its important that we understand the philosophy of 4e and enjoy the game a little more in the process. This enjoyment directly comes from one basic rule:
Relax and let the players enjoy their ability to control the battle.
It is sometimes hard to remember that D&D is as much the game of the players as it is the game of the DM. We are the ones building the framework for the world but the story ultimately surrounds the protagonists, the PCs in this case. They SHOULD control the battle because that control is something they will ultimately enjoy. They like forcing monsters to attack someone. They enjoy watching their combination of abilities work. They enjoy laying out a strategy and watching that strategy break through a difficult situation.
Now I don’t like watching my big nasty boss creature get a bucket thrown over his head and a kick me sign stuck on his ass while the party begins to give him atomic wedgies for 2d4+5d8+15 damage any more than you do. I like to watch my bosses throw players to the edge of the abyss like Sauron in the beginning of Lord of the Rings. But that’s not always fun.
Like a lot of things in D&D, we have to learn how to mix up the control of an encounter. In many cases, say 2 out of 3 battles, the players should have a good chance to control the battle. They should enjoy their tactics and watch them work. They shouldn’t have a lot of their resistances broken or have a real hard time hitting things. They should have interesting environments that let them do what they want to do most. One out of three, however, the gloves should come off. Things should get messy and dangerous. A lot of those player tactics may still work but won’t give them the total desired effect. Like overall difficulty and encounter design, we have to know when to let players enjoy themselves and when to push them to the limits.
The main thing is to remember that this game belongs as much to the players as it does to the DM, more so maybe. This is the tale of their characters in your world. It isn’t a competition between you and them and your goal shouldn’t be total domination over the game.
It all comes back down to the famous Rule 0: Do what is the most fun at the time. If that means letting the PCs have control over your big boss, give it to them. If it means beating the dog snot out of them with a Heroslayer Hydra and his four Slaad friends, have at it! Aim for fun and your shot will be true.
Like this article? Consider using these links to purchase the D&D books Underdark, Martial Power 2, or, my personal favorite, the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 or use this link to purchase anything from Amazon.com.
Earlier this month, at SynDCon, I had the privilege of running a Dungeon Master Tips seminar with my friends Dave “The Game” Chalker and Matt James. We discussed preparation aids and tools one could use at the table to make one’s game run smoother. Dave was kind enough to post this podcast on Critical Hits.
Dave also posted his other SynDCon seminars including the most excellent Campaign Design using the 5×5 Method.
In one of my recent games, our level 22 party traversed the twisted mountains of madness in northern Death’s Reach. There they faced a beast of great power and ancient dark magic – the Dracolich Ashencrown. Now a level 22 party is a pretty hard party to really challenge, especially for a single solo creature without any backup. I lucked out in one regard that we only had four PCs and one companion character, but even still, I wanted to ensure that this was a dragon they would remember.
As I mentioned in my Powerhouse Dragons article, dragons are creatures to be feared and dreaded, not cut down quickly. Unfortunately, as built in the various monster manuals, they aren’t always that dangerous. On top of this, the standard Dracolich’s in the Monster Manual 1 are simply annoying to players. They have about four different ways to stun PCs and PCs HATE to be stunned.
So for this battle, I decided to use some tricks and modify a standard dracolich into a fun dynamic creature that would have the PCs on the edge (literally) and give them a battle to remember. Today we’re going to dissect my new dracolich creation so that others can benefit from it.
To start, we began with a level 11 Stoneborn Dracolich (note, link requires a DDI subscription). Using the Monster Builder, I up-leveled this guy to level 23 – one level above the party he would fight. The monster builder upped his hitpoints, defenses, and damage properly. I like the Stoneborn because he doesn’t have a lot of stunning abilities but still has a lot of nice effects.
Now the modifications began. First, I used the new DMG 2 rules for building solos. This reduced his hitpoints by about 200 and his defenses by two. I removed his vulnerability and the marking effect on his basic melee attack. Given that Ashencrown was a blue dragon once, I added the lightning keyword to his breath weapon. At epic, this helps him bypass most resistances. This annoys players but I haven’t found a real good way to deal with very high resistances in epic-level PCs.
Now I started adding some fun effects. First, I added an armor-rend to Ashencrown’s bite attack that stacked -2 AC penalties as he tore into the tanks. Every hit tore more armor away leaving the struck target more vulnerable.
Second, I added an aura that kicks in when Ashencrown is bloodied. This is an aura 5 of 10 lightning and necrotic damage. As soon as he is bloodied, the damage starts pouring out of him.
From my Powerhouse Dragons article, I gave him a “burst 2 within 10″ version of his breath weapon. This way he could fire it at ranged attackers.
Like all my solos, Ashencrown resisted stuns and dazes. Instead of their normal effects, they removed Ashencrown’s next standard or minor actions respectively.
For another bit of nastiness, Ashencrown’s breath weapons actually creates four level 23 elemental mote minions. These minions attack as soon as Ashencrown’s turn is over for 13 lightning and necrotic damage. They go down fast but every time he breathes, four more show up anywhere in the breath area.
Given that this battle was on a mountainous path, as a minor action, Ashencrown could stomp the ground and create an avalanche within a random 4×4 areas of the path for 3d6+8 damage from falling rocks. A better way to handle this would be three random areas every round that reveal themselves the round before they strike so the PCs can move around the battlefield to avoid the damage.
This creation of Ashencrown worked perfectly. The party was challenged, with lots of dynamic effects they had to worry about such as the falling rocks and the elemental motes from Ashencrown’s breath weapon. His bloodied effect gave the PCs pause and pushed them quite a bit farther than they expected. This was my favorite quote from the game when one of the players pondered about how easy the first few rounds of combat went:
“Remember when Ashencrown was dazed and prone and knocked into the ravine? Those were good days…”
Here is a copy of the final version of the Ashencrown encounter should you wish to use him in your own campaign. This is a good encounter for five level 21 PCs.
Terrain: This enocounter takes place on a narrow passage with a wall of mountains on one side and a 60 foot drop on the other. The passage is twenty to forty feet across (four to six squares). There should be areas where it widens and narrows. If a PC falls, it takes a double move action to climb the cliff wall back to the passage with a DC 24 athletics or acrobatics check.
Terrain Effects: Once per turn, Ashencrown can stomp the ground as a minor action and cause an avalanche of rocks to fall in three random sections of the passage. This avalanche will land in the following round at the beginning of Ashencrown’s turn. The characters will see which squares the avalanche will land in when he stomps the ground.
Like this article? Consider using these links to purchase the Dragon and Undead related D&D books Draconomicon 1, Draconomicon 2, Open Grave or use this link to purchase anything from Amazon.com.
I know, I know. There’s nothing worse than hearing about someone else’s game. I hope you will forgive me for using up valuable words with a cut from my own out-of-game bit of storyline. However, the above snippet shows a new concept that I’m going to start trying out – quests for villains.
We all know and love quests for characters in 4th Edition. They solidify what our PCs do, what options they have available, and give some bonus experience or treasure for meeting a set goal. Good quests can tie together a larger storyline and give each PC something specific to shoot for. They’re a great tool for DMs to help build structure around their storyline and help clarify what might otherwise get muddied in a complex arc.
But what about our villains? Why can’t it do the same thing for them? What possible quests could they be working on while your party of PCs carves their way through some dungeon? What motivates them and what do they hope to gain?
Quests for villains, or any set of NPCs for that matter, can serve the same advantages that quests for PCs serve. They can help solidify your storyline by tying together motivations and goals. They keep villains focused on a set outcome rather than simply waiting in a big room for your PCs to come kill them. They help fill out the personality and character arc of the villain you have in mind.
Consider this. Your party has the quest to hunt down a necromancer in the icy north. They have to find his evil tower, defeat its guardians and traps, and face the necromancer himself. That’s a good solid party quest. What about the necromancer? Perhaps his quest is to release a terrible primordial evil buried under the ice for half a million years. To accomplish his quest, he has undead slaves digging deep into the ice while he researches a spell to awaken the beast below. As your party hunts down the tower, the necromancer is likewise moving forward in his own quest, sending his guardians to locate old tomes of forbidden knowledge. He is enslaving a local barbarian tribe, slaughtering them and reanimating them for his slave pit. If the party cannot move forward fast enough, he might even succeed and awaken the Darkness Below.
The nice thing about this idea is the feeling that the necromancer is just as alive as the PCs. He’s moving forward, following his own path while the PCs follow theirs. Instead of villains filling up monster closets, just waiting for a PC to open the door, the villain has his or her own path.
A good villain quest might also include a timeline. How many days will it take the necromancer to dig down in the ice to the beast below? What would slow him down or speed him up? How long will it take him to unravel the dark magics required to awaken the beast? As your party thwarts his plans, it might push his timeline out. If they fail in one path, it might speed him up.
Quests for villains are an easy way to make your villains come to life. They give your villain purpose and motivation. They give your villain a goal and steps into which the lives of your PCs can mingle. They help make your villains come to life.
Like this article? Consider using these links to purchase the D&D books Underdark, Martial Power 2, or, my personal favorite, the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 or use this link to purchase anything from Amazon.com.
Here’s a short video showing off the gear I brought with me to SynDCOn today. It’s intended to show all of the bits of stuff one might need to run a game on the road. Enjoy!
Below is an archive of all of the Sly Flourish DM Tip Twitter posts for January 2010. Get daily DM tips at http://twitter.com/slyflourish!
#dnd tip: Give dragons a ranged breath weapon that shares their breath refresh. Make it burst 2 within 10. Scare your ranged attackers.
So my new way to distribute loot is to pick an item type, say a sword, and let the player pick the specifics as group storytelling. #dnd
#dnd tip: Give powerful dragons and other memorable solos the “heroslayer” trait from the Heroslaying Hydra: +2 att, +5 dam vs markers.
#dnd tip: trading card wallet pages for ring binders can store up to 54 small (1×1, to 4×1) dungeon tiles per page! (via @prax3des)
#dnd tip: James Bond shootouts show great ways to shake up an battle’s environment. Consider the sinking building shootout in Casino Royale.
#dnd tip: give your players a familiar home base they can return to. It should be comfortable and relaxing like an old pair of shoes.
#dnd tip: Not all game music needs to be instrumental. Don’t be afraid to have a bar scene with Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”.
My recommendation to @davethegame for first two Dwarven Forge sets are the Realm of the Ancients sets 1 and 2. They’re really great #dnd.
#dnd tip: Try to get a hold of the D&D Game Day character cards. They’re absolutely fabulous for one-shot games.
#dnd tip: Too many choices can make the game less enjoyable. Don’t overburden your PCs with too many decisions to make.
#dnd DM Tip Twitter Archive, November 2009 http://goo.gl/fb/6kyq
#dnd DM Tip Twitter Archive, December 2009 http://goo.gl/fb/qhIY
@Milambus DMG has the eqp rules for starting higher level: +1 level item, = level item, -1 level item, -1 item level in cash. #dnd
#dnd tip: Try to give your players at least one meaningful choice in an adventure with no pre-determined conclusion.
Posted some pics from our run through @brucecordell’s “Death’s Reach” #dnd adventure: http://bit.ly/69ngBN
#dnd tip: Take some time every so often to consider what the evil masterminds in your campaign are doing right now.
#dnd tip: Skeleton, ghoul, and vampire spawn minis make for great foes from level 1 to 30. Buy a bunch of them.
Glad to see @wizards_dnd using #dnd dungeon tiles in their encounter maps within the “Underdark” sourcebook. http://bit.ly/8XZt50
#dnd tip: There are too many powers for any DM to verify. Institute an “audit thy neighbor” policy to ensure people aren’t overstepping.
#dnd tip: A good silver or iron dragon miniature can stand-in for many of the metallic dragons. Likewise with bronze dragon minis.
#dnd tip: Save pictures of fantasy art you really like so you can use it as a handout in future games. Keep a D&D scrap book.
RT @newbiedm: Interesting. Ready to print tokens for your PC’s, complete with a bloodied side. Print, punch, play. http://i38.tinypic.co …
#dnd tip: Storming an evil bar and then defending that bar from an attack can be a good change of pace from dungeon delving.
#dnd tip: Read or plan ahead and think of some ways to foreshadow the coming of a great evil or a new campaign setting. Foreshadow Dark Sun!
Simple encounter math – Num of Monsters = Num of PCs + {0 to 3} Level of Monsters = Level of PCs + {-2 to +2} #dnd (via @ObsidianCrane)
#dnd tip from @ObsidianCrane: divide skill challenges into scenes. 2 or 3 successes per scene. Makes the end easier to see for players & DMs
@newbiedm I got the Underdark book (http://bit.ly/7PxXwm). I haven’t given it a full read but I like what I’ve seen. #dnd
Came up with a great theme song for Elder Arantham, my campaign’s main bad guy: Missionary Man by Eurythmics. http://bit.ly/5gLj85 #dnd
#dnd tip: Don’t be afraid to run a single battle on your gaming night. It doesn’t always need to be two or three. Leave some time to relax.
#dnd tip: Don’t be afraid to add 20 levels onto a heroic creature you really enjoyed. The monster builder makes it easy to scale monsters.
#dnd tip: round glass candle holders make for great props for crystal balls and other strange artifacts.
#dnd tip: Give your players a lot of different quests, each with a well-designed quest card so they can keep track of them.
Very cool, you can listen to the entire #ddxp WOTC 2010 Product Seminar: http://bit.ly/cMCvzV It’s like being there but with less rolling =(
#dnd tip: Does a PC have a big moment coming? Try using a music playlist based on that PC selected by that player.
#dnd tip: Use a mix of player-selected items, story-focused items, random items, and item tokens for loot in your campaign.
Combat tracker: http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/DnD4eCM Good but I miss good old pen and paper.
This is the first of a series of short videos focusing on Dungeons and Draogns 4th Edition table tips. In this episode we’re going to look at using black t-shirts as a fog of war, pipe cleaners for area markers, egg timers to keep your players moving, bottle rings for marking miniatures, and poker chips for action points and bonuses.
I’m hoping to do these videos from time to time if people think they’re useful. Sometimes it’s more useful to actually see the stuff in action than it is to read about it. Next, I’m thinking of discussing a few more DM tips from behind the screen.
Let me know what you think!
Quite a few D&D players and DMs have been all about the Dragon Age these past couple of months. While not a perfect game, it shows just how far computer and console RPGs can go. There’s a lot to love in Dragon Age and a lot to learn as well. Today we’re going to discuss three interesting ideas DMs might take away from this popular computer RPG.
Meaningful Choices on the Rails
There’s piles of discussions on the net discussing the benefits and disadvantages of games run on the rails versus games run in a sandbox. Dragon Age shows us how a game can essentially follow a single storyline from point A to point B to point C and so on without feeling like it’s on the rails. There are tons of decisions to make in Dragon Age, with many of them feeling like they will have a heavy impact on the story. In reality, however, you’ll see the same general situations regardless of what choices you make.
Learning how to do this in our own game can make an on-the-rails plot driven game feel like a sandbox game. We can do this by placing decision trees throughout our games that don’t necessarily impact the overall plot direction but change how the players get THROUGH that plot direction. It’s a hard lesson to learn but very valuable when learned. It can make any single-focused campaign feel like a rich and deep world full of choices and opportunities.
Build Generic Environments for Random Encounters
I’ve generally avoided random encounters in my D&D 4e games. They always felt like filler to me, simply ways to kill time. However, completely avoiding random encounters has removed some of the spice from my game. Dragon Age shows us how we can design encounter environments and re-use them for a variety of random encounters. Use your dungeon tiles to build a generic street scene, a wilderness scene, a dungeon scene, and a cavern scene. Use and re-use these encounter environments for random encounters throughout your game just like they re-use the street scenes and battlefield encounter environments in Dragon Age.
Combat Doesn’t have to be to the death
As a DM we might often develop a rich villain only to have him quickly killed without hardly saying a word. Dragon Age often has situations where the final blow isn’t truly final. Instead of having the final blow kill your villain, have it be a mortal wound or stunning blow that puts the enemy at the mercy of the PCs. This can become an opportunity for those choices we talked about earlier. Should the PCs finish him off or let him live? Are there dangerous repercussions if he dies? Preventing a final blow from killing your boss villains can add rich new storytelling opportunities into your game.
These are only a few tips a DM might pick up by playing Dragon Age. For more interesting tips, check out Hannah Lipskey’s Roleplaying Tips article, “9 Things Dragon Age Taught Me About Running a Better Game“.
Like this article? Consider using these links to purchase Dragon Age: Origins from Amazon for the PC, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3.
In previous Monster Optimizations we’ve looked at the Bodaks and Wights, Shadow Dragons, and Ghouls and Deathlocks. In Today’s Monster Optimzation we’re going into the high heroic tier with a nasty combination to fit any adventure or location with a touch of the Far Realm. Today we’re going to look at the nasty mix of Foulspawn Manglers and Foulspawn Seers. This combination is courtesy of @healingstirge.
Like the Shadow Dragon optimization, it’s combat advantage that makes this combination work. The Foulspawn Mangler is a level 8 skirmisher that gains +2d6 damage when it has combat advantage. Unlike PC rogues, there is no limit to the number of times the Mangler can use this extra damage – as long as it has combat advantage, it gains +2d6 damage. It also gains this damage from ranged attacks, assuming it’s target is granting combat advantage from range which can often be difficult to receive. That’s where the Seer comes in.
The Foulspawn Seer has two different attacks that can grant the Mangler this combat advantage. Warp Orb is an at-will range 10 attack that dazes the struck target. Disorient Blast is a huge close blast 5 that likewise dazes the target. And, as we all know, Daze grants opponents combat advantage.
The nice thing about granting CA with a daze is that flanking is no longer required. The Mangler’s “Bone Daggers” attack gives it two ranged attacks in a single standard action. Against a dazed target, this does 1d4+2d6+3 on each hit.
When building out this encounter, it’s probably best to put in more than a single seer. A single seer is a lightning rod for PCs but two of them might stand a bit longer. The seers should be hard to reach, perhaps up on platforms or ledges with enough room to use their close blast 5 attacks. Their basic attack can also push 1 square so if the ledge is small enough, they might toss PCs off of it.
Likewise, you might put a pair of the manglers up high and have them ready their actions with the following combination: The mangler readys an action to use “Bone Daggers” on any target within 10 that is dazed by a seer. The seer attacks a target with “Warp Orb”. When the orb hits, the mangler triggers and tosses two daggers at that target. If all attacks hit, the target is dazed and takes 1d8+2d4+4d6+9.
To defend your gauntlet of Seers and Manglers, you probably want to toss in some Foulspawn Berserkers or maybe a Foulspawn Hulk. A single Hulk would do nicely to attract the attacks of the party while the Seers and Manglers do their mangling.
So here’s your final Foulspawn Gauntlet encounter. This is a level 11 “challenging” encounter designed for a party of level 8 PCs at a total of 3300 exp.
2x Foulspawn Seers
1x Foulspawn Hulk
4x Foulspawn Manglers
The room is a wide hall with a single platform in the center and upper walkways on the sides. There is a nasty foulspawn goo on the walls of the room and the platform requiring a hard DC19 athletics or acrobatics check to climb to the platforms. All four Manglers begin on the upper platforms on the side walls. One Seer might begin on the center platform with the other on the wall. Two of the manglers stay on the walls, readying actions to hit dazed foes while two might drop down to flank with the hulk. The hulk wades into the party attempting to take the bulk of the damage while the Seers and Manglers do their thing.
To scale this battle for six PCs, add two more manglers or another hulk. For seven, add another seer as well as two more manglers but be prepared for a very long battle. To reduce it for four players, remove one of the manglers.
Thus we have another powerful combination that is sure to bring a bit of fear back into your 4th edition game. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Use it carefully!