Quick Map of underground green lake

Didn't have time to get this ready. So here is what I was able to get out for you.

Great chat going on from the last post! Hope to hear from some of the silent ones :)

Remember on this map, 1 square is 10 feet.

Baboons and Devil/Demon cults oh my.... recap 9/2/07

….. leaving off in mid combat from last session.

The Baboons where furiously pounding down a door into the Lucky Monkey. Churchkey and Bolgrim where forcing a table against a now decimated door frame. Lanky apish arms flailing, trying to get by the makeshift barricade.

Soon another door beings to feel the wrath of these blood lusted Baboons. Bolgrim runs to the other door and wedges a chair under the door handle. Churchkey shoes slip on the floor. No matter what he does, the baboons seem to be inching progress and thus making them more lustful.

Donner leaps the table blocking the main entrance to the Lucky Monkey and aids Churchkey. The two are making a better show, but not much. Barrett and Connell have a plan and run to the side entrance of the Lucky Monkey and then to a room on the back side of the garden where the baboons are currently housed.

Donner in an attempt to close the ever growing gap between their table and door frame ignites an oil flask and tosses it over the table. Howls erupt and the table closes most of the distance. The only thing halting a total closure is a foot and a baboon arm.

Barrett lays in wait at one end of a corridor, while Connell taunts the Baboons. Two baboon come charging toward him. A battle ensues with Connell yelling something about a change in plans… followed very quickly by Barrett screaming a slew of expletives.

The battle is fierce and mighty. Pepper is crossbow crazy and actually hits about ½ the time whittling the baboons down. Both Connell and Barrett are dropped but due to the might of Bolgrim both regain consciousness. The party is finally over the combat and healing is being liberally dispensed.

Churckey sets up watch on a door. He can hear some kind of grunting and sounds emanating from within. Donner enters the garden and begins peering in different windows. Everyone is set up when the door by Churchkey is flung open. There is a ½ Baboon, ½ man wearing leather armor and wielding a falchion. After the initial shock, the Baboon man creature barks something in baboon and quaffs a potion. A baboon lunges between this strange hybrid and Churchkey gnashing teeth and claws. Churchkey easily repels the attacks and begins his own assault against the baboon. Barrett is close behind.

Donner hears breaking glass to his left two more baboons are rushing from the kitchen through the garden. Donner attacks. Connell comes rushing from the corridor to aid Donner. Melee continues. The baboon man thing quaffs another potion causing him to grow to twice his size.

The Babboons in the garden are not faring well, nor did the baboon in the hallway. When the Baboon creature lunges with the falchion, part of the door frame is smashed and Churchkey is thrown against the hall with the force of the blow. Blood is carpeting the ground.

Donner and Connell both leap heroically through the windows into the kitchen and take out silvered weapons. Churchkey strikes a mighty enhanced by the grace of Pelor. The baboon creature is wounded but is unshaken. It takes another nasty blow at Churchkey ripping a hole in his armor and knocking him to the ground. Connel is able to drive a spear deep into this creature back and Donner is able to clobber it with a silvered staff.

Pepper makes an amazing lucky roll of the proverbial and literal dice by subjecting himself to an attack of opportunity on the creature to heal Churchkey. The fates were smiling for it missed him…. barely. Barrett kept the creature occupied launching attacks with the chain. With attacks by the rest of the party this menace to society and nature was dropped.

Binding wounds was the first order of business and the then surveying the kitchen. Unfortunately the severed head of Sarcem (head of the church of St. Cuthbert) was found staked to the wall, his tongue eaten. Also on a table was a load of cash and items obviously taken from guests, workers and the owners of the facility.

One of the more frightening objects found was a black wooden triangle with a symbol carved at each corner: a hand gripping an eyeball, six arrows in an X-shape, and a wrathful demonic face. It didn’t take long for the religious folk to figure out these were the symbols of Vecna, Hextor and Erythnul. Why all three of these hatful being were inscribed on one symbol is illogical and disturbing.

The party makes a quick sweep of the rest of the Lucky Monkey and makes their way down to the basement. There they meet some more resistance but recover the body remains of Sarcem and take an Alleybasher prisoner. He explains little except that they were to try and take down the human cleric and everything else was just loot. Not sure how many, but the cleric was a tough bastard and took out a good number of them with the help of some woman. She is hiding in the basement.

The party goes to the end of the hall and finds a door swollen shut and a few dead hillfolk dead and nearly frozen leaning against the door. A short conversation through the door and your hear the amazingly pleasant relief of a figure on the back side of the door. She gives you some warning of Brown mould and that you not judge her on her looks. Churchkey scans for evil and finds none. Upon opening the door, you see a terribly beautiful ½ drow who looks nearly fatally wounded. She introduces herself as Shensen and has a great desire to get back to her order. She knows only a little of what happened

According to Shensen she was returning from a walk when she heard the sounds of combat from within the Lucky Monkey. She ran to investigate and found that the bandits had already slain most of the guests and employees. Only a few remained standing, including a human cleric who seemed to be the focus of the bandits’ attention. The bandits were lead by a horrible man-beast, and that this creature followed the orders of a beautiful woman with red hair, facial tattoos and a suit of spied full plate emblazoned with Hextor’s unholy symbol. She lent what aid she could to the defenders, but they were eventually forded to retreat into the basement, where the beast-man killed the cleric. This left Shensen alone and completely outnumbered. She fled to the far end of the basement, barricaded herself in, and spent the next several hours praying.

The party rests for a short while, gathers the horses and then begins a very exhausting trek back up to Cauldron.

While in Cauldron research was done on all kinds of levels. Some people signed up for etiquette classes for the Ball. Churchkeys family was able to take the invitation originally meant for him and offered it to another member of the party. Others did some research at the churches and of course Jenya was left with the body of Sarcem.

A long story short:

Everyone can get into the ball with the exception of one person. However for 250gp they can buy a ticket in.

The party was asked to give 500 gp for information about the red haired woman. They did and Barrett went and gleaned some powerful info.

• The woman’s name is Triel Eldurast, a one-time town guard who escaped punishment after murdering several of her fellow guards while on duty. This event took place nearly a decade ago, so the specifics have grown hazy in the memories of the people. Nothing has been heard of Triel since her escape. She has been seen entering an old lava tube whose entrance is about 200 feet below the North East wall of Cauldron.

The party also learned that the black triangle is of a bizarre cult called the Ebon Triad. An attempt to get the three demon gods of Vecna, Hextor and Erythnul to merge into one huge demon lord to overthrow the world.

Kristof Jurgensen the head of the church of Pelor seems quite concerned with the missing wands and pledges to do what he can. He knew nothing of them, for 6 months ago, he was third in command of a very small and modest church. Kristof is far over his head in skill to be leading a church. But he is doing an admirable job.

The lake in rising and is currently subsuming the first ring of buildings. Most are on stilts but the lake is close to cresting the top and flooding these buildings.

Donner continues to visit Skie making friends with the gnomish magic dealer.

That evening, with the ball three nights away. The party makes their way to the lava tube at midnight. They follow this very long 6 foot diameter tube for what seems miles but is obviously much shorter. Until it opens up at a small ledge overlooking a vast cavern. A small pile of wooden planks is stacked on the edge of the ledge. Nearly a hundred feet below, the waters of a lake filled with dimly glowing green algae lap against cave walls encrusted with pallid fungi. A small stone building is built into the side of the ledge wall, and a pair of heavy ropes descends from a winch on the buildings side, dangling across the lake to a similar winch attached to a wooden structure on the lake’s far shore. Suspended on these ropes is a rickety wood-and-iron cage mounted on a system of pulleys. The lake’s phosphorescence just barely illuminates the vast cavern, and you can see what appear to be the partially melted ruins of several buildings protruding from a sparkling wall of volcanic rock along the far wall of the cave. Several of these buildings have small doorways at ground level, but your see no window in the ominous dark facades. The air here is thick, warm and excessively humid.

Carefully moving in the party surprises two winch guards in the back of the winch house. They note there is a lot of high quality rations and water. Some of the party puts on the uniforms and the red sash. They then descend in the “cage” with Barrett running the winch. Connell is able to turn some curious gards away with just a wave of his hand. Then the party waits for the rocketing Barrett to hit the beach and make a great tumble but still take a bit of subdual damage.

The party is hiding on the lake side of this Winch building. The glowing green lake lapping inches from your feet. While on the other side is the façade and entrance to what seems an other worldly city of strange angles and melted stone.

Berkeley Rose...are we gaming?

I would like to extend a formal congrats to the man with the new baby.


I suppose Valerie does get some credit :)

Just wondering if we are planning on gaming Sunday the 2nd.
Leave your posts below.

Recap 8/19/07: Flood Festival

Hey guys,

A great session today. A lot happened. I know I’m going to miss something so feel free to add. Remember if you click to title you can see all the people’s comments.

Here are the copies of the Cauldron Broadsides you received this session:

Broadsides #3

Broadsides #4

So we started in the Drakthar tunnels. The party was feeling pretty good but was totally depleted in spells. When voices from deeper in the tunnels were heard approaching your location. The voices sounded nonchalant and were covered by a thick accent. The party lays in ambush. Soon a group of 6 1/2 Orcs wielding halberds come up the tunnels. They see the carnage and stop. They begin talking and mention the names “Blue Duke” and “Xoden” As the group of mercenaries begin to move cautiously forward. Churchkey steps from the darkness of an adjoining cave. He begins to parley extracting little information other than that they all work for “The Blue Duke”, Xoden is their organizer and more are coming in the near future.

After a few rounds of very guarded chatter, the ½ orcs realize they are not in a good situation and attack. They are very quickly dispatched and two are captured. The party marches the prisoners to the surface and turns them over to Sargent Krewis. Churchkey reports to Skellerang. The rest of the party goes off to do their own things. Donner has a long protracted conversation with Skie and hires him to identify a whole slew of magic items. Others pay a tithe and yet others prepare spells while others drink.

The party returns to the caves only to find what was a well stocked larder and a very nice room with three cots and matching clothing for a human, theifling and a dwarf. Most items have been gone through. A ledger or journal of some kind had pages torn from its pages and some other items looked like they were burned. Pepper gathered up the pieces of parchment with writing on it.

Moving forward the party exits the cave system into the jungle.

Here is the last of the Drakthar Way tunnel maps

Afterward, the party spends a considerable amount of time in Cauldron. About 4 days after surfacing the party is in a pub. People are chatting and catching up. Pepper has the most exciting of news. After many hours of pouring over those ripped pices of paper Pepper figured out that:

1. Chorlyndeyr (sorcerer), Kallev (Tiefling fighter) and Xoden (dwarf expert in engineering etc.) were part of a group of adventuring mercenaries who all work for “The Blue Duke”
2. About 6 months ago the author of this journal overheard their boss talking to some soft-spoken woman and learned that she was part of some secret society of cabolists.
3. The Blue Duke keeps a private army of ½ orcsoldiers, and is currently in negotiations with on of the nobles in Cauldron. The noble wants to augment their personal bodyguards but doesn’t want to do it publicly. So they were hired to find a way to get a number of mercenaries to secretly enter the city of Cauldron.

At this time the party is also talking about the FLOOD FESTIVAL. Churchkey, being of noble background, has an in on the events. He updates the party on the ins and outs of the different things to participate in. About the DeamonSkar Ball and the different noble houses.

Most noticeably, the Stormblades enter the pub and engage the party. Annah in her total stunning beauty and wickedly agile tongue puts a few cuts into the party and seems to only talk to Churchkey. Churchkey becomes the utmost of diplomats and does a great job of stifling the statements of Annah. Donner on the other hand makes a number of off hand comments. Annah is able to quickly reply and twist Donners comments but Todd Vanderboren and Cora Lathenmire are both visibly very angry. This goes on for a while until eventually the Stormblades leave your humble surroundings but buy a round of beer for everyone in the bar.

Life continues to go on. Donner is fired from the Lathenmire smithy job. Churchkey realizes that he has lost touch with the nobility of the city and begins to play the politics game again. He also begins to buy good clothing and jewelry to suit his station. Connel begins to workout to compete in some of the games for the FLOOD FESTIVAL. Bolgrim continues working for the Lathenmire’s but has to work harder and under more scrutiny. Barrett does what Barrett does when no one is looking and Pepper becomes a book hound and continues to attend the University.Soon the weather becomes wetter and wetter and Lord Vhalantru calls for the start of the FLOOD FESTIVAL.

Day 1. The parade begins and all are in attendance. That day the city is one big party with sales, hucksters, plays, storytellers and music around every corner. That night the beginning of the “Drink Down the Flood” Competition begins. Bolgrim crushes his opponent without blinking. Connell on the other hand does not fare as well.

Day 2. By noon, Crater Lake is festooned with nearly 1000 boats. Each participant pays 1sp for a wooden chit. Donner and Connell decide to compete. Connell has another disappointing day when he accidentally gets water in his lungs and is drug from the lake sputtering, “NOOOOOOoooooo!” After about 9 minutes of feverish swimming Donner makes a valiant attempt but then another competitor finds a match for his chit and a boat. That evening Bolgrim goes quite the distance while “Drinking Down the Flood” but puts his opponent down.

Day 3. The 12,000 foot running race around Obsidian ave begins. Donner and Connell along with 4 others very quickly break away from the rest of the crowd. It becomes a very heated and tight fight for first place. With a nearly dead heat Connell gets really pissed and pushes himself to the point of hysteria and is the first across the finish line with Donner coming in a very close 3^rd. That evening Bolgrim truly goes the distance having 13 shots in about 8 minutes but puts down his opponent.

On this day invitations are sent out for the Demonskar Ball. Connell in invited… on the invitation is a crator with a Demonclaw… that means Connell has the prestigious job of playing Nabthatoron, the demon that was defeated and thus making the area around Cauldron habitable by humans. Churchkey is going on the arm of Annah Taskerhill

Day 4. This day is one of pure joy. The city has 8 stages set up all over the city. Each stage has competitions of juggling, comedy, dance, storytelling, drama, tumbling, music and any other form of performance once can think of.

That evening after 6 drinks Bolgrim looses temporary control over his stomach as it tries to reject the foul liquor being poured down his throat and looses the round.

During the subsequent bolstering of Bolgrim’s spirits and watching of the next round an acolyte of St. Cuthburt enters the Tipped Tankard Tavern. Quickly makes eye-contact with the party and summons you to speak with Jenya Urikas.

When the party meets with Jenya they find out the she just received a message from Sarcem Delasharn via a Sending Spell. He was on his way back from Sasserine with 8 wands of control water to help with the flooding of Crater lake. When the Lucky Monkey inn was attacked. Sarcem is terribly wounded and has retreated to the basement. He has begged Jenya to send help ASAP.

The party quickly gather equipment, gets on horses provided by the Church of St. Cuthbert and makes a very strenuous all night run to the Lucky Monkey.

When the party arrives, it is quite obvious something bad has happened here. The doors to the stable are wide open, all the shutters are closed. You can hear sounds of some kind of construction… or destruction and in places there are wicked streaks of blood across the outside of the building and churned up mud that is stained red.

It becomes quite obvious that some kind of large pile of bodies is about 70’ from the back door and has turned into a giant feeding frenzy for a large variety of carrion eaters.

The party makes a sneaky entrance into a side door of the Lucky Monkey. After about 10 minutes of searching around they discover a lot of rooms that have been destroyed and overturned. Blood streaks the hallways with both splatter and streaking along the floor. What the party does know is that in the common room there are a number of local tribal hill people and member of the Alley Bashers hanging out.

The party does a surprise attack against these foes. Unfortunately luck was not in favor of our fearless party after the first round. Luck favored the enemy but in time the party overcame the odds and destroyed them. The very large Baboons in the courtyard became very agitated at the combat in the common room and started to destroy the doors to get in the room. As part of the party fled the inn to take down the last remaining fleeing Hillman the others began pressing a table against the baboon door to reinforce it.

It is here in the heat of battle that we leave our adventurers.

More 4e info

Notes taken from a Q&A session in at Gen Con. At the bottom I have attached some articles about :Race and Classes.

Of course lots of info is right here at Wizards.

• Will monsters still have types and subtypes similar to what they are now? Very different. Monsters fill key "roles" in encounters. All the stuff Mike was talking about on the Wizards website, that's all 4E. Mike's on the design team.

• Is 30 levels just 30 thinner slices of the same loaf, or is it the original 20 slice loaf plus another half a loaf? 1-10 Heroic, 11 - 20 Paragon, 21 - 30 Epic. Here's a great quote from Chris, "A lot of things are going to be changing, and we're going to put most of it in previews on D&D Insider, but I can assure you the Beholder will still only have 9 eyes."

The Team has been working on 4th Edition for over two years. Bill Slaviseck. Leads: Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt. Bill, Andy, Mike Mearls, and Rich Baker were the ones in the front of the room for this. Playtesting in campaigns at WotC (ie, Dave Noonan’s game) for the past several months.

• Resource Management: All classes have defined roles – a fighter is never penalized for being a “tank”, a “healer” is never penalized for curing, a mage is never penalized for “magic missiling”
• All characters have at will, per encounter, and per day uses they will have to keep track of. No more mages pulling out crossbows. You will never be penalized for doing what you do best – your clearly defined roles.
  

• Encounters will be built differently in 4th edition. There will be much more “situation” and complexity in the environment, swinging bridges, gouts of lava, etc. An encounter is like a scene of a play – could be talking to a town guard, could be defending a town gate, could be traversing the mountainside to enter the shrine of Asmodeus.

• There will be many more monsters for PC’s to fight. It’s more fun that way. There are very few encounters that are built to be all the PC’s against one big powerful bad guy. There will be more mechanics built to leverage the monsters and THEY’RE fundadmental roles. An ettin will be talking to itself throughout the encounter. This is the “monster’s job on the battlefield” this is how he reacts.

• The fog of war is much more interesting because when you approach an orc, he isn’t a set of specific stats. He has a very specific role, and you won’t know what it is until he unleashes it on the battlefield.

• Increase of magic across the board in all aspects of the game.

• Monster Manual is a 288 pagebook, with over 300 monsters. New format for stat blocks, simpler and easier to use

• Cooperative storytelling. The D&D world is points of light in a big dark world, sword and sorcery (medieval fantasy). Lots of blank spaces on the map.

• Greyhawk will not be default setting in core. We want to leverage the assets of the assumed parts of a D&D world – Mordenkainen, Bigby, Vecna, Llolth, Tiamat, Asmodeus, etc. However, we also want to call upon the great mythology that is more commonly known such as Thor, etc.

• More options, not restrictions. Everyone will be a constructive, useful member of the party, no accidental lame characters.

• Vancian magic system – there’s an element of that we held on to, but it’s a much smaller fraction of their overall power. A wizard will never completely run out of spells. They can run out of their “mordenkainen’s sword, however”.

• D20 gaming system – this is still a d20 game and game system. We got rid of the parts that didn’t help it out, but most of the things that work continue to be used.

• Skill system – familiar but truncated. Getting rid of tailor, rope use, etc. Focus on the skills that are really useful in an encounter. Saga edition is a significant stride forward and should be considered a preview. Same for profression, etc. We want characters making acrobatics, bluff, jump, etc. No characters will be stuck at 10th level saying “oh I never invested in that.” Hide/Move Silent are brought together. Now an important part of your character, and here’s how to apply it to an encounter. It’s rarely a check and done, it’s now, I make a check, and they react to it. What happens now.

• Primarily focused on physical products (PH, MM, DMG).

• Living Greyhawk – will be coming to a triumphant close next year, and they will be starting fresh with a new batch of characters and players. This will be discussed tonight or tomorrow

• 4 parts of 4E: Physical Products, Community, Organized Play – conventions, tournaments, etc. Working much closer with R&D to integrate. Chris Tulac(?) part of the playtesting, in from the ground up. Digital Offerings. Think of this like the second DVD with “extras”.

• Character Building: Less feat trees, easier for characters to swap out abilities much easier and try different things out. Each level from 1 – 30 each character will have interesting character development options to choose.

• Personalizing and specializing your character is amped up, it’s one of the most powerful things about 4th edition. If you’re a barbarian, you’re not a frenzied berserker. If you’re a barbarian, you’re a barbarian for your entire career. The frenzied berserker and bear warrior will be at the very end.

• Multiclassing – lots of compelling and interesting choices. A fighter who dabbles in wizard or dabbles in cleric is something compelling, Andy’s brother is playing a rogue wizard and he’s said in the conversion this is the character I wanted to play all along. The choices and powers are good powers on both sides. Backstab, throw chromatic orb across the room, then teleport across the room. There is no more “crappy fighter” attached to a “crappy wizard”.

• XP not getting rid, and for those not comfortable with eyeballing it will have a clear time as to when to advance. Much easier for the DM. I’ll build a level 8 encounter, totaling 8000 xp, this one, plus this one = 8000 done. No tables. Monsters have a level, just like characters. “A group vs. a “group” of 5th level is about the same as an EL5 encounter today.

• 4 player groups as the baseline? They are aiming for right around 5. Encounters are more modular, and now that there are a bunch, it’s a lot easier to scale it. Most data is 4-6 players are 80% or more of the gaming groups out there.

• D&D Insider – DRM, Downloadable vs. view online. We are still investigating, digital issues will be usable without being connected. Books – You will need to be logged in to use them. Still working out how to make this work for you and for us.

• Will the Wizard and Sorcerer merge? No. How many core classes? More than 3 less than 15, see the “pre-releases” at Wizards.com.

• “We had an expression from earlier discussions, the ranger kills the scout and takes his stuff…sorry Scout, you’re not going to make it. But now the Ranger’s going to be cooler because he’s taking all your stuff.”

• Do you know why the sorcerer’s in the game (3.5)? 1/3 of the PH was supporting only one class, hence the sorcerer came about.

• Monstrous races? Can you still make kobold barbarians? We’re not going to put limitations on the way we build monsters to make them work right. We know there are monsters that will become player character races. For example, it will be obvious how to play a goblin PC right out of the monster manual and PH.

• Will the D&D Insider authors be considered “canon”? Yes, it is our intention to treat this material as integral to the game and to the campaign worlds.

• Will alignment be a factor in the new edition? It’s not going to be what it is now. Alignment is part of the story, part of the character. It is a useful shorthand, but too many books and too many players mistake it for limitation. We want to treat alignment as something bigger than that. We won’t get rid of it, but we don’t want it to be a replacement for character and personality.

• Platform compatability? Starting with PC, because there are more.

• When can we start to play? Module comes out in April, with Quick Start rules. You could start that early. All the great content in Dragon and Dungeon magazines will be 4e, and will be relevant to 4e. We can start playing a month early.

• Magical Item Creation – they will no longer use Magic Item XP. XP are NOT a resource to be spent.

• FR will be the first campaign setting they support for 4e. They will get around to all of them, much of it will be available early on D&D Insider.

• Every adventure we put in Dungeon magazine will be portable to the Digital Gametable.

• Magic Item Creation. We tried to fool ourselves into the fact that there was a hard pricing, but we started recognizing that with MIC, that we should look at them more wholistically. There will not be magic item creation rules for DM’s as we realize that as professional game designers we don’t even get it right every time. We’re going to give you lots and lots of examples and suggest that you build it, test it, etc. Will it be easier for a wizard to create magic items?

• Yes, characters can still build magic items, it will be a way for characters to acquire things, but it will be more flexible and easier. There will be a preview article on this in two weeks on D&D Insider. Three releases a week (this one will be on Wed).

• Design philosophies on races. There is a tiefling on the player’s handbook. There may also be a changeling (from Eberron). Design philosophies of races. Mike did all the talking, where there will be a very REAL ACTIVE difference within the races that will really make a difference between the Dwarf Fighter and an Elven Fighter.

• Will we be doing ECL? That’s a good example of something applied to the game to help make somethings work easier. We don’t want to recreate this. We’re not going to give you rules to play a blink dog fighter… There will be many more choices, however, and we want to make sure they are all playable right out of the gate. If say, for instance, we put a tiefling in the PH, we would certainly want to make it playable right out of the gate. So, for example, we might have had to make a lot of the other races a little bit cooler to keep the balance straight between the races.

Race

Why Race Matters

by James Wyatt
Art by William O'Connor

---

Set the wayback machine to May of 2004!

Even at that point, we knew 4th Edition was coming, though official work on it wouldn’t start for another year. At the time, the design team used to meet regularly in what we jokingly called the “Design Cabal.” And one day, in May ’04, we started kicking around the question of how many slices of pie a D&D character should consist of, and how big each piece should be.

In 3rd Edition, class and magic items were two big pieces of the PC pie. Race was important at 1st level, but by the time you hit 20th, there was rarely much to distinguish a dwarf fighter from a half-orc fighter. The difference between a +2 here and a +2 over there was drowned out by the huge bonuses from magic items and character level—it didn’t matter any more.

We wanted race to matter all the way up through a character’s career. We wanted there to be some difference between two characters of different races, all other things being equal. We had tried out mechanics like the racial paragons in Unearthed Arcana and the racial substitution levels in the Races of . . . series of books, and we liked the results.

In May of 2004, we started kicking around ideas like “the 20-level race.” In a 20-level race, at each level you gained, you’d get not only new class features, but also new racial qualities. Your race might predetermine which ability scores you increased at some levels, so a dwarf’s Constitution would always have an edge over characters of other races. It would grant you new special abilities as you advanced in level, always appropriate to your level, of course.

One key advantage we saw to this system was that it made it much easier to find room for new races without resorting to the kludgy and awkward mechanic of level adjustments. If we spread the tasty magical abilities of drow out through their levels, they could start at 1st level on a par with other character races. Races like the githyanki already anticipated some of that idea by granting new spell-like abilities at higher levels.

Well, over the next few years, things changed, as things are wont to do. We blew the game out to thirty levels, but put your most significant racial choices in the first ten. Above that, other choices started to crowd out room for special abilities coming from your race.

In the final version of 4th Edition, most of your racial traits come into play right out of the gate at 1st level—dwarven resilience, elven evasion, a half-elf’s inspiring presence, and so on. As you go up levels, you can take racial feats to make those abilities even more exciting and gain new capabilities tied to your race. You can also take race-specific powers built into your class, which accomplish a lot of what racial substitution levels used to do: a dwarf fighter with the friend of earth power can do something that other 10th-level fighters just can’t do.

The rules have changed a lot since that first idea of the 20-level race, but they still serve the same purpose: to make sure that your race stays not just relevant but actually important all the way up through thirty levels of adventure.

About the Author

James Wyatt is the Lead Story Designer for D&D and one of the lead designers of D&D 4th Edition. In over seven years at Wizards of the Coast, he has authored or co-authored award-winning adventures and settings including the Eberron Campaign Setting, City of the Spider Queen, and Oriental Adventures. His more recent works include Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave, and The Forge of War. His second Eberron novel, Storm Dragon, releases this month.

Class

Fighters: Choice of Weapons

by Rob Heinsoo
Art by William O'Connor

Here’s a highly probable conversation lifted from the future, one year from today, as two players who’ve just met at a convention discuss their PC choices for their upcoming D&D game.

“I’m playing a 3rd-level human fighter named Graelar.”

“Cool. Is he weapon and shield or two-hander?”

“He’s sword and board, man.”

“Longsword?”

“Yeah. I thought about going high Con and using a hammer, but I wanted to start with the chance to make a couple of attacks, so I’m using rain of blows as my good weapon attack, and I went with high Wis so that I can switch to the better oppy powers later.”

“My elf fighter uses a spear. I like the speed and the option to go past AC. But you’ve got the fighter covered. I’ll play a halfling rogue.”

The names and destinations of the powers mentioned above might have changed by the time the game is in your hands. What won’t change is that fighters care about which weapons they use much more than other characters. Other character classes have specific weapons and weapon types that they tend to rely on while still maintaining access to a larger chunk of the weapon chart. The fighter is the only current 4th Edition class with capabilities that depend on the weapon they have chosen to train the most with. Even at 1st level, a fighter who uses an axe has a different power selection than a fighter who relies on a flail or a rapier or a pick. In the long run, fighters can diversify and master powers related to a few different weapons, but most will opt to focus on the weapon that suits their personal style, helps their interactions with the rest of the PCs in the group, and carries all the magical oomph they’ve managed to acquire.

Many fighters will opt for swords. Swords have the most flexible assortment of powers. In a fighter’s hands, the longsword is the queen of the battlefield and the greatsword is the queen’s executioner. But each of the other significant melee weapons offers the fighter unique advantages and opportunities. For the first time, you’ll be able to say “I’m an axe fighter” or “I’m a flail fighter” and that will mean something cool.

About the Author

Rob Heinsoo was born in the Year of the Dragon. He started playing D&D in 1974 with the original brown box. More recently, he designed Three-Dragon Ante, Inn-Fighting, and a couple incarnations of the D&D Miniatures skirmish system. He’s the lead designer of 4th Edition and captains the D&D mechanical design team.

D&D 4E

Thanks to Mike for the heads up.

Yet one more time. WotC have decided to make a major change and rewrite the whole game.

I have included some of the major links for your viewing pleasure:

The core rule books

The 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game includes elements familiar to current D&D players, including illustrated rulebooks and pre-painted plastic miniatures. Also releasing next year will be new web-based tools and online community forums through the brand-new Dungeons & Dragons Insider (D&D Insider) digital offering. D&D Insider lowers the barriers of entry for new players while simultaneously offering the depth of play that appeals to veteran players.

The 4th Edition rules emphasize faster game play, offer exciting new character options, and reduce the amount of "prep time" needed to run the game. D&D Insider includes a character creator that lets players design and equip their D&D characters, dungeon- and adventure-building tools for Dungeon Masters, online magazine content, and a digital game table that lets you play 24/7 on the internet — the perfect option for anyone who can't find time to get together.

"We've been gathering player feedback for eight years," said Bill Slavicsek, R&D Director of Roleplaying and Miniatures Games at Wizards of the Coast. "Fourth Edition streamlines parts of the D&D game that are too complex, while enhancing the overall play experience. At its heart, it's still a tabletop game experience. However, D&D Insider makes it easier for players to create characters, run their games, and interact with the rest of the D&D community."

Wizards of the Coast will release two 4th Edition preview books in December and January — Wizards Presents: Classes and Races and Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters. The first live demos of 4th Edition will happen at the D&D Experience gaming convention in Washington D.C. in February 2008. The full scope of 4th Edition books, miniatures, and adventures will be available in the spring and summer of 2008.

Since its first release in 1974, the fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons has taken millions of players on imaginary adventures of epic scale. Today, D&D is universally regarded as the original game that created the roleplaying game category, and the inspiration for generations of game designers. D&D is enjoyed by millions of players worldwide, while countless more remember it with fond nostalgia.

Player's Handbook 4e: May 2008 (Source)

Dungeon Master's Guide 4e: June 2008 (Source)

Monster Manual 4e: July 2008 (Source)

D&D Insider

• This is the "D&D Online" section of Gleemax
• It contains a "Dungeon Master's Kit" that includes the following:
  • dungeon builder (map tool)
  • adventure builder
  • PC generator
  • other things (Source)
• "Character Generator"
  • character sheets
  • character visualizer (Source)
• "My Campaign"
• "My Character" (Source)
• "D&D Game Table" (Source)
• "Dungeon & Dragon Magazines" (Source)

Open Gaming Licence

• 3rd party publishers will be able to get licenses to create 4e material from Wizards. (source)
• Fans will be able to publish material on Gleemax under (free) license from Wizards. (This material will be available to Wizards to republish; see discussion on Gleemax TOS).
• The OGL/SRD/d20 Licenses will still exist - details still to come (Source)

Phoenix Games is going out of business

I heard the rumor and so went to Phoenix Games yesterday on my way home from work. Although I am doing my best to keep from crying. They are going out of business.

The rent for their shop on Lake Street has doubled in the last 5 years. He just can't afford to stay. So he is having a clearance sale.

20% off (for brand new RPG releases)
35% off (for miniatures, RPG games older than 1 month and all board games)
50% off (for older release materials and tons of other things.)

Things are clearing out quick so if we want to stock up on materials... now would be the time.

The owner is setting up an all on-line business since about 40% of his current business is on line. He is guaranteeing that he will beat the price of other "game retailers" in the cities.