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Thanks for helping me out, I actually made something that might be useful for other 4e DMs? Basically, you can paste monsters from the portable compendium into a google doc, and then press a button, and it'll turn all (well most, it's a little buggy,) of the attack and damage rolls into a string you can just copy paste into Roll20 or wherever. And then on another tab, If you put a number in the right box, It'll give you that many initiative rolls to copy paste into Roll20 It might be better to show, rather then explain it turns this:  into these!   So, whenever I do combat, I just copy/paste my monsters into the sheet, hit the button, and then I don't have to worry about rolling in online games. I just copy paste the exact text and it rolls it inline for me, just like a player macro Here's a copy of the macro, if anyone knows how to get my script trusted, let me know! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Jc2DRgTYgBd8PAWMRw9ViRSdUgtlcVDRiRAAj5w5ikA/edit?usp=sharing
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Apr 30, 2021 21:09
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You may have to edit the script if to-hit info isn't public information for your games, in my games I make everyone a GM, and the players are responsible for figuring out when they hit, and then applying the damage to the tokens directly. (I do this by making tokens bars public, and then have the players ADD to the HP, and letting them know when the creature is bloodied / Dead)
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Apr 30, 2021 21:14
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Hi folks, I've been working on a 4E retroclone for the last few months, called Orcus, and I thought that might be of interest to you! All the main sections have been drafted now:
I'd love to receive feedback on the rules themselves and any contributions of game content. At some point, electronic tools like a compendium and a character builder would be great - but I don't even know where we might begin with that!
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Apr 30, 2021 23:42
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Kurieg posted:Also if you have any psions put their character sheets through the shredder. Controllers are the worst thing about 4e, and a party with three of them sounds hideous.
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May 1, 2021 00:05
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Does anyone have any suggestions for the opposite? I’ve got one leader, one defender, three strikers, and zero controllers.
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May 1, 2021 00:41
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DoubleDonut posted:Does anyone have any suggestions for the opposite? I’ve got one leader, one defender, three strikers, and zero controllers. That's the best party lineup to have as a GM because their ability to control enemies (via the Defender) and patch up damage (via the Leader) is limited and probably can't be stretched to always cover all three Strikers. That makeup responds well to MM3-style high damage enemies - what you probably want to do is make sure they can't just all focus fire and be dropping 1-2 monsters per round. Artillery minions + Controller and/or Skirmisher elites so you can force them to deal with threats from multiple directions at once is a staple, and it's always a good idea to put some terrain features in to break them up if they try to blob together.
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May 1, 2021 01:07
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Sanglorian posted:I'd love to receive feedback on the rules themselves and any contributions of game content. At some point, electronic tools like a compendium and a character builder would be great - but I don't even know where we might begin with that! minor thing i just noticed at a glance but in the glossary the entry for Prestige Path is a duplicate of Epic Path rather than, presumably, describing a new set of powers and features you get from 11-20
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May 1, 2021 02:41
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dwarf74 posted:Not an empty quote. Being fair, it's only 1 controller (a druid), but we also have a storm sorcerer, a warlord with polearm optimization, and we just picked up a wizard|fighter. So lots of off-control. berenzen fucked around with this message at 04:32 on May 1, 2021 |
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May 1, 2021 04:27
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Sanglorian posted:Hi folks, The first thing that leaps out at me is alignment. I can't see anywhere in the rules (admittedly, I've only skimmed) that alignment has an effect. I think there's a pretty strong consensus among D&D players that alignment doesn't add anything to the game. I'd suggest ditching it entirely, or replacing it with something like "name three pillars of your character's moral compass, here are some examples". If you do need to keep good and evil as objective forces of reality, at least cut out the "goblins are evil" line. I'm sure you didn't mean it that way but the idea that morality is biologically determined is gross as hell and has no place in anything published this side of the millennium.
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May 1, 2021 12:48
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Whybird posted:The first thing that leaps out at me is alignment. I can't see anywhere in the rules (admittedly, I've only skimmed) that alignment has an effect. I think there's a pretty strong consensus among D&D players that alignment doesn't add anything to the game. I'd suggest ditching it entirely, or replacing it with something like "name three pillars of your character's moral compass, here are some examples". Alignment didn't have any mechanical effect in 4e either as I recall, so that may be a deliberate choice as a retroclone. I do agree that nothing would really be lost by excising it. My group actually did just that in our 4e games.
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May 1, 2021 16:46
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dwarf74 posted:Not an empty quote. I mean technically there's only one controller. It's just that the party has largely consisted of a Druid, Sorcerer, Rouge, and Warlord. Sorcerer takes a smattering of control powers, Rogue rattles and stuns things, oh and the Warlord is using Polearm Momentum to keep everything pinned down. So it's a control heavy party, but only one Controller.
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May 1, 2021 23:10
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Whybird posted:The first thing that leaps out at me is alignment. I can't see anywhere in the rules (admittedly, I've only skimmed) that alignment has an effect. I think there's a pretty strong consensus among D&D players that alignment doesn't add anything to the game. I'd suggest ditching it entirely, or replacing it with something like "name three pillars of your character's moral compass, here are some examples". Thanks Whybird, agreed. I'm keeping alignment but I've removed the goblins are evil line. Tuxedo Catfish posted:minor thing i just noticed at a glance but in the glossary the entry for Prestige Path is a duplicate of Epic Path rather than, presumably, describing a new set of powers and features you get from 11-20 Thanks! Have fixed.
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May 2, 2021 09:07
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Stealing this
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May 30, 2021 16:26
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I'm looking at starting back up a 4e campaign which I was running on Roll20, but having seen how well Fantasy Grounds works for it I'm tempted to switch over. However, I understand that getting the 4e content into Fantasy Grounds is pretty difficult, is that the case? I've also heard about Foundry VTT which I don't know much about but might also support 4e. Has anyone played with either/both who can recommend one over the other?
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Jun 5, 2021 23:05
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Foundry does maps and tokens better than Fantasy Grounds, in my opinion, and is a better Roll20 in almost every respect. It does not, however, support D&D 4e in any way (currently). If someone were to create a system for 4e (which would require web development skills, since Foundry is a node.js web app), then it may well be the best option for 4e (it's certainly the cheapest if you want things like dynamic lighting). Fantasy Grounds has support for the 4e system, but does not have rules content. That is to say, it has the skeleton upon which you can add your own feats, powers, skill descriptions, and so forth, but it doesn't have any of the actual content. There is a piece of software which can scour the DDI database for that information and parse it into modules which add that content, but unfortunately the DDI servers are no longer running. Some people have uploaded copies of the modules (though I'm pretty sure sharing them here would get me banned) - if you aren't uncomfortable donning the parrot and eyepatch, they can be found relatively easily. Between the two, I would currently advise Fantasy Grounds if you have the money (either $40 per player if they want to be able to play in other people's campaigns, or $150 for an ultimate license for the GM) - its support for the 4e mechanics is quite robust, and if all else fails, you can copy-paste what you need from PDFs of the rulebooks with a small amount of effort. Having said that, if and when someone makes a decent 4e system for Foundry, it might be worth going that route instead - it's cheaper, and there's a plugin for sharing PDFs with your players in a way that doesn't let them download them (and is thus not technically piracy).
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Jun 5, 2021 23:41
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Sanglorian posted:Hi folks, Is there any reason Weapon dice haven't been changed to apply bonuses once per die? This was probably one of the worst things about 4e -- big hits were massive trap options, literally just gimping your character, while multiattacks ruled the day. I've only skimmed the rules, but considering interrupts and reactions still exist, I have to assume the problem of 'if you take anything but attacks that generate extra hits as a Striker, You Are loving Up (TM)' still exists, and it's trivially fixable in a retroclone that doesn't have to burden itself with errataing tons of material that's already been sold in books. There's no point in keeping this particular bit of rules as it is. All it does is punish players who aren't spreadsheeters or math fiends, which is a big design sin.
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Jun 6, 2021 14:05
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hectorgrey posted:Foundry does maps and tokens better than Fantasy Grounds, in my opinion, and is a better Roll20 in almost every respect. It does not, however, support D&D 4e in any way (currently). If someone were to create a system for 4e (which would require web development skills, since Foundry is a node.js web app), then it may well be the best option for 4e (it's certainly the cheapest if you want things like dynamic lighting). The FG scraper now works on the offline compendium which is very not hard to find and scrape. It's also even easier to find how to make your own FG modules if you jump on discord and ask around.
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Jun 9, 2021 02:28
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Anyone know of a good source for interesting tactical combats, either for inspiration or to lift verbatim? I'm running my new-to-4e friends through a campaign which is explicitly "light story, light role-play, heavy on tactical combat", so I'm not worried about adapting backstory or anything, just combats that are fun and dynamic.
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Jun 20, 2021 15:42
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Lord Of Texas posted:Anyone know of a good source for interesting tactical combats, either for inspiration or to lift verbatim? I'm running my new-to-4e friends through a campaign which is explicitly "light story, light role-play, heavy on tactical combat", so I'm not worried about adapting backstory or anything, just combats that are fun and dynamic. Sorry, I forget the name, but there were the D&D4e one shots that they would run at the local comics and games shops, that, by virtue of being pick up games every week with new players, were mainly just 2-3 combat encounters strung together. I’m sure there are some gems in there that could be reskinned to match your game. e: Living Forgotten Realms appears to be the name of the series. Klungar fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Jun 20, 2021 |
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Jun 20, 2021 15:49
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It was literally D&D Encounters right?
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Jun 20, 2021 15:51
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Sweet, thank you! Looks like all of the LFR content is archived here: https://www.livingforgottenrealms.com/ (Content being archived is something I've learned not to take for granted with 4e, so many broken links...)
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Jun 20, 2021 15:56
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I think you're thinking of Lair Assaults, huge superencounters with the XP budget of 3-4 regular encounters. Far as I recall they were intended for experienced players.
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Jun 20, 2021 15:59
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My Lovely Horse posted:I think you're thinking of Lair Assaults, huge superencounters with the XP budget of 3-4 regular encounters. Far as I recall they were intended for experienced players. Yeah, probably this. I started 4e with D&D Encounters, and those are definitely for newer players, usually just a brief bit of role play and a fight that wasn't all that hard. Back in the day, we definitely struggled more with those Lair Assaults than regular Encounters session.
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Jun 20, 2021 16:15
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Yeah, looks like Encounters is what I was thinking of
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Jun 20, 2021 16:35
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Hey thread! Does anyone have any thoughts on this as the hit effect for an at-will attack for a level 2 controller? Swarm of Rats: Melee 2. Attack: d20+5 vs Reflex. Hit: The target is slowed and on their turn, the Garbage Elemental may choose their move action, save ends both effects. Unlike most forced movement, this movement provokes opportunity attacks. I was thinking of adding ongoing damage too but that might be too much given the elemental is already going to be making its victims eat opportunity attacks from its minions as they stumble round its lair trying to pull rats off themselves.
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Jun 21, 2021 08:13
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Thematically it feels like that should go against Fortitude more than Reflex. Save ends is pretty good for a level 2 at-will effect, especially if it can indirectly trigger multiple opportunity attacks. I would probably limit that to "end of the elemental's next turn" at least for the move effect. "On the target's next turn, the elemental can choose its move action." Can the elemental make the target drop prone or run? Both have consequences that might be even more effective than having the target eat opportunity attacks. Keep in mind that "slowed" also limits the move action the elemental chooses for the target, although I realize you may have included that on purpose to limit the effect's power. You should probably specify at what point in the target's turn the elemental gets to direct its move action. And whether that's at the start or end of the turn could actually also have pretty major implications for the power of that effect. Moving a defender away before they can attack is excellent tactics but has a larger impact than just the intended OA magnetism. All in all you have to specifically define a lot of edge cases around this, maybe it's a good idea to just say "the elemental slides the target X squares, unlike normal forced movement this does provoke OAs", or giving the minions the special ability to make OAs against force-moved PCs, or having the directed move occur immediately much like directed attacks on allies do. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Jun 21, 2021 |
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Jun 21, 2021 08:59
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That makes sense, yeah. I wanted to make it an ongoing thing from a controllery perspective since just sliding a single target two squares once per turn feels a bit... uncontrollery, I guess? Maybe the answer is to make it a close blast targetting Fortitude instead. (I'd initially thought of it as the players ducking out of the way of the swarming rats, but having them just ignore them feels more badass.)
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Jun 21, 2021 11:10
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Let me tell you about the time my controller heavy party stopped a boss from playing the game by slowing, proning, dazing, and then just pushing him back 3 squares so that he could never get in range of the objective.
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Jun 22, 2021 00:57
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This session I found out just how funny Goliath Fighter can be by pulling off Total Defense + Glowering Threat + Stone's Endurance to completely ruin a round for the enemy mobs
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Jun 22, 2021 01:06
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There doesn't happen to be comprehensive list of all the different player options and what books they're in, does there? Are the Powers books necessary? Essentials?
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Jun 24, 2021 08:30
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Opinions on that diverge. I'd say neither are necessary, but the powers books are good if you want more options, while the Essentials books are not. Rule of thumb, Powers add options to existing classes, mostly providing support for new archetypes (like a ranged weapon warlord or a dual-wielding barbarian). Essentials add new classes that follow a whole different design philosophy.
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Jun 24, 2021 08:44
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It's 'Essentials' as in "boiled down to their essence", not 'necessary'. Essentials classes are basically just extremely simplified versions of basic classes. If that's not something that appeals to you, then no, you don't need Essentials.
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Jun 24, 2021 09:09
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There are two Essentials books that actually are pretty Essential, but they’re being forgotten because they don’t have character classes in them. The Rules Compendium is the best single source for 4e game rules in book form, and the Monster Vault is the best resource for classic monster stat blocks using the revised monster stats.
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Jun 24, 2021 09:15
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Arivia posted:There are two Essentials books that actually are pretty Essential, but they’re being forgotten because they don’t have character classes in them. The Rules Compendium is the best single source for 4e game rules in book form, and the Monster Vault is the best resource for classic monster stat blocks using the revised monster stats.
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Jun 24, 2021 09:44
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Devorum posted:There doesn't happen to be comprehensive list of all the different player options and what books they're in, does there? Rules Compendium, Monster Vault, Monster Manual 3, PHBs 1-3 and all the Power books are what I would consider essential to running the game in general. You probably also want the Forgotten Realms and Eberron Player's Guides as they contain several races and a class each along with feat support (don't let people take dragonmarked feats outside of an actual Eberron campaign, though). There's also some nice-to-have but not essential stuff: DMG1 and 2 for just, general discussions about DMing the game and ways you can modify it (most of the rules text is in RC already in some form or another), and MM1 and 2 for monster power ideas (several monsters got reprinted with fixed stats in MV, but you can also just use MM3 on a business card to update stats on MM1/2 monsters if you want to run them directly). Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Jun 24, 2021 |
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Jun 24, 2021 13:39
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Thanks. We're finally getting ready to start the 4E game my group asked for. Thankfully, I found the offline tools so that'll be a huge help.
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Jun 24, 2021 16:09
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Devorum posted:Thanks. We're finally getting ready to start the 4E game my group asked for. Thankfully, I found the offline tools so that'll be a huge help. Yeah, the real answer is to not play without the Character Builder. funin.space is also an invaluable tool to have on hand.
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Jun 24, 2021 16:25
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Boba Pearl posted:Let me tell you about the time my controller heavy party stopped a boss from playing the game by slowing, proning, dazing, and then just pushing him back 3 squares so that he could never get in range of the objective. You'll have to give a bit more details for me to pick out which fight this was Boba.
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Jun 24, 2021 18:05
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I was thinking of the giant creeping mold that made sick people explode. Actually, I have a question for the thread, my player's have dedicated their builds to maximum CC, and it's very effective, I want to provide a challenge while also respecting that they've built their builds to be very good at this thing. So like, I feel if I give my enemies the ability to just shrug it off once or twice, I'm invalidating those choices my players made. At the same time, if I throw 100s of minions at them with very high damage, they'll die super quick, as they only have one or two people with abilities that'll pop a ton of minions. I recognize the weakness, but I'm having trouble really feeling out how hard I want to push into it. We're level 10, so it feels unfair now that' they've locked in 10 levels worth of stuff to start punishing them for not diversifying more, as I feel that's not the fun part of making a DND 4e combat character. I've tried inflating HP values to the max, but it becomes a very damage race kind of game, either they keep it locked down enough to get their nova's off, or the enemy survives 4 rounds and then haymakers the party into oblivion, normally chunking a player or two. I wanted to speed that process up, so that it's "Can you chunk the enemy in 2 turns, or will he chunk you in 2 turns." I feel like there's no fair way to do this, without taking options away from the players. Right now, some stuff I'm floating is: Enemies have an ability that lets them save on ALL conditions at the beginning of their turn Enemies can split their HP, and create a copy of themselves, that isn't effected by those conditions Enemies can transfer conditions onto each other A Leader that can cleanse conditions 2x per encounter Enemies that link with someone, and any conditions applied to that enemy, is also applied to the linked player Which of these would you consider end game boss stuff, and which do you think would be more appropriate on a standard / elite enemy?
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Jun 25, 2021 05:12
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Boba Pearl posted:I was thinking of the giant creeping mold that made sick people explode. The key is not invalidating their choices, just changing them. Ideally, they end up with the interesting decision of "do we clear out the chaff/etc, so our effects stick, or do we just ignore it and focus on damaging the big guy?" girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Jun 25, 2021 |
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Jun 25, 2021 12:03
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