Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition: Looks like we're the grognards, now.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition: Looks like we're the grognards, now.

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dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

P.d0t posted:

Consider using stun grenades that blind, deafen, or both (basically, say, Area Burst 1 within 5ish)
Particularly if you want to play the stealth game, it can make her harder to target; you can't point out where the enemy is if your ally can't see or hear you. Don't be too much of a dick, but play it tactical.

I had thought about putting some of those in, but the stat block was already pushing what I care to track for an Elite, and I was worried about too-strong control against a Heroic Tier group.

Idea:
Instead of adding more powers, take the glue bomb, change it to Chaos Bomb and make it a variable effect - either random (you know, how she's a mad bomber) or something she gets to pick (either per-target or once per bomb).

1. Blind (EoNT)
2. Immobilize (EoNT)
3. Slow (Save Ends)
4. Push 3 and Prone
5. Ongoing 5 damage (save ends)
6. Daze (EoNT)

An At-Will Blind or Daze is super-strong, though, especially at Heroic Tier, so I'd be careful about letting her pick. Maybe add an Encounter Power (Minor Action) where she gets to pick once.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 03:33

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 11:30

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

My Lovely Horse posted:

Little late following up on this but now that I've given Masterplan a whirl I feel I can give this question a proper assessment, which is that Masterplan is a feat of literal wizardry and I renounce the Turn Tracker now and forevermore.

Seriously I hope whoever made Masterplan has a really nice job doing interface design and usability. I've never seen a program where so many options are potentially required and each of them is right where you'd expect it, along with five others you didn't even know you needed.

That was pretty much my finding with Masterplan, too; it started out good but got amazing. Literally the only thing I couldn't figure out how to do on it was give attack roll penalties. And even then, I can create a fake condition called "-5 to attack rolls" to jog my memory.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2014 18:06

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Lamquin posted:

This brings up two questions:
1. Can we assume that Monster 1 is flanked even if Calm Goliath is flanked?

2. Is there such a rule in the older D&D editions? We're trying to figure out the origin of this, and we're coming up blank. It might just be some house-rule that became a "real" one, but who knows!

Both Monster 1 and the calm goliath are flanked and flanking each other.

I don't know of any such rule in 3e or 4e, which are the only two editions with flanking mechanics.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2014 07:44

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

djw175 posted:

Because crossbows are literally the worst weapon. No other item in the game takes so long to reload.

... Unless you're a hunter, in which case crossbows are amazing and clearly the best choice!

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 23:51

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

So EN Publishing came out with an "expanded" Player's Guide for the Zeitgeist adventure path. Some of the paragon paths it has are really drat cool. Very powerful, but very cool. Among them? A mecha pilot, a gunner who changes their firearm into a blaster, a rock star, and a guy who argues philosophy into reality.

In other words, you should check it out even if you're not running the Path.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?353204-Extended-ZEITGEIST-Player-s-Guide-(4E)

# ¿ Mar 8, 2014 16:17

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

xiw posted:

Don't know if this has already been posted, but my DDI renewal came around:

Nice to know that DDI's going to hang around! It's pretty ambiguous as to whether they're going to add Next stuff to DDI as well though.

I just re-upped mine, too, though my goal is to download and locally store the compendium.

The Masterplan import is what tipped the scales for me.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2014 17:11

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

OmegaGoo posted:

Is Masterplan Windows only?

I'm going to be DMing in May, and any tools that would make that easier would be fantastic. However, I am writing this post from a Mac.

Yep, Windows only. I'm unfamiliar with macs; is boot camp still a thing?

# ¿ Mar 10, 2014 17:45

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

thespaceinvader posted:

Straight invoker I think, absent certain builds which play around with Dizzying Mace.

Yeah, definitely invoker. Level 1 stun save ends.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2014 23:27

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Is there any need to worry about a bugbear's Large weapons? It seems to me that's all they get, so it'll be fine in the long run.

I have a bugbear barbarian joining up next week. Level 1 game.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2014 19:00

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

OneThousandMonkeys posted:

One gets the most out of bugbear by rolling as many weapon dice as possible. They're a good race but if a game has dwarves it can suffer bugbears.

That was more or less my thought process, too. "This isn't even as good as Dwarven Weapon Training."

I remember I thought they were broken early in the edition, but now that racial support is a thing, I'm good with it.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2014 20:42

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

thespaceinvader posted:

Not really. Look at Exe Axe - 1d12b2 = 12+2/2=7 average damage. 2d6b2 =12+4/2=8 average damage. Goes up a point. Longsword: 1d8=8+1/2=4.5 average damage. 1d10=10+1/2=5.5 average damage. Same bump. Because going up to two dice doesn't increase your maximum damage, it's not actually all that hot for averages and it does nothing for crits (albeit ex axe has native high crits so YMMV)

I think the math is wrong here. Avg executioner axe damage is 9 per W. Minimum damage is 6.

I'm still okay with this.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2014 21:42

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

thespaceinvader posted:

Oh, balls, true.

Yeah, it's a little bit better. But broken? gently caress no.

Definitely. Also, I can tell him to roll 2d4 and add 2 instead of rerolling.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2014 21:59

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

I just want to mention again that the new Extended Zeitgeist Player's Guide has about my favorite Paragon Paths ever. Some of them might be OP, but it's just a nearly-unbroken wall of awesome.

Logos - You are so good at philosophy, when you argue with the world, you win. When you argue about what someone else will do, you win. If you make an argument 1/day that the door at the end of the hallway must be unlocked, it's unlocked.

Mad Shootist - You have a loving Flash Gordon style ray gun. You can make this blaster fire a loving shrink ray. You can overcharge your weapon and make it explode.

Monument of War - You are a famed veteran and everyone else gets to experience your shell shock. You call up ghosts of dead soldiers and they protect you and your allies.

Notorious Celebrity - Want to be a rock star? You're a rock star. You have a posse. You can summon a phantom audience so they can witness how awesome you are.

Polyhistor - Smart fighter? Smart fighter.

Steamsuit Pilot - YOU HAVE A STEAM POWERED MECHA SUIT OF ARMOR.

Urban Empath - You're like a druid, only with cities.

Applied Astronomer - You watch the planets (which = Planes in Zeitgeist, so keep that in mind) so much you can reach through to them and pull them into the world. Also, when you spend an Action Point, your next Power gets Range: Sight in case you want to shoot at the goddamn moon or something.

Vekeshi Excoriant - You seek revenge for your dead goddess, what's not to love?

Just ... man. I can't wait for the party to hit 11th level.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2014 00:20

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

ArkInBlack posted:

The other options for the blaster is Freeze Shot and Wave Shot, with wave ignoring cover on the target, and another power is literally the Super Metroid grapple beam. It is stupidly awesome and I need to play a zeitgeist game.

I'm running it now and it's good. It's very, very good. It makes me mad that nobody else bothered making adventures this good for 4e. The first session was one of the best games I've ever run in my 30 years of DM-ing. Definitively a strong top 5 contender.

We just ran a little tower defense skill challenge/minigame as part of the first adventure, too, and it was awesome.

Prison Warden posted:

Speaking of third party stuff, is War of the Burning Sky any good? I think the name is cool, which is 50% of the way there for me.

It's a 3e adventure, converted, and it shows. The math gets totally hosed near the end, but it's certainly better than most 4e adventures even so.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2014 04:44

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

PeterWeller posted:

The glaring problem with WotC's D&D product line, especially with 4E, is a lack of really great and memorable adventures. I guess the splat book treadmill makes better business sense considering TSR's fate, but WotC's editions haven't left us with a whole lot of memorable collective stories like the TSR editions did.

Hell yeah. All we got for shared stories was Splug, who was like a Meepo also-ran.

It's pretty shameful how bad 4e published adventures were.

Hashtag Yoloswag posted:

I really love Zeitgeist PPs and it's kind of a shame they're third party because I would play a Steamsuit Pilot or Logos in every game.

Holy poo poo I want to play a dude with a mecha so bad. Maybe if I kill off a character, one will come back with the technologist theme...

killstealing posted:

Would Zeitgeist be a solid adventure for a DM new to 4e? I really, really like it and I've been a DM in 3.5e campaigns and a player in 4e. I'll admit it, logos sounds loving amazing.

Ummm, probably, sure. No worse than most. There is a lot of guidance and setting detail, and the first adventure isn't hard at all to run. It's also free, so there's that.

The biggest must-have is a nice map of the Coaltongue to kick it off right. It's a big, sprawling encounter and a sense of place is essential.

The second adventure looks much harder to run, though.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2014 14:19

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

That's true, but it's cold comfort, and well past the "first impression" period for most players.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2014 15:05

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Prison Warden posted:

So I've been reading some of the Stormlight Archives lately. If I'm reading Zeitgeist's mecha suit Paragon Path correctly, it straight up allows someone to make Shardplate (magical powered armour).

I think I have my player hook.

I don't know what that is. But odds are, you're on target. You get to make a medium or large steamsuit, and it's super protective until you get beat up a lot, at which point you're back to your normal armor. Also you get to go all Iron Man on it, and pack it into a briefcase, so...

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 02:06

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Yeah, seriously, pretty much every 4e adventure released before 2010, and a fair number after, ranged from "terrible soul-crushing crap" (P3, H3, Marauders of the Dune Sea) to "playable, but still kinda crappy." (P2, H2)

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 21:42

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

ObMeiste posted:

...or if there are any alternatives that fill it's void to the same degree?

Have you tried Masterplan yet? The link is in the OP.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 06:26

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

My Lovely Horse posted:

Getting creatures entered into the library is a bit of a pain. But then, even manually it's actually a really quick process and I'm done with it faster than I ever was in turntracker. Don't sit down to enter everything at once though, just enter everything you need for next session and you'll have a decently-sized library in no time.

Remember, if you have DDI, the Masterplan Compendium Import plugin is an amazing time-saver.

And if you don't have DDI, seriously, it's worth your $10 to sub for a month and slurp down the entire compendium full of monsters.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 13:17

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

P.d0t posted:

Dumb question: when you crit with a High Crit weapon, are the extra [W]s maxed or rolled?

Rolled, just like anything else that only happens on a crit.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 22:16

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Cold, of course, with frostbite, is very well supported.

Thunder is best for AoE.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2014 05:41

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Pesticide20 posted:

Yeah, I'm not really sure either. I've tried 7-zip and the default file explorer. I'm thinking I'm just having trouble downloading it, as Afghanistan isn't exactly known for a blazing fast internet connection. What's the file size supposed to be? Because I've "downloaded" it as anywhere from 2 MB to 2.9 MB

Want to try this? I just put it on my google drive.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9qwm-rNX9YEU0JkTk8ySjR3azg/edit?usp=sharing

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 01:24

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

rkajdi posted:

Quick question before I shell out any cash-- is there a way to get the monster info from DDI moved into Masterplan? I knew it used to be possible, but I've heard that Wizards cracked down on it. Don't want to bother with even looking at the digital tools since they'll probably disappear 6 months into Next's proper release, and my group seems super happy with 4E. After having run both new math and old math monsters, I much prefer the latter in play, but the selection is limited outside the Compendium, which is supposedly new math and design for even older monsters.

This is new, and AFAIK has not been cracked down.

http://compendiumimport.codeplex.com/

# ¿ Apr 19, 2014 14:11

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

I don't even use wishlists. I use inherent bonuses plus "ooh this is cool."

It makes item optimization tough - no full charge kits, for example - but my players were still destroying everything around their level in my Dark Sun game.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2014 12:57

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

SunAndSpring posted:

So, does anyone know if there are any good rules, homebrewed or otherwise, for firearms for 4e? I'm looking for some rules for old-style muskets.

Zeitgeist players guide has some. They hijack the crossbow stats, then change a few things.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 15:29

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

fatherdog posted:

A Blackguard with a full charge kit and/or Frostcheese is a very effective striker, they're just deadly loving dull to play.

Make that "any character at all" and you're still right.

This is one of many reasons I won't ever run 4e with pre-Essentials full magic item crafting/buying/selling, and why I mostly prefer inherent bonuses now.

# ¿ May 3, 2014 03:34

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Knucklebear posted:

I'm ok having everyone roll new characters but I don't want to crush the momentum. Any thoughts?

Just like PCs, NPCs get to decide what happens at 0. If the enemies aren't striking to kill, I just make it clear that "death" at negative bloodied or after 3 failed saves just means you're really, really out of this fight.

# ¿ May 5, 2014 18:20

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

My Lovely Horse posted:

Oh god, I have a new player joining my game and just got word that she picked a Battlemind. What do they even do?

e: after a quick look, wreck my encounters apparently

What level?

1-6, not much at all.
7+, wreck your encounters.

Also, they have scary tricks that make them great at working with other defenders.

# ¿ May 9, 2014 16:14

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:

And, added bonus, since you've got a player using the Battlemind as opposed to BEING that player, you won't have to worry about the psionic problem in general and the battlemind problem specifically that once they've picked their two good at-wills, they're effectively out of power selection beyond dailies.

Battleminds, other than the Lightning Rush issue, are probably the best designed psionic class and actually benefit from trading out (most of) their at will powers for more badass ones.

But yeah, Lightning Rush is forever. And one of the "tricks" I mentioned.
(1) Fighter marks enemy.
(2) Enemy attacks Fighter.
(3) Battlemind Lightning Rushes enemy, attacking them and redirecting the attack to herself.
(4) Whoops, enemy is now attacking Battlemind. At -2 because they're marked.
(5) Fighter punishes enemy for Mark violation.

... All of which is out of turn.

# ¿ May 9, 2014 16:40

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

OneThousandMonkeys posted:

They can shift if the monster shifts. Not if the monster moves. At that point they need a good OA.

Or, again, Lightning Rush. Although a good oa also helps, of course.

The harrying step feat is awesome, btw.

# ¿ May 10, 2014 03:54

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Oh for heavens sake I might be back up to 7 players

# ¿ May 13, 2014 17:09

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Iunnrais posted:

Don't do it man! You have so much life left to live for!

I've done it before and we're only 3rd level, so I mostly am looking for ways to up fight difficulty without adding a lot more baddies...

# ¿ May 13, 2014 18:24

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

dwarf74 posted:

Oh for heavens sake I might be back up to 7 players

Good/bad news - I'm back to 5 or 6 due to scheduling. I can manage 6. 7 is the breaking point...

# ¿ May 14, 2014 17:40

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Agent Boogeyman posted:

I will admit, however, that 16 may be sub-par when it comes to IMPLEMENT users.

You can make a Wizard who almost literally never needs to roll a d20 for attacks and still contributes.

# ¿ May 20, 2014 23:19

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

I've told my players straight up that "extended rests" can only happen after (usually) 4 encounters.

I may formalize it into recharging per Act, since I'm running Zeitgeist...

# ¿ Jun 27, 2014 16:31

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

crime fighting hog posted:

Hey guys, could someone point me to something, official rules or not, for flying ship to ship combat? I can probably wing the rules myself but wanted to see if there was some precedence ~~rip off~~ crib from.

En publishing has Admiral of the High Seas, which has naval combat rules.

I'm using simpler versions in my Zeitgeist campaign.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2014 19:11

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Jade Mage posted:

In the DMG there are the rules for NPC creation for PHB classes. Is there anywhere I could find the rules for PHB 2 or swordmage NPC characters?

I would strongly advise you not to use these. You will end up with terrible monsters.

My advice is to take an existing monster and add appropriate thematic abilities using the real mm3 monster math.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 18:34

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

xiw posted:

Out of the list of monster sources in the compendium, which ones have post-MM3 / good math?

I'm assuming

Monster Manual 3
Dark Sun Creature Catalog
Monster Vault
Monster Vault - Nentir Vale
Neverwinter Campaign Setting

Anything else?

Demonomicon, iirc.

Really though, the math might have been fixed, but monster design wasn't fixed until mv.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2014 04:40

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 11:30

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

So I'd just like to give another shout-out to the Zeitgeist adventure path. We're part way through the 3rd adventure, and while leveling is a bit rapid (seriously, every 2-3 sessions or so), it's amazingly fun.

Where was stuff this good in 2009?

# ¿ Jul 22, 2014 17:49

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