bathroom sounds posted:Lore-wise, how exactly do warlocks work? Why would a demon or devil or Lovecraftian ancient Thing condescend to make a pact with a trifling mortal? And what exactly is a warlock's end game supposed to be? A patron's motivations are generally left up to the DM and player to agree on, and as others have mentioned, not every warlock needs to have directly signed some kind of contract for their power. At its most essential, the Warlock is distinguised from the Sorceror and Wizard in that instead of being naturally gifted with magic or studying for years to attain it, they took a potentially dangerous shortcut that gives them immediate benefits but might cause problems long-term. The flipside of the Diabolic pact Warlock pledging his soul to the Nine Hells in exchange for power is a fey pact warlock who just tapped into secrets of the feywild with no real consequences. It really depends on how you want to play it. I mean, is it really that hard to believe that someone who isn't particularly talented or patient would make a deal for massive eldritch power now and hope to come out on top in the long run instead of dedicating their entire life to studying the arcane arts and hoping that they're one of the few that actually get to master them enough to use them? As for patron motivations, well it's pretty simple. Devils need a constant influx of souls to hopefully one day break out of their prison, and bargains are their primary source of souls. But even without putting your literal soul at risk, most of the patrons can't really exert their will directly. They're stuck on some other plane of existence or only have vestigial power, so they need a go-between. Empowering some guy who wants to shoot magic laser beams in exchange for occasional services rendered is a pretty good way of getting poo poo done in their name. In some fictional works, making complicated compacts with extra-planar entities of immense power is the ONLY way magic works. Dr. Strange from Marvel comics for example channels the power of various entities who have agreed to lend this small fraction of their might to whatever use he sees fit in exchange for various oaths the line of Sorceror Supremes have sworn that benefits them in some way. He basically plays mediator between cosmic giants by manifesting what those entities would consider parlor tricks. A warlock is just someone who doesn't have quite as good a contract as that. Lurdiak fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Jan 31, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Jan 31, 2014 05:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 13:58 |
|
thespaceinvader posted:Class skill lists are probably the worst thing about 4e, so... Class proficiencies could be better, too. Fighters are proficient in almost every kind of armor and weapon, yet a lot of other melee classes don't have that kinda versatility and need to spend feats, and fighters can only have so many functional builds that use a bow or daggers or whatever.
|
|
|
#
¿
Feb 10, 2014 02:32
|
|
PeterWeller posted:Haha, that's actually where I got the idea. I figured if Bioware, with all their resources, could get away with using the same map over and over again for Baldur's Gate's extensive sewers, I could get away with doing the same for Neverwinter. I never start them in the same entrance/room and change little things here and there, but it really helps from a DMing perspective--if the players go into the sewers and have an encounter for any reason, I have a map ready for them. I'm just curious why your players are constantly going into the sewers.
|
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2014 11:06
|
|
Klungar posted:There is a reason why MM3 math replaced MM1 math. Creatures with lots of HP that do small amounts of damage do not make for interesting encounters, they make for boring slogs. Please do not use pre-MM3 monsters without converting their stats. Just going to point out that, while I agree with the math stuff, I absolutely hate the MM3 and onward's monster blocks and wish they'd kept the original layout. This might just come down to personal preference, but it really bugs me.
|
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2014 00:02
|
|
Lurdiak posted:Just going to point out that, while I agree with the math stuff, I absolutely hate the MM3 and onward's monster blocks and wish they'd kept the original layout. This might just come down to personal preference, but it really bugs me. Been re-reading MM3 and it reminded me that in addition to the obnoxious new monster blocks, they replaced the serviceable and neutral descriptions of the monsters and their lore with poo poo like this: quote:The adventurers pursued the ogre raiders for a week gently caress youuuuu.
|
|
|
#
¿
Feb 15, 2014 03:00
|
|
|
I seem to remember some articles in Dungeon and/or Dragon mag about creating interesting character concepts that are somewhat outside the box and keeping them viable from level 1 to 30, how good were those as guides on how to make characters in a general sense?
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2014 09:25
|
|
unseenlibrarian posted:I admit, I played a Drow sniper rogue who had all the feats to make Hand Crossbow be less terrible so I could run around John Wooing at people with dual hand crossbows. It's me, I'm what's wrong with 4E. What's wrong with 4E is that such a great concept is not as viable as a default build.
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2014 20:37
|
|
OneThousandMonkeys posted:Oh so a while ago I asked the 4E thread about what they would do to make bullywugs playable. Barring anything more creative and difficult to implement, three bonus feats seemed to do it. I didn't specify what feats they had to be. One of my players once made a heroic Bullywug Valiant Bard who was basically Frog from Chrono Trigger, and I gave him specific feats and changed his racial to something that wasn't depressing and garbage. It was with the specific intent to make him seem more heroic and less like a wart on the face of reality, so I'm not sure how applicable it is to the standard race as presented in the monster manual. They were also not playtested or balanced very well(or at all), but they might be an interesting starting point if nothing else. Racial quote:Violent Hop (Minor Action; Bullywog Racial Power; encounter) - Weapon Feats quote:Camouflaged skin:
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2014 09:54
|
|
|
Yeah, I should mention I made these the very first time I played the game and haven't touched them since. This is the same game where I didn't think letting a player tame a low level monster and use it in battle like a pokemon would lead to any problems. I think my reasoning at the time was that Bullywugs were basically gimped otherwise, so having a good racial would balance things like only having one skill bonus and all that. I just thought the idea of a frog guy jumping around to slash folk might be cool. Obviously it could be reworked to be something like a free 4 square shift before (or maybe after) a standard attack, once per encounter, sort of like a reworked fey step that's inherently tied to attacking. Or maybe even more specific, like letting you shift up to X squares to get into position to do your next attack better, whether it's jumping into melee range or jumping to a ranged position where a foe no longer has cover. But I like your tongue-pulling idea, too. Lurdiak fucked around with this message at 10:14 on Mar 8, 2014 |
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2014 10:12
|
|
|
PC minotaurs can also use large weapons and I don't think that hosed anything up.
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2014 19:09
|
|
thespaceinvader posted:No, they can't. drat it, I was thinking of the Monster Manual version. 
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2014 03:17
|
|
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. I thought Scales of War was pretty neat. Mind, I never played it... just dreamed.
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2014 13:09
|
|
PeterWeller posted:I'm not keen on 4E modules, but Gammaworld is perfect for such a game and comes with some decent and humorous adventures. You know this is the 4e thread, right?
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2014 20:57
|
|
PeterWeller posted:Gamma World is stripped and refluffed 4E. My suggestion was completely appropriate. Do you have something else to recommend? My bad, I'm extremely dumb and got confused with Apocalypse World.
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2014 16:44
|
|
|
I had a horse warlock in my party once. Just a regular horse who somehow made a fey pact. He had a horse-dragon familiar. It looked like this.
|
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2014 03:09
|
|
|
Hey guys, I can't really see if there's a better thread to ask this in, but can any of you tell me what that one undead DnD monster that's like, some kind of knight tied to an evil sword is called? I know that's rather vague, sorry. They retain their intellect and memories, I think. I'm pretty sure it isn't Death Knights. I'm pretty sure it was featured in some issue of one of the 4e digital magazines, but I don't really want to re-read every issue.
|
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2015 20:26
|
|
Prison Warden posted:It's a Death Knight. The monster template is in MM1 if I remember right. Arivia posted:You might be thinking about the dread, a monster from the Forgotten Realms, although where it's covered in 4e I don't know. I was actually getting confused between Death Knight and Unrisen. Thanks anyway!
|
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2015 21:52
|
|
|
Hey guys, would this be the right thread to post a custom 4e town I made back in the day for feedback? It's been a hot minute, but I liked what I did with it, and I'd like to use it in a future game, but maybe it could do with some updating...
|
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2017 10:29
|
|
Spiteski posted:Either this thread or the GM advice thread could be ok. Go ahead and post it Ok, here goes. quote:City of Red Oak I don't have the embarrassing handrawn map I made back in the day, but the town is basically situated just off to the right of the Nentir Vale map, on the other side of the Dawnforge Mountains.  I know the idea of a "valley in a mountain" isn't quite logical, but I had a specific setup in mind and didn't know how else to express it. I used these images I found on GIS to demonstrate the geography as I pictured it:   I think the turtle in that image is the only reason the town has dire snapping turtles as a mascot. :B
|
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2017 02:10
|
|
Does the complete lack of feedback on my made-up town mean it's good or terrible? 
|
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2017 19:39
|
|
Mordiceius posted:I'm still salty that WotC never contracted a company to make a Gamma World video game in the vein of XCOM. And I'm salty WOTC never made a proper DnD 4e app where you can plug in pre-made dungeons/monsters and mess around with em to customize em, or make your own from scratch. Do you own the PDF for the second Monster Manual? Enter the special code into the app to add every single monster from that book to the special app! Play on your tablet! The app does all the math so you don't have to spend 90 minutes in every combat encounter! The premade dungeons mean you don't have to spend 16 hours preparing everything manually in maptools!
|
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2017 21:44
|
|
Dick Burglar posted:I had no idea there was a 4E book called Open Grave. It's pretty neat but it was published very early on so it's got a lot of old monster math in it, so be careful. One of the level 1 encounters suggested in it was kind of a disaster for my players because of that.
|
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2017 08:19
|
|
|
Forceful Force is some top-tier stuff.
|
|
|
#
¿
Sep 17, 2017 06:50
|
|
|
You could just add the fire keyword to his attacks (or his at-will) if he takes a minor action and leave it at that. It's not exactly official, but it's hardly gonna break the game. An encounter-long damage bonus might, though.
|
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2017 05:42
|
|
|
Apropos of nothing, I just want to say again how much I like the Ruthless Ruffian rogue class feature from Martial Power, and every power created for said build. It's one of the most interesting and fun twists on a core class I've ever seen.
|
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2017 05:21
|
|
dont even fink about it posted:Funnily enough I think it is by far considered the most poo poo rogue option, because its core benefits are comparatively underwhelming and any rogue can poach the rest of it if they are so inclined. Oh I'm not surprised at all, but its mere existence means we have a bunch of rogue powers that are flavored around knocking people around so badly that they get spooked and do what you say. And the idea of a rogue wielding maces is the best.
|
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2017 06:23
|
|
|
Hey, I was thinking about playable orcs and how they differ from half-orcs and the weird place half-orcs have in dnd history(basically a compromise to create a playable orc back when they were all one-dimensionaly evil and brutish), and I was wondering if there's any 4e material on player character orcs aside from the tiny stat block at the end of the first monster manual. I checked Dragon Magazine, and there doesn't seem to be anything there.
|
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2017 13:20
|
|
ProfessorCirno posted:4e adventures suffer from the devs themselves really not having 100% grasp on their own game and how it worked, especially early on. Of course, it's made worse by the fact that those early adventures were made by Mike Mearls, who easily understood 4e the least. And also they fired a bunch of the people who made 4e what it is before they could make any adventures.
|
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2017 16:19
|
|
slap me and kiss me posted:Build it and they will come Maaaan I wish 4e had an open license.
|
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2017 14:25
|
|
Jeb Bush 2012 posted:Yeah, although given their previous experience I'm not surprised they wanted to avoid someone creating path4inder as a 5e competitor. Yeah I totally get it, but then Mike Mearls pushed 4e off a cliff so it'd be nice if someone was able to pick it up.
|
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2017 20:07
|
|
PMush Perfect posted:Also minion-level one shot traps are fun to just pepper around areas, especially if you flavor them as some other kind of effect. Magic storms or rockslides or whatever. My favorite trap is the one that's a screaming head on a stick. It screams at you and it hurts.
|
|
|
#
¿
Dec 20, 2017 08:27
|
|
|
You might consider some kind of abilities/restrictions related to the weapon they use, considering Death Knights' powers are so closely tied to their weapons. Something as basic as the swordmage's swordbond, plus the gimmick actual Death Knights have where taking their weapon away dazes and weakens both them and the thief. Revenants have several feats that enhance the "undead" flavor, such as no longer needing to breathe or eat, so you might look into either giving some of them for free (honestly, not eating or breathing is mechanically negligible unless you're going to be fighting a lot of noxious clouds) or allowing the player to trade their existing feats for extra spookiness. Lurdiak fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Jan 17, 2018 |
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2018 01:29
|
|
|
Hey, did anyone ever make a good homebrewed standalone necromancer class? I really don't find myself satisfied with what Heroes of Shadow has to offer.
|
|
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2018 00:29
|
|
Kurieg posted:There's another one, Avangion just gives you dragon wings made out of light. The one I'm thinking of gives you a daily power that lets you turn into a great wyrm for the rest of that combat.
|
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2018 03:22
|
|
|
I'm not trying to be a dick when I say that I don't understand how anyone can think the Great Wheel is good.
|
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2018 04:00
|
|
|
Hey, is the 4e Tomb of Horrors adventure book any good? I never hear anyone talk about it.
|
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2018 04:55
|
|
Dagon posted:Assuming you mean the "re-imagining" and not the straight remake, I'm starting it tomorrow for my group. We just finished the "Orcus Conversion" of H1-3, and rather than continue with the conversion of the P-series modules, I'm slotting in the Tomb of Horrors stuff for Paragon Tier, then back to the E-series stuff to finish. I mean the official paragon tier adventure module that they put out that's like a sequel to the original adventure. Not the horrendous conversion of the original that someone put online.
|
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2018 05:10
|
|
Moriatti posted:I might be running an FMA game in this system as a result of a group chat. I'm not sure there's a lot of rules support for teenage angst and libertarian moralizing.
|
|
|
#
¿
Jan 30, 2018 01:12
|
|
|
4e would be a lot better if feats were separated into "makes you fight better" and "doesn't make you fight better" and you had to alternate between the two. That'd remove a bunch of the trap options right there.
|
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2018 11:27
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 13:58 |
|
isndl posted:You mean you don't take the feat that lets your Tiefling use their tail as a hand?! See this is what I'm saying. That's awesome, in a world where that's not weighed against feats that give you a +1 to your combat rolls.
|
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2018 12:26
|
|
