"Fun Mali Fun... Hoy Hoy! ... Fun Mali Fun..." (Popular Northern druidic folk-song)

Hey all,

Want to see a picture of absolute Fail?

On the left is an illustration from Swordmage Essentials 382. It shows a swordmage holding a shield in his off hand. Go figure that one out.

Now, for all of you who have always accused WotC of having writers do Class Guides without having an inkling of what they are writing about just as long as it sounds good, or that Dragon articles are written by random bespectacled overweight men who have the ability to make really crappy swordmagi?


Hey, you are god damned right.



---> Last Saturday was fun. I ran "Kings of Morose Hill" (a DnD adventure set in Morose, Caen) for my brother and a few of our friends.

For me personally, I felt that it turned out rather well. As I had not DMed for quite some time and now that my original campaign has been derailed for the time being, I decided to test out several ideas I had previously planned to debut in Chapter Two.

• Visual Progression Skill Challenges - I went with Skill Challenges that showed the encounter's progress by flinging (yes, flinging) colored chips onto the table. (red- failure, blue,green,yellow-success). Any good idea that a player comes up with during the encounter but does not fall into the success/fail categories gets a +2 one-off token that can be used to modify a single skill check in that ongoing Skill Challenge. With this new system, the players were up for it, and the visuals of two red chips on the table - knowing that a third will automatically fail the Challenge- is priceless. Gaining the one-off token put a smile on their faces and let them know that participation pays off.
• Less Linear Skill Challenges - The ones I experimented with were less linear and could encompass many skills if needed. I saw a marked improvement in the players' participation, and I felt the challenges progressed more naturally, and that the new design smoothened out previous kinks in the system. Overall, I think the updated Skill Challenges worked, and even though I had to spend more time designing them; it brought me one step closer to refining a less constrictive system where the players can feel free to do what they feel is right and not feel stifled by the rules.
• Initiative Cards - These 4x4 plain calling cards helped tons with Readying and Delaying sequences. I will invert an initiative card when a player/creature delays, or turn the card sideways if they readied an action. Whenever a Delayed Turn or a Ready action triggers, the appropriate initiative card will then be placed on top of the current creature's card. Personally, it made my DMing more manageable, and with less effort needed, I can concentrate more on tactical or role-playing options available. I will improve it by placing vital stats (HP, AC, NADs?) of the creature on the card itself instead of always having to refer to my notes.

I also learnt several things along the way.

• Length of One-Off? The session started at midnight and ended at about half past five in the morning, which is approximately five hours. We were getting close to a conclusion in the second quest, but that might have taken another forty minutes or so to wrap up. Thus, my "One-Off" time estimation is still not good even thought I had more than a One-Off in mind when I wrote this adventure, which might have caused several discrepancies.
• Custom items (Magical/Mundane) - They are fun and add flavor and lore to an adventure. Some can even turn out to be useful in other ways when the right opportunity arises.
• "Fun" Factor - No harm done to slightly over-power the players, a mob or even an event if it results in  creating a memorable scene. Of course, the premise cannot be too far-fetched (not hard to do in an already mythical world of sword and sorcery), so experiment and find the right amount of pizazz and fun to add to your DnD sessions.

---> Lest I forget, Christmas is just around the corner, so a loud and boisterous "Merry Christmas" to all four of you my faithful readers out there.

Drive carefully, avoid opportunity attacks if possible, and enjoy yourselves. C'yall on the flip side.

My Gift: A One-Off at the Chalet of Seven (Updated: Kings of Morose Hill)

Hey all,

This Saturday, Pongtau -- our former Warlock, has invited us to a chalet of six, and that is with me and Shane included. Before you get into fits talking about the minimum number required for a healthy chalet, please allow me to change the subject. I am not usually the one who brings cheap wine or salty snacks, but for this special occasion, I will bring along with me a unique One-Off. (read: a single session DnD adventure which can last for the night.)

These few days, I will be working out the details of the adventure (tentatively named Kings of Morose Hill), set along Pelor's Way in the town of Morose, as shown in the map below.

Traditionally, Morose is a popular stop for wagons and weary travelers looking to journey between the southeastern region of Caen, via the Plains of Pelor, towards Sccor, City of the North or vice versa.

The town of about eight hundred is known for its numerous graveyards and the particularly short lifespan of their small population. The reason being that many of their inexperienced youths are swayed by the tunes and promises of the village's head- Victor "Third" Montgomerie, who runs "The 3rd Reich"- a thriving adventuring guild, supplying local men for out-of-town expeditions.

How it all started ...

The party of five (hopefully) starts out as a typical bunch of fledging adventurers who stumbled upon a magical ornate chest amongst a mysterious wagon crash near Morose. Excitedly, they return to town in the dead of the night with their find, and make a shocking discovery in their "secret" hideout (the backroom of an unused farmhouse).

What it all means?

The ornate chest might contain item/s and information which will lead to several custom backgrounds for the characters involved in the adventure. (( More to be revealed at the start of the adventure proper.))

"On the rainy week before Christmas, WotC gave to me..." (sings)

Hey all,

Singapore is all dark, rainy and wet these past couple of weeks, and it makes me want to turn emo make an assassin (Ninja!), a monk or something shadowy (warlock?) to embrace the changing season. It helped that WotC released "More Toys for Assassins" earlier on today so I should be able to get working on a shiny new dark 'un in the Character Builder update later tonight.

With Shane thinking of a ranged rogue, Shell rolling an assassin (Ninja!) himself and Vek a cloth-clad avenger, I will try not to accelerate our party's demise with a wrong turn into an ill-advised class. But it never hurts to come up with a few new concepts, and if all else fails, I do have my reliable wizard build or Sunny the SNSD Paladin of Pelor to fall back on.

I grew up on Ninja gamebooks (Way of the Tiger) and AD&D, where the monk and assassin (Ninja!) classes were so flavorful and historically accurate in what they could do. Even now, these classes might not be the strongest or optimal in DPR (damage per round), but the joy of a classic monk brutalizing stuff with his bare fists is...
ki-learly unmatched.


The assassin (Ninja!) class is obviously not a suitable choice for going unarmed fighting, but they can fake it and go without a double handed melee weapon by taking their pick of short-ranged implement powers in the class. With this build, the assassin (Ninja!) can utilize a light shield in his off hand too.
On the other hand, the Monk and the Assassin classes are flexible enough to warrant holding an ordinary double staff (A fullblade/urgosh might favor the Assassin as they do have [w] dice powers, unlike the Monk) for the AC bonus and allow their personal Ki Focus to power both their implement/weapon attacks.

Anyhow, it's way cool that these "Oriental" classes are in 4E, be it that WotC does not want us to see them as Oriental classes and omitted "Ki" as the keywork for its power source just in case it sounded too.. Oriental. Yellow, Oriental, Chi-sh or whatever their PR personnel want to call it, I just know that these classes can only get better.
The Assassin (Ninja!) is a DDi subscriber-only product and will still be supported in future, while the full Monk class will be out next year in PHB3 with even more feats, paths and powers. Not to mention many more Ki foci choices too.

Personally, I cannot wait to get my hands on PHB3 as I am a lifelong Monk fan-boy. The rest of the Psionic classes are just gravy to me. By the way, the Ardent (Psionic Leader) preview came out today as well.

Heals? Power Points? Leader? Heals?

Our current healer-less SoW party scoffs at these keywords.

And why they could not come up with a better name for the class beats me. There is already an Ardent Champion paragon path, the Ardent Strike at-will power and the Ardent paladin class feature etc to further confuse a 4e player. I would even have taken Mantle-ist, over classes like Shock, Missile or an Astral (all connected to common at-will powers).

No worries, it might just be the yuletide holiday mood and the festive resting of the braincells which led to this unfortunate event. I just hope that this is not a benchmark for the future naming of classes to come.

If not, Alex might have a ready-made job for him at WotC. (Maybe a primal class called a "DearDear" or something which excels at maiming fawns, bears and other British wildlife)

*Shudders*



LATEST UPDATE: Vek has left my Ca-en campaign due to work/character constraints and I wish him the best in our alternate SoW adventures. I will be looking for a fourth player and thus, Chapter 2 is indefinitely canned until then.

Winter on Earth, Autumn in Caen, and hell to the person who took my handphone.

Hey all,

Rainy season in Singapore is officially on, wrecking havoc on my regular "Tennis at 5pm/8pm" readied actions.

Talking about relentless natural forces, the folks over at WotC have churned out several new DnD 4e articles, with the latest one rounding out the fighter (again), with new powers given to shield, polearms and spear builds.

Due to their DDi concept of a monthly e-magazine chock full of class/power/item/feat/skill updates, power creep in 4e is inevitable and quicker to rear its ugly head due to the sheer number of new options the game has to be given with each passing month.

Of course, these choices are all purely optional because not everyone has access to a DDI paid subscription, or a DM who agrees to non-corebook content. But if they read the largely accessible DnD 4e forums, the said information is readily available and a few players might feel short-changed at not being able to incorporate the content into their game. Worse still, they might lament that the adventure is not flexible enough to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of 4e.

Take Winged Horde for example, a new Wizard at-will that came out in Class Acts 381 last month. It is basically a vs. Will area burst 1 (expandable to 2) which targets only enemies for 1d6 + Int + modifiers, and stuck on with a situationally cool ability (target cannot make opportunity attacks until the end of the caster's next turn.)

And its nearest competitor and former Wizard area burst staple- Scorched Burst -- a vs. Reflex area burst 1 (expandable to 2) which target unfortunate friends and foes alike for 1d6 + Int +modifiers and has a perennially constant effect of doing nothing else apart from damage. Hooray for "massive" damage vanilla powers.

This is but one of the many powers that have been rendered dead weight due to new content coming out. It is true that the wizard has been improved tremendously since its 4e inception, but when you put in goodies such as Winged Horde, I think certain older powers must be changed to fit other roles.

[For example, why not boost the damage of Scorched Burst from a 1d6 to a 1d8? It can have a slightly higher base damage at the cost of not being able to aim "smart" and having no control element whatsoever. The 1d8 will also do less than other area striker builds while maintaining a role in the wizard at-will powers as being the most "damaging" elemental area burst in their arsenal, thus making it less obsolete.]

Also, WotC has to help out other lesser used classes as well instead of just piling the love onto one or two already established classes.As I was mentioning before, the 4e fighter class has seen many passes made at it, and this article further broadens the already deep and much improved class. Do not get me wrong, I love my fighters and my paladins and what not, but aren't rogues, warlocks and clerics in the game too?

Emphasis must be given to the malnourished, and the players will be happier with broader choices in a wider range of classes.

Anyway, that is just 4e imploding on its own, as I seriously fear it might crumble under its ever-increasing weight.

But on a brighter note, the situation on my side looks fine. My regular playgroup enjoys playing with new content, including embracing all of the November Nerfs (tm) with as little ranting as humanly possible.

We just need to continue to strive to find a balance between encounter grinding and meaningful skill challenges so as to mold the 4e system into a more open-ended RPG. The players will then able to choose actions without fear of complicated rules that takes minutes to complete. (Yes, jumping horizontally and vertically or even both at the same time, I'm looking at you!)

Weekly, inroads to smoothen out our brand of  4e have been made. I have had long discussions with Shane about ambiguous rules and the need to speed up session play. We clarified our group's take on the Blind/LoS rules, "stealth before combat" house-rules and several other minor details on delaying/readying.

Now, time for some Secret Information!

*shrouds the next few paragraphs in shadowy swirls*

I am in the midst of penning a short prelude (lv 5 to 7?) preceding the current timeline in my campaign.

This installment goes back about half a decade in time, when Maya was still a sleepy infant settlement ruled by Hevok the Barbarian. Watch out for a certain Smutt McScurvy- a young pirate eyeing a particular drinking establishment in town. Unique in itself, the party could be sailing the high seas for treasures untold! 

With all that is currently brewing in Southeastern Caen, players will be able to better understand how Maya and her inhabitants first started out, and differentiate first-hand between fact and popular myth. 

Chapter 2 seems likely to start in January or so, so be ready for several primer articles ushering in new mechanics/background information this month.

Until then, stay dry and safe, talk to y'all soon.