"I got good news and bad news." - Vek

Hey all,

The Scales of War adventure that Vek was DMing for us has come to an unfortunate end. He cited lack of interest in being a DM and the added duties/commitment as the prime reasons for his decision.

Shane- the shaman (healer) in the original adventure, will take over DM duties in Chapter 2. The party will again be reformed to incorporate Kat, who will sacrifice War-War Lock to become our new healer. He is currently looking at a pacifist cleric build, but has yet to confirm his intentions.

I will be creating a new character too, as "Magicman" was politely declined by Shane due to his "hybrid is still a playtest" reasoning. As the DM, he has the final say so I might roll up a Paladin or a Barbarian instead. The new update to the Character Generator is set for tomorrow, and I will wait for that before making my decision. Divine Powers would have been in the database by then, and I can conveniently check if a new-age DPS paladin is viable.
My hand itches for a d12 or a 2d6 weapon wielding kind of character and these two classes fit the bill. Avenger can be an after-thought as well.

On to the good news.

The Monster Builder Beta has arrived in DDi! This gem of a building tool houses over 2500 monsters all ready for customization and cut/paste duties.

The Monster Builder is quick to fire up and easy to use for hassle-free encounter management.




Personally, I love the drag-and-paste feature in the program, where I get to shamelessly drag the firebreath power from a red dragon onto an unsuspecting domestic horse template. Firemare Kirin anyone?

Go check it out, aspiring DMs, and create your own flavor of madness today.



Ever felt like going back to DnD 3.5? Do you miss Weapon Finesse, splashing 1 level of something, the overly-complicated Grappling rules which felt like calculus, or the good ole' days when Intelligence didn't do squat to your AC and Charisma was the premier dump stat of the game?

I am Genie for your weeeeesh granted. (poof)

DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online) Beta. The developers have decided that the game go F2P (Free to Play) game when it goes live on September 9th 2009. The Beta has almost forty good days left until it launches free next month. You can test if your rig can run the game smoothly, and if you enjoy their particular style of adapting DnD 3.5 to an MMO setting.

It is a good way for me to get a fix when the DnD "playing" pang hits my brain. The game runs smoothly, and I love the graphics when my character punches baddies into moosh, or decaptitates hapless minions with my super-aggressive Greataxe of Burrrnnnning.

DDO's graphics and gameplay is brilliant by F2P gaming standards, and can easily match some of the smaller existing MMOs in the market nowadays.

Don't just take my word for it, go try it out. What could go wrong? It is free to play anyway. You might just find your own personal gaming paradise online. (when taking a break from Mafia Wars of course.)