Playing 4th ed for the first time - Interview with the GM Part I

This is where I interview myself after our first session of playing DnD 4th ed. It was a home made adventure that lasted one evening. The interview is split up in 4 parts.

So, I figure you have just run your first full game of DnD 4th?

That is correct. We ran a short module with a couple of encounters and two skill challenges.

Was this a pre-made module, or something that you created yourself.

This was something I wrote. We didn't have a module available, and also I wanted to see how 4th ed was to write modules for.

That's an interesting topic, and we'll get back to that later. Now, Can you in one sentence describe the overall impression with 4th ed?

That's a hard one... but I think I'll have to go with this: It's not a set of tools, it's a box of parts that fit together

Can you elaborate on that?

Well, many RPG's are labeled as toolboxes, with which you can build whatever you like in detail. My impression with 4th ed is more that it gives you a number of parts or modules. You can then combine these parts in a number of ways, but each of the parts are fairly ready-made.

What are the effects of this?

I'd say it's both good and bad. The bad thing is that you are more bound to how the creators of the game intended things to play out. The good thing is that it's a lot faster to prepare and run modules, or to build characters.

Can you give details on how this would effect character creation?

I'll do my very best. In DnD 3.5, and many other games, if you wanted to build a fighter, you built him from the ground up (more or less). You could choose if you wanted him to be fast or strong and so on. You had a lot more freedom in how to build the character. In 4th ed, the fighter is limited to what the game designers envisioned him to be. On the other hand, chargen is much quicker, you assign your stats, choose race and class, pick one or two feats, assign a few trained skills, pick your powers (four choices all in all), choose a weapon and armour and then you are ready to go.

Speaking of quicker. 4th ed is said to have been more streamlined and fast. What is your take on this.

To some extent I'd say they succeeded with this. The combats played out fairly fast, and as long as you had your power descriptions in front of you, even the more colorfull attacks where resolved in about a minute or so.

Did you get some comments from your players?

Yes. I think we all had a good time with a game, which is the most important thing. However, the number of new terms in the game caused some confusion at times.
Another comment was that 4th ed made roleplaying easier, because there where fewer die-rolls, so you could spend more time on actually playing the character.

Finally, I think that we where a little surprised on how it played out. I think we anticipated the "gamey" aspects of the game to be more noticable and up front, but on the contrary, the game felt more roleplaying-y than we thought it would

Interesting, I guess that we will come back to that more in part III of this interview. For now, thanks for your answers. We'll see each other again for part II of this interview, which looks at your experiences in preparing a game for DnD4.

Cantrips - A charming detail with 4th ed wizards

Today I made a number of characters for 4th ed to get a better grasp of the system. When I got to making a wizard, I saw it: Cantrips!

It's nothing spectacular, and definately nothing new, but that doesn't matter. This is what makes a wizard a wizard. Not blasting fireballs or bolts of lightning. It's the small things. Like magically pouring himself a glas of wine, or lighting the candles on the table with just a wave of his hand.

These things are worthless in combat, but golden for roleplaying situations.

Komran, Human Paladin for DnD4

Here's another character. This time I opted for a Paladin. Since I wanted him to be a competent warrior I focused a bit on the physical stats. This meant that I had to sacrifice either Wisdom or Charisma. This time, I went for a charismatic but maybe not to bright paladin. Later on, when choosing powers, that was rather limiting, since many powers used wisdom-modifier in one way or the other.



Komran, Human paladin of Pelor

Str 16 (+3); Dex 12 (+1); Con 14 (+2); Int 10 (0); Wiz 11 (0); Cha 15 (+2)
Hit Points 29; Bloodied 14; Healing Surge 7; Healing surges / day 12

AC 19; Fortitude 15; Reflex 13; Will 14
Size: Medium Alignment: Good Vision: Normal Speed: 5
Initiative +1
Languages: Common, Draconic

Armor: Plate armor (+8, -2 to physical skill checks), light shield (+1)

Class Feats
Channel Divinity , Divine Challenge (At-will, minor, close burst 5 one creature, mark target)
Lay on hands (At-will, 1/day, minor, touch, spend healing surge to let ally regain points)

Feats
Healing Hands (+2 to lay on hands), Blade opportunist (+2 to OA w. heavy or light blade)

Skills
Religion (+5), Diplomacy (+7), Insight (+5), Heal (+5), Endurance (+7)
Passive insight 15, Passive perception 10

Basic attack
Longsword (+6, damage 1d8+3)

At-will powers
Enfeebling Strike (Std, Melee, one creature, +5 vs AC, 1D8+2, if target marked gets -2 to attack for 1 round)
Valiant Strike (Std, Melee, one creature, +6+1/adj. nmy vs. AC, 1D8+3)
Holy Strike( Std, Melee, one creature +6 vs. AC, 1D8+3 radiant, if target marked +wiz dam)

Encounter powers
Radiant smite (std, Melee, one creature, +6 vs. AC, 2D8+3)

Daily powers
Paladins Judgement (std, Melee, one creature, +6 vs. AC, 3D8 +3, one ally within 5 sq. spend healing surge)

Zirath - Dragonborn Warlord for DnD4

So, after reading through the DnD-books, I decided to build myself a Warlord (something I've mentioned in some of my previous posts). For my race, I choose Dragonborn, since that's something I've (obviously) never played, and I wanted to see what they where about.

From what I can judge, he is a decent warrior, able to attack and deal out fair amount of damage himself. I guess that against a Fighter he will having some serious problem. However, already at 1st lvl he can give his allies increased maneuverability, speed and endurance. He has a couple of ways to make his allies fight just a little longer with some extra hit points.

Zirath, Dragonborn Warlord

Str 18 (+4); Dex 12 (+1); Con 13 (+1); Int 10 (0); Wiz 11 (0); Cha 16 (+3)
Hit Points 25; Bloodied 12; Healing Surge 7; Healing surges / day 8

AC 16; Fortitude 15; Reflex 11; Will 14
Size: Medium Vision: Normal Speed: 5
Initiative +3

Armor: Heavy Chainmail (+6 armor, -1 speed)

Class Feats
Combat Leader (+2 init within 10 sq), Inspiring Presence (ally spends act.pt heals 3 and is allowed to roll saves),
Inspiring Word (Encounter x2, Minor, close burst 5, one ally incl self, target can spend healing surge and regains additional 1d6 hit points)

Racial Traits
Dragonborn Fury, Draconic Heritage,
Dragn breath (Encounter, Fire, Minor action, blast 3, +6 vs. Refl, 1D6+1 dam)

Feats
Inspired recovery

Skills
Endurance (+6), Heal (+5), History (+7), Intimidiate (+10)
Passive insight 10, Passive perception 10

Basic attack
Flail (+6, damage 1d10+4)

At-will powers
Wolf Pack Tactics (Std, Melee, one creature, before attack one ally may shift, +6 vs AC, 1D10+4)
Vipers Strike (Std, Melee, one creature, +6 vs. AC, 1D10+4, If target shifts provokes OA from ally)

Encounter powers
Leaf of the Wind (std, Melee, one creature, +6 vs. AC, 2D10+4, Target and you or ally swaps places)

Daily powers
Bastion of Defence (std, Melee, one creature, +6 vs. AC, 3D10 +4, hit: all allies within 5 sq gets +1 to all defences to end of encounter, effect: allies get temp hit points of +8)

DnD4 Countdown 0 - It's here and I've got it

So, it's finally here!

After a visit to my gaming store, I got home with the three books (and a 16 minis and a voucher for a dm screen and some character sheets).

So, after a quick look through it, what are my first impressions?

• The books doesn't look as good as the 3.5 did. I'm sorry, but I don't like the new design. It's a bit to plastic. Oh yeah.. the new D20-logo? Sorry, it's pure ugly.
  
• The interior, on the other hand is very nice. Perhaps not winning any design awards, but definately good looking.
• Another aspect of the design is readability and overview. In this area, the game shines. On the hour long trip on the train I flipped through it, and many concepts where easy to grasp and very clearly described. Chapters and pages are very nicely layd out, with accesibility and readability as high priorities.
• The sections for each class are big. All powers (at-will, encounter and daily) are described in this part. I'm not sure it's good or bad, but it feels strange after being used to class-sections no longer than 1 or 2 pages.
• My guess about the warlord seems to hold true. It's definately a class I will be playing soon. Perhaps with a dragonbord, that seems like an interesting class (which is interesting since I never considered that race before getting the books.

So, time to create a couple of characters and go out and play.