Updated At the Mines of Madness Adventure

For some reason, blogger kept timing out after my last post, so I had to delete it. Again, you can download the pdf and associated stat blocks for At the Mines of Madness here. It’s been reformatted and updated from the original. I couldn’t get it to properly format with the monster stat blocks and maps in the document file, so just put them in folders to make them a bit easier to manage. Lemme know what you like about it, what you hate about it, and if the idea of an aberrant-centric adventure path holds any appeal.

Assassin: Executioner

The finalized, non-accidental executioner class is available for download. Having read over the class for like the third time I think, my original opinion still stands: I like it a lot more than the shadow-only assassin. This is based on the fact that when I compare them side by side, the executioner just feels like more of an assassin. This is partially due to the fact that the assassin has plenty of specialized attacks that let them roll out an assload of damage–assassin’s strike and attack finesse for starters–but also because the executioner regularly utilizes poisons, something I have yet to see any of my players do in any edition of D&D.

Having seen the assassin in play up to 6th-level in a Scales of War campaign, I can say that it’s mechanically sound, but conceptually I have a hard time working something together in a satisfactory manner. Shrouds aren’t well explained, and the class seems to focus on utilizing shadows to tear, stab, and poison your opponents. Also, the idea of trading part of your soul for “shadow-power” seems better suited for something like a necromancer or warlock, while the assassin as written makes me think more of Pride.

Really, I don’t want to reiterate most of what I’d said in the past (which is what I’d be doing if I tried to go into detail again). Most of the class features and powers were very similar to the playtest versions, with some formatting and balance tweaks here and there. I found the accompanying Design & Development article to be an interesting read, as you get to see why R&D did what they did with the dual-power sources, assassin’s strike, poisons, situational at-will attacks, etc. Whether you’re pleased or pissed at the direction they went, it might inform you about their reasons for doing so.

It just sucks that they didn’t update Character Builder with the executioner, yet. >_>

Dragon: The Aberrant Souls

I’d recently had to shelve an aberrant-heavy campaign due to one of the players quitting, complete with the potential for characters to become corrupted and mutated by exposure to energies from Xoriant. So when I read articles like this it feels like fate is mocking me, because it is both a good article–amidst a dearth of subpar releases–and ideal for my unfortunately expired campaign. It’s mostly about taking primal characters and adding a dash of Lovecraft, with the first four pages going over how your character might first come into contact with the Far Realm, how society handles it, an organization called the Morphic Web, and how the corruption manifests itself.

The how/why section isn’t very long, providing only four generic examples, while society’s reactions are divided into two extremes, summed up as they either like you or hate you. The last paragraph assumes that regardless as to whether you’re loved or hated, you’ll probably just become an adventure and gain a series of increasingly powerful abilities that’ll let you save the world anyway. The Morphic Web was interesting, a group of aberrant souls that try and keep in communication, watching each other to see who is about to crack, but I found the sample dialogue to be weak. If nothing else, it will provide a character with plenty of potential adventure hooks and NPCs. There’s no cost to join, so its something you’ll need to ask your DM about.

There’s a background associated with a bit of Morphic Web story: someone went crazy 20ish years ago and massacred most of his tribe in the process of giving free hand-me-outs. It gives bonuses to Dungeoneering and Insight, or you can pick up Deep Speech. As an added option it also pitches you several personal quest ideas (which I heartily approve of)

The last bit on Far Realm corruption asks how it manifests itself, which has a sidebar on the same page that suggests 10 different mutations you can roll of choose from, such as tentacles for hair, eyestalks, or mouths in your hands, with the option of rolling a new one each level that replaces the existing one…or adds to the mess. The corruption is more than skin-deep, however, and the article provides a few examples for role-playing mental degradation due to visions and dreams from your aberrant totem. These provide another method for the DM to feed you information, with a sidebar recommending you to not overdo it.

The mostly-flavor part of the article wraps up with a new 13th-level Divination ritual that lets you pick an aberrant creature when you master it, and spend healing surges to make Dungeoneering checks to ask it questions. You can spend more healing surges to contact a different creature if the one you talked to doesn’t know the answers you want. The good thing is that members of the Morphic Web can master this ritual without having Ritual Caster.

Last but not least, paragon paths. There are four, with two tied to class features, and the other two specific classes. Most are primal, but one also allows monks and rangers. You can multiclass or hybrid to meet the prereqs, so there’s some flexibility.

Formless predator requires wild shape, and is associated with the chaos beast. 

• 11th-level grants you a damage bonus after using wild shape for the first time in battle, can choose to take on the form of an aberrant beast instead of a natural one, can end an effect and shift when you burn an action point. You also get undulating pseudopod, which lets you shift and make an attack that deals some hefty damage with a daze kicker.
• 12th-level lets you end a polymorph or petrification effect and gain some temporary hit points, all without spending an action.
• 16th-level lets you apply the Beast Form keyword to any one of your 1st-level attacks.
• Finally, at 20th-level you can make a melee attack that deals a lot of damage, blinds the target, and deals ongoing damage that scales up with each failed save.

Herald of madness is for barbarians, monks, and rangers, and is associated with the gibbering mouther.

• 11th-level causes creatures to take psychic damage whenever they attack your Will, force creatures you hit with action points to attack another creature of your choice, and allow allies to reroll failed saves by taking some psychic damage.
• The 11th-level attack deals weapon-based damage, and also causes the target and adjacent enemies to provoke opportunity attacks from you even when shifting or teleporting.
• At 12th-level you gain a stance that causes enemies to deal half damage between you and any other enemy adjacent to them.
• The 20th-level attack, babbling rage, deals a shitload of weapon-damage and causes all adjacent enemies to grantt combat advantage to you.

The ocular adept was from 3rd Edition, though I can’t recall from which book. Unfortunately, its for hunters and seekers instead of wizards (if I recall correctly). I’d be tempted to playing a multiclassed character just to get it. As the name implies, its associated with the beholder.

• 11th-level lets you transform your weapon into a “spiriteye”, which is basically the same thing as whatever weapon you’re using, except it doesn’t require any ammo or actions to load it (if any). You can burn action points when using it in order to make an extra attack that targets another creature, but it has to be a ranged basic attack.
• Also, the 11th-level encounter attack requires the spiriteye, which deals weapon-damage, has a variable kicker, and lets you fly 6 squares by using a move action.
• 12th-level causes you to grow a couple eyestalks, allowing you to fly for a turn and prevent combat advantage from flanking.
• 16th-level lets you use your spiriteye without even using your hands, and when you make ranged basic attacks you don’t draw opportunity attacks.
• 20th-level is a Stance power that lets you make one ranged basic attack as a minor action and you can shift if the attack hits.

Last but not least is the phrenic master, which requires call spirit companion and is associated with the mind flayer.

• 11th-level is really nice: any enemy that kills your spirit companion is dazed for a turn, and attacks you make using an action point take both a -2 penalty on any saves and grant combat advantage for a turn.
• The 11th-level attack power is like a poor man’s mind blast, dealing paltry damage with a daze kicker. It also has a slide effect, and your spirit companion can use it if you want.
• Speaking of your spirit companion, the 12th-level utility lets you force your spirit companion to take a hit for you.
• The 16th-level class feature is sweet: your spirit companion can use any of your ranged or area-effect attacks, and if its not next to any enemies you don’t take opportunity attacks.
• The 20th-level daily lets you dominated a target (or daze on a miss), and if the target is next to your companion when you turn starts, you can slide both the target and your companion 4 squares until they shake off the domination/daze effect.

I really enjoyed this article. It would have been great quite awhile back during my primal campaign, and if I revive it I’m going to make sure my players are aware of this article. I’m not sure what the intended audience for it, however, since its not for purely primal characters, nor is it for psychic characters. If you want to play a primal character that becomes corrupted by the Far Realm, then it will be a nice fit. Mostly, I think it’s best for a DM who is trying to pitch a particular kind of story (Far Realm invasion).

Interactive Gamma World Character Sheet

Though Gamma World lacks its own Character Builder, you can make a character online via this interactive character sheet–with no subscription required. You can randomly generate everything about the character that you’d expect, though there are drop-down menus if you want to choose your options manually. The only glitch I noticed was that the first time messing with it, the origin fields went blank, though they still showed up in the Traits section.

The Awakened Psion

To my recollection, this is the second Unearthed Arcana article that’s been posted, which is a way for Dragon writers to pitch various houserules. Despite being in the magazine, they aren’t “official”, and as such cannot be used in RPGA events, nor will they be included in Character Builder. If you want to use them, you’re instructed to take it up with your DM.

This time we get psychic support, giving psionic characters the option to “delve” into a target’s mind as they make an attack. Delving can only be used with disciplines that target Will, and you must declare that you are doing so before the roll. If you hit, the discipline has all the normal effects, but also gives you an additional benefit that you can change each time. They range from being able to see what the target can, to the most likely actions that the target is going to take, to getting bits of information for the targets mind. You can also opt to perform “dangerous delving”, which nets you better benefits–gaining bonus damage, imposing an attack penalty, or preventing shifting–but at greater risk.

Since delving doesn’t cost a feat or power selection, it comes at a cost. When you delve and roll a natural 1 or 20, or get an odd number on a dangerous delve, you suffer from mental contamination and have to roll on a table of consequences. You might just be slightly dizzy and suffer no other ill effects, or be dazed and allow the target to see through your eyes, or (in the worst case scenario) have some of your own memories overwritten by the target’s in addition to briefly sharing the target’s goals, forfeiting control of your character to the DM for a turn (but the overwritten memories are permanent).

These acquired memories and personality traits lead to what is called dissonance, which causes you to take an assload of psychic damage whenever you act in accordance to a memory that you lost or against a personality trait that you’ve gained. To make matters worse they are cumulative, so if you end up acting against two or more memories and/or traits you’d take twice as much damage. This leads to the likely outcome that delve-abusers explode at some point when pause to consider menu items.

It’s good for players that like psionic characters and gambling their character’s sanity, but not so mkuch for players that get attached to characters or groups that constantly have long-term campaigns.

Dragon: To Live Defeated

Virtually every combat scenario–and more than a few non-combat ones–traditionally ends when the heroes having beaten all the hit points out of their foes. Sometimes the players don’t want to kill an opponent for one reason or other: it might be a guard just “doing his job”, an innocent citizen acting under misinformation (or magical compulsion), or someone that they need information from but won’t give it up without a fight. In past editions you’d have to taken a penalty for your troubles, but 4th Edition edition makes it as easy as declaring that you want to deal nonlethal damage.

This article provides you with some guidelines on dealing with opponents that you don’t want to technically kill, though I have to say many of those are actually worse than death: a few let you do some mundane harm, such as crippling or blinding them. In a world where missing limbs can be regenerated, doesn’t sound so bad. However, one lets you teleport them into a volcano, where they are continuously burned and heal for theoretically eternity. Others tread the middle ground, such as petrification, memory wipe, removal of any ability to communicate, or transforming them into a harmless animal.

The author makes it a point to restrict some of these methods for players with suitable powers and degrees of power, so don’t expect fighters to turn defeated foes into toilets, or even low-level wizards to wipe all mention of the villain from history. Generally when my players decide to spare a villain, servant, or minion, they just kind of run him off or bring him to the authorities. On one occasion, they beat up some guards and then paid the other one to “take a week off”. This article, if nothing else, should provide some inspiration to help players come up with more…”creative” methods.

A New Age

One of the players in my Tuesday group decided to hang up his dice due to burn out. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking for another player before I start running Age of Worms, converted to 4th Edition. I had quite a few adventures written up for my current campaign, and so before I stow them I wanted to know if anyone was interested in the adventures that I had written for the campaign.

Dragon & Dungeon Magazines For Sale

I’ve got a massive library of Dragon and Dungeon magazines that I’m looking to sell in order to make room on one of my bookshelves before I just donate them to one of my local game stores.

Dragon: Issues 99, 101, 102, 274-277, 283-359 (For the 3rd Edition magazines, I’m missing 278-282). They are all in very good condition, with the exception of the early 270’s, which have some spine damage. I also have the 2001 annual issue, Monster Ecologies, The Art of Dragon Magazine, and Dragon Compendium I.

Dungeon: 103, 109, 110, 119, and 121-150 (the entire run of Age of Worms and Savage Tide adventure paths).

The asking price is between 50 cents and $2 per magazine issue, depending on the condition. If you want to buy all of Dragon magazines, I’d pawn them all for $75. For Dungeon, I’d go $30 since they’re all in great condition. For all the magazines, I’d charge $90. The hardcovers would be $10 each.

Mark of Nerath Review

I’d sworn that I’d posted a review of Mark of Nerath, but then I realized that I’d used it as an example of a terrible product in my Business class. When it comes to buying Dungeons & Dragons novels I’m always hesitant unless they’re written by Don Bassingthwaite (whose name I can spell without looking), as like Jim Butcher and Aeryn Rudel, he’s built up a reputation for quality. I’ve never read fiction by Bill Slavicsek, and at the time there weren’t any reviews up on Amazon, so I figured what the hell, I’ll take a gamble.

Thankfully it’s been four months since I last read the book, so I can’t recall many of the exact details. What I do recall is that the book opens up with a group of stock characters chasing a dragon because its been eating farmers or something. Suffice to say, most of them get killed and the survivors decide to keep at it despite the fact that their party is three and a half men short. But that’s not all, the story cuts between an eladrin wizard also trying to avenge his master who was murdered by something that was never revealed, and a lich who made a deal with Orcus that would get him out of the Shadowfell. Oh, and a human chosen one cleric from some village that I guess is of noble blood that I think the lich was trying to kill.

All told, there was over ten characters, and I couldn’t tell which–if any–was the main one, as they all got a fairly equal measure of screen time. Because of this, none every saw any real development, but Bill does make it a point to shove character quirks and traits down throat all the time (though to be fair, perhaps between all the characters Bill thought you’d forget who was who).

For example, after the eladrin’s mentor is killed, he teams up with a dragonborn and tiefling that are there…because. He takes his master’s familiar along, a pseudodragon, who spends all of her time reminding the eladrin just how incompetent he is. She wasn’t cute, or funny, just an asshole. It’d be like if you were trying to learn to something, and a friend just kept parroting how bad you were at it instead of offering actual, constructive criticism.

The lich also tours around the world with his right-hand man, a death knight (I think). You’d think that being in the position that he’s in, that he must have demonstrated some modicum of skill, right? Well the lich does the same thing that the pseudodragon does: he constantly berates the death knight for being useless. Then when he gets ahold of an iron golem, starts telling the death knight to his face how much better the golem is. Oddly, the death knight does his job and keeps him safe from harm, so…why?

The writing is just bad. I mean, wow. Here’s the second sentence: The dwarf palain Cliffside, strong and confident, strode a few paces back, an axe in his strong right hand. That was really all it took for me to know that this was going to be a terrible book, but I kept at it in the vain hope that it would get better. To put it nicely, the dialogue is cheesy, the fare that players at a gaming table use because they know its cheesy. Here’s something that the halfling rogue says on page 2: ‘Lucky for you I spotted it on the path back there.  I do have excellent perception, you know.”

Who the hell talks like that?

I cannot recommend this book, even for hardcore D&D fans. The characters are lifeless, the story is fractured, and the dialogue is choppy (to say the least). The only saving grace is that Wayne Reynolds did the cover, which looks pretty awesome. If you’re a collector, I guess you could get it, but don’t bother trying to read it. I really tried to finish it, getting through about two-thirds of it before I couldn’t take it anymore. I’d give this book a 1 out of 10.

More from the Virtual Table

As part of a side-project, I copied the level 2 delve “The Broken Tower” from Dungeon Delve. Here’s what I got:

I might have mentioned before that there aren’t a lot of tokens to use, so I had to use the orc and hobgoblin to represent a bugbear and goblin underboss. The tile library also didn’t have the 1×1 gong, a 2×1 broken alter (or even an alter, for that matter), or a 2×2 throne. Thankfully, you can draw that stuff in, though you get a very small assortment of colors to choose from. Again, this is Beta.

Here’s a zoomed in shot of the second floor, with the visibility mask removed:

You can place hidden notes for yourself, as well as public notes for all the players to see. I generally use public notes for “Features of the Area”, and to call out certain objects so they know what it is (in the case that I have to draw them in). Private notes let me easily reference what an object does, or a skill DC. You can also make monsters and entire sections invisible to the players. This is good for monsters using Stealth, or letting you gradually reveal the dungeon as they explore the area.

My major complaints are lack of ability to import monsters and characters from the compendium. Though I think I’m starting to figure out what format works the best, it’s a pain in the ass if someone else makes and adventure and writes things up differently. Also, the whole keying it all in by hand is a nuisance in general.