The Heirs of Ruin Play Report 3

This was a pretty short session as Randy and Beth arrived a bit later than usual due to work, and we had to introduce a new player. Most of the session was devoted to the initial party discovering that they were being followed by an assassin-lead squad of soldiers, “dealing” with them, and learning that the assassin did not really want to be in the business anymore.

So, hey, free striker.

Once the dialogue wrapped up they continued skulking about the sewers looking for a way out, soon stumbling upon a large pile of bones that animated and tried to kill them. The fight was not terribly difficult on paper; some skeleton minions, dwarf skeletons, and an eladrin skeleton that still knew how to use wind magic. All in all the fight had a XP budget of 600 I think. However, one of the eladrin skeleton’s powers–blinding wind–did a hefty amount of damage along with a blind kicker, but only recharged on a six. The problem? I rolled that six, in front of my players, three times in a row.

The pile of bones was intended to be a major terrain feature, being difficult terrain and causing creatures to fall over if they got subjected to forced movement and failed an Acrobatics check, but because the skeleton kept blinding everyone never really had a chance to use its other spells that could knock them about. So…oh well. After smashing all the skeletons, the ghost of a dwarf manifested over the bones, but it was getting late so we decided to leave it at a cliffhanger.

Anywho, here are some pics of the game table, since I kept saying that I would take some and forgetting:

Homebrew: Seeker Evocations

I wrote up some seeker evocations with a desert theme in mind for those that read this blog and actually use third-party/homebrew material. It is a hard class to write for because the concept seems kind of un-refined; you throw axes or shoot arrows, and spirits pop out to beat shit up. That much is made clear in Player’s Handbook 3, though some of their powers let them knock critters into the feywild, grow quills, and ignore difficult terrain because the “land recognizes you and your allies as friends”. It really makes it difficult to put some boundaries on what sort of things a seeker should be doing, as well as how to explain it.

Monster Updates And Evard’s Shadow

Aside from monster updates for the chuul, grell, and gibbering beast the only other interesting thing this week was the follow up adventure for Dark Legacy of Evard, Evard’s Shadow. Yeah, they did an update for the warlock but most of that was to include the new zone rules and make some of the star pact spells affected by either Charisma or Constitution, something that players have been bitching about for years (even after the warlock article that included a bunch of new spells for Charisma or Constitution, I forget which).


Monster Updates
Starting with the monsters–because I do like monsters so, especially aberrants–I am going to do a side-by-side comparison for mechanics to see what has changed, aside from the stat block layout.

• Chuul: AC gets dropped by one point, Fort by 3. Attack bonus on claw is dropped by two points, but damage goes up by a d6. Double attack gets a one-point attack reduction. Basic damage boosting.
• Chuul Juggernaut: Reflex and Will are increased by two points. Claw has its attack bonus knocked down a few pegs, but gains a d8 damage boost (or +7 bonus damage boost against immobilized targets). This is not nearly as brutal as psychic lure, which in exchange for a reduced attack bonus has its damage bonus increased by 17 points. Seventeen. Holy shit. Oh, and it can now affect one or two creatures. Oh, and the secondary attack on double attack gets a three point attack reduction, but oh well.
• Gibbering Mouther: Defenses have gone up by 1-4 points, attack bonus on gibbering  was improved by one, damage all around was increased by a d6, but the ongoing damage was halved. So it is harder to hit and hits harder initially. The ongoing damage reduction makes me think that the overall damage is reduced (average of a d6 is 3.5 and the ongoing damage was dropped by 5), but since I am not sure how many powers allow immediate saves or saves out of turn, this could actually be in the gibbering mouther’s favor.
• Gibbering Abomination: The aura is subtly altered to impose an attack penalty while you are in it, as opposed to if you start in it. Otherwise attack bonuses and damage dice are increased by one across the board, though attacks also benefit by an increase in bonus damage from 5-6 points (so, kind of like having another 1-2 dice lumped on).
• Gibbering Orb: Hit points see a major reduction of around the 250 mark, though Fort gains a hefty boost of 5 points. Bite is increased by 2d6, and while each eye ray loses one point of bonus damage, they all either get an extra d8 lumped on or (in the case of souleating ray) deal damage in addition to the previous effect. Oh, and gibbering gains an extra point on its attack bonus. Definitely keeping with the theme of reducing hit points while ramping up the damage. 
• Grell: The grell’s tentacle rake loses a d8, but gains a +2 bonus. On top of that it now has double attack, allowing it to grab and slap someone using one action (a staple for Elites and Solos alike). Tentacle grab’s attack bonus loses two points (putting it where it should be) and also gains a +2 damage bonus.
• Grell Philosopher: AC gets dropped a few points, and tentacle rake and venomous mind lose a point of attack bonus. The damage on lightning lance is reduced, and thank fucking god that psychic storm now only dazes for a turn instead of requiring a save to end. I have dealt with an encounter using a few of these fuckers, and the never-ending field of auto-dazing was the bane of fun.

Other than that, each monster also gets about a page of much-desired flavor content in line with what we got in Monster Manual III and Monster Vault. Also, a fucking awesome Wayne Reynolds pick for the chuul.

Evard’s Legacy Review
Evard’s Legacy involves a band of characters delving into Evard’s bi-planar, monster-infested mansion for…whatever reason they want. Though intended as a sequel to Dark Legacy of Evard, the only thing that is really used in this adventure is the town Duponde in name (which gets a small paragraph glossing over it), and one of the NPCs, but just as part of one adventure hook. Really, if you played through Dark Legacy then it should be easy to segue characters into it, but otherwise you can get away without the module.

The start of the adventure has the characters plowing through a skill challenge and horde of zombies in order to reach the material version of the mansion, which looks like it would be a lot of fun. There is the usual undead, corrupt fey in the undead-infested garden, and some bandits obviously waiting to betray you, but the parts that excite me is the wraith–which could easily be a recurring element of every fight, given that it can phase through walls–but the social role-playing opportunities that the human element provides.

Once you shift into the Shadowfell version of the mansion, you get to draw a card from the Despair Deck (which you really should have), in addition to having to deal with dark ones (one of which is a butler), shadow traps, more undead, and denizens of shadow (which are separate from undead in that they lack the keyword) that include Evard’s own shade. He is a level 9 artillery. Good luck, and hopefully you have overcome your Despair card by then.

There are not a lot of maps in this adventure, as most of the encounters are encapsulated on the two that detail Evard’s mansion in both worlds. Yeah there will be some flipping around, but it saves a lot of space in the end. Some of the encounters look like they could be insanely hard depending on the level of your party. It is intended for a party in the 3-5 range, but the last encounter looks like it would be overkill. Definitely consider removing monsters unless the party is 5th.

In the end it could have used better art to help emphasize the theme and tone, but otherwise looks very well done. I would also recommend checking out the related Design & Development article, as it explains a few things about the new format.

Legends & Lore: Setting the Bar

Mearls contines to expound upon his concepts for a modular game system, and the more he talks about it the more I am in favor of it.

I think.

My understanding is that every class, or perhaps power source, starts at a baseline level of power. Groups that desire more complexity do so, effectively increasing their level of power. For example, fighters can add in an exploit system like 4th Edition has, while wizards get a more complicated spell system (something like rituals, perhaps).

As with all Legends & Lore columns it is a hot topic with gamers asking questions, voicing concerns, deriding the concept without knowing how it will work, and speculating if this will be a new edition entirely or just a new rules supplement.

One gamer asked about how classes will be balanced across the board. For example, if fighters get to use exploits, how will that work out for wizards, clerics, and the rest? Well, as Mearls puts it in the article, “each other class also gains access to a rules module that makes it more powerful (wizards might get more spells, clerics gain access to domain abilities, rogues could get maneuvers like fighters or a trick or stunt system).”

So for groups that went to maintain an equal degree of balance between power sources the solution would be quite simple, assuming the system works as intended, while groups that want to simulate magic being superior could feasibly get away with that by giving spellcasters more “modules”, while leaving martial characters high and dry. How does the DM deal with this varied and scaling power? By “dialing-up” the monster difficulty. Two examples given were to increase the number of monsters, or use tougher ones.

Other things of interest were using “double-feat” rules, adjusting the amount of XP required to level up or going “XP neutral”, as well as packing rules into modules with identifiers to allow you to pick and choose your rules to suit a campaign. This very much sounds like it could be done using the current edition, especially since Gamma World seems to have been very rules light experiment, though I could just as easily see them cleaning up 4th Edition for the next edition.

They do have products slated for next year, though, so who knows what is going to happen. I am kind of excited to see where this goes, and if I do not like it I have enough D&D material (and Gamma World) to last me a life time as is.

Vampire: The Classquerade

Mearls made the big reveal on Monday that the vampire class was deliberately designed, as is, to try and provide a class option that could closely emulate one or more vampire entries in the Monster Manual. This is a reasonable goal that I tried to attain with my homebrew red dragon race/class; take a critter that was never intended to be played on the players’ side of the screen, and make it functional and recognizable despite a lack of flexibility.

To me, making sure that it does what the monster is supposed to do takes priority over trying to saddle it with options that do not really make any sense, but going down the vampire’s list of racial features and powers we have regeneration, necrotic resistance, radiant vulnerability, lethal side effects from the sun, the ability to drink blood/drain life, punch the shit out of people, charm them, turn into a swarm of bats, turn into a wolf and bat, and a bunch of other stuff that sounds very vampiric in execution.

You know, all the shit that this guy does not do.

The big shocker is that after providing a race, class, feat tree (though admittedly a poor one), and a multiclassing/hybrid option, that it is still not good enough for the vocal minority.

Ironically one detractor wanted a theme, which would provide way fewer options than the class iteration (like, 3-6 in total), not to mention that themes are optional rules that players without DDI accounts would likely be introduced to via Dark Sun Campaign Setting if at all, meaning that it is possible that their total number of themes to choose from would be exactly one.

But hey, it is all right because having a theme would open up more concepts, right? I mean, what if I want to play a wizard-turned-vampire? Currently my “only” options are to play a vryloka, go with the dhampyr feats, pick up vampire multiclassing as a wizard/wizard multiclassing as a vampire, or hybrid the two. I suppose I could also try combining these options to get my vampire-to-wizard ratio close to where I want it, probably exactly where I want it.

Could use a pointy hat, but that will do.

Others still cling to the misconception that it is a “poor striker”. I did some number crunching myself, and while it is not strictly as good as an optimized rogue it comes close despite lacking vampire-specific feat support. However, it is important to note that an optimized rogue should not be the benchmark we are looking for. I have also played a vampire, and it was awesome; I did not have a problem with healing surges (not that I got hit), and did an insane amount of damage almost every round. I was able to contribute without being a liability, and felt very much like a vampire in the process.

Red Sails in the Fallout Review

My judgement might be skewed in light of having just come away from Under the Crimson Sun, but I found this heartwarming tale of two anthropomorphic female animals literally playing grab-ass across the desert–along with a swarm of insects, racist human, and carnivorous plant–to be pretty a entertaining read that plays out very much like an adventure arc might.

The characters were enjoyable (especially Shaani), the pop culture references were not too tiresome (except perhaps for Wigwig’s lolcat speak, but your mileage might vary), and the pacing flowed well up until the end, after which it felt kind of rushed; you never found out what happened to Watering Hole, but presumably they made out alright, how the Plodder’s dealt with having their wombats exploded, and for better or worse Xoota and Shaani never got past the, “playful-spanking” phase.

I found it to be a good deal better than Sooner Dead, so if you liked that I would give this a read, too. 

The Ease of Essentials

Designing a class or sub-class with pre-specified class features and/or powers, aka “Essentials-style”, is easier than one without because there are often fewer choices to make throughout your career.

For example a fighter gets to pick at least four exploits at 1st-level, one at 2nd, and so on and so forth all the way to 30th-level. The only point where new class features are gained is at levels 11, 16, 21, 24, and 30, which depends on the paragon path and epic destiny you choose. Conversely a class like the slayer chooses two at-will stances…and that is it. Your features are preset for you; +1 to attack with weapons, power strike as an encounter exploit, and you add your Dex mod to damage rolls. At levels where a fighter gets to choose utility exploits you get to as well, but a good chunk of level up will have you picking from a handful of class features or just taking what you get, like another usage of power strike.

This difference in complexity has lead some to believe that the designers at Wizards of the Coast are lazy, incompetent, pressed for time, lack the staff to properly design/playtest material, or a combination of all of the above. I think a major thing that the Essential-haters fail to realize is that there are plenty of gamers out there actually prefer these classes, or at least enjoy both, perhaps even at different times or for different game types. They seem to think that despite “everyone hating Essentials” or Essentials being a “failed product”, WotC is simply trying to shovel out subpar content (that anyone could do) because they either have no other option, or just do not give a fuck.

Thankfully Trevor piped in to clear things up by page three, stating that no Essentials was not the result of lazy design or trying to get product out the door, but to provide an alternate entry point (as they have said), and because, yeah, there are gamers that want them, even if they are veterans. He even provides clarification on the vampire; it was designed to evoke the idea of a vampire in the D&D world, something that it does very well despite the limited options and thirty levels. Does a member of the WotC staff coming forward to clarify stuff and address concerns actually help? Eh…not really, which makes it no surprise that they so rarely do so in the first place.

One poster claimed that knights or slayers could have just been fighters, but with most of the choices made for them already. In other words, a pre-generated character that you could choose stuff for if you really wanted to. I…cannot see how this would make anyone happier, as you literally would be buying shit you already paid for. I look at it that the subclasses fill a desired niche. If you want to play a slayer–which plays somewhat differently from a knight or fighter mind you–then you can. If you want more complexity, then play a fighter. Different classes for different needs.

Another poster mentioned that the mage and warpriest are very close to the class design of the original classes, which demonstrates that if the designers think that a class needs to use the original progression to evoke a concept they will, as opposed to needlessly limiting themselves. 

The Heirs of Ruin: Method Mapping

I really dislike drawing maps, so often I try to play out the events of the adventure in my head to get a feel for what might happen (as opposed to what I would like to happen), usually resigning myself to the task of mapping a day or two before game night.

The campaign started out with the players going through a few arena battles before having an ideal chance of escape when a silk wyrm starts wreaking havoc on the place. The intent is that after escaping that they go through a door leading to the mess hall, beat up the guards in there, head into the kitchen, and then use a waste disposal pit to get to the sewers.

When I was writing up the adventure, I figured that not all the guards would get eaten by the silk wyrm, instead fleeing and locking the door behind them, giving the characters extra incentive into taking the other door. The problem is that that whole thing is contingent on the characters not interfering with the guards, and not being slaughtered by a level 3 solo.

When I ran it, the wyrm eventually ran away on its own and the guards followed it, making sure to lock up the prison from the outside. The players armed themselves with loot from the dead guards, and then proceeded as planned when I had a squad of guards show up in the mess hall looking for escapees.

Ultimately it felt like that there was too much that could go wrong, and in the interest of helping things run more smoothly the next time I run (or put it online) I decided to make some hefty cuts to the previous map, making it a bit more straightforward in its purpose. I put the waste disposal in the same room, figuring that it made sense because those cells are not going to clean themselves and it gives the guards a place to go. I also put the whole structure underground, making a lift necessary to access the place. Makes sense, as slaves–as well as dangerous monsters–will now have a very hard time getting out this way.

Playtest: Wizard

Wizard playtest is up. Most of the changes entail giving encounter attacks miss effects of one kind or another, changing zone effects so that the damage occurs at the end of their turn instead of the start (and only happens once), and adding spell school keywords to spells to help mesh with mages and their school specialization class feature.

Some stuff got nerfed, in particular the blood mage paragon path, which I guess puts it at the level of “compelling choice” as opposed to “has easily abused spells”. Overall I think the changes are comparatively neutral; yeah, zones get shafted a bit, but I think they needed it. Some people are bitching that magic missile did not get reverted, and of course there is the familiar chorus that this or that did not need nerfing, and they have the numbers to prove it.

Since it is a playtest article I think I am going to actually, you know, play it and submit some feedback based on my experiences. I have a suspicion that it will be enjoyable and functional.

Under the Crimson Sun Review

I am sorry. I could not finish this book. I barely got through half of it before I had to call it quits, and by then the author had just gotten around to doing something with the abyssal plague. It was not the thri-kreen walking around on six legs, or the crodlus with carapaces; that I could deal with. No, what got me was the author spending page after page going into thorough detail of characters both main and minor, stating and re-stating details–hobbies, likes, dislikes, etc–again. And again. And AGAIN.

The most recent example was about a templar named Dhakar that did not like to go to the arena, but had to pander to one who did. He mentions that the arena was the latter templar’s favorite form of entertainment, then that he went there all the time, then reiterates that while his duties kept him away, if he was free then he was there. This is after the author spends a couple of paragraphs (at least, I might be forgetting more) writing about how much Dhakar disliked going to the arena, among many other things.

This repetition occurs constantly and feels like tedious padding. I felt like I was reading a book that was three times longer than it needed to be, about boring characters and not the abyssal plague (which apparently on Athas is incredibly slow acting). The synopsis about the abyssal plague spreading had just gotten into motion, but was about a hundred pages too late to catch my interest, especially after pages upon pages about the infected mercenary going on and on about how he was having trouble remembering things.

I am sure that shit eventually happens, but I frankly could not care less.