GenCon 2011 Summary

Here is some stuff that I managed to cull from forums that have been heard at GenCon that was not already dropped elsewhere:

Dragon Content

• September and October: Oriental-flavored articles. Specifics mentioned were oriental themes, a ninja-assassin and kanji runepriest build, and an optional honor system in Unearthed Arcana.
• November and December: Support for Heroes of the Feywild. Specifics were fey themes, an article on the Moonshaes, an adventure with Baba Yaga’s dancing hut, and an Unearthed Arcana article on arcane duels.
• January and February: More Forgotten Realms stuff, such as Cormyr, Channel Divinity articles on Forgotten Realms deities, elemental themes, and monsters from Fiend Folio.

Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium

• Older items are supposed to be tagged as per the rarity system.
• No new rituals.

Madness at Gardmore Abbey

• Many encounters are purported to have non-combat options, and it is supposed to have sandbox elements. It was also mentioned that they are moving away from linear adventures. 

Heroes of the Feywild

• Wandering skald, an Essentials-style bard build.
• New druid build.
• Barbarian build that is both a defender and a striker; you start out in defender mode, but when you rage transition to striker.
• Character themes mentioned were agent of the unseelie fey and fey lord, the latter of which gives you a permanent companion character.
• Races mention were dryad, satyr, and pixie (which can fly at 1st-level).
• Supported with D&D Encounters season Beyond the Crystal Cave (supposed to have lots of social roleplaying) and Fortune Card set Fury of the Feywild.

Power of the Plane Below

• Essentials sorcerer build.
• Shaiir build.
• Supported by D&D Encounters season Elder Elemental Eye (focus on exploration) and Fortune Card set Spiral of Tharizdun.

Miscellaneous

• September’s Lair Assault is called Forge of the Dawn Titan. The DM will have a menu of monsters to choose from, and it is supposed to be highly adversarial. The next adventure is pirate themed, and in the third you defend and island from dinosaurs.
• Lords of Waterdeep boardgame in March, which will involve sending adventurers on quests to try and rule the city.
• New Dungeon Tiles sets: Shadowgast Manor (haunted house theme) and Cathedral of Chaos (with diagonal corridors).
• A new map pack product was announced, and will be priced the same as Dungeon Tiles.
• Book of Vile Darkness is supposed to “allow” for evil campaigns, but not be as “bad” as the 3rd Edition one.
• In April there will be an Undermountain dungeon crawl adventure with 80 encounter areas, a dungeon generator, plot hooks, and a big-ass poster map.
• The seeker was mentioned as not being played very much at all, so they are thinking of changing it up to make it better. 
• Pdf book releases are being considered (working on pricing).
• Eberron themes planned.
• Themed minis sets will be announced next year, along with a minis boardgame that uses them.

Heroes of Shadow RPG.net Compilation

It’s not much, but I sorted through the (currently) seven-page thread on RPG.net.


RACES
Revenant is a reprint sans all the feats. Other races have zero feat support. Boo.


CLASSES
Assassin (Executioner)
As was confirmed awhile ago, it is the Essentials version. Good.

Paladin (Blackguard)
Apparently, these guys are pretty durable strikers, with paladin armor proficiencies and healing surges. On the downside, their striker damage only kicks in when they have combat advantage, and is also ability score-based. However, their vices give you ways to deal some extra damage, so it may not be as bad as it seems.


Vampire
Apparently, you only really get to pick feats, ability scores, and utility powers. The two paragon paths let you choose to be more “Lestat (beguiler)” or “Nosferatu (stalker)”; everything else is static. All the powers have the Implement keyword, and vampires get both ki focus and holy symbols. Their Dex-based melee basic attack has a push 1 effect, and there’s an at-will attack for each Non-AC Defense. Highly mobile, can shapeshift, climb walls, etc. Lot of stuff we already knew.

Warlock (Binder, Star Pact, and Gloom Pact)
Controller subclass of the warlock. Lots of powers flavored as summons, and it gets a 9th-level summon (same as the hexblade). Appears to have single target, high damage control.
The gloom pact involves making a bargain with a Shadowfell creature, and grants “lots of cold and necrotic damgae”, as well as allowing you to summon dark creepers and sorrowsworn.
The star pact gains more tentacle-themed powers, including a 1st-level encounter zone.

Warpriest (Death Domain)
People who were looking for a necromancer with a leader role will purportedly be pretty happy with this. One of the abilities allows you to use healing word as an Immediate Reaction after killing a target. At 10th-level, you automatically kill minions adjacent to you.

• Servitude of Death (level 5): A single target, ranged attack that brings the target back as an undead minion that is dominated by you after it dies. It’s a little worse for wear (-2 to all defenses), but otherwise this is a pretty rad power.
• Blackened Soul (level 2 daily): You allow a dying ally to burn two healing surges, and they gain a power bonus to attack and damage rolls (but also grant combat advantage) until they are healed to full.

FEATS
Holy Symbol Expertise: Scaling bonus to attack rolls, and enemies you hit cannot gain combat advantage against you, unless you use a power that causes you to grant combat advantage.
Ki Focus Expertise: Scaling bonus to hit, with a scaling bonus to damage against bloodied enemies.