Being a big Eberron fan, and even a big artificer fan, I couldn't resist the opportunity to try out Dragon Magazine's recent writeup of this class.

Before reading this article I was very curious how they could make the artificer work when the artificer seemed so entirely based in the rules of the vancian magic system and the magic item creation rules from the previous system.

After reading the article, my first response was: Wow! This is what artificers should have been before. Casting the Artificer in the Leader(controller) role(subrole) was a stroke of genius. The list of powers was interesting and compelling; even though only one build was presented, I found myself wanting to play through the artificer class a couple of times because of how good the power choices are. (This is something you won't hear me say about the fighter for instance)

In spite of being very impressed, I know that, to borrow a cliche, the proof is in the pudding, or in this case in the playing. After begging and pleading my GM allowed me to swap my elven cleric for a dwarven artificer. (it was only the second session so there wasn't much in the way of retcon) I had to promise that my healing capacity wouldn't go down, and that I wouldn't let down the party by switching away from the cleric. At the end of that session, everyone knew that the artificer could toe the line in the healing department.

The first session did give me some concerns however. My primary concern was that no one who played a artificer would ever want to play a cleric again. (or a warlord for that matter) This suggest that the character is a little overpowered. One of the two at will powers for the artificer allows the artificer to boost an ally's AC, damage the enemy, and push the enemy 1 square. This is essentially two at will powers (though the damage is a bit on the low side) Priest Shield (cleric) and tide of iron(fighter) except it's available at range. The balancing factor for this blending of powers is that it can only be used on an ally (targeting an adjacent enemy for the damage and the push) This makes sense in theory, but in practice I've never lacked enemies adjacent to allies. During the session in question we had two combat encounters, one against a solo and one against 4 normal goblins and 20 or so minions. In both of these encounters I could have used this power all but two rounds, and I suspect that this will be about par for the course.

Next Post, Caustic Bulwark

Forgefly

On a new adventure, especially starting a new edition, it seemed especially appropriate to show off some of the features of the new system. Thus it was that I settled on getting started with a skill challenge. This skill challenge is a level 1 Complexity 5 which takes place as the characters orient themselves with the town.

The festival which takes place in two days time is the major festival/holy day of the year for this town. It also marks the beginning and end of the year for apprentices. This particular year is important to our characters because it represents the end of their apprenticeships and the beginning of their adult lives as full members of the community. It is a matter of tradition that the "graduating" class of apprentices to have a prefestival party which in spite of being a tradition must be organized and brought together covertly. The player characters have to beg, borrow or steal all the supplies for the party, and transport them to the site which has been chosen by the other apprentices (ok decided by me), all without alerting the village elders to their plans.

The primary skills for this challenge are bluff, thievery, and diplomacy. Secondary skills include: History, Insight, Perception, Intimidation, and more. My goal since this is the first skill challenge of the campaign, (and for some of the players the first ever) is to encourage the creative application of skills through storytelling opportunities. I am also hopeful that aiding each other through related skills will happen. As part of this goal, I will keep the DCs in the 15-20 range which from p42 is easy to moderate for 1st level characters

As an example of how this might play out: PC1 has a barrel of ale and needs to get it into a holding area, because no one has gotten a boat yet. PC2, who doesn't have any of the primary skills trained, instead uses perception to help him find such a spot, or could use perception to be a look out, could intimidate a younger apprentice to look the other way. PC2 could also use Nature to build a blind just outside of town, or even athletics or acrobatics to get the barrel moving quickly, provided PC2 comes up with a reason that that would help.

Success for this skill challenge results in an XP reward and the use of NPC helpers, in the form of fellow apprentices during the hunt for the mayor's daughter. Failure depends on how much the PCs have accomplished before failure happens. Minor failure reduces the Xp and eliminates the helpers, major failure is no Xp reward and the helpers are now active enemies who will try and trip up the characters through the hunt and everywhere else they can.

Total success might also bring about a conversation with the Mayor's Daughter which will reveal some unsettling dreams which are an important clue to solving the hunt.

Forgefly

Just after the WotC preview book, Worlds and Monsters reached my hot little hands, I began to plan out my 4e campaign. I was thrilled with the new options offered by the Feywild and the Shadowfell, but more especially the Feywild. For reasons clear only to my muse, I felt the perfect place to set this game is in a fantasy realm which topographically matches the San Francisco Bay Area, a place I have never been to visit. In fact my geography of California is terrible, but nonetheless, I felt I must explore this new edition in San Francisco.

I had little to no idea what I wanted the overall campaign to focus on, but I knew pretty well what I wanted the first adventure to be. The characters would storm Alcatraz in order to find the Mayor's daughter who, as a friend of the characters, was last seen with them. In order to place some additional urgency the Mayor's Daughter is scheduled to undergo ordination into the church of <insert deity here> at a once a year festival/holy day which gives the characters 24 hours to find out what happened to her and to get her back.

This idea has evolved some, and is shaping up to be the prologue of a story about trust and betrayal, eventually leading the characters into the Feywild to confront their enemy, only to be attacked by Fomorian forces from the Feydark, during the final confrontation (about lvl 10) thereby leading us into the Paragon level.

In spite of what I feel is an amazing adventure/campaign (though as my own idea I accept I might be biased) I can't actually play it.
I play in 3 face to face games, (and although my players may currently deny it DM a PbP) which take up all of my available gaming time (and then some); so I can't add another game. I can't replace one of these games because they have either started very recently or are too fun to push aside without satisfactory conclusion.

Since I can't play it, I thought I might blog about it. Ideas for encounters, tactically interesting encounter areas, some of the skill challenges, outlines for a few of the mysteries, etc.

As I believe myself to be the only reader it is more an exercise in creativity, but if you happen upon this by accident, feel free to give some constructive criticism or pats on the back.

Forgefly