I have been pretty silent the past few weeks, and I have moved to LiveJournal for blogging as mentioned earlier. Still, I presume that it's more likely that someone on EN World is interested in my game stuff then someone on the random internet, so I will post links to new articles.


The main reason I am using livejournal is that I get rich text editing there - stat blocks and power descriptions are a little difficult to write with vb code and, more importantly, I can't just copy & paste them into the text editor.

So, here is you can see why this might be helpful:
http://mustrumr.livejournal.com/1442.html
http://mustrumr.livejournal.com/1742.html
http://mustrumr.livejournal.com/1881.html

The articles describe a new pact for the D&D 4 Warlock - the Demon Pact Warlock. This pact focuses on close and melee attacks. It's major shtick is transforming into a half-demonic creature with its daily powers, with some semblances to the Vestige Pact and the Barbarian Rages.
I also added a second variant "shtick" - the ability to summon demons instead of becoming one.
The article contains a lot of new Warlock powers, not all of them limited to the Demon Pact.

Have fun with reading (and using!) the Demon Pact Warlock.

And if you want to discuss it in more depth, I also posted a thread in the 4E house rules forum:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-...t-warlock.html

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For participation in the patronage project "Hall of the Mountain King" from Wolfgangs Baur Open Design, I recently joined Open Design. That it's recently is a shame, since the project is in its final phase and I basically missed all the fun. I just totally lost sight of the project due to other stuff.

Anyway, if you got an account on livejournal, you can also have a blog. After noting that livejournal has a rich text editor that allows me to copy & paste stat blocks and stuff from my notes in open office, I decided to start a blog there.
Archchancellors Thoughts

I am not sure what is to happen with this one. The neat thing with EN World is that it is closer to fellow gamers. But the presentation options aren't as great, and I think that reduces the blogs appeal - and it makes my "work" harder.

I suppose in the beginning I will use this blog to notify of updates in the livejournal, but that won't go forever.

So, head over for an Arch Chancellor Thoughts's Livejournal exclusive: A preview power of my new Warlock Pact, the Abyssal Pact!

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And now for some more Truename "action".

Feats

Bonded Item (Ceremony)
Prerequisite: Truename
You can bond with any item, like a weapon, an implement, a armor, or tool, a backpack, a tent, and so on that is not larger than a 10 foot cube.
You learn and master the Drawmmij's Instant Summons, Make Whole and Detect Object Ritual. Either Ritual works only on your bonded item and you need to spend only a fifth of the usual component cost. (You can still learn the regular ritual without this limitation on the object.)
You also learn and master the rituals of Enchant Magical Item. You can only enchant the item with enchantments appropriate for this item. If you would enchant a Wand Implement, you could create a Wand of Shield, but not a Belt of Sacrifice. If you enchant a backpack, you could enchant it as a back pack, but not as a Pact Blade. Whenever you enchant the item, you only need to spend an amount of material components equal to the difference in cost of the current enchantment and th new enchantment, but you can never reduce the enchantments worth. (Unless you have other means of doing so.)
You can use all rituals even if you do not have the Ritual Caster feat, and you treat your effective level as 5 points higher than it actually is.
Special: At Paragon Tier, you can take this feat a second time for a different item. At Epic Tier, you can take this feat a third time, for a different item.
Design Note:
The Eberron Player Guide introduces feats that allow at least an Artificer to increase his effective level for Enchant Magical Item. It should not really be a problem to let all the various benefits stack - the cost of actually creating an item at the highest possible levels is ridiculously high for the respective character, essentially unpayable. Still, if you feel uncomfortable about it or have changed your magic item economy, just don't let it stack. The goal is really just to give characters an early access to this powers and keep the payable for the specific purpose of creating bonded items that are not weaker than the type of stuff they would find from looting. (Assuming you use treasure parcels.)
A Bonded Item is special!

Truename Power (Ceremony, Paragon)
Prerequisite: Truename Magic
Pick one Encounter attack power you know that targets only one creature. This power now gains the Truename descriptor.

Truenames Revalation (Ceremony, Epic)
Prerequiste: Truename Magic
If you score a critical hit with a power with the Truename descriptor, you immediately learn the creatures truename as if you had cast the Learn Truename ritual on it.


Paragon Path
Truenamer
Prerequisite: Truename Magic
You gained a seldomly achieved mastery on the secrets of Truenames. You know that the Truename is the key to the innermost desires and wishes of every creature, and learned how to manipulate them through the Truename.
Truename Action (11th level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you can invoke the true name of one of your allies within 5 squares. That ally can either spend a move action or make a basic attack as a free action.
Strength of the True Name (11th level): You gain a +1 bonus to all attacks with powers with the Truename keyword if you know the targets true name.
Truename Power (16th level): Pick one at-will power you know. This power gains the Truename keyword.

Design Note
The Truename aspect especially of the daily powers is very strong. Some might wonder if it is too strong. Ultimately, whether the PC can acquire the Truename of a creature is effectively entirely in the hands of the Dungeon Master. The Learn Truename ritual is not available before 15th level (except as Scrolll, of course, and it already mentions that the target of the spell might become aware of what happened, and that there are counter-rituals at work - and against some creatures, it won't work at all.
That are only two mechanically "guaranteed" way to gain a Truename - via the Learn Truename Ritual is one. It is a very expensive way, and the cost can be compared to that of a magical item - and that is the balance idea behind it.
The other "guaranteed" way requires the character to be already epic and score a critical hit with a Truename power. At this point, the Truename might not do much good, as other Truename powers might have already expended or the enemy is already close to defeat.
All other ways will be based on the nature of the campaign or adventure - NPCs that might know a Truename of a rival, allies the PCs interrogate. You could consider a Truename as worthy as a magical item, and make it part of a treasure parcel. Or you just provision some ways to gather Truenames to allow the PCs to beat foes that would otherwise be out of their League - as an important story point.

If the PC would know the Truenames of all members of a bataillion of enemy soldiers, they could use truename encounter powers to overcome them a little easier. If they know the Truename of a powerful enemy, the Truename Curses and Power of the Name might give them at notable head start in any fight against him - but are far from guaranteeing a success...

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Truename Magic
Truename Multiclass Only Class
The following powers are only available via multiclassing into the Truename class.

Design Note
The encounter powers for the Truename multiclass usually use the word “Fate” in them. The idea behind this that every use of these is slightly “manipulating” the targets fate – and showing his fate to him. If you know its truename, that is a lot easier for you. Therefore you don't expend the power if you have the truename.
The Daily powers are generally called Curses. You curse the very soul of the creature to suffering, and knowing its truename grants you a lot more power.
The Utility Powers are generally called something with “The Named” and are mostly benefitial to allies whose truename you know. A common assumption in Arcana Evolved and the Diamond Throne was that adventurers would eventuall share each others truename – especially important since it was a prerequisite for raising someone from the dead.
I reserved Domination related powers to the Truename Paragon path.

While this is a multiclass only class, I don't actually have powers for every level of the class, just for every tier at the moment. Maybe that will change later.

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Truename Magic
The Diamond Throne use the concept of truenames. All creatures and even objects have truenames. Knowing the true name of a creature can give you incredible power over it.

Truename magic is interesting not just for the Diamond Throne, but can be an interesting element in every setting. In Arcana Evolved, some spells required you to know the creatures truename to work, like the equivalent of Dominate Person. This was in a way a strong limitation, but it totally fitted the concept of truenames. For my conversion, I didn't want to go “that” far – no power should require you to know a creatures truename. But knowing a truename should be of benefit.

Truenames are used for more than just spells, of course. The people in the Diamond Throne know countless of ceremonies and rituals, some mere supersitition, some actually powerful. A lot of them benefit, and the more powerful might even require, a truename.

But not everyone had a truename. The Arcana Evolved rules allowed you to decide to be Unbound. A unbound creature does not have a truename. It can't be raised from the dead (at least not with the weaker magic) and it cannot attain certain “Ceremony” feats, but it can also never be subjected to the powers of a truename. (And being a Unfettered or Warmain unaffected by Dominate Person is certainly not bad...)

FEATS

Unbound (Bloodline)
Prerequisite: None
You do not have a true name. Your soul is unbound.
You can no longer gain feats with the Truename or Ceremony descriptor, nor use rituals that require you to have a Truename.
You gain a +1 feat bonus to all saving throws.

False Name (Bloodline)
Prerequisite: Unbound, Level 11+
You adopt a false name that works as a true name in certain situation. Whenever a power requires your Truename, an ally can use your false name instead. Whenever anyone tries to learn your Truename, he learns your false name instead (believing he knows your Truename but actually gaining no benefits of it.)
In addition, whenever an Heroic tier feat requires you to have a Truename, you can consider to have a Truename. At Epic level, this also applies to feats from the Paragon tier.
You gain a +1 feat bonus to Will defense.

Truenames Bargain (Ceremony)
Prerequisite: Level 21
You shield your truename from your enemies. Whenever a creature learns your Truename, you also learns its truename as if you used the Learn Truename Ritual. When the creature gains the opportunity to learn your Truename, it becomes aware that you will know it and can choose to not learn it.
You gain a +2 feat bonus to Will Defense.

Truename Magic (Ceremony, Multiclass)
Prerequisite: Cha13+
You can master and perform rituals with the Truename keyord ieven if you normally can't use rituals. You gain Invoke the Name as an Encounter power.
You gain a +1 bonus to all sill checks and attack rolls made for rituals involving truenames and powers with the truename descriptor. This bonus increases to +2 at 15th level and +3 at 25th level. You can also use the Novice, Acolyte and Adept feats to gain powers described in the Truename Multiclass-Only class.
RITUALS
Learn Truename
Some say it is the most powerful thing to know about an individual. Some say it is the name of the soul. It defines an individual. Once you emerge from your meditation in the Akashik Memory, a truename will be revealed to you.
Level 15; Category Scrying
Market Price: 5,000 gp; Component Cost: Special
Time: 1 hour; Duration: Instantenous
Key Skill: Arcana; Requires no Truename

This ritual allows you to learn a creatures truename, regardless of where it is or whether it desires to do so. To perform this ritual succesful, you must make an Arcana check against a DC equal to 15 + the level of the target whose truename you wish to know. The creature makes an Insight check against your result. If succesful, it is aware that someone performed this ritual to learn its truename (and whether the attempt was succesful.)
You gain a bonus to the check of +5 if you use a hair locket, blood or a living blood relative of the creature as focus, and you also reduce the component cost to half.
The component cost depend on the level of the target.
Level 1-10: 2,000 gp; Level 11 to 20: 10,000 gp
Level 21-30: 50,000 gp; Level 31+: 250,000 gp

If you attempt to use this ritual to learn the truename of a God, an Archfey or an Primordial, the the creature immediately becomes aware of this and learns your truename and the ritual fails, and all components are lost.

If you attempt to use this ritual to learn the truename of an unbound, you do learn the fact that he is unbound and the ritual fails, but no components are expended.

Other creatures may use rituals to hide their truename from others.

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So, I am taking a 2 week holiday (unfortunately, it's almost over) and had some time to write some RPG related stuff, a lot of it related to Arcana Evolved and/or the Diamond Throne conversion to 4E. A little stupid of me to focus that, since it would be far more important to plan my online D&D campaign I enjoy a lot, or to create at least the baseline for a Mutants & Masterminds campaign I consider as an alternative campaign parallel to the WotC H/P/E series of 4E adventures. Two of our core players in my regular campaign can't come as often as they used to, so we have to improvise. Playing D&D with less than 4 players is always a little awkward and something other games don't suffer as much from, especially if one where to customize a campaign to a smaller group. (Published adventures don't work so great for that.)

---

So, the first topic are the Verrik. The Verrik are a humanoid race with a reddish skin in the Diamond Throne. Non-Verriks always feel a little strange around Verriks, though few knew the dark secret behind this. (For more, check your Arcana Evolved Variant PHB or Diamond Throne sourcebook).

Design Note
Both racial powers are minor actions attack powers. I am not sure if Dazed vs. a (usually long slide) is a “fair” deal, but I didn't want the attacks to deal damage either - at least not in their basic form.

Synaesthetic Senses (Racial)
Prerequisite: Trained in Perception, Verrik
You can use all your senses to aid your perception. You ignore all penalties for blindness when you can still hear and all penalties for deafness when you can still see. You gain a +2 feat bonus to Perception when neither deafened or blinded.

Verrick Mental Discipline (Racial)
Prerequisite: Int 13+, Wis13+, Verrik
You can choose to use either Mind Touch and Limited Telekinesis each encounter (But not both in the same encounter). You also gain a +1 bonus to all atacks with powers that have the Verrik keyword that lack the Implement or Weapon keyword. This bonus increases to +2 at 15th level and +3 at 25th level.

Design Note
Verrik Mental Discipline bonus to attacks is basically the racial equivalent to something like Weapon or Implement Expertise. If you are not a fan of either feat and have developed an alternative “math fix” you don't need that part.

Racial Paragon Path – Verrik Mentalist
Some Verriks learn to master the innate racial talents for psychic abilities. Verrik Mentalist are such Verriks. Verrik Mentalists are sometimes advisors to powerful individuals, especially for the various Verrik crime syndicates and the Verrik government itself. But far more often they are used – but seldomly discovered – as spies or counter-spies, using their mental abilities to gain knowledge and relay it to their allies. As spies, they have always be prepared for being exposed and so they are well-trained in using their telepathic and telekinetic abilities to escape their enemies.

Prerequisite: Verrik Mental Discipline, Verrik
Mental Action (11th level): When you spend an action point to gain a standard action, you can immediately use your Minor Telekinesis or Mind Touch Power as a free action before or after the action, even if you have already expended the power this turn. This use of the power does not expend the power for this encounter.
Verrik Telepathy (11th level):
You can communicate telepathically with every creature within 10 squares you can see. You must share a common language with the creature to communicate meaningful, unless you have already targeted the creature with your Mind Touch power.
Verrik Telekinisis (11h level): You gain the Wizard Cantrip Mage Hand as an at-will power. The power loses the Arcane Keyword and gains the Verrik keyword.
Aggressive Mental Disciplines (11th level):
Mastermind (16th level): You can use each your Mind Touch and your Minor Telekinsies Power once per encounter. When you use either power, you can expend your use of the other power and deal 1d10 + the highest of your Charisma, Intelligence or Wisdom modifier. The damage is psychic if you used Mind Touch, or force if you used Minor Telekinesis for the original power you used.
Design Note
I always found the Verrik had a very “Vulcan”-like touch, and so here they get their Vulcan Mind Meld. I suppose one could also create a Ritual version of the power that provides a little more help (more along the lines of something like Consult Oracle) but is even more restrained in its general usability (longer duration, wiling and helpess targets only).

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This is the second part of Campaign Setting - Caprica and the 12 Colonies

I am a great fan of Battlestar Galactica.

Unfortunately, the show is over.
Fortunately, the makers are actually creating a new series - and it is set in the same "setting", but before the first Cylon War.

The show is called Caprica and the pilot is out on DVD. I watched and enjoyed it, and I am looking forward to the series so far.
(In related news, I am looking forward to the soundtrack, since I love Bear McCrearys work on BSG, Terminator and now Caprica. )

I know there is a BSG RPG out there, but I always felt that Galactica was too confined to make me feel comfortable with the idea of running a game there.

But Caprica is another matter. You've got 12 worlds colonized by humans. It is not Earth, it's not a colony of Earth. The setting is science fiction, but it's not a space opera with large Empires, full of aliens and anything. In many ways, it is still Earth, except with a different history, different cultures and religions, and a little more advanced technology. Sure, they can travel space faster than light, but they don't really go far.


And so I thought - hey, Caprica might actually make a decent Campaign Setting. The humans and many details are still like on Earth, but the history is different and less well known, giving a DM and players more freedom to redefine things.
That was the first idea. The 12 Colonies have enough stuff to explore - be it the Colonial history, the relationships between the Colonies before the Cylon War, the role of large corporations and criminal organizations, the appearance of Cylons, the first Cylon War, the struggles of the 12 Colonies after the first Cylon War, the Faith of the 12 Gods and the "One True God" - There's lots of stuff to explore.

But then I thought a little further - how about adding ideas from Dark*Matter? Or how about adding my ideas for a "spacefaring" Mutants & Mastermind game?

There are a few games set on Earth or based on Earth being the origin of mankind. How about replacing Earth with Caprica (or the 12 Colonies)? Earth, its history and its customs, they are not relevant. Earth is just a myth from ancient religious strictures, at best a side-line to the 12 Colonies and definitely not the origin of mankind.

But we still have a setting full of people "like us" with a few twists. One could run a superhero game set on Caprica. Or how about Shadowrun? Dark*Matter is obviously possible, too. (One might replace the Grays with "Angels" perhaps? Or with the 12 Lords of Kobol?)

There are a lot of interesting possibilities. Even as I am writing this down, I find interesting concepts (I came up with using Shadowrun while composing this blog entry!)

I don't know yet if I will actually go this route. I might do it, I might not. My Dark*Matter/Aerth idea actually used elements of our recent history, and it wouldn't work so well on Caprica. But other stuff might work great!

I don't know if the creators of the Battlestar Galactica Game will also create a Caprica game, or if there ever will be one. I kinda hope someone will pick it up.
Generally, I'd love to see the BSG:TNS/Caprica world to become a real "franchise" (though we might have a very small timeline to work with, unlike in Star Wars or Star Trek), but at least Caprica could become a good and interesting campaign setting.

It would be cool if someone would also make it work with different genres. Just like the authors of the show of Galactica and now Caprica are using it as a vehicle to tell their stories, others could use it tell their stories. With the right mixture of fleshing out details and leaving them open, one can create a setting that can be used for everything one could use on Earth - but remove most of the stuff one doesn't like. (Of course, it might be more interesting for writers that want to explore politics and philosophical thoughts that are harder to talk about if you refer to real world nations, cultures and religions. You get freed of "political correctness", and also gain a new angle on a topic).
From the Gamer angle, one of the advantage is that many elements of the campaign setting are still understood, and even if not - the world is still very similar to ours, at least in the "every-day" situations that we'd almost feel at home - but are still prepared for surprises.

So, what do you think? Wanna create your own [Genre] Caprica game? Or rather stay on Earth? (Or on Oerth, Eberron or Dere?)

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Recently, I had an idea on how to combine several things I found as interesting to use in a game (as DM). There are a few thoughts lingering in my head that I am trying to make into a coherent game or campaign.


I have been working on concepts for a new "modern" campaign for quite some time now. Either as a successor to my D&D 4 campaign, as a off-and-on game, or maybe for my online group.

The original idea was running a d20 Modern campaign, and when I looked into d20 Dark*Matter, I found a lot of stuff I liked, though I wasn't "convinced" by the entire setting. I'd probably still do something homebrew. My idea was an "Aerth" (unfortunately a name already taken) - an alternate Earth, very similar to our own, but a few things that seem historic fact might be wrong.

Thanks to the many comments and recommendations on Mutants & Mastermind and a little thanks to movies like The Dark Knight or Watchmen, I finally decided to buy M&M 2, just to see what it was all about.
I wasn't sure what to do with it, though. Should I adopt my d20 Modern idea and add supers? A Heroes like campaign? Should I reuse Torgs Terra setting? Or how about something more far fatched - a future where mankind travels space, and there are a few superheroes from every planet and colony?
I didn't know exactly...

What I definitely think is that M&M 2 might be a good solution to an unfortunate problem my gaming group faces at the moment - some people have to work at the week-ends, and that is the only time we can meet to play at all, which leaves us struggling to have enough players for a decent D&D game. But a different game, with less focus on parties of PCs might work fine even with just one DM and two players.


That was the gaming side of things. But there's also a "story"/media side of my idea.

I am a great fan of Battlestar Galactica.

I decided to split this blog entry in two parts. It felt too long to read in one go. At least if I or "Short Attention Span Joe" was supposed to read it.

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A recent thread on EN World asked "Is D&D 4 charmless". I don't know the real answer to that question (I think that's subjective). But it reminded me of something else and I answered (paraphrasing) "D&D 4 is shameless."

My reasoning behind this is based on my view that D&D 4 in a lot of ways is a design without compromises.

The goal of the D&D 4 design seems to focus on usability and play at the table, and the ability to facilitate a style of play where players face challenges in a fantasy world context, created using transparent mechanics and tools for helping the DM to gauge such challenges.

Other concerns are at best secondary, and there are no attempts to make compromises for other goals.
A common complaint is that certain rules are not designed for world building or for creating verisimilitude.
The rules regarding hit points and healing surges do little to explain what really "happens" in the game, but they are designed to support both long and short term resource management in the game (healing surge "triggers" per encounter and healing surges per day). Similar things can be said about the Encounter/Daily power rules or Action Points.
The DMG contains little information on how to build a "consistent" world (though as I pointed out, you can still use them for that purpose, but it is not what the DMG discusses much), it focuses on what kind of challenges are fair and appropriate for PCs.

Your AC and Reflex defense can be either based on Dex or Int. This gives Wizard a good AC and Reflex defense by default - but he doesn't get the previous edition staple "Mage Armor" to boost it further. One could still explain his half level and Int bonus to his defenses as a result of such spells, but the rules don't suggest anything like that. If it's something that typically applies all the time, it lessens playability if you have to keep book on something that can be taken for granted. The few occasions where it is not granted do not justify the book-keeping if you are focusing on utility and playability.

Skill Points have gone away. You are trained or your are not. The number of ranks in a skill do not matter at the table, only your final modifier. If it's not a concern at game time, simply it.
Certain skills don't even make an appearance - Craft, Perform, Profession are just gone. Very often, such skills are only character background, and they don't find much use during an adventure and the challenges you take. They are more for color then determining success and failure in crucial tasks, so off they go.

I must say, I admire this "No Compromises" approach. But I see that it can also be very off-putting or outright appalling.

If you can craft weapons and armor, it's something your character can do. It should be found in his mechanical representation. And damn, sometimes you might actually want to make a check or make it a challenge. But the designers figured out that this doesn't happen often enough to warrant spending character resources!)

You want to know if your character has still arrows sticking out from him or if he is fine and dandy. Restoring Morale with some shouts might be all nice and dandy, but then distinguish between my morale hit points and my injury hit points! But no, the designers figured that this would add to many special cases and make balancing classes too difficult or outright impossible.

Orcus (Clark Peterson, Necromancer Gamers) was one of the first EN Worlders to talk a little about his PHB 4E, and I remember he mentioned one of these little "No Compromises":
The Dragonborn - a race that had never been a D&D core race before, a race that is not Tolkien fantasy, and a race an unfamiliar player might not identify himself with first - was the first race described in the book. No compromises to utility - Dr comes before Dw and certainly way before Hu in alphabetic order. And that's the order people will search for if they are looking for a specific race description at the table.

I think that also makes 4E shameless. It is not ashamed by the fact that it has new fantasy races. It is not ashamed that certain rules don't "make sense" if they just work and provide interesting challenges.
A little of this "shamelessness" might have always been inherent to D&D - yeah, Dungeons with tons of monsters might not make a lot of sense, but let's gloss over that for the fun of it.

And yes, I think that also makes it okay if some people find this unappealing, bad taste, and do not like the design. Sometimes you might except these compromises - there are conflicting goals and you actually want both, and the game used to make these compromises. 4E is not that game.

There are, of course, also dangers to the "No Compromises" approach. I think a particular danger can be in regards to settings - one of the design goals is to ensure that every supplement can be used with every setting - but there is a risk that you eliminate the entire point of the setting - providing a unique fantasy world.
One could make a point and say that this actually is no longer a "No Compromise" approach - one hand, you want everything to be used with every setting, but on the other hand you want actually different feeling settings. A real "No Compromise" approach would require to have only one setting or to have elements that are specific to one settings and make certain supplements useless (or at least less useful. A book detailing the Astral Sea is not applicable for a setting that doesn't have the Astral Sea.)

I suppose one of the things WotC might want to do is to reintroduce compromises, even if it dilutes the original design goals. It might be what they need to do to bring certain players back. But they have to be very careful - aside from finding the right compromises for "lost" players, they also risk losing those like me that admire the fact that there are no compromises. Maybe future DMGs or an Unearthed Arcana for 4E can do a lot here.

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Preparing for an adventure I might soon run in an live online game, I looked at the skill challenge rules again. I noticed something that I had missed so far:

Seems like there are a little more suggestions on how scaling challenges can be achieved, though it still focus on the perspective of party level and doesn't look at it from a game world consistency perspective.

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We are currently (among others) running a "Warhammer" campaign with D&D 4. Our current adventure reminded me again that firearms are not as uncommon in Warhammer as they are in D&D, so I thought up a few ways to implement them.

So, there are basically two variant implementations that might best describe the technological advances in weaponry. It's all "pressed" into the D&D 4 rules framework, so I hope it doesn't break the game balance or anything.
You can mix and match the described items to fit your idea of your technological level of firearms. I describe a few magical enhancements for firearms that are available even in the lowest levels of the heroic tier - to support the rareness of these weapons, you might restrict the availability of the enhancements to a higher level and require that a firearm must always have one of the suggest enhancements.

The basic idea is that a firearm is a mix of magical and alchemical item. So people with the Alchemist or Ritual Caster feat should be able to build them. But feel free to define them as purely alchemy or purely magic. The implementation is overall closer to a magical item, because I avoided the disconnect between "cheap" ammunition that higher level characters basically can forget to count and alchemical ammunition that might have costs like alchemical items.

You can either require the Enchant Magical Item Ritual or the Alchemist feat for any character to build a firearm.

Muzzleloaded Firearms
Muzzleloaded firearms are loaded seperately with gunpowder and bullet. The process is very slow, and it is difficult to fire more then one shot during a typical combat. They are crude compared to modern firearms, but still considered very dangerous.

The Hand Cannon - Level 1 item
The hand cannon must be loaded with gunpowder and shot before being fired. Loading the weapon takes a lot of time, so it is mostly used in the beginning of a battle.
Level 1: 360 gp; Level 11: 9,000 gp; Level 21: 225.000 gp
Item Slot: Weapon (Two-Handed)
Power (Encounter - Firearm): Standard Action. Range 15/30. Attack: Dexterity +1 vs Reflex. Hit: 2d4 + Dex damage.
Level 11: Dexterity +3 vs Reflex. Damage 2d6 + Dex
Level 21: Dexterity +5 vs Reflex. Damage 2d8 + Dex

The Arbeques - Level 3 item
The Arbuques is a more advanced version of the hand cannon.
Level 3: 680 gp; Level 11: 17,000 gp; Level 21: 425.000 gp
Item Slot: Weapon (Two-Handed)
Power (Encounter - Firearm): Standard Action. Range 20/40. Attack: Dexterity +1 vs Reflex. Hit: 2d6 + Dex damage.
Level 11: Dexterity +3 vs Reflex. Damage 2d8 + Dex
Level 21: Dexterity +5 vs Reflex. Damage 2d10 + Dex

The Musket - Level 5 item
The Musket can be reloaded much faster then hand cannon or Arbuques.
Level 5: 1.000 gp; Level 15: 25,000 gp; Level 21: 625,000 gp
Item Slot: Weapon (Two-Handed)
Property: If you spend a standard action reloading this weapon, you can recharge its encounter power.
Power (Encounter - Firearm): Standard Action. Range 20/40. Attack: Dexterity +1 vs Reflex. Hit: 2d6 + Dex damage.
Level 11: Dexterity +3 vs Reflex. Damage 2d8 + Dex
Level 21: Dexterity +5 vs Reflex. Damage 2d10 + Dex


The Musket is basically the firewall "non-weapon-weapon" variant. It can be fired every other round (and a feat might improve this to shooting every round). The biggest disadvantage - it is not a weapon attack, so all your nice weapon powers are useless.

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Cartridge Firearms
Cartridge firearms use a combination of bullet and gunpowder, making the reload process faster and yielding more reliable results. This is a requirement for firearms as weapons.
All firearms are considered superior weapons. A two-handed firearm can be equipped with a bayonet, allowing its user to use the firearm in melee as a spear.

Pistol: Prof +3; Dmg 1d8, Range 15/30, Price 200 gp, Weight 2 bl, Group: Firearm; Properties. High Crit, Load Minor
Rifle: Prof +3, Dmg 2d4, Range 20/40, Price 300 gp, Group: Firearm; Properties: High Crit, Load Minor
Bayonet: Prof +2, Dmg 1d8, Price 5 gp; Weight 1 lb; Group: Spear; Properties; Reach

Bullets (10): 20 gp

New Enhancements

Repeating Firearm - Item Level 2+
Note: If you want to give your firearms a feeling of rareness, this might be the minimum required enhancement for them.
The typical firearm of the old world has these properties.
Level 2: +1 - 680 gp; Level 7: +2 - 3,400 gp; Level 12: +3 - 17,000 gp
Level 18: +4 - 85,000 gp; Level 23: +5 - 425,000 gp; Level 28: +6 2,125,000 gp
Weapon: Firearms
Enhancement: Attack and Damage Rolls
Critical: +1d8 per plus
Power (Encounter - Firearm): Standard Action. Make one basic attack against the target, but the target is resolved against the lower of AC and Reflex. Regardless of success, until the end of your next turn, your square and all adjacent squares are considered obscured due to the smoke from the explosion. (Granting concealment against attacks from any square in the burst or any attacks directed at any square in the burst.)


Semi-Automatic Firearm - Item Level 3+
This group covers revolvers and modern auto-loaders. The bullets is fed from a magazine or a cylinder, allowing a fast firing rate with minimal effort by the shooter.
Level 2: +1 - 680 gp; Level 7: +2 - 3,400 gp; Level 12: +3 - 17,000 gp
Level 18: +4 - 85,000 gp; Level 23: +5 - 425,000 gp; Level 28: +6 2,125,000 gp
Weapon: Firearms
Enhancement: Attack and Damage Rolls
Critical: +1d8 per plus
Property: You can reload this firearm as a free action.*
Power (Encounter - Firearm): Standard Action. Make two basic ranged attacks, attacking two adjacent targets. Each attack is resolved against the lower of the targets AC or Reflex Defense.

*Optional: This is pretty simple, but again, counting bullets in your magazine is a little annoying. Fell free to adapt this. Also, I don't bother to distinguish between the intracities between a revolvers "reloading" mechanism and that of a modern auto-loader pistol. I am not a gun nut!

Shotgun - Item Level 4+
Shotguns can be used to use fire shot, allowing you to cover a wider area. They lack in range.
Level 4: +1 - 840 gp; Level 9: +2 - 3,400 gp; Level 14: +3 - 21,000 gp
Level 19: +4 - 85,000 gp; Level 23: +5 - 525,000 gp; Level 28: +6 2,625,000 gp
Weapon: Rifle
Enhancement: Attack and Damage Rolls
Critical: +1d10 per plus
Property: Reduce the long and short range by 5 squares each.
Power (Encounter - Firearm): Standard Action. Make a basic attack against all targets in a Close Blast 3. The attack is made against the lower of AC and Reflex of the target.
Level 14 and 19: Close Blast 4
Level 24 and 29: Close Blast 5


Full-Automatic Firearm - Item Level 5+
Automatic firearms reload bullets automatically and allow even faster firing rates then of semi-automatic weapons. The blowback from the shot, the expanding gases from the explosion, or magic allows continuous fire.
Level 5: +1 - 1,000 gp; Level 10: +2 - 5,00 gp; Level 15: +3 - 25,000 gp
Level 20: +4 - 125,000 gp; Level 25: +5 - 625,000 gp; Level 30: +6 3,125,000 gp
Weapon: Firearms
Enhancement: Attack and Damage Rolls
Critical: +1d8 per plus
Property: You can reload this firearm as a free action.
Power (Encounter - Firearm): Standard Action. Make a basic attack against all targets in a Area Burst 1 within range. The attack is made against the lower of AC and Reflex of the target.
Level 14 and 19: Area Burst 2
Level 24 and 29: Area Burst 3


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Feats

Combat Engineer (Heroic)
Prerequisite: Int 13 or Skill Training in Arcana and Thievery
You gain proficiency with all firearms, siege weapons and bayonets. When making an attack with a firearm, you can substitute your Dexterity Modifier with your Intelligence Modifier for the attack and damage rolls. When making an attack with a siege weapon, you can use your Dexterity Modifier in place of your Intelligence Modifier for the attack and the damage roll.

Rifleman (Heroic)
Prerequisite: Proficiency with Firearms, Rogue
You can treat a Firearm as a crossbow for the purpose of Rogue weapon powers and sneak attack, and you can treat a Bayonet as a light blade for the purpose of Rogue weapon powers and sneak attack. When using a firearm or a bayonet, your sneak attack damage is reduced by one die.

Quickload (Heroic)
Prerequisite: Proficiency with Firearms, Dex 13+
If a firearm (including a muzzle-loader) has a reload time of a standard action, you can reload it is as a minor action. if it has a reload time of a minor action, you can reload it as a free action. You still need both hands to reload your firearm.

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For detailed discussion, see also the house rules thread on this topic:
Firearms for D&D 4E

Mustrum_Ridcully

Some people don't like the fact that lasting injuries are basically not modeled in 4E.

Which can have particular implications in "sandbox" games, as some fellow posters noted (most notably Raven Crowking, with whom I had my edition skirmishes ).

It took me a while to understand it the reasons behind it. Suffice to say that there is always something worth investigating in a sandbox, and just handwaving the rules and say "we rest after this adventure despite no mechanical penalties for not resting more then one night" is not satisfying in such games.

So, here a quick suggestion on how to change healing.

Basically, use something like the recharge rules for monster powers.

So, it takes the same time for everyone to recover all of his healing surges. (Hit points recovery in 3E was always a little "inconsistent" in that wizards could heal faster then fighters.) Of course, there might still be issues - for example, who is more likely to end the day with no surges left? The partys Fighter or the Wizard?

You could do the same for daily powers, if you like.)

Of course, we can't just let such a simple mechanic standing around - we need more game material for it!
So, here it is:


A Feat
Extraordinary Recuperation (Paragon)
Prerequisite: Con 13
Your healing surges recharge on a roll of 5 or 6.


2 Rituals

Blessing of Health (Heal)
You conjure a blessing that helps the regeneration of wounds and fight off disease and poison
Level: 5
Category: Restoration
Time: 10 Minutes
Duration: 24 hours
Component Cost: 25 gp (see text)
Market Price: 250 gp
Key Skill: Heal
Bless up to 8 creatures with a blessing of health. A creature that takes an extended rest in the duration of the spell can reroll is next Endurance check to resist a disease and reroll all failed Healing Surge recharge rolls, taking the better result.

At paragon tier, increase the ritual cost to 250 gp, and at epic tier to 2,500 gp.


Regeneration
After you have finished the ritual, you touch a target to heal even the most severe injuries and debilitations.
Level: 15
Category: Restoration
Time: 60 Minutes
Duration: 24 hours
Component Cost: 1,000 gp (see text)
Market Price: 5,000 gp
Key Skill: Heal
The target can make a Healing Surge recharge roll as if it had spend an extend rest. If the target has lost any appendages or organs (an arm or an eye for example), the caster may choose one to regenerate and it regrows fully. The regrowth is painful to the victim. When choosing to regenerate an injury, roll a heal check.

Check Result 10 or lower: The target dies.*
Check Result 19 or lower: The target takes damage equal to its hit points.
Check Result 20-29: The target takes damage equal to its bloodied value.
Check Result: 30-39: The target takes damage equal to its healing surge value.
Check Result 40 or higher: The target takes no damage.
*) The regeneration still succeeds, so if the target is later raised, its organ or limb is regrown.

Mustrum_Ridcully

Not a long while ago I noticed that some had a problem with the DMG tables on skill DCs (see 4E DMG p.42). The DC link level and a suggested DC for Easy, Moderate and Hard checks on each.
This seemed to suggest to some that all skill DCs automatically increase by character level and thus they felt that the game world would feel inconsistent.

If moving about a sheet of ice is a DC 10 check at level 2, it shouldn't become a DC 20 check at level 20!

Maybe the crucial passage is
But I say that's not how you have to use it. You can go the slow way and ask yourself, on a scale of 1-30, what type of character would find this an easy (or moderate, or hard) challenge - but still one he could make?
Then set that as your DC.

Running over ice might always be a DC 20 check in your campaign. Because (using the old table, not the errata) you think that a level 5st level character should find running and charging over icy terrain easy.

You can also use the DC based on other aspects. The page 42 also discusses stunts - you could base the level of your challenge on the monsters level that is to be affected by the challenge (if any) or by the amount of damage the player wants to inflict. While swinging a chandelier doesn' get harder with PCs level or the Ogres level, it might get harder to charge him with the swing or the PC want to inflict more harm with your swing.

The beauty of this rules is that you can create an internally consistent gameworld and still figure out how hard a task is compared to your PC.

You can also apply this idea to skill challenges, and in a way you are always doing this - The DCs for skills only change every 3 levels. This can be helpful if you want to run skill challenge involving NPCs - especially if it's a challenge that bypasses a combat encounter. For example, if the PCs want to trick the troll guarding the bridge into believing they already paid their toll, you could use a short skill challenge with a level based on the trolls level and a complexity that would achieve similar XP value - meaning that your PCs get the same XP if they like to role play through the encounter or like to fight through the encounter, which is usually a good thing.

In a way, this is a reverse engineering of what the 3E skill system did - DCs were usually fixed. But the fixed DC implied at which levels certain tasks become possible (when can parties hope to open Amazing locks? Of course when the Rogue's skill modifier is high enough to beat the DC with some d20 rolls.) or easy.

Of course, sometimes it would be nice to have some "fixed" DCs - a look into the PHB can help, there are a few of example DCs described in the skill selection.

It should be noted that it's suboptimal that the designers don't exactly come out to tell you that you can use the "stunt" table in this manner. I don't know whether this is because they thing it would be a rare case to work this way or it didn't occur to them. Also, the PHB example DCs seem inconsistent. As a defense it might be said that - since players don't set the DC - the players just need to see some "landmarks" what they might need. But still, a DM might want these information in the DMG, too.

Anyway, this clearly a thing that should be made more obvious. Maybe the DMG 2 will contain some hints and suggestions? Or has that ship sailed?

Mustrum_Ridcully

A friend of mine mentioned that he had recently started his own blog on role-playing.
http://blogs.cloneworks.de/herzlich/

Since he linked to me, I decided to return the favor. So. if you're a German (speaking) gamer, this might be something for you!

Mustrum_Ridcully

So, it's been quite some time since I blogged the last time. Somehow, I am not getting much done these days... Well, I still have a lot of thougts, but I don't write them down, despite planning on doing so. But at least I am back for this post.

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One thing I have been thinking about lately is how different combat mechanics look like and what seems unique to them. Recent discussions on Warhammer and The Dark Eye (German equivalent to D&D) reminded me of this.

Warhammer and the Dark Eye model attack and parry in their game system. The attacker makes an attack roll (in Warhammmer a percentile roll, in Dark Eye a d20 roll targeting to go below a value based on your skill with a weapon). If the roll is succesful, the defender can make a parry roll (again percentile or d20 roll as before).
One aspect common in both systems is that there is only one parry roll allowed. So you have to decide whether a particular enemy is dangerous enough to warrant a parry. Fighting multiple enemies is very dangerous. It's generally a very good idea to focus all fire on one target.

Just a slight modification changes this on a fundamental level. If you get a parry roll against every attack, superior numbers get less dangerous. It's still a good idea to focus on one target (it never can not be), but it is a little less critical. As long as you can't hope to bring down an enemy within one round, you might want to deal with multiple foes at once.

Imagine any of these two games with a 3E like Combat Expertise ability – take a penalty to attack to gain a penalty to defense. In the single parry roll model, this ability is very weak. The bonus counts against only one enemy! In the mult-parry model, it's a lot better.

Dark Eye parries is affected by your weapons kill. On training the skill, you have to split your points between attack and parry. That is very close to the Combat Expertise idea – so basically, spending points on parry is not such great idea if you care about the “bang for your buck”.

Obviously, which model you use can greatly affect your model for combat balance.

D&D doesn't have a parry roll. But it's AC model shares some of the aspect of the multi-parry model. You can use your AC against every opponent. So, assuming the “math” works out (and further modifiers still affect the hit-chances), a combat expertise like ability can be very powerful. (And an ability like 3Es Dodge seems very weak by comparison.)

I find parry mechanics intersting, because they model the defensive activity of the character, and because they can provide another interesting decision point. Against who do I defend myself? How do I do it? Maybe I can get a counter-attack opportunity!

Shadowrun 3E had another interesting model. Characters had a “combat pool”. To defend yourself against melee and ranged attacks, you could spend dice from your pool to roll against the attackers roll. The number of succesful dice rolls affected damage, and if you got more successes then your enemy, the roll succeeded. This model was basically a mix of single and multi parry. You had to distribute your “parries” (or more dodges against weapons fire) amonst the attackers. Multiple attackers still were very dangerous. Against opponents using their combat pool for dodging attacks, you would usually spend your first shot to bring down its entire combat pool (and maybe deal some damage) and use the second roll to finish him off. (As a player character, you'd typically be a lot more dangerous then as the NPCs.)

The idea of splitting your parry ability among mutliple opponents is interesting from my “gamist” perspective, because it introduces an element of decision making.

Shadowrun 4.0 has (for better or worse, but while the combat pool was intersting, it had its flaws) done away with the combat pool and replaced the mechanic with a Dodge skill. Against melee combat, characters use their own melee combat skill. 3.0 had a similar mechanic, but it also allowed a counter-atack. The latter had one flaw – it made attacking someone very skilled in melee combat not just pointless, it made it a terrible mistake that could kill you. This might be “realistic”, but from a game balance view, it was still undesirable and basically a double reward – not only can't you not be hurt in melee and you can beat most enemies in melee, anyone stupid enough to touch you in melee will be killed by you! 4E did away with the counter-attack, but it still retained the “untouchable” effect.

The untouchable effect could (at least theoretically) also apply in all multi-parry systems. If your parry is just too good, nobody can hurt you.

Torg had yet another approach. Characters had a passive defense value that applied to all attacks. Additional, you could choose to make an active defense, allowing you to roll the dice to improve your defense (and you could never make it worse.). But if you do that, you can't attack.
Torg initiative is determined by cards and the side (Heroes or Villains) starting the round varied each round. The side with the intiative can often suppress the enemy by forcing him to spend his action to defend. Torg also allows “aggressive defense” - if you defend, you can also use your dice result for an attack, but you take a -2 cumulative penalty for each action (-2 on the first action – meaning your defense minimum is 1 point below your normal passive defense – and -4 on the 2nd and so on). So, if your dice were hot (or you hoped them to be, or you had a card to improve your defense), you used this option to negate an enemies attack and possibly take him out. The best use of this option when you knew your enemies defense against your attack was weak. (And unless he choose a defensive aggressive action, he would only have his passive defense to defend himself). There was no guarantee to succeed, but it improved your chances of avoiding to get hit.

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So, where does this rambling lead to? Now, what's the perfect attack/parry mechanic?
I suppose there is none. There are a few things you have to consider:
Do you want grim & gritty? Single-Parry might be a good diea.
Like cinematic and action-paced? Multi-Parry (or static defense) sounds good.
Want more tactical variety? Force people to decide how to spread their parry ability, or force them to make a decision between attack and defense. Provide rules for counter-attacks.
Do you want to (over?)reward specialisation? Make parry and attack key off the same skill. If you want people make hard choices, make them choose to improve either attack or defense by splitting the skills.

So here is one idea, a little in vacuum because the surrounding damage model isn't described in detail, and I don't describ how the modifiers are arrived (and this might be important)

Characters roll 2d10 + modifiers for attack against 10 + modifiers for defense.
The naked die result also determines “result points”:
20-17: 1; 16-13: 2; 12-9: 3; 8-5: 4; 4-2: 5

If you fail your attack, you take shock pints equal to the result points. (Representing overextending yourself and counter attacks from your opponent)
If you succeed your attack, you deal twice your result points in shock points of damage.
If you also succeed on an armor penetration roll, you deal also wound damage equal to your result points.

The result point model is set up this way to reward skill, not luck with the dice. A skilled character can reliable deal damage, and he can deal more damage where others would fail.

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I might want to continue writing on this topic, but when or what is still open to debate (some of the voices on my head desire to procrastinate further)

Mustrum_Ridcully