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

Mustrum_Ridcully

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...

Mustrum_Ridcully

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.

Mustrum_Ridcully

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.

Mustrum_Ridcully

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.)

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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).

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

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.

--

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

There have been several discussions on the 15 so-called 15 minute adventure day, including how D&D 4 tries to change that and fails or succeeds in doing so.

From my view - the 15 minute adventure day will never go away entirely as long as their are daily powers - but I believe that the new edition has found a few nice way to make the idea of "going longer" less dangerous and more satisfying for players and DMs alike. The biggest limitation in practice seems to be the number of Healing Surges - you might be able to last without daily powers, but once you're out of healing surges, you just have to stop. I think that was absolutely intentional, but that doesn't have to mean that we can't tinker around with it. More Healing Surges primarily lead to one thing: Daily powers become less important, and you have to limit the power level of encounters, since you can't hope on daily powers being available any more.

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So, now for some actual rules suggestion revolving around this:

First, a Ritual, inspired by an Arcana Evolved spell.

Bring down the MoonNote: The level limitations exist to encourage picking up higher level powers. The healing Surge penalty ensures that you can't reuse this power to often.

This ritual is perfect if the party is under some strong time constraints but just feels over-extended, and provide a compensation for a DM under-estimating his monsters (or over-estimating the party), and the party just having a string of bad luck or be a little too incompetent.

Now, for some potions:
Potions of Clarity
The Potions of Clarity are based of the Healing Potions, since I didn't know how else to price them. The Potions are unusual in that they require a daily resource to use - magical item uses. I do not think the cost alone would have been sufficient to limit the usefulness of these potions. The advantage of using it based on daily item powers is that it will be restored by milestones, so there is actually some benefit in having multiple of them.

Variant Milestone Benefits
Milestones exist as an incentive to continue adventuring in 4E. The extra action point means you have an alternate resources to the fleeting daily powers. I think it would help to give out more benefits instead.
The extra daily power means that you can go on longer if you have a few items around...

Here are some ideas:
o Characters regain one Healing Surge.
Rationale: Action Points might be able to compensate daily powers, but can they compensate the fact that you don't have any more hit points?
o Characters regain one daily power.
Rationale: Why not? Disadvantage is that it might make people rely on the same power too often (the highest level one?), knowing they can safely restore it after the next encounter.

PS:
If you want some suggestion to adapt this material to 3E - Bring down the Moon is already a spell in Arcana Evolved, so you should just need to buy that book, or create your own write-up.

The Potions could be regular 3E Potions or Elixiers. The generic formula would be that they would be one level above the level of spell that they can restore. You have to pay for the flexibility they provide in 3E, at least that's my idea.

So, you could have a Spell Level 3 Potion (Cost: 750 gp) that would restore one 2nd level spell slot. You might want to go the Elixier Route so you can actually have Clarity Potions for spells beyond level 2...

Link to House Rules Forum Thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/238008-bring-down-moon-other-adventuring-day-extenders.html

Mustrum_Ridcully

The skill challenge from 4E might have some flaws, but it is a very interesting concept and a very simple framework to use.

BACKGROUND
When working at my space combat system, I thought about how player characters can interact with the system. One of the big problems in many such games it is that it is hard to bring all characters into play and allow them to contribute and make meaningful decisions.
It is also hard to distinguish between the effects of the ship itself and that of the character. Space ships are more then advanced magic items or gear. You could limit modelling them to such, certainly, but would it be enjoyable?

My aproach was to define the ships using similar rules like 4E for creatures (monsters), listed with a few ability scores, special attributes, hit points and powers. The question is - where do the players enter. In the incarnations I already posted, space ships basically play themself, they don't need individuals controlling them.
So my idea was to allow players to make a kind of skill challenge to improve what the ship already does. Each individual skill check performed as part of the challenge would grant the ship some kind of benefit. There is no real concept for "winning" or "failing" the challenge - you get advantages if you succeeds.

IDEA
But this led me to think that this might be a general idea on how to use skill challenges in the game - instead of giving you a penalty, participating in the challenge grants you benefits if you succeed checks.

Let's think of the KotS skill challenge posted by WotC. The challenge was pretty hard, and participating in it caused penalties if you failed, though a success had some effect.

But what if you used the skill challenge the opposite way? If the party members take part in it, not they suffer damage, but the enemy! They get some extra tricks up their sleeves!

So, this lead me to this idea:

COMPENSATORY SKILL CHALLENGES
These are special skill challenges in which you can perform. Each check in the challenge grants the partaking party a benefit or its enemies a penalty. The specifics are dependent on the challenge, but the rules on stunts in the DMG should be a nice start.

Use compensatory skill challenges to give the players an edge in an encounter, possibly to compensate for weaknesses in the party or more powerful or numerous monsters.

Ruleswise, you could use such a challenge to reduce the effective XP value to determine the "appropriateness" of an encounter - calculate the XP normally gained by such a challenge and substract it from the encounter XP to determine its effective level.
But don't change the actual XP awarded at the end of the encounter.

Example Challenges
- The enemy is performing an evil ritual when you attack him. Disrupting the ritual using Arcana, Intimidate or Religion could cause magical set-backs.
- The party fights in dangerous terrain.Using the inherent dangers of the terrain, they can gain an advantage aganst their opponent. Acrobatics, Athleics or Endurance might help the party to topple stones, break through walls or push rugs. (That's basically just using terrain and might not be something really "new" in this context)
- The party uses Technology, Pilot and Science to improve the position of its space ship, fine-tune or repair its system or find the weaknesses of the enemy ships.


A further idea I had on that was "Combat Challenges", that I will outline in my next blog entry.

Mustrum_Ridcully

ABSTRACT POSITIONING SYSTEM
INTRODUCTION
D&D 3E already relied strongly on the game board, but 4E emphasized it more, with even more abilities affecting movement and mobility of characters.

For my group, this posed no problems, once we started using counters and eventually even minis to play the game. But still, sometimes I'd like a more “abstract” system, possibly usable in a play-by-post game. They might also be interesting for space combat.

OUTLINE
So, here are the outlines of such an idea. They aim to use the 4E game terms for movement (move, shift, pull, push, slide) and its values.

Basically, it tries to abstract two-dimensional movement into a one-dimensional description. This can never be a “perfect” mapping, but it might still be helpful. It might be interesting to see how the abstract system affects game balance of movement related abilities overall.

RULES
Encounter Zones consist of several encounter components or hot spots, as I like to call them.
Hot Spots are firstly defined by their relation. You have to define which hot spots are “close” to each other. You could have a “choke point” hot spot, describing a door and two adjacent rooms, and the choke point would be connecting the two rooms.
Each such hot spots also has certain features, like traps or difficult terrain.

A hot spot has a size score. A size score determines how much movement is effectively required to leave the spot, and several other factors.

Each character is assigned a position score. A characters position score can be negative or positive, but the maximum absolute value (e.g. the value without the minus (-) or plus (+) sign) cannot exceed the size score of the hot spot.
Furthermore, each character has a list of other characters he is currently engaged in melee with.

A character may use each square of movement to change his movement score by one. A character with a negative movement score is assumed to be in a suboptimal position.
Pushing a target means that you can increase the position score difference between you and your target, Pulling means you can reduce the score, and sliding allows either.

A character may engage opponents in melee if the absolute difference between the positioning scores is no larger then the characters melee reach. Characters are threatening each other in that case.

If at least two allies are engaged in melee with an opponent, any ally with a higher positioning score gains combat advantage. If the opponent has a negative positioning score, you do not need an ally to gain combat advantage, and your positioning score can be higher or equal to gain combat advantage.

Constant shifting in a melee situation to gain combat advantage cannot increase your positioning score above the hot spots limit. If this would happen, a character has to decide whether he wants to leave the zone, or all threatening opponents lower their positioning score by one instead.

For ranged attacks, use the higher of your absolute positioning score and your target positioning score. If you fire into a different hot spot, add your difference between the exit score and difference between the other hot spots exit score to the target. Zones should not to which zones they offer a firing zone.

For area attacks, blasts can be used to fire either targets with a higher or equal positioning score to yours (or the point of origin), or targets with a lower or equal score to yours. Bursts work in both directions.

To be able to leave a zone, you must first reach an exist positioning score. Unless noted otherwise, the negative maximum and the positive maximum positioning scores for the hot spot are exist scores. The possible exits per positioning score are defined in the hot spot descriptions, and also which positioning score you end up with.

Position Score Threshold can be used to define benefits of special terrain. Positive scores grant benefits (like cover, safe exits), while negative exit scores grant penalties (like hampered movement, traps).


EXAMPLE Encounter Zone
This encounter zone consists of three rooms, two smaller (A & B) ones adjoining a larger. Each room is described as its own hot spot. (C) There is a secret passageway between the two smaller ones. The larger room has a pit trap and several barricades before it, and is connected to the smaller rooms via two large archways.
The entrance for the PCs is from one of the smaller rooms and contains a table and 4 chairs. The other small room is full of rubble.

Room A (Size Score 6) (Fire Zone: With cover into Room C, with improved cover into Room A. Secret Door to B is opened.)
Positioning Score -6: Exit to Room C (Arrival Score: -6)
Positioning Score 4+: Take cover behind table.
Positioning Score 3+: Use chairs as improvised weapons.
Positioning Score +6: Exit to Room B (Arrival Score: 0)

Room B (Size Score 6) (Fire Zone: With cover into Room C, with improved cover into Room B if Secret Door to A is opened.)
Positioning Score 1 or less: Difficult Terrain
Positioning Score 0: Secret Door (Perception Check) Exit to Room B (Arrival Score: 6)
Positioning Score 6: Exit to Room C (Arrival Score -2)

Room C (Size Score 12) (Fire Zone: With cover into Room A and B, and without penalty into the pit trap)
Positioning Score -12: Special – Change Positioning Score to +0)
Positioning Score -8 tp -11: Fall into Pit Trap (Attack vs Reflex, Falling Damage and knocked prone. Automatic exit to Pit Trap (Positioning Score -2)
Positioning Score -6: Exit to Room A (Arrival Score -6)
Positioning Score -3 or less: Difficult Terrain
Positioning Score -2: Exit to Room B (Arrival Score 6)
Positioning Score 2+: Cover
Positioning Score 8+: Total Cover

Pit Trap (Size Score 2) (Fire Zone: None)
-2: Exit to Room C (Positioning Score -7). Requires Climb Check.
2: Exit to Room C (Positioning Score -12). Requires Climb Check.


This example is not perfect – it might be nicer to split Room C in more hot spots – the pit trap surrounding, the pit-trap, the rubble near room B, and finally the “safe” zone behind the pit trap.

Both the system and the example are mere sketches, and further refinement might be required.


Alternative Examples: In space combat scenarios, you might define hot spots by:
- Planets
- Space Stations
- Asteroid Belts
- Mother Ship positions
Space Combat might require more fluent "hot spots" - basically define general areas where "stuff happens". In Battlestar Galactica (think of the first regular series episode - 33), one hot spot might be rag tag fleet, one would be galactica and its flak screen, another the dog-fight area, and a further the cylon basestars.

To get from basestar to rag tag fleet (the goal of the cylons), you had to move through the dog-fight, and pass galactica and her flak screen.


FINAL CONCLUSION
The system is certainly not really "simple". it is, easier to look at a board or virtual map to "get" such scenarios. But the system might work fine when using more text-based communication, like play by post, or where the board is also insufficient (3D combat).

So, what are your thoughts? Useful? What improvements could or should be made? Worthless effort, there are already better alternatives?

Mustrum_Ridcully

My first blog post contained some tidbits on my ideas on using 4E to create space combat rules. There is a lot of stuff to do, but the basic framework looks interesting and it was easy to use the monster creation guidelines to whip up some statistics that seemed to capture the feel of a few starships. So, here are a few more ideas.

Weapon & Damage Type
Weapons in Science Fiction settings cover a wide range of effects and technology. A "generic" space combat system can only provide guidelines, and so, here are mine:
The first idea was to continue using the 4E damage types, even if they are a little more "fantasy" flavored then their equivalents of 3E were (thunder instead of sonic, for example)

Radiant: Weapons based on Light (Lasers, Masers, Phaser)
Fire: Anything using superheated matter (Plasma Cannons, Fusion Bombs)
Lightning: Weapons using charged particles or creating charges (Disruptors, Ion Cannons)
Necrotic: Nuclear Fission weapons (Nukes, Disintegration weapons)
Force: Weapons using gravity (Singularity weapons, Tractor Beams)
Thunder: Anything that creates shockwaves in a ship or its hull(Intervaller, Destruction Beams, Explosives)
Acid: Weapons using antimatter
Poison: Biological weapons
Psychic: Anything that damages sensors or disrupts ship operations (computers) or directly affects the crew.
Weapon: Projectile Weapons

Shields
Shields also exist in many, but far from all science fiction settings. The basic idea for rules implementation is that shields often are dependent on a ships "bloodied" state, assuming that the shield generatores are depleted or damaged after that. But this doesn't have to apply for all.

I narrow things down to two basic types of Shields, Deflector Shields and Ablative Shields, and identify a variant, the "reactive" shield.

Deflector Shields
Deflector shields deflect incoming attacks. Energy beams and projectile flight pasts are slightly bend around the ship or are dispersed into space.
AC and Defense Bonus: +2
This bonus should be added to the normal Reflex or AC value of a ship of that level.
The bonus is lost if the ship is bloodied.

Transfer all Energy to Shields (Minor, Encounter)
The ship gains a +2 power bonus to AC and Reflex defense, but is slowed and weakened until the end of its next turn. Special: This power cannot be used if the ship is bloodied.

Ablative Shields
Ablative Shields absorb damage until they are depleted. They provide a certain buffer, but the buffer can be overwhelmed.

Damage Resistance
The ship gains damage resistance 5 (heroic), resistance 10 (paragon) or resistance 15 (epic)
This damage resistance is lost when the ship is bloodied.

Transfer all energy to shields (Minor, Encounter)
The ship can spend a healing surge, and gains additional temporary hit points equal to its healing surge value. The ship is slowed and weakened until the end of its next turn.

Reactive Shields
Reactive shields detect incoming hazards (projectiles or other weapon fire) and create a disturbance in the attacks path. They can work on the deflection or the ablation principle. Reactive Shields can also be used to represent specialised weaponry used to intercept enemy weapon fire, instead of force fields. (And might be particularly suitable for a game system aiming for "realismn" or "hard science fiction")

Reactive Deflector Shield Powers
Interposing Shield (Minor, At-Will)
This ship gains a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex defense against the attack of a single, selected ship, until the start of its next turn.
Special: Elite ships may use this power twice per round, and solo ships three times per round, each time against a different ship.

Sudden Reaction (Immediate Interrupt, Encounter)
Trigger: One enemy attacks this ship and would normally hit.
Effect: Gain a +4 bonus against that attack.


Reactive Ablative Shield Powers
Interposing Shield (Minor, At-Will)
This ship gains resistance 5 (Heroic), 10 (Paragon) or 15 (Epic) against one enemy ship.
Special: Elite ships may use this power twice per round, and solo ships three times per round, each time against a different ship.

Sudden Reaction (Immediate Interrupt, Encounter)
Trigger: One enemy attack hits this ship.
Effect: Gain resistance 10 (heroic), 15 (paragon) or 20 (Epic) against that attack.

Both:
Transfer all Energy to Shields (Minor, Encounter)
The ship is lowed and weakened until the end of its next turn, but can spend one healing surge and recharges its sudden reaction power.


Some science fiction settings might contain more then one type of shield or combine their benefits. For example, Startrek seems to use a mix of Deflector and Ablative Shields, Star Wars seems to rely more on Ablative Shields (though the Yuzhang Vong might be a case of using reactive shields with their mini-black holes), the I-War ships use a kind of reactive deflection shield system, and Babylon 5 uses shield variants without force-field mumbo jumbo (interceptors cannons are reactive deflection shields, organic regenerative hulls might be ablative). Other settings seem to use no direct analogs, like Battlestar Galactica (the Flak Barrier used by Galactica seems better modelled by a different mechanic), Andromeda (if my memory doesn't fail me) or Firefly.



Side Note:
I am still using the standard D&D terms for many rules aspect, but they are not so well fitting any more. I'd say the damage type names are okay, but bloodied and healing surge doesn't really fit for space ships (except maybe "biomechanoids" like in Farscape) anymore. Anyone ideas on alternative names for these game terms?

Mustrum_Ridcully

Formians
One of the monsters of the 3E I found interesting but barely got to use were the Formian. I guess since the Borg from Star Trek, I like Hive creatures.
My idea of the Formians for 4E is that they are continuosly expanding their territories. Different Hives sometimes fight each other, but they also often ally each other for a common goal. They are as orderly as ever.
For 4E, I introduce more variants of the typical Formian Warrior. I am assuming that a mix of arcane manipulation and selective feeding allows the same base creature to shape into very different creatures, ranging from a simple worker over an independently thinking Myrmach to a Formian Queen itself.

I'll start with the typical "battle army" monsters. (Time and allowed space forces me to limit my post a little bit)

Formian Drone Recruit – Level 16 Minion
Small Immortal Magical Beast (Formian)
Initiative +16, Perception +12
HP: 1 (a miss never deals damage to a minion)
Defenses: AC 32, Fort 29, Ref 31, Will 29
Speed: 6 squares, Burrow 2 squares
Attacks & Powers
Basic Melee: Bite (Standard, At-Will)
+20 vs AC; 9 damage

Retreat (Immediate Reaction, Encounter)
Trigger: An enemy attack misses the Drone.
Effect: The drone shifts 4 squares.

Cure Wounds (Standard, Encounter)
To use this power, at least 3 Formian Drone Recruits or regular Drone Workers have to be adjacent to a bloodied ally. The ally can spend one healing surge.

Hive Mind
Formians never grant combat advantage by being blinded, deafened or flanked, unless all of the Formians in the same encounter are under one of these effects.

Alignment: Unaligned
Skills: Endurance 20; Language: Supernal
Ability Scores: Str 15, Con21, Dex24; Int6, Wis21, Cha9


Formian Warrior – Level 16 Soldier
Medium Immortal Magical Beast (Formian)

Initiative +17, Perception +12
HP 157; Bloodied 78
Defenses: AC 32, Fort 30, Ref 28, Will 28
Speed: 8 Squares, Burrow 2

Attacks & Powers
Basic Melee – Claw (Standard, At-Will)
+23 vs AC; 2d8+7 damage and the target is marked until the Formians next turn.

Sting (Standard, Recharge 5 6)
+21 vs Fortitude; 3d10+7 poison; Ongoing poison 5 (save ends). If the first save fails, the target is also dazed (save ends both).

Zeal (Standard, Recharge 6 or when bloodied)
The Formian Warrior may make a Claw and a Sting attack.

Combat Superiority
Formian Warriors gain a +5 bonus to opportunity attacks.

Hive Defense (Immediate Interrupt, Encounter)
Trigger: An enemy attacks an ally adjacent to this Formian. The attack is resolved against this Formian Warrior.

Hive Coordination
For each Formian adjacent to the target, the Formian gains a +1 bonsu to his melee attack roll.

Hive Mind
Formians never grant combat advantage by being blinded, deafened or flanked, unless all of the Formians in the same encounter are under one of these effects.

Alignment: Unaligned
Skills: Athletics +20, Endurance +18, Stealth +18; Languages: Supernal
Ability Scores: Str24, Con21, Dex21, Int16, Wis21, Cha10



Formian Scout – Level 14 Lurker
Medium Immortal Magical Beast (Formian)
Initiative +16; Perception: +17
HP: 118; Bloodied: 59
Defenses: AC 29, Fort 26, Ref 27, Will 26
Speed: 8 squares, burrow 4 squares
Attacks & Powers:

Basic Melee: Claw (Standard, At-Will)
+19 vs AC; 2d8+6 damage

Melee: Poison Sting (Standard, At-Will)
+19 vs AC; 2d8+6 damage and Followup: +17 vs Fortitude: Ongoing Poison 5 (save ends). If the first save fails, the target is dazed in addition (save ends both).

Melee: Erupt from Earth (Standard, Recharge 5 6)
The Formian scout must b burrowed to use this ability. Before the attack, he may shift at his burrow speed.
+19 vs AC; 3d6+6 damage, and the target is knocked prone.

Burrow Escape (Immediate Reaction, Encounter)
Trigger: An attack bloodies the Formian Scout.
The Formian Scout shifts at this burrow speed into the ground.

Hive Coordination
For each Formian adjacent to the target, the Formian gains a +1 bonsu to his melee attack roll.

Hive Mind
Formians never grant combat advantage by being blinded, deafened or flanked, unless all of the Formians in the same encounter are under one of these effects.

Alignment: Unaligned
Skills: Athleics +15, Acrobatics +17, Perception +17, Stealth +17
Ability Scores: Str17, Con20, Dex21, Int14, Wis20, Cha11




Formian Poison Hurler – Level 14 Artillery
Large Immortal Magical Beast (Formian)
Initiative +16, Perception +17
HP: 118; Bloodied 59
Defenses: Ac 27, Fort 26, Ref 27
Speed: 6 squares, Burrow 2

Basic Melee: Claws (Standard, At-Will)
+21 vs AC; 1d10+6 damage

Basic Ranged – Sting Hurl (Standard, At-Will)
Ranged 20/10: +19 vs Reflex; 1d10+6 acid and ongoing acid 5 (save ends)

Hurl Poison (Standard, Recharge 5 6)
Ranged 10: +19 vs Reflex; 2d6+6 acid and poison; Follow-Up: +19 vs Fortitude: Ongoing Poison 10. If the first save fails, the target is also dazed (save ends both).

Spray Corrosive (Standard, Encounter)
Close Blast 3: +19 vs Reflex: 3d10+6 damage and ongoing acid 5 (save ends). Miss: Half damage and no ongoing damage.

Hive Coordination
For each Formian adjacent to a target, the Formian gains a +1 bonus to his melee attack roll.

Hive Mind
Formians never grant combat advantage by being blinded, deafened or flanked, unless all of the Formians in the same encounter are under one of these effects.

Alignment: Unaligned
Skills: Perception +17, Stealth +17; Languages: Supernal

Ability Scores: Str17, Con20, Dex21, Int14, Wis20, Cha11


Formian Battlewing – Level 14 Skirmisher
Medium Immortal Magical Beast (Formian)

The Formian Battlewing is a rare Formian variant. Not all Hive Queens have the ability to spin off Battlewings, as they are a recent result of the Formian experimentations.
His greatest weakness is his frail body, more importantly his frail wings.

Initiative +17; Perception +17
HP: 140; Bloodied 70 (see Fragile Wings)
Defenses: AC 29, Fort 26, Ref 27, Will 26
Speed: 8 squares, Fly 8 squares (Hover)

Attacks & Powers:
Basic Melee – Claw (Standard, At-Wil)
+19 vs AC; 2d8+6 damage

Dive Attack (Standard, At-Will)
While flying, the Formian may make a charge attack and move half his flight speed after the attack is completed.

Sudden Retreat (Immediate Reaction, Encounter)
If an enemy misses the Formian, he can immediately shift 4 squares.

Fragile Wings
A Formian Battlewing that is bloodied loses its fly speed and – if still midair – crashes.

Hive Coordination
For each Formian adjacent to a target, the Formian gains a +1 bonus to his melee attack roll.

Hive Mind
Formians never grant combat advantage by being blinded, deafened or flanked, unless all of the Formians in the same encounter are under one of these effects.

Alignment: Unaligned
Skills: Endurance +13, Perception +17, Stealth +18; Languages: Supernal
Ability Scores: Str20, Con12, Int14, Wis20, Cha11


Next to Come: The Formian Myrmach, Taskmaster, Warmaster, the Queen and the regular (non-Minion lower level) Drone.

Mustrum_Ridcully

In this blog entry, I present you a write-up for the Arcana Evolved Faen.
Faen in Arcana Evolved come in three varieties, two of them not dissimilar to the two Elves (Elf and Eladrin) in D&D 4E. The Quickling Faen are more “physical” and mobile, while the Loresong Faen are more magical. The third variety is a Spryte, a tiny, winged fey version of the original Faen (Quickling or Loresong)
Arcana Evolved accomplished this with Racial Levels, I will do it with Paragon Path. This might delay the transformation more then in original AE, but at-will fly doesn't fit too well into 4E before the Paragon tier (and even there it is strong – so take care!)

Faen
Ability Scores: +2 Dex, +2 Intelligence
Size: Small
Speed: 5 squares
Vision: Low-Light
Languages: Common, Faen
Skills: +2 to Stealth. Loresong Faen gain also a +2 bonus to Arcana, while Quickling Faen gain a +2 bonus to Acrobatics.
Fey Origin: Faen are considered Fey Humanoids.

Loresong Special Abilities:
- A Loresong Faen can use one Wizard Cantrip as an encounter power.
- A Loresong Faen can use one Wizard 1st level At-Will Attack as a Encounter power.
- Loresong Faen gain a +2 bonus to Willpower Defense.
Special: A Loresong Faen Wizard replaces his racial Wizard Cantrip and his racial Wizard Encounter power with a single extra Wizard At-Will power.

Quickling Special Abilities:
- Quickling Faen can shift even in difficult terrain.
- When running or charging, a Quickling Faen adds another +2 squares to the movement.
- Quickling Faen gain a +5 bonus on saves versus any effect that slows, immobilizes or restrains them.
- Quickling Faen gain a +2 bonus to Reflex Defense.
- Quickling Faen can use the Quickling Stride as an encounter power.
Quickling Stride – Racial Power
You burst into motion.
Encounter – Fey
Action: Minor; Target: Personal
Effect: The Quickling Faen may move at his speed.


Feat: Spryte Glow (Spryte, Paragon)
Prerequisite: Spryte
The Spryte can glow as a free action. The glow can be as bright as lightening up a 5 square burst. Any radiant power used by the Spryte or one of his allies within the area gains a +2 damage bonus.
The Spryte can change the bust area on his turn as a free action.

Spryte Paragon Path

Prerequisite (11th): Faen, Dex 13

Metamorphosis (11th): The Faen undergoes a metamorphosis to become a Spryte. He gains a+2 bonus to Dex, but suffers a -2 penalty to Strength. His size changes to tiny (but this doesn't affect his reach). In addition, he grows wings that allow him to fly at his speed as a move action. If he ends his turn aloft, he crashes.

Spryte Action (11th): When the Spryte spends an action point, he can also spend a move action to fly at his speed.

Improved Flight (16th): The Spryte masters the art of flying, and gains a flight speed equal to his base speed +2. He can hover.

Spryte Charm – Spryte Paragon Attack 11
Your soft voice enthralls your enemies mind
Encounter – Arcane, Fey, Charm
Action: Standard; Area: Ranged 10
Attack: Charisma +2 vs Willpower; Target: One creature
Hit: The creature is charmed until the end of your next turn. It is considered dazed but can take no attacks, unless it was attacked while being charmed. You can order its movement, but not into danger.
Sustain Standard: Make a new Charisma vs Willpower attack. If successful, the power persists until the end of next turn. You can designate the creature to a new space as part of this action.

Spryte Retreat – Spryte Paragon Utility 12
You hide yourself from the eyes of others to flee to safety
Encounter – Arcane, Fey, Teleport, Illusion
Action: Move; Target: Personal
Effect: You turn invisible until the end of your next turn or until you attack, and shift your fly speed.

Spryte Whispers – Spryte Paragon Attack 20
[i]The creature listens to your mental whispers, giving in into your influence.[⁄i]
Daily – Arcane, Fey, Charm, Psychic
Action: Standard; Area: Ranged 10
Attack: Charisma +4 vs Willpower; Target: One creature
Hit: The target is stunned until the end of your next turn.
Secondary Attack Target: Original Creature
Secondary Attack: Charisma +4 vs Willpower. Implant a suggestion that is triggered by an event specified by you.
Sustain Standard: Make a new Cha vs Will attack. If successful, the effect persists until the end of your next turn. The creature remains stunned, and you can add another suggestion.
Special:
A suggestion requires the order the creature has to perform and the trigger event to have the suggestion work out. The order and trigger can be as complex as you like, but the creature might be unable to correctly perform orders beyond its intellect. The moment the suggestion is triggered, the target begins performing all actions required to fulfill the order, but at the end of each of its turn, it makes a new Save to stop following the order, and the order and its associated trigger no longer work. The target is aware of its actions, but doesn't know that it was following a suggestion, not his own free will.
The order of the suggestion may never be suicidal. If the order is dangerous (likely to cause injuries or disease), or against the general nature of the creature (attacking a friend), add a +2 bonus to its save..
Unlike other powers, the creature is not aware of all its effects – it (obviously) notices the stun effect, but it is unaware of your suggestions.

.....
Notes:
The Paragon Path Attacks all get a bonus to their attack rolls, since you can't use implements with them.

The Spryte Glow didn't fit in the Paragon Paths, and making it a feat demanded making it more effective. The +2 to damage with radiant weapons is compareble to feats like Astral Fire, but a little more limited (but also more useful for the entire party).

The Faen Loresong racial abilities is a little more comlex then I like, but I wanted to give it the "wizardy" feel with the cantrip, but it feels worthless for Loresong Wizards. Maybe it would be okay to make no special rule for this. An extra encounter power (even if it's normally just an at-will) might be enough for the Wizard, and the wasted cantrip might be irrelevant.

Mustrum_Ridcully

As one of many side projects, I have been in the process of converting some Diamond Throne stuff for a potential 4E game. I am not sure I am gonna use it, and I am faaar from finished.

If you don't know Arcana Evolved or the Diamond Throne follow the links and read a short exposition:
Arcana Evolved is a variant player handbook for 3E D&D by Monte Cook. The Diamond Throne was the "implied" setting in the first "edition" (Arcana Unearthed) and was later fleshed out in a setting book. The setting is - unlike the D&D 4 default assumption - not a Points of Light campaign. The Diamond Throne is an Empire lead by (mostly benevolent) Giants and covers a wide area of the game region. It was established after a brutal war against the Dramojh, a mix of Dragons and Demons. The Diamond Throne is safely established, though Arcana Evolved added a new dynamic by advancing the timeline a few years - the Dragons are back (originally responsible for the creation of the Dramojh, but having left the lands of the Diamond Throne before the Dramojh returned), and they are not exactly happy with the Giant presence. What happens next is left open...

If you're interested in the setting, I strongly recommend getting the Arcana Evolved rulebook and a few of the supplements. They are all of high quality and contain very interesting elements. As an example, Legacy of the Dragons is a fantastic monster book, in my opinion. The Arcana Evolved rules material itself is fully compatible with D&D 3E, and introduce a different (and more varied) spellcasting system and many new classes.

Okay, after this exposition, onto the rules stuff. There are many things to do. There are several classes in Arcana Evolved, and it remains to be seen if they can be converted faithfully to AE. There are also a host of new races, and I will start with these. I will start on this blog with the Giants.

The Arcana Evolved Giants are different from the 3.5 Giants. They are benevolent, crafters and spiritual without being religious. A unique feature is that they historically have two “modes” of operation. When they fought the Dramojh, they used a ritual called “Chi Julud” to turn themselves into terrible warriors. Now, that they are at peace, they used a ritual to get into the state of “Si-Karan”, where they are protectors and crafters. Giants also used rituals to increase their size (starting as very large medium size creatures). For the moment, I decided to keep them at medium size in 4E, too.

Giant Racial Traits
Ability Scores: +2 Str, +2 Wis
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Common, Giant
Skill Bonus: +2 Diplomacy, History and Insight
Care of Si Karan: You can use Care of Si Karan as an encounter power.
Mighty Build: You can wield weapons one size category larger then you.
Spirit of Chi Julud: When you're bloodied, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls.


Care of Si Karan – Giant Racial Power
You come to the aid of your ally.
Encounter – Giant
Action: Minor; Melee 1; Target: 1 Ally
Prerequisite: Target is under an effect that requires a save to end.
Effect: The target can immediately make a new save to end the ongoing effect.

Giant Racial Feat
Note: I added Ceremony as a new descriptor for the feats, though I don't know yet how they will figure into things. For the moment, it's just a place holder.

Caretaker (Ceremony, Giant)
Prerequisite: Giant, Cha13, Wis13, Skill Training (Heal)
When using the Care of Si-Karan power, your ally may add your Charisma bonus to the saving throw.

War Dancer (Ceremony, Giant)
Prerequisite: Giant, Cha13, Wis13, Level 8+
You can replace one of your utility powers with the Rage of Chi Julud power.

State of Chi-Julud – Giant Racial Power 8
You turn into the state of Chi Julud, channelling your inner fury, turning into a terrifying but reckless foe.
Daily – Giant, Stance
Action: Immediate (Reaction); Personal
Trigger: You are bloodied.
Effect: In this stance, you may add your Wisdom modifier to all damage on successful attacks, but suffer a -2 penalty to defenses. These benefits and drawbacks only apply while you are bloodied.

Giant Paragon Path
Prerequisite: Giant, War Dancer and Care Taker
Note: The Giant Paragon Path is best suited for Defenders (Chi-Julud) and Leaders (Si-Karan).

Giant Size (11th) : Your size increases to Large. You gain a +2 bonus to Strength, but suffer a -2 penalty to Dexterity. Your speed increases by 1 square, and you gain Reach 2.

Special: You have to decide whether you want to focus on the caring aspect of Si Karan, or on the war-like aspect of Chi Julud. This determines the paragon features you gain and the powers you may learn.

Giant Action (Si-Karan, 11th level) : When you spend an action point, all allies immediately recover a number of hit points equal to your level + wisdom bonus.
Giant Action (Chi-Julud, 11th level) : When you spend an action point to gain an extra action, you may add your wisdom bonus to your attacks and checks made until the start of your next turn.

Giant Wisdom (Si-Karan, 16th level) : You gain a +2 bonus to Wisdom.
Giant Resilience (Chi-Julud, 16th level) : You gain a +2 bonus to Constitution.


Might of Chi Julud – Giant Paragon Attack 11
With a powerful strike you knock your enemy down, and inspire your allies to attempt the same.
Encounter – Martial, Weapon, Giant
Action: Standard; Range: Melee Weapon; Target: One creature
Attack: Str vs AC
Hit: 2 [W] + STR and the target is knocked prone. Each ally within 5 squares can make a basic melee at one target of his or her choice as a free action. This attack deals no damage but knocks the target prone. The attacks of your allies enjoy a special bonus equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier.

Anger of Chi Julud – Giant Paragon Utility 12
Daily – Stance, Healing, Giant
Action: Minor; Range: Personal
Effect: You gain regeneration 2+WIS as long as your bloodied. You also gain gain a +1 bonus to all defenses.

Fury of Chi Julud – Giant Paragon Attack 20
Daily – Martial, Weapon, Giant, Stance
Action: Standard; Range: Close Burst 3; Target: All enemies in Burst.
Attack: Str vs AC;
Hit: 1 [W] + your strength modifier damage.
Effect: The Giant gains threatening reach until he ends this stance.


Protection of Si Karan . Giant Paragon Attack 11
You use your presence on the battlefield to unnerve your enemies and protect your allies.
Encounter – Melee, Giant
Action: Standard; Range: Melee Weapon; Target: One creature
Attack: Str vs AC
Hit: 2 [W] + your strength modifier damage, and the target is marked.
Effect: All adjacent allies gain a +2 bonus to their AC and Reflex Defense until the end of your next turn.

Insights of Si-Karan . Giant Paragon Utility 12
You use the ancient Giants wisdom as an inspirations for others.
Daily – Melee, Giant
Action: Free; Area: Close Burst 10; Target: One ally or you.
Trigger: One ally makes an ability or skill check based on Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma.
Effect: The target gains a +5 bonus to his check. He can reroll the check and take the better result.

Guidance of Si Karan - Giant Paragon Attack 20
Using Giant wisdom, you guide your allies into battle.
Daily – Melee, Giant
Action: Standard; Range: Melee or Ranged Weapon; Target: One creature
Attack: Wis vs AC
Hit: 3 [W] + your Wis modifier damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: All your allies within 10 squares gain temporary hit points equal to your level + your Wisdom bonus.

So, that was the players side. I also have a few drafts for Giant monster stat blocks, and these might be the next in line to post. Check the blog for further updates, (EDIT: ) or discuss it in the 4E House Rules forum or the blogs comments...

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