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Resuming and Concluding my Epic 4e Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="nogray" data-source="post: 8213033" data-attributes="member: 28028"><p>A couple of house rules:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><u>Ability Scores</u>: At each level where you would normally choose two scores to improve, instead all scores improve. This is in part to prevent the defenses from becoming too lopsided. It also allows for a decent progression of AC even among those few light-armor characters that don't prioritize Dexterity or Intelligence.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><u>The "Feat Tax" Bonuses</u>: At level 5, all characters receive a +1 bonus to attack rolls and all defenses (AC and NAD). At level 15, all characters receive a +1 Feat Bouns to the same; at level 25, this Feat Bonus increases to +2. This means that characters can avoid the "feat taxes," but can still gain a benefit for investing in those feats.</li> </ul><p>I don't recall exactly when we enacted these house rules, but it was fairly early in the campaign. It speaks to some of my philosophies in gaming.</p><p></p><p>From here, I have a lot more detailed notes, so I could speak to most of what I used as encounters and skill challenges for the characters. Unfortunately, only some of it was thrilling and interesting to me. If you have a question, please ask and I will clarify. But on to the summary:</p><p></p><p>The rest of level 8:</p><p>The party departed for the Feywild and ventured to the portion where they needed to enact the ritual. Successfully navigating some of the lesser dangers of the Feywild (and avoiding the Murkendraw, where Baba Yaga dwelt), the party performed the necessary rituals that would block the purification of the Elemental Chaos materials that would flow from there to the World when Kiernan activated his machine.</p><p></p><p>Level 9:</p><p>That taken care of, the party negotiated a passage to an area where more materials, found only in the Elemental Chaos itself, could be retrieved. I recall some combats, here, wherein I tried to incorporate some interesting terrain. I don't recall it going too well, and it is something about which I am unhappy with regards to my performance as a 4e DM. I know this is supposed to be a major factor, but it always seemed to fall flat when I tried it. In this case, the characters were harvesting crystals from a cave. Some of the crystals had properties of being able to transport through them (walk into one crystal and out another) or shoot ranged attacks through them. The characters largely ignored the features, even as the enemies used the crystals to some small advantage.</p><p></p><p>Once the materials were gathered, the characters headed off to the site at the edge of the Abyss where the ritual to fully block Kiernan's machine had to take place. I had a waved encounter here with a hostile environment and mandated skill checks. I also had optional skill checks to figure out where and what type of damage was coming on the next round. This was a little better than the aforementioned crystals, but I still don't feel it went over too well.</p><p></p><p>Level 10:</p><p>The characters returned to the World from their brief extraplanar adventures to find Bomire in chaos. I had a fire rampaging and some riots in Bomire, and I had a mini-game where the players put out fires (real and metaphoric) to re-stabilize Bomire. This was another fun sort of skill challenge that I put forth to the characters. They made up what the characters did and I adjudicated checks and narrated how the situation changed due to the check results. The characters initiated another skill challenge to find the heir of Sir Rathel Kiernan. I think this was due to them planning on killing Kiernan and joining the ruling families of Bomire.</p><p></p><p>The party traced the troubles in Bomire to a "city corruptor" that they then eliminated (after tracing it to the Mayor of Bomire's estate). Tracing infernal corruption to the Mayor led to that individual's ousting, with various positions subsequently opening up in Bomire's political hierarchy. With the aid of the head of one of the major houses of Bomire, the party once again infiltrated a party at Kiernan's, this time with the intent of stopping him from activating the machine, even with its functionality impaired or disabled by the rituals the party had performed. Eventually, the adventurers were discovered and attacked by some of Kiernan's guardian automata. The heads of the various ruling families of Bomire were attening the activation of Kiernan's machine, wherein they had been instucted to each place a stone from that family's estate (with the intent that the machine would purify the stones into gems, cementing Kiernan's usefulness to the Bomire nobility and granting him a measure of elemental and political power). The machine failed spectacularly, detonating moments after activation. The party killed Kiernan and rescued the remaining family heads.</p><p></p><p>Thanks to this, someone from Lucretia's barony was appointed to the "ruling family" class in Bomire (she was offered the position but demurred). This concluded the character's 10th level adventures, so the party leveled to 11th. The selection of Paragon Paths went as follows: Lucretia accepted a title (heir apparent to the Barony of Veronia), activating her noble blood as a Turathi Highborn; Makaria was recognized by the Paladins of the Fortress of the Final Pact as a foe to Devilkind, activating the latent powers of a Hell's Keeper; Caladan (a rogue who had been adventuring with the party) was trained by a weaponmaster to become a Daggermaster; Kha'zek (a dragonborn . . . something? . . . undertook a pilgrimage to drink the "Blood of Io"; and Fulgrim's divine radiance burst forth from within, awakening the radiant powers of a Morninglord. (Lucretia/Fulgrim's player asked if he could become a Morninglord despite not worshiping Amanataur, and I assented, asking if I could tweak the character's un-remembered backstory. The player agreed and I started deep planning for what had been up until then a very secondary character.)</p><p></p><p>Up next: Early Paragon adventures.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nogray, post: 8213033, member: 28028"] A couple of house rules: [LIST] [*][U]Ability Scores[/U]: At each level where you would normally choose two scores to improve, instead all scores improve. This is in part to prevent the defenses from becoming too lopsided. It also allows for a decent progression of AC even among those few light-armor characters that don't prioritize Dexterity or Intelligence. [*][U]The "Feat Tax" Bonuses[/U]: At level 5, all characters receive a +1 bonus to attack rolls and all defenses (AC and NAD). At level 15, all characters receive a +1 Feat Bouns to the same; at level 25, this Feat Bonus increases to +2. This means that characters can avoid the "feat taxes," but can still gain a benefit for investing in those feats. [/LIST] I don't recall exactly when we enacted these house rules, but it was fairly early in the campaign. It speaks to some of my philosophies in gaming. From here, I have a lot more detailed notes, so I could speak to most of what I used as encounters and skill challenges for the characters. Unfortunately, only some of it was thrilling and interesting to me. If you have a question, please ask and I will clarify. But on to the summary: The rest of level 8: The party departed for the Feywild and ventured to the portion where they needed to enact the ritual. Successfully navigating some of the lesser dangers of the Feywild (and avoiding the Murkendraw, where Baba Yaga dwelt), the party performed the necessary rituals that would block the purification of the Elemental Chaos materials that would flow from there to the World when Kiernan activated his machine. Level 9: That taken care of, the party negotiated a passage to an area where more materials, found only in the Elemental Chaos itself, could be retrieved. I recall some combats, here, wherein I tried to incorporate some interesting terrain. I don't recall it going too well, and it is something about which I am unhappy with regards to my performance as a 4e DM. I know this is supposed to be a major factor, but it always seemed to fall flat when I tried it. In this case, the characters were harvesting crystals from a cave. Some of the crystals had properties of being able to transport through them (walk into one crystal and out another) or shoot ranged attacks through them. The characters largely ignored the features, even as the enemies used the crystals to some small advantage. Once the materials were gathered, the characters headed off to the site at the edge of the Abyss where the ritual to fully block Kiernan's machine had to take place. I had a waved encounter here with a hostile environment and mandated skill checks. I also had optional skill checks to figure out where and what type of damage was coming on the next round. This was a little better than the aforementioned crystals, but I still don't feel it went over too well. Level 10: The characters returned to the World from their brief extraplanar adventures to find Bomire in chaos. I had a fire rampaging and some riots in Bomire, and I had a mini-game where the players put out fires (real and metaphoric) to re-stabilize Bomire. This was another fun sort of skill challenge that I put forth to the characters. They made up what the characters did and I adjudicated checks and narrated how the situation changed due to the check results. The characters initiated another skill challenge to find the heir of Sir Rathel Kiernan. I think this was due to them planning on killing Kiernan and joining the ruling families of Bomire. The party traced the troubles in Bomire to a "city corruptor" that they then eliminated (after tracing it to the Mayor of Bomire's estate). Tracing infernal corruption to the Mayor led to that individual's ousting, with various positions subsequently opening up in Bomire's political hierarchy. With the aid of the head of one of the major houses of Bomire, the party once again infiltrated a party at Kiernan's, this time with the intent of stopping him from activating the machine, even with its functionality impaired or disabled by the rituals the party had performed. Eventually, the adventurers were discovered and attacked by some of Kiernan's guardian automata. The heads of the various ruling families of Bomire were attening the activation of Kiernan's machine, wherein they had been instucted to each place a stone from that family's estate (with the intent that the machine would purify the stones into gems, cementing Kiernan's usefulness to the Bomire nobility and granting him a measure of elemental and political power). The machine failed spectacularly, detonating moments after activation. The party killed Kiernan and rescued the remaining family heads. Thanks to this, someone from Lucretia's barony was appointed to the "ruling family" class in Bomire (she was offered the position but demurred). This concluded the character's 10th level adventures, so the party leveled to 11th. The selection of Paragon Paths went as follows: Lucretia accepted a title (heir apparent to the Barony of Veronia), activating her noble blood as a Turathi Highborn; Makaria was recognized by the Paladins of the Fortress of the Final Pact as a foe to Devilkind, activating the latent powers of a Hell's Keeper; Caladan (a rogue who had been adventuring with the party) was trained by a weaponmaster to become a Daggermaster; Kha'zek (a dragonborn . . . something? . . . undertook a pilgrimage to drink the "Blood of Io"; and Fulgrim's divine radiance burst forth from within, awakening the radiant powers of a Morninglord. (Lucretia/Fulgrim's player asked if he could become a Morninglord despite not worshiping Amanataur, and I assented, asking if I could tweak the character's un-remembered backstory. The player agreed and I started deep planning for what had been up until then a very secondary character.) Up next: Early Paragon adventures. [/QUOTE]
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