D&D 4E D&D 4E Tips/Tricks/Advice

[Godaikin Engineer]

Greetings everyone, Godaikin Engineer here.

I'm going to be the DM for a 4th edition game we're starting up. I've been playing D&D since 1979, so although I have a good grounding in the general game, 4th ED is sufficiently different from my prior experience that I need to solicit advice from those who've played for a while.

Specifically, I'm looking for the non-obvious things that, once known, players & DMs can work around/avoid/embrace. Things like this:


"Watch out for $RULE, because nobody ever remembers to use it, and if you don't, your monsters will make a TPK all the time."


"If any PC takes $POWER1 and $POWER2 together, they're going to be hell on wheels. It hasn't been errata'ed, so you may need to compensate."


"The way $PROCEDURE works is really not spelled out well, so our group has done $MODIFIED_PROCEDURE and that helps out a lot."


"Always keep an empty bottle in the van. You'll know why."


"I find that keeping a bucket of chopsticks around in which I carve the names of PC abilities is really handy, here's why:"


I know that 4th-ED hasn't been around very long yet, but any additional info I can get to front-load my DM'ing would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[zoroaster100]

As a DM with players who are new to fourth edition (actually new to D&D), I've found that sometimes I need to remind them that they have action points they can choose to use.

I also found it necessary to remind the players about subtracting healing surges when they use them up while healing or being healed. Though in our fourth session it seems they have "got it" and are remembering pretty consistently now.

They still tend to hoard their daily and even encounter powers and rely mostly on at will powers unless things take a turn for the worse. I sometimes remind them to use their encounter powers towards the end of an encounter if they still haven't used it, to get them to experience the effectiveness of these.

Stealth is definitely tricky, but the new errata rules from August 11 make it much easier to adjudicate (whether or not you like the errata).

 

[Godaikin Engineer]

As a DM with players who are new to fourth edition (actually new to D&D), I've found that sometimes I need to remind them that they have action points they can choose to use.

I also found it necessary to remind the players about subtracting healing surges when they use them up while healing or being healed. Though in our fourth session it seems they have "got it" and are remembering pretty consistently now.

They still tend to hoard their daily and even encounter powers and rely mostly on at will powers unless things take a turn for the worse. I sometimes remind them to use their encounter powers towards the end of an encounter if they still haven't used it, to get them to experience the effectiveness of these.

Stealth is definitely tricky, but the new errata rules from August 11 make it much easier to adjudicate (whether or not you like the errata).

Good tips, thanks.

Are the errata rules the PDFs that WotC put up? Or is errata trickled out somewhere else?

 

[timbannock]

Errata's on the WOTC website...the PDFs.

My biggest piece of advice on newly trying 4E is that I copied down all the combat maneuvers as easily referenced "combat cards", all the conditions as the same, and then all of the various usese of skills as the same. I (generally) fit 9 such cards to a page. That made the Combat Cards 2 pages and the Conditions 1 page, which I affixed to a DM screen, along with a combat flowchart.

The Skill one I just printed out and stapled together (it's like 3 or 4 pages)...I found I reference this one the least, so it's fine not having right on a DM screen.

But doing all that was well worth the effort....forced me to read and understand each of those maneuvers/conditions/skills, and then rewrite it to fit a fairly small area on paper, so I learned to word it succinctly and could reference all of it lightning quick at the table.

Combine that with a single sheet for each player of their character's powers (scanned straight out of the book), and you pretty much do zero referencing during the game. It's pretty sweet.

 

[timbannock]

Double post

 

[Shabe]

Good tips, thanks.

Are the errata rules the PDFs that WotC put up? Or is errata trickled out somewhere else?

Yep, those are the erratas, all handily dated so you know if you have the latest ones.

One other thing i'd point out, that power cards would be a big help for your players, it saves flicking through the rulebook to look up powers.

Also there are plenty of threads on Enworld discussing the use of different game aids to assist in marking conditions like marking, divine challenges, curses etc. My favourite is either coloured paper clips or pipe cleaners, just use a unique colour for each effect.

Also point out to your players that there are other moves they can use during combat aside from their powers, demonstrating this via using your monsters to do it to the players is generally quite effective.

It might also be a good idea to go through an open book session, run through with the rulebooks wide open showing what the monsters are doing and what the players are doing so everyone can get to grips with the rules and make sure that no one is misinterpreting them, like there is no str+1/2 bonus for wielding weapons two handed, you do get one opportunity attack for every creature's turn, you don't get dex/int bonus to AC in heavy armour.
There are lots of small differences as well as the big obvious ones that it is probably worthwhile getting yourselves accustomed to the rules, or if not your players then running through the rules a couple of times yourself.

 

[Nebulous]

We have a diligent player who has made laminated Power Cards for everyone. Hands down the best thing to do on the players side.

Other tips and tricks: if you're using minis, and we are heavy miniature users, then you're going to want markers for Bloodied, Marked, Cursed, Dazed, etc...

The same diligent player cut handfuls of square colored foam to place under the miniatures. It has helped tremendously, and everyone pitches in, it's not just the DM fiddling with the pads. In fact, combat would be much more complex if we didn't have the markers.

As a DM, i still want a way to track player Healing Surges a little better.

Has anyone else thought about that or addressed it? Seems like an easy place where the rules can get fudged.

 

[Bayonet_Chris]

Hints and tips

I find I need to remind the players to mark off their healing surges and to use their action points too. One other thing is to get them to understand that "Effect" means it happens regardless of hit or miss. I've had many players miss with an effect but tell me that nothing else happens when I asked.

 

[Nebulous]

I find I need to remind the players to mark off their healing surges and to use their action points too. One other thing is to get them to understand that "Effect" means it happens regardless of hit or miss. I've had many players miss with an effect but tell me that nothing else happens when I asked.

Oh, yeah, the Action Points. I use tokens from the Descent Boardgame, it's a little skull. I hand them out as visual reminders of action points, and the players hand them to me when they use them. At first we were all forgetting to use them until i used the tokens.

 

[Coyraven]

I know that 4th-ED hasn't been around very long yet, but any additional info I can get to front-load my DM'ing would be helpful.

Hello,

For marking and other lingering effects, we use poker chips and other colored discs. We don't have enough variety yet, but their mere presence tends to keep people paying attention to such things.

Most of the players have their pc's powers on color index cards (different colors for different types-- at will vs encounter and so on). We flip them as they are used-- it helps keep things orderly.

The only thing the players tend to forget to note is when their pc's are bloodied.

As experienced 3.x players, we sometimes get tripped up by small changes (the bonus to hit from charging is typical).

Good Luck
CR