D&D 4E Forked Thread: Al-Qadim, Land of Fate 4e

[Quickleaf]

I've attached my rough draft of the fighter builds (askar, guard, mamluk, nadim, sahib).

Also revised the first page of post with latest project details.

I wonder if we should go the Exalted route and develop both traditional campaigns and then HUGE mystery campaigns that themselves could span several of the more traditional campaigns.

I was thinking along the same lines with "helping choose the next Grand Caliph" mega-plot. Great minds... I see the campaign concepts as suited to a particular tier or two, while the mega-plots span all three tiers or even multiple campaigns.

You've definitey intrigued me with the idea of linking mega-plots to epic destinies. I think it works really well, for example...

Play out the Reformation of the Caliphate --> Grand Caliph or Grandfather of Assassins
Find, Bind, and Canonize the Lore of Fate --> Loregiver's Handmaiden
Reform the Genie Oaths --> Keeper of the Seal

 

[Quickleaf]

Oh, since I've nixed "Matrud" as a ranger build, I can add another build. I thought about "mercenary barbarian", but that's better suited for the barbarian class. I decided to make Corsair and Desert Rider ranger builds so far.

And here's my first rogue write-up for the "Barber"...

Barber

“Why that most precious of golden razors is reserved for the illustrious Sultan…”

Legends tell of the mad barber who collects the ears of his victims, but most folks dismiss such tales as fantasy. That is unfortunate for them. Plying your razor and wit inconspicuously in the bazaar and noble houses, you are a barber – an apothecary, informant, surgeon, and a menacing spy hellbent on revenge. Whether you seek blood for a wrong done to you, or are willing to do what ever it takes to uncover a conspiracy, you carry a list of targets who deserve death. While you may choose to bring them to justice alive, or even attempt to make them repent of their wicked ways, you always do so in a twisted fashion. You derive a sick enjoyment from watching your clients squirm as you engage them with an offbeat and rambling story…and all the more so when it is the wicked man who unwittingly submits to a shave. Will you become the bloody-minded barber of legend or in the final hour will the razor of your revenge be put to other uses?

 

[Jubelo]

I was just looking over the cleric builds and had a couple comments.

Hakima's Divine Truth ability allows her to detect alignment, which I believe was removed in this edition.

The Mystic's Lore ability could potentially give a 1st level Mystic a close burst 7 attack, which seems rather powerful. What if it granted bursts and blasts their original size or wisdom modifier, whichever was greater?

Jon

 

[Quickleaf]

Hakima's Divine Truth ability allows her to detect alignment, which I believe was removed in this edition.

I agree and I'll change it. Btw, I used the paladin paragon path Astral Weapon as a model - it provides a power which recharges if used succesfully vs. evil or chaotic evil foes.

The Mystic's Lore ability could potentially give a 1st level Mystic a close burst 7 attack, which seems rather powerful. What if it granted bursts and blasts their original size or wisdom modifier, whichever was greater?

Right, beacon of hope & divine glow could have their ranged about doubled. Do you really think that's too powerful given the larger scale of 4e combat? I didn't go with "wisdom or original size" because it wouldn't benefit ranged powers or close burst 5 powers unless the cleric maxed out wisdom. Then again the other cleric build's "lore" features give less than a 100% increase to healing HP, save difficulty, etc.

 

[Hodag]

Version 1 of the AQ MC is Up!

If you click this link
You will go to a Mediafire page where you can download the first release of MC 13A -- The Al-Qadim 4e Monstrous Compendium!

Please let me know what you think. I can't fix what I'm too dumb to realize is broken or missing...

 

[Jubelo]

If you click this link
You will go to a Mediafire page where you can download the first release of MC 13A -- The Al-Qadim 4e Monstrous Compendium!

Please let me know what you think. I can't fix what I'm too dumb to realize is broken or missing...

When I opened the AQ beastiary, I got 210 very small blank pages (they opened as a default at something like 4500% normal size to look 'normal' to me).

I could open and see Jester's monsters. One thing that struck me was the large amount of white space being used and the use of three pages per monster. I don't know if this was deliberate or a result of the program you use?

I know next to nothing about web publishing, converting or creating pdf's and other similar topics, so if something is a normal step in the creation process, ignore me

Asmor has a monster creator that makes .mon files and can export to HTML. I use that, and it make my critters look good. Keterys has a word template he was kind enough to share as well. Would either of those be helpful?

Jon

 

[Hodag]

When I opened the AQ beastiary, I got 210 very small blank pages (they opened as a default at something like 4500% normal size to look 'normal' to me).

I could open and see Jester's monsters. One thing that struck me was the large amount of white space being used and the use of three pages per monster. I don't know if this was deliberate or a result of the program you use?

I know next to nothing about web publishing, converting or creating pdf's and other similar topics, so if something is a normal step in the creation process, ignore me

Asmor has a monster creator that makes .mon files and can export to HTML. I use that, and it make my critters look good. Keterys has a word template he was kind enough to share as well. Would either of those be helpful?

Jon

Uploaded the wrong dang file...should be fixed and a new link posted in about 10 minutes.
The format was chosen that way to resemble the old 2e layout of the Monstrous Compendiums. I have Asmor's Monster Maker, which unfortunately does not run on a Mac so I have reboot into Windows to use it. I am using a database so I can sort on specific things (Name, Role, Level, Converted by) and so I can add creatures very quickly and have all the formatting and a lot of the calculations done on the fly. Even so, the slowest thing for me is the extracting of the flavor text from my scanned copies of ALL the Monstrous Compendiums and the editing of such into a coherent and useable format. I uploaded the empty database, so if you want to take a shot at reconfiguring it (and have a copy of Filemaker Pro) have at it! I will make a stab at laying it out to be more similar to the 4e MM layout, but I personally think that that layout is ugly.

Also the 3 pages per critter was an error...

 

[Hodag]

Fixed version up!

Link

Sorry about that.

 

[Hodag]

Heroic Heritages

Have you seen this thread?

 

[Jubelo]

Sorry it's taken so long for me to get back to you, Hodag.

The preliminary Monstrous Compendium looks good.

I have no experience with FilePro (and don't have it in any case) so I'd be of no use there.

If we decide on using a mostly 2nd edition layout, that's fine too. I like the 4e stat block because it's more compact and we could fit several versions of the same monster on one page. I do agree that the general 4e look isn't as good looking as it could be though.

I hope that my comments didn't come across as snarky at all; I often write when I'm tired and suspect I'm not as clear as I could be.

Jon

P.S. Been working on a mid paragon solo fire mage to be the leader of the Rekindled Brotherhood. I should have him up in a day or so on the monster thread.