D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade

[thalmin]

We received the kits for the next season (starting Feb. 9) entitled March of the Phantom Brigade. This season will have 13 sessions, and again uses Essentials characters. The characters will start out from the of Hammerfast. The first chapter assumes Character Level 1, second CL2, and third CL3.
The provided characters are:

• Keira: Elven Rogue (Thief)
• Brandis: Himan Paladin (Cavalier)
• Fargrim: Dwarf Fighter (Slayer)
• Valenae: Eladrin Cleric (War Priest)
• Belgos: Drow Ranger (Hunter)
• Jarren: Human Wizard (Evocation Mage)

This adventure will use fortune cards. In fact, the rewards for 20, 40, and 60 Renown Points are 3 different special Fortune Cards.

 

[Saracenus]

If you want to see the pregen characters, they are available here at wizards.com:

Season 4 Pre-Gen PCs

They have changed the format of the pre-gens to make them a bit easier to use by new players.

This link was at the bottom of the Jan. D&D Play report:
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Warm Up Your Winter with D&D!)

Enjoy,

 

[Vael]

I've been running all of Keep on the Borderlands, and still waffling on whether I want to have a go at DMing the next season. If I do, I'm almost certainly going to relax pc creation rules. Essentials-only is an annoyance to a lot of my regular players. I've already allowed people who'd wandered into the store that didn't know about the class restrictions to play their PCs. Honestly, at such a low level, there's nothing game-breakingly different, and my knowledge of 4e is sufficient to understand most PC build choices.

 

[SquareKnot]

I just think it's a smart move to make the sample characters for Encounters be the same characters that are found in the Essentials books. It helps first timers pick up an Essentials book and say, "Hey, this guy is at the table with me. And so is this one. And here I am." Tying a character sheet to a build in the books is a smart move.

It makes me miss Krusk, Lidda, Ragnar, Aramil, Jozan, Ember & Co.

 

[peach]

are you saying that i can't use a PHB core PC for the upcoming Encounters season?

 

[sigfile]

are you saying that i can't use a PHB core PC for the upcoming Encounters season?

Not unless your organizer says so. The default for Encounters is "Essentials+" - any of the explicitly Essentials material published during or after the Essentials run.

The goal is to make the format easy for both the players and the DMs.

 

[SquareKnot]

are you saying that i can't use a PHB core PC for the upcoming Encounters season?

Officially, the answer is no, you can't.

You can create a character using Heroes of the Fallen Lands, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, and any Dragon magazine article content that has the icons of those two books on the article’s title page.

 

[peach]

it seems like a ploy to get even more of my (limited) money. so should i just sell my core books and use the money to help offset the cost of buying essentials?

 

[peach]

one more question - after i create an essential PC - are new powers/feats/skills etc ONLY limited to what's in the essentials books or can i use what's in PHB?

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

one more question - after i create an essential PC - are new powers/feats/skills etc ONLY limited to what's in the essentials books or can i use what's in PHB?

Only Essentials means only Essentials.

It makes it so that new people that come in and find interest only have 2 players resources they have to worry about for classes, feats and powers etc.