Recent content by Vermonter

First try history, arcana, thievery. If no knowledge checks turn up anything, then it is time to step back and let someone insert the yellow gem.

I agree with the advise above. You don't need to get into a lot of backstory to start the campaign. Fill in the details as you go and the players explore. Regarding the start-up, if you have an opportunity to meet with the players individually ahead of time you could help them finish...

Thinking about Hit Points The changes made to hit points and introduction of healing surges I think was one of the biggest a least well explain innovations of the new system. Quite simply you can't think of hit points in the same way as you did in prior versions of D&D. Hit points are now...

Sounds Great so Far I like the way you are progressing. For a first campaign it sounds like you've gotten right into the action! Here are a few more thoughts: If you lower all the players through a hole and they are surrounded by dwarves they are almost certainly going to fight. They will...

These are great, but I am disappointed in no second round MM labels. Any plans on including them and continuing to update this thread?

Also, don't be afraid to use bold DM tactics. In particular, be willing to have monsters use the "delay" action to set up their attacks better as a team. For example, if the skirmisher beats the minion's roll, but they did ok, he might delay. That lets the minions charge into battle in...

I agree with the OP that the game has a definite feel of being more combat oriented by reading the rules. However, I completely disagree with the notion of adding anything to characters to make up for this. Based on my (still limited) experience DMing 4E, the players have plenty to think about...

I think it is purely 'flavor'. Encounter powers are the 'easiest' to learn, utilities second and daily powers are 'hardest'. So they enforce that in the multi-class power swap. I actually like the idea of freeing things up, but I'm trying to really resist house rules for now until I've played...

I appreciate that you like to develop your starting area in a bit more detail. I have the same bent. A couple related links you might enjoy reading for inspiration: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/ I think a village of 500 sounds reasonable. The...

I agree that it is no fun to make the game a bunch of rules lawyering, and for specific power effects I agree that just making a ruling on 'common sense' and moving on works best. However, these aren't specific or unusual situations in the rules, and the utter lack of any mention in moving...

Overall great job! I'm definitely using this system over your previous attempt to fix the WOTC version. I do have a few comments/complaints and then some questions: 1> First, you keep saying that there is no Aid Another in this system. I think that is the wrong answer. The right answer is...

Also consider how the timing of the spell has changed. In 3e sleep was a full round cast and now it is a standard action. This changes how you have to think about the timing. An example with Wiz low initiative - 3e Round 1: Kobolds close with party Round 1: Start casting sleep Round 2...

Interesting discussion. I have a few reactions, but these are just thoughts as I have no basis for backing them up. 1 - Auras - Folks are acting like aura effects stack, but based on the logic in the rest of the game I highly doubt it. The way these are written is confusing, but I'd expect...

Well, in OD&D anyone could use two weapons and the penalty for doing so was just based on dex. If you had a super high dex (17 or 18, back in the roll 3d6 days) you got either -2 or -1 in off hand weapon and no other penalty. Drow were ambidextrous so could use two weapons without penalty...

Actually, this is a significant limitation that does impact the spell and justifies its low level. After the minor action to maintain you have exactly two actions left each round. If you want to move the mage hand you need to use one as a move action to do so. That leaves you only one move...