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Well, as you know, the "red box" come out on September 7th, though it's not actually called the red box, but rather the starter set. The next essentials books are the Rules Compendium and Player's Essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands, which both come out on September 21st. I'm assuming that...

I just got the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, and I love the way themes make a character's background more important mechanically, giving the player plenty of options to make a unique character. I'm still working on my Pokemon 4e game, and I want to include a similar theme mechanic. However, the...

I like this idea for the deva. "You know, you remind me of someone...oh, yeah, myself." When he's starting to lose: "Ha! Even if you do defeat me, you'll eventually just become me!"

That actually brings up another annoyance that caused me to want to do this. When I ask my players what they want in a game of D&D, I'm thinking along the lines of the DMG advice on player motivations, trying to categorize them and then use that category to give them what they want. But when...

Thanks to everyone for your advice! The player built a fighter wielding a two-handed weapon who looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger with high Strength and Constitution. I let him choose from every class, telling him what each meant in a roleplaying sense. As we made the character, he asked me...

I'm exclusively a DM in real life. My players are all exclusively players. I DM only because I don't know anyone else who knows how, and my players are players only because they don't know any other DM. When we all started out, completely new to the realm of TTRPGs, it was (and still is)...

If you want to run every combat all the way through, only have 2-3 encounters per level, and make them difficult, memorable, and important to the story. What I do, though, is let my players skip through combat encounters that don't have much story implication. They can spend healing surges...

I'll still be here when you get back!

I was kidding. =P It's a good thing. Usually, I have to convince people to be leaders or controllers.

Another thought occured to me; immediate actions are already a defender schtick, in a way. Fighters, Wardens, Swordmages, and Battleminds all use them along with their marks. Paladins are the only ones that don't, but their Divine Challenge does punish an enemy immediately when they ignore the...

Wow. For the first time in 4e history, the role least represented in our group is striker. I am speechless with awe. =D

I think you're on the right path, but interrupts and reactions isn't what defines a controller. There are two categories that define each class: how it interacts with enemies, and how it deals and heals damage. The damage part is easy. Defender: I deal moderate damage and heal or buff myself...

Oh, I know. But I didn't hear many good things about it, and D&D 4e is what I play, so. That could work too, yes. I'd say you could use both PH and essentials classes. In the computer game, the classes have about equal complexity, and are much more complex than just attacking repeatedly...

I've been playing a lot of Dragon Age: Origins lately, and of course my mind started comparing it to 4e. So, I decided to go the whole way and figure out how a game of 4e D&D could be played in the Dragon Age world. Don't worry, no spoilers. Races Dwarf (Class Restriction: Warrior or Rogue)...

I spend hours a day creating character sheets without any story attached. I just want character crunchiness. And I'm a DM!

Reference the Player's Handbook, page 295: You are considered "dying" when your hit points are 0 or lower, and you die immediately if your negative hit point value is the same as your positive bloodied value. So, the catoblepas' aura only affects characters who are already dying. It just...

This seems like it would be a common question, but I can't find the answer anywhere. The assassin weapon proficiencies are a little vague. They can only use one-handed simple melee weapons, but can they use two-handed military melee blades (such as greatswords), or are they limited to...

I had another idea for running better skill challenges: Every time someone makes a skill check, instead of annoncing a success or a failure, have something interesting happen that opens up new options. Whether it's a good or a bad thing depends on the skill check, but no matter what, keep...

I like skill challenges! =D If I had designed them, I wouldn't have made the "3 strikes and you're out" rule. I think it would be better if skill challenges chipped away at your resources the longer you spent on them, like everyone loses a healing surge each round, but you don't fail unless...

I'm curious to hear more about these elan and foulborn. What's their flavor? I've never played any earlier editions, so I don't have any knowledge of flavor that hasn't been introduced in 4e yet.