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Cool idea! For what it's worth, I too was unhappy with the actual encounters presented for this battle, so I created my own version: Free encounters: The Battle of Otharil Vale Online Dungeon Master

Well, I'm completely biased on this one, of course, but I've had far more fun running my own Staff of Suha trilogy (The Stolen Staff, Tallinn's Tower and Descent Into Darkness) than any other adventure so far. This is largely because I think the combats are varied and keep players on their toes...

I voted no. I've got plenty of ideas and inspiration and enjoyment with 4e as it stands now. If 5e comes out, it comes out, but I'm not eagerly awaiting it or feeling that it's needed.

Spellcasters in older editions have this issue all the time, don't they? There's a class spell list, or perhaps a spellbook with tons of spells in it, and the spellcaster has to decide what to prepare each day. This is a class option that really only works for a motivated player. That player...

I like the flavor a lot! A few suggestions: For flavor, have the Coiled Tiger Spring allow Farina to jump 12 squares horizontally, going no higher than 1 square off the ground. This is more flavorful to me, and it would also let her get over difficult terrain and, if she's willing to take some...

I'd give him freaky-looking wings that are mostly useless and ugly, but that can be used once per day to fly up to 6 squares as a move action.

I will chime in with another recommendation for MapTool. I use MapTool for my D&D 4th Edition games, after having tried OpenRPG and GameTable. I love, love, love it. You can find some useful information (much of it system-agnostic) in the MapTool Education Central part of my blog. I haven't...

For what it's worth, I personally agree with you that 18 Str would be a better choice, although that's personal preference on my part. I like my characters to be a little more well-rounded in general. But as for the AC question, this is a striker, not a defender. Yes, he's going to be a melee...

Wow, lots of people here approach character creation so differently than I do! If someone asks me, "Can I make a Str/Int ranger work?" I start thinking about the issues. Okay, you give up a good ranged attack, falling back on heavy thrown weapons there. Certain dex-related feats are off the...

I've written a few reviews on my blog, but only for products that I purchased myself and read all the way through. I haven't assigned any "point ratings" or anything like that; I've just written my thoughts on the product (what I liked, what I didn't like). I gave Reavers of Harkenwold a...

Funny you should ask; a blogger put up a post about this just today: Back to Basics Daily Encounter

Not to be Clintonesque, but I think this depends on what the definition of "on" is. If you were to go with this interpretation, I'd suggest rephrasing the power to: Whenever you use a power with the Healing keyword and an ally regains hit points (or spends a healing surge, if you prefer) as a...

To be clear, I'm ONLY talking about situations where, if the party doesn't get the information the campaign grinds to a halt. If there are alternatives to not getting this information, great! In a sandbox game, I can't imagine that there will ever be any information so important that the...

I'll echo some of the other commenters and say that if there's information that the party must receive in order for the adventure to continue, then you should just give it to them rather than counting on them to find it. Thus, the secret compartment falls open when the BBEG dies, or you tell the...

To answer your question:

I agree that this is a potentially good way to speed up combats. A word of caution, though: In my experience, players are loathe to let enemies escape. If bad guys try to flee, Operation: After Them! begins. Surrender is better, but then my players have to debate about what to do with the...

I'm surprised your view of the Skald is so negative. I think it does a great job of "essentializing" the original Bard. It gets to use Charisma for its basic attacks, which means those at-will powers will be as effective at hitting and dealing damage as regular bard powers. The skald's aura is a...

I've stuck with using monsters from Monster Manual 3 or later books (Dark Sun Creature Catalog, Monster Vault, Monster Vault Threats to the Nentir Value) and other monsters based on the same math, and I've been pretty happy with things. Literally doubling damage and halving health would...

In response to the spoiler comment:

For my group, I ran them through a few one-shot LFR adventures before it became clear that this would be an ongoing campaign. I then ran Reavers of Harkenwold from the Dungeon Master's Kit followed by Cairn of the Winter King from the Monster Vault. Gardmore Abbey is next. For what it's worth...