Lord Sessadore
Explorer
You know, that is a brilliant idea. For everyone, veteran D&D players to complete RPG newbies. What better way for everyone to get a handle on the rules and what happens in the system? Thanks for that, Shabe!
D&D 4E D&D 4E Tips/Tricks/Advice
eamon
Explorer
Random thoughts:
- A readied action is now a "reaction" and thus takes place after the trigger, unlike 3.5. To interrupt, you must ready on a trigger that occurs before the action that you're trying to stop, but of course that's not always possible.
- A heroic tier character can use only one magic item daily power per day, regardless of the number of items he has. A paragon character can use two, and an epic PC three.
- You have one action point after an extended rest (which also regains all hitpoints and all surges)
- You can take both a minor and an immediate action in 1 round (unlike 3.5 swift and immediate actions).
- You cannot take opportunity attacks or immediate actions (previously AoO's) during your own turn. You can take one OA on EACH combatants turn, but only one immediate action in the entire round.
- Ranged weaponry now add's Dex to damage, and most ranged powers do too. When instead you make a basic attack with a heavy thrown weapon, you use strength for attack and damage bonuses - but most ranged powers still use dex.
- All magical thrown weapons return to their wielders hand after the attack is resolved. You need several thrown weapons to hit several targets should a power allow you to hit several targets.
- If you wield two weapons, you can attack with either but not both without penalty.
- Most feat bonuses are typed, check before you let em stack.
- when a power says something like 3[W] that means the sum of three weapon dice. Enh. or feat bonuses and so on are only added once, and an ability score is only added if explicitly mentioned.
- Unlike 3.5 you're not "flat-footed" until you act. If you were surprised, as soon as the surprise round ends, you're no longer surprised. Surprise (like flanking and other things) grants combat advantage.
- An immobilized creature can be pushed, pulled and teleported.
- Modifiers for being prone and the like have changed.
- Stealth and related topics have been erratad heavily, check the updates before using those rules.
- You can move through the space of creatures two size categories larger than you, and tiny creatures can move and even end their movement in enemy occupied squares (but still take OA's as appropriate).
- Pulling, pushing & sliding ignore difficult terrain.
- Moving diagonally counts 1 square.
- You don't need to charge in a "straight" line, but you must take the shortest path (there may be many possibilities since diagonal moves count only 1), and cannot charge if all shortest paths are blocked. You can charge through difficult terrain. After you've charged, your turn ends.
- Drawing/sheathing a weapon is just a minor action, as is drinking a potion.
- Grappling (now Grab) and Bullrush don't have size modifiers. Grab simply immobilizes, so both you and your target can still take actions as normally, though you do need one hand to grab.
- Total defense grants +2 to all defenses, so you might as well second wind (1/encounter) which also allows the use of a healing surge.
- When dying, you may only fail 3 saves PER ENCOUNTER - so getting healed in between drops isn't enough to reset the clock, you really need to take a short rest.
- If you want to, you can knock creatures unconscious instead of killing them.
- If you want to create PC's at higher level, check out DMG 143 (which includes equipment guidelines.
- Raising a character from the dead is much cheaper now if the character is low level, and the revived PC doesn't lose a level (he's just temporarily weaker).
Tell your players to:
+ Actively try to use an action point every other encounter.
+ Actively try to use every encounter power once per encounter.
If you don't like extended combats (my players don't) but you like "edge-of-your-seat" combats (my players do), cut hit points for Elites and Solos in half, halve their healing, add +2 to their hit bonus, and increase their damage dice by one size. They'll last longer than normal monsters (though not hours long) and they'll pose a serious threat to at least 1 or 2 player characters.
Minitiaures + a markable, dry-erase grid, preferably oversized (figures are tough to fit into 1" squares, but 1.25" is nice).
+ Actively try to use an action point every other encounter.
+ Actively try to use every encounter power once per encounter.
If you don't like extended combats (my players don't) but you like "edge-of-your-seat" combats (my players do), cut hit points for Elites and Solos in half, halve their healing, add +2 to their hit bonus, and increase their damage dice by one size. They'll last longer than normal monsters (though not hours long) and they'll pose a serious threat to at least 1 or 2 player characters.
Minitiaures + a markable, dry-erase grid, preferably oversized (figures are tough to fit into 1" squares, but 1.25" is nice).
Tailor your encounters to your party, so they get the most fun.
Look at the class/race/powers your players picked. Then give them situations where those powers will give maximum effect. This way, players get the most bang for their limited abilities.
I'll use an example from my game:
The ranger only has one encounter power, Dire Wolverine Strike, which lets him attack all enemies adjacent to him. The last few fights I've ran, there have been few enemies, and even fewer that are flanking up close. So the Ranger isn't getting to use his one encounter power, and I (now) realize that's fairly boring. In the next fight, I plan on sending several minions and skirmishers who'll engage, giving him the opportunity to jump in and clock them all.
So, if someone plays a tiefling, throw the occasional fire monster in there so the Tiefling's fire resistance gets some play. If someone is playing a fighter (this class's abilities hinge on opportunity attacks), have some (dumb) monsters provoke OAs, and let him tear into them. If someone plays a dwarf, hit them with move powers so their racial ability comes into play. And so on.
Look at the class/race/powers your players picked. Then give them situations where those powers will give maximum effect. This way, players get the most bang for their limited abilities.
I'll use an example from my game:
The ranger only has one encounter power, Dire Wolverine Strike, which lets him attack all enemies adjacent to him. The last few fights I've ran, there have been few enemies, and even fewer that are flanking up close. So the Ranger isn't getting to use his one encounter power, and I (now) realize that's fairly boring. In the next fight, I plan on sending several minions and skirmishers who'll engage, giving him the opportunity to jump in and clock them all.
So, if someone plays a tiefling, throw the occasional fire monster in there so the Tiefling's fire resistance gets some play. If someone is playing a fighter (this class's abilities hinge on opportunity attacks), have some (dumb) monsters provoke OAs, and let him tear into them. If someone plays a dwarf, hit them with move powers so their racial ability comes into play. And so on.
Logan_Bonner
First Post
Have you tried using a handout? Give each player a number of cards, glass stones, or poker chips equal to the number of surges they have, then have them hand them back to you when they heal.
DM_Blake
First Post
Some good stuff here.
One that gave my group some fits is that standing from prone is a move action that doesn't trigger OA.
So, tripping an opponent doesn't protect you from that opponent - next turn he stands up and hits you anyway.
It can prevent him from being mobile on the battlefield, though. If he's the kind of opponent that likes to run around and clobber your mages in the back, tripping (or any other trick to get him prone) will, at least, prevent him from double moving or moving/attacking in the same round, since he has to burn his move action to stand up.
Also note that a prone opponent is harder to hit with ranged attacks, so if your front-line guys like to trip enemies, you might actually be helping the bad guys more than you're hurting them by giving them AC bonus against your mages and rangers, and if all they do is stand up and smack you around anyway, you gain nothing by knocking them prone and making them harder to hit at range.
We're considering houseruling that standing up should provoke OAs, just so that there is some benefit to trying to knock opponents prone. Haven't worked out the pros/cons yet so it's still on the drawing board.
One that gave my group some fits is that standing from prone is a move action that doesn't trigger OA.
So, tripping an opponent doesn't protect you from that opponent - next turn he stands up and hits you anyway.
It can prevent him from being mobile on the battlefield, though. If he's the kind of opponent that likes to run around and clobber your mages in the back, tripping (or any other trick to get him prone) will, at least, prevent him from double moving or moving/attacking in the same round, since he has to burn his move action to stand up.
Also note that a prone opponent is harder to hit with ranged attacks, so if your front-line guys like to trip enemies, you might actually be helping the bad guys more than you're hurting them by giving them AC bonus against your mages and rangers, and if all they do is stand up and smack you around anyway, you gain nothing by knocking them prone and making them harder to hit at range.
We're considering houseruling that standing up should provoke OAs, just so that there is some benefit to trying to knock opponents prone. Haven't worked out the pros/cons yet so it's still on the drawing board.
You cannot spend a healing surge in combat unless you have some ability that lets you do so. Newbie players get tripped up constantly by this one. Normally, you can spend one (1) healing surge per encounter using the Second Wind action. The only way you can spend more than that is to use a magic item, cleric or warlord power, or other such thing.
For migrating 3.X players, watch out for the distinction between saving throws and defenses. What you're used to thinking of as "saving throws" (Fort, Ref, Will) are now called "defenses." The term "saving throws" means something else entirely. So if you see something that gives you +2 to all your saving throws, don't think it's going to give you +2 to Fort, Ref, and Will.
And keep a sharp eye on those "close" powers. Some are close bursts. Others are close blasts. The names are almost identical, and very easily confused, but the effects are quite different.
For migrating 3.X players, watch out for the distinction between saving throws and defenses. What you're used to thinking of as "saving throws" (Fort, Ref, Will) are now called "defenses." The term "saving throws" means something else entirely. So if you see something that gives you +2 to all your saving throws, don't think it's going to give you +2 to Fort, Ref, and Will.
And keep a sharp eye on those "close" powers. Some are close bursts. Others are close blasts. The names are almost identical, and very easily confused, but the effects are quite different.
After a dozen 4e sessions here are my suggestions:
I'll add to the people suggesting printing out Power Cards. New players will forget what exactly they can do (and you will too).
Print out some of the Class and Race features too. My wizard player keeps forgetting to add his Implement bonuses and the Warlord keeps forgetting her Inspiring Word.
Also be careful of the differences between Blast and Burst.
Stealth and Skill challenges we ourselves are still trying to figure out.
Feel free to modify encounters based on the number of characters playing. It is soooo easy to adjust up/down using the point buy system to accommodate who shows up to game that night.
I use little colored rubber bands (from the hair products aisle) to put on minis to show who's bloodied, marked, stunned, etc.
Rolling damage once and multiple to-hits for a blast (dragonborn breath for example) is something my players are slowly getting accustomed to.
I'll add to the people suggesting printing out Power Cards. New players will forget what exactly they can do (and you will too).
Print out some of the Class and Race features too. My wizard player keeps forgetting to add his Implement bonuses and the Warlord keeps forgetting her Inspiring Word.
Also be careful of the differences between Blast and Burst.
Stealth and Skill challenges we ourselves are still trying to figure out.
Feel free to modify encounters based on the number of characters playing. It is soooo easy to adjust up/down using the point buy system to accommodate who shows up to game that night.
I use little colored rubber bands (from the hair products aisle) to put on minis to show who's bloodied, marked, stunned, etc.
Rolling damage once and multiple to-hits for a blast (dragonborn breath for example) is something my players are slowly getting accustomed to.
MeepoTheMighty
First Post
You must not have a rogue in your party. A prone opponent grants combat advantage.
Also, every move action an opponent spends standing up is one he's not spending shifting into flank, or circling around the combat to get at those squishy mages and archers.
