Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="MrMyth" data-source="post: 5122678" data-attributes="member: 61155">As others have mentioned, 4E actually scales to a lower number of PCs reasonably well. The xp budget rules remain pretty easy to use, and you actually have decent options for what to present the PCs with - one or two average monsters like normal, or several enemies in the form of minions or lower-level enemies, or one scary big bad guy with an Elite. &nbsp;&nbsp;There definitely are limitations in place. Still, Rituals plus Utility powers plus Cantrips (Mage Hand, Ghost Sound and Prestidigitation At-Will), plus clever use of skills and random gimmicky magic items, can leave plenty of options open for crafty players!&nbsp;&nbsp;Yeah, it basically traded out some older options for newer ones. Still, one month of DDI gets you pretty much everything you could need - and WotC does offer occasional deals, like the bundle that included both PHB1 and PHB2. That can cut down on costs quite a bit.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Remarkably easy, actually, since the formulas for system design are often pretty open and easy to balance against. Races are an absolute snap to create, and same with Paragon Paths and magic items. Monsters are easy to design for as well. Classes are a bit more challenging, mainly because of how much goes into them - both the base class features and 30 levels of powers. On the other hand, adding new builds for an existing class isn't too hard, so that can be an easy approach to customizing things for your personal setting. &nbsp;&nbsp;Like I said above, bundles, and DDI, are your friend. One month of subscription makes an excellent starting point - if nothing else, it can tell you what products you actually are interested in, and you can focus on the material there. Maybe get the group to split the costs on a battlemap, use tokens or the like instead of minis, and the investment shouldn't be all that bad.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MrMyth, post: 5122678, member: 61155"] As others have mentioned, 4E actually scales to a lower number of PCs reasonably well. The xp budget rules remain pretty easy to use, and you actually have decent options for what to present the PCs with - one or two average monsters like normal, or several enemies in the form of minions or lower-level enemies, or one scary big bad guy with an Elite. There definitely are limitations in place. Still, Rituals plus Utility powers plus Cantrips (Mage Hand, Ghost Sound and Prestidigitation At-Will), plus clever use of skills and random gimmicky magic items, can leave plenty of options open for crafty players! Yeah, it basically traded out some older options for newer ones. Still, one month of DDI gets you pretty much everything you could need - and WotC does offer occasional deals, like the bundle that included both PHB1 and PHB2. That can cut down on costs quite a bit. Remarkably easy, actually, since the formulas for system design are often pretty open and easy to balance against. Races are an absolute snap to create, and same with Paragon Paths and magic items. Monsters are easy to design for as well. Classes are a bit more challenging, mainly because of how much goes into them - both the base class features and 30 levels of powers. On the other hand, adding new builds for an existing class isn't too hard, so that can be an easy approach to customizing things for your personal setting. Like I said above, bundles, and DDI, are your friend. One month of subscription makes an excellent starting point - if nothing else, it can tell you what products you actually are interested in, and you can focus on the material there. Maybe get the group to split the costs on a battlemap, use tokens or the like instead of minis, and the investment shouldn't be all that bad. [/QUOTE]

Verification