Help getting old 2nd player to DM for 8 and 10 year old daughters

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yes, if you can suggest me a handful of places to watch. My dilemma is my friends and I loved a good hack n slash. I never really had a chance to play with many good DMs, often it was 2nd madness "how many are standing together? Fireball!" Although oddly enough the parts that do stick out in my mind were often not the combat. Except when i found a bow and disintegration arrows and rolled 4 1's in a row and killed the group.
Back in the day I liked reading up on the crazy strong combos but now, not so much. 1 , maybe 2 add on books with feats and skills was kool. but all these dragon, dungeon addons, etc. Its so overwhelming. Hence when I was doing the ranger for my daughter, i just stuck to PHB1 to keep it simple. PH3 , I always wanted to be a Psionicist from 1st ed. Trying for the 00 roll. But yea, hybrid, gestalts, all that stuff never really clicked with me. So far I have the PHB1,2,3 and some dark sun book my friend lent me. I dont think i want to go to darksun. All I know is barely Dragonlance from the books and a whole lot of Forgotten Realms.

But yes, module suggestions would be great. Especially if theres something that can somewhat seamlessly help chars get to 10 at least. I cant remember the last time I was in any campaign where people gained 5 or more levels total..
Hopefully by paragon I can get my act to gether and come up with some good stuff. I read a lot of fantasy and NONE of my friends do, so it'll all be pretty much "new" to them if I piecemeal ideas from several sources.



Well my youngest typically likes violence where the older one doesnt. Young one opted to play Wii instead of the first session so I dont know if she will come back. But yes, the older one clearly does not like the violence. The redbox adventure had that goblin die after she used heal skill and she was actually crying. I let her roll to heal again and save em. im already thinking of making that an npc buddy for her. I know one of the books had the beastmaster subset. Maybe Ill do that and have a pet and goblin buddy arguing all the time.


Just double checking. Group was ranger and 3 defenders, so her damage was absurdly different from the rest, and all ranged no less.



I had chosen Careful for her thinking sometimes you just want that extra chance to hit. In retrospect I think the math is better for 2 outright standard attempts vs 1 with +2.

Yeah, rangers look somewhat out of whack. They are somewhat glass cannons though, and a fighter that gets up close can be pretty nasty. Have the enemy try to move past them to get at the ranger, then the fighter gets an OA/Combat Superiority stuff which ramps up their damage a lot.

Beastmaster is fun, though a lot of people complain about the beast not really being a big combat monster (they aren't, but they're really fun for RP purposes and a beastmaster can still use a bow and Twin Strike with the best of them). The bard is another fun class, but really all the PHB2 classes worked pretty well. Shaman is a little complicated, Barbarian is fun (the one in my new game got a crit with Avalanche Strike I think it was and did 56 damage at level 1, lol), and the Warden is just ridiculously hard to kill (and being able to do "Form of Winter's Herald!" is pretty fun).

Monsters make great companions, they're simple to run. DMG2 has some rules for creating stat blocks specifically suited to be companion characters, which offers a few tweaks so things work a little better, but in general monsters are OK. I really like the modules in the various Essentials material. The one in the DM's Kit is a level 1 adventure IIRC. Orcs of Stonefang Pass is also pretty good. WotC really hasn't published much else beyond the 9-part HPE series. Those CAN be decent, but they tend to have a lot of spots that are just long slugfests. Again, DDI has a lot of more interesting shorter adventures, the "Chaos Scar" series are a whole bunch of adventures with a common theme, sort of an elaboration on the concept of the old Caves of Chaos where there's a keep and a whole area full of weird monsters and adventures.

 

[TheGlow]

Thanks for the suggestions. I just feel bad about dropping a lot of cash on materials if this doesnt end up taking off, like my old 3rd Edition stuff.
If the next few sessions go well, I think Ill definitely get DDI and liberate a few things.
Would a ferret be acceptable for a Ranger? Seems a bit small for my taste and more a familiar type.
Unless its a giant miniature space ferret perhaps....

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Thanks for the suggestions. I just feel bad about dropping a lot of cash on materials if this doesnt end up taking off, like my old 3rd Edition stuff.
If the next few sessions go well, I think Ill definitely get DDI and liberate a few things.
Would a ferret be acceptable for a Ranger? Seems a bit small for my taste and more a familiar type.
Unless its a giant miniature space ferret perhaps....

Martial Power has the mechanics for a beastmaster, but nothing in the rules says you can't also have 'pets', they are just companion characters (NPCs basically, but usually the player runs them). The beast companion from MP is an actual class benefit, so the player has guaranteed control of what it does (but it also uses his actions, mechanically it is almost more like a weapon than a creature, though it has hit points and stuff). So, yeah, you could have a Pet Ferret for a PC, why not? It probably is not much more powerful than a minion, being a small animal. There are actually some other ways to get similar things. There are 'Themes', which were introduced later in the game and mostly in Dragon articles, which include an Animal Handler (gets a small animal and a few animal related power swaps and such, not bad). The Arcane Power book also introduced Familiars. A ranger would have to take 2 feats to get one (one to MC into an Arcane class, and one to get the familiar) but they have some advantages (mostly they can't be killed, though they also can't wander more than 20 squares from their master). Anyway, 4e has a ridiculous number of options. I'd say just let the PC buy a ferret and use their Nature skill to teach it a few tricks, and just give it a few hit points and maybe in a pinch it might bite someone for a point or two of damage, or just give them a -2 to an attack roll "Ouch! What the heck! It bit me!".

 

[sabrinathecat]

Yeah, rangers are STRIKERS. By definition, they will do a lot more damage than the defenders, especially with their out of turn actions kicking in. But, with a wall of defenders in front, that Ranger is going to be really fun to play. One of my pet peeves in movies is when the archers fire 2 of their 50 arrows, then charge into melee. Sounds like your daughter understands the true way to play the ranger already.

On the other hand, I run a tabletop game of all-strikers. Drow Rogue, Warforged Barbarian, Dwarf Ranger, Eladrin Ranger, and Human Warlock. They just tear most encounters to pieces--especially solos--even if they are 3-4 levels higher. It is fun. Most combats are over within 2-3 rounds. Only vulnerability of swarms of minions.

Heros of the Feywild has a Beast Ranger theme. Haven't tried it yet. Decent book though.

 

[TheGlow]

It would seem I made a booboo and didn't split xp. So after that 1st session, every one was lvl 2.
Obviously I wouldn't want to take that away and undo all that was done.
What would be a good option here? Recalculate their xp they should have approx 500xp, and just have them work up to lvl 3 from there? Or just leave it and let them keep their 1050xp ?
Group is only 4 people so far doing the Red Box starter.
Also should I add 1 extra enemy or a couple of minions per encounter since they are a lvl higher?

I hear the Slaying Stone and the Reavers of Harkenwold are good. I found pdfs of the adventure but not the map.
I'm thinking of getting at least a month of DDI and liberating all that.
How do those maps fair at being printed?
I have access to 11x14 sheets, but would 8.5x11 still be normal and I guess just lay them out or tape them together?

Edit: I just got the 1 month for D&DI. A bit of a let down that these maps seem to all have the encounter and enemy locations on them.
One would think the maps be blank and follow along in the rulebook.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

It would seem I made a booboo and didn't split xp. So after that 1st session, every one was lvl 2.
Obviously I wouldn't want to take that away and undo all that was done.
What would be a good option here? Recalculate their xp they should have approx 500xp, and just have them work up to lvl 3 from there? Or just leave it and let them keep their 1050xp ?
Group is only 4 people so far doing the Red Box starter.
Also should I add 1 extra enemy or a couple of minions per encounter since they are a lvl higher?

I hear the Slaying Stone and the Reavers of Harkenwold are good. I found pdfs of the adventure but not the map.
I'm thinking of getting at least a month of DDI and liberating all that.
How do those maps fair at being printed?
I have access to 11x14 sheets, but would 8.5x11 still be normal and I guess just lay them out or tape them together?

Edit: I just got the 1 month for D&DI. A bit of a let down that these maps seem to all have the encounter and enemy locations on them.
One would think the maps be blank and follow along in the rulebook.

Yeah, there are SOME player type unmarked maps, or you will find there are people that have done a bit of magic and made versions without DM stuff on them, but its going to depend on the adventure. I think basically WotC assumes you use Dungeon Tiles pretty much. They really pushed that concept, which isn't BAD, but not really my first choice (I just like the extra freedom to draw stuff with markers instead of piecing together rooms that always conform to the tile dimensions).

As for the XP, yeah, go with the rate of progression that works for you. Frankly I pretty much eyeball it nowadays, though one of my groups seems to insist on toting up the exact numbers (which is fine, they like it so whatever).

 

[TheGlow]

I printed out all the Reavers of Harkenwold maps on tabloid 11x17 at work.
I think I can make it work. Some of the scales seem off on some maps, but im sure no one will really complain.
I'm just a bit let down at the picture quality. A lot of these are all pixelated when blown up on the tabloid paper.
Are there any better suggestions? I figured bigger would be better in this case.
At work I have access to standard 8.5x11, legal 8.5x14 and tabloid 11x17.

 

[TheGlow]

What kind of suggestions do you guys have for having an NPC healer?
I liked what I came across in this thread,
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...o-summon-a-Demon-and-cut-a-Deal&prefixid=wotc
but unsure how to go about.
I'm leaning more towards a goblin as to tie into the one the Ranger healed/bandaged up and told not to be bad anymore and go away.
Im debating to just have it a simple monster like in the previous thread with a heal skill, or should I make it a fully fleshed out PC char? I didnt want anything too powerful and draw attention away.
Perhaps stick to monster template for the time being and if it takes off, upgrade him?

 

[sabrinathecat]

Make the Goblin a Pacifist Healer? OK, those get insanely powerful at high level, but so does everything else.
Just maybe a watered down NPC version, with Astral Seal, Sacred Flame, and healing word? Maybe the occasional other healing encounter power.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

What kind of suggestions do you guys have for having an NPC healer?
I liked what I came across in this thread,
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...o-summon-a-Demon-and-cut-a-Deal&prefixid=wotc
but unsure how to go about.
I'm leaning more towards a goblin as to tie into the one the Ranger healed/bandaged up and told not to be bad anymore and go away.
Im debating to just have it a simple monster like in the previous thread with a heal skill, or should I make it a fully fleshed out PC char? I didnt want anything too powerful and draw attention away.
Perhaps stick to monster template for the time being and if it takes off, upgrade him?

Yup, the DMG2 basically says "use a monster stat block, consider removing or watering down extra powerful abilities that would tend to make the NPC take the spotlight. Give them something like an MBA/RBA, maybe with some minor extra on it that enhances the creature's signature, something that works with their role (like a single encounter healing word type power maybe for a leader), etc.

In other words if the party captured a goblin warrior, I'd give him his javelins, so he can throw one or stick someone with it, and those are basic attacks, and his goblin tactics power (shift if a melee attack misses IIRC?). Then maybe he might have one other thing. IIRC goblin warriors are skirmishers that get a damage bonus if they move and attack or something like that. That would be a pretty good power. You may even find that the goblin warrior stat block is fine as-written in the MM, its a pretty simple monster.