Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aribar" data-source="post: 6358488" data-attributes="member: 6777974">DMing with 4E can be pretty easy to do. You have that neat list of DCs up above if you need to improvise some skill check, plus the math for generating combat encounters is really tight; you have an XP budget based on how many PCs there are, how strong they are, and how challenging you want the encounter to be and just buy creatures from there.I'd strongly recommend picking up the Monster Vault, and maybe the Player's Handbook 3 if your players want to play as Psionic-orientated classes and the Monk.There are three Internet resources that could prove helpful to you:habitualindolence.net/masterplan/ Master Plan lets you make monster stat blocks (and help plan your campaign) for when you feel comfortable making new monsters, which is easy to do with a bit of DMing experience under your belt.blogofholding.com/?p=512 Likewise, all the math needed to make a monster from scratch can fit on one side of a business card. It may not make sense now, but halfway through my first 4E campaign it was an invaluable resource.archive.wizards.com/dnd/tools.aspx I've personally never used it, but I've heard a lot of praise for D&D Insider. Its character builder is pretty nice and I believe it has resources from every monster manual.Finally, as a few bits of advice...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Minions are the awesome seasoning to a good encounter. It's almost always a good idea to have a smattering of minions. Towards the end of my campaign, I also wasn't considering all of towards the XP budget since they go down so fast.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The item treadmill is unfortunately alive in 4E. The math of the game assumes everyone has level-appropriate items. The DMG has advice on handing out items and money per level; I'd try not to be stingy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't be afraid to reskin anything! As an extreme example, in my 'modern' 4E campaign a really awesome bow was actually the ranger's sniper rifle and an adult blue dragon was a mech. Just because the Monster Manual says those are Elves doesn't mean you have to use them as such; make them be sneaky, elite killsquad of kobolds if it fits the encounter!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It's okay if you have an unbalanced party. You don't have to have a Striker, a Defender, a Leader, and a Controller. I'd say a Leader is the closest thing to being 'needed' in 4E, and even then not really. My campaign worked fine with all Strikers and one Defender.</li> </ul></blockquote>

Verification