Making your own power cards

[Saishu_Heiki]

For everyone that wants to make their own power cards for 4e, I have begun to create some as a proof of concept.

I use a program called Magic Set Editor (link) and a form with a full text box (link). It is really easy to differentiate the types of powers. I use bronze for at-will, silver for encounter, and gold for daily. They print out standard size for playing cards and look as good as you want them to look.

I have tested it with the cleric powers (because they had some of the largest text blocks and I wanted to see if it would work even then). I am very happy with the result, and I now have no desire to buy a power deck from WotC.

Cheers!

 

[Wormwood]

I love you.

There. I said it.

edit: although now that I think about it, I'd like to try 'em with pictures---because that'll be a lot more fun!

 

[Xethreau]

I do not think that selling "power decks" was ever their entention, or at least I hope not. I know with Tome of Battle that they left that sort of thing to a Web Enhancement.

Anyway, Those look pretty good! However, I am just fine with notecards, and prefer them actually, because you can change them as your ability scores and level increase.

 

[Saishu_Heiki]

I thought about using pictures, but there two problems: (1) I don't have good pictures for too many of them (YMMV), and (2) the ones with large amounts of text become unreadable quickly if the text block is only half as large.

As for WotC publishing power decks, they have mentioned that is what something they were beginning to consider because of customer desire for such a product. I just have a good way to do so myself (I don't want to disparage WotC in any way), so I can customize them to my needs.

Right now, I am printing them on normal paper, gluing them to cut out index cards, and putting them in old card sleeves that I have laying around. It works great for me.

 

[Ashardalon]

For what it's worth, I used the same program for the cards in this thread. If there's interest in me releasing the styles (portrait with/without picture and landscape), I can add the option to choose colors for the name blocks to distinguish between the power types.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Dude. That. Is. Awesome.

 

[Wormwood]

Okay. I see potential here.

 

[Belorin]

[Keanu]Whoa, that's rad![/Keanu]

Bel

 

[bjorn2bwild]

Corrin Reedson, Level 1 power deck

Hi all, I've lurked these boards off and on for years. Finally decided to join the other day.

Perhaps out of boredom, but mostly out of motivation, this afternoon I put together a deck for the pregen paladin from DnD XP. I built it using the OP's linked program and card style template.

Green Cards are at-will powers, Yellow Cards are encounter powers, and Red cards are dailies. I did, however, make three separate cards for Lay on Hands and counted them as dailies. I think it will make for easier record keeping that way, but that's just me.


Here are his encounter powers and two of his at-will powers. I will upload the others in my next post.

Feel free to use it at your own risk. And if I decide to do any more character decks (which I probably will), I will post those as well.

Enjoy!

 

[bjorn2bwild]

power deck, part 2

Here are the rest of the cards I put together for Corrin Reedson.

Enjoy!

 

[HeinorNY]

Okay. I see potential here.

Your card has been banned a month ago

 

[RandomCitizenX]

Thanks for the link. I just started using it to make cards for my 4e playtest next week

I am using color for power source

Red= Martial
Blue= Arcane
Gold=Divine

I am also changing the wording where I can so that it reflects the rules instead of the final number. I.E. on the fighter abilities I put Weapon vs AC since that seems to be where they got the attack bonus from. Same with Hit. I am using Hit: Weapon Damage unless there is obviously some bonus damage.

 

[Saishu_Heiki]

If you really want to make character-agnostic cards, you can use the powers unveiled for the rogue as a baseline. Most of them are listed as Dex vs. AC (rogue attacks are Dex based) and the hit is 1[W] (i.e. normal weapon damage).

I have found these to be an elegant solution, and am going to make a full set for my group this weekend when we play Return of the Burning Plague.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

I've pretty much finished all but the divine. I may go back and use the nomenclature shown in the rogue article later after my group is a little more accustomed to the new edition.

 

[Saitou]

Lay on Hands' per-day limitation is likely [CHA] modifier (counting the 1/2 level progression).

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

Bump!

 

[Belorin]

Just getting started, it's pretty easy but repetitive.

Bel

 

[Saishu_Heiki]

That is why I am gluing mine onto cut-out index cards and putting them in card sleeves. I want to have them reusable later.

In no case do I want to have to make Tide of Iron eight times because it got bent, or spindled, or mutilated, or whatever.

I really feel the return on investment of time is worth it, but not to the point of making them again and again.

 

[hong]

I do not think that selling "power decks" was ever their entention, or at least I hope not. I know with Tome of Battle that they left that sort of thing to a Web Enhancement.

I'm pretty sure you'll see decks for sale before too long. Accessorisation is the name of the game.

 

[AZRogue]

Okay, you guys just gave me my geekasm for the day. Wow, you guys did some amazing, AMAZING work on those. I'm impressed!

So, I downloaded the program and will play with it later but I have to ask: Is there a way to make a template (landscape, of course) that will mimic the Monster Statblock for 4E on the back of the 4E Miniature cards? Is that possible? With the little triangles for Saves, and the place for the little picture, and Power text and all?

How would I do something like that? I'm lost. The simple text ones are great, but if I could make my own monster stat cards and have them look the same as the others, my geekasm will be complete.