Monster Vault: Mages of Saruun

[TirionAnthion]

After reading through the book I have decided to start my next campaign in the Nentir Vale. I have been working on some material for a home brewed setting but the entries in the new MV really sparked my creative juices. I am still trying to hammer out a plot thread for the campaign but I think I can come up with some ideas. I also want an excuse to use some of the modules and Dungeon content that is set in the Nentir Vale without having to do an excessive amount of skinning.

 

[Aegeri]

In the end I didn't buy it, because I had no need for a whole bunch of heroic tier monsters and there wasn't enough paragon and no epic content in the book. Given that the future of my games is very tenuous because of two major issues. Firstly, I've had a major and fatal computer crash, which has basically left me without an effective computer for writing and designing games (the comp I am using now struggles with a web browser!). Secondly this is then combined with my major dissatisfaction with the "direction" of the game post-essentials, I don't see myself playing 4E for much longer to be honest. What makes me saddest is that I am not the one who is going to lose: It's the people who have been playing with me for years in some cases that will.

But Wizards has just given me zero to be enthusiastic about anymore when it comes to DnD. Without that enthusiasm, I just can't get over this major setback with my computer being out of action. I'm still going to ponder it for a while and I haven't made up my mind, but I'm leaning very heavily towards just walking away.

 

[Matt James]

It certainly is not for anyone to say how one is to enjoy a game. I hope you find a sweet game that you can enjoy and that you find it easy to adapt to your gaming group's needs. On my end, I run a heavily modified campaign, where I try out new ways to keep excitement up. This hasn't changed since 2e when I started and I imagine no RPG will ever fit perfectly right from the books (for my own vision).

If you walk away, remember that the whole point of it all is to have fun with your friends, and stir up some kick-*** stories along the way. If 4e D&D doesn't do it for you there's no shame in that. My buds and I moved away from 3e for the same reasons. One day people will see it isn't about the corporations or editions and realize we play these games because we're nerds who like to cast spells and fight dragons.

Am I right?

I should probably add the disclaimer that I haven't slept for a very long time, am on a flight back East, and will continue grinding on a totally rad 4e product that will come out next year.

/collapse

 

[DEFCON 1]

But Wizards has just given me zero to be enthusiastic about anymore when it comes to DnD. Without that enthusiasm, I just can't get over this major setback with my computer being out of action. I'm still going to ponder it for a while and I haven't made up my mind, but I'm leaning very heavily towards just walking away.

Quite frankly, Aegeri... you've been complaining about WotC (and the lack of Epic Tier) for so long now... I'm surprised you hadn't walked away already.

 

[Aegeri]

Because I had faith that Wizards would actually go back to publishing things I wanted again. Given they couldn't even do something as basic as provide a working and non-buggy as an ant-hill monster builder again, I don't really see the point in continuing to support them.

 

[S'mon]

So. Who's running around the Nentir Vale now that MV2 has been out for several weeks now?

My copy of MVNV arrived Friday; Saturday was the first session of my new Wilderlands sandboxy campaign starting at 3rd level in the warm lands of Barbarian Altanis. I wasn't sure how to use MVNV for this campaign; but this thread has given me helpful hints - eg there are loads of bandits & barbarians in this campaign area, so looking at MVNV groups with stat blocks for both will be useful to avoid over-use of old stand-bys like the "Human Common Bandit", "Human Berserker", "Human Town Guard" et al.

I find I can never have enough human stat blocks, occasionally I remember I can just go to Tiefling or Orc and re-skin, but I find that harder as without a 'name hint' I don't know before reading/studying a stat-block how adaptable it will be. This thread has given me ideas for using Mages of Saruun, the various Bandit groups, the Tigerclaw Barbarians, et al.

 

[boolean]

I'm still buying the book basically the instant I see it of course!

Oh don't get me wrong, I've stated multiple times it's an absolute must buy for me.

...

Edit: Actually I have already paid for it. So there you go. Fetching it as soon it comes out!

???

 

[Aegeri]

???

Once I heard about the number of heroic tier monsters in the book, I delayed getting it and then eventually canceled and got my money back. As you can imagine that was a significant turn around for me. I knew there would be basically nothing in the book in the epic tier, but I was so disappointed by what I heard about the sheer quantity of heroic stuff vs. everything else that it made me change my mind entirely. I didn't think the bias would be so ridiculously towards the heroic tier and then a smattering (basically) of paragon tier stuff.

I must admit that when I was in the store, had it in my hands and then put it away asked for my money back and walked out, I knew my time with 4E DnD was coming to an end. Especially as my computer had fallen over and is now entirely dead, leaving me without a reliable machine to play my online games (or just any of my work, research and tools I use to write my games). It didn't help that I heard the next billion books were basically heroic tier only.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I do a homebrew campaign, but will be using some of the monsters out of the Nentir Vale book - my PCs' next encounter will have an Arcosian Siege Tower in it and a Mage of Saruun, though I'll be modifying the tower slightly so that it can actually disgorge troops onto the castle walls (not much of a siege tower otherwise, IMHO).

Personally, I really like the monsters in it - for example, the Mage of Saruun is the best incarnation of the "generic NPC wizard" that I've seen so far. Do wish the book had more paragon stuff in it (as my PCs are just about to hit level 13), but I can understand why it doesn't. As for the background material in the book, its not very helpful for me (given the nature of my campaign) but does make for a good read.