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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5512114" data-attributes="member: 78116">Dark Sun: The Builder's CryWith the PCs having trekked across the desert for some time, they came to the cavern where the leader of the ssurran horde was busy casting powerful defiling ritual magic. Burning light filtered through great open wounds in the ceiling of the cave, illuminating certain regions and burning those foolish enough to stay there. With a snarl at the foolish intruders invading his domain, the shaman instructed his fellows to attack!<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CavernShowdown1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Start of the encounter, with the two larger creatures being hideous sunwarped otyughs - buried deep within the soft sand and hidden from the PCs view at the start of the combat.This combat was quite challenging to make and involves several elements. The first was to make sure the PCs understood that "Light is Bad", because the lighter sandy areas were affected by burning light. This light burns enemies that end their turn there and can potentially even confer sun sickness :O Combined with Valkoori (the Shaman) granting vulnerability to fire in an aura, it meant that PCs who get stuck in the light by being grabbed might be in some trouble. To make the effect less brutal, I decided that the light effect would need an attack vs. fortitude to actually damage PCs.So effectively the otyughs were creatures that could pull enemies and grab them in the light - holding them there for the sunlight to damage them. Valkoori was a pretty solid elite, with a slight mechanical twist that I wanted to try, inspired by Gamma-World:<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/Valkori.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Gamma World elites simply gain an extra standard action at the beginning of each of their turns. This means they have considerable choices as to what to do in combat - because a standard action is extremely flexible (obviously). What I found translating this mechanic to DnD was it had some unforeseen consequences. The best strategy always ended up being to spam any area/burst attacks the elite had - to maximize damage. As sunburst was originally at-will, it meant in the right circumstances he could potentially attack the entire party three times with it. This seemed somewhat excessive, especially on a party drained of surges and general healing.Instead what I did was to make the at-wills somewhat better, but make any burst/blast attack that he did recharge. So when he could use a burst/blast attack, it couldn't just be used over and over. This balanced out the power of gaining an entire standard action very nicely, without losing the general concept that an elite was supposed to attack multiple times per round. Overall although things conspired against me - see below - this was an interesting and worthwhile experiment. I will definitely be building future elites - and perhaps even solos - in this manner as well.Returning to the game though, the party started combat by getting surprised by one of the otyughs, as it burst forth from the sands to try to grab the dexterous monk Ka'Cha. Fortunately for Ka'Cha the beast was too slow and he got away before it could really affect him. The first turn saw some characters being bitten and chewed up, with Valkori striding into combat to attack the PCs as well.<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CavernShowdown2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Everything getting mixed up.Unfortunately the minions had a rubbish time, even with some of them getting a +3 bonus to attack (CA+Charging) not a single one could hit the broad side of a barn! It was about this time that maptools decided that was the way things should be and sure enough, everyone was rolling terribly not long after. Although hilarious, poor luck from everyone caused the combat to go really long and basically reduced the excitement considerably. I couldn't hit, the PCs couldn't hit and so it was rather like flailing at one another entirely ineffectively.Even so, this didn't stop Alek from essentially finishing off the majority of the actual monsters in the encounter. A brutal critical hit with an augmented withered technique being particularly notable for finishing off one of the last otyughs. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CavernShowdown3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The otyugh went down in a big heap when poked very firmly with Alek's gouge in a sensitive place.Although it did end up being fun, the chronic missing meant that the light never played a huge part of the encounter - albeit it did change the PCs tactics in avoiding it. This meant the encounter was soon left to Valkori to more or less do by himself, but a brutal critical hit from the executioner left him reeling considerably. Alek then - true to form - finished him off with a suitable charge and that was the end of the ssurran's pursuit of the caravan. With their leader dead, the rest of the ssurrans will scatter to the desert and the PCs had won an important victory. Not to mention giving me my other challenge: Suitable loot!<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CavernShowdown4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Valkori fell to the PCs at last, ending his tyranny and ensuring the caravan's safety... from the ssurrans at least.If there is one problem I have with 4E, it's that the new design rules have poorly supported the common/uncommon/rare items. When I started this game, I envisaged a few months where I would have to do it myself and then Mordenkainen's Magical Emporium (or other books/articles) would fill the void. Unfortunately this hasn't really happened and because I don't want to hand out many "common" items - I want what magic items I hand out to be unique/pretty decent - there aren't many options.So making them will have to do.The first item I made was a variation on the - currently terrible - gauntlet's of ogre power. Unfortunately as I don't have much of a baseline to go on for many rares, I figured a single use daily power, boost to two skills and permanent increase to damage was probably just worth above uncommon. I have not ruled out revisiting the item somewhat to make it feel a bit more hard hitting.Bracers of Furious Fire; Level 7 RareProperty: Your melee attacks deal an additional +2 fire damage.Property: You gain a +2 bonus to strength and athletics checks.Power (Daily): When you hit an enemy with a melee attack you may add 1d10 fire damage as a free action.The other item I made was an uncommon, but one that I think fit a bit better than the original +1 to will item I based it on, which really should be common (it merely has the first property and nothing else. That's an uncommon? Really?).Skull of the Sun Shaman; Level 4 UncommonProperty: You gain a +1 bonus to will defense vs. charm effectsPower (Daily): If you begin your turn dazed, dominated or stunned you may end the effect and continue your turn as normal.A nice power with a reasonably middling property seemed fair enough to me on this point for uncommon.After getting their new stuff - with quite the fire theme you might notice - the PCs noticed a crudely painted mural over the stone altar in the cave. There they saw a sea of obsidian buildings reaching up into a blazing sky. In the center of this was an image of Athas' already extremely cruel sun - glowing even brighter than usual. At the foot of the crumbling obsidian city were various humanoids cowering in fear, being burned alive or simply turned into warped mutated monsters. A quick history check revealed to the PCs, the ominous thought that this mural may be related to the mysterious risen city the caravan is now traveling towards...</blockquote>

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