New Dungeon Article

[Lurker59]

The new dungeon article "Cruel Shadows" has some interesting crunch interspersed throughout it and describes some monsters that will almost certainly be in the MM. The elite template for a soldier is described as +50% HP, +2 AC and Defenses. The "insubstantial" condition after a shadar-kai's Shadow Jaunt allows walking through solid objects. The ability is also described as not working for noncontiguous squares. If this also goes for Eladrins' Fey Step then a lot of complaints about the ability are relatively baseless.

 

[HeinorNY]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/durr/20080409a

 

[Snarls-at-Fleas]

Hmm. I goo story and easily made into a real adventure with the monsters we have right now. I guess I just found myplaytest adventure plot.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Man I am getting doubled-up name fatigue MAJOR style. It has been going on for a while now, with 4E it seems to be getting worse. Can't they use a little imagination rather than a doubled-up word generator!

...Gloomdeeps...sorrowsworn...Bloodspear...Shadowfell...gloomblade...bloodragers...chainfighters...

Some are worse than others, I'm looking at you Gloomdeep, GLOOOOOM DEEEEEEEP to be said in a deep ghostly voice :\
Thankfully it is fluff (bye bye) because the article is a really neat short encounter background. Definitely worth either a go or, at least, some plagarism!

woooo bewaaare of theee gloooom blades in the glooooom deeeeep......

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Wow, Mach. I think that's a bit of an overreaction. I get your point, but really, who cares? I've never liked the character names in any module I've ever read, so I change 'em. Freaking out seems a bit extreme.

On the subject: Love the article.

Fitz

 

[mach1.9pants]

Nah, Fitz, I am not freaking out at all. As I said it is fatigue (not nerd-rage, a different thing) It is just so, well, lame. And a tad repetitive. I might not like lots of names in fantasy (and most people wouldn't like the ones I make up for my campaign) but at least they are creative. It is not as bad as naming everything like double-dutch: the Oomglay Avecays but it is close .

And since I am in a negative mode I though this was funny: "DC 20: The Gloomdeeps get their name from the fact that the caverns are darker than should be natural, even near the surface." errm how are 100% dark 0% light caverns 'darker than natural'? Are they 110% dark

Anyway it is a good article (and it is a WotC wide naming convention so not the articles fault) and I will certainly be using it. It is a good use of the alignment is fluff/unaligned is in of 4E

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Easy, when light is introduced into the caverns, ie: torch or sunrod. The amount of light they produce is diminished, as if the darkness is pushing back against the light.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Man I am getting doubled-up name fatigue MAJOR style. It has been going on for a while now, with 4E it seems to be getting worse. Can't they use a little imagination rather than a doubled-up word generator!
Some are worse than others, I'm looking at you Gloomdeep, GLOOOOOM DEEEEEEEP to be said in a deep ghostly voice :\
Thankfully it is fluff (bye bye) because the article is a really neat short encounter background. Definitely worth either a go or, at least, some plagarism!

I totally agree. Amongst all the major languages in the world, they couldn't come up with something more evocative? I know it's not original in the least, but I like to take different languages for different cultures and find names from them. At least the names sound more organic than the word-word naming style.

 

[Graf]

a sometimes-cruel meritocracy

Is that the weakest line ever?

My grade school was an often cruel meritocracy.
Seriously, mince around much?

[edit: the adventure is fairly solid for what it is though. I looks like the fiddly bits in 4e are limited, which could prove to be illusionary but...]

 

[WhatGravitas]

Looks interesting and useful. And seems like a good adventure hook for me - enough to flesh out on the fly, which makes it good for side treks and so on.

Some almost-crunch information, ideas, yeah I like this article.

Except for Underdark Dark-Under Gloomdeep.

Cheers, LT.