4E Player's Handbook 2 - A Review

So the PHB 1 gave us most of the previous core D&D classes and races reworked for 4th edition. It was a good start but if you were thinking about converting an old campaign it was not a complete guide. The PHB 2 came out in 2009 and finishes up the rest of the adaptation process and mixes in some new stuff as well.

The 224 page hardback starts off with new races:
Deva - Effectively they are the aasimar from the Forgotten Realms 3E campaign guide. There's a reincarnation element added in but they are descended from extraplanar good guys - the opposite of Tieflings.

Gnome - Pretty similar to older editions, some built in tricky/sneaky abilities

Goliath - new to me, they're the big bruiser race. Think 1E half-ogres without the bad childhoods or evil tenencies and you pretty much have it.

Half-Orc  - Same idea as before but with a +2 Str and a +2 Dex they are a very versatile race for the way 4E is set up and not just the barbarians they were in 3E.

Shifters - Sort of half-weres there are 2 types with different stat and skill bonuses. They're an interesting addition wiwthout being over or under powered.

One new addition in the PHB 2 is the addition of racial paragon paths. Previously all paragon paths have been tied to a particular class and sometimes a particular build within that class. There are 12 included here, effectively 1 per race. It's a good concept and adds to the choices available to players, always a good thing.

It also adds 8 new classes:
Avenger - a divine striker, 2 builds, 4 paragon paths. It's mainly a single target melee damage and lockdown class. Think "Paladin Bounty Hunter". There are a lot of powers that are boosted if there is no enemy adjacent to the target and a lot of move-to-the-target powers. Starts with only cloth armor so it's even more of a glass cannon than rangers or rogues.

Barbarian - a primal striker, 2 builds, 4 paragon paths. Another single-target melee striker, this one has better armor and slightly better hit points and surges than the avenger. Barbarians have various types of rage they can enter which remain until the character decides to leave them and receive various bonuses for being in them. They hit hard and they are very tough - what more could you ask for?

Bard - an arcane leader, 2 builds, 4 paragon paths. The bard is a very versatile leader class - better skills, lots of movement abilities (ally slides) some healing, ritual casting, and nice utility powers. Clerics are better at healing, warlords are probably better at combat boosts, but the bard is just a very solid all-around leader class.

Druid - a primal controller, 2 builds, paragon paths. A lot of nice ranged elemental type powers with the slightly odd addition of beast form powers. The trick here is that certain powers are beast form only. When in beast form, you can use only those powers. When not in beast form you can not use those powers. This creates a bit of a split personality as the druid wants to stand back and throw lighting or frost blasts or something part of the time but will likely not use their beast powers if they do this for the entire battle. this leads to the weird situation of the melee -seeking controller, and given a controller's hit points, surges, and AC, that's rarely a good idea, even with the boost from being a primal class. The one saving grace here is that a druid's attacks mostly target reflex, with some fortitude and some will. None are vs. AC even in beast form. This helps make the melee powers more likely to hit than the usual melee attack powers of other classes.. It's an interesting combination and I like a versatile character, but I'm not yet convinced it's an effective one.

Invoker - a divine controler, 2 builds, 4 paragon paths. Channel divinity, ritual casting, some nice summoning powers, and a whole lot of ranged multi-target damage. The invoker combat powers are almost all ranged or area burst powers with no melee and few close burst or close blast type powers. This purity of concept lets the invoker stand back and blast away like an old-school specialty wizard - there's little reason to close in on your enemy. They are also one of the few classes to have significant summoning powers which can be fun to play with too.

Shaman - a primal leader, 2 builds, 4 paragon paths. Shamans have a spirit companion and a lot of the normal leader boosting effects come out of this spirit animal, meaning it needs to stay in close to the party. Most of the shaman's melee powers are performed through the spirit as well so the spirit probably needs to be up near the defenders and strikers in a typical fight. The shaman's other powers tend to be ranged 5 or close burst or blast 5 with some 10's showing up occasionally. This means that while the shaman doesn't have to be  on the front line he probably needs to be close behind. There's a pretty good amount of healing there, and the other powers tend to be ranged damage effects.

Sorcerer  -arcane striker, 2 builds, 4 paragon paths. Dragon sorcerers get a lot of bonuses tied to melee combat while Chaos sorcerers get effects like the old 2E wild mage where the die roll result brings in some kind of variable effect. About half of the sorcerer powers end up being burst or blast type shots and even some of the single-target powers have a secondary target that can be affected. One could go with the draconic sorcerer and focus on the close bursts and close blasts (many have a draconic magic kicker effect) or you could go with chaos and make a more standoff type mage blaster. Both have the interesting angle of being a  striker that focuses on area blasting effects - a multi-target striker, which has been a rare animal up to now.

Warden - primal defender, 2 builds, 4 paragon paths. Wardens are an extra-tough defender with light armor - extra HP, easier saves, and multi-target marking. Their powers are mainly melee weapon, strength vs AC for at-will's and encounters but their dailies are almost always some other interesting effect - a form of some kind, a burst or blast effect - something more interesting than another melee strike for X damage.

So the new classes are interesting and quite varied. What else is there?

• We get 6 epic destinies mainly aimed at the classes in this book
• We get backgrounds - a mechanical reward for coming up with some kind of character background. The benefit is a small bonus tied to one skill and is fine in scope - I see no unbalancing effect from it.
• 12 pages of feats
• 14 pages of magic items
• 6 pages of rituals
• 5 pages of rules updates and clarifications

 I think it's a solid book and it completes the old-school class and race set needed for a conversion.* Out of the 10 characters in my current 2 games, 4 of them are classes from this book and 2 of them are races from this book as well - a pretty good showing I think. If someone is getting started in D&D as a player this is probably the book I would recommend as the next thing to get after the PHB1. Now Wizards just announced a new class book that will cover the PHB1 classes in an updated format, so some of my opinions might change next year (maybe Rules Compendium + Class Compendium) but until them I think the PHB 1 + PHB 2 gives a player a nice wide selection of things to play in pretty much any D&D campaign.


*other than the monk, but hey - we're talking about monks. They shouldn't be that important anyway : )

Motivational Monday

The Essentials Red Box - a Non-Review

Ugh. I'm not going to review this one except by proxy. I have not purchased and will not be purchasing it. If I'm not the target audience for this I don't know who is and I think it's terrible after reading multiple reviews. I have 3 problems with it that tie up in my biggest problem of all:

1) The original red box (and the 2 prior basic sets) gave you complete character creation rules. The 1983 Red Box had an introductory programmed adventure approach to teach the game before delving into the full character creation process - not a bad idea. Making the programmed adventure THE character creation system isn't a bad idea until you make it the only system. How can we roll up a party at the same time if we have to go through a solo adventure to do it? It's ridiculous and a major departure from what it's trying to emulate.

2) The old basic sets covered levels 1 to 3. The new one goes to 2. Considering that only 4 classes are covered and that the game now runs through 30 levels total, I think a starter set should at least be covering 1-3, not going backwards.

3) Compatibility is non-existent between the classes described in this box and the PHB classes, but it's a new build, right? The full build will be in Heroes of the Fallen Lands, right? No! The builds in this box are different from the Essentials classes and the PHB classes, so you can't even carryover your character as-is! You get to go through a 10-encounter starter dungeon, level up to 2, and that's it - build a new character at level 1 if you want to continue - or rebuild it with your new Fallen Lands builds. The old Basic sets (81 & 83 anyway) rolled right into the Expert sets for the next stage - you didn't have to build a new character to move up.

Finally the value for me for this box just is not there. The 3rd edition starter set came with D&D mini's, this one comes with tokens. Older Basic Sets came with a starter dungeon of some type in the book plus a full-blown adventure module that was good for levels 1 to 3, this one comes with a 1-level adventure. Could you start a campaign with this set? I don't think so. It's basically a training product that you throw away once you've played through it. Hell, Keep on the Shadowfell is a better starting product IMO than this - it introduces the rules, let's you dive right in with pre-gen characters, and comes with a real adventure wit ha base area, some NPC's, and some nice fights along the way, and it's cheaper to boot! Once you picked up a PHB you could still use KOTS! Once you pick up a PHB or heroes of the Fallen Lands this box is useless, so why not just skip directly to the real game - it's the same price and has tons more utility than this thing!

Additionally there is for me some sens of betrayal with this one. I started on a Basic Set, many of my older friends started on a Basic Set, and when I first heard abut it I was planning on getting this for my kids to start them off. This thing looks like a Basic Set but has almost none of what made those special. An incomplete, gutted version of the rules, a 1-level dungeon, some tokens, and a map. Put a cut-down rulebook in the box and a revised Keep on the Shadowfell and you might have had something here. As it is, it's an utter failure both as an introduction to the game and as a nostalgia item. It's sad because I am a guy who is a likely sell on either of those things and I rate it a fail on both counts.

Note: There have been some disclaimers that this is not a "Basic Set" but a "Starter Set". One, it looks like the 1983 Basic Set, regardless of what you call it, so it's clearly intended to emulate that product. Two, that's a fairly small semantic difference (outside of marketing-speak) and I haven't heard anyone enumerate the differences to be expected in two products bearing those descriptions. At the most basic level, I would expect it to allow someone to learn to play D&D on their own, with no help. I suppose the new red box does that going by some reviews. The problem is that the old Basic Sets did far more than just teach the mechanics of the game, and I don;t think it does that anywhere near as well, despite dressing it up in classic colors.

The 4E Player's Handbook in 2010 - is it obsolete?

With the recent launch of D&D Essentials (the new intro product line) I have seen some posts about starting campaigns and which books to use and whether the PHB is obsolete. In a D&D environment where rules updates come along every month, it's worth looking into. I thought I would look at the content of and see just how badly out of date the printed version is compared to the current errata. Also, I wanted to look at it from the perspective of someone trying to start a game up now using only the PHB for their players.


The Player's Handbook came out in June of 2008 and as far as I can tell has not been reprinted with any errata incorporated into the text. This one has been important because until recently  THIS IS THE ONLY BOOK WITH THE RULES IN IT. Regardless of the changes, you need this book to learn how to play the game. Alright, now that we've covered that:

Races: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Eladrin, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Human, Tiefling

Race-wise this is a pretty good mix of classic and new. The half-orc and the gnome are missing but my players like dragonborn a lot - I suspect PC races with a breath weapon will always be more popular than short, bearded magicky types in some circles. The Tiefling seems like a partial miss as no one has shown interest in playing one yet but half-orcs were never that popular in my games either so call that one a wash.

Classes: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Warlord, Wizard

Class-wise this really covers all of the oldest-school classes. We're missing the Bard, Barbarian, and Monk from some older versions but Warlords are a very interesting new class and Warlocks fill in the role of Sorcerer as "alternative wizardy type".

It also contains a bunch of feats, 3-4 paragon paths for each class and 4 Epic destinies.

So, first: Could you run a campaign with just this book for PC options? Yes! There is plenty of material here for PC's to work with. Every class has 2 builds so even duplicate classes have some mechanical differences. The only place I can see some constriction happening is at Epic levels where having only 4 destinies with an assumption that a standard party is 5 characters means that someone has to double up on their epic destiny, but that's a long way down the road and with something like "demigod" as one of the choices, I think it would work out alright.

Second, could you convert an existing campaign or campaign world over using just this book? Tougher but I'm going to say "Probably, yes". If you have a Gnome bard and a Half-Orc barbarian in your party, well, that's going to be a little tricky.  I'm not a fan of converting a long-running campaign over to a new system anyway so I probably wouldn't do it. Converting a campaign world though...sure. There could be some hurdles to overcome - how dragonborn suddenly showed up is just one example  - but most DM's who would consider it are pretty good at coming up with justifications for things like that. Finish up your current campaign by having the PC's discover the "Island of the Dragonborn" and save it from a big threat. Afterwards the formerly isolationist Dragonborn begin to take more of an interest in the larger world so that in your next (4E) campaign they are available as a PC choice. Or, stick to your guns and say "no Dragonborn in my world" - it's your game, your world, and your rules so if they bug you, eliminate them.

In my opinion the PHB contains enough class and race options to run a perfectly fine, almost traditional, D&D campaign on its own. Looking at it as part of the universe of 4E material it is limited, but looking at it compared to say Basic & Expert D&D, it's at least as complete and isn't level capped at 3 or 14.

So on to the question of obsolescence. WOTC releases errata about every month. One reason they do this is because they have the DDI, their online package of play aids. Being able to instantly update the rules is a cool idea. making people pay for it is not so cool, but the errata itself is a free download. The problem in my eyes is that this "it's OK to make regular updates" attitude has led to a problem where they don't just release fixes to things that are broken or typo corrections, they feel free to rewrite subsystems of the game and make changes to powers just because they feel like it - it's gone beyond just error fixes. From a player perspective, I don't like it because it feels like my shelf of $30 hardbacks is degrading over time. From a business perspective I think it's a bad idea because if your business is to sell $30 hardbacks then your online initiative may end up damaging those sales as people realize next month will probably change something in that book and it's only the beginning. I don't know how the numbers break down but I would wager that the number of PHB's sold is greater than the number of DDI subscribers on any given month. Over time, who knows? But they do seem to be in conflict to some degree. I wonder how much it gets discussed internally, if at all.

Anyway, let's look at some classes and powers and see what's changed since  the book came out. Up front I know that the stealth rules were changed . The update was printed in the PHB 2 so it is available in a printed rulebook. But let's look at some character specifics. Starting with, say, Clerics:

There are 4 cleric class features in the PHB and only 1 of them has been changed. It makes a cleric's bonus healing apply only to surge healing, not surgeless healing. It's a fairly minor change and will come into play mainly at higher levels. Net impact: small     

There are 4 cleric at-wills in the PHB. Only 1 of them  has been changed, and the change is from granting an ally a variable bonus to granting an ally a fixed bonus, which will typically only have an effect at higher levels or if the cleric has really high or really low stats. Net impact: small.

Level 1 encounter powers: 4, no changes.

Level 1 daily powers: 4, 1 has a wording change to note that it a)allows creatures to move through its effect and b) affects all enemies, not all creatures. Net impact: significant if you take this power, zero if you don't.

In effect, at level 1 a cleric isn't going  to play any differently with the original PHB than they are with a fully updated version. Yes there are a few changes but they are minor and do not change the flavor of the character at all.

There are a total of 65 cleric powers (beyond at-wills).and 10 of them have errata - about 15%


Let's look at some more:

Fighters:
3 class features, 1 of which has minor errata
4 At-Wills, 1 of which has minor errata
There are 75 additional powers from level 1 onward, 10 of which have errata - about 13%

Rogues:
4 class features, no errata
4 at-wills, no errata
There are 67 additional powers 5 of which have errata - about 7%

Wizard:
4 class features, 1 with minor errata
5 at-wills, 1 with significant errata - magic missile moves to auto-hit
There are 76 additional powers 8 of which have errata - about  11%

Looks like we're hovering about 11% average for each class. I was going to stop at the 4 iconic classes but this is interesting so let's do more:

Paladin:
3 class features, no errata
4 at-wills, no errata
There are 63 additional powers, 4 of which have errata -  about 6%

Ranger:
3 class features 1 of which has errata
4 at-wills 1 of which has errata
There are 70 additional powers, 7 of which have errata - 10%

Warlock:
5 class features 1 of which has errata
4 at-wills, no errata
There are 68 additional powers 5 of which have errata - about  7%

Warlord:
 3 class features, no errata
 4 at-wills, no errata
There are 66 additional powers 4 of which have errata -  about 6%

The powers are the bulk of the content in the PHB errata document. There are additional skill uses, some table replacements, some magic item tweaks, and a fair number of clarifications to combat terms - actions, conditions, etc. None of these represent major changes to how the game works or how characters are created and are pretty typical of errata for any good-sized RPG book, especially a main rulebook. They didn't add new powers, eliminate powers, add or delete a race, or add a new skill or a new action type to combat.

As far as powers, at-wills are the ones that are used constantly and to me define the basic flavor of a class. Wizards throwing Thunderwave, Fighters smacking someone with Tide of Iron, etc.  Given that I would say the most significant change out of all of these is the change to magic missile, but even there it's still a single-target ranged attack spell. Sure, now it autohits, but it does less damage too, so it's not a huge power increase.

Looking at all of this I'm going to say there's no reason to call the PHB obsolete. In fact, if you don't subscribe to DDI you need this book for the bulk of the material on these classes! If you do subscribe to DDI I'm not sure you need any of the books, especially if you are just a player and not a DM. At that point, all of them are probably superfluous, not just the PHB. If you are a DDI holdout like myself though, it's still a good book. If you're teaching kids the game it's still a good introduction. If a new player asks you what one book should they get to learn the game, I think this might still be the answer even with Essentials entering the market.

Essentials - the requisite annual controversy for 2010. I have the Rules Compendium and the Fallen Lands book and they are good. I know they are supposed to be aimed at new players but there is a problem: The Compendium doesn't have any classes or races in it,so it doesn't allow you to build a character. The Fallen Lands book has all of the character material but it has only a 20 page summary version of the rules! For the last 2 years the obvious entry choice was the $30 PHB - character creation and the full rules of the game. Now there's a nice big book of the rules for $20 (and it is nice) and a book of characters for $20 which has less character information that the PHB to boot! Now Amazon can make this less painful but ebay and used book stores can make the PHB less painful too.

In the end you have a 320 page core rulebook with 22 pages of errata.  By class, the changes affect less than 10% of powers on average. I don't see this book as obsolete at all and I'm not at all convinced that Essentials is a better 1-book introduction for anyone. I don't think DDI is a great introduction to the game either, though it's certainly one way to "upgrade" as an alternative to buying books. As of today, the PHB is still my #1 way to bring someone into the game.

D&D Class Diversity Through Different Editions

One of the things that struck me when the apprentices started their most recent adventure is that between their 4 characters and the other campaign's 6 characters I have zero overlap with classes and only 1 duplicate race. The first campaign: Eladrin Wizard, Human Fighter, Half-Elf Bard,  Human Warlock, Deva Invoker, and Goliath Barbarian. Second campaign: Dragonborn Paladin, Elf Ranger, Dwarf Warlord, Shifter Druid. I never had that kind of diversity in any previous version of the game - if we had one big 10-man party I can guarantee there would be at least 2 fighters and maybe 2 clerics. If we're talking 2 5-man parties then you would see at least 1 fighter in each party and at least 1 cleric in each party, probably a wizard in each party and maybe a thief in each. I really really like that in 4E this doesn't happen. I thought I would look at the variety of classes in each edition and discuss this idea a little bit.

Basic D&D - Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, Thief, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling. That's it - seven choices. Later products added some races to this mix( like shadow elves) and some higher-level prestige class type things (Paladins, Avengers, Druids) but the 7 above were what most people had available most of the time.

AD&D:
Cleric
   Druid
Fighter
   Paladin
   Ranger
Magic-User
   Illusionist
Thief
   Assassin
Monk
[Bard]

Indented classes are considered sub-classes of the primary class above them. Bard was a weird sort-of prestige class for only humans that was overpowered in some ways but also rarely seen - I'm not counting it as a real class. So we had 10 mechanically distinct classes in 1E and that was fine with most of us, though new classes and NPC classes would appear regularly in Dragon all through the 80's in an attempt to add more. Typically these were more specialized versions of existing classes (The Archer) or an attempt to clean up the Monk and make it into a decent class : ).

AD&D Unearthed Arcana (Sometimes retconned as "1.5 E")
Cavalier
   Paladin
Cleric
   Druid
Fighter
   Barbarian
   Ranger
Magic-User
   Illusionist
Thief
   Acrobat
   Assassin
Monk
[Bard]

So now we're up to 13 mechanically distinct classes (still not counting Bard). The new additions here are Cavalier (which I loved but had it's limitations as horses rarely fit into dungeons well), barbarian (dramatically overpowered with ridiculous XP advancement requirements) and thief-acrobat (another class you could only enter at higher levels, maybe the original "prestige class"). Paladin becoming a sub-class of Cavalier was a change I hated and in my group we largely ignored it unless someone wanted to play a cavalier-paladin - we looked at them as separate classes in a lot of ways.

One thing that bears mention is multi-classing. Although it was restricted to non-humans only, this upped the class diversity quite a bit as these combos played differently than the sum of their parts:

Cleric/Fighter
Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User
Cleric/Ranger
Cleric/Magic-User
Cleric/Thief
Cleric/Assassin
Fighter/Magic-User
Fighter/Illusionist
Fighter/Thief
Fighter/Assassin
Fighter/Magic-User/Thief
Magic-User/Thief
Illusionist/Thief

That's 13 possible combinations. If you look at these as separate class options that takes AD&D up to 23 mechanically distinct class choices and 1.5 to 26. I can tell you that playing an Elven M-U/Thief is different than playing a Human Thief or a Human M-U, so I would count them as separate choices. AD&D had 6 races originally and by the time you combine the 6 races with the class and multi-class options, there's a lot of diversity there. Yet somehow we ended up with somebody playing a fighter and somebody playing a cleric in almost every party. Elements of customization are limited to race, class, and equipment, so 3 elements.

AD&D Second Edition 

Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Mage
Specialty Wizard
Cleric
Druid
Thief
Bard

2E gets rid of the sub-class concept, drops the assassin, and makes the bard a normal starts-at-level-one class. It also goes back to the classic six races from AD&D So there are 9 mechanically distinct classes although specialty wizards were not much different from mages, effectively. Tome of Magic added Wild Mages, who were quite different. Various other books added specialty priests, many of whom were also quite different. So call it 11 different classes. Multiclassing options were the same as in 1E other than losing the assassin option and they were somewhat more restrictive (fighter/mages couldn't cast in armor anymore) but they were still pretty popular. So call it 11 more options. That puts us up around 22 separate options, pretty similar to 1st edition.

2E also added "Kits" which in some cases were nothing more than flavor with zero mechanical impact, and were sometimes massive in impact, creating almost a sub-class out of one of the standard classes. With the variety of class books, race books, and campaign-world-specific books there not a good way to classify those in a short article like this. Also many DM's didn't allow them or restricted them in various ways, so it's tough to say what was "normal" regarding kits.  Let's leave it at a possible third axis for diversity beyond race and class and put into roughly the same category as Feats in 3E and 4E - a flavor choice that typically has some  mechanical impact too. So we end up with race, class, kit, equipment, and non-weapon proficiencies - so 5 potential elements of diversity.

For D&D 3rd Edition it gets messy. We had the basic classes in the PHB but this was soon expanded enormously by the class books, race books, campaign world books, PHB2, and various supplemental books like the Psionics Handbook.Effectively, what would have been a kit in 2E became a full-fledged new class in 3E or a prestige class, a new wrinkle for 3rd that effectively added a tidal wave of specialized classes available only at higher levels. Combine that with a flood of new races and unlimited multiclassing and you have incredible diversity and choice that's a world away from AD&D. Now not all of those choices are good ones but the breadth of interesting combinations is unmatched in D&D and nearly unmatched in any RPG - I would say only Hero System is more flexible while retaining the detail. M&M is close too. GURPS has a narrower power range, Savage Worlds is less detailed, and BESM/SAS is also less detailed. the problem is that balancing that near-infinite level of choice is nearly impossible. power creep and broken combos sneak in and render the whole thing an unplaytestable mess. Part of the focus of the game (for some people) becomes finding those power combos that make your character unstoppable. Niche protection breaks down as well and your party starts to step on each other's toes until someone feels that their character is clearly inferior to another character and gets unhappy. Not all groups will experience this but at the sharp end of things it can get ugly after a few levels.

Now despite this off-the-charts diversity in 3E, we almost always saw at least one fighter and at least one cleric in every party, plus either a wizard or a sorcerer. Every party - same players, different players, low-level, high-level, it didn't matter, that's what I saw. For the axes of diverstiy we have race, class(es), prestige class(es), equipment, skills, and feats. That's 6 levels of choice but considering you could take 3 classes and 3 prestige classes and still have a reasonable build that gives you 12 different elements of flavor.

Then we come to 4th edition. One of the design goals was to have real math behind the system - normal damage at level X is this, AC's at level X should be in this range, etc - for monsters and for player characters.  Another concept was to incorporate certain expected roles within a party into the class designs and descriptions. Another was to incorporate different "builds" into each class, effectively going back to the 1E concept of a "sub-class" and making some mechanically different choices available even within a particular class. Below is a list of classes and builds using most of the 4E books that are out now:

Class	Build	Source	Role
Cleric	Battle Cleric	PHB 1	Leader
	Devoted Cleric	PHB 1	Leader
	Shielding Cleric	Divine Power	Leader
Fighter	Great Weapon Fighter	PHB 1	Defender
	Guardian Fighter	PHB 1	Defender
	Battlerager Fighter	Martial Power	Defender
	Tempest Fighter	Martial Power	Defender
	Brawling Fighter	Martial Power 2	Defender
Paladin	Avenging Paladin	PHB 1	Defender
	Protecting Paladin	PHB 1	Defender
	Ardent Paladin	Divine Power	Defender
	Virtuous Paladin	Divine Power	Defender
Ranger	Archer Ranger	PHB 1	Striker
	Two-Blade Ranger	PHB 1	Striker
	Beastmaster Ranger	Martial Power	Striker
	Hunter Ranger	Martial Power 2	Striker
	Marauder Ranger	Martial Power 2	Striker
Rogue	Brawny Rogue	PHB 1	Striker
	Trickster Rogue	PHB 1	Striker
	Aerialist Rogue	Martial Power	Striker
	Cutthroat Rogue	Martial Power	Striker
	Shadowy Rogue	Martial Power 2	Striker
Warlock	Fey Pact	PHB 1	Striker
	Infernal Pact	PHB 1	Striker
	Star Pact	PHB 1	Striker
	Vestige Pact	Arcane Power	Striker
	Dark Pact	FR Player's Guide	Striker
Warlord	Inspiring Warlord	PHB 1	Leader
	Tactical Warlord	PHB 1	Leader
	Bravura Warlord	Martial Power	Leader
	Resourceful Warlord	Martial Power	Leader
	Insightful Warlord	Martial Power 2	Leader
	Skirmishing Warlord	Martial Power 2	Leader
Wizard	Control Wizard	PHB 1	Controller
	War Wizard	PHB 1	Controller
	Illusionist Wizard	Arcane Power	Controller
	Summoner Wizard	Arcane Power	Controller
Avenger	Isolating Avenger	PHB 2	Striker
	Pursuing Avenger	PHB 2	Striker
	Commanding Avenger	Divine Power	Striker
Barbarian	Rageblood Barbarian	PHB 2	Striker
	Thaneblood Barbarian	PHB 2	Striker
	Thunderborn Barbarian	Primal Power	Striker
	Whirling Barbarian	Primal Power	Striker
Bard	Cunning Bard	PHB 2	Leader
	Valorous Bard	PHB 2	Leader
	Prescient bard	Arcane Power	Leader
Druid	Guardian Druid	PHB 2	Controller
	Predator Druid	PHB 2	Controller
	Swarm Druid	Primal Power	Controller
Invoker	Preserving Invoker	PHB 2	Controller
	Wrathful Invoker	PHB 2	Controller
	Malediction Invoker	Divine Power	Controller
Shaman	Bear Shaman	PHB 2	Leader
	Panther Shaman	PHB 2	Leader
	Eagle Shaman	Primal Power	Leader
	World Speaker Shaman	Primal Power	Leader
Sorcerer	Chaos Sorcerer	PHB 2	Striker
	Dragon Sorcerer	PHB 2	Striker
	Cosmic Sorcerer	Arcane Power	Striker
	Storm Sorcerer	Arcane Power	Striker
Warden	Earth Warden	PHB 2	Defender
	Wild Warden	PHB 2	Defender
	Life Warden	Primal Power	Defender
	Storm Warden	Primal Power	Defender
Swordmage	Assault Swordmage	FR Player's Guide	Defender
	Shielding Swordmage	FR Player's Guide	Defender
	Ensnaring Swordmage	Arcane Power	Defender

That's 4 Roles, 17 classes , 68 Builds, and that's not counting Eberron, the PHB 3 (still digesting that one), Psionic Power (haven't acquired it yet) or the new Heroes of the Fallen lands from the D&D Essentials line. Those will add another 6 classes and another 20-30 builds. I was very much against making "Roles" an element of a class description when I read 4E for the first time as I thought it was too meta-gamey and pointless as it wasn't part of the mechanics. I was wrong - once players understand what the roles mean as a general category they tend to gravitate to one or two of the roles and start looking at the different classes within that role, then at the different builds within that class - it's very much been a positive, helpful thing and not the metagaming distraction I expected. It's really the key behind the death of the "we need a cleric" phase of party composition, as leaders are quite diverse and cleric is only one type of leader, rather then an essential element of every party.

As far as diversity it's way beyond 1E and 2E on classes & builds alone. 4E is also up to 20-something playable races, most of which are good. Multiclassing is much more limited than in 3E but it still means every character could typically multiclass into any one other class and gain some of the benefits which is still pretty flexible. Beyond that is the option for hybrid classes which are more like 1E multiclassing than 3E multiclassing but add another layer of options. Instead of prestige classes we have paragon paths which come into play from levels 11-20 and Epic destinies which come into play from 21-30.  So for variety we have race, class, skills, feats, equipment, powers, paragon path, epic destiny, and multiclassing or hybrid classing on top of that. That's about 9 axes of choice with a lot of options at each one - the power choices alone at each level add another layer of flexibility comparable to spell choices for sorcerers in 3E.

So when I first read the 4E PHB I was convinced that everyone's options had declined drastically when it came to character diversity, and it had  - but it was still more choice than the 3.0 PHB had in it in many ways when it first came out. Now, 2 years in, I'm amazed at the level of customization and choice available. it's way beyond 1E and 2E and in the same ballpark as 3E with a bunch of supplements.

I put together this post because after looking at my party compositions and thinking about how it compared to earlier versions I was surprised at what I found and thought it was worth pointing out. One of the criticisms of 4E has been a lack of diversity and a sameness to all characters - I don't see that at all.

I admit that I did see a lot of sameness when I first read it as page after page of mind-numbing power lists in the PHB dulled and then killed my enthusiasm for this new game. After playing it though, all those words in those powers mean something - push, pull,slide,stun, shift, daze, close blast, area burst, - all those terms mean very different things in play and I suspect it's not until after you have played and seen the impact of those different description in actual play that it jumps out to you. That's where a lot of the flavor is in this edition - it's not in the class feature mechanics so much themselves as it is in the powers and what they do. Little things like "each enemy in burst" vs "Each creature in burst" and the effect of something like "...and slide the target 1 square" when fighting near a staircase or a pit trap or a well - The powers being all in the same format does look somewhat boring but they come out in play as being very different from each other.

I think more than any other version (and maybe any other RPG I have seen previously) that 4E plays much differently than it reads. I think the format has a lot to do with that. Maybe that's a failure of WOTC marketing or design, or maybe it's the price we pay for a mechanically balanced system. Mechanically and presentation-wise it's a huge change from prior editions but it still does a lot of the same things and IMO it does a lot of them better - it just presents them differently, to the point that I wonder if extensive prior experience is a hindrance in this case rather than a help. Maybe it is. I feel like I've gotten past it now and I really like what I see.

In the interests of the big picture, I will say that if someone I know decides to run a 1E, 2E, or 3E game (or Pathfinder too I suppose)  I would happily join in and play - I like all versions of D&D enough to play them. But if I'm the guy running it then I really see only 2 things I'm interested in right now - Basic/1E for the simplicity and old-schoolness and getting to run classic modules in their original form, and 4E because it just works, for both the players and the DM, and we have so much more to explore.

A lot of things can be said about 4E D&D but "lack of diverstity" or "all the characters are the same" should not be one of them.  Even at first level, there are major differences. Plus, it's the version that finally broke the "we need a cleric" mentality - finally! That alone is a major contribution to player freedom, and it shouldn't be overlooked.

Motivational Monday

Guardians of the Vale - Final Placement of the Campaign

So I've had a fair amount of placement chaos with this campaign. In the end I've placed it in the sample starting area from the FR Campaign Guide. Why? Well...

The generic campaign Nentir Vale idea was one I liked but it really isn't compatible with a Forgotten Realms campaign as the history and the gods are incompatible. Yes I could convert them but what's the point of converting a nice little start area that much? Plus I figure I can use it as-is in my Legendary Greyhawk idea whenever I finally get to run that. So, no Nentir Vale in Faerun.

Damara has potential as it's close to Vaasa (Warlock Knights and the Witch King) and not terribly detailed. The geography is close enough to the Nentir Vale that I could almost fit it in. The land has ties to Orcus cultists going back into history so it fits well with the main theme of the 4E Adventure Path. The great glacier to the north could allow for some good adventures too. I even found a nice supplement that adds more of an Orcus theme to the first 3 adventures and I really liked the way it was shaping up - the fight against Orcus, the other stuff...wait Orcus is trying to take the power of the Raven Queen? FR doesn't have a Raven Queen. The usual substitute is Shar, but she's a greater goddess that's a pretty big player in things. Really? This isn't going to work real well in my head. Let's save it for the Ancient Greyhawk campaign or until I rework it to better fit in Damara.


Additionally I started thinking and I'm not sure I want the Apprentices' first big campaign to center around a demon prince...it's just not my favorite theme for the youngsters. Tiamat maybe - big evil dragons are cooler than the demon undead guy at their age. This totally blows my original plan. Great.

So I started looking at the Scales of War adventure path - it's built around dragons and things. The first adventure is...not impressive. The raid part is fine but the dungeon is kind of a mess. The second adventure though is very cool and looks like something straight out of Lord of the Rings - I can use that. But I still need a setting.

I re-read Loudwater in the FR Campaign Guide and it's good. It has a nice little map with just enough detail to be useful. So there, goodbye Fallcrest, hello Loudwater. It's also located in a very interesting part of Faerun locally, plus it's within a fairly short journey of Baldur's Gate, Waterdeep. and the Moonsea (where the other game is located). Forest, Mountains, Desert, Badlands are all close by. This looks like a nice region to start in with a lot of small areas I can put my own spin on.

So the plan is this: The campaign will be centered in the Gray Vale Region. Loudwater will be the starting town but they can wander wherever they want.  They will finish up the Kobold Hall trip and still be at level 1. This will roll right into the raid encounter and the Ogre Barrow adventure which should put them at 2nd. This will lead into whatever part of the Rivenroar scenario I decide to steal and the Icy Spire adventure from the Dungeon Annual which is set nearby and looks pretty cool. This should put them up around 3rd level. At that point I will run them through Siege of Borodin's Watch (Scales of War #2) or the Scepter Tower of Spellgard, whichever they choose to do. After that it's probably Thunderpsire Labyrinth which will be located under the Star Mounts. We may do Pyramid of Shadows or we may do more Scales of War after that, it really depends on what they decide to pursue - which is as it should be.

So I still get to work in some of the adventure path. If we have enough low-level time I may end up running the Realms conversion of Keep on the Shadowfell which I disliked originally but I may be OK with now since I'm reserving the Orcus version for another campaign.  It may come into play along with Scepter Tower if I have another group start up in the same area - a handy option to have.

One campaign plotted out for the first 5 levels, the groundwork for another campaign laid - that's some good work. One of the Apprentices is now reading the 4E FR Player's Guide and the other one will read it afterwards so their dip into Realmslore has begun. With the first adventure underway we're off to a good start.

Guardians of the Vale - Session 1

It is Spring, 1479 D.R. - The Year of the Ageless One. In the town of Loudwater trade caravans begin to arrive as winter fades and with them the itinerant adventurers that always seem to be a part of trade and travels. A new band steps forth - an Elven Ranger, a Dragonborn Paladin, a Dwarven Warlord, and a Shifter Druid. No one knows their names yet but they will - destiny awaits!

Seeking opportunity they speak to Captain Harrowleaf, captain of the local guards. He has been trying to deal with kobold activity along one of the trade roads and, seeing opportunity here himself, offers the adventurers a 10gp bounty for each dead kobold and a 100gp bonus if they can slay the leader of this band and bring back his signature bone mask. The party agrees, hands are shaken, and they head out down the road where the raids are taking place, seeking a burned out manor house known locally as "Kobold Hall".


Locating the ruins with no difficulty the group descends a stone staircase into darkness. Inside there is a good-sized stone room with a pool of glowing slime and several surprised kobolds. The group charges the scaled ones and things seem to be going well until the paladin finds himself cut off from the rest, surrounded and being attacked from all sides. Both the paladin and the druid are hit with entangling glue pots from kobold slings, which doesn't help matters.The ranger fires shot after shot into the kobolds but things still look grim until the dwarf launches himself into the fight and relieves the pressure on the paladin. The remaining enemies are quickly slain and the party pauses to catch their breath.

Down another short stairway the party sees another large room with an altar in one corner, some stone coffins in the center of the room, and a couple of suits of armor in niches along th walls. Having been warned by the survivors of a previous expedition, the party knew this area was trapped and dangerous so they moved in with great caution. Three kobolds were in the room and they moved to engage. The heroes made an effort to track where the creatures moved but in the heat of combat it was nearly impossible. Reluctantly they moved to engage, virtually cringing as they did so. Combat was short once they did take it to hand to hand. The paladin was hit by a paralyzing dart as he attempted to disable one trap, but the group was otherwise in good shape. A bag of gold was found on the altar as wound were bound, then the team moved on.

Descending another set of stairs the group found another large room with another slime pit and some more stone coffins. It also contained 6 more kobolds who started shooting at the party as soon as they entered. The elf ranger quickly dropped one of the slingers with a pair of well-aimed shots. The dwarf burst into action and charged the raised platforms at the end of the room, climbed up the platform, and slew a kobold atop it! The dragonborn paladin moved to the other side of the room and charged the platform there. As he reached the stage instead of climbing up he blasted the area with his lightning breath, blowing one kobold away. The shifter druid was unfortunate enough to be hit by another glue pot and pinned in place for almost the entire battle, though he did fire off his firebird several times.
Having cleared the platform of kobolds the dwarf was met by a guard drake charging up a set of stairs behind the platform. In a short fierce combat the beast was slain by the dwarf with fire support from the ranger and the druid. He charged down another set of stairs and was met by another charging guard drake that proceeded to savage his leg while a wounded kobold took shots at him from behind the beast. Frustrated by the platform, the paladin hacked down a door with his battle axe to aid the dwarf and the elf moved to get a clear shot into the melee. In the end the heroes prevailed with a battered dwarf and a sticky druid, dejected by his ill luck with the glue shots from the kobolds. After this the party decided to post a guard and catch some shuteye, worn out from their battles this day.

Following their break the team moved up a long hallway and encountered a room with a high ceiling and some kind of platform in the center. As they entered a huge boulder rolled out of a chute in the ceiling and  began circling the room, heading right for them - some managed to scramble out of the way but many of the party members were hit by the giant rock and knocked aside. Right after this a small flying lizard darted out and attacked the dwarf, who was farthest into the room. Two kobolds also appeared atop the platform and began raining shots down into the party, immobilizing the dwarf and the druid in short order. Stuck in place, the dwarf is nearly hit by the boulder again but manages to break free and leap aside just in time. The druid gets pinned in one corner and is subject to repeated attacks by the flying lizard which he cannot seem to fight off. He does however see the kobold leader and his bodyguards up on a platform on the other side of the room and calls out to the rest of the team what he sees.
Leaping into action the ranger is quickly atop the platform and fires off a mighty shot striking the kobold leader and nearly slaying him! Staggering, the kobold fires back with a spell that does nothing, only to be struck again by an arrow from the ranger which puts him down for good.
Enraged, the bodyguards wade in to avenge their leader. The paladin engages them and takes a serious beating, as does the ranger who is forced to fight hand to hand instead of leaping around firing off shots from his bow. In the end though the party fights through to victory, slaying everything in the room as the boulder finally comes to rest.
Searching the bodies turns up a silver key and a note about a secret door. The dwarf decides to explore a bit after a short rest and the rest of the party hurries to keep up with him. Descending a long flight of stairs, they find the air growing cooler as they emerge in a large natural cave. There is a frozen pool in the center of the room and the dwarf charges forward to investigate. As he does, a large white dragon uncurls and emerges from behind a large stone, looking none too happy at the intruders in his lair...

DM notes: This was actually spread over two sessions but they were pretty close together so I lumped them into one. This was the apprentices' second attempt at 4E and it went much much better for a few reasons - One, the DM knows a lot more about the game now. Two, they know a lot more about D&D too. Three, they have their own copies of the PHB and used the character builder to make characters, ensuring that the numbers are all on their character sheets and eliminating a lot of  page-flipping during combat but giving them time to read the rules between sessions.

One thing I've noticed is that I always have rules to look up after a session with them because they try some crazy stuff.  Shooting into melee, fighting around corners, nitty-gritty cover rules, using acrobatics instead of athletics to get up on a 10' ledge. I like it - it keeps me on my toes and shows they are thinking about the game. They are also diligent about collecting weapons from their enemies, a nice old-school touch.

Some of you may also notice I moved the campaign once again. More on that tomorrow.

4E Dungeon Magazine Annual - A Short Review

This will be a short review  as this is a pretty straightforward book. It's a 160 page hardback published in 2010 and consists entirely of adventures previously published as part of DDI on the WOTC website. There are only 5 adventures (2xLvl 3, lvl 7, lvl 15, and lvl 21) here treated with far more depth than the "Dungeon Delve" encounters. Knowing that my advice to another DM would be to flip through this book and read the summary for each adventure and see if enough of them interest you to buy it. That's really the best way to check out this book.

For myself there were three reasons I purchased it:
1) I've become something of a completist on 4E D&D books - gotta catch 'em all!
2) I saw immediate use for one of the adventures and a pretty good chance I could use  almost all of the rest at some point
3) It was cheap, like single-digits cheap.

I'm not going to review each of the adventures. They are a bit of a grab-bag as one of them is technically Forgotten Realms though there is nothing tied to the Realms in it, one is from the middle of the Scales of War adventure path which is kind of an odd choice - why not publish the whole path as a book? As it is, one of a series is kind of hard to use on its own - and one is from Eberron and is pretty heavily Eberron flavored though I am contemplating ways to drop it into the Realms. This kind of material is nice in that as a DM you can accumulate adventures and delve-type encounters and keep a general idea of what you have in the back of your mind which allows you to pull out level-appropriate random side treks out whenever the players decide to go wandering the countryside. Plus if there is one you like yo ucan foreshadow a bit and drop in hints and links to it during the earlier adventures of your group.

So in the end there is nothing here I think is bad, plenty I think is good, and if you can find it a reasonable price then it's a good addition to your DM Resource Library.

Motivational Monday