Now, that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be talking about the books at all, or my impressions of them. On the contrary. I’m starting a new (hopefully) regular column of sorts on this web site called ‘DM’s Journal’, the first installment of which is already up. I’m starting up a 4th Edition campaign, and I plan on blogging about my experiences with 4th Edition as I think of interesting things to say. So, while you won’t get a review of my impressions of the books after reading them, you will be getting my impressions of different parts of the game, itself, that result from actual use and play.

The social encounters were a breeze to create, and were a lot of fun, too. The skill challenge system allows for a lot of customization, such that these two encounters, both of which are basically negotiations, have different uses for the same, and different, skills. There are a couple of things that I really like about the tools given to craft non-combat encounters. First and foremost, I love the fact that I get to reward the PCs for their choice of skills, and encourage them to pick up more skills. If you read the Player’s Handbook, it’s not immediately apparent that skills have become more important in 4th Edition. Sure, the rogue has a lot of powers that key off of skills, and some of the other classes have utility powers that improve skill use, but it almost seems like an afterthought. Until you read the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and it all clicks into place. Between skill challenges and terrain effects, there are lots of ways for a DM who is so inclined to reward skill use in 4th Edition. When crafting these encounters, I made sure to include at least one skill that each PC had, so that everyone could feel useful, but I also included some other skills that nobody has, to nudge the PCs into picking up the Skill Training feat a couple of times in the future. I love that I have a tool to do that with.

The other thing that I like about the skill challenge system is that it gives me a way to take something like a negotiation and create an actual mechanical encounter out of it, with plenty of role-playing as well as plenty of die-rolling, and an XP reward at the end. Suddenly, non-combat encounters have become just as important as combat encounters.

The combat encounter that I created took a little bit more time, but it was still pretty easy, and it really served to highlight for me the things that I like about 4th Edition encounter and monster design.

Monster design in 4th Edition is great. Monsters are tactically and thematically interesting, with mechanics that both inform and are informed by the flavor of the monster. I also really like the idea behind minions, as well as the other end of the spectrum: elites and solos. I put a bunch of minions in this encounter, a couple of standard monsters, and an elite. The fight, itself, will be big, but I don’t think it will be difficult for me to manage.

Another thing that I like about monsters in 4th Edition is that they’re really easy to customize. Only one of the monsters that I used in the fight is straight out of the monster manual. The others have all be tweaked in some way. For the elite, I took a different elite, changed out some powers and characteristics, and reduced its level to be more in line with a 1st-level party. There are four different monster types in the fight, three of which have been customized, and it took me maybe 20 to 30 minutes to do the customization work for all three. Not too bad, really, when you compare it to 3rd Edition.

Something that I really like about encounter design in general is that terrain is a lot more important than it used to be. There are some really fantastic rules for creating terrain in the DM’s guide, and the DCs and Damage by Level chart on page 42 is absolutely invaluable for scattering all kinds of improvised attacks around the encounter for the PCs to make use of.

All in all, I’m very happy with encounter design in 4th Edition. There’s some work involved, but it feels like you get a lot of bang for your buck. And, truth to be told, I find the work to be a lot of fun in and of itself.

That isn’t to say that they’re perfect. I’ve stumbled across some editing mistakes, and while most of them aren’t really a big deal and don’t make any of the rules unclear, occasionally you’ll find one that does and will require errata of some sort. A particular ranger power, for example, is listed as doing [W] damage, with no preceding number. It’s an encounter power, so it probably doesn’t do 1[W] damage, and I’d probably peg it at 2[W] myself, but I’d like to know for sure what it’s supposed to do (for those who have no idea what I’m talking about, [W] stands for “weapon dice”, so a power that does 2[W] damage when used with a 1d8 longsword would deal 2d8 damage on a hit).

What strikes me most is how different the classes are from each other, even within the same role. A fighter and a paladin, while both defenders, are both very different types of defenders. The fighter defends by getting right up in your face and saying “you could attack someone else, but I really wouldn’t recommend it”. The paladin, on the other hand, provides a lot of defense bonuses and healing, and has several powers that allow him to share an ally’s damage when that ally is hit, or to take all of the damage entirely. Same role, different play styles. Very nice.

Anyway, this isn’t really intended to be a full review, just my initial impressions so far. I will be reviewing the books as I read them, though, so stay tuned.

Per a suggestion on the EN World forums, I’m using the Magic Set Editor to do my dirty work. The program is designed for creating your own cards for trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering, but it works equally well for this endeavor. I tried to install a template that turned the entire card into a text area, with no space for a picture, but for some reason the template didn’t work. However, I’ve come to think that actually having a blank white space where a picture should be is actually a good thing, since it gives players a good-sized space to write notes about the specifics of their powers. So anyway, below is a picture of one of the power cards I’ve created, specifically for the fighter at-will power Reaping Strike, complete with notes written in specific to the character. I printed these out on card stock, and they’re really very nice.

A warforged paladin of Avandra. He specializes in using hammers, and seems like a “righteous fire” type paladin to me.

A tiefling warlord who has made an infernal pact, multiclassing into warlock. He likes the scimitar and rides a horse, and he speaks Primordial, suggesting a certain antipathy for the gods.

A dragonborn fighter who wields a halberd, this guy is all about sweeping attacks and beating the enemy back, as far as I can tell. He also took the Enlarged Dragon Breath feat to make the most out of his draconic nature. He breathes fire.

And now I’m playing an enhanced version of the original Resident Evil on my DS. This was originally a PlayStation game, requiring a CD ROM disk, and now they’ve managed to fit the entire game, cut scenes and all, with added content, on a tiny little DS card. And it looks just as good (actually, probably a little bit better because pixelated graphics are less noticeable when they’re small) as the original PS version.

Like I said, I wouldn’t consider myself old (I’ll be turning 29 in July), but in terms of game technology I’m probably a centenarian.

One way you can go–and the way I plan on going–is via an organization of some kind that the PCs are working for. The organization that I’ll be using is a somewhat loosely-governed group of elite troubleshooters and professional adventurers known as the Queen’s Wardens, or just the Wardens to most people. Their mission is basically to keep the Demesne–that’s the territory that the PCs will start off in–safe and prosperous. In order to do this, they need a wide variety of character types, from diplomats to treasure hunters to lawmen to assassins. They’re also willing to overlook quite a lot if you pull your weight and get the job done. Thus, the players can still make pretty much any kind of character they want, and still be members (because I promise you, they’ll be pulling their weight).

Starting all of the PCs off as Wardens grants a couple of nice benefits to me as the DM. One, I can easily provide them with a reason for adventuring together without telling them that they already know each other. Simply put, they’re a newly-formed company of fairly green–but very promising–recruits. Two, it gives me an easy way to introduce quests. Ideally, I’d like many of the quests to be player-driven, in that they indicate through behavior at the table the kinds of things they’re interested in investigating, and I plan for that for the next session. However, when they’re at a loss for what to do, or for when there really aren’t any loose ends to tie up, it’s nice to be able to have the chain of command hand them something to do. Three, if (Pelor forbid) one of the PCs die and they don’t feel like raising him (or if that option simply isn’t available), or if one of the players gets tired of his character or feels its time to retire him, it gives me an easy way to introduce a new character, and to give that character a reason to join the party.

I really like the idea of using the Wardens in this way, and I hope my players are receptive to it (a few of them read this blog, so I’m at least giving them fair warning (I’m looking at you, Chris, Dean, and sometimes Tad)). I think they will be when I explain that Wardens have a measure of authority and respect above and beyond what a freelance adventurer would be likely to receive, and that they are compensated for their troubles with a monthly stipend, mission bonuses, and good sale prices on valuable magic items that the party may have acquired in their travels. That’s always nice, right?

In general, I’m not a huge fan of boss fights in video games. Sometimes they can be fun, a refreshing change of pace, and when they’re handled well I don’t mind them so much. Tomb Raider Anniversary (a superior game, by the way) had boss fights, but they were all designed so that each boss was pretty much a puzzle, and once you figured out what you were supposed to do, they weren’t that hard. When a boss fight is just a slugfest with something that can take way more punishment than you can, though, I don’t find them particularly fun. And that’s what I’ve run into. It’s a boss that I basically have to beat four times, and its attacks not only do lots of damage but also knock me down. And it’s really freaking fast. And we’re on a kind of island, and if I fall off, I die instantaneously. And I have to constantly aim upward in order to target the only part of this huge creature that I can target, which means I can’t see the ground (making it easy to fall off). And it’s really repetitive, and hard, and not particularly fun. And there’s not even anything particularly intelligent about the fight; there’s very little to figure out, except that you have to keep on pounding on it, and stab it when it falls down.

So anyway, I’m taking a little break from Legend, because it’s really annoying me right now with this instance of monumentally bad design in an otherwise very good game. It’s a shame, really.

[Edit: categories and stuff.]

I’ll start by talking about what you get when you buy this product. KotS comes in a very attractive, very sturdy-seeming pocket folder, which might even make a good impromptu DM screen if you paper clip some notes to the inside. Not quite as wide as a screen should be, but a decent stop-gap until Wizards releases the real thing. In the right-hand pocket is the 4th Edition Quick-Start Guide, which contains the rules that the players need to know as well as five pre-generated characters, complete with rules for leveling them up to 3rd level. Also in this pocket are three double-sided poster maps in the standard 1-inch miniatures scale; a good number of the encounters in KotS use these maps, and they’re a nice inclusion. In the left-hand pocket is the actual adventure booklet. It weighs in at 80 pages, though the first 15 pages include the cover and copyright page, an introduction to the adventure and to monster stat blocks, and the DM’s quick-start rules, which include things like conditions, types of attacks, and other things that the players don’t necessarily need to know from the outset. Both booklets are in full color, and the artwork is, in my estimation, very attractive.

I’ll mention the not-so-good stuff up front, and move on to the good stuff (of which there is more). Ok, the paper used in the product is not exactly sturdy. It’s about on par with what you’d find in a magazine like the recently-migrated Dungeon or Dragon; the paper doesn’t stand up that well to continued handling, and the ink tends to smudge, particularly on the covers of the two booklets. There are also a few editing mistakes throughout both booklets. Mostly these are things like using the term “attack of opportunity” instead of “opportunity attack”, or typos, or other fairly innocuous things. The only mechanical snafu I spotted was that a certain elite monster has two action points instead of one, but I hardly think this is game-breaking, given that only one action point can be used per encounter (assuming that rule applies to monsters, of course, which it may not). Finally, the quick-start rules are a little lean; they’re a sort of bare minimum required to run the adventure, but there still might be some gaps. Some rules (like the rules on bull rushing, which don’t appear until the second level of the Keep, and the rules on tremorsense, which don’t appear until the third encounter with a monster that has that ability) are a little hard to find, too. And that’s really all the bad stuff I can think of; everything else is great.

The adventure is laid out well. Each encounter is given a two-page spread that includes a setup for the encounter, a map of the area, a tactics section, a section on special terrain features, a section on treasure, and full stat blocks for every monster in the encounter. This is true even for encounters that repeat monsters previously used; the stat blocks are repeated, making it extremely easy to reference everything you need for the encounter, save the rules of the game, itself. The only encounter that breaks this rule is the final one, which spills out onto a third page. I don’t really know how they could have done it in two, though, as there’s a lot of information to disseminate in that encounter.

The encounters, themselves, are fantastic. Each one seems like it will be exciting to run, and some of them make the evil DM inside me cackle with glee. The encounters toward the end seem particularly difficult (as you’d expect), but bear in mind that the PCs will be of higher level by the time they hit them. Encounters generally include a large number of creatures, and minions are used frequently to boost the numbers. There are, however, no encounters that include only minions, and all encounters (except for one against a solo creature) include a variety of different kinds of creatures with different abilities. A word of warning: swarms are scary. So are jellies and slimes. And wights are pretty nasty, too. And gnomes. And a lot of other stuff that the PCs will be fighting. It’s all very, very cool.

Besides the combat encounters, there is also a section on the town of Winterhaven, as well as some FAQ-style question-and-answer sessions that allow the players to gather information between forays into the dungeon. Mention is made of the kinds of things that the players can buy in Winterhaven, but specific prices are not given; for that reason, it might be best to run this as an actual 4E adventure with the core rulebooks, rather than as a preview. At least, that’s what I plan to do.

We also get a glimpse at skill challenges; there is one encounter that has the potential to be solely a skill challenge-based encounter, and there are other encounters in which minor skill challenges are used to bypass obstacles. In fact, skills are used frequently throughout the adventure, lending credence to the claim that they will be more important overall in 4th Edition.

Finally, while I don’t want to spoil the story for any potential players out there, I would be remiss if I did not at least mention it. It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s perfectly good and easy to adapt to your own setting. In particular, I like the use of quests (complete with experience and treasure rewards) as hooks to get the players involved in the adventure in the first place. Nothing gets players ready to go an adventure like dangling 1200 experience points in front of them.

The Good: Great layout, good encounter design, awesome monsters, interesting story, attractive artwork. Overall a very good product.

The Bad: Some editing mistakes and, more importantly, very flimsy paper and smudge-prone ink. Handle with care.

The Bottom Line: A solid introductory adventure for 4th Edition, which I plan on running as my first 4E adventure. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely good. The retail price ($30) seems just a little steep (isn’t that about the cost of one of the core rulebooks?), but you can get it on Amazon for just under $20, and that price is much easier to swallow. I hope to see more adventures of this quality (or better) in the future, with the proviso that the paper quality is a little bit higher.

Also, while there are three pregens in the quick-start book, Wizards has released a sixth on D&D Insider. Nice.

[Edit: Five pregens. There are five pregens in the quick-start booklet.]

Zombies. Who the hell doesn’t love zombies? Besides the unfortunate people who can’t outrun them and get their brains eaten, I mean. Zombies are awesome. It is for this reason precisely that Left 4 Dead looks freaking awesome. For those who know nothing about it and can’t be bothered to click on the Wikipedia link provided, let me sum it up for you. You and a band of three other survivors are miraculously immune to a new and extremely virulent form of rabies that has turned 99% of the world’s population into ravening, bloodthirsty (brainthirsty?) zombies. These zombies are fast, they’re smart enough to dodge attacks, and they’re accompanied by a number of mutated super-zombies with special powers like the ability to scale walls and jump really high, 50-foot tongues, super strength and endurance, or a belly full of gas that allows projectile vomit and the ability to explode like a grenade when shot. Not interested yet? What if the other three survivors were played by other human beings via the Internet? No? Well, that’s not all. You can also play against human-controlled boss zombies for extra challenge. Still not enough? All of the zombies are spawned procedurally, in response to the perceived stress levels of you and your compatriots, to make sure you get the optimal experience each time and to ensure that it’s never the same experience twice. Trust me, it’s made of awesome.

And speaking of zombies, I just saw 28 Days Later (yeah, I know, that’s been out for a while), and absolutely loved it. Great zombie flick, even if the infected are never actually referred to as ‘zombies’ within the film.

Oh, and games. I’ve recently downloaded GameTap, and even if you don’t want to pay for the service I suggest that you go out and download the free version and give it a whirl. Even for free, GameTap provides you with access to some pretty good games, such as Tomb Raider: Legend, Psychonauts, and the first two Hitman games. I’m currently playing through Legend and loving it, and I plan on diving into Psychonauts next. The sheer brilliance of GameTap, though, is that even though I get access to these great games completely free, I still want to sign up for a gold account and get access to even more games. And heck, a gold account is only about $60, slightly more than the cost of a brand new PC game, for an entire year’s subscription.

And finally, 4E. Ah, 4E. I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this, but I ordered the Core Rulebook Gift Set for myself a while ago, so it should arrive shortly after launch. I also recently pre-orderd Keep on the Shadowfell, and Amazon just sent me an email today letting me know that it had been shipped, and that I should expect it sometime around Saturday. Once I’ve digested that material, you can expect a review of it on this site (probably sometime in the next two weeks or so). Similarly, I’ll likely be reviewing the Core Books as I read them. I must admit that my excitement has been amped up to a fever pitch lately as the release date draws closer, in a large part because Wizards is releasing excerpts from the core books every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on D&D Insider (which is, for the moment, free). Everything I hear about the game makes me excited. I’m serious. I haven’t heard a single thing about the game that has made me want it less. Admittedly, some of this may be the novelty factor, and only time will tell if that is the case. But all signs indicate that 4E is going to be a very, very good game.

And speaking of 4E, I designed a 4E D&D Character Sheet in .doc format. Cute PDF does strange things with the table headers, so if someone else would like to convert it to PDF using something a little more robust, I’d gladly host it here. I’ve also been messing around with the character creation rules (those that I know at this time, at least), and I’ve created a couple of 1st-level characters: a human rogue with some warlock multiclassing, and a dwarf warlord. Both of these use the format for my character sheet. I should warn you that I’m not completely sure that all the math for attack bonuses and defenses is entirely kosher, since I don’t have access to the full rules. In particular, I think it’s a little weird that the rogue’s Reflex is higher than his AC. If someone wants to give them the old hairy eyeball and correct them for me, feel free and I’ll update the links.

Later.

Games I’ve been playing
Sadly, I haven’t really done much board/card/role-playing gaming lately since the big TPK. I did play a game of Three-Dragon Ante with my friend Dean; it was quite good. In the realm of video gaming, I’ve been playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on my DS. It’s an interesting and somewhat goofy game, and it’s suitable for casual play, which is what I’ve been using it for. It’s a good game for playing in short bursts, but in extended sessions I usually find myself wanting to play something with a little more meat on its bones.

On my computer (my semi-new computer), I’ve been replaying Crysis and BioShock, mainly so I can ogle the improved visuals and performance. That’s not all, though. I also recently purchased Indigo Prophecy from Steam (a service which is rapidly finding a place in my heart). Indigo Prophecy is an adventure game of sorts, though it’s unlike any adventure game I’ve ever played. It’s got a lot of timing-based mini-games, a lot of investigation, and the dialog is less forgiving than that of other adventure games in that the game gives you limited time to make your responses, and you’re not sure exactly what your character is going to say when you make a dialog choice. At any rate, I highly recommend the game, particularly since it’ll run on older rigs (being an older game, itself), and you can pick it up for $10 on Steam.

4th Edition
So much has been released on 4th Ed right now that I feel it would be folly to try to cover it all. Suffice it to say, Wizards’ marketing people are earning their money right now. They released some interesting teaser information initially, then gave us a drought of information for a while to increase anticipation. Now that release is only a month and change away, they’re hitting us with a torrent of crunchy goodness that, in my case at least, is amplifying my excitement to a fever pitch. We’ve learned how many powers you get throughout your career, and at what levels; we’ve learned about paragon paths; we’ve learned about modifying monsters (and seen a few examples of monsters, as well); and we’ve seen the building blocks that make up a power. Oh, and the warlord class, too. All good stuff, and lots of information, but they’re always very careful to hold something back, so that we stay excited and continue to want more. Good stuff.

At any rate, I’ll try to post more frequently, though I can make no promises. Later.

1. Some powers require training in skills. The rogue’s Tumble power requires that you be trained in Acrobatics.
2. The rogue has been described as being able to do more with skills than other classes.
3. Mike Mearls is working on 4E mechanics. He worked on Iron Heroes, too, which allowed you to do a whole lot with skills (albeit in a way that required you to constantly reference the book lest you forget something).

Add a healthy dose of extrapolation and speculation, and my theory is born. I suspect that many classes, the rogue more so than the others no doubt, will have powers that allow you to attack, defend, and perform utility actions with your skills. It makes a lot of sense to me, and would make a characters choice of skills incredibly important. It would also give you an incentive to drop a feat on Skill Training, because that extra skill might open up a whole bunch of cool new powers for you. I would imagine that skill-based powers would be mostly the purview of the martial classes, but the other classes might benefit from these things, as well. At any rate, to continue the speculation, here are three skill-based powers that I’ve speculated right into existence. Enjoy.

Feint
Rogue Utility 1
With a quick thrust and a bit of misdirection, you cause your opponent to drop his guard momentarily.
At-Will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Bluff vs. Reflex
Hit: The target grants you Combat Advantage until the end of your next turn.

Taunt
Fighter Utility 1
With a mocking threat and a derisive laugh, you goad an enemy into an ill-advised advance.
Encounter * Martial
Minor Action
Close burst 5
Target: One creature within the burst
Attack: Intimidate vs. Will
Hit: Pull the target up to 5 squares. The target is marked until the end of your next turn.

Assassin’s Rush
Rogue Attack 1
You flourish your blade and dive headlong toward your foe, nimbly bypassing his defenses to deliver a killing blow.
Daily * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Acrobatics vs. Reflex
Hit: Your opponent grants you Combat Advantage until the end of your next turn, and you may shift up to 2 squares. Make a secondary attack against the same target.
Secondary Attack: Dexterity vs. Reflex
Hit: 3[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Miss: Your opponent grants you Combat Advantage until the end of your next turn, and you may shift 1 square. No secondary attack.

[Edit: Martial, not Martail]

There were four PCs: a fighter, a paladin, a ranger, and a warlock. They were approaching an enemy encampment at night time, from the cover of the shadows, effectively attacking from ambush. However, they were outnumbered in a fairly significant way. On the enemy side were two soldiers with halberds and crossbows, four skirmishers with maces, a pair of skeleton warriors, and Keltis Doran, an evil cleric of sorts (statistically, he was a hybrid of the hobgoblin warcaster and the kobold wyrmpriest, a controller-leader).

At first, the PCs seemed to be doing really well. The two defenders were drawing most of the attacks and weathering them pretty well, while the two strikers were attacking from range and dealing decent damage. However, things started to go against the players when the paladin fell, after being flanked and cornered by a pair of skirmishers and a skeleton (lots of sneak attack damage, and those skeletons have ridiculous attack bonuses; I actually wonder if those bonuses are correct). Shortly after the paladin fell, the warlock was taken down by a soldier and a skirmisher, even though the warlock had brought a lot of abilities to bear on them in an attempt to survive. That soldier simply did too much damage, and the warlock also got dazed for a round by the skirmisher, which didn’t help.

While all this had been happening, the ranger had been engaging in a ranged duel-cum-game of cat-and-mouse with Keltis Doran, while the fighter was soaking up attacks from a pair of skirmishers, a soldier, and a skeleton. The fighter actually managed to kill all of his opponents eventually, and the ranger bloodied Doran after a few rounds. The fighter ran to assist the ranger, but unfortunately all the bad guys who had taken out the paladin and warlock were new rounding on the remaining heroes. They took a few more out in the process (including Doran), but eventually the fighter fell, leaving the poor ranger to contend with a halberd-wielding soldier and his skirmisher ally–the only two enemies remaining. If the ranger hadn’t used Split the Tree earlier in the fight, he might have actually been able to take them out (assuming he stayed relatively mobile) and rescue his companions. As it was, though, a single strike of the halberd was all that was needed to sap his remaining hit points, and the party perished.

I learned some things from this game. One is that you have to be very careful when designing an encounter. There’s a fine line between “exciting and deadly” and “too damn deadly”, and as the DM you have to be careful not to cross it. I suspect that having experience point values for all of the monsters and experience point budgets for your encounters will help this considerably, though.

Another thing I learned is that, if the party leaves out a single role, it’s not a huge deal. If they leave out two, though, things can get hairy. Every character used his or her second wind, and the paladin burned through all of his Lay on Hands uses just trying to keep himself alive. If a cleric had been present, he might have survived longer, which would have helped everyone. Similarly, a well-placed Turn Undead, Force Orb, Acid Arrow, or Sleep would have done wonders for the heroes. When all you have is defenders and strikers, you have to be extra careful.

My last thought was that I maybe started the PCs a little too far away from where I wanted the fight to happen. The battlefield was pretty big, and I had included a lot of usable terrain. There was a field of crumbling columns that could be used for cover at the cost of movement. There were crumbling walls everywhere that could have been pushed over onto enemies. There was even a big fire that enemies could have been pushed into by the fighter, or by the warlock’s Curse of the Dark Dream, or even the paladin or ranger using a bull rush. Most of this stuff didn’t get used, though, because the players let the bad guys come to them, and most of this terrain was in their camp rather than where the players were.

So, in the end, I think this TPK–my first TPK, incidentally–came about as a result of some mistakes on my part in designing the encounter and some party design mistakes as well. Most of these things could probably have been avoided if a.) I knew the rules for designing a good encounter; and b.) I had known which of the six PCs were going to be in the party, and could have designed it with them in mind.

My overall impression, after an admittedly brief look, was a resounding “meh”. I didn’t see anything particularly revolutionary or interesting in the rules. They’ve tried to maximize compatibility with existing products wherever they could, which means that they’re pretty limited in what they can change. They want to fix things like player durability at low levels and slow combat at high levels, but many of the problems the seek to fix are problems inherent to the core of the system, not just subsystems that can be re-written. How can you fix slow play at higher levels without eliminating iterative attacks or doing something about spell bloat for magic users? How can you make lower-level PCs more durable without changing the way experience points are calculated and levels are gained? And if you change that, you’ll have to change things like magic item creation and spells with XP components, because the value of the experience point has suddenly changed.

Pathfinder seems to me more like a band-aid solution than a true repair; too many of the system’s flaws are in the middle of tangled webs of rules subsystems to be fixed while still maximizing compatibility with the basic rules system. You either fix the system, or you make a compatible product, but you have to choose one of the two.

Now, I’ll admit that maybe I’m wrong about this. Maybe future iterations of Pathfinder will provide more solutions to 3.5’s issues, and maybe they’ll be a little bit bolder with their mechanics. My main issue, though, is that I don’t understand who their target audience is. Those who, like me, are kind of tired of the current version of D&D and want something fresh and new that doesn’t get weighed down by its own body of rules will immediately switch to 4th Edition. We’re probably not going to buy Pathfinder. Those who don’t want 4th Edition, who think that the current rule set is fine, may be willing to try Pathfinder, but will they be willing to pay full retail price for an incremental upgrade? In most cases, probably not. The problem is that, while Paizo seeks to solve 3.5’s ills, Pathfinder doesn’t really do anything that new or exciting. It’s the same old 3.5, just a little bit different. Is it better? Hard to tell.

But really, don’t take my word for it. Follow the link at the top of this post, download the alpha (it’s totally free), and read it yourself. If nothing else, the artwork in the book is stellar.

I suppose, in a way, Phantom Hourglass probably spoiled me a little; it was innovative and intuitive at the same time, and the puzzles were challenging in a way that was fun rather than frustrating. The game also had that secret ingredient, that extra special bit of personality that made it more than the sum of its parts. The Minish Cap, while not a bad game, lacked many of these traits, and so disappointed me. I’m finished with it now (after a boss fight that was, you guessed it, frustrating and not particularly fun), and I think I’m going to play Phantom Hourglass again. It’s been a few months since I played it, so it’s no longer fresh in my mind, and I’d like to remind myself what a Zelda game should really be like.

1. Re-purposing monsters is easy. I mean, really easy. On the one hand, monsters are pretty distinct from each other, and each have unique “schticks” that differentiate them. On the other hand, it’s easy to alter those schticks a little bit, change their flavor, and leave most of the mechanics the same in order to create a monster that feels different to the PCs but takes very little work to create. Many of the creatures that my PCs fought were re-purposed in this way, largely because they were fighting a lot of ratmen, and ratmen do not appear in any of the leaked 4E monster documents. A goblin picador became a ratman lasher, complete with barbed whip. An orc raider became a ratman mutant, using claws instead of a battle-axe but attacking twice as quickly (though they never actually got to this encounter). The hobgoblin warcaster became a human mage, a cult leader of considerable oomph. I even got to use the shadar-kai chainfighter, transmogrifying it into a ratman chain-fighter and replacing one of its abilities with a chain grapple attack (which it never actually got a chance to use). I even dabbled in creating new creatures; I created a non-combatant NPC, whom the PCs were escorting. She had a weak attack with a dagger that did only 1 point of damage and she had only 10 hit points and very low defenses (she was based loosely on minion rules). She did, however, have a recharging ability that allowed her to heal allies and grant them saving throws.

2. Encounter design seems easier. Granted, I don’t know the experience point value of all of the creatures I used (and some may have been more or less powerful after modification, which may have affected their XP value), and I don’t know how much XP a level X encounter should be worth. So, I eyeballed it. I put together encounters that I thought my PCs could handle, and some of the tougher encounters I made easier by making my bad guys flee when a certain condition was met. Overall, it seemed pretty easy to create encounters by just eyeballing them, and I really think it’s going to wind up being more art than science.

Now, that’s creating an adventure. I created an adventure with six encounters total, and many of them were designed to be quite challenging. I had two players, each controlling two of the six PCs. Mike played as the cleric and the ranger, while Cary played as the paladin and the warlock. One defender, two strikers, and a leader; no controller. At first I thought this might be a problem, but my players were savvy and picked up on some of the finer points of 4E combat quickly (even Cary, who had never played 3E), and the lack of a controller didn’t seem to disrupt the balance of the game. Here are some observations on the four encounters that we got through yesterday; I’ll go encounter by encounter.

Encounter 1: Ambush!
The PCs had been hired by a local lord to escort a healer, Illyria Jeren, to the town of Amber, where a plague was killing off the townsfolk. On their way to Amber, the party was ambushed by bandits hiding in the trees on either side of the road. The PCs were not surprised, however; the ranger spotted two of them and alerted everyone else–in elven–to their presence (thank you Passive Perception). This allowed everyone to make a Perception check to scan the area, and the cleric wound up spotting three more bandits. All told, there were two bandits with maces, two archers, and a bandit leader with a hand crossbow and a rapier (based on the defiant rake). Two level 1s, two level 2s, and a level 5.

The ranger managed to get the highest initiative roll, and promptly fired an arrow at the closest archer. The paladin wasn’t so lucky; a bandit charged him and got in a good hit with his mace, both dealing damage and causing the poor paladin to be dazed for one round. The other melee bandit charged the warlock, but ended up missing. The cleric moved to protect Illyria while the warlock cursed his foe and fired an eldritch blast, dealing significant damage. The two bandit archers took shots at the paladin and the ranger, while the bandit leader came out of the trees and advanced, firing his hand crossbow at the paladin. The battle continued in a similar manner; the closest archer was eventually bloodied, at which point he turned tail and ran. Next down was one of the bandits, also bloodied, and also fleeing. In the third round of combat, an unseen ally began firing arrows at the bandit leader from hiding; nobody managed to spot him during the combat. One of the bandits was killed, while the rest fled, but not before the leader took some significant damage: a critical hit from the ranger that almost took him from full hit points to bloodied in a single shot (1 more hit point would have done it), and a well-placed witchfire from the warlock.

Afterward, the unseen ally revealed himself and introduced himself as Erik, a local hunter. A few Diplomacy and Insight checks revealed information about the bandits, and their ties to the plague and the ratmen that had begun appearing in the area.

Observations: The paladin makes a really good defender. His marking ability is pretty potent in that it deals 8 points of damage when the enemy attacks someone else, so it provides a pretty good incentive for people to focus on the paladin. Combine that with the fact that the paladin had a really high AC and plenty of hit points, and it makes him a really good defender. The ranger and the warlock both did significant damage during the fight, and were probably most directly responsible for defeating most of the enemies. The cleric, unfortunately, wasn’t rolling very well and continually missed his targets. He did get in a Healing Word, which helped the injured ranger out.

From the bandits’ side, there was some unintentional teamwork built into the group. The mace-wielding bandits had the ability to daze opponents with their charge attacks, granting all of their allies Combat Advantage against the dazed character. Every single bandit present dealt extra damage, either 1d6 or 2d6, when they had Combat Advantage. A nasty combination that never actually wound up working, because only the paladin was dazed, and only once, and only for one round, and was never hit by anyone else during that time.

Encounter 2: Abduction
The PCs made their way to Amber and were let in despite the quarantine through a combination of Erik’s vouching for them and a letter produced by Illyria proclaiming what they were there to do. They stayed at a local inn, the Traveler’s Rest, for the night, allowing them to recover fully from the bandit attack. However, during the night, they suffered another surprise attack. This time, there were four melee bandits, one bandit mage, and two ratman lashers. So, four level 1s, two level 2s, and a level 3.

The ranger, being an eladrin, had only had to enter trance for four hours in order to rest fully, so he was awake and unsurprised. Everyone else had to take time to wake up. Had I know the specific values granted by armor and shields, I would have ruled that nobody was wearing their armor; lacking those things, and for the sake of simplicity, I allowed everyone to use their armor instead. The ranger was attacked by a lasher while everyone else was assaulted in their beds by bandits. The second lasher went after Illyria, binding her with his whip and pulling her toward the stairs down. The ranger bloodied the lasher he was facing, but as soon as he saw Illyria being taken away, he used his Fey Step ability to teleport out of the room he was trapped in by the lasher. Unfortunately, the lasher escaped with Illyria while a bandit pushed the unfortunate ranger back into a corner from which he could not escape without suffering an opportunity attack.

Meanwhile, the cleric rushed out into the hallway, ignoring the bandit that had engaged him, only to be knocked prone by a spell cast by the bandit mage. The paladin did a good job keeping one of the bandits focused on him, while the warlock used Eyebite and a curse to damage her bandit and vanish from his sight. That bandit, confused, went after the paladin (suffering an opportunity attack from the warlock in the process), unknowingly increasing the paladin’s AC in the process because of his Lost in the Crowd feat.

Once the lasher escaped with Illyria, the mage made a tactical retreat, his objective accomplished, and ordered the bandits and remaining lasher to stay behind and deal with the PCs. Through some clever positioning and good teamwork, the PCs were able to make quick work of the bad guys, and pursued the kidnappers. They found out from a witness that the kidnappers had fled to the west, and had been allowed to pass by the guard manning the gate. The PCs interrogated the guard (at arrow-point), and found out that he had been bribed, and that the villains were likely heading for an abandoned temple half an hour outside of town.

Observations: Teamwork and clever positioning can grant the PCs a healthy advantage. A defender in tight quarters is a dangerous thing. Eyebite is an extremely useful power to have when you’re cornered. The ranger’s Split the Tree daily power is extremely effective when it hits. The ability to teleport is very, very useful, but not unbalancing at low levels. Cornering a ranger is pretty darned effective.

Encounter 3: The Old Temple
The PCs followed tracks in the fresh mud to the old temple, and kicked the door in. Inside the found a bandit, the bandit mage they had faced in the inn, and a ratman with a vicious-looking spiked chain. One level 1, one level 3, and a level 6.

The ranger moved to attack the mage while the paladin quickly marked the chainfighter. This turned out to be an extremely effective tactic, because the chainfighter used an ability shortly afterward that allowed him to shift six squares and attack three different targets. One of these was the paladin, but the other two attacks, against the warlock and the cleric, both missed and caused the chainfighter a total of 16 points of damage. Combine that with a well-placed curse by the warlock, as well as a very effective witchfire, and the chainfighter only lasted until the second round. Once the chainfighter was down, the bandit and the mage soon followed. This fight could have been very difficult, but some good teamwork and clever tactics made it probably the easiest fight so far.

Once the fight was over, the PCs interrogated the dying mage and learned that Illyria was being held below the temple, beyond the crypt. They also learned that the cult was known as the Children of Pestilence, and that Amber’s plague was their way of offering up the town as a ritual sacrifice to their god, Ualath the Diseased One. They also learned about the cult’s leader, the Vermin King. After the interrogation, they searched the area and found some useful magic items that they took with them, as well as some healing potions. They also used a magic circle on the floor to regenerate their wounds, rather than using up their precious healing surges.

Observations: The paladin’s Divine Challenge is extremely effective when used against an enemy that can make multiple attacks against different people.

Encounter 4: The Crypt
The PCs then descended some spiral stairs into a darkened crypt. They had a sunrod that they used for light, but the skeletons waiting within had an advantage with their darkvision. There were three skeletons and a boneshard skeleton. Three level 3s and a level 5.

The cleric used his Turn Undead power and missed, but even the miss allowed him to do half damage, and since that damage was radiant, the skeleton that he affected with it took additional damage. The skeletons weren’t all that dangerous to the PCs, just hard to hit with their high defenses. At one point the warlock provoked an opportunity attack from a skeleton, and its Speed of the Dead ability allowed it to do some extra damage.

During the second round of combat, though, the boneshard skeleton came out and did a massive amount of damage to the ranger, dropping him to -1. A little while later, a skeleton attacked the warlock and dropped her to 0. Both of these situations were quickly remedied by the cleric’s Healing Word, but the crypt was extremely confined and the skeletons definitely had some advantages on their side.

The PCs wound up winning the day, but the boneshard skeleton’s boneshard burst hit them twice in the process, once when it was bloodied and once when it finally died. Because it did necrotic damage, the PCs took full damage while the skeletons were unscathed.

Observations: The paladin and the cleric were the stars in this fight, mainly because they both had abilities that did radiant damage, which the undead creatures were vulnerable to. This seemed to be a difficult fight, not simply because the creatures themselves were challenging, but because the close quarters made it very difficult to move around, and skeletons get some nice bonuses when they make opportunity attacks.

General observations: Overall, I think it went really well. PCs are clearly capable of taking on foes several levels higher than their own level, which opens up a wide array of enemy possibilities to the DM. This also means that fights can be big, and you shouldn’t be afraid to outnumber the PCs. It also means that you can have several relatively weak enemies and a single “boss” enemy in a fight three or for levels above the PCs’ level. Terrain is both more important in 4E and easier to adjudicate than it used to be. Simple conditions like Combat Advantage, Cover, and Difficult Terrain make it easy to deal with most types of terrain, and those conditions make good yardsticks for coming up with other things, as well. It’s not difficult to run an encounter with multiple different types of creatures. From the PCs side, Healing Surges are a great addition to the game. They make healing simplified and reliable, and they allow the PCs to recover from a difficult fight in a few minutes so that they can easily go into another difficult fight relatively fresh. Overall, this, and the previous proto-4E session that I ran, have both served to make me even more excited about the actual release.