This is a spoiler-free recap of my experiences in the second session of D&D Encounters.

Tonight I played the second session of D&D Encounters at Total Escape Games.  It was a better combat experience for my hybrid invoker/avenger, but it was a rough combat for all of us.

Only four of the six players returned this week.  One of the monks, the warlock, the psion and me.  When faced with the bad guys and their very pokey weapons, we had some trouble.  They had no trouble hitting us, we had only a little trouble hitting them, but in a contest, they hit way harder than us!  Our monk went down three times, the warlock and the psion both once.  Fortunately, no one died.  But it was close!

So imagine this: my cloth-wearing invoker/avenger is backed into a corner, her sword in one hand and her rod in the other.  The monk has fallen, the warlock takes a nasty hit and falls too.  There are two enemies left, and one takes the psion down.  Atora is standing alone, facing two enemies.  Suddenly 12 hit points doesn’t seem like enough to survive the round.  She lands her attack, dealing some radiant damage.  Then, suddenly, the warlock stands back up!

Combat ended shortly after that.  Everyone survived, though our monk has decided that adventuring isn’t for him, so he’s headed back to the surface; the player has decided to hang up the monk and replace him with a leader-role class.  And we can definitely use the healing.  Suddenly, next week looks a little more promising!

This is a mostly spoiler-free account of my D&D Encounters experience. Just don’t click to view the picture linked below.

Wednesday night, I set aside my general dislike of gaming with complete strangers and headed over to Total Escape Games in Broomfield for D&D Encounters.  I’m generally a shy person, so sitting around a table with a bunch of guys I don’t know is not high on my list of things to do on a Wednesday night, but I thought I’d give it a try.

Traffic lights foiled my attempt to arrive early, but I managed to get to the store just in time to get started.  We had one player completely new to 4E.  Four players used pre-gens, while two of us had rolled up original characters.  We had a warlock, a ranger, two monks, a psion and my invoker/avenger hybrid, Atora.

Our DM was awesome!  She was very good about describing how skills worked in our non-combat environments.  She handled combat very smoothly.  She was familiar enough with the source material to not have to read verbatim.  It was a good gaming experience.

Combat was a little rough on us as a group.  Our monks did a great job of engaging in melee combat, with a little help from the warlock and the ranged attackers.  Only one monk fell in battle, but he did not die; Atora managed to revive him (hooray, bonus renown point).  I think it would have been a bit smoother if we’d had a leader in the party to help with healing, but in the end, we survived.

I play to recap my Hybrid character experiences after I’ve had a little more game time, but I wanted to share a bit of Atora’s combat experience.  Rolling a 1 and a 2 on two of the three attacks I attempted meant I didn’t manage to do much damage during combat.  But I figure reviving the melee combatant had to count toward my damage count!

At the end of the session, I’d accumulated 12 renown points, earning me the Delver Reward.  All in all, it was a fun experience, and I’m looking forward to playing again next week!

If one class is fun, just imagine how much better two classes can be!  PHB3 introduces Hybrid classes, giving all of us the chance to combine the best of two different classes to create our very own Hybrid Class.

The Basics

Each Hybrid listing gives you half of what you need.  You pick the two halves you want, then combine the stats for each half.  At first level, you gain one At-Will power from each class, one Encounter & one Daily power from either class.  Then, as you gain levels, you can select powers from either class as long as you build each half equally.

The Combinations

Now, as you can imagine, not every combinations is going to work perfectly.  Can you picture a wizard/barbarian?  Not the most auspicious combination.  Not to worry, with each hybrid listing, you’ll find recommendations on which other hybrids will make a good match.

I have to say, I can never really decide what class I want to play.  Even now, preparing for D&D Encounters this week, I can’t decide.  Hybrids may just be one of the best options for me.  Now, I just have to narrow it down to two classes…

The Player’s Handbook 3 introduces some really great new mechanics to augment the bumper crop of fun stuff presented in the other two Player’s Handbooks.  Today we’re going to talk about Skill Powers, which may seem rather familiar because this mechanic has been “invented” by nearly every DM I’ve played with over the years.

How It Works

Skill Powers can be taken whenever you reach a level that would normally grant a utility power from your class.  Instead, you gain a utility power based on your trained skills.  You can also use the retraining rules presented in the PHB to swap out class skills you already have for new skill powers.  You can’t do this swap for a utility power from a paragon path or an epic destiny, but that’s not too much of a hindrance.

Like all other abilities, each of these Skill Powers are tiered in their abilities and benefits.  Some of them are fairly laughable, for example there is an Acrobatics skill power called Agile Recovery that allows you to stand up as a minor action, at will.  The Acrobatics skills, for example, quickly go to places you would expect… the Drop and Roll level 10 ability allows you to shift three squares after a fall where you would take no damage.  At the highest levels, your tumbling and dodging ability allows you to shift by half your movement speed and reduce an attack’s damage by half.

That’s pretty cool no matter how you shake it!

Appreciable gains for focusing on a skill

My favorite thing about this mechanic is that I’ve used it in my campaigns all the time.  Invariably, my players would ask “I have a lot of <insert skill here>, would that help me in this situation?” and now there are concrete rules for how your knowledge will aid you.  The mappings make sense: book learnin’ skills such as History and Arcana earn you battle tactics that aid your initiative, AC, or provide other tactical advantages.  More brawny skills such as Athletics grant you appropriately brawny skill powers for use in combat.

You can add a lot of flavor for your character by adding in some skill powers.  As I was reading through the Nature skill powers, it dawned on me that a lot of these skills are tailor-made for a ranger or druid and seemed to align with the normal skill training that is done for those classes.  That allows for added variety within standard classes and gets even further away from the “cookie cutter character” worry.

Choosing is Hard

The more I got into the Skill Powers section, the more trouble I had determining which I would choose for my characters.  There are so many interesting options it’s hard to choose only a few to add some zest to my character.  If you’ve got any questions, be sure to post them up in the thread and I’ll do my best to answer them!

For those of you awaiting the ability to destroy their enemies with merely a single thought, you’re going to enjoy the Players Handbook 3.  Introduced in this volume are several new psionic classes: Ardent, Battlemind, Monk, and Psion.

Finally, the Monk Returns

The Monk returns as a Striker with a Psionic keyword.  Monks spend years training and studying, and they have learned how to use their psionic powers and their fists to defeat their foes.  As you mind expect, many of their powers have monk-like names, such as Whirling Mantis Step and Fist of Indomitable Iron.

I have to say, at first glance, my favorite aspect of the monk is the Initiate of the Dragon Paragon path.  Here, you’ve learned the ancient skills that were once taught by dragons to particularly gifted humans and have pass through the ages.  Once you’ve mastered this Paragon Path at 20th level, you have fully developed the ability to polymorph into a dragon.

What About the Rest?

Each of the other psionic classes has its interesting features, as well as the more mundane powers related to keeping oneself alive.  But here’s what I thought was neat about the Ardent, Battlemind & Psion.

They don’t have Encounter powers.  Instead, they gain At-Will powers when everyone else gets Encounter Powers.  These At-Will Powers are fairly useful in their own right, but there’s an extra little kick to make them truly unique for the psionics.

These three classes gain Power Points at Encounter-Power Levels.  Power Points can be used with “Augmentable” At-Will Psion powers.  Based on the number of Power Points expended to augment a power, the At-Will gains extra strength.  It’s an interesting concept of psionics’ control over their mental abilities; by training and focusing their mental powers, they can alter their attacks as needed.  Power Points reset after a short or extended rest, giving them the same basic utility as Encounter powers.

Now, I am personally more of a “give me a sword or a fireball, I want to see the damage I’m about to inflict” class preference.  But after reviewing these new psionic classes, I’m impressed with the width and breadth of their abilities.  I think they would be fun to play!

Well, the weather in Denver has been pretty nice these first couple of days of March.  It’s been “in like a lamb” here.  And that describes our gaming schedule too.  Nothin’ much happening right now.  February and March seem to be busy months on everyone’s calendar, creating a drought of ideas from the SR crew.

What’s On the Table

Since our dice haven’t been clattering on the table, what’s going on here?  At SR-West, Dante & I have been throwing back and forth ideas on possibilities to play with a smaller group.  And I’ve been continuing my game play in Dragon Age: Origins after surviving the two weeks of no X-Box while it was out for repairs.

We’ve also gathered a small stack of books for evaluation.  Without active gaming, it’s been harder to really review some of these, but we’re looking forward to preliminary reviews as we work through our scheduling difficulties.  I’m really looking forward to the DA rpg, which I have acquired but haven’t finished reading.  And Dante, of course, is looking forward to throwing evils at us from the Underdark.

So stay tuned, and we promise we’ll have something more to share with you soon!

I was sitting at work today, instant messaging Vanir about some post ideas for the site.  I continued to lament the same stuff I wrote about last time, complaining about how coming up with original ideas and the time to play lately has been difficult.  I needed inspiration, and I found some inside a FedEx box from Seattle, WA.

Tasty, tasty inspiration

As if someone was monitoring my blog watching for me to desperately cry out, we got a review copy of both Martial Power 2 and the Underdark supplement.  Without even a breath, Stupid Ranger ripped right in to the Martial Power 2 book looking for new goodies for our Warlord and Ranger to use.  I was on my way out to karate practice at the time, but I did grab the Underdark book and look inside quickly.  A scan of the Table of Contents provided the required keywords I was looking for “Denizens of…” and “New Monsters”.

And that’s only the start.  Since my campaign has just entered the Underdark, this book was tailormade for me to drop all sorts of terrible stuff on my players the next time we get together.  I started reading the “Geography of the Underdark” section to decide how much retrofitting I would need to do to make this campaign guide sing in my current game (not much, hooray!) and I was happy to see that there are several new Terrain Features, including a section on the emotional effects of adventuring in the Underdark.

I am excited about this book.  Expect to see much more from this supplement as I unleash it upon my unwitting players.  Mwhahaha!

We’ve been having a significant problem in our group lately getting a regularly scheduled game together.  This is largely due to Real Life getting in the way, but it has put a damper in the amount of material for this site lately!  Honestly, I’ve been feeling a little bad about the distinct lack of regular content lately so I’m considering starting up a pickup game or two for several reasons.

First, Stupid Ranger’s been bothering me to play a Swordmage.  Our D&D discussions lately consist of the following: “Let me play a Swordmage.  Can I play a Swordmage now?  Can I repurpose Character X to a Swordmage in our campaign?  PLEASE?” So I’m thinking about getting together a side campaign to make this happen.  In addition, thanks to some kind people at Wizards of the Coast we’ve gotten a few review copies that I’ve not made it to yet and I think having a sandbox will help me in doing a proper review of these books.

A few questions, if I may…

How many of you regularly play pick-up games?  Do you go for quick-gen characters?  A shifting campaign setting to encompass a bunch of different ideas?  Dovetailing these campaigns into your main storyline?  I’m interested in hearing how to overcome some of the logistics of having a secondary gaming group and how to make the campaign stay coherent with an irregular schedule.  Help a Dante out!  If you give me a good enough idea, I’m sure I’ll write an article about it so now’s your chance for minor Internet Fame!

Have you ever been playing in a game where there was one member of the group always got a little extra treasure or a bit of circumstantial luck that kept them out of harms way?  Perhaps this person was a significant other or spouse of the DM, or maybe they were a long-present player in the group… but any way you shake it you may be looking at The Pet Player.

Perception or Reality?

Does this actually happen?  Yes.  Does it happen in my campaigns?  Not on purpose.

I usually structure any significant damage dealing encounter in a fashion where player actions will determine who gets the brunt of the badness, but in the case of a battle with ignorant opponents I tend to let proximity to the bad guys or randomization (i.e. a die roll) to determine who gets hurt.

That is fair, isn’t it?

Only if you’re making it obvious to your players that you’re using a die roll to determine who gets the reaction.  The trouble with this mechanic is that patterns emerge, especially in small groups like most D&D adventuring parties.  This may be perceived by your players as favoritism or picking on a player, depending on if the die roll is awarding good fortune or bad.

One way that I cope with this problem is to use a cheat sheet to keep track of who the dice have chosen for good or bad results.  This way I can selectively skip someone if they’ve been randomly selected too many times.  Does this eliminate the value of using dice in the first place?  Some people may say yes, but I’d rather use a mostly fair 90% random, 10% fudged process than have a discussion why the same person got attacked 4 out of the 5 last rounds by the bad guys until they were a bloody pulp.  When real life feelings get hurt, then you’ll wish you had fudged something, I promise!

What happens if there really is favoritism going on?

Well, its hard for me to answer this question.  I’ve had the good fortune of not experiencing this problem personally, although I did participate in a few campaigns where certain characters were made much more significant in the plotline than others, which tends to erode party dynamics in a very “un-fun” way.  When this occurs, you can either choose to talk about it to the DM or just go with it if it doesn’t bother you that much.  I tended for the latter approach and it turned out to be a very fun game to participate in despite the extra-special treatment for certain characters.

Has this happened to you?  Have you been a pet player or been in a campaign with one?  What was it like, and how did it resolve?  Inquiring minds want to know!

I had one of those fantastic moments in our last gaming session.  The stars aligned, the powers hadn’t been exhausted yet, and the dice rolled in my favor.  And the rest of my party stood back in amazement that I managed a nearly-impossible feat.

The Story

Previously in our adventure, we encountered John, who has been working for the Drow because they took his wife hostage.  We entered a deal with John that we would rescue his wife from the Underdark if he told the drow that he had a way to infiltrate the restricted section of the library (we needed more info about the Drow and their plans for items from the library).  So after much wandering around in dark tunnels, taking those roads less traveled to avoid wandering parties of Drow, we found ourselves at a dead end: two Drow guarding the wife, Silvia.

For those of you who haven’t been following along, I’m currently playing Eaerenel, an Eladrin Wizard who specializes in fire spells.  And if you’re not familiar with the fire spells, they usually affect everyone in the area of effect, not just the bad guys.  So if Eaerenel cast a fire spell to affect the guards, she was going to be making life a little extra toasty for poor Silvia.  To make matters more urgent, the Drow decided to kill her instead of letting us try to rescue her and had cast a spell that enveloped her in web of spiders.

Things were looking desperate, and this is where I got creative.  With the DM’s permission, I invoked my ability to Twist the Arcane Fabric to move Silvia to safety before casting one of my fiery spells.  Twist the Arcane Fabric is a feat from Arcane Power (p 130), that allows an Eladrin to use her fey step ability to move an ally out of the way before casting an area or close arcane power.  Dante allowed that since “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Silvia could be counted as an ally.  It was a spectacular moment that made my whole night; I got to save the day!

Be Creative!

Creativity during game play is one of the cornerstones of roleplaying.  Without a touch of creativity, the game becomes mechanical.  To keep that spark of creativity burning,  you have to know your character’s capabilities; how can you plan an awesome course of action if you don’t know what you can do?