Having just defeated the evil warlock Orpheus, Prestige Worldwide sets out to do what they do best – search for loot. In addition to a pouch containing 40 gold worth of Residuum (ritual component dust) and several skeletal finger bones, orpheus is wearing a few magical garments:

Belt of False Life:
Item Slot: Waist
Property: You gain a +1 item bonus to your healing surge value.

+1 Cloak of the Walking Wounded:
Item Slot: Neck
Enhancement: +1 to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will defenses.
Property: If you use your second wind while injured, you can expend two healing surges instead of one (gaining hit points from both).

The potion counter was jostled quite badly during the battle, and as a result many of the bottles have broken. Fortunately, the male fire bug remains alive and safely inside his container. A careful search through the shattered glass reveals four healing potions also survived intact.

Down in the basement is Orpheus’s laboratory as well as living quarters for him and his two former assistants. Orpheus’s laboratory has a small dis-organized desk an operating table with the dissected remains of some poor miner. Sorting through the mess on his desk reveals four ritual books: Endure Elements, Secret Page, Knock, and Eye of Alarm. Resting atop a tray of rusty operating tools are a pair of sinister looking leather gloves:

Blood-letting Gloves:
Item Slot: Hands
Power (Daily): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with a light blade melee attack and have combat advantage against the target. That attack deals an extra ongoing 5 damage (save ends). If the attack already deals ongoing damage of any type, this item’s power has no effect.

The shared living quarters contains the personal property of the three mages. There is little of interest in their dressers, aside from 545 gold and 160 gold worth of Residuum. One of the apprentices also had a rather interesting item stashed between his mattress and bed frame:

+1 Necroburst Longbow:
Enhancement: +1 to attack and damage rolls.
Critical: +1d6 necrotic damage.
Power (Daily ): Free Action. The next ranged basic attack you make with this weapon before the end of your turn becomes a burst 1 centered on the target, attacking all creatures in the burst. Make the attacks against the opponents’ Reflex defense instead of their AC. Instead of normal damage, each target hit takes ongoing 5 necrotic damage (save ends).

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Your next quest is to seek out the lair of a local young green dragon, and return to Julius with the dragon’s claws so that he may finish purifiying the orb of unrest. The town does not have much gold left. Julius has promised you 200 gold, and as much time as you’d like studying the various ritual and other books in his library.

The Green Dragon, called Muro, lairs in the forest to the west of Redwall. He is vain, as most dragons are, and demands tribute from a local band of hobgoblins. It is likely that he has amassed a fairly impressive hoard.

Quar’othi fire bugs are a volatile breed of insects with a diet based on a phosphorescent mold that is toxic to most other creatures. Occasionally bred for their explosive power, a poorly managed swarm of fire bugs has put a quick and disastrous end to more than one get rich quick scheme.

I’m trying to start a D&D campaign (or at least one solid adventure) with some of the people from work. Only one of them has played D&D before, so this is an introduction to character options for them. If there’s anything any of you want to ask questions about, please don’t be shy.

This is going to be far from a comprehensive guide, just some of the fundamentals.

Mathematically, the core to a character is their six stats: Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Charisma (CHA). Each stat plugs into various formulas on a character sheet, and you end up with the actual numbers you use to modify the results of dice rolls. Higher numbers are better. The process of what each stat does exactly is much easier to explain in person, but the learning curve really isn’t as bad as it appears.

Anyway, here’s a list of races and classes to choose from for creating your characters:

Available Races:

Here’s the list of races to choose from. Each race (aside from humans) gets a bonus to two ability scores. Each race also gets a special power. Most powers are only useable occasionally (once per encounter), but humans and goblins can use their powers as often as they like. The last three races in the list are under 4 feet tall, and considered small creatures. They can’t use big two-handed weapons, and have to wield some one-handed weapons with both hands.

Available Classes:

And here’s the list of classes to chose from. You can pair any race with any class, but some are better suited than others. The powers of each class are usually driven primarily by one or two ability scores, with certain secondary scores being important as well.

The classes are divided into four combat roles. Generally speaking: leaders have the best healing abilities, strikers do a ton of damage, controllers are good at putting foes at a disadvantage, and defenders are resilient tanks. Ideally you want at least one of each role in the adventuring party, but it’s not a big deal if that doesn’t happen. Leaders are essential though, you need at least one of those.