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).

—

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.

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.

A massive wall of stats and powers may be comprehensive, but it tends to lack readability. So let me briefly explain the four characters:

The Paladin:

This guy is the team’s best tank in that he has the highest armor class and most hit points. But he is also the team’s spell caster. Both of his big flashy daily spells are ranged spells that bring the pain while he brings the justice. Finally, he is the team’s secondary healer.

The Fighter:

A very different kind of defender than the paladin, this fighter is all about versatility and area containment. He excels at charging into a hostile area and locking down groups of clustered opponents. Depending on the situation he will find himself switching between equipping his shield or wielding his sword with both hands.

The Captain:

Although he is the group’s primary healer, he also excels at positioning his comrades around the battlefield to enable flanking bonuses and sneak attacks. With such a melee heavy team, he’s going to get alot of use out of his movement abilities. Also, he’s the leader of the group. He gets to decide where they go, how to allocate funds, and is diplomatic enough to negotiate hostage situations.

The Rogue:

Stab stab stab. The rogue finds ways to distract his enemies or put them off-balance, and then he stabs them. With such a melee-heavy group, and so many tricks up his sleeve, the rogue should be able to find a way to work that massive damage bonus from sneak attack just about every turn. He’s also good for picking locks and disabling traps.

Vitality:
Maximum hit points: 45
Injured at:  22 or fewer hit points
Healing surge value: 11
Healing surges per day: 10

Defenses:
Armor Class: 18
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 18
Will: 14

Movement:
Speed: 7
Initiative: +8

Combat:
Attack Bonus (aka AB): +10
Weapon: Daggers (light one-handed)
Weapon Dice (aka [W]): d4
Damage Bonus (aka DB): +4

Skills:
Acrobatics: +11
Athletics: +10
Bluff: +9
Heal: +1
Intimidate: +3
Stealth: +11
Lockpicking: +13

Special Features:
-Sneak Attack: Once per round when you have combat advantage against an opponent and hit them with a light weapon, you do an extra 2d8+3 damage to that opponent.
-Cornered Beast: You gain +2 to all damage rolls while you’re injured.
-Dagger Specialization: +1 to attack rolls made with a dagger (already counted in your attack bonus).

For a complete list of this character’s powers click here:

Rogue At-Will Powers:

Hide:
Move Action, only usable if you have cover against all opponents
Range: Personal
Skill Check: Stealth vs. Opponents’ Perception (you must beat them all for the hide to succeed)
Effect: You gain combat advantage over all opponents, but the combat advantage is lost if you lose your cover.

Lunging Slash:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One creature
Special: You can move 2 squares before the attack.
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage.

Piercing Strike:
Standard Action
Range: Melee or Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Reflex
Hit: [W]+DB damage.

Encounter Powers:

Vicious Strike:
Standard Action
Range: Melee or Ranged 5
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 2x[W]+DB+3 damage.

Setup Attack:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 2x[W]+DB damage, and the target grants combat advantage to you until the end of your next turn.

Tumble:
Move Action
Range: Personal
Effect: You can shift 3 squares, and you are considered to have cover until the end of your turn.

Feint:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Skill Check: Bluff vs. Opponent’s Insight
Hit: You gain combat advantage over the target until the end of your next turn.

Distraction:
Standard Action
Target: All opponents that can see you.
Skill Check: Bluff vs. Opponents’ Insight (you must beat them all for the distraction to succeed)
Hit: You gain combat advantage over the targets until the end of your next turn.

Predatory Eye:
Minor Action
Range: Personal
Effect: If you have combat advantage against a target, you deal an extra d6 damage on the next attack you make against that target. You must apply this bonus before the end of your next turn.

Second Wind:
Standard Action
Range: Personal
Effect: Spend a Healing surge. You also gain +2 to all of your defenses until the start of your next turn.

Daily Powers:

Easy Target:
Standard Action
Range: Melee or Ranged 5
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 2x[W]+DB damage, and the target is slowed and grants combat advantage to you (save ends both).
Miss: Half damage, and the target grants combat advantage to you until the end of your next turn.

Deep Cut:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2x[W]+DB damage, and the target takes 8 ongoing damage (save ends).
Miss: Half damage, and no ongoing damage.

Vitality:
Maximum hit points: 57
Injured at:  28 or fewer hit points
Healing surge value: 14
Healing surges per day: 11

Defenses:
Armor Class: 23
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 15
Will: 17

Movement:
Speed: 5
Initiative: +3

Combat:
Attack Bonus (aka AB): +9
Weapon: Longsword (versatile)
Weapon Dice (aka [W]): d8
Damage Bonus (aka DB): +4

Skills:
Acrobatics: -1
Athletics: +7
Heal: +10
Intimidate: +13
Religion: +10

Special Features:
-Draconic Fury: You gain a +1 bonus to all attack rolls while injured.

For a full list of this character’s powers click here:

Paladin At-Will Powers:

Divine Challenge:
Minor Action
Range: Close burst 5
Target: One opponent in burst
Effect: You mark the target. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls for any attack that doesn’t include you as a target. Also, it takes 7 radiant damage the first time before the start of your next turn that it makes an attack that doesn’t include you as a target.
The target remains marked until you use this power against another target, or if you fail to engage the target. To engage a target, you must either attack it or end your turn adjacent to it.
A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place.

Bolstering Strike:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage, and you gain 3 temporary hit points.

Enfeebling Strike:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage, and the target takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.

Encounter Powers:

Channel Divinity:
Choose to use either Divine Strength or Divine Mettle.
Divine Strength:
Minor Action
Range: Personal
Effect: Gain an additional +2 bonus to damage on your next attack this turn.
Divine Mettle:
Minor Action
Range: Close burst 10
Target: One ally in burst
Effect: The target makes a saving throw with a +4 bonus.

Fearsome Smite:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 2x[W]+DB damage, and the target takes a -3 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.

Righteous Smite:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 2x[W]+DB damage, and you and each ally within 5 squares gains 9 temporary hit points.

Dragon Breath:
Minor Action
Range: Close blast 3
Target: All creatures in blast
Attack: +4 vs. Creatures’ Reflex
Hit: 1d6+1 fire damage.

Second Wind:
Standard Action
Range: Personal
Effect: Spend a Healing surge. You also gain +2 to all of your defenses until the start of your next turn.

Daily Powers:

Wrath of Kord:
Minor Action
Range: Close burst 1
Target: You and each ally in burst.
Effect: All targets do an additional 2 damage with each attack until the end of the encounter.

Shackles of Justice:
Standard Action
Range: Ranged 5
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Will
Hit: 3d8+DB radiant damage. Once per round the target takes d8 radiant damage after making any attacks (save ends).
Miss: Half damage. Once per round the target takes d4 damage after making any attacks (save ends).

Holy Fire:
Standard Action
Range: Ranged 5
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Fortitude
Hit: 3d8+DB radiant damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 radiant damage (save ends).

Lay on Hands (3 uses per day):
Minor Action, but only once per turn.
Range: Melee
Target: One ally
Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points. Instead, the target regains hit points as if they had spent a healing surge +4 additional hit points.

Vitality:
Maximum hit points: 55
Injured at:  27 or fewer hit points
Healing Surge value: 13
Healing Surges per day: 12

Defenses:
Armor Class: 19 (or 21 with a shield equipped)
Fortitude: 18
Reflex: 14 (or 16 with a shield equipped)
Will: 14

Movement:
Speed: 6 (or 7 if charging)
Initiative: +8

Combat:
Attack Bonus (aka AB): +9
Weapon: Long sword (versatile)
Weapon Dice (aka [W]): d8
Damage Bonus (aka DB): +4 (or +5 if wielding a weapon with both hands)

Skills:
Acrobatics: +4 (or +2 with a shield equipped)
Athletics: +11 (or +9 with a shield equipped)
Heal: +9
Intimidate: +6

Special Features:
-Combat Superiority: You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls when making an opportunity attack, and any moving enemy struck by your opportunity attacks is forced to stop moving.

For a full list of this character’s powers click here:

Fighter At-Will Powers:

Combat Challenge:
Immediate Reaction
Trigger: You have just attacked one or more opponents.
Target: Each opponent you attacked
Effect: You can choose to mark the target(s). While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls for any attack that doesn’t include you as a target. Also, whenever a marked target shifts or makes an attack that doesn’t include you as a target you can make a basic melee attack against that enemy as an immediate interrupt.
The target remains marked until the end of your next turn.
A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place.

Cleave:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One creature
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage, and a second opponent adjacent to you takes 4 damage.

Tide of Iron:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One creature
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage, and you push the target 1 square. You can then shift into the space that target occupied.

Encounter Powers:

Targeting Mode:
Minor Action
Range: Close burst 10
Target: One opponent in burst
Effect: Until the end of your next turn the target takes an extra d6 damage the first time you deal damage to them each round.

Emergency Shielding:
Minor Action, only usable while injured.
Range: Personal
Effect: You gain 5 temporary hit points.

Skirmish:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Primary Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage, and you can shift 1 square. Make a secondary attack.
Secondary Target: A different opponent
Attack: AB+2 vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage.

Whirlwind:
Standard Action
Range: Close burst 1
Target: Each opponent in burst
Attack: AB+2 vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage.

Second Wind:
Standard Action
Range: Personal
Effect: Spend a Healing surge. You also gain +2 to all of your defenses until the start of your next turn.

Daily Powers:

Brute Strike:
Standard Action, and this power is not used up if it does not hit.
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 3x[W]+DB damage.

Hyper Mode:
Minor Action
Range: Personal
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, any enemy that starts its turn adjacent to you takes [W] damage.

Major Shielding:
Minor Action
Range: Personal
Effect: You gain 2d6+3 temporary hit points.

Vitality:
Maximum hit points: 42
Injured at:  21 or fewer hit points
Healing surge value: 10
Healing surges per day: 10

Defenses:
Armor Class: 19 (or 20 with a shield equipped)
Fortitude: 17
Reflex: 17 (or 18 with a shield equipped)
Will: 16

Movement:
Speed: 5
Initiative: +3

Combat:
Attack Bonus (aka AB): +8
Weapon: Long sword (versatile) or Long spear (two-handed reach)
Weapon Dice (aka [W]): d8 or d10
Damage Bonus (aka DB): +3

Skills:
Acrobatics: +4
Athletics: +11
Diplomacy: +11
Heal: +9
Insight: +9
Intimidate: +6

Special Features:
- Tactical Assault: Whenever you or an ally spends an action point to make an extra attack they get +4 to the attack roll.

For a full list of this character’s powers click here:

Captain At-Will Powers:

Commander’s Strike:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: An ally of your choice makes a basic melee attack against the target
Hit: Ally’s basic attack damage + 4.

Wolf Pack Tactics:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Special: Before you attack, you let one ally adjacent to either you or the target shift 1 square as a free action.
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage.

Viper Strike:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: [W]+DB damage.
Effect: If the target shifts before the start of your next turn, it provokes an opportunity attack from an ally of your choice.

Encounter Powers:

Inspiring Word (2 uses per encounter):
Minor Action, but only once per turn
Range: Close burst 5
Target: You or one ally in burst
Effect: The target can spend a healing surge and regains an additional d6 hitpoints.

Hammer and Anvil:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Reflex
Hit: [W]+DB+2 damage. One ally adjacent to the target makes a melee basic attack against it as a free action.

Steel Monsoon:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 2x[W]+DB damage, and 3 allies within 5 squares of you may shift 1 square as a free action.

Aid the Injured:
Standard Action
Target: You or one adjacent ally
Effect: The target can spend a healing surge.

Second Wind:
Standard Action
Range: Personal
Effect: Spend a Healing surge. You also gain +2 to all of your defenses until the start of your next turn.

Daily Powers:

Lead the Attack:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 3x[W]+DB damage. You and all allies within 5 squares of you get a +1 bonus to all defenses until the end of the encounter.
Effect: You and all allies within 5 squares gain 7 temporary hit points.

Stand the Fallen:
Standard Action
Range: Melee
Target: One opponent
Attack: AB vs. Opponent’s Armor Class
Hit: 3x[W]+DB damage.
Effect: Each ally within 10 squares can spend a healing surge and regains 2 additional hitpoints.

• Finish writing the adventure: I can’t run a game night without a finished adventure unless I’m planning to freestyle a few encounters, but in this case I’m not. I’ll get into more detail on the adventure itself in a minute, but as of right now it is only about half-way completed.

• Scheduling: The person running the game usually ends up as figuring out who is playing, when they’re playing, and where. Getting all of your players to agree is sometimes the trickiest part of being a DM.

• Designing character sheets: I’m not a huge fan of the official 4th edition D&D character sheets. They are a useful worksheet for creating a new character or maintaining that character’s stats throughout a campaign, but they’re also very clunky and lack a template for detailing the character’s powers. I intend to have streamlined sheets for my players that leave out all of the unnecessary background math, add easily readable stats and powers, and provide a place for the players to keep track of things like hit points during an encounter.

• Getting my table props ready: Having illustrations to present to your players during the course of the adventure helps to give them a concrete and unified concept of what they’re dealing with. I like to spend the occasional evening scouring a new website I’ve stumbled across for quality fantasy art and filing it away for later use. I also have other print outs to make, like the list items available from the local merchant. Pre-drawing the encounters onto the big graph paper grids I use speeds up transitions between encounters, and having a system of tools and tokens to represent various bits of game state information like status effects and initiative orders makes complex encounters more manageable.

So what is this adventure I’m running? Well I don’t have a title for it yet, but it is a combat-heavy adventure featuring this team of mercenaries drawn by Gabe from Penny-Arcade:

From left to right we have a human captain, dragonborn paladin, warforged fighter, and gnoll rogue. It is a very melee heavy group, and aside from the rogue it’s also a very defensive group. I’ll have further updates throughout the week as I finish up the adventure.

The one thing I haven’t done is maintain the site, my bad. I mean to change that now and grow this site into what it deserves to be. I gave things a fresh coat of paint today, and am brushing up on all the web technologies I’ve been missing out on.

I have so many places I could start… but I’ll think I’ll begin with an introduction to the Fallcrest campaign that ran earlier this year as my introduction to D&D 4th edition:

I used the town of Fallcrest in the Nentir Vale as the campaign’s backdrop. Both of my primary players were D&D vets (though new to 4th Edition), and we all worked together with the source material offered by the core 4th edition books to craft the character’s abilities and backgrounds.

Both character’s backgrounds involved a recent personal tragedy relating to their clan/tribe which lead to them changing their devotional allegiances from their ancestral dwarven/elven gods to a darker god of balance and death known as The Raven Queen.

The Stonewheel clan of dwarves had recently discovered a dark strain of ore deep within their mountain caves. In the typical dwarven fashion they dug too deep, and indavertantly unleashed a rift of dark energy that surged through the caverns of their clanhold. The rush of energy swept up and out of the mountain killing and corrupting most of the dwarves as it went. Havor Stonewheel the cleric was one of the few uncorrupted survivors, and he left the mountains shortly after the cataclysm in search answers as to what had happened and why he suddenly felt so cut off from the spirit of Moradin.

Aumnibiru the elven ranger had grown up fighting goblins in a perpetual territory war for Harken forest. A huge surge in the goblin population over the last 10 years had all but obliterated the Oaksinger tribe, and the last remaining tribe members were forced to abandon their homes in a pilgrimmage for a new land to sustain them. Unfortunately their path lead them directly through the troll-infested Witchlight Fens. As dusk fell trolls rose out of the marsh and began slaughtering the unaware elves. Aumnibiru managed a narrow escape, but he was the only Oaksinger to make it out alive.

Two days after the massacre Aumnibiru stumbled into Fallcrest seeking refuge just as Havor arrived to the town in search of an estranged ancestor’s tomb.

The characters started at level 2, and over the course of the campaign made it up to level 8. Havor Stonewheel was a dwarven cleric specializing in healing and ranged magical attacks, (using a build commonly referred to as a laser cleric). Meanwhile, Aumnibiru was a dual-wielding elven ranger using bastard swords.

Four to six players are considered the ideal number according to the official books, and we only had 2 regulars. As a result, individual encounter design was a little more limited until I developed an understanding of the use of different monster roles. However, we were all learning the 4th edition system together, so starting with more straightforward and simple encounters probably worked to our favor.

I think that’s probably plenty for now, so I’m going to cut myself off. Hopefully if I actually keep up posting I’ll eventually get good at it, because I don’t think I’m there just yet. But in my next post on the Fallcrest campaign I’ll go into details about the first adventure, the arrival of an arrogant young lord to town, and his search for magical artifacts.