You Know Not What Hell You Have Unleashed

Fools. All of them.

They have no idea what I've been planning, and how could they? Every step in my plan, every detail, exercised to its full potential, well before being sprung into action. In some ways, I pity them. In others, they had it coming. How dare they question my right, no, my destiny! They have chosen their own paths, and they shall remember the day they chose to cross Tybris Fauler.

I was regarded as my master's top pupal; a true maestro of magic, a connoisseur of conjuration. My skills were never questioned, for they did not need to: they knew my true potential, for it was bore in the stars.

Yet they dared to question my loyalties? They dared to betray me? They should have known this would become their undoing.

But my plan... of yes, one most cunning, if I do dare be so bold. I could see the confusion on their face when I was expelled. I did nothing but smile, bow, and show myself the door. Little had they known that I had already spent the night before copying secret tomes from the most secret of archives, finishing my dangerous research.

Little did they know that I had covered all of my tracks, creating false research to only solidify their theories of my madness. Little did my poor master, my one friend and ally, know that I had poisoned his wines the night before, and stolen his precious staff, and replaces it with a forgery. Little did he know that I know held the key to my final goal.

Little did he know that the answer to all of our prayers would soon be realized. Only a few more small details need be taken care of. Thanks to those fool mercenaries, I was able to retrieve the book with no trouble. Without the help of the Grayman's son, I would have truly been lost. I will then be able to obtain the iris, and move unto the next stage of my plan. My scouts have reported that the mercenary band has tried to raise the alarm, but I feel their efforts shall be in vain. All I need is for the Grayman's son to die, and his line to end: then the seals shall be broken, and the final stages may then begin.

Even if the adventurers seek to stop me, they have no chance. They know now that hell they have unleashed.

Adventure Report - High Seas of Telredar

Date: Monday, April 18th

Time: 7:30 pm

Theme: Martial - Characters created with the martial power source gain a bonus.

"I love being a pirate fer two very, very big reasons... see that lass o'er there?"

            -Captain Goldtooth of the Highrunner

The port of Telredar was once a very, very wealthy port city, but new trade routes threatened to bankrupt the city. The recent trouble in Sancrist has seen an increase in trade, which has saved the city, but a new threat lays on the horizon.

A mysterious blackship, flying torn black sails, has been terrorizing the coasts, and sinking merchant ships leaving and entering the port. Many shipping guilds have refused to trade in the port any longer, for fear of losing more lives - or ships - to these menacing pirates.

Gamal, returning from last week, alongside Orsik the Dwarf Knight and Krixus Fanghorn the Weaponmaster, were sent to stop these attacks, and restore order to Telredar.

Meeting with the Trade Prince

The three quickly made their way to the great mansion on the horizon. There, they were escorted into the dining room, where Trade-Prince Galfax awaited them. He bade them feast as he spoke, jibing and jesting at them with every word.

Perceiving him as rude, Gamal and Krixus rose and left, but a servant bade them return. Upon their return, he proposed a game of liar's dice; if he won, then they had no buisness in his town. Should they win, however, he would give them some help on their quest.

Gamal fell out quickly, but it was Orsik who called the Prince's last bluff. The Trade-Prince explained to them the direness of the situation: the ship was the Highrunner, captained by a man named Goldtooth before his crew mutanied, leaving him, his first-mate and best friend at the bottom of the drink.

The Highrunner wasn't attacking the ships, it was cursing them. Any of his people that see the ship die three days later from a terrible, terrible curse, which the Prince had also become victim of. He showed the heroes the mark, a scar on his arm, bade the heroes to end it.

With haste, the Prince sent two guards to escort them to the corrupted cove where the ship rests.

The Cove

The Highrunner rested within a gloomy tomb; a rotten cove filled with green light and swirling mists. The dock and ship were black with rot, and the whole place smelled like death.

Hammer-hands!

Orsik and Krixus hurried up to the ship, while Gamal took his time. Suddenly, Gamal was ambushed by 4 ghostly crewmen, and hurried to join the others. Orsik and Krixus came to the rescue, teaming up to protect Gamal and beat the ghosts back into their cold, dark graves.

Upon reaching the Highrunner, they began to search for an ancient artifact: one the Prince had told them would end the curse. Gamal inspected one of the ship's cannons, believing it to be the fabled cannon of Griffender, but alas, it was not.

The other two searched the ship's lower decks. They found a pile of treasure, but no artifact. But then, Krixus had an idea...

He climbed to the top of the crow's nest, where he found a small metal box. After managing to get it open, they found that it contained a blackened human heart. This, they assumes, was what they sought.

After departing the ship, they were attacked by another group of crewman, who they easily defeated. After taking a short rest to gather their strength, the heroes set out to return to the Prince, and end their quest...

Trapped!

A black-metal portcullis dropped infront of the cove's exit, sealing them off. Before it, Captain Goldtooth himself appeared, brandishing a fancy purple hat and a large scimitar.

"Come a little closer, and I'll cut off ye heads!" he called and he slowly stepped towards the heroes. "Please... let me carve out their hearts..." spoke another voice, coming from the shadows behind them. "Oh no... " a low voice yelled from aboard the Highrunner, "I'll blow them to 'itty bitty pieces!"

Orsik ran to the ship, inorder to stop the ghostly dwarf from pelting his allies with canon fire. Krixus stayed to fend off the captain, who's bitter cold heart could be felt from ten-feet away. He was quickly overwhelmed by First-Mate Skully, who came forth from the shadows and burried into the human. Gamal, confused, could do little to assist as he fell.

Orsik made his was back through, letting out a loud battle-cry, and quickly subdued the First-Mate. The Captain finally fell, and Orsik was able to revive the fallen soldier.

Conclusion

The three heroes returned the heart to the Trade-Prince, who was most pleased. He offered the treasure found aboard the Highrunner and the heroes' reward, and bid them farewell.

Upon leaving, Krixus stopped. He turned to the Trade Prince, and asked to see if his found had healed. The Prince raised his sleeve, showing that the scar had begun to recede. With that, the heroes went on their way.

Split Personalities, The Art of the Hybrid - Part 1

Without a doubt, the Hybrid system in 4th Edition is one of the most complicated and confusing parts of the system. It's the one character option that has one of three outcomes: you fulfill one role very well, fill two roles but master neither, or you become completely useless.

The creators of the system even state this in the Player's Handbook 3:

"Because character classes aren't designed to be broken down and recombined in this way, not every hybrid is equally effective. Different combinations of roles, key ability scores., types of attacks, and other elements can result In different degrees of efficacy."

In the next few articles, I'll break down hybrid characters the way I make them, and I hope that this will give you a better understanding of the system.


Why Hybrids? - A History

It's no secret that 4th Edition DnD has fewer options for character building then 3.5 did. This is mostly because of how new the system is. Back when the second player's handbook was released, there were only a handful of classes and races to choose from. Players hated being stuck to such few options, and the game's current multi-classing system was considered weak at best.

In an attempt to create more "unique" character classes, Wizards created the hybrid class: a combination of two classes split down the middle and stuck together. While the system wasn't perfect, many critics loved how complex some of the characters became to play.

Some, however, just find the system confusing.


The Hybrid Basics:

To make an effective hybrid, you need to focus on a few things. First off, what do you want your character to do? Pure striker, controller or defender? Maybe you want to tank a little, but can throw the occasional heal in there? Maybe you want to be a heavy-armored caster who can hold the line, or a magical assassin who's all about the damage? Am effective character concept is a very necessary step.

But how do you know if what you've created effective, or even viable? While we'll go into each step of hybrid creation over the next few weeks, here are the main things you'll want to look at:

• Matching Ability Scores - Make sure that both classes use similar stats, if not the same ones.
• Compatible Class Abilities - If one of your classes benefits from the use of Arcane powers, choosing a martial class as your second wouldn't be optimal.
• Gear Dependence - Remember that while weapon proficiency stacks, armor does not; mixing a Paladin and a Sorcerer can be a powerful combo, but if you want to wear that plate armor, you'll need to be willing to spend a feat.

We'll talk about each of these in detail next week!

Sorcerer 101 - Part 4 (Builds)

The article this week is going to be a short one. As promised, here are a few example characters I built using the DnD insider character builder. If you're a DnD insider, you should be able to download these and use them in your own games.


Taria (Wild Sorcerer)
Taria wasn't born on the material plane; she was instead born on the Feywild, a land very few humans ever see. Her mother was taken there by a powerful Eladrin lord, who raised Taria as his own. She quickly became attuned to the magics that surrounded her, yet she was unable to fully control it.

After years of training, she has learned to focus her unique powers, and become a powerful Sorceress. Download her character-sheet here.


Gelek (Rogue/Sorcerer hybrid)
Gelek is a rather shifty lad; he trusts few, and is trusted by even fewer. His skills with a blade are unquestioned, and with good reason: he has slain many a foe before they even knew he was coming. He uses his twin blades and his powerful magic in unison: creating some terrible displays of power.

Crossing him may just be the last mistake you make. Download his character sheet here.

Sorcerer 101 - Part 3 (Wild Magic, Storm Magic)

As you all remember, last week we talked about melee based sorcerers. This week, we'll take a look at more "traditional" sorcerers: the squishy mages that we all know and love.

For ranged mages, there are really two options for your spell source: Wild magic and Storm magic. I have to say that, while I very much favor the melee sorcerer, Wild magic and Storm magic are some of the most fun characters I've seen in 4th Edition so far.

Well, let's get started:


Storm Magic

You are the brewing storm, the raging tempest. Thunder is your herald, the wind is your cloak, and lightning dances from your fingertips. Yeah, storm sorcerers are hella bad-ass.

They have many area attack powers that are very, very mean; and one or two will make your defender love you.

Storm Power: Add your dexterity modifier to your damage rolls. This goes up with tier, as other spell power features do.

Storm Soul: You gain damage resistance to lightning and thunder damage, with of course, goes with spell penetration for those two types of damage. The kicker with this is that you can end this resistance as a free action and get a +4 bonus to all defenses until the end of your turn.

Storm's Embrace: I like to call this the "lolwut" feature. When you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll for an arcane power, you push the target 1 + Dex modifier squares, and then can FLY a few squares. lolwut.


Wild Magic

Do you like being random? Do you wake up in the morning, pick up a random shirt and pants-you-think-are-clean-because-pants-don't-get-dirty off the floor, and go? Well, I think Wild sorcerer is for you.

Wild sorcerers are crazy, and the bane of many optimization builds. Why? Because you can't plan for them. Most of your powers have a random effect, and the paragon path associated with this power source can change the entire battlefield, and ruin any tactics or plan your party may have had. Why the hell would you play this class?

I'll tell you: because it's FUN.

Chaos Burst: Depending on if you roll an even or odd number on your first attack roll each turn, you either get a +1 bonus to AC or can make a saving throw. Random...

Chaos Power: Just like Storm power, in that you add your dexterity modifier to your attack rolls, and it scales with level. No extra benefit.

Unfettered Power: When you roll a natural 20, you slide the target and knock it prone. If you roll a natural 1, you push all creatures within 5 squares of you. This can get crazy.

Wild Soul: You know how every sorcerer gets some kind of resistance/spell penetration? Wild sorcerers do, too, but it's entirely random, and you have to roll a d10 after each extended rest to figure out what resistance you have for that day.


Final Thoughts

I have to be honest, I think these two are my favorite sorcerer spell sources. They're fun, have some crazy abilities, and care the embodiment of what a sorcerer really is: unlimited power!

Wild sorcerer has always been close to me heart, and especially with feats later, you can make your class less random... or even MORE random and crazy powerful. Next week, I'll build a few sorcerers from the ground up, and show you a few different ways to play, with character sheets downloadable. Stay tuned!

Adventure Report - Tomb of the Greenskinned Prince

Date: Monday, April 4th
Time: 7:30 pm
Theme: None

"Think of this as your first test... to see if you have what it takes to be one of the guild."
          -Doralen Price, Adventurer Guild Leader

The town of Sancrist is an important port city, which allows the dwarven hold of Modan Pak to trade with human kingdoms across the sea. Recently, however, the roads into the City-State of Sancrist have become unsafe. The reason? Goblins.

The city guard, as well as the dwarves of Modan Pak, have increased the number of patrols, but the attacks don't seem random... they fit a pattern, and what's more, they only steal a few things from the caravans, and even leave survivors.

Little did anyone know the goblin's intent. Long ago, the Misty Glade was home to the Goblin Empire, it's capital build beneath the city of Sancrist. The goblins were attacking caravans holding precious spell resources, so that they could resurrect their great leader, the Greenskinned Prince. With his help, the goblin empire could again rise up and claim the lands once again!
Four guild associates answered the call: a team of psionic heroes; Gamal, the deva psion; Edward, the human psion; ISGWE, the gender-confused elf monk; Barakas, the tiefling battlemind.


Arrival at Sancrist
The party's trip at Sancrist was uneventful, strange considering how frequent the attacks had become. Regardless, our heroes immediately set out upon the town to learn more about the threat. Gamal learned from an elderly dwarf woman, who attempted to scam him, that the shipments from Modak Pak had almost ceased entirely, leaving many stores and booths bare. ISGWE headed to meet thair contact, Maran Battleheart, to learn more about their contract.

Edward, followed by the human-hating Barakas, proceeded to travel about the market place, hindered by Barakas's constant interference. Edward first found a very gody shawl, covered in glitter. The shop keep charged a large price, and in the middle of their haggling, Barakas offered almost double the original price, just to stop Edward in his tracks.

Edward didn't seem to mind, as he purchased a fine white tunic, despite Barakas's attempt to foil him again. He managed to decorate the tunic at a nearby booth, gifting him with a very strange, colorful garment.

Maran's Offer
ISGWE met with Maran, who seemed confused about the elfs... specifics. He informed her of a strange racket that he had heard overnight, something to the effect of pick axes and goblins chattering. He asked that the party stay overnight in the tavern to discover the source, and he would reward them 100 gold each to complete the task. They agreed, and took a rest at a nearby inn.

When night was beginning to fall, they headed to the tavern to prepare for the night.

The Plot Thickens...
After Maran locked them in the tavern, they sat for a short while before hearing what Battleheart had described to them: goblins chattering and pick axes. The party crept to the basement, and noticed a bare wall far in the back. Touching the wall revealed an ingraving, depicting three goblin lords, three slots, three miniature idols, and an engraving in goblin.

Irritated by the inscription, Barakas hastily placed the sword, axe and mace idols into three slots. The inscription disappeared, and they were left with a blank wall. Despite their best efforts, they were unable to open it. Gamal suggested that the inscriptions were of the Greenskinned Price's barons, who used to rule part of the Goblin Empire, long long ago. He also concluded that the door was on a timed mechanism, and that they should wait to try again, to which Edward agreed. About an hour later, the inscription appeared, this time in common:

Bloody Lord cares not for swords,
As the mace cares not for Green.
No axe shall cut the ocean shores,
But instead chop the trees.

A riddle. Edward quickly worked out his solution, and placed the axe idol beneth the green goblin's inscription, the mace in the red goblin's slot, and the sword in the blue goblin's. The door then grinded open, revealing a passageway down.

Into the Tomb's Heart
Our heroes pressed on, the stone doors griding shut behind them. They entered a dimly lit room, with two doors. The door to the left led to a small room to leave offerings, where Barakas and Edward helped themselves to some gold. Gamal took the offering cloth. ISGWE, in silent protest, left a few coins as an offering of respect and apology.

Barakas hastily entered the next room, filled with a magical darkness. Edward quickly shut the door behind him in jest, but when Barakas began to call for them, the door would not open.

ISGWE reacted fast, punching through the door, and making her way to the other side. She proceeded to attack the newly risen undead, while Barakas fought a small goblin-sized zombie that rose from a coffin in the room. The room was filled with an eerie purple light as the party made quick work of the undead, shattering their bones into dust.

Beyond that room lied a small room with a fire, where a bunch of goblin guards set up camp. The party made quick work of them as they pressed on. Gamal attempted to sneak back and claim a relic from the coffin of the felled zombie, but ISGWE would have none of it.

The Dead Rise


Beyond that room lied a beautiful room, decorated with white marble and black banners, dedicated to the goblin's dark god. A necromancer was finishing a wicked ritual when the party attacked. ISGWE rushed in to subdue the goblins, but as he had done before, Barakas stayed back. He did not enter the fray, and instead toyed with the goblins. Because of this, ISGWE fell, and nearly died on the floor of the tomb.

The goblins were dealt with, and ISGWE was able to recover, but just barely. The party proceeded into the next room, again filled with a magical darkness. Black ooze leaked down the walls, and not long after, the room filled with purple light as the coffin's lid slid off, and Grek'Nak, the Greenskinned Price, rose from the tomb. He quickly determined the party to be his foes, and he struck.

It was a long fight, but the party was able to finish the Prince, and hopefully send him off for good. Shortly after he fell, the walls began to drip with more goo, and walls looked as if they literally peeled away; the tombs true face, a dark, cold, and ugly stone prison, was revealed. Among the discarded equipment and items in the room, the party found three magic items; and amulet, feathered cloak, and magical staff.

Conclusion
With the goblin's plan found out and thwarted, the attacks on Sancrist would surly stop. Maran was pleased with the adventurers, and gave them their reward and then some. The four will be known throughout the city as the ones who stopped a wicked plot, that could have cost many, many lives.

Sorcerer 101 - Part 2 (Spell Sources: Melee)

Welcome back! Last week, I gave a brief overview of what the sorcerer does. This week, I'm going to talk about one of the biggest features of the class: the spell source.

I'm going to talk about the melee-focused sources this week, and the ranged sources next week.


What is a Spell Source?

Flavor-wise, it's where your powers come from. When you pick your Spell Source, it defines the rest of your class features, key attributes, and even gives certain powers special benefits. It is the most important choice to make when you start building a sorcerer.


Cosmic Magic


The first spell source I'm going to talk about is called Cosmic Magic. As you can probably guess, this means you draw your powers from the cosmos; the stars, moon, and sun. This is one of the most fun sorcerer options, as it gives you several ways to play your class, and you can change them practically on the fly.

Cosmic Persistance: When not wearing heavy armor, you use your strength modifier for your armor class, in place of int or dex. This works well with the next feature...

Cosmic Power: All arcane powers you use gain a damage bonus equal to your strength modifier. This even works for non-sorcerer arcane powers. Very neat.

Soul of the Cosmic Cycle: Choose a "phase", those being the Sun, Moon, and Stars (in that order). When you end a short or extended rest, you get to choose one. The first time you're bloodied in an encounter, you move to the next one. When you use a daily arcane attack power, you can change to the next phase immediately after the power is resolved.

Now, why should you care? Well, each phase gives you special benefits. When in the phase of the Sun, all enemies around you take damage. When in the Moon phase, your AC goes up depending on how many enemies are surrounding you. If you're attacked in the phase of the Stars and missed, you get to teleport. You also gain resistances depending on which phase you're in. I know that the phase of the Stars has saved me more then once, and the phase-swaping in combat was loads of fun.


Dragon Magic


I have to be honest, Dragon Magic to me is the most boring of the spell-sources. It's not underpowered,  but I still find it a little lacking in the fun factor. That being said, Dragon sorcerers tend to have the highest AC, and can hold their own the best in melee combat.

Draconic Power: Like the cosmic sorcerer, you add your strength modifier to your arcane damage rolls. Nifty.

Draconic Resilience: When not wearing heavy armor, you use strength in place of int or dex for AC. Again, very nifty.

Dragon Soul: You gain resistance to your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder damage. This resistance scales with tier.

Scales of the Dragon: The first time you're bloodied in an encounter, you gain a small bonus to AC. Not game breaking, or not nearly as fun as the cosmic sorcerer, but nice.


Build Tips for Melee Sorcerers

As always with Sorcerers, charisma should be your highest stat. Your nest highest stat should be Str, and I would put some points in Dex. Why? Well, there's a feat called Dual-Implement Spellcaster you can get later on, which is a straight damage increase, and can get very nasty at later levels. All you need is a 13, which is very doable.

Aim for leather armor, or if you can swing it, hide. I see some builds go for a shield at low levels, but they always retrain it away later for that Dual-Implement magic I was telling you about. It's all up to you.

Also, it goes without saying, but look into a feat called Sorcerous Blade Channeling. It allows you to channel a few of your at-will spells into melee attacks, taking away the attack of opportunity, so long as you're using a dagger to attack. A must-have for the dagger-wielding sorcerer.



Next week, I'll talk about two of my favorite spell-sources: Storm and Wild sorcerers!

Sorcerer 101 - Part 1

Well, it's almost time for my new DnD campaign to launch, so I figured I'd kick it off by talking about my favorite class in 4th edition: the Sorcerer.

The Sorcerer is a striker, meaning that they focus on dealing damage as a top priority. They also have a few powers that are very good at controlling, but that isn't their main focus. If you just want to blow things up, preferably with fire, then a sorcerer is the class for you.

Let's start by talking about a few core elements to Sorcerer's in 4th Edition:

Your Place in Combat


Sorcerers have two places on the battlefield: either in the back, hurling lightning at bad things, or on the front lines in melee combat, stabbing things and channeling spells through their daggers. Your place depends heavily upon your build and other sorcerer class choice options.

Ranged sorcerers tend to favor the staff implement, though I have seen builds that use daggers. They tend to stick with either the Wild or Storm sorcerer power source, as they both have powers that help you keep enemies at bay.

While sorcerers can only wear cloth at first, it's very easy through feats to gain access to leather and even hide armor. Some sorcerers like to start off with a shield, and then later retrain it for Two-Weapon Defense, but I think that's a lot of hassle. The main build-goal with this type or sorcerer is to get your AC high, while still pumping up your damage.

Power Choices


Powers are very important, and there are always powers that are useful for everyone. For example, Chaos Bolt is a very useful spell for Chaos sorcerers, but targets Will, which is useful for all sorcerers. Here are some guidelines when it comes to choosing powers:

• If a power says "Can be used as a ranged basic attack", it has one main purpose: to be channeled in melee. With Sorcerous Blade Channeling, any of these attacks can become melee-ranged attacks, which takes away the attack of opporunity. However, it's a good idea to have at least one power like this, even if you're a ranged sorcerer, especially if you have a leader who can give you free ranged attacks.
• Many powers give you special perks for being of a certain spell-source, and sometimes these perks make the spell golden. I've had many laughs watching Chaos Bolt bounce around the battlefield.
• Don't be afraid to go for flavor. Focusing on acid spells, for example, can help you optimize later down the road. I once rolled a dragon sorcerer who multiclassed assassin focused on stealth and acid powers. The character was very cool, and could pump out the damage.

Next week, I'll talk about the next most important thing about sorcerers: Spell Source.