>D&D 4th Edition Houserules: Fixing the Rituals System

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Hurry up with that ritual! We need him to beat the boss!

As I said in my last post, I actually like a lot about 4th edition D&D. I’ve heard mixed reports from various sources with their own opinions about the rituals system, and Essentials seems to have avoided the issue entirely; it certainly looks as though WoTC has noticed that rituals just … aren’t being used that much.

Which is a shame, in some ways, because they’re a great idea. They provide new ways for a magically oriented character to shine, and have the additional advantage that any character willing to invest the feat choices into training can learn to use them. BUT, they cost too much as a general rule, asking players to invest gold that could be spent on gear or magical aid into one time effects.

Using the proposed Classic Fantasy Concepts houserule from StufferShack (an excellent resource, by the way) – or some other variant of the “Inherent Bonuses” option to replace magic items – mitigates some of this problem, but there’s still only so much loot to go around. Most players don’t want to spend it on a one time effect.

There are three proposals I like:

1. Eliminate the cost associated with any ritual besides Raise Dead or the magic item creation rituals, assuming that the time expenditure is enough of a downside. Or;
2. Grant anyone with the Ritual Caster feat the ability to cast one ritual per day of their level or lower for free.
3. Make the highest level rituals the focus of quests, and low level rituals free but for the time requirement. 

Mutants and Masterminds has its own ritual system, which sadly would be next to impossible to adapt to D&D 4th Edition; rituals in M&M are again done through the use of a Feat (or Advantage, as they’re now called), and are designed by the player when they’re needed using the same powers framework as the rest of the book. They take an amount of time based on the number of points the effect costs, and require a skill check associated with magic (“Expertise: Magic in DC Adventures/3E M&M, but other types of rituals are possible) with a DC based on rank. That time can be shortened if you take a penalty on the skill check to rush the ritual. Whatever the effect is, it works for one encounter.

The key advantage to this is that it’s fairly unified with the way Powers already work in M&M, and still prevents the magic user from becoming a “Master of Everything” that renders the rest of the party useless. It also means rituals will mainly be used when you need an ‘edge’ in an encounter you know is coming, giving players incentive to think intelligently and plan ahead for the final battle when they can.

I have plans at the moment to get involved in an Essentials based game with my friendly DM (when I’m not busy with school), so I may post more on this issue later. For now, though, I’ll leave it at that. D&D has my attention again, and it’s kind of a good feeling. None of the issues I have had with the system are insurmountable. I like to think that’s true of most game systems, but there are some out there that just won’t appeal to everyone … especially me.

But just a shout out, if anyone from Wizards ever reads this; you did good. D&D 4th Edition is a great game, and it’s bound to get better as time goes on. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear on that point in any of my other writings; it’s far too easy to talk about what you don’t like about something than it is to remember all the good things.

Image copyright Wizards of the Coast, intended for illustrative purposes only.

 Update, Tuesday, October 05, 2010:

It seems I should have read the book I recently purchased more closely. The new Cleric build actually has Utility powers at the higher levels that replace the Raise Dead ritual (almost) entirely with a Daily power. Perhaps this represents the official solution to the issue; roll the most useful rituals into the Utility Powers subsystem?

>D&D Essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands Review

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Alright, so in the interest of putting my money where my mouth is (some of it, anyway; I got a really good deal!) I picked up a copy of Heroes of the Fallen Lands from the Borders near my university. And I read it. Several times.

It’s . . . very, very good, actually. Of course, I thought the same thing the first time I saw the 4E D&D Player’s Handbook. But in all seriousness, it’s very cool. Here’s a quick list of pros, cons, and noted oddities:

PROS:

1. The five builds presented (Warpriest, Knight, Slayer, Thief (seriously, how long has it been since D&D had an actual thief?) and Mage) are interesting, fun looking, and new player friendly, while being different enough from what came before to be worth looking at for long time 4e players. In addition, they correspond very nicely to the Classic 1e D&D classes; Cleric, Fighter, Thief and Magic User. 
2. Races; Human, Dwarf, Elf, Eladrin, and Halfling, again connect with D&D’s classic roots – back when Human, Elf, Dwarf and Halfling were the only choices there were. 
3. The new philosophy for the martial builds is really, really cool, and should make it much easier for a new player to get a handle on them. 
4. Feats are no longer separated by tier; old feats have been updated to balance their benefits across all tiers of play. This should make things easier to understand for a new player, too.
5. The mage looks like an excellent take on the Wizard; Warpriest offers Clerics a melee option that still emphasizes Wisdom. 
6. The Essentials builds are still completely compatible with what’s come before. It’s explicitly stated that you don’t have to stick with what’s in the book; if you’d rather have a fighter utility power from the Player’s Handbook for your Knight, go right ahead.
7. You don’t NEED everything that’s come before to start playing and having a good time. 
8. The rules are much better explained in this book than they were previously; Skill Challenges are explained well enough that they actually sound positive again (I especially like the sentence that informs us that they aren’t meant to replace actually roleplaying the interactions, but more as a DM guideline for situations that might be complex). 
9. The design of the book is very clean, uncluttered, and attractive, and the size makes it very portable – far more so than the average roleplaying book.

Cons: 

1. Someone in the group – the DM – will still need to buy at least 2 other books in order to start playing. This isn’t a huge deal for a player who wants their own copy and doesn’t need a lot of clutter in the form of DM only sections, though. 
2. The book is good enough that reading it will make you want to read the others in the set. How is this a con? Well . . . um, I don’t know. 
3. Honestly, there really isn’t much wrong with this book. It’s really, really good, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’d like to try D&D 4E.

Questions: 

• What happened to rituals? I’m guessing they were left out because very few people really use them, but it’s still interesting that not ONE of the builds in the book features the Ritual Caster feat, nor is there any mention whatsoever of rituals anywhere in the book. Are they being reworked for later presentation? I kind of hope so.

Final verdict: I like it. A lot. I’d be willing to run 4E using Essentials builds, and I’d probably really enjoy playing in a game that allowed them (if only there were a 4E game within reach). 9.5/10.

Why 9.5? Reviewer’s secret: there is no such thing as a 10. Unless the designer bribed you personally. Or you’re dating his sister.

Obviously, I’m joking. In all seriousness, it’s a fantastic book, and a great way for new players to experience D&D 4th Edition.

>Fantasy Archetypes: The Thief

>I’m excited about the new product from Wizards, D&D Essentials. Here’s why.

Essentials features new builds for 4e, still compatible with what has come before, but distinctly different. Most spectacular of these changes, in my mind, are the new Rogue and Fighter variants. Based on the previews I’ve seen so far, I’m especially fond of the new rogue – dubbed, “Thief.”

Since I love showing how to try different ideas using Mutants and Masterminds, I thought I’d take a look today at how we’d design a character to play like the thief – a fast moving, agile, occasionally hard hitting, agile trickster of a swordsman (or dagger master, I have yet to decide).

With a shortbow for ranged attacks. I’m SO glad that the rogue is getting this back in 4e, I have to nod to it here.

No, not that thief. . .

First, a few words about his history. We’ll need a name for our archetypical rogue; let’s call him . . . Thief. That’s a nice name for a thief, right?

I’m kidding, but since this is meant to be an archetype I can afford to leave his character a bit underdeveloped.

Our Thief is a dashing youngish human from an urban population, who lived by his wits for the earliest years of his life. As such, he’s developed a number of skills and tricks of the trade that would make him a valuable addition to any adventuring party. Unlike Aladdin, he was never lucky enough to meet Robin Williams.

Actually, running with the joke I made earlier, let’s go ahead and make this thief an Elf. I start working from the following concept: “Elven Thief,” and build towards that. I decide that my elf will have the following traits granted by his racial heritage:

Abilities: Awareness +1, Dexterity+1, Agility +1
Skills: Perception 2, Insight 2
Powers: Enhanced Advantage (Luck 2), Limited: Only attack rolls 
Low-light vision
Elven Grace: Speed 1, Improved Initiative

This gives me a 12 point racial template loosely based on the Elf of D&D 4e, but adapted slightly with my particular character in mind. This elf was raised by humans (in a city no less), so he doesn’t have much in the way of his races natural affinity for the wilderness. He’s quick on his feet, and quicker thinking. He also has his people’s natural gift for accuracy – Luck let’s him reroll the dice if he gets a bad number and hopefully get a higher one.

The finished archetype looks like this:

Thief: PL 6, 90 pp
Tradeoffs: Close Combat +2, -2 Damage, +2 Defenses, -2 Toughness

Abilities: 28 pp
Strength 0, Stamina 2, Dexterity 1, Agility 4, Awareness 2, Intellect 1, Fighting 4, Presence 0

Advantages: 8
Jack of All Trades, Luck 2 (Limited: Only attack rolls), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, All Out Attack, Move-By Action, Defensive Roll 2, Improved Critical 1 (Daggers), Improved Critical 2 (Shortbow)

Equipment:
Shortbow: Ranged Damage 4
AE: Daggers: Strength-Based Damage 2, Improved Critical 2

Skills: 29 pp
Athletics 8, Acrobatics 6, Perception 8, Insight 6, Close Combat (Daggers) 2, Ranged Combat (Shortbow) 7, Expertise: Streetwise 4, Persuasion 8, Sleight of Hand 9,

“Powers”: 10 pp
Elven Traits: 4 pp
Enhanced Advantage (Luck 2), Limited: Only attack rolls
Low-light vision
Elven Grace: Speed 1, Enhanced Advantage: Improved Initiative

The Way of the Streets: (Rogue Training): 6 ppAffliction 4 (Vulnerable): Action +2 (Free), Linked (To movement) Flat +1 point, No Attack Roll +1, Flaws: -2 (degree only), Check Required -1 (Acrobatics): 2/rank +1: 5 pp

Evasive: Concealment 2 (Normal Vision): Flawed: Partial -1, Limited: Must Move. 1 pp

Defenses: 15 pp
Dodge 7, Parry 8, Toughness 4, Will 6, Fortitude 6

 And there you have it! Next time I’ll do a design journal where I’ll talk a bit about what all that means for those who aren’t M&M veterans. See you next entry, and DFTBA.

>4E discussion; some observations.

>So. In my most recent session with my DM, the heroic party of adventurers (and the assassin, I guess) had saved the tavern from peril, and were speaking about it with the city guard, and then they had to defend it again, this time from an ogre and two hobgoblin archers. With explosives. This took pretty much the whole session.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good combat as much as the next guy, but if it takes that long to beat something I tend to think that either the party isn’t strong enough, or the monster is too strong. And I’m really not sure which it is.

I also learned that I’m really, really bad at making Opportunity Attacks. Seriously, they came up like, 8 times in the fight, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t hit with any of them. They might as well be cut from the system for all the difference they seem to make. (Maybe other people’s experience is different, I don’t know, but to me they felt useless, and I’d just as soon they be the exclusive province of the Defender – then, at least only ONE of the party members would feel lousy about their dice rolls).

I’ve been doing some thinking, though, and I think I get the real reason why so many people are frustrated with D&D 4E: it’s different. But the funny part is, the complaints I hear aren’t actually resolved in the system they choose to replace it. Not usually.

Yeah, you heard me.

Take Pathfinder, for instance. Combats aren’t exactly SHORT there, either (Though perhaps less long). They use miniatures, too, so it’s not like the claim that “4E is about miniature combat” is really a blow against it. I’ll admit, it’s been errata’ed a LOT. . . and there are quite a few books, but they aren’t exactly mandatory.

Yes, there are a lot of choices. Choice is basically good. Pathfinder has done an excellent job, admittedly, of keeping it’s FEWER choices looking fairly compelling, while 4E has taken a different approach. Each is valid, each is worth considering. And despite the wide array of almost overwhelming choices, 4th Edition STILL looks friendlier to the new player than Pathfinder. Pathfinder looks to me to have marketed itself to D&D veterans who really wanted to keep playing the same way they always have. Only, you know, with a few of their long time complaints fixed.

4E has actually solved most of those complaints, too, it’s just introduced a few new ones.

Go figure.

The biggest complaints I have, really, still boil down to this:

1) Combat takes a LONG time.
2) The whim of the dice still has more control over my fate than I do sometimes.
3) Rituals are overpriced, under emphasized, and underutilized.
4) Classes and levels. Though this is less of a complaint than with 3.5E/Pathfinder.

Combat: I’m still trying to decide what the best solution is.

Dice: I think 4E could stand a complications/hero point mechanic like Mutants and Masterminds uses, and I’d tend to go that route: use complications to grant “action points” and adjust a few things about the way they work and make them easier to get and spend.

Rituals: Personally, I feel like most of the ‘mundane’ rituals shouldn’t have a monetary cost at all. I’d either houserule it out completely, or raise the cost to acquire the ritual instead. Of course, the exception is for rituals like Raise Dead or Enchant Object. Everything else should be a one time fee.

Classes: Eh. This is more a gripe with ‘retro’ game systems in general, and it’s something that I really don’t mind as much as I say I do. As long as I can find a way to fit my idea into the system, I’ll live with it. And all things considered, I like multiclassing in 4E MUCH better than in 3.5/Pathfinder, though it still gets a little challenging.

The hybrid rules negate some of that, of course …

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to 4E’s new set, D&D Essentials. The workover the core classes have gotten seems like a good direction, and I like the new approach to martial classes especially. But that’s a digression for another time.

Stay frosty.

>D&D 4e: Playtest Results

>Okay, my friend convinced me to take another look at 4th edition because he’s hoping (like many) to find a way to ‘fix’ it in a few little ways. So, in the interests of helping him out, I put together a party of characters and we ran through a combat at first level. As a way of testing the combat system, it wasn’t terrible, though naturally role-playing for 4-6 characters isn’t ideal. But I digress.

Here’s the scenario. An Assassin, a Monk, a Psion, a Bard, a Druid, and a Swordmage meet for drinks in a bar.

No, not to meet the first time, this is apparently just something they do (I’ve come to hate the idea of the tavern as an icebreaker for a new party – I used it myself, once. Once. So these are all old friends who happened to meet for drinks.)

To be a little more specific, Andrew Darkthorne, the assassin, Krystal the Druid, Josephus the Swordmage, Amanda the Monk, Chloe the Psion, and Lil’ana, the only non-human among them, a Drow bard. They have histories and backstories and hopes and dreams, and I’m sure I’ll cover them in a later post. I like them enough that I might have to convert them to M&M at some point. . . but that’s a digression. They work very neatly as they are, considering.

Naturally, the tavern chooses this night to get attacked by hobgoblins. Quite a lot of them, actually, which managed to drag thing out quite a bit, though eventually the PC’s triumph. Not especially surprising outcome, of course. This is complicated just slightly by the hobgoblins trying to burn the place down, but the players manage to contain the fire and everything works out okay in the end.

Only THEN does the city guard show up – one is left to assume that they had troubles of their own, as they were rather badly beaten.

They said it couldn’t be done . . .

Oh, and in the confusion the hobgoblins managed to kill the owner of the bar, which by the philosophy the PCs adopted midway through the fight (“you keep what you kill”) means that they now have a legitimate claim for ownership of the tavern. So they passed out free drinks to the few remaining patrons. So, yeah, it was fun, and I’m looking forward to playing them again, in some form or another. And since, at first level, commandeering a tavern counts as a victory in my book:

I have just a few observations I have to make, many of which are undoubtedly obvious to those who’ve played and complained about issues in the many, many other blogs on the issues out there already:

First and foremost, that one combat took a LONG time. A really, REALLY long time. I can’t even imagine how that scales to the higher levels, though I gather that it only gets worse.

The minion rules need a little work, though they work reasonably well – just require a little fine tuning (Or maybe the mod just called for more of them than was really necessary to drag things out).

And rituals need work. Mainly because they’re too expensive for a one-time benefit in many cases. 

However, there’s a positive point to be made, too: I have yet to touch a class in 4e that I didn’t enjoy completely. The assassin worked really well, too – one hobgoblin was unlucky enough to run afoul of his blade, and wound up caught in a mortal-combat style fatality move.

Imagination is a wonderful thing. . .

While the concepts available are limited somewhat, and the flavor of things is a little off of where I’d like it (I prefer things a little more “we have a noble quest” and a little less “let’s kill some monsters and take their stuff”), the character concepts that are there are cool, and they work well in practice.

M&M offers a lot of freedom. Sometimes the price of freedom is the possibility that an idea just won’t work all that well, and class systems avoid that somewhat – or at least reduce the risk of it. 4e especially, it’s hard to make a bad choice, because the choices there are are pretty much all good ones. True confessions; there were moments during character creation where I was looking at lists of powers (which in 4e are mostly like the special moves and tricks a character uses), and they were all good enough that I wound up randomizing my choice and being perfectly happy with the results. And the truth is, once I’m playing, I don’t really miss the flexible character creation I’ve been used to (though there are moments I wish I’d had it, or a combination of the two).

I DO miss Hero Points (a lot during that lengthy fight, actually). And I miss complications, and the flexibility of power stunts. And I suspect I’ll start missing power points before too long. . . but for now I’m enjoying having something to play in again. I’ll let you know how the game, and the troubleshooting process, goes.

>D&D 4e: A brief profile

>It’s probably about time that D&D got a couple of these, so let’s start with the one with actual field experience. 

Dungeons and Dragons 4e from Wizards of the Coast

Setting: The default setting is called ‘Points of Light’, and in theory it isn’t too bad. The adventurers are supposed to be of a rare breed of individuals, heroes of the like that haven’t been seen in quite some time. A cut above the rest – almost medieval super heroes, if you like. There are several settings available as supplements, including Eberron and the Forgotten Realms, but most share this thematic idea. The gods are real forces in the world, and so are the devils; monsters inhabit the untamed wilderness, and sometimes the sewers. Can our heroes push back the darkness and bring a little more light into the world?

Overall, it’s a pretty uplifting idea, though in practice it tends to work out a little more like the ancient equivalent of Grand Theft Auto; kill monsters, take their stuff, sell it for whatever gives the most ‘pluses’, lather, rinse, repeat.

System: d20 based, with a large selection of other dice thrown in to handle things like damage. Even the d3 gets used sometimes, and it isn’t physically possible! But aside from that, resolution of most conflicts still boils down to the core mechanic of d20: Roll the d20, add your modifiers, compare the result to whatever the difficulty is, and you’re good.

Character Creation: 4e builds characters using classes (like Fighter, Ranger, Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric and Paladin) that fill different roles (Controller, Defender, Leader, Striker), and of course different fantasy races including elves, halflings (“hobbits” if Tolkien’s descendants weren’t picky about copyright), dwarves, and other less standard fare, including the tiefling and the new dragonborn. Newer books have added even more races to the mix, which has both good and bad effects; namely,

1. Choice is good,
2. Except when it’s confusing.

Oh, and you can also play a human. The real downside of all the race choices is that almost noone does. 

Barriers to Entry: Actually, not that bad, if you’re a player and you only buy what a) your DM will let you use, and b) you actually want to play. Books get expensive, as do miniatures, though there are ways to reduce the costs involved with either – painting your own can be rewarding, I’m told, and it costs much less. Books can be borrowed or purchased for discounted prices through online retailers such as Amazon, and that can absorb some of the impact as well. Dice, while necessary, are really cheap, despite how I sometimes gripe about how many you’ll need for some games.

The one advantage to most of these expenses is that, unlike, say, World of Warcraft, there are no server fees; the price of the books are your highest barrier. That, and learning the rules, but they really aren’t that difficult to grasp once you sit down and read them. Recommended reading: Shelly Mazzanoble’s Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl’s Guide to the D&D Game. I picked it up awhile ago in the hopes of better explaining things to my girlfriend, and it helped quite a bit. Plus it’s riotously funny.  

Who the book would be at your highschool: The nerd who actually fit in pretty well and was well liked by everyone, had solid fashion sense, and even got invited to the parties with all the other cool kids, but let his slacker friends get by occasionally by letting them cheat off his homework. Noone is perfect.