Diseases, Parasites and Afflictions
Ranging form the merely pesky, like an infestation of fleas, to the deadly, such as The Black Death, these conditions can bring your players more fully into the setting you’re trying to establish. Are they adventuring in the slums of this city? Better not drink that water unless you want Dysentery! Digging through the ogre’s bed looking for lose gold? You’re likely to take away some fleas with you along with that coin.
Many of these afflictions can be treated with simple care, bathing, proper diet or simple medicine – aka a Heal skill check. Others can be difficult to treat with the poor mundane techniques available to ancient physicians, wise women and barbers and may require a trip to the temple for the gods’ intervention. Whichever disease you chose to afflict on your PCs, these diseases serve as a bit of detail to draw them into character, and perhaps relieve them of some of their coin, without becoming a game-stopper if you don’t want it to be one.
These Diseases follow the standard rules for diseases (see DMG p.49). Characters who contract the disease begin at “Initial Effect” on the disease tract, and move towards Cured or Worsened and then Final Stage depending on the results of the Endurance or Heal check they make at the end of each extended rest.
Diseases
Fleas – Level 1 Disease
Tiny bloodsucking insects that cause painful itching bites.
Attack: +4 vs Fortitude upon touch exposure to a source of fleas.
Endurance: improve DC 16, maintain DC 11, worsen DC 10 or lower. Bathing and washing one’s clothes gives a +4 on this check.
Cured: The target has freed itself from fleas, or is ignoring them completely.
Initial Effect: Painful itching from flea bites cause the target to lose one healing surge that they cannot regain.
Worsened: The infestation has grown, causing the loss of another healing surge that cannot be regained, and the fleas can attack to infest those in close proximity to the afflicted character (such as the other party members).
Final Stage: The target is constantly itching the fleas, taking a -1 penalty to skill checks in addition to the above effects. Also, the sores from itching may become subject to Infection (see below).
Food Poisoning – Level 3 Disease
Consumption of uncooked, spoiled or tainted foods can result in severe stomach and intestinal distress.
Attack: +6 vs Fortitude upon consumption of tainted food or water.
Endurance: improve DC 18, maintain DC 13, worsen DC 12 or lower
Cured: The illness passes and the character recovers.
Initial Effect: Queasiness results in a -1 penalty to all attacks and skill checks, and the character loses one Healing Surge that cannot be recovered.
Worsened: Weakness and frequent vomiting and dihereah result in a -2 penalty to all attacks and skill checks, and the character loses two Healing Surges that cannot be recovered.
Worsened Further: As Worsened and the character is immobilized until they improve.
Final Stage: The character dies from dehydration.
Dysentery (aka the bloody flux) – Level 6 Disease
A disorder of the digestive system often caused by parasites that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and blood in the feces. If left untreated, dysentery can and usually will be fatal.
Attack: +9 vs Fortitude upon drinking tainted water.
Endurance: improve DC 21, maintain DC 16, worsen DC 15 or lower
Cured: The illness passes and the character recovers.
Initial Effect: Queasiness results in a -2 penalty to all attacks and skill checks, and the character loses two Healing Surges that cannot be recovered.
Worsened: Weakness and frequent vomiting and dihereah result in a -4 penalty to all attacks and skill checks, and the character loses four Healing Surges that cannot be recovered.
Worsened Further: As Worsened and the character is immobilized until they improve.
Final Stage: The character dies from dehydration.
Pox – Level 8 Disease
The pox begins with fever, aches and maliase. Then lesions form on the body and develop into inflamed ulcers that then cover over with thick black crusts.
Attack: +11 vs Fortitude upon physical contact with an infected creature.
Endurance: improve DC 23, maintain DC 18, worsen DC 17 or lower
Cured: The pox clears, usually leaving extensive scars on the skin.
Initial Effect: About 12 days after exposure fevers set in and the target sufferes fatigue, headache and possible vomiting or dhiarreha. The character takes a -2 penalty to all attacks and skill checks and loses two healing surges that cannot be ragianed. In addition, the victim is contagious to others within 1 square for 5 rounds.
Worsened: The pox (red pimples) appears on the target, beginning in the mouth and spreading to the face, then chest, then the limbs. The character suffers the Initial Effect and is immobilized, but is no longer contagious.
Final Stage: Roll Percentile die: the character either dies (%1-75), is permanently blinded by pox on the eyes (%76-85) or suffers a permanent -1 to all attacks and skill checks (%86-100). If the character survives the disease has run its course and the character moves to Cured.
Infected Wounds – Level 9 Disease
Wounds that prevent sufficent bloodflow to the extremeties or that are not properly cleaned may become infected and begin to rot, turning black or green and exhuding a terrible stench.
Attack: +12 vs. Fortitude if the character has open wounds that are not cleaned.
Endurance: improve DC 24, maintain DC 19, worsen DC 18 or lower
Cured: The infection clears up.
Initial Effect: The wound becomes red and inflamed, and pus or fluid drains from the wound. Lose one healing surge that cannot be regianed.
Worsened: Fever sets in. The tissue around the wound begins to turn an ugly dark color and smell like rotten meat. Red streaks may appear under the skin heading towards the character’s heart. Lose two healing surges that cannot be regianed and take a -2 penalty to all attacks and skill checks.
Final Stage: The character dies from the infection.
Black Death – Level 12 Disease
Adieu, farewell earths blisse,
This world uncertaine is,
Fond are lifes lustful joyes,
Death proves them all but toyes,
None from his darts can flye;
I am sick, I must dye:
Lord, have mercy on us.—“A Litany in Time of Plague”
by Thomas Nashe
Attack: +15 vs. Fortitude
Endurance: improve DC 27, maintain DC 22, worsen DC 21 or lower
Cured: The target recovers.
Initial Effect: The target experiences fever, headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise. The target loses two healing surges that cannot be regained, is -2 to all attacks and skill checks, and cannot spend any action points.
Worsened: Painful buboes appear at the groin, armpits and neck and ooze pus and bleed, the target begins coughing up blood or purple skin patches appear on the target. The target is dazed in addition to the Initial Effect.
Final Stage: The target dies.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged disease: heroic, disease: paragon by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Ale Break: Keep on the Borderlands
It all started when I ordered a copy of the AD&D adventure “Vault of the Drow”. I like to read over these old modules and see how the original writers of this game conceived adventures. I was so taken with “Vault” that I also got “Descent into the Depths of the Earth”. I liked them so much that I decided I wanted to run or play in them. But with the two weekly games I run in mid-progress I felt like I was pretty much booked up.Wednesdays we play “Savage Tide”. At 16th level, they’re in the home stretch: 4 more adventures to go, and I don’t want to lose momentum on this game.
Sundays I run a D&D game for some friends and co-contributors to Unicorn Rampant. I’ve been running a homebrew campaign I call “The Heir of Soguer”, but have had a little writer’s block lately. So I thought, here’s a chance for us to take a little break from “Heir” and revisit some old adventures I haven’t played since high school or have never had a chance to play.
So far it’s been a blast running “Keep on the Borderlands”. I came up with a place to put the keep in my campaign world and told the players the story was taking place 10 years before the story I’m telling in “Heir”. I then told them they were from the Temple of the Stars, a historically important location they’re headed to in “Heir” and worked on backgrounds for their characters. I then and gave them their quest: go to the Keep on the Borderlands, where bandits are raiding travelers, and lend a hand however they can. This gave me a way to tie this side trek into the current game: it gives the players some foreshadowing of what they’re about to encounter in “Heir”. The quest is also the type of cheesy, simple old-school adventure hook that gave the game a great starting flavor.
It’s been wonderfully nostalgic running Keep. The players got to the famous “Castallian Keep” and started wandering around, meeting the locals and soaking up the medieval flavor.
I had to come up with names for all the NPCs, since that’s the one detail omitted from the town descriptions. For those who have never seen Keep on the Borderlands, there are elaborate descriptions of lots of things, including the contents of every drawer in the moneylender’s shop and the traps guarding each drawer, but the people there are “scribe: mu2, ac:9, at:1, dmg: 1-4, spells: ventriloquism, grease”. And you thought 4e stat blocks were short 🙂 All together the adventure is about 20 pages with the area descriptions, treasure, hidden features and stats all run together in a single paragraph for each area. Adventures have come a long way in 30 years, although you still sometimes see this.
Once they got to the Caves of Chaos and started in on the meat of the dungeon, I started converting the encounters on the fly. According to the 4e DMG, each 1st level character in the encounter merits 100 xp worth of monsters, up to 175 xp for a really tough challenge. The adventure says there are 6 goblins in the first room, and I have 3 players. So I went with four goblin minions at 25 xp each, and two 1st level goblins at 100 xp each for a total of 300 xp worth of monsters. If there were only 3 goblins called for I made them all 1st level goblins at 100 xp each, or two 2nd level at 150 xp each and a minion for 25 xp. It worked out quite nicely; I was able to run the adventure from a single page in the monster manual, so there wasn’t a bunch of flipping around from book to book. Between this and buying 14 goblin minis this kept the players from guessing who were minions and who weren’t.
All of this made me think about how simple the monsters were in AD&D. They had a HD, which determined their “BAB”, and a number of attacks and damage. They also had a morale score, and if they were special they had a “saves as” entry. Unless they had spells or special abilities, that was it. Compare that to the 3e stat block for a goblin: 23 lines of information jammed together in a poorly orgznized format. Of course, that format was inherited form the old AD&D monster manual. Paizo improved drastically on the readability of that format in their Dungeon Magazine by organizing the stats in sections, and we use that format here at Unicorn Rampant for our Claw/Claw/Bite! line of products, but there can still be a lot of digging around required of the DM compared to having only 5 or 6 numbers as stats for a monster. Now, in 4e, you can almost run all your monsters from a single chart again. I keep thinking I’m going to write up a spreadsheet that takes monster level and role and spits out complete stats.
For running the dungeon I used our big Chessex mondomat, as usual, and tried out the Dungeon Mastery dungeon tiles from Piazo that I got at GenCon last year. I was really happy with them: they add a lot of good-looking detail to the game without taking a lot of time to draw. Lack of good corridors is the only real weakness of the tiles, but it’s easy enough to draw the corridors and use the tiles for the rooms along the way. I’m thinking I’m going to pick up another set or two and copy some of the corridors in the back of the DMG for the next session.
I just got all three modules of the “Against the Giants” series, so hopefully we’ll keep enjoying these old adventures enough to string together a campaign out of them.
Thanks to W.o.G. for inspiring me to get “Vault of the Drow” and sending me down this old path once again.
-Adam
Posted in Editorial and tagged ale break by Adam A. Thompson with 2 comments.
Dragonrider Paragon Path
Ride the Dragon toward the Crimson eye/ Flap the wings under Mars’ red sky/The reptile pushes itself out into space/Leaving behind the human race – Hakius, Pike, and Cisneros
Dragonrider
“Once more to battle, my faithful friend!”
Prerequisite: Mounted Combat Feat and either Weapon Focus Feat with spear, or training in Nature.
You and your mount have developed an extraordinary bond of friendship and trust. You fight as one with each other, protect each other, live and die together.
Dragonrider Path Features
Furious Onslaught (11th level): When you spend an action point to attack, your mount can also make an attack.
Two Hearts as One (11th level): When spending a healing surge for a Second Wind, you or your mount may chose to spend an additional healing surge to also allow your mount to use Second Wind as a free action.
Threatening Jaws (16th level): When your mount attacks a target you may choose to have your mount mark that target. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. Any attacks by marked targets that do not include your mount take a -2 penalty.
Soulbound Mount (11th level): Chose one of the mount categories from the below list.
A mount’s category determines most of its game statistics, although all mounts share a few characteristics.
Level: Your mount’s level is always equal to yours. The mount’s defenses, hit points, and attack bonus improve with level.
Ability Scores: Your mount’s category determines its ability scores, which go up with level.
Add 1 to two of your mount’s ability scores at 14th, 18th, 24th, and 28th level. All of your mount’s ability scores improve by 1 at 21st level.
Healing Surges: Your mount has two healing surges. The mount’s healing surge value is equal to a quarter of its maximum hit points, as normal.
Vision: Your mount has low-light vision.
Mount Categories:
Rage Drake
Your furious draconic companion dominates every battlefield you set foot on.
RAGE DRAKE STATISTICS
Ability Scores:
Strength 20, Constitution 16, Dexterity 13, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed: 8 squares
Defenses: AC 14 + level, Fortitude 14 + level, Reflex 11 + level, Will 11 + level
Hit Points: 16 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Melee Basic Attack: Bite; level + 4 vs. AC; 1d10 + Strength modifier damage.
or Claw; level +4 vs. AC; 1d6 + 4 damage; see also bloodied rage.
M Raking Charge (standard; at-will)
When the rage drake charges, it makes two claw attacks against a single target.
Bloodied Rage (while bloodied)
The rage drake gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and deals an extra 5 damage per attack.
Raging Mount (while bloodied and mounted by a friendly rider of 5th level or higher; at-will) – Mount
The rage drake grants its rider a +2 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls with melee attacks.
Trained Skills: none
Dragon
The fierce elemental heart of your dragon companion infuses you with might.
Pick either fire, cold, lightning, or posion for your dragon’s breath weapon damage and its resistance.
DRAGON STATISTICS
Ability Scores:
Strength 17, Constitution 16, Dexterity 16, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed: 8, fly 10, overland flight 15 squares
Defenses: AC 13 + level, Fortitude 12 + level, Reflex 13 + level, Will 12 + level. Resist level + 5 fire, cold, lightning, or poison.
Hit Points: 16 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Melee Basic Attack: Bite; level + 4 vs. AC; 1d8 + Strength modifier damage + 1/2 level fire, cold, lightning, or poison damage.
Breath Weapon (standard; recharge 5-6 ) – fire, cold, lightning, or poison
Close blast 5; level + 4 vs. Fortitude; 1d10 + 3 fire, cold, lightning, or poison damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 fire, cold, lightning, or poison damage.
Bloodied Breath (free, when first bloodied; encounter) -fire, cold, lightning, or poison
The dragon’s breath weapon recharges, and the dragon uses it immediately.
C Frightful Presence (standard; encounter) – Fear
Close burst 5; targets enemies; level + 4 vs. Will; the target is stunned until the end of the dragon’s next turn. Aftereffect: The target takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends).
Trained Skills: none.
Griffon
Wild as the mountain winds, your griffon’s screech fills your foes with terror.
GRIFFON STATISTICS
Ability Scores:
Strength 20, Constitution 15, Dexterity 14, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed 6, fly 10, overland flight 15
Defenses: AC 14 + level, Fortitude 14 + level, Reflex 12 + level, Will 10 + level
Hit Points: 15 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Melee Basic Attack: Claws; level + 4 vs. AC; 2d6 + Strength modifier damage.
+10 vs. AC; 2d6 + 7 damage.
Rabid Charger (while mounted by a friendly rider of 7th level or higher; at-will) – Mount
When it charges, the griffon makes two claws attacks in addition to its rider’s charge attack.
Blood Frenzy (only while bloodied)
The griffon can take an extra move action each turn. It also gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and takes a –2 penalty to all defenses.
Thunder Charge (standard; only while flying; at-will)
When the griffon charges, it gains a +4 bonus to its attack roll instead of the normal +1 bonus.
Trained Skills: none
Celestial Charger
Your horse has fought with you through many a battle, and you have come to think of it as a gift from the gods.
CELESTIAL CHARGER STATISTICS
Ability Scores:
Strength 18, Constitution 17, Dexterity 14, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed: 8 squares
Defenses: AC 14 + level, Fortitude 13 + level, Reflex 12 + level, Will 11 + level
Hit Points: 17 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Damage: 1d8 + Strength modifier
Melee Basic Attack: Kick; level + 4 vs. AC; 1d8 + Strength modifier damage.
Trained Skills: Endurance
Trample (standard; at-will)
The celestial charger can move up to its speed and enter enemies’ spaces. This movement provokes opportunity attacks, and the celestial charger must end its move in an unoccupied space. When it enters an enemy’s space, the charger makes a trample attack: level +4 vs. Reflex; 1d8 + Strength modifier damage, and the target is knocked prone.
Celestial Charge (while mounted by a friendly rider of 10th level or higher; at-will) – Mount, Radiant
On charge attacks, a celestial charger’s rider deals an extra 2d6 radiant damage.
Zephyr Footing
The celestial charger ignores diffi cult terrain and can move across
any solid or liquid surface.
Nightmare
Your mount’s dark spirit smolders with a flame equal to your burning ambition.
NIGHTMARE STATISTICS
Ability Scores:
Strength 18, Constitution 18, Dexterity 13, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed: 8, fly 10 (hover) squares
Defenses: AC 14 + level, Fortitude 14 + level, Reflex 10 + level, Will 12 + level. Resist 20 fire.
Hit Points: 18 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Melee Basic Attack: Hooves; level + 4 vs. AC; 1d8 + Strength modifier damage and ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
Hell’s Ride (while mounted by a friendly rider of 13th level or higher; at-will) – Fire, Mount
The nightmare’s rider gains resist 10 fire.
Underworld Leap (move; encounter; while mounted by a friendly rider of 13th level or higher; at-will) – Teleport, Mount
The nightmare and its rider teleport 10.
Hooves of Hell (standard; recharge 5-6 ) – Fire
The nightmare moves up to 10 squares. Each square the nightmare leaves is fi lled with fi re to a height of 10 feet until the end of the nightmare’s next turn. Any creature that hits the nightmare with a melee attack during this move, or that enters one of the flaming squares, takes 10 fire damage.
Trained Skills: Endurance
Wolf
The hunt’s thrill howls through your veins every time you ride your furry friend.
WOLF STATISTICS
Ability Scores:
Strength 17, Constitution 17, Dexterity 15, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed: 8 squares
Defenses: AC 14 + level, Fortitude 13 + level, Reflex 12 + level, Will 11 + level
Hit Points: 17 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Melee Basic Attack: Bite; level + 4 vs. AC; 1d8 + Srength modifier damage, or 2d8 + Strength modifier damage against a prone target.
Combat Advantage
The dire wolf gains combat advantage against a target that has one or more of the dire wolf’s allies adjacent to it. If the dire wolf has combat advantage against the target, the target is also knocked prone on a hit.
Pack Hunter (while mounted by a friendly rider of 5th level or higher; at-will) – Mount
The dire wolf’s rider gains combat advantage against an enemy if it has at least one ally other than its mount adjacent to the target.
Trained Skills: none.
Boar
As gruff and strong as the earth itself, you and your boar can withstand any onslaught.
BOAR STATISTICS
Ability Scores:
Strength 19, Constitution 18, Dexterity 12, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed: 8 squares
Defenses: AC 13 + level, Fortitude 14 + level, Reflex 12 + level, Will 12 + level
Hit Points: 18 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Melee Basic Attack: Gore; level + 4 vs. AC; 1d10 + Strength modifier damage, or 1d10 + Strength modifier + 5 damage against a prone target.
Death Strike (when reduced to 0 hit points)
The dire boar makes a gore attack.
Rabid Charger (while mounted by a friendly rider of 6th level or
higher; at-will) – Mount
When it charges, the dire boar makes a gore attack in addition to its rider’s charge attack; see also furious charge.
Furious Charge
When a dire boar charges, its gore deals an extra 5 damage, pushes the target 2 squares, and knocks the target prone on a hit.
Trained Skills: none.
For mounts not described here, use the following base stats and add the mount’s movement, skills and special attacks:
Ability Scores:
Strength 17, Constitution 16, Dexterity 16, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 15, Charisma 7
Size: Large
Speed: 8 squares
Defenses: AC 14 + level, Fortitude 12 + level, Reflex 12 + level, Will 12 + level
Hit Points: 16 + 8 per level
Attack Bonus: Level + 4
Melee Basic Attack: type; level + 4 vs. AC; 1d8 + Strength modifier damage.
Dragonrider Exploits
Twin Attack Dragonrider Attack 11
In a flurry of claws and teeth you and your mount fall upon your foe.
Encounter – Martial
Standard Action
Effect: You and your mount can both make either a melee basic or an At-Will attack that includes the same target.
Sacrificail Lunge Dragonrider Utility 12
Your or your mount dive forward and intercept a blow intended for the other.
Encounter – Martial
Immediate Interrupt
Effect: When an attack hits your or your mount you may chose to apply the damage to either yourself or your mount.
Rampant Assault Dragonrider Attack 20
You and your mount rear up and come crashing down upon your foe with unstoppable force.
Daily – Martial
Standard Action
Effect: You and your mount can both make either a melee basic, At-Will or Encounter attack that includes the same target. The powers used can already
be expended, and if they are not, using them through this power
doesn’t expend it.
Miss: Attacks used in this way do 1/2 damage on a miss.
If your mount is ever slain, you can resuscitate it with the following special ritual which you know and can use regardless of your ability to use normal rituals:
Raise Mount
Through prayer, magic, or medicine, you devote all of your energy to bring your bonded companion back to you.
Level: 1
Category: Restoration
Time: 4 hours
Duration: Instantaneous
Component Cost: 50 gp
Market Price: None
Key Skill: Nature (no check)
This ritual allows you to restore life to your slain mount. This ritual works only for characters who have chosen the Dragonrider Paragon Path.
The ritual functions as the Raise Dead ritual, with the following exceptions:
– You need not have any part of your mount’s corpse.
– The death penalty lasts until you have reached three milestones.
– A paragon tier mount costs 500 gp to raise, and an epic tier mount costs 5,000 gp to raise.
Using your mount: just as with normal mounts, animal companions or familiars, your and your mount share the same 3 actions every turn: a Standard, Move and Minor action each of which can be taken by either you or your mount.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Paragon Path by Adam A. Thompson with 1 comment.
Secondary Skills
Presented here are lose rules for all the flavor skills that aren’t part of 4th edition D&D: the craft and profession or trade skills, riding, sailing, forgery, performance, or any other skill that may add flavor to your characters.
These secondary skills can be useful mainly for providing another dimension of detail to characters, or, as a DM, if you intend the players to be involved in some skill challenges that go beyond the primary skills. For example, you might introduce the secondary skills Navigation (Int) and Sailing (Dex) in a swashbuckling adventure and make them available to the players. You could then put the players through skill challenges or even shipboard combat encounters that gave the players an opportunity to use these skills.
Characters may chose a number of secondary skills based on their class, or alternatively, they can get training in as many secondary skills as are appropriate to their backgrounds. Around 2 or 3 skills seems right for most PCs, with NPCs getting more or fewer depending on their class (look for NPC classes here in a later article).
Training in a Secondary Skill, much like a primary skill, gives the character a +5 bonus to rolls involving the skill.
Possible Secondary Skills include:
- Craft (choose an object type to craft) (Int, Dex, or Str)
- Profession (choose a profession to be skilled in) (Could be any attribute)
- Navigation (Int or Wis)
- Sailing (Dex)
- Riding (Dex)
- Engineering (Int)
- … or any other skill as deemed appropriate in conjunction with your DM….
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged variant rules: secondary skills by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Dungeon A Day
Monte Cook (co-designer of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons and author of the awesome Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and Ptolus) has a cool new project out: DungeonADay.com. He’s designing a megadungeon (hundreds of rooms, according to his definition) and posting them a room at a time. I’ve read over the preview of some of the rooms on the first level, and I have to say I’m super excited about this project. The art and maps look great, there’s background and handouts for the players, and, of course, the encounters are super interesting (spoiler alert).
To get access to the full content, there’s a subscription of $10 / month, with discounts for quarterly and yearly subscriptions. Personally, I have my plate full with games to run, but if I could find a DM to run this adventure for me, I’d gladly pay for the subscription.
Here’s a bit form Monte’s site describing the assumptions behind his design:
Whether you’re playing out of the little white box, the Basic Set, 1st Edition, 2nd Edition, 3rd Edition (or 3.5), or 4th edition, dungeons come into the game. But dungeons mean different things to different people. At Dungeonaday.com, I plan on taking a rather old school approach–but even the meaning of that term varies depending on who you ask. So, I thought it valuable to share the assumptions I’m making as I design the dungeon.
These, then, are my Ten Tenets of Dungeon Design.
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Posted in Uncategorized and tagged preview by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Manners, Customs and Dress During the Middle Ages
I just found this book on the Project Gutenburg site, and wanted to share it. It’s currently the #5 most popular book on the project’s site.
Although most modern games gloss over historical cultural and political structures, as a student of history I find the minutiae of such fascinating. Occasionally I will find something that I can write into a game that gives flavor, and sometimes it becomes a major underpinning of the story. For example, in “The Heir of Soguer”, the system of vassalage is really central to the story. I’ve tried to engage the players in that by having it brought up by NPCs, making it the source of the current major conflict in the story, and even knighting the player’s characters in the game. All of this has been wonderful detail that helps create a historical feel for my game, as well as informing the central conflict.
I’m hoping that this book yields more of such wonderful details. It has more than 400 woodblock prints, as well.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10940/10940-h/10940-h.htm
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged ale break by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Traveling to Minwood
After the battle of Clommel Bridge the players and their liege, Ludwig Staledwo, take their army in pursuit of Count Aguies and his protege, Trent. The most direct route is the road through Minwood. Once there they must decide how to deal with the hostile lord of Minwood, and possibally Oltorf as well.
Encounters
- Treatment of prisoners – if the players captured any Knights in the previous encounters (such as IlĂşvĂ«nis, the haughty Eledrin Lord of Linton, and Jack the young human son of Lord Erding) they must decide how they are to be treated.
As you survey the battlefield that Aguies has just fled, one of your troops approaches, looking uncertainly back at Iluvenis and Jack, the knights who have surrendered to you. “What should I do with these two, m’lord?”
If given general liberty, good food and wine and otherwise treated as guests they will be social with the players, riding and talking with them, and may be disposed to ally with the party’s liege Ludwig later. If kept harshly they may try to escape or stir up trouble – Iluvens can teleport, so keeping him prisoner will be hard. If killed their families will greatly resent Ludwig during the reconciliation later.
Skill Challenge Level 5, complexity 1, XP 200, 3 successes before 3 failures –
Primary Skills (DC 12); Diplomacy, Intimidate to make friends or control the prisoners, can be carried out over the course of the journey to Castle Aguies.
Success – the players make a good impression on their prisoners or frighten them into submission.
Failure – the prisoners may attempt to convince some of the player’s troops to join them or they may try to escape (use Knight of the Realm stats for Jack, and Eladrin Knight stats (see Monster Manual) for Iluvens. - During the journey to Castle Aguies, the players may have a minor encounter if they want to attack the lightly defended Oltorf and Minwood – who may just surrender with a skill challenge. Lord Jared of Oltorf is still with Count Aguies, but Lord Toel of Minwood was injured at the battle at the bridge and is recuperating in his keep with his family and a small contingent of guards.
The trip to Minwood takes 2-3 days for the player’s army.
Description – they party comes upon the town, and it seems deserted – the keep is closed up and archers watch from their positions on the battlements / arrow slits. If parleyed with, they say that Duke Aguies rode by and warned them that Ludwig’s army was coming. They will gladly say that they will not attack the army’s flank in an attempt to convince the players to continue on (Insight or History DC 14 to realize that this is probably not ture).
Skill Challenge – Level 7, complexity 4 – xp 1200. 10 successes before 3 failures. Primary skills – (DC 14) Intimidate checks to bully them into surrendering, Bluff checks to trick them into giving up, Diplomacy checks to convince them they will not be hurt if they surrender, History to make the argument that Ludwig is the rightful lord of these lands, Stealth checks to sneak into the castle, Athletics checks to scale the walls.
Secondary skills – (DC 19) Endurance checks to keep watch while blockading them, keeping supplies from getting in or out, Nature to notice the spring feeding water to the keep, and to block or taint it, Stealth and then Acrobatics to squeeze in through the grate that lets the spring water in.
Success – The castle’s defenders surrender to Ludwig’s army and if they succeeded at at least one Diplomacy check, the Lord swears fealty to Ludwig. Otherwise they merely surrender and the party faces a dilemma – what do they do with the captured troops? The sword of war suggests conscription or execution.
Failure – The defenders refuse to surrender: to take the castle they must defeat the well-fortified 20 troops defending the place (see encounter below). If they do not take Minwood and Oltorf there is a counter attack from these troops during the siege of Aguies detailed below.
Development – given the opportunity, the Sword of War will make it’s bearer attack the keep.Encounter – Level 7 – XP 1400 –
If the players do not convince the defenders to surrender, they must defeat the well-fortified troops defending the keep. While the player’s troops help fight the rest of the forces off-screen (or are repelled by archers if sent in alone), the players make the main assault on the keep and fight:
Creatures
- Knight – xp 250
- pikeman – xp 250
- 3 x human guards (see MM) – xp 150 ea
- 6 x human lackeys (see MM) – xp 75 ea
Treasure – small money parcel as the keep and town are looted. Simple skill challenge to keep the looting from turning into pandemonium as their troops grab everything not bolted down, including livestock, furniture, erc. – the Sword of War tries to encourage the looting. Failure – flush with their loot, four of the player’s troops desert in the night.
Development – If they do not take Minwood and Oltorf there is a counter attack from these troops during the siege of Aguies (to be detailed later).
Posted in 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, Encounter and tagged Campaign: Heir of Soguer, encounter: skill challenge level 5, encounter: skill challenge level 7 by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
War Spear
This heavy reinforced spear is made to pierce heavy armor of battlefield troops, or the iron skin hide of the toughest beasts.
Superior Weapon
+3 proficiency bonus
1d8 damage
versatile, brutal 1
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged equipment: new weapon by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Death Knight Paragon Path
We came up with the following Paragon Path for one of the PC’s that will be available at the game we’re running at GenCon this year: For Love of Evil. In that game, the players will be playing evil 30th level characters trying to free the evil god chained in the depths of the abyss.
One of those characters is Kard Bad-Dorum, an orcish paladin who has become a death knight.
Path Features
- 11th Level: Become Undead
Giving yourself over wholly to evil, your life ends in a vile ritual and your rise – immortal!
Your type changes to Undead. Gain Resist 15 necrotic, Immune to disease & poison, Vulnerable 10 radiant. - 11th level: Terrifying Onslaught
When you spend an action point to attack, adjacent enemies take -2 to AC until the end of your next turn. - 16th level: Undeath Mastery
Your attacks ignore the resistances of undead creatures (but not immunities).
Powers
- Control Undead – Death Knight Attack 11
Encounter – Divine, Soul Weapon
Standard Action – Close Burst 5
Target: One undead creature within the burst.
Attack: Cha vs. Will
Hit: 2(w) + Charisma modifier psychic damage, and as a free action, the target charges your enemy nearest to it that it can charge and makes a melee basic attack. - Unholy Healing – Death Knight Utility 12
Daily – Divine, Implement
Minor Action – Personal
Gain Regeneration 5 until the end of the encounter. You do not regain hit points each round if you took radiant damage since your last turn. - Unholy Flames – Death Knight Attack 20
Diving, Fire, Necrotic
Daily – Close Burst 2
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 6d8 + Constitution modifier necrotic and fire damage to non-undead targets and you deal an additional 2d6 fire damage with melee attacks until the end of your next turn.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged creature type: undead, Paragon Path by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Unicorn Rampant Heading to GenCon
Just a quick note to let everyone know we’ll be there in Indy from the 12th-16th of August. Looking forward to 4 days of non-stop gaming.
We’ll post which games we expect to attend once we register for them.
See you there!
PS – One of the games we’ll be DM’ing at GenCon is “For Love of Evil”, an adventure for evil 30th level characters. Find out more here.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged news: convention by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.