I was looking at some of the reviews of Daggerheart the other day. It seems a lot of people are hoping it will be the next “D&D Killer!” I am not exactly sure why there is this obsession with slaying the D&D dragon. Humans seem to love it when the giants fall hard, and Wizards of the Coast has certainly not won themselves many advocates over the last couple of years, but there is nothing wrong with growing the pie rather than eliminating pieces from it.

I look at Daggerheart and I see a crunchy game with lots of different dice and a complex damage system and cards to track all the things your character can do. It looks complicated. And that is fine. Good for them. I hope it does well.

I might, in a future post, talk about how upset people got about the OGL a couple years ago, while there is currently very little press about the lengthy Daggerheart License. I guess some rules only apply to D&D.

Alright. What was I going to talk about today? It wasn’t Daggerheart. I have not played it and probably won’t. Not because I have any issues with it, but simply because OldeGreybeard is set in his ways. I have my TTRPG of choice and don’t have a lot of interest in breaking out of my bubble.

What I really want to talk about is something else that the Daggerheart release made me think of. I heard the same when Shadowdark came out and, of course, I hear it whenever a Pathfinder fan enters the conversation.

That is the whole, “no true Scotsman”, argument about what is and what is not D&D. Somehow all these other games out there capture the essence of D&D better than D&D itself.

These folks are the experts on what is and is not D&D and they decide whether you are truly playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Let’s take a look…

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Depending on who you talk to, ‘real’ D&D died once AD&D was released. Or 2e. Or 3e. Or, with extra emphasis, 4e! And 5e is just a shell of what D&D was all about.

Instead, the true spirit of D&D has transitioned to games like those mentioned above, but also Dungeon Crawl Classics and Old School Essentials and Castles and Crusades and a host of other variants of the game. It seems the best way to play D&D is to play something other than D&D.

Can we just stop please!!

Dungeons and Dragons as a brand is whatever has been released under that brand. Every edition. Every magazine. Every article. Every Unearthed Arcana. Some of it is canon and some is not, but it is all D&D. You can certainly decide which parts you like and what you do not, but it is all still D&D.

I think the Star Wars prequels are terrible. Other people swear by them. No matter what anyone thinks, I will be the first to tell you that no matter what I think of them they are Star Wars. And I will also be the first to tell those that love them to keep right on loving them. Don’t let me yuck your yum.

Those that like AD&D enjoy the style of play that it brought to the game. Same as those that play 2e and 3e and 4e and 5e. The games are different. They attract different audiences. Some stick to one version. Some cross boundaries.

And you know what? Everyone single one of those people is exactly right. They are all playing D&D and they should keep on playing exactly the version and style they want to.

To all those out there that want to tell me that 4e is awful because it is too this or too that, then don’t play it. No one is forcing it on you. I am not on some sort of 4th edition crusade, spamming these posts to random people on the internet. If you are not a 4e fan and you found yourself here listening to me rant, first of all, bravo for making it this far into the post, and secondly, its not my fault you kept reading.

The bottom line is that whatever TTRPG you play, just enjoy it. There is no need to tell other people what they should or should not enjoy. There is no honor in making yourself feel better by diminishing what others enjoy.

Play the game you love the most and you are doing it right. Hard stop. End of story.

I know this was maybe a little more ‘in your face’ than my typical posts. I am not directing this at any individual or group. Just in general, let’s please support each other and make the hobby bigger not smaller.

Please keep comments constructive and respectful.

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Here I go again. Falling down the rabbit hole of D&D complaints. This one isn’t even exclusive to 4th edition.

• Combat takes too long!

• Breaking out a battle map slows everything down!

• D&D was best when it was theater of the mind!

• Counting squares is too slow, can we just use ranges instead?!

It seems the holy grail of roleplaying game design is to make combat run as quickly as possible. But, if combat is so horrible, then why are we playing the game in the first place? If we are having fun, then who cares how long the combat takes?

Now, I can understand some constraints for a board game where you want to have a total runtime of 30 minutes to an hour at most. But we are not talking about a board game. With D&D, it is a badge of honor to brag about how you have been part of a campaign that has been running for years.

The first season of Critical Role had 115 episodes and ran for more than 2 years. Seasons Two and Three each had more than 120 episodes and ran for more than 3 years!!

And these are not piddly 1 hour episodes. Each episode of Critical Role clocks in at a minimum of 3 hours. That is, on the low-side, more than 360 hours of game play per season. If you are looking for a comparison, the entire Game of Thrones saga was told in 73 hours!!!

And we are going to seriously complain because a combat encounter took 15 minutes!??!

So why all this hate about lengthy combat?

Let’s take a look…

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Let me start off this rant, er…conversation, by sharing one of my crowning achievements as a Dungeon Master.

Several years back, when OldeGreybeard was still young and clean-shaven, I was running Storm King’s Thunder at a game store. There was a combat encounter early in the adventure that set the stage for what was to come. I planned it all out. Maps. Scenery. Minis. The whole deal. As a DM, I am always nervous about whether the players will enjoy what I had planned and I knew this would not be a quick encounter.

Within the first fifteen minutes or so of the session, the combat had begun. This involved a couple groups of goblins, some archers with flaming arrows on a wall, a grain silo on the verge of exploding, and obstacles in the form of trees and fences. Halfway through the encounter, reinforcements showed up that changed the nature of the battle. Some enemies surrendered. Others fought to the death. The players were using every tool available to them to survive.

And, just like that, three hours had gone by. This single combat encounter had taken the entire session. And it was amazing. They players loved it and I still think back on it as one of the most fun encounters I have been a part of.

This is not to say that all of my combat encounters are worthy of write-ups in Dungeon Magazine. I have had my fair share of clunkers. But I think it is important not to generalize.

Combat is not bad because it is long. Combat is bad, when it is bad.

For those wondering, in just a minute I will start singing the praises of 4th edition tactical combat, but let me first take a moment to tick off all the OSR loyalists out there.

Theater of the Mind Combat is the Worst Combat.

Ooo. I know. Hot take. Yell at me, constructively, in the comments. But what I really mean is that theater of the mind has the most potential to create bad combat.

When you play theater of the mind, you have to generalize a lot of the things that can make combat interesting—specifically, terrain and distances. You must limit the amount of stuff on the battlefield because there is only so much people can be expected to keep track of and visualize. So you end up with a watered-down encounter that could have been amazing on a map, but is just meh in your mind. Sure, you got it done in two minutes, but is the goal to go fast or to have fun?

Before you stone me, there is nothing wrong with theater of the mind. It can be done very well. And groups that use it extensively can certainly learn how to make it work for really complex encounters. Sometimes the situation is such where you do not need a map and you can provide all the necessary detail through descriptions.

It has its place, but it is often offered up as this alternative to using a battle map that makes the game better. But, theater of the mind is not some magic solution that makes bad combat suddenly become good. Use it when it makes sense and use a map when that makes sense.

But remember that a bad encounter will still be a bad encounter no matter how you run it.

Okay. Let’s talk about 4th edition tactical combat.

There are a lot of things that can make combat good, but bad combat essentially boils down to a single reason. It is boring.

Why was my three-hour combat encounter so much fun? Because there were a lot of elements that the players had to navigate. There were terrain challenges. Multiple groups of enemies. The risk of an explosion that could wipe everyone out. I even had some of the enemies not be as zealous as the others and they wanted to surrender and even fight alongside the party. There was a lot going on, but not in a confusing way.

Everyone in the party had something they could sink their teeth into. Everyone had to work together. The circumstances changed during the fight. Players had to strategize with each other. Teamwork was critical. At no point did this encounter devolve into two creatures standing in one place hitting each other with a weapon until one of them died.

4th edition, here it comes, is excellent at all of this. Terrain. Traps. Hazards. The structure of these elements in 4e allows them to be easily added to the encounter. Movement that requires shifts to avoid attacks requires players to be more mindful of their actions. Powers mean players are rarely just swinging a weapon. There is always some sort of tactical edge they are looking for. It was built for the battle map and it excels at it.

Whether the encounter is an epic that consumes the whole session or a run in with some goblins, use all the tools available to make it interesting first. Don’t worry about how long it takes.

For my final twist, I should reveal that the example encounter I mentioned earlier was actually played using 5e. While 4e has all the tools needed to make combat of any length amazing, interesting combat is possible in any game.

Those complaining that combat takes too long are fixated on the wrong issue. The joke with D&D is that it is a game where a three-day journey takes 10 minutes and a 10 minute fight takes 2 hours. Don’t hate on it. Lean into it and focus on making them the best 2 hours of D&D you can imagine.

I am making some changes to the journal. This post is open for everyone to comment on. Please keep it respectful and constructive.

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I recently hosted a, technology-challenged, Live Stream where I talked about my expedition into the world of Pathfinder 2e Remastered to see how it compares to D&D 4th edition. As usual, there were a few comments that shared the same tired reasons why 4e is inferior to every other TTRPG out there. Ho hum.

One position that particularly bugs me is that they would have loved 4e if it didn’t have the D&D brand on it. Really? So you refuse to play a game you admit is good simply because of some personal, unfounded notion about what D&D is?

Anyway.

That isn’t even what I wanted to write about today. Today, I am instead thinking about a complaint I often hear regarding 5e. When I post content about 5e, I regularly get comments about how 5e is a terrible game and if you want to do [insert whatever I was talking about] then you should play this other game instead.

I have no way of knowing if these are the same people that also complain about how 4e is terrible because it is all about combat. But the consensus is that 5e is bad because it is too general and doesn’t do anything really well. At the same time, 4e is awful because it does combat really well and it was wrong to try and specialize.

As you might expect, this thing that people complain about with 4th edition is one of the very things that make it special.

Let’s take a look…

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I will be the first to agree that 5e is great at covering all the bases. It casts a wide net. It does combat pretty well. It does a good job with exploration. Social encounters. Puzzles. Traps. Survival. Encounter building. It does a serviceable job at all the things you would want an RPG to do. And, on top of all that, it is very easy for a new player to learn.

It is quite possibly the most okayest TTRPG out there. And, second only to having the D&D brand name, that is why it is so popular. Whatever you want to do, it can do.

Meanwhile, this upstart 4th edition is over here trying to be something special. It will hold its own on exploration and social encounters just as well as any other edition. But when it comes to puzzles, traps, hazards, and, of course, combat, it is light years ahead of 5e. If you like a game with amazing combat, then 4e has you covered at every turn.

Playing a 4e combat encounter is amazing with all the tactical movement and powers that can change the circumstances every round. Everyone needs to pay attention and work together as a team. No daydreaming while building dice towers. None of this, “let me know when it is my turn to roll the math rocks again.”

Players actually use all their powers and short rests mean something. Healing surges are a limited tactical resource. Strategy is a real thing. Every movement has to be scrutinized.

And that is just for the players.

The tools available for the DMs to create those encounters are just as impressive. The encounter math is tight. You can easily spin up an encounter for any level that fits the party. Character roles. Monster roles. XP budgets. These things that people complain about are the very things that allow the game to be a Dungeon Master’s dream when building an adventure.

4th edition did not try to be just the next iteration of a game that was passable at everything. The designers used player feedback and built a game that excelled at exactly what they said they wanted.

It seems, however, the community didn’t actually want that after-all. They just wanted the same mundane game that they were used to. And so now we have 5e. Which is really, I guess, D&D 3.8. And now D&D 2024 is basically D&D 3.85? And it is fine. I have nothing against it.

But I am glad that Wizards of the Coast took the chance and made 4e something special. From what we’ve seen lately, I don’t think they ever will again.

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I finished my series on Skill Challenges more than a month ago. While I think it turned out well, it took a lot more out of me than I anticipated. Since publishing the last post, I keep returning to a blank page trying to come up with my next topic. And I continue to come up empty.

I don’t feel like talking about rules. The easy path would be to make a character or something, but that is just meh. I was thinking of maybe reviewing a book, but then I need to read through the whole book and take notes and such and I am just not feeling it right now.

After tossing around, and discarding, idea after idea, it suddenly hit me: this is exactly how I feel when I am trying to prep a D&D session and just cannot seem to find the motivation to see it through.

So I decided to lean into that and dust off some tips on how to get back on track.

Let’s take a look…

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As a Dungeon Master, there are some days when the ideas come easily. You think of a cool villain, an interesting encounter, or a weird dungeon room, and the session practically writes itself. It is in those moments where I feel I am the king of Dungeons and Dragons as I play out the encounters in my head and get chills thinking about how much the players will enjoy the next session.

And then there are days, or weeks, where you stare at your notes and think, “I got nothing.” You question how it was that you ever thought you had the ability to create a single D&D encounter, never mind an entire campaign. Who are you kidding? Fraud! Just go back to playing checkers.

That’s exactly how I’ve felt trying to come up with this post.

I am not one that can talk for the sake of talking. I speak only when I feel I have something to say. This is why I cannot commit to a strict posting schedule. I never want to send a post about some random topic just to say I published something. I want it to mean something.

So, if I put on my DM hat and imagine this post is the next game session, what would I do to get back on track?

The answer is, go back to the basics. Set aside the pressure of creating an adventure or an encounter or a post. Just focus on what I love about the game.

Here are a few specific prompts…

Flip through one of the Monster Manuals and randomly stop at a few creatures. Check out their stats and their powers. Don’t worry about the level. You can always adjust the stats to to fit the party level if you want. But imagine how this monster might fit into the campaign. Imagine the party finding this monster in a completely unexpected place.

Check out the traps in the Dungeon Master’s Guides. Specifically hunt for one that you’ve not used before. Read through the stats and descriptions. Just as with the monsters, how could this trap or hazard really catch the party off-guard?

One of my favorite things is to look at magic items—especially those with multiple powers. Imagine the party finding a grossly overpowered magic item at the end of an encounter and then the owner of that item wanting it back. Or maybe you add a side-effect to the item so that when they try to use it, they realize how out of their element they really are.

And my favorite source for inspiration is to just look at the maps. I will pull out my pile of maps or scroll through an adventure module and just look at the locations. I might not even use that map, but the details like the magic portal or the quicksand or the trap door might be just the inspiration I need to create the perfect encounter.

So if you’re a DM feeling stuck, remember:

• You don’t need THE idea, you just need AN idea

• Anything can be a source of inspiration

• Put those books to use

And just like that, I managed to put together my next post.

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D&D is generally comprised of three pillars—exploration, roleplaying, and combat. Every table out there values a different mixture. I’ve played in games that were almost exclusively combat and other games that hardly ever saw a sword get drawn. It is all about what the group prefers and it can even change from one session to another.

And sometimes the best encounters come when we blur the lines between these pillars.

During Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, there is a scene where the party needs to rescue King Theoden from the spell that Saruman has him under. When the group enters the great hall, the guards loyal to Wormtongue start attacking. As this fight goes on, Gandalf begins his task of exorcising Saruman from the king.

This is a great example of combining the pillars. In this case, it is the combat of fighting the guards along with a skill challenge to free King Theoden. Such combinations can make the resulting encounter much more interesting and engaging for all the players.

But before you rush off and start merging your entire campaign down into a single encounter, there are some things you should consider to avoid creating a convoluted mess of things.

Let’s take a look…

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Do These Encounters Belong Together?

Don’t try to ramp up the tension in your negotiation skill challenge by randomly throwing in a couple rabid goblins. Merging a skill challenge with a combat encounter should feel natural. Each component should complement the other, not compete for attention.

Ask yourself a few questions…

• Why are these things happening at the same time?

• How does one affect the other?

• Does it make narrative sense for these two encounters to come together?

There are several ways that goblins interrupting the negotiations might make sense. Has it been established that the mayor has a loyal following of goblin thugs? Do these goblins not care about the mayor at all, but they are interested in the golden amulet your cleric is wearing? Or maybe this meeting is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and the goblins have spotted an opportunity to rid the town of the mayor and these righteous adventurers.

Whatever the reason, make sure you think it through. Even a loose connection will help make it seem more real as you are running the encounter for the players.

Are There Enough Actions to Go Around?

Combat is hard. Other than minions, there are not a lot of monsters that will go down with a single hit. Combat encounters should require the entire party to strategize together and contribute to the outcome.

The same is true for skill challenges. You don’t want five characters sitting around throwing rocks in the lake while the wizard and the dwarf try to decipher the ancient runes. You need to include ways that all the characters can offer something.

Simply merging together a combat encounter and a skill challenge will not work. You will quickly find that the characters do not have the bandwidth to take on both tasks. They will likely just ignore the skill challenge until the combat is resolved, which defeats the purpose.

The encounter needs to have clear dividing lines between the two activities with just enough difficulty to make each approachable.

Characters doing the fighting should feel as though they are on the verge of defeat, but not so overwhelmed that they need to call for help. And those completing the skill challenge should have to work hard for a solution, while recognizing that those doing the fighting probably do not have much to offer them.

You could go as far as having a single character that is needed for both parts to make it more interesting, but resist the urge to involve everyone in everything.

Can You Run It Smoothly?

In case you had not noticed, being a Dungeon Master is hard. You never get a break. When you are not running the monsters, you are adjudicating a player’s dice roll. During a skill challenge you often have to roleplay multiple NPCs and monsters. The more complex your encounter, the more you need to streamline how you track and run it.

An epic battle that takes place in a collapsing dungeon that can only be escaped by solving an ancient puzzle sounds like an amazing encounter. But, what sounds great in your imagination could quickly become impossible to run in the real world.

Whatever you add to the encounter, make sure you think through how you will run it.

The Shattered Bridge

This is not a ready to run encounter but a view of how you might combine combat with a skill challenge to create something special.

Scenario: The party is escorting a caravan across a narrow stone bridge that spans a ravine. Just as they reach the center of the bridge, a group of flying creatures unleash an ambush. To make matters worse, all this activity is causing the bridge to destabilize.

Combat: Some of the monsters attack the travelers in the caravan, while others attack, and further destabilize, the bridge.

Skill Challenge: As the fight unfolds, sections of the bridge begin to break away.

• Use History or Nature to understand the structure of the bridge and how best to hold it together

• Use Athletics to wedge stones and support weakened areas

• Use Acrobatics to hang over the edge and secure a key piece of the structure

• Use Dungeoneering to identify which sections are most at risk

• Use Heal to save injured caravan members

• Use Bluff to misdirect an attacking monster away from a weakened section

Outcomes

• Each successful check helps to stabilize the bridge and grants a +1 bonus to the next skill check

• Failed checks cause the bridge to become more unstable and raise the difficulty class for the next check by 1

• Winning the challenge stabilizes the bridge enough so that the caravan can be moved to the far side, even if the combat is still active

• Failing the challenge results in the bridge collapsing. The caravan, and everyone on the bridge, falls into the river twenty feet below.

The final piece of advice when building such complex encounters is to be flexible.

Do not let the time you spent putting it together influence how rigid you are with it playing out the way you wrote it. The most important thing is that you are presenting the party with an obstacle. How they work through that obstacle is completely up to them.

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Skill challenges are the THAC0 of 4th edition. They are a notorious mechanic that many do not understand, but those that do are able to use them to craft some really amazing encounters.

You don’t need to search very hard to find people complaining about skill challenges. It is a popular target for anyone jumping on the, ‘I hate 4th edition’, bandwagon. As with any rule, there are certainly some valid points to be made. But most of the criticisms of skill challenges come down to a single core point.

The Dungeon Master forgot who skill challenges are for.

It is a common complaint that CGI ruins movies. But want we are really reacting to is bad CGI. We never say a word about the dozen other wonderful effects that fit seamlessly onto the screen.

The same is true for skill challenges. You only notice the ones that fall flat. When they are done well, they can be amazing.

Let’s take a look…

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Who Are Skill Challenges For?

If you scour the Player’s Handbooks for information on skill challenges, you will find a total of 512 words that serve only to define what the term means. This definition then points you to the Dungeon Master’s Guide for more details.

Meanwhile, the two Dungeon Master’s Guides dedicate 32 full pages to guiding you through how to create and run skill challenges. Each book includes a ton of examples that you can use in your adventure.

Clearly, skill challenges are a tool for the Dungeon Masters, not the players.

The DM Toolbox

The 4th edition Dungeon Master’s Guides each contain numerous tools to help DMs put together encounters and full campaigns. Random dungeons, wandering monster tables, and encounter-building formulas are part of the DMs toolbox. The player does not need to know about any of these things.

It is the DM that gets to decide which of these components to include in their game. They can use these tools as written or come up with their own approach. As an example, the Dungeon Master’s Guide contains a whole section with recommendations for handing out treasure, but there is no requirement that it be followed to the letter. It is a tool. Nothing more.

Skill challenges are simply another tool in the toolbox to help the DM run a campaign that will be fun for them and the players. If the DM, or the group, does not like skill challenges, then don’t use them. If the DM feels they should be handled differently, then they are free to run them differently.

The D&D rules cannot possibly account for the variety of campaigns and play styles of every group. If you disagree with how the rules handle something, changing them is within your rights. — Dungeon Master’s Guide p189

Keep Your Work to Yourself

Dungeon Masters will toil away for hours putting together interesting combat encounters for their players. They will dig deep into the Monster Manuals. They will run all the numbers through the various formulas to get the right balance. They will use random tables to populate the room with interesting objects. They will find just the right magic item reward that the players can discover after the last monster falls.

And when it is time to run the encounter, the DM doesn’t say a word about all the work they put in. The player doesn’t care about all that. If the players had fun, then the DM did their job and everyone goes home happy.

The same is true for skill challenges. They are a tool for the DM. They help the Dungeon Master set the scene, create tension, anticipate actions, adjust the difficulty, and keep everything moving.

The best skill challenges are the ones that your players didn’t even realize they were in.

A Guide, Not a Script

Monster stat blocks are cheat sheets. They contain everything that a monster could do during the encounter. They are in no way a script that you must follow when running the encounter. The same is true for skill challenges.

The skill challenge is just your cheat sheet to help you adjust to the players as they work through the challenge. You would not, generally, share the monster stat block with the players and you do not need to share the skill challenge details with them either.

When putting the skill challenge together, you will no doubt have thoughts about what actions the players might take. Jot these ideas down and make note of which actions you think the players should roll checks for. Make sure that any time you ask them to roll, there is a reward for success and a penalty for failure.

It is entirely possible that the players do not use any of the ideas that you made note of when you put the encounter together. That is perfectly fine. Let them explore. Let them say crazy things. Let them pull the lever that they shouldn’t. Your notes are not limitations on their creativity, but simply a guide to help you prepare for different scenarios.

I mentioned in the skill challenge paradox why players tend to get frustrated when game mechanics get in the way of their roleplaying. While it can be a tension-builder to announce that a skill challenge is beginning, I personally like to just roll into the encounter without any proclamations at all.

Setup the situation and let the players do their thing. As they take actions, ask them to roll skill checks. Behind your screen, you make a note of the successes and failures. The rewards and penalties from each skill check should be enough to let them know if they are accomplishing the goal.

If your players are immersed in the story and making creative choices for their characters, then your skill challenge is working perfectly.

And they don’t even need to know it was there.

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As I explored why some players dislike skill challenges, I kept running into a common complaint—they feel like a game within the game. That got me thinking about D&D as a whole. Combat. Exploration. Puzzles. Traps. Aren’t most parts of D&D games with a game? Is there something special about skill challenges that make them stand out?

What I found is that Dungeons and Dragons is built on a paradox. We want to lose ourselves in a world of dragon-slaying and spell casting and daring heists, but we also want the fairness of a game with well-defined rules. We want immersion, but also attack rolls. We want roleplaying, but also stat blocks.

Every player carries a sheet containing all the abilities their character possesses. The player will regularly reference this sheet when deciding on a course of action. Conversations will routinely turn to things like modifiers and bonuses and advantages and other mechanical references. Games will sometimes come to a complete stop to look up the nuances of a specific rule. We accept all of this as just part of the game.

But where do we draw the line? At what point is it too much a game vs an experience? And what is it about skill challenges that goes too far?

Let’s take a look…

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Combat: The Mini-Game That Works

The combat framework for D&D has been basically the same for nearly its entire existence. There have been changes in the types of actions and effects and conditions, but it has always followed the structure of rolling initiative and each player taking turns with their character while the DM runs the monsters.

“Roll for initiative” is the standard announcement that a combat encounter is starting. The very first thing we do when running combat is step out of the fantasy world to complete a game mechanic to determine who goes first. And most of us find this very exciting. It is the indicator that we are about to do something really cool.

During the encounter, the players will strategize with each other and leverage all their abilities to give themselves the best chance of succeeding. The character with the big axe is who you want at the front of the attack. Each player continuously references their stat sheet to try and find the right ability, power, feat, spell, bonus, or item for that situation.

When they swing their battleaxe, the player uses dice and modifiers to calculate if they hit and then more dice to assess damage. The players track their progress in the combat encounter by counting the number of enemies remaining and keeping tabs on how much damage they have to inflict to bring a monster down.

It is not uncommon for players to ask if they are out of combat once the last monster falls so that they know if they can use healing surges and other mechanics to prepare for whatever comes next. These are the mechanics of the game and we have long accepted this mixture of in-game immersion and real-world mechanics as part of the experience.

In essence, combat is inherently mechanical. No matter what edition you play, combat is ‘gamey’ and we love it.

Non-Combat Is Basically the Same, Right?

Many Dungeon Masters will follow a similar structure to skill challenges. As the party approaches the castle door, the Dungeon Master will announce that a skill challenge is beginning. Instead of looking at their weapon stats, the players will look through their skills to consider their best path forward.

As players come up with ideas for gaining entry to the castle, they will be asked to roll checks in much the same way that they would roll attacks against a monster. If they succeed, then good things happen. If they fail then, well, other things happen.

The players strategize about how they want to approach the situation and acknowledge which characters are better at different tasks that can help them achieve the goal. A character trained in Theivery would be the best choice to try and steal the key from the guard.

After a number of checks, the party will have either won the challenge or not. Just as they were able to keep track of the combat encounter by visualizing the enemies and doing some metagaming, with the skill challenge the players can assess how they are doing by counting the successes and failures they have received.

On paper, this encounter should be just as exciting as the combat encounter. But this is where that paradox comes into play.

For some reason, playing out a combat encounter while fully referencing the game mechanics to drive your every action is perfectly acceptable, but running a non-combat encounter the same way often feels out of place.

Why Does It Feel Different?

I have a theory.

Combat is all about mechanics. Sure, a player could embellish a little by providing a great description of what their character is doing as they swing their axe, but this is just flavor. It does not, usually, change anything about the results. They can spend five minutes describing every step they take and how the sweat flies through the air as they swing the sword toward their foe, but when they are done with the prose, they will still roll the same dice that they would roll if they had just said, I swing my sword.

Combat is also very restrictive. You have a couple weapons and some powers. Every round, you are basically choosing what you want to do from a list of about 5-10 options. That is not to say it is boring, but your options are mostly limited to what you have on your sheet.

Combat is 80% players using the mechanics of the game and 20% flavor.2

The mechanic is what drives the results during combat encounters. This is what we signed up for and it is great.

But non-combat encounters are different.

Unlike powers, skills are not specific things. Skills represent potential. That potential must be unlocked by the creativity of the player. The options available to the player are limited only by their imagination. The mechanic is only used to allow the uncertainty of the world to influence the outcomes. As a result, the distribution of mechanics vs creativity is flipped from combat encounters.

Non-combat encounters are 80% player creativity and only 20% game mechanics.

Many see skill challenges as trying to artificially force mechanics into playing a larger role during non-combat encounters. This is not really true, but I can see why this perception exists.

As with most things, you have to understand your table and how your players like to play the game.

There are tables that love a structured approach to skill challenges. If done well, running a mechanics-heavy non-combat encounter could really ramp up the tension as the players know they have a finite number of opportunities to solve this problem.

Lean into the paradox. If your table likes mechanics, use the mechanics. If they prefer anarch…er…freedom, then focus on encouraging creativity. If everyone is having fun, then you made the right choice.

In my next post in this series, I am going to…well…I am not sure yet, but I will let you know.

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In the previous entry in this series, I talked about what skill challenges are and touched on a couple of the myths surrounding them. Today, I want to focus on one particular game-play approach that people seem to associate with skill challenges, though in reality, it has nothing to do with them at all.

The complaint is that skill challenges just turn non-combat encounters into a bunch of dice rolling. This is no more the case than saying that combat is nothing but a bunch of dice rolling. In fact, there is a lot more dice rolling during a combat encounter than there is in a skill challenge.

Much of D&D involves the party doing things other than combat. They might be exploring a dungeon, talking to townsfolk, solving a puzzle, or any number of other things. In these situations, the Dungeon Master will present the party with opportunities to make decisions. Which passageway should we take? How can I best earn favor with this citizen? Where have I seen these runes before?

How we approach these situations comes down to the question of, are we testing the characters or the players?

With this in mind, let’s take a look at this notion of ROLLplaying vs ROLEplaying…

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What’s The Difference?

When roleplaying, the expectation is that the player and the character are one and the same. When the party faces a challenge, the players need to figure out a solution to that problem. It is possible that the entire situation could be played without ever rolling a single die. The DM is the ultimate arbiter of how the players did.

Consider this example…

The town guard approaches the party. The cleric steps forward and says, “Seven blessing good sir. I wonder if you might help us. This group of miscreants just ran past us without care for life or limb. It was all we could do to avoid them. They ran off in that direction.”

The DM then decides if this was enough to convince the guard to move along. This may or may not involve a dice roll.

Here, the player fully embraced their character and showed the DM what they were doing by acting out the exchange.

By contrast, rollplaying separates the player from the character. The game situations are designed to test the characters. The players use their character abilities to execute a strategy. Dice rolls are used to determine success or failure.

Looking at that same example…

The town guard approaches the party. The player tells the DM what they want their cleric to do. “I would like to try and convince the guard that the people they are looking for ran down a nearby alleyway.”

The DM will likely ask the player to make a Bluff check against the guard’s Insight to see if the ruse was successful or not.

The player did not need to try and improvise a piece of dialogue. They knew what they wanted their character to do and summarized it for the DM. The character stats and dice rolls were used to determine success or failure.

These two styles are equally valid and not mutually exclusive. It is possible to use both styles at the same table, even within the same encounter, and by the same player. The important thing is to focus on what the character was able to do regardless of the player’s abilities to improvise.

The Controversy

There are some who draw a hard line between these two approaches. They would NEVER allow a player to simply say what they want their character to do. And they would probably kick the player out if they presumed to say something like, “I would like to roll a Bluff check to try and trick the guard.” Gasp!

These game tables value the full immersion. They want the players to be tested. If the players cannot figure out how to solve the problem, then they do not solve the problem. Simple as that. No dice rolls in the world will save them.

And for those that want to play this way, excellent. You do you. If that is what your table enjoys, then I am in no position to tell you otherwise. And, by the way, there is nothing in 4th edition that forces you to play your game any differently.

Personally, I am more open to the other style. I believe that the game should be testing the characters more than the players. My feeling is that I have created a character who has lived their life in this world and has knowledge and skills that I, the player, do not possess.

My wizard has studied ancient tomes for the past ten years. I have not. It is likely that my wizard will have knowledge of the world that I do not. It is perfectly reasonable that when we are presented with a door containing ancient runes, my wizard will know what they mean even though I do not.

That does not mean I never roleplay. There are many situations where I might come up with the perfect thing to say. If so, then I say it. But there are also times where I know there is a good chance my character would know the right thing to say, even when I do not. In those cases, my character stats and the dice can decide the outcome.

For a comparison, let’s think about this in terms of a combat encounter. We use dice all the time to adjudicate combat. Most tables are perfectly fine with a player’s action being no more descriptive than, “I swing my sword.” But, for some reason, we have a different bar when it comes to non-combat encounters. Outside of combat, we expect everyone to deliver prose like Ernest Hemingway.

Final Thoughts

Consider this. We seem to easily accept that our rogue gets sneak attack and we get to roll more damage. Dungeon Masters do not, generally, tell the players, “If you cannot come up with a really impressive description of your rogue performing their sneak attack, then you do not get the extra damage.” Sometimes the player might have such a description, but it is not required nor expected. You have sneak attack. Cool. Extra damage. Why does non-combat have this arbitrarily high bar to clear?

And my final point. Rollplaying is particularly welcoming to the new player. Imagine playing your first game and everyone around you is using special voices for their characters and always improvises dialogue. If the table expects the same from you when you’ve never done this before, then that is a lot of pressure. This isn’t to say you will never get to that same comfort level, but we often forget that this game can be awfully intimidating for someone who is just starting out. Just letting a player use their dice can be quite a relief.

And there is nothing wrong with tables that do nothing but rollplaying. It is a legitimate way to play the game and if that is what you enjoy, then lean into it and have fun.

Around this point, you might be asking, how does all of this relate to a series on Skill Challenges? Honestly, it doesn’t. Except, it is a reason some people give for why skill challenges don’t work. During a skill challenge, you can ROLEplay or ROLLplay however you want. There is nothing in the rules that dictates one over the other.

In the next post, I will cover how the skill challenge rules evolved from Keep on the Shadowfell2 to Halls of Undermountain.

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This is one of those topics that I thought about and was like, hey, let me write a quick post on how to make skill challenges more interesting. I’ll put together a few of my ideas for running them. Add a couple examples. Boom! Nice new blog post.

That is how it started. But like a group of adventurers exploring the Halls of Undermountain1, every time I peeked around the next corner, I found more and more stuff that I should include to really do the topic justice. My post was already too long before I even got around to the original intention of providing a few tips.

So, rather than a single post, I am committing to the rabbit hole and expanding this into a multi-part series. I will still offer my tips, but I have some other ground to cover along the way. This series is part tutorial, part analysis, and part Dungeon Master aid.

Let’s get to it…

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What are skill challenges?

While I am confident that most reading this already know what skill challenges are, I did not feel I could have a discussion about them without providing an introduction to the concept and some of my personal thoughts.

At the most basic level, a skill challenge is a mechanic for managing non-combat encounters. They are a way to determine whether the party succeeded or failed at the encounter and to help you award XP for that encounter. If the group achieves a certain number of successful skill checks during the encounter before they fail three checks, then they ‘win’ the challenge.

Winning the skill challenge brings with it some sort of reward, while failure results in a penalty. The reward might be that the party convinces the noble to allow them to stay in the castle for the evening, but failure might result in the noble arresting the party and throwing them in the dungeon.

Just as combat encounters have difficulty levels, so do the skill challenges. By requiring more successes before getting those three failures, you make the challenge more…well…challenging. You, the DM, get to decide if the encounter is a major obstacle, like a chase through the city, or a minor inconvenience, such as a negotiating for a cheaper price on a sword that you know is rare artifact but the seller does not.

In addition, just as combat encounters are more interesting when you add unexpected obstacles like traps and difficult terrain, skill challenges work best when you introduce complications along the way. During that chase, a street vendor might roll their cart directly in front of the fleeing party, forcing them to make a quick decision. Or the seller of that rare sword decides to consult her Blue Book of Sword Value to make sure she has not mislabeled the weapon.

If all of this sounds like fairly typical non-combat encounter stuff, you are correct! Skill challenges are just rules to help build and run non-combat encounters. Nothing about them impacts or diminishes the creativity of the players or the Dungeon Master.

Bringing Structure to Storytelling

For all the talk about how 4th edition is nothing but combat, let us not forget that this is also the first edition that introduced actual codified rules for how to build and run non-combat encounters. While earlier editions had rules for different ways that skills and abilities could be used, they did not have a set of rules for how to bring them together into a cohesive encounter.

Imagine if the rules of the game included details about how all the weapons worked, but no monster stat blocks. Each DM would be on their own to determine what monsters could do and how to build a combat encounter. Some might like this, but I think most would agree, this is an unnecessary burden for the Dungeon Master. Having predefined stat blocks and tools to create combat encounters are a cornerstone of any Dungeon Master’s Guide.

4th edition introduced the notion that non-combat should be at least as important as combat when building an adventure. Not only does 4e have some of the best tools to help DMs build combat encounters, skill challenges provide a framework to help DMs structure what happens outside of combat as well.

XP for combat encounters is awarded based on the monsters that were defeated. XP for non-combat encounters is awarded based on the difficulty of that challenge. No need to just make a guess on how much XP to award for earning the favor of the mayor. It is now right there in the encounter building tools.

Debunking the Myths

Right after complaining that 4th edition is all about combat while simultaneously complaining that the non-combat rules are too restrictive, many critics will argue that skill challenges take away the creativity of the players. This is true, IF you are running skill challenges incorrectly.

First of all, skill challenges are not a replacement for every skill check. If a character needs to perform a task that would require a skill check, that is NOT a skill challenge. The player would describe what they want to do and roll a check just as they always would. Even more complicated actions that might require multiple checks or a group check from the entire party are still not skill challenges.

Actions only become skill challenges when the complexity reaches a point where the entire party must work together to achieve the goal. A character slapping a pesky goblin on their way into a tavern is not a combat encounter. It only becomes a combat encounter when the goblin’s friends show up to exact revenge. The same holds for skill challenges.

And, secondly, skill challenges do not impose any limits on the creativity of the party. I will cover more about this in a later post, but the skill checks you see detailed in a published skill challenge are merely hints for some of the most common actions a party might take. They are a guide for the DM, not a restriction on the party.

D&D Honor Among Thieves SPOILER ALERT

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Remember when Xenk the paladin is describing the complicated pattern needed to cross the bridge in the underdark? While he is describing each step, Simon accidentally triggers the trap and the bridge is destroyed. But Simon then discovers the Hither-Thither Staff that Holga is carrying and the party reaches their destination without incident.

In game terms, this entire sequence was meant to be a skill challenge, but the party ‘ruined’ it by unintentionally destroying the bridge and finding an alternate solution.

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Imagine you are the Dungeon Master who spent a full day planning out a skill challenge for how to cross this complex bridge. But, before you could finish setting the stage during the session, the party finds a different solution from the one you had anticipated and they are able to reach the other side without all the complexity.

As the DM, you would not, and should not, arbitrarily force them to proceed with the skill challenge just because that is how you wrote it. They solved the problem and should be rewarded accordingly. There is NOTHING about skill challenges that says otherwise.

One additional point. The skill challenge rules did not spawn from nothing. They were defined based on tricks that Dungeon Masters had been using for non-combat encounters for many years. If you look at any DMs preparation notes for non-combat encounters over the past 50+ years, it is entirely likely that you will find many that look remarkably similar to what was captured in 4th edition.

This is similar to the complaints about character roles. These roles are not unique to 4e. They represent how those character classes had been played in the game for many years. 4th edition merely put a label on them, just as it formalized the non-combat rules that had existed for a long time.

In the next post, I will talk about the debate over Rollplaying vs Roleplaying.

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On Sunday, July 22, 2012, I made my first ever Dungeons and Dragons purchase. It consisted of the Red Box Starter Set1 and the Halls of Undermountain adventure. I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but these two products were just the beginning of my 4th edition journey. By my count, 4e has 78 official products including books, adventures, Free RPG Day content, and box sets. And I want them all.

I have never been into the hobby of collecting things. I tried with stamps and football cards and even comic books at one point, but it never stuck. I never saw the appeal in seeking out things. But 4th edition has shown me that I just never found the thing I was really interested in collecting. Indeed, I am on a mission to own all of the products in some form.

I want to take a moment to talk about my collection. Not about the books themselves, but rather my journey and approach to building my collection.

Let’s dig in.

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Perhaps the biggest challenge when deciding to collect all the products is to build a good list of the products available. Some people complain that Wizards published too many 4e products and that was one of its failings. I, for one, am glad that they published so much content in the short time that 4e was around. It gives us plenty of material to work with.

All of the 78 4th Edition products were released between December of 2007 and August of 2012. That is 56 months. During the first 56 months following the launch of 5th edition, Wizards released just 22 products.

My starting point was the list of 4th edition books on Wikipedia. This is actually a very accurate list. It contains nearly everything except the Free RPG Day content. Over the years since I started collecting, I have come across additional sources and found that the Wikipedia list was solid. I think my original list was 74 items and I’ve only added four that were missing.

I consolidated the list of books I am targeting over on my website. If I come across additional titles I am missing, then I will update the list.

A Slow Start

When I first got into D&D, I was in a particularly tight spot financially. After purchasing those first two products, I had to wait a long time before I could pick up anything more. I was anxious to get a Player’s Handbook, but needed to be patient. It was months before I finally got my hands on it.

I picked up a few more books and box sets over the next year, but along the way I learned that 4th edition was actually dead. Wizards had already announced D&D Next before I ever made that first purchase, but I did not realize it until much later.

I was so naive that I assumed the next edition would just be an expansion of the 4e rules that I loved. I stopped buying new stuff and waited for the new edition. By this point, I had purchased a total of nine products.

The Gap

It didn’t take me long after starting with 4th edition to realize that 4e games were hard to come by. It seemed if I wanted to play an RPG, it would have to be Pathfinder. So I set my 4e books aside and moved to Pathfinder just so I could play a game.

At one point, a local game store was closing down and selling everything at a discount. I picked up a couple of his 4e books, but, sadly, could not afford to get any more than that. Those books were the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and the Adventurer’s Vault 2. This was in 2014 and it turned out that these would be my last 4th edition purchases for a really long time.

Rediscovering the Magic

When 5th edition launched, I played it exclusively. I honestly forgot how different it was from 4e. Meanwhile, the 4th edition books sat on my shelf and it seemed that they would just be a part of my past.

Then, in 2022, I decided to start a D&D channel on YouTube. At first I talked about nothing but 5th edition. Then the OGL issue happened and it changed everything. Suddenly everyone hated D&D and wanted to play all the other RPGs out there. While I did not develop a hatred for D&D, I did start looking at other games like Dungeon Crawl Classics and Pathfinder 2e and Fate and a host of others.

And somewhere during all that, I pulled my 4th edition Player’s Handbook off the shelf and gave it another look. It still had post-it notes in it from the last game I was in the middle of when 5e dropped 8 years earlier. I was instantly transported back to when I first got it. I remembered the rules and how different they were. It was a rush of nostalgia that immediately drew me back.

I started re-reading the books that I had. By this point I had looked at all these other RPGs and all of the earlier editions of D&D. I was no longer that noob at the game store buying my first D&D books without any clue what they were. I was now a paragon-tier adventurer seeing 4th edition against the landscape of all the other RPGs out there and realizing that it was something special.

I now had a full appreciation for the rules and I knew immediately, that I need to have all the things.

The Quest Begins

The time was now Spring of 2023 and I had a total of eleven D&D 4e products in my collection. I put together the list of what was out there and formulated a plan.

Format

The first question I needed to ask myself was, do I want physical copies or am I okay just owning the PDFs? All the books are available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG. If I just wanted to have access to the content, then this would be fine.

While I definitely wanted digital copies of everything, I knew from the beginning that I would want also physical copies of most everything. I needed to be able to page through a physical book. Just the PDFs would not be enough.

Original or Reprint

This led me to a more philosophical question. How important was it for me to have an actual original copy of a book versus a Print on Demand (PoD) reprint? Would I feel I was missing something if I did not have the original?

In the end, I answered this question on a case by case basis.

There was no question that I wanted original copies of the books that were the most important to me. All the core rulebooks and the powers books and the campaign settings and a few others would all need to be originals. For the rest, I would get originals if I could, but I would be okay with PoD reprints if necessary.

And so with my target list established and my guiding principles in place, for the past 2 years I have been slowly adding to my collection.

Collection Update

I now own 50 physical copies of the 78 products.

Here is a breakdown…

• Originals of 46 products

• Both an original and a PoD reprint for 5 of the books

  • Wizards Present: Races and Classes

  • Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters

  • Martial Power

  • Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead

  • Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue

• ONLY a PoD reprint for 4 books

  • Hammerfast: A Dwarven Outpost Adventure Setting

  • Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale

  • Neverwinter Campaign Setting

  • Player’s Option: Heroes of Shadow

• Multiple copies of several books

  • 3 Player’s Handbooks

  • 3 Dungeon Master’s Guides

  • 3 Monster Manuals

  • 2 Player’s Handbook 2

  • 2 Player’s Handbook 3

Having so many duplicate copies might seem like a waste when I still have 28 books to add, but I have my reasons. First of all, these are my favorite books so I want to make sure I have extras in case something happens. And, I also go camping and like to do D&D stuff in the camper. So I stash copies of the core books out there so I do not have to lug them back and forth.

At this point, I honestly own most of the books that I feel are ‘must haves’. If I was unable to buy another book, I would be okay. The products I don’t have are most of the adventure modules and the monster supplements and a couple setting guides. I want them eventually, but these remaining items are purely for completion of the collection.

I should add that a few of the products will be very hard for me to get. An original copy of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting goes for around $90. Same for Demonomicon. Shadowfell: Beyond the Gloomlight ($150). Madness at Gardmore Abbey ($195). I will have some hard choices to make once these are the only products missing from my shelves.

It has been quite a journey. I also own the core books for all of the other editions of the game. But 4th edition is the only version where I want all the things.

I never thought I would be a collector, but it has been a lot of fun.

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Hey everyone,

For a long time I have contemplated creating a Discord channel exclusively for paid subscribers to the newsletter. I finally decided to stop thinking about it and just do it.

I am always looking for new perks I can provide to subscribers, without making promises I can’t keep, and I really want to have more interactive conversations about the…

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I have had many a rainy Saturday afternoon where my companions and I are bored and decide, hey let’s play D&D. We break open the books and grab some pencils and spend an hour making characters. By the time everyone has finished perfecting their character, the rain has stopped and we move on to other activities.

As much as I love making characters, there are times when I would like the process to be a little faster so we can get to the playing. Sure, we could just use pre-gens, but we do not want to completely give up the control of creating the character ourselves.

This is where the character builds in 4th edition are excellent. They let you create your character, but they take away the work of sorting through all the powers and feats. This is not something unique to 4e, but it is something I like and something I felt could be expanded on.

Let’s take a look at my expansion of this feature.

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What is this?

On the one side we have a blank character sheet and a stack of books. We page through the material and build out our perfect character. This provides the most flexibility, but it does take time.

On the other side, we have a pre-generated character where we do not make any choices, except the character’s name. This gets you a character immediately, but you give up the ability to make customizations.

I wanted to see if there was something in the middle.

My goal was to create a custom character build format that was a little more robust than what is provided in the 4th edition books. The format used in the books covers the powers and feats, but what if I extended that to include some of the other choices that the player would have to make while still leaving them the flexibility to customize the character to their needs.

Much like monsters have a stat block, I created a Custom Character Build Block that can serve as a template. Some decisions are made, but others are left to the player.

Hellfire Avenger

In this first example, I kept it relatively simple. I stuck with a first level character and limited myself to just the Player’s Handbook and one powers book2. In this case, the Divine Powers book.

Character Theme

This was the most important part of this effort. I was not just randomly mixing together abilities and calling it a build. There needed to be a reason for what I was creating. What made this build special? I wanted someone to look at the build and say, “Yes, that is a character I would like to create”.

I envisioned a conflicted character that is struggling to control some inner demons. They have the best intentions, but are quick to fly off the handle at the slightest hint that someone has wronged them or their friends.

I imagined the character on the battlefield giving a side-eye to every enemy that dared to take a shot at them. This character had the attitude that there is no better defense of their allies than exacting revenge against their enemies.

With this in mind, I eventually settled on a Tiefling Paladin as the core for this build. But this paladin was not interested in healing. This paladin was about revenge.

Core Decisions

The character builds provided in 4th edition are a nice start. They offer suggested powers, feats, and skills. I wanted to take this just a little further by including the racial details, alignment, and equipment while also packaging it in an easy-to-read block.

With my theme in mind, I went through the Player’s Handbooks and the Divine Powers book to select feats and powers that I think most aligned with what I was going for. I really liked the Ardent Vow from the Divine Powers book. The addition of Divine Sanction definitely fit my vision of a character that was constantly adding to their list of enemies.

The Improved Initiative feat also leaned into the notion that this is a character acts first and thinks later.

Using the standard 100gp, I then shopped for an intimidating weapon and some hefty armor and basic adventuring gear. This left just enough gold for the player to buy a few more odds and ends to round out the character.

What is left for the player?

The intention with this build is not to create a character for the player, but to provide a guide to help them shorten the time it takes to get into the game.

The player will still generate their ability scores and complete the character sheet. They can come up with a more robust backstory if they desire. And, most importantly, they can change any of the options I selected to something that better fits their needs.

I am still experimenting with the details and the format. I want to try out how it works if I make builds for higher level characters—including paragon and epic tiers. I am also curious if it holds up if I try to create builds for multi-classed or hybrid characters.

If you want an actual character created using this build, you can download it over at my website.

It is a fun exercise and I am interested to see where it goes.

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A question that pops up in comments over and over is, “how can I get started in 4th edition?” More specifically, folks want to know which books would I recommend for someone trying to learn about the system.

It would be easy for me to send everyone to the core rulebooks, but that is not always the right answer for everyone. Each individual has a different reason for wanting to try 4th edition. You might be brand new to D&D and are starting from scratch (you picked a great version to get started with). Or you might have a ton of experience with another edition and want to see for yourself if what you’ve heard about 4e is true. Or maybe you love another edition of D&D and want to know if 4e could bring anything to your game.

I have you covered.

Let’s review the best books1 to get you started in 4e no matter what your goals are.

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Unsure About 4th Edition, but Want to Try It

TTRPGs are a notoriously expensive hobby. It can be hard to buy even a PDF if you are not sure that you will enjoy the game. Fortunately, 4th edition makes this really easy by offering the starter set for free.

Keep on the Shadowfell was released in May of 2008. It was the first 4e content to hit the shelves. The download from DriveThruRPG includes the basic rules, 5 pre-generated characters, 6 digital maps, and a full adventure to get your characters through 3rd level. And it costs you nothing!

This set has everything you need to help you decide if 4e is right for you. The quick-start rules cover everything you need to play the adventure. The characters offer a good mix of the different roles. (Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Rogue, Wizard) The digital maps are great if you are playing on Roll20. And the adventure is a great mix of roleplaying, exploration, and combat. It is a classic dungeon crawl to get you started.

If you are curious about 4e, this is, by far, the best place to start. It has everything you need and you cannot beat the price.

Dungeon Master Excellence

You’ve flipped through Keep on the Shadowfell and decide that 4th edition is just what you have been looking for. Now you have a choice to make. Are you a player or a dungeon master? The next set of books you seek will depend on your answer.

If you are purely a player, then you can skip to the next section if you desire.

But, if you are a Dungeon Master like me and enjoy building encounters and adventures and running games, then 4e has what I think are hands-down the two best Dungeon Masters Guides ever written.

A Dungeon Master’s Guide should be a tool to help the dungeon master prepare and run the game. That is exactly what this book does. You get guidance on managing a table and the different types of players. It goes into depth on creating encounters that work for your table and tells you how to create monsters and traps and hazards. How do you determine treasure? Got it. How do you build a full campaign? It is all in this book. And to top it all off, it even has a small adventure in the back to get you started.

I could talk forever about how wonderful the 4th edition Dungeon Master’s Guide is, but the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 is actually even better. Here you get more depth on creating campaigns. It has entire sections about building a story and complex encounters and custom monsters and skill challenges. The amazing thing about this book is that while it has a lot of content for 4th edition, much of what you will find is not specific to these mechanics. You can get a ton of value from this book no matter what TTRPG you play.

These two books are possibly my two favorite D&D books of all time.

Core Player Options

Keep on the Shadowfell got your hooked, but you are itching to create your own characters. This is where 4th edition really shines. There is a mountain of options available to you.

The Player’s Handbook is where you want to start. It contains the full rules plus the core magic items and everything else you need to build a character. It is well structured and will likely be the book you use the most. I have multiple copies for just that reason.

• Races: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Eladrin, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Human, Tiefling

• Classes: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Warlord, Wizard

Which player’s books you get next will vary depending on what you want.

Player’s Handbook 2

• Races: Deva, Gnome, Goliath, Half-Orc, Shifter

• Classes: Avenger, Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Invoker, Shaman, Sorcerer, and Warden

Player’s Handbook 3

• Races: Githzerai, Minotaur, Shardmind, and Wilden

• Classes: Ardent, Battlemind, Monk, Psion, Runepriest, and Seeker

This book also contains two other special features…

• Hybrid Classes These are an amped up extension of the core multi-classing rules.

• Psionic Powers Those who know will know that psionics is one of the most amazing things ever. 4th edition does not disappoint.

Power Supplements

The Player’s Handbooks contain a ton of content, but something that makes 4e great is how it allows for an almost unlimited amount of customization. A total of six additional powers books were released.

• Arcane Power

• Divine Power

• Martial Power

• Martial Power 2

• Primal Power

• Psionic Power

As you might expect, each book features additional power options for the different classes based on the source of their power. The books also include additional feats and rituals and epic destinies to further customize your characters.

If you like to experiment with multiple character options, these books will have you covered.

Best of the Rest

By this point you are fully immersed in the world of 4th edition. You’ve created amazing characters. You’ve built incredible encounters. You are using epic powers. What else could there possibly be? Well, there are so many excellent books in 4e, I could not really do them all justice. Here are some highlights of some other great options.

Monster Manuals

I covered all these wonderful books and hadn’t even gotten to the monster manuals. 4th edition monsters are particularly well thought out. Monster roles help you when building your encounters and the stat blocks are super easy to use. There are three monster manuals to choose from and all of them are very good. If you had to pick one, I would choose the first Monster Manual because it has most of the core monsters you would want—though it is a little light on dragons. Monster Manual 3 is also a good option because they updated the stat blocks a little and the new format is very nice.

Adventures

Keep on the Shadowfell is the first part of a trilogy. To continue the adventure, you would get Thunderspire Labyrinth and Pyramid of Shadows. These will get the characters all the way through the Herioc Tier.

Dungeon Delve is also an excellent book. It has multiple encounters for every single level of the game. If you need a one-shot or side quest, it is a great resource to have.

In this post, I have called out 19 books to get you deep into 4th edition. That just scratches the surface. There were a total of 76 books published for 4e, not counting the Dungeon Magazine content and one-offs like free RPG day sets.

If you determine that 4e is just what you’ve been looking for, you have plenty of options.

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Despite what you may have heard, D&D 4th edition is NOT limited to combat. There are many times when you will need to perform magic in a setting outside of the battlefield. While other versions of the game defined these actions as just different types of spells, 4e redefined these as rituals with a set of rules that highlight how these are not trivial tasks.

If you’d like to hear more of my thoughts about 4e magic, please check out my video about how 4th edition perfected Vancian Magic.

As a 1st-level wizard, you get a Ritual Book with three rituals of your choice. You then get to choose more rituals at higher levels. The challenge is that, just like selecting feats, there are a lot of rituals to choose from and sometimes you just want to get your character created so you can get into the game.

Do not fear. I have created a few ready-to-go ritual books that you can use for your 1st-level wizard.

Let’s take a look.

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Similar to the standard character builds you find in the Player’s Handbooks, these custom ritual books are designed to be quick choices you can make to get moving. They are each centered around a specific theme. If you have more specific needs, or want to mix and match, then you can define your own ritual book. 4e is all about options and flexibility.

Book of Exploration

If your adventure is built around a traditional dungeon crawl, then you will want to have rituals that help you navigate these labyrinths.

• Silence Whether you need a good night’s sleep or are having a sensitive conversation, this ritual will give you the privacy you need. It only covers a Burst 4 area, but that is just enough for everyone to get cozy without fear of others listening in.

• Tensor’s Floating Disk Don’t you hate it when you find that amazing relic you were searching for only to learn that it weighs 250 pounds and you are 5 miles from your cart? Well, this floating disk last 24 hours and can carry up to 2,000 pounds if you get a good roll.

• Unseen Servant Exploring the wilds is hard work. All that lifting of heavy stuff and making camp and cleaning up after your messy companions can be tedious. But this ritual conjures up a servant that can handle all those menial tasks for you until you go to sleep. Note that this ritual is in the Arcane Powers book.

Book of Communication

Success on a quest will often depend on what you can understand while keeping others from doing the same.

• Animal Messenger Nothing says, D&D communication, quite like softly whispering to an animal in the wild and having it deliver your message to a distant relation. The message can be no more than 25 words, but the animal could reach a recipient up to 24 hours away.

• Comprehend Language Dungeons are filled with ancient texts and runes. There might also be intelligent creatures that you need to speak with. This ritual allows you to understand, speak, read, and/or write a language for the next 24 hours.

• Secret Page While Comprehend Language will help you interact with the world around you, you may not want others snooping on what you’ve written. You can protect a single page of up to 250 words so that others cannot read it, or even see it. This warding is permanent so you will have plenty of time to get the information to a safe place.

Book of Survival

Dangers lurk at every turn. When the situation gets dire, the party might look to you for assistance.

• Brew Potion There never seems to be an alchemist around when you need one. No matter. When you need an elixir, just spend an hour of your time and you can mix up just what the party needs.

• Purify Water Clean drinking water is vital to the party’s survival. With this ritual, you can purify up to 50 square feet of water (with a good skill check). Note that this ritual is in the Arcane Powers book.

• Gentle Repose Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, someone in the party just gets unlucky. This ritual will protect them from being raised as an undead creature and keep them safe until you can figure out how to resurrect them.

These are just a few combinations for your 1st-level wizard. I’ll try to think of some more combinations that work for the higher levels.

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4th edition made every class a spellcaster!!

This is one of the more common complaints about the game. The basis for this argument is usually either because powers look, and function, much like spells or because the martial characters now had special things they could do. Special things that used to be reserved for actual spellcasters.

But are powers really spells? Where do you draw the line between spells and abilities?

Let’s take a look.

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What is a Spell?

I think most will agree that spells have to do with magic. A spell is an ability that channels an energy from an outside source to perform some action. This might be healing or transformation or conjuration or any number of other things. To use a spell, one must commit themselves to a lifetime of study and practice to master the craft.

When a wizard casts Magic Missile and a bolt of light streaks across the battlefield at an enemy, everyone will agree that was magic. When a cleric recites a prayer and a light of divine origin allows an ally to heal, that is also magic (Healing Word). These would be considered spells and no one would mount much of an argument.

What Are Martial Powers?

If you spend any time looking at the martial powers, you will find that nearly all of them are actually rather mundane. They provide a boost to defenses or a bonus to damage or allow some extra movement. Certainly nothing that would rise to the level of magic.

Here are a couple examples…

When the ranger is damaged with a melee attack, they shift 2 squares while gaining a +2 bonus to their defenses. Is this a spell? There is nothing magical about it. The ranger just moved and got all defensive.

The warlord shares a piece of insight into the defenses of an enemy and causes nearby allies to gain an attack bonus against that target. This is no more a spell than Hans Gruber telling Karl to, “Shoot the glass!”, is a spell.

Over and over, what you will find when looking at martial powers is that they are nothing more than dealing more damage, sliding an enemy or an ally, getting an adrenaline rush that grants some temp HP, or taking an extra action.

All modern editions of D&D have special things that the martial classes can do. 4th edition may have more of them, but that does not make these characters spellcasters. That just means that 4e has more flexibility when building your character.

But some martial powers are magic!!

I will concede that there are some martial powers in 4e that do stretch into the area that would be considered magic.

We could argue that a power which allows a character to heal is magic. Area Burst powers could fall into a magical category for a martial character.

First of all, the number of martial powers that I could find that did things which would extend into the realm of magic were very few. For every Iron Warrior, that allows a 16th-level fighter to spend a healing surge, there were a dozen other powers that did nothing more than typical martial things.

And, let’s not forget that these characters have been training their entire lives to become fighting masters. If a wizard can study arcane scrolls all their life and be able to cast magical spells, is it really that hard to imagine a world where a martial character could become so skilled at their craft that they could figure out a way to heal themselves during a fight.

But no mortal could do that?

Our D&D heroes are not your run-of-the-mill mortals. They have been training their entire life to be something special. They should be able to do special things.

Think of your typical action movie. It is filled with humans doing things that we know are not physically possible in the real-world. But we watch them do these things and we cheer them on without questioning it.

In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne saves Ra's al Ghul by sliding down an icy ledge and grabbing him with with his right arm while the bracers on his left arm dig into the ice to keep both of these full grown men from plummeting to their deaths.

But that is not all!!

Oh no. Bruce Wayne then proceeds to lift Ra's al Ghul, with one arm, back up onto the icy ledge.

Are these things that a human should be able to do? Not a chance. But it sure was exciting.

In D&D, this would be an Acrobatics check followed by an Athletics check and a pretty impressive Strength check. Not a bit of magic required. Just a martial character doing amazing things.

Martial powers are not spells. They are just a great way to give martial characters interesting things to do besides swinging a weapon. They provide nice narrative tools that encourage the players to get creative with each round of combat. The offer a ton of options at each level so that every character is unique. And, they allow every class to use a common set of rules so that every class is accessible to everyone.

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Before I go, I have a couple other items…

4e Games

I’ve had some people ask about when I will play more 4e games. I had played a few games last fall, and had a great time doing so, but have not done any since.

I would love to continue the games. I even thought about running games like the old 4e D&D Encounters program where we play one encounter in each session and rotate through players every week.

The problem is that I do not want to commit to something that I do not feel I will be able to stick to. I really struggle to find the time to put together encounters and adventures. As much as I would love to have a weekly game that we could play, I am very hesitant to start doing it and then flake out two weeks in because I am too busy.

At some point I will figure out how to make it work. But, for now, I am sticking with the posts and the videos.

AI Art

I have a whole write-up with my position on the use of AI art. Feel free to check it out.

I try to avoid using any official content except in cases where I feel I am within the boundaries of what I am allowed to use. I have used some AI art in my posts to provide some color to the pages. In this post today, I tried something new and just used a stock nature image as the thumbnail.

I am curious what the community thinks.

Thank you.

My previous experiments have been with analyzing official 4th edition powers. This post is similar, but I am focusing on a magic item of my own creation.

Give this post a like if this is something you would like to see more of.

While exploring the depths of the world, it is not uncommon to come upon ancient tomes of mysterious origins. Some contain long-forgotten history. Other are filled with spells of wonderous power. And there are a few you’d like to return and forget you ever discovered in the first place.

The Book of Awful Poetry1 is just such a tome. It is a collection of verses so wretched that even the most battle-hardened warrior will struggle to endure their power.

Let’s open it up.

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Origins

From his earliest days, Lyrin Dryquill dreamt of attending a bardic college. After completing his chores, he would relax under the weeping willow near his home and write down every flowing word that came into his head. He longed for the day when the world would praise his mastery of the written word. Indeed, whatever he lacked in poetic talent, he more than made up for in unwarranted self-confidence.

But, alas, his dream of bardic college was not to be. One by one, each school rejected his application.

The day following his final rejection, he found himself sitting under that same weeping willow lamenting his situation. He resolved that he would find a way to make the world hear his beautiful verses.

Over the next few months, Lyrin compiled his favorite works into a series of volumes. With the help of a traveling wizard and a few silver pieces, he imbued each book with magical properties that would force those nearby to listen whether they wanted to or not.

Sadly, he did not live long enough to see his collection in use. While reciting the verses in the shadow of his favorite tree, the weeping willow suddenly, and most unexpectedly, fell and crushed Lyrin—forever silencing his pen.

It is not clear what became of the books after that fateful day, but various volumes have popped up from time to time.

Rules Lawyer

• No Mercy Be mindful that reading from the book affects all creatures in the blast area. This includes your allies.

• Recharge At the start of your next turn after reading from the book, roll 1d6. If the result is a 5 or a 6, then you can read from the book again. If not, then reading from the book will have no effect on creatures until you complete a short rest.

• Burned in Your Brain You do not need to read from the book to get the +1 bonus to Intimidate checks. The words have a way of staying with you. Just having the book in your possession is enough to influence your message.

Real-World Applications

There are a number of scenarios where the Book of Awful Poetry could be a game-changer.

• Disarm Enemies Just when things are looking dire for the party, a few lines from this book could force your enemies to drop their weapons. They will need to use a minor action to pick it up again.

• Steal an Item If a foe is holding the artifact that you seek, some well-timed poetry could be what you need for them to lose their grip on your quarry.

• Stealthy Retreat If an escape is what you are after, drop a verse and your deafened enemies won’t be able to hear you running away.

• Get Past the Guard The book has uses outside of combat as well with a +1 bonus to your Intimidate skill. Your mind cannot unhear the words you’ve read and they find their way into your veiled threats at the best possible times.

This power accomplishes four things that I like.

• It provides a benefit outside of combat

• It disrupts the enemy (and possibly allies) during combat

• It has the chance of allowing multiple uses during an encounter

• It can be fun to roleplay

What do you think?

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This is a continuation from the previous post covering Come and Get It where the fighter moved an enemy into a flanking position with the rogue. Now the rogue is positioned to deal some serious damage.

Give this post a like if this is something you would like to see more like this. And drop some comments if there are ways you think this series could be better.

Strikers are the characters that come out of nowhere and deal a bunch of damage before the enemy even knew what was happening. When the party works strategically, it is possible to position your strikers to deal some crazy amounts of damage.

Rogue’s, along with their Sneak Attack ability, are particularly well-suited for dealing the killing blow. The Torturous Strike attack can be combined with other class features to leave the enemies wondering what just happened.

Let’s have a look.

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Why Choose This Power?

Who doesn’t love bonuses that stack? With a proper build and the right circumstances, Torturous Strike can make your rogue absolutely lethal. Get your pencil ready because a hit with this power will require some serious math.

A few benefits to consider…

• It does not require any special conditions like movement or marking. Just a straight-up attack.

• It deals double your weapon dice in damage plus your DEX modifier.

• If you are using the Brutal Scoundrel rogue tactics, you also get to add your STR modifier to the damage.

• It is a 1st-level encounter power.

Rules Lawyer

Torturous Strike does not involve any movement or conditions. It is purely about dealing a lot of damage. There are a few things that you will want to be aware of.

• It does not grant combat advantage. While Torturous Strike is especially powerful while you have combat advantage, it does not grant combat advantage. You must earn combat advantage on your own or through coordination with your allies.

• Brutal Scoundrel bonuses stack. As a Brutal Scoundrel, you get to deal additional damage equal to your STR modifier when using this power. In addition, Brutal Scoundrels get to add their STR modifier to the damage when using sneak attack. These are two different bonuses that do stack.

• Sneak Attack is once per round. While you might drool at the possibility of dealing so much damage to a single enemy, do not forget that sneak attack is limited to once per round. If you’ve already used it as part of an opportunity attack or some other action, you cannot use it again during the round.

Real-World Tactics

Note that I am using the average die roll results for the purposes of this example. Obviously, real world results may be higher or lower depending on how cooperative your dice are being.

Our heroic-tier rogue is wielding a short sword (a light blade) and has a STR modifier of +2 and a DEX modifier of +3.

During our look at Come and Get It, our fighter pulled the enemy Kappa into a flanked position with the rogue. It is now the rogue’s turn and they elect to use Torturous Strike to make a statement to the rest of the enemies.

Since the rogue is flanking Kappa with the fighter, the rogue has combat advantage and earns a +2 bonus on their attack. The attack itself is your basic jab, twist, and pull—with maybe a little screaming for effect mixed in.

The true beauty of Torturous Strike is in the damage inflicted.

Torturous Strike deals base damage consisting of 2[W] + DEX modifier. The short sword damage die is 1d6. Our rogue has a DEX modifier of +3. Therefore, the base damage is 2d6 + 3.

Our rogue is also a Brutal Scoundrel. As such, Torturous Strike allows you to deal additional damage equal to your STR modifier. In our case, this adds +2.

This is where things get really interesting. As a heroic-tier rogue, the sneak attack damage is 2d6. That is wonderful on its own, but our Brutal Scoundrel build allows us to add our STR modifier to our sneak attack damage. This gives us another +2 bonus.

For those keeping score, that is 19 points of damage for this one stab of the blade.

At this point, if Kappa is but a memory, the rogue could move into the shadows just out of sight of Epsilon. Otherwise they could stay put and be ready to sneak attack again on their next turn or collect an opportunity attack if Kappa does something silly.

For a 1st-level power, Torturous Strike is crazy powerful and can really be one of those that brings the encounter to an exciting conclusion.

What do you think?

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This is an experiment for a possible ongoing series of posts. I am thinking of digging into some of my favorite 4e powers, and those recommended by subscribers, to show how they work and how you can get the most from them.

Give this post a like if this is something you would like to see more of. And drop some comments if there are ways you think posts like this could be better.

Position is everything in 4e combat. If you can keep your character moving and force your enemies to move against their will, then you will have a clear advantage during the fight.

Come and Get It is a fantastic way to control enemy placement. This power lets you yank enemies toward you and attack them on your terms, making it perfect for disrupting enemy formations and setting up devastating combos with your allies.

Let’s take a look at it in practice.

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Why This Power Is Valuable

Fighters are defenders. They excel at battlefield control and putting themselves in between the enemy and their allies.

There are times when it makes sense for your fighter to run to the enemy. But there are also cases where they cannot, or should not, make such a move. Rather than miss out on an opportunity to deal some damage, the Come and Get It attack brings the fight to them. This power lets you pull enemies so they are adjacent to you. This not only allows you to deal some serious damage, it could also disrupt the battlefield.

Rules Lawyer

Enemies in the burst area are pulled up to 2 squares to a position adjacent to you. Here are some key points to keep in mind.

• You must be able to see the creature. A burst has a line of effect from your point of origin. If you cannot see a square, then it is not part of the burst even if it is in range.

• Creatures you pull must end the move adjacent to you. If any creature cannot end the move adjacent to you, then you cannot pull them.

• Pulling requires that each move MUST position the creature closer to you. You cannot push the creature away, nor can you move the creature parallel to you. The best way to assess if you are adhering to the rule, is to count the number of squares on the shortest path between you and the creature. With each move, that number must be reduced or else it is not a pull.

Once you have moved the targets, you then get to make a melee attack against the adjacent enemies. This attack is a close burst 1 so you make an attack using Strength vs AC against each adjacent enemy and then roll damage once for all hits.

Real-World Tactics

In this example, our fighter has taken a position at the center of the battle . They are currently engaged in melee combat with Resh. On the fighter’s turn, they use Come and Get It to move two additional enemies into melee range.

The Close Burst 3 extends from the fighter’s location. Epsilon is not in range and cannot be pulled. Omega is in the burst area with line of sight, but is blocked by the warlock and the walls of the cavern. They also cannot be moved.

Gimel and Kappa can be moved. Gimel is pulled away from the cleric who was caught out of position and at risk of being attacked. But, even better, Kappa is pulled into a flanked position between the fighter and the rogue.

Once the enemies have been moved, Come and Get It allows the fighter to make a Close Burst 1 attack on all adjacent targets using Strength vs AC. The fighter can attack ALL enemies in the burst, not just those that were pulled. Gimel, Kappa, and Resh are all attacked.

By using Come and Get It, the fighter accomplished three things…

• Saved the cleric from a possible attack by pulling Gamel out of range

• Positioned an enemy (Kappa) into a flanking position to help the rogue

• Attacked three enemies

4th Edition is rarely about swinging your weapon round after round. Powers make every player’s turn into something amazing.

What do you think?

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Every character in Dungeons and Dragons will, at some point, require healing. Whether you are the fighter who has vastly underestimated an ogre or the rogue that zigged when you should have zagged or an entire party that really thought they could handle just one more encounter, characters will take damage and need a way to recover hit points both inside combat and after the battle is over.

Every edition of the game has slight variations on how this happens. Each system has merit and is designed to work well within the rules of that game. 4th edition is no different.

So let’s get right to it and take a look at healing in 4e.

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Healing Surges

A healing surge is the basis for all healing in 4th edition. With rare exceptions, every healing action will, in some way, tie back to a character’s healing surge stats.

A healing surge is ¼ of the characters maximum Hit Points (HP). A fighter with a Constitution score of 13 would have 28 hit points at 1st-level (15 + Constitution score). Their healing surge value would then be 7. The class also indicates how many healing surges the character gets each day. At 1st-level, our fighter would have 10 healing surges available to them (9 + Constitution modifier).

We’ll get to how the surges are used in a minute, but the nice thing about them is that the base value is set. It is not a die roll. Each character knows their exact surge value. When they heal, they get to recover that many hit points—every time. In our example, the fighter would get at least 7 hit points back any time they spend a healing surge. You are not at the mercy of a die roll. Nothing is worse than drinking your last healing potion in the middle of a fight and rolling a 1 on your d4.

I should note that when you drink a healing potion in 4th edition, you spend a healing surge and regain 10 hit points regardless of what your healing surge value is. At higher levels, you would use better potions to heal.

There are rules and items that can vary the value at times, but the core minimum value is the same and it makes healing very fast and valuable.

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Who Can Heal?

Individual characters can heal themselves by using their Second Wind during combat or drinking a potion of healing. They might also have powers that allow them to spend a healing surge.

Each class generally has at least some powers that allow themselves, or others, to heal.

Just as with other editions of the game, Clerics are the most typical healers. They use Healing Word to allow others to spend a healing surge and gain additional hit points beyond their surge value. Other powers such as Healing Strike allows the Cleric to attack an enemy and then grant an ally the ability to spend a healing surge. Cure Light Wounds allows an ally to recover their surge value without needing to spend a healing surge.

Warlords are more focused on fighting, but also provide healing to their allies. Their Inspiring Word power can allow allies to spend a healing surge and gain additional hit points—much like the cleric. If more than one member of the group needs help, Stand the Fallen allows all allies within 10 squares to spend a healing surge and also gain additional hit points.

The Paladin’s Lay on Hands power allows them to spend one of their own healing surges, but an ally regains hit points as though it were their healing surge.

There is plenty of healing to go around and how it is used can be a huge part of combat tactics.

Outside of combat, any character can use a short rest (5 minutes) to spend as many healing surges as you have remaining to recover hit points.

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The Power of a Good Night’s Sleep

After a long day of fighting goblins, I think we can all agree that a solid six hours of sleep can work miracles in how you feel the next day. This is definitely true in D&D.

How many hit points you recover after an extended (long) rest is often a point of contention in different editions of the game. How many hit points should a character recover when they take a full rest?

In 4th edition, and other editions, an extended rest of at least 6 hours allows a character to recover all hit points they have lost. They also regain all spent healing surges. In this way, characters can start each day at full health.

Some would argue this is not very realistic. If you were near death, it is unlikely that you can just sleep it off and be at full health the next day.

There are rules in some editions of the game where you can only ever recover a portion of your lost hit points each day. So if you finished the day with only a couple hit points remaining, you might need a few days before you get back to full health. This does provide for a more realistic approach, but that is not always what we are after. Sometimes we just want our heroes to be able to fight every day.

Healing Alternatives

When talking about healing, it is generally about recovering lost hit points, but that is not the only way you can stay in the fight. There are a number of powers like the Warlord’s Bastion of Defense which allow allies to gain temporary hit points. The fighter’s Unstoppable power grants temporary hit points to themselves. Since temporary hit points are just as effective as regular hit points, these can be a good way to stay in the fight without truly healing.

Other powers like the Paladin’s Shielding Smite provide a boost to an ally’s AC making them harder to hit. The Bard’s Vicious Mockery gives an enemy a penalty to their attacks. And the Halfling’s Second Chance forces an attacker to reroll a successful hit giving them another opportunity to avoid damage.

These are not direct healing, but there are many creative ways that you can keep the entire party in the fight.

Healing in 4th edition is more than just potions and spells. It is an integral part of what every character does during the game. Each character has control over their pool of healing and there are many powers that allow characters to attack while also helping their friends.

What do you think?

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I’ve received a lot of great feedback from those that responded to the survey. The majority would like to see more videos and more content about 4th edition rules and history and such. I cannot make promises on the videos. I would like to, but they take more time to put together. I’ll do more when I can. I will definitely focus on the 4e content. There was also interest in encounters and creating 4e content like characters, monsters, NPCs, and items. I have some of those in my plan.

The survey is still open so please head over and add your thoughts.

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We’ve all heard the stories of D&D games that run for years with the same characters. I know some have even left comments about such games that they have been a part of. But, sadly, those are the exceptions. According to a number of polls, most D&D games never move beyond level 10.

There are a few reasons for this.

• The group was running a published campaign that peaked at that level

• The group had real-world events come along that forced them to abandon the campaign

• The group wanted to try something new

Or any number of other reasons.

What is unfortunate is that 4th edition in particular had some really amazing rules for the different tiers of play. Those groups that never make it past level 10 are missing out on some content that truly made 4th edition something special.

Let’s take look at those tiers.

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Heroic Tier

Anyone that has ever played D&D is familiar with this tier. This is those early levels when the adventurers are first starting out. They are struggling to make their way in the world. They have training and powers beyond those of the average citizen, but they are still learning and are not as strong as they might think.

The Heroic Tier in 4th Edition emphasizes letting the player make decisions that build the foundation for their character. Obviously, your initial choices about race and class and ability scores and equipment are key to this. Each level of this tier then gives you access to new powers to further expand your skillset. As you get experience and learn about your character, you can make choices for new powers that lean into where you want to go.

This fast growth is evidenced by the sheer number of powers you get as you level-up. At first level, characters start with 4 powers. By the time they finish the Heroic Tier at level 10, your character will have 11 powers at their disposal. This is in addition to the 5 feats they will also pick up along the way.

Heroic Tier characters are fun because they are constantly changing. The rules are front-loaded so there is always something new to experiment with at these lower levels and new decisions you get to make about where you want to go with your character.

It is understandable why some players might prefer to simply run through the Heroic Tier over and over with different character combinations rather than advance to the higher levels.

But let’s look at what they might be missing.

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Paragon Paths

While the Heroic Tier was about laying the groundwork for your character, the Paragon Tier is where you refine your character and start to build an identity.

You are no longer just another face in the crowd. Instead, you find that you are revered in the towns that you call home and you’ve heard songs written about your exploits. Well, it was just that one song sung by the drunken bard in the local tavern, but it was appreciated nonetheless.

Simply choosing new powers at each level is no longer a sufficient way to advance your skills. Your choices in the Paragon Tier are now about quality over quantity. In fact, between levels 11 and 20, characters only gain 3 additional powers.

Instead of growing your list of powers at each level, you now have four opportunities to swap powers from your lower levels with new powers at your current level. Your fighter might have gotten a lot of use out of Spinning Sweep when you selected it at 1st-level, but at 13th-level, you can exchange it for Giant’s Wake (or one of several other options) and make yourself an even more imposing threat on the battlefield.

This allows you to have more amazing things that you can do while also keeping the number of choices you have to make on your turn manageable.

But that is not all.

The coolest thing is that you now get to choose a Paragon Path. This is like choosing a specialty. Every class has several path options available to them. A Ranger can choose between Battlefield Archer, Beast Stalker, Pathfinder, or Stormwarden. Warlocks can select Doomsayer, Feytouched, or Life-Stealer. Each class has different paths you can choose from as you develop your character.

These paths then unlock new features. You will get two new class features at 11th level and another at 16th level. And you also get new paragon path powers at levels 11, 12, and 20.

While the Heroic Tier was about, “Hey, look at all the different things I can do”, the Paragon Tier is more about, “Hey. Check this out!”

And the great thing about 4e is that we are not done yet. We still have 10 more levels to go. Our characters are already amazing. What could we possibly do now? Let’s find out.

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Epic Destinies

It would have been easy to create a game with 30 levels of play where characters follow the same formula of earning XP, leveling up, and getting new abilities until they reach the end. Lather, rinse, repeat.

But 4th Edition did not do this.

We already saw how different the Paragon Tier was from the Heroic Tier in the choices you would make as you advanced your character. The Epic Tier is just as unique. No longer are characters content to simply grow their abilities and earn favor in the world. The drunk bard was fine for a time, but now they want to become the legends that towns will build statues for after they are gone.

Epic characters will only add 2 additional powers to their repertoire between levels 21 and 30. As with the Paragon Tier, they will also have four opportunities to swap out lower-level powers for better powers. And they will continue to get feats at the same intervals as before.

But Epic Destinies are what makes this tier special.

Epic Destinies are not specific to the different classes. They have prerequisites, but there are few destinies that are tied to a specific class. Instead, these destinies are about how you want your character to ‘go out with a bang’ as they conclude their adventuring lives.

The first Player’s Handbook has only four Epic Destinies to choose from, but the subsequent Player’s Handbooks, the Powers books, the campaign setting guides, and the Player’s Option books all add a ton more that you can chose from.

Each destiny provides a feature at 21st, 24th, and 30th level. These are not trivial abilities. An Archmage gets Arcane Spirit at 24th level. With this feature, if your character dies, they become a spirit and can cast spells and perform rituals in spirit form. When the encounter ends, the spirit returns to the body and they essentially resurrect themselves!!

A Demigod’s Divine Miracle at 30th level allows them to never run out of Encounter Powers. When Sage of Ages reaches 30th level and drop to 0 hit points during an encounter, they instead regain maximum hit points and move in the initiative order to the spot following the creature that made the attack. Talk about karma.

These are some pretty awesome abilities.

Oh, by the way, at 26th level you also get another Epic Destiny power—as if you needed something more.

While you do not need to play the campaign this way, the intention with Epic Destinies is for the DM to provide a final epic quest for the party that allows the characters to show off everything they have become after 30 levels of play. At the conclusion of this quest, the characters either die or otherwise ride off into the sunset as heroes that will never be forgotten.

D&D 4th Edition was not just about playing D&D. It was not built to just get players a bunch of levels of play. The idea was to provide the tools to make each campaign something really special.

Very few games even make it to the Paragon Tier and, even fewer characters get to choose Epic Destinies. But those that do are definitely worth it.

What do you think?

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