Demo Game

I find myself in the position where it's quite likely that I'll be running a short demo game for some complete newbies in the near future. This leads me to the following set-up:

1. The rules-set is D&D 3rd Edition. It's somewhat simplified, as explained below, but otherwise as-is.
   
2. I'm using pre-generated characters and a pre-generated scenario (more stuff from Dungeon - I'm very glad to be finally using that). There is one character of each of the 11 core classes, plus Illusionist, and one character of each non-human race (and so 6 human characters).
   

Characters are created by me using the 25-point buy method. The characters are all 3rd level, and all single-classed. My standard fixed hit-points rule applies, but since there will be no levelling up, this is hardly relevant. The simplifying assumptions:

1. No multiclassing, and no favoured classes. Since the characters are pre-generated, and there's no levelling, this isn't actually an issue.
   
2. No encumberance.
   
3. Only good characters. This probably just makes things easier on the players - little or no need to explain alignment.
   
4. No spell memorisation - all spellcasters can cast any of their spells at will.
   
5. Limited spell lists. This is the reverse of (4) - Clerics and Druids will have a fairly short list of spells to choose from. So, no need to read the whole damn Player's Handbook.
   

To be honest, I think the best thing I could have for this sort of game is a Pokemon game using the Storyteller system. However, in the absence of this, this is shaping up to be quite good. Two final observations:

1. I'm using 3.0 for this, and 3.5 for the Saturday game. It's quite wierd shifting rules sets - there are a lot of subtle changes.
   
2. Now I really want to play a Dwarven Wizard and a Half-Orc Boxer (Monk) in a game... (Plus any number of Paladins, 3.5 Rangers and Mystic Theurges...)
   

Surprisingly Munchkin: Colour Spray

Started the Shackled City adventure path from Dungeon yesterday, and was very struck by just how powerful the spell "Colour Spray" is against low level opponents.

It's a 1st level spell of the Illusion school that affects all creatures in a 15-foot cone. There is a Will save to negate the effect. However, creatures of 2 or fewer hit dice who fail the save are knocked out for 2d4 rounds, then blinded and stunned for 1d4 rounds, and then stunned for 1 round. Creatures of 3 or 4 hit dice are blinded and stunned for 1d4 rounds, and then stunned for 1 round, while creatures of 5 or more hit dice are stunned for 1 round.

This spell is potentially a party killer! Try this: a 1st level kobold sorcerer and 4 normal kobolds are an EL3 encounter - against a 2nd level party that's tough, but should be manageable. If he sorcerer has Cha 15, the save is DC 13, 14 if the sorcerer also has the Spell Focus feat. The odds are therefore good that one or two members of the party, probably the fighter and the rogue, will be knocked out by this spell. The kobold warriors then spread out - one each on the wizard and the cleric, while the other two move to the unconscious fighter and rogue. On round two they perform a coup de grace, and then between them finish off the party!

The odd thing is that, despite the title of this post, this spell is probably not over-powered. It's extremely short range, and of little use for or against high level characters. In short, it is much like sleep.

Review: Eberron Campaign Setting

It really was an inspired move, the setting search. Send out the call for setting submissions, provide an entry into the game industry, and a whopping great cheque, to the winner, and instantly raise interest in D&D by about a dozen notches. I wonder how long it took for the investment to pay off.

The winner of the setting search is Eberron, which I've spent the last month reading through. And it's good. It's very, very good. But, is it as good as the previous best campaign setting sourcebook, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3rd Edition)?

The Eberron Campaign setting is a 320-page full-colour hardback book. The text is extremely dense - there's more in here than in all the Babylon 5 gamebooks I have (the main book plus 3 "year" sourcebooks). I've not been reading slowly; the book's just got a hell of a lot in it. Another advantage over B5 (the third - the fact that it's new is the first) is the editing, which is of the level I expect from Wizards of the Coast, Green Ronin, Malhavoc, and damn no others.

Anyway, on to the contents. Eberron opens with a description of what the world is, and ten things you need to know. These include the fact that everything from core D&D can appear here (I wonder how many setting search entries were eliminated for not holding that to be true?), and the stunning revelation that monsters here need not follow their Monster Manual alignments (shock!). It also, very usefully, sets the tone for the setting, which is a cross between pulp and dark intrigue. It's part Indiana Jones and part X-Files, I suppose. It's also a little more 'adult' than Forgotten Realms, which is very good.

Chapter 1 provides details of the PC races, running to 18 pages. This describes the standard races in Eberron, some of which are slightly changed in rules terms, but most of which are only different in terms of their societies. The chapter also includes several new races including Shifters (descendants of lycanthropes, with the powers you'd expect), Kalashtar (a psionic race!), and Warforged (basically, robot-men, although they don't suck too badly. Bit powerful, though).

Speaking of psionics, it should be pointed out that Eberron doesn't require the use of psionics, and provides only a couple of hooks to it in the core book (there's a continent with more psionic influence, but it's not detailed here). The book does, however, have a lot more hooks than the FRCS does. Certainly, I'd feel a lot happier about psionic characters in an Eberron campaign than a Forgotten Realms one. This is all to the good, I think.

Chapter 2 discusses classes, in 16 pages. There are discussions of the existing classes, with a few new options, notably in animal companions and familiars that are available. There is also a new class, the Artificer, who is the "items guy" of the party. I suppose in d20 Modern he'd be a hacker/mad scientist. They're good, although there are aparently some concerns that too much is gained at 1st level. That said, they have some abilities that closely mirror spellcasting, which typically makes multiclassing a bad idea, so I'd need to see how it goes in play...

Chapter 3 discusses Heroic Characteristics. It introduces Action Points, which we're familiar with. It does include some refinements of the system, such as a limit on how many points a character can 'bank', which is good. The chapter has some new uses for skills, a bunch of new feats, discussion of the gods, and the introduction of dragonmarks - magical birthmarks that give spell-like abilities to those who possess them (they're bought with feats). These are okay, and have well-thought out impact on the setting. There's something about dragonmarks (and warforged, too) which just doesn't sit right with me. However, I don't think you can run Eberron without them; they're too ingrained in the setting.

The religions of Eberron are good. The gods are there, but they are 'hands-off'. These aren't the meddling children that the Forgotten Realms is stuck with. I like this. It should also be noted that Clerics in Eberron don't have to be within one step of their deity's alignment, which makes things quite interesting. Also, the churches aren't the main source of healing in the setting - one of the dragonmarked houses handles that.

Chapter 4 gets back to my favourite subject: Prestige Classes. There are eight of them, each tied to a particular aspect of the setting, such as the shifter and warforged paragon classes, the dragonmark heir (who improves his dragonmark abilities, of course), and so on. They're okay.

Chapter 5 deals with magic, describing the role of magic in the world, the impact of the dragonmark houses, and the planes of existence. These are really good - there's one tied to each of the moons (13), and each follows an orbit that affects how it impacts the Prime Material. Some spells become more powerful when the corresponding plane is 'full'. It's all very nice.

There's also some new spells.

Chapter 6 provides new equipment. This is fun, of course, because we need more equipment. Seriously, this provides a number of items that might reasonably come up in the game, such as the elemental-bound airships of the setting. This chapter is very short, which is about the right length.

Chapter 7 is an epic. This is the meat of the book, describing the world itself in 98 pages. Actually, most of that space is taken up with descriptions of the countries in the main continent. There are also brief descriptions of the other continents, a timeline, and so on. However, the bulk of the book is taken up with country after country.

This is good stuff. The format is the same as in the FRCS, and is just about ideal. I like it, even if it took forever to get through.

Chapter 8, cos we're not done yet, describes important organisations. These include the dragonmarked houses, the royal families, and several other factions. All nice stuff, and lots of adventure starters and patrons/adversaries for PCs. Nice.

Chapter 9 discusses issues, themes, and such facing an Eberron campaign. This is good stuff, missing the traditional essays into running an adventure in favour of talking about the particular themes of Eberron. It also includes a new NPC class, the mage-wright, who is a working class enchanter. Basically, mage-wrights are the backbone of the industrial base of Eberron.

This chapter is good, providing the necessary guidance without labouring the point.

Chapters 10 and 11 are new magic items and new monsters, respectively. These are okay, and fit the world. Alas, I'm a bit burned out on both, so I'll not comment further, except in this: the monsters chapter discusses means of fitting Monster Manual creatures in to Eberron (well, some specific examples). This includes things like new names for dinosaurs (long overdue in D&D - oh, and by the way, Eberron includes clans of dinosaur-riding halflings), but also short notes on the history of Beholders in the setting, the place of Rakshasas, and so on. This was missing from the FRCS, and is a very good thing to have. So, well done there.

Finally, the book has a short (and skeletal) adventure for 1st level characters. Which, I hate to say, would have been better if it hadn't just been another dungeon crawl. Hey, let's adventure in Eberron, a whole new world of fun, excitement, and dungeon crawling!

One other thing is worthy of comment: the art. I commented in the weeks before I got the book, that I was probably going to give it a miss, having seen the art gallery on the Wizards site. In truth, the art is very well done, and fits the book well. Mostly. The artworks at the start of the chapters, however, are really not to my taste. They each look like a page from a graphic novel, which is all well and good, but in my view graphic novels work as a medium because of the whole - taking one page out is generally not a great idea, and that's what's happened here (in effect). These were the pieces of art that almost prevented me getting the book. I'm glad they did not.

Overall, I think Eberron is damn good. I also think it's not quite as good (as a book) as the FRCS. However, I vastly prefer the setting, and might well consider running a campaign or two in this world (assuming the PCs don't go and allow it to be destroyed).

However, I won't be using any of the material from this book in a campaign that is not set in Eberron. It's too tightly bound (IMO) to the setting. Things that might be worth ripping off (the Warforged, the Dragonmarks) are not to my taste. So, if that's what you're wanting, I'd look elsewhere.

And that's that.

Review: Babylon 5: No Surrender, No Retreat

This is the third of four year-sourcebooks for the B5 game, each describing one of the years of the series beyond the first (the first is included in the core book). As with the other books in the sequence, it's a 128-page full colour softback book. There are four chapters.

Chapter 1 describes the iconic characters at the start of season 4. Sheridan has reached 15th level, but still has only 37 hit points (which is a good thing). The other characters have similarly risen in level. Nice, but I'm not sure of the value of this material being updated book after book. Still, I'd be complaining if it wasn't covered here.

Chapter 2 describes the series, episode by episode. Each has a summary, new rules, and adventure ideas. This is the bulk of the book, running to 77 pages. It's good stuff, but not the way I would have structured the game, as I've mentioned before.

Chapter 3 provides new rules material, including rules for broadcating (illegally or otherwise), rules for interrogation, rules for hitching lifts across the gamaxy (seriously), and two prestige classes: Shadow and Vorlon agents. These are quite nice, although it's a significant surprise that Lyta doesn't have levels as a Vorlon agent.

Finally, chapter 4 has three pages of new equipment. Not surprisingly, there's nothing earth-shaking here, just a few new additions that are quite nice.

This book is competent, and does the same job as the others in the series as well as they do. I'm not sure I can recommend it, since most of the book contains summaries for episodes we've all seen. Still, lots of adventure ideas here, which are nice.

Mongoose claim that they've improved the editing of their books lately, and I'm inclined to agree. However, they still need to do more. There are many instances here of word-substitution errors. Discrete instead of discreet (hint: anyone can hope to be discreet. Only conjoined twins can really hope to be discrete), too instead of to, their instead of there. They're less common, but still a noticable flaw in the book, and still annoy me.

Next up: I'm finishing off Eberron at the moment, with 70-odd pages in the last chapter to read.

Aiming Fireballs

Another comment by Andreas was that a Wizard or other spellcaster should have to make some sort of attack roll to successfully target a fireball or similar spell. My comment at the time was that such an attack roll would remove the need for a saving throw from such spells, which would hurt rogues and the like.

I have since recalled that the rules for grenades in d20 Modern are almost exactly like those Andreas proposed, where the user of a grenade must make an attack roll to target the grenade, and victims receive saving throws for half damage (a fact that annoyed me to no end, since more than half the party had at least one level of Fast Hero to get the Evasion talent, but nevermind).

That being the case, I propose that the correct ruling would be exactly as expressed: In order to successfully target a spell whose area of effect is determined by pinpointing a grid intersection (so, fireball is included, but lightning bolt and magic missile are not - and I'm sure there's a more elegant way to express this notion, but I can't think what it is, but anyway, you get the idea) the character must make an attack roll against the grid intersection.

The AC of a grid intersection is 10. The attack roll is modified by -2 for every range increment between the wizard and the target point, determined by the range of the spell, as follows:

Short Range: Range increment is 10 feet.

Medium Range: Range increment is 40 feet.

Long range: Range increment is 100 feet.

If the attack roll hits, the spell affects the intended area. Otherwise, roll a d8 scatter dice, as for a grenade-like missile. On a roll of 1, the spell targets an intersection in a direct line further away from the wizard than intended. Other results cause the spell to move in a different direction, as per normal. The spell is centred on an intersection 1 square away from the intended target for every range increment between the wizard and the intended target.

For example, Luc wants to fireball some orcs who are 300 feet away. Because Marius has been good enough to get up close to the orcs, Luc has carefully calculated just the right spot to centre the fireball to hit them all, but miss Marius, a distance of 310 feet from the sorcerer.

Fireball has a range of Long, so 310 feet is 3 range increments away from Luc. To hit the desired spot, Luc must make an attack roll at a -6 penalty against an AC of 10 (alternatively, he must hit AC 16 - the math is the same).

If Luc hits, the fireball goes off as expected. If he misses, he must roll a scatter die. The fireball is then centred on an intersection 3 squares away from the intended target.

It is, of course, impossible to score a critical hit when aiming spells in this fashion.

The downside of this rule is that it slightly weakens spellcasters - suddenly their offensive spells are a lot less reliable. The upside is that I no longer need to get frustrated at players who take the token and work out the exact placement of the spell for absolute best effect, when their character couldn't possibly have that sort of perspective.

Anyway, that's that.

Critical Saves

Another comment that was made a while ago, this time by Andreas, was that a natural 20 on a saving throw, instead of causing the character to automatically save, should instead allow the character to take no damage from the effect.

This is certainly a decent idea, and doesn't damage the game over-much, except for one detail: there exists the case where a character can save only on a 20. In such an instance, the character either takes full damage from the attack, or takes no damage. This is similar to the case found in many 2nd-edition house rules on critical hits, where a natural 20 did double damage.

That being the case, I offer the following house rule as an alternative that does basically what Andreas suggested, fits the existing rules, and solves the problem just outlined:

When a character must make a saving throw against a spell or other effect, where a successful save causes the character to take reduced damage or a reduced effect (so, also includes the like of "Will partial" saves), a character has the possibility of rolling a "critical save".

If the die roll on the saving throw is a natural 20, this roll is considered a lifeline. The player should immediately roll a second saving throw against the same DC, using all the same modifiers. If this second roll is also a successful save against the effect, the character has rolled a critical save. In this instance, the character is completely immune to the effect, taking no damage or being otherwise affected.

Taking the Hit

Ages ago, Johannes mentioned something about wanting an option in D&D for a character to voluntarily take a hit in order to get some bonus. For instance, he might do so to draw his opponent's weapon out of the way, or to protect the party wizard, or whatever.

The problem with allowing this is the core system is that the abstract nature of damage and hit points in D&D doesn't really make allowance for such actions, in the same way that it doesn't allow for specific injuries.

(Case in point: the PCs capture an enemy warrior. They tie said warrior up, and interrogate him. Then, as punishment for his crimes, they decide to cut off his hands. How does the system adjudicate this? It doesn't, and with a good reason: it would really suck if that happened to a PC, and anything allowable for a PC has to be allowable for an NPC. That's a weakness in the system, though, since the action is certainly a reasonable thing to want to try.)

Anyway, in terms of the taking the hit question, there are two problems. Firstly, if the warrior wishes to take the hit in place of the wizard, he might reasonably expect his armour to have some impact on the success of the blow. This, if allowed, causes a huge problem - the warriors in the group can then cluster around the wizard, rendering him immune to damage. This isn't so much a problem when tried by PCs; it's a major problem when the NPC wizard hires a bunch of peasants to stand around in full plate and take attacks for him.

The second problem is one of hit points. Let's assume that the character basically wants to allow his opponent to stab him, to thus get the opponent's weapon out of the way (as was done in the Wheel of Time, and as is a really stupid thing to do in combat, but anyway). Alas, even if the 10th level Fighter takes an automatic hit as a result of this, he probably has a hundred hit points, and can just shrug it off.

So, here's what I would suggest: If a character wishes to voluntarily take a hit, that character automatically foregoes the benefits of his armour class. In fact, the character automatically takes damage from the attack as though he has taken a critical hit from the attack. Sneak attack damage applies to this attack as well, if applicable.

Two more vicious variants are possible: after the character takes the hit, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage taken), or die (essentially, giving a free coup de grace to his opponent). Alternately, the character takes a normal (non-critical) hit. Sneak attack damage does NOT apply. However, the damage done applies to the character's Constitution, rather than his hit points.

Truth be told, I don't like the notion of a character voluntarily taking a hit any more than I like the notion of characters taking called shots to specific body parts, or facing the possibility of permanent injuries. But, if I were implementing this sort of thing, that is how I would do it.