E is for Ents

Ents are a race of beings in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world Middle-earth who closely resemble trees. They are similar to the talking trees in folklore around the world. 

D is for Dragons

In dungeons and dragons, dragons come in many different flavors. Chromatic dragons (Red blue green etc) tend to be evilly aligned. Counter to that the metallic dragons (Silver, Gold, Bronze, etc) ten to be aligned with good. There are many dragons that don't fit these two archetypes including the gem dragons (ruby, amethyst) environmental dragons (smoke, mist)

B is for Beholder

The beholder unlike many other monsters found in fantasy games is unique to D&D. The creature was first thought up by Terry Kuntz an early employee of TSR in the mid 70s.

Published Worlds - Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms is one of the most popular of the campaign settings published by Wizards of the Coast (and formerly TSR) Many of the most popular characters and places in D&D books and published works reside in the forgotten realms. Many of the computer games that wizards has published have come out under the forgotten realms label. Baldurs gate 1 &2, Icewind Dale, and neverwinter nights are all games published in the forgotten realms setting. 

All about a door

This was actually the same campaign as the last story about the magic weapon. The party mage had received early on a Robe of Useful Items. basically its a robe with a bunch of patches that you pull off and and they become various medium to large useful items like ladders, rope, hammers, that sort of thing. 

Robe of Useful Items: This appears to be an unremarkable item of apparel, but a
wizard who dons it will note that it is adorned with small cloth patches of various shapes.
Only the wearer of the robe can see, recognize, and detach these patches. One patch can
be detached each round. Detaching a patch causes it to become an actual item, as
indicated below. A robe of useful items always begins with two each of the following
patches:
dagger, lantern (filled and lit), mirror (large),pole (10-foot length), rope (50-foot coil)
sack (large)
In addition, the robe will have 4d4 items which must be diced for. Roll 4d4 to
determine how many additional items a robe has and then percentile dice to determine
specific items:
D100 Roll Result
...
09-15 Coffer (_' x _' x 1'), silver (500 gp value)
16-22 Door, iron (up to 10 feet wide and 10 feet high)
23-30 Gems, 10 of 100 gp value each
...
Multiple items of the same kind are permissible. Once removed, items are never
replaced.

The mage carried this robe around all summer int he game and in the climactic battle with a lava dragon in the base of a volcano he cast fly on himself. flew up 300' and pulled off the patch for the iron door and dropped it on the dragons head. Now there was much discussion about how to rule about this finally we decided that the dragon would take something like 30d6 damage if the door managed to hit him, the mage then proceed to roll a natural 20 on the attack roll which in my game means a guaranteed hit and maximum damage. The dragon ended up taking 2/3rds of its hitpoints in damage.

The Price of Magic Weapons

Another story from games past. Back in college I was running a small campaign over the summer with some of my friends. Things were going fine we were several dozen games in. The party ran afoul of a stone golem at one point. The party went to town hacking away at it. I said nothing and recorded damage like normal. I would write most of the damage in black pen and a few hits in red pen. After the damage totals were well over 200 hitpoints the players started going WTF is going on.

 For those of you that don't know stone golems are one of the rare monsters that require a magic weapon to deal damage to, normal swords hit it but just don't do it any harm. After a few minutes of trying to figure it out the players suddenly realized what was going on. Most of them had a magic weapon that wasn't optimal for them so they switched. One player who didn't have anything then said, "Man I'd suck a dick for a plus 1 sword right now" This phrase has become a catch phrase for anytime the players really feel like they are getting screwed by the game rules in my game.

Maps

Looking for a map or handout for your next game? Check out wizards of the coast archive of old D&D maps here. Its a list of 250+ maps from officially published content. There are all sorts of choices and its sure to have something to fill your map needs. With some basic Photoshop skills you could probably even manipulate them to fit your campaign world.

Woot

My brother Dave is a graphic artist who participates in the design contest over at woot.com. His designs are often D&D themed. He has a current offering up here. He's had several shirts printed mostly by jinx.com here and here (the last one was limited edition print and no longer available) Anyway his newest design at woot is pretty good and we would both appreciate the support of anyone who is able to vote (woot only allows past customers to vote)

Heroes of the feywild

wizards announced they are releasing heroes of the feywild on nov 15. The feywild is a term for anything like elves, pixies, or nature spirits. Heroes promises options to flesh out their fey characters.

Heroes of the Feywild

D&D Game Supplement, Player's Option

Rodney Thompson, Claudio Pozas, and Steve Townshend

Ready to explore your character's wild side?
Player’s Option: Heroes of the Feywild enables players to weave elements of the Feywild into their existing and future characters, in much the same way thatPlayer’s Option: Heroes of Shadow gave players reasons to explore their characters’ dark connections to the Shadowfell.
This book contains exciting new character builds and options that are thematically rooted to the Feywild, a wild and verdant plane of arcane splendor, full of dangerous and whimsical creatures. Characters who trace their origins or backgrounds to the Feywild gain access to unique feats, powers, and mechanics. The book explores what makes fey-themed characters so fun and distinct.

Item Details
Item Code: 317310000
Release Date: November 15, 2011
Series: Player's Option D&D Game Supplement
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 160
Price: $29.95 C$34.00 ISBN: 978-0-7869-5836-8 

Nearly $30 seems a bit high in my opinion for this kind of resource. Wizards needs to look at a soft cover marketing strategy to bring down the cost on interesting but non essential products like this one. I might shell out $15 for something like this but 30 is much too high a price point for me.

Class Warfare - Cleric

This article is part of the class warfare series, to see the rest of the articles click here

Dungeons and dragons is in its fourth edition now and has been for several years. Through those years the basic classes that started the game Fighter, Magic User (now called Wizards) Cleric, Thief (rogue) have remained. Looking back how have these core ideas changed over nearly 40 years of product evolution? Lets take a look at the divine Cleric.

More after the bump

Hero Generator

I found a cool website for creating portraits of your characters at http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine-3-lab/ It lets you create a picture however you want and color it however you want. So if you were to have a male character with a snake named Ricardo you can make him. The range of skins for this picture generator is pretty good and you can piece together you ideas pretty fast. To start a new picture pic the load male or female option from the original screen

This took me about 10 minutes to make

Den of the Destroyer - Review

Its been a while since I reviewed a module that my group has run. We only meet once a month so our game sessions tend to be pretty long 6-8 hours is the usual. Last time we played Den of the Destroyer from dungeon magazine #160 published in 2008. Dotd starts with a courier seeking the players in the city of Overlook.  The courier has been captured by some of the players past enemies and is being interrogated and held in a run down temple. The first encounter takes place inside the temple with the kidnappers.

more after the bump

Mini confusion

One of the biggest problems I have as a dm is keeping track of which monsters are which during an encounter. Often you have 5 monsters with the same name and use similar minis for each of them. When these monsters move and throughout battle sometimes its easy to lose track of which one took 30 damage and which one took 25. The most elegant solution I've seen for this can be found at http://stuffershack.com/store/ they sell little counters with numbers on them that can be attached easily to minis with sticky putty (which you can find at any walmart or office supply store) these counters mean you can simply number your monsters easily and know which ones are which at a glance.

They also sell little red counters for indicating bloodied enemies, a nice touch. Also horses with large bases so you can attach characters to the base of their horse. This makes mounted combat much easier.

Barston Interviews a Red Dragon

When legends, fairy tales, and fables speak of dragons, when they tell of kingdoms laid waste, virtuous maidens sacrificed, and valiant heroes sent home as charred corpses odds are that they speak of the mighty red dragons. Also called flame dragons, fire wyrms, and mountain dragons, these horrific beasts epitomize the iconic dragon traits. - Draconomicon

more after the bump

Haiku

Two of my favorite bloggers are having a haiku contest, Hassidic Plumber and The Lunatic Pope. In honor of their friendly contest I'm going to post my own D&D themed Haiku

red dragon breaths flame

in a vast, underground cave

waiting to break free

Class Warfare - Rogues

Dungeons and dragons is in its fourth edition now and has been for several years. Through those years the basic classes that started the game Fighter, Magic User (now called Wizards) Cleric, Thief (rogue) have remained. Looking back how have these core ideas changed over nearly 40 years of product evolution? Lets take a look at the Sneaky Rogue.

More after the bump

What Alignment are you?

Wizards of the coast has an old 3rd edition alignment quiz heres what I got.

Based on your answers to the quiz, your character’s most likely alignment is Chaotic Good.

Chaotic Good

A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit.

--excerpted from the Player’s Handbook, Chapter 6

Play by Post

Yesterday I talked about message board gaming here are a few that I found around the internet.

5 tips for finding a gaming group

sometimes its hard to get a group to play D&D with. For one reason or another your current group might split up move away or whatever. Here's some tips for finding a new game.

more after the bump

12 Steps to creating your own monster

Creating your own monsters in D&D can be a fun way to creating flavor for your game that is unique to it. The process I use for making a brand new creature is called templating.

I love the move tremors, lets say that you wanted a monster like the tremors monster for you game. Now you have two options. One see if there is a monster like it Two make your own. There actually is a monster very similar to the tremors creatures called the purple worm, but for the sake of this article lets assume there isn't.

More after the bump