How to flavor your monsters into something special... (introducing the Voidlings)

You know, the monster manual is a wonderful thing.  It gives you, with just one book, limitless options.  When combined with the Dungeon Master's guide?  It offers even more.

Now, it's easy enough to just pick monsters out of the book and play, but what if you want to give a set of monsters a theme.  Perhaps to make a set of villains for your campaign that stand out as creatures your players can recognize instantly.

I now present the monsters I made for my campaign, A set of four creatures called Voidlings.

Void.PDF

Now, look over those monsters, and I'll let you in on a secret...


Go ahead, I can wait...



Oh, back already?  All right.  The secret is, the creatures started as a Kobold Minion, Kobold Wyrmpriest, and two other monsters for the 5th and 7th level creatures.

It only was the effort of a few minutes to rename some powers already a part of the builds, and a few more to slide new versions of them in for powers already there.  Touch of renaming, tweaking, and generally making them work more like some dark life-sucking creatures from beyond, and I'm ready to make my players pay for ever THINKING about being heroes.

If you want more powerful versions of them, just add levels like advised in the DMG.  Take a Void Wrath, add some cleric levels dedicated to the Void, and you have Priestess Night.  This hedonistic young lady enjoys whipping her cultists and followers into debauched parties in the name of 'Life', and watches with glee as they follower her down a road of perversion that feed her Void masters with not only rage, lust and terror, but also culminate in human sacrifices and willing slaves.

Priestess Night (Void Wraith)    Level 10 Lurker (Leader)
Medium aberrant humanoid    XP 500

Initiative +14        Senses Perception +14; darkvision
HP 84; Bloodied 42
AC 24; Fortitude 21; Reflex 23; Will 24
Immune disease; poison
Speed 6, fly 6 (hover); phasing
Action Points 1

 Dire Touch of the Void (at-will; standard) • Void
+13 vs Reflex; 1d8 + 5 void damage, and the target is weakened (save ends); Void wraith heals 5 damage.

 Scream of the Void (encounter; standard) • Void
Close burst 2; +13 vs Fortitude; 2d6 + 5 void damage, and those hit are slowed and dazed(save ends both).

 Endless Void (when reduced to 0 hit points) • Void
Close burst 1; targets enemies; each target is slowed and weakened(save ends both). When slain, a Void Wraith explodes into shards of life-draining void that cripple anyone nearby.

 Void Jump (at-will; move)
The void wraith teleports up to 4 squares, gaining combat advantage against any target that it arrives adjacent to until the end of its next turn.

 Combat Advantage • Void
The void wraith deals an extra 1d6 void damage against any target it has combat advantage against.

 Shell of the Void
Any humanoid killed by a void wraith, instead of being effected by ashen doom, can instead be inhabited by the void wraith.  The wraith still has access to all of its powers in its new form, except for phasing.  It can also learn new abilites as if a member of the victim's race.  This ability alllows a void wraith to act as the perfect spy.  When damaged in this shell, they can only be detected by their blood.  Their wounds drip Void, not blood.  The void wraith can release its body in order to phase if needed, leaving a column of Ashen Doom where it once stood.

 Ashen Doom (at-will; free) • Void
Any time a creature is killed by a Void keyword attack, its body is destroyed and turned to a black-grey column of ash.  All non-magical items on the creature are also turned to ash.  This does not prevent the creature from being raised from the dead with a ritual, and should be considered a story device rather than a power to permanently destroy characters.

 Healing Word (encounter x2, once per turn; minor) • Healing
Close burst 5; targets one ally in burst; the target spends a healing surge and regains an additional 2d6 hit points.

 Channel Divinity of the Void (encounter; free) • Divine, Void
Summon a Void Wing or Void Walker to do her bidding.  She may have a number summoned equal to her Charisma bonus, with Void Wings needing one charisma bonus point, and Void Walkers needing two.  She normally has three Void Walkers  and three Void Wings already serving her.  The Void Wings CAN summon Void Spawnlings.

 Invoke the Void (encounter; standard)
Close burst 10; allies in the burst gain 10 temporary hit points and shift 1 square.  After the encounter, all allies lose not only the temporary hit points, but take 10 void damage.

Void Cleric Powers (encounter x3; standard) • Void
Add 3 encounter cleric powers from the cleric list.  Make the powers fit the theme of Void, and change them from time to time for flavor.

Alignment Chaotic Evil    Languages Common, Voidial
Skills Stealth +15, Acrobatics +15, Bluff +14, Diplomacy +14, Intimidate +14, Religion +12
Str 15 (+7)    Dex 21 (+10)    Wis 18 (+9)
Con 15 (+7)    Int 15 (+7)    Cha 18 (+9)
Equipment Mace, Chainmail, Adventurer’s Kit

She has an excessive amount of powers really, but you could probably leave out some of the basic Void abilities for void wraiths, and try to keep her secret just a bit longer about what she is.

Either way, you now have enough material for the Heroic tier.  Just mix in other creatures to keep it from being "all void, all the time" and you're good!

Encounters and Events, the DM's fiends!

All right, if you have Dungeon Mastered a DD4 game, then you know what an encounter is.  It's a scene that describes an area and its features.  They tend to be static scenes that only change under defined conditions, and act as the basis for the a dungeon delve area.

A typical Encounter has has monsters and/or traps that inhabit the area, covers one or more rooms that make up a tactical board, and often also has special terrain, objects, and rules for a single fight.  For an example Encounter, look at page 212 of the DD4 Dungeon Master's Guide.  It offers the layout of a typical encounter, as do several of the pages after it.

Encounters work well for dungeons (and castles, and sewers, and bandit outposts, and just about anywhere with segmented encounter regions), but they don't adapt to the players actions very much.  You can make them adapt, and add changing situations to an encounter based on the players actions, but it's all still an Encounter based on a geographical region.

On the other hand, an Event is based on something happening regardless of the location.  For example:  You have a role pay encounter where the characters question a local merchant about a string of unexplained murders.  Depending on how that encounter goes, it could trigger an Event.  The event is that in 1d4 hours, an assassin begins following the characters, and waits for the best time to try and kill at least one of the party.

The Redcloaked Killer

Event Level 1 (250 XP)

1 Redcloak Assassin (Human Bandit, P162 of the DD4 Monster Manual)

Setup:

The Redcloak Assassin is waiting for a chance to kill at least one character.  She will shadow the characters at a distance until she sees a chance to catch one or two of the characters alone, and then attack without warning.  She cannot return to her masters without killing at least one character, but has no problems running away and waiting for a better moment to attack again. 

Allow a perception check once per hour for any character watching to see if they are being followed.  If no one has said they are watching for trouble, then allow a random character a roll for that hour.

Perception Check:

DC 21 (19 outside of town): "You are sure someone is following you, some one dressed in a red lined cloak.  You see their movement out of the corner of your eye as you glance behind you."

Tactics:

If she has surprise, she will throw a dagger and use her combat advantage to get extra damage. She will then attempt a Dazing Strike and then follow up with melee mace attacks until the character is downed, and then will either try to down a second character if possible, or use Coup De Grace (9 + 1d6 damage) on the target already downed if it seems help is coming.

If the party is in combat with another enemy, she will use the same tactics, but focus on a character as far away from the others as possible.  She will run at the first sign of the characters focusing on her, and wait for a better moment to finish the job.

If she becomes bloodied, she will run away using a Double Move Action, mostly likely leaving the tactical map.  Once off the tacticle map, it becomes a game of hide and seek, with the characters using thier perception vs. the assassin's stealth of DC 21 (or 19 outside of town).  If the characters following her all fail at their perception check, she get's away.  If any of them succeed, they can make an athletics skill check against a DC 14.  Those that succeed at this second check have not only found her, but caught up with her.  It should be noted that if only a single character caught up with her and it looks like she can win, she might turn on them.  If she remains in combat, setup a new tactile map and place both her and any characters that caught her in the middle.  Other characters can continue to make perception rolls each round until they hear the commotion, and then athletics checks each round to catch up.  If and when they catch up, they appear on any edge of the map they want.  If she does not wish to continue fighting, she tried to escape the tactical map again, and starts the chase all over again.

Regardless of tactics, keep in mind her focus is to kill a character, and live to tell her masters.  Not to die in the attempt.  Run as soon as trouble starts.  She will not attack more than twice in a day, and is always healed up fully (using her healing surges) before any attempt to attack.

Treasure:

The assassin has a Mace +1 (360 GP value): "Her mace has a dark red head, as if painted with the blood of her victims."

The above Event might happen while the characters are shopping, sleeping in an inn, or splitting up to attack some kobolds.  It does not have a preset tactile map, since it's impossible to tell where the attack will happen.  Finally, it might make another encounter harder if they do not deal with her before moving on with the adventure.

Events make an adventure more dynamic, and sometimes more dangerous.  Used carefully, though, and they are nearly always fun.

4th Edition, the Price of Power

First, I should start off with an overview of how I feel about 4th edition, and how I think it effects Role play vs. Roll Play.

First, being a gamer since the 1st red box edition of Basic Dungeons and Dragons.  I hove some old school opinions of how much of the D&D game works:  Back in the old days, there were not very many spells and abilities that dealt with anything but, you guessed it, COMBAT!  Back then, rpgs were derived from table top war-gaming.  Because of that, the first game editions didn't have spells dealing with role-play actions.  Even the original charm person was meant to be more of a low power "domination" effect than a social tool.

Then, after decades of game development bleeding the actions of Role and Roll Play into a single entity, We're thrust back into a segregated game. Is it a bad thing?  Does it make the rules more fair?  Is it more fun this way?

Well, that depends on how you look at it.

With the new D&D 4th edtion, we have the number of powers per character limited while in combat, helping to limit the combat issue I call the Plague of Plenty.  Any GM with a wizard dealing with 9 tiers of spells knows what I'm talking about.  In DD4, this has been balanced.  Technically, fighters now have similar powers to Wizards to Clerics.  Similar in scale, at least.  All combat related abilities are called Powers, and are usable MOSTLY only in combat.

On the other hand, we also now have Rituals.  This are spells cast outside of combat for more long term and theatrical effects.  Spells that used to form portals and create area effects like magical campsites and forts are placed in the ritual category, with a cost in gold to mitigate their game breaking potential while still allowing them for use in role play situations.

Many of the rules we used for role play situations are gone now:  Followers, Bases and Magic Item Creation are all things we got used to having a standard set of rules for.  Now? We don't have rules for those anymore.  They once again belong to the plotline of the GM and Players, happening if the storyline heads in that direction.  If they have an army, you can bet that the GM uses it as a plot device for the entertainment of his players, not as an excuse to practice wargaming.

I guess I will end my first article with one point:
When we used to role play Cops and Robbers as kids, how many rules DID we really need?

Welcome to the Playground!

What's this?  Well, first, it's a place I can post ideas for D&D 4th edition.  Anything you find here can be kidnapped, tortured, and acclimated to your particular game (if you see fit to do so).  I mostly want to look at the idea of role-play in the 4th edition, aside from actual combat rules.

Hopefully, I'll provide something around here you can use, and if so, I'll be glad.  Updates will be offered when I can get around to it, since I work for a living (those interested in offering me sums of money so I DON'T have to work for a living are always welcome, but I'm not holding my breath)

Comments are open so that you'll be able to offer your opinions.  Keep in mind those opinions need to be posted in a polite and conversational manner.