D&D: The Fighter

Since nobody expressed a preference, I thought I would start off with an oldie but a goodie, the oft-maligned Fighter. In previous editions of D&D, Fighters often tended to get the short end of the stick, because at higher levels, a wizard or cleric could not only do everything a fighter could do with spells, but also much much more. 4th Edition changed things, though; by giving each class a set of unique abilities, and a role in which to use them, it tuned down the power of the wizards and clerics, and gave classes like the fighter room to shine. The Fighter is a Defender, a role that is essentially supposed to mean that the class defends the other characters in the party, taking hits for them and distracting monsters, whether through wielding a sword and shield and challenging creatures or taking the fight to them with a 2-handed weapon - or even grappling them into submission with bare hands. With no further delay, I give you Eberk, dwarven fighter!

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Eberk, level 1
Dwarf, Fighter
Fighter: Combat Superiority
Fighter Talents: One-handed Weapon Talent

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 16, Dex 12, Int 9, Wis 16, Cha 10.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 14, Dex 12, Int 9, Wis 14, Cha 10.


AC: 19 Fort: 15 Reflex: 13 Will: 13
HP: 31 Surges: 12 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS
Intimidate +5, Endurance +8, Athletics +6

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -1, Arcana -1, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering +5, Heal +3, History -1, Insight +3, Nature +3, Perception +3, Religion -1, Stealth -1, Streetwise, Thievery -1

FEATS
Level 1: Defensive Challenge

POWERS
Fighter at-will 1: Tide of Iron
Fighter at-will 1: Cleave
Fighter encounter 1: Bell Ringer
Fighter daily 1: Knee Breaker

ITEMS
Scale Armor, Battleaxe, Heavy Shield, Adventurer's Kit
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

As some description may be needed, I'll give a bit: Eberk uses a shield and axe in fine Dwarven tradition. Tide of Iron allows Eberk to push monsters around at his whim with his shield, while Cleave allows him to strike both the creature in front of him and an adjacent creature. Bell Ringer, which can be used once per combat, allows Eberk to Daze an opponent on a successful hit, and since he is using an axe he does extra damage; he gets the extra damage for Knee Breaker as well, though Knee Breaker Slows or Immobilizes the target if Eberk hits. Eberk may be short, but he's vicious. The feat Defensive Challenge allows Eberk to give a defensive bonus to any ally standing next to him, as well, making him good to have around for both offense and defense.

Character Creation

It's been a while since my last post to this blog, but I've had a rather odd idea. I thought it might help to work the atrophying gaming muscles in my head if I busted out a few characters, but I think I'll be a little more ambitious than that: I'll create a character, hopefully one a day, for every RPG in my closet. It may be more than one, if it is requested, and for D&D I think I'll do something special. I'm not sure if each 3rd Edition D&D setting should count separately, so I will list them separately. First, though, I think I will post a list of games I have nearby:

D&D 4th Edition
Reign
Star Wars: Saga Edition
Exalted
Army of Darkness
Angel
Buffy
Witchcraft
Armageddon
Star Trek
Weapons of the Gods
All Flesh Must Be Eaten
Trinity
Aberrant
Houses of the Blooded
Big Eyes, Small Mouth
Deadlands Reloaded
Unknown Armies
Shadowrun 4th Edition
Scion
Godlike
Savage Worlds
Earthdawn 3rd Edition
Delta Green
Ars Magica
Stormbringer
Alternity
Grimm
Spycraft 2.0
New World of Darkness
Werewolf: the Forsaken
Changeling: the Lost
Hunter: the Vigil
Geist: the Sin-Eaters
Promethean: the Created
Mage: the Awakening
Pendragon
Heroquest
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition
Lord of the Rings Role-Playing Game
The Burning Wheel
Fireborn
Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone

d20 Settings:
Midnight
Dawnforge
Fading Suns
Dragonstar
World of Warcraft
Iron Kingdoms
Scarred Lands
Arcana Evolved

If anyone has any requests as to which I start with, I'll take 'em. Otherwise, I'll start with D&D 4th Edition, and I'll be making a character of each class first.

Gaming with Friends

As you may have noticed, my interests in gaming span quite a few different systems, genres, and games in general. My biggest problems with this are two: first, when I see a new, interesting-looking game, I often become very fixated on the new game, or game book, sometimes to the point of losing any interest in previous games or ideas I was working on.

The second problem I have is that while my close friends are generally the people I feel most comfortable gaming with, they are also not very close to me physically. Here is St. Louis, I've had trouble making connections, at least in a gaming sense, so my nearest friends are 500 miles away. Lately, though, that seems like it may be looking up; I have some friends who recently got access to high-speed internet and a new computer. So there are some things that I will hopefully be able to try out.

First, with high-speed internet, I'm thinking gaming with some programs, like Skype, may be much more possible. The combination of VOIP and the internal chat mean that certain kinds of gaming will be easy, though I haven't tried it out; I don't know if any kind of easy image transfer is possible with Skype, though, and games that are more tactically oriented, such as D&D 4E, can't really get things across with the Skype chat.

I'm also looking into Google Wave, which looks like it may be promising as a means of online gaming. It seems to combine chatting, message boards, and mail all in one area, which would be a great help, though still misses out on things that require tactical movement.

As a more immediate concern, however, I'm thinking that I may start a message board for access to people I know to exchange some ideas about gaming. I'm not really sure how it will work, but when I figure it out, I'll be sending out invites so that people can show up, talk about gaming ideas and such, and hopefully give me a more active area to discuss gaming than what I currently have. I'll still have my blog here, for when I feel like yammering, though.

Gaming in the New Year

So, the New Year is right around the corner, and a new decade, as well. This decade has been good to gaming, and I can only hope a new one will be as good. There are some promising gaming developments on the horizon, and I think I'll try and go over a few of them.

For one, a lot of companies in gaming seem to be looking towards new means of getting their product out there. From Wizards of the Coast and their push with D&D Insider to White Wolf and their new media directions, where much of their new material will be released online (check out their New Media seminar), it seems online is the new way to go. Programs, PDFs, and other online venues are the way of the future for gaming, and I suspect we'll see a lot more of that.

In an old school area, Green Ronin has partnered up with the video game maker Bioware to create a Dragon Age boxed set, reminiscent of the old boxed sets that TSR used to put out for AD&D. It is supposed to be an introductory set, that covers just the first five levels and uses a new system designed by Green Ronin. I've heard that it isn't all that all-encompassing, covering a bare minimum of things from the video game world, but it should also be the first of several, and the ones yet to come should cover more. Put that together with the idea that Dragon Age the video game is supposed to be part of trilogy, and Dragon Age could turn out to be quite the system.

Speaking of old boxed sets, the next setting that D&D 4th Edition is about to put out is one that fans of AD&D should like: Dark Sun. Dark Sun used to be my favorite setting; it mixed post-apocalyptic madness with fantasy to create a world that was nothing like any world we had seen before. The new setting books are supposed to roll the world back to what it was just after the first edition of Dark Sun, and I find this to be very promising. I loved the old dark Sun, and I look forward happily to a new version.

A book I think will be interesting is a book being put out by White Wolf for their 'new' World of Darkness (not new anymore for the last few years, but it's definitely not the first version). That book is called World of Darkness: Mirrors, and it is supposed to be a book about alternate versions, or alternate realities, in the World of Darkness, and how to use them. I like the WoD, and I like most of the games for it, but I think it will be interesting to see new spins on some of the things that have been given to the fans and readers.

Finally, something that I hope will come out, as it has been delayed for quite a while, is the Dresden Files RPG. I've read all the books, and I think the world described in Jim Butcher's series would make a great setting for a game. It's not as dark as the World of Darkness, and has some interesting characters like Harry Dresden, Michael the knight, and many others. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing an RPG based on Jim Butcher's Codex Alera, either.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back with the new year.

Christmas Special

I am stuck with my family in Florida, using a laptop I am unfamiliar with and don't have a lot of time on, but I have had time to watch some TV, especially some stuff I have recently received on DVD. I won't tell what, though: maybe you can guess from what I'll be talking about.

It's Eberron, two years after the Last War. The Five Nations of humanity are rebuilding, still wary of each other. There are many threats that lurk in the shadows; the monsters of Droaam, the quori of Sarlona, the daelkyr and the Lords of Dust - and nobody yet knows what happened to turn the nation of Cyre into a freakish wasteland. But none expected the threat to come from something that hasn't even happened yet - the future.

Metal monstrosities cloaked in flesh, like warforged skeletons in humanoid bodies, have started to appear on Khorvaire. They seem to be singleminded in their pursuit of several individuals - but nobody knows why, as some of these individuals are children, and most have never done anything illegal or even violent. But they do not stop, do not reason, and they do not run. They seem to exist only to kill.

It seems they come from a different place, or even a different time, sent by a being known only as the Lord of Blades. He claims responsibility for the Mournland, and has promised to do the same to all human lands. He is after those who will be able to stop him, who will lead the charge against him in the future as laid out in the Draconic Prophecies - and he must get to them before they become a threat to him.

The foes of the Lord of Blades must survive. You may be among them. Help may come from the strangest of places, at the strangest of times. One never knows what the future may hold.

I just came up with this idea, and I think it would be a fun game to run, though I doubt I'll ever have the players for it. If you're interested, though, let me know - a game that may have time travel in it can always have new players dropped in.

The Return!

So I have finished up all my work for my Master's degree, and I am now free to begin plotting new gaming-related ideas, at least for a while. I've had some interesting ideas while I've been studying, as well as rehashing some old ones.

One of the ones that keeps coming back to me is the idea of a sort of Castlevania-themed game. I've never really played the Castlevania games myself, but I have watched a couple of them played, and the setting always interests me, even if it is just a complex method of fighting Dracula. The idea of running a game in a setting something like that of the Castlevania games has some interest for me, not least because it brings in some interesting ideas involving horror and suspense that don't normally come up in D&D.

I've been reading through some of my old Eberron books, too, and that setting still calls to me. I don't know what it is, but the whole deal of complex national politics, diverse groups and organizations with separate goals, new takes on many of the normal D&D races and classes, and just the feel of the Eberron setting really make me want to both run and play a game in this setting.

I'm looking for a good game that involves a more Norse, Viking kind of theme. Not a game based in historical Scandinavia, but one that uses things like Vikings, runes, and traditional Scandinavian sorts of monsters to create an interesting game setting. I had contemplated this quite some time ago when I was thinking of trying to write up a setting for Magic: The Gathering's old Ice Age set, because the idea of playing in a frozen world sounded interesting to me.

Really, I just want to play in or run some sort of gamer online, so I'll take what I can get. I'm trying to recruit some friends who would be willing to play, and then maybe fill out the group with other people they know. If you have any kind of interest in playing in or running a game of any of the kinds I have described, comment here, or contact me. Even if just to talk about RPGs or video games, I'm free for discussion.

Recent Events

Lately, I've been pretty busy with other things that keep me from writing in my blog. Mainly, my preparations for my Master's degree exam have been keeping me away from any serious contemplation of gaming - which is, of course, my true love in life.

I have managed to find some time to read through some decent fantasy recently, namely the fantasy series by Jim Butcher, the Codex Alera. The sixth book of the Codex Alera came out last week, and in preparation I read through the previous five books over the Thanksgiving week. I loved Butcher's other series, the Dresden Files, and his fantasy series hasn't disappointed. It does fall victim to some of the big cliches of fantasy - namely, the farmboy who discovers unknown talents and rises to greatness - but other than that, it's a very solid series, with some very interesting fantasy ideas.

I love to read a good book, fantasy or otherwise, though fantasy and science fiction are what I prefer to read for fun - don't get me wrong, I love educational reading, and I want to get my PhD in English and teach college students, but for fun, fantasy is what I prefer. I wish I could find a way to get some fantasy discussion into a classroom, but it's hard to work something that new into the study of English - and I shouldn't talk, since my interest is in Medieval Studies, the earliest forms of English.

In any case, for the next week or two, I'll still be busy with my MA exam, but some part of my mind will be on fantasy, gaming, video games, and the like.