The Wiz has posted some very nice pictures of the upcoming Blood War miniatures set that I’ve talked about before. I have to say that there are some miniatures that I can’t wait to get ahold of.

I couldn’t help but post a pic of this Owlbear Rager. I don’t know what an owlbear rager is, but it sure does look funny. Owlbears are such a silly creature. I think the best owlbear joke I’ve heard is by Rich Burlew in episide #322 “Maybe the Quailtiger?“of his comic The Order of the Stick.

Awww… poor owlbear, when will anyone give you the respect you deserve instead of quick and certain death?

Picking on the owlbear aside, you should do two things.

1. Head over to the wiz to see the images of the Blood War set [link]
2. Head over to Amazon and pre-order some sets - they’re shipping on 11/7 at just over 30% off the list price!

Announcement, Product Review / News | 463 Views | No Comments »

I have to admit that I love seeing a spell, class ability or other mechanic that has a name that enhances its flavor. Sometimes the choice for a name is obvious from the function it’s describing.

Sometimes the opposite is true as well - working from a potential name, describe the D&D mechanic that’s a perfect fit for it to belong to.

This is where I got the inspiration for the spell that I’m introducing here: Time Heals All Wounds.

I took great care in trying to eliminate any potential points of confusion or conflict that the spell may run into and think I got all but the most obscure issues. Check it out.

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Magic, New Content | 638 Views | No Comments »

The consumption of alcohol is something that happens at most social events. Many people enjoy talking “over a few drinks” - be it in a pub with friends or a fancy formal gala with important heads of state.

And whether you enjoy drinking or not, it really does permeate most aspects of our society; along with most societies long since past.

It seemed only fitting to create a magic item that fit well with the long honored tradition of drinking and talking.

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Magic Items & Equipment, New Content | 598 Views | No Comments »

I never really liked the Eldritch Knight prestige class in the DMG.

For your “loss” of one or two spellcasting levels, you gain some HP and your BAB increases a bit. At the same time, you get a high Fort save upon taking levels in the prestige class, which means you probably won’t have any really high saves because arcane casters tend to have crap for Con scores relatively speaking.

While the pre-reqs weren’t hard, you had to either lose a level to a melee class or drop a feat to gain martial weapon proficiency. Your target starting level was 5 or 6. While you can’t start down this path any sooner, there’s some important note of other classes that supplements have introduced that may be a better fit for a prospective Eldritch Knight than a sorcerer or wizard.

I still don’t think I’d end up building a character around this prestige class. But there’s a new article up on The Wiz about the Eldritch Knight that’s worth a look. The flexibility that the PrC offers may be something that’d be useful for an NPC or a bard-esque generalist support character.

Either way, it’s worth a quick read if you haven’t given the Eldritch Knight some serious thought.

Classes & Class Abilities | 559 Views | No Comments »

We have a few things coming in December. Here’s a quick round up of some of the ones that caught my eye.

Cityscape (Rules Supplement) [Amazon Link]

There’s more to adventuring than crawling around in dungeons. The city holds many avenues of peril and intrigue. It teems with adventure and offers unsurpassed opportunities and challenges.

This supplement reveals the city in all its grandeur and grimness. It makes the “urban dungeon” feel alive with politics and power, especially through influential guilds. This tome also describes new feats, spells, urban terrain, hazards, and monsters guaranteed to make the party’s next visit to the city a vibrant and exhilarating event.

Dragonmarked offers an in-depth look at the power of dragonmarks and the thirteen dragonmarked houses of the Eberron world. It also provides exciting new options for players with dragonmarked characters, including roleplaying hooks, new feats, new prestige classes, and new spells.

Goblins set upon the quiet town of Barrow’s Edge, and the community cries out for heroes to save them. What has turned the secretive and reclusive goblins into bloodthirsty raiders? Who is the mysterious new leader of the tribe? The truth lies deep within the Howling Caves….

Scourge of the Howling Horde is a stand-alone adventure designed for a group of 1st-level characters.

While these three books cover a wide range of topics, I’m sure a lot of games could get some use out of the Cityscape book. Eberron games (or at least those that borrow heavily from Eberron) should be able to use the Dragonmarked supplement as well. Scourge of the Howling Horde certainly looks fun and it may be a great way for someone to break into DMing since it’s ready to go for 1st level characters.

Product Review / News | 448 Views | No Comments »

Charging is a tactic that can be very useful when you need to reach someone that’s just beyond your movement. It also has some nice complimentary feats such as Leap Attack.

One thing that’s always bugged me is that it’s effectively a once-per-encounter tactic since charging limits you to only move before the attack but no movement afterwards and is a “special full round action”. In other words, I don’t recall ever seeing a “ridy-by attack” for melee.

It seems to me that what we’re really looking to do is to merge benefits of both spring attack (which I wrote about the strengths of previously in Spring Attack - Better Than You May Think) and charging into one special action.

Despite the obvious parallel, an equivalent feat would need to have higher pre-reqs than ride-by attack given how much more potential a melee-equivalent feat would have.

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Combat & Tactics, New Content, Skills & Feats | 536 Views | No Comments »

I was talking to Pat a few days ago about dirty fighting techniques. Something as simple as kicking dirt in someone’s face isn’t really outlined anywhere - either the “how to” or effect. My typical reaction is “let’s just make a feat that does that”. It allows you to basically define your own rules how that mechanic will function and the feat can be taken by people that meet the pre-reqs or worked into prestige classes.

Since the feat name “Dirty Fighting” was already taken up by a lame feat from Sword and Fist, I decided to go ahead with the name Street Fighting, which keeps the same feel, but is different enough not to step on the toes of an already-published feat.

But since just kicking dirt in someone’s face probably didn’t warrant a feat all by itself, I decided to go the tactical feat route and added a couple more maneuvers.

Hit the link for the details.

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Combat & Tactics, New Content, Skills & Feats | 1,009 Views | No Comments »