Divining Awesome - Evil Edition

Last time, I listed a number of good and unaligned deities for your consideration. It is possible that some of your heroes have darker aspirations. Having played a cleric to a dark force myself, I understand that sometimes its nice to rock out with the dark side. So, for the evil crowd out there, I present my favorite five evil deities:

Number Five: Gruumesh
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Domains: Orcs, Slaughter, URRRG SMASHY-SMASHY!
MO: Gruumesh is the one-eyed god of slaughter. He idealizes the cruel ways of the orcs just as Moradin embodies the ideals of the dwarves. Gruumesh doesn't want to rule the world with his vast hordes, he just wants the burn it all down. He has no interest in conquering territory or enslaving foes. For Gruumesh and his followers, destruction in the ultimate ideal. That's probably why the "Gruumesh and Son" home decoration company tanked so hard.

Number Four: Vecna
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Domains: Secrets, Necromancy, The Jibblies
MO: Vecna was once a mortal. Through his tireless research into arcane secretes, he became a lich and, eventually, a god. Before his transcendence, he was betrayed by his trusted lieutenant, Kas. The former ally cut off Vecna's hand and gouged out his eye. The Eye and Hand of Vecna, as well as the Sword of Kas, have all become iconic artifacts in Dungeons and Dragons. You may not see eye to eye with the lord of secrets, but you have to give him a hand.

Number Three: Loth
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Domains: Lies, Spiders, Drow, Creepy Crawlies
MO: Loth doesn't have the same connection with her Drow that other deities have with their followers. She doesn't perpetuate the ideals of the dark elves, she only rules them with an iron fist (and waaaaay too many legs). The drow society is a ridged matriarchy, when men only fit to serve or be sacrificed by the priestesses of the wicked spider goddess. It's no wonder so many of them escape the underground to become angsty anti-heroes.

Number Two: Bane
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Domains: Tyranny, Discipline, War, Kicking Ass (for Evil)
MO: Bane is the brother of combat extraordinaire, Kord. At the dawn of time, when the gods clashed with the powerful primordials, it was Bane who organized the gods into an army and ensured their victory. His original intent was to retain that discipline and rule as King of the Gods, but that didn't really work out. Did I mention that Bane is depicted in full Spartan armor? Following him is not for the faint of heart of the weak of arm.

Number One: Tiamat
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Domains: Greed, Wealth, Evil Dragons, Rage Face x5
MO: Tiamat is at the top of this list because she is way ahead of the competition. Five heads to be exact, one for each color of chromatic dragon. Each of those heads has its own breath weapon, meaning that this terrifying beastie has an arsenal of elemental fury to back her up. Tiamat's believers are obsessive hoarders, even more so than ordinary dragons. Each of her follower's hoard must have a sizable pile set aside for The Queen of Avarice.

That concludes the list of my favorite Evil deities. When playing my own cleric of Bane, I really enjoyed walking on the dark side. Do you have your own characters who worshiped figures of Evil? Do you think my list is all wrong? Let me know in the comments!

Divining Awesome

The DnD world is big on religion and features grand, sweeping pantheons of powerful deities. The Gods, prophets, and otherworldly Pasta Monsters that make up the religious landscape of our daily lives cannot be found in the Player's Handbook, however. DnD presents you with eleven choices of primary worship, all of which are notable in their own ways. To help you out with what must be a very difficult choice I have selected five notable deities to count down.

Number Five: Pelor
Alignment: Good
Domains: The Sun, Summer, Not Liking Evil Much
Overview: Those of you versed in ancient Greek and Roman mythology are no doubt familiar with Apollo, the God of the Sun. He is an exceptionally strong and handsome man who drives the fiery sun chariot across the sky each day. Pelor, despite also being a sun god, is nothing like that. He's far more of a priestly god, using his powers to heal the sick, bring mercy and compassion into areas of darkness, and oppose undead things.

Assessment: Pelor is, without question, the most boring deity in Dungeons and Dragons. You know they're struggling for material when "hates undead" makes it into the description of a good deity. Can you imagine any god with even a glimmer of good intention seeing the desecration and reanimation of loved ones and saying, "You know what the world needs? More of that." I didn't think so.

Number Four: Moradin
Alignment: Lawful Good
Domains: Dwaves, Creation, Really Big Hammers
Overview: Moradin is the epitome of Dwarven ideas: a master craftsman (craftsdwarf?) with unwavering loyalty and a taste for good booze. He is deified proof that Lawful Good doesn't mean you don't know how to party. Moradin is also the creator of the Dwarves, though he didn't exactly shake a leg once they were enslaved by the giants (A deity letting his "chosen people" be enslaved? Never).

Assessment: Moradin claims to be Lawful Good, but I think his alignment is more "Dwarf." If you are a dwarf, you should consider following the divine forge-master. If you aren't a dwarf, you may still find Moradin's passion for metalwork and/or heavy drinking to be right up your alley. Tradition is also a big part of Moradin's fellowship so no matter what your taste, he's the one deity that will never come up short.

Number Three: The Raven Queen
Alignment: Unaligned
Domains: Dying, Fate, Brooding, Crawling in Thy Skin, The Wounds That Will Not Heal
Overview: Ah, The Raven Queen. No other divine being captures the tradition of brooding dark heroes quite as well as she. Hers is the domain of dying, but not death. She guides each departed soul through the bleakness of the Shadowfell and on to their ultimate destination (conveniently retaining those souls who don't know exactly where they're headed). She is death, but not the Grim Reaper we're so used to.

Assessment: I have a love/hate relationship with Miss Raven. Conceptually, she's pretty cool. There's something very interesting about anyone tasked with the safe transit of the departed. Unfortunately, those who follow her tend to fall into the Brooding Anti-Hero camp that I hate so much. A hero who worships the person who will ultimately decide their fate can be played many ways. Make sure yours is played one of the ways that hasn't been done a million times before.

Number Two: Bahamut
Alignment: Lawful Good
Domains: Good Dragons, Protection, Setting Evil on Fire
Synopsis: Bahamut is The Platinum Dragon, the one being able to make dragons feel inferior. He's a strict Lawful Good, stomping out Evil and Tyranny wherever it can be found. His teachings don't focus on the destruction of evil however, emphasizing instead the protection of the injured and oppressed. If the baddies don't get the hint and shape up, you may bring down the holy wrath of wtfpwning.

Assessment: As a dragon, Bahamut already gets a ton of bonus cool points. The lack of Draconic rampaging may be a disappointment for some, but you should get over that by reminding yourself that you worship a dragon. I do find his Lawful Good alignment to be limiting. As an adventurer, it can be a pain in the ass to follow all the rules all the time. Thankfully, Bahamut prefers to observe and keep his hands out of mortal affairs.

Number One: Kord
Alignment: Unaligned
Domains: Storms, Battle, Kicking Ass, Taking Names, Chewing Gum
Synopsis: Kord is the Lord of Battle and the god of storms. He is the ideal adventurer's deity, endorsing the wanton violence that seems to follow a party of heroes wherever they go. Despite being unaligned, Kord still has some sense of justice. He doesn't endorse beating up anyone, anywhere. There's still an expectation that the fight will be in the name of greater justice.

Assessment: Kord is an excellent choice for any race, any class. His focus on combat fits in with the adventuring life and his monosyllabic name fits into any battle cry. Kord is a deity for anyone who enjoys the thrill of combat, contests of strength, and occasionally punching someone in the face just because they deserve it.

Motivating Your Players

The Dungeon Master's Guide (and The Player's Strategy Guide) introduce the concept of "player motivations." These eight categories describe what a player is most looking for in a campaign. Any DM worth their salt can tell you the importance of tailoring your campaign to fit the playstyles at your table. Today, I'm going to share these eight motivations and give you an idea how you can work with (and against) these tendencies to create a more engaging game night.

The Actor
"I am Sir Edwin Von Nancypants and this is my ceremonial Toga-Robe."
The Actor is a player who doesn't just play their character, they are their character. Actors may speak in whatever accent they think their character would use or they may go all out and dress like their character. However they choose to express their motivations, Actors are looking to engage with the game world in a personal way.

Using the Motivator: Engaging Actors is easy; they do most of the work themselves. Make sure that you refer to the player by their character's name and make an effort to hide any negative feelings you have towards this play style. It's important to make sure that the rest of your players also keep their stigmas in check. Wearing strange outfits and speaking in character may seem like LARPing behavior, but it's still a valid way to play.

The Explorer
"I known it's just listed as 'Room and Board,' but what does the food taste like?"
The Explorer wants to know about the way the game world ticks. The descriptions of people and places aren't just filler for them, they're part of the gaming experience. Explorers will want to know the details of the lost city they've found and will want to examine every last crevice of the dungeon. When the party finds an item of note, it will probably be the Explorer who holds on to it.

Using the Motivation: When you build your campaign world, spend a little extra time thinking of the details of people and places. Your Explorer will really appreciate a couple extra lines of description and will love it when you can answer their questions about the history of a place. Explorers care about the details and are likely top remember them, so you can use certain colors or ornamentation to indicate what kingdom a person or place belongs to.

The Instigator
"I sure hope whatever is living here doesn't pop out of nowhere and totally pwnsauce us!"
The Instigator is a troublemaker. The reason may be that they're only interested in conflict or that they just bore really easily. Whatever their excuse, Instigators get a kick out of making things happen. They may pick fights with especially dangerous-looking enemies or have a habit of stealing from everyone the party meets. Whatever they do, it tends to send the party into conflicts.

Using the Motivation: Like Actors, Instigators do a lot of the work themselves. The hardest part about keeping them entertained in your game is planning for all of the stunts they may pull. If you want to punish the Instigator for being so reckless, remember that the rest of your party will be dragged along, too. Make sure that you don't lock the entire group into a no win situation because one of them couldn't keep their hands to themselves. Consider having the wronged NPC challenge the reckless character to a one-on-one duel for honor.

The Power Gamer
"The attack does 24 damage, but I also get 2 damage for charging and 6 for..."
On the battlefield, the Power Gamer is a force to be reckoned with. This player gets their kicks by maximizing the efficiency of their character. Most often, this is represented by their efforts to get the most damage possible out of every attack, but it can also involve the pursuit of the highest AC or even an enormous bonus to a certain skill. Power Gamers love to optimize and may even use online forums to get the best possible build.

Using the Motivation: A lot of the pleasure a Power Gamer is looking for comes from the work they do in between meetings. At the table, the best thing you can do for them is to put them is those situations where they do their best work. Make sure you also include situations where all their planning falls flat, too. If the player has created an unstoppable juggernaut, make sure to have some skill challenges or traps where all that killing power is useless. This will give your non-Power Gamers space to showcase their own talents.

The Slayer
"Is it dead yet?"
The Slayer just likes to kill things. Their satisfaction is derived from facing difficult foes and sending them to the dirt. Slayers aren't interested in dialogue or overly wordy descriptions and will likely space out until something arrives that they can kill. They will likely play strikers and will go out of their way to provoke things into combat. If it looks alive, the Slayer probably wants to kill it.

Using the Motivation: What Slayers want is your average Hack and Slash adventure. Keep lining monsters up and they will be perfectly happy knocking them down. To really engage your Slayers, give them an enemy that they will really want to take out, but keep them from killing it for a little while. This can be as easy as creating an especially vile Big Bad and keeping them safe from bloodthirsty players with bodyguards and political ties. Before the Slayer can sink their weapons into them, they will have to prove to the public that this person actually deserved it.

The Storyteller
"If I can pull the sword out, will I be the next king?
The Storyteller engages with the ongoing events of the campaign and how their character fits into it. For the Storyteller, the far-reaching effects of their actions matter. They may ask you to repeat important plot points or to slow down while they take notes on events. What a Storyteller is looking for is a chance to use their knowledge of your plot to give their character an edge in becoming a part of it.

Using the Motivation: As with the Explorer, a little extra work goes a long way with the Storyteller. Work out how the actions of your players influence the world, both in the immediate and long-ranging ways. Give the characters the chance to work out threats to important NPCs and foil them. As they get higher in levels, make sure to have their reputation precede them. NPCs pointing them out in a crowd, Lords asking for them by name, or even children arguing in a back ally about who gets to pretend to be the Storyteller's character.

The Thinker
"Four stones of different colors arranged in a circle... FETCH MY THINKING CAP!"
The Thinker is actually pretty straightforward. This motivation loves puzzles, coded messages, and fights that reward careful planning. The Thinker takes their time when planning actions, preferring to see what their opponents will do before making their own move. Thinkers get a kick from the strategy element of combat, working to outmaneuver foes before stabbing them to death.

Using the Motivation: To really get to your Thinker, you're going to have to think outside the traditional DnD mold. What Thinkers really want is problems that allow them to apply their real life knowledge. When designing a dungeon, include traps that can be avoided by a particularly observant person. Have doors that unlock following a small Mastermind-like game. In short, create obsticles that require more than dice throws to surpass.

The Watcher
"If you're having a good time, I'm having a good time."
The Watcher doesn't play for exclusively their own enjoyment, but rather for the enjoyment of everyone else at the table. They have the most fun when the whole group is having a good time. A Watcher will rarely call attention to their own character, but will encourage the other players to do what they do best. Watchers may not always seem like they're participating actively in the game, but they will always keep the team together.

Using the Motivation: The Watcher is a motivation of an entirely different nature. The Watcher doesn't want to be singled out for any singular participation and you need to respect that. This is made especially difficult by the fact that all good DMs must be part Watcher themselves and players who are Watchers don't always look like they're having fun. Throw your Watchers some bait every now and then, but don't force the issue. Not everyone wants to be the next king, after all.

Playing With Your Party

I am very happy to say that I will be playing DnD for the first time since college this week. I'm the DM and my party consists of two people who have played, but are out of practice, and someone who is entirely new to the game. For the next few weeks, I'll be posting things that directly relate to my current experiences at the table. Today, for instance, I want to talk about DMs also controlling a player character.

If your party is a little sparse and/or missing a vital role, you may consider building a character to tag along for the adventure. If you enjoy playing, there are some pretty obvious benefits to rolling up your own adventurer. In addition to fortifying the lineup and rounding out the tactical options, you get to share in the glory of the adventure. Your well-built encounters may still crumble, but at least you'll be doing some of the crumbling.

There are drawbacks and potential pitfalls when joining the party's ranks, however. The most difficult issues involve the problem of "Meta-Gaming." For those unfamiliar with the term, "meta-gaming" is when a player uses knowledge that their character would not or could not know. This includes an enemy's stats or the habits/origins of a particular beastie. When the DM plays a character, they not only know everything about every enemy, but also the entire planned campaign arch. Also, a DM-controlled character has a habit of dominating the action and hogging moments that the players should be a much bigger part of.

If the advantages outweigh the drawbacks for you, there are three basic levels of DM participation:

Full Character Participation
A DM engaging in full character participation has created a complete character. They have built everything from their skills to their equipment to their power selections. Full character participants are involved with the party not only during combat, but also when the party engages in skill challenges or talks to NPCs. In this way, the DM is both fully a DM and fully a player.

Pros: Full character participation lets you experience everything you love about playing DnD while still serving as DM. It allows you and the players to be partners as well as adversaries. It can also be an incredibly effective way to ensure that the players see and do everything that you intend them to.

Cons: Meta-gaming is a huge problem for this kind of participation. Not only will your character know everything about the world and the campaign, your monsters will also know exactly what your character is doing. Also, trying to manage both a full character and the workings of an entire campaign is a lot of work.


Limited Character Participation
When participating with a limited character, a DM still puts together a full character sheet. This includes picking skills, powers, and equipment. This character participates in combat, but has some reason to be useless when you need to play as NPCs. The easiest way to achieve this is to have your character be unable or unwilling to speak. This can be by design (a Warforged built without a mouth), trauma (a Drow raid survivor whose tongue has been cut out), or by choice (a priest who has taken an oath of silence).

Pro: The major advantage this has over full character participation is that you don't have to juggle your character and NPCs while the party is out of combat. You also hog less of the party's spotlight, becoming more of a tagalong than a full member. The story of how your character got their limitation can be a great way to drop quest hooks, too!

Con: Your ability to use your character to give the party information is severely, well, limited. A mute character cannot explain the history of a battlefield or share suspicions about the local clergy. In addition, you still have to juggle all the combat actions of your character along with your monsters.

Partial Character Participation
A partial character has the complexity of your average monster in terms of stats (in fact, you can use most standard monsters as is). The best way to create one is to follow the steps in the Dungeon Master's Guide 2 for converting monsters to companion characters. A partial character has no more than one of the basic, At-Will, and Encounter attacks and only two or three trained skills.

Pros: A partial character is very easy to keep track of, even when running multiple monsters in a combat. Depending on what monster you use, your character may also be unable to speak/not allowed to enter settlements, allowing you to be fully a DM when the party talks with NPCs.

Cons: A partial character is so limited that you may wonder why you've even bothered to have a character at all. Since your character is a monster, they will have limited healing surges and are unlikely to survive challenging combat. A partial character's skills also tend to be somewhat sub-par meaning the the party is more likely to fail in skill challenges that call for a group check.

Making Your Character Iconic

If you followed the steps in my last post, you now have a well-built character and are ready to begin playing. Still, you may feel like something is missing. Ask any DnD group about the characters in their party and they will have have volumes to tell you. Rarely do their stories revolve around the stats or powers of the character, though. It's all about who the character is and what they did. Defining characters can become icons in your group and your character can become one of them.

Know Your Character's History
One of the best ways to give you character that extra kick is to know where they came from. This doesn't mean you have to write a novel on them, but you should know where they grew up, what their parents are like, and where/how they got their training. You may think this is kind of silly, but at least give it a shot. The better you know your character's past, the more ammunition you have as you explore their future.

Why Bother? A developed character history does a lot for you and your character. It will be vital in fleshing out the other components that should ultimately lead to an iconic character. Most important, however, is that your DM can use this information to customize your adventures so they better apply to your character. Instead of attacking generic town C, maybe the dragon has its eyes on your old stomping grounds.

Know Your Character's 'Triggers'
I'm using 'triggers' to mean things that make your character react strongly. They include their hopes and fears, what they love and what they hate, and anything else that has a special significance. If you've already taken the time to figure out your character's history, this part should be pretty easy. The major events that formed your character should spell out a helpful list of triggers.

Why Bother? This should be pretty obvious, but you want to know your character's triggers so that you can better play their actions from moment to moment. If royalty taxed your family into the ground, you'll play that negotiation a lot different from if your family was royalty. Again, your DM (you are telling him all this, right?) can use your information to customize your adventures. Got a thing against goblins? You can bet they'll be everywhere for a while.

Know Your Character's Goals
This is the big one; the driving force that keeps your character moving. If you've figured out your history and your triggers, you probably already know what your character's goal is. This is the thing that made your character leave their old life and become an adventurer. Your goal could be simple, like getting enough loot to live comfortably, or more complex, like overthrow the tyrannical king an establish them self as ruler of the empire.

Why Bother? Your character will not feel successful unless they are making progress towards their goal. All of their actions should come back to it. More importantly, this goal is going to keep them with the other player's characters through the roughest personality clashes. The goal is your character's fuel: without it, you will never be able to make the kinds of decisions that turn a generic character into an iconic one.

Six Steps to a Better Character

I have battled through the poor Internet connection to bring you a long overdue update. Today, we are going to dive into the process of creating a character that is strong in both development and actual playability. The process laid out in the Character Builder (online or offline versions) is a good start, but I like to jump around a little more.

Step One: Picking Your Race and Class

The Builder recommends you start by picking a class, and that’s not a bad option (especially if your party is counting on you to fill a certain role). Picking your race first can also give you a nudge towards a complete character. The key is to take a race or class that you are interested in and find a complementary other choice. It is best if your race has a bonus in your class’ primary stat. It is not essential, but it will make assigning ability scores and playing your character much less frustrating.

Questions to Ask: Who is my character? What do they do? What is my character?

Step Two: Assigning Ability Scores

Your character’s ability scores form a structure for how they interact with the world and people in it. They will excel in some areas, but fall short in others. Make sure you have an 18 in your class’ primary stat and a 16 in a secondary score. After that, the choice is all yours. If you choose to take 8 in one of your scores, consider what that means for the character. Is your character slow of speech but strong of arm? Are they good with people but terrible at taking a hit? Just remember, the stats are a good indicator of character traits, but you always have the final say.

Questions to Ask: What is my character good at? What do they suck at? What traits do they value?

Step Three: Choose Skills

Ability scores can give you an excellent sweep of your character’s traits and personality. With skills, you can tweak that overview into a more complete character. Your skill selection is limited by your class, but you should still consider the implications of those skills outside the characters’ profession. There’s a reason why your character chose to develop these talents instead of others. It is also important to consider what skill other members of your party bring to the table. If you feel strongly that your character would favor one skill over another, you should try to work with your teammates to cover all the bases.

Questions to Ask: What skills has my character cultivated? What skill do they see as being valuable? Why those skills?

Step Four: Select Feats and Powers

Feats and powers represent your character’s combat prowess and particular style. Combat should not be your only concern when building a character, but it should be your primary one. The first feats you should look at are class and racial feats. Even if you don’t want to take them right away, they can give you ideas for directions to build in. Next, consider how your character fights. Could they use extra toughness or better armor to weather the extra hits? Are they experts at their chosen weapons, guarantying accuracy when it counts? Choosing powers is simply an extension of this line of thought.

Questions to Ask: How does my character fight? What weapons do they favor? Do they especially proud of any of their techniques?

Step Five: Name and Equip Your Character

What’s in a name? Everything. This name is how everyone, friend or foe, will come to know your character. Sit and think about it, but don’t lose all of your momentum. If nothing comes, poke through your race’s entry in the appropriate Player’s Handbook. I usually hit “Random” on the builder until something I can work with comes up. Remember, the name itself doesn’t make the character memorable, you do. Equipping your character (at level 1) is really simple. Just grab the best armor you can and whatever weapon you decided on along with an adventurer’s kit. That’ll be everything you need.

Questions to Ask: Does this name work with my concept? Can I make this name memorable to friend and foe? Why wouldn’t I grab an adventurer’s kit?

Step Six: Choose Your Background

You should have a pretty good image of your character by now. If you do, choosing a background should be as easy as finding one that matches your ideas and running with it. If not, I recommend looking through your character’s skills and finding one that you believe your character is better in than the score suggests. Then, run through the backgrounds and pull out the ones that give a bonus to that skill. The smaller pool should help your decision. You can always look through the backgrounds that give more complex bonuses, but I find many of them to be a little too confusing.

Questions to Ask: What events shaped my character? Where did my character come from? How does this bonus fit my character?

Five People to Avoid in a Tavern

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to discuss character building. Its one of the most important parts of building your game experience, after all. Before we get into what you should do, I want to touch on what you should not do. In any creative endeavor there is always the hazard of cliche. Here are five character cliches to avoid:

The Vengeful Crusader
"My brother was mildly inconvenienced by a goblin once. I have sworn to KILL THEM ALL!"
Who is it? Something happened in this character's past. Something really, really bad. And there was one race/religion/ideology at the center of it. Now this character has sworn to eliminate it. And HE. WILL. NOT. REST. Until it is done. An alternate version of this cliche is when the character is the champion of an ideal, such as nature, and flies into a rage whenever that ideal is threatened.

Who is at Risk? Avengers and Paladins tend to fall into the first kind (occupational hazard) although it could happen to anyone. Primal characters are much more likely to take up the second.

How to Avoid it? The concept isn't necessarily bad, but you have to flesh it out. It is extremely difficult for your character to learn and grow if they just try to murder everything that bothers them (just like real people!). If your character has a bias against a certain race or religion, any good DM is going to force you to confront it. Those interactions will create a dynamic character.

The Compulsive Troublemaker
"I'm going to stab this guard in broad daylight. What? I'm unaligned, remember?"
Who is it? This character saw the "unaligned" alignment and thought it was Christmas. They are the most obnoxious kind of chaotic neutral: dicks who do ridiculous things without rhyme or reason. They will stab anyone who looks at them wrong (or looks at them period) and attempt to steal anything that isn't nailed down. The very worst of them may even attack party members.

Who is at Risk? Rogues are especially prone to wanton stabbing and theft, but this cliche arises more as a result of the player than any element of the character itself.

How to Avoid it? Don't do it. Take your game seriously enough to enjoy it without going on a game-disrupting rampage. As long as you've got some grasp on what your character would do, you'll understand why your character wouldn't do any of the particularly obnoxious shenanigans.

The Stupid Warrior
"Me Smackwithaxe. Me no know grammar."
Who is it? This character is the strongest person ever. They can climb or smash or swim his way through any obstical. Sticky pickle jars are never a problem. When it comes to thinking problem however, they just can't. At all. And character always speak with badly broken sentences.

Who's at Risk? Any race with a bonus to strength and any class with strength as a primary stat.

How to Avoid it? If you're dead set on playing this, play a Barbarian. I'm reasonably sure 20 strength/8 intelligence is required for that class. Otherwise, find ways for your character to be smart. An excellent way to accomplish this is to take a look at your wisdom score. A character may have nothing in his head, but have excellent instincts. They can have phenomenal combat sense, but have no idea what to do in social situations. That's interesting in a way Big-Sword, Tiny-Brain never is.

The Dark Hero (With a Troubled Past)
"I can never forget... my terrible secret..."
Who is it? Something bad happened in this characters past. Something so bad that it scarred them forever. Now they live a life of shadows, forever staying just this side of good. They may make new friends and learn to live a moral life, but the darkness will always be inside... brooding...

Who's at Risk? Assassins and Rogues are the most obvious classes. For races, there's Drow, Tieflings, Drow, Humans, Drow, and Drow, though any race could fall into it.

How to Avoid it? The easiest way is to not use this kind of character development. Dark secretes are okay, but don't become some sort of wannabe anti-hero over them. Also, if you want to play a Drow, do so with care and originality. I understand that they come from a dark and oppressive world, but I'm done listening to them whine about it.

Amnesia
"I once new this place, but I took a tumble and now I can't remember. Who are you?"
Who is it? This isn't a character, its a character element. Still, I'm sick of it. This character's memory is gone for some entirely arbitrary reason. In the best cases, the block is magical or otherwise supernatural in nature. In the worse cases, it comes from (sigh) head trauma.

Who's at Risk? I forget

How to Avoid it? Just say no to Amnesia. You want to have lost memories? Awesome! Those are great tidbits for a DM to throw at you as the story unfolds. There's no reason for entire spans of time to be missing, though. Creating a past is fundamental to building a character. Take that past away and you'll have a very bland, uninteresting fellow. Also, HEAD TRAUMA DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

Awesome Races

When creating a character, you have a lot of choices to make. Choosing your class is very important, but choosing your race is at least as important. Combat/stats terms, your race determines what sort of support you will have for your class. In role-playing and character development terms, however, your race determines absolutely everything. Every race has its own ways to be awesome, but there are a ton of races to work through. Rather than tie the blog up for the next three months, I've decided pick my top five for one post. But first, an honorable mention:

Honorable Mention: Gnolls
"Why is everyone staring at me? You've never seen a hyena person before?"
The Gnoll could easily top this list. The only thing keeping them from doing so is they do not appear in any published material. They were detailed in an online article meaning that you can only use the race on a fully updated character builder (or with access to its online counterpart). The Gnolls are a classic monster race and its really cool to see them fleshed out and playable.

Why They're Awesome: The Gnoll has a lot of beast flavor to it. Your racial power is essentially a pouncing strike and you gain a damage bonus when striking bloodied enemies. If you're really into the feral combat, the Claw Fighter feat is for you. It gives your Gnoll a "claw fighter claw" (for fighting claw fighting) which is exactly what it sounds like: a beasty-bit for wrecking enemy faces. The claw can even be enchanted (and disenchanted)! My 3.5 readers will probably remember natural weapons and this is the new edition's equivalent.

Number Five: The Gnome
"You want a joke? Alright, what's black and blue and about to get hamstrung?"
When fourth edition first came out, something was severely lacking. Though the classic Elves and Dwarves and Humans (honestly, who plays a human?) were all spoken for, there was a distinct lack of Gnomes. Some people didn't think it mattered and others had the audacity to suggest that it was a good thing, but we true believers knew the truth: DnD isn't DnD without these little tricksters.

Why They're Awesome: The Gnomes are masters of illusion and deceit. Some say the Eladrin are the fey masters of magic, but who has a feat that give them all of the Wizard's cantrips? That's right, the Gnomes. Their encounter power allows them to vanish after they are attacked. Its an excellent way to escape, but a better way to sneak attack for bonus damage. The Gnome also has a feat that gives a stealth bonus to everyone in the party. You may be a prankster, but you still know how to work in a team.

Number Four: The Revenant
"Braiiiiiiiins... No, I'm kidding guys. Come out from under the table."
The Revenant have been online for a while, but they were finally published in Heroes of Shadow. They lie somewhere between life and death, considered to be both a living creature and an undead one. The Revenant are unique in being a template race. When creating one, you pick any other life to be your previous one and may take feats and paragon paths as if you were a member of that race.

Why They're Awesome: The nature of this race allows for a tremendous degree of flexibility and customization. Being somewhat dead just screams "interesting and complex back story." Their racial power allows you to grab the remnant energy of a defeated foe and use it to empower your next attack. In higher tiers, you can take a feat that allows you to no longer be considered a living creature. You no longer need to eat or sleep and you become much better at the Thriller dance.

Number Three: The Deva
"These ruins are about five hundred years old. Trust me, I used to live here."
The Deva are a perpetually reincarnated race of angels and divine servants who gave up their immortality. Each Deva can remember all of their past lives and continue to grow and build their knowledge across lifetimes. When a Deva does finally kick the bucket, their essence is cycled back into the world and they reappear in some scrap of wilderness.

Why They're Awesome: The Deva are well suited for Divine classes, but their racial stats make them adept at just about any caster. They excel as both Wizards and Clerics and their racial power gives them added accuracy when it counts. Their feats focus on making the most of the race's high wisdom and accumulated knowledge. The Deva are honest and good, but still complex enough to create interesting characters.

Number Two: The Dwarf
"I came here to kick ass and drink ale. I'm all out of ale."
The Dwarf is a Tolken classic, right up there with stuffy, long-lived elves. A race known for both their combat prowess and their drinking problems, dwarves embody all that is awesome. Fourth has made a few statistical changes to everyone's favorite subterranean warriors, but they still live underground and weild hammers. Really, that's all anyone could ask for.

Why They're Awesome: Dwarves are exceptionally durable. They resist forced movement and being knocked down, their second wind is a minor action, and constitution is a constant racial bonus. Their feats lend added bonuses to combat, proficiency and damage with both axes and hammers, and even increases to your healing surge value. If you're looking for a warrior who will not fall and packs a hefty punch in a small package, you're looking for a dwarf.

Number One: The Dragonborn
"Come at me, bro! I got dragon blood!"
The Dragonborn used to be a template race like The Revenant. People who were especially pleasing to Bahamut could build themselves an egg and transform into a kickass part-dragon warrior. In fourth, the Dragonborn are their own race with no alignment or deity requirements. They are the survivors of an ancient draconic empire and they eat, sleep, and breath awesome (and fire, lightning, poison, or acid).

Why They're Awesome: In case you missed it the first time, the Dragonborn are part dragon. They have breath weapons and they generally dominate other "lesser" being. Many of the Dragonborn's numerous racial paragon paths increase their potent breath and/or give them the ability to fly. Once bloodied, a Dragonborn flies into a rampage, gaining bonus to hit and (with some feats) damage. The Dragonborn have gotten their own book and their options are quite numerous because of it.

Rules to Roleplay By

Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game and, therefor, requires at least a minimal amount of cooperative storytelling to be played at all. "Cooperative" can be a difficult thing to achieve however. To help you better work alongside your fellow adventurers, I've built a list of handy rules. To begin, I present to you my golden rule of role-playing:

The Golden Rule: Don't Be a Dick
This is actually the only rule you really need, but I understand that it can be difficult to unpack a concept as complex and nuanced as "being a dick." Also, one rule would make a pretty lame post. All of my other rules expand on this core concept, however, so its important to keep it in mind. To hep illustrate these rules, I have assembled two fictional players: Jonas and Jerkward. Both have been created from exaggerations of people I have played with and/or been. It should be pretty obvious which one is obeying my rules and which one is just being a dick.

Rule One: Respect Other Player's Experience Levels
No, I don't mean the running total that separates you from your new and better ways of breaking heads. Everyone sitting around your table has been playing this game for a different amount of time. You'll have your fourth edition newbies, your 3.5 veterans, and occasionally an AD&D superhero. Everyone knows different systems and everyone has different levels of understanding. Remember that before you start complaining about how slow someone is.

Jonas is playing in a game with one player who is completely new to D&D. This newbie is very slow with her turns and has to constantly check and recheck her bonuses and modifiers. Though he is understandably frustrated, he tries to help her with her turns and suggested she set up a cheat sheet with all her important numbers.

Jerkwad also plays with a newb who is slow with their turns. To get through her turns, he moves her character and tells her what abilities to use. When she goes to check her modifiers, he groans loudly and asks why they even let her play.

Rule Two: It Doesn't Matter What Your Character "Would Do"
We've all heard or even used the excuse "It's what my character would do!" Pro tip: that is never a good enough excuse. If it's in your nature to do something, you can usually go nuts (within reason). But the moment that your party asks you to stop, its your job (as a player) to come up with the reason why your character obeys. Solo shenanigans are fun, but D&D is a cooperative game.

Jonas plays a sticky-fingered Rogue with a soft spot for shinies. While in the king's palace, he notices an unguarded diamond in the gallery. When his party realizes that he's eying it, they remind him that they need to keep the king's trust if they want to operate in this kingdom. Jonas decides that his character reluctantly leaves the jewel alone for the sake of the party.

Jerkwad is playing a Cleric in his campaign and has decided, due to his upper class upbringing, that his character is racist towards elves. When the party's elf ranger gets into a tight spot with a gelatinous cube, he flat-out refuses to heal her. When the Ranger is flayed and digested, Jerkwad even adds a "good riddance."

Rule Three: DM is Law
This one is pretty straightforward. There are a lot of different "authorities" in D&D, such as books or the D&D website. Its very likely that you will have a disagreement over rules or what sort of material is acceptable to draw from. Make your case by citing as many sources as possible, but understand that the DM overrules all of them. If you don't like your DM's call, you may want to consider finding a new play group.

Jonas has discovered a way to create a character that can make a ridiculous number of attacks each round. When he talks to his DM about it, the character is rejected because it relies on a source book that the DM doesn't own. Jonas offers to let the DM borrow his book, but the DM also points out that the rest of the party probably won't appreciate waiting around for him to finish rolling all those attacks. Grumbling, Jonas relents.

Jerkwad is attempting to do something that the DM won't allow. The DM claims that there are no rules for it, but Jerkwad knows that a recent online article provided support for it. After yelling for a while, Jerkwad leaves the game to go look up the article, dragging off the DM to look at it. By the time he triumphantly displays the rules to the DM, they are out of time and the meeting ends.

Rule Four: Respect Your Game's Tone
Every game is different and every group sets a different tone. For some groups, D&D night is a time to kick back, hang out, and make silly jokes while crushing monsters. Other groups may take their time much more seriously and want to adventure as if they were doing it "for real." Make sure you understand your group's tone and that your character is able to behave accordingly.

Jonas has been playing an obnoxious Bard for the first few meetings of his group. He begins to realize, however, that his is consistantly the only character goofing around and that everyone else in the party is taking the game seriously. Not wanting to completely ditch the character, he adjusted to a more snarky but serious personality.

Jerkwad loves his loud, violent warrior. He is unparalleled in combat, but somewhat lacking in people skills. When his party takes a break from smashing things and starts asking around for information, he starts attacking everyone that the party so much as looks at.

Rule Five: Fill Your Role
D&D is a team based game, which means each person has a role to fill. It's important to make sure you do the job that your party expects you to do. Strikers really luck out in this regard as doing damage is one of the easiest things to do. Every Leader class has a method of healing, but it's important that you actually use those abilities. Disclaimer: I am in no way saying you have to be the best possible at your role, I am only saying that you need to do what your party relies on you to do.

Jonas is playing a wizard specializing in single-target damage. When a wave of powerful minions nearly destroys the party, however, he realizes that he wasn't doing his job. He retrains a couple of his abilities for AoE damage, without compromising the core of his character and redeems himself by nuking the bulk of an orc hoard with a well-timed Fireball.

Jerkwad is playing the party's fighter. In battle, he charges the furthest enemy he can and bashes away, leaving the squishier characters vulnerable to attack. After their Leader falls for the third encounter in a row, the bravest member of the group confronts Jerkwad about being a Defender. Jerkwad arrogantly retorts that the Leader would be fine if he just knew how to heal every now and then.

Checking Your Alignment

4.0 Edition brought a lot of changes to D&D. One of those changes was a simplification of the alignment system. Unfortunately, the new system is far too simple and the most popular alignments have been removed. As part of continuing efforts to improve the fourth edition system, here is my interpretation of the 3.5 edition alignments:

Lawful Good
"I don't care how evil he is, we are not going to murder the king in cold blood."
Done Right: The Lawful Good character is dedicated to something or someone. This could be a set of ideals, like a religion, a personal code, like chivalry or Bushido, or it could be a person. If your armored knight is dedicated to protecting the disguised princess he travels with, he could very well be Lawful Good (If your armored knight is dedicated to protecting the disguised prince she travels with, I might just love you). You don't condone the chaotic actions of other party members, and you may challenge them over more excessive acts, but you recognize that you need to be able to work with them in order to succeed.

Done Wrong: This is the Lawful Good you're most familiar with. A bad Lawful Good character follows every law to the letter and refuses to make compromises for other party members. A bad LG character is an RP killer. Everything must go their way or they will refuse to do anything. They interact with a chip on their shoulder and a stick in their ass.

Neutral Good
"Sure there are laws against that, but we can bend the rules just this once."
Done Right: In many ways, "Neutral" is the most difficult word in this alignment system. As a Neutral Good character, you are honest and trustworthy and all that heroic stuff, but you see the laws/rules as having a little flex to them. You do still believe in the legitimacy of the laws, though, so don't think you can pass every chaotic act off as an exception. The balance of law and chaos may be a constant struggle within you, or it may just be your way of getting by. Either way, your existence is a display of careful restraint.

Done Wrong: The wrong way to be Neutral Good is to be uncommitted. Your actions are good, but they tend to be whatever strikes your fancy at the moment. Rather than balancing the Law-Chaos axis, you ignore it entirely. This is not a terrible way to play a character and it certainly won't bring down an entire game, but it does hamstring your character as far as development is concerned. It will be very difficult to decide how the campaign's big decisions effect the character if they've been an alignment flake.

Chaotic Good
"It's not 'theft,' per say. It's 'reallocation of resources.'"
Done Right: Chaotic Good is an "ends justify the means" kind of alignment. You believe that any law or tradition that gets in the way of your 'good' actions should be ignored at best or dismantled at worse. Most adventuring parties tend to be Chaotic Good in their beliefs and actions, particular when they decide to kill a corrupt king or other public figure without any kind of trial. You tend to be impulsive, unwilling or able to create long term plans and generally failing to consider the subtle effects your decision may have weeks or months down the line. Do you struggle against your chaotic nature or do you embrace it? Has it gotten you in trouble before?

Done Wrong: Honestly? It's really hard to screw up Chaotic Good. You do have to remember the "Good" part of it, though. On its own, Chaotic is not an excuse to stab innocents and burn down villages. It may not even be an excuse to murder the aforementioned king. A bad Chaotic Good character is the same as any other bad Chaotic character- chaotic to the point where it upsets game play.

Lawful Neutral
"This is how we've always done it."
Done Right: You are a follower of rules and traditions, no mater how morally questionable they may be. This may be due to a commitment to your family or your society's sense of honor, or it may be because you are a knight in service to a morally questionable society. Most Neutral characters still find Good more appealing than Evil, it just isn't as important to them. You also recognize that your teammates do not follow the sames rules as you. This will certainly lead to conflicts, but it is important for you to know why you are sticking with this group. What keeps you from just leaving them?

Done Wrong: You refuse to do anything that contradicts your code. No exceptions, no compromises. Every adventure consists of you attempting to force your teammates into your belief system and restricting their actions. A player like this is arguably worse than the Lawful Good one. A Lawful Neutral character's code of conduct may include things that the party cannot afford to do, such as executing all criminals. If you've got a character who's trying to kill the rogue every time there's an important piece of information to steal, you've more than likely got a dead game.

True Neutral
"It is most important that we keep our options open."
Done Right: True Neutral (or, more hilariously, "Neutral Neutral") is the favored alignment of Druids and they actually provide an excellent way of explaining it. Your actions are motivated by something that transcends Good and Evil/Chaos and Law. Nature is a perfect example: wild yet structured and harsh but gentle. Your actions always serve this greater purpose, yet your actions seem complete erratic to anyone who only sees in terms of the two dimensional system. You may be the wrath of a storm one second and the warth of the sun the next. What's important is that you know why you're doing these things. No one else needs to know.

Done Wrong: In fourth edition, True Neutral is renamed "unaligned." That's an excellent way to describe the wrong way to play the alignment. Your character is a hollow thing with an all-consuming apathy to the ways of the universe. But alignment is about what you do as well as what you say, so a truly "Unaligned" character would have to never to anything that was too Good or too Evil. Honestly, they'd have to never really do anything at all. How boring is that

Chaotic Neutral
"Is that a button? I MUST PUSH IT!"
Done Right: In a True Neutral alignment, the character is devoted to a greater concept which determines their actions. In Chaotic Neutral, that greater power is yourself. You are a paragon of impulsiveness and your only concern is your personal wants and needs. You honor deals and contracts as long as you feel like it and you work with your team because it serves your purposes. Its important for you to know what your long-term goals are if you want to play this alignment. The sheer possibilities of a Chaotic Neutral character can make it easy to just dick around with no real reason for existing.

Done Wrong: You do whatever you want with no regard for anything, especially your fellow adventurers. You execute important prisoners and let villains escape simply because "it's what my character would do." Other players may find you amusing at first, but they'll soon grow sick of you screwing up everything they try to plan.

Lawful Evil
"All citizens will report to the palace for the mandatory 'listen to me rant' seminar."
Done Right: A villain who rules with an iron fist is the most obvious example of Lawful Evil. People and societies of this alignment use their power to oppress those below themselves. Control is one of the most important aspects of Lawful Evil; it represents a person or system which is highly regimented according to traditions, personal code, or the whims of a tyrant. Oppression is often a result of this, but it is not a defining characteristic. The Kobolds live in Lawful Evil societies that have strict hierarchies, but are not necessarily oppressive to to even the lowest on the social ladder.

Done Wrong: As with most Evil characters, the worst thing you can do with a Lawful Evil villain is fail to explain why he's doing whatever he's doing. If the Evil king is a tyrant just because he feels like it, its hard to imagine why his people haven't overthrown him yet. A bad Lawful Evil character or society has no traditions or personal codes defining their lives and seems to be oppressive simply because the quest calls for it.

Neutral Evil
"Some days are 'Oppress the Innocent' days. Today's more of a 'Blow Stuff Up' day."
Done Right: A villain of this alignment is an average kind of Evil. They aren't the head of a sinister organization and they don't have a maddening desire to crust everything that opposes them. In some ways, they are the most dangerous villains; not personal code to exploit and still level-headed enough to operate behind the scenes and keep numerous allies. Because a Neutral Evil character has no distinct leanings towards Chaos or Law, they are able to ally with a wider array of other people and races.

Done Wrong: Bad neutral Evil characters are like Goombas: They come at you in endless, indistinct waves and killing enough of them in a row nets you a "1UP." Each Neutral Evil character, race, or society is exactly the same; drudging through life in their Evil ways and existing only as quest fodder.

Chaotic Evil
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!"
Done Right: Chaotic Evil villains can be terrifying if they get enough power. Something or someone has convinced them that the only way to fix/control/get revenge on the world is to destroy it in its current form. These villains eat, sleep, and breathe destruction (The latter being literal in the case of Dragons). Players will probably be left with no choice but to put them down... unless they can figure out what set them off and cure/right the wrongs. Its important to know why your character is Chaotic Evil: What do they want, why do they want it, and how do they plan to get it?

Done Wrong: If you don't know why a villain is Chaotic Evil, he's just destroying stuff because he can. This actually isn't a terrible thing, it just limits the player's role-playing options. But maybe that's something you're doing on purpose- maybe the villain is too far gone and the party must deal with the idea that the only way to stop them is to kill them. Just don't pull that every time.

Taking Death Like a Hero

A lot of really awesome things are possible in a game of DnD. Unfortunately, a lot of not so awesome things are also possible. Among those not so awesome things is the always looming threat of character death. It is a lot more difficult to be outright killed in fourth edition (and it becomes progressively less of a threat as you level), it can still happen. Its happened to me twice, in fact. If you want to be a good player, you need to be prepared to lose a character and not throw a fit over it.

Puck Quickblade (Revenant Gnome Rogue)
Puck was an undead Gnome with an unhealthy love of stabbing enemies repeatedly. I suppose he technically died twice, but the first time was planned. A teammate discovered Puck had been hired to kill him and reacted by pushing him off the flying ship the party was using to travel. Puck returned in the next town, now significantly more undead than before.

Puck's real death came at the end of the encounter. We were fighting an Eladrin mage (who was actually a re-skinned beholder, but details) and Puck had taken a few hits. This meant he was bloodied when he took a death ray to the face. No big deal though, three chances to throw off the effect before you die. First turn came and went and Puck failed his throw. The mage attempted to run, but Puck unleased another deadly attack on his second turn before failing another save. On the third turn, the mage had flown to an adjacent platform. Puck, unphased, made a flying leap at her, critically hit (granting him a barrage of attacks) and then failed his last saving throw and died.

Kriv Medresh (Dragonborn Cleric)

More recently, I was playing a foul-mouthed dragonborn named Kriv Medresh. Living in a world completely overrun by undead, Kriv's focus on radiant damage had the potential to be absolutely disgusting. He hated undead and made to attempt to spare any of them (including a Revenant party member who had the misfortune of constantly being in his Turn Undead).

Kriv's demise came as a shock to all of us (including the DM). We were in what we thought was an easy encounter (eliminating a pair of vampires who had been chasing us), when the DM discovered that one of them was able to force its enemies to attack their allies at will. Suddenly, everyone was turning on the source of radiant damage and heals. Kriv went down, but rolled a 20 on his saving throw the next turn, allowing him to spend a healing surge. He might have survived if not for the fact that we had a barbarian in the party. A barbarian who crit. The resulting attacks liberated Kriv of his hit points and his head.

And so they died...
Once your character has joined the ranks of the dearly departed, what is there for you as a player to do? Here are a few handy tips:

Keep it in Perspective: Remember, you lost a fictional character to a fictional death. Sure, it sucks that all that work is in the crapper, but its not like you lost a friend, family member, or even pet. An hour or so in the character builder will get you right back into the game.

You Only Have to Change what You Want: If you really liked your character, there's nothing stopping an identical character (with the same name, even) from showing up the next time the group gets a breather. It could be a random new guy or it could be a family member (Edward Coolguy the 37th).

Look on the Bright Side: Now that your character is dead, its a great time to try something new. You can build a character that is a class or race that you've never used before. You can test out a concept that you thought of/stole.

Roleplay the Hell Out of it: Your new character can also have a connection to your old one. Beyond being just a friend or family member to the original, they can also swear an oath to avenge their death. Or maybe they really hated the late bastard and are determined to get them back... even if it means chasing their departed soul into the underworld.

What's in a Number?

In my discussions of the various player classes I have frequently brought up the differences between the old 3.5 edition and the new 4.0 edition. I know this debate has pretty much sunk to to "squabbling unbernerd" level, but I wanted to share my opinions on the matter. The short answer:

"3.5 has much more space for creativity; the sheer number of options available to players and DMs alike ensure that whatever you want to do is possible. 4.0, on the other hand, is actually playable for anyone who hasn't memorized the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide."

The long answer:

Alright, I have a simple analogy to demonstrate the two editions: 3.5 is a PC and 4.0 is a Mac. Like a PC, 3.5 edition operated with most of its code laid bare. It had numerous supplements, all of which were easily compatible with the main system and allowed users an awe-inspiring level of customization. However, if you were not someone who understood the workings of the system, it was just lines and lines of text with no real meaning. Like a Mac, 4.0 is centered around user-friendliness. Instead of chunks of text, you have these app-like blocks for powers and monster stats. Although you are given a wide variety of tools to tweak your game, creating elements from scratch is all but impossible. To further illustrate my point, here are four examples of how these two systems differ:

Example One: Character Creation
3.5: Building a character in 3.5 edition was a very involved process. Picking skills alone could take upwards of fifteen minutes (more on that later). The standard method of determining you statistics was to roll four d6s and pull out the lowest die. This, of course, meant that some characters could be absolute monsters while others struggled to do much of anything. This system obviously had the potential to be rather unfair but you missed that somehow when your fighter was sitting on two eighteens, a seventeen, and three fifteens. Picking your class was relatively easy, though. As long as your party had a Wizard and someone with access to healing, you were all set.

4.0: Building a character in 4.0 edition is a little like playing with Legos. Skills are an afterthought at best (again, later). The standard method of stat creation is a point buy, but the handbook provides you with every possible spread. Picking your stats is just a matter of selection the scores you want and plugging them into place. Every character is determined by this system and so every character has an equal level of power (at least, in their scores). Party building is more of chore now, however. Now its not just healing and game-breaking you have to worry about; there are four roles that should be filled. No matter how awesome you character is, you may have to scrap it to make sure someone's actually healing in your party.

Example Two: Skills
3.5: By my count, there are forty seven unique skills in the Player's Handbook for 3.5 edition and I know that there were a few books that added even more. The skills were really a separate system from your weapons and spells. Sure, they all used the same basic rolls, but there was something very different about missing with a sword vs not seeing the key on the far wall.
The skill selection was vast and varied and included the classic "find loot set:" Spot, Listen, and Search, as well as the endless train of Knowledge skills, and the oddballs like Use Rope. Anything your character wanted to do could be linked to a skill, making success or failure an essential part of 3.5 adventuring.

4.0: There are only seventeen skills in the Player's Handbook and none of the books in this edition add any more. This stunned collection hinders skill checks from being any more involved than an occasional lackluster roll. It still feels different to be rolling your attacks vs rolling your skill check; the attacks feel like they actually matter whereas the skill are more something fun, but largely inconsequential. Your pallet of skill options has been boiled down to its absolute minimum. "Perception" has replaced "spot," "search," and "listen." "Thievery" has not only replaced "steal" but also "open lock." "Use rope" has been left completely in the cold along with "craft" and "preform." In fact, it seems like every skill that could not be directly used in combat was erased.

Example Three: Combat
3.5: Combat was a true struggle for survival in 3.5 edition. Your health was low and your enemies' damage output was high. Monsters could stun lock you round after round or hand you one of the infamous "save or die" effects. Doing epic things was possible, but you would pay if it failed. In 3.5 edition, the deck was stacked against players in combat. The hardest part about being a DM was a mix of keeping track of all the monsters' abilities, keeping the encounter a fun challenge, and not killing your party.

4.0: Combat is a whole lot of showing off in 4.0. Don't get me wrong, a skilled DM can still challenge a party, its just that the whole system is centered around pulling ridiculous and improbable stunts. Just take a look at some of the power names I pulled out in my awesome classes posts and imagine what using them must look like. Furthermore, the monsters have all been tamed quite a bit. There are now much stricter guidelines for assembling balanced encounters and any party with a decent idea of what they are doing (or even one or two members that do) can coast through these encounters. Also, there are no more "save or die" effects."

Example Four: Noncombat
3.5: Thanks to the complex skill system mentioned earlier, 3.5 edition remains fun and engaging even when there's nothing to stab. Chatting to a shifty character is a roll vs roll smack down as your Insight checks go up against their Bluff. Or maybe its the other way around; maybe you're trying to convince the town guard that your are not, in fact, the travelers they are looking for. Either way, you can never be sure how the dice will turn. On the more dangerous side of noncombat, the Rogue was one of the only classes to even have the option to disable a trap. If your party was missing the essential stabby element, good luck.

4.0: N/A

Alright, that's an exaggeration. A small exaggeration, but an exaggeration nonetheless. 4.0 does have a noncombat element to it, it just looks exactly like combat. When attempting to bluff or avoid being bluffed, the receiving party is more than likely using their passive insight. The passive score is more like a glorified second will defense than anything else, making a bluff check more like a bluff attack vs insight. You can still disable traps and participate in the king's war council; now those event are handled in a "skill challenge." A skill challenge is set up exactly like combat, with play proceeding in rounds and each player choose one skill attack on their turn. This isn't to say that its a bad system, only that it can be very unsatisfying for anyone who isn't a hack-and-slasher.

Striking Awesome(ly)

(Oh boy, Strikers. This list is going to be hard. No matter where I place these eight classes, someone is going to be offended. Use the comment box to argue why I'm wrong.)

The Striker is, in my experience, the most popular role for players to fill and its easy to see why; Controllers have to deal with clusters of enemies, Defenders have to protect squishies, and Leaders have to make sure no one dies. But the Striker only has to worry about picking an enemy and making its HP total zero. Its an easy job, but also very important. After all, a dead monster is the second best kind of monster (The best kind is, of course, a pet monster). What makes the Striker awesome? It's not just the damage, it's how you dish it out. Each Striker has its own unique way of bringing down their foes, be it the artful dexterity of the Rogue or the raw smashy-smash of the Barbarian. All Strikers are awesome, some just happen to be a little more awesomer than others.

Number Eight: The Sorcerer

"Cantrips? I'm sorry, I'm more of a 'blow stuff up' kind of mage."

The Sorcerer is an old favorite of mine from 3.5 edition. Back then, they were universally reviled because of their notoriously unstable connection to magic. People were excited to see the local Wizard, but a trip to the local Sorcerer usually ended in head-on-fire. In 4.0, the Sorcerer is judged much more on his or her individual merits rather than some blanket understanding of them or their powers. The Sorcerer's source of power is extremely customizable as well. Your powers can come from a dragon, a storm, the stars, or the power of RAW CHAOS.

But it gets better: When the Seeker made its infamous decision to become not fully Controller, yet not fully Striker, it shared its notes with the Sorcerer. Unlike that primal archer, however, the Sorcerer is able to stride that line with confidence. Your extra damage comes in the form of your secondary ability modifier which is added to all of your arcane damage rolls. In addition, the Sorcerer is surprisingly good at Controller-esc blasts and bursts. If its clustered in a room, you can probably make it dead. If you choose Chaos Magic, you can do so while cackling manically about TRUE POWER!

Awesome Powers: Chaos Bolt, Lightning Cuts, Winds of Change, Overpowering Lightning, Cosmic Vengeance

Number Seven: The Warlock

"CRAAAAAWLING IN MY SKIIIIIIN, I CAN NOT REGAIN THESE HIT POINTS!"

The Warlock is probably the most misunderstood of the Strikers. Sure, they made a deal with a powerful Nature Spirit/Demon/Lovecraftian Horror but that doesn't make them evil. So what if all their powers call upon the power of slumbering monstrosities bent upon bringing down the natural order. That doesn't mean they can't work in a team, or fight for truth, or hang out sometime... guys? Flavor wise, the Warlock is pretty damn sweet. Its just a shame that their powers are a little... lacking in the umph department.

But it gets better: The Warlock's curse is one of the cooler damage mechanics in 4.0. Not only do you get a bonus to damage that lasts until the end of the encounter, you also get a neat little bonus each time a cursed enemy bites the big one. After a few rounds of cursing, you can put out a lot of damage to everyone in the room. It does raise the question as to why, upon seeing you standing on top of a pile of your broken enemies praising Cthulhu, your party doesn't slip out the back door.

Awesome Powers: Eldritch Blast, Your Delicious Weakness, Thief of Five Fates, Banish to the Void, Caiphon's Abominable Melody

Number Six: The Assassin

"Now you see me, now you're dead."

The Assassin has been significantly changed since its days as an Evil-only prestige class in the 3.5 edition Dungeon Master's Guide. For one thing, you can no longer watch someone for three rounds and then turboshank them dead. Now, the Assassin traffics in shadows, a fact that would prompt more emo-kid jokes if I hadn't used them all on the Warlock. The Assassin's power comes from The Raven Queen, patron deity of brooding antiheroes, and oh man does this guy everyone's least favorite fan character. The Assassin can not only create weapons from shadow, but can also jump inside and/or steal another creature's shadow.

But it gets better: The Assassin's Shroud is one of the more interesting extra damage abilities. Normally, you use a free action to put one shroud on one creature (some powers/paths/destinies let you do more) to a maximum of four shrouds on a single target. When you attack, you decide if you will invoke your shrouds on the target. If you hit, you roll the damage for your shrouds. If you miss, however, you roll the damage for all but one of your shrouds. That's right, even when you miss you can still deal damage. It makes sense though, any ruthless killer worth his salt isn't going to let a silly thing like a bad swing keep him from fulfilling his contract.

Awesome Powers: Inescapable Blade, Nightshade's Kiss, Black Garrote, Ambush from Thin Air, Intent to Murder

Number Five: The Monk

"Weapons? What sort of namby-pamby nonsense is that?"

The Monk has always kicked ass. In 3.5, your flurry of blows was a pummeling maelstrom of hurt (followed by a few inevitable misses). In new version 4.0, the Monk is the most amazingly mobile Striker ever. All of your powers are split into two parts: how you hit them and how you get there. The Monk is the only Striker who can spot an enemy on the other side of the room, run Prince of Persia style across a wall, and then land on their head without a series of skill checks and some hasty bargaining with the DM.

But it gets better: Flurry of Blows is back and it's more reliable than ever. No more rolling thirty thousand attacks, now people around you just take damage from your thrashing limbs of fury. Flurry of blows is a free action whenever you hit an enemy and it just does damage, no questions asked. As you level, you can take powers, feats, and equipment that make that damage rather sizable. Nothing says "Monk" quite as well as doing a back-flip to kick someone in the face and then knocking out the two guys next to him.

Awesome Powers: Crane's Wings, Springing Drake Assault, Finishing Move, Storms Fall without Warning, Titan's Mighty Grasp

Number Four: The Avenger

"Foolish monster, now I will show you my true power! OATH OF THE FINAL DUEL!"

The Avenger is the last in the lineup of awesome divine classes (and the Runepriest), and oh boy is it a good one. Imagine a cross between the Paladin and the Barbarian in robes with access to a wide variety of stabbies and smashies. You are a holy crusader who has become somewhat estranged from the rest of their deity's church. The estrangement apparently turns you into some kind of anime warrior from Hell. You excel at moving across the battlefield and singling out foes, unless you're a Pursuing Avenger. In that case, your ability to traverse combat has long surpassed the limitations of the term "excel" as well as the limitations of most interpretations of land speed.

But it gets better: Avengers get extra damage in a unique way. Unlike other Strikers, the Avenger does not have extra damage built into their powers or through some almighty class feature, they get by being more accurate with weapons (through an almighty class feature). Oath of Enmity lets you single out a foe and roll two d20s instead of the usual boring one. As a result, the Avenger hits twice as often and crits twice as often. When the Avenger makes an oath against you, two things are certain: you will die and it will hurt. Also, the Avenger has a level one daily called, "Oath of the Final Duel." That's so anime it isn't funny.

Awesome Powers: Overwhelming Strike, Oath of the Final Duel, Dismiss the Unworthy, Scatter to the Astral Winds, Cataclysmic Duel

Number Three: The Barbarian

“Me smash you like me smash silly pronoun rules!”

The Barbarian has come a long way since 3.5 edition, and I don’t mean that in the best way. His iconic rages are no long the massive stat boosters they once were, and that also means the hilarious period of exhaustion following each combat is gone. In 4.0, the rages have become attacks that have a persistent effect that lasts for the rest of the encounter. While this does completely reflavor the Barbarian’s bread and butter, it does also make him the one class that can (and should) blow daily powers before the inevitable “final boss” of the day. The Barbarian isn’t exactly the rampaging juggernaut he once was, but he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

But it gets better: The Barbarian is too busy beating the snot out of enemies to deal with some sort of extra damage mechanic, so Wizards wisely built all of his extra damage into his attacks. This makes him a little extra dependant on actually connecting with his attacks, sure, but he’s the freaking Barbarian. You can’t possibly expect finesse from the guy whose axe is the same size as the thing he’s hitting with it. Oh, and there’s Rampage. This nifty little feature congratulates you for scoring a critical hit and suggests you take another swing while you’re at it. Nothing says “Barbarian” quite like never stopping hitting ever.

Awesome Powers: Devastating Strike, Reckless Rampage, Rage of the Death Spirit, Rampaging Dragon Strike, Rage of the Thundering Rhino

Number Two: The Rogue

“Knock knock. SNEAK ATTACK! Oh wait; I was supposed to wait for your answer, wasn’t I?”

The Rogue is the iconic Striker. In every RPG since the dawn of time, there has always been that class that focuses around hiding in the corner until your enemy is distracted before cart wheeling in and dealing of so much damage to the poor slobs. No matter how much D&D changes, the Rogue remains relatively unchanged: she has a dagger and, oh hey! Would you like to see a magic trick? The Rogue can’t traverse the battlefield quite like the Avenger, and no one jumps like the Monk, but she’s still a slippery one. If you ever lose sight of the Rogue in combat, it’s safe to assume that she’s behind you and that you’re about to get hit with a whole lot of…

But it gets better: Sneak attack. Yes, Clerics gotta heal, Barbarians gotta rage, and Rogues gotta stab you in the back. A sneak attack in 4.0 is similar to being stuck in the back by a semi-truck. For the low, low price of one feat, you too can deal 2d8 extra damage every time you hit with combat advantage. Keep in mind that you are a Rogue, so anytime you attack without combat advantage, you and your party have failed. Also, thanks to Rogue Weapon Talent, a Rogue with a dagger basically never misses. Stack on that the “Daggermaster” paragon path and your mere presence will make that nasty mage (Beholder?) start writing her will.

Awesome Power: Sly Flourish, Flamboyant Strike, Not Worth My Time, Perfect Sniper, Assassin’s Point

Number One: The Ranger

“Feel that? It’s the eyes of the ranger. They’re upon you.”

It is a well established fact that anyone with the occupation “Ranger” is a certified badass. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s think of a few Rangers… There’s the Power Rangers, they were cool (if racist and sexist)… There’s that Aragon dude from Lord of the Rings, he did some cool stuff… And there’s that guy, what’s his name? Isn’t it something like CHUCK MOTHER-FREAKING NORRIS? Now you, too can share in the glorious heritage of Ranger baddassery. The best thing about the Ranger is the wide variety of weapons you can use. You can shoot arrows forever, you can duel wield your favorite one-handed weapon, or you can has bear. In 3.5 edition, you could do all of these things at the same time, but 4.0 decided to try and balance the Ranger a little. It failed.

But it gets better: Well, not better than Chuck Norris. I kinda started with my strongest argument. Hunter’s Quarry used to involve picking which specific monster types you were good at killing and gaining some pretty impressive bonuses against them. Now you just pick the closest thing to you and relieving it of its hit points in an endless stream of attacks. The Ranger hands out damage like its candy and, for some reason, the monsters all stand there expecting sweets while completely ignoring the massive amount of blood loss they suffer. Did I mention they can pall around with a bear? Or that said bear deals as much damage as a Waraxe? Seriously, the Ranger is one awesomely cool dude.

Awesome Powers: Twin Strike, Beast Latch, Dire Bear Maul, Death Rend, Ultimate Confrontation

Leading Awesome

Lets talk Leaders. They are the heart of the party; keeping the Controllers controlling, the Defenders defending, and the Strikers striking. Leaders are more than just healbots, however. Good Leaders don't just keep their buddies alive, they make them better. What makes the Leader awesome? During battle, you are command central. The Defender keeps you and the Controller safe while the Striker(s) relies on your powers to keep them kicking ass.

Number Seven: The Runepriest
"I have a hammer... And WORDS!"
So far, I think I've done a good job of explaining the good points of each class. I've tried really hard to sell even the classes I don't like or understand (ie: The Invoker and The Warden). This will be the only time I do it, but I have to cop out on the Runepriest. I just don't understand the class at all. Most importantly, I don't understand why. The Runepriest appears to simply be a more complex Cleric. Part of the beauty of the Cleric is its relative simplicity. Why in the world would you want to mess with that?

But it gets... better?: Sure, the Rune States let you swap between offensive and defensive focuses. Plus, you're weapon-based which is cool. Still, the warpriest build for the Cleric does both without the complexity of swapping states. The Runepriest has two builds on top of the two rune states and I have to ask "why?" The whole class makes no sense to me. If you play one or if you're fond of it, let me know in the comments. I'm willing to try to understand.

Awesome Powers: Word of Diminishment, Beacon of Vengeance, Gathering Storm Intonation, Word of Healing Assault, Brand of Death's Gate

Number Six: The Shaman
"Dude, stop panicking. The ghost bear just wants to heal you."
The Shaman is an interesting Leader. Their powers call to the spirit world to bring death to their enemies and sweet buffs to their allies. They're similar to the Druid in their execution, although they do lack the awesome "I'm a bear now, bioch" feature. They're protectors of the natural world, like all members of the Primal power source (except, perhaps the Barbarian. Who knows what that lunatic's doing?).

But it gets better: Spirit companion. Seriously, the thing is amazing. Not only does it give you an alternate origin square for many of your abilities, it functions as a pseudo-tank with the ability to hamper opponents who attempt to just stroll on by. Not only that, but each type of spirit companion has its own attack (Zoinks, Scoob!). One increases damage, one increases healing, and another allows your ranged character to attack forever. The Shaman doesn't just heal, it organizes the party into a more effective engine of punishment.

Awesome Powers: Spirit of the Tempest, Massive Companion, Explosive Sacrifice, Mighty Spirit Leap, Spirit of Bedlam
Number Five: The Ardent
"Why do you all have to be so EMOTIONAL!"
The Ardent lead a troubled childhood, filled with high school rejections and bad poetry. To make matters worse, the Ardent also developed the gift of empathy to ensure that all those around it would also be wracked with the pangs of angst. The Ardent's abilities are a portfolio of fun flavor; inspiring your allies with good vibrations while crushing your foes with depression. Unlike the other member of the Psionic power source, however, they don't tend to explode people's brains that much. Upsetting, I know. Still, there's something great about making your foes relive their awkward teenage years before introducing them to the business end of ole' stabby.

But it get better: An Ardent heal doesn't just heal what ails you. Depending on the mantle your brain-priest has chosen, you may also be getting a boost to attack rolls or defenses or speed (yes, speed). Also, while some healers are content to stand behind the fray and casually toss spells over their melee friends, the Ardent simply wades into combat. Every Ardent is armed with an encounter power that goes off when they become bloodied. This is a leader who likes to play dangerously.

Awesome Powers: Ire Strike, Karmic Bonds, Disbelieve Danger, Falling Sky, Image of Doom

Number Four: The Bard
"I wrote a song! It goes, Falalalala lala you're dead!"
In 3.5 the Bard was an especially interesting class. The "Bardic Knowledge" class feature ensured that you knew basically anything and everything and your spell selection could be excellent for out of combat problems. Once combat began, however, things got... challenging. In fourth edition, where everything is about combat (you can expect a future post on that topic), something had to change. The Bard is now quite capable in combat and also one of the best classes when it comes to situations that can't be solved with weapons.

But it gets better: The Bard is great no matter how you build it. You can focus on movement, temporary hit points, or some serious debuffs. In addition, you can choose between melee or ranged weapon attacks or you can use an implement. The Bard's heal is pretty standard with a little extra love based on your build. But perhaps the greatest thing about being the Bard is that you're, well, the Bard. No other class has as much reason to make terrible puns, sing awful songs about other party members, and hum the melody to the latest pop disaster all night.

Awesome Powers: Vicious Mockery, Unicorn's Charge, Distracting Shout, Mind Game, Saga of Foretold Doom

Number Three: The Artificer
"Yeah, that's a nice axe. But it should have more 'on fire,' don't you think?"
The Artificer is the king of buffing. Its heals aren't the best, but it has an amazing ability to improve the defenses and the damage output of its allies. Its a little like the gadget guy every good spy has; happily tinkering away at weapons and armor before watching grumpily as the hero smashes them to bits. The Artificer is happy to do the work, however; having a huge warrior as a buddy is the best way to keep the Kobolds from shoving him into a locker. And if that means busting out the chemistry set to brew your buddies some "healing infusion," so be it!

But it gets better: If the Artificer ever finds itself without allies, it can simply make a few! Many of this tech-head's powers create little machines to run about the battlefield. These devices are, for the most part, exactly like tiny little Artificers. They give bonuses to attack and defense and provide crappy heals. If your foes aren't running in fear from your army of tiny chatter-teeth, it might be time to bust out Magic Weapon. This attack is the ultimate power of the Artificer and its an at will. Why boost only an attack or damage roll, when you can crank up both? Did you miss the attack? That's alright, Magic Weapon gives the same bonus whether the attack hits or misses (apparently).

Awesome Powers: Aggravating Force, Dancing Weapon, Unstable Infusion, Living Caltrop Swarm, Tactical Detonation

Number Two: The Cleric
"Praise Kord from whom all smashings flow. He'll kick your ass to the Plane Below..."
The Cleric is your traditional healer. If you need a powerful dose of HP, he's the best man for the job. He can also do some solid buffing, of course, but the Cleric shines when your HP total needs raising. Even better, the Cleric can either go the traditional white mage route and stand in the back slinging spells, or you can pick up a melee weapon and start bashing in some heads. Either way, you can expect to do plenty of radiant damage.

But it gets better: The Cleric is extremely well supported when it comes to feats, paragon paths, and powers. Its really easy to build exactly the cleric you want. Sure, there's melee and implement support, but there's also a splash of support for bow-wielding Clerics. There's even support for a Cleric that does no damage in favor of really potent healing (Pacifist Healer, which will be featured in a planned post about Awesome Builds).

Awesome Powers: Gaze of Defiance, Divine Juggernaut, Destined Duel, Scourge of the Unworthy, Breath of the Stars

Number One: The Warlord
"You call that an attack? Let me show you how me and the boys did it during the war..."
If you're asking, "Why is the Warlord at the top of this list?" you're asking the wrong question. The right question is, "Why haven't I ever played a Warlord?" If you've ever been a Warlord, or just been in a party led by one, you know why he's here. Bards can sing, Ardents can screw with emotions, and Runepriests can suck, but only the Warlord can deliver this much awesome in a leadership package. Sure, Clerics can pump out more healing per ability, but only the Warlord has a feat that allows him to use his healing power once more per encounter. That means that after sixteenth level, you can heal four times per encounter.

But it gets better: The Warlord isn't really concerned with healing, however. He's a combat leader and he wants to make sure you hit harder, better, and more often. He hands out basic attacks like an "End of Days" Christian hands out pamphlets in a New York subway. Unlike Mr. Doom and Gloom, however, everyone loves what the Warlord is pedaling. Add into that the fact that this leader is actually a reasonably capable combatant on his own and you have a beast of a team captain. Sure, you could also hand him a bow, but what's the fun in that? If I'm playing a grizzled veteran of some unnamed war, I want him smashing stuff up close and personal.

Awesome Powers: Brash Assault, Flattening Charge, Knock Them Down, Warlord's Doom, Stand Invincible