The D&D Essential build of the Cleric is a Warpriest, a slightly more specialised man of god (any god, though only those with storm and sun domains are represented here) who focuses on battle and the domains of his deity. The PHB Cleric builds are more generalist in their Divine approach; they select a patron deity but it’s entirely optional whether they take Feats or Powers relating to their god. In contrast, the Warpriest gains Domain Features right from the start. These decide your Cleric’s starting At-will, Encounter and Utility Powers with only the Warpriest’s Daily Power being a player choice.

This is a Good Thing for new players to the game as it helps them build a Cleric tailored toward a specific deity quickly and easily, though a more experienced gamer will chaff at the narrow set of choices he can make. There’s nothing to say a Cleric has to be built this way, of course – if you want to play a Cleric there’s no shortage of ways to build one in 4e D&D. The Essentials line just provides one method, and it’s a darned fine one for new players at that.

The other differences between any other 4e Cleric and an Essentials Warpriest are that they gain proficiency in shields, +1 Fort and +1 Will rather than a straight +2 bonus to Will, but don’t appear to gain Divine Fortune, Healer’s Lore or Ritual Casting. That’s a fair swap out for their Domain Features (especially as they gain a Utility Power at 1st level), and reflects that they are geared more toward combat and less toward healing than your average cleric.

As with the other builds, creating a Cleric in a similar style using only the PHB means he has to be Human to account for the “new” features. Let’s create him as a Battle Cleric of Kord. He is a follower of D&D’s resident God of Storms and Battle, and an all round card carrying member of the Thor lookalike club. Oh yeah!

For his Trained skills we pick Diplomacy, Heal, History, Insight and Religion. I imagine he comes from the “he who shouts loudest shouts last” school of Diplomatic relations, and his knowledge of History comes from ancient Skald’s tales told late at night around a roaring fire. For his Feats we pick Kord’s Favour and Weapon Proficiency (Warhammer). I mentioned Thor, right?

When it comes to Powers, this is a Cleric who wades into battle alongside the Fighters rather than stand back and let his deity do all the work. With the Righteous Brand and Priest’s Shield At-wills, supplemented by the ever useful Lance of Faith (a bolt of single lightning from above) he is a worthy adversary  on the battlefield. Add the Wrathful Thunder Encounter and Cascade of Light (a BIG lightning bolt!) Daily Powers and his image as a crusading follower of a storm god is sealed.

For his equipment we give him an Adventurer’s Kit, Chainmail armour, Ritualbook (a bag of runestones) and a Warhammer (which he wields two-handed). For his Rituals he has Gentle Repose and Brew Potions Mead.

We’re done.

DO NOT MESS WITH BADASS CLERIC OF BADASS STORM GOD
THANK YOU 

Here’s the pdf and dnd4e character sheet for Olaf Olegsson, loyal Battle Cleric of Kord and an ideal right hand man any time you need to start a bar fight.

What I’ve learned from creating these characters is that the D&D Essentials line is not 4.5e. It’s a fresh look at what we have now through gentler eyes. The rules are presented in a less Powers intensive manner and that helps the role-playing aspect of the game truly shine through. As I’ve said before, this is the same rules, writ better.

The builds for each character class are slightly more ambitious than the ones we have seen so far. Rather than say “take, this, this and that feature and you end up with this build” they explicitly swap out one or more class features for something else. That’s more akin to a 2nd Edition AD&D Kit, and a small evolutionary shift from what we’ve seen before in 4e but certainly nothing revolutionary or game-changing. The Essential Mage build of the Wizard can stand right aside any other Wizard in the game and be considered rules-equal. This is a direction I really like that they’ve taken and hope we see campaign-specific builds being created in the future. I’d love to see builds for Dark Sun Wizards, Eberron Wizards and a Forgotten Realms Wizard that all reflect their different styles in some minor way.

When you put together the build options (both these and the classic ones), Background Options, the freedom to choose your own Powers, multi-class Feats, the Hybrid classes and themes introduced with Dark Sun, Fourth Edition really is the best, most flexible version of D&D there is.

D&D Essentials is just one more player friendly step along the way.

Next: The “Essential” Rogue

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But first, I’m going to go off on a small tangent and explain why I’m purposefully restricting this to options from the PHB. It would, after all, be easier to reproduce the Essentials builds with more options and features to work with. The point though is to recreate something which is easier both to build and use at the table, and that means creating a character where a new players doesn’t need to hunt through a plethora of books to find what they need. It also doesn’t assume the player has a D&D Insider account or even access to one. A new gamer with a copy of the PHB or an old schooler who (like me) favours the Dead Tree format should be able to put together these builds right at home.

Back to the Mage.

This is a straightforward build for the Wizard Class which loses its reliance on implements but gains specialization in one (or more with Feats, presumably) schools of magic. It looks like Arcane Implement Mastery (Orb of Imposition, Staff of Defense and Wand of Accuracy) has been swapped out for the Apprentice Mage feature instead which gives some kind of bonus when casting spells specific to your school. The article doesn’t go into detail about the three school specialities provided (Enchantment, Evocation and Illusion) but I’d expect them to confer bonuses similar to those given by the Implement Mastery features.

Aside from that, the only other change is that the Mage gains Magic Missile automatically as a free bonus spell. I’m still on the fence regarding the updated changes (the player in me loves it, but my inner GM suspects it is open to abuse) but I do like the idea that trained Mages (Magi?) all learn this classic spell as part of their basic training.

As with the Fighter, this is a change which requires that our “Essentials” Wizard is built as a Human in order to gain the free At-will. For the sake of simplicity, let’s make him a master of Evocation, a blasty mage whose spells are all designed to do as much damage and make a much noise all possible. That’s a character which should suit any player new to the game!

We’ll start with a War Wizard build with Wand of Accuracy as his Arcane Implement Mastery. This gives a bonus equal to your DEX modifier to a single attack roll once per encounter when wielding a wand. I expect that the Evocation Apprentice bonus will be pretty much the same, but only be usable when casting Evocation spells instead.

For our studious and eager to please student Mage, I’ll give him Arcana, Diplomacy, History, Nature and Religion as his Trained skills and Human Perseverance and Armour Proficiency (Leather) as his feats. This apprentice is determined not to let anything get him down, and is smart enough to know the value of improved protection when out in the wild.

It’s annoying that all of the spells didn’t have the D&D schools as keywords right from the start. I expect that will be the subject of another Errata Update at a later date. For our Evocation Mage though, we take the compulsory Magic Missile along with Scorching Burst and Ray of Frost. Our Evocation specialist isn’t exactly short-changed when it comes to At-will blasty spells. An Illusionist or Enchanter who wanted to use only the PHB will have to reskin the powers to suit. Perhaps the Cloud of Daggers is all in the mind or Thunderwave is an intense wave of pain.

For our Encounter and Daily spells we’ll take Force Orb and Acid Arrow with Flaming Sphere in the Spellbook. It’s not entirely clear from the article whether the Mage gains a bonus Daily Spell at first level. This may be part of the Apprentice Mage benefit or be dropped as the balancing factor for gaining Magic Missile for free. If that’s the case it’s in keeping with these Essentials builds providing more flexibility but slightly less power overall.

For his first quest outside the cloistered halls of his Wizarding Academy our Apprentice Mage is equipped with an Adventurer’s Kit, Spellbook, Leather Armour, Dagger and Wand. For his starting Rituals we choose Brew Potion, Magic Mouth and Tenser’s Floating Disk to reflect his classroom learning.

Resisting the urge to call him Larry Trotter, here’s Marcus Wireforged. eager Apprentice Mage and student of Things That Go Boom. Download the pdf or dnd4e of his character sheet, and he’s ready to play!

See? Not like Harry Potter at all.

Next: The “Essential” Cleric

Once upon a time, Princess Pauline lived in a huge castle atop a hill surrounded by an enchanted wood populated with all manner of friendly animals. Then the orcs came and Princess Pauline was forced to escape with the aid of a gruff dwarf and a love-struck paladin. They had a series of hilarious adventures (most of which involved Princess Pauline singing and looking immaculate)  and now find themselves questing through dungeons in search of the Key to True Love which will banish the orcs from Princess Pauline’s kingdom forever. Then they will all live happily ever after.

Except maybe the dwarf.

Dirty Little Secret: The power behind the orc invasion is none other than Princess Pauline’s evil stepmother, a wicked Night Hag intent on claiming the tiny kingdom as her own. In order to do that she needs to ensure that Princess Pauline dies in as gruesome a manner as possible. Or eat an apple. Either works.

Notes: 4e D&D Bards make excellent Disney Princesses. In fact they might as well have just called it the Disney Princess character class. With a fine singing voice and the ability to get friends and foes alike into all sorts of japes in battle (not to mention lullabies at bedtime), your Bard Disney Princess is a worthy (if frustrating) addition to any adventuring party. As your Rituals, take Animal Messenger and Create Campsite and your woodland friends will only be too eager to help with your domestic chores.

Here is Princess Pauline’s character sheet at 1st level.

Enjoy!

The main motivator behind the Essentials line (and the Red Box in particular) is to present 4e D&D in a way that’s less intimidating and simpler to get into right from the start. Each build provides a preset path through the levels so that the player isn’t overwhelmed by the array of choices provided by the current ruleset. For example, at Third level the Knight build for the Fighter gets Improved Power Strike rather than choosing from 20-odd Encounter Powers.

Y’see, sometimes Choice is Good. It means you have the flexibility to create exactly the character you want. Choice can also be counter-productive though. A player who is new to the hobby and an old-school gamer who values simpler character design will both appreciate that D&D Essentials isn’t so much about restricting choice but about making the game more accessible. Toss a copy of the PHB to an old-schooler or a new player and open it at a random page. Unless they hit the cool art, I’m sure they’ll run a mile. Page after page of rules intensive Powers staring back at you do not make for an appealing game.

So, D&D Essentials is about simplicity, and that’s a Good Thing. The question is can we simplify what we have right now to create a Fighter, Wizard and Cleric (and Rogue when that’s previewed) in the same same style? Why yes, we can!

To start with, here’s a Campaign file for the Character Builder (right-click, hit “Save As…”) which loads in only the content from the Player’s Handbook. This resets the Character Builder right back to pristine (but fully errata’d) simplicity – perfect for those times when you want to provide a less overwhelming array of choices or have a solid base on which to build your own Campaign Setting file.

To load it in, go to Manage->Campaign Settings in Character Builder  then hit Load Campaign. You’ll notice that some of the elements will have greyed-out ticks beside them; this is because those supplements contain some content that’s duplicated from the PHB. Only the PHB is loaded in full.

Tackling the Essentials builds in reverse order, the Knight is a chivalric Fighter who specializes in heavy armour and shield. While the build doesn’t specify a preference for one or two handed weapons, the lack of races with more than two arms (Thri-Kreen Knight, anyone?) implies that this is primarily a build which focuses on one-handed weapons.

It’s great to see a classic Medieval Knight make a welcome return to D&D. The Paladin has stolen much of their thunder, and I’m loving that D&D Essentials brings the Knight back into the Martial fold as a fighter who serves man but respects the gods (as opposed to the Paladin, where the opposite is true). This build reminds me a lot of the Knight character class from Dragon Warriors, and that earns it a lot of love.

Unlike most other Fighters, the Knight has Plate Armour Proficiency, so that costs a Feat from the start to reproduce it. Add in the character’s free Feat at first level and it’s clear we’re going to need to build our “Essential” Fighter as a Human. I’m finding that with all of my faux-Essentials builds; the classes themselves either gain an additional feat-like feature or Power (in the case of the Wizard & Cleric), but at the price of a little less power overall. These are builds which are not well suited to the power gamer who wants his heavy-hitting Daily Powers right from the start.

So, to recreate something like the Knight using Character Builder and only the Player’s Handbook, select Human Fighter and Plate Armour Proficiency as your bonus Feat. The Knight doesn’t appear to get Combat Challenge but gains Defender Aura instead. This is a mechanically simpler ability which is always active until you turn it off (ie, at the end of the Encounter) and basically means any enemy within 5’ of you is at –2 to attack if they ignore you. They can Shift without penalty, but there’s no fiddly tracking specific foes until the end of your next turn. In short, Defender Aura is a much easier ability to play, though it’s not as good against pesky Kobolds. Heh.

Given that we’re using only what’s in the PHB though, we’re restricted to Combat Challenge and as we’re recreating a heavily armoured Knight with shield, take One-handed Weapon Talent to go with it.

The article doesn’t go into detail about the Battle Guardian and Shield Finesse features of the Knight, but it looks like one of them replaces Combat Superiority. I’m guessing this is to de-emphasise modifiers to opportunity attacks and, again, make a simpler game. For our PHB-only Essential Knight though, we keep Combat Superiority.

Moving on to Skills, and our Knight has slightly different skill choices to a regular Fighter with Streetwise being replaced by Diplomacy in the class list. This is firmly in keeping with the image of a Knight being a chivalric member of the court rather than a street tough warrior. Reproducing that using the PHB only and sticking closely to the rules is tricky without spending his remaining Feat slot on Skill Training. As GM I’d happily hand-wave the player taking Diplomacy as a Class Skill or (if we were using PHB2) it could be added as a Background Option. For the purposes of this build though, I’ll say this particular Knight is a more worldly-looking fighter who had no interest in the politics of court life. He takes Athletics, Endurance, Heal and Intimidate as his Trained skills.

With Armour Proficiency (Plate) filling up his Human Feat slot, I suggest taking Toughness as it’s about the simplest Feat of the lot and is in keeping with the design goal of creating as simple a character to play as possible. Those extra hit points will certainly come in handy too.

On to Powers.

The Essentials Knight doesn’t have a Daily Power, and his At-will Powers are instead Stances which affect his basic attacks in some way. Three are mentioned – Battle Wrath, Cleaving Assault and Measured Cut with only the first two being detailed. Battle Wrath provides a straight +2 damage to basic attacks (including missile attacks too, it seems) while Cleaving Assault is a nifty variation on the Cleave At-will Power. This does damage equal to your CON (not STR!) bonus to an adjacent enemy when you hit another one. As it’s a Stance and affects all basic attacks it means your Knight can Cleave as an opportunity attack! Woot! Loving the image of a foe making a mis-step and the Knight taking out the poor fool and the minion next to him as a result.

For their Encounter Power, Knights gain Power Strike. This is an uber-simple power which adds a straight +1 [W] damage to an attack as a Free Action. You don’t need to call it until you hit meaning it’s not going to fail you due to a dud roll of the dice, and perfect for those times you need to put just a little more effort behind the swing of your sword. This power is a long overdue addition to the game. Love it!

As we’re going for simplicity and avoiding complex in-game choices, our faux-Knight will take Cleave, Tide of Iron and Sure Strike and his At-wills, Covering Attack as his Encounter Power and Brute Strike as his Daily. This gives him a good spread of choices between hitting hard, defending his allies, and making sure the blow lands. While I prefer the simpler Essentials Knight, this is a good enough spread of Powers to keep the chivalric flavour without adding complexity to the mix.

Add an Adventurer’s Kit, Plate Armour, Heavy Shield and Longsword, and we’re done.

Download a pdf or dnd4e (right-click, Save as…) file for Sir Borys, an Essentials-style Knight designed from the ground up to be ideal for a new gamer to play. Rather than use the cluttered and needlessly complex (not to mention pug-ugly) default 4e character sheet I’ve used my own, simpler, Character Sheet layout.

Next: The “Essential” Wizard

Hopefully what keeps an investigator’s sanity intact will also help keep your Fighter or Wizard alive too!

1) Keep it secret

It might sound counter-intuitive to warn against your heroes boasting of their exploits, but think on this: your heroes explore long forgotten tombs, break up rituals to dead gods and track down cults bent on attaining immortality by any means possible. It’s best not to spread the kind of information around or you might risk enticing yet more followers toward the Dark Side. That wide-eyed farmer may well become tomorrow’s cultist, spurned on by the fireside tales the heroes spread of promised riches and glory. Or that merchant could secretly yearn for immortality, and have just the right contacts to aide him on his quest. The cowl’d figure in the corner may well be a spy for a more powerful cult, eager to capitalize on the vacuum created by the PCs’ actions.

The Devil, as they say, is in the details – and in the Heroes’ case, it’s best to keep those details unsaid. Reveal that the problem has been resolved, claim your reward and move onto the next village as the sun sets. That is the way legends are made, after all.

2) Stay together

The old adage of “never split the party!” may well have worn thin in this day and age where it’s possible (encouraged even, in my group) for the PCs to go their separate ways during a research Skill Challenge. The more studious members will head to the Library or local Guildhall while the Streetwise urban types seek out local gossip, agreeing to meet up and compare notes at a certain time. After a touch of role-playing in the spotlight and a couple of rolls of the dice they are back together and the adventure continues.

But when swords are drawn and danger is near, a split party is invariably a weaker one. In the case of Fourth Edition D&D there’s no shortage of Powers which explicitly reward Heroes who stay close together – from the Half-Elf’s +1 to Diplomacy to all PCs within 10 squares  (a half-elven smile goes a long way, apparently – exactly 50’) to the countless Powers of the Warlord. The message is clear: keep your allies close (but Flank where you can).

A wickedly wise GM can capitalize on that and create layouts or sudden barriers which split the party in twain. Have a crevasse appear down the centre of the battlemat to restrict movement, or use a U-shaped corridor to limit line-of-sight between allies. Worse yet, have the corridor close off after the first PC passes through, forcing him to soldier on alone while the other Heroes find an alternate route. Nothing scares a player more than seeing the GM reach into the mini box with a huge grin on their face while their little hero stands, all alone and friendless…..

3) Act in haste, repent at leisure

This is a simple one: never, ever pull a lever, break a glass vial or smash a stone tablet unless you are 100% completely, totally and absolutely sure it’s the right thing to do. Such things invariably trigger a trap, conjure a Very Angry Demon (who is very angry) or contain the all-important Spell which your heroes will need at the climax to the adventure.

A wise GM will provide a get-out clause so that just in case the heroes do the thing they shouldn’t do there’s a way to fix things. Perhaps the trap can be avoided or the stone tablet repaired in some way. At worst, your heroes will have lost some Hit Points, gained some XP (from killing the Very Angry Demon) and learned a valuable lesson.

Of course, an evil GM won’t provide a get-out clause. Therefore, it pays to know your GM.

4) Always have a plan

It’s a sad fact that your typical adventure party doesn’t have a plan. At least, not one that goes beyond “enter dungeon, kill things, take stuff”. As far as plans go, it leaves a lot to be desired.

At the very least your band of weary heroes should have a marching order agreed so that your heavily armoured high hit point guys can soak up any hurt from a surprise attack. Having your Wizard taken out of action in the first round of combat isn’t fun. Unless you’re the GM, of course. The look on the players’ faces is priceless.

Ahem.

A good plan is one which keeps an eye on the goal at all times. If the scenario is a recovery mission to rescue the King’s Daughter from the Drow Witches then there’s little to be gained by wandering off and slaughtering every last creature in the dungeon, and much to be lost if they kill her before the stroke of midnight. Get in, get the girl, then get out. You can always come back tomorrow to clear out the dungeon properly.

An important element of good planning is knowing what you’re likely to face beforehand. Which leads us neatly to……

5) Scout it out

Know your enemy, and the battle is more than half won. Scouting out the area and potential threats makes a great Skill Challenge which can reward the heroes with both XP and valuable information to aid them in their quest.

Use the skills that the gods (ok, the rule system) gave your hero. The more studious and knowledgeable party members can reveal the strengths and weaknesses (especially the weaknesses) of your foes with Arcana, Nature and Religion. The more charismatic members can use Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight, (if necessary) Intimidate and Streetwise to discover rumours, gossip and legends about the area while Dungeoneering and History will tell something about the background and physical features of their lair.

And if all else fails, use Thievery to steal a map :)

6) Weapons are a last resort

The world of Dungeons & Dragons is a dangerous place with swords unsheathed with barely a moment’s thought and a Minor Action. It doesn’t always have to be that way though.; after all, killing Bandits is fun. Convincing the Bandits to work for you in return for a good word with the magistrates is better.

Most times though, violence is the only option, and even then it pays to think smart. Hitting a Goblin with a Fireball is once thing, but if you hit the wall behind him, that could cause the wall to collapse and take out the lot of them in one strike.

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of Skills in combat too, and Intimidate should be top of the list. It’s an Intimidate vs Will check to force all bloodied enemies to surrender. The modifiers are pretty steep: –5 if you don’t speak the same language (but everyone understands the language of violence, right?) and a +10 to the DC if the targets are Hostile (combat. duh.), but it’s well worth a try after you’ve used particularly impressive Power or rolled a critical. Spend an Action Point to  Intimidate in the same round, and tell the GM you deserve modifiers to the Intimidate roll. I’m sure he’ll agree.

7) Know your enemy

To repeat point Five, it pays to know what you are up against. It’s one thing to scout out the area of your current adventure, but entirely another to understand the evil of the long-term Big Bad Villain who is behind it all. This is something which can’t be gained through Skill Challenges alone.

Perhaps the last few adventures have been tied together in some way; a mysterious cult is harvesting undead body parts, gnoll caravans are trading under the moonlight and slavers are looking for someone with a green gem embedded in her forehead. As the heroes thwart each step, they attract the attention of the evil mastermind controlling these disparate threads – a vile Necromancer/Artificer intent on creating a Flesh Golem powered by the undead head of a god’s Avatar!

Can the heroes follow the clues and recognise the threat before it’s too late? Good luck with that.

Knowing your enemy is something which only comes after several encounters. D&D doesn’t really do well the concept of recurring villains who escape and live to fight another day, but there’s no reason why not. GMs, why not have the key villain in the story pull a lever, teleport or distract the heroes by summoning a demon when he’s low on hit points to make good his escape. Reward the heroes full XP for defeating him, and you now have a returning thorn in their side you can use later.

8) Things are not always as they seem

Plot twists. I love ‘em. Perhaps the true villain isn’t the corpulent merchant laid on the bed, but the lithe slave chained to him. She is secretly a Wizard who has dominated the weak-willed Merchant and is the true power behind his empire.

I never did trust Princess Leia.

Role-playing can sometimes be like a game of Poker where the players are on the lookout for a GM’s tell. A twinkle in his eye may well mean that things aren’t exactly as first appears. The challenge is to translate their suspicions into in-character role-playing hooks their heroes can run with.

And sometimes a twinkle in the eye of a GM is just a twinkle in the eye of the GM.

9) Never give up

The mark of a true hero is in their resolve against unimagined opposition. Can five heroes really turn the tide against a Demon Lord and the countless Hordes of Hell? Can a magic-user, thief, cleric and fighting man bring down a Beholder Warlock? Can the Rogue really steal the Fighter’s gold ring without him noticing?

Heroes don’t give up but if the battle is too tough there’s no shame in retreat. Sometimes the best tactic is to rest and regroup, especially if resources are running low. Those Daily Powers recharge on an Extended Rest and sometimes the Wizard would be better switching his spells out with those in his Spellbook. If carrying on leads to certain death then it’s wiser to withdraw. There’s always another day.

But never, ever give up!

10) Be prepared

It’s a foolish adventurer who doesn’t include an Adventurer’s Kit in their equipment list. It’s your hero’s Swiss Army Knife containing everything (beyond a pointy metal thing or magic wand) needed to tackle any threat a dungeon may bring. Add class and skill specific items provided  by the Climber’s Kit and Thieves’ Tools, and you’re good to go. It’s ironic that the stereotypically most agile class, the Rogue, needs to heft the most equipment to do his job properly (47lbs of it, all told). Talking the Fighter into carrying your backpack is a very good idea.

Having the right equipment can be the difference between life and death, or at least the difference between making a skill check and failing it. A Rogue without his tools is at a serious disadvantage and a party lacking a 50’ rope will have to find another route down a 40’ hole.

Beyond that though, it’s important to know what you’re facing, and prepare for that. Vampires and werewolves in particular require special equipment to deal with effectively. I pity the party who faces a vampiric werewolf – wooden stakes coated in silver are particularly hard to come by.

In summary, the ideal hero should plan ahead, scout the area beforehand and be willing to talk or outthink a problem before resorting to combat. Stay together, be well equipped, and don’t trust a word the GM says.

Till next time!

The largest change to Magic Missile is that now doesn’t require a to-hit roll; it’s a Ranged Power that automatically hits and does a fixed amount of damage. Let that sink in. Magic Missile ignores Cover. It ignores Superior Cover. It ignores Concealment and Total Concealment. It ignores Invisibility. Your Wizard can use it when Prone (hell yeah!), Restrained, Blinded, Marked or Running, all without penalty. Those actions and conditions penalize the Attack Roll – which Magic Missile doesn’t have any more!

Do I have your attention yet?

While it just does just 2+INT damage at Heroic Tier, even that’s not to be sniffed at. Your INT 20 Eladrin Wizard will be doing 7 damage every round, guaranteed. That’s more than enough to kill a Minion (more on those in a mo’), but really comes into its own when you add in Feats which boost effect, especially the White Lotus Feats. Add Battle Caster’s Defence from PHB3 and Magic Missile is usable when the Bad Guys manage to get up close and personal too.

Then there’s Wizard’s Fury. This is a Daily Spell which lets your Wizard fire off a Magic Missile as a Minor Action for the rest of the Encounter. Your INT 20 Wizard could cast a wide area Encounter Spell (Standard Action) then drop Prone (Minor Action) and cast Wizard’s Fury (Minor Action replacing his Move Action). From there he can fire 2 Magic Missiles a round (one Minor, one Standard) for 14 guaranteed damage or mix it up with other spells as required and still have his Move Action to Shift as needed. Add the White Lotus Hindrance Feat and any enemy you hit with the Magic Missile treats the squares around you as Difficult Terrain too.

Forget Laser Clerics. That’s a frickin’ machine gun emplacement!

In short, if you’re playing a Wizard and don’t take Magic Missile, you are an idiot. The Mage for D&D Essentials write-up says as much by including it as an automatically given Power for that build. Heck, Magic Missile is good enough that it should be the immediate go to Power for multi-classed Wizards and the Half-Elf’s Dilettante feature. Even as a per-Encounter Power, it’s well worth taking.

On to Minions.

To date, the highest level Minion in the game is the Crawling Blood Swarm from the Underdark supplement. This is a whopping Level 34 critter worth a total of 9,750 experience points. That’s enough to take a lone 1st level Wizard up to just shy of 7th level in a single jump – and with Magic Missile, he can kill it with a single shot. Given that this beastie has an Armour Class of 48 (and similar other defences) nothing outside Epic Tier can touch him but a single Magic Missile will fell him every time. Of course, this is an entirely fake situation because a) monsters in Fourth Edition tend to travel in packs, b) your lowly 1st level Wizard would be dead long before he got close to a Crawling Blood Swarm’s stomping ground, and c) players tend to hit GMs who put them against unreasonably high-level foes. It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth though.

Now you could argue that this is a problem with the Minion rules as a whole, and to an extent I agree. While the Minion rules in Mutants & Masterminds work spectacularly well as they’re designed to provide hordes of cannon fodder (mooks, lackeys, ninjas and the like) for the Superhero to smash through en route to the Evil Supervillain. Even so, Minions in M&M do get a Toughness save if they’re hit meaning there’s no guarantee they will fall on the first punch. Over in 4e D&D though, any Minion drops (dead, unconscious or otherwise out of the fight) on a hit regardless of level or ability, every time. Also, in M&M you don’t see many Super-powered Minions. While it’s cool to toss Cyborg or Robot Minions at the heroes, even they tend to be much lower down the power scale than their Evil Overlord. Supermen just don’t fight Supermen who have glass jaws (apart from in DC Comic’s Hundred Minute War story arc where is seemed everyone had a glass jaw. Let’s ignore that one, ok?).

In D&D-land though, your typical high-level Big Boss is likely to surround himself with Minions who are within a handful of levels of himself. Even at high Tier that’s cool as it means your Awesome Heroes ™ can smash around Giants and Other Massive Things like ninepins. I like that, a lot. But not enough to justify that a single frickin’ Magic Missile from some dirtfarming 1st level Wizard can take out those selfsame Massive Things with one shot. Oh no.

I’m planning to implement a House Rule in my 4e game where Minions get Hit Points equal to their level rather than just a meagre lonely 1. This shouldn’t slow combat down too much but means there’s a (slim but steadily increasing with level) chance that one hit won’t take down a Minion every time. That first level Wizard will be eaten by the Crawling Blood Swarm right after he’s let off his first Magic Missile. Just as nature intended.

Anyhow. Back on plot.

Picture the scene. A mighty Elder Red Dragon swoops over the city, confident in its power and prowess. 250 voices all shouting “MAGIC MISSILE!” reach him, closely followed by arcane bolts of force. They each do an average of 5 damage (assuming INT 16 low-level Wizards) and the beast falls to the ground, quite dead. The people look up bored, and carry on their business.

With 250 Wizards, a city could defend themselves against pretty much anything. In a city with, say, 20,000 people that’s just 1.25% of the population. Why the feck would they need adventurers?

So, am I going to nerf Magic Missile and reject the errata?

I haven’t decided yet. What do you think of it?

Which means, by the terms of the competition, I win the no-prize!

Well ok Deadorcs old boy. You can have it. Heck, you did do all the hard work. Congratulations!

Now imagine that every single one of them becomes suddenly, inexplicably, out-to-get-you nasty.

There’s a message floatin’ in the air
Come from crazy horses ridin’ everywhere
It’s a warning, it’s in every tongue
Gotta stop them crazy horses on the run

That’s the setup for the opening session of Shadowland, my new 4e D&D scenario for 3rd level heroes. They are relaxing in Whitehold when runners from the wall call out for all able-bodied men to make for their posts. As this is a frontier city anyone capable of holding a sword or wielding a wand is expected to join in the city defence in time of need. Everyone is assigned a position and it just so happens that our heroes’ place is right on the front wall by the gates.

In the distance, they see a huge dust cloud. Gradually it coalesces into the form of thousands upon thousands of riderless wild horses – and they’re headed this way! The gates are quickly shuttered and barred but unless the heroes do something to buy some time they barely hold against the impact and the horses break through.

Whitehold itself is a typical fantasy city in layout with a North Gate (through which the horses enter), a South Gate and a river flowing through the city across which are three bridges. There are a number of open market squares and parkland spaces as well as numerous thoroughfares and narrow alleyways. The heroes’ task will be to help control or corral the horses in some way. Good luck with that.

This is going to be a Complexity 3 Skill Challenge driven session with the heroes requiring 8 successes before 3 failures. If they succeed, the horses are cleared from the city with the minimum of loss or damage. Fail, and they leave a trail of destruction in their wake which will take decades to fully erase from memory. While the heroes are busy they will hear the sound of action from across the city, reinforcing the impression that they are a part of a much larger effort.

Each individual check in the challenge could range from something as simple as a Skill Check (using Nature or Intimidate to change the direction of a lead stallion, for example) to a mini Skill Challenge (erecting a barrier or clearing panicked civilians) or direct combat. Fighting against horses (even crazy ones) isn’t exactly heroic behaviour so I’ll reward non-lethal solutions more generously. That’s one of the reasons I pitched this at 3rd Level; this opens up all those lovely Utility Powers and gives just a little more choice when it comes to Feat and Encounter Power selection.

I’ll be winging this throughout in response to my players’ tactics. As ever, Page 42 of the DMG will be my lord and master when it comes to setting Difficulty Class and damage results.

Never stop and they never die
They just keep on puffin’
How they multiply
Crazy horses will they never halt
If they keep on movin’
Then it’s all our fault

When it comes to horses themselves, the Monster Manual handily provides stats for Riding Horse and Warhorse (here serving duty as Alpha Stallions). Add a Horse Minion (a minionized Riding Horse with 1hp doing 5 damage on a kick, 25XP) and the Stampede! stats below to represent a solid wall of horses charging together in a block, and we’re good to go.

With 600XP to spend on an encounter for 4 3rd level PCs, a typical bunch of crazy horses will look something like this:

• Stampede! 250xp
• Alpha Stallion (Warhorse) 150xp
• Riding Horse 100xp
• 4 Horse Minions 100xp

That’s a lot of horses! Thankfully I’ll be using the lovely horse minis kindly provided by Tourq at Stuffer Shack. This is a set of five horses based up to the correct size complete with a dab of tack so you can fix your hero to the base as well when he’s riding. I was also send a set of Mini Counters and Bloodied Markers which I will definitely make use of time and again. The Adventurer’s Bundle gets you 10 of each marker and 10 horses for just $33.99 – bargain!

Oh crap 

Seriously looking forward to this one. I’ll let you know how they get on!

So take a good look around
See what they’ve done
What they’ve done, they’ve done
They’ve done, they’ve done
They’ve done, they’ve done
They’ve done, what they’ve done
– Osmond Brothers, Crazy Horses

Next: not running, but fleeing

That’s not to say this is this is going to be a railroad – far from it. Each scenario the heroes will face choices, and those decisions will influence the shape the story takes as it unfolds. I have a rough idea of scenes and events that may (or may not) take place. It’s entirely up to the players when, where and how things turn out.

Of course, that makes the plotting tricky.

Unlike the Endday Campaign this is no world-shattering epic. It’s a strictly local affair (provided the heroes resolve things in time) that I’d expect to last no more than four or five game sessions.

I’ve asked the players to generate 3rd level urban-based heroes who are all members of an established adventuring party. The scenario begins in the city of Whitehold. That’s their home and a portion of their loot has financed a rather swish townhouse-slash-base of operations in the smarter district. In other words – they have a vested interest in the well being of the city.

Whitehold itself is a young independent city state bluff with the excitement and bustle of youth. Twenty years ago it was a town-sized settlement nestled above the Stonemarch to the North-West of the Nentir Vale. Rumours of gold in the ancient imperial ruins and the promise of a fresh start on unclaimed fertile soil brought prospectors, farmers and adventurers alike to the area and Whitehold flourished.

It is ruled by The Whitehold Council, twelve democratically elected members who represent the urban population and surrounding rural communities. They keep a firm grip on the law in what would otherwise be a lawless frontier state with just three punishments for any criminal activity: a Fine, Death, or Brand and Exile. Highly unusually for a city, this means there are no prisons, though there are holding cells for those awaiting trial.

The actual population of Whitehold is unknown (certainly in mid to high tens of thousands) though there are plans for a first official census to be taken in the near future. As usual Humans account for the highest percentage with Dwarves and Tieflings making up a higher than normal proportion of the populace. The Dwarves are a common sight due to the continual building work taking place, though the high number of Tieflings is less easily explained. Common belief is that they are “looking for something” – though what, precisely, is open to speculation and they’re not saying.

All of the other races can be found in and around Whitehold including a small Shardmind enclave who work with the Dwarves to add strange crystalline mosaics to the building surfaces, casting colour and light onto the streets below. Elves and Eladrin alike have the run of the city maintaining and shaping the common land into beautifully tended parkland spaces.

In short, Whitehold is something of an idyll – a city on a frontier run by a popular yet firm democratic government where the races work together out of burgeoning civic pride.

What could possibly go wrong?

Next: It begins with the horses

After all, it’s far easier to fix things before everything has gone to print, and being pro-active and inclusive of your fanbase is much better PR than having to hit the forums each time feathers are ruffled after the event.

Heck, they have a ready-made base of eager and willing Beta testers with D&D Insider who would (I am sure) love nothing more than getting on the inside track and be able to contribute in a meaningful way to the game development.

Sometimes, developers can be too close to the system and fail to see what what’s blindingly obvious to the rest of us (such as the potential for abuse with the changes to Magic Missile). Of course, they’re also privy to higher-level decisions that we may neither know nor understand, and that’s cool. But there has to be a middle ground, right?

Good people, the floor is yours.

Comment away!