If you are anything like us here at Dice of Doom HQ, the moment you got D&D 4E you rushed out and bought a stack of Dungeon Tiles once you realised how important (and awesome) they were. After collecting a whole box of these tiles though it can be hard designing dungeons based on what tiles you actually have in your collection. Fortunately Wizards of the Coast have you covered.

Continue reading Using the Dungeon Tile Mapper from WotC

We all love to use Dungeon Tiles in our D&D games. It adds to the realism of combat, provides for more strategic play and helps everyone see what is going on. With the release of D&D4E the use of Dungeon Tiles became an integrated part of the game to the point where it is hard to play without them. This has created problems for GM’s who like to create their own campaigns and who need maps. While you can easily print off a tiled A4 or A3 sheet and draw in your maps, it would be even better to be able to create your own dungeon tiles from scratch to match your creations exactly.

In the first part on creating your own dungeon tiles, we show you how to create basic rooms of any size.

Continue reading Create your own Dungeon Tiles from scratch with Photoshop

With the release of the D&D 4E Players Handbook II the number of character classes has doubled to 16. Now that all the classes are spread over two books, we thought that it might be easier to see what is available if it were included in a table view showing you power source, character role and reference page in the respective manual. Once content gets spread over two books, it is often a lot harder to get a real picture of what is available and hopefully this table will help.

Continue reading Table of All D&D 4E Character Classes [Updated]

Latest news reports that the upcoming Real Time Stategy Game Starcraft II won’t have LAN support. Basically, you’ll have to play it over Battle.net, Blizzard’s online gaming system. Article on Gamespot.

An interesting move, to be sure. Now, there are a couple of reasons for this, they claim.

Continue reading Starcraft II: No LAN support. Huh. Implications?

(Read our review of the Monster Manual II here…)

And about time, too.

This is a review of the 4E PHBII. For a review of the 3.5 PHBII: it’s arguably the best 3.5 book in existence. Anyway, on to the point.

4^th edition leads itself nicely into splat books, because the Power system limits what abilities are available. On the flip side, the core 4E books are balanced a lot better than the 3.5 ones. Either way, the PHBII is, mostly, pretty much in line with the core books, and shouldn’t endanger a campaign with some broken ability or some such.

One very nice side note about the PHBII: the back of the book has the revised Stealth rules, which were errata’d.

Continue reading D&D 4E Players Handbook 2 In Depth Review

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of articles, where we here at Dice of Doom look at old games, and see if they are really as good as we once thought.

Warning: this is a pretty long post. If you don’t want to read everything, just scroll through, scan the pretty pictures, and go to the Conclusions at the bottom.

Half-Life 1 was, indeed, a great move forwards in the First Person Shooter genre. But how does the gameplay hold up these days? I unearthed my copy, jumped through hoops to install it on 64 bit Vista, and started a new game.

Continue reading Nostalgia Revisited: Half-Life 1

Ah, Zombies. A classic creature from various mythologies that, like many others, has been revived through modern film and literature, and is thus standard fare for roleplayer gamers such as us. Ironically, many of the aforementioned reviving pieces are set in modern times: the standard way of killing a Zombie seems to involve a shotgun. For this article, however, I will be focussing on the use of Zombies in 3.5E and 4E D&D, so you’ll have to use a crossbow.

Unlike previous Monster of the Week entries, I will attempt to address this creature from both DM and player perspective equally, rather than the DM focus in the past. Hopefully this will prove useful to everyone.

As a DM, the use of Zombies is simply a no brainer (pun intended). You’ve used goblins, orcs, kobolds, and skeletons… you need some other random minor monster to fling at them. Or perhaps they fit with the theme of some necromantic magics in your story. However you come to them, the purpose of Zombies is fairly simple: they’re a speed bump. Their only purpose in existance is either for XP, or to distract the Player Characters from attacking a more important target, at least for a few rounds. They’re not intelligent, they don’t have tactics, they aren’t particularly damaging: but enough of them can cause the players to notice. If you do use them as distractions, make them get in the face of the vulnerable members of the party, and try to draw the heavy melee characters away from the (probably vulnerable) master.

On the flip side, if you’re a player, you’ll encounter zombies in one of two situations: as random chunks of walking XP, or as minions of some necromancer. The first situation is fine: blow a Turn Undead or something and Cleave through. No worries. The more dangerous kind of zombie occurs when they are a distraction. You have to be rather careful in dealing with this kind of Zombie, because every round you spend killing mindless undead is one less round spent killing the master. Specific tactics follow in the edition specific sections below.

3.5 Edition

Zombies in 3.5 are really best at quite low level. I tried to use them at higher level, but they don’t scale well, and the Cleric just nuked them. Huh. They make decent encounters by themselves up to about level 5. Beyond that, various spells and abilities make them simply too weak. A single Fireball or Hasted Cleaving Fighter makes short work of any amount of weaker Zombies, and the more powerful ones are easily outmaneuver.  If the Wizard casts Fly and Haste on anyone with a decent range weapon, there’s basically nothing the zombies can do. With that in mind, the Wyvern Zombie scales better than the others: its flight really helps.

Be careful when flinging Zombies at a party. Consider the party make up: if the party is a Rogue, Druid, Beguiler, and Bard, all level 4 or less, then they will have serious problems due to the Zombies’ various resistances and immunities, combined with the lack of Turn Undead. Higher than that, and the Druid can Wild Shape, so it’s not a problem any more, but you don’t want to accidentally wipe them.

As a distraction, the tougher Zombies are feasible until, oh, at least level 9. After about level 9 the spells in the game become powerful enough to handle any form of distraction, as I explain below. Since the Zombies are fairly tough, and immune to quite a number of nasty spells, they can  physically get in the way of the enemy in addition to simply swarming the casters. Note that if the party has a Cleric, Zombies become redundant faster: more so if the Cleric has Sun Domain.

For the players, dealing with Zombies is mostly simple. Before level 5, your best bet is to use heavy melee to take them down. Throw in a Bull’s Strength and the occassional heal, and your Fighter/Barbarian/whatever can probably handle it. If you don’t have heavy melee, buff up the best melee fighter you’ve got, and hope for the best. Preference order: Cleric, Druid, Bard, Rogue. At level 5 and up, a Haste, Fly, or Fireball makes almost all the Zombies easy by themselves.

If the Zombies are being used as a distraction, try to put as few characters into handling them as possible. Ideally, you want to handle them with a single Standard Action from one character, and then concentrate on the Zombies’ master. Turn Undead is handy here, but other than that, you may need to get creative. As commented above, Zombies, and basically all minions, become a non-issue at around level 9. You can just fling a Wall of Force or something similar at them, and suddenly, the Zombies are no longer an issue. For weaker Zombies, the level 4 spell Wall of Fire is also alright, but is a short-term solution.

4th Edition

Zombies have had a bit of an overhaul. No longer are they immune to Critical Hits, and the weaker ones actually die straight away if you do Crit them. Like the 3.5 versions, however, 4E Zombies are only useful at fairly low levels, although they do scale better.

Most of the Zombies suffer the same scaling problem as the 3.5 ones: their lack of maneuverability hurts more and more as the player characters become more powerful. Even early on, the characters can outrun even the toughest Zombies… bar one. The Gravehound is a very interesting addition that provides many more options for Zombies. Moving faster than almost all player characters, they are the fast cavalry of Zombies. By engaging an enemy with Gravehounds, you can then move in slower and tougher Zombies to mop up. Very cool. Unfortunately, the flying Rotwing Zombies are nowhere near as useful as the 3.5 Wyvern Zombies due to a very low Fly speed. If you use Zombies, just make sure you bring enough: they do tend to die fairly easily, especially if the players get clever.

Players, however, will soon realise that even Gravehounds have a very strong weakness, and it’s not the Critical Hits one. They’re dumb. Completely mindless, if fact. Superior tactics will always defeat Zombies, and once you get some good area control spells (Wall of Fog, Wall of Fire, Wall of Ice… get the picture?) the Zombies simply aren’t smart enough to do anything about it. Zombies also lack any particularly special attacks: yeah, they can grab, and a couple can knock people prone, but the only real status condition any of them cause is the Chillborn Zombies’ Immobilization. Exploit this! Push them, Pull them, Slow them! A Slow non-Gravehound Zombie has a Speed of just 2! Split them up, flank them, and kill them separately. Remember, tactics and teamwork are the names of the game in 4E.

That about wraps up another Monster of the Week. Come back next week, or Subscribe to our RSS feed, to get all the latest updates and a new Monster next week!

Public service announcement: if you use Inkscape, you may know it crashes… not infrequently. As I found yesterday, the crash recovery doesn’t always work. Save your drawings often!

The Mimic is a classic monster dating back to the beginning of D&D. It’s a creature that, in standard Gygaxian fashion, tries to kill you despite looking like a piece of furniture. It can assume the shape of just about anything, and the “standard” Mimic looks like a treasure chest, as shown.

Like many monsters, including the Gelatinous Cube, the Mimic is a trap: it just happens to be a living trap. Players who carefully poke every treasure chest they find will normally not be surprised by one (which is why every adventurer should carry a 10 foot pole). As such, as DM, you should award the players full experience if they intelligently and purposefully avoid it, or solve the encounter without killing it (more to come on that).

The first item I should note is: do not make a Mimic a treasure chest. Every D&D player who knows anything, or has just happened to skim through the Monster Manual, or has read this blog post, will know that any treasure chest is a potential danger. They will also know that if it attacks them, well, duh, it’s a Mimic. Silly silly silly. Never put a trap where someone expects a trap, because then, well, it’s not a trap, is it?

So, anyway: why us a Mimic? Well, like any trap, it’s a good way of keeping players on the edge, and besides, D&D is all about traps. You’re in a dungeon! Everyone knows there has to be traps! Additionally, a creature trap, like the Mimic or Gelatinous Cube, is frankly friendlier to players. Being able to stab the target of their frustration is more fun than having a giant rock fall on you. Creatures are also more of an attrition trap, and less of a one-hit-kill trap: one-hit-kill is NOT fun, no matter what certain 1st Edition designers may have thought.

What should you make a Mimic as then? A chair is a nice choice: the unlucky character is already in the arms of the creature. A bed could be alright. A barrel, perhaps? A boat! Trap the whole party! Basically, anything that fits into your current game without being a damn treasure chest. Besides, who goes and puts chests everywhere, anyway? Something that the characters are likely to interact with is better than a passive object, so a cupboard is better than a footstool: how often do players say, “I use the footstool”?

In addition to just trying to kill the party, a Mimic can provide interesting roleplaying options. For some strange reason, they speak Common. Don’t ask how. The 3.5 MM says:

“The creature does not necessarily fight to the death if it can succeed in extorting treasure or food from a party.”

Huh. Okay. What do Mimics eat? Since it says “treasure”, probably metal and gems, however much sense that makes.  What you can do, then, is throw a Mimic at the party when it is definately too strong for the party to fight without casualties. The Mimic knows it can probably kill one person, maybe two, but if the rest of the party will kill it then it wants to negotiate. Have it take one party member down to low health, and then the Mimic can threaten to eat him if the rest of the group doesn’t feed it something good. Give the players decent XP if they roleplay it properly. Just remember: not every fight has to end with one side dying.

On to the mechanics!

3.5 Edition

Very simple. Not much to say, really. Its abilities match how you use it: it grapples a single character, and then pummels them for a while. The sticky adhesive helps give it a little more survivability, but once the party is aware of it, it will go down pretty quickly. Sneak up on them!

4th Edition

Wait, what?

*Searches index*

There’s no Mimic!!!

*Googles*

Well… huh. Someone has come up with a version of the Mimic, but I really thought it would be in the Monster Manual.

Homebrew Mimic on D&D Wiki

This version is basically the 3.5 version updated, so it keeps pretty close to the original. However, it has much better survivability by comparison to the original, because it:

*Has more hit points

*Has the Snapping Maw ability, allowing it to counter-attack misses.

*Decent defences

Looks pretty good, the conversion to 4E rules has been done well. If you want to use a Mimic in 4E, I think this is the way to go.
Well, that just about wraps up another Monster of the Week. See you all again next week, where we look at another fantastic monster that I haven’t decided upon yet.

Lycanthropes, or Werewolves, are a strong part of our standard mythology. Wolf attacks on humans combined with the human penchant for imagination lead to an obvious result. Oh, look, wolves ate my sheep. It was totally that next door neighbour I don’t like, he’s a Werewolf! Yeah! Burn him, he’s a witch, too!

In other mythologies, such as Indian, there are other shapechanging creatures, which, for simplicity, have been known to names such as Weretigers. Overall, despite the word “Lycanthrope” having its roots in the Greek word for wolf, we now use “Lycanthrope” for all Were-creatures, because saying “Were-creatures” is stupid, and Lycanthrope is such a good word.

Shiny. Anyway, in this article I will cover how to best use any Lycanthrope in your game of 3.5 or 4E D&D.

Setting up (the plot side):

Werewolves and other Lycanthropes are easy. Think of how much effort you need to include something like Mind Flayers. Hah! Throw Lycanthropes in as a random encounter and it makes sense! They’re roaming the countryside killing stuff, it’s what they do!

For a more useful comment, consider these options:

*Standard Werewolf deal: sheep/people/sheeple dying and players need to find out why
*Enclave of Lycanthropes hiding in forest away from civilization, get annoyed when pesky adventurers start trampling their territory
…hmm.

A special note goes for Wererats: they have much more plot potential. As sneaky bastards who fit right into a large city, they can, for example, be an evil Thieves’ Guild, or part of an assassination plot, or anything that you would normally use Rogues or Assassins for: but cooler. Being a Wererat would probably make it easier to escape from jail, too.

Alternatively, you can take basically any plot, involving anyone doing anything, then make them a Lycanthrope. Oh, look, we found the evil merchant responsible for messing up the economy. Oh look, he’s so helpless. Oh look, he bit your head off. The versatility of being a shapechanger really helps lead to versatilityof uses.

Running it (the rules side):

3.5 Edition:

In my last Monster of the Week: Golems, I hit the 3.5 Golems pretty hard because of all their resistances and huge DR. Same for Lycanthropes? No.

Lycanthropes are a well designed monster suitable for normal groups. Sure, they still have DR, but the DR is silver (in an emergency, hammer silver coins to your weapon), and they don’t have a stack of immunities a mile high. They’re still vulnerable to Critical Hits, Sneak Attack, Mind Affecting Spells, and so on, which gives rapier-wielding idiots*, Rogues, and Enchanters and Beguilers a combat option that does not involve sitting in the corner drinking tea. This is good.

*Disclaimer: one of my characters was a rapier-wielding idiot, and great fun

The great thing about the 3.5 Lycanthrope entry is there’s creatures for any situation, including advanced forms of the Wereboar and Werewolf. If you are trying to do a whodunnit and your players are too savvy, mix it up by using a Weretiger or Werebear (ignore the alignments if you haven’t already). Combined with the versatility mentioned above, you really can’t go wrong.

4th Edition:

Well, unfortunately 4E has trimmed us down to just Werewolves and Wererats, but they’re probably the main two that get used anyway, so no worries. Interestingly, it says Lycanthropy is genetic, and no mention of infection is mentioned: reflavour if you desire, I suppose. However, overall, I’m impressed with the monster entry.

Like many monsters in 4E, they have done away with a sensible-but-annoying mechanic (DR), and replaced it with a not-so-sensible-but-a-lot-more-fun mechanic (cancellable Regeneration). You’ve still got the whole “kill it with silver” thing, but without making anyone feel like they’re not doing something. In addition, the 4E Lycanthropes are a bit more DM friendly, because they have just one statblock instead of three. You no longer have to mess around with all sorts of things when they switch forms.

The Werewolves are pretty standard: you fight, someone dies. They work. The Wererats are more interesting: they fit the Rogue-ish role perfectly, including a weak form of Sneak Attack (1d6). A pack of Wererats fighting intelligently is quite dangerous, and if they think they’re losing they can just run down a drainpipe.

The disease is a nice touch, especially since they removed afflicted Lycanthropy. I do like how disease is handled in 4E. The Wererat disease is fairly standard, but the Werewolf one is kinda like Lycanthropy: it makes the target go nuts and attack people. Fun! Remember that a Lycanthrope is probably intelligent enough to target the squishy members of the group which are less likely to pass the Endurance check.

A note on 4E disease mechanics (my group got it wrong, so I expect others will):
If a diseased attack hits you, then at the end of the encounter, you make a Saving Throw to see if you contract the first stage of the disease. You then roll for disease progression at each Extended Rest. See page 49 of the DMG.

A note of the Lycanthrope disease:
There’s been errata that makes the disease a bit less cruel. Since only a few characters even have Endurance, the high DCs were a bit ridiculous. They dropped the DCs by 5, and added the “worsen DC” bit, which should have been in there anyway.

Filth Fever [Revision]
Monster Manual, page 180
Replace Endurance stable DC 16, improve 21″ with “Endurance improve DC 16, maintain DC 11,
worsen DC 10 or lower”.

Moon Frenzy [Revision]
Monster Manual, page 181
Replace “Endurance stable DC 20, improve 24″ with “Endurance improve DC 19, maintain DC
14, worsen DC 13 or lower”.

This means a level 3 character fighting a level 3 Wererat has a a 55/45 stable/worsen chance even with no training or bonuses: this is the same as a Saving Throw, which is a good baseline for this kind of thing.

Well, that wraps that up. Monster of the Week service will now resume at its intended 1/week schedule, after having been delayed by holiday, illness, blackouts, and jetlag. Happy gaming!

Behind the Scenes

Artist's impression of what the awesome Inkscape graphic could have looked like.

I draw all my images in Inkscape, a free vectored graphics program. The problem is that, like all semi-decent art, it takes some time. Getting the lines right, fiddling with nodes, adjusting colours, crying because the computer can’t handle this amount of blur (She cannae handle it, Captain!)… for this blog post, the Werewolf took so long that I had to scrap plans of doing a Wererat.

(Er, Monster of the Month, due to sickness and the whole Christmas thing)

Golems are a classic part of D&D. Everyone knows the deal: you find a statue with massive eye gems, you pry the gems out, and the statue wakes up and kills you. Or somesuch. There’s more to them, of course, and that’s what I’m here to discuss.

For those living under rocks, Golems are animated constructed creatures, made from flesh (Frankenstein’s monster), stone, clay, iron, or snazzier stuff like mithril and adamantine. They are commonly created by Wizards who either have nothing better to do, or need a guard or something.

So, how to use them?

3.5 Edition D&D:

Don’t.

Just. Don’t.

What? Why would I even write this if I’m telling you not to use them? Well, so that I can tell you not to use them! Read on.

You should not use Golems because they make the game unfun. A Golem’s massive pile of immunities and high DR/Adamantine makes the following classes go sit in the corner and play cards:

*Rogues: should not be punished because they’re the best balanced class in 3.5 D&D

*Rangers: should not be punished because they suck

*Evocation Wizards and Sorcerers: should not be punished because they suck

Any decent party will simply have the casters cast a couple of buffs (Bull’s Strength, for example), and then everyone that’s not the Fighter/Barbarian/Druid/Heavy Melee will go and join the Rogues and Rangers playing cards. The Wizard can cast Grease for a nigh-instant win, or, say, Wall of Stone + Acid Fog if we’re dealing with the Greater Stone Golem or another which actually has a decent Reflex save. Again, we’re back to everyone having a tea party while the fighters hack apart the Golem or the Acid Fog dissolves them. It’s just boring for all involved, and D&D, being a game, is meant to be fun. You should never put in an encounter where some players simply can’t do anything. I’ve done it and regretted it.

If, for some strange reason, you still want to put a Golem into your 3.5 game, use the 4E comments below. Just pick whichever golem either fits best with your situation, or is the right CR. The Flesh Golem might be okay to use anyway, since the DR is only 5, meaning Rogues and Rangers can at least do a few points of damage.

4th Edition D&D:

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. Whilst the Monster Manual has a depressingly low number of Golems (Flesh + Stone, that’s it!), they’re worth using now because 4E has removed the massive pile of immunities they’ve got. Now all classes can be effective in a fight against Golems, thus making the combat enjoyable, thus making it acceptable.

From a mechanical perspective, start by choosing which Golem (*sigh* of the TWO) that is level-appropriate. But don’t stop there: a Golem by itself is not that great, and remember: 4E is all about encounter groups. Now, for some reason the Monster Manual recommends a Lamia: no idea why. Suffice to say, any Controller works great with a Golem: the Controller impedes the foe, and the Golem applies excessive force.

Glancing through the Monster Manual, a few creatures stand out to me as being useful with a Golem. Note that thematically, the intelligent ones are best: they play as the Golem masters.

*A few Eladrin Twilight Incanters (Level 8): They can Immobilize, Teleport, and Blind enemies! Thematically good, as Golem masters.
*Gibbering Mouther (level 10) or Gibbering Abomination (level 18): They can Daze everyone lots, very nice.
*Grell Philosopher (Level 11 Elite): Dazing, Blinding… all good.
*Kuo-toa Whip (level 16): Blinding, Prone, and can hold people and slide them around.
*The recommended Lamia actually has lousy synergy, and I see no reason why a Lamia would be fighting with a Golem, especially a Flesh Golem.
*Lich (level 14): Not too bad. Good synergy with Necrotic Aura, and thematically appropriate.
*Medusa Archer (level 10): Ooh, that looks like fun. Poison and potential Petrification will certainly distract the players… a Stone Golem could be an animated petrified fellow…
*Mind Flayer Mastermind (level 18 Elite): Heh. Dazing, Immobilizing, Dominating… oh, and brain eating. Great synergy, and thematically fine.
*Mummy Lord (level 13 Elite): Not too bad: Fear and Disease help the cause. Thematically good: the Golem is guarding the Mummy’s tomb.
*Bone Naga (level 16 Elite): Wow. Immense amounts of Dazing, and some Weakening too! A Naga is often a guard, like a Golem, so they fit together fine.
*Rakshasa Noble (level 19): Blinding, Dazing, Stunning… and they’re smart enough to build a Golem.

You may question why I selected many creatures which cause Dazing, since the Golems’ own attacks cause it. However, Dazing really synergises well with Golem Rampage: the Rampage is most effective when enemies are grouped, and can’t make Opportunity Attacks. Daze restricts maneuverability and removes the Opportunity Attacks.

Now, the actual implementation will largely depend on the accompanying creatures: the Golem just tags along. Having an awaking statue is always fun, however it doesn’t lend itself well to having an encounter group. No matter how tempting it is to throw a solo Golem at people, I highly recommend you don’t. Like many big, stupid creatures, they are highly susceptable to being wiped by a smart party.

Killing a Golem:

In 4E, I honestly think the Flesh Golem (level 12) is more dangerous than the Stone Golem (level 17) for an unprepared party. Why? Because as soon as it hits Bloodied, it gets free attacks every time you hit it. You should try to shut down this defence: Daze will work, as will knocking it Prone, Stunning it, or knocking it Unconcious. Other than that, I would recommend having everyone spread out, to minimize the effectiveness of the Golem Rampage. If you can Immobilize it, close in and have everyone in reach: Golem Rampage will not be danger since it can’t move, and it will distribute its attacks amongst the party. Remember that at the end of the day, any Healing Surge in the entire party not used is a Healing Surge wasted. Take a hit for the Fighter sometimes.

If you’re playing 3.5 and you can’t work out how to kill a Golem, you either (a) have a Wizard, and have thus won D&D, so cast Grease and be done with it, or (b) can just get all the casters to buff the biggest melee fighter and wait it out. If, for some reason, you have no casters, just try to Power Attack the thing to death, although the DR, big damage, and lots of HP may cause you serious trouble.

In summary: Golems really only worth using in 4E, where they are a perfect example of how 4E monsters work best with other creatures of different roles to aid them.

Make wise monster choices, and you will improve not only the quality of the game, but the enjoyment of it for both DM and players alike.