Mik4ilah & By Whatever You Wish's introductory 4e D&D game!

[Rain Yupa]

Flames Burning Within

Mik4ilah

Okay, we'll do a character generation then really small one-shot game for 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons. If either of you can get your hands on a 4th edition book (borrow it, get a pdf of it, view it online), that would help tremendously... but I'm willing to type out what's needed if it comes to that.

As a heads up, I'm on PST, and I'll likely be going to bed in little over an hour, and I have a M-F job, with other obligations Thursday and Sunday evenings, so I can't be around all the time. I'll try to post when I can, but I can't guarantee responses all the time.

While there's a large collection of options between all the various books, I'll limit you guys to the core, original Player's Handbook. That gives you 8 races and 8 classes to choose from. Each race will give you some bonuses, but probably most importantly will be certain stat boosts. The nitty gritty of what you can do will come from your class, though.

There are 6 Ability Scores, consistent with pretty much anything Dungeons & Dragons:

• Strength - Useful for hitting things and lifting things.
  
• Constitution - Useful for being healthy and making you tougher.
  
• Dexterity - Useful for being quick, nimble, and accurate.
  
• Intelligence - Useful for knowing things.
  
• Wisdom - Useful for common sense things, sensory things, instinct, intuition, willpower.
  
• Charisma - Useful for social things.

One thing I recommend is making an account on this site: Mythweavers. That will give you access to their online character sheet database (Sheets, at the top) and you can load a D&D 4th edition sheet in it, and it saves directly. You can throw things in there as we work on it, save it, and even quit and come back to it later. Really useful for this guild.

Now, there are often several ways to figure out the stats of your Ability Scores (3-18; 10 is the default 'average', and higher is better). One way is to give someone a collection of 6 scores, and make them place them where ever. This is often called a 'standard array'. Easiest, but boringest. The next way is to use something called 'point buy', where you have a certain amount of points to spend, and you 'buy' the scores you want. That gives you a lot of control over what scores you get, and makes sure everyone is balanced.

But the most traditional way, is to roll dice for it. I'm a huge fan of this method, even though my scores are often ones that get me Darwin Awards!

Here's what I want each of you to do: Under the text box, there's a Post Action pulldown. Choose 'Roll Dice', and select '6-sided'. Roll 4 of them. Then repeat this until you have 6 sets of 4 dice.

When that's done, in each set, drop the lowest number rolled. The remaining three, added together, will be one of your ability scores. You can assign it to whichever ability you want. In my example above, 2, 2, 6, 2, I drop one of the 2's, and have a score of 10. An example of how lackluster MY dice rolls will often be.....

After you roll your stats (and if one or both of you get some really low scores, I may make you reroll, and/or use Dungeon Master magic to fix it), then I'll talk about the races and classes, to figure out what you want to play and which Ability Scores you will want to have good values in :3  

[Professor Nep Nep]

Rain Yupa

would this suffice?  

[Mik4ilah]

roll one  

[Mik4ilah]

roll 2  

[Rain Yupa]

Flames Burning Within

Rain Yupa

would this suffice?

Kiiiind of? As you can see, it's pre-4th edition release.

It shows you what the options are, but I'm sure a lot of things changed between that website post and the actual book release. And 4th edition came out like 6 years ago.

So yeah, it's good as a general reference at least, so good find ^-^  

[Professor Nep Nep]

oh yeah forgot to roll *rolls all 16 at once cause i'm such a rebel...and it's quicker*  

[Mik4ilah]

roll 3  

[Mik4ilah]

roll 4  

[Mik4ilah]

roll 5  

[Professor Nep Nep]

*rolls the other two sets i forgot*

6, 2, 3, 1 = 11
5, 4, 3, 1 = 12
5, 4, 1, 5 = 14
5, 5, 1, 5 = 15
2, 2, 3, 3 = 8
4, 6, 6, 1 = 16

MATH, i'm decent at it  

[Mik4ilah]

roll 6  

[Professor Nep Nep]

Rain Yupa

Flames Burning Within

Rain Yupa

would this suffice?

Kiiiind of? As you can see, it's pre-4th edition release.

It shows you what the options are, but I'm sure a lot of things changed between that website post and the actual book release. And 4th edition came out like 6 years ago.

So yeah, it's good as a general reference at least, so good find ^-^

oh didn't see the pre part x] what about this?  

[Mik4ilah]

stats are:

3+3+4=10
6+6+6=18
4+5+1=10
6+4+6=16
3+4+5=12
2+3+4=9

this is ok?  

[Rain Yupa]

That would be it, alright. Note that there ARE some errata for it, but I'll cover that if it ever comes up.

Both your scores are pretty decent; Ms. Mik4ilah has 2 really high scores, while Mr. Flames has 3 pretty good scores.

Mik, turn your 9 into a 12.
Flames, turn your 8 into a 12.

And congratulations, you've both rolled your first set of ability scores for Dungeons & Dragons characters! biggrin

In 4th edition, you will generally want about 2 good scores, sometimes 3, and the rest don't matter quite as much. In 3rd/Pathfinder, and I'm pretty sure 5th, you kind of want 1 good score and the rest at decent levels. It's why I like 4th, a low score won't weigh down your entire party like the other editions.

Anywho, on to races and classes!

• Dragonborn are dragon-like people, descended from dragons themselves. They tend to be proud and honorable. For stats, they give +2 Strength, +2 Charisma, and can breath an element, like fire.
  
• Dwarves are stout, hardy folk, hailing from mountain keeps. They have +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, and are really really tough.
  
• Eladrin are high elves, very sophisticated in magic, art, and warfare. They have +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, and can teleport short distances.
  
• Elves, aka wood elves, are skilled woodland people, especially with a bow. They have +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and are more accurate in combat than other races.
  
• Half-Elves are the offspring of humans and elves, and often have the best parts of both races. They have +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, and are versatile in some things outside of their chosen class.
  
• Halflings are small folk, like hobbits, but are extremely nimble and not to be underestimated. They have +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, and are better at dodging attacks.
  
• Humans are the average race, and while they don't have any handy tricks, they are really good at what they do. They have +2 to any one ability score of your choice, and they get extra options from their chosen class.
  
• Tieflings are descendents of humans who once made pacts with devils, and as such inherit a devilish appearance. They have +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma, and can easily get retribution against foes that hurt attack you.

• Clerics are divine warriors who offer spiritual guidance to their teammates, and can likewise act as a weapon for their god as well. Your melee attacks will use Strength, your magic attacks will use Wisdom. Your Wisdom will often determine how big bonuses your healy stuff get, while Charisma might boost your offensive bonuses.
  
• Fighters are warriors, gladiators, brawlers, and monster slayers. They excel at combat, and often have several options at their disposal. You'll want Strength mostly, though some of your attacks will be better (depending on your weapon or style) if you have half-decent Dexterity or Constitution as well. Wisdom can determine some of their other bonuses too.
  
• Paladins are holy champions, who focus more about defeating enemies of their church and their god than clerics do. You'll have some divine spells you can choose, but most of your combat will be with your weapon. Spells will always attack with Charisma for you, but your weapon attacks will be either Strength OR Charisma. Wisdom will determine some of your divine bonuses.
  
• Rangers are wilderness warriors, and are generally seen wielding either a bow, or two weapons, with great mastery. Not as defensive or tough as a fighter, they instead dish out more damage. Your melee attacks will use Strength, your bow attacks will use Dexterity, and other bonuses you get will key off of Wisdom.
  
• Rogues are often stealthy and skilled characters. They are very handy out of combat, but nothing to overlook in combat either. Melee or ranged attacks will be based off of Dexterity for you, but your other bonuses will depend on either your Strength, and/or your Charisma. In combat, you excel when you can get the upper hand on an enemy.
  
• Warlocks make pacts with forces beyond our world in exchange for power, and often have horrifying spells at their disposal. Your spells will usually be based on Constitution or Charisma, while Intelligence can determine some of your other bonuses.
  
• Warlords are leaders of men, often controlling the flow of battle and providing boosts and healing to their fellow soldiers and heroes. Your own attacks will be Strength-based, but your warlordy powers that help your allies will key off of either Intelligence or Charisma.
  
• Wizards are very dedicated arcane magic users. They aren't terribly tough, dedicating their life to study, and generally don't specialize on spells that just outright do damage; but their magicks are often crippling, either in secondary effects, or by hitting multiple targets, or controlling the battlefield. Your spells are powered by your Intelligence, but other bonuses you get will be boosted by your Wisdom or Dexterity.

This will probably be my last post for the evening, but you two should discuss with each other what you might want to play smile In 4th edition, you might hear references to 'roles', and there are 4 such roles that certain classes can generally be expected to excel at.

Leaders are ones that heal and boost allies. Clerics and Warlords are leaders.
Strikers are ones that deal damage best. Rangers, Rogues, and Warlocks are strikers.
Defenders are ones that are tougher than normal, and can better protect their allies. Fighters and Paladins are defenders.
Controllers... well, control. They debuff enemies and focus more on widespread damage than focused fire. Wizards are controllers.

I'll check back with you two tomorrow! smile