Leonine Roar

Just this past April, Wizards of the Coast asked the Character Optimization Forum folks – people and D&D 4e players like you and me – what the good, bad and ugly is in D&D 4e.  They’re listening to and interacting with the D&D community more than ever, so it’s no wonder hundreds and hundreds of posts came back. 

What about DMs?  No worries, Popesixtus and Wrecan have us player/DMs and full time DMs covered!  Or even full time players who are curious what DMs think!  What I really like most about the DM version of this effort is that DMs tend to think at and communicate a more macro level view of D&D’s core principles, elements and features. 

After all, DMs run games, so they experience quite a lot from many different perspectives. 

And player/DMs?  Is there a greater state of D&D enlightenment?

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Recognizing and reducing game slowdown caused by a proliferation of triggers or immediate actions and interrupts isn’t just a player character issue in combat encounters.  Dungeon Masters must also do themselves and the playgroup a favor by analyzing monster complexity and making smarter monster selections when encounter building. 

The (unfortunate) reality is, monster or encounter themes, flavor and atmosphere don’t always mesh with a smooth and easy-to-run encounter.  It’s important to look over monsters and understand their complexity and potential slowdown impact when put together, not just individually.

To illustrate where monster complexity and selection can easily cross the slowdown line, allow me to briefly recount a thematically flavorful early paragon tier encounter I created and ran a few months ago.

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We all know by now that the average 60 minute encounter in D&D 4e is far too long.  It’s an eternity compared to prior editions, but worst of all, it has a negative impact on the smoothness and progress of play and adventure pacing. 

That dark road eventually leads to a non-immersive experience and disenchanted and bored D&D players and DMs – if you let it.  Even D&D 4e lead designer Mike Mearls has admitted to seeing combat length as an issue in retrospect. 

However, it doesn’t have to be this way.  Here’s a Leonine Six – the Corvette of Leonine 12’s – to get your playgroup’s combats back on the fast track!

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This is part of a series of articles surrounding character death in D&D 4th edition. For related articles, go here.

Dealing with character death shouldn’t stall or end a game or story, especially if you’ve already planned for it as a playgroup.  As you and I both know, adventuring is dangerous – heroes die, even in 4e.  Here are some ways to be ready for it and manage character death smoothly in your campaign, whether you DM or play: (more…)

The core rules and DM’s Book both tell us most monsters do not finish off fallen, dying heroes in the middle of the chaos of battle.   

Ah, so some monsters do?  Who are these truly wicked, vile or reckless monstrosities of the D&D world?  What are their cruel and merciless motivations?  You’ll find some of these unsettling answers here – and bring back the reality, fear and horror of character death to your game! 

We’ve all been there, on either side of the table in 4e.  A character, a hero or even antihero (thanks, Heroes of Shadow!) goes down, hits the dirt, cries out, sprays or vomits up blood, and starts bleeding out.  His or her dreams and soul about to fade – to the Shadowfell, and if they’re lucky, beyond. 

It’s a scary time.  Or is it? 

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Classic random encounters don’t work very well in 4e.  With average combat length so long (60 minutes per the core rules), it’s usually not worth the time to include them.  Why focus an entire hour of a session in a pointless fight that does not advance the adventure, the player’s quests or their motivations at all?

Previous editions of D&D included many opportunities for random encounters, both in the dungeon and the wild.  However, average combat length was significantly shorter, allowing for, if not encouraging a smattering of random encounters in every D&D session and adventure. 

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