D&D 4E Rambling thoughts about D&D 4th Edition

Dragon #393 has the star pact hexblade.
CHA and INT.
The blade is called a “Starshadow blade”, and is a long sword. The attack is called “Resplendent Blade”, and causes radiant damage both to the target and to one other creature adjacent to the target. The sword can also teleport targets or blind them, as encounter powers. At level 20, the star hexblade turns into a humanoid star, basically, with a radiant aura and the ability to fly. At level 25, a Way walker can be summoned. Sort of a giant monster that causes madness.

Heh. I clicked on this thread and noted that it was a necro. Reading the first post, with the stuff about how implements should get a proficiency bonus just like weapons and thinking "Well, they don't because powers using implements usually target a non-AC defense which is usually lower."
Then I scroll about a page down and see that 2022 Staffan already made that comment. I am nothing if not predictable.

Dragon #395 has information on players procuring strongholds.

Dragon #397 (March 2011) has articles on hirelings, and also has the updated rules for ability modifiers that were introduced with the Essentials line.

#398 has info on how to have the characters gamble, including how to cheat.

#401 (July 2011) has articles on jousting and wrestling.

#403 (September 2011) has “A Hero’s First Steps”, which has the player make a level 0 character. It also has an article on magic academies.

#407 (January 2012) has an article on D&D love stories. Also several articles on Cormyr.

#409 (March 2012) has an article on thieves’ cant

#410 (June 2012) has a cut-out dragon called “Lil Flame”. It also has an article with space age weapons and armor, from the Barrier Peaks.

#418 (December 2012) has a few 4e versions of BECMI era monsters. It also has an excellent article on fantasy inns. Also, an article on magical tapestries that can summon creatures, act as teleporting doors, or imprison those who look at them.

Dragon #420(!) (February 2013) has an article on how to play as a ghost.

#422 (April 2013) has an article with charts for rolling a character’s background.

#423 (May 2013) has an article on “The Inn of the Welcome Wench” which was in the Village of Hommlet. It also has instructions on how to play without a battle map.

#424 (June 2013) has an article on “Achievement Skill Challenges”, such as joining a thieves’ guild, building a stronghold, crafting a magic item, etc. This is close to what I was looking for when I mentioned a “project” I was working on.

#426 (August 2013) has several articles on mystery adventures (detectives and such). It also has instructions for a “cheat sheet” for the DM, for those times that the players do something unexpected.

#430 (December 2013) was the last 4e era Dragon magazine. It had articles about time travel.

Maybe this will help?

Jacob Lewis said:

Maybe this will help?

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Wow this is really really helpfull in general! Did not knew this exist, great work.

Tigris said:

Wow this is really really helpfull in general! Did not knew this exist, great work.

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I don't know who made it or where I found it originally. I had it safely tucked away in my folder archive for everything 4e. (I might have other hidden treasures buried in there I forgot about...)

cavalier973 said:

Again with the necro, over here.

I’m working on a little project, and was scanning through the issues of Dragon Magazine, to see if anything related is in them.

Dragon #382 has a solo adventure that features Splug the goblin, from Keep on the Shadowfell. It says that he is dressed rather better than goblins generally are. You start the adventure with just armor and weapons, and two bottles of healing potion, unless you are a leader class, in which case you get just one healing potion.

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I think Splug started my tradition of roleplaying helpful/grateful goblins to the hilt, and the PCs enthusiastically adopting them (albeit with some mistrust for Splug, at first).

I was checking the PHB2 for gear, and discovered something I don’t remember seeing before: a ritual for growing food.

The ritual costs 100 gold coins, and requires 20 gold coins’ worth of components, and takes ten minutes to cast. There have to be food-bearing plants already in the area of effect, I guess. It grows enough food to feed five people for a week, as long as you can get them to eat their fruits and vegetables.

Whoa.

I can imagine a farmer doing a side hustle as a dungeon crawler until he can get high enough level to cast this ritual, and then retiring.

No more “seasonal fruits”. You want strawberries in the winter? We have them, here at Hank’s Farm. Or, we will. Just give us ten minutes or so.

Trying to do a skill challenge of “exploring the dungeon”.

I need to work a little more on the concept.

cavalier973 said:

I was checking the PHB2 for gear, and discovered something I don’t remember seeing before: a ritual for growing food.

The ritual costs 100 gold coins, and requires 20 gold coins’ worth of components, and takes ten minutes to cast. There have to be food-bearing plants already in the area of effect, I guess. It grows enough food to feed five people for a week, as long as you can get them to eat their fruits and vegetables.

Whoa.

I can imagine a farmer doing a side hustle as a dungeon crawler until he can get high enough level to cast this ritual, and then retiring.

No more “seasonal fruits”. You want strawberries in the winter? We have them, here at Hank’s Farm. Or, we will. Just give us ten minutes or so.

Click to expand...

That's a significant buff over PHB1's traveler's feast, which is a 4th level ritual taking 1 hour, costing 35 gp, and creating food for 5 people for 1 day. The only (mild) drawbacks are that bloom doesn't produce any drink, it presumably takes some time to harvest the food as well, and if you want to keep it around you need to bring it with you (and fresh fruit presumably weighs more than trail rations). You could also make the ruling that bloom is, or ought to be, season-dependent – if you cast it in a frozen wasteland there are no fruit-bearing plants around to produce any food.

That said... a common meal at an inn costs 2 sp. Assuming three meals per day, that's 6 sp per day – and that includes food preparation. 6 sp per day x 7 days x 5 people = 210 sp, or just above the cost of casting the ritual. I don't think anyone is going to get rich off that. It is, however, useful for feeding a large number of people from a limited area, such as when besieged.