DnD 4e question and general thread. I'm planning an online game of 4e through roll20, what's my best option for online character sheets? I got everybody a version of the offline character builder but it seems redundant to have them create/level up through the CB and then manually transferring that information to a roll20 4e character sheet.
yeah, just use the CB sheets
did it before myself and it works just fine
just make roll macros and update those as you level up
So you just used the CB and not the roll20 templates?
yes, the roll20 sheets suck
just trust your players to not be c**ts with their offline sheets, ask them to send you the file if you need to check something
this makes more work in the long run.
with properly made macros using the 4e roll20 sheets you can have all the stats that update over time (half level, ability mod, enhancement, item bonuses, etc) update for all macros at a time.
4e is le fricking garbage.
It's only as garbage as you make it anon
>lmao just homebrew the entire system to make it not shit
Or, alternatively, I could start with a base that isn't fricking garbage.
I have the 4e monster manual signed by Wayne Reynolds. His signature is hilariously basic.
>I have the 4e monster manual signed by Wayne Reynolds. His signature is hilariously basic.
The guy who also has the most over detailed art style ever? Maybe someone should introduce him to the idea of the happy medium...
Kek I'll post it, give me a minute
I don't mind obviously, I just thought it was kind of funny.
Which of the rule books are considered absolutely essential now that the game is dead? There are like five DMGs
two DMGs, 5 1/2 MMs, 3 PHBs, an expanded power/feat selection for each class across 6 books, and a bunch of setting and theme books (3 setting, 4 theme iirc). also 3 years of monthly dragon mags with mixed content. Too much to start out with for sure.
If you want to run bare bones I'd use everything but the setting/theme books for player creation, both DMGs (they cover basic and then more nuanced stuff respectively) and don't use the first two monster manuals. Use a later released adventure module to get used to stuff.
Or just get the offline compendium and have all that in one searchable place and don't worry about it.
Think I discovered why 4e died so completely, thanks
Honestly the lack of proper cataloging is a b***h. Where there’s a million and one websites that have easily accessible archives of every rule ever printed for 3.pf and 5e there’s only a few pages and wikis for 4e and there’s no vocal community to usher in any discussion to point players in directions of where to look or how to play.
It’s a shame because with a simple website archive with a forum the game would be so easily accessible.
Speaking of, I’m currently in a campaign as a lvl3 warlord and I was curious are there any AoE powers or magic weapons I can take? Getting bogged down by minions because our party druid is the only consistent AoE character.
http://iws.mx/dnd/?list
4e database
There should also be some way to download it for local viewing.
And for warlord your first multitarget is staggering spin at level 5, daily in Martial Power
>Speaking of, I’m currently in a campaign as a lvl3 warlord and I was curious are there any AoE powers or magic weapons I can take?
Taking a quick flick through the Adventure's Vaults and specifically focusing on Heroic Tier weapons...
Honestly, not really. 4e tends to rely on powers to attack areas of effect, rather than weapons - there's no immediate analogues to the Flaming Burst Sword in 4e that I can name. Weapons that can attack areas usually can only do so either once per encounter or once per day, and tend to be Paragon tier at the least.
Like, there's the Aftershock Weapon, a 2+ enchantment that causes all enemies adjacent to a creature you critical hit to be knocked prone. That's the only enchantment that really seems to be related to what you want.
Something similar to a Flaming Burst sword in 4e would be the Flame Tongue Weapon from Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium but its level 10+ which is a little too far ahead for a level 3 character.
Minion clearing will never be your job as a Warlord. What is the rest of your party? If you have one of each role then either the Defender or Striker might have tools they can pick up to help clear chaff if your controller is falling behind.
I would not bother trying to pick up a minion-popping weapon here. I would suggest emphasizing your strengths as a warlord and buying a Chieftain's Weapon.
http://funin.space/compendium/item/Chieftains-Weapon.html
you really just need the 3 player's handbooks and monster manual 3, monster manual 1's math was never updated for the errata.
and dmg1 obviously
Replace MM3 with Monster Vault since it has a better selection of things most people want like goblins, orcs and zombies since its 90% MM1 with fixed math along with some more stuff.
But really though you can play 4e with just PHB1, DMG 1 and MM 1 and be fine, not near its best but fine. You are actually smoking crack if you think any WotC edition is good with just the core original three books. Plus the whole idea of 4e was that you'd pay for the D&D Insider service that gave you access to every book and a piss easy character creator and not have to carry your books around since everything you needed as a player was on like 3-6 pages of print out. Or you know what most of us did back then, just pirate the pdfs because really frick WotC for their gay moneygrubbing ways.
I've heard this edition is hated
It's passing into it's nostalgia phase where it's deemed cool again, especially by people who were young when it came out.
I bet a lot of people honestly enjoy it, though.
Lots of book and digital magazine bloat and a very MMO feel and a weird art style but it was fun and many people's first RPG.
Because it had an online portion in an age where that was still heavily uncool.
4e is the best RPG, people just didn't want to rebuy all their 3.5 books
4th edition was my first edition and I love everything about it except combat. That monster manual, frick, I remember reading about Orcus and having nightmares afterwards.
It sounds really fun if you treat it like an old school tactics game. Wish I hadn't fallen for the graph paper WoW meme and skipped it. Seema perfect for vtts too.
Seema perfect for vtts too
Which didn't exist back when it was new. Playing and tracking it purely physically had more of a mental and bookkeeping barrier to entry, took longer, and there were issues of errata and such.
They PLANNED on having an official VTT of some kind, but the single dev who knew the codebase killed his wife and then himself.
>but the single dev who knew the codebase killed his wife and then himself.
Even if he didn't it would never have happened: the VTT was being designed to use the same backend as Hasbro's poorly conceived social network, Gleemax. After Hasbro axed Gleemax the full suite of digital 4e tools was a pipe dream.
That was the angle they took on it, diamond was pushing their minis hard as frick, the shop I ran back then had a whole fricking case of the aftermarket minis.
They did relatively well over time, but came in random boosters which was moronic.
Tells us some horror stories about diamond anon, I'm sure you have some
Aside from the 3/1 comics bundles of unsellable trash to stockable books, 5/1 required to get the alt covers that actually move as an extortion method to make them less savage loss-leaders? That shit put them out on the street.
Personally though,
Arkham Asylum Clix, right after the TPB got a sexy new reprint and right before the game came out they ran a new box that was a who's who of all the villains throughout the eras, with a NUMBER of chase figures.
The promo material we got promised that each unit (a whole fricking palette) had some threshhold of each (i dont recall the exact numbers) I just remember superboy prime was the day one bighomie and we were promised two.
Well the units arrive and we've had an event planned for a fricking month for a big draft buy-in since we got a decent "deal" copping two thanks to the owner.
One of the most chaotic nights I've had there, even crazier than our 40k nights, fricking PACKED. The draft shit was sanctioned for a 20$ draft with three boxes which was like 20% off, making the boxes margin's razor fricking thin, with prize support for the top 3. (which we also paid for)
The promo figures didn't come, they straight up lied about the alt chase figure prize support for first, and they had sent out a groupon type thing online, for 50% boxes when you buy 2.
So in about three hours we lost about 7 grand and then got screamed at when the prize support we paid for got ripped away so we had to give out MORE free shit.
We went through both units that night and not ONE chase was pulled. We were GUARANTEED by diamond to get a few a unit.
I almost lost my job over that shit, even though it wasnt my order or event or my coupons. (which we had to fricking honor as sanctioned)
And the card guy took the night off so I was handling a fricking mob alone.
Holy shit.
I wasn't ready for the Heroclix story.
It seems so unnecessarily malicious on their part. Do you think it was a mixup on their side that they covered up or actually deliberate?
It's stuff like this, together with dealing with the customers convinced me that running a game store wouldn't be as fun as I used to think as a kid.
I put it up as half incompetence due to not caring, half greed due to monopoly.
I'm glad they fricking burned, they put out more shops than lockdowns did.
> We want that Magic money
Ah! Hasbro, so easy to read..
4e was an abusive milk of the DnD fanbase, the figs werent even bad, just random and there were a ton of them. The game played more wargamey so the minis were near required for tracking even the DMG prebuilt battles at midlevel, and to get 10 goblins or 6 snakemens for some bog standard shit you had to buy untold boxes and hope. Then they started mixing in the splat monsters, and not even a separate skew, putting you on the hook for new books or being stuck with the loss, while if you bought the books, you had to hope to pull the monsters you wanted.
They rushed out a separate wargame that was shittier clix to assuage the players stuck with piles of premium mismatched nonsense, but again, it was a "living game" so look forward to buying more shit and having each new set grow more powerful.
We had a ton of DnD 4e players because it was modeled (by their own admission) after WoW which was at its peak at the time. Zero and I mean ZERO "mini battle game" players.
Even when I was buying figs from players the market was so fricked I was more interested in kobolds and goblins and orcs than the "rares" because those were the ones the DMs came and shelf cleared, because to the new players the attitude was that minis were a requirement.
These players are now on 5e eating that same turd sandwich, the poor devils.
Beats VtM though and we banned pretty much all trinityshit too after several debacles including a drunk 13 year old falling into a display case and trashing a couple hundred dollars in converted warhammer models or a mage player pushing a guy down the stairs out front.
Miss the pre-normie days all the same.
Everyone was some flavor of weirdo and none of them were this pre-fab golem shit.
Bricks-and-Mortar life is some kinna shit!'
>We had a ton of DnD 4e players because it was modeled (by their own admission) after WoW
The meme never dies, does it?
When I ran 4e, I used tabletop simulator and made individual power cards for basically everything, using magic set editor, so that when a player changed anything I could edit just those cards that needed an edit, and update TTS.
Splitting it into cards made it a lot easier for people to go "OK what's my This Attack do?", flipping cards over or tapping them to indicate they're used, etc.
The tools for 4e on Roll20 suck ass. Just have them play off the sheet. Its some extra typing but really if you set up a macro for your standard attack bonuses you are good to go.
mmo shit
Primal as a power source was a stroke of genius from the 4e devs. It got Druids and Rangers away from the ambiguous "divine nature magic" and it made Barbarians closer to mythological berserkers. Primal Spirits gave a good non religious option for less civilized societies. Plus Shaman was cool and probably the only pet class that actually worked well.
But Rangers are Martial. Also, there were Wardens, which were amazingly fun.
Rangers did get some Primal stuff during Essentials but Seeker is just the magic half of old Ranger condensed into an unfortunate shit class which funnily enough becomes a lot better once you sew it back onto Ranger.
quads
oh yeah 4e that was a thing, if they had supported 3 way longer then 4 would have been more celebrated surely
Seriously, there are so many older D&D settings that make so much more sense with Primal being backported into them. Like the Forfarian culture from Ravenloft 3e, who are supposed to be druid-led not-Scots.