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In my last blog I mentioned how I found that the basic 4E Treasure Parcel system is one that creates unnecassary administrative work for the DM and then I suggested some raw ideas for alternate ways of handling the distribution of treasure. For the next few blogs I'll be taking a look in detail at each of those suggested alternatives and spelling them out more (so that my random thoughts composed on an iPhone in a rush make more sense ;)).

The first suggestion I made was to slow the distibution of magic items down, and this blog will look at that idea in more detail.

First of all the DMG says that the PCs should "acquire four magic items ranging in level from one to four levels above the party level. In addition, they should find gold and other monetary treasure equal to the market price

4E is generally a very easy game to administrate as a DM, which is great because not all of us want to spend hours on the minutae of running a campaign. For those of us that are time pressed treasure parcels at first look like a great idea, 4 magic items and treasure worth a fifth one, that is pretty easy to organise. Yet as the campaign progresses problems start to emerge.

Before I go into those one of the first things people do with the system is make wish lists for each character. These are in fact very useful for helping the DM but they are a trap in and of themselves. The DM in fact gains administrative work when he adopts them, because now they have to track the wishlists of all their players in addition they need to make sure that the PCs get items from these lists or there was no

Well Santa put Revenge of the Giants under the tree, and the local cinema started showing Sherlock Holmes, and these two things intersected...

You see in watching Sherlock Holmes the things that bug me about Revenge of the Giants became clear, and there are 3 things that particularly irk me about the module. But before I get to the things that I don't like about the module I'll say that overall it remains a solid product, it is worth the admission price as it were, but unless you really want a Giant focused campaign or have not mapped your setting beyond where the Heroic adventures take place you might want to think about spending the money.

The three main problems:

1) The PCs cannot stop anything. They spend a great deal of time trying to stop the bad guys from getting the McGuffin only

Ok so part 2 of the Vistani article really gave me ideas I could hang a character off.

Paik Radanavik - Vistani Trickster
Born in a wagon Paik has known only the road, and with it the bonds of the clan and the distrust of outsiders. Of course Paik was born with natural advantages that gave outsiders reason to distrust, and even fear her, for certainly she had inherited some of her granmother's feyness, and by the time she was a teenager she could give the evil eye like an adult, a fact she was more than happy to exploit when things were reduced to fighting.

Over time the goal of the character is to get combat advantage a lot, most rounds you should be able to have combat advantage without ever having to get beyond the lines of the defender in the party. The character also gains more Vistani

The following three encounters were proposed as an alternative start to the first Scales of War module Rescue at Rivenroar as well.

Encounter 1 - Wake up Call (600xp total)
1 Gray Wolf (Level 2 Skirmisher)
1 Hobgoblin Mercenary (Level 2 Soldier)
4 Goblin Cutter (Level 1 Minion)
2 Goblin Sharpshooter (Level 2 Artillery)

Put the encounter in a street. The Sharpshooters should be around the corner so they can start hidden. The wolf and hobgoblin in the middle of the street and the Cutters scattered about with torches in their hands (which they should drop to fight the PCs at the hobgoblin's order).

Encounter 2 - Rescue the Guards (900xp total)
2 Hobgoblin Mercenary (Level 2 Soldier)
1 Hobgoblin Warcaster (Level 3 Controller, Leader)
8 Hobgoblin Grunt (Level 3 Minion)
2 Goblin Warrior (Level 1 Skirmisher)

This character was inspired by a request for advice on a Paladin of Corellon over in the LFR Character forum, and the Divine Staff implement. Kana is nothing like the Paladin other than the core RP idea.

Kana  - Angelic Messenger of Corellon

Inspired by her guardian Angel Kana is on a mission to spread the word of Corellon, and make sure that lost artifacts of different cultures are recovered and that the evil hordes are indeed being kept in check. She has spent many hours in the study of Arcane matters and has some mastery of arcane magic to supplement her divine blessings.

She is a ranged combatant only. I guess technically she can hit things with her staff, but that is rarely going to work. With her high Wis and her high Int Cloud of Daggers is a very effective spell - handing out 3

Well the Assassin class debued today, and since I saw the GenCon Indy previews I've been wai>ting to build this character. Faustine was a Shadowdancer, and large amounts of her RP related to her relationship with the Shadow world and finally I can make her again. The girl who feels no pain, and weeps shadows.

Faustine - Night Stalker Assassin (on the run)

In the night they came, they dragged her away crying from her mother. Then they did things, terrible things, they did them for so long that one day something inside the child broke, and Faustine was born. Faustine no longer experiences pain, her whole world is graded in different shades of pleasure, and since her escape from her Drow creators, who would like their creation dead now it no longer answers their call, she has become aware

Inspired by her picture; (Source: redpeggy.deviantart.com)

Ting Dao Shou Wizard (Tome of Readiness)

Ting Dao was raised in the Lotus Academy in Nathlek, capital of Nathlan, she is a proud Shou and follower of Corellon. She has mastered the basics of the sword through her keen intellect. Not as strong as many swordsmen she is more than smart enough to exploit weaknesses in the attacks and movements of her opponents to strike a blow home. Yet despite her mastery of basic sword techniques it is her skill in the Art that is her greatest weapon, and one she will continue develop along with her devotion to Corellon.

At first level she has Magic Missile because I want her to be able to exploit Wizard's Fury through to low Paragon, in particular once she gets the Divine Challenge at level 6, you

Ok I admit this character is entirely inspired by Mike Mearl's blog: I Don't Like Resistances and Immunity . In it Mike mentions perceptions of issues with resistances and well I look at this sort of build and go "what problem?"

Tor'Chariss - Dragonborn Pyromancer

"Feel the fire.. burn.. burn... burn.. ahhahahahahahaha!" - What no one said he had to be entirely sane.

His mechanics are pretty straightforward, use Dragon Soul, Pumped by feats and backgrounds to essentially ignore Resist: Fire, and then punish things that had the termity to Resist fire in the first place with extra damage. Of course eventually you will run into things that have "Immunity: Fire" - at which point you want that "Frost Dagger" to make all your attacks cold damage. Gaining a collection of low level daggers that