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3 years ago ::
Feb 20, 2010 - 2:55AM
#11
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There are actually many more LFR adventures that involve the Spellplague either directly or indirectly than DALE2-1. For example, every adventure involving earth motes are possible only due to the Spellplague. It is just that we avoid using the Plaguelands, and if you have read the novel The Edge of Chaos you would understand why. Those regions are way too lethal for anybody to enter unless you have a suicide wish or some kind of protective ritual as used in ADCP2-1.
(Mind you, we have been told not to deal too much with the Spellplague itself. That event took place 1 century before the current era and it is a done deal.)
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3 years ago ::
Feb 20, 2010 - 5:25AM
#12
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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There are actually many more LFR adventures that involve the Spellplague either directly or indirectly than DALE2-1. For example, every adventure involving earth motes are possible only due to the Spellplague. It is just that we avoid using the Plaguelands, and if you have read the novel The Edge of Chaos you would understand why. Those regions are way too lethal for anybody to enter unless you have a suicide wish or some kind of protective ritual as used in ADCP2-1.
(Mind you, we have been told not to deal too much with the Spellplague itself. That event took place 1 century before the current era and it is a done deal.)
Oh, sure. DALE 2-1 just struck me as an adventure that really used the Spellplague to good effect, as opposed to the adventures where it's background. Not that there's anything wrong with the latter.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 20, 2010 - 8:34PM
#13
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There are actually many more LFR adventures that involve the Spellplague either directly or indirectly than DALE2-1.
I think Corm 1-4 tied the spellplague into the story very well.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 21, 2010 - 6:18AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2007
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Question: when you are looking for the Spellplague, do you mean historical references to the actual Spellplague which occurred in 1385, the Year of Blue Fire, or residual pockets of Spellplague that might be encountered? Our guidance from WotC was historical references to the Spellplague should be rare as while this is "new" to the players, it is "ancient history" to the characters/creatures in the world. The plaguelands are, as Pieter stated, very dangerous, and when we started, I don't think we had good guidance as to how to handle the effect game mechanics wise. Work done for ADCP2-1 may help with that.
Keith
Keith Hoffman
LFR Writing Director for Waterdeep
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3 years ago ::
Feb 21, 2010 - 8:20PM
#15
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Date Joined:
Aug 26, 2008
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Short shameful confession regarding ADCP 2-1: if you tell me there are monoliths coming towards me, out of the Plagueland, I am going to immediately envision Naxxaramas. So a lot of any potential Spellplague impact there was probably lost on me.
See, I was expecting a bunch of Necrons to come pouring out.
On topic:
Spellplague 1. Does the spellplague improve the campaign setting?
2. Has LFR handled the spellplague well?
3. How interested are you playing mods with the spellplague as a primary theme (as opposed to say fighting the Netherese, solving the Mystara mystery etc etc).
I think LFR has done an OK job at handling the spellplague. I think the spellplague has allowed LFR to use some pretty amazing locations, scenery and characters. Grimlock from WATE1-2 and the first fight of DALE1-7 come to mind. That said, if you can't tell a good story without fanciful locations, dressing it up with plaguelands isn't going to help. DALE1-2 and TYMA 1-2 & 1-5 have had fairly mundane settings but great stories.
I think LFR has done a poor job incorporating the spellscarred character option into adventures. It's my only real critique of ADCP2-1. Spellscarred is an RP-centric flavor option that requires a rewards card and provides some serious penalties. IMHO it should have more story impact.
However, I think LFR has done a poor job incorporating a lot of FR-specific options, like regional languages. IIRC, common in Abeir-Toril is little more than a trade language. In reality characters that don't speak a region's language shouldn't be able to say much more than "where's the bathroom?" let alone conduct social skill challenges as easily as a native speaker.
I'd really like to see LFR stress Forgotten Realms options a little more. You're allowed to play a Kalashtar and be from the Windrise Ports, but you shouldn't want to because your race & region should have significant story impact.
Spellscarred
1. How interested are you in playing a spellscarred? Where has the spellscarred "class" gone right/wrong?
2. How do you feel about spellscarred monsters/spellscarred encounter themes?
I have a spellscarred revenant, but I haven't taken the multiclass feat.
The multiclass feats provide no skill training and give you a serious defense penalty in exchange for some very mediocre utility. Bar one, all of the powers I've looked at are less powerful than most class powers of a lower level. e.g.:
- Scar-carving blade, 3rd-level encounter. 1[W] + Str + a conditional 5). It's strictly worse than most 1st-level fighter encounter powers, equivalent to most Fighter at-wills).
- Submission of the Earth, 9th-level daily. 3[W] + ongoing 5 + immobilized. Avenger, Swordmage, Warlock and Wizard have similar or superior immobilize powers as level 1 dailies.
I'd really like to take them, but I just can't rationalize it. I've been hoping for a Spellscarred Redux article to appear in Dragon that makes the MC attractive, maybe provides some new powers, etc. I've been meaning to propose one myself, but I can't imagine no one else has thought of it, and with Eberron out and Dark Sun coming, I can't imagine Wizards being too eager to throw out some FR-specific support now.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 21, 2010 - 11:32PM
#16
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Spellplague really hasn't been a big issue in adventures; PCs mostly ignore it unless its thrown in their face like in the BI, DALE 1-4 or AGLA 1-4. In game history that time is actually over and done with as the world continues to recover and try to cope with the major changes and the scars that remain of the spellplague (Vilhon Wilds, plague lands, spellscarred, etc).
A home campaign might have more on the spellscarred, but unless the writers slap us with it us players mostly shrug our shoulders and pretend it doesn't exist.
Personally, I would like to have more modules or a chain of adventures dealing with this directly.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2010 - 12:13AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Mar 29, 2001
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My primary character was created with a spellscar purely as a roleplaying hook with no real mechanical benefit. (Sight of the Unseen on... a drow. Right. Big power there.)
I've played her over 13 levels so far and have been massively underwhelmed at the effects of having the card in the stack.
In, there haven't been any, really, roleplaying or otherwise. Well, other than player characters going "Ewww."
-karma
LFR Characters:
Lady Tiana Elinden Kobori Silverwane - Drow Control Wizard
Kro'tak Warscream - Orc Bard
Fulcrum of Gond - Warforged Laser Cleric
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3 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2010 - 5:09AM
#18
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2007
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Spellplague
1. Does the spellplague improve the campaign setting?
2. Has LFR handled the spellplague well?
3. How interested are you playing mods with the spellplague as a primary theme (as opposed to say fighting the Netherese, solving the Mystara mystery etc etc).
(1) Not particularly. It seems mainly employed either as a deus ex machina, or to place arbitrary magical events and auras wherever convenient, or to handwave differences between the "old" forgotten realms and the 4E version. (2) It is generally not noticeable. I'm not convinced that this is a bad thing, really. (3) It could potentially be interesting; I find there are a bit too many mods about combating the few standard Evil Nations Of Bad Guys (tm), and this could be a refreshing change of pace. But for this to work, there has to be more to the spellplague than "random magical effects because we say so".
1. How interested are you in playing a spellscarred? Where has the spellscarred "class" gone right/wrong?
2. How do you feel about spellscarred monsters/spellscarred encounter themes?
(1) Not particularly. Spellscarred characters aren't meaningfully different from other characters.
(2) They wouldn't work unless there's a substantial amount of spellscarred characters involved. I don't see how a spellscarred monster or encounter would be meaningfully different from other monsters or encounters.
I think the key here is "meaningfully different", and that's not likely to be resolved since the FRPG has already been completed. Spellscar powers may be uncommon, but essentially they do the same as any other class power.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2010 - 6:21AM
#19
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2. How do you feel about spellscarred monsters/spellscarred encounter themes?
I think the key here is "meaningfully different", and that's not likely to be resolved since the FRPG has already been completed. Spellscar powers may be uncommon, but essentially they do the same as any other class power.
You do know what a monster theme is, do you? It is a group of minor utility and attack powers a DM can add to a group of monsters to give them a common theme. It is from the DMG2 where they have themes like demogorgon, Lloth, goblin-allies, legions of hell and so on. For example, a Lloth-bound creature would get spider climbe and a poison bite attack.
Spoiler:
Show
See IMPI2-1 for reflavoring of existing themes to get a spellscar theme.
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3 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2010 - 7:27AM
#20
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2007
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You do know what a monster theme is, do you? It is a group of minor utility and attack powers a DM can add to a group of monsters to give them a common theme. It is from the DMG2 where they have themes like demogorgon, Lloth, goblin-allies, legions of hell and so on. For example, a Lloth-bound creature would get spider climbe and a poison bite attack.
Sure, but unless the players have read the DM's stat blocks (or know the MM by heart, which in my experience most LFR players don't), they are unlikely to spot the difference between a kuo-toa and a spellscarred kuo-toa, or between a sphinx and a Lolth-bound sphinx.
If players see a monster with a poison attack, they are unlikely to conclude that the monster must therefore be related to Lolth, because plenty of other things also have a poison attack for unrelated reasons. If a monster can throw bolts of lightning around because it's spellscarred, that won't attract attention since any wizard, warlock or sorcerer can do essentially the same thing. That's what I mean by "not meaningfully different".
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