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Switch to Forum Live View D&D Encounters: Council of Spiders - DM questions at the outset
10 months ago  ::  Aug 20, 2012 - 12:44PM #1
JoeyLast
Date Joined: Jul 31, 2008
Posts: 62
I'm avoiding any plot spoilers here, since both players & DMs have access to these forums, but I have a few questions that don't yet seem to fit with what we've gotten so far regarding the next D&D Encounters season: Council of Spiders.  If any other DMs (or WotC employees) have any answers, they'd be greatly appreciated.

Slaves and Worth
Players are encouraged to play Drow, but are allowed to play members of a few slave races as well.  Does the new Worth stat apply to slaves?  If a house has a slave who is female, does she also get +5 worth in Drow society, or are slaves always relegated to 0 worth (as you'd think they would be).  Does a slave's Worth score add to the Worth of that house with regards to gaining minor house benefits?  There seems to be nothing written about this anywhere in the Encounters module or the Menzoberranzan book (at least not that I can see).

Warpriests of Lolth - Domain?
The only way to make an Essentials priestess is by using the Warpriest class, but what domain should you use?  The Domination domain from that Dragon article a couple months back seems like a good choice, and obviously the Corellon domain & Sun domain are right out... but a little more guidance would be appreciated.  

Underdark Slave Theme?
The available themes on the pre-printed character sheets list all the themes from Into the Unknown, plus all the themes from the 3 Drow-specific theme articles in Dragon 413... but they also list something called "Underdark Slave".  Have the details of this theme been printed anywhere that anyone knows of?

Character Builder Discrepancies
The character builder will let me select Evil as an alignment, yet does not let you choose Lolth as a deity.  I'm hoping that gets updated before this Wednesday's (8/22) character creation session (along with loading up all the themes from Dragon 413, too).  It'd also be nice if there were a place in the Character Builder to mark house affiliation (from the 3 allowable "houses" this season), but that's not as absolutely necessary as these other things, since it's story fluff that doesn't affect any stats.

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10 months ago  ::  Aug 20, 2012 - 7:17PM #2
blesper
Date Joined: Jun 1, 2012
Posts: 116
Lolth is listed under chaotic evil deities, and I have no problem selecting her as a god.
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 20, 2012 - 8:12PM #3
JoeyLast
Date Joined: Jul 31, 2008
Posts: 62
I see what happened.  I tried building a character under the Encounters option, but it must have still been set for the previous season.  Lolth is selectable in Forgotten Realms & Custom Home Campaign... and likely will be when they put up the next Encounters campaign tab.
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 20, 2012 - 8:28PM #4
blesper
Date Joined: Jun 1, 2012
Posts: 116
I suspect that you are right. I would also not be surprised if wotc decided to relaese either a darkness, trickery, or lolth domain in the middle of next season, just to be spiteful to those who chose to play warpriests. I could see some of the other domains working with a bit of re-flavoring, but encounters usally leaves little room for such a thing.

Personally I would allow for non essential divine classes, as these are more suited in general for Lolth worship, and ultimately shouldn't change the balance of such a low level game. 
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 21, 2012 - 11:50PM #5
JoeyLast
Date Joined: Jul 31, 2008
Posts: 62
Alas... the new Council of Spiders Encounters "campaign" tab is up, and it does not allow any evil gods (Lolth included).  Also, the only available themes are the ones from Into the Unknown.  Also there are, for no apparent reason, random backgrounds from Into the Unknown, and no way to select house or track Worth.  

Unfortunately, it appears that we're experiencing the same level of psuedo-support that we've seen for the past several Encounters seasons.  Why can't they just fully support products that they put out?  I know all guns are blazing for D&D Next, but don't take a program like Encounters, which is designed to introduce D&D to new players, and relegate it to 2nd class citizenship in the WotC world just because it happens to be 4e.  There are a lot of us still working very hard to tell great stories with the CURRENT version of D&D, trying to tell the stories you've given us to new audiences.  Please give us some modicum of support in that venture.
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 22, 2012 - 8:39AM #6
JoeyLast
Date Joined: Jul 31, 2008
Posts: 62
Huh... looks like the theme "Menzoberranzan Outsider" is also listed on the character sheet, yet nowhere to be found in articles, books, or the character builder.  Add it to the list of half-realized things this season.
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 22, 2012 - 2:11PM #7
Relikin
Date Joined: Feb 17, 2007
Posts: 4
Wow, another season of Encounters, and another season of basic communications failures at WotC.  Some moron at character builder forgot to add the Lolth option for DROW PRIESTESSES!  And when I called WotC to mention this, it was all like go ahead and let the players run a Pelor or Moridin worshipping DROW! 

Week 1 is going to be a nightmare of idiotic choices.  Thanks.
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 22, 2012 - 3:02PM #8
mortaine
Date Joined: Oct 20, 2010
Posts: 327
Use the "Custom/Home Campaing" option and just don't permit the other options.

There has been a Lolth deity for a long time. Her domains are darkness and trickery. There's even a channel divinity feat for her, though technically it's probably not allowed in this season's source books.

At least they haven't posted to the DDI forum saying "yay, August is up!" or anything. so they're not even pretending that they're ready for this season....

 Also, come join us in the D&D Encounters forum. We have cupcakes.
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 22, 2012 - 3:04PM #9
frothsof
Date Joined: Jun 4, 2010
Posts: 10,486
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...

 even if you select 'home campaign' you cant make options appear that were never released
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10 months ago  ::  Aug 22, 2012 - 4:16PM #10
mortaine
Date Joined: Oct 20, 2010
Posts: 327
I know, I know. There's still missing info. It's just like every other season, guys.
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