Dungeons and Dragons Encounters: May 2014

2014-05-31

2014-05-30

Free RPG Day 2014 Update

So I am planning to play the Paizo Pathfinder Module, Risen from Sands at Free RPG Day.

In preparation I sent an email to the author, Rob McCreary, of the module asking for a things I could buy in preparation for the event--minis, map packs, etc--just about anything that would make the game more awesome at the table.

Here is his response:

Thanks for your interest in Risen From the Sands. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of tie-in products for this year's Free RPG Day adventure. It's only thematically tied to the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path, so there's not really much from those adventures that would help with running Risen From the Sands. The Mummy's Mask Poster Map Folio will not be released until July, but its maps wouldn't really help for the adventure anyway. Most of the cards and pawns associated with the Adventure Path will also not be released by this time, though the Mummy's Mask Item Cards have been released, and you might be able to repurpose some of those cards for treasures in the adventure.

Otherwise, the following minis could be useful for running the adventure:
Mummies
Scarab or insect swarms
Skeletons
Burning skeletons
Zombies
Medium elementals
Animated statues

Lastly, the adventure contains four pregenerated characters, using the new classes coming out in August in the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide. If you want to use these characters in your game, I'd suggest downloading the free Advanced Class Guide pdf from paizo.com so that you're familiar with their abilities.

I will start getting the mini's & have downloaded this

Giant King Returns

Another fun week in Vandale's Garage

I actually made Cameron laugh with my +6 dagger against Ogre joke--may be the first time I have ever made him laugh!

The Giants started a ritual to prevent the king from returning.

An evil force emerged from the giant.

it raised a lot of dead guys.

KUBA killed 5 minions!

Vassa ran. A lot.

A good time was had by all!

2014-05-29

Time for Some Math!

Great Ax or Maul, that is the Question!

D&DNext has the following Critical Hit rules:

Critical HitsWhen you score a critical hit against a target, the attack deals its maximum damage to it. This means you don’t roll the attack’s damage dice; you instead take the highest rolls that each of those dice could produce and then apply any modifiers.
In addition, the target takes extra damage. Roll one of the attack’s damage dice, and add it to the damage. For example, if your attack normally deals 2d6 + 2 piercing damage, you would roll one extra d6 and add it to the damage of a critical hit
If the attack has different damage dice, you choose which die to roll. For example, if the attack deals 1d6 piercing damage and 1d8 bludgeoning damage, you can roll one extra d6 or d8.

So instead of double weapon damage, you get to roll one die again...A maul does 2d6. A great ax does 1d12. So on a normal hit a Maul averages 7 and a Great Ax averages 6.5.

Obvious.

Assuming that both critical on a natural 20 we have a 5% chance to score a critical with Maul & Great Ax.

Critical with the maul is 3d6, averaging 9. Critical with the Great Ax is 2d12, averaging 12.

Great Ax is better!

However, the average damage of the Maul is 7+.05(3.5) or 7.175 and the average damage of the Great Ax is 6.5 + .05(6.5) or 6.825.

Maul is better!

What am I doing wrong?

Magneto was Right!

Actual Play Dead in Thay--D&D Encounters S18 S3

2014-05-28

Enter the Doomvault! Dead in Thay--D&D Encounters S18 S3

Another fun week of D&D Encounters at Comic Quest with DM Alan.

Jack & I had dinner at home and drove down with plenty of time--the shop was very crowded with Magic players. We were able to snag the pole position table, but with three new players this week we may need to get more DM's and table started for next week.