Zahara (Eladrin Wizard), Taran (Human Thief) and Akra (Dragonborn Fighter) began the session hiding in the basement of a safe house in a town (and kingdom) overrun and controlled by an undead army. The living citizens are essentially slaves, forced to utilize their talents to manufacture supplies for the undead forces. Ghouls feed at will, unimpeded.
Making matters worse, the water supply to the town is somehow poisonous, causing drinkers to be subdued, almost submissive. The heroes have abstained from drinking the water during their time there, but their own water skins are now dry and water seems as precious as platinum.
The party decides to venture into the nearby forest to find the source of the poison, firstly by taking the town sewers underground to safety, as the party is well known in the region and even the citizens would report them because they fear for their own families if they aid them.
They sneak out at dark, making for the nearest sewer drain grate, avoiding patrolling skeletons as they go. Reaching the grate, Akra starts to remove it when Taran decides he should check for traps first (getting a 6-). As he checks the grate for traps, a ghoul down below (in the sewer) leaps up, clawing his hand. The noise of the ghoul alerts nearby skeletons who, with scimitars drawn, race toward the source.
Zahara launches a fireball through the grate, severely injuring the ghoul and causing it to retreat into the shadows. Akra begins to remove the grate using a cloak as a buffer ( originally for sound but now certainly for heat as well). The first skeleton arrives and sinks its scimitar into Taran’s shoulder/collarbone, pulling back and stabbing in to Taran’s stomach. Taran avoids the second attack by jumping backwards over the sewer hole (7-9 Defy Danger), but losing his balance on the other side. No matter, as Akra (grate now removed) chops the skeleton in half and it falls to pieces.
Akra starts down the ladder, knowing there is an injured ghoul in the shadows, meanwhile a second skeleton closes in on the surface. The ghoul erupts from the shadows, targeting Akra’s legs as he descends. Taran fires an arrow at the ghoul (7-9, taking what he can get (1d8 damage – 1d6). This actually results in a -1 (no damage) which we joke heals the ghoul 1 HP. However, 7-9 is technically a success, so the ghoul is not harmed because the arrow strikes already-charred flesh, but the force of the arrow knocks the ghoul off of Akra. This allows Akra to drop, turn, and put a gauntleted fist through its head.
Zahara, meanwhile, casts Magic Missile and dispatches the second skeleton before it can harm anyone. With that, the party enters the sewers, closing the grate behind them. To the East, where they are headed, lay only darkness and the sound of running water.
(The second half of the session later, if anyone is interested). At this point I shall note that Alex Cox played Taran and it was his first session of DW ever. The dice were not his friends , but he made such a spectacular move in the second half of the session that his newness to the game bears mention!
What are the racial move on the Fighter and Wizard there?
Dragonborn breath weapon (fire) and Eladrin Fey Step (When you step through the Feywild to reemerge somewhere else within sight, roll + nothing. On a 10+, you emerge right where you wanted. On a 7-9, you successfully Fey Step but your bearings are a little off…)
More specifically, Breath Weapon – range Near.
I like replacing Signature Weapon with Breath Weapon fully actually. But that works perfectly well too.
That’s a pretty neato concept, too. I opted for emphasis on Fighter, while that method opts for emphasis on Dragonborn. I think in the future I’ll include both as options so the player ( in this case I run him but for future characters/players who may want to use Dragonborn), gets a great combo choice. Care to post your Signature Weapon replacement? I shall steal.
This is an old draft, haven’t looked over it in a while so use with caution.
Choose your element
* Fire
* Lightning
* Acid
* Cold
* Sound
Your breathweapon gains the appropriate elemental tag. If you have a signature weapon you can coat it in your blood to give it the same tag.
Choose 1
* Your breathweapon is unleashed up close. You can Hack&Slash with it and get’s the Close and Hand range
* You spew your breath over a much larged distance. You can volley with it (but not choose to lose ammo) using STR and it has the near range.
Then choose 2
* Your breath is controlled and precise
* Your breath caries farther than that of your brethren, add one range category further to your breathweapon
* When you unleash your elemental power you do so in plephora and your breathweapon get’s the area tag
* Add another element to your breathweapon
* Your elemental blood offers you protection as well. Take +2 armor against the element of your breathweapon
* Your breath is powerfull and intense. +2 damage
* Your dragonblood powers your spells. When you use a spell with the same damage as your breathweapon take +1d4
* Your body powers your breathweapon. When using it, roll+CON instead of +STR
That’s cool, Tim, great job. I did forget to mention that you do choose your element (Akra’s is fire), but that’s it on mine (choose element, never changes as far as adding elements, gain range of Near). Using both allows a cool choice of emphasis. Definitely going to add that to the doc!
Have you developed the eladrin and the dragonborn racial move also for other classes?
I haven’t, as I only did these for a port of an existing D&D campaign to DW. However, Tim Franzke probably has, so I’ll summon him and see!
Hmm… My G+ wand is on the fritz… I’ll try it once more before breaking it over my knee… Tim Franzke, do you have more 4e race moves for these and other classes?
i have Half-Orcs and Warforged…
Could make more if there is need i guess.
I hadn’t thought about the need, but maybe a community 4e “conversion” would be helpful as quite a few new DWers (myself included) are coming from it. I’ll have to think on this.
I come from 4e too (actually i come from other games but 4e was “my” edition of DnD)
I did a few 4e inspired things.
Same here, I’ve played a large variety, but 4e was almost what I’d been waiting for. Combat, though, just got too slow as the campaign rose in level. DW captures the high flying fantasy but with loose, fluid mechanics, so it is my goto fantasy game now.
(One example being this riff on the con Ardent
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11N8GekdGyhhABCLetz4Vv7J196JvLkgxMubb-JephBQ/edit?usp=sharing )
Nice!
The thing about a 4e conversion guide is to not get to bogged down in 4e mechanics and structure. Take the basic story ideas of the races and class abilities but then riff on that. For me for example the cool thing about Eladrin is not that they can teleport around a few times per day but that they are fey creatures from a magical place.
I’d rather let an Eladrin Wizard cast 1-2 cantrips without rolling to show how second nature magic is to them. Or riff on their love for longswords.
Exactly. In our case, the Eladrin characters particularly utilized the Fey Step, which also implies, fictionally, that they step through the Feywild as opposed to teleport.
Eladrin Wizard: Choose 4 cantrips, you can cast them without needing to roll for them.
Eladrin Fighter: When you make a plan before battle, allies following that plan take +damage forward equal to your INT.
Eladrin Bard: Your Arcane Arts are actual spells, requiring the sound of music only on the most basic levels. You can use Arcane Arts with INT instead of CHA.
Eladrin Thief: Your inherent magical talent gives you some basic telekinetic control. You can use Tricks of the Trade without needing to directly touch the device you are manipulating.
But Tim, what about Fey Step?
Fey Step is an innate ability of Eladrin. If they Fey Step somewhere and look at you to find out what happens, look if it triggers any move (and get the imput of the players about that too). If it does, roll that move. Otherwise proceed according to your agenda and principles.
Any comments on these?
I like them, though I might alter the Fighter some to make it more personal to the player. The cantrips for the wizard is a nice touch for emphasis on innate magic.
When I get a moment I’ll see what I can do with 4e as well. I think a community doc of 4e conversions is a good introduction for folks not accustomed to the old school basic races, etc.
The Fighter is a riff on the Eladrin INT Warlord. Alternative might be to bind a cantrip into the Signature Weapon or make it inherently magical in some way… But i like the Commander Fighter idea more personally.
It definitely conveys the warlord, which isn’t a class in DW, so that makes perfect sense. Work is keeping me too busy for school or fun, so I’ve done nothing so far regarding 4e but shall.
Tim Franzke I have a comment about the missing fey step: handling it that way removes it from the moves (it’s an established fact in the game), and puts it into the fiction, so someone that doesn’t know the 4e assumption may ignore it completely. There is no reference to the feywild in any of the moves, either.
Yes
Wait, what was the question? 🙂
Yes those things are not there at the moment. Need time to think about that.
I tought it was a design choice, actually.
A simple change:
Eladrin wizard: you can easily channel magicfrom the feywild. Choose four cantrips…
I tought it was a design choice, actually.
A simple change:
Eladrin wizard: you can easily channel magicfrom the feywild. Choose four cantrips…
Indeed. That was my first idea too
feywild move, maybe? “When you spend time in the feywild…”