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UB Eldrazi Deck. Power out Eldrazi while using Blue and Black Removal/Countermagic/Discard to disrupt the opponent.

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How many times has this happened in your game:

Wizard: “I’m guessing there’s something more going on with that statue’s mouth- I use Arcana to try to feel out a magic aura. I get a 28.”

DM: “There’s definitely some kind of problem with it. You’re not sure you want to go in there.”

Swordmage: “I’m trained in Arcana too. I get a 35.”

DM: “Uhh, you also detect a problem.”

Psion: “We must not be rolling high enough. Lemme see… 38.”

DM: “It’s bad, OK? Seriously.”

Wizard: “Can I try...

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“You can perform an acrobatic stunt, keep your balance while walking on narrow or unstable surfaces, slip free of a grab or restraints, or take less damage from a fall.”

Acrobatics as Mechanics.

Let’s look at the mechanical abilities that Acrobatics gives you.

Acrobatic Stunt: this is a direct link to page 42, and the most mechanically “open” use of Acrobatics. Think of something cool to do and the DM tells you how hard it is to do.

Balance: Can you stay upright on an unstable...

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A thin drop of condensation rolled down the glass, mirrored by the small bead of sweat running down the side of Grafton’s face. The druid fingered his drink, sliding the perspiring glass back and forth across rough wooden table, leaving behind a thin trail of water. He glared across the table to where Umalli was sitting. The half-orc wizard swallowed his shot and slapped the glass onto the table with a loud hollow tap, setting it beside the growing stack of empty glasses. Umalli smirked at...

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Updating the Race

Among the gods’ creations, gryphons stand apart. Their close relationship and important mission gives the gods a unique attitude toward the race as a work in progress.

Unlike many races, gryphons were not created with variety in mind. At first, the only gryphon in the world was the meridian gryphon, but, once imperfections were found (which didn’t take long), the gods began work on the twilight gryphon as an update to the race. Generally, the gods are content to leave old...

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Gryphon

Gryphons are the powerful byproduct of an ancient shadow war between the gods and the primal spirits. A melding of divine and primal powers, they resemble an artful combination of feline and fowl – most notably, lion and eagle. Gryphons were created in several spheres of influence, with diverse missions in the world to manage the flow of divine energy. Whatever their goals, gryphons pursue them with a single-mindedness that contradicts their dual nature.

History

When the Dawn War...

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The Ultimate Exaltation of Earth

The eternal enduring cycle of life and death, of destruction and renewal, flows through you. Your body takes the form of earth that is constantly crumbling to dust and reforming. Your spirit, like the earth, can never truly die. Encounter*Primal,Limit,Polymorph Minor Action

Effect: You drop to zero hit points, but are not dying, and not unconscious. You automatically pass all death saving throws. You become immune to damage and are weakened. At the...

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This is technically different from the normal “Off the Grid” series, but really? Gridless Combat? Are you going to get much further off the grid? Hope you enjoy, and comments welcome.

Why Gridless?

There are many good reasons to ditch the grid. Perhaps you want to do a play-by-email game. Or maybe you’re at a convention and you forgot your gear. Or you’re just accustomed to other roleplaying systems (or older versions of D&D) and you want to run combat with narration and description...

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Special – Finally, we come to the catch-all, the miscellaneous. The Special victory condition means that the PCs can do (or have to do!) something else non-combative while they’re fighting in order to win. The two primary non-combat options in D&D are skill rolls and pure roleplaying, so someone (or everyone) is involved with either a skill challenge or an intense roleplay concurrent with combat. The vast majority of...

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Background: In ages past, Otto was an unorthodox wizard that researched spells intended to humiliate rather than harm. His most notable spell was Otto’s irresistable dance, which could make even the most frightening umber hulks get jiggy.

The spell eventually found use in a security device designed for a merchant lord who wanted to stop thieves, but not necessarily leave their blood all over his expensive furniture. This device is the Mad Mirror Ball, a sphere made entirely of small angular...

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The Alamo, the Great Wall of China, Stalingrad – there’s nothing like a stalwart last-ditch “you shall not pass” heroic defense to inspire courage and stimulate the imagination. Defend is probably the least often seen Victory condition in D&D which is why it’s my personal favorite. In a Defend situation, you don’t necessarily need to win – you just need to not lose… usually. There are three main variations of Defend:

Rourke’s Drift or Koan Defense

This is the classic Defense option. All the...

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Welcome to Time Stop, your week in review for fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons.  This week I bring you some great articles from the RPG Bloggers Network, a couple excellent podcasts from RPGPodcasts.com, and a few resources to help your D&D game.

Time Stop can now be found on Twitter, follow @AtWillTS to learn out about a few articles each day of the week.

Masterplan is an adventure and campaign planning tool for Dungeons & Dragons, including tile mapper.

Gamer Lifestyle’s

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Greydoom roared black death,

Wreathed in black flame, Immen crumbled to his knees, screaming. Another failure. Grasping the pommel of his downturned blade, he embraced his death. Immen had failed to protect the people of Amesfeld from Greydoom’s minions. Those the dragon did not incinerate were now enslaved in the dragon’s deep mines.  That was only the most recent in what Immen regarded as a dynasty of incompetence and poor judgement. The paladin somehow acquired a reputation as a...

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This week, the paladin comes off the grid with Divine Challenge. many of you have probably seen or heard of this mechanic being exploited in an encounter, but it can also invoke fear of the Gods without ever drawing a sword.

The Paladin

Divine Challenge

Dmitri and Ivan were bound back to back. One cheap candle on the table partially illuminated their captors.

“Where’s princess?” One of the men shouted and struck Ivan across the chin.

Ivan tilted his head to the side and spat blood. He...

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Jeff over at the Tome Show got me access to a preview snippet from the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2, and I have to share it with you.

The preview content deals with templates.  Templates were a gamemaster’s best friend in 3.5 D&D.  It was only one of the ways that you could create non-standard monsters quickly.  Take a monster cross it with a template, et voila!  Instant coolness.

This isn’t so much a factor in 4e — monster creation is much easier — but if I told you that something...

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One of the most enjoyable evenings of D&D I’ve played in the last few months was a one-off game with brand new low-level characters.  I made pregenerated 5th level characters for each of the players in my group and then got out a deck of cards.  Before the evening started I had thrown together a list of character personality traits and tied them to each card in the deck.  I had each player draw a card for a dominant personality trait and then a second for a secondary personality trait.  Each...

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Welcome to Time Stop, your week in review for fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons.  This week I bring you some great articles from the RPG Bloggers Network, and a few resources to help your D&D game.

Time Stop can now be found on Twitter, follow @AtWillTS to learn out about a few articles each day of the week.

Fourth Edition game designer David Noonan discusses where roles in Dungeons & Dragons come from. (Note: links to earlier articles at top)

Ed Healy offers some advice on