Questions tagged [dnd-4e]
For questions about the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, published in 2008. This tag also covers the D&D Essentials line that debuted in September 2010.
517
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What set of books makes a complete starter set for 4e?
I've asked several questions about 4th Edition D&D because I may be able to start a game. However, I'd need to purchase (some) materials. I am aware of the 4 book set (core) and the expected ...
42
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9
answers
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How do I run a game for a larger group?
I am currently running a Dungeons and Dragons 4 campaign for a group of 9 players. Whittling the group down to a more manageable size is not really an option since they are all family. When we do ...
46
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5
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What are the differences between D&D 3.5 and D&D 4th edition?
I have a small group of players who don't play often and we've been playing D&D 3.5.
I wanted to know if there are any significant differences between D&D 3.5 and D&D 4e? Do they use a ...
100
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13
answers
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3d6 vs a d20: What is the effect of a different probability curve?
What is the effect on game play of replacing d20 rolls with 3d6 rolls in a D&D 4e campaign?
I started thinking about this after reading this question where the example was given of playing a d20 ...
81
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17
answers
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How can I help my PCs remember clues that they found?
I'm a new DM running my first adventure in D&D 4e. I've heard of the "three clue rule", that there should be at least three independent pointers to any plot element you want the PCs to take note ...
45
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14
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Can D&D Fourth Edition be played effectively in a non-gamist manner?
I'd like to ask a question that's been brewing for a while. A lot of the answers and comments on this site seem to be from people who play 4e and are insistent that the right way/only way/best way to ...
25
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4
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I have read the D&D PHB but am still having trouble grasping some of the basics, how can I learn more?
With credit to one of the more experienced members on the site, mxyzplk, I thought I'd ask where noobs like me should ask or find answers to basic questions about Dungeons & Dragons mechanics if ...
25
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4
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What about character death should be included in a social contract?
For a D&D (4e, primarily) game what about player-character death should be included in a group's social contract? What are some options for best reaching consensus about the possibility of death ...
23
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6
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What is the optimal way to design a well balanced party
Confession - I just TPK'd my group....again.
One of the reasons that has been identified is that while the party is composed of 5 pretty well optimized characters, as a party they just aren't in sync....
23
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Readying an action before combat
Suppose the party suspects that combat is imminent, and some of the PCs ready actions (attack nearest hostile creature, attack first thing that moves). Then combat erupts. Some of the PCs are ...
13
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2
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Does a falling creature provoke Opportunity Attacks on the way down?
I'm in a D&D4e game right now, and in the current combat there are some flying creatures which may soon be knocked prone by PC #1. As part of being knocked prone, a flying creature falls to the ...
25
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How can I encourage my D&D Encounters group to do more role playing?
I'm a new player to D&D 4e. I've been participating in D&D Encounters since Season 1 and have even run a couple of sessions in Season 3 when the regular DM couldn't attend. I don't play in ...
22
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3
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What updates should be done to older monsters to bring them in line with MM3 era monsters?
I know that to better balance paragon and epic level players against similar level monsters, WotC changed the math used for monsters for MM3, and I believe that they changed some of the types of ...
19
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2
answers
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How do marks interact with dual attacks?
The specific example from last night involved a Demon ManipulatorDDI using his Deceptive Attack to attack both my paladin and an ally. Would this violate the mark and trigger Divine ChallengeDDI?
My ...
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How does resist all apply to an attack that deals two types of (non-combined) damage?
Resist all applies to all damage types (including untyped damage), reducing the damage by the resist amount. What happens when a single attack deals two different kinds of damage? Not combined damage, ...
11
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2
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How compatible are D&D 4th Edition and Essentials? Can you use Essentials encounters with 4th edition characters?
I've seen posts about how (un)convertable D&D Essentials characters are to 4th edition. This is a question about monsters/encounters/adventures.
People have been raving about the Essentials ...
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How do I make skill checks more than just sequences of die chucking?
I think I don't get skill challenges.
As I understand it at some point I break the narrative by proclaiming:
"This is a skill challenge. You need 5 victories before you reach 3 failures. Go"
And then ...
41
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13
answers
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Playing 4th Ed D&D for the first time, what should I read to avoid holding everyone back?
I've been invited to join a new game of D&D 4th edition this weekend, but haven't played proper D&D before. Are there any resources I ought to read or get before I turn up, so that I'm not a ...
36
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1
answer
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Why did Ed Greenwood and R.A. Salvatore dislike the Spellplague arc? [closed]
The Forgotten Realms campaign setting includes an world-changing event called the Spellplague, which provided lore reasons for many of the mechanical changes introduced by Dungeons & Dragons 4e. ...
32
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8
answers
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How do I get started playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition by myself?
I've been wanting to start playing D&D for some time, and I was wondering how I could get started by myself with relative ease. I own the first two player handbooks, and a set of dice.
28
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7
answers
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How to encourage a player's creativity without breaking the game?
I've just started a new D&D 4e campaign with a new group of players. One of my players came straight from 2nd edition, and has never played 4e before. She doesn't seem to grasp the layer of ...
27
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8
answers
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How do I use Passive Perception to have some characters notice parts of the environment?
I'm new to DM'ing and have an issue I'm not sure how to deal with. The situation is this: It's pitch black outside and the PC is walking, with a lantern in hand, toward a building. A bird is ...
24
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6
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What to do in the first session of a campaign?
The first session of my new D&D 4e campaign is coming up pretty soon and I'm not quite sure how to go about the introduction into this new campaign.
I have the geography and landmarks and things ...
23
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3
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Can players use crafting to improve beloved magic items instead of churning gear?
I'm all about the story, and as such, I've always been a fan of long-term attachment between players/characters and their special (usually magic) items. But with D&D 4th edition, it seems the ...
22
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6
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I'm fairly new to D&D but want to GM; where do I go from here?
I'm a 16-year-old male, and I have been interested in tabletop RPGs for a long time, especially D&D. I sorta dove into D&D really fast and hard by buying the Red box, Dungeon Master Kit, ...
20
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1
answer
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What are the planes of D&D 4e? Where did they come from, and how are they connected?
I understand that in D&D 4e's default setting there are planes, and I know a bit about them: the material plane is where the people generally are, and there's a "feywild" where the Eladrin and ...
19
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2
answers
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing a player to play a large creature?
We're playing 4e Thunderspire Labyrinth and we've decided to let the tank play a large (2x2) Minotaur.
He has all of the stats from the Minotaur player character in the Players Handbook 3, but he's a ...
17
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5
answers
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How much experience should a PC be worth?
Long story short, I'm about to betray my party (by trying to kill them). I'm playing this betrayer on behalf of the GM. Assuming they defeat me, how much experience should they get? I am a level 14 ...
16
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When a creature is invisible, but not hidden, do the enemies know the location of the creature?
When a creature is invisible but not hidden, one could argue that the players still know it's general location.
If a creature becomes invisible and not hidden does it remain on the battle-mat?
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How do you rule halfling tossing as a combat action?
The party I am GMing has three characters over 6' tall with 20+ strength as well as a halfling and a kobold, both small and about 3' tall.
A couple of times, they have wanted the big characters to ...
15
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2
answers
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Can a character in the middle of a move action alter his movement based on a change in his surroundings?
For example:
A player (speed 6) moves two squares towards a human bandit (pg. 162 MM) becoming adjacent to him, then proceeds to move around him to the right, provoking an opportunity attack. The ...
13
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3
answers
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How can I decrease the difficulty of a scene on the fly?
I was a DM for the first time yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and all things considered, I think I've made a pretty darn good first session.
It was, however, too difficult. I've based the various ...
13
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4
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What counts as ground for Tenser's Floating Disk?
What counts as ground for this ritual, if you have a 5x5 piece of stone/paper/metal/wood under the disk, and that is moved up, say 10 feet, would the disk phase through that stone, or hover 1 foot ...
11
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Burrowing, Large Creatures, Opportunity Attacks, Drowning, and Z-Axis Movement [closed]
In our D&D 4th Edition campaign, the players have recently encounter Bulettes, monsters with the Burrow movement mode, and we had a few issues dealing with ...
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Can a martial character combine a lesser style with greater style, arena training, or other at-will modifying feat?
What level of stacking is possible with at-will modifying feats?
Take, for example, the fighter power: "Cleave"
At-Will Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Targets: One ...
8
votes
1
answer
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When does a power count as an attack?
I thought it was pretty simple: a power's an attack if it says Attack in the top right. Apparently, it's not that simple. I keep hearing there are other conditions a power must fulfil to count ...
7
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3
answers
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Comprehensive list of WOTC D&D 4.0 products?
Is there a list of all the D&D 4.0 books to date, available on the web? Ideally sorted by release date, but I'm not picky.
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3
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How do I deal with absent players missing out on levels or XP?
If a player is absent and nobody chooses to play this absent character and instead I let it vanish for a while with a suitable reason or excuse, does this missing player gain levels and XP with the ...
4
votes
1
answer
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Where do I go from the Red box?
Me and my group just finished the essentials red box, and are looking at moving to the full 4e game. I'm doing some preliminary reading of the books and one thing is confusing me a little.
The ...
53
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13
answers
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How do you deal with metagaming based on die results?
I ran into this problem in a session I had earlier today. My characters were going through a dungeon and after a fairly lengthy fight with a person who lived there, they decided they would question ...
31
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8
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What are the most important differences for a 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master learning to run D&D 4E?
I'm a campaign designer and DM with 20+ years of AD&D 1st edition experience. I've been "retired" from the game for over a decade, assume I don't know anything about 2nd, 3rd, or 3.5.
Now I'm co-...
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Is there a core campaign setting for DnD 4e?
I'm completely new to RPGs in general, so I apologize in advance if this is an odd question. There's such an overwhelming abundance of lore on all the different campaign settings for DnD that I've ...
24
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9
answers
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What is a "mark" actually supposed to be?
This is probably way too simple of a question, but I just haven't been able to figure it out.
In D&D 4th edition, there's the concept of a mark on an enemy creature; a player character in combat ...
22
votes
3
answers
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Is 4th edition D&D compatible with 5th edition?
I have all of the hardcover books from D&D 4th edition. I recently bought and am reading the 5th edition players handbook and I must say I like it. I was wondering if 4th edition information (...
21
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6
answers
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Does sneak attack damage do max damage on a critical hit?
I have been trying to find an official ruling on this. In our campaign currently the DM says that one of the sneak attack die will do max damage, and I roll for the other one.
20
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How can I speed up combat with a large number of enemies?
I'm DMing for a campaign where the player characters will sometimes face small squads of creatures, most recently six ground troops and two archers helping out. In this setting, these creatures ...
19
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5
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How can I GM and play a PC without spoiling the fun?
We're returning to D&D 4E after a long absence from it, coming back from Savage Worlds since we've really missed HP-based battles and videogame-like logic.
However, as we talked about our new ...
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How often can a creature be damaged in one turn with Wall of Fire?
Question 1: During a creature's movement, he moves into more than one fire space. Does he take the damage for each square?
Question 2: Using Forced movement (push/pull/slide) does the creature take ...
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2
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Forced movement into danger: is there a saving throw?
Is there a saving throw to stop forced movement (a push, pull, or slide) from forcing you into a square that will damage you?
My wizard's tactic lately has been to try to Thunderwave enemies into the ...
15
votes
3
answers
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How far does one travel when falling for one round?
How far would you fall in one round assuming you started falling this round, and were high enough that you did not hit anything? Would this follow the math, or is there a rule written somewhere I'm ...