D&D people may you help me?

[crudus]

(I made this topic in the wrong section due to confusion)(could someone also tell me how to get a thread moved)

I got some basic stuff out of the way like what starter set to get. (4 edition). I mainly would like to know stuff about the races, classes and game-play mechanics all help is appreciated.

detail questions

1. what is a good race/class for a first time player?
2. any information to do with the warforged?
3. what to do if everyone playing is playing for the first time including the game/dungeon master?
4. useful alternatives to figurines to represent your character on a battle grid?
5. how long should the average game session be?
6. how often should you check for traps? (joke question)

question for fun
1. what race would you want to be able to play as in D&D

1. In my opinion your first character should always be a human fighter. They are very basic, hard to screw up (and you will screw up), and are very forgiving. It gives you time to get a feel for the game and watch how people play their characters. note: this advice only works if you are the newbie in a group of expeirenced players. Otherwise, choose a race that reflects the same attributes of your class. A fighter needs str and con. An elf gets +2 dex, +2 int, -2 con which doesn't help a fighter in the slightest. Elves are much more suited to be rogues or wizards.
2. They have light fortification (25% chance to not take sneak attack damage and critical hits), don't get healed by magic as well as other races, immune to these: Poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, sickened, energy drain, anything that requires breathing, they also have DR 5/adamantine. I think they had a level adjustment in 3.5 which is a big no-no to have if you are a first time player. I don't know how 4th edition handles them.
3. You need these roles filled: Meatsheild, rogue, healer. I recommend your DM be vary lax about character builds. Example, if you find your feat progression for the passed 4-5 levels isn't working then you should be allowed to change it. I also recommend you guys not read the monster manual; DM eyes only.
4. Anything. I used Reese's Pieces as enemies once and whoever killed it ate it.
5. How long do you feel like playing? It really just depends on what is going on, how it is presented, etc. My gaming sessions usually last 6-8 hours. I have had gaming sessions that have lasted 30 hours (that includes food breaks and such). It really just depends. I recommend you aim for 6 hours and see where you are 6 hours later.
6. Ask yourself this question if you don't know if you should check for traps: Is the party moving? If yes, check for traps. If no, check for traps.

1. Depends on what class I want to play. Each race has their preference in class.

edit: also, NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY

 

[Naheal]

To the folks that are arguing that 4th sucks:

4th edition made DMing infinitely easier in the setup process. It takes some getting used to, but, compared to everything from 2nd on up, it's a much smoother experience in handling player abilities vs encounter difficulty.

Also, good luck finding anything outside of 4th edition if you're not willing to go online.

1. what is a good race/class for a first time player?

As with everyone else here, I'll suggest human for your race. Highly versatile, even more so than the half-elf, they make for an excellent tailor-made race for whatever it is that you want to do.

As for class, that all depends on what role you want to play and what you end up playing in a typical RPG setting. I started out as a Mage back in 2nd ed and I did just fine. You just need to realize what exactly it is that you want to do.

Tactician? Pick up the Warlord class (if you want to have more support available) or the Wizard class (If you prefer wide area burst type abilities and battle field control abilities)
Melee? Ok. Do you want to rely on ambush and/or dirty tactics (Rogue), skirmish tactics (Ranger), or protecting your allies by being your a-typical meat shield (fighter).
Ranged? Spellcaster (Warlock) or archer (Ranger)? Wide area (Wizard) or single target (Warlock)? Healing abilities (Cleric) or raw damage (Ranger)?
Healer? Do you want battlefield control (Warlord) or potential buffs (Cleric)?
Defender? Do you prefer martial only (Fighter) or would you like something extra to potentially use (Paladin)?

2. any information to do with the warforged?

The Warforged race is a group of sentient golems (think androids) created in the setting Eberron. They're generally unused outside of that setting.

3. what to do if everyone playing is playing for the first time including the game/dungeon master?

Everyone needs to familiarize themselves with the rules of the game. Skim through the combat section. Your DM should also skim through skill challenges and look to using a prebuilt adventure for the first adventure or four.

4. useful alternatives to figurines to represent your character on a battle grid?

We use pente stones and coins. Your starter set will include small cardboard cutouts that will work until you can/want to get some figurines.

5. how long should the average game session be?

Depends on your group. I prefer mine to go about 5-6 hours, depending on the day and everyone's schedule.

6. how often should you check for traps? (joke question)

Every five feet. No, seriously. Look up the Tome of Horrors and you'll realize just how serious I am.

edit:

question for fun
1. what race would you want to be able to play as in D&D

edit2: I was thinking of playing a warforge druid from my limited knowledge is that a good idea or a sure plan for failure

edit3: with vengeance: I play rpg so i know a lot about normal rpg elements and using abilities just useful info but I don't know any D&D slang (I'm normally a magic user)

1. I'm normally humans. I like my extra feet and skills.

Edit2: I'll highly recommend against druid for your first time. I've seen experienced players screw up that class because they didn't fully understand the shape-shifting aspect of it.

edit3: Oh, you're a magic user?? Go with wizard. You'll do fine. They specialize in wide area based attacks and, based upon the abilities you take, can either specialize in damage or making life difficult for anyone in an area that they don't want them to be in.

Alternatively, if you have access to the Player's Handbook 2, I'd also highly recommend the Sorcerer class. They're essentially a spellcaster who specializes in making whatever was stupid enough to be an enemy no longer exist.

2. They have light fortification (25% chance to not take sneak attack damage and critical hits), don't get healed by magic as well as other races, immune to these: Poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, sickened, energy drain, anything that requires breathing, they also have DR 5/adamantine. I think they had a level adjustment in 3.5 which is a big no-no to have if you are a first time player. I don't know how 4th edition handles them.

Contrary to popular belief, they were still susceptible to energy drain. And, no, they didn't have a level adjustment. The main thing that they had going against them was that they couldn't ever remove their armor, which meant that if you wanted to be an arcane caster, you pretty much got screwed. Also, they didn't have an armor slot (it was taken up in their construction) so, in order to better your armor, you had to take the proper feats at 1st level to better said armor. Beyond that, the only way to improve said armor was to enchant yourself.

 

[Phenns]

>1. what is a good race/class for a first time player?
>I'd have to say a fighter, but the first response was correct. Bards are bad-ass. Especially during a steam-punk campaign when they get rifles. Then they're just overkill.

>2. any information to do with the warforged?
>I have no idea, honestly, and I've played for 2 years.

>3. what to do if everyone playing is playing for the first time including the game/dungeon master?
>Just experiment. Have the Dungeon master make the story up as you go along and such. That will get you an idea of how it plays, then have him write a campaign. (As a DM myself, I should just add, DON'T PUSH HIM FOR ONE. He'll write it down as he thinks of it.)

>4. useful alternatives to figurines to represent your character on a battle grid?
>Erm. I've never found much use for the grid system myself. I like to use my imagination rather than a set map. Plus it's hard to represent changes to the landscape in a grid.

>5. how long should the average game session be?
>As long as it takes. The time it takes for everyone to be bored that is.

>6. how often should you check for traps? (joke question)
>EVERY TWO SECONDS. DON'T FORGET TO CHECK FOR INVISIBLE TRAPS. AND HIDDEN DOORS IS A MUST.
I swear, as a DM, having people check for traps every two seconds gets on my nerves, so start searching rooms VERY THOROUGHLY if you want to annoy your DM.

Edit: Oh, and Human for race. Bonus feat and such. And remind your DM that just because the monster manual says a monster is named and looks like something, they shouldn't be afraid to take the base stats for that monster and use it as bandits or something.
AND REMEMBER: 3.5 edition is the best one. 4 is terrible. I tried it, and it sucked.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Mind you, older D&D fan here, so I'm not -big- on 4th edition. But I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Here's a list of things you need to get started.
*Imagination.
*Core D&D books. Player's Handbook (PHB from here on), Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) and Monster Manual (MM).
*Set of dice. d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. You'll want a lot of these when you get hooked, but that can wait. Alternatively, you can use an online die roller. I know, blasphemy.
*Pencils, notebooks and a battle grid; google image explains that well.

Aside from that, if you decide you like it, I suggest picking up supplemental books. PHB II and III is a good place to get started. Besides, 4th Edition is designed from the ground up to be played with miniatures. So they would be handy. If you don't have miniatures, use the battle grid mentioned above, and use whatever as markers. Or just draw on the grid. Warforged, I don't know much about. They're in a supplement I don't have yet.

1. What you want to look for is what ability modifiers a race gives, and what ability scores are useful for specific classes. Example follows. The Rogue class specifies that Strength, Dexterity and Charisma are their key abilities. A halfling gives +2 Dex, +2 Cha. In other words, probably a good match. In general, you can't go wrong with Human, though. As to classes, some are a bit harder to learn to play 'well' than others. For a first time player, I'd advise going for a striker class. Rogue, for example. It's not that much to it. With that said, you want to make sure that the players have a -mix- of classes, so someone should figure out the wizard (or a similar controller class).

2. Sorry. They never caught my interest, and I don't have a sourcebook with 'em.

3. Take things a bit slowly, take the time to learn the rules, but not too slowly. Keep in mind you're all there to have fun, ultimately. Try to make sure that everyone's included, and that everyone gets a moment to shine. And go easy on your poor first time game master; he's probably flooded already, so be nice to him. Yes, I'm a GM, why do you ask?

4. Any piece from a board game will do.

5. That depends entire on taste. Some groups gather to play for four or five hours. Some to play an entire weekend, barely stopping to sleep or eat. I recommend four-five hour sessions at first.

6. Always.

I hope this helps. More questions? Put 'em up!

sigh I miss the old days of D&D and D&D forgotten realms when all you needed was your mind, the dice, and the books. I never played with miniatures, I find it takes so much away from it all...

OT: I always played Rangers myself, but it really depends on your play style. If you wanna bash things, go for a fighter or a barbarian. If you're the long distance type, mages and sorcerers are your ranged magic and rangers are for bows and up close fighting

 

[Sampsa]

Be a bard. They're badass - in a more diplomatic campaign, at least.

Haha, in our current campaign we have three gnome bards. Sure, they're fun while off combat which is most of the time, but at the levels we are now it's up to rogues and fighters to do some damage in combat.

 

[crudus]

To the folks that are arguing that 4th sucks:

4th edition made DMing infinitely easier in the setup process. It takes some getting used to, but, compared to everything from 2nd on up, it's a much smoother experience in handling player abilities vs encounter difficulty.

Also this isn't the time and place.

>1. what is a good race/class for a first time player?
>I'd have to say a fighter, but the first response was correct. Bards are bad-ass. Especially during a steam-punk campaign when they get rifles. Then they're just overkill.

But you can't be a Bard if there are only 3-4 people in the party though. There just isn't enough damage output in the party otherwise.

 

[Naheal]

>1. what is a good race/class for a first time player?
>I'd have to say a fighter, but the first response was correct. Bards are bad-ass. Especially during a steam-punk campaign when they get rifles. Then they're just overkill.

But you can't be a Bard if there are only 3-4 people in the party though. There just isn't enough damage output in the party otherwise.

Not an issue in 4th edition. The way the Bard is set up now, they can effectively take the role of a healer, but have an emphasis on party support rather than the raw healing power that a cleric has or the battlefield control that a warlord has.

Elaboration: In 4th edition, each particular class is categorized based upon their particular job in a party as well as their power source. Both of these have an effect on how the particular class functions in gameplay.

Defenders: To coin an MMO term, they tend to be tanks. They're your meat shields, the guys who's job it is to piss everything off in some manor or another. They're separate from other classes due to reliance on an ability type called "marking" which functions differently depending on the class, but all share one thing in common: if your marked target attacks something other than you, something bad happens to them. For example, the fighter class's marking ability is attached to any ability that they use in that round. What it does is that, if the target attacks something else or attempts to move away from them, the fighter gets an attack of opportunity, essentially a free attack, against them to interrupt that action. If that attack hits and they were moving away, their movement stops before they can actually move.

Strikers: They excel in killing things. These guys put out the majority of the damage in the party, as this is their specialty. Each do so in a different way. For instance, a Ranger will pick out a single target to mark as their quarry. Whenever they hit their quarry, they deal additional damage to it. Whenever a Rogue has combat advantage against a target (usually flanking or catching an opponent off guard) they can sneak attack for a rather large amount of damage. Barbarians don't have much special beyond small bonuses in their rages, but they deal the single highest raw damage of any class in the game.

Leaders: These are your healers, but they tend to fill a secondary role, too. Warlords, for example, can double as a defender. Bards can double as a controller. Clerics are exceedingly good at blowing up undead.

Controllers: Large area spells are their specialty. Usually a controller can lock down multiple opponents throughout an encounter to keep them out of the fight. Some (wizard) simply do this by dealing a moderate amount of damage to everything within a particular blast radius. Others (invokers, Player's Handbook 2) deal in mostly debuffs in an area, reducing attack strength and accuracy of a group.

Special note: Rogues are no longer a strict requirement in 4th edition. The thievery skill covers everything having to do with trapfinding, disarming, and unlocking doors. This skill is a requirement for your party, not the rogue itself.

 

[not_the_dm]

I was thinking of playing a warforge druid from my limited knowledge is that a good idea or a sure plan for failure

The Warforged are more suited to the fighter, paladin, barbarian and warden classes, the last two are in Players Handbook 2 (PHB2).

Ideally you want the party to cover the four basic roles; leader, defender, striker and controller.

Leader (Cleric, Warlord) - Leaders inspire, heal, and aid the other characters in an adventuring group. Leaders have good defenses, but their strength lies in powers that protect their companions and target specific foes for the party to concentrate on.

Defender (Fighter, Paladin) - Defenders have the highest defenses in the game and good close-up offense. They are the party?s front-line combatants; wherever they?re standing, that?s where the action is. Defenders have abilities and powers that make it difficult for enemies to move past them or to ignore them in battle.

Controller (Wizard) - Controllers deal with large numbers of enemies at the same time. They favor offense over defense, using powers that deal damage to multiple foes at once, as well as subtler powers that weaken, confuse, or delay their foes.

Striker (Ranger, Rogue, Warlock) - Strikers specialize in dealing high amounts of damage to a single target at a time. They have the most concentrated offense of any character in the game. Strikers rely on superior mobility, trickery, or magic to move around tough foes and single out the enemy they want to attack.

The party I'm in at the moment consists only of the three strikers. Things get a little hairy at times...

Anyway, all the races are suited more towards certain classes due to their racial stat boosts apart from humans which can boost any one stat. Humans do get an extra skill choice and attack power at lvl 1 however.

With regards races, Dragonborns favour the warlord, fighter, and paladin classes, Dwarves favour the paladin, cleric, and fighter classes, Eladrin favor the wizard, rogue, and warlord classes, Elves favour the ranger, rogue, and cleric classes, Half-Elves favour the warlord, paladin, and warlock classes, Halflings favour the rogue, ranger, and warlock classes and Tieflings favour the warlock, warlord, and rogue classes.

All the race names explain themselves apart from Eladrin and Tiefling. The Eladrin are a race of elves that are powerful magically and the Tieflings are a race of half-demons that can call upon the dark power bound within their blood.

 

[Ganthrinor]

I asked some of my friends and we are all interested in trying D&D.

now I'm wandering whether you guys could tell me what you need to get started? how many people to you think you would need? and just general advice. I also saw a video of someone playing D&D online and I saw a race called the warforge could someone tell me about those guys they looks interesting. the reason I asked you not google is because you are nicer better looking and just awesome and I can ask you more detailed questions. all I know is to always search for traps and it involves dices with many sides

(I made this topic in the wrong section due to confusion)(could someone also tell me how to get a thread moved)

I got some basic stuff out of the way like what starter set to get. (4 edition). I mainly would like to know stuff about the races, classes and game-play mechanics all help is appreciated.

detail questions

1. what is a good race/class for a first time player?
2. any information to do with the warforged?
3. what to do if everyone playing is playing for the first time including the game/dungeon master?
4. useful alternatives to figurines to represent your character on a battle grid?
5. how long should the average game session be?
6. how often should you check for traps? (joke question)

question for fun
1. what race would you want to be able to play as in D&D

edit: please leave a small description of the class you think would be good so I know what they do.

edit2: I was thinking of playing a warforge druid from my limited knowledge is that a good idea or a sure plan for failure

edit3: with vengeance: I play rpg so i know a lot about normal rpg elements and using abilities just useful info but I don't know any D&D slang (I'm normally a magic user)

edit4: the re-editing: check this forum once in a while because I'll be editing a lot.

First off, Pathfinder is far superior to 4th Edition D&D. Hell, 3.5 is superior to 4th edition. 4th Edition is garbage

If you insist on playing 4th Ed, any race/class combo is bland enough for a first time player to enjoy and think they're doing well and in truth, any of the basic core classes are good starting points.

Warforged are golems that have gained sentience and free-will. Basically robot humans that don't get a lot of the bonuses or penalties that "real people" get. I personally don't like them, they're a silly idea that got out of hand.

If *everyone* is playing for the first time, including the GM/DM, focus on having fun and not rule-mongering too much. Rules are always important, so don't ignore them entirely, but have fun with the system. As a DM, try to avoid the "My pet monster" syndrome of making unkillable creatures or NPCs and setting out every fight where the PC's have to use all thier resources to survive. Resting after every fight is as boring to them as it is to you.

Legos, Army men, Chess pieces. Anything that fits on a grid or hex map easily, really. I've even used First/Last name initials on graph paper before.

Game until you notice people aren't having fun anymore, or are falling asleep. A few hours, usually. Take breaks for food and such. It's easiest for a DM to set up enounters and locations that run in the 2-4 hour range but all meld into a longer, over-arching campaign.

Pathfinder trap checking is always active if a class has Trapfinding. They get a Perception check when they get within 10 feet of a trap, if they fail they can either keep going on as normal or stop and take a closer look around. Fun to Red Herring your rogues with things like graffiti and piles of waste.


I generally play Half-Elven Rangers, Human Fighters, Elven Rogues or Aasimar Sorcerers if I'm Power-gaming and min/maxing. I personally don't really like Warforged, but the Robot Tree-Hugger just seems a little out of whack to me. So I'd probably play it just for kicks. I like screwball characters. One of my Favorites was an Elven Barbarian with really, really, really low Intelligence and Wisdom (like 3 in each). With creative playing no race/class combo that is legal is "doomed to failure".


Once again, I'd like to encourage you to look at Pathfinder if you haven't already dumped your money on Wizards of the Coast's "Tabletop World of Warcraft" 4th Edition D&D. Only need two books to play, the Core Rule Book and the Bestiary. CRB is a Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide all in one, so you've got all the rules, classes, feats, Prestige Classes and loot there in one handy tome (and better art).

Spoiler: Pathfinder weblink

http://paizo.com/pathfinder

 

[P.Tsunami]

sigh I miss the old days of D&D and D&D forgotten realms when all you needed was your mind, the dice, and the books. I never played with miniatures, I find it takes so much away from it all...

On an emotional and nostalgic level, I entirely agree, having messed around with D&D since AD&D's 2nd edition. With that said, call me naive, but I think the miniatures have a purpose aside from revenue for Wizards of the Coast. 4th Edition is more of a tactical wargame than a roleplaying game, at least in comparison to its earlier incarnations. For that end, minatures and battle grids make perfect sense. In a core system like Mutants & Masterminds, for example, combat detail is kept much more vague, and a miniatures system would just mess it up. It all depends on what you're looking for, I suppose.