Mik4ilah & By Whatever You Wish's introductory 4e D&D game!

[Rain Yupa]

Flames Burning Within

Kowsauni

*yawns* good afternoon new friend :3

did i do my h surge properly? also question about weapons, since i'm a fighter i could a warhammer correct, yes? what would the attack be for that?

All weapons have a Proficiency bonus ("Prof" in the tables). As long as you are proficient in a weapon (Fighters are proficient in all simple melee, military melee, simple ranged, and military ranged weapons), you add that to your attack rolls.

Warhammers are Military One-Handed Melee Weapons, and as such, you get to use that bonus smile

Any of your attack powers with a [W] for damage, means you will use that weapon's damage property when you attack with it. So, 1[W] + Strength Modifier damage, while using a warhammer, means 1d10 + 3 (your listed Str bonus) damage on every attack roll.  

[Rain Yupa]

Flames Burning Within

As for your current character sheet, as per request via PM...

You need to add your +2 Dungeoneering and +2 Endurance bonuses from being a Dwarf. In the Skills section, in the Misc column, just type/replace anything there with "2".

To the left of your Race Features, there's a couple boxes after 'Speed'. In the first one ('Base'), type 5. That means on a grid, you can move 5 spaces with one single move action. That equates to about 25' a round, if no monsters are playing interference.

Below Passive Perception/Insight ('P Perception' and 'P Insight'), there's a 'Special Senses/Movement'. Type Low-Light Vision. What this means is that in cases of Dim Light (not bright, but not dark neither), you see perfectly fine.

You have four "defenses": AC (Armor Class), Fort (Fortitude), Ref (Reflex), Will (... Will). Generally, if you are attacking with or attacked by a weapon, the attacker to roll equal to or higher than the target's Armor Class value. Attacks that target the other three defenses will generally be either special or magical attacks (examples: a poisonous bite might hit Fortitude, an explosion Reflex, and a hypnotic song Will). Your Fighter has a class bonus of +2 Fortitude. That will be entered in the 3rd box smile

Different players/DMs will have different styles, but typically I recommend leaving powers unchecked, and check them off when you use them. Encounter powers you will uncheck after a battle (you have to rest for 5 minutes), and Daily powers you will uncheck after an extended rest (typically, "sleeping"). You don't HAVE to, but that's what I find works best. smile

For your attack stats, what I recommend doing is in the top right, under the picture box you will see 'Attack Workspace' and 'Damage Workspace'. I use those. In each of those, for Ability 1, type in "Strength" or "Str" (either works). It should auto-fill your strength bonus in under Ability. Being a Fighter, you have a Class bonus of +1 to attack rolls with one-handed weapons, so I'd enter 1 under Class. The Proficiency bonus for a warhammer is +2. All told, you should end up with a +6 for your total Attack bonus, and +3 for your total Damage bonus.

For Improved Initiative, you want to actually put the +4 under "Misc"; that way, it will correctly scale as you get higher in level. Experienced warriors are quicker to the uptake than noobies!

Other than flavorful stuff (a background, a description), that's all you'll need to do to get underway smile  

[Rain Yupa]

Mik4ilah

I have no idea how to fill the sheet, there are a lot of things there!

Is there any parts in particular that seem confusing or overwhelming, or is it the whole thing in general? I'm more than willing to type out recommended steps for the entire process (similar to the post above, but perhaps less wordy) if that's what you'd like smile  

[Kowsauni]

Flames Burning Within

Yes, you did your healing surges correct, and Rain explained pretty good about warhammers.

The proficiency bonus for Warhammers is +2, so a melee basic attack for a fighter with a warhammer, held in one had, would be +6 to hit, which you add to the d20 you roll. If you were successful with your attack, meaning your total roll result beats their Armor Class, you then would roll a 10 sided die to see how much damage you do and then add three to the result becsue of your strength modifier

Now I'm about to go to bed so further questions will have to be directed at Rain for the night. With everyone's help here though we should have you up to speed in no time.  

[Professor Nep Nep]

Rain Yupa

awesome thanks ^^  

[Mik4ilah]

Rain Yupa

Sorry, I'm on later than I expected to be sweatdrop

Thank you, Kowsauni, for filling in and helping out!

And while I could open the floodgates and let everyone in, part of the reason for me doing this is for Mik4ilah and Flaming to get a feel for the game with a trial version. I'm worried too many bodies will detract from the experience - since more people means you'll have to wait longer before you can do anything, due to the unruly nature of PBP games.

Miky, Flamy, what do you want? That plays a good deal in matters as well.

well honestly I would like this to be a BIG adventure. the one thing I will probably need to get used to is the dice rolling and all, so, i wouldn't mind a big party as long as this keeps fun, I don't mind waiting during fights given the role play goes smoothly. that is my opinion, let's just wait what does flame on has to say about it.  

[Mik4ilah]

Rain Yupa

Mik4ilah

I have no idea how to fill the sheet, there are a lot of things there!

Is there any parts in particular that seem confusing or overwhelming, or is it the whole thing in general? I'm more than willing to type out recommended steps for the entire process (similar to the post above, but perhaps less wordy) if that's what you'd like smile

well for starters how do I fill the "attack" space (I think it's related with the bonus from proficiency but I'm not certain). Also i don't know how to fill the "workspace" spaces. How many feats and skills can I have at lvl one? Also, How many powers?

here is how my character looks right now

one more thing, does daggers have some sort crit bonus (like in the elder's scroll when you back stab someone?)  

[Plainsfox]

Attack and damage work spaces are handy references to have. Not something you need to do, but they help. In Aelgeirr's case, I'll almost always need to have his strength and intelligence bonuses on hand, so in my sheet I put them in the workspace section.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=93273

As for your attack space, you take the relevant weapon proficiency and add that to the attribute modifier for that weapon and then add in any bonuses you may get from say your class or a feat.

In Aelgeirr's example, I add +2 for proficiency with a longspear and +4 for his strength modifier for a total of +6. Also, take a quick look at Aelgeirr's damage section and not that I've added the bonuses he gets to the dice the weapon rolls there as well. In this case, Aelgeirr gets +4 from his strength and an additional +2 damage from the feat "Eladarin Soldier"  

[Kowsauni]

In 4th ed every attack has the ability to do crit. You score a critical hit when you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll. On critical hits you autmatickly deal max damage for the attack. So say you crit with a melee basic attack that does 1d8 +4 damage. That means you automatically deal 12 damage.

Also if you weapon has the high crit property, you roll an additional weapon dice for that attack. So if that attack from above was on a high crit weapon it would deal 12 damage plus whatever you roll on the extra 8 sided dice you get to roll.  

[Southern Cross Nemesis]

Mik4ilah

one feat powers start as 2 at wills, 1 encounter, and one Daily. This can change with races, like half-elves can choose an at-will power from another class and humans get a bonus at-will power.

Work spaces are more for your benefit, being most powers link off of one or two abilities. Leave Bonus and 1/2 level alone for now, abil. slots are filled in with your power's ability in question(Twin strike; for example, uses dex or str as attack depending on range attack or melee). Prof is based on your weapon of choice.

I hope, I wasn't confusing.  

[Rain Yupa]

Mik4ilah

I'm going to do a lengthy "here's what else you need" post and after you work off that, we can figure out what other questions you may have. I will start working on it immediately after I submit this one smile  

[Mik4ilah]

Rain Yupa

Mik4ilah

I'm going to do a lengthy "here's what else you need" post and after you work off that, we can figure out what other questions you may have. I will start working on it immediately after I submit this one smile

thanks a lot!.  

[Professor Nep Nep]

i'm also fine with more people joining but for a different reason than mik4ilah, it let's me study how more experiences people go at it razz  

[Rain Yupa]

Mik4ilah

Half-Elves have +2 Diplomacy, +2 Insight. In the Skills section of your sheet, in the 'Misc' column, enter 2 (or +2) in each of those spots smile

Half-Elves also have Low-Light Vision. In the 'Special Senses/Movement' line right above Skills, you should jot that down. That means you see just as well in very dim settings as you do in bright light (but still blind in darkness)!

Half-Elves have a Speed of 6 (about 30' a round). After 'Speed', in the box labeled Base, type in a 6.

Half-Elves start with three languages: Common, Elven, and one other of your choice. Those are listed just past your powers. If you glance at the PDF that Flaming linked to, you can see the list on page 25.

Your hit points at 1st level is 12 + your Constitution Score. So you should have 26.

You have 6 + your Constitution modifier Surges per Day. So, you will have 8 healing surges per day.

Rangers have 5 trained skills to start with. One HAS to be either Dungeoneering or Nature (it is your choice). The other four are from the list: ACrobatics, Athletics, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, Nature, Perception, or Stealth. Click the box to checkmark the 5 skills you want to be trained in. Your bonus for each of those skills will increase by +5 smile

Under your Class Features area (below Race Features), you get three. One is either Archer Fighting Style (the one you expressed interest in), versus Two-Blade Fighting Style. The others are Hunter's Quarry and Prime Shot.

Every character starts with 1 feat. your Fighting Style (here, Archery) gives you a second bonus feat for free, BUT it HAS to be Defensive Mobility.

Here's a brief run-down on what these three class features mean for you...

Quote:

Archer Fighting Style - While this in of itself doesn't actually give you anything beyond the bonus feat, it signifies where you will probably be focusing much of your character's combat style after. That said, you can still take melee attack powers if you wanted, in case you ever get disarmed or caught unarmed, or if you're surrounded. But the more you focus on ranged attacks, the deadlier you will become.

Defensive Mobility gives you a +2 bonus to Armor Class versus Opportunity Attacks; that means if an enemy ever gets an Opportunity Attack on you, they'll be about 10% less likely to hit you! The two things you (specifically) will probably do that might provoke Opportunity Attacks are 1.) shooting a ranged weapon when an enemy is in melee weapon range of you, even if you are shooting a completely different target; and 2.) Moving out of melee range of an enemy, and you provoke the attack as soon as you retreat.

There is a movement option called 'Shift'. Instead of moving your full 6 squares, you can shift 1 square, and NOT provoke opportunity attacks by doing so. In a large area, that means you can potentially back up and fire your bow indefinitely without ever provoking; but sometimes you're just surrounded or you need a lot of distance quickly, so Shift won't always be your best bet.

Quote:

Hunter's Quarry enables you to designate an enemy (specifically, the nearest enemy to you that you can see) as your 'quarry'. Whenever you attack that target, up to once per round, you will do +1d6 more damage (one six-sided die, so 1-6 extra damage). Your target will be your 'quarry' until either you spend an action to choose a different target, defeat the original target, or the combat encounter ends.

This will make you ideal for focus-firing on one tough enemy if you need to, but you can always shift your quarry target every round if you wanted - as long as it is the closest target to you.

Quote:

Prime Shot is a +1 to your attack roll (5% better chance of success) whenever you make a ranged attack against any target, as long as none of your allies are closer to it than you. So if you're 3 spaces away and so is Flaming, you will get +1. But if he's in melee range (1 space away), you lose the bonus.

Prime Shot makes an archer Ranger handy at isolating one enemy and taking it down quickly while the rest of the party fights the rest of the monsters.

You get 2 Ranger At-Will level 1 powers, 1 Ranger Encounter level 1 power, and 1 Ranger Daily level 1 power. Like they sound like, you can use at-wills every round without running out, the encounter power once per encounter, and the daily once per day.

If you are avoiding melee altogether, then skip out on Hit and Run for your at-will. Nimble Strike can ONLY be used with a ranged weapon. Careful Attack and Twin Strike can be used with either ranged weapons or melee weapons. You don't need to choose which right now. You can Twin Strike with your bow, drop it, and start Twin Striking with 2 short shorts the next round if you really wanted to!

Careful Attack is more accurate, but deals less damage. Twin Strike attacks twice for less damage, but giving you the option of hitting 2 different targets or hitting 1 target twice for potentially more damage. Nimble Strike is good for giving you an extra movement shift action (for example, shifting out from around a corner, shoot once, and shift back around the corner!).

Choose two of the four available at-will powers.

For Ranged encounter powers, Evasive Strike, Fox's Cunning, and Two-Fanged Strike are all valid choices. Evasive Strike gives you a fairly large free movement before or after your stronger-than-normal attack; Fox's Cunning is an attack you can do when it's a bad guy's turn to attack the monster that just hit you with a big boost to accuracy. Two-Fanged Strike attacks two targets once each for decent damage, or one target twice for a LOT of damage.

Choose one of the four available encounter powers.

For your dailies, Hunter's Bear Trap and Split the Tree are your ranged options. The former hits for a good amount of damage, but then makes them start bleeding out, losing 5 hit points a turn! The monster can nullify this at the end of its turn (it takes the damage at the start of the turn) with a saving throw. If it rolls 10 or higher on a d20, it cancels out the ongoing effect. It can attempt this once per turn, every turn, until it turns it off. Split the Tree specifically hits two targets, but it's more accurate, since if you roll high for your attack against target A and low for your attack against target B, you use the roll for target A for both targets!

Choose one of the four available daily powers.

Feats are static bonuses you get, rather than fancy maneuvers like powers. You have a much larger list to choose from, which is shared by everybody. You get Defensive Mobility for free by being an Archer Ranger, but I can make a few recommendations...

• Action Surge - While you aren't 'human', half-elves count as human, so you can take this. You start every day with 1 action point, and get 1 more every two battles, which you can use for an extra action (generally, but it doesn't have to be, it is spent on an extra attack). If you use your action point to attack, this feat gives you +3 to your roll - a good way to make sure your encounter and daily powers hit and aren't wasted!
  
• Alertness - Helpful to not be surprised in combat, and makes your perception skill better!
  
• Durable - Get 2 more healing surges a day. Even when someone uses a healing ability on you, you'll almost always have to spend one of your surges to get the healing (so characters get run down the longer they go on) - this keeps you in the game longer before you guys have to sleep!
  
• Far Shot - This makes your bow hit targets farther away!
  
• Group Insight - You already give everyone +1 to Diplomacy checks when they are near you; this will give them +1 to Insight checks too! Also, a boost to everyone's initiative checks, to make you guys more likely to go first in combat!
  
• Human Perseverance - Bad things will happen to your character. You will be poisoned, stuck in one spot, lit on fire, become hypnotized, and lots worse. When you are hit by something ongoing, you have a 55% chance to get rid of it at the end of your turn (after suffering its effects for the turn). This is a 10+ on a d20 roll. If you fail, you're stuck with it for a whole nother turn, suffering the bad effects again. This feat gives you +1 to the roll (making 9+ a success, a 60% chance) to make sure you get rid of it faster!
  
• Improved Initiative - +4 to your own personal initiative checks, to make sure YOU go sooner in battle before the bad guys!
  
• Lethal Hunter - When you use Hunter's Quarry, you normally add +1d6 damage to a target each round. This boosts it to +1d8!
  
• Quick Draw - This feat lets you draw a weapon and attack with it in the same action (or some other item and use it in the same action). This will be handy especially for an archer ranger who will switch between a bow and two melee weapons often!
  
• Toughness - +5 hit points. You can't go wrong with more hit points.
  
• Weapon Focus - +1 damage with a weapon of your choice (chosen when you take the feat). I assume your bow, so you will increase all damage with that bow by 1!

There's more choices, but those are the good ones. You learn a new feat every even level (2, 4, 6, 8, etc) and at levels 11 and 21 too. You'll learn plenty, and more will become unlocked to choose from at 11th and 21st levels smile So don't worry about being torn between choices; you could potentially learn them all in time!

Now, for equipment. You have 100gp to work with. Equipment is chapter 7 of that PDF. You'll likely want a bow, arrows, armor, and a standard adventurer's kit, and maybe a pair of back-up melee weapons (optional). You can choose any non-superior weapons and any light armor (no shields). You'll probably either want leather armor (+2 to armor class), or hide armor (+3 to armor class but a -1 'check penalty', which is a penalty to certain skills that would be interfered by clunkier armor). It's your choice which of the two you would want.

I'll help you with the attack and damage workspaces (if you need me to) once you choose your equipment smile Until then, this is enough wall of text for now.  

[Mik4ilah]

Rain Yupa

Mik4ilah

Half-Elves have +2 Diplomacy, +2 Insight. In the Skills section of your sheet, in the 'Misc' column, enter 2 (or +2) in each of those spots smile

Half-Elves also have Low-Light Vision. In the 'Special Senses/Movement' line right above Skills, you should jot that down. That means you see just as well in very dim settings as you do in bright light (but still blind in darkness)!

Half-Elves have a Speed of 6 (about 30' a round). After 'Speed', in the box labeled Base, type in a 6.

Half-Elves start with three languages: Common, Elven, and one other of your choice. Those are listed just past your powers. If you glance at the PDF that Flaming linked to, you can see the list on page 25.

Your hit points at 1st level is 12 + your Constitution Score. So you should have 26.

You have 6 + your Constitution modifier Surges per Day. So, you will have 8 healing surges per day.

Rangers have 5 trained skills to start with. One HAS to be either Dungeoneering or Nature (it is your choice). The other four are from the list: ACrobatics, Athletics, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, Nature, Perception, or Stealth. Click the box to checkmark the 5 skills you want to be trained in. Your bonus for each of those skills will increase by +5 smile

Under your Class Features area (below Race Features), you get three. One is either Archer Fighting Style (the one you expressed interest in), versus Two-Blade Fighting Style. The others are Hunter's Quarry and Prime Shot.

Every character starts with 1 feat. your Fighting Style (here, Archery) gives you a second bonus feat for free, BUT it HAS to be Defensive Mobility.

Here's a brief run-down on what these three class features mean for you...

Quote:

Archer Fighting Style - While this in of itself doesn't actually give you anything beyond the bonus feat, it signifies where you will probably be focusing much of your character's combat style after. That said, you can still take melee attack powers if you wanted, in case you ever get disarmed or caught unarmed, or if you're surrounded. But the more you focus on ranged attacks, the deadlier you will become.

Defensive Mobility gives you a +2 bonus to Armor Class versus Opportunity Attacks; that means if an enemy ever gets an Opportunity Attack on you, they'll be about 10% less likely to hit you! The two things you (specifically) will probably do that might provoke Opportunity Attacks are 1.) shooting a ranged weapon when an enemy is in melee weapon range of you, even if you are shooting a completely different target; and 2.) Moving out of melee range of an enemy, and you provoke the attack as soon as you retreat.

There is a movement option called 'Shift'. Instead of moving your full 6 squares, you can shift 1 square, and NOT provoke opportunity attacks by doing so. In a large area, that means you can potentially back up and fire your bow indefinitely without ever provoking; but sometimes you're just surrounded or you need a lot of distance quickly, so Shift won't always be your best bet.

Quote:

Hunter's Quarry enables you to designate an enemy (specifically, the nearest enemy to you that you can see) as your 'quarry'. Whenever you attack that target, up to once per round, you will do +1d6 more damage (one six-sided die, so 1-6 extra damage). Your target will be your 'quarry' until either you spend an action to choose a different target, defeat the original target, or the combat encounter ends.

This will make you ideal for focus-firing on one tough enemy if you need to, but you can always shift your quarry target every round if you wanted - as long as it is the closest target to you.

Quote:

Prime Shot is a +1 to your attack roll (5% better chance of success) whenever you make a ranged attack against any target, as long as none of your allies are closer to it than you. So if you're 3 spaces away and so is Flaming, you will get +1. But if he's in melee range (1 space away), you lose the bonus.

Prime Shot makes an archer Ranger handy at isolating one enemy and taking it down quickly while the rest of the party fights the rest of the monsters.

You get 2 Ranger At-Will level 1 powers, 1 Ranger Encounter level 1 power, and 1 Ranger Daily level 1 power. Like they sound like, you can use at-wills every round without running out, the encounter power once per encounter, and the daily once per day.

If you are avoiding melee altogether, then skip out on Hit and Run for your at-will. Nimble Strike can ONLY be used with a ranged weapon. Careful Attack and Twin Strike can be used with either ranged weapons or melee weapons. You don't need to choose which right now. You can Twin Strike with your bow, drop it, and start Twin Striking with 2 short shorts the next round if you really wanted to!

Careful Attack is more accurate, but deals less damage. Twin Strike attacks twice for less damage, but giving you the option of hitting 2 different targets or hitting 1 target twice for potentially more damage. Nimble Strike is good for giving you an extra movement shift action (for example, shifting out from around a corner, shoot once, and shift back around the corner!).

Choose two of the four available at-will powers.

For Ranged encounter powers, Evasive Strike, Fox's Cunning, and Two-Fanged Strike are all valid choices. Evasive Strike gives you a fairly large free movement before or after your stronger-than-normal attack; Fox's Cunning is an attack you can do when it's a bad guy's turn to attack the monster that just hit you with a big boost to accuracy. Two-Fanged Strike attacks two targets once each for decent damage, or one target twice for a LOT of damage.

Choose one of the four available encounter powers.

For your dailies, Hunter's Bear Trap and Split the Tree are your ranged options. The former hits for a good amount of damage, but then makes them start bleeding out, losing 5 hit points a turn! The monster can nullify this at the end of its turn (it takes the damage at the start of the turn) with a saving throw. If it rolls 10 or higher on a d20, it cancels out the ongoing effect. It can attempt this once per turn, every turn, until it turns it off. Split the Tree specifically hits two targets, but it's more accurate, since if you roll high for your attack against target A and low for your attack against target B, you use the roll for target A for both targets!

Choose one of the four available daily powers.

Feats are static bonuses you get, rather than fancy maneuvers like powers. You have a much larger list to choose from, which is shared by everybody. You get Defensive Mobility for free by being an Archer Ranger, but I can make a few recommendations...

• Action Surge - While you aren't 'human', half-elves count as human, so you can take this. You start every day with 1 action point, and get 1 more every two battles, which you can use for an extra action (generally, but it doesn't have to be, it is spent on an extra attack). If you use your action point to attack, this feat gives you +3 to your roll - a good way to make sure your encounter and daily powers hit and aren't wasted!
  
• Alertness - Helpful to not be surprised in combat, and makes your perception skill better!
  
• Durable - Get 2 more healing surges a day. Even when someone uses a healing ability on you, you'll almost always have to spend one of your surges to get the healing (so characters get run down the longer they go on) - this keeps you in the game longer before you guys have to sleep!
  
• Far Shot - This makes your bow hit targets farther away!
  
• Group Insight - You already give everyone +1 to Diplomacy checks when they are near you; this will give them +1 to Insight checks too! Also, a boost to everyone's initiative checks, to make you guys more likely to go first in combat!
  
• Human Perseverance - Bad things will happen to your character. You will be poisoned, stuck in one spot, lit on fire, become hypnotized, and lots worse. When you are hit by something ongoing, you have a 55% chance to get rid of it at the end of your turn (after suffering its effects for the turn). This is a 10+ on a d20 roll. If you fail, you're stuck with it for a whole nother turn, suffering the bad effects again. This feat gives you +1 to the roll (making 9+ a success, a 60% chance) to make sure you get rid of it faster!
  
• Improved Initiative - +4 to your own personal initiative checks, to make sure YOU go sooner in battle before the bad guys!
  
• Lethal Hunter - When you use Hunter's Quarry, you normally add +1d6 damage to a target each round. This boosts it to +1d8!
  
• Quick Draw - This feat lets you draw a weapon and attack with it in the same action (or some other item and use it in the same action). This will be handy especially for an archer ranger who will switch between a bow and two melee weapons often!
  
• Toughness - +5 hit points. You can't go wrong with more hit points.
  
• Weapon Focus - +1 damage with a weapon of your choice (chosen when you take the feat). I assume your bow, so you will increase all damage with that bow by 1!

There's more choices, but those are the good ones. You learn a new feat every even level (2, 4, 6, 8, etc) and at levels 11 and 21 too. You'll learn plenty, and more will become unlocked to choose from at 11th and 21st levels smile So don't worry about being torn between choices; you could potentially learn them all in time!

Now, for equipment. You have 100gp to work with. Equipment is chapter 7 of that PDF. You'll likely want a bow, arrows, armor, and a standard adventurer's kit, and maybe a pair of back-up melee weapons (optional). You can choose any non-superior weapons and any light armor (no shields). You'll probably either want leather armor (+2 to armor class), or hide armor (+3 to armor class but a -1 'check penalty', which is a penalty to certain skills that would be interfered by clunkier armor). It's your choice which of the two you would want.

I'll help you with the attack and damage workspaces (if you need me to) once you choose your equipment smile Until then, this is enough wall of text for now.

Thanks a LOT! this is how my profile looks now woe it's me!