Planning a 4e game, need help

I heard there was something funky with the math for the MM1 creatures, is there anything else a new 4e GM has to be wary of?

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There was errata for the MM1 creatures, I believe. They also errata'd DC's from their DC by level chart in the original DM's handbook, if memory serves (scaled back a bit). If I think of anything else, I'll let you know but I can't think of anything else that might come into play right off the bat.

>There was errata for the MM1 creatures, I believe
And every monster book released before MM3. (so, excluding Dark Sun and the Monster Vaults)

Use MM3 and/or stats from Monster Valut

Monsters tend to have too much HP. It's more of a problem at higher levels than at lower levels but it still pays to be aware of it.

They fixed it by MM3. Just swipe the HP calculator from that.

Oh, and also there's the Weapon/Implement Expertise feats. Basically the math of the game assumes everyone's going to take one, so a lot of DMs give them out for free.

As a rule for pre-MM3 monsters; double the damage, reduce hitpoints to half or third depending on how long you want combat to take.

On the subject of DC by level, "level" should be interpreted as the level of the obstacle, not the party. A gorge you have to jump over at Lv1 doesn't magically widen by 10 feet because a Lv15 showed up. There are people who unironically think you get worse at certain things when you level up.

...

Expertise and Improved Defences are both good to hand out for free. They're boring tax feats, so it's doesn't hurt to hand them out.

The Essentials versions of the expertise feats are one of the only good things in those books, they give each sort of weapon a unique bonus as well as the +1/tier to attack.

Also, OP, find a copy of the Character Builder. CBloader is a fan patch which has all the content, and it's an amazing tool for character gen.

Since we're asking questions about 4e, how big is a Fullblade exactly? Is it a little big bigger than a regular greatsword, or are we talking like a Dragonslayer kind of deal?

It'd say it's open to interpretation, based on the style and tone of the setting and the preferred aesthetic of the player.

That makes sense, probably should've thought of that before asking in the first place.

Cheers user.

So if I'm understanding the formula correctly.

If I was going to throw a level 10 Solo Brute at my party. It would have the following stats.

>22 AC (14+10-2)
>22 Def (12+10)
>15 hit (5+10)
>18 avg dmg (8+10)
>504 health (26+10/lvl, x4)

Am I correct?

I'm still trying to understand it before I run my first game next week.

you're missing the brute damage bonus

Oh, my mistake, I misread it before.

So rather than 18 on average, it'd be 22 damage on average?

In my steampunk/city of intrigue themed game; I made it a giant barely sharpened buster sword sized slab of metal.
But I imagine it can be anything from a giant long katana to a big zweihander.

To add to this; I gave my players a free weapon proficiency as well.
I think spending a feat to learn to use a weapon is stupid.

Give your players a choice of one free expertise feat at charecter gen. They are basically required for the attack math to work out anyways.

RAW is a broken.

if you have the time, read through this shit and adjust your expectations.

thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2008/roleplaying-games/playtesting-4th-edition

I'd honestly rather sit down and run it to see what happens.

I've played games with poor reps that turned out to be great and games with good reps that were a slog to go through.

Thank you for the advice but I'd rather go in with an unbiased view and make my own judgments after game.

>DISSOCIATED DISSOCIATED DISSOCIATED
Don't even bother listening to this guy.

What level are you starting them at OP? I personally prefer to start at level 6 or so, as players have more room to customize their characters. At this time they have more encounter and daily powers, utilities and feats... this translates into more things to "do" in combat, more resources.

>The Alexandrian

hahahahaha faggot

Build environments for players to fight in, don't just wing combat locations

Set pieces in combat are super important in 4e, more so than in other editions. Walls, pits, pillars, mud, rubble, elevated platforms, just put stuff around for players to play with

There are a couple of backgrounds that grant proficiency in one simple or martial weapon

So yeah, don't grant free proficiency, just use backgrounds

The errata IS the monster vaults, as they basically contain all the creatures you would have to update from pre MM3.

They are usually equal to a feat, as in, it's a straight +1-2 average damage or +1 to hit upgrade most of the time (sometimes even better), every time if you bother to take it.

Feats often give piddly bonuses in 4e which is one of my only big complaints about the system.

I was thinking maybe 3-5 but if 6 is what's recommended then I can do that instead.

I just hand out extra feats for similar reasons, especially for beginning players. Hand out the tax feats right away and you have a fair amount of customization by 3 even.

There's very rarely a reason to take a feat for proficiency in a military weapon though

Typically either you get proficiency in all military weapons from your class, your class would prefer to use simple weapons for a variety of reasons (boosted accuracy on a rogue, access to a bunch of really good powers on a cleric, weapon style feats on a monk), or your class uses implements anyway and doesn't care about weapon proficiency

There's a number of monsters that weren't in the monster vaults, such as all the metallic dragons.

3-5 works as well. I think 75% of the games I've been in have started at 5.

4e is pretty forgiving on DMs.