D&D Blog Thing

You don't need to be a standard robe-and-pointy-hat wizard to be a MAGE COP, but you do need some arcane talent. So that includes warlocks, hedge wizards, sorcerers, bards, swordmages, and the like. Your character need not even be ON the force, but you should try to think about cop movie/tv show cliches.  Here's some to get you started.  You can pick one or two of these, or something i haven't thought of:

Fresh Outta the Academy
The Wildcard - he doesn’t always go by the book, but he gets results
By The Book
The Private Dick/ Hardboiled Detective - Looks like we’re on the same case, boys... ‘cept the city don’t pay for my donuts
3 Weeks From Retirement - and you just  bought a new boat!
The Buddy Cop - take with another player.  Must have some strongly clashing backgrounds/ideas.  may also work with a personal minion
Who Called in the Feds? - you work for another body, threatening to take jurisdiction
Crooked Cop!
Protect & Serve - goodness is more important than the law
I AM THE LAW - judge, jury, & executioner: punishing criminals is more important than the law
Disciplinary Action - I used to run this precinct, until...
Pulled Outta Retirement
That Weaselly Little Informant Cops Always Seem to Have
The Great Detective - elementary, my dear Watson 

The MAGE COPS (always capitalized) are a law enforcement agency in the city of Forcas that handles magical crimes and criminals that the mundane city guard is ill-equipped to tackle. They used to be a separate and equal sister force to the city guard, but the power of the arcane Houses has been steadily growing and the houseless MAGE COPS became an unglamorous place for someone with magical talent to devote themselves to.  So currently the houses mostly police themselves (or each other) but when it comes to jobs that are too dangerous or apolitical for one of the namby-pamby arcane houses to take care of, it's time for the MAGE COPS to step in and take care of business.

To make matters worse for the MAGE COPS, the longtime chief Arkas Derum was turned to stone 3 years ago.  No one's been able to reverse the effect.  His statue remains in his office but in the meantime, Deputy Chief Hadrass has filled in, and he's TIRED of TAKING SHIT from all these PISSANT RECRUITS from the ACADEMY who think they're TOUGH SHIT WITH A WAND!

post coming soon

For those of you curious about my 4e table helper (read: no one), I was super bored and decided to transcribe my program.


:7→L
:6→C
:3→E
:2→P
:2→X
:L+C+E+P+X→A
:
:randInt(3,10)→W
:
:randInt(3,10)+randInt(3,10)→Y
:2→F
:5→I
:3→T
:F+E+T+C→D
:
:randInt(1,6)+randInt(1,6)+randInt(1,6)→R
:
:Menu("TYPE","AT-WILL",1,"ENC/DAILY",2,"INIT",3
:
:Lbl 1
:Menu("AT-WILLS","IRON FIST",4,"CHARGE",5,"MBA",6
:
:Lbl 2
:Menu("E/D","RUSH/SMASH",7,"SHIELD EDGE",8,"HARMONY",9
:
:Lbl 3
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+2+L
:
:Lbl 4
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+A,W+D,10+D+R
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,20+A)
:Stop
:
:Lbl 5
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+1+A,W+3+E+F,13+E+F+R
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,21+A)
:Stop
:
:Lbl 6
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+A,W+3+E+F,13+E+F+R
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,20+A)
:Stop
:
:Lbl 7
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+A,Y+D,20+D+R
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,20+A)
:Stop
:
:Lbl 8
:ClrHome
:Disp randInt(1,20)+14,randInt(1,6)+randInt(1,6)+3,12+3
:Output(1,1,"VS FORT (34)"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Stop

For those of you curious about my 4e table helper (read: no one), I was super bored and decided to transcribe my program.


First, lets store some variables:
:7→L 1/2 level
:6→C con mod
:3→E enhancement
:2→P proficiency
:2→X expertise (yes I know this is a feat bonus)
:L+C+E+P+X→A add em up for my normal attack bonus with that weapon
:
:randInt(3,10)→W weapon damage for d10 brutal 2
:
:randInt(3,10)+randInt(3,10)→Y 2[w] attack
:2→F feat bonus to damage (dwt)
:5→I wis mod (marked scourge)
:3→T item bonus (radiant weapon in rad mode)
:F+E+T+C→D standard damage bonus
:
:randInt(1,6)+randInt(1,6)+randInt(1,6)→R crit damage
:

that's all the storing I plan on doing. next is my menu structure. I have 7 "attacks" (i'm including init) so I'm spreading them between this first opening menu and 2 more nested menus. this makes a grand total of 9 labels - labels 1 and 2 are the atwill and enc menus respectively, and labels 3 through 9 are init and my 6 attacks

:Menu("TYPE","AT-WILL",1,"ENC/DAILY",2,"INIT",3 menu strings correspond to the labels that follow them, except for the first, which is the title of that menu
:
:Lbl 1
:Menu("AT-WILLS","IRON FIST",4,"CHARGE",5,"MBA",6 so this menu, titled ATWILLS, has 3 attacks on it which correspond to labels 4-6
:
:Lbl 2
:Menu("E/D","RUSH/SMASH",7,"SHIELD EDGE",8,"HARMONY",9 same thing. but later on I realize that Harmony does the same damage as Lit Rush and never even make a label 9
:

starting here at label 3 is my first real 'roll': initiative

:Lbl 3
:ClrHome put ClrHome at the start of your labels so you have a clean screen to put what you want to go there
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+2+L 1d20 plus my init bonus (hey, I'm a dwarf!) plus half-level
:Stop put Stop after completing a roll results page. from this point, pressing enter will restart the program
:

from here on out are the real guts of the program. we'll roll the d20 and determine which of your stored variables get applied to the roll. I also could have rolled the d20 up in the storage part and stored it as a value, then just called the value back out here. I didn't, because you will use a d20 for your whole career - no sense using up a variable name. (I did do it with W because if you get a new weapon you will only have to change the variable up in the storing section.(at least you would, if crits didn't work the way they did))

:Lbl 4 my main attack, Fist of Iron. it's listed as [W]+con damage, but we all know it's more complicated than that
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+A,W+D,10+D+R here's a Disp with 3 lines of output, separated by commas. each one will display on its own row. the first one is 1d20 plus the 'base attack bonus' i stored a hundred lines ago. the next one is the random weapon damage plus my 'standard bonus damage, also from up top. the third is a crit:10 is max dam on a craghammer, D is my standard bonus damage, and R is 3d6, as stored above
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )" Output is a great command. here the phrase HIT (CRIT ) will appear starting on row1 column1. your Disp lines will not be cleared
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,20+A) here's my crit cheat. i don't know how to make the machine do an if-then yet that checks for getting a 20 on that randInt. so it just displays the number i'd have to roll for it to be a crit - it's static.
:Stop
:
:Lbl 5 charge. I use Melee Training: Con to make basic attacks, which we all know cuts the damage bonus in half. so i get to use A but not D in my calcs, instead putting in damage bonuses manually
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+1+A,W+3+E+F,13+E+F+R that +1 is the charge attack bonus
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,21+A) you see it again here
:Stop
:
:Lbl 6
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+A,W+3+E+F,13+E+F+R melee basic attack. identical to charge except the +1 to hit
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,20+A)
:Stop
:
:Lbl 7 Lightning Rush. Listed as 2[W] + con. So it's the same as Iron Fist, except using Y instead of W
:ClrHome
:
:Disp randInt(1,20)+A,Y+D,20+D+R
:Output(1,1,"HIT (CRIT )"
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Output(1,11,20+A)
:Stop
:
:Lbl 8 Shield Edge Block. this attack is an outlier in every way: it's not a weapon attack, it uses my str instead of con, and it hits fort. so all the math is just done here - there are no variables to call
:ClrHome
:Disp randInt(1,20)+14,randInt(1,6)+randInt(1,6)+3,12+3
:Output(1,1,"VS FORT (34)" really i should have made an "output 1,11" line like normal here and broken it into 20+L+7 but i got lazy. i think that 7 is 3 enhancement (inherent) and 4 power?
:Output(2,1,"DAMAGE"
:Output(3,1,"CRIT"
:Stop

http://gregbilsland.com/house-rules/

Expertise and NADs given for free. No experience.

Half Elf Avenger with Cleave as Versatile Master dilettante. Pimp out Cleave with Cruel Cut Style, Steel Vanguard Style, (need a fighter or warlord multi for those. You'll want a 13 str anyway for minion mopping on cleave), and Adept Dilettante. Use a fullblade! Cleave will now fish for crits (19-20 and Oath), put on a whopping wis bleed, and mop minions. This needs lv 11 to kick in, I think. Any good avenger PP will do.

More half elf fun: Get the striker bonus twice by going lock, sorc, or avenger and taking versatile master-adept dilettante combo on a barbarian atwill. This is especially nice for the avenger's shitty atwills, but bad stat line-up there. So i'm thinking maybe a neat sorc- or lock-gish that uses up his encounters then wades in for curse-augmented Howling Strikes.

Also, damn, check out Howl of Fury(barb atwill).

My current top contender for heroic at-will dpr, as a striker:

Bugbear str monk. Large avalanche mordenkrad. Five storms movement technique to back off and set up your charge, do an MBA plus flurry of blows. 4d8B + 2(str) + 3. One feat required. 33 average damage is really quite high. Of course, you are statted totally wrong for your dailies and encounters! Keep cramming more charge feats on there as you level.

For a more versatile build, main dex instead of str and also take melee training.

Always in search of a durable defender, I noticed the battlemind has an at-will that grants resistance (wis) till next turn. So... dwarf fighter|battlemind with brv, maxed con, and melee training can mark well, and punish with mindspike or a decent mba. As always, it doesn't really do better than the durability baseline: 18-18 brv fighter. You've got to abandon your fighter side, leaving you with a wasted encounter (translates into 2 wasted PP here) and a wasted fighter at-will. The dwarven BRV feat doesn't work, either. But in a long battle, spamming that at-will will make you hard to kill, you have good accuracy, and the wis-resist procs even on a miss (although a brv fighter using a vig attack procs (con) on a miss).

I'm not running a campaign right now, but I thought I might use this blog as a place to post goofy builds (4e) I think of. Being as we still mostly do heroic tier, that's where most of my brainpower tends to be devoted.