Here are scans of all 6 characters being run in the adventure “Dark Sun: Death in the Arena” here at D&D XP. I played in it last night and really enjoyed it. I played the Battlemind which is one of my new favorite classes (especially because it mashes together Psychometabolists and Psychic Warriors, both of which I loved.)
Anyway, here’s the characters:
Suldin, Human Illusionist Wizard
Vinara, Human Sorcerer-King Pact Warlock
Ulieth, Elf Resilient Battlemind
Kindrok, Goliath (Half-Giant) Arena Fighter
Morg, Mul Thunderborn Barbarian
Pak’Cha, Thri-Kreen Animist Shaman
One last tidbit, for those that are into this kind of thing. Weapon breakage rules are as follows: if you roll a 1 on an attack with a weapon, you can reroll it. If you’re using a non-metal weapon, it automatically breaks after the attack if you do so. If you’re using a metal weapon, it breaks on a roll of 1-5.
Thanks for these, pouring over the PDF now.
Incidentally, I REALLY like this layout for a character sheet. The two-column first page with all the stats in a (dare I say it?) old school style setup on the left and Background, Appearance and Personality on the right then Powers listed on the back – it’s nigh on perfect.
I’d kill for something like this as a layout for Character Builder!
.-= greywulf´s last blog ..So you’ve got the free Base Figures. Now what? =-.
Man, all this news is killing me! I really need to make a point of going next year.
Thanks for the preview. I’m so excited for the psionic defender hotness!
The battlemind makes me happy in the pants.
.-= adamjford´s last blog ..adamjford: @JodieGiese The latter. =-.
I really, really like that tidbit about weapon breakage, plus what appear to be all manner of materials to make weapons out of. Stone and bone and obsidian? Sweet. This feels definitely like Dark Sun.
.-= Andy´s last blog ..It’s Not What You Fight… =-.
I too had the pleasure of playing the Battle Mind in this adventure last Saturday (Jan 24) and like you I enjoyed it. Maybe it was just the roll of the dice, but he was one of the most effective characters in the party. I like the Psionic power point system for augmenting powers..it gives more flexibility to the class. (yes, I really did play it last week, Chris Tulach ran a play test and just happened to luck into being there)
Note that the thri-kreen’s Fortitude and Will defenses are a little wonky. They should be 13 and 16, respectively. Also one other typo – the battlemind’s crystal longsword basic is NOT ranged. 🙂
Oh, and thanks greywulf for the positive comments on the character sheets. I did some usability testing with them and came up with the design you see here. I think they’re very clean, and I’ll probably use something like them again in the future.
I too would love to see a layout like this as an option in the Character Builder. I like having skills listed under the associated attributes, and having some space for background right on the front page is nice.
I run a lot of one-shot games with new or relatively inexperienced players, and something like this that shows the necessary numbers without the calculations behind them would be FAR better to hand out than the standard character sheets, which are fairly complex and take a LOT more ink to print. I would stick with the standard sheets for ongoing games with regular characters, but for one-time plays, these would be awesome!
I have seen a few people talking about the various weapon materials and breakage rules from Dark Sun, but what I have not seen yet is what the differences are between them. Perhaps some are harder to break than others, but is that the only difference? Any effect on attack/damage?
From what I recall, if you roll a 1, you can accept the miss, or re-roll. If you re-roll and get below a target number, it breaks. The target is different for metal vs. non-metal – I’m pretty sure it breaks on a 5 or lower for metal, and I think it was 10 or lower for non-metal, but I could be wrong. I was playing Vinara, so I had a metal weapon (and spells) and didn’t pay as much attention to that bit. 🙂
Definitely a fun, flavorful, non-generic setting! I recommend it for a roleplay and story heavy game. More unique flavor than Eberron or the Forgotten Realms, and might be a nice change of pace for a group that’s getting jaded, or a short-story.
Mr. Tulach – Did you receive our inquiries and requests about Houston-based Comicpalooza? I’ve been unable to get in touch via the WotC sites we’ve tried.
Excellent sheet format! I echo Greywulf in wishing we had the option of this sheet in the Character Builder. It would sure hush a few of my “complainer” old school gaming friends.
Down here in Texas, we’re jealous of all of you who live closer to these events! Looking forward to Dark Sun!
The breakage rules that we used were close to what you said Kirby, but Dave pretty much has it right. If you roll a 1 with a melee attack roll, you have the option of rerolling. If you had a nonmetal weapon, it automatically breaks after the attack. If it was metal, it only breaks if the reroll was 1-5.
I had a blast running it for these guys and I’m super excited to check out the setting later this year. Thanks much to Dave, E, Matt James, Rob Schwalb, Bart Carroll and Dustin for being an awesome table! Hopefully we’ll see the podcast soon 🙂
I also played Ulieth in a playtest, and really enjoyed the character. I was a huge fan of Dark Sun and
psychics back in 2ncd Ed. I loved how they managed to maintain the classic feel of Athas.
One question that came up was, why does Ulieth have penalties (negative scores) for some of
his skills? His attributes implied bonuses were in order. We weren’t sure about it and
took it as a typo. Any word on this?
Wow… just wow. This is horrible! What the hell are they doing to Dark Sun?
You would think that they’d actually take the time to make a Templar, and a Half-Giant.
Not to mention the elemental cleric, seems a bit cheesy and non-elemental related. Looks like you guys are just taking stuff already printed and trying to make it work, like slamming a puzzle piece that doesn’t quite fit into a puzzle. Not to mention, it says nothing about wild talents, and the unintuitive alignment system makes it hard to do a half-giant’s personality.
I am completely and totally disappointed in you, Wizards. I was hoping that bringing back Dark Sun would be a good thing, but now that I’ve seen this, I see just how crap-tastic it will be.
I have alway wondered, who edit or if the card / adventrues are even edited. I see so many errors. Just be nice to get stats correct. 🙂