Your Prattle Begins to Annoy Me *

I have to admit that I've changed my mind about Arnie. Yesterday, in that meeting in Overlook, I really wanted to use my new prayer on him but fortunately, after an angry look, he decided to shut the hell up for a while.

Now that finally Emtih told him that we know about his book, I think he made a valid point that his writings are "based on the truth". He just needed a reminder that he may not use our names in his stories (I would be even happier if he uses my name and tells the real story...). He also claims that he has been drunk and he doesn't remember about the stories that he has made in Overlook. Given how frightened he was when the whole party (including two not-so-friendly-dragonborns) were intimidating him, I believe that he was telling the truth.

Today, he did a really good job fighting those orcs but, after a few epic moves, he decided to copy my style but, of course, he was not a tank and I ended up using my divine forces to prevent his death.

I think he is a good fighter and certainly far from dark forces and that is all I need to know. Only time will tell if the hard feelings about him will remain in the party or not. Narcissism is not that dangerous after all.

*Title from here: :D

http://www.wowwiki.com/Quotes_of_Warcraft_III/Human_Alliance#Archmage

Emtih's Journal

Higher and higher, slowly we toiled, up the mountain and to the ridiculously placed monastery there. I swear, short of building cities, who builds a monastery high in the mountains? It seems ridiculously inconvenient to me. I guess I'm not the only one who likes to be left alone tho.

I guess I should have realized something was wrong when I saw them fires burning inside the monastery, but I supposed it was just a cook-out or somethin'. I checked for signs of a battle outside the monastery but found none. So we knocked on the door. Imagine our surprise when a group of orcs open the door, fortunately I got off a warning to the others to prepare themselves when I heard the orcs muttering something on the oth'r side of the door.

We dispatch'd the first group of 'em in the court yard within a winute. After searching about for a bit we bust through the doors to the inner sanctum of the monastery's worship chamber. The orcs there were in the process of mutilatin' the monks' corpses and the altar. There's 'nother thing I dun think I'll ever understand, the way folks always feel compelled to desecrate their enemies' places of worship. It seems such a waste of time. Maybe I'll ask Arel 'bout it later.

Underneath the alter was some secret doorway leading down some spiral stairs to the living quarters of the dwarven monks. We found a lot of dead dwarfs, and after a few minutes a large number of orcs joined them in being dead. It looks like the orcs came in from some back door to the monastery and killed most of the dwarfs in their sleep. Any that weren't killed here, were killed upstairs. They were totally taken by surprise. The orcs must have found some way through the mountain through this monastery.

This is bad, very very bad. If the orcs can get through here, they can attack Overlook from behind and avoid the battle at Baldur's Gate altogether. We've got to find a way to close this path permanently and get back to Baldur's Gate to warn them.

Why us? Because we're here I suppose, that's why.

-Emtih Tnod, 22 Freyr

Power sources and what makes your special.

4th edition has many great things to offer players but one thing that has been bothering me lately is how the different power sources are treated. There are currently 4 power sources that drive all classes, Martial, Arcane, Divine and Primal. What makes each of these power sources special. In previous editions of the game each had it's advantages and disadvantages. Divine casters received their spells from the gods and as a result had more time to develop other skills like fighting. This is seen in the fact that the cleric is a far better combatant than a wizard. However divine casters where limited to doing certain things based on what god they choose. They had codes to follow and their powers could be taken away if they did not follow them. Wizards on the other hand had unlimited freedom to do what every they wanted to, including delving into realms of magic priests where priest could not go. Learning spells and using spell books vs preying and all these other things set the casters apart.

In 4th ed what seems to set people apart are their powers, what powers they get and what party role they fill. Defender, striker, leader or controller, the source of your power has become a story element entirely and rarely matters any more. It's a difficult argument to articulate but the fact is that as written if you took the fighter and changed their power source from martial to primal, nothing happens. Everything stays exactly as it is now. It does not matter that he is martial, it's like wizards of the coast just put the names in there for the hell of it.

This bothers me a bit, I would have liked to see some things on each of the power sources, more lore, rules anything that gives them some context. I have already implemented one house rule when we started playing that made divine casters accountable to their gods. If you look at the PHB as written, a cleic of the goddess of healing and love could, after they are initiated, could go set an orphanage on fire just to hear the screams and nothing would happen, besides pissing off the police.

My question to you and i would like everyones opinion, not just my players, is

Would you be interested in setting up some minor rules to set each of the power sources apart a bit more. A few bonuses and a few penalties for each one. It does not have to be actually +1 when you do this kind of thing. Or am i being too anal and should the distinction between the power sources be left entirely to role playing.

For example to separate divine and arcane powers a bit more you could do something like this

Divine
- Spells are divinely inspired and new powers are learned immediately after leveling up though an hour or so of deep prayer and communion with your deity.
- need to follow a code of conduct for your god and to spread that gods message and teachings. Actions opposed to your god can lead to temporary or even perminant punishments such as loss of powers until you atone for your sins.

Arcane
- Arcane magic wielders can tap directly into the magical weave that flows thought the world. Once they have their powers they are free to do with them as they will. If a warlock makes a pact and then brakes it they retain their power however the entity they made the pact with reserves the right to hunt them down, if they can.
- Spells must me learned through some external source, usually ancient writings but other sources are possible. In order to learn new spells you must have access to that spell some how. New spells can also be researched but that takes time to accomplish.

Emtih's Journal

Arel got to interrogatin' that goblin we captured the other day and ultimately he told us ev'rything we wanted to know. Namely, that the orcs had gott'n across the mountains somehow and had a base camp set up somewhere. We bribed him and set him off with instructions to report back to us soon as he could.

Well, we gots into Overlook alrights, and we even found Arnie hiding away in this scummy part of town. We quickly took to getting him so pissed drunk that the next morning when we came by to find 'em And was easily able to convince him that we had nev'r met him in the first place. And has been getting quite close to Arnie, but I suspect that she's been continuing to lighten his purse from time to time. I've seen her do it a few times but other times I just suspect it.

Getting an audience with the town council thingy of sorts was easier than I anticipated, but then again it may have had something to do with the fact that I had been lugging around a bag full 'o orc heads around. They invit'd us back the next day with whole heap of other folks to dish out punishments.. err.. i mean.. missions.

We got the one which probably involves us hiking up some trail to some monastery high in the mountains.

I swear, if I die on those craggy peaks, far from the forest I love it would have been the worst fate I can imagine. I just hope that if I die, I die with a goblin on each sword.

-Emtih Tnod, 22 Freyr