The Glade 4.0

I haven't played in high school, and honestly, I'm not interested in playing now. But for some reason I was thinking about the warrior mechanics in video games these days where warriors have some form of taunt to draw aggro. When I played D&D, there never was such a thing and I lost a lot of characters because of it. Does it now have such a mechanic that makes it a little safer for wizards?

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The Dude abides.

For 4th edition, that is a solid yes. It is not a pure WoW taunt in that an enemy is forced to attack the tank. However, there are strong penalties and consequences if his attack doesn't include the tank.

Each of the tanking classes has their own flavor of taunt (or "mark" as it's called). The fighter for instance marks a target and if the target doesn't include the fighter in his attack, or if the target tries to flee (even safely) then the fighter gets to make a free and immediate attack against the target. The paladin's mark makes the target take divine damage if it's attack doesn't include the paladin. The mark fades if the paladin doesn't continue attacking the target on his turn, or end his turn adjacent to the target. There are other types of tanks with different types of marks as well. A swordmage can teleport to a marked enemy and attack it, if it attempts to attack someone else.

On top of this, whenever a target is marked it suffers a -2 penalty to hit when it's attack does not include the tank.

So, again, while it doesn't force the DM to attack the tank with his enemy unit, it certainly makes him think twice about attacking another character.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

The marks are easy enough to work around that any penalty aside from the -2 to hit are a nonissue. Generally speaking, even with the -2 penalty, it's easier to hit everybody else besides the fighter.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

in D&D Its more about solid tactics. You don't have computer AI Pathing/warping etc., for the most part, creatures dont 'summon' so in D&D you throw the tank out front and rely on position. There are serious penalties for trying to bypass someone blocking your way (Attacks of Opportunity, chance of getting flanked) that favor an opponent 'attacking the guy out front' so as long as the warriors are between the casters and the rest of the party, thats a strong incentive to keep on the warrior.
Ranged attacks are usually less powerful than melee attacks as well, and spellcasting when there's someone trying to hack on you (trying to target the wizard etc) also has penalties.

What Riov said. If a mob ignored a warrior to make a bee-line for the wizard you got lots of bonuses to be able to do lots of damage to them. And similarly, since D&D is a role playing game, any GM worth his salt would play his mobs realistically which is that if you see someone swinging a sword at you, you DON'T just ignore it and move on, you have to deal with that situation first.

It is a very false premise that WoW or any other MMO for that matter is an RPG. There might be some folks who RP, but the game mechanics don't encourage or require it, and you're often penalized for trying to RP from a success standpoint.

By the same token, in a long fight with a dragon, if a wizard shows himself to be the main threat while the armored warriors up front hack ineffectually at the dragon, the dragon would be stupid NOT to go after the wizard. (Of course, by that point, the wizard should also be the hardest one to actually damage in the entire party, with numerous abjurations and ready defensive spells to handle the inevitable dragon-ire.) Games like EQ/WoW that keep the dragon on a single target who's not seeming to take actual damage while everyone else either heals or pincushions the beast with damage always made me wonder what the lore-rationale was for why the dragon was so **** stupid that he didn't just eat the healers.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Exactly Talya, but then the warriors would be changing tactics and acting to harry the Dragon to distract or make it more difficult to reach or attack the dragon instead of just damaging it, etc.

According to a dev post EQ actually has game code that sets the 'intelligence' of mobs. The more intelligent the creature the more likely mobs are to agro on healers. The lower the intelligence, the greater priority is placed on proximity agro

as a DM... I think a monster of Average INT or higher should know...

If a warrior is stabbing you that sucks yeah; but if some bastard is wiggling his fingers and blasting me with some sort of energy that hurts more than the warrior... it is getting eaten. Even if I am NOT a carnivore.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Off topic but...

Last time I was in a game store I saw a box set for Dragon Age. PnP game with the D20 rules...anyone ever mess with that?

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Raell Kromwell

No, and I thought Dragon Age was its own ruleset. Are you talking about the Green Ronin production?

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Not sure, I saw it really quick yet have not stopped thinking about it since.


edit: Never mind, I guess it wasn't D20 after all.

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Raell Kromwell

If the Green Ronin production is what you are talking about, it's probably safe to stop thinking about it.

Look right?

The Dragon Age RPG was planned to be four boxed set releases, each of five levels. The first box set release (as pictured) was for levels 1-5, the second levels 6-10, third 11-15, and fourth 16-20. The first box set was released in February '10 (or late Jan., a bit hazy). Since that time, they have released the DM's kit (a screen and a module), and Blood in Ferelden (a 3 module book). It appears as if the line is dormant. So I would pick it up if you're interested in playing games only in the range 1-5.

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I've read a review on it. Supposedly it's pretty good.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

So here's an excerpt from the "Message from the President" of Green Ronin.

If it's on the up and up (and I have no reason to doubt it's not currently the plan), and you're interested in the game, you may want to take a shot at picking up the first boxed set. This does at least provide a timeline for the rest of the rules. Dragon Age 2 has a release date of March 2011, so while not terrifically exact, it's at least workable. If set 3 does in fact round out the product, releasing at the end of this year gives them enough time to put out a good set.

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I played Dragon Age at gencon last year and had fun with it, very simplistic game, I want to say that 3 book set we ran through was 150 pages for all 3 books? The rules are failing me currently, it was if I remeber correctly it was 4d6 using 2 off different color sort of like matching dice or exploding dice? If the dragon dice come up matching numbers they explode or if they are 6's they explode? It was a 'new mechanic' i havent seen in an RPG before, the Dragon Dice were the 2 different colors, I have not played since Gencon and just the 1 game at the Con, its our time to explore and play new games looking for something new.

I have the PDF's sitting around somewhere, greenronin pretty much releases all there books through drivehtroughrpg, if your a fan of Shadowrun 1 2 or 3's writing, you will probably dig on Dragon Age, as Steve Kenson is the lead writer for Green Ronin, and it definately shows in his Mutants and Masterminds game's, the writing i so so miss out of Shadwrun now.

I had fun, but having a DM who is excited about the game for the game and teaching new players the game makes a world of difference. the DM that ran dragon age was all about that, I dont think I would have cared what RPG I was playing.

Im trying to remeber the Mechanics but its failing my brain, I always spend a good time at Green Ronin's booth though as Stephen Kenson is pure awesome and my favorite RPG writer, I miss him working on Shadowrun.