The Companions of Tartiël (60 page)

Authors: Jeff Wilcox

^{^[25]}A “natural twenty” is when a player rolls a 20 on the d20 (that is, the face value of the number is 20). For certain things, such as saving throws (Fortitude, Reflex, and Will, to avoid the effects of spells, poisons, and other effects) and attack rolls, it means that the character automatically succeeds at the attempted action.

^{^[26]}Poisons in D&D have initial damage—damage taken when the character is first exposed to the poison—and secondary damage—damage taken one minute later. A character who makes his initial save still needs to make a secondary save, representing the poison still running its course.

^{^[27]}Some non-D&D players might wonder how one gets five damage from a numerical potential of 1-4. When a character scores damage in melee combat, extra damage is assigned based on his or her Strength score.

^{^[28]}Touch Armor Class is one of the three kinds of Armor Class: regular, touch, and flat-footed. Touch AC represents how difficult it is to touch a character, rather than pierce through their protection. Thus, things like armor, shields, and hard scales or hides do not apply to this number. Conversely, flat-footed AC represents a character who is unaware of an attack and thus unable to dodge out of the way.

^{^[29]}Yes, we do a lot of nodding. Trust me, it’s like a bunch of bobble-heads. But, that’s human communication for you.

^{^[30]}Whenever a character gains a level, they gain multiple benefits, from an increased chance to hit (Base Attack Bonus), increased saving throw bonuses, more skill points (and a higher maximum number of ranks one can invest in a skill), more abilities, and more hit points.

^{^[31]}At 5
^thlevel, druids gain the ability to turn into animals approximately the same size as humans and slightly smaller, such as wolves (for biting and tripping people) and wildcats (for sneaking around and killing commoners). Later, their ability to turn into animals becomes more powerful, enabling them to turn into larger creatures, like bears (for hugging people to death).

^{^[32]}Aspect of the wolf
is a level-one spell that turns the caster into a wolf for a while. This is the spell Caineye used just before the fight against the level-five wizard in chapter IX.

^{^[33]}Ah, the ubiquitous ten-foot pole. An item found in the
Player’s Handbook
, the ten-foot pole is a handy addition to every adventurer’s pack. Consider how much less threatening traps are if one can spring them from a safe distance. Or, stir your coffee from ten feet away—you get the idea.

^{^[34]}To “nat one” something is our way of saying, “to roll a natural one on.” No matter how powerful a character may be, when rolling an attack or a saving throw, a natural one is always a failure. The same is not true, however, for other kinds of rolls unless specified.

^{^[35]}Constitution damage is a type of ability score damage. Such damage is far more threatening than hit point damage, because these numbers are much lower than hit points, generally ranging from 3-18. Any ability score damage is debilitating, but if a character’s Constitution score drops to 0, he dies immediately.

^{^[36]}Scythes are known for their extremely deadly critical hit multiplier; upon confirming a critical hit, scythes deal four times the damage they would normally deal. In contrast, most weapons deal two times damage on a critical hit, with perhaps 25% of all weapons dealing three times damage. “Keen” is a magical weapon enhancement that doubles a weapon’s chance to threaten a critical hit.

^{^[37]}A prestige class is a character class that cannot be taken at 1
^stlevel, and a character has to meet prerequisites based on attack bonus, skills, feats, and other abilities in order to take levels in these classes. Such classes can either narrow another class’s focus or expand it by combining multiple class abilities.

^{^[38]}Most spellcasting in D&D reflects concepts first implemented by Jack Vance in some of his novels; a character has a limited number of “slots” in which to memorize spells of a particular level each day. Spellcasters gain higher-level slots as they grow in power. Once a character has cast a particular spell from a given slot, that spell is expended, and the slot cannot be refilled until the next day. There are also other types of spellcasting in D&D which do not require a caster to memorize spells, but they still have limited spell slots each day.

^{^[39]}PHB
is our acronym for the
Player’s Handbook
, even though it’s not D&D’s official acronym, but “
PHB
” rolls off the tongue better than just “
PH
,” for some reason.

^{^[40]}“Taking 10” is a rule for skill checks that allows a player to forgo rolling the ever-fickle d20, instead acting as though he had rolled a 10 and adding his relevant skill modifier. It helps keep able characters from fumbling simple actions when they’re not under stress, and keeps the game moving faster.

^{^[41]}Sizes in D&D are measured in categories: Fine (a fly), Diminutive (a small fairy), Tiny (a cat), Small (halflings), Medium (humans), Large (horses and ogres), Huge (some giants), Gargantuan (old dragons), and Colossal (anything larger than a small house). Based on size, creatures gain bonuses or penalties to attacks and AC.

^{^[42]}Dragons in the
Monster Manual
come in ten flavors divided into two categories: metallic and chromatic. Metallics include brass, bronze, copper, gold, and silver; and chromatics are black, blue, green, red, or white. Metallics tend to be good-aligned, whereas chromatics are usually evil. Each type of dragon, while it may share some traits with other types (black dragons and copper dragons both breathe lines of acid, for instance), has traits that really set it apart from the other kinds.

^{^[43]}Encounter Level: interlocking somewhat with Challenge Ratings (see footnote 8), EL is the real measure by which the D&D rules determine the appropriate kind of challenge to throw against characters of a given level. EL does not have any in-game effects; it is merely a measuring stick for the DM to use to determine whether any given challenge will be too easy for the characters or wipe them out completely.

^{^[44]}“XP” is a common abbreviation amongst our group and others, as well as in video games, for experience points. Normally, characters gain levels when they accumulate a set amount of experience points, but Dingo decided to do away with them almost entirely for his game.

^{^[45]}Normally, paladins must be lawful and good; chaotic and evil paladins were introduced in an optional supplement.

^{^[46]}I did not refer to them as “nether angels” in-game because our characters did not know what they were.

^{^[47]}When two creatures fight on opposite sides of an enemy, they are “flanking” that enemy. Flanking provides a +2 bonus on attack rolls, and if a creature has bonus sneak attack damage, it applies to each attack.

^{^[48]}“Tank,” as the term relates to games like this, refers to a character whose armor is so potent that they rarely take damage, or in the case of games where armor reduces damage, it reduces it by a very large amount. “Meatshield” is a term that refers to a character who usually has a low AC but a lot of hit points, so they can take a lot of damage before falling.

^{^[49]}Be careful when testing this theory, as when one reaches approximately 65,000 feet away from the surface of the Material Plane, there’s a cumulative 5% chance per additional thousand feet of appearing on the Astral Plane and being immediately attacked by githyanki. At least, in some campaigns. Maybe not yours.

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