Leonine Roar

Ever earn bonus XP for brilliant roleplay, creative thinking or some other Moment of Greatness in D&D?  Of course you have! 

But what if you don’t use XP anymore in 4e, leveling instead after a number of encounters or sessions, or at certain story points? 

In any D&D game – whether you use XP or not – there are some great alternative ways to reward outstanding play besides the classic small XP reward. 

Here’s a list of six simple and easy-to-use approaches you can use or ask your DM to consider for your game tonight:  

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What makes the tiny encounter unique?  It’s not about the numbers or even tactics, so much as the strategy or potential outcomes.

The tiny encounter is a rarity in 4e.  With this edition of D&D designed with large set piece combat encounters in mind, the very small but outcome-rich encounters usually go by the wayside.

It doesn’t have to be that way in your 4e game.  Here are some things to look for, whether as a player or DM, when interacting with tiny encounters, including a gong and a certain tower the party is trying to break into to help illustrate the concepts.

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Remember how in 3.x and 2e or even Basic D&D, after a few years or sometimes much less, winging it as a DM became pretty easy? 

Or how, as a player, you knew the combat rules forwards and backwards?  Even some of the more complicated spells and magic items you knew by heart.

Whether you have or haven’t played or DM’ed other editions, let me tell you the why of it, and how it compares to 4e.

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Countless first adventures of D&D over the years and throughout the editions have shared the common trait of fighting the same sorts of savage humanoid monsters: typically kobolds, goblins, or orcs. 

Even the 4e DMG loyally continues this tradition with the mini-adventure Kobold Hall, which despite a familiar foe, serves its purpose as a good introduction to the D&D 4e game.

However, to do something different to wake up your regular gaming group or to simply stay away from the cliche low-level monsters – but save a lot of time and not create a whole new adventure from scratch – try re-skinning starter adventures like Kobold Hall, the DM’s Kit’s Reavers of Harkenwold, or any of the low level ones in Dungeon Delve. 

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With all of us right in the thick of summer, it’s likely one or more of your games is going to be missing a player or two thanks to a variety of summer vacations, parties and similar “get out of the house / get away” plans, celebrations and events.  As such, it’s a great time to revisit the the idea of simple companion characters (SCC’s) first seen in Companion Characters: Gather Your Allies! 

After all, you’re going to want (or almost need, assuming your leader’s player is away) someone to pinch play for the team so the heroes can continue their adventures with something close to full strength.  Companion characters or NPC party allies fill that important role nicely when needed to flesh out a party, whether you use DMG2‘s two styles or my bare-bones simple version.

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