The last page of Heroes of the Fallen Lands is an ad for D&D Encounters. There are lots of D&D props lying around: candles, maps, gold idols… and Spanish doubloons!

D&D Encounters

Spanish doubloons

My guess is that this is paving the way for the next official campaign setting: 16th century Spain! What D&D player hasn’t dreamed of playing Don Quixote, or Pablos from Quevedo’s El Buscon, or Mendoza from Mysterious Cities of Gold.

And, as there are no more pages, we’re done blogging Heroes of the Fallen Lands! Back to one post a day for us.

More Essentials thoughts…

Here’s the list of common magic items in Heroes of the Fallen Lands:

Black Iron Armor
Magic Armor
Sylvan Armor
Veteran’s Armor
Defensive Weapon
Magic Weapon
Vicious Weapon
Magic Orb/Staff/Wand
Bracers of Mighty Striking
Shield of Deflection
Boots of Striding
Burglar’s Gloves
Diadem of Acuity
Goggles of Night
Helm of Battle
Amulet of Protection
Elven Cloak
Safewing Amulet
Belt of Vigor
Potions of healing/life/recovery/vitality

It’s not a bad list of simple magic items, although I think that the Vicious Weapon, which has one of the better weapon powers, will overshadow a lot of Uncommon weapons.

This is not the complete list of 4e Common items, by the way: the complete list, along with other Essentials rule changes, is here.

Uncommon Items

Also included (for fun?) are a handful of Uncommon items, which players can’t get except from DM loot drops. I’m not sure why they’re included in this book.

Orb of Insurmountable Force
Earthroot Staff
Wand of the Hunting Hound
Gauntlets of Blood

I guess these are in here so that wizards, rogues, and fighters can have something to salivate over. The cleric is playing a cleric, so he’s used to disappointment.

More Essentials thoughts…

This level 2 wizard utility power from HotFL is a pretty faithful 4e interpretation of Charm Person, which has been missing from the edition so far. It doesn’t have 1e’s sliding duration based on the target’s Intelligence, which is sad, but on the other hand, it is explicit about what happens when the charm wears off. That’s something that always puzzled me ever since Bargle first Charmed me in the Red Box.

Instant Friends is kooky in that it doesn’t use an attack roll to judge success, but a saving throw. That’s fun because it gives a level-1 wizard a chance (although a small one) to make a friend of a level 27 Storm Titan. What the heck, why not give it a try? (Don’t bother with Orcus, though; he get a +5 on saving throws.)

Wow, a pretty potent utility power for level 2. This seems too fun not to take, especially since a wizard can hide this in their spellbook and bust it out when they aren’t planning to get into a lot of fights that day. I’m not sure how I feel about this; I get nervous when spells become available that risk trivializing skills (i.e. diplomacy), but then again the saving throw does make this pretty risky (though spell focus, as always, throws a monkey wrench into things).

Disintegrate

Yeah, but ONCE PER DAY, Emirikol. That’s a daily power. Let’s not go crazy disintegrating these townspeople.

More Essentials thoughts…

Here’s the horizontal character sheet from Heroes of the Fallen Lands (click for a larger version):

Essentials character sheet

The character sheet can fit on one page, which is great. It will require you to write pretty small, though.

There are 26 lines for Powers and Feats, which includes Race Features and Class/Path/Destiny Features too, I guess, since there is no section set aside for those. The PHB character sheet had something like 70 lines for all that information, and it sometimes got crowded at that.

There’s no place to write down your Paragon Path and Epic Destiny.

There is quite a generous allotment of space for your Character Sketch, however! Hooray!

More Essentials thoughts…

First of all, I’m glad to see that, after a Red Box panic, Prestidigitation is among the Heroes of the Fallen Lands mage cantrips.

Second, I see that all mages get a new cantrip, Suggestion:

That seems like the sort of nonsense a mage of the Enchantment school would get up to, but apparently all mages are kind of skeevy like that. And wizards wonder why people don’t like them.

Apparently, once per encounter people like them quite a bit. While I like the flavor of suggestion and would definitely rub my hands together giddily at the idea of getting my hands on it virtually for free as a wizard, it does give me some pause.

Already, arcane characters have a lot of amazing ways to use arcana to substitute for many skill checks:

• Arcane Muttering: A level 2 skill power that lets you make an arcana check in place of a bluff, diplomacy, or intimidate check.
• Sorcerous Vision: A level 11 sorceror feat (that a wizard could multiclass into if they were so inclined) that allows you to substitute arcana for an insight for perception check.
• Knock: A ritual that lets you use arcana +5  in place of thievery to open locked doors for the price of 35GP and 1 healing surge.
• Seek Rumor: A ritual that lets you use arcana in place of streetwise to gather information at a +5 difficulty.

Each of these abilities makes me a little nervous, because while I recognize that skills aren’t the biggest focus in D&D, I like the idea of each character having a moment to shine with them (i.e. the rogue opening the crucial lock to break into the house, the ranger spotting an enemy hiding in the shadows, the bard making a clever bluff). It’s kind of annoying to imagine that with a few feats, powers, and rituals an Arcana-heavy wizard or sorceror could be AMAZING at common uses for no less than 8 skills (when you include arcana).

More Essentials thoughts…

A level 10 Rogue utility power from Heroes of the Fallen Lands:

Nimble Fingers
Minor action, Melee 1.
Prerequisite: You must have training in thievery.
Target: One creature
Effect: You draw one weapon that is sheathed or worn (but not held) by the target, stow a single item on the target, or retrieve a single item the target has stowed. If you are hidden from the target, the target is not aware that you have used this power.

The phrase that grabs my fancy is stow a single item on the target. Offhand, I can’t think of a combat use for for stowing a single item on the target, but I’m itching to stow. Rather than a complete tactic, it seems to offer a tactical hint or puzzle – a tactical building block – like my beloved mage hand. I hope some Essentials thief makes Nimble Fingers the cornerstone of an extremely irritating career.

More Essentials thoughts…

The HotFL martial builds (knight, slayer, and thief) have a common schtick for their utility powers: most require training in a specific skill. For instance, the level 2 Knight’s utilities Battle Leader, Glowering Threat, Minor Resurgence, and Push Forward require Diplomacy, Intimidate, Endurance, and Athletics respectively.

I like this idea: it makes my skill choices feel a little less meaningless. Honestly, my dwarven fighter’s Endurance check does not come up that much. I chose it to match my character concept. It’s nice that it might get me an extra utility choice.

Some of the utility choices are executed better than others. Among the level 6 thief utilities, Hidden Blade has a Thievery prerequisite and Slip Aside requires Stealth. All rogues get Thievery and Stealth for free, so this isn’t much of a prerequisite.

Here’s a game: Guess the skill prerequisites for the level 6 Knight utilities, just based on their names. (To see the answers, highlight the section or hit Ctl+A.)

Knight’s Challenge intimidate
Helping Hands healing
Rapid Advance athletics
Dauntless Endurance endurance, good job!

More Essentials thoughts…

Each class chapter is illustrated with some new iconic heroes.

Take a look at the iconics from the Fighter chapter: Lyriel, the elf knight, Fargrim, the dwarf slayer, and Shara, the human slayer. They all have something in common:
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