PAX East Fourthcore Team Deathmatch Tournament

The PAX East schedule is finally up! Check out what's going on on the convention and email Senor Ross to reserve your place in the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch tournament! Each member of the winning team receives a copy of the Fourthcore Armory (Extended Edition) as well as an exclusive Fourthcore Team Deathmatch dice bag by from the illustrious Dragonchow Dice Bags!

Also, be on the lookout for Ross helping out with a few official Wizards of the Coast events during the rest of the long weekend; namely the D&D Next Playtest and the DM's Challenge.

What are you waiting for?

GO FORTH AND DIE!!!

Vancian Magic in 4E

One of the recent announcements about D&D Next coming out of The Dungeons & Dragons Experience (DDXP) was that the Wizard class would be seeing a return to Vancian magic casting. For those out of the loop, Vancian casting refers to science fiction author Jack Vance's stories. The magic-users of those stories spellcasting came from memorizing vast, intricate formula that were so complicated only a handful of spells could be memorized at a time. Simply not enough room in the brain, as it were. This was the D&D spellcasting method du jour since the 70's, and was largely abandoned in the 4th Edition.

Largely, but not entirely. Vancian spellcasting can be equated exactly as if every power a 4E character has is treated as a Daily power. It's then a pretty easy jump to whip together a quick and easy option to introduce Vancian Wizards into your 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game.

To create a balanced Vancian Magic Option for your 4E Wizard, simply do the following:

• Refer to all Wizard 1st Level At-Will Spells as "cantrips". It's way cooler and more fun this way.
• Increase the damage output of all Wizard Encounter Attack Spells by a damage die or two. Some examples are provided below.
• Change the frequency of all Wizard Encounter Attack Spells to Daily. Change the frequency of all Wizard Utility Spells to Daily. Increase dazes to stuns, and stuns to dominate, etc. You've got to really use your brain here and make intelligent changes, there's no quick and easy fix. This isn't actually so bad, as most Wizard tility Spells are already Daily.
• On a case by case basis, change all Encounter and At-Will Wizard Utility Spells to be more powerful, in-line with an equivalent Daily Utility Spell of their Level.
• Optional: Allow a Wizard to select a Ritual (of the appropriate Level or below) to cast as a Standard Action in lieu of a typical Utility Spell when he or she receives a new Utility Spell.

Done. I've used this in actual play; it is really fun, brings the feel of the older edition Wizards, and is perfectly balanced with the 2008-era 4th Edition Wizard.