Review of 4E Power Cards

For my birthday last month, Vanir and his wonderful wife, efreak, gave me a set of 4E Power Cards for my Wizard.  I had been using a some handmade cards for both my wizard and my bard, but writing out the power descriptions on note cards every level was a bit tedious.

The Cards

The set comes with 100 cards, including all the powers in the PHB plus a handful of blank cards to customize.  They are color-coordinated to match the book: Daily powers have a gray border, At-Wills are green, Encounters are red.  Utilities powers have a blue border with a checkbox indicating if it is a Daily, Encounter or At-Will power.

The flavor text is across the top, the keywords are just blow that, then all the details.  The class is listed on the very bottom of the card and on the back, so if you are running multiple characters, you can easily tell which powers belong to which characters.  The cards are easy to read and include all the details you need without having to flip through the book.  They are coated, so they have a pretty durable feeling to them.

My One Regret

The coating on the cards prevents pencil marks.  To really make these versatile, it helps to have your attack and damage stats already included on the power card so you don't have to figure them out every time.

To combat this deficiency, I grabbed my tape.  By adding a couple of strips of tape to the bottom of the card, I could add my stats in pencil.  I also added notes on bonuses that contributed to my numbers.  I made sure to leave a tab on each strip so I could remove the tape later if necessary. This is what my Flaming Sphere power card looks like:

You can see a close-up of my tape additions here.

Thanks to Martin from Gnome Stew, I have also confirmed that the power cards will fit in Magic-sized sleeves.  This can give an extra level of protection to your power cards, and you could use tape strips on the protector instead of the card itself.

Overall

I have found that I cannot stay sane during combat without my hand-made cards.  These new power cards are really nice and a great time-saver.  At about $10 per class, they are a reasonably-priced addition to your gaming bag for your PHB classes.

New Player's Handbook Heroes Minis

Martial Heroes 1
Originally uploaded by stupidranger

Dante & I received some of the new Player's Handbook Heroes minis this week. There are six total packs, and we got four to enjoy: Martial (1), Arcane (1), Divine & Primal.

What I Like

• Each pack has three minis, and one is a female; it's great to have some feminine representation in the new minis. And they are mostly dressed sensibly, which is a bonus.
  
• The Arcane set has a bard. It's been really hard tracking down a bard mini.
  
• Each mini has a unique power card, giving you a great opportunity to jazz up your character.
  

What I Don't Like

• The minis are obviously mass-produced; not all of the painting is clean and neat.
  
• While I appreciate they are trying for some variety, some of the race/class combinations don't really seem to fit: Dragonborn Rogue wasn't high on my list of character options... I like my rogues a little more unnoticeable.
  
• I realize there aren't a lot of Divine or Primal options, but seems to me like they could have put in a third class instead of have two Clerics or two Barbarians. They could have had an Avenger for the Divine pack and a Shaman or a Warden for the Primal pack, which would have eliminated the duplicates.
  

Overall

The Arcane set is currently high on my list since it has the Female Eladrin Wizard. Now I can use that for Eaerenel instead of the Male Human Wizard mini I've been using. And even though the Bard is a male, I'm probably going to use that Half-Elf mini, which will be significantly better than the Dwarf Fighter I've been using. I'm very happy to have minis that mostly represent my characters.

Adding Some Color to the Tavern

It's a classic staple of D&D adventuring.  The Tavern.  Whether it's just a stopping place for the night or a stepping stone in your quest to save (or destroy) the world, it's one of the first places you look for once you get back to town.  The second, of course, being the merchant, 'cuz saving the world doesn't always pay well unless you sell your fallen opponents' stuff.

The tavern is a great place for the roleplayers to interact with the other people in the environment; there's always someone at the tavern willing to chat with a group of adventurers.  Sometimes, he's very obviously giving you information to begin/continue your quest.  But sometimes, he's just local color.

For those of you looking to interject a little bit of color to your taverns, whether they are home-brew breweries or established drinking establishments, Alric over at The RPG Athenaeum posted a great list of 100 subjects that might be overheard in a tavern.  This is a great list, and it's a handy DM resource to keep the tavern environment light and entertaining, especially for your roleplayers.

If you're looking for a new tavern-based ways to begin your adventure, Nicholas over at DungeonMastering.com shared a few ideas.  After all, the tavern is the best place to start a campaign.  There are some good ideas here that give you an alternative to the general "you're sitting at the bar... introduce yourselves" kind of tavern-based start.

If you're looking for more ideas, there are a couple of fun articles published in the Open Game Table that have some fun ideas to add flair to your tavern.