While traditionally a feature of FR, elemental motes can appear in just about any campaign setting and in this article you’ll find some ideas and tips for making them fit into yours.  As larger than life terrain elements, there aren’t any real rules that govern the appearance of elemental motes in the game and so this article is particularly light on the crunch with just a few bits scattered here and there (you’ll need to really look to find them, in some cases).  However, the article is full of ideas and tips that may not be explicit rules, but are ways of handling motes as a DM in a way that promotes their fantastical element without letting them drag game play to a halt.

If you’re a DM who plans on using elemental motes in their campaign, I highly suggest taking a look at this article and giving it a read.

Articles remaining in the backlog:

• Ritually Speaking
• The Kalashtar

If they aren’t to your liking, however, perhaps this article will contain something that will appeal to you with five more paragon paths devoted to dragonborn and making them more dragon-like.  Based on silver, mercury, adamantine, copper, and mithral dragons, these paragon paths tend towards the good alignment, though none actually require that alignment.

Personally, the whole dragon mystique doesn’t hold the same appeal for me as it does for other players, so I’d rather see paragon paths targeted towards other memes, but if that is your thing, then you’ll probably like this article.

Of course, the stat block starts with the exact same kind of information as it used to: name, level, types, keywords, etc.  It then goes on to list the basics stats: HP, defenses, speed and the like.  Basically the exact same things that open a stat block under the current format.

After that, however, things take a dramatic shift.  First come the Traits: things that are always active.  The examples show powers that are “feat-like” in their effect and I also expect that auras, regeneration, and the like will end up in this section.

Second come the Standard actions.  Anything that the creature can do with a standard action, including its attacks, are listed here.  They’ve also gotten a slightly new look with explicit Hit, Attack, Effect, etc lines, just like you’d find in a power description.

Next comes the Move actions (presumably, though none of the examples have any), listed in the same way, followed by Minor actions, and then finally Triggered actions.  Taken this altogether this makes it easier to find the different parts of the monster and should make it easier to run.  I especially like the listing of Triggered actions separately as I’ve often found it hard to keep track of such powers in the middle of combat.  I look forward to seeing this stat block format in upcoming adventures and trying it out.

Articles remaining in the backlog:

• Elemental Motes
• Ritually Speaking
• The Kalashtar

Made up of 4 encounters, this Chaos Scar adventure is actually longer than is normal and contains a reasonable balance of combat to non-combat XP.  It’s hard to see that right away, however, because the rewards listed at the head of some encounters seem to be off and are variable anyway.

The first encounter is a fairly straight forward fight, awarding the PCs 550 XP.  The other three, however, involve an integration of a skill challenge and a combat.  In each case, the skill challenge represents the character’s efforts to fortify their siege position.  Failures represent gaps not closed in time or new openings forced on them which let a few more zombies in.  These then have to be defeated while the party continues to try to shore up the defenses.  Unfortunately, the adventure attempts to force these skill challenges into the standard mold and doesn’t do a very good job of it as a result.  Several times it points out that there really isn’t a “failure” condition, as true failure would mean the characters are overrun and killed.  However, the skill challenges still list regular complexities with required number of successes and failures for the skill challenge to end.  What they really need to be listing is just the number of successes required to shore up the defenses enough to grab a breather.  Each failure means a few more zombies leak through and the party has to expend time and resources beating them.

As a result, the amount of XP that any party gains from this adventure is going to vary wildly.  They could come away with as little as 3130 (in a 2255:875 split), but there is no real limit to the amount they could gain (though luck and resource depletion probably puts an effective on it).  Of course, if you limit them to the standard three failures that the adventure tries to force the skill challenges into, then there is a more definite cap (at 4717).

Also in the end, the characters are given a choice between XP and a magic item.  Destroying the shard gets them the XP, keeping it allows them to turn it into a magic item.  This similar to other Chaos Scar adventures which have put a shard into the party’s hands, but this magic item doesn’t have the usual drawback that goes with a shard powered magic item, making it a much more difficult and interesting choice for the party.

I personally really like the idea of the party fighting off a horde of undead, and think the skill challenge mechanic for the siege works (if you avoid forcing the normal 3 failure limit on it).  What I don’t like about this adventure is the level and monster variety.  The low level of the adventure (2) limits the number of creatures that can be called upon a bit (there are no monsters below level 1) and even so, the adventure limits itself to a very small selection of the available monster pool.  Raise the level a bit (to 3, 4 or even 5), and use a larger variety of monsters and I think that this adventure idea has some real promise.  Indeed, what I’d really like is for the composition of the different waves to be determined somewhat randomly and draw on all the different kinds of zombies there might be.  Of course, such a solution would probably but up against the page limit set for the article, but would make for a really cool encounter.

This article isn’t really an adventure though, but more of a location.  Sure, there are three encounters detailed in the article, but they don’t come together to form any kind of story, but are more there to provide the DM something to work with as the PCs explore the location and interact (perhaps hostilely) with its inhabitants.  Along similar lines, there’s a skill challenge for those who are more peacefully inclined.

My biggest problem with the adventure is the use of the same map for all three encounters despite the fact that they occur in different locations.  Sure, the locations are adjacent to each other, but by not sectioning out the map into different maps for each encounter the scale of the maps is very small, making them hard to read and use.

Articles remaining in the backlog:

• Beyond Essentials ...
• Elemental Motes
• Ritually Speaking
• The Kalashtar

There is very little fluff in this article, making it a bit subpar in my mind.  However, the idea takes very little fluff to convey and the nature of a chaos manipulator can be so varied, that I don’t necessarily mind the lack of fluff as much as I normally would.  Really, even two characters who make use of every mechanical element in this article should play very differently at the table.  That’s the nature of chaos, afterall.

For mechanical elements there are 5 heroic feats, 3 paragon feats, 6 utility powers, 1 paragon path, and 4 superior implements (something apparently introduced in PH3, though I haven’t had a chance to see them yet).  As with all Chaos Sorcerer elements, odds/evens, highs/lows, and the like play a significant role in determining how each of these elements plays out when used.  The article also contains a sidebar which suggests replacing such calls with coin flips, card draws, or other games of chance with identical odds to add some flavor to your character, something that could be accomplished with the regular Chaos Sorcerer features as well.

The beveling of power names makes a reappearance again, detracting from their readability, but other than that I noticed no major editorial problems.

While minotaurs were given a full racial write-up fairly early on in the life of 4e, the culture that they were given made them a race that was almost exclusively geared towards the player who likes racial outsiders.  While characters like Dr’zzt bear testament to the popularity of that kind of character, I’m still willing to bet that such characters are in the minority.  Most characters have a reasonably well defined place in society that they can call home.  This article aims to change that by providing the description of a clan of minotaurs who are far friendlier to your typical adventurer background.

To help with differentiate these minotaurs from the normal minotaur culture there are some mechanical elements: 2 backgrounds, 4 heroic feats, and 1 paragon path.  However, the bulk of the article is aimed at describing the culture and sole community of this minotaur clan.

Articles remaining in the backlog:

• The Crossroads
• Beyond Essentials ...
• Elemental Motes
• Ritually Speaking
• The Kalashtar

That changes with this article. In it you’ll find 14 daily summoning powers (2 at each daily power level) which summon creatures who have an “Intrinsic
Nature.” This functions identiacally to the Instinctive Nature of a druid’s summons, specifying actions that the creature will take if you don’t give it an order on your turn.  However, unlike the Instinctive Nature of a druid’s summons, the Intrinsic Nature of one of these summons won’t necessarily be beneficial.  Indeed, it always includes a backlash effect that specifically targets the summoning wizard and when not commanded, these creatures don’t differentiate between allies and enemies.  This makes them much more dangerous to employ.

So what do you get for this trade-off?  Well, the attacks that the summoned creatures have are slightly more powerful, and we’re talking a reasonable increase: 2d6 (at up to two creatures) or 1d10 (in close burst 1) damage for the two first level summons vs. 1d8 (at one creature) for the old level 1 summons.  In addition there is a power increase comes in the Symbiosis ability of each summons.  So long as the summoned creature remains around, the wizard gets a special benefit which ranges from extra damage, to defense bonuses, to effects which are more traditionally controller in nature.

Sounds like a no-brainah, doesn’t it?  However, these summons also give up the Opportunity Action attack that summoned creatures normally get.  As a result, I think that these summons are pretty well balanced.  Sure, they have a substantial extra kick to them, but the wizard takes a substantial risk in using them.  I like this flavor shift and hope to see the wizard summons continue to develop along this line to really set them apart from the summons that other classes have.

Now if we could just get some differentiation beyond flavor for the Artificier and/or Invoker summons (the other two classes with a significant number of summoning powers).

The only thing that prevents me from giving this article a perfect rating are two editorial mistakes.  First, one of the powers is listed as a Standard Action instead of the normal Minor Action for summoning powers (a mistake, I think).  Second, the Symbiosis ability for each power are needlessly repetitious.

Articles remaining in the backlog:

• The Minotaurs of Mistwatch
• The Crossroads
• Beyond Essentials ...
• Elemental Motes
• Ritually Speaking
• The Kalashtar