It’s been quite a while since my last post, and for that I apologize. I have no particular excuse other than the usual: games and lack of motivation. At any rate, I read something just now that motivated me to make a post: the Monster Manual entry for the 4th Edition Pit Fiend.

Here’s some stuff I gleaned from the entry, in no particular order:

1. The Pit Fiend is worth 18,000 XP. No more referencing the CR chart; just a flat 18,000. Nice.
2. He has a teleport speed of 10. They’ve said that short-range teleports would be more common, and apparently (at least for more powerful characters and monsters), it’s just another method of locomotion, usable whenever you want to use it.
3. Action types for the Pit Fiend’s abilities are either standard, minor, and minor 1/round. I’m guessing that minor actions are similar to free or swift actions, probably a combination of the two, with minor 1/round being only somewhat more limited.
4. The Pit Fiend can summon some allies once per encounter, then effectively use them as short-range missiles. Very cool. Even cooler, there’s no roll required to summon, and no save required on the part of the devil/missile, which should speed things up.
5. There are Fortitude, Reflex, and Will defenses, as well as an entry for Saves, with only a +2 listed. I wonder what Saves do now.
6. The Pit Fiend has to use an Action Point to use his per-encounter power. I had originally wondered if taking the same per-encounter power more than once would allow you to use it multiple times per encounter. Now I’m wondering if you have X number of per-encounter powers, each usable by spending an Action Point. I wonder how quickly Action Points refresh.
7. One of the Pit Fiend’s powers, instead of being at-will or encounter, is listed as ‘recharge 4 5 6′. I wonder what that means. Presumably there’s some form of requirement for it to recharge.

That’s all for now. Peace.

I wrote this supplement for Brennan Taylor’s sci-fi space opera game, Bulldogs, a few years back, and now Bulldogs: Psionics has been published! Huzzah!

Apologies for the lack of posting; I’ve been busy with my Christmas gifts. Highlights include:

1. A Garmin GPS unit for my car. Extremely useful.
2. A Nintendo DS, along with two games (The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Age of Empires: The Age of Kings). I’ve finished Zelda already, due primarily to extremely heavy play, rather than brevity of content. The game is decidedly not brief; it’s exactly the right length, and is highly satisfying and challenging from start to finish. Not only that, but it’s got a very clever and well-implemented multiplayer mode, which I enjoy immensely. AoE I’ve just started, and I’m currently working my way through the tutorial campaign (Joan of Arc’s campaign). It’s a lot of fun and very addicting, and I love having a turn-based strategy game that I can keep in my pocket.
3. A fancy new chess board, wooden, with Asian-themed pieces. I can’t wait to use it.
4. Dungeon Twister, an excellent little two-player strategic board game with some cool mechanics and interesting gameplay.
5. Arkham Horror. ‘Nuff said.
6. The first of the 4th Edition preview books, Races and Classes, which I’ve already read and enjoyed thoroughly. I am somewhat sad to say, however, that (according to that book, at least), the ranger is indeed a striker, and not a controller. It makes me wonder whether or not there will be more than eight classes in the Player’s Handbook, for it would seem that they’d need another controller.
7. Lots of other great stuff!

Happy holidays, happy new year, etc.!