Some of My Dragon Strike House Rules

[Malcadon]

Thanks guys.

I would rather have the front of the card in color, and the back in black & white. Plus, I like the old-school look -- the overly colorful Photoshopped look everyone is going these days for never impressed me in the slightest. Although, I could color-code the title text by monster type or something.

[Malcadon]

I just created a costumed Hero Card. This for an Amazon -- a female Warrior. As noted with the Ogre card, this is a work-in-progress. The card is scaled at 7 x 5 inches (basically, four normal cards in size). The lack of a Hit Point Track is do to a greater reliance on Health Tokens: they are not placed under the Hero figure, but are placed on the Hero Card.

I have no idea where the pic came from (it was cluttered among my picture archives), and its not one of my artwork. Unlike the default Warrior (who I call "The Mighty Mullet Man"), she is armed with a sword and shield, instead of a two-handed sword.

The new (hero exclusive) icons are:

• Eye = Search (Find Traps/Secret Passages)
• Tool = Disarm Traps (may also be used to deal with machinery)
• Hand = Dexterity (Feat of Dexterity)
• Weightlifter = Strength (Feat of Strength)

So how does it look?

[knightkrawler]

I really like the look. It's so 1979 or 1983.

[Daedalus]

Looks like I replied to this on the wrong site. Since I read here that you don't want a lot of color, I'd support your idea of some color--kinda like the original Dragon Strike cards.

[Malcadon]

Looks like I replied to this on the wrong site. Since I read here that you don't want a lot of color, I'd support your idea of some color--kinda like the original Dragon Strike cards.

I just replied to your reply. As noted, I made them b&w to make them look like the DS cards, and to keep them printer-friendly.

[Sjeng]

I like the classic look, just make them high res! They're tiny and pixely now.

[Jazzdrummer]

Hi Malcadon,

I know this is an extremely old thread so I hope you get my post. I wanted to try some of your houserules but I had question concerning sneaking and sneak attack (without cards)...

-The first part says "if the thief is alone and encounters a monster..." Does this mean that the thief needs to be out of line of sight of the monster before trying to stealth? Can thief's own party members be with him when he tries to stealth?
-When attacking a monster that is engaged with another hero, does the thief need to make a Dexterity feat check every time he wants to use sneak attack? Or does it only work on the first attack?

Thanks. Hope you get this.

[Malcadon]

Hi Malcadon,

I know this is an extremely old thread so I hope you get my post. I wanted to try some of your houserules but I had question concerning sneaking and sneak attack (without cards)...

-The first part says "if the thief is alone and encounters a monster..." Does this mean that the thief needs to be out of line of sight of the monster before trying to stealth? Can thief's own party members be with him when he tries to stealth?
-When attacking a monster that is engaged with another hero, does the thief need to make a Dexterity feat check every time he wants to use sneak attack? Or does it only work on the first attack?

Thanks. Hope you get this.

The basic idea is to have the Thief move ahead of the party to scout around, and for Solo Adventures, the Thief can survive by avoiding combat encounters with stealth. It is assumed that newly encountered monsters would remain "inactive" if they do not "see" a hero -- that is, an "inactive" monster would be eating stuff, gambling around a table, debating which Orc chick got the nicest ass, or just standing there staring at the walls like the props that they are, until same Hero comes along.

How the rules work, the player should declare "sneaking" as an action, and to make the situation uncertain, the Dragon Master should roll the die behind the screen, instead of the player. On that turn, the player acts as though the character is invisible and that any newly encountered monster would remain inactive. If the roll succeeded, monsters without True Seeing will ignore the Thief, otherwise, the monsters would see and react to the Thief once its their turn to act. As a Dragon Master, you could rule that external sounds, like fighting in another room, could activate an inactive the monster, ether leaving the Thief's fate to the monster, or have the monster continue to ignore the Thief to get to the fighting.

I hope that clarified things.

This rule is experimental and I cant remember what we did to make it work, if it did workout at all -- my notes are a mess!

[Jazzdrummer]

Ah okay that makes sense. Yea I just got a copy of this old game recently and I'm having a blast playing it but the sneak attack cards didn't make a lot of sense. So really the thief can decide to stealth at any time, but in this case, the dragon master would roll the die instead of the thief. I like that much better than what I did...lol. Last night my wife was playing as the dragon master and I was controlling the thief, elf, and warrior. I announced that my thief was going to sneak down this passage to see what's down there. I roll a lousy 5 and say "well I guess not!" So it seemed odd that my thief would know himself whether or not he's being sneaky. Also once I roll a sneak check, do I need to continue rolling them every turn? Or do I just wait and see if a monster notices the thief?
Okay how about sneak attacks against monsters that are engaged in melee with other heroes. Does the thief need to flank the monster at all or just be in any square adjacent? Last night I played it the latter. I would move the thief in position and every time it was the thief's turn I would roll a non-action dexterity feat check and, if successful, I would get to roll a d12. Otherwise a d8 as normal for the thief. Does that sound right? Thanks again for answering this old thread. This game is a blast! Very D&D lite.

[Malcadon]

Ah okay that makes sense. Yea I just got a copy of this old game recently and I'm having a blast playing it but the sneak attack cards didn't make a lot of sense. So really the thief can decide to stealth at any time, but in this case, the dragon master would roll the die instead of the thief. I like that much better than what I did...lol. Last night my wife was playing as the dragon master and I was controlling the thief, elf, and warrior. I announced that my thief was going to sneak down this passage to see what's down there. I roll a lousy 5 and say "well I guess not!" So it seemed odd that my thief would know himself whether or not he's being sneaky. Also once I roll a sneak check, do I need to continue rolling them every turn? Or do I just wait and see if a monster notices the thief?
Okay how about sneak attacks against monsters that are engaged in melee with other heroes. Does the thief need to flank the monster at all or just be in any square adjacent? Last night I played it the latter. I would move the thief in position and every time it was the thief's turn I would roll a non-action dexterity feat check and, if successful, I would get to roll a d12. Otherwise a d8 as normal for the thief. Does that sound right? Thanks again for answering this old thread. This game is a blast! Very D&D lite.

Rolling behind the screen is an old D&D thing. A Dungeon Master can make many secret rolls in a single game, and each time the players perk or sweat, as rolls usually mean something dire could be approaching. Somethings DMs make idol rolls (with no real results) to keep the players on their feet, or to undermine player suspicions when there is a situation were a surprise is most likely. (Its almost a game into itself.)

Oh, I forget to clarify, that to be sneaky, you have to make a Feat of Dexterity before doing anything else -- like moving. As an option, you can make a sneaking Thief move at half-speed to account for the tiptoeing and moving behind stuff or slipping between shadows.

If the Thief is sneaking around and the monsters are unaware, then the Thief can make a sneak attack in place of a normal melee attack without having to preform an additional Feat. The Thief strikes with a d12, as she is bypassing the creature's armor and hitting the juiciest parts. Once the Thief attacks, for any reason, the Thief is visible to all monsters in sight. There are no need to account for monster facing or "flanking" attacks (that D&D rule were attackers have an advantage if they on opposite sides of an enemy), as the rules assume that monsters can see all round themselves. Although, if you want "flanking" strikes, then you could have it so that if a monster is engaged with another Hero in melee combat, the Thief can blight-sight the monster with a sneak attack without even being sneaky in the first place. If the Thief becomes over-reliant on flanking to the paint of being game-braking, you could lower the dice roll to a d10 to account for the way the monsters frantically move around in combat to get a good lethal strike.

I have no problems answering old, dusty threads. In fact, I'm something of an infamous Thread Necromancer.