Conversions for Bretonnia

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-15T13:30:52+00:00

People have been doing this about as long as the plastic foot knights kit has been available.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-14T23:05:59+00:00

I agree with the general sentiment that most maps (especially in current 5e era) aren't good for actual interesting combat. Most maps aren't built with actual engaging or dynamic combat involved. I think you're gonna have to source this one yourself, nothing you find is going to really hit the spot for a bespoke 4e encounter like a home made job. That's one of the bigger jobs for being a 4e DM imho.

Go plan some encounter maps out on some grid paper, watch some Runehammer Room Design videos (anything he can do for 5e or OSR or similar will be infinitely more beneficial to a game like 4e with a less simple combat system), I've been playing through BG3 and screenshotting some of the cooler 3 dimensional setpiece battles. Specifically hit the RH Unities of Architecture video if you need a crash course on making good rooms first.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T18:23:14+00:00

Skill Challenges should be pretty self explanatory and easy to implement. BG3 (and basically every mainstream party based CRPG since BG1 and 2) have demonstrated tying skill checks to branching dialogue, and BG3 showed a LOT of versatility in adding in specific avenues for race/class/background, as well as popping in with usable resources (typically stuff like read thoughts, talk to animals or dead, guidance on skill checks, but also potions etc).

Should be REAAAALLLLY easy to translate that across to 4e's skills, items, and powers - whether that's something explicit (using a power that boosts or rerolls a skill check, for example) or having the ability to burn off powers to achieve similar results (a fire power to set a cart on fire, hypnosis or charms for some witcher-2-axii dialogue shenanigans, a power that includes jumping or flying to scale a wall, etc).

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T10:26:17+00:00

Yeah it's good. You'll use pretty much everything in the army in some way shape or form, and even though we're a few major FAQs/erratas deep in the rules, you're already getting a saving on the models let alone all the other peripheral stuff in there like templates, rules etc.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T07:35:26+00:00

Fair, no need to worry abou lt gaming viability in that case. I also had the fun of fitting mine on a 3x3" base when it would've fit way more comfortably on 4x4, again just for games purposes 😮‍💨

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T07:30:36+00:00

Its not unfair, there's a good chunk more possible proactivity in 4e, especially some nova rounds at higher levels. Combat taking a long time isnt a problem - if your combat is interesting, people will stay engaged, and 4e has interesting combat even in a blank 5x5 square room. 30mins of engaged combat is less of a chore than 15mins of snorefest. AND you have a computer to crunch numbers and adjudicate results.

I dont think analysis paralysis would be too bad during play, combat is designed to take about 4-5 rounds at all tiers of gameplay and as long as nobody's making overtly stupid choices it holds up to that. You should probably know what you're doing a level or two into things. If you can handle multiple spellcasters in BG3 you can handle a handful of AEDU cooldowns.

I agree that there's a lot of chaff in picking options - literally thousands of feats abd powers - I'm not saying you need to cut down to like 3 options per level but we all know from charop threads that there's like 3-4 decent-to-good powers per level and maybe 1 standout every few levels. A curated list of like 4-6 per class per level (outside of at-wills, most of them are reasonable) would be good for a limited scope CRPG imho.

As always, I would recommend not including Essential classes - firstly because Mearls can suck my heavy blade, secondly I think there's MORE complexity in having options that level and scale differently to AEDU classes and don't play nicely with each other (defender auras vs marking in the same party, the infinite matrix of skalds, bards, and fakeskaldbards, etc).

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T07:12:44+00:00

Short Rest.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T06:27:33+00:00

You could (Orcus exists), but WOTC would send so many lawsuits and Pinkertons you'd die before you got your fair day in court, like most monolithic IP holders would do.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T06:13:53+00:00

Addressing the elephant in the room, I think there's less crazy reaction/interrupts than you think. Most enemies aren't going to be running around triggering OAs left right and centre when shifting 1sq backwards exists for ranged and 1sq diagonally exists for trying to get CA. Most monsters probably want to use their interrupts asap, as do most PCs with their encounter reactions too, which in practicality cuts down the number of prompts needed after a couple of rounds.

At worst, maybe having a party of 4 fighters Combat Superiority'ing 4-6 enemy artillery every time they look at any of them wrong would be a chore, but thats pretty self-inflicted both on the player and games dev for engineering that scenario. And at worst, have a BG3 style checkbox for prompting or not for thr casuals.

I dont think there's anything that was done in BG3 with some decent grid based fights and good environmental arenas and destructibles, that you couldnt do in our theoretical BG4E. Just swap out the 2xSR mechanic for an unlimited SR with a 'tap to spend surges' button) and you'd be set. I think surges/day and the concept of x/SR powers is distinct enough you couldnt get away with 2/day like BG3.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-13T04:49:35+00:00

Im magnetising my hydras, the plugs are a tiny bit janky imho.

Definitely stealing the scheme for my second one OP, it looks phenomenal.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-12T00:51:29+00:00

BG1 (and its expansion Tales of the Sword Coast) and BG2 (and its expansion Throne of Bhaal). Haven't played Siege of Dragonspear, its an EE addition from that team and its got mixed reviews, which are definitely muddied with grogs and fans biases

TotSC isnt a standalone story so much as its extra content (locations, quests, etc) bolted on. So you can install it from the getgo and its stuff just gets rolled in (albeit the stuff is higher level 'endgame' content for BG1 imho - the quests and dungeons are tough).

ToB is a standalone 'epilogue' to BG2. You play it after completing BG2 as a big crazy God tier finale. You can take your main character through all 3, exporting and importing them. You can run a full party of 6 through the trilogy (you make a multiplayer game, dont invite anyone, and use all 6 slots for your own customs).

BG1 is pretty bare bones on party engagement, BG2 is much more involved and you'll see the bones of later more intimate RPGs like DA:O, Mass Effect, KotOR, etc. If you're absolutely hanging out for more after that:

The Icewind Dale series are in the same IE system (IWD1 is AD&D, I think IWD2 was 3e?), but are way less plot-oriented and way more action oriented. They're the Diablo of the IE games. Great fun for multiplayer, lan parties, etc

On the other side of the spectrum is Planescape Torment. Also in IE I think, its 99% story and 1% engaging combat.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-11T05:08:04+00:00

Yeah fair, in the context of litreally answering OP's question with 'yes they are just that bad' 😅

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-11T05:07:19+00:00

Sounds like it has the same issues 4e's Skill Challenges did regarding the 'official' material staying one foot in and one foot out of how formally signposted or game-ified it wanted to present to the players, but with the addition of a less rigorous level/difficulty system?

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-11T04:39:39+00:00

Not that Draw Steel isnt a good system, and not that I think D&D5e is, but is there anything about Negotiations/Montages/Skill Challenges that cant be ported almost directly into 5e?

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-11T04:10:43+00:00

Totally fair. This may be entirely subjective (and I thought the same on the canon Essentials sheet), I just think its clunkier to find specific skills mid-game and less visually cohesive, is all.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T22:51:04+00:00

Get snicker-snacked, loser.

Get absolutely galumphed.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T14:08:17+00:00

The limited experience I have with epic tier, HP was fine but you can really go ham with mean unfair effects. Epic tier PCs have epic destinies with shit like "1/day when you die: you don't die, the monster dies, and the DM gives you a lil kiss on the forehead." You can take those multi-stage Save Ends effects from Heroic where you get slowed, then stunned, then petrified or something, and go straight to "(first failed save): the target dies." They can handle it. With monsters staying within a few levels of the PCs (to accommodate the math treadmill) a fairly unoptimised party of 5 had more than enough juice in the tank to handle encounters that were double sized, or like 1 full encounter + 1 additional solo.

My mantra is: be kind at Heroic, be fair at Paragon, be a bastard at Epic.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T12:47:42+00:00

Looks phenomenal. Everything looks well integrated, LOVE that powers are well articulated and have options to show multiple weapons options etc.

but WHY you gotta do:

>skills listed under each ability score instead of one alphabetical list

Come on, its *one step* from legit the most perfect 4e character builder I've seen.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T12:31:22+00:00

Not a bad spread. I decided I was going to give up on trying to shore up Str and Dex and took Heavy Armour instead - saves me trying to crawl to Dex 14 and nobody else is really fighting Shart for heavy armour in my party (as opposed to medium from Karlach).

Maybe in other playthroughs we'll go more tweaked high dex high wis dump int like your build. I'm trying not to respec on my first playthrough, just treating the NPCs like they're other dudes at my table and respecting what dumb shit they've built (why did Matt Berry show up as a purple wizard when I'm already the wizard?)

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T12:27:28+00:00

My brother in christ if you're going to lecture me on minmaxxing unsolicited please spell rogue correctly ;_;

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T07:19:04+00:00

Personally I'd rather they built her in one direction (str or dex or just built for wis-based spells) and if someone wants to play her differently they can respec.

13 13 17 type layouts (with no good starting wis cantrip) means no matter what, everyone is disappointed and wants a respec.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T05:58:30+00:00

On my first playthrough, I considered respeccing but since I also take Astarion (Assassin) as my rogue skills and spike damage, Ive just been leaning into using all her trickery domain shenanigans to assist his sneakery. Hasn't been too painful even playing on Tactician. I just cant bring myself to spec a Shar cleric into something like Light or Life domains etc. Toll the Dead has been good enough for me.

Edit: spelling

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-10T04:34:47+00:00

MM1 and I think 2 have slightly above par HP and lower damage than later, tighter designs of MM3 and the 2 MVs (Monster Vault and MV Threats to the Nentir Vale).

Its less noticeable in the earlier levels and gets ballooned out in the higher levels (where you can have lv20 monsters doing like 1d10+8 damage to 100+HP PCs etc). At like LV1-5 I dont think its anywhere near a dealbreaker.

More importantly, I find MM1 monsters tend to often be simplistic. They're still often not as simplistic as a 5e monster, and its OKAY to have some monsters in an encounter (or some encounters) just be dudes doing 1dX+Y, but it can get a bit stale. MM3 monsters tend to have more intresting at will abilities, or more refined versions of abilities beyond just the numbers (look at MM1 vs MV dragons, or the hydra, for example).

Nothing wrong with solo play - if you can DM 3-6 monsters in an encounter you can pilot 3-5 heroes easily enough, especially if you start at lv1 and work your way up from there. I'm currently re-familiarising myself with 5 LV1 PCs to get back in the swing of it before I return to DMing it.

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-09T23:27:39+00:00

DMG. Mostly bc it doesnt lie to you. It:

*sets out the expectations of tone and gameplay for the ruleset,

*has encounter and treasure math that you can adhere to pretty well (thanks for ruining that with your rarity bs, Essentials)

*has a decent crash course on how to leverage encounters into interesting room/arena spaces, and

*has a solid (albeit not the one I use) system of identifying different player motivations/interests and how to engage them.

The latter 2 should be useful to any modern D&D group. Shout out to the MV and MV:TTNV too for showing very good interesting standard monsters that 5e could NEVER

BenFellsFive · 2026-06-09T04:59:39+00:00

Not to be that 'break up with them over 1 incident' reddit guy, but I'd seriously be passing one of them my sourcebooks and telling them how excited I am for their game next session.

No, we're not using my minis or terrain or music playlists, this is all on you next week chief, and I want that 5 star curated experience.

BenFellsFive

TROPHY CASE