NIBENAY
For twenty centuries, the Shadow King trusted the temple bureaucracy to see to his kingdom’s affairs as he luxuriated in his arcane studies. But the death of King Kalak in Tyr has dislodged Nibenay from his comfortably oblivious state, and the nobles and templars of the city-state are scrambling to cover a plethora of sins and slights from his renewed attention.
Lore
History DC 33: For ages, Nibenay spent his days in isolation, researching and performing rituals to increase his knowledge and power. Recently, however, the slaying of King Kalak of Tyr has reawakened the ruler in him. In the past several weeks, he has called several councils, deposed dozens of templar-wives, and begun to monitor his armed forces and noble houses. His scrutiny has sent terror through the ranks of Nibenese power wielders, none of whom abstained from dark dealings to gain their positions.
Nibenay has not completely abandoned his studies, though. He is rumored to be exploring Athas’s distant past. Speculators believe he might be looking for a way to bring about a new age.
Encounters
High consorts are Nibenay’s surest allies, as are the Shadow King’s personal arcane assistants. They alone know that Nibenay is not the handsome, regal human the rest of the world sees. Rather, he has taken on a draconic aspect, which he adopts for important meetings. Nibenay’s inner circle also includes his half-monster son, Dhojakt, as well as an elite band of goliath warriors.
Nibenay
Nibenay prefers to sequester himself in the Naggaramakam, the royal compound where he studies the mysteries of the worlds. He emerges only to lead his army to war or to crush internal rebellions.
I like the defiling effects. Necrotic damage all over the place.
Also, note that he has an "elite band of goliath warriors". An editing error, perhaps?
Also, note that he has an "elite band of goliath warriors". An editing error, perhaps?
Why an error?
Also, note that he has an "elite band of goliath warriors". An editing error, perhaps?
Why an error?
I guess my assumption is that Athas wouldn't have "goliaths", but rather use their stats to represent half-giants.
Perhaps a slang term or alternate name for half-giants, if not an error.
However, I think the goliath in the Dark Sun preview adventure was a straight-up goliath, and (this is before I've gone back to listen to the podcast again) I think they're just going to have goliaths in place of half-giants. But if that bothers anyone, they should listen to the podcast for confirmation. It's way too late tonight for me to try listening to that again.
Umm....how do you deal out Radiant damage when there's no divine power source? I never play divine classes because "close to god" classes bore me so I never really looked that up if Radiant damage can come from a non divine class. Thoughts?
What caught my attention was not the fact that Hafl-Giants were referred to as Goliaths. What really caught my attention was the Anakore. If it's in direct sun light or "takes radiant damage" it suffers a -2 to hit.
Umm....how do you deal out Radiant damage when there's no divine power source? I never play divine classes because "close to god" classes bore me so I never really looked that up if Radiant damage can come from a non divine class. Thoughts?
Arcane classes with radiant-damage powers:
- Artificer
- Bard
- Sorcerer
- Swordmage
- Warlock
- Wizard
Primal classes with radiant-damage powers:
- Druid
- Shaman
- Warden
Psionic classes with radiant-damage powers:
- Ardent
- Monk
- Psion
With the exception of the Warlock and the Wizard, there are only a couple powers per tier for each class that will deal radiant damage. By the time a party encounters an Anakore they could very likely have at least one radiant-damage encounter power.
My money is that gods will somehow enter the setting.
Either elemental forces will be more define, maybe names for some elemental entities, or the old false religions will make comebacks.
And let's not forget that Sorcerer-Kings gave spells too.
So radiant damage isn't surprising.
Considering the fact that they have flat out said that they plan to handle the divine power source by saying "there are no gods, there are no divine classes in a standard Dark Sun game," my money is on the gods not making a comeback. However, as ascottbay pointed out, there are a number of arcane, primal, and psionic powers that have the radiant keyword. Radiant pretty much just means "tied to the creation of light." It does not mean that it is automatically tied to a divine entity. So, I also don't find the radiant damage bit so surprising, though I don't find it so surprising for a very different reason.
Anakore ^
The anakores sound horrible--in a good way, in that they are monsters. That little thing about their alien-sounding origin was an interesting touch, too. As for radiant powers to damage them, yeah, I don't see too much of a problem. As mentioned, radiant isn't necessarily divine, there are radiant powers for various classes, and on a desert world I'm sure there will be new powers involving sunlight.
By the time I got to the Shadow Brides I was already stunned (save ends) at the amount of info we were getting. They seem kinda tough to beat. Nice flavor touch in saving the psychic attacks for fancy foes, and I love the Demand Penitence power.
This definitely makes me want to see more of what the devs will do.
I thought this was a really good preview. It delivered way more than I expected. The defiling effects are really interesting, especially just the fact that there are "effects".......i.e., multiple powers that together create the feel of defiling. (Are those normal Controller hit points, though? Kinda low I thought at first glance.)
The anakores sound horrible--in a good way, in that they are monsters. That little thing about their alien-sounding origin was an interesting touch, too. As for radiant powers to damage them, yeah, I don't see too much of a problem. As mentioned, radiant isn't necessarily divine, there are radiant powers for various classes, and on a desert world I'm sure there will be new powers involving sunlight.
By the time I got to the Shadow Brides I was already stunned (save ends) at the amount of info we were getting. They seem kinda tough to beat. Nice flavor touch in saving the psychic attacks for fancy foes, and I love the Demand Penitence power.
This definitely makes me want to see more of what the devs will do.
yeah the Anakores...Far Realms influence or do they mean literally space-faring illithids as their creators?
According to an ancient tale, terrors from beyond the sky touched the humanoids that were forebears of the creatures
HTH
As for radiant damage...just because there is no divine power source doesnt mean you cant play a divine class. Use some imagination. Reflavoring is one of the strengths of 4E.
Nibenay retains his classic feel. I'm impressed with how WOTC have handled the new Dark Sun. They even retained the stable of wives.
This should really be open to everyone to be completely honest, but I do understand that WOTC wants to provide more value to their DDI subscription fees. I'm just desperate for Dark Sun info!!!
If I didn't already max out my credit card I would have already charged for a month just for a look at this preview! WOTC please heed my anguished cries and take pity on a broken soul with an equally broken wallet!
Note: Also, I'm aware that its very likely that my impatience and willingness to throw money at things I could easily wait for has put me in this very situation. Nevertheless, I whine. Apologies to the haters.
(Sorry about the random babbling - the xp values are basically my cue as to how to interpret a statblock's power level in this minion-standard-elite-solo environment we call D&D 4E)
The stats themselves seem solid, though I wonder why he doesn't have the dragon keyword. Perhaps this is because he isn't a complete dragon yet? The lack of breath weapon is interesting as well. Does it also come later on in the draconic advancement?
But then WotC releases some details like SK stats... which would be nice to have. I just don't think it is nice enough to warrant a subscription. Oh well.
I'm rather baffled at some of the poor software design choices WotC has made with their DDI adventure tools - which is half the reason to get a subscription. Why they didn't make their tools platform independent, I will never understand. But I'm now past caring.
Subscribing for one month does give you the opportunity to download everything. However, the Dragon and Dungeon Annuals also provide this in a nice hardbound format.
True, I've grabbed the Dragon Annual, but I thought that was just for the Dragon Magazine (and Dungeon Annual for Dungeon Magazine respectively)... but things like Nibenay's stats... are they considered part of either of those mags?
I'm rather baffled at some of the poor software design choices WotC has made with their DDI adventure tools - which is half the reason to get a subscription. Why they didn't make their tools platform independent, I will never understand. But I'm now past caring.
Because it is a standard (if antiquated) business model/practice -- make something that works for most of the customers, rather than try and make something that works for all of the customers. The sad thing is that most businesses don't realize that Java (for example) isn't nearly as slow and clunky as it once was known for. And it is a pretty decent platform for web development (one of the primary languages used in the ubiquitous "cloud computing" concept). But there are other languages as well that work with this beyond the Java platform (MS.NET, Python, Ruby, etc.). They could easily have set up their tools to be web-based, like how Google does things for instance, and the tools work work everywhere (even on an iPad, for instance)... it would, I believe, raise the interest of consumers a thousand fold. But it seems WotC is stuck in the last decade when it comes to how software is developed.
True, I've grabbed the Dragon Annual, but I thought that was just for the Dragon Magazine (and Dungeon Annual for Dungeon Magazine respectively)... but things like Nibenay's stats... are they considered part of either of those mags?
Oops. Nibenay is an excerpt from the Dark Sun Creature Companion - so he'll appear there. They are previewing some material from the Dark Sun Campaign Book next month. All of that material will be in print at some point.
Because it is a standard (if antiquated) business model/practice -- make something that works for most of the customers, rather than try and make something that works for all of the customers. The sad thing is that most businesses don't realize that Java (for example) isn't nearly as slow and clunky as it once was known for. And it is a pretty decent platform for web development (one of the primary languages used in the ubiquitous "cloud computing" concept). But there are other languages as well that work with this beyond the Java platform (MS.NET, Python, Ruby, etc.). They could easily have set up their tools to be web-based, like how Google does things for instance, and the tools work work everywhere (even on an iPad, for instance)... it would, I believe, raise the interest of consumers a thousand fold. But it seems WotC is stuck in the last decade when it comes to how software is developed.
Xlorep, there are a ton of people that agree with you. Seattle is one of the North American hubs in software development, and yet, WotC wasn't able to create a sustainable and cross-platform design for their adventure tools. Why they didn't make it browser based (just not Flash-based, sorry adobe) so that everybody could use it...? They shouldn't care all that much about speed, honestly, whether it takes you 5 minutes or 10 minutes to create your character/monster shouldn't matter.
I get the sense that they've figured out, to a certain extent, that continuing their original business design might be a mistake. Which is probably why the adventurer's tools have pretty much been abandoned, and WotC has devoted more of their attention to the community website. Whether the community website will continue to get more attention and tools (like the ability to create and build characters and monsters directly on the website, and post them), I don't know.
When the tools were created, it probably wasn't worth the cost to grab that (at best) 10% increase in subscribers to target OS X (or a smaller boost for Linux). With the increase of popularity of Android, the iPhone, and the launch of the iPad, I'm sure WotC is at least aware there are markets that might be lucrative to develop for.
I would expect to see the next round more web and mobile based, rather than desktop OS targeted.
When the tools were created, it probably wasn't worth the cost to grab that (at best) 10% increase in subscribers to target OS X (or a smaller boost for Linux). With the increase of popularity of Android, the iPhone, and the launch of the iPad, I'm sure WotC is at least aware there are markets that might be lucrative to develop for.
I would expect to see the next round more web and mobile based, rather than desktop OS targeted.
You don't need to target an OS, to tell the truth. There are plenty (and I mean plenty) of software development frameworks/languages that are OS independent (like good ol' Java, for one), and have been around for a decade or two now. Everything WotC wanted in their apps could have easily been built in one of these platform-independent systems, just as easily and efficiently as a platform-dependent system. And if they did that, they wouldn't have shut out *any* of the customers. Instead, it appears they picked the cheap way out (and by cheap, I mean quality, not price), by limiting to Windows.
It isn't like they built a high-end computer game that needs a bleedingly-fast response rate/FPS and thus must be custom-built to a particular platform/architecture.
Not being a tech company, perhaps they just weren't aware that it wouldn't increase cost to target all platforms.
At this point, I don't see a reason for it to be a local client at all. I have mine set up so that I save to web-based files, so I don't have to worry about portability of character data. Having it entirely web-based (like the Compendium) would sidestep all of the OS, installation, and update issues.
Not being a tech company, perhaps they just weren't aware that it wouldn't increase cost to target all platforms.
At this point, I don't see a reason for it to be a local client at all. I have mine set up so that I save to web-based files, so I don't have to worry about portability of character data. Having it entirely web-based (like the Compendium) would sidestep all of the OS, installation, and update issues.
Yep. I've actually been designing, for my own campaigns, something along those lines. Unfortunately, copyright law will more or less prohibit me from showing it to the general public, but maybe after I get some pieces together that are working, I can present it to WotC along with my resume :P
Good luck!
Not being a tech company, perhaps they just weren't aware that it wouldn't increase cost to target all platforms.
Yes. That's the point we're trying to make. They aren't tech based, but being a Seattle-based, they should at least have access to this information (DnD nerds without techie friends? right...), which is what baffles me and others.
Updates are another problem. If you make it browser based, you can control customer updates and content. They could have easily made it more service-based software, instead of having players download the software and control the content locally - which is difficult to control. Instead, players can download the latest updates and continue to use their software long after their DDI subscription has expired.
WotC has been very controlling of their content lately (e.g no pdf downloads on published books), so why not make it service-based like their compendium?
NIBENAY
Lore
History DC 33: For ages, Nibenay spent his days in isolation, researching and performing rituals to increase his knowledge and power. Recently, however, the slaying of King Kalak of Tyr has reawakened the ruler in him. In the past several weeks, he has called several councils, deposed dozens of templar-wives, and begun to monitor his armed forces and noble houses. His scrutiny has sent terror through the ranks of Nibenese power wielders, none of whom abstained from dark dealings to gain their positions.
Nibenay has not completely abandoned his studies, though. He is rumored to be exploring Athas’s distant past. Speculators believe he might be looking for a way to bring about a new age.
I have to say I like the Lore check. Tells you what is publicly known, and then gives rumors and speculation (which could be false) on what Nibenay does in private.
I hope they handle a lot of the Lore checks this way in Dark Sun.
I'm not sure how I feel about the artwork on Nibenay. To me, it just doesn't look like an athasian dragon. Too round. The Anakor is... interesting. As for the sample, well it's something.
If you look at the 2E artwork for Nibenay, however, he does indeed have a sleek, rounded, dark-skinned look to him. I think this new artwork is a great improvement over Baxa's artwork in 2E depicting the Shadow King.
Moreover, the descriptions of dragons in 2E in both game supplements and novels lean towards an Athas wherein every dragon has a rather unique appearance. They don't all look the same. They aren't a species, and their appearance seems tied to the personality of the sorcerer-monarch (or rogue defiler/psion) in question.
Thus, I think Nibenat looks just fine, and apropos, with a sufficient enough nod to the previous artwork while adding a fresher take to cover both ends of the fanbase (old and new).