Comic - Trust

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One of the interesting things about 1st Edition and 2nd Edition was running around with someone in your party whose entire job description was "thief". It didn't engender trust. Not that "rogue" is all that much better. 

Comic - A Beneficial Relationship

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As a world builder at heart I wonder about adventuring some times. If there's any money in it from a business standpoint. If supporting an adventurer is a good investment. After all, if your town is threatened by orcs its nice to have paid a group of adventurers way while they learned the ropes and hunted goblins and kobolds. The party that TPKs was a bad investment but that group that makes it to epic levels really pays dividends. It's an interesting idea for a campaign hook: trying to win sponsorship and get that starting gold needed to buy that expensive armour and that masterwork sword. 

Comic - Overly Familiar

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Familiars are fun. But sometimes I worry they're a little too disposable for something that's meant to be part of the caster's soul. In legend they're a symbol of a witch's bond with Satan, which is something you totally don't use as a disposable creature just because the rogue is too busy to be bothered searching for traps. It's not like they're a wolf animal companion or something.

Comic - Wartlock

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The warlock was added to the playtest for D&D Next / 5e about a month back. We only got a single warlock pact – the fey pact – and even then, the pact was tied to a single entity: Verenestra. The hook with this archfey is that she trades beauty for power. Earn a level and gain a wart, get a new Encounter power and grow a blemish.

That there is comedy gold.

Comic - Surprise!

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A classic “gotcha!” monster for you today; those are beasties that jump out at the unwary as an unexpected menace, a surprising foe a quick encounter.Personally, I like “gotcha!” monsters. They’re a nice break from the routine, a nasty little surprise: not every monster should charge at you howling a battle cry. They can slow down the game as players check chests, poke floor and walls, prod the ceiling, and unleashed ranged weaponry on every bunny resting on a tree stump. Which is a sure-fire way of guaranteeing a DM will not use a “gotcha!” monster as they’re only really fun when they’re unexpected and then never appear again.  I also enjoy the understated narrative of such creatures, how this perfect dungeon-based adventurer-hunter might have evolved or been created. It says something about the world.

The only real problem with “gotcha!” monsters is that everyone knows about them. They’re not a surprise as every player who has been playing for longer than a year has likely heard of the mimic or the lurker below or any of the others. This might encourage DMs to get a little… creative.