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Glossary and Rules Changes


Download the official Wizards of the Coast D&D Miniatures most current rule book (updated through War Drums release), with errata incorporated, in ZIPped PDF or non-ZIPped PDF.
Download the official Wizards of the Coast D&D Miniatures FAQ in ZIPped PDF or non-ZIPped PDF.

GLOSSARY ADJUSTMENTS

Ally/Allied Creatures: Creatures belonging to teammates are also considered to be allies. (Dragoneye)

Antimagic Eye: The Beholder's Antimagic Eye requires spellcasters to roll 11 or higher to avoid losing the spell (or psionic power) being cast. Declare the spell or power first, then make the roll. Treat a lost spell as having been cast. The creature expends one spell use or the appropriate number of power points, and effects dependent on casting a spell or using psionics (such as the Catfolk Wilder's chance of being stunned) still apply. (Deathknell)

Battlefield Promotions: This ability allows a Dwarf Samurai to become a commander when your last commander is eliminated. If you have multiple Dwarf Samurai in your warband, choose only one to get the promotion. Another could be promoted later if the first-promoted Dwarf Samurai is eliminated. (Deathknell)

Blind-Fight: Creatures with Blind-Fight are immune to gaze attacks. (Dragoneye)

Blindsight: This special ability no longer has a range. (Dragoneye)

Constructs, Plants, and Undead: These creatures have Immune Confusion, Immune Dominate, and Immune Incite in addition to their other immunities. (Dragoneye)

Death Burst: When the Chraal or the Phoelarch is reduced to 0 hp, its Death Burst special ability deals damage to aeach adjacent creature. Effects that eliminate the Chraal or the Phoelarch without reducing its hit points to 0 do not trigger Death Burst. (Angelfire)

Difficult: A Difficult creature with a ranged attack or a ranged special ability can stand still when out of command, but only if it is in range of and uses the ranged attack or special ability against the nearest target. (Dragoneye)

Divine Strike: The Skullclan Hunter can use its Melee Sneak Attack against Undead creatures, which are normally immune to such attacks. Other defenses they might have, such as Incorporeal, sill work normally. (Deathknell)

Domination Surge: The Ravenous Vampire can control an enemy creature, forcing it to make a melee or ranged attack against another enemy creature. The controlled creature acts as a member of the Ravenous Vampire's warband. It can use a special ability that specifically affects attacks (such as Smith, Stunning Attack, or Cleave), but no other special abilities or spells. Creatures with the Immune Dominate special ability can't be controlled in this way. (Deathknell)

energy vortex: The Warpriest of Hextor chooses a single energy type when it casts the spell. You can't choose different energy types for different creatures affected by a single casting. (Deathknell)

Follower: A noncommander creature in your warband. (Dragoneye)

Ghaele Eladrin's Commander Effect: The Ghaele Eladrin lets a follower activate 1 extra time in a round when that follower gets an attack roll of natural 19 or 20. During that extra turn, it could even gain another extra activation. However, a follower with multiple attacks can't "stockpile" extra activations with multiple attack rolls of 19 or 20 on the same turn. Even if you have more than one Ghaele Eladrin in your warband, a follower gains only 1 extra activation at a time. (Angelfire)

Ghost Step: During its turn, the Dragonblade Ninja uses Ghost Step to gain Invisible. It remains invisible only until the end of its turn. While invisible, it can use its Sudden Strike ability against enemies that can't see invisible creatures. (Deathknell)

Herald: "Followers" are noncommanders in your warband. Therefore the Trumpet Archon's Herald ability, which extendes Commander Effects to line of sight, affects only those that benefti your followers. Any Commander Effects in your warband that affect enemy creatures still have a range of 6 squares. (Angelfire)

Hide: This ability has been simplified. If this creature has cover against a nonadjacent attacker from something other than intervening creatures (such as a wall or statue), it counts as having invisible for that attacker. (Dragoneye)

Incorporeal: Attacks of opportunity cannot be made against an Incorporeal creature moving through a wall. (Dragoneye)

inflict moderate damage: Even though this spell specifically affects Construct creatures, a Construct with Spell Resistance or Spell Resistance All can still avoid the effect. (Deathknell)

Invisible: Creatures with this ability gain Conceal 11. (Dragoneye)

Justice Strike: When the Justice Archon hits with its melee attack, choose whether the attack deals 10 points of magic damage or the printed damage of the target's first melee attack. That damage includes effects that apply automatically on a hit, such as fire damage or Poison, but not those from Commander Effects or optional special abilities such as Stunning Attack. The damage dealt by Justice Strike can be modified normally by spells, special abilities, Commander Effects, and other conditions. (Angelfire)

Line 12: Spells and effects with a range of line now list it as "Line 12" as a reminder that line effects extend only 12 squares. (Deathknell)

Melee Reach: A creature with a touch-range spell and Melee Reach, such as the Aspect of Nerull, can cast the touch-range spell on any creature it can make a melee attack against. (Deathknell)

Minions: See Summon/Summoned and Minions.

Mounted Melee Attack: This special ability allows the Mounted Paladin to move up to twice its Speed and still make a single melee attack that turn. It has no effect when the Mounted Paladin charges. (Angelfire)

Nearest Target: Ranged spells and ranged special abilities can now target either the nearest ally or the nearest enemy. (Ranged attacks haven't changed; they still must target the nearest enemy in line of sight.) It might not make sense to target an ally instead of an enemy, but you can if you like. Thus, the "beneficial" keyword no longer applies. (Dragoneye)

Requires [CREATURE]: This special ability no longer uses the word "Ally." You must have the listed creature in your warband. (Dragoneye)

Reroll Attack: The Goliath Barbarian can reroll an attack up to three times per skirmish. Find out whether the attack roll results in a hit before deciding whether to use this special ability. If you reroll, you must keep the second result, even if it's worse. (Deathknell)

Respawn: The good news for you when your Imp is delminated is that you get to place a fresh Imp on your assembly tile at the end of that turn. Any ongoing "your warband" effects will affect the new Imp, but any spells or other conditions affecting the eliminated Imp immediately end. The good news for your opponent is he/she keeps the victory points for eliminating each Imp. (Angelfire)

Rubble: This ability takes effect if the Stone Giant's ranged attack hits its target. If Rubble turns a square into difficult terrain, other terrain effects in that square are not affected. For example, a sacred circle square would retain its effects but would now also count as difficult terrain. A square that already counts as difficult terrain (including one with additional effects, such as spike stones) isn't further affected. (Angelfire)

Sleep: Instead of attacking, a creature can wak a single adjacent sleeping ally. However, creatures that take damage while sleeping wake up immediately. (Dragoneye)

slide: The Beholder's telekinesis Eye Ray slides another creature up to 3 squares. The glossary entry for slide (and its associated effect, push/pull) is correct but needs additional clarification. Pay any movement costs for the sliding creature as normal: A square containing difficult terrain costs 2 squares of movement, or 3 squares if sliding diagonally. Creatures with Flight and Incorporeal creatures are not slowed by difficult terrain. Creatures with Burrow use their normal Speed rating and may be slowed by difficult terrain; they can't use their Burrow speed while being slid. If a creature is moved through a square containing spike stones, it pays the movement cost and also takes 5 points of magic damage (if it can be slowed by that terrain). A pushed, pulled, or sliding creature does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Regardless of its own special abilities, no creature can be pushed, pulled, or slid into or through a square containing a wall, another creature, or a statue. (Deathknell)

Slow Attack: A creature with this ability can't move and attack in the same turn; it also can't move and take actions that replace attacks. For example, the Zombie White Dragon has Slow Attack, so it can't move and attack or move and use its Breath Weapon in the same turn. (Deathknell)

Stunning Attack: A creature can use this special ability only once per turn. (Dragoneye)

Summon/Summoned and Minions: Some summon spells (and similar special abilities) can even summon more than one creature. Each such spell or ability specifies what it summons on the stat card. (Dragoneye) The rule concerning victory points for summoned creatures and the Minions special ability has been reversed. Opponents now do score victory points for eliminating your summoned creatures and Minions. This applies even to previously-published creatures. (Deathknell)

Swift: (Spell/Ability Keyword) A creature may use one swift spell or special ability on its turn (but not during other creatures' turns). This doesn't count against its normal actions and does not replace its attacks. (Dragoneye)

Trample: The definition of Trample in the Miniatures Handbook should specify it can be used only against a smaller creature. Trample can affect only one smaller creature per turn. An out of command creature can use its Trample ability as long as it moves at Speed 2 or rushes the nearest enemy creature it can see and reach. (Giants of Legend)

Vermin: (Creature Type) All vermin creatures have the following special ability: Immune Confusion, Dominate, Incite, and Sleep. (Dragoneye)

Weaken: The Gold Dragon has a Breath Weapon with a Weaken effect, which reduces creatures' melee and ranged damage. If a creature deals bonus damage with a single attack, the Weaken effect reduces only the base damage, not the bonus damage. For example, an Azer deals melee damage of 5 + 5 fire, so it is not affected by Weaken. The effect can't reduce the base damage below 5, and it doesn't affect the bonus 5 points of damage. (Deathknell)

CARD TEXT ADJUSTMENTS

Cowardly: The rules text should specify an active ally within 6 squares. (Dragoneye)

DC [#] Negates: This notation appears on some spells and abilities that deal damage and also have other effects. Making a save against such an effect negates all the spell or ability's effects, including damage (instead of halving damage as normal). (Giants of Legend)

Level (Save): In the skirmish rules, a creature's Level is mostly used for saves. Until now, each creature's level was equal to its Roleplaying Game (RPG) level, which required special abilities such as Save +4 or Save = 10 to adjust its saves. Starting with Deathknell, the Level statistic is the same number the creature adds to the die roll when making a save. As a reminder, the Level entry now includes the term "(Save)." (Deathknell)

Lich Necromancer's Commander Effect: The Lich Necromancer has the ability to transform destroyed enemies within range into Undead creatures under its command. This has the following consequences. (Giants of Legend)

* Like summoned creatures, newly-created Undead creatures do not activate on the round they are created. They do not add to a warband's cost, and opponents do not score victory points for them. See Summon/Summoned and Minions entry for updated Deathknell information on victory points from summoned creatures and minions.

* Only one new Undead creature is created per living creature destroyed in this way, even if more than one Lich Necromancer is within range. If two or more players control Liches that could create the new Undead creature, dice off to see which one does so.

* The newly-created Undead creature must be a miniature from the collection of the player controlling that Lich Necromancer. A player who does not have an appropriate miniature handy is out of luck.

* In Limited play, this Commander Effect functions only so long as your limited pool of miniatures includes legal Undead creatures. Once eliminated, such a miniature could be used again later in the same skirmish.

* Baaz Draconians and creatures with the Death Burst ability are immune to this Commander Effect. (No corpse remains to animate.)

Living Construct: Creatures with the Living Construct ability have only limited immunities. They do not have Fearless. They have the special ability Immune Level Drain, Paralysis, Poison, and Sleep. They can be healed like living creatures, and Confusion, critical hits, Dominate, flanking, Incite, Sneak Attack, and Stun affect them normally. (Giants of Legend)

Negative Damage: Inflict wounds spells and slashing darkness deal negative damage. (Dragoneye)

Powerful Charge +[#]: Stat cards no longer explain this ability. A creature with Powerful Charge deals the listed amount of damage when it charges. (Dragoneye)

Rend +[#]: Stat cards no longer explain this ability. When a creature with Rend hits one creature with two melee attacks on the same turn, the second attack deals the listed amount of extra damage. (Dragoneye)

RPGA Statistics: Four Deathknell creatures -- Dwarf Artificer, Soldier of Thrane, Warforged Wizard, and Voice of Battle -- have statistics for 1st-level player characters on the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Stats side of the card rather than the higher-level character of the skirmish side. These characters are official and approved for use in the RPGA (Roleplaying Gamers Association) Mark of Heroes campaign. Complete character sheets for these characters and others are available on the RPGA website (http://www.rpga.com). (Deathknell)
Four Angelfire creatures -- Cleric of Dol Arrah, Dwarf Raider, Dwarf Wizard, and Talenta Halfling -- have statistics for 1st-level player characters on the D&D Roleplaying Stats side of the card rather than the higher-level characters of the skirmish side. These characters are official and approved for use in the RPGA Mark of Heroes campaign. (Angelfire)

Save = 10: Many high-level creatures have this ability. When making saves, including morale saves, such creatures always add 10 to the roll instead of adding their level. When making morale saves, they still get to add the Commander rating of a commander within range. (Giants of Legend) Also see Level (Save) for more info updated with the Deathknell set.

Save at the End of Each Affected Creature's Turn: Certain effects give creatures another chance to save against an effect after failing their initial save. At the end of the affected creature's turn, roll the save again. If that save succeeds, the effect ends. Otherwise, the creature can attempt a save again at the end of its next turn. (Giants of Legend)

SCENARIO ADJUSTMENTS
For scenarios in which creatures set up on terrain tiles, place the creature completely on the terrain tile. (Dragoneye)

PRESTIGE CLASS ABBREVIATIONS
The D&D Quick Reference side of the stat card abbreviates prestige classes that do not appear in the core rulebooks. Below is a list of new prestige classes and their abbreviations. (Dragoneye)

Bladesinger: Bld

Dragon Samurai: Dsm

Drunken Master: Drk

Eye of Gruumsh: Eye

Halfling Outrider: Out

Purple Dragon Knight: Prp

Ravager: Rav

Tattooed Monk: Ttm

Thayan Knight: Thk

HUGE CREATURES
Huge creatures have a 74mm base, take up 9 squares on the battle grid, and can have very high costs. (Giants of Legend)

Huge creatures aren't legal in Organized Play events using warbands costing 200 points and less, but they will be allowed in sanctioned Huge format events. Visit http://www.wizards.com/miniatures for the latest OP formats, as well as official Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures errata and FAQs.

Huge creatures must use the squeezing rules (Miniatures Handbook, Pages 91-92) to move through spaces 2 squares wide. If you wish to avoid squeezing, you can flip the terrain tiles upside down. Treat flipped assembly tiles as clear terrain and flipped feature tiles as impassable or difficult terrain (at the option of the player who places the tile). Keep at least 3 squares between impassable terrain.

HUGE CREATURE SCENARIOS
The following two scenarios feature Huge creatures.

500: This follows the standard scenario in all ways, except players build 500-point warbands with no upper limit on individual point cost.

Dread Enemy: This is a three-player scenario. One player builds a 500-point warband around the creature designated as the "Dread Enemy": any one Huge creature or King Snurre. The two other players each build 225-point warbands that contain no Huge creatures. The Dread Enemy player wins by eliminating all enemy creatures. Both other players are considered allies, and they both win if they eliminate the Dread Enemy creature. Use the Standard scenario rules for setup and tie breaking.

TINY CREATURES
Giants of Legend also introduces a Tiny creature, the Quasit, with a 12mm base. Most Tiny creatures have the Tiny Reach ability, which prevents them from making attacks of opportunity. Otherwise Tiny creatures are like other creatures.

WARBAND BUILDING AND SCENARIOS
The Deathknell and Angelfire sets are designed for Limited-format play using 200-point warbands. When playing Out Of The Box scenarios or in draft formats, each player should have two Deathknell or two Angelfire Booster Packs and construct warbands of up to 200 points.

NEW SCENARIO: ASSAULT
The Assault scenario rewards both combat effectiveness and clever maneuvering. Where you set up terrain tiles becomes much more important, because you score victory points for occupying terrain on the opponent's half of the grid. Use the rules for the standard scenario on Page 26 of the rulebook, with the following exceptions. (Angelfire)

Number of Players: Two.

Setup Note: Mentally divide the battle gride in two at the midway point of the long edge. Your half of the grid is the 22-by-17-square area containing your assembly title; your opponent's half is the one containing his/her assembly tile.

Victory: Victory goes to the first player to score victory points equal to the warband limit: 100 points in a 100-point skirmish or 200 points in a 200-point skirmish. There are two ways to score victory points.
1) Eliminating enemy creatures. As in the Standard scenario, you score victory points equal to the cost of each eliminated creature.
2) Occupying at least one terrain tile on the opponent's half of the grid. At the end of each round, a player who has one or more creatures on a terrain tile that is entirely on the opponent's half of the battle grid receives victory points. The award is 10 victory points in a 200-point skirmish and 5 in a 100-point skirmish. Each player can earn victory points in this way, but never more than the listed award in each round.

A creature that occupies multiple squares is considered to be on a terrain tile if any part of its space is on that tile, even if it occupies squares on the other half of the battle grid.

Terrain tiles that straddle the two halves of the battle grid can't score victory points for either player.

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For further information, visit the D&D Miniatures website which features updates, previews of upcoming sets, and free downloads. It also has an online warband generator, roleplaying maps and encounters, skirmish variants, and updated rulebook, and more. There's also a link to the D&D Minis message board, where they post tournament announcements, advice on building warbands, and all sorts of comments from fellow players. www.wizards.com/minis


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