Rules of Writing

Writing my Eberron trilogy, The Draconic Prophecies, has been an interesting process, in part because my work on the trilogy has pretty well coincided with my work as one of the lead designers for the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons -- which (in case you hadn't heard) went on sale the same day as Dragon Forge: June 6. I started writing Storm Dragon in June 2006, by which time we'd finished the first draft of the 4th Edition rules, but I still had a long way to go. When I sat down to write about a Siberys heir of House Lyrandar, my mind was still pretty firmly in 3rd Edition rules, and I created statistics for him using those rules. Here's a fleshed-out version of what those stats looked like.

Gaven (of House Lyrandar) CR 14
hp 79 (14 HD)

Male half-elf duskblade 12/heir of Siberys 2
N Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +0; Senses low-light vision; Listen +1, Spot +1
Languages Common, Elven, Draconic, Undercommon

AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15
Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +12
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)

Melee greatsword +17 (2d6+4)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +13; Grp +17
Atk Options arcane channeling, spell power +3 (+3 to penetrate SR of target he has injured)
Special Actions quick cast 2/day
Duskblade Spells Known (CL 13th):
4th (2/day) -- fire shield
3rd (6/day) -- crown of might, crown of protection, energy surge, protection from energy
2nd (9/day) -- deflect, seeking ray, sure strike, swift fly
1st (10/day) -- Bigby's tripping hand, burning hands, shocking grasp, swift expeditious retreat, true strike
0 (6/day) -- acid splash, disrupt undead, ray of frost, touch of fatigue
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th):
1/day -- storm of vengeance (CL 15th)
5/day total -- dancing lights, detect magic, flare, ghost sound, read magic

Abilities Str 18, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 8
SQ armored mage (medium, heavy shield), spell power +3
Feats Combat Casting [B], Cleave, Combat Expertise, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Skills Climb +21, Concentration +9, Jump +21, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Spellcraft +11, Swim +13
Possessions chain shirt, greatsword

What's important in these rules, from the novelist's perspective, is not the numbers, but just having some idea of what Gaven can do. He's a duskblade -- a guy with a sword and medium armor who also casts arcane spells. He has the Siberys Mark of Storm, which lets him use storm of vengeance as a spell-like ability once per day. If you've read Storm Dragon, you've seen him use fire shield (quite a lot) and use his arcane channeling ability to put a shocking grasp spell into his greatsword. He also uses the power of his dragonmark, most notably in the fight against displacer beasts near the beginning of the book. I don't think he ever used ghost sound or most of the other spells on his list.

As Gaven progresses through the action of Storm Dragon, his powers expand and change. He walks the Sky Caves of Thieren Kor and gains a much deeper understanding of the Prophecy, which awakens new power in him -- the power of the Storm Dragon. I never designed rules for that transformation, and in fact I let it become an excuse not to cling to the rules. Gaven channels the power of the storm in a way that has nothing to do with the storm of vengeance spell-like ability, and he does it more than once per day. He pilots a Lyrandar airship, which technically he shouldn't be able to do. Clearly, he's special.

By the time I finished writing Dragon Forge, 4th Edition was a lot farther along -- in fact, I turned over the first draft of the novel and a mostly finished Monster Manual in the same week. As you read this book, you'll see 4th Edition very clearly in some ways, including characters of three races that have new prominence in the new edition: dragonborn, tiefling, and eladrin. You won't, however, see rules changes coming through in the story. Gaven's capabilities don't change, and I never did a 4th Edition stat block for Gaven . . . until now.

The truth is, there's a world of difference between playing D&D and writing a novel set in a D&D world. The rules of the game certainly inform the writing, but they can't limit it. The rules are there to maintain balance in the game, to keep characters on par with each other and with the monsters they're fighting. A novel serves an entirely different purpose, where fairness and parity aren't at stake. What matters is telling a good story with some exciting action.

In working up Gaven's stats in 4th Edition terms, I find myself playing much more fast and loose with the rules. You can call it artistic license, but partly it's the different design philosophy of the new edition -- I'm treating Gaven more like a monster than a character who has to follow the rules to the letter. Partly, too, it's because we haven't designed the duskblade class yet or finished the rules for Eberron's dragonmarks, so I'm doing some design as I go.

For simplicity's sake, I'm going to make Gaven a fighter with multiclass wizard feats, so his powers are a mixture of fighter powers, wizard powers, and dragonmark powers coming from his Heir of Siberys paragon path. Let's see what he looks like.

It turns out I really don't care about Gaven's numbers anymore, although I set a level for him and ability scores that are considerably higher than they were before. I set his level higher for two reasons. First, because the 4th Edition scale is different than the previous edition's (30 levels instead of 20), and putting Gaven at low epic level puts him on a par with the monsters we've already seen him fighting -- a powerful mind flayer and a Huge dragon, for example. The second reason is that I'm sure Storm Dragon must be an epic destiny, though I have no idea at this point what it's giving him in rules terms. The higher level translates to higher ability scores, which actually feels more like the Gaven I've been writing -- a 22 Strength squares better with his reputation for great physical strength.

What I do care about is Gaven's powers -- again, getting an idea of what he's capable of doing. He's a greatsword-wielding fighter with a dash of arcane power. His fighter powers are a lot of brutal attacks, pushing foes around, hitting hard, and drawing on his body's enormous physical reserves. I cheated a bit and gave him a swordmage power from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (which is due to hit stores in September 2008), because sheathing his sword in lightning is something Gaven does all the time. Similarly, I pretended that there's a wizard utility spell called fire shield, since Gaven uses that all the time as well. Otherwise, I chose wizard powers that fit with his overall theme, and invented powers for his dragonmarked paragon path that were in line with the things we've seen him do.

This isn't an exact replica of the character you'll see as you read Dragon Forge. It does, I hope, underscore a point I've been making about converting characters from 3rd Edition to 4th: Your character isn't the numbers on the character sheet. A character is a person in your mind: all the personality and motivation and the general concept of what that person can do. A character in a novel is the same thing -- the guy on the pages who talks and fights and loves and grows.

The character sheet is a way of representing that character's capabilities within the rules of the game. When the rules change, the character sheet changes as well. But the character doesn't have to. If Gaven changes, it's because of his growth and development through the course of this trilogy, not because the rules change. His changing statistics might have some effect on the way I think about what he does in the books, but what's most important to me as I write about him is who he is -- not his ability scores, not his feats or powers, but the person I imagine him to be.

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