>>47709326
Was in a similar situation a year ago. The best thing to do is just kind of let them figure it out as they go and don't worry to much if things aren't going as they should. Your friends, or at least the ones that care, will learn the rules together and things will hopefully start running more smoothly after.

Cut monster HP in half, double the damage they do.

Make sure every player knows what their own shit does.

Beyond that 4e runs pretty easy

>>47709767
don't do this, just use MM3 monster math

Also, use the character builder if you can get it, and whether you can or can't, avoid the Essentials classes.

The Essentials classes are Knights, Slayers, Thieves, Scouts, Hunters, Binders, Bladesingers, Witches, Sha'ir, Beserkers, Cavaliers, Blackguards and Hexblades

Mages are also technically an Essentials class, but they're honestly fine

>>47709906
Missed some. Sentinels, Assassins, Executioners and the infamous Vampires

Don't use those either

>>47709906
They are honestly fine for a beginner group, just a bit boring and slightly underpowered. Thieves/bladesingers/berserkers are actually kinda interesting imo.

>>47710010
Bladesingers are the worst for beginners, because Bladesingers are the only class for which the book outright lies aobut how to play them. Not only does it say you should build them with intelligence primary and dexterity secondary (always a bad idea), but it also lists them as "controllers", when they are actually strikers.

Berserkers I guess are fine though, just a bit weak

>>47709906
What's the special math in MM3?

>>47710082
Oh yeah, those sentences kinda supposed to be separate ideas, I also don't think bladesingers are good" but they are one of the more interesting designs.
>>47710285
It's the one with the proper scaling attack/damage/defense values. The books before it had defenses a bit too high for solos and elites and offense a bit too low for the rest IIRC. Also, MM1 had some boring and broken ass shit monsters.

Hey guys, I heard some good things about using the escalation die from 13th age in 4e.

What other, easy to implement, houserules are there? We're using the character builder, so we don't want to add too much stuff that would directly influence the numbers on the sheets.

The WotC 4e character builder got ripped from the site before it went down, and the community continued to update it. Just do some googling to find it. Really useful.

Early monster math was built around longer and less dangerous combats, and committed a couple of sins with debuffing an disabling abilities which made fights less interesting and slow.
MM3, Dark Sun Creature Catalog and the two Monster Vaults use adjusted math and work much better.

As for classes, as said the Essentials classes have issues. Though aside from the Binder, they are all good enough, (and the Bladesinger doesn't do what it says it does,) but tend to be rather simplified and can as such easily be not very engaging and boring. They also don't work as well especially in higher levels, but for certain kinds of players they are fine.

4E flows quite well on its own though, so aside from reading and understanding the rules little advice may be needed. However if they are familiar with other games, it might be worth to remind the DM that 4E assumes combat to be important fights and not every 3 guards in a fortress to be its own combat encounter.

>>47710633
improved defenses and weapon/implement expertise for free for all characters

Let them grab the advanced weapon/implement expertise feats if they want, most of them are servicable feats on their own, and some would be downright amazing feats even without the scaling bonus to attack rolls (staff expertise, spear expertise, light blade expertise and tome expertise)

Also turning weapon training back to pre-errata weapon training

>>47711094
>improved defenses and weapon/implement expertise for free for all characters

Can I do this within the character builder?

>>47711170
yes, easily

Are you using the offline or online one?

>>47711170
when looking at the feats tab, click on the house button to add a homebrew feat

improved defenses and all expertise feats are just that, feats. So add them as homebrew feats for every character

>>47710633
>I heard some good things about using the escalation die from 13th age in 4e.

It causes some minor balance issues, as everyone becomes more precise; which is less of a benefit for some classes than others.

Depending on the optimization level in the group, it can be a somewhat pointless endeavor, as in 4e to-hit is king, so everyone is "always hits" mode anyway. But then I don't think anyone tried optimizing for the resources that frees up, so who knows, maybe it could be interesting.

>>47711324
"Always hits" mode is an ideal most of the time, not a reality

dagger rogues can get the closest, with avengers and will-targeting charisma-spellcasters close behind

>>47711320
>>47711201
I am using the bootleg offline version, I will try it with the houserules tab