Posts Tagged ‘essentials’

class/race, race/class

Monday, September 13th, 2010

HotFL presents the class chapters first, followed by race. This is a reversal for D&D: since First Edition, race has been chosen first.

In 1e, race followed by class made sense. Races imposed attribute bonuses, penalties, minimums, and maximums. Classes, on the other hand, had strict entry requirements: for instance, you needed a 17 CHA to be a paladin, and with a 5 or lower CON you could only be an illusionist. Until you applied the racial modifiers, you didn’t know what classes you qualified for. (It was, of course, perfectly possible to roll up a character who didn’t qualify for any classes.)

This order lasted long after the 1e restrictions were gone. As late as the 4e PHB, players have been asked to choose race first:

from the 4e PHB:
Follow these steps to create your D&D character. You can take these out of order; for example, some people prefer to pick their powers last.
1. Choose Race. Decide the race of your character. Your choice of race offers several racial advantages to your character. Chapter 3.
2. Choose Class. Your class represents your training or profession, and it is the most important part of your character’s capabilities. Chapter 4.

It’s a little bit insane that this was still the order in 4e. I think most people choose a class first, and then pick a race that complements it. I’m sure there are some people out there who are happy to play any class, as long as it’s an elf, but I haven’t met them.

2nd edition had a similar format, though some of the classes had laughable requirements like 9 strength (to be fighter). But with 3E on it really didn’t make any sense. In fact, even in 1st and 2nd edition, I almost never picked my race first. I would usually look at the classes and then pick a race that allowed me to qualify for the class that I wanted based on the stats that I rolled.

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warpriest build

Monday, September 13th, 2010

The first thing I notice about the Warpriest is that it’s not really one build; it’s a bunch of builds, one for each divine domain. The domain makes a huge difference to a warpriest: about 13 powers, including the cleric’s at-will powers, and several class features are determined by the domain.

Only two domains, Storm and Sun, are listed in Heroes of the Fallen Lands. This marks out plenty of room for further expansion, which is a good sign for 4e.

As a player, I want access to all the domains now. I want the complete warpriest! In the economic model of D&D, though, “complete” means “dead”. 4e relies on the developers continuing to dole out new material. When they can’t think of any more stuff to dole out, there’s nothing left to do but make a new edition!

For reference, here are the domains listed in 4e’s “Divine Power”:

arcana, change, civilization, creation, darkness, death, destruction, earth, fate, freedom, hope, justice, knowledge, life, love, luck, madness, moon, poison, protection, sea, skill, storm, strength, strife, sun, torment, tyranny, trickery, undeath, vengeance, war, wilderness, winter

It will take a while to flesh out each of these with class features and powers. And even when the Warpriest build has been completed: WOTC can introduce a new build and start again! May I humbly suggest PEACE PRIEST

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roll d20 for languages

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Listen, guys, I’m bumping my Monday Mazes and Monsters article again for Essentials liveblogging. I promise I’ll get back to Mazes and Monsters soon. To make up for it, I will illustrate this post with inappropriate Mazes and Monsters screencaps.

Look! Where the light was pointing!

I was excited when the Red Box made me roll a d6 for my bonus language. In Heroes of the Fallen Lands that roll is now optional, and it’s a d20 roll:

1-2 Deep Speech
3-5 Draconic
6-9 Dwarven
10-13 Elven
14-16 Giant
17-19 Goblin
20 Primordial

A horde of one angry skeleton!

Fun! The different weights assigned to different languages is like an adventurer census. There are 4 times as many adventurers who speak Elven as Primordial. Giant is slightly less popular than Elven but still popular: after all, it’s SO frustrating when you can’t decipher what the orc is saying*. 10% of adventurers are weirdos who took “Mind Flayer as a Second Language”.

If I were making the chart, I’d probably have 1 be “Sheltered! no bonus language” and 20 be “Polyglot! Roll twice more”, but maybe that’s just the 1e in me!

*Don’t worry, I will translate. The orc is saying, “Attack them, you fools!”

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House Rules!

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Heroes of the Fallen Lands is so exciting it motivated me to update my house rules! 

Check them out HERE.

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determining ability score

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

The ability score guidance in HotFL is greatly improved from the Player’s Handbook.

The PHB method

The Player’s Handbook non-advice is like some cruel test designed to cull the weak from the herd. Method 1 of PHB ability score generation is to take the “standard array”, 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, which is just an awful arrangement of abilities. Method 2 is a point buy. Along with the point buy rules is a chart of no less than FIFTEEN sample point-buys, arranged approximately in order from worst to best. For example, the first point buy array is 14, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, which is an array that should come with a cyanide pill.
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evil knives

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Further scrutinizing the upcoming classes/builds in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms:

Warlock, hexblade (striker): Another return to the 3e well. Hexblade was a 3e basic class class that channeled eeevil magic through its sword. If the 4e hexblade is a close-combat sword-using warlock, that will finally fulfill a promise made in the 4e player’s handbook 1: “You’ve got powers to help you attack and defend in melee, as well as excellent ranged attacks.” We have a guy in our group who was VERY EXCITED about being a sword-using warlock, but the mechanics never really backed it up. Until now?

Finally, D&D Insider will make available an assassin, executioner (striker). I assume that this will be a new assassin build, not the current one.

One thing I’ve noticed is that so far, HotFL has studiously avoided any mention of non-Essentials D&D products. I assume that that is to avoid confusion, but when the Essentials kids get online, will they be confused by the fact that there are two Assassin builds, as well as dozens of other builds in the Character Builder?

I guess I should trust the kids. Back in the day, they made some sense of the 1e Dungeon Master’s Guide. They are frikkin’ BABY GENIUSES.

They do make passing references to “other source books” when talking about paragon paths and some other things, I believe. So it’s like a hint of the wider world of D&D!

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ranging the forgotten kingdoms

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Examining the upcoming classes/builds in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms:

Ranger, hunter (controller): As recently as Gencon 2010, Wizards deflected questions about a martial controller, saying that they felt no pressing need to fill empty spots in the power source/role grid. And all the time, they knew that they had a controller ranger coming out! They must have been smirking up their sleeves, the sly little pixies.

What exactly will a hunter do? Well, that’s difficult for me to predict because I have never fully understand the controller role. It seems to be a combination of limiting opponents’ movement and shooting area-effect fireballs at people. Maybe the hunter will use traps? EXPLOSIVE traps? Maybe it will cut out the heart of Snow White? Loathe in Las Vegas?

I hope its area effects don’t all consist of an improbable buckshot-like spray of arrows.

Ranger, scout (striker): My question about the scout ranger is this: will it be similar to the 4e twin-strike ranger? or will it be another Essentials basic-attack-heavy class, like the other martial classes we’ve seen so far? The build is named after a fun 3rd edition basic class, whose deal was that it did extra damage when it moved. I wouldn’t mind if the ranger scout’s schtick was that it got its extra striker damage from movement. Or from dressing like a ham.

A martial controller! What can we expect next from Wizards, an Int/Con race that’s not the githyanki? Have you no SHAME?

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paladins of the forgotten kingdoms

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Covering the upcoming classes and builds in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms:

Paladin, cavalier (defender): The cavalier, first introduced in 1e Unearthed Arcana, makes a return. In 1e, I think paladin was retconned as a subclass of cavalier; in 4e, the cavalier is now a subclass of paladin.

The Cavalier build, like the PHB paladin, is a defender, so it’s probably a familiar-looking paladin with slightly tweaked abiities. Based on the etymology of the name “cavalier”, I’m guessing we’ll see a return of the paladin’s magical horse. Will we see the lance re-introduced to D&D as well? Please?

Do you hear that? The spirit of Gygax is trying to communicate with us! I think he’s saying “More polearms!”

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druids of the forgotten kingdoms

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Page 31 of Heroes of the Fallen Lands lists the classes that will be covered in this book – fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard – but since we’ll cover these in more detail when we get to those chapters, I won’t linger on them now. Page 32, however, lists the classes and builds that will be available in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. This is practically an engraved invitation for us to speculate with insufficient data!

Druid, sentinel (leader): In past editions, druids had healing abilities as well as grabby-vines controller abilities, so I guess it’s nice that druids get a Leader build. I am interested to see how they avoid the CoDzilla problems of 3e, where clerics and druids could fill many party roles.

The Essentials druid is undoubtedly what Mma Ramotswe would call a “traditionally built” class, by which I mean a class with a regular pre-Essentials schedule of encounter and daily powers. Presumably these powers will all be interchangeable with druid powers from the PHB2 controller druid. What’s to stop a druid from cherrypicking both controller powers and leader powers?

Really, that’s the potential problem with any class which can cover different party roles. A good deal of a class’s ability to perform its role comes from class features. Many powers, however, bolster that role. For instance, imagine a defender class that had free access to cleric powers: sure, he wouldn’t have the Healing Word feature, but he’d have access to Recovery Strike, Healing Strike, and Beacon of Hope, and that’s just at level 1. He might be able to do a decent job in two roles.

On the other hand, covering multiple rolls with one class could be a good way to simulate multiclassing, while keeping the flavor of one unified class. So I could be a slayer (striker fighter) who takes some fighter utilities that help me mark an opponent, allowing me shoulder the role of defender from time to time, which is already a secondary role for my build.

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tricked!

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

Do you like fantasy fiction featuring dwarves or elves? Try building a character of one of those races. Do you want your character to be the toughest adventurer at the table? Consider a class like fighter or paladin.

This passage from Player’s Handbook was copied almost without change into Heroes of the Fallen Lands, which is weird because in HotFL, you can’t actually play a paladin.

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