Dragon Avenue Forums

November 18th

2008-11-19T07:30:17-08:00

So yesterday (18-NOV-2008) marked the release day for Martial Power and the Draconomicon 1. I know there are a lot of reviews out there and opinions already floating around but I wanted to offer up mine in as subjective a way as I am able for those people who might me on the fence over either of these purchases. I will follow a The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly review for each by chapter. I bought both in PDF form and am considering adding martial power to my physical collection. Feel free to disagree and I will answer specific questions if anyone has any about the books.

Martial Power
The Good
* Overall I found the book to be enjoyable, with lots of new crunch. Even the limited fluff was OK.
* I only want to make minor tweaking to a few things in the book and I would allow most things from it unquestioned.
The Bad:
* The formatting was in typically splatbook fashion, cramming as much together to avoid white space and the cost of extra pages.
* Not everything has a picture. :(
* No index!
The Ugly:
* The purple headers.

Chapter 1 - Fighter
The Good:
* The two weapon fighter (Tempest build) needed to be there, people “needed” it. The battlerager build is sweet.
* Lots of new powers, and 4 new 1st level at-wills.
* The fighter PPs are OK, nothing really stood out to me though.
* It was good to see the Shield Adapt PP for our Sword and Board friends.
The Bad:
* I was hoping for some unarmed fighting mechanics.
The Ugly:
* Invigorating powers and the battlerager seems too easily exploited.

Chapter 2 - Ranger
The Good:
* The coolest new build ever ... yeah! for beast companions.
* Balance issues are not a big deal because it is stated out how each beast type levels with you.
* Specialty companions are a fluff component, you decide the specific beast you have within the category you pick - if you want a black bear or a brown bear, it is your call they are all the same crunch wise, or a spectral panther over a normal big cat still all the same - this means no special companion that unbalances the game.
* Ranger powers that grant bonus if you have a specific category of beast companion while others just grant a bonus for having one.
* The Pack Runner PP stood out to me, IMHO their Canine’s Cunning feature is really nice.
The Bad:
* Only one new build for the ranger
* Specialty companions are a fluff component - this means your specialty companion is not really special - no dire companions because the size is already established by your category.
* Could have used options (like feats) for granting special ability to your beast companion, but they did not (but I understand why).
* Would have liked to see more beast specific PPs (like how the Pack Runner requires a Wolf category companion).
The Ugly:
* Beast companions are not mounts, at least they do not discuss it at all in the book.

Chapter 3 - Rogue
The Good:
* The Cutthroat Rogue opens up the available weapons usable by Rogue powers and Sneak Attack.
* Aerialist specific powers that deal with jumping/climbing/tumbling/charging while attacking - highly mobile stuff.
* The Daring Acrobat PP is incredible, and the Rahish Swashbuckler make a great PP for a Fighter who multiclassed into Rogue.
The Bad:
* The Aerialist Rogue build does not have any new features (if uses the Artful Dodger)
* Only 1 new 1st level at-will.
* Some of the PPs actually stood out at overly bland, like the Guild Theif...really we couldn’t come up with a better name?
The Ugly:
* The least well distributed powers, by build type - usually the different builds each get a pretty equal number of powers, here it felt that each level had more options for 1 build over the others (and each level that majority build was different)

Chapter 4 - Warlord
The Good:
* Resourceful Warlord build gives you something on a success and a failure - a warlord build I would actually want to use.
* A lot more powers that grant bonuses based on your build type, a big improvement over levels 3, 13 and 23.
* The PPs were solid even though nothing stuck out - the Commando Captain seems like a Rambo build.
* Some 2H weapon love - the Longarm Marshal PP.
The Bad:
* The Bravura build is very nice but if you miss with the attack it is bad for you - not that I am opposed to consequences for powerful abilities (actually I love the idea) but as an inspiring presence ability (a defining ability for a warlord) it should not be harmful) and coupled with an ability that can only be used when AP are spent it seems overly harsh - spending an AP should always be a good thing; the Bravura presence is optional but still it takes away the desire to use it.
The Ugly:
* How the hell do you even pronounce Bravura?!?!

Chapter 5 - Marital Options
The Good:
* Way too many feats...tons of them. A lot of specific requirements like race, class, feature.
* Epic Destinies, we needed more and we get 10. The Beastlord ED is my favorite.
The Bad:
* The feats that require race do not have [RACE] tags after their name so it is hard to scan for them.
* The feats that require class or feature do not have [CLASS] tags after their name so it is hard to scan for them.
The Ugly:
* The new Multiclassing Feats. It was nice of them to add some more options for MC’ing. So you do not have to take the Role defining feature (like extra striker damage) or you can just further specialize in the second class. But they did not add every possible option so you are left wondering why 2 of 4 possible Inspiring Presence Warlord abilities are available via feats but not the other two. They all grant you an extra trained skill too, which is bad, they should have said that the extra trained still is only for the first MC feat you take for that class (IMHO).
* The feats that require Paragon MC’ing to take and you gain an additional feature of that class - again I am left asking why this feature and not a different one.

The Verdict:
I want to give Martial Power a 3.5 / 5 but it feels better then a 70%, how about 75% (3.75 / 5). If you want more options, this is a good buy. Not a must have but I feel it is worth the price. With nothing truly ground breaking it is not a much have - the Beast Companions were close to making it that (and they are handled really well) but there are enough loose ends that it is just not there.

Draconomicon 1 - Chromatic Dragons
See this later post of mine (same thread).

Arabian Nights

2008-11-19T19:51:18-08:00

Hey Guys! Sorry I haven’t touched base for a while, though I don’t think that anyone actually missed me. Just to keep you guys up to date, I’m about to start an undead-hunting campaign with a friend and a new DM, since my old one was affected by a patch of Insanity Mist.

Anyway, does anyone know where I can get a copy of the 1st Edition D&D supplement Arabian Nights? I’m planning on using it to introduce some non-gamer friends to the game, since we just performed Aladdin as our school musical, and they’ll know the story.

Also, my new DM and I are considering adding an NPC to our party, since it currently contains only to characters, a ranger and a fighter. I’d like your opinion on this too, please.

Thanks,
The Betrayer of Hope.

Minis Pics

2008-10-22T13:23:40-08:00

So, with the Demonweb set about to be released, I’m about to get another 60 miniatures pics that I’ll add to my collection of images that I use to make tokens (both physical and virtual). However, I’m faced with something of a conundrum, and one that I’ve kind of been putting off.

Under 3.0 & 3.5, there was a fairly well defined system of types and subtypes that I used to sort the minis pics into folders so that I could find what I was looking for relatively easily, regardless of what set it came from. Since the release of 4e, however, the type and subtype system has changed significantly and is no longer nearly as descriptive as it used to be (except in a few cases, like humanoids). As a result I’m kind of stuck for how to organize the minis pics to make finding things easy. I could try to force 4e monsters into the 3e types and subtypes, allowing me to keep my current structure, but that means having to remember those decisions. I could create a new 4e like structure, but that will leave me with more pictures in each category to sort through and the task of figuring out how to redeploy the 3.x era pics into the 4e structure (though WotC is kind of doing this with their updated stat cards). I could also simply design something that is completely new and (hopefully) much easier to deal with long term. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Scales of War - Rescue at Rivenroar

2008-09-09T10:50:19-08:00

So, I know this has been out for a while now, but since Dungeon started its Scales of War adventure path I’ve been thinking of running it, so to get myself started down that path, I’ve begun the process of pulling the necessary maps and images from the pdf and modifying them for use as adventure aids, maps, tokens, and the like.

Today, I started modifying the maps and noticed something really annoying about them. The Ogre Bombadier encounter is supposed to take place in the street outside the bar in which the Bar Fight encounter took place. However, the building marked “Bar” on the map for that encounter doesn’t mach the layout of the building for the Bar Fight encounter. It’s not deep enough (the Bar Fight bar is 14x15 squares, Ogre Bombadier’s is 14x10) and it’s back entrance is on the wrong side of the building (it’s two squares off the back right corner instead of three off the back left). It’s kind of an annoying inconsistency and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed it.

Also, if you’re running the adventure path, how did you deal with the inconsistency? I was thinking of using the narrative interlude in between the two encounters to motivate the players to move to a different section of town and just removing the labels that identify each building’s occupants from the second map.

4e - Character Generater Beta First Impressions

2008-11-10T19:09:42-08:00

Check out my thoughts on the front page:

http://www.dragonavenue.com/dnd/post/dd_character_generator_beta_first_impressions/

3E - combining touch spells/abilities in one attack

2008-11-07T00:46:08-08:00

Yes, it’s the CR Challenge again.

The poor barbarian is up against a mind flayer alhoon (12th level sorcerer, undead illithid) which has cast greater invisibility.

First issue where I fear I ruled wrong:
Does the mind blast ability make some kind of sound when used? I said yes, but on second thought, a spell-like ability doesn’t have any components…

And the second one:
The illithid has two supernatural powers, negative energy touch (1d8+5 negative energy damage on a touch attack) and paralyzing touch (permanent paralysis). When using the negative energy touch attack, the target is also subject to the paralyzing touch.
Questions:
That attack is listed under attack and full attack as a single attack option - can the illithid attack twice with haste?
If the illithid were to cast touch of idiocy and hold the charge, can he combine all three abilities?
If yes, and the barbarian takes a penalty to wisdom, is the save for half damage against the negative energy touch made with his normal save or the reduced one?

Thanks for any feedback.

4E- Spells and Spellbook Questions

2008-11-05T17:42:07-08:00

Its probably already been answered but....

Wizards’ spellbooks “holds your daily and utility spells"… where are the encounter ones? Do they take up room in the spell book?

Also, “Each time you gain a level that lets you select a daily spell or a utility spell, choose two different daily spells or utility spells of that level to add to your book.”

So, (and I haven’t really done the math) it seems like you might lose powers as you gain levels? Maybe I just read into it a bit more than I should (occupational hazard).

Also, eventhough at 1st level you have access to 2 Daily Spells, you can only prepare 1 Daily Spell. Correct?

Thanks in advance.

Is the Controller role real???

2008-11-03T12:30:25-08:00

Honestly, do you think it is a real role or a concept WotC could not properly define and are now leaving it to die? We have seen only one to date and there seems to be no defining feature, other then the type of powers. With the “secret” preview of the Bard I am more convinced then ever that they do not have a direction for the controller role and are going to let it drop. Every class it seems has some way to control/manipulate the field of battle or an enemy or a way to affect multiple targets at once. When you look at it like that, is there really such a role or is the role divided between the other classes?

Is this a bad thing? Do I mind that my leaders handle buffage, heals, and extra actions? What about strikers debuffing or afflicting the enemy? The defenders even get to control the enemy with OAs. Most of the AoEs from the leader classes are not as devastating to the group as the Wizards. They get to only target enemies instead of all creatures. Soon, when beast companions (or whatever they are calling them) come out there will be little use for the Wizards conjurations (bye-bye Flaming Sphere, the wolfie doesn’t bite adjacent allies too).

I am not saying there is not a way to build a strong Controller role but I have yet to see any hopes of it coming from WotC. The kicker is that I do not even care. I would rather see WotC focus on what they have working and have them release a revised Wizard that puts the class into a new role then try and shoe horn more classes into something they do not seem to fully grasp.

I have played a Wizard through the heroic tier and it felt very boring compared to the other classes I have tried. I was not laying down the hurt, holding the front or healing my friend. If anything I was hurting them in a race to kill them slower then I killed the bad guys. The terrain effects I got were not that great and easily avoidable or just affect my party as much as the monsters. My favorite part were the conjurations (like Flaming Sphere or Bigby’s Icy Hand (or fist or what ever it was) that would do automatic damage to adjacent enemies but was basically move and make an attack and wait for beginning of their turn to roll more damage. It felt the save as when you run out of daily and encounter powers and have to at-will something to death.

Thoughts? Opinions? Flames? ....

4E - Random Q’s

2008-11-05T18:07:11-08:00

Again, probably already been answered.

Just a couple random questions.

Do you have to have a Paragon Path? I mean if you do, then the point of customization is kinda out isnt it? My book is currently open to Wizard, so I’ll use that.

At 11th level I decide to take a PP… there are 4 choices (Battle Mage, Blood mage, Spellstorm Mage, Wizard of the Spiral Tower)… lets say I pick Battle Mage (although it doesnt really matter for this discussion). Now this means that every 5th Wizard will be another Battle Mage, which reduces the “specialness” of my character. So, knowing that is a Paragon Path necessary.

Moving on…

Daily Powers. At 3rd level I am authorized to know 1 Daily power and I happen to be wielding a Thundering Longsword (which has a daily power). Unfortunately I have used my Daily power (for fun lets just say I’m a Paladin) and my BBEG is still up and running. Can I tap the weapon’s energy for its daily power or am I restricted to the 1 Daily regardless of where it comes from. If its the latter, I think thats crap…

Moving on…

Has there been any press release, preview, or anything giving any hint of a PP for more specialized wizards? I know that they are releasing the Arcane Power version of Martial Power, but Im specifically looking for Necromancy or Illusionist type PPs. Anything?

I’m sure there are more questions, but Im running low right now. I’ll post them as they come to me.

Thanks in advance.

4E Destinies

2008-11-05T21:36:52-08:00

For my 4E Modern game, I’ve been looking for a way to work in a PC destiny, based on their astrological sign. I think I have a solution, which could also be used for other campaigns.

Every PC is assigned an astrological sign and a tarot card. This destiny provides access to destiny powers. For example, an Aries might have a power that grants a Will Save bonus when she refuses to do something; Someone with the Ten of Cups might have a power that grants a skill bonus when he is negotiating for something he can keep.

PCs may also choose additional powers from their destiny in lieu of normal class powers.

For other campaigns, the GM would have to determine which astrological signs exist and what powers are appropriate. A GM might also wish to require a Destiny Feat to gain destiny powers. I think this is a flexible idea.

Now I just need to make a list of at least 90 powers. For a campaign I suppose one would only need the 12 astrological signs, but I’d like to work tarot cards into this. My concept is that the tarot cards model all the planetary conjunctions/oppositions/etc.