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(Derp the randomly generated Minotaur Assassin, who spent most of the encounter wielding a squealing pig as an improvised weapon.)
Steam PSN: DerWaffleMous Origin: DerWaffleMous Bnet: WaffleMous#1483
Then again I hadn't seen one played since before Arcane Power.
Steam PSN: DerWaffleMous Origin: DerWaffleMous Bnet: WaffleMous#1483
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There's a lot of bullshit you can do with them, but I don't really get into their shit since it's very specific, and I like breaking characters myself rather than just copying off the charop forum. A lot of it is multi-classing/hybriding oriented though, so it might not be immediately obvious with Warlock alone.
They're like Warlock Curses only they stack and go away when activated.
Assassins are pretty under-supported but since they are getting published next year in that Heroes of Shadow or whatever it's called, I'll bet you they'll get some tweaking/overhaul and get tuned up for the release of that. Frankly more interested in seeing the other classes in the book though because Assassins are low on my list of Interesting Striker Classes.
And while the comic is about D&D we also have a thread here in SE++ to talk about D&D so maybe we should move D&D talk not related to Essentials over there.
I understand how they work, I've played Assassin very briefly. But what I'm saying is; fluff wise, trying to wrap my head around what shrouds are, or how they hurt people is beyond me. It's the lamest of all the rob rogues of their feature rip-offs.
Take a listen to this podcast where the people who made this talk about how the primary motivation was as a marketing device. They also talk about how they feel fighters should be the "training wheels" class and that they don't want them drawing attention from the casters in the parties who should be the stars. They also say they'll be overwriting existing powers just for the essentials classes to avoid confusion like how they did with magic missle, and when the interviewer offers the sane suggestion that they should instead give them different names they use the excuse that they want to avoid confusion.
Oh, by the way, they also mention they had essentials planned from the start. Eugh.
http://thetome.podbean.com/2010/08/06/tome-gencon-special-design-and-dev-seminar-part-1/
I'm REALLY dreading the ass-reaming that all the fun epic tier feats will receive when they break off tiered feats. I guess I'll never get to play with the mastery feats.
Steam PSN: DerWaffleMous Origin: DerWaffleMous Bnet: WaffleMous#1483
Magic item creation
Wizard encounter powers gaining miss effects
Races gain a fixed stat and a choice (ala Changelings, PHB3 races)
Noting that on the third one I have been saying for MONTHS that the races would be changed to match PHB3. As for classes mentioned earlier:
Warlocks are excellent now. They have tons of support, excellent control powers and just have caught up to everyone else. This is without even needing to use Eldritch Blast/Strike charging cheese or whatever else.
Assassins are the underpowered class and this is because they frankly haven't had a lot of support. I imagine heroes of shadow that adds the necromancer and hexblade will include some new options for the assassin that will hopefully give them a good boost.
Essentials class power level isn't known. While I think the Knight could be crap, the Slayer has a lot of potential actually and might actually just be a good all round "Hit things until they die" striker. The mage looks perfectly solid to be honest and so is the cleric - nothing wrong with these classes at all.
For the record, I don't use cleave for its base version. 1W+STR push 2+ knock prone, RBA that doesn't provoke OAs push 2+knock prone, mark both, and immobilize both if I land it again.
(If I wanted I could take it a step further and go hybrid seeker (instead of barb) and make it at will double at wills! Really would suck if they killed off cleave, despite how much it sucks without breaking it.)
Epic feats aren't changing either. They are making some feats irrelevant because essentials has better ones, but even so some like the epic defense feats are relevant. Essentials for example has superior will, which is a scaling bonus to will that provides an effect granting a saving throw to daze/stun. It's really good, but has a stat requirement of 15 wis/cha. So some classes will still prefer the previous epic will, which while it doesn't scale has no requirement and provides the same bonus. This is pretty good design and IMO, organizing feats by what they do and not tier is far superior. Not to mention having their effects scale instead of multiple feats is just better design as well.
We'll know for sure when it comes out, but until then all the blatant panic is just a waste of time and energy. What we can do is criticize the incredible PR botchup that Wizards has done here and their absolute failure to properly explain what essentials is.
Anyhow, I think this whole line is pointless. My girlfriend has never played D&D before the campaign we're in and she's currently playing (with some guidance from me) Druid, alongside Artificer and Shaman, probably one of the hardest classes to play in the game, with absolutely no problem and having plenty of fun.
Um, no they aren't.
Superior will is +2/+3/+4 and you can make a save against daze/stun at the beginning of your turn, even if they normally wouldn't allow a save.
Superior Fort/Reflex work the same, but we don't know what their bonus property is. So they're more substantial than that. The core difference other than scaling is they are available from level 1 and require a moderate stat requirement to get.
Essentials isn't going to change that.
You're girlfriend had someone to bring her into the fold though (Namely you and your group.) The essentials are an attempt to reach out to new players who don't have that kind of "lifeline" so to speak.
Martial resolve is strictly better actually, plus will still work with epic will and epic will is more limited. The advantage to epic will is the defensive bonus and the ability to save against effects you ordinarily couldn't save against.
the only thing i miss in Chrome from Firefox is my internet usage addon.
And Disney World is nowhere in sight.
Actually the price is reasonably low so that you can get into the hobby fairly cheaply. Plus unlike normal 4E, the Red Box is designed to have everything you need so you can start playing without having to invest a lot of money.
My only real gripe with it is that come next year they're updating all the class powes and feats to bring them into line with the change in thinking that's happening with Essentails. That meaning, if you don't want to change anything all of WoTC nice online tools become useless to you because you disagree with their take on the errata. *shrugs*
PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID - dungeondweller
In that case it actually is pretty intriguing.
Gotta ask my local store when a translated version might arrive - My biggest problem with D&D and RPGs in general is finding people who can read English well enough to understand the rules.
And Disney World is nowhere in sight.
PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID - dungeondweller
Or do I have to buy the lvl 1-3 version first? D:
And Disney World is nowhere in sight.
Well, it will have all the core rules. Combat, and all that jazz. Really once you have that box, 90% of the rest of the stuff is with the Character Builder software and DDI. You don't really have to buy anything more. Just pay the ~$10 a month for a DDI subscription. And you don't need to do that all the time either. Just say once every few months to update your copy of the Charcter Builider and the Monster Builder.
They have a Rules Compendium coming out shortly after Essentails (part of the same line) that would fill in the rest of the stuff you'd need. So, it's your call. But if you factor in all the other boxsets they're talking about for the Essentails line, if you wanted everything class/rules wise in print it's not really all that much of a savings vs just getting the core three books. Except the core 3 have been errata to heck and back now...so ya.
Me personally? Dumping my books and just getting the Rules Compendium and doing everything using their online tools from this point.
PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID - dungeondweller
It's quite good. It makes crawling around a dungeon and smacking shit a lot more fun than it used to be.
Some people don't like it because it doesn't have a rule set for making a Gnomish carpenter that solves all his problems through the clever use of his 5 craft skills over the course of two hours.
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THAC0 goes up.
Armor class goes down.
That's just it. Some of these changes are more than optional. It's BIG STUFF, at least in game rules wise. Magic items are no longer limited to daily use, but now have a rarity scale. Fighter at-wills are becoming a base attack modifier, skill challenges use the DMG2 model now, the PHB 2 stealth rules are folded in, class builds no longer hold to the 1-class to 1-role mechanic. Etc, etc. And next year, via the DDI all the previous materal is going to be errataed to be in line with these changes.
They might argue it's not an edition change, but it has enough going on to qualify as one. And no, WoTC will happily sell you the old books, but when they no longer sync with DDI they're basically fluff and useless mechanics at that point. Argueably WoTC is handling this change as gradually as they can towards the benefit of the DMs and players, but it's still an irritation. Especially from something billed as "Just an entry level product" from the last GenCon.
As a entry level product Essentails is great because of the way it's written. D&D redesigned from the ground up so new players are eased into more advanced options. But from people with existing games who invested quite heavily in their previous printed product..well, it's either be up to date with DDI or have issues with Event Games in store, RPGA, new players who come in via Essentals. Etc, etc.
But you're right. If they don't want to use it, they don't have too. But they have to deal with the side effects.
PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID - dungeondweller
The Cycle, Part Two:
Sure, Gabe called him retarded, but it looks like Tycho's research paid off.
PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID - dungeondweller
PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID - dungeondweller