On Bladelings, for the longest time the only things I knew about them were from the Character Builder... so I basically just knew they were in the Manual of the Planes. So, I sort of invented an imaginary ecology for them in my mind. I thought they came from a plane made entirely of blades. The ground? BLADES. The food and water? BLADES. The air? BLADES. EVERYTHING = BLADES. Bladelings that escaped from the plane were naturally delighted that their world was no longer made of PAIN AND BLADES, though were still feared by the world by the other races their inherent blade-iness.
Needless to say, when I found out the truth, I was severely disappointed.
In general, they seem to put a great deal of effort into taking the awesome out of them.
Personally, I like the idea of some kind of ancient curse of blades that causes them, and, eventually, anything they touch, to grow spikes. Like a racial paragon path would cause them to leave trails of bladed ground wherever they stood for a full round or something. Also this way they could have spikes without having to poke holes in all of their armor. Something like this, but done by a competent artist with a scanner and an art program, for a bladeling shaman:
Just got back from playing D&D. Both of our defenders were present tonight (Pally and Warden), rendering the rest of the party largely untouchable. I actually spent the night casting Eldrich Blast instead of Eyebite since I felt no need to be "invisible" with the defenders doing such a good job. First time I've really bothered with it in 6 levels; the d10 is a nice improvement over eyebite's d6. I need to do better about remembering things like Prime Shot, Shadow Walk, and Empowering Shadows, though.
I can't say I know much about druids. My only experience with them is through multiclassing. What exactly is it that they are lacking?
--
Have urban druids been done?
Edit: Yes, yes they have. In 3E, but still. Not getting involved in conversions. Hrmn. Maybe a plant-focused thing. Fungal druids?
Non-feral druids have shit for feat-support. I was personally considering doing a feat-write up for ranged druids, to do something with all their elemental damage and controlly-ness.
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
Honestly, I'm kinda lost in all the hodge-podge of feat support for some classes and builds and not for others, and feel vaguely out of my depth when someone is all 'Oh, you're an <insert class/build here>? Why don't you have <feat/power X I've never heard about>? It's a total no-brainer to take that if you're a <whatever I am>.'
Honestly, I'm not even sure which feats are official, and which aren't, and which were tweaked. Like the whole article on Half-Elves a while back that people said utterly broke the race. What happened there?
I should renew my DDI sub, download the latest updates for the CBuilder, and try to figure out how out of date and thus comparitively useless my characters are.
I should renew my
Kay on
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
0
Options
Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
Honestly, I'm kinda lost in all the hodge-podge of feat support for some classes and builds and not for others, and feel vaguely out of my depth when someone is all 'Oh, you're an <insert class/build here>? Why don't you have <feat/power X I've never heard about>? It's a total no-brainer to take that if you're a <whatever I am>.'
Honestly, I'm not even sure which feats are official, and which aren't, and which were tweaked. Like the whole article on Half-Elves a while back that people said utterly broke the race. What happened there?
I should renew my DDI sub, download the latest updates for the CBuilder, and try to figure out how out of date and thus comparitively useless my characters are.
I should renew my
Everything in DDi/CB is "official" as far as that goes. Game breaking feats put out through Dragon usually get corrected by the end of the month, well before they are added to the CB.
Honestly, most of the game breaking feats are in the books. Dragon Material tends to be a bit more well balanced.
Jack Hobbes on
0
Options
TimmyRank: MajorFloating in my tin can.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
Speaking of updates for the Character Builder, is anyone having trouble with the latest update? A few days ago it said there was a new update and every time that I try and download it, the program freezes up.
Speaking of submissions to WotC, I've submitted two adventures so far. The first submission, The Floating Grave, didn't get a response, so I'm re-writing that and "releasing" it on its own. The second I'm still waiting to hear about.
I'm thinking the next submission will be about evil campaigns. Basically just taking my experiences with Broken Chains and translating that into an article. I could see doing multiple articles actually:
-DM advice for running an evil campaign
-Player advice for running an evil character, or perhaps evil options for PCs, like CD powers for evil deities, evil-themed paragon paths/epic destinies, etc, or perhaps both.
Superior shields - Bucklers and Tower Shields. More shield options with darksun coming up would be nice. Especially if there was a way to profit more from the shields if you are wearing lighter armor.
Stuff in general to make wearing lighter armor appealing to classes that can wear heavier armor. Again, Darksun coming up.
Throwing Weapon love. Darksun had lot of crazy throwing weapons. Like barbed mini-javelins with ropes attached to drag people with, or the crystal 3 bladed boomerang things.
Knife/Blade monk stuff. Scimitar dancer, etc.
Wizard damage keyword stuff. Like the recent pyro stuff, only for different keywords.
Poisoner/Assassin bards. Maybe the Darksun book will have it, maybe it won't and a lot of people will want it. Especially if it stayed away from the magical side of the class.
A good basic concept for a Dark Sun Guardian Druid article should obviously incorporate the sun. Radiant and Fire powers with blinds, dazes and stuns, maybe some setting shits on fire.
I mean, the sun is dark, but I don't think we're ready for Druids with Necrotic powers.
Pinfeldorf on
0
Options
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
Maybe a druid burrowing-theme too with respect to some feats or powers in wild shape.
So guardian druids are the non-beastmode ones then?
Yeah they definitely need feat support.
--
The thing with pre-empting Dark Sun is that they have changed the math. It is really hard to do things when you don't know how the math has changed.
That said, as soon as I have the rules on my hand, I have a flurry of activity planned. My own campaign setting is going to draw on some of the new rules in DS, since while it's a lusher landscape it shares some of the low-metal, no-deity aspects, and would benefit greatly from themes, so I'll definitely be looking into things that can also be added into DS.
What I read was that Darksun was using the exact same math as the core rules (with the only change being inherent bonuses being the default option for the setting).
Darksun monsters should be no harder than any other monsters in 4E. If a DM wants the campaign to be more brutal, they just need to be less forgiving/nice, pump up encounter budgets, or both.
MM3 blatantly changes the math. Dark Sun is "equal" to that new math. Dark Sun's inherent bonuses and themes are as of yet not fully understood. I'm not experienced enough at this to work on guesses, rumors, and partial information. :P I also don't know what they already have, and I'm a big fan of filling gaps.
Incenjucar on
0
Options
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
Considering 2/3 of the class is already wild shape oriented, I think we need some feat and power support for the Guardian, Aegis =\
Oh I know and I'd like this. I just couldn't realistically justify a non-beast shape burrowing idea. Maybe granting party members the ability to burrow, I suppose.
Throwing Weapon love. Darksun had lot of crazy throwing weapons. Like barbed mini-javelins with ropes attached to drag people with, or the crystal 3 bladed boomerang things.
Knife/Blade monk stuff. Scimitar dancer, etc.
Poisoner/Assassin bards. Maybe the Darksun book will have it, maybe it won't and a lot of people will want it. Especially if it stayed away from the magical side of the class.
1) That's definitely in. In the podcast, one of the NPC's (a thri'kreen) specifically crafts the crystalline boomerang during down time.
2) I don't expect to see a build, but monks can already use weapons with many of their abilities. Darksun is also adding a lot of "extra bit" weapons, like spiked forearms and such, that allow one to do things like dual-wield while still keeping their off-hand free.
3) I doubt this would show up in Dark Sun, as bards are already going to be stigmatized for using the Arcane power source. In many city-states, just being a bard would warrant a quick and messy execution; they wouldn't stop to ask you what kind of bard you were.
delroland on
EVE: Online - the most fun you will ever have not playing a game.
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
I wish they'd put up the math formulas for the MM3 monsters so I could start working on a spreadsheet of my own since the Monster Builder is never going to get upgraded to the new statblocks.
SkyCaptain on
The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
1) That's definitely in. In the podcast, one of the NPC's (a thri'kreen) specifically crafts the crystalline boomerang during down time.
They exist in the setting, but do they have rules for it? Maybe they do, but maybe they don't and as such would really like an article to stick into Dragon so players could use those crystal throwing weapons they heard about in the Penny Arcade pod cast (or read about in Darksun).
3) I doubt this would show up in Dark Sun, as bards are already going to be stigmatized for using the Arcane power source. In many city-states, just being a bard would warrant a quick and messy execution; they wouldn't stop to ask you what kind of bard you were.
Old School Darksun bards did not have any arcane spellcasting ability at all. They completely stripped that out of the class and replaced it with a mastery of poisons. While "change happens", and Arcane spellcasting bards are going to be part of 4E Darksun, having a bard option that didn't focus so strongly on the classes arcane abilities (and even allow a player to totally avoid the arcane if they set out to do so) could be a nice bard option, and one that would be very welcome by Darksun bard players.
...but the Bard class is a Leader role, focusing on Arcane Spells through the gift of song. They've already said they're not going to resource existing class's powers.
Posts
Have the new organization kill the old organization.
Using bladelings.
Needless to say, when I found out the truth, I was severely disappointed.
Planescape bladelings were boss. I think that's why they keep trying to bring them back. They just keep doing it incredibly wrong.
I thought Planescape bladelings came from a bunch of giant metal cubes that were constantly crashing into each other?
Bladelings come from Ocanthus. Razor-shap, frozen shards of the Styx perpetually rain down upon them.
Unfortunately, the River Styx only flows throughout the Nine Hells in the default cosmology.
I believe it still flows throughout the "Lower Planes" in 4E Forgotten Realms' cosmology, though.
Personally, I like the idea of some kind of ancient curse of blades that causes them, and, eventually, anything they touch, to grow spikes. Like a racial paragon path would cause them to leave trails of bladed ground wherever they stood for a full round or something. Also this way they could have spikes without having to poke holes in all of their armor. Something like this, but done by a competent artist with a scanner and an art program, for a bladeling shaman:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/Incenjucar/Bladelette.jpg
--
Have urban druids been done?
Edit: Yes, yes they have. In 3E, but still. Not getting involved in conversions. Hrmn. Maybe a plant-focused thing. Fungal druids?
You should pre-empt Dark Sun.
Write something that will fit with it - you don't need to know all the details of the setting to write something desert-y etc.
I'm recruiting for a weekly D&D 4th Edition game using MapTools. The game will run every Monday from 6pm to 10pm eastern.
Non-feral druids have shit for feat-support. I was personally considering doing a feat-write up for ranged druids, to do something with all their elemental damage and controlly-ness.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Honestly, I'm not even sure which feats are official, and which aren't, and which were tweaked. Like the whole article on Half-Elves a while back that people said utterly broke the race. What happened there?
I should renew my DDI sub, download the latest updates for the CBuilder, and try to figure out how out of date and thus comparitively useless my characters are.
I should renew my
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
I'm thinking the next submission will be about evil campaigns. Basically just taking my experiences with Broken Chains and translating that into an article. I could see doing multiple articles actually:
-DM advice for running an evil campaign
-Player advice for running an evil character, or perhaps evil options for PCs, like CD powers for evil deities, evil-themed paragon paths/epic destinies, etc, or perhaps both.
Superior shields - Bucklers and Tower Shields. More shield options with darksun coming up would be nice. Especially if there was a way to profit more from the shields if you are wearing lighter armor.
Stuff in general to make wearing lighter armor appealing to classes that can wear heavier armor. Again, Darksun coming up.
Throwing Weapon love. Darksun had lot of crazy throwing weapons. Like barbed mini-javelins with ropes attached to drag people with, or the crystal 3 bladed boomerang things.
Knife/Blade monk stuff. Scimitar dancer, etc.
Wizard damage keyword stuff. Like the recent pyro stuff, only for different keywords.
Poisoner/Assassin bards. Maybe the Darksun book will have it, maybe it won't and a lot of people will want it. Especially if it stayed away from the magical side of the class.
I mean, the sun is dark, but I don't think we're ready for Druids with Necrotic powers.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Yeah they definitely need feat support.
--
The thing with pre-empting Dark Sun is that they have changed the math. It is really hard to do things when you don't know how the math has changed.
That said, as soon as I have the rules on my hand, I have a flurry of activity planned. My own campaign setting is going to draw on some of the new rules in DS, since while it's a lusher landscape it shares some of the low-metal, no-deity aspects, and would benefit greatly from themes, so I'll definitely be looking into things that can also be added into DS.
Darksun monsters should be no harder than any other monsters in 4E. If a DM wants the campaign to be more brutal, they just need to be less forgiving/nice, pump up encounter budgets, or both.
Oh I know and I'd like this. I just couldn't realistically justify a non-beast shape burrowing idea. Maybe granting party members the ability to burrow, I suppose.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Given MM3 this is probably true. It's more fair to say now MM3 and beyond is more powerful.
1) That's definitely in. In the podcast, one of the NPC's (a thri'kreen) specifically crafts the crystalline boomerang during down time.
2) I don't expect to see a build, but monks can already use weapons with many of their abilities. Darksun is also adding a lot of "extra bit" weapons, like spiked forearms and such, that allow one to do things like dual-wield while still keeping their off-hand free.
3) I doubt this would show up in Dark Sun, as bards are already going to be stigmatized for using the Arcane power source. In many city-states, just being a bard would warrant a quick and messy execution; they wouldn't stop to ask you what kind of bard you were.
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
Old School Darksun bards did not have any arcane spellcasting ability at all. They completely stripped that out of the class and replaced it with a mastery of poisons. While "change happens", and Arcane spellcasting bards are going to be part of 4E Darksun, having a bard option that didn't focus so strongly on the classes arcane abilities (and even allow a player to totally avoid the arcane if they set out to do so) could be a nice bard option, and one that would be very welcome by Darksun bard players.