Okay, so the old 4e thread was well past 100 and I felt like making my own. With hookers. And blackjack. Know what? Screw the thread.
Scroll Warning:
Why yes, We do have Dragons.
Dungeons and Dragons: Fourth Edition
This is the thread for the fourth edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. All discussion herein is to have some shit to do with the Dungeons and Dragons game.
The new edition has a few additions, I'll go over them sooner or later.
We've got the three core books in hand, released June 6th.
They are:
The Player's Handbook.
This is the general guide to the D&D game that a player needs. It's got the combat rules and stuff like that, along with the classes:
The Races:
First off, races now provide only benefits and no negatives. Also, sorry if you liked the Gnome or Half-Orc, they'll be in PHB2, though the gnome is playable out of the monster manual. The gnome is also a monster, rarr.
The Dragonborn:
Not those pussies from 3E's draconomicon, these guys are badasses with a racial breath weapon. They make excellent Warlords, Paladins, and Fighters.
The Dwarves:
They're wise and tough as nails, pretty much the best categorization of the tough dwarf I've seen in tabletop roleplaying games. They make great Paladins, Clerics, and Fighters.
The Eladrin:
The "Elves" of last edition were split into two different races this time. The eladrin live in ridiculously magical feywild cities and make good wizards, warlords, and rangers. They can also teleport as a racial ability. Sweet sorcery, bro.
also Elves Elves lol.
The Elves:
The other half of the elves from last time, they're forest living guys who are really accurate. They make good rangers, rogues, and clerics.
See what I mean by Elves lol?
The Half-Elves:
Proof that humans will screw anything. They're pretty tough and personable, and make excellent multiclassers. They make good warlords, paladins, and warlocks.
The Halflings:
Short, fat... actually no, these are about as far from tolkien's halflings as a fat american on his couch eating potato chips is from a bush tribesman in africa. Except they both speak english. Halflings continue their tradition of being really lucky and quick, as well as make excellent rogues, rangers, and warlocks.
The Humans:
Look in the Mirror. They're good at everything again and are the most adaptable, again. They make good anythings.
The Tieflings:
Blah blah blah our ancestors made pacts with devils and we're not half-breeds anymore. We get angry really well as a racial ability. We're also merciless, etc. We make good Warlocks, Warlords, or Rogues.
Also they really AREN'T the same tieflings we've had for 20 years.
Introducing the Classes:
Every class now has a "Role" within the party, and a party is recommended to have every role represented to succeed, though it need not have to. It is considered "pro" to have proper party balance.
[Maticore][Recruiting]: LF1M Cleric KotS. No Warlord plz.The Cleric:
Is classified as a Leader.
He's the priest of a god with some pretty wicked spells to heal his allies and disable his enemies. Usually at the same time. Rarely will the cleric spend entire turns casting Cure Light Wounds.
The Fighter:
Is classified as a Defender.
He's a badass with a sword and board or a Two handed weapon, his job on the battlefield is to keep the enemies from stomping his friends, and he can do so with a variety of weapons, which all behave differently depending on how you choose your powers.
The Paladin:
Is classified as a Defender.
This guy is the champion of a deity, who uses some pretty powerful melee spells to lay waste to the enemy. He does alot of glowing holy magical energy damage, too. He also uses either a sword and shield or two handed weapon. His crappy spellcasting from previous editions has been replaced by a whole host of wicked awesome prayers that can heal his allies and smite his enemies.
The Ranger:
Is classified as a Striker.
This guy can use either a bow or two one handed weapons to mercilessly mutilate his enemies. He can also designate specific enemies as his quarry, this includes a giant glowing red arrow above their head.
Because this game is now WoW.
The Rogue:
Is classified as a Striker.
Is only good for picking locks and disarming traps, not really though. Sneak attack has been toned down a bit, but the rogue's huge damage boost makes up for it, because he really tears shit up with some pretty awesome powers.
The Warlock:
Is classified as a Striker.
Makes soul selling pacts with either Fey, Demons, or Cthulhu. Fires blasts of eldritch energy and murders people. Also, curses people so that he deals even more damage.
Strikers are nuts.
The Warlord:
Is classified as a Leader.
This is the new class focused on tactics and inspiring your fellows. He's pretty cool and can actually replace a cleric in your party very effectively, and he brings a different playstyle to the table too. Cleric Inc. hates him for breaking its monopoly on this role.
The Wizard:
Is the only Controller.
The wizard is good at killing lots of enemies, very fast. He's not as amazingly and unstoppably powerful as he used to be, but still is pretty cool.
The Monster Manual
Is full of Monsters. Only the DM really needs this. The highest level monster in here is Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead (He's one of those guys who you pronounce the whole name on, in my opinion) at level 33.
The Dungeon Master's Guide
The DM needs this, it provides all kinds of good stuff for him to learn to run the game. Having read through it, it actually provides good information on how to run a game.
RPTOOLS:
These are pretty useful for playing D&D over the internet.
Requests:
Don't do the 3E/4E argument shit in here.
Don't argue about armor proficiency again.
The first post needs some SERIOUS loving. Links to
wizards;
enworld; the
power card site; Faqs about the
WOTC online tools not coming out for a while; links to
Myth weavers online character sheets;
Maptools and the link to download
H1 for maptools.
This list was provided by JustPlainPavek - who likes to contribute in a positive manner even though he doesn't have the books.
D&D Compendium Direct link.
The Current Release Schedule, Courtesy of Undead Scottsman:
Thanks to Maticore for the OP.
Posts
The feat's text says one thing, the summary says another.
I've been saving them as a complete webpage and then opening the saved file in my browser. seems to print up fine. i'm on OSX though, your mileage may vary.
Not sure where you see the Eldrich Blast mentioned. On page 208 it just says you get one skill and the at-will from the pact you choose.
On a side note. I wish they had different requirments for the warlock based on the pact. Like Infernal Pact doesn't need CHA at all. It'd be nice to be able to have a high CON fighter grab the Infernal Pact.
Yeah, area-effect spells and fighters are fucking fantastic. You just mark everything.
I really need to play a game, all I've done is DM.
Also, I'm playing with Sproutcore today, so I might have a NPC/Monster statblock generator going on pretty soon.
Do they get the curse 1/Encounter?
Because I'd rather have that to be honest, if I'm multiclassing into a Striker class. Plus the Infernal Paragon Path requires you to have the curses to harvest the life-sparks or whatever, and it seems like a fun class to try out.
Several of the Multiclassing paragon path choices are broken. At present it's impossible to take any of the ranger paths unless you're main class is ranger. At least you can take the paths from Warlock, even if you don't get a whole lot out of their features that require cursing.
/me breaks out the DM-errata marker.
I really like a formulaic approach to multiclassing:
Defender - Mark ability 1/Encounter
Striker - Extra damage ability 1/Encounter
Leader - Healing ability 1/Day
Controller - At-Will 1/Encounter (Since they have AoE at will, this lets you fill the role a little bit)
Those tags make me think it's a game, and I overlooked this thread at first.
I like the multiclassing overall in theory, but yeah it gets a little weird in some combinations. It should be easy to fix though with such a simple system for it in general.
Cleave, Tide of Iron, or Reaping strike, Tide of Iron.
Same thing with a cleave, it's useful against minions where all you need to do is hit.
And there might be other powers of teammates that require you to hit your target.
Or other effects that require a hit when wielding a magic weapon like stunned, immobilised or ongoing damage. Or to mark a target which also requires a hit. Very handy.
Basically it's useful when a to hit is what matters more then just the single effect of rolling damage. And in 4e there is so much more a fighter can do with a to hit roll other then maybe roll damage.
It'd really kill any kind of quick fix for multiclassing into Warlock paths as well.
Enlarged Dragons Breath...
Also, there are a lot of really cool feats that co-inside with leader/defender powers that you wouldn't expect normally.
Like "Back to the wall"
+1 AC, Attack, Damage isn't that great... Unless your controller can create walls out of thin air for you to have your back to.
Blade Opportunist and Combat Reflexes combine for a +3 total to opportunity attacks add in nimble blade and some way to get combat advantage and its +4(+6 after advantage). Heavy Blade Opportunity and you are at +3 bonus for your at wills when its an opportunity attack(not bad). Pick up a glaive and get polearm gamble and you get +3 at wills whenever anyone moves adjacent to you from non-adjacent to you, even if its a shift.
If you paragon multi-class to ranger or are a ranger you can pick up nimble strike. Then you can use your at will granted by the opportunity attack to shift away from whatever moved adjacent to you. If you do the same, except as a cleric and take Uncanny reflexes you can use priests shield. Uncanny reflexes negates the attack bonus from combat advantage gained from the polearm gamble. Priests shield gives you and an ally another +1 to AC until the end of the turn. Actually making your AC HIGHER than it was against the enemy attacking you as he moved adjacent and you get the attack at +3
A Half-Elf Warlord can pick up Group Insight for a total of +3 init. Add in Combat Commander in the Paragon tier and either 18 cha or int and its +5 init for the whole group. If Everyone dumps feats into improved init its +9, if everyone has 13 dex and gets quickdraw is +11. Considering its only 4 feats for the warlord and 2 for everyone else, there is a lot of gain to be had.
Others, check what Goum tells you before you go assuming it's gospel.
I'm a human, so I'm taking all three.
By the way, where can I find the errata for 4ed?
I was wrong on improved init, i missed that they are typed. Quick and improved don't stack, so you are stuck at +9[or more depending on your warlords int/cha bonus]. But everything else does, group insight is racial. Combat Leader is a power bonus
Heavy Blade Opportunist lets you make at wills as opportunity attacks, not "in place of". Pole-Arm Gamble grants opportunity attacks. Combat Reflexes and Blade Opportunist are untyped bonuses(as is Nimble Blade). Glaive is both a polearm and a Heavy Blade and so fulfills both requirements.
It's on the Multiclass Feat Table. WotC did not reconcile it with the text.
Shifts wouldn't provoke nor would teleport, it would still have to be a move action.
"When a nonadjacent enemy enters a square adjacent to you, you can make an opportunity attack with a polearm against that enemy"
Shifts provoke. I wouldn't rule a teleport would, but by the rules, it does.
It's how I and many others were ruling it before too. It can be argued either way, but I feel the RAI is such:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/updates
"should have written" - there's a reason there are terms RAW and RAI, if they wrote rules exactly as they originally intended we wouldn't have them.
Also, "specific over general" is a three word guideline, it can't solve all problems itself either.
"enters" is a general word, "shifts" is a specific word. Therefore, the general case of letting a character take OA against enemies non-adjacent that are now adjacent is overruled if the character takes a shift, because shifts specifically don't provoke OA.
See? That leaves you with "The CSR is wrong." and I choose to side with the CSR sorry.
My point, as I stated in the first place, is that people are arguing it both ways, and it's not clearly either way.
And that many people rule it the kind of way I do, and that the only official response does so as well.
Either there is some reason Heavy Blade Opportunity does something or you are wrong in your understanding of general and specific.
A cogent argument is one that is valid and where the premise is true.
Your argument produces a ludicrous answer which we know and agree is incorrect when applied to other instances within the same area.
Ergo either the argument is not valid, or the premise is false.
Heavy Blade Opportunity is a specific rule thats says when using a heavy blade you may make an at will when making an opportunity attack(so long as that at will is a melee weapon attack). Normally you can only make a melee basic attack. By your argument the general case is the feat and the specific case the rule.
General: Shifting does not provoke
Specific: Entering an adjacent from non adjacent square against an opponent with a polearm and polearm gambit the player with the feat and weapon combination can make an opportunity attack against the enemy that shifted in that manner.
"When you make an opportunity attack with a heavy blade, you can use at-will attack that has the weapon keyword instead of a basic attack."
Thank you for adlibbing the feat, and bringing it up in the first place by assuming I cannot interpret this feat, when it had no bearing on the discussion at hand.
I'm sure trying to define arguments made your point though.
One question this raises comes from the situation of a Fighter with a polearm. Does his Combat Superiority (which stops movement on a movement-provoked OA) stop the target in the non-adjacent square, or the adjacent square. A CSR told me that since the feat says enters, the OA is triggered after the target has move to the adjacent square.
In either case, I don't think a Shift provokes an OA in the case of Polearm Gambit, as the feat does not specifically say "even if he shifts"...but again this is a subject of dispute.
So if they try to move adjacent to you, you can interrupt that and keep them out of normal melee range. Then they cannot make their attacks, but you with a polearm still can make an attack next round!
You're preventing attacks outright, and getting extra ones for yourself.
edit: Dortmunder, because it is an immediate interrupt, it stops them before they make the move into the adjacent square. An immediate interrupt happens before the action that triggers it completes.
Yes sorry - got caught up in the second point (when does the OA occur, when leaving or entering).
For clarity, here my conversation with a CSR:
That's what I thought also, the CSR disagreed, so I am still not sure how to rule this...