D&D 4th Edition RulesAsk questions about 4th-Edition rules and the like in here. General discussion about 4E or any other game belongs in General RPG Discussion, above.
So we've seen hints that you can't stack bonuses from feats, but you can clearly stack them with other things (class abilities, weapon ability, stat bonuses, power results...).
So what -are- the stacking rules? I'd think it would be "you can't stack the same thing on top of itself" and nothing more, given the paucity of bonuses, but is there more to it? Is it "take the highest bonus of each type from your feats, plus all other bonuses"? Or what?
All the book says about stacking is that bonuses of the same type do not stack. Take the highest bonus of each type that you need and roll away.
Note that the continual re-roll on max result ends up being less than adding +1 to the mean of each roll. For example, doing this with a d6 gives a mean around 4.2 (instead of 3.5).
True, but if you're using a vorpal falchion with a power that does 7[W], you're looking at an extra 9 damage or so--plus the sheer visceral factor of getting to roll more d4's than most players even own (I know I'd have to buy some more).
__________________ GM of the COre COliseum, a competitive D&D arena. An excellent place to master your optimization skills and rules knowledge.
1. How does elemental resistance work in 4E? Like in 3E?
2. How easy is it to obtain elemental resistance?
3. Are the Succubus tactics still the same then in the preview and if yes has she a way to enforce that the charmed character stays next to her?
4. A small summary what rituals can do if that is not too much work.
5. Do monsters have any out of combat abilities or at least a line which says if/which rituals they can use?
6. How different are the playable monster versions from the real monsters?
7. Are there any real tactics you can use instead of just moving enemies a few squares?
8. Can every character trip or disarm or is that a fighter power?
9. What are the general advices about skill challenges?
10. Any advice of how to integrate power use into skill challenges (for example what if instead of rolling a skill a character uses a power to achieve the result)?
11. Any world building advice about how to make sense with all the "gameist" rules other than "Ignore it" or "Don't think about it"?
12. Do Skill DCs for skill challenges scale with the party level? Is there any difference between a challenge at level 2 compared to level 20?
13. Any obviously broken things?
14. How many "If you are bloodied you can do superattack X feats/abilities are there and how good is the combo value of them?
If some (all) of that question have already been answered please link the post.
Thanks.
__________________ Everything about RPGs is subjective, so everything I say about them is I my opinion and not hard facts
Having a backstory is good. Using this backstory in game is better. And for that you need background skills.
4E, the game where you play HSMFOS
Heroic
Only good, or at least unaligned adventurers are supported and no monster you can fight is good aligned.
Super-
The PCs become masters in any skill automatically and it is impossible for them to be bad at a mundane task
Mutants
Compared to NPCs of the same strength, PCs poses a ungodly amount of HP and can withstand huge mountains of punishment. That or they can spontaneously regenerate wounds.
From Outer Space
Yet despite no matter how powerful the PCs become, they can never do anything special what the "natives" (=NPCs) can do like animating a skeleton.
Last edited by Derren; 30th May 2008 at 10:31 PM..
1. How does elemental resistance work in 4E? Like in 3E? From the PHB, lvl 10 wizard utility:
Effect: Against a particular damage type chosen by you, the
target gains resistance equal to your level + your Intelligence
modifier until the end of the encounter or for 5
minutes. Choose the damage type from the following list:
acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic,
radiant, or thunder.
2. How easy is it to obtain elemental resistance? An minor action to get effect from above
3. Are the Succubus tactics still the same then in the preview and if yes has she a way to enforce that the charmed character stays next to her? The same and i couldnt find if the pc stayed, but i think he does.
4. A small summary what rituals can do if that is not too much work. see the las excerpt
5. Do monsters have any out of combat abilities or at least a line which says if/which rituals they can use? I can only find monsters that are summoned by rituals, not monsters that use them, there is an box about how to become an lich
6. How different are the playable monster versions from the real monsters? ?
7. Are there any real tactics you can use instead of just moving enemies a few squares? Enemies have abilities that can shift, push, slide you or teammates, they have abilities that can do great damage or use some sort of magic
8. Can every character trip or disarm or is that a fighter power? Rogue and Fighter, offcourse, multiclassing is always an option, couldnt find anything about disarm
9. What are the general advices about skill challenges? ?
10. Any advice of how to integrate power use into skill challenges (for example what if instead of rolling a skill a character uses a power to achieve the result)? I think dm's discretion
11. Any world building advice about how to make sense with all the "gameist" rules other than "Ignore it" or "Don't think about it"? ?
12. Do Skill DCs for skill challenges scale with the party level? Is there any difference between a challenge at level 2 compared to level 20? Don't know, but an level 2 trap shouldnt be any problem for an level 20 i think
13. Any obviously broken things? not that i know
14. How many "If you are bloodied you can do superattack X feats/abilities are there and how good is the combo value of them? don't know yet
If some (all) of that question have already been answered please link the post.
Thanks.
Do the 4e skills have "trained only" uses like SWSE? I can't remember if this has been answered already or not. Sorry if it has.
Not that I have seen. Each class starts off with one or two free skills, then can usually pick 3 or 4 more of their choice. After that, you can pick Skill Training and select any skill you want, and it doesn't have to be from your starting list either...
__________________ It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it -Upton Sinclair
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. -Albert Einstein
Alignment is what you are when no one is watching. -Yakoska, fellow D&D player.
1. I rather wanted to know if the resistances work like in 3E (subtract the number from every attack) or like thresholds (subtract it if the damage is lower than the resistance, otherwise its full damage) or like the Star Wars shield rules, etc.
2. Is there any other ability to get elemental resistances, for example with magical items?
6. I assume that "?" means you didn't understand the question.
I wants to know how much the "PC Gnome" differs from the "monster gnome" (Same for all other MM monsters with PC rules)
7. And is there any way to exploit those shifts and pushes? Or are they just to create the illusion of tactical combat while they don't serve much of a purpose besides very basic ones?
9. Any advice in the DMG about how much the players should decide when a skill challenge starts? For example when the PCs want to break into a castle, how much planning should they do before the skill challenge starts?
10. I take that as no.
11. You know, any DMG advice on how to explain "You cure everything in 8 hours rest" and "Circles are squares" to the players who care about those things.
12. That was more aimed at those general "Lets replace planning/roleplaying" skill challenges instead of traps or other things in a combat encounter.
__________________ Everything about RPGs is subjective, so everything I say about them is I my opinion and not hard facts
Having a backstory is good. Using this backstory in game is better. And for that you need background skills.
4E, the game where you play HSMFOS
Heroic
Only good, or at least unaligned adventurers are supported and no monster you can fight is good aligned.
Super-
The PCs become masters in any skill automatically and it is impossible for them to be bad at a mundane task
Mutants
Compared to NPCs of the same strength, PCs poses a ungodly amount of HP and can withstand huge mountains of punishment. That or they can spontaneously regenerate wounds.
From Outer Space
Yet despite no matter how powerful the PCs become, they can never do anything special what the "natives" (=NPCs) can do like animating a skeleton.
Last edited by Derren; 31st May 2008 at 12:31 AM..
That makes sense. Follow-up question, is there simply one "Passive Perception" skill, or is there a Passive Spot and Passive Listen?
Additionally, does the DMG give any guidance as to around when these checks should take place?
Perception is Search/Spot/Listen in one skill. Passive Perception = 10 + Perception. They oppose hidden things (like doors/traps/passages) and set a DC for stealthed characters. An active perception check can be made to specifically look for something 1D20 + Perception old school style.
Not that I have seen. Each class starts off with one or two free skills, then can usually pick 3 or 4 more of their choice. After that, you can pick Skill Training and select any skill you want, and it doesn't have to be from your starting list either...
Thanks, but that's not really the answer I was looking for. Star Wars breaks each skill into a bunch of different uses, some of which are "trained only", meaning that you have to have that skill as a known skill in order to attempt that use. Uses of a skill that don't have the "trained only" tag are things that anyone can attempt to do regardless of whether or not it's a known skill.
As an example, the Star Wars Acrobatics skill includes balancing, crossing difficult terrain, escaping from bonds, reducing falling damage, tumbling, and a few other things. Anyone can attempt to balance or escape their bonds with a successful Acrobatics check, but only characters who have Acrobatics as a known skill can attempt to Tumble or reduce falling damage.
Are the 4e skills like that at all?
What I'm getting at is: what do the 4e skills allow you to do?
As an example, the Star Wars Acrobatics skill includes balancing, crossing difficult terrain, escaping from bonds, reducing falling damage, tumbling, and a few other things. Anyone can attempt to balance or escape their bonds with a successful Acrobatics check, but only characters who have Acrobatics as a known skill can attempt to Tumble or reduce falling damage.
Are the 4e skills like that at all?
Yes, that's how 4e skills work.
Also, Thievery = Trap defusement, no rogues need apply.
What I'm getting at is: what do the 4e skills allow you to do?[/quote]
What I'm getting at is: what do the 4e skills allow you to do?
<font=4e_hype.ttf>ANYTHING YOU WANT!</font>
Yes, there are "Trained Only" skills. The only default "Trained Only" skills are Reduce Falling Damage (Acrobatics) and Detect Magic(Arcana). There are notes on most of the other skills that limit them to DM discretion - Thievery in particular says that DMs will probably make some of those skills trained-only.
1. I rather wanted to know if the resistances work like in 3E (subtract the number from every attack) or like thresholds (subtract it if the damage is lower than the resistance, otherwise its full damage) or like the Star Wars shield rules, etc.
Any time you take damage from an attack that you resist, reduce the damage by the amount of your resistance.
Quote:
2. Is there any other ability to get elemental resistances, for example with magical items?
- Be a tiefling.
- Resistance is a Wizard Daily power that grants resist = level + Int mod to one creature for the encounter or for 5 minutes. You can choose to resist one damage type from pretty much every type there is.
- Cloak of Resistance (Daily): Minor action, +1/+2 cloak gives resist 5 to all damage till start of next turn. +3/+4 gives resist 10, +5/+6 gives resist 15.
- Cloak of Survival: has a Property (always active) that grants a bonus to Endurance and resist cold and fire 5. +4/+5 cloak grants resist 10, and +6 cloak grants resist 15. Much more expensive than the Cloak of Resistance.
- Dragonslayer Weapon: also has a Property that grants resistance to dragon's breath weapon attacks (any color). The +2 version grants resist 5, the +3/+4 grants resist 10, and the +5/+6 version grants resist 15. Same cost as the Cloak of Survival, actually.
- Guardian Shield (Daily): Immediate interrupt, when adjacent ally is hit by an attack you are hit by it instead and gain resistance to all damage = 1/2 the damage the attack dealt, till the start of your next turn. The lvl 20 version can protect anyone within 5 squares, and the lvl 30 version anyone within 10 squares.
That's every way to get resistance in the PHB.
There are a lot of other ways to gain resistance too.
- A Berserker weapon has a Daily minor action power that, among other bonuses, grants resist all (amount based on level, like pretty much every item) till end of encounter or until you get KOed.
- Tombforged armor is chain that has a property that resists necrotic damage.
- Sunleaf armor can be cloth, leather, or hide, and resists radiant damage.
- Ghostphase armor is cloth only and at +3 and beyond grants a resist necrotic property. Also lets you turn insubstantial as a Daily minor action!
- Flamedrinker armor is plate only and has resist fire property. Can also as a Daily interrupt grant massive fire resistance to you and all allies in 5 squares till SONT - very sweet.
- The Ironskin Belt has a Daily that resists weapon damage until EONT.
- The Stormwalker's Cloak has a property that resists up to 15 lightning and thunder.
- An Amulet of Health resists poison.
- Helm of Ghostly Defense has a property that resists necrotic damage.
- The Shield of Warding has a Daily immediate interrupt that grants an ally 15 or 20 resistance based on the item's level.
- The Shield of Protection grants you + adj. ally resist a lot vs. all till EONT!
- Shield of Deflection has a resist vs. ranged attack damage property.
- The Dragondaunt Shield has a property that grants resist all vs. any dragon's attacks!
There are more...
Last edited by chaotix42; 31st May 2008 at 03:44 AM..
Yes, there are "Trained Only" skills. The only default "Trained Only" skills are Reduce Falling Damage (Acrobatics) and Detect Magic(Arcana). There are notes on most of the other skills that limit them to DM discretion - Thievery in particular says that DMs will probably make some of those skills trained-only.
Interesting. Thanks. I think I'll probably borrow heavily from SWSE.
I know some people are quite disappointed with the "incomplete" feel of the first 4e books, and while I share in that disappointment to a limited extent (not having seen the books for myself yet), I am also actually pleased that they actually encourage DMs to work some things out for ourselves and also provide us with fairly easy-to-use tools in order to customize the game to our and our groups' tastes. I felt that 3.5 was too clumsy and awkward to customize easily. That was one of the main things that started to make me sick of it, even before 4e was announced.
And is simply disrespectful towards the team of people that developed it with the intention of it releasing on a particular date in a particular format. But then again, I'm not surprised, as John Gabriel's Greater Internet F-ckwad Theory usually holds true.
I agree that downloading illegal copies of the books is disrespectful to the "artists".
But I also kinda think it is disrespectful to release D&D 4th edition on June 6...
Death Saving Throw: When you are dying, you need to make a saving throw at the end of your turn each round. The result of your saving throw determines how close you are to death.
Lower than 10: You slip one step closer to death. If you get this result three times before you take a rest, you die.
10–19: No change.
20 or higher: Spend a healing surge. When you do so, you are considered to have 0 hit points, and then your healing surge restores hit points as normal. You are no longer dying, and you are conscious but still prone. If you roll 20 or higher but have no healing surges left expressed as a negative number, your condition doesn’t change.
Maybe I am tired of reading, but can someone explain what they mean with the text I bolded?
__________________ It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it -Upton Sinclair
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. -Albert Einstein
Alignment is what you are when no one is watching. -Yakoska, fellow D&D player.
So it looks that single element enemies like Devils and Dragons are very gimped when fighting agains PCs with those cloaks.
There was already a calculation that a 15 fire resist cuts the damage potential of a Pit Fiend in half.
__________________ Everything about RPGs is subjective, so everything I say about them is I my opinion and not hard facts
Having a backstory is good. Using this backstory in game is better. And for that you need background skills.
4E, the game where you play HSMFOS
Heroic
Only good, or at least unaligned adventurers are supported and no monster you can fight is good aligned.
Super-
The PCs become masters in any skill automatically and it is impossible for them to be bad at a mundane task
Mutants
Compared to NPCs of the same strength, PCs poses a ungodly amount of HP and can withstand huge mountains of punishment. That or they can spontaneously regenerate wounds.
From Outer Space
Yet despite no matter how powerful the PCs become, they can never do anything special what the "natives" (=NPCs) can do like animating a skeleton.
Last edited by Derren; 31st May 2008 at 08:47 AM..
I know there was talk about characters below level 10 not getting any use out of magic rings (as in, they would not function if you were lower than level 10). However, I can't find anywhere (in the PHB anyway) that states this is the case. I can't seem to find any level requirement for magic rings.
The lowest level magic ring however is a lvl 14 item. So what I think they meant was, normally you are around level 10 before you would find such an item (since it states that you often get items whose levels are higher than your current level). I don't see anything stopping a DM from dropping a magic ring into a level 5 campaign for example, or anything preventing a player of level 9 or lower from utilizing it...
If anyone found anything to the contrary, please reply...
__________________ It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it -Upton Sinclair
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. -Albert Einstein
Alignment is what you are when no one is watching. -Yakoska, fellow D&D player.
It means that you've found errata most likely, a mistake with copy + paste.
Yeah, appears that way. Later it states if you have no healing surges, you go to 1 hp of health and become concious. I wonder, if a Cleric heals you with their "add 1d6" to the amount you get healed (and you have no surges left), do get the 1hp plus the 1d6 or do you still just go to 1hp?
__________________ It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it -Upton Sinclair
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. -Albert Einstein
Alignment is what you are when no one is watching. -Yakoska, fellow D&D player.
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