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"Wizard Spells of the Feywild" in Dragon 381 looks to be a major power increase for wizards.
The most significant addition is a new at-will, Winged Horde. It's Scorching Burst, except it's better in several ways: Targets enemies, vs. Will, psychic damage, and it has a minor status effect -- the target can't take opportunity actions until the end of your next turn.
The fact that it targets only enemies is huge, especially when combined with Enlarge Spell and/or Arcane Admixture + Resounding Thunder. Since it's psychic damage that targets Will, it can also be combined with Resplendent Gloves and Psychic Lock.
There's also a nice encounter 1 (Charm of Misplaced Wrath) that dazes and slides the target and then forces it to use a basic attack against a target of your choice, with bonuses. It's like Command only lower-level and better.
There are a few upgraded versions of that power, but the level 17 one (Charm of False Glory) seems especially good. You slide and immobilize the target, and then it can potentially attack several other enemies. It attacks each enemy that starts or moves adjacent to it, and you can slide the original target around more after each hit, so you can keep placing it adjacent to the next enemy that's about to activate.
Last edited by kerbarian; 5th November 2009 at 08:42 PM..
Insert required compiled-version-still-coming post: It might still change.
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4e balanced random loot system
- Think item wishlists are devilspawn?
- Dislike the impact of a few bad item picks by the DM on the party?
- Or find it ludicrous that PC's constantly just "happen" to find magic items tailored to their needs?
Try: A simpler treasure system for (mostly) random loot.
3.5 death&dying variant
- Tired of players that won't cure their mortally wounded allies 'cause "he's only at -2"?
- Tired of a dying mechanic which uses anachronistic d10's?
- Tired of a dying mechanic which never kicks into action for high level characters, which tend to go from alive and kicking to instant death before anyone can intervene?
- Tired of horribly complex house rules?
Try: Death & Dying - a better (and simple!) system
That said I don't think Winged Horde is broken, more than Scorching Burst is weak sauce.
IMHO they're not comparable. Winged Horde steps too hard on the Psion's toes IMHO. It shouldn't deal enemy-only area psychic damage. It should deal some other kind of damage. I suggest Necrotic or Poison, because they're very commonly resisted, and the Wizard who wants this power to work with cold/fire/whatever can take a feat to make it do just that at Paragon. Then it could be Thunder and Poison, which is still usable, but not as cool as Thunder and Psychic.
Scorching Burst sure does need improvement, but IMHO that is a separate issue: it should have an enemy-only rider effect. Increased damage isn't necessarily a good thing, unless your allies are very fire-proof. The best suggestion I've read is: Scorching Burst creates a Zone, and enemies who end their turn in the zone suffer Fire damage equal to your Int bonus.
Cheers, -- N
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Brevity is the soul of wit, so trim your sig or look dumb.
it's enemies only too! I mean, that makes sense with the kicker, but as written this is an Int damage power, not 1d6+Int.
Re:Psychic. Two words - Psychic Lock.
This would be a decent power if it weren't psychic. I agree, the fear keyword and untyped damage and I'd actually like it. Reliable (will, no damage type), but a lot less feat support.
I'm getting really annoyed with how good fort defense is and how bad will is on average. I find almost every fight I run with WotC monsters I have to drop the Fort of at least one just to get it below AC. If we based damage on how defense are in the real world Thunderwave would do 1d8, Scorching Burst would be 1d6 and this would be 1d4 (with no kicker or hitting allies too).
Quote:
Originally Posted by keterys
Now now, let's be honest - this spell could just as easily have appeared in Arcane Power as in Dragon.
I disagree, the stuff in arcane power is actually pretty balanced. Once you get past the 'OMG, impassible terrain' of Storm Pillar you notice it's an abysmal damage dealer and near useless for anywhere things aren't contained. They at least had the sense to make the psychic stuff single target.
While they have some issues, the splatbooks have been overall fairly well balanced. Dragon's all over the place, though. And anything GOOD in dragon gets cleaned up and put into a splatbook.
__________________ "I took a risk... and I ended up in the bag of holding" -the player of Ian Whitefire (deceased)
This would be a decent power if it weren't psychic. I agree, the fear keyword and untyped damage and I'd actually like it. Reliable (will, no damage type), but a lot less feat support.
Yep yep.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Destil
I'm getting really annoyed with how good fort defense is and how bad will is on average.
MM2 allegedly fixes that.
Cheers, -- N
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Brevity is the soul of wit, so trim your sig or look dumb.
Yeah, I pull monsters from the Adventure Tools and retool 'em most game (to fix expertise bugs, if nothing else), and I think the problem is well beyond MM1. MM2 is a bit better about it, but by no means fantastic, and every offical source (adventure) out there seems to fall into the same hole.
__________________ "I took a risk... and I ended up in the bag of holding" -the player of Ian Whitefire (deceased)
I'll match that bet and raise you a level 1 invoker stunned (save ends) power and a feat for dragonborn that adds +3 attack with an energy.
A small percentage of everything WotC releases is bad. In every product. Including Dragon. Including splatbooks.
Agreed.
Dragon Magazine, on average though, is worse. I don't think they have as many reviewers and editors looking over Dragon Magazine as they do splat books.
Note: The Invoker stun power is a) a Daily, b) vs. Fort, c) dazes the caster, and d) a blast with no range. So the (dazed) foes that are missed might get to attack/charge a dazed Invoker with combat advantage (likely since it would rarely be used in a group with allies, hence, there would often be a free 3 square or less length path to the Invoker).
About on par overall with Sleep (pros: does damage and stuns right away; cons: less range, less chance to hit, inconveniences the caster, can harm allies if in blast). Very nice, but not unbalanced overall. Trying to find situations where one could target multiple foes with it and not harm allies would be problematic at best.
__________________ The first sign of a broken rule is when someone suggests that the way to stop it is by readying an action.
Very nice, but not unbalanced overall. Trying to find situations where one could target multiple foes with it and not harm allies would be problematic at best.
Have you actually played or run with it in the game? It's a bigger deal than you'd think.
Especially when people start doing ridiculous things like Salve of Power and Secret of Creation along with it.
Yeah, I pull monsters from the Adventure Tools and retool 'em most game (to fix expertise bugs, if nothing else), and I think the problem is well beyond MM1. MM2 is a bit better about it, but by no means fantastic, and every offical source (adventure) out there seems to fall into the same hole.
IMHO the module sources are worse than the MM1 in terms of monster design. I'd avoid them entirely. Luckily in the Compendium you can filter by source.
Cheers, -- N
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Brevity is the soul of wit, so trim your sig or look dumb.
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