General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
Don't worry, it's not like most people ever even hear of lahars unless they live in the valleys of the rivers that have heads near volcanoes or unless one's a nature show buff. Since I know where Ari lives, I suspect it's the latter for him. Not a lot of volcanoes in Texas.
Don't worry, it's not like most people ever even hear of lahars unless they live in the valleys of the rivers that have heads near volcanoes or unless one's a nature show buff. Since I know where Ari lives, I suspect it's the latter for him.
Yep. Watch Discovery and National Geographic all the time, or rather I did back when I had cable.
Although I think I actually first heard the word on History Channel.
It's amazing how much D&D inspiration you can get from those three channels...
__________________ Ari Marmell
aka
Mouseferatu
--Rodent of the Dark
The only issue I have, is the Quick-strike. I see how it gives some added versatility to have it be an additional roll. However, I prefer a keep it simple approach, and was wondering if you think it would unbalance the class to just add the damage, much like the ranger does. My gut says no, but I would like to get some feedback on it
I don't think it'll unbalance anything, as long as you add some sort of minor action (like the warlock's curse or the ranger's quarry) to use it. I think it loses a lot of the class's flavor, but of course, that's just me.
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Serpent Bends Aside: Is it supposed to deflect magical attacks as well?
Any melee or ranged attack.
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False dead: Is it supposed to be usable in combat? If so, shouldn't it be an immediate reaction?
While there are some battlefield applications, it's not primarily a combat-power. It's not meant to be an immediate reaction, no.
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Lightning Fist: Shouldn't it’s secondary attack be against reflex?
Nope. Same as the primary attack--Fortitude--just on different targets.
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Gust of wind: Push 6 really sounds like a lot. I get that it's a classic druid thing, but 6 squares?
It's a lot, yep. But since it doesn't actually do any damage, I'm okay with that.
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Sphere of fire: Why does it give -2 to attack rolls? Ongoing damage seems to be the fire shtick these days. What causes the penalty?
Just part of the spell. Ongoing damage is common for fire attacks, but it's not universal. Think of it as being distracted by the pain, if you'd like.
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Heavy fog: Is there some height rule to it, that I have missed?
I probably should have specified/called it out, but it's the same as the other dimensions of the burst--3 squares.
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Slashing tree: Why suddenly use cha to attack, all other attacks use wis from what I noticed?
I did that deliberately with all the "tree" spells. Since they can make multiple attacks completely separate from the druid's turn, I didn't want them to be quite as good in terms of "to-hit."
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Bramble wall: That is a sweet power, but maybe the 1 hour duration is a bit too much. Do we have examples of other powers with similar durations?
See wall of ice in the PHB.
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Entangling terrain: Why only up to 1 minute duration? Sustainable stuff can be sustained for the encounter, normally.
Actually, in the PHB there are quite a few powers that can be sustained for less than the standard 5 minutes. This one felt too powerful to allow for the full 5.
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Relentless Attack
Once per round, as an opportunity action, you may make a basic melee attack against an adjacent foe who attacks one of your allies with a melee or ranged attack.
If an enemy makes a ranged attack against anyone, while being adjacent to you, you already get an OA. Do you get another, or is something else?
Okay, this is my fault for not clarifying. You only get one OA against the enemy who provokes via making a ranged attack. But, there are powers that allow you to make your Relentless Attack against someone farther away than adjacent to you, or that grant bonuses to your Relentless Attack roll, and in those cases, it's important to know that ranged attacks also trigger it.
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Staggering blow: shouldn't this be a push effect?
No, because it doesn't have to be away from you. You can knock someone to the side, if you want.
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Interposing strike: (see above)
Again, nope, because "push" is defined as "away from you," and this is "away from your ally[/i]. "Slide" seemed to make the most sense.
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I see what you did, with the powers that crit on a 15+ (might want to mention that it assumes a hit) but it feels a bit too random. Which is a pity, because you really seem to have captured the feel, with many of the other powers.
Defenders often have vaguely controllerish powers, so I figured it was safe to go that route. In general, going this way--defender-leaning-controller, rather than defender-leaning-striker--let me include a lot of powers I thought were pretty cool, that I couldn't have included otherwise.
But hey, you've always got WotC's barbarian.
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Soothe the savage beast: No reason why it cant be cha vs will – the bard should be a better “sleeper” than the wizard. Having to use a secondary ability for one or two powers is a tad odd, design wise, at least imo.
It's not without precedent in the PHB, though, and making this "Sleep" be better than the wizard's--especially when the wizard is a controller and the troubadour a leader--just didn't work, balance-wise.
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Not really sure about this one. I like the class, but something about it feels underpowered. However, I can't quite decide why, so for now, I will have to wait and see.
It's certainly a narrower class (which is one of the reasons I borrowed a lot of other class's powers for it). But underpowered? Let me know if your experience confirms that.
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All in all, a great book, thanks for writing it, Ari.
Ya velcome.
__________________ Ari Marmell
aka
Mouseferatu
--Rodent of the Dark
Thanks for the very thorough explanation. Helps a lot when my players ask the questions that I can quote the author. Saves some arguments back and forth
Cheers.
__________________
355 hours played
Gnoguh, human fighter/cleric (kensei->adamantine soldier)
Carric, elf cleric/ranger (radiant servant->saint)
Torn, tiefling wizard/cleric (divine oracle->sages of ages)
Truxas, human feylock/bard (feytouched->feyliege)
Tagron, human rogue (daggermaster->deadly trickster) 21th level Musings of an Epic Virgin
My own personal money is very limited at the moment (I'm paying off debts, unsurprisingly!) but I'm going to mention this book to my gaming group tonight.
I'm also going to mention the fantastic attitude towards errata, corrections and revisions that has gone on in this thread over the past week. Ari, if the rest of your stuff is going to be this good, you may as well open up some sort of "subscribe to publications by this author" feature on the website.
jgbrowning - the speed of response has me appluading. You're all doing a great job, just wish I could afford the book!
Thanks for the very thorough explanation. Helps a lot when my players ask the questions that I can quote the author. Saves some arguments back and forth
Cheers.
Let's break into an argument on "authorial intent" and "interpretation by the reader" - Not.
Thoughts of the Arch Chancellor - My weblog on EN World - containing game related material, like: house rules, design theories, reviews, play reports, adventure ideas
Secret Member of <Think we would just hide our secret with a spoiler tag, eh?>
I want to commend both Ari and jgbrowning for their helpfullness on this thread. I have one more annoying question before I finally cave in and buy the book. What is the difference between the merciless assassin PP in the APG, and the shadow assassain PP in the PHB?
Last edited by Shazman; 13th October 2008 at 05:20 PM..
Mouseferatu, one of my players will be running an Elvish Martial Artists in my campaign... and it looks like it will be a ton of fun!
But he had one question that I couldn't answer.
Serpent Bends Aside (Daily, level 1) and Deadly Dodge (Encounter, level 3)...
The only apparent differences are that SBA allows deflection of ranged attacks and DD requires an adjacent enemy to deflect the attack to...?
Was this near duplication intentional?
__________________
"Words take on strange and wonderful powers when they are written down.
Context and intonation disappear, and the words sit in a void to be construed according to the mood, intelligence and socio-political leanings of the reader."
--- Siri Agrell
In response to my question about The Guide's availability in the UK, Joe B. said:
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Originally Posted by jgbrowning
The book is making its way through the distribution chain right now. Books should start hitting FLGS next week.
Well, three days after its UK release, Orcs Nest, central London's only dedicated RPG shop, had sold out. By the end of day 5 after release, there were only two copies left for sale in central London shops - and I snagged one of them.
My guess is that before the book has been out a week in the UK, there'll be no copies left for sale in central London. That's pretty damn hot!
I haven't had time to peruse the book but a cursory examination explains why: this is a must-have 4E supplement.
Zander
Organiser, London D&D Meetup
__________________ "What Simkin does, he does for his own amusement." Legacy of the Darksword by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
"Some of us think that Gygaxian fantasy, a rich and meaty stew of great fantasy authors spiced with classical mythology and medieval legend, just tastes better than WOTC's homogeneous corporate gruel." Clavis
They're deliberately similar, yes. Although deadly dodge is a higher level, it's an encounter power, so I wanted it to be similar to, but a little less versatile, than the daily equivalent.
In retrospect, I probably should've made them more distinct, since there's no good reason to take both, now. But it wouldn't be fair of me to call that "errata," per se, since it's not a mistake--just a reconsideration on my part.
__________________ Ari Marmell
aka
Mouseferatu
--Rodent of the Dark
They're deliberately similar, yes. Although deadly dodge is a higher level, it's an encounter power, so I wanted it to be similar to, but a little less versatile, than the daily equivalent.
In retrospect, I probably should've made them more distinct, since there's no good reason to take both, now. But it wouldn't be fair of me to call that "errata," per se, since it's not a mistake--just a reconsideration on my part.
Learning from what you did not-so-well is the mark of a good designer. I haven't picked up the book yet, but my FLGS is supposed to get in a copy for me tomorrow, so I look forward to seeing it.
__________________ If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him... and take his stuff.
We don't see things as they are. We see things as we are.
Well, for some reason my FLGS can't get this ordered, so I gave up and downloaded it last night. On first glance, I'll give it a very high grade. The classes look fun and interesting to play. I had very little time to look at things, but the MA doesn't look like it has the same kind of damage output that most of the other classes do (I want to stress I looked at it for about 5 minutes, so I'm probably missing something - and I only read up to the level 3 powers).
The troubador looks great, as does the savage warrior.
This is going to see a ton of use in my games, thanks for writing it.
Well, for some reason my FLGS can't get this ordered, so I gave up and downloaded it last night. On first glance, I'll give it a very high grade. The classes look fun and interesting to play. I had very little time to look at things, but the MA doesn't look like it has the same kind of damage output that most of the other classes do (I want to stress I looked at it for about 5 minutes, so I'm probably missing something - and I only read up to the level 3 powers).
The troubador looks great, as does the savage warrior.
This is going to see a ton of use in my games, thanks for writing it.
Glad you're happy with the book.
Zaukrie, if you'd either pm me or send me an e-mail at josephbrowning@gmail.com letting me know your local retailer I'll pass this information along to my consolidator who'll track down where the communication is breaking down in the distribution chain. The APG is available right now, so I'm a bit intrigued as to what's going on.
Thought everyone would like to know the power cards for the Advanced Player's Guide are now available.
joe b.
Wow! That was fast. Thanks Joe- and in perfect time for my game tomorrow night! The cards look great and are exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks again for being so responsive to XRP's fans!
__________________ Gothmog
________________________________________________
"I feel like I've been mauled by Jesus." -Frye, Futurama.
$7 seems a tad high to me. I'm not sure what the price point for me is, but $7 isn't it.
Well, check your e-mail, then. It looks like a little serendipitous thanks for the information concerning your FLGS's distribution concerns.
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Originally Posted by thundershot
Easy enough to just make them as we need them...
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Originally Posted by Vanuslux
Agreed...though to a certain extent it makes sense because the classes are the meat of the book and the powers are the meat of the classes.
The power cards are roughly 50 pages, and as you note, the meat of much of the book. Since this is purely a convenience product, we priced it as such. Those who want to make their own will do that, while those who'd rather not now have an option. It's a time/effort choice each individual customer will have to determine for themselves.
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