I am 100% sure that the release of the "super cool" swordmage is designed to deal with the everyone-plays-a-striker thing.
Swordmage dueling would be interesting... A well designed defender character would get blown away by someone who buikt for dps.
You could all be from the jade kingdom where your families ruled before the drogonborn seized power. Easily explains a flood of disenfranchised sword weilding hot-headed types. People could make up different families
Not that you have to or anything but the that element was added with this scenario in mind. Since nobody is even from the jade kingdom we could even dump the OA styling if people aren't keen.
__________________
Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
I am 100% sure that the release of the "super cool" swordmage is designed to deal with the everyone-plays-a-striker thing.
My warlock here is my first striker. My other characters are a cleric and a wizard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graf
You could all be from the jade kingdom where your families ruled before the dragonborn seized power. Easily explains a flood of disenfranchised sword weilding hot-headed types. People could make up different families.
Oh, and. A Drow Rogue, with all those racial feats... yummy. Train two or three extra skills, take some of those amazing racials, multiclass in darkpact warlock and you're in for the fun...
Come join us in the Shifting Seas and Transitive Isles of Living 4th Edition, amazing adventures and great fun guaranteed!
Then to play community 4e in Eberron join us in LEB too! Give life to your characters and contribute to the living settings!
Please excuse my poor English. It is not my first language.
I'll admit I was quite disappointed by the drow from the PG because there is such a heavy focus on them... I know that Drizzt is popular and now it's cool and popular to play a drow fighting against nature... etc,etc. Still in the FR I can't imagine anywhere (except maybe Silverymoon) where a drow isn't killed on sight...
Eh. I think they did what they could. Instead of being the bestest of the bestest (fantastic swordsmen, peerless wizards, really tough nasty priests, brilliant masterminds who are behind every single evil plot, etc etc etc) they sat down and focused them.
I read the rules as saying: they're sneaky, evil elves. That's it.
NPCs are skirmishers.
PCs will be strikers (rogues or warlocks).
I've just gotten a little peek at the dark 'lock stuff but it looks good. More of a focus on stealth, some spider and darkness flavor.
Somebody who wants to play a good drow dual welding ranger isn't going to get lots of support in the form of strong feats, but his evil rogue buddy will.
I'm biased of course but I like the set-up of the Temple of Night and Day. I think we can have some good (in both senses of the word) drow NPCs.
And if you buy into the implications made in the Imperium background, that the drow/shadar-kai were split off from the Eladrin because they rejected the patriarchy and the drow only became demon worshipers after/because they were exiled and desperately needed a powerful patron, I think the whole thing makes a bit more sense.
__________________
Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
It's true, they're very focused, and in a really good way. The feats add to their flavor, and so do the pps. With their fun racial encounters and their effectiveness as charismatic warlocks and rogues drows will be very fun to play. (and after all, an inspiring warlord is not unreasonable at all... that dexterity bonus will help with heavy blades and giving combat advantage over a creature to the whole party is not bad for a leader...)
Come join us in the Shifting Seas and Transitive Isles of Living 4th Edition, amazing adventures and great fun guaranteed!
Then to play community 4e in Eberron join us in LEB too! Give life to your characters and contribute to the living settings!
Please excuse my poor English. It is not my first language.
Come join us in the Shifting Seas and Transitive Isles of Living 4th Edition, amazing adventures and great fun guaranteed!
Then to play community 4e in Eberron join us in LEB too! Give life to your characters and contribute to the living settings!
Please excuse my poor English. It is not my first language.
Amicus will be a defender if/when he's approved; in fact... he'll also be our first paladin. (Which is so weird... I think the paladin class is awesome, much more fun and flexible, mechanically than the fighter).
Not that he's ready yet...
After human (5) the next most popular race is githyanki (3) which is kinda funny; githzerai are usually much more popular (but no monk yet so). Every other race has one representative though... very even spread.
__________________
Interested in playing 4th edition online? The Living 4th EnWorld Campaign is open! [character creationwikiforum]
I am in an interesting period of my life; I will post in games that I run three times a week (M,W,F); and try to maintain obligations in existing games.
...disquieting...
There was no end to his patience and endurance. He played day and night, his obsession was somewhat disquieting. It was less as if he were playing to dispel gloom or beguile tedium than as if he were giving himself up to the fangs of gaming devils."
Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go
Wery intevesting. I am thinking Halfling Paladin for my next PC, curse you one character rule! Ehem.
Well I think Githzerai were more popular in 3.5 because they were mechanically stronger, that +6 dex made them extremely viable for certain builds. In 4.0 it seems that Githyanki are marginally superior to Githzerai, albeit by only a hairs breadth.
__________________ Characters: Living EnWorld and L4W
Ah. And let's not forget that githyanki will make great shielding swordsmages (there's a feat in frpg that allows swordsmages to roll basic melee with INT...a heroic feat)
Come join us in the Shifting Seas and Transitive Isles of Living 4th Edition, amazing adventures and great fun guaranteed!
Then to play community 4e in Eberron join us in LEB too! Give life to your characters and contribute to the living settings!
Please excuse my poor English. It is not my first language.
Ah. And let's not forget that githyanki will make great shielding swordsmages (there's a feat in frpg that allows swordsmages to roll basic melee with INT...a heroic feat)
Actually, the swordmage also makes a pretty perfect fit for githyanki flavor-wise, especially if you tune the fluff just slightly. Both the classical githyanki psionic warrior and gish combine martial skill with mental prowess, and the race generally favors heavy blades as their choice of weapon (a silver sword is sort of their trademark).
I also had noticed our being light on defenders. (Which I why I had been thinking of a defender if second characters are allowed in the future.) For me the only reason I picked Githyanki over Githzerai in that I can use both Githyanki stats as a warlock but the +2 wisdom and dex from Githzerai would have been a waste unless I went ranger. The races seem pretty even with each other, it all depends what class you play.
For me, neither of the base defenders really excite me much. Nothing seems wrong with them, they just don't do it for me. With the new swordmage I'm now interested in trying out a defender.
I don't know yet what I would play for my next character. Maybe a Dragonborn. I really wish they had Monks. I miss my Monks. I know I can use the stuff on the WOTC site to kinda convert something into one using another class, but its not the same. Not to mention that it likely wouldn't be allowed here. Really sucks that they aren't doing psionics or Monks on PHBII.
The monk on the WOTC site was pretty cool actually. It was based on ranger and turned your unarmed attacks into +3, d8, offhand weapons. You also get a +3 class AC but can only wear cloth armors. Lets see... Oh yeah, a +2 will , lose prime shot and skills changed.
It seemed pretty balanced at low levels at least. The only issue I had with it was the lack of enhancements to unarmed attacks as the character leveled. The character would lag behind unless they picked up a weapon and then what's the point of being a monk? The only thing I came up with was either inventing new magic for them (magic hand wraps or the like) or letting them target a different defense. (When a character could get a +2 they could target con, a +4 ref, a +6 will usable wisdom bonus times an encounter) I never got a chance to test it out though.
Actually, the swordmage also makes a pretty perfect fit for githyanki flavor-wise, especially if you tune the fluff just slightly. Both the classical githyanki psionic warrior and gish combine martial skill with mental prowess, and the race generally favors heavy blades as their choice of weapon (a silver sword is sort of their trademark).
There's more: "gish" is a term that originally indicated a githyanki practicioner of both swords and magic...
Come join us in the Shifting Seas and Transitive Isles of Living 4th Edition, amazing adventures and great fun guaranteed!
Then to play community 4e in Eberron join us in LEB too! Give life to your characters and contribute to the living settings!
Please excuse my poor English. It is not my first language.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
