Overview:
Martial Power provides new options for the four classes using the Martial Power. Each class has one chapter devoted solely to new builds, new paragon paths, and new powers. There is also one chapter containing feats for all martial classes, as well as new martial epic destinies. The book provides “must see” options for people playing martial classes, but provides almost nothing for anyone else.
Builds:
Fighter options include the Battlerager (hp specialist) and the Tempest fighter build (two weapon specialist). The Battlerager has several abilities that allow it to gain temporary hit points when attacking. The Tempest class features are useful (Two Weapon Defense is a bonus feat), if not particularly interesting, and the powers focusing on two weapon usage definitely have more of a defender flavor. For example, one of the 7th level utilities will slow a creature if you have two weapons.
Ranger options include the Beast Mastery build. This is the much awaited companion build. The powers work seamlessly with the beast companion and it really feels like two creatures fighting together. In some ways, it is reminiscent of the pets in World of Warcraft, as the beast gains in power as the master increases in level. More importantly, the complexity is on a manageable level.
Rogues have the Aerialist and Cutthroat builds, though the Aerialist doesn’t come with a supporting class feature (Artful Dodger is still your best bet). The Ruthless Ruffian class feature is for rogues with clubs or maces and has powers that focus on “rattling” the opponent. Incidentally, the Rattling keyword supports the Cutthroat build well (more on Rattling in a moment).
Warlord options include the Bravura and the Resourceful presences. Bravura focuses on risky maneuvers with higher payoffs. The Resourceful presence is mostly about providing the most appropriate benefit at a given moment. For example, an ally taking damage will be followed up by immediate healing.
The best part of the builds is the new power keywords. Invigorating and Rattling provide temporary hit points on a hit and give the target an attack roll penalty, respectively. Beast is for powers only useable with a beast companion. Not only do the new keywords provide interesting flavor options, they are used throughout the powers in such a way that any character in a class can benefit, provided they meet the keyword requirements.
Powers:
Martial Power provides one of the first examples of the expansion-friendly design philosophy for 4E. Where in 3E changing a class's powers was awkward, the new powers plug-and-play easily. The powers provided are literally just lists that you can also consider for a given level. So, for a character’s Level 6 Utility power, the player can choose a power from the PHB or from the list of 6 new powers in Martial power. Considering the efforts to change class powers in 3E, the new edition makes this type of customization much easier.
More importantly is the sheer number of power options now available. In almost every level, there are six new powers to choose from, and this range of choice is consitent across all levels of play. For a given level, Martial Power and the Players Handbook should force the player to decide between at least two powers they really like. (That’s a good thing!)
The new powers are interesting, and definitely worth considering compared to the PHB powers. Some powers are broadly useful, but others require very specific builds. As an example, for the fighter, Defensive Resurgence allows the spending of a healing surge (broadly useful), and Crumpling Slam does extra damage if you’re wielding an axe, a hammer, or a mace (specific build). Several powers push the design envelope; Guileful Switch allows the warlord to switch places in the initiative order once per encounter, and Forward Observer lets the warlord negate cover and concealment for one enemy per round.
Paragon Paths:
Each class comes with 10-12 new paragon paths. Several are easy to qualify for, but most are geared towards specific races, skills, feats, or weapons. The Flying-Blade Adept is only for rogues with the Quick Draw feat, and Sylvan Archer is only for elf rangers. The powers are useful, but some of the themes are forced. Sharpshooter is an example of the best themes: interesting, generally useful features and powers that easily reinforce the path concept. Hellborn Shadow, however, could be any fire themed ranger and feels like it simply fills the “tiefling ranger paragon path” design slot.
A player will definitely wish to examine the new paragon paths when the time comes. Most archetypes are available and few would be bad choices for a player. The best part for players is that it is easy to find a path that fits in the campaign arc or the character vision (perhaps with some tweaking).
Epic Destinies:
I’ll provide very little input here, as I don’t have a good sense of what is good and bad design at the epic level. There are ten new destinies, some geared towards specific classes and some just towards martial classes in general. The Godhunter and Warmaster do exactly what you might think they do. What might be most useful here is the fluff, as the Demi-God destiny soaked up much of the design room for epic destinies. I would certainly look at these for my martial character as they seem to synergize better with the existing powers.
Feats:
Martial Power feats outnumber the feats for all classes in the Player’s Handbook. Each class has 25 feats at heroic, at least 11 feats at paragon, and 7 at epic. Most feats are in one of two groups. The first group of feats fit a certain race/class or ability score/class combination. This greatly aids in customization… but is useless to the majority of characters that do not meet the requirements. The second group of feats augments build powers. For example, Improved Inspiring Word allows a warlord to add their Charisma modifier to the hit points restored with Inspiring Word (probably 4-8 additional healing per fight in the heroic tier). These are great… if you have that feature. At the heroic tier, players will likely find themselves trying to pick between 3-4 feats they really want for their character.
The multiclass feats are the only part useful to non-martial characters. Even then, many of the multiclass feats are for paragon multiclassing only. However, some of the multiclass feats can be taken instead of the initial feats from Player’s Handbook, and provide a different benefit. Hence, anyone consider multiclassing into fighter may wish to consider the Martial Power initiate feat instead of the Player’s Handbook feat.
Other thoughts:
Naming: I like the new naming convention for 4E, but the quality has many levels. Some are forgettable (Defensive Resurgence) and some are goofy (Enduring Wallop and Ride the Giant Down). I think the names are important as players get an idea about the feat or power from the name. But with so many new rules to name, of course the quality will vary.
Fluff: Through the class chapters, there are sidebar sections of fluff. Sidebars include some comments on typical religions and personalities for a given class. There are also sidebars on specific race/class combination (e.g., halfling fighters). These are probably most useful to the beginning player, and maybe perhaps for a DM generating some NPCs.
The paragon paths and epic destinies also include fluff pieces. As usual, these parts are well written, but represent very little of the actual text in the book. If you enjoy just reading the rulebooks, this is not nearly enough fluff. If you like a lot of crunch in your rulebook, the designers have spent probably less than 20% of the book on non-rules text.
Art: The art is typical WotC: professional and appropriate, but some variation in quality. There is some reused art, but it isn’t out of place.
Conclusion:
Martial Power is an excellent resource for martial characters. The book greatly expands the options available for martial characters. And while many of the options are great, there does not appear to be extensive power creep. If future _____ Power books fit the same mold, I believe people will be satisfied. I would recommend this book to any martial character, but regret it’s uselessness to anyone else.
Martial Power provides new options for the four classes using the Martial Power. Each class has one chapter devoted solely to new builds, new paragon paths, and new powers. There is also one chapter containing feats for all martial classes, as well as new martial epic destinies. The book provides “must see” options for people playing martial classes, but provides almost nothing for anyone else.
Builds:
Fighter options include the Battlerager (hp specialist) and the Tempest fighter build (two weapon specialist). The Battlerager has several abilities that allow it to gain temporary hit points when attacking. The Tempest class features are useful (Two Weapon Defense is a bonus feat), if not particularly interesting, and the powers focusing on two weapon usage definitely have more of a defender flavor. For example, one of the 7th level utilities will slow a creature if you have two weapons.
Ranger options include the Beast Mastery build. This is the much awaited companion build. The powers work seamlessly with the beast companion and it really feels like two creatures fighting together. In some ways, it is reminiscent of the pets in World of Warcraft, as the beast gains in power as the master increases in level. More importantly, the complexity is on a manageable level.
Rogues have the Aerialist and Cutthroat builds, though the Aerialist doesn’t come with a supporting class feature (Artful Dodger is still your best bet). The Ruthless Ruffian class feature is for rogues with clubs or maces and has powers that focus on “rattling” the opponent. Incidentally, the Rattling keyword supports the Cutthroat build well (more on Rattling in a moment).
Warlord options include the Bravura and the Resourceful presences. Bravura focuses on risky maneuvers with higher payoffs. The Resourceful presence is mostly about providing the most appropriate benefit at a given moment. For example, an ally taking damage will be followed up by immediate healing.
The best part of the builds is the new power keywords. Invigorating and Rattling provide temporary hit points on a hit and give the target an attack roll penalty, respectively. Beast is for powers only useable with a beast companion. Not only do the new keywords provide interesting flavor options, they are used throughout the powers in such a way that any character in a class can benefit, provided they meet the keyword requirements.
Powers:
Martial Power provides one of the first examples of the expansion-friendly design philosophy for 4E. Where in 3E changing a class's powers was awkward, the new powers plug-and-play easily. The powers provided are literally just lists that you can also consider for a given level. So, for a character’s Level 6 Utility power, the player can choose a power from the PHB or from the list of 6 new powers in Martial power. Considering the efforts to change class powers in 3E, the new edition makes this type of customization much easier.
More importantly is the sheer number of power options now available. In almost every level, there are six new powers to choose from, and this range of choice is consitent across all levels of play. For a given level, Martial Power and the Players Handbook should force the player to decide between at least two powers they really like. (That’s a good thing!)
The new powers are interesting, and definitely worth considering compared to the PHB powers. Some powers are broadly useful, but others require very specific builds. As an example, for the fighter, Defensive Resurgence allows the spending of a healing surge (broadly useful), and Crumpling Slam does extra damage if you’re wielding an axe, a hammer, or a mace (specific build). Several powers push the design envelope; Guileful Switch allows the warlord to switch places in the initiative order once per encounter, and Forward Observer lets the warlord negate cover and concealment for one enemy per round.
Paragon Paths:
Each class comes with 10-12 new paragon paths. Several are easy to qualify for, but most are geared towards specific races, skills, feats, or weapons. The Flying-Blade Adept is only for rogues with the Quick Draw feat, and Sylvan Archer is only for elf rangers. The powers are useful, but some of the themes are forced. Sharpshooter is an example of the best themes: interesting, generally useful features and powers that easily reinforce the path concept. Hellborn Shadow, however, could be any fire themed ranger and feels like it simply fills the “tiefling ranger paragon path” design slot.
A player will definitely wish to examine the new paragon paths when the time comes. Most archetypes are available and few would be bad choices for a player. The best part for players is that it is easy to find a path that fits in the campaign arc or the character vision (perhaps with some tweaking).
Epic Destinies:
I’ll provide very little input here, as I don’t have a good sense of what is good and bad design at the epic level. There are ten new destinies, some geared towards specific classes and some just towards martial classes in general. The Godhunter and Warmaster do exactly what you might think they do. What might be most useful here is the fluff, as the Demi-God destiny soaked up much of the design room for epic destinies. I would certainly look at these for my martial character as they seem to synergize better with the existing powers.
Feats:
Martial Power feats outnumber the feats for all classes in the Player’s Handbook. Each class has 25 feats at heroic, at least 11 feats at paragon, and 7 at epic. Most feats are in one of two groups. The first group of feats fit a certain race/class or ability score/class combination. This greatly aids in customization… but is useless to the majority of characters that do not meet the requirements. The second group of feats augments build powers. For example, Improved Inspiring Word allows a warlord to add their Charisma modifier to the hit points restored with Inspiring Word (probably 4-8 additional healing per fight in the heroic tier). These are great… if you have that feature. At the heroic tier, players will likely find themselves trying to pick between 3-4 feats they really want for their character.
The multiclass feats are the only part useful to non-martial characters. Even then, many of the multiclass feats are for paragon multiclassing only. However, some of the multiclass feats can be taken instead of the initial feats from Player’s Handbook, and provide a different benefit. Hence, anyone consider multiclassing into fighter may wish to consider the Martial Power initiate feat instead of the Player’s Handbook feat.
Other thoughts:
Naming: I like the new naming convention for 4E, but the quality has many levels. Some are forgettable (Defensive Resurgence) and some are goofy (Enduring Wallop and Ride the Giant Down). I think the names are important as players get an idea about the feat or power from the name. But with so many new rules to name, of course the quality will vary.
Fluff: Through the class chapters, there are sidebar sections of fluff. Sidebars include some comments on typical religions and personalities for a given class. There are also sidebars on specific race/class combination (e.g., halfling fighters). These are probably most useful to the beginning player, and maybe perhaps for a DM generating some NPCs.
The paragon paths and epic destinies also include fluff pieces. As usual, these parts are well written, but represent very little of the actual text in the book. If you enjoy just reading the rulebooks, this is not nearly enough fluff. If you like a lot of crunch in your rulebook, the designers have spent probably less than 20% of the book on non-rules text.
Art: The art is typical WotC: professional and appropriate, but some variation in quality. There is some reused art, but it isn’t out of place.
Conclusion:
Martial Power is an excellent resource for martial characters. The book greatly expands the options available for martial characters. And while many of the options are great, there does not appear to be extensive power creep. If future _____ Power books fit the same mold, I believe people will be satisfied. I would recommend this book to any martial character, but regret it’s uselessness to anyone else.
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