New "Red Box" Starter Set hands-on preview

jelmore · Sep 2, 2010

YRUSirius said:
What's shield finesse, if the fighter ist a knight? =)

Shield Finesse is not in the red box: the fighter build used is a slayer. I asked this after GenCon: there was a mul fighter in one of the GenCon games that had Shield Finesse. Shield Finesse means that you do not suffer the check penalty for using a shield.

EDIT: Is it me, or are there no class powers described for the fighter? I see no Heroic Slayer or Weapon Talent (two abilities listed in the Slayer preview) anywhere in the Player's Book.

Could this be from an earlier build of the Essentials Fighter (as in, not the versions we got in the preview)?

JohnSnow · Sep 2, 2010

jelmore said:
EDIT: Is it me, or are there no class powers described for the fighter? I see no Heroic Slayer or Weapon Talent (two abilities listed in the Slayer preview) anywhere in the Player's Book.

Could this be from an earlier build of the Essentials Fighter (as in, not the versions we got in the preview)?

Well, Weapon Talent seems to be factored into the Fighter's numbers (hence the extra +4/+3 for using a greatsword/greataxe respectively, rather than +3/+2). Something like Heroic Slayer is present too, but it adds Con as a bonus to your damage instead of Dex (D&D Starter Set Player's Book, step 8, p.6). It's probably an older version of the same thing (and may partially explain why the Game Day dwarf has a 12 dex).

I think this set would be infinitely better if they'd included real character creation rules (and equipment tables, and more than 7 magic items). This is a nice try WotC, but still no cigar.

fjw70 · Sep 2, 2010

DonAdam said:
There are rules for 2nd level, right? Could you let us know what Thief Weapon Talent does?

Thanks!

I think the Red Box has an error for the Weapon Finesse (i.e. the +1 to attack for rogue weapons). I think this should actually be the Rogue Weapon Talent. I think the Weapon Finesse will be like the 3.5 Weapon Finesse (i.e. use Dex for MBA).

JohnSnow · Sep 2, 2010

fjw70 said:
I think the Red Box has an error for the Weapon Finesse (i.e. the +1 to attack for rogue weapons). I think this should actually be the Rogue Weapon Talent. I think the Weapon Finesse will be like the 3.5 Weapon Finesse (i.e. use Dex for MBA).

Yeah, that's been my guess as well.

I wonder how many of these errors and inconsistencies WotC will fix on the next print run of the Red Box? I'd like to hope they'd fix them all AND take some of our suggestions into account (like including real character creation rules), but I'm probably dreaming.

MrMyth · Sep 2, 2010

bcbroom said:
One of the cleric at-will powers is "storm hammer" that looks like it replaces a regular attack with lightning damage. I went down to my local store to check out what other powers clerics get (assuming that the starter set was a subset of the powers available) and did not see this power listed in the cleric section of the PHB. Is this from some other book?

Others have answered a bit, but I just wanted to be clear:

The Storm Power attack is presumably from the upcoming "Heroes of the Fallen Lands", which is designed largely alongside the Red Box to provide some iconic versions of the classes which will be easy for new players to use. There are other sources of cleric powers out currently - the PHB and Divine Power - but the powers from the Red Box are mostly from "Heroes of the Fallen Lands", a book that is not out yet.

fjw70 · Sep 2, 2010

JohnSnow said:
Yeah, that's been my guess as well.

I wonder how many of these errors and inconsistencies WotC will fix on the next print run of the Red Box? I'd like to hope they'd fix them all AND take some of our suggestions into account (like including real character creation rules), but I'm probably dreaming.

I dout they will add the character creation stuff (I agree itwould improve the product) but I hope they would atleast fix the errors. That would bemost importatnt in a beginner product lik this.

Scribble · Sep 3, 2010

I got this today, haven't had any time to digest it yet... But one thing I have noticed...

That d4 is hard core caltropy!

Talk about retro... I haven't seen a d4 that pointy in forever. OUCH!

nnms · Sep 3, 2010

I love that the d10 as a 10 on it.

New "Red Box" Starter Set hands-on preview

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