Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
A gathering of Martial Controllers - what do you think
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7382978" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Yes, they are alchemy, which is technically 'Arcane' but could easily be reskinned (and anyway, who says mixing some outright magic into your martialness is a bad thing?). Smoke bombs (I think they're called 'smoke stick' in 4e) are actually not bad, but niche enough that you probably wouldn't use them in combat, instead preferring some sort of AoE that did damage and also had some similar effect. They COULD be useful in other situations though, or as an opening gambit (IE create cover instead of making an initial surprise attack, it can be a good trade off). 'Molotovs' exist in the form of Alchemist's Fire. The problem there is attacks using Alchemy just aren't good enough to be worthwhile, unless you get some overleveled alchemical goods, and even then only at low levels. The Blinding Bomb, and the Blast Patch are pretty handy things in certain situations. Honestly, MOST of the items can find a use in some specific situation, they are just mostly weak enough that you would find a better way if you planned ahead, and would be unlikely to have such a niche item otherwise. </p><p></p><p>Obviously the designers were afraid that if they made Alchemy powerful it would become practically a class of its own within a feat. I'm not sure they were wrong about that. The obvious answer would have been to actually MAKE IT A CLASS. I guess someone felt that thematically it would step on the Artificer's toes or something? Personally I am not that much of an artificer fan, the class misses a lot of what I would want in something like that, and what it does present is quite fiddly and hard to remember to actually invoke in play (lots of "oh, I give some other character a +1 they can use at any later time in the day if they do X", blah!). There was one in one of our parties, she LITERALLY never once remembered to use her class feature, not once.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7382978, member: 82106"] Yes, they are alchemy, which is technically 'Arcane' but could easily be reskinned (and anyway, who says mixing some outright magic into your martialness is a bad thing?). Smoke bombs (I think they're called 'smoke stick' in 4e) are actually not bad, but niche enough that you probably wouldn't use them in combat, instead preferring some sort of AoE that did damage and also had some similar effect. They COULD be useful in other situations though, or as an opening gambit (IE create cover instead of making an initial surprise attack, it can be a good trade off). 'Molotovs' exist in the form of Alchemist's Fire. The problem there is attacks using Alchemy just aren't good enough to be worthwhile, unless you get some overleveled alchemical goods, and even then only at low levels. The Blinding Bomb, and the Blast Patch are pretty handy things in certain situations. Honestly, MOST of the items can find a use in some specific situation, they are just mostly weak enough that you would find a better way if you planned ahead, and would be unlikely to have such a niche item otherwise. Obviously the designers were afraid that if they made Alchemy powerful it would become practically a class of its own within a feat. I'm not sure they were wrong about that. The obvious answer would have been to actually MAKE IT A CLASS. I guess someone felt that thematically it would step on the Artificer's toes or something? Personally I am not that much of an artificer fan, the class misses a lot of what I would want in something like that, and what it does present is quite fiddly and hard to remember to actually invoke in play (lots of "oh, I give some other character a +1 they can use at any later time in the day if they do X", blah!). There was one in one of our parties, she LITERALLY never once remembered to use her class feature, not once. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
A gathering of Martial Controllers - what do you think
Top