Adric Fel - Errors in Character Sheet

[Zaran]

First of all, I would like to exclude John Rogers from any gripes I have following. I think his work on the DnD Comic has been superb and everyone I have made read the book loves it.

For everyone unaware, Adric Fel is the leader of the party that the Dungeons and Dragons Comic revolves around. It's funny and very much DnD to me.

BUT... at the end of the book (Issue #1) some marketing genius decided to do a bit of advertising for Essentials and made Adric Fel's Character sheet. There are two main problems with it.

1) Adric Fel was said to be a warlord by John Rogers himself in an official interview with WotC back in July. The one in the back of the comic makes him a knight. While this wouldn't be so horrible the character uses chainmail and a light shield instead of plate and heavy shield that a Knight could use. Even this isn't a big issue. I've seen players gimp thier characters for no reason before. But then we find out that his dwarf companion is a paladin. Two defenders! Again no big deal by itself, but if he was a warlord they would have had a Leader role in the party as the other characters are all strikers.

2) The guy who designed the sheet has never played 4th Edition. There are two many errors on the sheet to justify any sort of experience. This is how we want to introduce new people to the game? I went to the online builder and tried to make him as I best I could. Here are the discrepencies:

(I'm not going to print alot of the character. I'm not sure I'd be allowed to do that. )

Abilities and Skills:
Using Point Buy I had 1 extra point than what the comic had. Maybe he rolled his stats?

His armor is equipped but none of his skills had the armor mod added in. He does have Shield Finess so that mod was eliminated on the builder. Still with with his chainmail he should have been -1 to all the physical skills.

Combat Statistics:
The comics Initiative is +7. The builder says it's +6. Which matches Level 7 with a 12 Dex and his Knight Combat Readiness.

AC: (This is what got me looking closely in the first place) The comic gives him a whopping 26 AC! So I went to looking and the guy has a +2 Light Shield. Last time, I checked (20 minutes ago) 4e doesn't have shields with Enhancement bonuses and there. The character builder gives him an AC of 23. This is with a regular light shield. With the +2 enhancement it would give him a 25 AC. Don't know where the last point is.

Reflex: THe comic gives him a 19. CB gives him a 17. Maybe the guy read in a book somewhere that shields give their bonus to both AC and Reflex and applied the mythical +2 to that score too.

Attack Bonus: Comic gives him a Melee Basic Attack bonus of +11. CB gives him a 13. Don't have anything to say about this. Math Error?

Damage: Comic gives him a 1d8+9. CB gives a 1d8+8 . Again maybe just a math error. They should get their mom's to go over their work. Or maybe hire editors. I hear the ones for the Class Compendium are looking for something to do.

Hit points: Comic gives him 65 hp. CB gives him 66 hp. Maybe he constantly cuts himself shaving every morning.

So 8 mistakes. Granted they probably didn't have have a working CB at the time when they made this character. I just think that if the want to sell Essentials that they should do a better job with accuracy. If some kid wanted to play Adric (why not? WotC gave us the character sheet!) he would be bringing a broken character to the table.

I haven't seen any errors in the other 2 characters that followed. Although both of them have the Heal skill and in the story the Thief is the one that is always bandaging everyone up. I don't have the issue with the Thief write up yet. I get the feeling that since the Thief class can't get the Heal skill she will wind up not having it.

My main issue with this whole thing is the fact that they decided to shoehorn this character into an Essentials character instead of just keeping him a Warlord. It was suggested to me that if they really wanted to promote Essentials that they should have previewed Adric as an Essentials Warlord which I believe was supposed to have been in the Class Compendium. That would have gotten us all chomping at the bit for more info on eWarlords.

Again, I love the comic. If you can get your hands on it you should read it.

 

[Klaus]

First of all, I would like to exclude John Rogers from any gripes I have following. I think his work on the DnD Comic has been superb and everyone I have made read the book loves it.

For everyone unaware, Adric Fel is the leader of the party that the Dungeons and Dragons Comic revolves around. It's funny and very much DnD to me.

BUT... at the end of the book (Issue #1) some marketing genius decided to do a bit of advertising for Essentials and made Adric Fel's Character sheet. There are two main problems with it.

1) Adric Fel was said to be a warlord by John Rogers himself in an official interview with WotC back in July. The one in the back of the comic makes him a knight. While this wouldn't be so horrible the character uses chainmail and a light shield instead of plate and heavy shield that a Knight could use. Even this isn't a big issue. I've seen players gimp thier characters for no reason before. But then we find out that his dwarf companion is a paladin. Two defenders! Again no big deal by itself, but if he was a warlord they would have had a Leader role in the party as the other characters are all strikers.

2) The guy who designed the sheet has never played 4th Edition. There are two many errors on the sheet to justify any sort of experience. This is how we want to introduce new people to the game? I went to the online builder and tried to make him as I best I could. Here are the discrepencies:

(I'm not going to print alot of the character. I'm not sure I'd be allowed to do that. )

Abilities and Skills:
Using Point Buy I had 1 extra point than what the comic had. Maybe he rolled his stats?

His armor is equipped but none of his skills had the armor mod added in. He does have Shield Finess so that mod was eliminated on the builder. Still with with his chainmail he should have been -1 to all the physical skills.

Combat Statistics:
The comics Initiative is +7. The builder says it's +6. Which matches Level 7 with a 12 Dex and his Knight Combat Readiness.

AC: (This is what got me looking closely in the first place) The comic gives him a whopping 26 AC! So I went to looking and the guy has a +2 Light Shield. Last time, I checked (20 minutes ago) 4e doesn't have shields with Enhancement bonuses and there. The character builder gives him an AC of 23. This is with a regular light shield. With the +2 enhancement it would give him a 25 AC. Don't know where the last point is.

Reflex: THe comic gives him a 19. CB gives him a 17. Maybe the guy read in a book somewhere that shields give their bonus to both AC and Reflex and applied the mythical +2 to that score too.

Attack Bonus: Comic gives him a Melee Basic Attack bonus of +11. CB gives him a 13. Don't have anything to say about this. Math Error?

Damage: Comic gives him a 1d8+9. CB gives a 1d8+8 . Again maybe just a math error. They should get their mom's to go over their work. Or maybe hire editors. I hear the ones for the Class Compendium are looking for something to do.

Hit points: Comic gives him 65 hp. CB gives him 66 hp. Maybe he constantly cuts himself shaving every morning.

So 8 mistakes. Granted they probably didn't have have a working CB at the time when they made this character. I just think that if the want to sell Essentials that they should do a better job with accuracy. If some kid wanted to play Adric (why not? WotC gave us the character sheet!) he would be bringing a broken character to the table.

I haven't seen any errors in the other 2 characters that followed. Although both of them have the Heal skill and in the story the Thief is the one that is always bandaging everyone up. I don't have the issue with the Thief write up yet. I get the feeling that since the Thief class can't get the Heal skill she will wind up not having it.

My main issue with this whole thing is the fact that they decided to shoehorn this character into an Essentials character instead of just keeping him a Warlord. It was suggested to me that if they really wanted to promote Essentials that they should have previewed Adric as an Essentials Warlord which I believe was supposed to have been in the Class Compendium. That would have gotten us all chomping at the bit for more info on eWarlords.

Again, I love the comic. If you can get your hands on it you should read it.

I'd change the armor to Scale and the shield to heavy, which matches the artwork. And take feats and skill powers that give him some "leadership".

 

[DracoSuave]

wow the conversion of a character from a comic/novel/movie got changed to a set of stats in an rpg that did not quite match what the character does in the comic/novel/movie this is a tragedy and ruins the enjoyment of the comic/novel/movie.



This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[korjik]

wow the conversion of a character from a comic/novel/movie got changed to a set of stats in an rpg that did not quite match what the character does in the comic/novel/movie this is a tragedy and ruins the enjoyment of the comic/novel/movie.



This is why we can't have nice things.

You do realize that this comic is a D&D comic, dont you? It seems pretty likely that the characters in the comic are supposed to be based on the game, and not the other way around.

You do realize that the character sheet that Zar is going off of is the official character sheet out of the back of the comic, dont you? The one that would have to be specifically ok'ed to put into the comic. It seems like a pretty simple yet important task to make the character based off the game have a character sheet that actually is legal in the game.

 

[aurance]

wow the conversion of a character from a comic/novel/movie got changed to a set of stats in an rpg that did not quite match what the character does in the comic/novel/movie this is a tragedy and ruins the enjoyment of the comic/novel/movie.



This is why we can't have nice things.

This isn't some "OMG, what if Gandalf were D&D!!" sort of thing. This is a comic created out of D&D, of which the stats for the main character are in the back of said comic to promote the game. It's not unreasonable to expect some accurate stats.

 

[DracoSuave]

This isn't some "OMG, what if Gandalf were D&D!!" sort of thing. This is a comic created out of D&D, of which the stats for the main character are in the back of said comic to promote the game. It's not unreasonable to expect some accurate stats.

Didn't say it was.

Still waiting for accurate stats for the D&D movies, R A Salvatore novels, actually pretty much anything Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun... yadda...yadda...yadda.

This isn't the first time they've failed at statting properly, and it won't be the last, and as these things go, this is... yeah.

I mean complaining because some guy over a year ago said he was to be a warlord? Alright, but is he using warlord powers? No? Things change. Get over it. Make the discussion about -that-.

The math on a character sheet is wrong? Seriously? If I had a game book for every time a fourth edition character's sheet was wrong mathematically, I'd have all the gamebooks. Again, old problem is old.

Complaining that he's a knight teamed up with a paladin? Seriously?

Look, pointing out the errors on the sheet is one thing but everything after that is just... it's the sort of nitpickery that defeats the entire purpose of the product. It's not so that veterans of the game can look at it and go 'yes yes, this is an accurate comic and you can see every power and look the math all works out!' It's a comic used to show a cool character and get people who don't know anything about the game interested in the game. 'Hey, I could totally do that! Look, this guy is doing awesome things, it's a game? I can do awesome things!'

None of those purposes requires 100% accuracy, and judging the product based on things that are not relevant to its target audience and goal is rather pointless. This is why people call us nerds. Because the second something comes out that isn't 100% accurate to yardsticks that the people it is marketted to won't CARE about we complain and nitpick. NERDS!

 

[the-golem]

Well that's fantastic.

I understand your point about the artwork not matching the character. That, to me, isn't even the crux of the post.

The "errors in character sheet" don't lie in the fact that the sheet doesn't match the comic, but rather that the sheet and the builder doesn't match.

Also, Zaran, perhaps part of the reason why he was made a "Knight" is that there is the closest thing you can get into a Warlord with the Essentials stuff. Of course, I don't pay much attention to 4eE, but there perhaps is an Essentials version of a Warlord out there..

 

[Klaus]

Well that's fantastic.

I understand your point about the artwork not matching the character. That, to me, isn't even the crux of the post.

The "errors in character sheet" don't lie in the fact that the sheet doesn't match the comic, but rather that the sheet and the builder doesn't match.

Also, Zaran, perhaps part of the reason why he was made a "Knight" is that there is the closest thing you can get into a Warlord with the Essentials stuff. Of course, I don't pay much attention to 4eE, but there perhaps is an Essentials version of a Warlord out there..

If he can't be Warlord because they must be Essentials only, then Knight is the best fit fot Adric Fel. I think they statted him with chainmail/light shield as a holdover from his warlord-stat days.

 

[DonAdam]

Call me crazy, but I don't think it's asking too much for pre-generated characters to be game-legal (i.e., reproducible under standard character building guidelines). And those last sections of the comic are sold as "here's this character to play."

Obviously that's different from weird narrative-specific abilities that might require going the NPC route.

It's an old problem. That doesn't mean it's not a problem, especially when people can crack open the books (or comics in this case) and discover the errors within a couple minutes. And who knows, maybe the kvetching will get WOTC to put up game-legal characters on the site or in the builder. That would be cool.

 

[aurance]

Hey, don't freak out. This is all I meant:

Look, pointing out the errors on the sheet is one thing

That it probably would have been a simple matter to find a guy who plays 4e to do the numbers right with a miniscule amount of effort.

The rest of it, I dunno. I haven't read the comic.