Analysis of the new stat pairs for elf, eladrin, dwarf, halfling

[Mr. Teapot]

Sure, they're nice. Action Surge is dandy. Now if only you could use it after you got to see all your attack rolls for a power!

The Essentials humans basically do get that. Their racial power adds +4 to one d20 roll after they see what it is.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I like the floating bonus. I bet if that had been in place, we wouldn't have needed both the Elf and the Eladrin.

I'm not so sure about that; even without separate stat boosts the two races have a big conceptual divide. Besides, without the eladrin, there'd be no nicely neat racial reflection of the Shadowfell's drow to inhabit the Feywild.

(What, drow still live in the underdark? Pfft, whatever. The Shadowfell is just perfect for them. )

Why? Dwarves have been making weapon attacks using their racial stat boosts for a long time. It wasn't ever unbalanced when my dwarven Avenger got a bonus to his Wisdom based attacks or a dwarven Battlemind or Hexhammer Warlock made Con based weapon attacks. So why is it so broken for them to get the same exact bonus to an equal level stat when the stat is Str instead of Con or Wis?

Never said that a +2 or lack thereof ever broke anything. But having access to +2 Str and a feat like DWT makes dwarves reeeeeally attractive for any melee player.

 

[Nifft]

The Essentials humans basically do get that. Their racial power adds +4 to one d20 roll after they see what it is.

Similar to Insightful Riposte, then -- an Insight skill power (level 16), which you can pick up for the cost of a feat (and training in Insight of course). The bonus is only +3 and it's only to a single attack, but you can use it every encounter, and all races can have it.

It's on my short list of "if I ever find myself with a spare feat..." picks.

Cheers, -- N

 

[TwoSix]

(There are one or two wall-bangers, though, for example, it's almost impossible to build a useful half-elf ranger.)

Which is very ironic, since 90% of half-elves have Twin Strike.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Which is very ironic, since 90% of half-elves have Twin Strike.

lies...

 

[scylis]

lies...

I wouldn't be too surprised that being close to true for that brief period of time where they could get it and basically tailor it to whatever stat they wanted to use. I know there was a flurry of... er... "joyous solo activity" over the idea on the CharOp board when that DDI article hit. Didn't last long, though.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I think it's interesting that the Essentials Eladrin keep their bonus to Will defense even though now they can have attribute bonuses that don't both affect Reflex.

 

[AverageCitizen]

(There are one or two wall-bangers, though, for example, it's almost impossible to build a useful half-elf ranger.)

That won't last long. My guess is that Half-Elves will get a Cha/Dex option, which will be nice.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think it's interesting that the Essentials Eladrin keep their bonus to Will defense even though now they can have attribute bonuses that don't both affect Reflex.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

 

[Atreides]

My guess is Dragonborn will either be Str (Cha/Int), Str (Cha/Dex) or Cha (Str/Int). I hope for the second one, (Half-orcs have little interest to me) but I think the first is most likely.

Drow is really a wild card, there are any number of combination's that fit thematically.

Half-orc is likely STR (Dex/con).