D&D 4E Essential 4e: Heroes of the Forgotten Lands

[Oulak]

Sadly it appears Slimy Transformation did not make it into the Mage power options. That was one of the more flavorful spells in the Red Box. :/

That one, along with Stone Blood and Leaden Transformation all have the Transmutation keyword, which is a school that is not covered in Heroes of the Fallen Lands. Hopefully it will be covered somewhere soon, maybe Dragon Magazine?

Since 2e, I've always seen certain races as having an affinity to certain schools of magic, and Transmutation is the quintessential human school in my mind. Illusion for Gnomes, and Enchantment for Elves(eladrin now) are the natural other fits.

 

[Nork]

Yea, I'm really digging the old school 2e feel to the essentials mage.

I want my Alteration/Transmutation, Illusion, Enchantment, Divination, Conjuration, Invocation/Evocation, Necromancy, Abjuration schools back.

Maybe we will see Necromancy spells and mage bonuses out of Heroes of the Shadow and Ravenloft.

 

[Remathilis]

Yea, I'm really digging the old school 2e feel to the essentials mage.

I want my Alteration/Transmutation, Illusion, Enchantment, Divination, Conjuration, Invocation/Evocation, Necromancy, Abjuration schools back.

Maybe we will see Necromancy spells and mage bonuses out of Heroes of the Shadow and Ravenloft.

Transmutation seems to be a lock. Necromancy will most likely be in HoS (as will a darkness domain for warpriests, I wager). Conjuration seems simple (revamp the summon spells) which only leaves divination and abjuration that seem hard to pull off.

 

[Nork]

Abjuration and divination might work as being keywords usually found on utility powers.

Or they could do some leader builds for wizards. Controller Rangers, Striker Fighters, Essentials is pretty much saying that the rule system can do what it darn well wants to.

 

[Markn]

So you can mix and match as much as you like across all of the material. Of course, since essential fighters never gain a Fighter Attack 3 encounter power, they can't select a Fighter Attack 3 encounter power from PHB1 for example.

This may not be entirely true. You can always choose lower level powers when you choose your powers. For example, if you get to pick an encounter power at a higher level, you COULD choose to pick from level 3 at that point. I often do this for utility powers. Often there are some really good choices at the same level and the next higher utility power level has poor choices, so I go back to the lower level to get the good ones!

 

[Drakhar]

This may not be entirely true. You can always choose lower level powers when you choose your powers. For example, if you get to pick an encounter power at a higher level, you COULD choose to pick from level 3 at that point. I often do this for utility powers. Often there are some really good choices at the same level and the next higher utility power level has poor choices, so I go back to the lower level to get the good ones!

I think what he meant was that because the Knight and Slayer don't gain any Attack Encounter Powers, or Dailies, they can't choose to gain a higher level one at the appropriate level. For clarification, the fact that they gain a utility power at Level 2 means that they can choose to take a utility power from the PHB, MP 1&2, or from the other build in HoFL, but because they don't gain a Fighter Attack Encounter or Daily power, they can't choose when the other builds would have to.

 

[JoJa]

Also, is Divine Cleansing, in fact, a cure disease/remove curse as its name might suggest? Or is it something else?

If you mean Holy Cleansing, the 4th level Cleric Class Feature, yes it is a cure disease/remove curse mechanic. It's a daily utility power. close burst 5. you or one ally. Target makes a saving throw with +5 power bonus on each effect a save can end. If diseased, target can spend a healing surge to improve the disease by two stages, but gets no hit points back from surge. If petrified, the condition ends but target loses remaining healing surges.

 

[JoJa]

I've heard someone say that the only stat generation they saw provided was three arrays and that point-buy and rolling options weren't included. Could you confirm this or provide the correct information if it's wrong?

This is correct. In the character creation section it presents three options for determining ability scores. "Balanced": 16, 14, 14, 11, 10, 10. "Specialist": 18, 14, 11, 10, 10, 8. And "Dual Specialist": 16, 16, 12, 11, 11, 8.

However, it also says that there are "other options" presented in the Rules Compendium including rolling and point buy, and you should ask your DM what they will allow.

Looking through the Rules Compendium it has the same three "standard arrays," plus the the 22-point, point buy system and the accompanying chart of possible combinations that first appeared in the PHB, and one rolling method: 4d6, discard lowest, six times, place where you want. It also says that using the rolling method may result in too-high or too-low scores that can be modified by your DM. (Which I think also is taken from the PHB.)

 

[Nightchilde-2]

What I really like (and my players do too) are the Superior Fortitude/Reflex/Will feats. Essentially (ha! See what I did there?) they're Great Fortitude/Lightning Reflex/Iron Will plus.

They give you the benefits of the Great/Lightning/Iron feats, plus some other effect (in some cases, like Superior Reflexes, Lightning Reflexes plus the benefit of another feat in the book), but unlike Great/Lightning/Iron, they have a prerequisite of a 15 in one of two ability scores.

 

[JoJa]

I'd also be interested in hearing about the differences between the two domains of the warpriest if Fiery_Dragon is still answering questions.

As has been mentioned before, Storm is more attacking powers and Sun more protective powers. Here's some good fluff from the Storm section: "Kord is the god of storms. A mighty warrior who revels in strong drink, he is moody and prone to anger, laughter and gloom in equal measure. He expects his clerics to match his thirst for battle. Although Kord is a force for destruction, he has no stomach for bullies. Wanton devastation or attacks on the weak and defenseless draw his fury."

Sun fluff: "Pelor is the god of the sun. He is a kindly diety who expects his priests to serve as his emissaries across the world. As a cleric of Pelor you tend to the sick and wounded wherever you find them." etc. etc.

Your choice of Domain also has a mechanical effect on what powers you choose. For example, when a a Storm cleric uses Healing Word class feature on an ally, the target gains +2 to their next damage roll. The storm at-will powers are: blessing of wrath (weapon vs. AC, one ally in 5 squares gains power bonus to damage roll) and Storm Hammer (weapon vs. fort, when charging can use this in place an MBA).

Sun Domain: When use Healing Word on an ally, you or the target gets back 2,4,6 (by tier) hit points in addition to the Healing Word effect. You also grant all allies in 5 squares a +2 bonus to death saving throws at all times. At-wills: Blessing of Battle (weapon vs. AC, you or ally in 5 gains resistance to all damage equal to your CON mod til end of your next turn) and Brand of the Sun (weapon vs. AC and you or ally in 5 can make a saving throw.)

3rd level encounter examples:
Storm: Hammering Wind. Weapon v AC (push the target one square and knock it prone)

Sun: Resurgent Sun: weapon v. AC (2W) + you or ally in 5 can spend healing surge.

So there's a marriage between the fluff and crunch differences between the two domains. So far the powers I've seen have been pretty sweet overall, and everything is keyed off wisdom for simplicity. Everything I've read leads me to believe that Warpriests from either domain are going to make awesome martial clerics, as every attack not only hits hard, but simultaneously buffs or heals you or your party. I would want one in my group.