Keep on the Shadowfell preview

[rhm001]

So, the half-elf warlock pregen probably had the wizard initiate feat.

Maybe, but I don't think so. Looking at the Tira sheet again, she only had four skills, and Arcana---the automatic skill for the Wizard multiclass feat---wasn't one of them. If she had the feat, she'd get the skill too.

Maybe the new Cleric has an extra Cleric ability? We don't know whether you can take something from your own class. It wouldn't be as "nifty" as picking up another class's, but it might be useful for a specific build or concept... Also, there might be a paladin ability that the cleric took that looks a lot like it should be a cleric attack, so it's not obvious.

 

[pukunui]

Well, only a handful of people can test if the book really implode if you try to change the pregens

Seattle, Washington: A Renton man received minor burns to his hands and face today when a book he was holding spontaneously combusted. The man, an employee of local gaming company Wizards of the Coast, said he was attempting to customize the pregenerated characters that came with his proof copy of Wizards' Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition release, H1: Keep on the Shadowfell. The Wizards staffer, who asked not to be named, said, "I wasn't particularly happy with the pregens that Mike [Mearls] and Bruce [Cordell] came up with so I wanted to tweak them a little bit ... well, really, it was just an excuse to have a play with my first-run copies of the core 4th Edition rulebooks. I guess I should have read the fineprint before trying any customization ... That [Mearls] really is Chaotic Evil!" The man was taken to hospital, where he received treatment for his burns, as well as a nice steaming mug of hot chocolate, and will be at home recovering for the rest of the week. "I just hope all my things are still in my cubicle when I get back," he said. "I don't want to point any fingers, but I suspect this might have been an attempt by my some of my colleagues to kill me and take my stuff. They're always talking about doing that ..." Fellow Wizards staffers Mike Mearls and Bruce Cordell, the authors of the self-combusting book, were not available for comment.

 

[Kahoots]

Too funny, Pukunui!

 

[invokethehojo]

Sorry if I missed this but is there a disclaimer in the book that says something like these feats/powers/skills may be changed in the real [PHB] 4th Ed.?

I don't know of any disclaimer but in the writer's blog he mentions it being hard to finish because the rules kept changing. He wanted to make sure all the rules jived before the final revision of the adventure.

 

[pukunui]

Too funny, Pukunui!

Thanks!

I added a little bit to the end.

 

[SPECTRE666]

Leaving aside the practicality of collecting NDA forms from every game store owner who receives a shipment of KotS, why on earth would WotC put them under NDA about an in-store preview copy of the adventure sent out early to drum up interest in the product?

-Ding, ding, ding!!! +1


SPECTRE666

 

[thalmin]

Just a brief post (my game starts soon)
I just realized a couple changes in the Fighter's Combat Challenge:

Every time you attack an enemy, whether that attack hits or misses, you can choose to mark that target. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if its attack doesn't include you as a target. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place.
In addition whenever an enemy that is adjacent to you shifts or makes an attack that does not include you, you can make a melee basic attack against that enemy as an immediate interrupt.

Also Combat Superiority has changed. It is now simply

Combat Superiority: You gain a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks.

 

[Sojorn]

No movement stopping?

Interesting.

 

[cyberpunk]

Just a brief post (my game starts soon)
I just realized a couple changes in the Fighter's Combat Challenge:
Quote:
Every time you attack an enemy, whether that attack hits or misses, you can choose to mark that target. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if its attack doesn't include you as a target. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place.
In addition whenever an enemy that is adjacent to you shifts or makes an attack that does not include you, you can make a melee basic attack against that enemy as an immediate interrupt.

Also Combat Superiority has changed. It is now simply
Quote:
Combat Superiority: You gain a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks.

Hmm. That really makes the fighter less impressive, unless the pregen "stop move" was some fighter option / ability that the fighter included in Shadowfell doesn't have.

Also, I believe the "whether attacks or misses" isn't really new, per se, but rather clarification--the old wording of "when you attack" made it clear that it applied regardless.

That said, the attack on an adjacent target ability is nice. Perhaps the fighter gets to choose between the stop-move and the stop-adjacent attack ability? That would sort of make sense--somewhat thematically different.

The stop-adjacent attack ability does admittedly let you stand next to the wizard (or whoever), and "defend" them, but then you open yourself to nasty area attacks in a way that you were not previously (plus a whole host of other problems).

 

[LFK]

No movement stopping?

Interesting.

This is probably a result of being Fighter(two-handed weapon) instead of Fighter(weapon and shield).