L4W Discussion Thread IV

[Oni]

Controllers, on the other hand... They generally have subpar damage to everyone else, have bad defenses, and have minor buffs. The "controlling" effect of their at-wills are, in my opinion, pretty minor. They're certainly not flashy, and it doesn't seem to be a glorified role. A lot of their powers don't do anything at all if the target follows the "control" effect (see Storm Pillar for instance), so it feels like a wasted turn even if the control aspect was useful.

Yeah, I can understand how they might not be so popular. I'm playing a wizard right now, but I think I'm going to retire him when his current adventure is over, I'm just feel like I would be having more fun and be more helpful to everyone else if I was playing a different class. The little damange spread all over over the place, or not once things get mixed up, isn't very exciting. I know some of their dailies can completely destroy encounters, I've seen it first hand in other games, but at this low level the 1/day whammy just isn't cutting it for me especially since you don't want to waste it at the wrong time. Frankly my favorite feature of the class is the cantrips, if I could play a sorcerer or warlock with cantrips they would be favorite hands down, as silly as that is. Despite my above comments I think I'm going to trade in for a warlock.

 

[evilbob]

Wizard dailies can definitely be game-breaking; how game-breaking depends on the number of encounters you have per day, really. Higher levels are better, tho - once you get the cloud at level 5, it starts getting pretty ridiculous.

 

[ScorpiusRisk]

I don't think liking the wizard cantrips is silly at all. I'm very tempted by them myself.

 

[Dekana]

Yep, ghost sound is really useful in the right situations. The wizard dailies are also very strong, maybe the best of the PHB classes even.

I don't want to sound too harsh on controllers. They're usually the best at area damage and minion popping. But with their control effects being as subtle as they are, I can understand why they're the least played archetype.

 

[Mewness]

For some reason I'm not very attracted to the actual controller classes so far, but I like vaguely controllery classes with other primary roles, especially fey warlocks and world speaker shamans. (Unfortunately I think that changing One-Who-Waits to a world speaker would be too radical a shift.)

Invokers seem quite strong to me, though, especially covenant of wrath, although I don't especially want to play one.

 

[renau1g]

I think they are a class that also requires a lot more work than the other classes. They lack the simplicity of ...say the barbarian. He runs up and Howling Strikes something, Bam does 15-20 damage and that's that. The controller has to anticipate enemy actions or constantly be aware of his allies abilities in order to set up enemies properly. It can be a lot. That being said, it's hard for the spellcasting classes as there are superior weapons that bump up melee damage, but nothing until now (PHB3) for superior implements. Also, most groups will be of 5-6 players, if you grab one of each your 5th & 6th are usually either a defender, leader, or striker. It's rare that you go into the adventure with 2 controllers.

 

[Walking Dad]

I feel the pain. I play an eladrin warlord with powers that can reposition enemies. Now we are in a small boat (not much space) against hordes of amphibian undead minions. We got no ranged specialist and no controller...

So, I would love to have a controller on our side in this encounter. It is pretty situational which class shines.

 

[KenHood]

Question: What's the ruling on player's selling or trading items to other players?

Tonk's got a couple of bottles of alchemist's acid (20 gp each) and a brooch of shielding +1 (680 gp) that I'd like to trade, so I can get a Badge of the Berserker +1 (520 gp) for him.

Is it possible to get the Brooch's property erased and re-enchant it as a Badge of the Berserker, splitting the difference in cost?

 

[renau1g]

Well VV started a discussion a bit ago, but it wasn't a proposal and nothing was ever voted on, so as it stands the only option available is for the player to sell to NPC according to the PHB rules for selling (20% of cost)

http://www.enworld.org/forum/living-4th-edition/271061-discussion-selling-stuff-pcs-4.html

 

[KenHood]

Thanks.

What about the question regarding removal of an item's property?