Player's Handbook 2: I haz it

[Nikosandros]

Not really, no. I assume he was talking about the Background rules, which almost certainly won't be in the Compendium, and may not be supported in the Character Builder (since they don't quite work the same as the FR backgrounds). I could be wrong about that.

I certainly hope that he new backgrounds will be in the CB, since I plan on using them in my game and I also use the CB to keep track of all the characters.

 

[StormHarbinger]

Backgrounds as a concept have changed from their original incarnation. Whereas before they were created in whole (i.e. the regional backgrounds from FRPG and the Scales of War backgrounds from Dragon), they're now presented in a more fluff text style, i.e. "I used to be a bandit, therefore I might have a +2 to Stealth". Thus there's no crunch to include in the Compendium or CB. They might need to rebuild the CB background section just to compensate, although making simple adjustments using houserules works fine as well for this sort of background.

 

[jgsugden]

Snipping it there.

He said same class. Not same class, same race and same subset of a class...

He did say same class. However, he was responding to my post in which I discussed core builds for each class that each featured very minimal variability. I really wish the character builder collected data from made characters and transmitted that back to WotC for tracking how characters are being built, which feats/powers are not being used, and what combinations of powers/feats are consistently appearing.

Regardless, this is not the thread for this discussion. There are a lot of threads about the limited variability in 4E (in terms of the limited number of viable builds within each class as well as the reduced differentiation between the classes).

 

[evilbob]

Here's my only question:

Is the copy editing incredibly poor like it has been for all the books released in the last year; i.e. do they still have blatant typos, copy/paste errors, and see page XX for more details?

 

[Kitsune]

Do druids have any healing/weather/nature magic, or just shape changing?

Sanjay

Or to be a bit more focused, can druids heal at all anymore, or is it pure offense?

 

[ppaladin123]

Are half-elves allowed to take the human or elf paragon paths?

 

[Superboy]

Are half-elves allowed to take the human or elf paragon paths?

I don't think Half-Elves can take racial paragon paths at all, and are limited to the Versatile Master feat. Which is awesome by the way.

Flickr Photo Download: PHB2 PF

 

[RefinedBean]

Or to be a bit more focused, can druids heal at all anymore, or is it pure offense?

The previewed druid had a daily power that could heal allies. Not a crazy amount of healing, but healing nonetheless.

 

[BlackJaw]

Multiclass Feats

I'd love to get some more details on the multi-class feats in the PHB2.

For example: Spirit Talker (Shaman)
It was mentioned that it gives a spirit companion, and "some powers."
As a leadership class, I imagine one of those powers is Healing Spirits, but as a daily power instead of 2/encounter.
Does the Spirit Talker feat provide "Call Spirit Companion" as an at-will, encounter, or daily power? Do you get a spirit boon or the spirit boon associated power? If so are they at-will, encounter, or daily? Do they get some stripped down variant of any of the above instead of the full Spirit Shaman powers?

EDIT:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21677604@N00/
Spirit Talker (Shaman Multiclass)
Prerequisite Wisdom 13
You gain the Call Spirit Companion power, but as a standard action.
Gain either Spirit's Fang or Spirit's Shield as an encounter power.
Gain Speak with Spirits as a Daily power.

 

[Zorono]

Bard

The preview of the bard listed him with an assortment of melee weapons (including the long sword) as well as the ability to use military ranged weapons. Did he recieve any powers that use melee and ranged weapons? In the class preview posted at WotC, they only seemed to focus on ranged attacks. A better question would be are there enough Weapon attacks to do a bard that is not forced to hang back as a caster, two at-wills, one encounter, and daily per level. Also what sort of benefit does the multi-class bard gain? I would assuming it is a healing ability like all of the leaders and a skill training. Thanks in advance.