Ran a playtest adventure tonight

[Bold or Stupid]

I read the report which was cool, and I have some reservations about your house rules, but if they work for you groovy. I just have one problem, any group I run for would have joined Dunfalcon at the end, or at least seriously considered it, but then I run for a group of serious feminists. They would have so helped her get the life she wanted, maybe not the kingdom but they would hate her oppressive father.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Heck I seem to recall in OD&D they magic missiled ONE thing and then just ran away with their dagger

Nah, in OD&D the MU slept 4-16 orcs with no save in one spell and slit their throats. Then ran away with their dagger after that.

(magic missile in OD&D was +1 hit doing 1d6+1 damage, like a +1 magic arrow of its day).

Cheers!

 

[small pumpkin man]

I attribute this to Skamos's spell selection. Barring sleep he has a complement of effective but uninteresting spells (no, cantrips don't count when discussing the controller aspect of the class). I don't think it's a fair test of the wizard.

The ranger had a typo that made his Careful Attack too effective, so I imagine he played rather flat as well(haven't actually seen him in action though so I'm not sure).

The rest of the characters are tactically flexible and dare I say 'cool'.

And even the ranger has hunter's quarry. The lack of need for movement, or control over others movement does make the example Wizard less tactically interesting.

Not to be obnoxious, but did the Wizard player remember/know the scorching blast power covers 9 squares, not 4? Because except for the Dragon fight, that's what I can see myself spamming. I do hope there are more interesting things for ranged characters to do in Solo fights, (esp fighting Dragons) it doesn't seem to be too much the case so far.

 

[Vysirez]

I attribute this to Skamos's spell selection. Barring sleep he has a complement of effective but uninteresting spells (no, cantrips don't count when discussing the controller aspect of the class). I don't think it's a fair test of the wizard.

The ranger had a typo that made his Careful Attack too effective, so I imagine he played rather flat as well(haven't actually seen him in action though so I'm not sure).

The rest of the characters are tactically flexible and dare I say 'cool'.

I do agree that is part of the issue. Everyone gets 2 at will abilities generally. Except for the wizard they are all pretty much single target damage with various bonuses effects. However the wizard gets a single target and an AE. The AE does less damage, so unless you can get multiple targets with it, you end up using MM. Which is fine for an AE vs single target, but leaves the wizard with slightly less variety then some of the classes.

I do have to agreee with pumpkin man though, I expect a lot of players who were unhappy with thier wizards either didnt use scorching burst as often as they mabye could, either due to misunderstanding the size of the AE, or just forgetfullness. It's essentially a 5x5 square, thats pretty good. As long as you can hit 2+ targets you are somewhat better off with scorching bust over MM. Average of 8x2 vs 10 for MM.

 

[BASHMAN]

The ranger had a typo that made his Careful Attack too effective, so I imagine he played rather flat as well(haven't actually seen him in action though so I'm not sure).

The rest of the characters are tactically flexible and dare I say 'cool'.

Actually, I fixed the Accurate attack, so it was +10 to hit, d10 damage, and the regular was +6 to hit d10+4 damage-- so it was often a tossup which he'd use (This guy has a high AC... I'll set him as my quarry, but go for the accurate attack-- or -- this dude is pissing me off, I use my regular attack on him.)

As for flexibility, the Paladin proved to be the most flexible. He only used the bolstering strike once the whole game (kept finding other fun stuff, like grappling kobold casters...)

I agree about the wizard... probably just didn't have the best spell choices made. Sleep was utterly lame. The one time it was cast, both enemies (hobgoblins who get to make their saves immediately) shrugged it off. since they were already in melee, the slowed effect was of no use on them. I see that spell as being useful for stopping an enemy from approaching or running away for 1 round, then you have a 45% that it will actually have a secondary effect.

 

[BASHMAN]

I read the report which was cool, and I have some reservations about your house rules, but if they work for you groovy. I just have one problem, any group I run for would have joined Dunfalcon at the end, or at least seriously considered it, but then I run for a group of serious feminists. They would have so helped her get the life she wanted, maybe not the kingdom but they would hate her oppressive father.

Actually, this happened, with the girl players being split on the issue... but when one of them remembered the fact that she tried to kill them they changed their mind. Essentially the father is a repressive jerk, but the daughter was a sociopath working with the forces of evil (various humanoids & a red dragon).