The Pixie is up!

[ForeverSlayer]

So first you're upset that a Pixie at Epic tier will have to spend a bunch of time re-sizing their stuff every day, and when you're shown that you didn't even read the power in question, you're mad that they don't?

You're not just shifting goalposts, you're moving them between the end zones. I understand you feel obliged to be perpetually negative; it'd be nice if you could at least choose a point and argue it.

Pixies are tiny because, presumably, people who want to play a pixie want to play a Tiny race - a pixie, not a hobbit with wings. They can resize stuff because otherwise they use different equipment from everyone else, making a nightmare for DMs and players both; it's a way to have a Tiny character that isn't gimped on gear.

If you're worried about Invisibility, remember Racial Utilities. I expect it will be one of their choices. (The gear-shrinking power is extra; their real Racial Power is basically the githyanki racial power.) If they are going oldschool, they might even have some sort of Otto's Irresistible Dance option at some point.

-O

What exactly are you talking about? The two aren't even related so I don't even know where you pull this stuff out of, actually I have a good idea where but I'm not going to say it. The part about the equipment was settled, I had moved on to the fact that they had to create a racial power to make the pixie essentially a small character.

I'm not mad about anything with regards to the equipment issue. You might want to try getting your information straight before you start assuming. They went to the trouble of creating an Encounter racial power to shrink items down so you can use them. The best thing to do was to leave them at small and use that racial for something else.

I think maybe you don't fully understand when you try and use the goalpost analogy.

 

[I'm A Banana]

They can resize stuff because otherwise they use different equipment from everyone else, making a nightmare for DMs and players both; it's a way to have a Tiny character that isn't gimped on gear.

It's too much to ask for from a race, but I'd like D&D in general to not care so much about size. This probably means ditching (or at least loosening) the grid, but man, the things that the game could gain if it just didn't matter if you were 2 feet tall or 20 feet tall are so great that I think it would be WELL EFFING WORTH IT.

Besides:

This is a cinematic fantasy game designed for fun times not for "If wizards were real they'd walk like dis"

It's good advice, I guess it's just a shame combat doesn't follow it very well.

The pixie looks a little clunky, but I imagine once you actually play a couple sessions it will all make sense. There are really only two new rules the average player will need to learn: how the altitude limit works and what happens when the pixie shares another creature's space.

IMXP, this depends on the player more so than anything else. Some folks will grok the rules stuff pretty quickly, others will grok it well enough to play the thing, others will no doubt feel a desire to house rule the heck out of it, and some will, no matter how many times they try, never quite understand how these different sizes and sharing spaces and things work.

Personally, I just think it's odd that a race with such a clear existing archetype is hit with such a rules brick. But given the design of 4e combat (and thus 4e powers and thus 90% of the 4e game), they didn't have much of a choice. If they wanted to make a tiny flying character, they must effectively remove most of the tiny and most of the flying, or else it would be A Problem For The Game.

But, hey, I'm generally a Big Fan Of Weirdness, and this race fits the bill. And I'm fond of how adding "vampire" to everything is basically instant humor these days.

 

[WalterKovacs]

I love how a Tiny person with inches-long arms has the same reach as a grown human.

It reaches an adjacent square. So, if it's able to move around inside it's own square (and so can the opponent) than can get VERY close to each other. Other than a whip, you aren't going to have a reach 2 weapon with pixies.

I love how a pixie can only fly 5' up, but there's no explanation why.

It's ok if there is no explanation for their fly speed being 6, or their ability to fly at all ... but a 5' ceiling (which likely can be modified through additional feats, paragon paths, etc) is the thing that breaks the believability of the tiny flying magical fey creatures.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Yeah, but currently, so can eladrin, Thieves with Acrobatic Trick, and anyone with a good Athletics skill.

In play, I expect this to be much less of a deal than it's being made out to be.

Hell, I remember Earthdawn. Windlings had none of these restrictions!

-O

But Windling had to walk half the time, flying was very tiring, and couldn't get wet as this made their wings fragile. They had plenty of limitations.

I really like the shrinking gear thing, makes the refs life much easier and I don't mind the altitude limits (would have prefered 10' though).

 

[Klaus]

So they wasted a power that essentially gives the pixie the same qualities of a small character. Should have just made the pixie small to start with.

Er... You forgot the *actual* racial power, namely fly 6? Or the racial power that grants an ally the ability to fly 6 squares as a free action? No one wasted anything.

 

[pauljathome]

E No one wasted anything.

Well, they maybe wasted the opportunity to create a balanced and reasonable pixie .

While its probably not gamebreaking, the pixie is pretty clearly far superior to something like a halfling. Its faster, it can fly, it can hide in its companions squares, and it has absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever from being tiny.

Even with the limitations the ability to fly is very significant, especially at lower levels. All sorts of terrain features can be just ignored.

So it definitely represents a significant power gain over the small races.

In world terms, it also makes little or no sense. All sorts of things stand out as essentially quite silly. A tiny creature's little sword and little shield are every bit as effective as the much larger equivalents its friends wield? It has to come back to within 5 feet of the ground every 6 seconds? While being no more dextrous and only slightly quicker than its 1/2 ling friend it has the same range with its tiny pointy stick as the 1/2 ling does with its much larger one? It is as strong as its human friend despite being 1/64 the weight?

Yeah, yeah, I know. Its magic. Physics and reasonableness need not apply.

I should add that one of my favourite characters was a windling in Earthdawn. Part of what made that character fun was that it PLAYED quite differently from a normal character. Its size constantly mattered. Sometimes it was an advantage, sometimes it was a disadvantage. Its flight was definitely a significant advantage, albeit one that came with drawbacks. Taking a windling warrior was NOT a good power gamers choice since, in that role, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages. It was still probably a viable character but it was definitely sub optimal.

This pixie seems like the opposite to me. No tradeoffs, just benefits. For almost all purposes it really is NOT tiny, it plays as if it is small. Yeah, that makes things easier for WOTC. But it loses a huge amount in the process.

And I'll bet that this race becomes one of the main power gaming choices for all sorts of silly classes where a pixie really SHOULD SUCK. Or, at least, be significantly suboptimal.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

It's too much to ask for from a race, but I'd like D&D in general to not care so much about size. This probably means ditching (or at least loosening) the grid, but man, the things that the game could gain if it just didn't matter if you were 2 feet tall or 20 feet tall are so great that I think it would be WELL EFFING WORTH IT.

It's happening. I think within the next edition or two, size categories smaller than Large will just be fluff labels. Like alignments.

Small size has always been just a sub-category of Medium; despite earlier editions' varying claims to realism, halflings and every other Small monster have always had a 5 ft reach despite the absurdity of it.

4e did away with size modifiers; all that's left are a couple weapon restrictions for Small PCs. And ignoring those is a pretty common house rule. And now 4e has a Tiny race that has all the important trappings of Medium size.

Mark my words, soon size will be as meaningless as the points on Whose Line is it Anyway?

It reaches an adjacent square. So, if it's able to move around inside it's own square (and so can the opponent) than can get VERY close to each other. Other than a whip, you aren't going to have a reach 2 weapon with pixies.

Oh a whip, good idea! I'll name my pixie explorer Indiana Bell. And her life quest will be to cure the acrophobia the plagues her race!

It's ok if there is no explanation for their fly speed being 6, or their ability to fly at all ... but a 5' ceiling (which likely can be modified through additional feats, paragon paths, etc) is the thing that breaks the believability of the tiny flying magical fey creatures.

Glad we're on the same page.

 

[Incenjucar]

There are living creatures and machines in the REAL WORLD with altitude limits. It's not unrealistic in the slightest.

A pixie dealing the same damage as a small creature is due to a number of factors, but more or less is the same way that a rogue can deal extra damage with shuriken.

 

[babinro]

How does opportunity attacks work with a pixie?

Do they provoke when a creature leaves an adjacent square or only when a creature leaves the square the pixie occupies?

I'm unclear if the wee warrior is intended to give the pixie reach 1, but not threatening reach 1 for Opportunity Actions. Of course, no where that I know in the PHB does it say any other class or race gains threatening reach 1 by default either so I'd assume they do.

Besides the above uncertainty, the race certainly feels overpowered when compared to many 4E races. It is more on par with the super races like Dwarves and Drow. My friend intends to make a Pixie Vampire, should be fun times.

 

[Incenjucar]

"Moving Provokes: If an enemy leaves a square adjacent to you, you can make an opportunity attack against that enemy."

Tiny creatures default at lacking an attack that can actually TARGET that square, is all. Pixies get around this.