Tidbits from PHB Viewing

[Bestopheles]

Yes, that's what I had been thinking too considering that WotC started out saying that "all but one" of the Dungeons of Dread minis would be in the first MM but then changed that statement after the new year to say that "all of them" would be. Looks like someone screwed up somewhere. Either that or the metallics yo-yoed in and out of the MM until they were finally left out for good.

Ok, re: dragons...dragons are INCREDIBLY nasty. Like, super nasty. An older white dragon has a sphere of super cold around it that does 30 pts of cold dmg every round. And anyone IN The sphere gets cover from those outside of the sphere. So basically melee can whale away every round...but they get flashfrozen, while ranged are getting penalties to attack.

Green is pretty nasty too. They have a poison attack, and if you get two poison counters you're out of the fight (can not attack) until you get unpoisoned.

Oh, and before I forget...Storm giants are crazy as well. They have a sphere around them (3 squares I think) where the "elemental storms" are going crazy constantly....in that effect take 20 dmg, it's considered difficult terrain, and they get cover from outside.

 

[thalmin]

I was skimming the rituals because I only had a couple of minutes, but I think the - penalty always applies. I'm sure about the GP costs, but I was rushing a bit through the penalty stuff.

Too bad he didn't bring 10 more PHBs. It would have been great to get more book time, but, alas, he only had the one to bring.

 

[Bestopheles]

Question:

Did you see enough of the rituals to make a guess on how many there are? How often can a ritual be cast? Was any ritual class specific?

Anyway, I must admit that I am surprised regarding the dragons... ah well.

Cheers

Ok, so yeah...this is not going to be so helpful, but in quick answer:

I'd say there are a few dozen at least. I didn't see the rules about how often they can be cast, but the few casting times I noted were around 10 mins. And I didn't see anything that was class specific (which doesn't mean that there aren't a few), but you do need the casting feat. So my understanding of Raise Dead (again, based on a very VERY quick read) was that anyone with the ritual caster feat that learned that spell would be able to cast it.

 

[Bestopheles]

Too bad he didn't bring 10 more PHBs. It would have been great to get more book time, but, alas, he only had the one to bring.

Yeah...thanks again for setting that up Thalamin. That made my night.

 

[Stalker0]

As for Raise Dead, I figure a dm can also implement a really simple houserule if he wants:

No character below paragon tier has a heroic destiny and so can't be raised. That's an easy way to make it hard at heroic level

The main problem of having raise dead as a cost is it penalizes the party for bringing a friend back as opposed to the guy making a new character. Thing is, I don't have a better system on hand either.

 

[Bestopheles]

Int based Warlord...good fun!

Oh yeah. Warlords Healing word power works the same as clerics (can use it 2 times per encounter, healing surge + 1d6 + cha, per round, no "per day limits" like the DDExperience cleric). One of my big worries was that warlords were going to underpowered in healing next to a cleric, but I can definitely say that is no longer a concern.

And warlords in general are fun...lots of "make this big attack, and some nearby ally is insipired and can spend a healing surge" that kind of stuff. One ability called "Stand up the fallen" (or something close) allows a big attack followed up every ally in a 10 ft burst being able to use a healing surge if they'd like.

Oh yeah, this very cool epic attack that again did big melee dmg (7w + strength) and "routes" the enemy...every enemy in a burst (I think it either 10 or 5) is forced to move 1 square per INT bonus of the warlord AS THE WARLORD DIRECTS. I think that's called "Own the Battlefield."

Seemed very cool.

 

[Bestopheles]

Yeah, that was my impression as well - I wonder though if Raise Dead has any conditions attached to it such as requiring a relatively whole body. Perhaps if you destroy the body (burn it, hack it to salsa...) it can't be raised?

There were a few conditions honestly...only one I can remember is time. I think it was within a few weeks, but again, I was rushing.

 

[jaldaen]

I am seriously annoyed if int has no influence on anything... (and if its just the number of languages you have/can learn)

I just had a thought... what if Int determines how many times per day you can activate magical items? It's not much, but if it was the only way to get more power uses from magical items... then it might be worth it in the long run.

The only problem would be coming up with the reasoning for it... especially when you have magical items created from both arcane and divine sources

 

[jaldaen]

2-weapon fighting is a feat, but just gives a damage bonus, not an extra attack. The ranger can take an at-will that gives him an extra attack.

Do you remember the trade off for the at-will granting an extra attack? Was their a penalty to the attack? Did you lose your Dexterity mod to damage for both attacks? Something else?

Also was it limited to melee or could you use it for extra ranged attacks?

Thanks!

 

[Stalker0]

I just had a thought... what if Int determines how many times per day you can activate magical items? It's not much, but if it was the only way to get more power uses from magical items... then it might be worth it in the long run.

Currently, all magic items we've seen are 1/encounter or 1/daily abilities, int doesn't seem to factor into that.