Tidbits from PHB Viewing

[Sojorn]

+1 to each of two different stats at about every 4th level, but there are a few levels (I think 11 and 21) where every stat gets a +1 bonus.

Awesome. No choosing between your main and secondary stats. Just your secondaries

 

[Bestopheles]

Please explain what the Star Pact is, fluff-wise.

Not to be a smart ass, but it's "Monsters from the stars." One ability throws the person into "A dark and twisted area of space", for 7d10 dmg (and this could be off, I didn't write it down) where they float for a bit then fall down "mad"...considering everyone there enemy. They take Opportunity Attacks on everyone, and consider everyone an enemy.

I honestly got a psudonatural flavor...not in the "weird tentacle" way, but in the "things man was not meant to know kind of way."

 

[mach1.9pants]

@bestopheles: I assume shifters are a playable PC race in MM?
And 4E gnomes are whisper gnomes...great! No more stupid red hats (I almost puked in the Races of Stone gnome fluff!); but a stealthy and dangerous race of backstabbers. I can see my players suing this!

 

[pukunui]

Rogues are AMAZING. Like seriously, damn near Op. At 3rd level they get a utility power that lets them re-roll any bluff check (Trigger: when player rolls bluff, and doesn't like the look of the roll.) They also have a nice garrotte ability that does 7w and can be held for a bit...fun thing about holding it is that attacks on the rogue have a possibility of hitting the person you're choking). They get auto-escpape grapple abilities, and lots of things playing off Combat advantage (including one that we figured could add 7W dmg +10d8 +dex mod). Very sick.

I recently started playing SWSE and so I can't help but notice its influence on the 4e design here. SWSE has a number of talents that let classes reroll skill checks. I quite like it. Is the rogue's bluff reroll a "take the better of the two" or a "take the second result even if it's worse" power?

Starpact warlocks can throw you into the stars and bring you back bent...and infernal pact locks can banish someone to hell for a time (keeping them there for up to 3 rounds with a minor action).

Sounds suitably bizarre. Can't wait to see it for myself!

Gnomes. GNOMES. Gnomes are insane. Gnomes can *turn invis* once per encounter after they've taken dmg. They can also choose to roll "hide" instead of intialtive at the start of an encounter. Hello Gnome Rogue. And by "hello" I mean, "Please, for the love of god, stop stabbing me in the back." My friends quote was "Man, I hate gnomes! They're stupid! But now I can't stop picturing a pack of gnomes sitting in the trees doing the clicking noise that the Predators make in the alien movies. Stupid stealth gnomes. I'm going to have to play one."

Sounds like the whisper gnome is now the "default" gnome for 4e. Very cool.
EDIT: Ack! Ninja'd by the genuine Kiwi ...

Rituals: range from cheap to learn and cast to expensive. As an example: Raise Dead costs 650GP to learn uses a 500gp reagent, and "scales" at levels. At lowever levels, it's "free" except for the reagent cost." At medium levels it's 5,000gp. And at epic levels it's 50,000. Oh, and the raised person gets a penalty of -1 until you've passed "3" milestones.

I have to say that I wasn't expecting this. I thought they said that Heroic level PCs would stay dead when they died. This makes it sound like they can't die ... becuase they'll just keep getting raised for virtually no cost and with no drawbacks whenever they do.

Oh, and another interesting/weird feature....there is an easy to cast ritual that clears 1 status ailment (curse, disease, etc) each time it's cast, but with a catch. You make a heal check, and your result ='s how much dmg the TARGET sick player takes while being healed. SO, a low roll can kill outright, or can do dmg. A high roll causes very little dmg.

Now this is very cool.

 

[thalmin]

Thanks Thalmin! That's almost exactly what I imagined it would be.

Are the stats chosen for you depending on your class (which is what I expect) or do you choose?

Your choice!

 

[Bestopheles]

@bestopheles: I assume shifters are a playable PC race in MM?
And 4E gnomes are whisper gnomes...great! No more stupid red hats (I almost puked in the Races of Stone gnome fluff!); but a stealthy and dangerous race of backstabbers. I can see my players suing this!

Yeah, there are at least 2 shifters in the MM (I only looked through it for 10 mins or so), and the general reaction from my friend and I (who are both total power gamers). was...yeah, ok, this is finally a race we'd like to play.

Warforged were in the book too, but stripped down a bit. Less immunities. And their encounter ability felt to me a bit meh...once per encounter when blodied you heal con mod + 1/2 level. Still, not a bad race...but not so zomg overpowered as they once were.

 

[A'koss]

I have to say that I wasn't expecting this. I thought they said that Heroic level PCs would stay dead when they died. This makes it sound like they can't die ... becuase they'll just keep getting raised for virtually no cost and with no drawbacks whenever they do.

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?

 

[mach1.9pants]

Thanks for the info and scoops to you both....you lucky buggers!

 

[A'koss]

Your choice!

Sweet...

 

[Rechan]

Since Thalmin hasn't reposted these tidbits in this thread, I thought I would:

The following monsters were listed with some info for use as playable character races:
Bugbear
Doppleganger
Drow
Githyanki
Githzerai
Gnoll
Gnome
Goblin
Hobgoblin
Kobold
Minotaur
Orc
Shadar-Kai
Shifter (2 types)
Warforged

These are the listed Dragons
Black
Blue
Green
Red
White

There are 5 Alignments
Good
Lawful Good
Evil
Chaotic Evil
Unaligned

Among the gods I did not see any evil or CE listed.