Mearls on Controller design and At-Will balance

[Enaloindir]

Damage: 1d6 fire damage (plus see effect)
Effect: Target takes additional fire damage equal to the caster's Intelligence modifier at the end of its next turn, unless it spends a move action to extinguish the flames, which is automatically successful with no saving throw needed. This damage persists indefinitely until the target spends the required move action to end it. Additional applications of this effect from multiple castings of Scorching Burst do not stack.

Me like!

- Enaloindir

 

[DracoSuave]

I disagree. Feats aren't that costly, and a character can only acquire so many useful feats anyway. For clarity, the Ranger is just giving up a power, not a "striker power" that has the "striker bonus" incorporated into the power, so there is a net gain.


Not at all. The Warlord has class features that let her act like a leader. There is a baseline that she cannot drop below thanks to the safety net that class features provide. If that was not the case, then swapping out a to a power they cannot make use of would prevent them from doing their job completely, which is a balance issue, and the problem with relying on powers to perform roles instead of class features.

However, a Warlord does not have -only- class features that make him able to lead. The Warlord's leadery potential is decided by his power selection, his class features simply round that out.

Wizards have to be able to affect the challenge ahead of them. As a result, they get -their- class feature which is their versatility, the ability to swap dailies. Compare to Druids, whose class feature is the extra at-will and the ability to swap in and out of melee pretty much whenever they want.

The Controller class features are geared around -versatility- which is the best compliment to controlling abilities.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Playing a 4e wizard in this kind of setting is like playing a 3e mounted paladin on a barge.

Wrong character in wrong place.

Are you really saying that wizards have no place in an urban campaign?

That one of the most classic FRP roles doesn't have any place in a classic FRP situation?

 

[Obryn]

Are you really saying that wizards have no place in an urban campaign?

That one of the most classic FRP roles doesn't have any place in a classic FRP situation?

FWIW, I arched my eyebrow at that, too.

Wizards are just fine in an urban setting.

-O

 

[ThirdWizard]

Are you really saying that wizards have no place in an urban campaign?

That one of the most classic FRP roles doesn't have any place in a classic FRP situation?

FWIW, it was an urban setting with small, tight spaces and little room for maneuverability.

 

[Lizard]

FWIW, it was an urban setting with small, tight spaces and little room for maneuverability.

Which is most of them.

I admit, we do need to work on tacticals. In our last game, in a mansion, we spread out to look for a room and so triggered several encounters, and we had people running around from room to room instead of focus firing. In most cases, though, if the wizard had a clear shot at the target, someone else was also nearby. There was a lot of opening, closing, and locking doors, and while there was a nice open area for a fight, it was being covered by a (regenerating) archer on a balcony we couldn't reach. The two ranged characters were both "squishy" and didn't want to expose themselves to artillery fire, and the rest of us were fighting in narrow hallways and small rooms. The large, open, rooms had no monsters in them.

Other fights have been in crowded bars, narrow alleys, and sewers. In most cases, it takes a round to close the distance and then it's melee-on-melee, with magic missile being the only spell the wizard can bring to bear with any effectiveness. We should be "dinging" next game, and we'll see if additional feats/utility help.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

wow. Arcane power's being released on my youngest son's birthday, and divine power's being released on my birthday. What are the odds?

1/133225.

 

[Plane Sailing]

My observation of the games that I've been DMing is that fighters have far and away the biggest effect in terms of controlling the battlefield (players currently level 5). It is the fighters that dominate where things move and whether or not they can move. Mobility of most of the foes to date has been primarily affected by the fighters, via their "stop you on an OA" rule and their "free smack if you are marked and attempt to shift or hit someone else".

Wizards haven't had any effect on controlling the battlefield at all. They typically just do a little bit of damage to 1 or 2 people each round.

Cheers

 

[monboesen]

There was a lot of opening, closing, and locking doors

And did the Wizard remember to use his Mage Hand cantrip for opening and closing doors, drawing and withdrawning curtains and shutters on windows, move furniture out of the way of friends and into the way of enemies etc. etc.

That would have been controllery

 

[Danzauker]

Are you really saying that wizards have no place in an urban campaign?

That one of the most classic FRP roles doesn't have any place in a classic FRP situation?

If the classic FRP situation is only made of 30x30ft rooms and 5ft alleyways, probably it does not. If you're careful enough to design some encounters in larger rooms, halls and palaces, probably it does.

Just the mounted paladin, another of the big fantasy archetypes, is fairly restricted in dungeons, which is another classic FRP situation.