I've been looking through the Historian's powers, and I have all kinds of questions. I'll continue looking, and try to split these up into different posts so they aren't so large.
I noticed that A) all of your encounter power levels have an attack specialized for the 4 paths of the Historian, B) all of your utility levels have At-Will, Encounter, and Daily powers, and that C) all of your daily powers either have a miss function or the Reliable keyword. Super ****ing bravo man, I can't explain how important these things are to me. First off, having specialized encounter powers AND all around powers all the way to 27 really makes your choice important, and really helps make your Historian unique in feel, and lowers pigeon-holing to boot. Secondly, just having the option to take any kind of utility power makes a big difference to me. No classes (I think) have At-Will utilities all the way to 22 (which may be a balance thing, I'll check that out later). Lastly, the "Wiff" factor of 4E really rears it's ugly mug when using dailys. My players get <i>super bummed</i> when they waste their dailys, and I imagine you've seen it happen too. Which, unfortunately, brings up a balance issue.
IMO, the majority of the daily powers for all the classes should do something on a miss, contain the Reliable keyword, or do something similar, but they don't. I'm not gonna go look through all of them, but I imagine a good chunk of dailys for the core classes don't have any of the three. Which, sadly, makes the Historian look overpowered in this regard (on paper). I'm not one to constantly shout at "OMGZ BROKEN NERF PLZ" whenever I can; I'm usually hesitant to call something on it's power, so please consider this carefully. I'm not asking you to change it, but just to be aware that it's there, and that in play, this might make all the other classes jealous.
I've noticed that something like 4-5 of your powers (mostly in earlier levels) give a bonus to the Historians attacks, e.g. Dex +2 vs Ref. I assume you know this, talented as you are, but 4th edition is not keen on handing out untyped bonuses to attack rolls. I looked (more like skimmed) at all the powers (specifically the attack line for each power) of the Rogue, Ranger, Warlord, Fighter, and Wizard. Unless I missed one or two, it didn't look like the Warlord, Rogue, or Wizard got any bonuses to attack for any of their powers. The fighter and ranger got a handful, but the bonus was obviously a direct part of the power (like an accurate power that gives up damage), and not used to balance it against other powers (which is what I'm assuming <i>some</i> of these bonuses you give are for). I don't want to tell you to get rid of them, but you might look back over them and compare them (I assume you did this when you made them) to some powers from other classes that are similar.
Alright, on with the specific questions. I've gotten up to lvl 5 Dailys so far. Good Luck!
1: Compare the Historian At-Will "Quit While You're Ahead" (Shifting 1+Dex after the attack) to the Rogue At-Will "Deft Strike" (move 2 squares before the attack) and the Ranger At-Will "Nimble Strike" (Shift 1 before or after the attack). I see you tried to balance the power with the requirement "You must have either combat advantage or Practical Knowledge on the target" and that it only does Int damage, but the idea of being able to shift 5 squares (assuming 18 dex) and attack as a standard action seems a bit too powerful to me. I think... I'd be fine with just dropping it down to Dex mod, instead of 1+dex mod. Maybe.
2: For the Daily Attack 1 "Cut and Run" it says you may move a number of squares equal to your speed +2 "without incurring a penalty to attack rolls or granting combat advantage". What do you mean by that? It sounds like they get to take a fake "run" action without the penalties or granting CA, but they still draw OA's. Is that what you were going for?
3: For the Daily Attack 1 "Flying Tackle" (awesome, btw), does the historian get to choose what square adjacent to his target he lands prone in after the tackle? I assume the secondary basic attack is made after the historian has landed prone (and therefore at a -2 penalty)?
4: For the Daily Attack 1 "Hail of Objects", you might just want to say under miss "miss: Half Damage, and this power does not have the Improvised keyword". This suggestion goes for any other powers that have this same miss feature that I have yet to read.
5: For the Daily Attack 1 "Lead Them On", why did you choose to include a (save ends) for the Mark condition? (I've read some higher level powers since I wrote this question, and saw you did it a few more times, but the questions still there; why?) Also, if the Historian is completely surrounded (for example, 8 med. sized enemies adjacent to a med. sized historian), consider the following.
Under "Moving Through Occupied Squares" on page 283 of the PH, it says this:
Enemy: You normally can’t move through an enemy’s space unless that enemy is helpless or two size categories larger or smaller than you. Moving into a nonhelpless enemy’s space provokes an opportunity attack from that enemy, because you left a square adjacent to the enemy. (Some powers let you move through an enemy’s square without provoking an opportunity attack.)
I interpret that as saying you can't ever move through a nonhelpless enemy's space unless they are two size categories larger than you, or you have a power that allows you to move through enemy's squares. Therefore, by (what I think are) your RAW, the historian could not use the granted shift of this power if they were surrounded. Is this what you intended? If not, would it be unreasonable to allow the historian to shift through one of his enemies squares (maybe just if surrounded, but that might make the power too messy)?
6: The Utility 2 "Its Own Worst Enemy" seems, on paper, a bit overpowered. The Historian gets a "get out of bleeding free" card, AND the monster gets hit (if the hit is a crit, ouch). I'm glad you said "takes damage as if the attack had hit it" instead "is hit with the attack", because that would assuredly be overpowered. Anyways, I'm not sure how to change this without breaking it. Maybe instead of it hitting itself, it could grant CA (I like this) or get hit with a condition?
7: The Encounter Attack 3 "Quick Save" is a sweet ability. Totally heroic, swarthy-like in my mind. With the pulling of your ally, I assume the ally moves through the exact same squares you enter (and then leave), until you end your movement? What if you one of you are large size?
8: On the Daily Attack 5 "One-Two Punch", you have listed under the secondary attack "Miss: No damage". I don't think this line is necessary as if the secondary hits, all it does is damage (no effects/conditions/etc). This change would make it look more like the Daily attack 9 "If At First You Don't Succeed".
9: For the Daily 5 "Stick Like Glue", the wording on the movement sounds a little wonky. How does this sound?:
Until the end of the encounter, your first 2 squares of movement and/or your first square of shifting are not counted towards your normal movement limit if they bring you closer to the target.
Thanks a million for reading these, I want to tell you again how awesome a job you did on this class. Keep up the good work! I'll have more questions in a bit.