Class Acts: Fighter

[Shroomy]

That you'd even want to do this indicates to me that the power creep has gone from being a trickle to a tsunami.

That's an odd conclusion to draw from Kzach's statement (and not really supported by the actual evidence). A more reasonable conclusion would be that there is now a lot of really cool at-will powers available to each class, but given that you are usually restricted to 2-3 1st level at-will attack powers, there's no way for a single character to regularly access more than a handful over the course of 30 levels.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

"Power Creep" means that the latest powers are generally better than the older powers. In which case, people just swap their old powers for the new shinies and don't look back.
The fact that he wants both his old powers and the new powers indicates:
1) that the former and the latter are roughly equal in power and
2)that he wants his character to be more versatile.

2) is just a personal preference, and 1) means that there's little to no power creep.
At least, that's what logic seems to dictate in this instance.
It'd be interesting if you could share your POV in this case, because I'm not seeing how you're going from "someone would like to have more At-Wills" to "Power creep is steadily increasing".

I think the logic was assuming that an encounter power is better than an at-will, so Celebrim might have assumed that the at-wills are stronger than the encounter power.

But that is not what Kzach described. he wanted to exchange a power he could use once per encounter against a power that he could use at-will. The at-will power might be, in an individual round, still be weaker as the encounter power, but he can use the at-will power again. It's about exchanging versatility for power. At least that's the ideal. But it doesn't work that way in reality. The ability to use the same power three times in an encounter might be more important than the ability to use a stronger power once per encounter.

That's ultimiately why all classes have the same base number of at-will, encounter and daily powers. Changing the numbers makes things more complicated.

In a short encounter, encounter powers probably have more impact. In an extended one, it lessens and the right at-will choice is more crucial.
During a short "adventuring day" with only one or two encounters, daily powers will have a notable impact. If the adventuring day consists of a dozen encounters, daily powers will have less impact and encounter powers (and at-wills, and action point benefits) become more important.

If you can keep the number of rounds in an encounter and/or the number of encounters per day constant (or know the standard deviation), you can balance different number of encounter/daily powers per class. If you don't keep it constant, you can't.

 

[Njall]

I think the logic was assuming that an encounter power is better than an at-will, so Celebrim might have assumed that the at-wills are stronger than the encounter power.

You're right, that's a reasonable way to put it.
However, glancing over the newer at-will powers one can easily see how the follow the same pattern they've always followed: [W] damage (2[W] at level 21) + a minor effect (slide, pull, push, +Stat mod to damage, + Stat mod to temporary HP, target a NAD and so on...). There's not much in the way of power creep, as far as at-will powers go.

 

[Rechan]

You're right, that's a reasonable way to put it.
However, glancing over the newer at-will powers one can easily see how the follow the same pattern they've always followed: [W] damage (2[W] at level 21) + a minor effect (slide, pull, push, +Stat mod to damage, + Stat mod to temporary HP, target a NAD and so on...). There's not much in the way of power creep, as far as at-will powers go.

ONe could make the argument that Wizard atwils have gotten more powerful.

But they have: this is intentional, to compensate for weaker at-wills at first printing. INstead of eratta, better options are presented to make them on par with other classes.

Aside from the wizard, agreed.

 

[vagabundo]

Nice at wills, I've often though that the martial power source lacked enough weapon specific powers.

This has just reminded me that WotC needs to get the Unearthed Arcana out so we can try different power structures.

Extrapolating from previous editions where should we expect it?

EDIT: By my own rough reckoning it will be 2012/13 at the earliest...

 

[davethegame]

Very cool article. It's funny, my impression is something like "oh, it would be really cool to take these powers and wield a dynamic weapon, and that would be a fun character to play" and then I think "...and I bet someone in character optimization has already figured out a way to take one of the powers, combine it with some specific item, and get crit range 12-20 and do a zillion damage with every hit."

I like having more stances, and some of them are almost at-will stances, at least to the point of being relevant during a single encounter. I hope we'll see more of that kind of thing in Martial Power 2, a book I wasn't otherwise looking forward to.

 

[Christian]

The physics of the image on the first page of the excerpt is very confusing - what exactly is happening? The fighter appears to be be in the downward part of a jump, using the added impact to add to the power of her hammer. But the orc is reeling as if from an earlier uppercut blow. Did she just kick him? Another interpretation is that she hit him with an upswing of the hammer and is now coming in for a downswing, but that does not fit with her legs at all.

Huh, I didn't even notice there was an orc in the picture. Somehow, my eyes only made it about a third of the way down the illustration, then everything else became just a background blur. Wonder what caused that? Some kind of artist's trickery, I suppose.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

In such a circumstance, would both effects on the power apply, or just one?

I belive both. A Kopesh is an Axe and a aheavy blade, so if you use the new at will power Weapon Master Strike, you would do Str Vs AC for 1[w]+str+con and you get a +1 AC

 

[ferratus]

I think weapon-specific powers are the key to making your choice of weapon matter. It was what was promised in the 4e preview, and which wasn't delivered in the first core book.

I think that fighting styles and weapon specific powers are a way for those who like playing fighters exclusively to finally have the variety that spellcasters have always had in prior editions.

 

[the8bitdeity]

I belive both. A Kopesh is an Axe and a aheavy blade, so if you use the new at will power Weapon Master Strike, you would do Str Vs AC for 1[w]+str+con and you get a +1 AC

+1 AC against that target