Heroes of Shadow Table of Contents

[WalterKovacs]

I'm eager to see their final form, as well!

From the ToC, my contributions that made it are:
- Shade
- Vryloka
- Feats
- Paragon Paths: Battleweaver, Dusk Oracle, Ravenkin, Veiled Master
- Epic Destinies: Keeper of the Everflow, Marshal of Letherna, Twilight Tribune

Those all seem like they are easy to be Essential-free. Actually, the Essential books have so far only had 1 paragon path for each "class", and a single Epic Destiny for the book, so multiple options for each is a pre-Essential idea. And races were already getting 2 options for their second +2 before Essentials, so races aren't really Essentialized either (except for Revenants getting a new bonus). The only thing that could change would be feats, as they were avoiding restrictions on feats in the other books (i.e. no tier, class, race restrictions), so we'll see if that continues going forward, or if that was just a "keep the 'core' books simple" thing instead of an Essentials thing. We have seen Essential feats in Dragon magazine that are only for specific classes (like the rogue feat to be able to use staffs for sneak attack and backstab, etc).

 

[gyor]

Since the shade has been preview would it be alright if I ask about it?

The -1 surge has been contraversial personally I don't think its a big deal just curious about why you made that choice was it to compensate for the utility powers?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I'm eager to see their final form, as well!

From the ToC, my contributions that made it are:
- Shade
- Vryloka
- Feats
- Paragon Paths: Battleweaver, Dusk Oracle, Ravenkin, Veiled Master
- Epic Destinies: Keeper of the Everflow, Marshal of Letherna, Twilight Tribune

So you haven't joined with the camp that thinks PPs and EDs are failed design concept?

 

[TarionzCousin]

What people have utterly failed to comment on so far is that this book is biased: it's all about Shadow. We already had a book or three on "Light" (presumably the PHB's). What we are lacking is a book about the in-between amounts of light.

And what's with the Heroes all the time? What about ordinary folks? Don't they deserve a book? Of course they do!

When are we finally going to see "Mediocre Peasants of the Late Afternoon/Overcast Sky"?

 

[Dice4Hire]

What people have utterly failed to comment on so far is that this book is biased: it's all about Shadow. We already had a book or three on "Light" (presumably the PHB's). What we are lacking is a book about the in-between amounts of light.

And what's with the Heroes all the time? What about ordinary folks? Don't they deserve a book? Of course they do!

When are we finally going to see "Mediocre Peasants of the Late Afternoon/Overcast Sky"?

Well, get writing.

WOTC: Be a pal and put this one behind a paywall.

 

[gyor]

So you haven't joined with the camp that thinks PPs and EDs are failed design concept?

I wasn't aware that anyone was saying pps and eds were a failure, they seem universal popular concepts.

 

[Klaus]

Since the shade has been preview would it be alright if I ask about it?

The -1 surge has been contraversial personally I don't think its a big deal just curious about why you made that choice was it to compensate for the utility powers?

The shade, as previewed, changed a bit from the original thing. When I was assigned to it, the -1 surge was already in place. I was handed the "gray box" and the first paragraph of the description... I changed the racial power to what was previewed and added the description, roleplaying, racial utilities, etc. I think the surge hit worked better in the original thing, but it's not really a dealbreaker. I think the penalty reinforces a certain way to play a shade, which is a race that works best in a more subtle type of campaign where combat is more infrequent.

 

[Incenjucar]

I think the penalty reinforces a certain way to play a shade, which is a race that works best in a more subtle type of campaign where combat is more infrequent.

Like how the warlock is for campaigns where things don't have as many hit points?

 

[Aegeri]

I think the penalty reinforces a certain way to play a shade, which is a race that works best in a more subtle type of campaign where combat is more infrequent.

This is really poor reasoning, akin to saying that a character with all 8s should be perfectly viable because he never has to do any combat. It also goes against the principle that 4E was founded on, where every type of character should be able to contribute and be effective in combat. It doesn't change that as written, the Shade is probably going to end up the bottom of the pile for racial choices for nearly every class. An in built penalty (regardless of how significant someone thinks a -1 surge penalty is or isn't) and arguably one of the worst racial powers in the game is not going to help it. Unless the feats are genuinely insane I don't see anyone ever playing a shade in my games.

 

[Dice4Hire]

That's it. If I cannot have a 16 in Con, I'm not playing the character. That -1 surge by going down to 14 makes him unplayable. :-t

Or is it 18-16? or 20-18?

Seriously, I don't see how -1 surge is THAT bad.