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This has been known since the 3.0 Power Attack feat came out, of course. But back then all your melee attacks were STR based (barring Weapon Finesse) and there weren't varying levels of accuracy of weapons. So it's a more important point now, though. (I wonder if the ideal Power Attack...

Both the non-PHB classes that we've seen hard rules for have Con as one of their important stats. Or can use Con as an important stat, anyway. Artificers use Con to determine the secondary effects of their spells (like warlocks use Int), and Shielding Swordmages reduce enemy damage by an...

I'm GMing a (solo) game where the main PC has two followers... and they have the same exact party configuration as that. Over 5 or so combats so far, I think every one has had at least one PC below 0 HP. One combat was a TPK, but that was against needlefang drakes, who are unbalanced for their...

Wizards automatically start with a couple (three, IIRC) and clerics automatically start with Gentle Repose and one other of their choice. So, yeah, it's intended for them to start with rituals. Any other character trained in Arcana or Religion could start with rituals, too, but they would need...

Before the game was released, a designer was asked if the monk would be a martial striker. He replied that the question was "half right" or words to that effect. Now, since then the Ki power source was confirmed to exist, and I find it hard to believe that the Monk won't fall into the Ki...

Being a warlock gives you the ability to use the rod for warlock powers, but not wizard powers. Being multiclassed into wizard allows you to use wand, orb and staff for wizard powers, but doesn't do anything for warlock powers. The same is true if you start as a wizard. Read the "Implement"...

I'd actually expect them to hate this idea. But the overall idea seems pretty good, as a way of emasuring how much opposition they can offer the PCs and such. (We're playing the WLD in 4e right now, and our GM is very pleased with how easy it is to adapt to the new system. Much happier than...

The text is ambiguous, but I tend to interpret it to apply to all the attacks. It does help Wizards and Rangers more than others that way, though. At the very least, the Tactical Assault feat applies to every target of a Wizard's Area attacks, as they all use one damage roll.

The one Dragon article about Kobolds featured a swarm of (small sized) kobolds.

You might want to check out the Dragon article Eye of Madness, which is about insane Fomorian kings and their Feywild kingdoms. (I think the "Feydark" is kinda dumb, but it's easy to ignore that and put their kingdoms on the surface of the Feywild.) An older article about 4th edition Cosmology...

In the PHB, anyway. Drow seem like they might be even better Artful Rogues, as they get the same stats and racial powers that grant Combat Advantage. Also in the MM, Gnomes make really good Feypact Warlocks, especially if they pick up Skill Training in Stealth. And Minotaurs and Warforged are...

A normal NPC is worth just the same XP as a normal monster of the same level. Elite and solo NPCs (NPCs with templates applied) are worth XP or elite or solo monsters of their level. It took me a lot fo searching to find that rule and I don't have a page citation handy, but if you look at the...

My wife typically picks the Elite Array for building characters. I think the responses you'll get here will favor point buy of Elite Array, whereas most 4th ed players in the real world are more likely just using the Elite Array. Or ignoring what the rules say and rolling or following their...

Minions do the same damage on crits as they do on normal attacks. This is a deliberate feature, not a bug. In 3rd ed, if you swarmed a PC with a bunch of weaker enemies, they'd all be ineffective or they would crit an take out the PC. The fight would be extremely swingy: all or nothing. In...

No way, man. You want a Githyanki staff wizard. Bonus to Con and Int, plus a racial ability comparable to the Jump Utility. Also note that Shield only helps Reflex and AC attacks. Staff helps against any defense. that makes the staff more versatile.

There's also a weapon power that produces a Fear effect with a save. If your Doomsayer wants to be good, all his fighter buddies should load up on that weapon. It still doesn't help much, though.

The Fighter class section suggests that staff based fighters should have a good Con score. But there aren't any Fighter powers that give any special benefit to staff users, much less benefit from a high Con. I think that's just WotC leaving a window open for them for later design: the staff is...

Auto critting is a horribly broken mechanic at levels higher than 11. When I first looked in the book, I though "what's with all the focus on critting in the Paragon and Epic feats?" Then I statted up a higher level PC and saw that my damage multiplied many, many times on a crit. Bringing...

Doppelgangers seem to be a race everyone's overlooking. Maybe because their racial power is not combat related. But they'd make great liars, what with a racial Charisma boost, a racial bonus to Bluff and natural disguise abilities. In one game I'm likely to make myself either a...

Thunderwave seems to me to be a horrible choice: you need a good Int to hit, and a good Wis for it to do well enough to be worthwhile. The other classes that will have a good Int will have a bad Wis, and the Wis classes probably have a bad Int. Doesn't work out very well.