D&D 4E 4e FAQ

[brehobit]

Hi all,
I know I've got a huge number of 4e questions. Some of them I'm sure are answered in the rules, others might not be. So I thought I'd start a thread in an attempt to get an FAQ going.

If anyone has any they'd like to add to the list, just post to this thread.

Here are some I've had and/or seen here:

1. How many healing surges do NPCs get?
   • One surge per tier (so 1 from level 1-10, etc.). -- Source: Page 7 MM
2. Can a caster ride on their own Tenser's Floating Disk?
   • Nothing in the description seems to prevent it.
3. What are the pros and cons of "sword and board" vs. two-handed weapons?
   
4. How does masterwork armor function?
   • When you have armor of at least +4, it can be of a "masterwork" type at no additional cost. So instead of making +4 leather, one could make +4 Feyleather for the same price. The +4 leather would have a total armor bonus of +6, while the +4 Feyleather would have a bonus of +7. Both would cost the same. -- Source: Page 212 PHB
5. What happens when you roll a 20 on your Death Saving Throw and you got no Healing Surges left?
   • The wording about "but have no healing surges left expressed as a negative number" is an error. The intent is that such a result is treated the same as if you rolled a 10-19. -- Source: Page 295 PHB, http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1037617&highlight=expressed+as+a+negative+number
6. If you have a +2 longsword and use a power that does 3[W] on a hit, does the +2 to damage get tripled?
   • No. --Source: example on page 276 of the PHB.
7. What happens when a power or other effect adds temporary hit points to a minion?
   • This is a matter of debate. The 4e Monster Manual indicates that adding hit points to a minion would have no effect. "A minion is destroyed when it takes any amount of damage." However, the PHB states that "Temporary hit points aren't real hit points. They're a layer of insulation that attacks have to get through before they start doing damage to you." WoTC staffer Chris Sims has indicated that the minion does gain advantage from the temporary hit points. -- Source: Page 282 MM (minion entry), Page 293 PHB, http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=4233372&postcount=6

 

[brehobit]

This space reserved.

 

[Vaeron]

Hi all,
I know I've got a huge number of 4e questions. Some of them I'm sure are answered in the rules, others might not be. So I thought I'd start a thread in an attempt to get an FAQ going.

Here are some I've had and/or seen here:

1. How many healing surges do NPCs get?
2. Can a caster ride on their own Tenser's Floating Disk?
3. What are the pros and cons of "sword and board" vs. two-handed weapons?
4. How does masterwork armor function?
   

1: 1 per tier, but they can't use them on their own unless specified.
2: Anything under the weight limit can float on the disk
3: board adds 1 or 2 to defense, 2-handed adds 1 to damage
4: Haven't read about that yet.

 

[Rechan]

Since I was all ready ninja'd...

What are the pros and cons of "sword and board" vs. two-handed weapons?

In addition to the above, THW often have the better damage output. Greataxes/greatswords/mauls, etc. The Maul is 2d6 for instance.

How does masterwork armor function?

Masterwork is different in 4e. There's special material like Feyweave which is only applicable to say, armor with a +4 enhancement bonus or better.

 

[brehobit]

1: 1 per tier, but they can't use them on their own unless specified.
2: Anything under the weight limit can float on the disk
3: board adds 1 or 2 to defense, 2-handed adds 1 to damage
4: Haven't read about that yet.

1. Can you cite a page number for that?
2. Which opens up a lot of questions. Can it be used to go over water? If you ride it over a cliff, how fast does it fall? Is it slowed by difficult spaces?
3. I think there is more than that. Power attack, etc.
4. I think that once an armor hits the +4 or +6 level it becomes the new type. But....

 

[Starbuck_II]

3: board adds 1 or 2 to defense, 2-handed adds 1 to damage

To expand:
Sword and board has better minimum damage in basic attacks and AC.

Two handers have better [weapon] dice damage since the more dice the bigger the variance.

Really: 7 [w]
7[d8] +0. Averages: 31.5. Sword and Board
7 [d8] +1: Averages: 32.5. Longsword used 2 handed.
or
7 [1d10] +0: Averages: 38.5. Greatsword

This shows up the higher the dice the difference. At lower dice: 2[w]
2[d8] +0: Averages: 9. Sword and Board
2 [d8]+1:Averages: 10.0. Sword used 2 handed
2[d10] +0: Averages: 11.0. Greatsword

So greatsword is better than sword and board only with weapon dice powers. In basic attacks, longsword 2 handed is better.

Granted, bastard sword is better than both (can be used two handed for +1 damage or sword and board with better damage).

 

[Vaeron]

1. Can you cite a page number for that?
2. Which opens up a lot of questions. Can it be used to go over water? If you ride it over a cliff, how fast does it fall? Is it slowed by difficult spaces?
3. I think there is more than that. Power attack, etc.
4. I think that once an armor hits the +4 or +6 level it becomes the new type. But....

1: Monster Manual, right before the alphabetical entries
2: It floats, it can go anywhere the caster likes, so long as it remains within 5 squares. But it can never be more than 1 foot off the ground, so you can't go flying around on it or anything. It doesn't have feather fall, so falling off a cliff on a disk would do the same amount of damage as normal, -1 foot.
3: Yeah, others have covered the specifics. I just threw out the general info
4: Could be! Haven't read the equip chapter yet.

 

[Rechan]

1. Can you cite a page number for that?
2. Which opens up a lot of questions. Can it be used to go over water? If you ride it over a cliff, how fast does it fall? Is it slowed by difficult spaces?

It doesn't say.

The only caveat is that if a caster is more than 5 squares from it for two consecutive rounds, it disappears, and that it hovers a foot off the ground. That's it.

3. I think there is more than that. Power attack, etc.

Yes, Power attack does more damage if you're wielding a thw. The damage is based by tier. Heroic 1 Handed: +2, THW: +3. Paragon 1H +4 TH +6, etc.

 

[Zsig]

I'd like to add one question too:

-What happens when you roll a 20 on your Death Saving Throw and you got no Healing Surges left? (the explanation on the book looks weird to me)

 

[The_Fan]

Masterwork armor has two tiers. The first tier only appears as +4 armor or above and the second tier only appears as +6 armor. For light armor, going up a tier grants an additional +1 AC, while for heavy it grants an additional +3. There is no extra cost associated with masterwork armor, and the enchantment bonus is not factored into the table. For example, unenchanted plate armor grants +8 AC, warplate grants a minimum +15 (+11, +4 magic), and godplate grants +20 (+14, +6 magic).