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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EarthSeraphEdna" data-source="post: 5071595" data-attributes="member: 49309">Dragon Magazine #374 offered us our first glimpse of the Player's Handbook 3 through its playtest article covering the Wilden, a nature-themed Constitution/Wisdom race. #375 let us playtest the Centered Breath monk, a Dexterity/Wisdom-focused psionic striker/controller. #377 brought to us the Telepathy Focus psion, an Intelligence/Charisma-based psionic controller, along with the power point system. #378 showed us the updated version of the githzerai, a Dexterity/Wisdom race with a strong psionic motif. #379 unveiled the skill power system, widening the array of heroic- and paragon-tier utility powers available to any character. #380 gave us the Bloodbond seeker, a ranged weapon-wielding, Wisdom/Dexterity-centric primal controller/striker. #381 refined the monk class, gifting the class with its fully-realized potential. #382 previewed the Mantle of Clarity ardent, a melee weapon-using, Charisma/Wisdom-based leader/defender. #383 debuted the finalized rules for hybrid characters, though the changes were nothing substantial, much to the chagrin of many.We now arrive at the home stretch to the Player's Handbook 3, which is to be released on March 16, 2010, or so Amazon.com informs me. I have had the luxury of closely perusing the three level 6 character cards that were shown to preview the Player's Handbook 3 Game Day event this March. Through analysis, reverse engineering, and educated estimates, I believe the that information that I have pieced together is enough to present to you the significant portions of the mechanical details of a certain new race, two new classes, two new class features, two new magic items, and a handful of new powers. Please accept them in the form of a .txt file within the following .zip archive:<a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/342920117/PHB3_Spoilers_plus_Six_Level_10_Sample_Characters_v2.zip" target="_blank">http://rapidshare.com/files/342920117/PHB3_Spoilers_plus_Six_Level_10_Sample_Characters_v2.zip</a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3ilyjmymy30" target="_blank">http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3ilyjmymy30</a>Edit: Version 2 addresses several issues in the erroneous ardent character sheets.To facilitate the ease of "playtesting" these classes, included in the above file are six sample level 10 characters: a greatspear-wielding half-elf Mantle of Clarity ardent, a triple flail-swinging wilden Battle Resilience battlemind, a fullblade-sporting githzerai Centered Breath monk, a staff-using tiefling Telepathy Focus psion, a greatspear-toting warforged Wrathful Hammer runepriest, and a superior crossbow-slinging elf Bloodbond seeker. These characters are all fairly optimized. There was, alas, no room for a shardmind Kinetic Focus psion that could match up to a Telepathy Focus psion. Multiclass power swap feats were necessary for the battlemind and the runepriest, which may skew their expected effectiveness to some extent, and liberties were taken with the trained skills for these two classes as well. The battlemind's non-AC defense bonus was assumed to be +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex, +1 Will. As I am profoundly inept at crafting conventional character sheets, you shall have to make do with a .txt format for these as well, though both comprehensive and truncated versions of the aforementioned sheets are contained herein. Feel free to use and/or customize them as you wilt.Moving back to the topic of the new options, I am not comfortable with assessing this material through CharOp-style ratings, as I believe that that such should be reserved for the true release of the Player's Handbook 3. That said, passing preliminary judgment based on what has been seen is certainly possible:• Race: Shardmind: The level 1, post-racial ability score array of the previewed shardmind Kinetic Focus psion is Strength 8, Constitution 13, Dexterity 10, Intelligence 19, Wisdom 17, Charisma 10. That, of course, clearly shows that the shardmind is an Intelligence/Wisdom race, thereby shattering all hopes for a Constitution/Intelligence player race. Though this race receives bonuses to the two (supposedly) most useful skills in the system, psychic resistance, two bonus languages, telepathy, and the benefits that being a living construct grants, it is ultimately a so-so race from a mechanical perspective. It is difficult for the shardmind to match up to the over-the-top racial features and racial encounter power of its competition, the deva. However, it occurs to me that Wizards may just present this race in a manner akin to that of the changeling in the Eberron Player's Guide, that is, as a race with +2 Intelligence that can then pick between +2 Constitution and +2 Wisdom. I dearly desire for this to be the case.• Class: Battlemind: A defender class with Constitution as its primary ability score would show much promise, but a close inspection reveals that its defender features, Battlemind's Demand, Blurred Step, and Mind Spike establish it as little more than a psionic clone of the fighter. Though it wields a swordmage-esque mark in the form of Battlemind's Demand, perhaps even mimicking Double Aegis with a power point spent, swordmage tactics cannot be applied due to the class's abysmal "stickiness", forcing the battlemind to remain adjacent to the marked enemy. An enemy shifting away from a fighter to charge or perform a ranged/area attack receives a melee basic attack as thanks, but all the battlemind can do with Blurred Step is shift along with it (or perhaps not if difficult terrain is present), not attacking due to her opportunity action having been devoured. Mind Spike inflicts more damage than Combat Challenge on average when it works, but since it requires the enemy to deal damage, enemies shall go unpunished for attacking an ally half of the time, and this is a reaction rather than an interrupt as well. The class lacking a Constitution-based melee basic attack is another nail in its coffin. Terrible. Iron Fist is an extremely potent at-will power, however, and perhaps the second of the two battlemind builds shall show more promise.• Class: Runepriest: I am not quite certain of the flavor role that this class is intended to fill, given that clerics can already bring to bear glyph- and sigil-themed powers such as Righteous Brand, Rune of Peace, and Seal of Binding. The Wrathful Hammer runepriest build before us, which is a Strength/Constitution-based melee weapon-wielder, is an irreproachable beast. Its Rune Master class feature allows it to adapt to the situation at hand, enabling alpha strikes and offensives with Destruction, and promoting cautious safekeeping with Protection. The Wrathful Hammer class feature itself renders it a dire prospect to ever lay a hand on the runepriest, for the bonus to damage rolls that it grants the character is potent and untyped (therefore stacking with itself), which grows even crueler when marking is involved. It should also be noted that Flames of Purity is an encounter power that provides a modest amount of surgeless healing, which may lead to out-of-combat chicanery and surge-scumming. Both runes of the Word of Diminishment at-will power are overwhelmingly effective as well. With a class as spectacular as this, I do eagerly await the second runepriest build. By the way, this is a divine class without forced training in Religion, which is a first. I do find the prospect of a warforged runepriest/Warpriest to be intriguing both by virtue of both its marking and its silly name.• Psion Class Feature: Kinetic Focus: I foresee an ill future for this class build. The Telepathy Focus psion is the substantially more well-supported build, thanks to options such as the Mindwarp Staff of Unfailing Talent (see below), Resplendent Gloves, the Phrenic Crown, and the Psychic Lock paragon feat. Additionally, Will has been statistically proven (through analyses of the Monster Manual and the Monster Manual 2) to be the lowest of the three non-AC defenses on average, with Fortitude and Reflex, of course, being the higher ones that the Kinetic Focus psion tends to attack. Kinetic Trawl and Force Hammer are underwhelming at-will powers as well.• Ardent Class Feature: Mantle of Elation: The difference in durability between a Mantle of Elation ardent and a Mantle of Clarity ardent is the distinction between night and day, and that, I believe, is what sets apart the former build as the superior one overall. A bonus to damage rolls for opportunity attacks is somewhat less valuable than a bonus to defenses against opportunity attacks, however, but Constitution as the secondary score for the Mantle of Elation outweighs that. A level 11 half-elf Mantle of Elation ardent/bard/Half-Elf Emissary with Constitution 19+2, Charisma 21+2, the Widened Mantle paragon feat, and a speculative ardent "Improved Mantle of Elation" (SAIMOE, for shot) heroic feat, similar to the Clarified Instincts heroic feat, might just be able to grant a +6 racial bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Streetwise checks and a +4 untyped bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate checks to all allies within 10 feet.• Ardent At-Will Power 1: Demoralizing Strike: Imposing a -2 penalty to all defenses with a single at-will power is quite powerful, especially in comparison to, say, the bard's Guiding Strike. Its augment 2, while ally-unfriendly, can send the defenses of a close burst 1 of enemies spiraling downwards.• Seeker At-Will Power 1: Grappling Spirits: A ranged basic attack that slows the target and denies it shifting is wonderful.• Magic Staff: Mindwarp Staff of Unfailing Talent: A less costly Staff of Ruin that affects only psychic powers, and psionic characters receive a conditional bonus to extra critical damage as well. An alternative item tax for Telepathy Focus psions, Virtue of Cunning bards, and certain types of wizards.As an aside, allow me to meticulously showcase several errors that I had noted down in the Player's Handbook 3 Game Day sample characters:• The ardent's Mantle of Elation should grant a +4 bonus (his Constitution modifier) to damage rolls, not +3. Also, the defense targeted by his Adrenaline Strike daily power is not listed down.• The battlemind is lacking a total of 4 or 5 points of non-AC defenses, as the +2 Reflex from her heavy shield and the battlemind non-AC defense bonuses were not factored in.• The monk should have either 47 hit points without Toughness or 52 hit points with Toughness, not 58. Additionally, she should have either 7 healing surges without Durable or 9 healing surges with Durable, not 11. Furthermore, her ability scores add up to a mere 20-point buy.• The psion's Forceful Push encounter class feature is reported to have been intended to be used as a minor action, not as a free action.• The runepriest should have Reflex 16, not 15, as the +1 Reflex from his light shield was not taken into account. Additionally, his hit points should be either 55 without Toughness or 60 with Toughness, not 49.• The seeker should have either 8 healing surges without Durable or 10 healing surges without Durable, not an inexplicable 12.That is all. Feel free to discuss these detailed revelations, perhaps offering corrections should an error be identified.</blockquote>

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