Scholar & Brutalman
First Post
From WotC_Miko, a post entitled retroactive continuity, which has a whole lot of cool(*) 4e stuff! As usual, here it is as well but I'll remove it if Michele requests it:
(*) It's 4e; the adjective is "cool".
WotC_Miko said:I mentioned a playtest report that hadn't gone up yet on D&DI...so here it is. Imagine that you read it before the previous report. It's probably a little stilted since I was trying to be clever...or something...but anyway:
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(originally written 10/19)
As one of the editors on the Player’s Handbook, I consider it my responsibility to be as hands-on familiar with all of the classes as possible. That means playing each one of them and putting them through their paces. It’s a tough job, I know, but somehow I endure.
Heh.
At the moment I’ve got three games in various stages and will soon be adding a fourth. I has characters! My characters, let me tell you them:
* Zanne, the half-elf rogue for Bill Slavicsek’s Thursday night game. Our group is leveling at a rate of a level per week, so we can put the classes through their paces at all tiers. During last night’s (10/18) 6th-level playtest, Zanne smashed a harpy out of the sky and into a chasm by using a power that knocks the target prone; when the harpy tried to fly out of the pit, the aftereffects of the power knocked her down again and she fell to her death. This made me laugh like a hyena for the rest of the evening, and also made me jot down a note to clarify the effects of "knocking prone" on flying creatures. This is why we playtest. But for one combat, it was glorious.
I’m happy with the rogue. She’s got a nice variety of ranged and melee abilities, some clever ways of gaining combat advantage by herself (and therefore sneak attack), interesting noncombat tricks that tie into skills, and the occasional ability to do truly massive damage in a single round. Just like a striker should.
* Valenae, the elf paladin for Greg Bilsland’s Tuesday night game. We’ll be 2nd level next session, but Greg has hinted that he might also do faster advancement for playtest purposes. I’ve only played her twice so I’m still feeling out the class, but I’ve already noted some nifty synergies between elf abilities and paladin abilities, like the additional movement that lets me get away with heavy armor and not lag behind the rest of the party. (Slower movement is a primary reason that I don’t play dwarves much, although I’m really hoping for an opportunity to try out a dwarf wizard sometime soon. They’re going to work really, really well.) Pulling out a daily power to take out the nasty undead thing? Very satisfying.
I’m happy with the paladin, even on short acquaintance. She’s sufficiently "tanklike" without feeling like an over-armored turtle, and she’s got enough healing ability to keep the party fighting without overshadowing the cleric or warlord. Her divine challenge "come hit me, not the squishy wizard" ability makes her look like the most attractive target for attacks. Just like a defender should.
* Kithri, the halfling warlock for Chris Sims’s "editor’s playtest" on Monday at lunchtime. (Chris used to be an editor, so that’s all right, and we allow new developer Peter Schaefer to play too because we’re friendly that way.) After the happy-go-lucky Zanne and the so-good-my-teeth-ac he Valenae, it was sort of fun to sink into the persona of a scrubby, vicious little thing. I should point out here that no, not all warlocks are malevolent or nasty . . . they draw on dangerous, untamable sources of power, but that doesn’t make them innately evil. In fact, I’d initially planned on playing her as the cheerful, bouncy kind of warlock before I started playing the other two and realized I wanted a change of pace. Anyway, she’s got some very interesting "riders" on her damage powers, things that grant temporary hit points or slide creatures across the battlefield. The warlock just might be the most unpredictable character in the game, since you never quite know what her powers will do. I’ve also been watching Jeff Grubb play a warlock in Bill’s game, and he’s similarly having a lot of fun with it.
I’m happy with the warlock. The class is dark, yes, but there’s room in their concept for other styles of play, and the distinctiveness of their pacts sets each one apart from another. Like the rogue she can do massive damage, with extremely distinctive flair. She’s hard to hit, hard to get ahold of, and has the ability to move away from enemies (or move them away from her) before they reach her. Just like a striker should.
I’ll soon be starting Chris Perkins’s game, where I’m hoping to play an aloof eladrin warlord. But even so, there are too many character concepts and not enough time: the intellectual dwarf wizard, the fierce *mumble* ranger, the anomalous tiefling cleric, the brash human fighter. But I’ve been seeing these (in every combination) being played at each of the gaming tables, and it’s extremely gratifying to see them all fulfilling their design purposes in individual ways. Just like they should.
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Hey, it was a revelation when I wrote it: the warlock is a striker.
But wait! you say. Reports have warlocks doing controller things!, you say. Right here, live and in print, a first look at an actual sentence out of the 4th Edition Player's Handbook*:
"Some warlocks manage a lot of control."
Sure, my warlock can push opponents around the battlefield as an occasional effect, but she's still "built" to do striker damage on a regular basis.
If a controller uses a power that does a lot of damage to a single target, that doesn't make him a striker. If a defender uses a power to heal an ally, that doesn't make her a leader. Roles aren't straightjackets; they're general guidelines for how a class functions. Specifics are determined by what the class should do. Meanwhile, a controller can affect not only multiple opponents on the battlefield, but the battlefield itself. Fogs and walls? Controller. Reshaping the terrain? Controller.
But you all figured that out already!
* (unedited, subject to change without warning, some restrictions may apply)
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FYI: That's Michele with one "l", y'all.
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Tuesday night: Tergania, Game 4 (11/6)
We spent a good part of the evening on a largely frustrating encounter with a black dragon: hard to hit what you can't see. In the end it chose to fly away rather than kill us all, but it's still a victory for our side if no one died. Right? I say yes.
A later encounter against some scavenging wolves proved more satisfying and everyone had the chance to show their stuff, including Logan's rogue...who showed his guts (literally and figuratively) when he charged into the middle of them and almost got eaten before the rest of us had the chance to act. Fortunately, we were able to get to him with healing, including a strike from Valenae that heals bloodied allies.
A little bit of a discombobulated night. The hazard of playtesting with professional gamers, you want to stop and discuss every rule...more "shut up and play!" needed, I think.
(*) It's 4e; the adjective is "cool".
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![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
