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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 5341922" data-attributes="member: 75065">I can only comment on the themes I have seen in play from Dark Sun Encounters and more specifically the one my character has.I play Yuka, a brawler fighter with the Wasteland Nomad theme.The Encounter Power I gain lets me Shift 1 before or after the attack as long as I am not adjacent to an ally. If I have Combat advantage I do +Str damage. Otherwise it's just like a melee or ranged basic attack.It gives me a few tactical options in a few specific situations, but nothing that makes you go ...ohhhhh ahhhhh wow! In most situations my at will powers are better than this.As mentioned upthread Veiled Alliance Theme gives 'Excise from Sight' which is a very cool power. So I guess it varies from theme to theme (those are the 2 I know well, as I have played Barcan the Sorceror as a second character when his regular player missed several sessions).I think it is a positive creep as well personally. Monster damage was also a positive creep. I only inplemented the new damage last session in the game I run, after the players had reached level 6. The new element of serious danger and threat was awesome. Even the Barbarian was backing up for the first time!Reading the thread about whether or not  4e had a sweet spot, a lot of people commented they thought it began at level 3 when PCs receive their second encounter power and begin having some decent options in combat. If true, having wider tactical options without just pumping damage output right from level 1 seems like a cool idea. It also means that every fighter can be totally unique because you now choose powers not only from your class, but also your theme. Sweet.But honestly, if anything my fighter is underpowered. Hell, he's fighting with a magical spear for goodness sakes, because that's what he found! What fighter would choose a spear as their selected weapon??? +3 Atk 1d6+1 dmg ... His normal alhuk (three headed hooked flail?) is +3 atk and does 1d8 dmg. But the spear does +1d6 on a crit ... so spear it is!!!And the monster damage, well being the updated damage, it's very challenging. Last night we fought a creature that had 3 +8 bite attacks at will each dealing 1d6+5 or so damage ... 3d6 +15 if all three hit. And it had 2 action points. Imagine how a level 2 character can stand up to a possible 6d6 +30 dmg in one round ....And it bit back and teleported away if you attack it ... and ... anyway you get my drift.It's cool stuff. It's deadly and exciting. Luckily for my fighter only 3 of those 6 attacks hit so I still had 4 or 5 hps left. If anything I'm glad to have the option of being able to shift into a better position 1/encounter. I don't always use it but it comes in handy every now and again. Excise from sight has saved several lives. But I think these features are called for given the difficulty of the challenge.</blockquote>

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