Arcane Power- Wizards Stretched Thin

[yesnomu]

Having not looked at the feats, I'm not sure, but might it be that WOTC wants people to get away from "2 18s, 4 8s" in chargen? (OTOH, if the prereq is Intelligence, I have no clue as to motive.)

As far as I can tell, bingo. Their reasoning seems to be: if you stick all your points into synergistic abilities, you're already plenty powerful and won't need the feats. Whereas if you spread it out a bit, you might be less straightforwardly powerful, but you might qualify for more useful things.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Tell me more about Arcane Power!

What stands out, what grabs your attention, what do you *definitely* want to retrain for your wizard?

From my initial readthrough at work, there's lots of awesomesauce in here.

Like a swordmage power that lets you create (Con modifier) mirror images of yourself around the battlefield and attack through any of them.

 

[mach1.9pants]

As far as I can tell, bingo. Their reasoning seems to be: if you stick all your points into synergistic abilities, you're already plenty powerful and won't need the feats. Whereas if you spread it out a bit, you might be less straightforwardly powerful, but you might qualify for more useful things.

That is a really good point, I will point it out next time one of the players moans!

Ugh, seriously. The last Tuesday of every month is not doing it for me. Why not the first Tuesday after the awesome new book comes out? Where by "first Tuesday" I mean "within six seconds".

Give this man a hob running the DDi.

I love gnome illusionists (my HR'd 3.5E had a proper illuionist class... i.e. it's illusion spells mimicked spells of a higher level, but they were illusions so it was risky). I can't wait for more illusion power

 

[chaotix42]

Further reading yields some insane sorcerer spells.

Dominant Winds is a 16th lvl at-will utility. As a move action you or one ally can fly your Dex mod as a free action. Not 1/round and you don't have to land at the end of your turn or crash/float down/etc. Flight all the time? Why yes please.

Ultimate Resistance is a 22nd lvl daily utility. Gain resist 30 to an energy type and 1/round you can switch to a new type as a minor action. Many recent monsters use attacks with multiple energy keywords, but this power is still awesome, and woe to your DM if you search out the various ways to change daily utilities into encounters!

Sorcerous Pulse is a 10th lvl daily utility that lets you choose an energy type, and when you use a like power you can roll damage twice and use the higher result! Until end of encounter, of course.

They have some very nifty attack spells, especially the ones associated with the new types of sorcerer. I see lower-end damage dice and lots of control in these powers. Practically every power has some form of forced movement, a way to penalize movement, or ongoing damage (and some contagious ongoing damage too). There are also a lot of spells that let the sorcerer move as part of the attack, like turning into a shower of sparks and moving through your foes or casting storm magic while riding on gusts of wind.

This book just keeps getting better! I guess I'll try to wrap my head around the new warlock powers next.

 

[Dragonblade]

I love the Magister's 30th level ability. That's my new favorite epic destiny power. Twice per day, use any ritual you know as a standard action.

Now that truly fits my image of what an epic mage should be able to do. Pretty much bend reality with the wave of a hand.

And the familiar rules are just awesome! I've never bothered with having a familiar in any prior edition of D&D and now I'd love to have one for my wizard PC.

 

[Felon]

Further reading yields some insane sorcerer spells.

Dominant Winds is a 16th lvl at-will utility. As a move action you or one ally can fly your Dex mod as a free action. Not 1/round and you don't have to land at the end of your turn or crash/float down/etc. Flight all the time? Why yes please.

So basically, after a good year of 4e steering clear of many of the exploits and abuses of past editions, they're welcoming them back in with open arms.

You'll have your always-flying blaster that forces DM's to include ranged attackers or low ceilings in every encounter just to prevent rampant kite-killing. Otherwise, it's "wait here, guys, I'm going to go over there and kill that hydra by myself--DM, why don't you just figure out how long it takes? I don't use any encounters or dailies".

And from the preview a few weeks back, Unseen Servant appears to be the zero-cost, inexhaustible, unharmable taker of risks and prober of traps that they previously had cleverly avoided with stuff like the bag of tricks and summoned creatures.

Well, at least we had a good year.

So, do warlocks get in on any of the broken fun?

 

[RyvenCedrylle]

I wouldn't go freaking out just yet, Felon. While I don't have the book, I imagine that Dominant Winds move is probably Ranged 10 or maybe even Ranged 5. So the sorcerer would have to at least be nearby to keep his kite flying. Again, this is a guess until I get the book. Would someone like to verify this?

 

[hvg3akaek]

Dominant Winds is a 16th lvl at-will utility. As a move action you or one ally can fly your Dex mod as a free action. Not 1/round and you don't have to land at the end of your turn or crash/float down/etc. Flight all the time? Why yes please.

(bold mine)

So, its a move action, and a free action? Or is it a move action to use the power, and a free action to fly as a result? (If the latter, then one would suggest that you only get the free flight once...?)

 

[Felon]

I wouldn't go freaking out just yet, Felon. While I don't have the book, I imagine that Dominant Winds move is probably Ranged 10 or maybe even Ranged 5. So the sorcerer would have to at least be nearby to keep his kite flying. Again, this is a guess until I get the book. Would someone like to verify this?

Well, even if it's range 0 (i.e. personal) you have a kite-killer.

Still, I'm sure abuse in the RPGA will lead to a speedy rules revision--errr, did I say revision? Update! I meant "update"!

(bold mine)

So, its a move action, and a free action? Or is it a move action to use the power, and a free action to fly as a result? (If the latter, then one would suggest that you only get the free flight once...?)

Sounds like it's worded that way simply to allow for another player to move during your turn, as similar move-granting powers are. You spend the move action, then you or somebody else gets to fly. Convert your move into an at-will, and you can do it twice.

 

[chaotix42]

Dominant Winds is close burst 5. Costs a move action to use, and the target can fly as a free action. Use it on yourself to fly as a move action, or use it on someone else to give them a free move at the cost of your move action.

God help us all.

And no, the warlock doesn't really get anything overpowered. They get some really cool spells, but nothing that reeks of potential abuse like Dominant Winds.

@ Dragonblade - Damn straight, that Magister ability is incredible! Oh, what you can do with standard action rituals... a perfectly appropriate ability for 30th lvl IMO!