Artificer Up (Playtest Version, not Final)

[mach1.9pants]

You wield a hand crossbow in one hand and your implement in the other
Or more seriously, it's probably an error, ignore the part about needing a ranged weapon, the power doesn't do [W] damage anywhere.

I intend too!

 

[GnomeWorks]

The artificer class itself seemed strange, to me. Admittedly I didn't read it terribly close, but some of the things felt a little strange to me, like the "artifice" keyword. Not really sure what's going on there.

 

[jasin]

This will be great if they keep doing it when Dragon goes pay. That way we get to give them money so that we can do their work for them! We'll get worthless incomplete articles that are going to appear completed in a later supplement instead of actual content, and on top of that we get to deal with all their bugs and mistakes and fix them for them. Thats just special! But don't worry, every so often they'll release an update of something they just printed in a book but make it superior in every way, like the warforged, that way you'll feel like you have to buy it anyway.

On a completely unrelated note, how do you feel about Paizo's Pathfinder RPG?

 

[jasin]

You'll also have to multiclass or forgo a racial benefit if you want to play one as a human; they only show two at-will powers.

How do you avoid forgoing a racial benefit by multiclassing?

... can humans pick their extra At-Will from their other class? That'd be very interesting.

 

[1of3]

You can switch an at-will through paragon multiclassing. If you start at level 1, you're screwed.

 

[Blacksway]

Looks cool, my players are interested, but we will probably wait for the full wammy in the Eb Guide.

I don't get the shielding Cube Spell. How can it have an implement keyword but you have to be weilding a ranged weapon? Weilding a ranged weapon makes the implement keyword irrelevant doesn't it? You could never weild botht he ranged weapon and the implement...
...or am I missing something?

I suspect the 'requirement' is for the above power 'Spike Wire' which while it implies a ranged weapon is required does state as such. At least that's how I'd run it.

Heroes Elixer as an Encounter power is better than pretty much any cleric healing could ever be(all the time), just spend an hour preparing them each day and take durability/dwarven durability

While Hero's Elixir is nice it is a Daily power - compare it to the alternative Lvl 22 power, Four-Winds Bag, an encounter power, and pretty nice too.

 

[JPL]

So young and yet so bitter, Reg.

For what it's worth, this is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to see in Dragon. The community always treats every new release as something to be playtested and analyzed and discussed . . . why not do it BEFORE the new material makes it into print?

I guess the question is . . . how "finished" does the the unfinished product need to be?

 

[Wormwood]

For what it's worth, this is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to see in Dragon. The community always treats every new release as something to be playtested and analyzed and discussed . . . why not do it BEFORE the new material makes it into print?

Exactly.
The new Dragon is looking more and more like the kind of investment I'm willing to make---one that will actually see use at my table.

 

[JPL]

Another point - - - I wouldn't pay JUST for access to playtest-ready crunch, but the other Dragon articles all have been quite to my liking.

Also, these sort of previews are particularly handy now in the early days of 4th Edition, when there are still a lot of areas the rules haven't covered. I'm looking forward to a playtest-ready bard, barbarian, druid and monk, and all the ensuing discussion and critique.

Here's hoping for some followup articles, too --- show us the "beta" version of the artificer, and explain what has changed and why.

 

[Shabe]

Whoa, does anyone else think that they made a mistake with the healing from Grave-Dust Cloud (Encounter 27)? It gives a massive amount of healing if there are a decent number of enemies in the 7x7 area...

It gives you hit points based on the damage you rolled for the spell ie, 2d10+Int, you only roll the damage once for aoe spells. So the enemies in the burst take full damage, the allies in the burst gain hit points equal to half the damage.