Destil
Explorer
Haven't seen any other threads specifically on this one, figured I'd start: Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Avenger Essentials)
Power creep ahoy. The feats are what matters here, so I'll get the two big ones right out of the way:
Painful Oath - Add Wis Necrotic&Radiant damage on the first hit each round vs. your oath. Paragon.
I don't know about this one... everything I've seen (including playing side by side an elf avenger with an Executioner's Axe for a few months, currently 13th level) had me thinking that their actual damage number were fine for a striker until late-paragon to epic. This is a big boost right at 11th... Also, anything that adds tiny bits of typed damage is an eyesore to me in 4E. I guess it's still allowed to happen, but at one point I thought this was a vestige left dead and buried in 3E, good riddance. I hate the way it devolves to out '54 fire damage, 6 radiant, 8 necrotic and radiant' 'So 54 damage?' 'No, 68 total'
Hand of Divine Guidance - Crit your oath target on a 19-20. Epic.
This, on the other hand, was painfully and obliviously missing in Divine Power. And a nice 19-20 crit, no strings attached (no need to trigger your other oath conditions, no melee required), which is sweet. Even with things not going their way an avenger can get a bit of a boost here.
Some of the others:
Distant Vengeance - Man, this looked so much cooler before I read it carefully. I hate that avengers have great area/ranged power options (especially at daily) but they loose their oath bonus to use them. At first I thought this fixed it (another feat I was looking for in DP), then I noticed the ranged basic part. ARG. Radiant Vengeance can't even be used as a basic. A rogue is also a striker who dabbles in controller, but they don't loose sneak attack to use blinding barrage (if they have combat advantage). I really wish this would be fixed.
Unyielding Pursuit - Actually pretty clever idea and totally fitting for an avenger. I like the design of this feat a lot, even if it kind of sucks.
Avenging Resolution - A less annoying (but less effective) brutal variant for any weapon. Fits in with their consistency, and won't trigger annoying re rolls. Eyeballing it I can't see it breaking their DPR math, either, so not a badly designed feat. A bit of an eyesore to have both this and brutal in the same system, but that's just a problem with Dragon in general.
Halo of Isolation - Pretty interesting and fits in with what an avenger wants to do well, power level also sounds about right for paragon. I like it.
Halo of Tethering - I think this one has some rules issues: it should an action cost. I would guess free, and I'd guess that that's not overpowered for epic, though rewording it as a reaction (that lets you just shift the distance they shifted) may be safer.
Power creep ahoy. The feats are what matters here, so I'll get the two big ones right out of the way:
Painful Oath - Add Wis Necrotic&Radiant damage on the first hit each round vs. your oath. Paragon.
I don't know about this one... everything I've seen (including playing side by side an elf avenger with an Executioner's Axe for a few months, currently 13th level) had me thinking that their actual damage number were fine for a striker until late-paragon to epic. This is a big boost right at 11th... Also, anything that adds tiny bits of typed damage is an eyesore to me in 4E. I guess it's still allowed to happen, but at one point I thought this was a vestige left dead and buried in 3E, good riddance. I hate the way it devolves to out '54 fire damage, 6 radiant, 8 necrotic and radiant' 'So 54 damage?' 'No, 68 total'
Hand of Divine Guidance - Crit your oath target on a 19-20. Epic.
This, on the other hand, was painfully and obliviously missing in Divine Power. And a nice 19-20 crit, no strings attached (no need to trigger your other oath conditions, no melee required), which is sweet. Even with things not going their way an avenger can get a bit of a boost here.
Some of the others:
Distant Vengeance - Man, this looked so much cooler before I read it carefully. I hate that avengers have great area/ranged power options (especially at daily) but they loose their oath bonus to use them. At first I thought this fixed it (another feat I was looking for in DP), then I noticed the ranged basic part. ARG. Radiant Vengeance can't even be used as a basic. A rogue is also a striker who dabbles in controller, but they don't loose sneak attack to use blinding barrage (if they have combat advantage). I really wish this would be fixed.
Unyielding Pursuit - Actually pretty clever idea and totally fitting for an avenger. I like the design of this feat a lot, even if it kind of sucks.
Avenging Resolution - A less annoying (but less effective) brutal variant for any weapon. Fits in with their consistency, and won't trigger annoying re rolls. Eyeballing it I can't see it breaking their DPR math, either, so not a badly designed feat. A bit of an eyesore to have both this and brutal in the same system, but that's just a problem with Dragon in general.
Halo of Isolation - Pretty interesting and fits in with what an avenger wants to do well, power level also sounds about right for paragon. I like it.
Halo of Tethering - I think this one has some rules issues: it should an action cost. I would guess free, and I'd guess that that's not overpowered for epic, though rewording it as a reaction (that lets you just shift the distance they shifted) may be safer.
