Debut: Ardent

[Modeus]

I'm disappointed at the healing word mechanic. WOTC had that opportunity to demonstrate that they can think out of the box to provide healing for fellow party members.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't think I like the idea of the Mantle of Clarity giving a bonus to defenses against Opp Attacks equal to the Cha modifier. That seems a bit overwhelming at Epic levels...basically making the PC's nearly immune to Opportunity Attacks.

Ardent in a party with a Rogue might be lots of fun. Opportunity Attacks can be usually ignored now, probably.

 

[Klaus]

I'm thinking a changeling druid/ardent hybrid, now...

That ramps up the shapeshifting, but kalashtar brings that tasty "telepathy" thing.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The 3.5e Ardent was sort of a varied class to play depending on which mantle you chose, as you could be a pure healer, or a blaster or even a battle cleric. Which I'm glad they went in the more melee orientated "battle cleric" direction. When compared to a 3.5e class the 4e Ardent is actually closer to the Divine Mind, which I'd suspected would happen, as the 4e Mantle Mechanics is a lot closer to the 3.5e Aura mechanics associated with the Divine Mind.

Now there's a few concepts I can think of with an Ardent.
-There's the Enlightened Strategist which matches up with the concept of "psionic warlord".
-There's the Militant Empath, which would be what would happen if Counsellor Troi had to toughen up.
-And there's the Insane Soldier released from a mental asylum who can now reach out to other minds.

Also the Ardent is the ideal Psionic class for 2 out of 3 Goblin races, especially the Hobgoblin, but also the likely psionic class for a "blue" Goblin.

 

[Rechan]

Blue gobbos were always psions. It doesn't strike me that they'd go from psion to what is equivalent to a psionic warrior (since ardents are always in melee).

Who is Counsellor Troi?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Blue gobbos were always psions. It doesn't strike me that they'd go from psion to what is equivalent to a psionic warrior (since ardents are always in melee).

Who is Counsellor Troi?

Your Geek Card, please.
[sblock] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtEB5rox8K4[/ame][/sblock]

 

[Rechan]

Your Geek Card, please.

Pft. I have enough geek cred without having any Star Trek knowledge.

 

[Stalker0]

The class so far is meh to me at first glance, I didn't see anything that really struck me.

I think there is an error with the Psionic Binder. They get the ability to negate saves on the immobilized effect, but there powers grant restraining effects. While restrained does immobilize, does it actually count as the immobilized effect for purposes of the paragon path?

 

[Destil]

The general concept is that while a "normal" at-will you get at 1 would need to double the base damage to 21 to keep up. However, in the case of a power designed to only be taken at a level around 21+, it could be designed to be useful at that level without having to rely on the extra damage thing to bring powers up to snuff.

I sort of wonder on this. I understand it makes sense, but none of the psionic powers we've seen so far do the expected at-will damage that you see on 90% of other epic at wills. I was really hoping wizards would update the at-wills to be better between releasing the psion and now.

Augment Powers aren't automatic. Everyone else gets the damage boost at 21st, but you can't get your first epic level at will until . And even then, everyone else gets the full epic boost at 21, psionic classes need to wait until 27th to get their second. And humans loose out a bit here, since they're stuck with a level 1 that doesn't scale and can't be augmented.

Some of the epic psion powers (monk aside) do fit into this. It's a shame none of them have an effect that's in line with non-epic at wills and deal extra damage, just to make the point. Concussive Detonation should, I think, there's nothing special about the rest of it's unaugmented effect... but the rest of the psion ones have some advantages vs what you'd expect for non-epic.

The ardent build we've seen, however, seems to be pretty weak in this area.

Exhilarating Strike, ironically, is only up to par because the basic attack you grant should have the epic damage boost. The effect on Dismissive Strike seems decent (best opponent repositioning at-will in the game?). Perception Shift is interesting but only really good against opponents who don't target AC, and only one attack instead of all attacks until your next turn just feels too weak. Revealing Strike don't really do anything I could see a non-epic power doing. Hopefully the offensive build will have some 2[W] powers to cherry pick...

The 'middle' power point powers are very corner case ... but when they are useful they can be arguably better than full cost versions.

Yeah, the mid-tier are in effect 'free'. No one else can choose to use their 1st level encounter twice in a fight for a reduced effect, these are entirely a net positive to the power level of augment powers.

 

[Rechan]

My hope is that the Ardent is the only meh class in PHb3. A stumble now and then is acceptable, but I hope this isn't a pattern. I hope the Battlemind is interesting.