Dragon 397 - Table of Contents

[Knightfall]

Also, I hope that some of them might get alternate racial encounter powers, but I'm not counting on that; I know Humans and Half-elves only got them because of the changes to class structure in Essentials.

Yep, that would be great.

 

[Damon_Tor]

In fact, since almost every HotF* class has a good MBA and/or RBA, you could easily make the case that the Warlord plays *better* with 4eE.

That was my point.

A warlord in a party with a slayer or thief is a leader that deals striker damage, which is why I'm concerned this article will just be a way to nerf that ability.

Melee Training isn't relevant because every 4eE striker already has a good MBA. Melee Training would have never seriously overpowered any MBA-based class.

 

[Lord Ernie]

That was my point.

A warlord in a party with a slayer or thief is a leader that deals striker damage, which is why I'm concerned this article will just be a way to nerf that ability.

Melee Training isn't relevant because every 4eE striker already has a good MBA. Melee Training would have never seriously overpowered any MBA-based class.

Eh. Sorcerers were already able to use their striker damage feature on any attack, and they specifically upgraded Sneak Attack to once/turninstead of once/round. I can't imagine they had no idea what effect that would have.

What's more, this is an article on Warlords, not 'updates' (a.k.a. errata), which are published seperately. They CAN'T use this article to nerf Warlords, since it's published additional material behind the paywall, not publicly available errata.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Melee Training isn't relevant because every 4eE striker already has a good MBA. Melee Training would have never seriously overpowered any MBA-based class.

Mike Mearls had this to say on the matter:

Finally, as you’ve seen in earlier previews, many classes in the Essentials products rely on basic attacks. The Melee Training feat allows a character to use any ability to modify such attacks. That feat has been updated so that it provides the new ability’s full bonus to attack rolls but only half to damage rolls. Melee Training offers its intended flexibility in creating characters without becoming a default choice.

For instance, a slayer who uses Melee Training to attack with Dexterity matches a Strength-based slayer in damage while gaining superior mobility by relying on light armor. A knight who opts to attack with Constitution gives up some damage but has more hit points and healing surges. Such characters are viable without becoming clearly better than ones without Melee Training, at the expense of using up a feat slot.

So before the change, characters with Melee Training were clearly better than ones without it.

 

[UnknownAtThisTime]

Is this the part where I say again that I have not read the "mag" content since they stopped compiling the "issues"? (pretty much true!) Even if the quality is better, my personal reading style is that i download in bunches at sporadic intervals for "off line" reading. Having "issues" sure made that convenient.

I do like some a lot of the content referenced in the article, even the simple one liner adventurers tools and the artifacts.

 

[Klaus]

Is this the part where I say again that I have not read the "mag" content since they stopped compiling the "issues"? (pretty much true!) Even if the quality is better, my personal reading style is that i download in bunches at sporadic intervals for "off line" reading. Having "issues" sure made that convenient.

I do like some a lot of the content referenced in the article, even the simple one liner adventurers tools and the artifacts.

Be sure to write them and tell that you preferred the compiled PDFs.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

That was my point.

A warlord in a party with a slayer or thief is a leader that deals striker damage, which is why I'm concerned this article will just be a way to nerf that ability.

Melee Training isn't relevant because every 4eE striker already has a good MBA. Melee Training would have never seriously overpowered any MBA-based class.

A warlord in a party with a barbarian, two-blade ranger, or tempest fighter, to name a few, also allows a warlord to do striker damage. Pretty sure this is working as intended.

It would be a shame if it got nerfed, but if it did, this article probably would not be the place to do it - that would wait for a rules errata file, and they've had plenty of chances to do so before now. I'm fairly sure that they had the entire time since essentials has been in development up to about November 2010 to nerf what is a pretty obvious combination. They didn't. Nobody is really crying about how OP warlords are ('cause they aren't).

 

[Herschel]

Yes, what more wonderful class options will be good for Genasi now. Int/Con combo maybe?

I'd like to see them get Cha, so they would make excellent Sorcerers (fits thematically), Cha/Str, I guess, so they would make decent Dragon or Cosmic sorcs. I think Storm or Chaos would be a better fit.

Yeah, it always has REALLY bugged me that they were perfectly flavored for Storm and Chaos Sorcerers yet got absolutely zero support for actually being them.

 

[GameDoc]

Aside from the content, I wonder if they will ever provide a caption describing the cover art. Pretty cool. It appears as though some clerics/paladins of Erathis are engaging some sort of "Anti-Erathis" cult or sect.

 

[Chronosome]

Dragon had taken a mammoth uppercut and now lay prone on its belly, gasping for air. Through the bloody, blurry haze of its one good eye it made out the shape of the referee, ethereal and counting. It felt weak, so weak...

5... 6... 7...

No! This fight wasn't over yet! The last round's beating may have left it areel and windless, but there was no way this fight was over. Weakness is not defeat. Weakness is not death. Weakness is a springboard for strength. Dragon slowly hoisted its girth from the mat.

8...

Dragon thought of all it still had, all it could deliver to the countless devoted that had stayed in its corner throughout the fight and had spoke its name with pride...

9...

Dragon...
got...
up.

Hopefully.