Dragonborn Ecology up at WotC

[Goumindong]

Isn't a Burst 2 the same area as a Blast 5?
More to the point...isn't the enlarged breath weapon heroic feat a Blast 5?

Therefore, isn't the Burst 2 range feat better than the Blast 5 feat?
Or wait...the ranged one will provoke AoO from those right in front of you, right?

Yes to all.

 

[Mort_Q]

Isn't a Burst 2 the same area as a Blast 5?

Same area, sure, but different implications. Blasts are all close powers, and don't provoke OAs.

Bursts, can be close or ranged. Ranged burst powers provoke OAs.

 

[Skyscraper]

I think the thing that really sets red flags off for me is that it's a burst 2 instead of a burst 1. I could see a feat making your breath weapon into a close blast 5, and I could see a feat making your breath weapon into an area 1 burst within 10 squares, but combining the two into a single feats seems too powerful.

I think I'd house rule it to by a burst 1 instead of a burst 2.

As it is now, it makes the present Dragonborn racial feat in the PHB Enlarge Breath feat (not sure about the name) entirely useless. Enlarge Breath enlarges the area to 5X5 while Hurl Breath enlarges it to 5X5 AND allows you to hurl it at a distance of 10 squares.

Sky

Edit: Ninja'ed. Good point about the AO too.

 

[Dalzig]

Uhg, not that again. Every single article lately seems to trigger a "They are wrong, it should be this way" post while they really should be "here's my personal house rules to that article" posts.

Even though many of those posts are good and interesting suggestions in modifying what's contained in the articles, they are still not errata/corrections.

I'm sorry that I want the quality to improve on products I will be purchasing in the future, especially when the suggested fixes will take a maximum of 5 minutes to enact.

 

[hvg3akaek]

The extra elements in the breath are nice from a mechanical POV, but fluff wize, it just doesn't seem right. What dragons are there that have multiple breath weapons?

 

[the8bitdeity]

The extra elements in the breath are nice from a mechanical POV, but fluff wize, it just doesn't seem right. What dragons are there that have multiple breath weapons?

In the old days Metallic had multiple breath weapons IIRC. Gold had fire + chlorine gas, Silver had lightening and .... gas, Bronze had fire and lightening? This is AD&D now.

EDIT:

Sorry, actually that might have been metallics in D&D RB-era.

 

[small pumpkin man]

In the old days Metallic had multiple breath weapons IIRC. Gold had fire + chlorine gas, Silver had lightening and .... gas, Bronze had fire and lightening? This is AD&D now.

EDIT:

Sorry, actually that might have been metallics in D&D RB-era.

Metalics in 3.x had multiple breath Weapons, allthough the second one was usually sleep or paralysis or something besides damage.

 

[Runestar]

The breath weapon feats sound cool, but don't really seem all that useful. As is, it is a fairly weak encounter power whose only saving grace is that it can be used as a minor action (so we use it really only because we don't have anything else to do with our minor action on the 1st round of combat, and because it makes for a decent minion-killer).

Doesn't quite seem worth it to spend feats on upgrading it any further (and their benefits seem somewhat lackluster as well).

 

[Asmor]

Yeah, a minor action minion popper, totally useless.

 

[Tervin]

Yeah, a minor action minion popper, totally useless.

Looking back at the 4E combat encounters I have played so far, only useful in 7 out of 8 encounters. If I look at the encounters I have written to play later - useful in 17 out of 23. Totally useless.

(I have also counted it as useful against swarms. They are vulnerable to it after all.)