Essentials Rogue is up!

[JohnSnow]

Feinting Trick has no range limitation. So the thief can stay 10 squares away from his target and still gain a bonus to damage.

It's basically Shot On The Run.

Which also makes it a good adjunct for a ranged rogue to have in addition to Ambush Trick. So you can use the latter to get combat advantage on an opponent within 5 squares of you, or use the former to get a damage bonus against an opponent at any distance.

I'll reiterate that Feinting Trick doesn't actually say you don't get combat advantage on your next damage roll this turn - it just says that you get your CHA bonus on the next damage roll where you lack CA. Which means it's usable in both ranged and melee combat.

Fascinating.

 

[ppaladin123]

Y'know, I just noticed that a careful read of Feinting Trick doesn't say that at all, even though we've all been thinking it does. Here's the text:



So, Feinting Trick allows you to move your speed. IF you have combat advantage against your target when you attack, you get sneak attack damage as normal. But if for some reason you don't, like if the target moves in response before you can attack (like a shifty kobold), you still get a bonus to damage equal to your CHA modifier. That also makes this a useful backup power for those rare situations when you literally can't get combat advantage. Or if you take a second attack on your turn (like by using an action point), since you can only get sneak attack damage once per turn.

Frankly, there are probably more useful tricks, but I just wanted to clear up what this one says and what it doesn't say.

It works very nicely with:

Flash of the Blade

Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Rogue, proficiency with rapiers
Benefit: While wielding a rapier, if you are the only creature adjacent to the target you may use your sneak attack damage even if you do not have combat advantage against the target with this attack.

So you'll be doing some seriously good damage to isolated enemies.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

I have a feeling we may be seeing a lot of Thieves running around with Spiked Chains, the Quick Draw feat, and large weapons such as the Fullblade or the Maul. I know thats spending a lot of feats, but when you are not going in for Sneak Attack you can use your large weapons and swap back and forth when needed. Especially with a Taclord in the party.

 

[Storminator]

I have a feeling we may be seeing a lot of Thieves running around with Spiked Chains, the Quick Draw feat, and large weapons such as the Fullblade or the Maul. I know thats spending a lot of feats, but when you are not going in for Sneak Attack you can use your large weapons and swap back and forth when needed. Especially with a Taclord in the party.

I've been thinking about making a rogue with a bastard sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. No CA? Bastard sword. CA? Dagger. Throw some of the TWF feats on there.

PS

 

[Njall]

I have a feeling we may be seeing a lot of Thieves running around with Spiked Chains, the Quick Draw feat, and large weapons such as the Fullblade or the Maul. I know thats spending a lot of feats, but when you are not going in for Sneak Attack you can use your large weapons and swap back and forth when needed. Especially with a Taclord in the party.

Well, you should be going for sneak attack most of the time (flanking is not that hard after all).
Spending a ton of feats and money on a strategy that's going to be useful maybe 10% of the time is certainly doable, but hardly a great idea, IMHO.
You're probably better off spending those same resources on damage boosters and CA enablers, if you're having problems getting CA...

 

[Garthanos]

A.). You've now all but confirmed that the slayer and the ranger builds are Basic Attack users, not that it is a particularly well concealed idea.

B). It helps quell my fear of the Warlord being marginalized.

Oh I dont know martial healing will probably be gimped to balance it out...

Sorry I too am actually finding something to be optimistic about in this synergy.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Which also makes it a good adjunct for a ranged rogue to have in addition to Ambush Trick. So you can use the latter to get combat advantage on an opponent within 5 squares of you, or use the former to get a damage bonus against an opponent at any distance.

... or you use all the ways that ranged rogues get CA on foes now. There's plenty of them.

If feinting trick didn't exist, you wouldn't get rogues who think that it's ok to plink away at long range doing sub wizard-level damage to single targets. Because that's what it does for you.

 

[Tony Vargas]

That's unlikely to happen. I have one friend who stopped running his game because I wanted to still use my character builder when the October release comes out. He hates the fact that 4e is changing mechanics that the game is based on.

You could just keep an un-updated copy of Character Builder to use in his game.

I really don't get this whole 1/turn SA. I can't see how this will ever be balanced with existing striker bonuses. Rogues in general already have PLENTY of damage output. I'm a little disappointed by the further devaluation of Stealth as a combat tactic too. The whole point of the 2d6 SA was it was supposed to be a bit harder to get. OK, now Ambush Trick makes it close to guaranteed AND you can do it multiple times per round? That might be OK for the Thief depending on how his other sources of damage scale, but the 1/round doesn't seem to make ANY sense to me WRT the existing rogue builds.

Perhaps it's to balance the lack of dailies?

The change to Martial classes is going to make them very hard to balance. Don't give them enough (like the Knight, perhpas) and they're overshadowed anytime dailies are pulled out. Give them enough to keep up with dailies and the dominate anytime dailies /aren't/ available.

 

[mkill]

First of all, nothing is known about the E-classes beyond level 10. It's possible that they gain some kind of nova ability after all, maybe daily, maybe tied to action points. Maybe they don't. We'll know when it ships.

As for balance, obviously a class without daily ressources will need to make up for it with better at-will and encounter ressources. You need to make a reasonable assumption on the number of encounters per day (4?) and the length of combats (3-7 rounds?) and aim for total damage numbers in the same ball park. This measure won't match every campaign, but it's impossible to create rules that fit every DM and every story.

It also depends on role: a defender works well with a steady, realiable performance, while controllers do best if they can create a big effect that reshapes the battle. Strikers can swing either way, but the earlier they can take out their first target the faster the PC gain the upper hand.

 

[Jhaelen]

First of all, nothing is known about the E-classes beyond level 10.

I'm sure this is because for Essentials level 10 is max.

Basically, Essentials is for D&D 4e what MERPS was for Rolemaster (minus the licensed setting).