Excerpt: Racial Benefits

[Klaus]

good pathfinding abilities, I guess. The elf helps stop blundering humans from walking into trees, which tends to slow you down a bit.

Only if it read:

""Trailblazer____Elf____Add to overland speed of group, +1 to Survival and Nature""

 

[I'm A Banana]

To stay on topic, I do like the racial benefits we've seen so far. It really accomplishes the worthy goal of making a race valid throughout 30 levels. Part of how good it is will depend on what ELSE feats can get used for, and how many of them you actually get, but we know they're thinking about making all feats equally relevant, and they MIGHT be giving us more of them this time around, so both of those things lean toward optimism for me.


PS:

Heck, if WotC left all else the same and addressed the power/options imbalance between magical and mundane classes, it'd be something to celebrate. Why you feel the need to spout your elitism on this thread is beyond me...How anyone with the name "Kamikaze Midget" can try to make others look immature is also beyond me.

...kinda illustrates my point there, man. Enjoy your ice cream.

 

[Lackhand]

That's dwarfism!

Wait... that's not right...

No, it's specious.

 

[drjones]

P.S. Jeez, I hate the idea of dragonborn as a core race. Talk about killing sense of wonder.

Of all the nit-pickey gripes I have seen about 4e this is the only one I can get behind. I have never been a huge dragon nut and these as PCs just screams 'Totally f'ing awesome to the max!!' like they should be chugging mountain dew and jumping out of airplanes with sunglasses on.

Fortunately the fix is incredibly easy. 'Oh the dragon guys, yeah they live on another continent you have just heard stories about them.' If a player really has a stiff for playing one it would have to be a drizzt kinda thing, the ONLY one with all the negative attention that can bring.

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

The Dragonborn fly;
Worlds shatter;
Cherry blossoms fall -
Spring's gentle snow.

Doesn't quite scan correctly for a haiku. Try this instead:

Dragonborn can fly;
Make sure not to look upwards
When they fly above.

 

[Torchlyte]

No, it's specious.

spe·cious adjective 1 apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible: specious arguments 2 pleasing to the eye but deceptive

I think the word you're looking for is 'specist.'

...kinda illustrates my point there, man. Enjoy your ice cream.

I'm more of a lurker than a rabid fanboy, but don't let that stop you.

Edit:

Doesn't quite scan correctly for a haiku. Try this instead:

Dragonborn can fly;
Make sure not to look upwards
When they fly past you.

You need to work the cliche cherry blossom reference back in.

 

[shadowlance]

Does it bother anyone else that the halfling is shaping up to be one of the better "defender" choices?

Dex bonus (we don't know this, but it seems a given)
Size bonus (is this going to be in?)
No Str penalty (none of the core races have stat penalties now right?)
Second Chance (force opponent to reroll a hit 1/encounter)
Lost in the crowd (more AC)
Nimble Reaction (more AC vs opp attacks)

That's a lot of AC boosts. I don't have a problem with certain classes meshing up nicely with certain classes (or roles). I think its a good thing in fact. But the iconic halfling certainly isn't a paladin or a fighter.

Anyone care to tell me how wrong I am? Or are we just at the "let's hope that's not how it is in the actual books" stage?

 

[jelmore]

- Dodge granted you a +1 bonus to AC against one foe. You had to declare the foe on your turn. I think two factors caused the problems of this feat: The benefit was small, you had to conciously declare against who you would use it, and you had to remember it several minutes later, when the monster attacked you.

After looking at combat mechanics for 4E, I had an epiphany for rewriting Dodge in 3.5e:

Dodge (General)
Prerequisite: Dex 13
Benefit:
As an immediate action, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by a single opponent. This bonus lasts until the start of your next turn.
Special:
A fighter may select Dodge as one of his fighter bonus feats.

This way, it goes from being a semi-passive "oh crap, who did I assign my Dodge feat to?" to being... well, more dodge-y.

 

[frankthedm]

Yeah, the dwarven dodge seems pretty lame.

For one thing, it looks like it's a lot harder in 4e to push your AC close to your opponent's attack bonus.

It is impossible. Intentionally. The amount of Ac a player can get is VERY closely tied to the attack bonus appropriate foes. PCs will be hit, PC will have to use healing surges. This is a big part of the reason Cover is only -2 to hit.

At least in the level 1 demos, not even the minions had much trouble hitting the dwarf. Dropping your hit rate from 35% to 30% (for example) is a lot less interesting than dropping it from 10% to 5%.

And they won't have trouble hitting the dwarf for a while either. If a character gets swarmed, very little will let him get a safe AC unless the foes are a good number of levels below the PC. IIRC Fighting Defensively is only +1 AC and Full Defense does not even show up in 4e.

I'm astonished that they consider +2 damage with a weapon category suitable for a first-level feat (but I understand given the new HP scale), but hesitated to give a +2 to AC.

2 damage is worth far less in 4E than 3E now that kobolds swagger with 27 HP and minions are probably going to die on one hit anyhow. Now 2 AC means whole levels of foes become less of a threat because their level mandated 'to hit' bonus is not enough to hit the PC.

 

[katahn]

Does it bother anyone else that the halfling is shaping up to be one of the better "defender" choices?

Dex bonus (we don't know this, but it seems a given)
Size bonus (is this going to be in?)
No Str penalty (none of the core races have stat penalties now right?)
Second Chance (force opponent to reroll a hit 1/encounter)
Lost in the crowd (more AC)
Nimble Reaction (more AC vs opp attacks)

That's a lot of AC boosts. I don't have a problem with certain classes meshing up nicely with certain classes (or roles). I think its a good thing in fact. But the iconic halfling certainly isn't a paladin or a fighter.

Anyone care to tell me how wrong I am? Or are we just at the "let's hope that's not how it is in the actual books" stage?

Not so much really. Dwarves seem more inclined to be the "best" defenderish race. They can use second wind as a minor action, when pushed they move one less space, they also get combat bonuses against large size and bigger creatures.

Halfling racial bonuses are consistent with "nimble and not trying to be in the way". "Lost in the Crowd" implies trying to run around underfoot to where larger creatures can't get a good swing at you. Being a defender implies standing in something's way and not wanting it to go past you. While it may not explicitly state it in the rules, I'd say the spirit of the rules implies that some of the halfling advantages wouldn't make sense as a defender.