Excerpts: Angels

[hong]

Radiant is not just from good. It comes from clerics and paladins, neither of which have to be good. So your cleric of Pelor may use a holy white light, while a cleric of Asmodeus may use a corrupt, red light, and a cleric of Bane a baleful green light.

In 4E, people will have coloured circles around not just their feet, but also their heads!

 

[The_Fan]

In 4E, people will have coloured circles around not just their feet, but also their heads!

Of course. Clerics: Now color-coded for your convenience.

 

[hong]

Also: I suspect that they changed angels from manifestations of a god's will to superpowered astral race, is so that people can summon them without getting into metaphysical arguments about what their deity wants, who's calling the shots, etc.

 

[Gloombunny]

In 4E, people will have coloured circles around not just their feet, but also their heads!

Hey, it worked for Star Wars.

 

[pukunui]

Although, one thing I already dislike is about the damage entry to the angels. When reading about how to simply assume energy attacks to be evenly splitted up damage-wise, I was joyful, as that meant no need to have extra-dices for every sort of stupid energy-damage. And now, here we have, an Angel of Vengeance, for whom you have to roll ice and fire damage separately. Man, talk about a downer. Why didn't they simply tell us to roll 2d8+18 damage (Cold/Fire)? That would be so much easier.

It makes sense to list it separately so that the DM will roll it separately so that it's easier to determine how much cold and/or fire damage is negated by cold and/or fire resistance. If you tell your players that they've received 23 points of cold and fire damage, and some of them happen to have cold and/or fire resistance, they're going to want to know how much of that damage was cold energy and how much of it was fire and since you didn't roll it separately, you're going to be left saying, "Um ... uh, half was cold and half was fire? So let's just divide the number I rolled by two ... um, hang on ... it was an odd number so let's round down ... um ..."

At least, that's how it would go for me, as I'm not very good at doing math in my head, especially when I've been put on the spot. I would find it easier to tell them that they've taken 5 cold damage (and if they have 5 cold resistance, they can just say, "OK, I don't take any cold damage) and 5 fire damage (and again if they have 5 fire resistance, they can just tell me they've resisted that damage as well ...).

Also, should the PCs somehow manage to get a high enough resistance or even immunity (if that's even possible in 4e) to a certain energy type, and if they happen to all go up against a creature that deals that energy type as well as another energy type, then I can just not bother to roll the die for that energy type because I know it won't have any effect on them.

 

[Nosey Goblin]

Hi folks,

Is it just me, or is this a nasty ability:

"Fiery Blades (minor, usable only while bloodied; at-will) * Fire
Until the start of the angel of valor’s next turn, the angel of valor’s weapons deal fire damage and attack the target’s Reflex defense instead of AC."

Looking at the pre-gens, and some of the monsters, Reflex Defense is quite often a fair bit lower than AC (particularly in the case of the Defenders). This is going give the Angel a nasty sting in its tail when they start to get beaten-on. I love this as an example of how D&D4 is doing cool stuff with the monsters.

Regards,

Shane

 

[pukunui]

In 4E, people will have coloured circles around not just their feet, but also their heads!

Of course. Clerics: Now color-coded for your convenience.

Hey, it worked for Star Wars

In 4e, your magical equipment will have color-coded lightsaber auras for your convenience!

Not to mention for the convenience of your enemies ... so that they know what stuff to take off you once they've killed you.

 

[FireLance]

Hi folks,

Is it just me, or is this a nasty ability:

"Fiery Blades (minor, usable only while bloodied; at-will) * Fire
Until the start of the angel of valor’s next turn, the angel of valor’s weapons deal fire damage and attack the target’s Reflex defense instead of AC."

Looking at the pre-gens, and some of the monsters, Reflex Defense is quite often a fair bit lower than AC (particularly in the case of the Defenders). This is going give the Angel a nasty sting in its tail when they start to get beaten-on. I love this as an example of how D&D4 is doing cool stuff with the monsters.

In 3.5e, it was a 2nd-level druid spell...

Flame Blade
Evocation [Fire]
Level: Drd 2
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 0 ft.
Effect: Sword-like beam
Duration: 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes
A 3-foot-long, blazing beam of red-hot fire springs forth from your hand. You wield this bladelike beam as if it were a scimitar. Attacks with the flame blade are melee touch attacks. The blade deals 1d8 points of fire damage +1 point per two caster levels (maximum +10). Since the blade is immaterial, your Strength modifier does not apply to the damage. A flame blade can ignite combustible materials such as parchment, straw, dry sticks, and cloth.
The spell does not function underwater.

 

[neceros]

In 4E, people will have coloured circles around not just their feet, but also their heads!

Atrocious.

 

[Mirtek]

Yeah. Why did we change that?

Previously, if you wanted an epic intraplanar conflict in your campaign, the good gods sent angels (people with wings, celestial beings, etc.) and the bad god sent devils/demons (Monsters with wings, sharp teeth, red skin, etc.)

Now, on both sides of the conflict, you have these "angels" who're more like a cross between the protoss, a genie, and a dove. Oh, and an element.

So why is this better?

Actually it was always much more fun if the deities on side A send demons and the deities on side B send devils and you were suddenly in the thick of it.

I'm in favor. This allows the angels to be used in a wider variety of roles. You can still have your good holy nice angels fighting against demons. Pelor's angels are likely like this. But you can also have an evil priest summon an angel of death to slaughter an enemy's kingdom-- your own-- and you need to stop it.

On the other hand there's not really much difference at all between sending an angel of death for this job or sending a demon/devil.

In both cases it's just an otherworldly guy with wings who is trying to kill you.

I am not sure I like the mercenary side of the Angels. I wonder if the Exarchs will be actual monsters and will be closer to the "traditional" Angels? Or will they (I think hong wrote that) Demigods and thus probably have no stats.

Since true deities have stats, the exarchs will certainly have stats.

Of course, that puts to wonder how powerful a god is, rules-wise.

Moradin lvl 37 (or 38?) solo and Orcus lvl 26 (or 28?) solo

So I guess the exarchs will be level 20-25 solos