Halflings - What's the Attraction?

[Bialaska]

Which extra at-will power do you need? I read through all the classes I could only see myself needing 2/4. I think cleric I wanted 3/4, but dwarves get stat bonuses in line with cleric better than humans. And they don't get pushed around

I see several at-will powers that I'd really like to use regularly. For instance with Rogue:
Deft Strike allows amazing mobility, great for setting up combat advantage
Piercing Strike is your number 1 power against tankers, who'll typically have high AC, but low reflex.
Riposte strike is good in situtions where you know you'll be the one to be a target. Getting an extra attack is pretty neat.
Sly Flourish allows you to deal charisma as a bonus to damage (in addition to dexterity).

In most cases one of Riposte Strike and Sly Flourish should be enough and you can perhaps live without them, but I'll say Deft Strike, to be able to use your Sneak Attack as often as possible and Piercing Strike, for when you fight someone hard to hit are necessary. But in the end having 3 of the powers rather than 2 will allow you a greater variety and you'll have more options. When fighting a lightly armored enemy and already has combat advantage (maybe set up by another party member or similar) it's probably better to go with a power like Sly Flourish that allows you to deal more damage. The extra at-will power is incredibly useful IMO.

Warlock has 2 powers that hits Reflex, 1 that hit Fortitude and 1 that hits Will. Having 3 of those allows you to always hit the weakest save. the Wizard has more spells and therefore has more control options. Rangers who has both ranged and two-weapons will be able to have attacks that are useful only for ranged or melee without giving up flexibility. Paladin has 4 powers, where I'd want all of them, since they're good in a variety of situations. Cleric has 3 I'd like to have. Lance of Faith and Righteous Brand would allow you to vary between Reflex and AC, so you'd be able to fight heavily armored targets with relative ease. Sacred Flame is a situational power, but when you use it and saves the behind of the rest of the party they are going to kiss, hug and cuddle you.

Most classes would benefit from having 3 at-will powers, at least if the right powers are chosen. Having a greater diversity will allow you more options in a tactical situation.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Most classes would benefit from having 3 at-will powers, at least if the right powers are chosen. Having a greater diversity will allow you more options in a tactical situation.

This is not generally true--this is because the best strategy for classes with two choices of primary stats and one secondary stat is to pick one of the two primaries and then boost it along with the secondary, leaving the other primary in the lurch. For most classes, therefore, more than two at-wills is going to be useless. Attacking a different defense is not at all worth using the primary for your class that isn't your focus. It may break even barely at level 1 against a select few opponents with extremely weak defense in that one area (by 4e standards at least) if you've memorised the numbers in the MM exactly, but by level 8 or so when you've been pumping the other primary, it'll start becoming more and more useless.

For a few classes, this isn't the case, though. Wizard, with its only one primary stat and its awesome at-will choices, can really use the third at-will.

 

[pukunui]

How about a +1 racial bonus on light thrown weapons?

That's a good one. And slings too.

Would that be +1 to attack, damage, or both?

I identified with halflings, and so halfings were the first character I played in D&D. Even after eventually growing into a very average-sized adult, they're still one of my favorite races to play.

I can understand this. I feel similarly about half-elves (I really identify with the older editions' flavor -- half-elves don't belong, they're torn between two worlds, the odd ones out, etc etc). But their mechanics aren't so great either ...

 

[Surgoshan]

A 1st level halfling rogue (artful dodger) could run across the battlefield virtually unimpeded. If he took the Lost in the Crowd feat, he'd choose to run toward the most dangerous spots. He'd get a +7 to AC vs OA an increase of almost 50%, making him almost untouchable ( +3 [16 Cha] +2 [racial bonus] +2 [feat bonus]).

A tough creature with +11 to hit would still need to roll a 12 or better in that situation. Normal creatures with +5 or +6 would need 17 or higher.

 

[Thasmodious]

I have the sudden urge to play a really sinister halfling warlock (star or infernal).

 

[beepeearr]

Hmmm, I felt the Halfling (due to the fact all their racial abilities are dependent on the actions of his opponent) and Half Elf were the weakest of the races too, with elf not to far behind.

So in the spirit of 4E I'm thinking of having the Halfling kill the Half Elf and steal his stuff (group diplomacy and dilletante?, which seems appropriate for vagabond river people, picking up smatterings here and there)

As far as the Elf, he doesn't seems so bad once you realize they have a speed of 7. Other than that I'm tempted to give them trance since both the drow and eladrin get it, other than that I'm thing of bumping up their group awareness ability so all the group skill racial abilities work the same.

 

[Nifft]

I have the sudden urge to play a really sinister halfling warlock (star or infernal).

Halflings make great Star and Fey Pact Warlocks, thanks to their Charisma bonus.

Their Dex bonus makes it almost free to qualify for Astral Fire.

Cheers, -- N

 

[pukunui]

A 1st level halfling rogue (artful dodger) could run across the battlefield virtually unimpeded. If he took the Lost in the Crowd feat, he'd choose to run toward the most dangerous spots. He'd get a +7 to AC vs OA an increase of almost 50%, making him almost untouchable ( +3 [16 Cha] +2 [racial bonus] +2 [feat bonus]).

But see that requires taking a feat. I'm just talking about the base halfling race mechanics. There just doesn't seem to be enough there and what is there is all conditional/situational. There's no "always on" stuff for the halfling outside of the staff that all races get (bonuses to ability scores and skills). I think that for now the +1 to light thrown weapons/slings will do, although I'm still not sure if that should be to attack, damage, or both. I'm not even sure yet if anyone in my group wants to play a halfling, so it may not be an issue just yet.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The reroll powers are really, really big deals.

For the halfling, you've got a good chance of negating a crit, a daily, or even just that last hit you can't afford to take.

The elf's serves to make sure your daily lands, or to make sure that last crucial hit on a foe doesn't miss.

The racial feats for both are quite powerful too.

Being denied 2 handers and versatile weapons doesn't actually hurt all that much unless you're being stupid and trying to make a brute out of a halfling.

+2 dex IS +1 to damage/hit with light thrown weapons.

As for human, there are some classes that their extra at-will doesn't help with - clerics and paladins have some serious stat-splitting going on with their at-wills, warlocks less so.

Rogues, fighters, rangers, wizards and warlords get serious mileage out of that extra at-will because none of their at-wills are "like that other at-will, but with a different stat" - they all use the same primary stat and suppliment it with a secondary stat, rather than splitting between two primary stats.

Oh, and +1 skill and +1 feat are very good too.

 

[Gloombunny]

As for human, there are some classes that their extra at-will doesn't help with - clerics and paladins have some serious stat-splitting going on with their at-wills, warlocks less so.

Rogues, fighters, rangers, wizards and warlords get serious mileage out of that extra at-will because none of their at-wills are "like that other at-will, but with a different stat" - they all use the same primary stat and suppliment it with a secondary stat, rather than splitting between two primary stats.

That's not really true for rangers and fighters. With fighters, you always take Cleave, and then Reaping Strike if you're two-hander or Tide of Iron if you're weapon-and-shield. Sure Strike is just weak no matter what. Same thing with rangers - you take Twin Strike and then Hit and Run for two-weapon or Nimble Strike for archery, but you never want Careful Attack. The extra at-will is only useful if you're trying to be good at both aspects of the class, which is inherently suboptimal.