Halflings - What's the Attraction?

[Nifft]

Wait... deft strike over sly flourish? You value moving 2 squares before your attack (not shifting - moving, and not after your attack, before) higher than adding your charisma to damage 100% of the time? I could maybe see if you were playing a ranged rogue...

I've also gotten a fair bit of mileage out of riposte strike, both for making myself an unattractive target and for causing damage. I expect it will fall behind in the future though as my strength doesn't keep up with my dex and chr.

Yeah, IMHO your damage is going to come from Sneak Attack more than Strength or Charisma. Moving up to a critter marked by your friendly neighborhood Defender, stabbing your foe, and then Shifting away: that sounds pretty good to me. Moving also may allow you to make a Stealth check, so your ranged attack may gain Sneak Attack damage and still allow you to move.

If you plan on keeping up either your Strength or your Charisma -- boosting them every time you boost your Dexterity -- then I could buy there's value in one of the other at-wills, but for a pure Dex Rogue, I think the other two are best.

Riposte gets a special penalty in my mind, since I don't like the idea of a Rogue planning to trade blows with a foe. :\

Cheers, -- N

 

[Gloombunny]

If you plan on keeping up either your Strength or your Charisma -- boosting them every time you boost your Dexterity -- then I could buy there's value in one of the other at-wills, but for a pure Dex Rogue, I think the other two are best.

Why would you want to not boost up your secondary attribute?

 

[Nifft]

Why would you want to not boost up your secondary attribute?

You might spread the points between your two secondary attributes, or even boost Con a bit for feats & surges.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Gloombunny]

Ah... yeah, for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that you could concentrate on Dex alone and spread your other attributes out for feats and skills and stuff, but I can see that working now that you've pointed it out to me.

 

[Nifft]

Ah... yeah, for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that you could concentrate on Dex alone and spread your other attributes out for feats and skills and stuff, but I can see that working now that you've pointed it out to me.

Yeah, Rogue is one of the very few classes who can actually "take 20" (put a 20 in his primary attribute), because he doesn't need the other stats -- though they are nice to have, they are not necessary.

Cheers, -- N

 

[hamishspence]

the phrasing

It said You must wield the staff to get the benefits. And a lot of people have said that means two handed. Are halflings granted an exception, and which errata has it?

 

[hamishspence]

checked updates

No updates changed: it still doesn't mention staffs. Checked FAQ as well. Have they been updated since the last time they appeared?

 

[rbingham2000]

Best one-handed weapon for the halfling, if you don't want to limit yourself to off hand weapons (though the shortsword does give you that nice +3 proficiency bonus which means you get to hit more often with it), has got to be the Scimitar. Since it is not Versatile like the longsword is, the halfling can use it without having to do things two-handed, and if you're a halfling ranger, you can use two of them with no worries. Though if you fancy yourself a swashbuckler, you can also pick the Rapier, which is also not versatile and thus usable by the little guys, though you'll need to spend a feat to get proficient with it.

As for two-handed work, you have either the battleaxe, the flail, the warhammer, or the warpick to work with, though the spear and the mace are also possibilities. But if you really want to go the swordinator route, you can either stick with the longsword or spend a proficiency feat to get your hands on a bastard sword, which does as much damage in halfling hands as a human's greatsword.

That said, though humans will always be my favorite race, I rather like halflings. They're a living example of "never judging a book by its cover," and while they function best in the role of striker, I can see a halfling defender being quite the little badass, and with their Charisma bonus, they don't make half-bad leaders either.

 

[webrunner]

It said You must wield the staff to get the benefits. And a lot of people have said that means two handed. Are halflings granted an exception, and which errata has it?

If I remember correctly, a CS answer (to a different question) was that wielding a staff as an implement is one handed.

 

[hamishspence]

Cs

CS answers can be pretty tricky, or contradictory: would be preferable to see it in FAQ or errata.

And the Small keyword has bigger advantages.

I get the impression the general ruling is that any feat or power that says: Two handed Weapon, means only two handed ones. Not versatile. Not even if you are a halfling and MUST wield them in two hands. Which kind of sucks. Giving the staff the small keyword would fix that, making melee staffs much more commonly used by halflings, and giving halfling fighters a reason to take all those feats.