Halflings?

The halfling doesn't appear to be the weakest race of the lot.

Humans can pick an additional at-will in their class. To me, that's pretty useless. It means you already picked the two you most wanted, now you get to pick #3. Plus, you only get a single +2 ability bonus. Sure, you can put it where you want, but when you pick another race, most people pick it according to the class they'll play anyway so they get +2 in their major ability and another +2 to boot. The additional feat and trained skill are interesting, but then again you already get plenty of feats (over time) and trained skills anyway, so there's not much there. I don't feel the human gets anything interesting, the feat probably being the best out of the lot.

It sure seemed to me like Humans were intended to be THE Paragon multiclassing race. An extra feat allows them to slightly reduce the impact of their multiclassing, and nobody minds dropping a bad at will for Twin Strike or Righteous Brand...
 

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I always thought the tiefling was a bit overpowered compared to the other races and that the dwarf sucked. I also used to think the warlock was overpowered. But there's enough differing opinions about these things to convince me that 4e is, in fact, pretty balanced. It's all a matter of perspective and opinion.
 

Somewhere it was pointed out that the 4th ed weapon size rules actually help the Halfling, not hinder him.

As mentioned above, a small sized Greatsword is mechanically identical to a longsword, so the rules treat them the same rather than use 3.X style complicated rules. You can find most other weapons halflings would want to use by finding a similar weapon of a different name. (Reach weapons are out, but they don't make much sense for small critters anyway).

The place this helps the halfling is that the lower end of the weapon table is not scaled down. So halflings wielding off hand weapons don't get decreased damage. Halfling rogues do the same damage with their daggers as any other rogue, which is good for them.
 

1. Half-elves are only any good if you pick a killer at-will power to be your racial power, one that really suits your build.
2. Tieflings suck.

You nailed it.

Beyond this, it's really all about role playing. If you don't want to play a small guy who can run under a dragon and then sneak attack his ass, don't play a halfling. If you don't want someone who can stand his ground no matter what, don't play a dwarf. And so on. The rules are very balanced. Even a Dwarf Wizard will shine if he wants to.
 

Um the teleport is good when trying to get to a monster with threatening reach without triggering an OA or having to shift two rounds in a row, or a in bypassing a small gorge or obstacle, especially if you wear heavy armor and don't want to fail a swim or jump check or burning lava etc.
 

yeah dwarf is pretty damned good for many wis based primals with con as secondary and resilient battleminds. being able to wear scale armor and carry a heavy load with no movement penalty and crappy strength is awesome, just add a feat which gives +1 spd and or gives enhanced movement modes and you're rocking. little downside to a dwarf with stats in two different blocks. anything with bonus stats in the same block are questionable = eladrin?
 

In ref to Spatula's comment: "As for dwarves, they are slower than normal, period. They have an ability where they're not slowed further by heavy armor, but that only applies if you're going to wear heavy armor in the first place. And that armor speed penalty can be negated by other races anyway through feats or items. The dwarf will always be stuck at speed 5."

Nowadays they have access to heroic tier feats which give +1 speed and or scaling speed bonus. They become group packmules without need for anything but minimal strength trait when they have alternate OA power ala druid which have a wis/con build "Primal Swarm" also other classes have powers which grant increased movement. like "shift your spd" move at speed +2 etc. or moves based on a set bonus plust a stat mod. This is no longer the penalty that it was. All the other abilities like being able to roll and immediate save against auto knockdown and reducing forced move by 1 and second wind as a minor are great.

Being able to use scale and heavy armor with an 8 str on a battle mind and your attack characteristic is CON is awesome as is no penalty to damage for subnormal strength. melee training is viable still for OAs even though it was depowered some.
Hybrid classing cleverly can get an OA off another stat like CHA for Virtuous Strike AW1 for Pallys but is suboptimal as it is likely going to be a tertiary stat, but works for Halfelf Battlemind/Pallys with Con/Cha as their natural stat bonuses.
 

In ref to 3rd at will for humans from class: its about versatility. If the 3rd AW has a situational bonus that sometimes comes into play, they have that as an option.

having another trained skill and feat is pretty good. with classes that have a free feat that means 3 feats at first level and 4 at 2, 5 at 4th. Pretty darn good.

When in classes that need two good stats to work, they suffer but where they really only need 1 they do all right.

When each race that has two bonuses will have a stat that is choosable human as a racial choice will become more marginal unless they also are granted something to balance that out.
 

Halflings that don't melee and provoke OA from ranged attacks like a warlock are pretty good. I've played them and with shadow walk concealment and AC bonus vs. OAs as well as the ability force a reroll on a hit made my character one of the last one standing and one of the most efficient strikers with a 1d10 + 4 damage ranged with no ammunition requirement. at 4th level I had +8 initiative and good encounters & dailies. No penalty because of small size that mattered in the least bit.
 


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