Holiday Present - The Elf PHB entry

[Doug McCrae]

Yet, as far as we know, Ranger is not included in the first PHB.

What's your evidence for that? From what I've seen, everyone's been assuming the ranger will be in PHB1.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The Elf SCREAMS ranger. Yet, as far as we know, Ranger is not included in the first PHB. Doesn't anyone else find this odd? The core concept of what an Elf is (as being presented) is not going to be playable for an entire year?

I think as far as we know rangers ARE in the first PHB - after all, they feature in playtests, right?

 

[Plane Sailing]

BTW, when I was in my twenties, I was 6ft tall and weighed 140lbs. I was skinny but functional.

Twenty years on... I'm not in such a fit shape

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

The Accuracy power as a free (rather than immediate) action allows the Elf to use it whenever they use any other per-day or per-encounter attack and it misses. Since these are usually decisive abilities, the Elven Accuracy feat becomes a bit more powerful. I still think it doesn't sound that great. Compare it to the other two heroic level feats we've seen:



I'd rather take either of them.

Edit: Nevermind, I thought the reroll WAS the feat.

 

[HeinorNY]

The Elf SCREAMS ranger. Yet, as far as we know, Ranger is not included in the first PHB. Doesn't anyone else find this odd? The core concept of what an Elf is (as being presented) is not going to be playable for an entire year?

I beg your pardon, but the elf article, by listing the Ranger as a suitable class for the elf, just confirmed that the Ranger is going to be in the PHB1.

 

[Novem5er]

Maybe I've been mistaken about the Rangers. I thought for some reason all the "nature" classes had been left out. I can't quote anything, just a general impression I found. I thought there were going to be 8 classes in the first PHB

1. Clerics
2. Fighters
3. Paladins
4. Rogues
5. Warlocks
6. Warlords
7. Wizards

and um...

8. Rangers?

Okay, never mind

 

[withak]

BTW, when I was in my twenties, I was 6ft tall and weighed 140lbs. I was skinny but functional.

Twenty years on... I'm not in such a fit shape

When I was 16, I was 6', 130 lbs. And I certainly wasn't anorexic -- quite the opposite, actually.

 

[Jraynack]

Looks good. Nothing there really shocking or surprising but looks to me like a good foundation.

I concur.

I do like the fact that they aid other allies in Perception checks - it reminds me of a group blundering through the wood when the only elf in the party motions everyone to stop and
listen.

It gives a great benefit for having a group travel with someone of a different race. I hope they do this with classes as well - ranger is a good example (perhaps a elf ranger grants a +2 to Perception checks)

 

[sidonunspa]

You don't need to see to make Perceptions checks
Humans have Perception, so do oozes, golems and undead
It's an abstract mechanic,
Can't be simpler than that.

It's a passive skill (about passive skills - Source: R&C).. so its always done as the characters "take 10" which means it’s a LOT easier to get jumped....

Unless sneak (hide/move silently) is also a passive skill, the ones doing the sneaking have a better chance to jump you (because of a lucky roll)

 

[Sir Brennen]

On the Group Awareness thing... yeah, it might be a pain to remember to track individually. But, as it's been mentioned, R&C talks about (makes it sound like it was still in the discussion stage at the time of the R&C's writing) making some skills, like Perception, passive "defense" values. Essentially, the DM notes the "take 10" score for the PC's, and this is what he rolls against for active uses of opposing skills, like Sneak. (One advantage of this mentioned is you don't alert the players that something's up asking them to make a roll.)

In that scenario the onus is on the DM to remember the Group Awareness bonus and adjudicate the proximity of the characters to each other. I think one thing that could really, really help facilitate this is a "DM Sheet"... a sheet which allows the DM to record all the important stats of the PCs, with places to note things like group bonus. So just by looking at the section with the Perception skills of the PCs, there's a reminder to take the elf into account. The new character sheet has been hyped much for it's attention to organization and detail (like something designed by the Container Store, per Shelly Mazzanoble's column). Let's hope similar thought has been given to tools for the DM.