Holiday Present - The Elf PHB entry

[A'koss]

Yeah, we're getting a little more sense of what they were talking about when they said the low levels were getting a boost in power (fairly strong racial bonuses & 1st lvl. classes), but flatten out the power curve from there - if the weak-ish feat (by 3e standards) is anything to go by...

 

[Gloombunny]

Elven Accuracy is an ok one, but either it only works for combat characters, or "attack roll" is a term which encompasses spellcasters these days, or a lot more spells require attack rolls.

"attack roll" probably includes both physical attacks and spells. Remember that in 4e the spellcaster rolls against a static Fort/Ref/Will defense, rather than the target rolling a save. So Elven Accuracy will probably work for any spell that in 3e had a saving throw.

 

[A'koss]

That would mean that elves have better racial stat boosts than eladrin; but this could be balanced out by giving eladrin better racial powers, such as their nifty "feystep" teleport ability. So maybe Int and Cha does make more sense mechanically.

Exactly. They have more avenues now to balance this against that... Also, we don't know what additional capability they might be giving to Cha in the game. We already know that different classes can apply different ability scores towards their special attacks.

 

[Gloombunny]

Surprised to see two attributes given bonuses; this makes me wonder what the human write-up is going to look like. Perhaps a +2 to the attribute of choice?

I hope they move away from the uniformity-of-net-attribute-modifiers thing. Some races get +2 to two attributes, some get +2 to one, some get no bonuses. That can be balanced with other benefits.

That said, a freely-assigned +2 - or just a higher point value, since they're going with point buy as the default - would be pretty cool for humans.

 

[Obscure]

Exactly. They have more avenues now to balance this against that... Also, we don't know what additional capability they might be giving to Cha in the game. We already know that different classes can apply different ability scores towards their special attacks.

Hmm, that's true. All of the Paladin smites that were previewed a while back seem to use Cha to modify both the attack and damage rolls (in place of Str).

 

[Voss]

Overall interesting and largely good.

Only major sour note is that we're still tracking stacks of insignificant bonuses. (which, with proper care and grooming, become a huge number that allows you to just win at whatever roll you're making.) Boo.

 

[Pygon]

Mmm, that's crunchy.

I think after waiting this long for something substantial, I'm failing to see what I do or don't like about the elf at this point.

 

[starwed]

Is anyone else a bit bothered by the "aura" style bonuses that are appearing all over the place in 4e? It seems like these would be a pain to keep track of...

 

[Kobu]

Only major sour note is that we're still tracking stacks of insignificant bonuses. (which, with proper care and grooming, become a huge number that allows you to just win at whatever roll you're making.) Boo.

How do you get to that conclusion?

 

[pawsplay]

How do you get to that conclusion?

Spells, feats, class powers, elf bonuses...