Is Fey Step really the best racial power?

[Keenath]

Fey step is awesome primarily because it's applicable both in and out of combat, unlike most of the other powers. As long as you only have to go 25 feet, you can climb any cliff, jump any chasm, swim any river. You can avoid OAs in combat and bypass non-solid barriers like gates, portculliseseses, and even arrow slits, in or out of combat.

It's a solid ability.


That said: Elven Accuracy is awesome; Halfling Second Chance is awesome; and Dwarven Resilience is deceptively awesome. (Being able to Second Wind without giving up your attack is HUGE.)

The Human feat is always good, and the bonus at-will is good for some classes but not for others. It's always good for Fighters and Rogues, not bad for Rangers and Warlords, and AWESOME for Wizards. Clerics, Paladins, and Warlocks have to straddle two stats to get the most out of it, so it's more situational.

The Dragonborn breath weapon is usually good for anyone; a minor action area effect is great regardless of damage dealt. It's particularly good for fighters, but everyone can get benefit from it.

Dilettante is situationally good. It seems to me that virtually any class can benefit from having an enc based Thunderwave or Scorching Burst. It's not a minor like dragonbreath, but a Fighter can use it similarly to mark large groups, and ANYONE can use it to wipe minions. A fighter or melee ranger (or any high-strength character) would benefit from Righteous Brand.

There are a couple classes that maybe don't benefit much from Dilettante, but overall it's actually a strong ability.

I agree that Infernal Wrath is the weakest racial power, but I think it's probably made up for by free fire resistance and Bloodhunt -- a +1 attack bonus that applies half the time is a great power.

 

[demonking1]

I am a big fan of Dragonborn, so I would be inclined towards Dragon Breath.

Overall though, I think that everything is pretty balanced compared to 3.5.
All the powers have a distinct flavor that plays off of the races mechanical design.

 

[Nareau]

Fey Step is nice because it has non-combat applications as well which cannot really be said for most of the other powers.

Indeed. Keeping an Eladrin imprisoned would require some effort!

Nareau

 

[spinmd]

Keeping an Eladrin imprisoned would require some effort!

Bag on Head = No Line of sight = No teleportation But it is a cool ability.

They are all fairly balanced against each other but my fave is the dwarven set. Immediate save to avoid falling prone has helped me more often than I would care to admit.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Second Wind as a minor action is the best feat IMO. You can get slammed pretty hard while wasting a standard action to use Second Wind. Doing it as a minor action allows you to continue doing damage while getting your hps back. That is better than any of the other racials I've yet read.

Given how important being able to resist movement is, I would give the dwarfs other racial high marks as well.

When I first read Second Wind as a minor action, I thought doesn't look as tough as the other racials. When I saw how this worked in play, I thought "Wow, this is the best racial of all the races. hands Down."

 

[Mistwell]

I don't know if it's the best, since they are all situational and depending on the build. But I would rank it at least near the top.

Elven Accuracy is something I have used every combat so far for my elf. But, i imagine I would use Fey Step every encounter as well, and outside of encounters too. The human bonus at-will I have used for every combat with my wizard, but that's because wizards are one of the few classes that have virtually all their at-wills and about equal levels of usefulness. And though I have not played a halfling, I can see their power being useful every encounter as well.

As for dwarves, that's really situational based on your party composition. If you have lots of folks with healing powers, it's really not as important.

 

[lukelightning]

Dilettante is situationally good. It seems to me that virtually any class can benefit from having an enc based Thunderwave or Scorching Burst.

The half-elf cleric in my first game took eyebite, it seems like a solid choice for him (since it uses cha, which he had).

 

[Osculim]

I fancy the dragonborn breath weapon more myself : Here is what im planning take lightning as breath weapon and add to it the following feats, Enlarge dragon breath, empowered dragon breath and lightning arc would make a nice weapon

 

[Aloïsius]

The halfling power has been absolutely useless to our halfling rogue : bad luck I guess... But that's exactly why the eladrin power is that much cool : no need to roll. No hasard. It just works. Everytime.

In a game that has been designed so that you fail 50% and enemies hit you 50%, 100% effectiveness is great.

 

[ki11erDM]

The halfling power has been absolutely useless to our halfling rogue : bad luck I guess... But that's exactly why the eladrin power is that much cool : no need to roll. No hasard. It just works. Everytime.

In a game that has been designed so that you fail 50% and enemies hit you 50%, 100% effectiveness is great.

This, I agree with. People go on and on about the halfing ability... it just is not that good.

And I have to say my Eladrin Fighter gosh darn LOVEs his teleport and I have used it in every single encounter to date.

Maybe I will make a Halfling toon next time just to see why everyone thinks it is so great… because on paper it looks like the 3.0 monk.