New Class and Race?

[Squizzle]

My questions are as follows:

• Do Minotaurs still seem to be very melee-focused? If not, what are their Racial Traits?
• Do Runepriests seem to have different builds in any way?
• How EXACTLY does the Battlemind marking and hurty-thing work?
• What does the Wis Psion seem to be good at?
• What does the Con Ardet seem to be good at?

If the minotaur has not, as he said above, changed detectably from previous publication, then they will remain highly melee-focused. Also, we know that the wis-based psion is a telekinetic specialist, and we've gotten some hint about the con-ardent, which I unfortunately can't recall offhand.

 

[GnomeNinja5]

If the minotaur has not, as he said above, changed detectably from previous publication, then they will remain highly melee-focused. Also, we know that the wis-based psion is a telekinetic specialist, and we've gotten some hint about the con-ardent, which I unfortunately can't recall offhand.

I know Minotaurs were melee focused; I was wondering if it changed. I know the focus of the other psion and ardent builds; I was wondering their mechanical shtick.

 

[Squizzle]

I know Minotaurs were melee focused; I was wondering if it changed.

First page:

And did they do anything interesting with the minotaur, compared to its prior published versions?

I didn't see any changes on the minotaur.

 

[Destil]

Yes, the Battlemind had an insane at-will power called Mind Spike. When an enemy adjacent to the Battlemind (and marked by the Battlemind) deals damage on an attack that doesn't include the BM, as an immediate reaction the BM deals force and psychic damage to that enemy equal to the damage it did to your ally.

Hang on...do you mean that the battlemind gets to roll an attack that does equal damage, or that the battlemind automatically does damage? Because if it's the second, I'm calling broken right here and now.

I've been thinking about this one some today, and I think it may be pretty balanced, but I'd really like to know how it works.

My thought is that if it requires a hit and does nothing else it should be fine.

A) The power requires the battle mind to hit AND the opponent to hit, and the opponent's going to be fighting the mark in that case. Thus it's not automatic in any way.
B) The battle mind's normal punishment mechanic is an immediate, right? So this makes this power just a kicker, and the damage of their normal mark punishment can be subtracted from the damage this deals before considering how effective it is.
C) It's only once per round, and very few significant bad guys get once per round 'huge piles of damage' attacks. Brutes most commonly, which makes hitting even more of a factor. Most 4E monsters that dish out piles of damage either do it conditionally (lurkers, every few rounds) or across the entire party (solos generally get a lot of individual attacks). If you're using this when something has the sudden chance to deal a lot more damage that's just good tactics, and it should be rewarded. Especially if it's something where the other option is to attack the battle mind and do crap damage (i.e. monsters with bonuses against bloodied targets). Nothing wrong with an at-will that makes a defender more sticky.
D) If the mark's up and the DM knows the damage number is going to be stupid the monster can always just point it at the battlemind. It may not be optimal (AoO, higher defenses, temp HP, more and better surges et cetera), but something that encourages this sort of thing isn't exactily out of a defender's niche.

 

[DracoSuave]

Personally, 'runepriest' sounds pretty arcane to me. They're going to have to work hard sell the fluff to me, personally. Not to mention differentiate it from the cleric who is, let's face, the Big Daddy of leaders, let alone Divine Leaders.

Really? When I hear runepriest, I picture a priest. Of runes. That's divine, baby.

 

[No Name]

Does the runepriest have any build-dependent class features, or is that mechanical slot being filled by the per-round selectable rune-states?

It's hard to tell. Nothing is categorized, they just list at-wills, encounters, dailys, and then item powers. So the Minotaur Runepriest has 3 at-wills listed, the two for the class and a melee basic attack. Of the 5 encounters listed, one is racial (goring charge), and one is the heal (rune of mending). So of the three left, I'd guess one is a utility and the other two are from levels 1 and 3. The utility is probably Rune of the Final Effort. It's a minor action melee 1 range that gives one bloodied ally +5 to all defenses until the end of your next turn.

There are also 3 dailys listed. So two of those are probably from levels 1 and 5, and the other is likely a utility. Here, the utility is probably Rune of Meritorius Alacrity. When you roll initiative, you and each ally in sight get a +10 bonus.

There are no Channel Divinity powers listed, but it does say that the Minotaur is a Runepriest of Kord.

How EXACTLY does the Battlemind marking and hurty-thing work?

The Battlemind marks 1 creature in burst 3 as a minor action. By spending a power point, the Battlemind can mark up to 2 creatures in that burst.

The damage they do with Mind Spike is automatic. The marked enemy has to be adjacent, and has to do damage with an attack that doesn't include the Battlemind.

So if a marked kobold adjacent to the Battlemind stabs the cleric, then the BM can use an immediate reaction to do damage to the kobold equal to what it did to the cleric.

And if you're thinking all the kobold has to do is shift away from the Battlemind before it attacks, the Battlemind has Blurred Step. When an adjacent marked enemy shifts, the Battlemind can shift 1 square as an opportunity action.

 

[Afroconan]

The Battlemind marks 1 creature in burst 3 as a minor action. By spending a power point, the Battlemind can mark up to 2 creatures in that burst.

The damage they do with Mind Spike is automatic. The marked enemy has to be adjacent, and has to do damage with an attack that doesn't include the Battlemind.

So if a marked kobold adjacent to the Battlemind stabs the cleric, then the BM can use an immediate reaction to do damage to the kobold equal to what it did to the cleric.

And if you're thinking all the kobold has to do is shift away from the Battlemind before it attacks, the Battlemind has Blurred Step. When an adjacent marked enemy shifts, the Battlemind can shift 1 square as an opportunity action.

I want to play one NOW!!!

 

[Somebloke]

It's hard to tell. Nothing is categorized, they just list at-wills, encounters, dailys, and then item powers. So the Minotaur Runepriest has 3 at-wills listed, the two for the class and a melee basic attack. Of the 5 encounters listed, one is racial (goring charge), and one is the heal (rune of mending). So of the three left, I'd guess one is a utility and the other two are from levels 1 and 3. The utility is probably Rune of the Final Effort. It's a minor action melee 1 range that gives one bloodied ally +5 to all defenses until the end of your next turn.

There are also 3 dailys listed. So two of those are probably from levels 1 and 5, and the other is likely a utility. Here, the utility is probably Rune of Meritorius Alacrity. When you roll initiative, you and each ally in sight get a +10 bonus.

There are no Channel Divinity powers listed, but it does say that the Minotaur is a Runepriest of Kord.



The Battlemind marks 1 creature in burst 3 as a minor action. By spending a power point, the Battlemind can mark up to 2 creatures in that burst.

The damage they do with Mind Spike is automatic. The marked enemy has to be adjacent, and has to do damage with an attack that doesn't include the Battlemind.

So if a marked kobold adjacent to the Battlemind stabs the cleric, then the BM can use an immediate reaction to do damage to the kobold equal to what it did to the cleric.

And if you're thinking all the kobold has to do is shift away from the Battlemind before it attacks, the Battlemind has Blurred Step. When an adjacent marked enemy shifts, the Battlemind can shift 1 square as an opportunity action.

I think I can hear the fighter throwing down his baseball glove and screaming 'Good Grief!' I mean, as Destil pointed out there are limitations, but still...compared to the combat challenge ability...

 

[kerbarian]

I think I can hear the fighter throwing down his baseball glove and screaming 'Good Grief!' I mean, as Destil pointed out there are limitations, but still...compared to the combat challenge ability...

Compared to combat challenge... it actually sounds pretty similar.

Battlemind: If you ignore my mark while adjacent, you suffer the consequences of your own attack.
Fighter: If you ignore my mark while adjacent, you suffer the consequences of my attack.

Battlemind: If you try to shift away to avoid my mark, it doesn't work -- I'll shift with you.
Fighter: If you try to shift away to avoid my mark, it doesn't work -- you'll suffer the full consequences of the mark right away.

The main difference is in the effectiveness of the target's attack vs. the fighter's melee basic. That will vary, but I'd guess that a well-built fighter would, on average, hit harder and more accurately than a monster. Against higher-level monsters or elites/solos, though, the battlemind could be very effective.

 

[Squizzle]

Compared to combat challenge... it actually sounds pretty similar.

Battlemind: If you ignore my mark while adjacent, you suffer the consequences of your own attack.
Fighter: If you ignore my mark while adjacent, you suffer the consequences of my attack.

Battlemind: If you try to shift away to avoid my mark, it doesn't work -- I'll shift with you.
Fighter: If you try to shift away to avoid my mark, it doesn't work -- you'll suffer the full consequences of the mark right away.

The main difference is in the effectiveness of the target's attack vs. the fighter's melee basic. That will vary, but I'd guess that a well-built fighter would, on average, hit harder and more accurately than a monster. Against higher-level monsters or elites/solos, though, the battlemind could be very effective.

A large part of a fighter's or assault swordmage's threat as a defender--that is, the ability to do the class's job--is the threat of decent melee basic damage. This constrains the ways to effectively build a member of these classes without hurting ability to contribute to the party. The fighter, at least, addresses this with options like weapon-specialist multiclass, so that (for instance) the low-damage whip provides additional penalties. By divorcing defender-damage from the character's normal combat-damage, the battlemind is able to explore a lot of character concepts that don't necessitate excellent weapon damage, without being a millstone around the party's neck (i.e. adding a character's worth of XP to the DM's encounter budget without doing a character's worth of work to earn the party's XP).