New Errata/Updates at Wotc

[Ryujin]

I've got a tattoo that lets me teleport when I get critted. Its so-so but it has saved my butt once. Our cleric has Prophecy of Doom (PoD) which lets you turn a hit into a crit. Our cleric won init, planted PoD on our target, but there was one bad guy who went right before me. He nailed me and weakened me. Thanks to the tattoo I teleported and ended beside my Paladin buddy. I delayed to go after him, he touched me and removed weakened and then I critted the bad guy for 117 damage. That was fun!

One other thing I will point out for the Shadow Warlock Armor. Keep in mind that with cursegrind and cursebite, thats a +2 against every target, not just one because they are all cursed. That significantly ups the to-hit chance and makes those powers even more significant than they already are.

My guy is mostly a stay in the shadows kind of guy. He's big on intimidate, bluff and stealth when needed so the armor fits quite nicely.

To b e honest, I'm surprised that people haven't complained about the magical tattoos. They exist in a newly created item slot. They can have some rather powerful, though admittedly situational effects.

 

[Markn]

Ryujin

I think its mostly because the tattoos are so situational. I had concerns about them at first but they have had less impact than I expected.

 

[eamon]

Ryujin

I think its mostly because the tattoos are so situational. I had concerns about them at first but they have had less impact than I expected.

Same here. Some people have em, but they just don't matter much. I think they even get forgotton sometimes - which is a different kind of problem.

 

[Ryujin]

Same here. Some people have em, but they just don't matter much. I think they even get forgotton sometimes - which is a different kind of problem.

Which is why so many people (including myself) tend to look for items with useful properties over situational adds. They're far easier to keep track of. In the case of the Strikeback Tattoo though, as I frequently feel like a crit-hit punching bag, the +2 to hit that creature for the whole encounter is too good to pass up.

"You're making me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

 

[keterys]

The temp hp and resistance tattoos seem quite solid.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

Boring != overpowered. A lot of people miss these "boring" items that vanish quietly into the general math on your character sheet and work silenty in the background. I absolutely prefer them to all these stupid "one a time at bandcamp" stuff (even items with encounter powers are barely tolerable)

In that case, wouldn't it be better to just add an "awesomeness bonus" to your character, and do away with those magic items entirely?

For some of us, the whole "+1 to hit and damage" thing is boring and items that let you do "special" stuff once in a while are much more interesting.

Even the "plate and spoon that creates magic nourishing gruel that tastes like wet cardboard" is a lot more interesting, narratively speaking, than just another +1 to hit and damage and another +1d6 to criticals.

Encounter powers in items is one way to include interesting abilities to weapons or implements without turning characters into boring invincible heros (ANGELIC HORDES, COME FORTH! )

 

[FireLance]

(ANGELIC HORDES, COME FORTH! )

[Off-topic]Incidentally, when I was playing an invoker, I said this every time I used angelic echelon (Invoker Daily Attack 1). [/Off-topic]

 

[CapnZapp]

I have had the tattoos in my game occupy an item slot.

The characters got to choose where on their bodies to have the tattoo, though, so they could always choose the slot they believed they were going to get the least use out of.

 

[eamon]

I have had the tattoos in my game occupy an item slot.

The characters got to choose where on their bodies to have the tattoo, though, so they could always choose the slot they believed they were going to get the least use out of.

As said above though, I don't think this is really necessary. Do many people have tattoos in that campaign? In any case, it's not like every new holy symbol and/or wondrous item isn't essentially a new item slot anyhow; so as long as they're somewhat limited in scope, the whole unslotted thing shouldn't matter too much anyhow. Tattoo's are also limited in that you can't trade em around the party between combats as easily.

 

[Tarrl]

I guess my question is....are constant bonuses too strong, or situational bonuses too weak?

My take is that situational bonuses are too weak for two reasons:

1) Combats can take a while, which indicates more damage may be a good thing.
2) Most magic items to me don't feel that magical or special, they feel really bland, which means they could use some zing.


For example, I don't think a weapon that gave +10 damage on OAs would be overpowered. It would feel really awesome when I get to use it, but it just doesn't come up that often. Because items that require slots are balanced by the fact you can always put a different item in the slot, then specialist items need to be powerful.

I think the best example of this are the charge based items. People have created some great charge based characters with them, but that's their specialty, and charge isn't the best option all the time so I think its a good concept.

I think anything that helps speed up combat @ paragon level is a good thing. we are down to one combat per 3 1/2hr night of gaming. So nerfing some of these items will just drag out combats even longer.