new playtest report by Steve Winter

[eve_of_dante]

Not too much crunch in this tongue-in-cheek account, but I was intrigued by mention of Warlords reviving people and Paladins laying hands on themselves...

http://www.gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=28592&pagemode=2&blogid=2136

'The Life and Times of Bigelow Smallpenny, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls

12/13:

We fought a second scrum against goblins with a couple of hobgoblin soldiers for stiffening. This wouldn't have been too bad except 1) both Bart's halfling warlock and Jeff's elf warlord were absent, and 2) we produced nothing but single-digit numbers on our attack rolls for the first two or three rounds of combat. The result was that we won the battle but only after the paladin fell out of the fight twice and Biggie fell out once. Bill graciously allowed the warlord to poke his head into the room and revive the paladin both times, which saved our bacon. No such favor was done for Biggie until after the fight, but it was all over except for the mopping up when he collapsed. Still no face-to-face meeting with the mysterious Pyrodon, which we assume to be the fire elemental glimpsed earlier. No doubt he lurks somewhere in our future.

We encountered a new mystery on our return to town. A draconic creature of some sort accosted Beth's halfling, Jarrett Farwhere, from a dark alley (is there any other kind?) with mysterious instructions to 'deliver the goods at high sun tomorrow in the cemetery'. Since we have no goods to deliver, this message was obviously meant for someone else. The messenger swore that he'd sniffed out a member of the right family, however, so we must conclude that someone in the Farwhere clan is up to no good. Biggie did his best to spill the beans, despite Jarrett's effort to keep the family skeletons in the closet. There's method to his madness, however -- he's not just a gorgeous idiot.

Biggie nearly bit off his own tongue on several occasions, such as when we found an amulet portraying a snake "eating its own tail," when the paladin began discussing the merits of "laying hands on himself," and when Beth's fortune cookie delivered the message, "A short stranger will soon enter your life with blessings to share."

Steve'

 

[Celtavian]

re

The Warlord is reviving people? What does that mean? Why would a warlord be able to revive people? Anyone have an explanation? That just doesn't seem very warlord-like.

They are not giving every class healing ability are they?

 

[Vayden]

The Warlord and the Cleric are both leaders. Their job is to keep the party on their feet and make them fight better. Of course the Warlord can revive people.

 

[Celtavian]

re

The Warlord and the Cleric are both leaders. Their job is to keep the party on their feet and make them fight better. Of course the Warlord can revive people.

The warlord is some kind of healing class? Saying "Of course the warlord can revive people" isn't explaining the reason for the ability and its multiple uses in a single combat. Reviving people in previous editions of DnD was a fairly involved process. Is this revive from the dead or a standard heal from similar state to negative hit points?

 

[Mad Mac]

They are not giving every class healing ability are they?

The Warlord has always been described as being a healer. It's necessary in order to make them a suitable stand-in for the Cleric. There's been a few hints than a Cleric dedicated to healing is still the strongest healer class though.

As for reviving, Warlord style...*splash bucket of water in Paladin's face* "Get up you useless maggot! Did anyone say it was nap time? Did you think those goblins were going to smite themselves? Get your butt in gear, now!" If it helps, you can also assume your typical Warlord is well trained in first aid and spends a moment dressing their wounds before chewing them out.

Reviving people in previous editions of DnD was a fairly involved process. Is this revive from the dead or a standard heal from similar state to negative hit points?

I'd assume the latter. We are talking about relatively low-level characters getting knocked around by goblins, after all.

 

[Celtavian]

re

The Warlord has always been described as being a healer. It's necessary in order to make them a suitable stand-in for the Cleric. There's been a few hints than a Cleric dedicated to healing is still the strongest healer class though.

As for reviving, Warlord style...*splash bucket of water in Paladin's face* "Get up you useless maggot! Did anyone say it was nap time? Did you think those goblins were going to smite themselves? Get your butt in gear, now!" If it helps, you can also assume your typical Warlord is well trained in first aid and spends a moment dressing their wounds before chewing them out.



I'd assume the latter. We are talking about relatively low-level characters getting knocked around by goblins, after all.

I see. Warlord is an alternate healer. I'm just going to have to wait and see this game in its entirety before I can really judge it. All these test reports and tidbits aren't giving me a real good feel for the new game.

I can see they made more abilities innate, which I don't mind so much as long as there are still options as you lvl to tailor a character. I would imagine they have to keep options open for characters or they wouldn't have much room to make supplements.

 

[TwinBahamut]

The term "fell out of the fight" is interesting. It certainly doesn't seem that they died, but the particular term "revival" was used, and the Paladin was unable to do it (though that may be because he was too busy healing himself).

This report is keeping my hopes alive that there is more room between "fighting just fine" and "dead as a doornail" in 4E.

 

[am181d]

I hope they call that power "ON YOUR FEAT, SOLDIER!"

 

[withak]

The Life and Times of Bigelow Smallpenny, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls

It's nice to know that even the pros sometimes give their characters godawful punny names.

 

[frankthedm]

I hope they call that power "ON YOUR FEAT, SOLDIER!"

I'd prefer "GET UP NOW, MAGGOT!"