Official Rules Updates (March 02, 2010)

[Destil]

Hide Armor Expertise nerfed into near-oblivion.

Orb of Imposition needed to be weakened, but this is too weak. It should have let you impose the penalty to one saving throw, after it was rolled, as a free action.

Hide armor expertise is a bit worthless now. This also throws the swarm druid firmly into the 'AC scaling issues' camp, though their scaling DR isn't that bad. Str/Con barbarians never had that problem in the first place (see chainmail).

Orb, I think, DOES do this now. It's a free action, so you should be able to use it anytime, including in response to seeing the roll.

 

[Walking Dad]

Hide armor expertise is a bit worthless now. This also throws the swarm druid firmly into the 'AC scaling issues' camp, though their scaling DR isn't that bad. Str/Con barbarians never had that problem in the first place (see chainmail).

...

Their DR isn't scaling good enough, considered their many melee range / close powers and supposed secondary defender role. (They also nerfed shield use while wildshaped.)

Were the swarm druid over-powered and the two-weapon barbarian is still fine? At least make the bonus of hide expertise rise with tiers.

Light armor raises only by 1 / tier. Without an increasing added bonus (like a primary or secondary ability you rise at every opportunity) it falls to far behind the heavy armor.

 

[DracoSuave]

I liked the errata/clarification to non-typed bonuses saying the "same named game element" do not stack.

Though it does make me wonder if having two magic daggers would stack with Dual implement spellcaster or not.

Thoughts?

I would let them, of course, but by RAW, I am not so sure.

1) Rules involving non-typed bonuses do not affect typed bonuses.

2) The feat specifically states you can add the enhancement damage of a second implement in; this creates an explicit exception to the normal rules for stacking bonuses.

 

[Pickles JG]

And why did they update the tiefling hellfire blood feat, but not the gnome phantasmist?

The Gnome one scales, Hellfire blood does not. I think they should have made the gnome phantasmist & Draconic Spellcaster the same as Hellfire Blood.

Changing the bonus type of the expertise feats messes up those of us that gave them out for free. It makes the Draconic Spellcaster type feat less appealing (which is OK as they were too good).

If you adjusted enemy defences however that type of feat will become (er remain) very strong indeed.

 

[eamon]

The Gnome one scales, Hellfire blood does not. I think they should have made the gnome phantasmist & Draconic Spellcaster the same as Hellfire Blood.

I agree, and started a thread on the errata forum suggesting that change.

Changing the bonus type of the expertise feats messes up those of us that gave them out for free. It makes the Draconic Spellcaster type feat less appealing (which is OK as they were too good).

If you adjusted enemy defences however that type of feat will become (er remain) very strong indeed.

I agree with this too, but I really don't see a fix for that coming from WotC. You could ban feat bonuses to attack rolls; that basically is what experise does anyhow; but at some point you have to wonder whether it's worth the effort...

 

[Ferghis]

I apologize pre-emptively for this hijack. If it goes further than this, I'll turn it into a thread in the 4e houserules forum.

Astral Seal could definitely use a nerf as well, although I'm unsure how one would do it without making it useless. Changing to temp hit points would make it rather pointless (it would no longer get a benefit from Healer's Lore or other stackable healing benefits), whereas it currently heals too much (often around 9 to 10 hit points at 1st-level) and puts the power into unbelievably good territory.

I haven't thought about it long enough to present the phrasing here, but the houserule as I imagine it would turn all the currently healed HP into temp HP. Therefore 8-10 temp hp per Astral Seal.

 

[BobTheNob]

Goodbye to three of my most loathed game abuses
* Orbizards. Take that Cheesemasters!!
* Righteous Brand. Burn in hell you over the top 1st level at-will
* Student of Caiphon/Avengers. Wohoo! Die horid stupid cheese build

 

[Kzach]

I haven't thought about it long enough to present the phrasing here, but the houserule as I imagine it would turn all the currently healed HP into temp HP. Therefore 8-10 temp hp per Astral Seal.

As I said before, changing it to temp hit points would mean the power would no longer be a healing power and therefore would not gain the benefit of Healer's Lore. That would reduce the amount of hit points by 4-5.

 

[Flipguarder]

Special: This power also counts as a healing power for the purpose of Healer's Lore.

OR, if that is not clear enough for you

Speacial: Target regains 1 hp

 

[Aduro]

Target regains 2 Hit Points, and gains Temporary Hit Points equal to your Cha modifier?