Orcs preview

[Plane Sailing]

Huh, scenario time:

4 PCs vs 1 Bloodrager, 1 Eye. Bloodrager down to 10 hp. All PCs are bloodied as well.
PC 1 hits him, drops him to 0, he counter-attacks via Eye's Death Strike aura AND his retaliation, hits with both, goes up to 20 hp. Repeat for two other melee PCs.
On his turn, he uses warriors surge, regains 48 hp + 10 vs Bloodied PC.
On the Eye's turn, Bloodrager gets Swift Arm of Destruction, attacks, hits, gets 15 hp + 10 vs Bloodied PC.
So, instead of dying to 3 different PCs, he is now at 103 hp, back out of Bloodied...

BUT... in 4e don't all monsters just die at 0hp?

So when he drops to 0 he gets that last dying swing of the axe thanks to death strike aura, but he is dead.

d.e.a.d. dead.

So we probably don't have to worry about unkillable bloodragers

 

[DeusExMachina]

Also I think the Bloodrager is an instance where the Paladin's Divine Challenge is going to be useful, because those retaliatiory attacks of him won't be focused on other players then, or at the least it will nullify the healing he gets fromt hose attacks... So the paladin has to hide behind his shield while the orc rages at him and the strikers try to take the bastard down before the paladin goes down... Cool stuff...

I'm definitely excited about the new monsters and their roles and combinations. I always thought the MM was a rather boring book to go through, but now it looks way more interesting...

 

[AtomicPope]

Very cool. I like that Orcs in 4e have a different feel than:

Creature with X statline, Y feats, using Z weapons.

Like in 3e.

 

[Primal]

Has anyone posted that 'ORC AXEBERSERKER LICH' yet?

His powers could include following abilities:

RAGE LIKE HELL (Recharge 5, 6): You get +4 to damage and saves when you rage
AXE MANIAC (Melee +10 - At-Will): You get an extra attack with a Greataxe (damage 1D12+12)
RUGH, BRUTAL! (Recharge 6): You get to attack all adjacent enemies.
+All the Lich goodness, of course!

Here's the powers of a 6th level ELVEN INNKEEPER (Controller):

THROW TANKARDS (Ranged +11 - At-Will): Damage 1D4 + DEX
MY INN, MY RULES! (Recharge 3, 4, 5, 6): Elven innkeeper gets +2 to all rolls within his inn, while his adversaries get -1 to all their rolls.
USE THE TRAP DOOR (Daily): The elven innkeeper may teleport outside the inn by using his secret trap door and escape tunnel.

 

[neceros]

I... I don't even know how to respond to this. I mean, replace "bloodrager" with just about ANY creature level 5 or above and you may see where I'm coming from.

Simply put -- the commoners DON'T stop that kind of thing. Taking down a warrior or drudge? Sure, the commoners can do that (albeit with heavy losses). But stopping the bloodrager? That's where heroes come in.

Unless commoners aren't push overs as they shouldn't be. Peasants from old would destroy any of us in one on one combat. They worked so hard they kept in good shape, almost entirely.

 

[Gunpowder]

BUT... in 4e don't all monsters just die at 0hp?

So when he drops to 0 he gets that last dying swing of the axe thanks to death strike aura, but he is dead.

d.e.a.d. dead.

So we probably don't have to worry about unkillable bloodragers

They do, this combo only works if the 10 hit points from the attack from the Death Strike aura bumps him to positive because his Wounded Retaliation is a reaction so it happens after the triggering effect. So drive him into the negative enough and the 10 hit points wont be enough to bring him to positive so the second attack never occurs due to death.

Wait, full stop. All healing effects ignore negative hit points and start healing you from zero automatically. So they are unkillable against bloodied melee opponents because the healing from Blood for Blood triggering off the Death Strike happens after being driven to below zero which the healing ignores the negative hit point penalty and starts healing from zero. Hell the bloodied opponent doesn't even need to be the one delivering the killing blow.

So yes a bloodrager is unkillable as long as he is in the aura and has a bloodied enemy in melee range, assuming he hits with his Death Strike attack.

 

[AtomicPope]

Wait, full stop. All healing effects ignore negative hit points and start healing you from zero automatically. So they are unkillable against bloodied melee opponents because the healing from Blood for Blood triggering off the Death Strike happens after being driven to below zero which the healing ignores the negative hit point penalty and starts healing from zero. Hell the bloodied oppunent doesn't even need to be the one delivering the killing blow.

So yes a bloodrager is unkillable as long as he is in the aura and has a bloodied enemy in melee range.

It says - When he hits a bloodied enemy...

Not unkillable. With +11 vs AC with a basic melee attack the average tank in Plate Armor with a +1 Shield (pretty standard really) will have an AC 24 at 7th level. Even with Eye of Wrath it's still a 40% miss chance. Not unkillable.

Edit: That's still pretty darn good though.

 

[Gunpowder]

It says - When he hits a bloodied enemy...

Not unkillable. With +11 vs AC with a basic melee attack the average tank in Plate Armor with a +1 Shield (pretty standard really) will have an AC 24 at 7th level. Even with Eye of Wrath it's still a 45% miss chance. Not unkillable.

Argh, Let it be known that I thought to edit my post with the caveat, "assuming he hits" before I noticed your post correcting me.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

The players also probably got chaotic, chaotic evil, chaotic good, lawful, lawful evil and lawful good.

Where is there any evidence for Chaotic Good or Lawful Evil? LN or CN?

 

[LowSpine]

Also, if a bloodrager shows up, how is it that he doesn't simply kill off an entire town by himself? How could commoners ever stop that kind of thing?

This isn't new to 4E. This is always an issue. Every village or town would have to be built like a castle to hold off all the stuff in D&D. That is the problem of having increasing power levels.

In real life humans would have about 3 levels max and the same would go for eveything else humanoid.

We survive large predators because they are completely stupid and we aren't.

Dragons, mages, demons - if D&D was based on logic humans wouldn't survive without all being high tech soldiers in underground bunkers. And their quality of life would be the same as the soldiers in Terminator.