Playing Dhampyr

[Cadfan]

Well, right. Its just that, at the heroic tier, it basically costs you two actions and has a low chance of success. First, you have to grab the target. That round you do no damage, and immobilize. Then the target gets two move actions to escape, or one to escape and one to attack you just as if it were never grabbed in the first place. Then, if it failed all its escape attempts, you can do small damage and spend a healing surge. You'd be better off using Second Wind.

At paragon tier, a feat fixes all of this. Which means that if you did craft a build that was able to easily grab someone, you'd probably just retrain everything once you didn't have to grab anymore.

All of this for a healing surge? I love the concept, and I know it can't be too great because you get it for a feat. And at level 11 it becomes decent. But that makes me sad for 10 levels.

I think the power would be more worthwhile if there were character classes that used Grab well. Hence the "see my homebrew" comment above.

 

[Cadfan]

I'm rather against the notion of feats granting powers, period. While I think that feats should be nice, powers come from leveling and classes. A power from a feat is almost too powerful.

I meant powers that you gain by paying a feat and then trading in an existing power. I'm sorry, I should have been more clear given that the class has a feat that flat out grants you a power. My bad.

 

[Rechan]

I meant powers that you gain by paying a feat and then trading in an existing power. I'm sorry, I should have been more clear given that the class has a feat that flat out grants you a power. My bad.

Oh that's cool. I haven't actually looked at the article yet. So it's just a multi-class feat, essentially.

 

[Rechan]

Well, right. Its just that, at the heroic tier, it basically costs you two actions and has a low chance of success. First, you have to grab the target. That round you do no damage, and immobilize. Then the target gets two move actions to escape, or one to escape and one to attack you just as if it were never grabbed in the first place. Then, if it failed all its escape attempts, you can do small damage and spend a healing surge. You'd be better off using Second Wind.

Or if the enemy grabs you first, you could counter-grab.

 

[Jack99]

Well, right. Its just that, at the heroic tier, it basically costs you two actions and has a low chance of success. First, you have to grab the target. That round you do no damage, and immobilize. Then the target gets two move actions to escape, or one to escape and one to attack you just as if it were never grabbed in the first place. Then, if it failed all its escape attempts, you can do small damage and spend a healing surge. You'd be better off using Second Wind.

At paragon tier, a feat fixes all of this. Which means that if you did craft a build that was able to easily grab someone, you'd probably just retrain everything once you didn't have to grab anymore.

All of this for a healing surge? I love the concept, and I know it can't be too great because you get it for a feat. And at level 11 it becomes decent. But that makes me sad for 10 levels.

I think the power would be more worthwhile if there were character classes that used Grab well. Hence the "see my homebrew" comment above.

This is where you use your action point! - Grab - AP - Bite! Done deal and no worrying about the sucker slipping away

 

[RodneyThompson]

This is where you use your action point! - Grab - AP - Bite! Done deal and no worrying about the sucker slipping away

Bingo. When I was developing this article, that's sort of what I envisioned as the optimum strategy, though I also see this being effectively used against dazed/stunned opponents or opponents with sustain effects.

Yes, it's not the easiest racial ability to pull off...but that's also why it's an encounter power, and why when you take the feat it adds the power instead of replacing a power.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Say Rodney, I dunno if you can answer this. But is our assumptions correct in assuming this will be the official format for future racial templates? If so, awesome, I quite like it

 

[Gorrstagg]

One thing I noticed, that's a nitpick. But none of the feats, have them listed as feat power, and the paragon paths also are missing their levels, such as ...

Bloodseeking Strike - Bloodknight Attack 11
Mistblood Form - Bloodknight Utility 12
Dance of Blood - Bloodknight Attack 20

and so on...

(Sorry but I've been on a tear and have made a card for every power out of single book I have, and am just finishing up the Dragon magazines to finish my list. That is of course until the next book/magazine has a new power/feat/paragon/epic path/destiny power And then I'll add them.)

 

[FireLance]

Here's an interesting thought: you can use racial heritage feats to represent not just crossbreeds, but special bloodlines of an existing race: ghaele and bralani eldarin, for example, or in a Middle-Earth setting, Numenorean humans. Of course, such racial heritage feats would have stricter prerequisites.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Bloodline feats definitely lool like an interesting enhancement to the games.

Oh, and maybe an invitation to power creep? Less so then those regional backgrounds (which were mostly a "creep" for skill bonuses), but still. It's bascically a second path of multiclassing options, and one has to be careful with it - and you gain encounter powers with it!

I wonder if Eberron will implement Dragonmarks as Multiclassing or as Bloodline feats, or if this will be a third power-swap variant?