Playtest: limited resources, at will power, and #$!* GNOME arcanist

[TerraDave]

WotC_PeterS continues with the saga of Wilbur. Charging, extra burst of speed from limited resource, at will-power to allow flanking, and, yes, a GNOME, all are mentioned.

So, Wilbur and crew finally made it out of the sewers and back onto the gods' green earth. They found their way to the road, where bandits were attacking a merchant's caravan, and there was only one thing for good ol' Wilbur to do: Charge them while screaming at the top of his lungs.

Only one problem. I was too far away to move and attack. Heck, I was too far away to charge! So I used something I'd picked up in an earlier encounter (and earlier session) to get an extra burst of speed. It was a limited resource I'd been waiting to burn since last week, and it did the job well. I took the bandits from behind, and over the next couple rounds I was surrounded and severely beaten. So were they. I'm also very happy about the way I used one of my at-will powers to help my allies by creating flanks for them and breaking them for the enemy.

The enemy gnome arcanist *** us all off by being amazingly stealthy and trying to scamper off before we could properly defeat him. With the typical tenacious nature of adventurers, we hunted him down and... well, we tried to capture him, but we didn't quite use the rules for KOing rather than killing and he ended up dead. No big loss.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Gnome was an NPC... like one you'd pull from the upcoming Monster Manual. Don't get your hopes up

I'm interested in the at will ability which breaks enemy flanking?

 

[TerraDave]

But it was a gnome that **** them.

That has implications.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

Gnome was an NPC... like one you'd pull from the upcoming Monster Manual. Don't get your hopes up

I'm interested in the at will ability which breaks enemy flanking?

I'm dreading that it's some kind of "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" wuxia move.

Seriously, I'm more and more worried that 4e is going to be Oriental Adventures or something.

 

[RangerWickett]

Don't worry. You can get out of flanking without wuxia. A little agility and sidestepping is not the same thing as stomping on the ground to cause a floor tile to seesaw and knock you up into the air so you somersault over your enemy, simultaneously escaping his flank and catching him by surprise so you can attack him from behind.

D&D 4e will no doubt allow for wuxia, but it won't require it.

 

[hong]

I'm dreading that it's some kind of "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" wuxia move.

Seriously, I'm more and more worried that 4e is going to be Oriental Adventures or something.

Whereas I will have a messy, prolonged Gleemax if it turns out to be a crouching tiger, hidden dragon wuxia move.

 

[Irda Ranger]

Whereas I will have a messy, prolonged Gleemax if it turns out to be a crouching tiger, hidden dragon wuxia move.

You've been waiting awhile to use that one, haven't you?

 

[Fifth Element]

Seriously, I'm more and more worried that 4e is going to be Oriental Adventures or something.

Yeah, we know.

 

[Abstraction]

An ability that moves friends and/or foes? Sounds like magic. Of course magic and wuxia have a lot of overlap. This is Simulated Historical Battles, this is Dungeons and Dragons.

In fact, 4E sounds like magic is more fun and mysterious than it was in 3E.

 

[Mercule]

Seriously, I'm more and more worried that 4e is going to be Oriental Adventures or something.

Despite my whining elsewhere about how much I'd dislike D&D to add wuxia, I really don't think it's happening. I've heard lots of fans, erm, Gleemaxing over the idea, but not much from developers to support the notion.