Playtest: Primal Power

[Nymrohd]

Nah I want to playtest them first so going to wait a month for PHB2 first. I say they seem OP but who knows, maybe if played they are perfectly OK.

 

[Badwe]

If I may point to the article itself regarding tribal feats:

However, leaving the feats as a simple,
expanding bonus misses the role they play in expressing
the deep bonds of unity they represent. An adventuring
party that takes these feats might feature similar tattoos,
carry totems or charms, or adopt a symbol that adorns
their shields, cloaks, and armor. When you take these
feats, look beyond their mechanical benefits and build
your group into a true tribe bound by an oath of friendship
and united by a symbol, totem, or other mark.

The feats just seen mechanically will mostly just be boring groupthink at best or at worst "telling other people how to play their character". But when used as flavor, they can not only be mechanically useful, but feel like a part of your characters' identities and fill out how they all relate to the party.

 

[Caliber]

If I may point to the article itself regarding tribal feats:



The feats just seen mechanically will mostly just be boring groupthink at best or at worst "telling other people how to play their character". But when used as flavor, they can not only be mechanically useful, but feel like a part of your characters' identities and fill out how they all relate to the party.

I have no idea how Red Brick is going about creating a 4E version of ED, but these Tribal Feats provide a good way to demonstrate the ability of PCs in ED to bond to each other as a group, providing mechanical benefits to each other when they are near. Just something that leapt out at me.

The Druid summoning seems cool ... I'm glad some effort is being made to differentiate Druid summons from Wizard/Invoker summoning. I wonder if there will be a build option to go along with Druid summoning, like the Tome implement seems to be setup to support Wizard summoning.

 

[Lojaan]

Any idea why all the summoning powers have the implement keyword? It's not as if you roll to cast the summoning or anything

 

[Nymrohd]

Implement bonus applies to the summoned creature's attacks.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Any idea why all the summoning powers have the implement keyword? It's not as if you roll to cast the summoning or anything

Probably to add it to the attack rolls of the summoned creature - after all, all damage rolls are basically part of the power (similar to the way the implement bonus adds to Flaming Sphere etc. as well).

Which is pretty important to keep the maths going, otherwise, the summoned creature would lack behind a lot in terms of attack bonus.

Cheers, LT.

 

[yesnomu]

I love these summons, and love the way that they are differentiated from Wizard and Invoker summons. Like I wasn't super-excited for the Druid and Primal Power already!

I especially like the Guardian Drake. That's a fantastic power, especially for a defender-light party.

 

[Quartz]

Not being a subscriber, I can't read the article, but IMHO untyped bonuses are bad, and the more types there are, the more we get back to the problems of 3E. I'm cool with a feat which provides a Feat Bonus which stacks with itself to some degree, but one that grants an untyped bonus which therefore stacks with other feats is very much a no-no; one which keys a new bonus type is disappointing.

With regard to Tribe of the Swift Jaguar and the stacking, from what I've read here, there does need to be some restriction: imagine throwing 20 or so kobolds against the PCs when all the kobolds have taken this feat. +1 per doubling, maybe? (+1 for 1, +2 for 2, +3 for 4, +4 for 8 etc). Or maybe the maximum bonus could be limited to a particular stat? So while your party of 8 may all have the feat, only the character with a +8 modifier on that stat is going to get the full bonus; the character with a +2 modifier will only get +2. The minimum should be +1, of course.

Further, Tribe of the Swift Jaguar seems to be a feat which duplicates a warlord's class power, as noted earlier with the character with the +22 initiative and so should not stack with that but be there to make up for the lack of a warlord in the party.

 

[chaotix42]

^^^ Monsters don't get feats in 4e...

 

[Scribble]

With regard to Tribe of the Swift Jaguar and the stacking, from what I've read here, there does need to be some restriction: imagine throwing 20 or so kobolds against the PCs when all the kobolds have taken this feat.

The max bonus you can get is +5.