Power changes for flavor reasons?

[Eolin]

I play a dwarven wizard in my first 4e game.

I'm enjoying it a lot. Both the game in general, and the character in specific.

and 4e.

We just became third level.

This dwarf likes to jump into the action and cast thunderwave. I describe every spell as coming from his implement.

My DM has allowed two changes in abilities that seem pretty minimal. But, I wanted to know if anyone else thought it was broken.

(1) Instead of a staff, I use a warhammer. It does slightly more damage and is versaile instead of two-handed. Mostly, this is a cultural weapon. None of the differences have mattered: the one time I attempted to hit someone, I missed.

(2) For my second level feat, I picked multiclass cleric. But, I wanted my healing to work by touch only -- like Lay on Hands -- rather than at range. The DM gave me Lay on Hands as an encounter power, usable a number of times per day equal to my wisdom modifier. This uses my healing surge, and doesn't grant the extra d6.

In general, what do you think of switching out one multiclass ability for another, or of using different weapons in place of a staff?

 

[andarilhor]

I did like the flavor changes. Only the lay on hands seens a little to powerful due the extra times you can use it. Why you didn´t pick paladin multiclass instead?

 

[Rafe]

I say it's fair game because it was agreed upon by yourself and the DM. Doesn't matter what others think, really.

I'm thinking he didn't take Soldier of the Faith feat because it doesn't grant Lay On Hands and he wanted the ability to heal. That said, you ought to just have Lay On Hands since you're doing melee range healing anyway, and it's probably a bit overpowered to be able to add a d6 to a healing surge via Healing Word, even if it's melee range. Up to you and your DM, though.

Flavour changes is what D&D is all about. Make the game yours and have fun!

 

[Eolin]

I'm thinking he didn't take Soldier of the Faith feat because it doesn't grant Lay On Hands and he wanted the ability to heal. That said, you ought to just have Lay On Hands since you're doing melee range healing anyway, and it's probably a bit overpowered to be able to add a d6 to a healing surge via Healing Word, even if it's melee range.

I agree, and I'm not granting the extra d6. Just the healing surge value, once per encounter.

And, actually, I should have said, we did do it exactly like Lay on Hands, including using my healing surge instead of theirs.

So, when our striker went down and was having to make death saves and the cleric was out -- or couldn't get there, I forget which -- I was able to help out.

and as a minor action, I can still cast. I just cannot sustain in the same turn.

A pretty decent tradeoff, i think.

I wonder why Soldier of the Faith focused more on the Defender aspect of the Paladin and not the Leader. Any idea on that?

Any more, different, divergent thoughts?

 

[Rafe]

I wonder why Soldier of the Faith focused more on the Defender aspect of the Paladin and not the Leader. Any idea on that?

It's a Defender role, so that's what comes up. My full answer, however, goes something like this:

Because, in my opinion, the multiclass system in 4e is extremely weak. I actually don't know anyone who has multiclassed. There just isn't enough oomph or a decent trade-off. I like the fact that it uses feats and not class levels, but there's just no... fire in the current system, and it doesn't scale. You have to keep using up feats to buy more multiclass feats to augment how ridiculously weak the multiclass feats you'd previously taken are.

From what I've seen, a lot of people use house-rules for multiclassing, adding a lot more benefit from doing so. I mean, c'mon... someone multiclasses to Fighter. What do they get? A trained skill from Fighter (which means that, after 1st level, you have to use a retrain to become trained it in, or use up yet another feat for Skill Training) and, once per encounter, you get a +1 to your next attack roll with a one-handed or two-handed weapon (whichever you chose) and can mark the target... for 1 round. ... wow.

I really hope the PHB 2 proposes an alternate system.

 

[Eolin]

I've been finding it difficult to find inspiring feats altogether. I seem to've picked stats and powers that don't mesh in terms of feat selection.

That means, though, that I can pick feats that I want. Like leather armor, and the multiclass feat.

I'd like for multiclassing to give access to more of the powers. Perhaps the first level feat should give an at-will (of your choice) as an encounter.... much as how I did Lay On Hands.

But then, I'm generally more for choice in character design than the standard 4e philosophy seems to be.

... and I'm also for point based systems.

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

Depending on level, a lot of the optimized builds use the current multiclass rules. They are not what we were used to in 3.x, but they are not weak.

Many wizards take multiclass cleric. This opens some amazing PPs. There are warlocks that multi into fighter for great effect. Most people benefit from multiclassing into a leader to get some minor action healing. There are a ton of possibilities for the multiclass rules for things like the spellscarred and gladiator type feat chains. Think about reintroducing schools of magic in the form of multiclass rules. Or adding animal companions into paladins or the future druid. Or bloodlines like lycanthrope or demon. Or just adding to the racial differentiation through multiclass feats.

I really like the way multiclassing is handled in 4e. It is early in the evolution of 4e, so we have relatively few choices at this point, but there will be soon. Modifying the multiclass feats to give you a different class feature is relatively easy as it is, so I don't think that should be a problem, and as Eolin says, there are few other options for feats right now anyway, so multiclassing can't be that weak if it is better than the other options.

 

[Eolin]

So, in general, no one seems opposed to this.

It isn't too powerful for the Wizard to be able to use his healing surges to heal his comrades?

The one-handed nature of a WarHammer (or two-handed and +1 damage) over a staff isn't a big deal?

Is that generally agreed?

In broader ideas, is there any consensus on using other class features besides those given in the multiclass feat descriptions to multi into that class? What about changes to the required stat?