Ray of Frost

[frankthedm]

The problem with RoF is that it's vs. fort. The only people you need to slow down are brutes/eskirmishers, who probably have decent fort.

Don't fall into the 3e thinking trap. Even if bruisers do have a better fort than reflex defense, the difference won't be anywhere as egregious as the gap between 3e fort saves and reflex saves on big critters. Heck the level 22 war devil only has 2 points separating his fort and reflex deferences.

BTW, IIRC, cover only was a problem for AC and Reflex based attacks. So If the target has cover, fort and will attacks don't suffer the -2

 

[ncc4781]

Cover doesn't apply to fort and will defense? Now that is interesting.

I am not sure if I like that, I will have ponder the idea for a while.

 

[Saeviomagy]

And on the subject of being 'forced' to take mm because otherwise you don't have a ranged basic attack - can't you just get a ranged weapon like in 3.5? Sure you lose out slightly if your warlord uses "feather me yon oaf", but on the upside you've got ray of frost and scorching burst.

 

[Larrin]

Btw, do people have those? I forgot to save the updated ones, and I can't find them on teh Wizards site any more.

here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga/ddxp/highlights


I wonder if magic missile/eldritch blast get the "they can be use as a ranged basic attack" in place of a rider effect, somewhat like the fighters daily power gets 'reliable' in place of anything extra. The philosophy seems to be no power should 'just' do damage (ie rider effects, shifts, pushes, etc), and if a power 'Just' does damage, then it should still be special in some way (reliable, usable as basic attack, smells minty fresh...)

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

And on the subject of being 'forced' to take mm because otherwise you don't have a ranged basic attack - can't you just get a ranged weapon like in 3.5? Sure you lose out slightly if your warlord uses "feather me yon oaf", but on the upside you've got ray of frost and scorching burst.

You could do - but the whole point of at-will powers is to avoid this kind of situation.

I would suspect that there will be several "basic" attacks that you can choose as a first level character, regardless of class, so that you always have a possibility of an OA.

 

[Benimoto]

Now that the multiclassing except is out, I really suspect that Tira, the warlock, is only getting Ray of Frost through a multiclassing feat. That would mean that Tira gets one of the wizard's at-will powers as a 1/encounter power. Since it's an encounter power, she couldn't use it as a basic attack anyways, so they just removed that text from the sheet.

Of course I can't explain the updated character sheets making it an at-will power aside from saying that the updated sheets are in error. After all, it's showing 3 at-will powers and 1 per encounter power.

I guess we'll know in what, 5 weeks?

 

[Oldtimer]

Of course I can't explain the updated character sheets making it an at-will power aside from saying that the updated sheets are in error. After all, it's showing 3 at-will powers and 1 per encounter power.

It actually the other way around.

The original character sheet from DDXP listed Ray of Frost under Tira's at-will powers, while the updated sheet moved it down to encounter powers (and seriously messed up the layout in the process).

 

[Voss]

What I don't get is what's the difference? Both require standard action, both provoke OA's. What is the advantage of MM being a ranged basic attack?

If something grants you an extra basic attack or basic ranged attack, you can use MM but not RoF. Thats a pretty big advantage if you, for example, have a warlord in the party.

 

[Voss]

Now that the multiclassing except is out, I really suspect that Tira, the warlock, is only getting Ray of Frost through a multiclassing feat. That would mean that Tira gets one of the wizard's at-will powers as a 1/encounter power. Since it's an encounter power, she couldn't use it as a basic attack anyways, so they just removed that text from the sheet.

Of course I can't explain the updated character sheets making it an at-will power aside from saying that the updated sheets are in error. After all, it's showing 3 at-will powers and 1 per encounter power.

I guess we'll know in what, 5 weeks?

Nope. Tira has the Action Surge feat (or whatever it is) getting a +3 on actions gained from an action point.
Its likely she's getting the power from a half-elf trait. Or its falling out of the ether. But she definitely is not getting it from a feat.

I'm not sure what character sheet errors you're referring to, though.

 

[drjones]

And while their fort might be high it will probably not be as high as their AC (especially for soldiers) so while everyone else is whiffing away the wiz still has an advantage even if reflex might be a bigger advantage.