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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4827460" data-attributes="member: 58197">Interesting. This may be the only time I've seen one of these "quasi-races" and liked it. (By "quasi-races," I mean, "races where people really want to play X but the designers can't think of a way to make it balanced so they give you an X wannabe race that's basically a human in an X suit." Dragonborn, dhampyrs, warforged, etc.)Revenants are undead wannabes, of course, but they're also a nifty solution for those of us who dislike standard cheap D&D resurrection yet still want a way to bring back beloved and/or plot-centric PCs. With revenants, we have the perfect mechanic for a variant form of resurrection, wherein you do get to come back... but you come back wrong.As far as the race mechanics go:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dex/Con: Weird choice, but I can sorta see it. Revenants are supposed to be unnaturally tough, and stealth is appropriate. Unfortunately, it severely limits their options. There are only 2.5 classes that use Dex as primary (rogue, monk, and half of ranger), and Con is of course the red-headed stepchild of stats with only half a class. On the other hand, revenants do get access to the "compensatory" racial feats like Hellfire Blood that make up for stat deficiencies.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dark Reaping Racial Power: Bleh. I say again, bleh. Effectiveness mediocre, evocativeness zero. Do we really need yet another "Look, Ma, more damage!" power?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Unnatural Vitality: Now this is a good ability! I think people are underestimating the value of this, especially for a revenant defender. What it means is that you never have to lose a round to being dropped to zero; if you go negative, and your turn comes up before the cleric has a chance to lay some healing on you, you still get to act. Every 4E fighter and paladin I've ever seen would kill for that. Now if only we had a Con-based defender class...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heroic Feats: The fact that you can get your old racial power back somewhat redeems the lame-ass revenant racial power, although I agree with those who say it's a bit of a feat tax. (And I'm very sad that there's no way to get the tiefling bloodhunt ability back.) Death's Quickening looks lame but is actually almost insanely good, because it lets you get a minor action which you can use to heal yourself, while still using the standard action to attack. Most of the other heroic-tier feats are so-so at best.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Paragon/Epic Feats: Reaping Burst and Reaper's Strike actually make Dark Reaping useful. Death Scorned and Unnatural Stamina are solid. The epic-level feats are all very nice.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Avenging Haunt Paragon Path: Most of this PP is nothing to write home about, but the 12th-level utility power is made of win. I would take this paragon path just for that one power.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Free Soul Epic Destiny: The fluff is so-so, the mechanics are blah. Nothing about it screams "I AM AWESOME INCARNATE!" the way a good epic destiny should.</li> </ul>Overall, seems like a decent race to me, with some flaws. Will have to play around with it a bit before making a final judgement. Just looking at it, though, I'd say the "get your old racial power back" feat should come free of charge; Dark Blessing, Reaper's Resistance, and Resilience of Death should be combined into one or at most two feats; and Dark Reaping should let you take your second wind instead of getting bonus damage.I kinda want to play a revenant fighter now. Get a flame weapon and hellfire blood to make up for the lack of a Strength bonus, perhaps.</blockquote>

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