The Martialist - Looking for Feedback

[The Cartographist]

Quickleaf and Alex319: Thanks for the feedback. Good comments--every one of them.

It is amazing how a small group of people can think one thing and then almost immediately be shown a better way--I guess that is the strength of Enworld.

Anyway, here are the Level 9 powers. Level 10 will be posted tomorrow. Following that and any feedback, I'll make revisions and compile into a single pdf--The 'Heroic' Martialist. Then it's on to Levels 11 - 30.

 

[Alex319]

Inspiring Assault

I would recommend making the "+2 bonus to attack rolls" be an effect line, not on the hit line. This makes the power more powerful, more in line with what a 9th level daily should be, and also makes it so you don't waste the daily if you miss.

Quick Combination

The problem with this power is that there is a well-known ambiguity in the rules as to what happens if you are dazed in the middle of your turn. One school of thought says that since dazed says that you can only take one action on your turn, then if you've already taken an action this turn (say by taking a move action to move into position), you can't take any more and your turn is over. Another school of thought says that your "set of actions" is calculated at the beginning of your turn, and that even if you get dazed in the middle, you can still complete your full set of actions. This rarely comes up in most games, because there are no interrupt powers that daze somebody (IIRC) and this can only happen with a readied action. However, this issue will come up nearly every time this power is used (unless it misses).

SUGGESTION: Make it stunned and not dazed, and decrease the damage a bit on the rest of the power to compensate.

Revenge for its Own Sake

I don't see much of anything wrong with this one other than the "if it misses, you've wasted a Daily" thing.

Sleeping Grasp

Do you mean to say "unconscious (save ends)"? Otherwise how do you get out of the unconsciousness? (In a WotC clarification related to the Sleep spell, they explicitly said that the only thing that ends something that sayd unconscious (save ends) is a save. You do not get out of unconsciousness by being attacked, taking damage, being slaped by your teammate, hearing a loud noise, or anything else.

 

[The Cartographist]

Level 10 utility exploits here.

Then its time to revise and compile.

 

[Alex319]

Broad Shield:

This is another one of those powers that creates a unique mechanic (in this case, the mechanic of choosing a "direction" to defend from) that is not fully explained.

Suppose we have the following scenario:

* 1 2 3 4
A . . . .
B . X . .
C . Y . .
D . Z . .
E . . . .

X, Y, and Z are PCs. Suppose Y is a martialist, and he chooses to defend from the right. Then if a monster is at C3 and attacks Y, then Y will get the bonus. Now is "left or right" relative to the direction chosen, so X and Z are included? If a monster attacks Y from B3, does Y get the bonus? What happens if there's a reach monster, and he attacks Y from B4? etc. etc. etc.

Immoveable Object:

Add the word "may" between "you" and "retaliate" in the Special line.

Also, the wording of the "Special" line seems to imply that "choosing to move" is something that you do when you get attacked, which does not seem to be the case. Maybe what you should do is move the "if you are attacked ... as described below" section to the Effect line.

Also, the wording of the Special line say you can retaliate when you are attacked, but the wording of the actual attack says it only triggers when you are hit. Which is it?

Dance Around my Foe:

The "3 + Dexterity modifier squares" is not necessary, as it is always possible to get from one side completely around to the other in that many squares (assuming your dex is at least +1).

Note that in your, power, if you were in the following position:

* * * *
* M X *
* X O *
* * * *

where M is the martialist and the X's and O's are enemies, if the player uses this ability targeting O he cannot get around because he is blocked by the two X's, even though there is free space around. Is this desired?

Understand the Enemy:

What does "engage in combat with any other enemies" mean? Does it mean attacking them? Being attacked by them? Being in melee range with them?

If you engage in combat with any other enemies, does the bonus go away? This effect seems confusing because it has an "until the end of the encounter" effect but also a "sustain" effect. The RAW interpretation (as I understand it) would be that if you stop being able to sustain it, then your bonus stops going up but you get to keep whatever bonus you have untilt he end of the encounter. Is this desired?

Also, can you increase the bonus indefinitely? If so it is VERY powerful. I would suggest something like +2 to start, +1 additional each round, maxing out at Wis mod or something like that. Even then it's pushing the high side of power.

 

[Alex319]

One pattern that I see a lot in many of these powers (and a common mistake in a lot of homebrew designs) is a tendency to invent new game mechanics that are only going to be used for one particular power or ability.

For example, one homebrew monster I looked at had a "ray of light" attack that blinded the target, and there was a penalty to the attack roll if the target's eyes were shielded from the blast. However, such a power would necessitate an entirely new combat subsystem to adjudicate. (What kind of action is it to shield your eyes? How long does it last? Does it give you any penalties to attack? What can you do it with?) And such a system would have to be tested, explained to players, etc. - a lot to add for one monster ability.

Some of these abilities also have that. For example, as described above. the "Broad Shield" power also involves a new mechanic - that of choosing a "direction" from which to defend. When you start thinking about that mechanic, all sorts of questions arise. Is the "direction" keyed to a particular compass direction or to a particular targeted square? (In other words, in the above example, if Y were defending against C3, and he was then force-moved to B3, he would now be defending from the south because that's where C3 is, or would he still be defending from the east because that's the direction he was defending before?) Does it have to be the exact direction, or will it work if you're 45 degrees off? Or even less? What happens if one (or both) of the participants takes up multiple squares - then how do you adjudicate which direction the attack comes from? This is a lot of additional complexity to add for just one power.

Now, I'm not saying new mechanics are always bad - far from it. I am saying that when you add new mechanics, it should in general be for something that is used often or is a key component of what you're trying to add (like the new class), so that you can explain it once and then reuse it. For example, if there was an entire class with a key feature that revolved around choosing directions to defend from, then you could spend a page or two explaining how "choosing directions" works, and then use that same mechanic in all the powers that revolve around this. You use this to good effect with your IoD's - there's one place that explains it, then all the powers can inherit from that explanation. But if your new mechanic is only for one power, it's probably a better idea to find a different way to achieve the effect you want.

 

[The Cartographist]

Alex319 - You're absolutely right. I've been turning over in my head how I want to revise Broad Shield for the past two days. There is a fighter power (Not sure where--might be in MP) that gives a bonus to AC for all allies within Close Burst 1 of the fighter. I didn't want to do that. In game terms, it just doesn't make sense to me that the Martialist could defend everyone around him with his hands.

I might do something like, "Choose two allies adjacent to you who are also adjacent to each other. They each gain a +5 power bonus to their AC until the end of your next turn as long as they remain adjacent to you and each other. You gain this bonus as well. If an ally so protected moves, the bonus to their AC immediately ends."

Basically, I am trying to describe in game terms the fact that the Martialist can protect a few people who are close by. I'm requiring the adjacent clauses because he wouldn't be able to protect people on opposite sides of him.

 

[Alex319]

Yes, and this demonstrates that I completely misunderstood the point of the power. I thought that "to the left and right" meant to the left and right of the Martialist, and the "choosing a direction from which to defend" meant that you only get the AC bonus against attacks coming from that direction.

One important principle in designing powers is that the mechanics of the effect should be clear from the power's mechanical description. You shouldn't make the players speculate as to the "fluff" (in this case, that you're defending with your hands so you can only do it in a smaller region) in order to understand how to apply the mechanics. (Of course, some players may choose to allow the "fluff" to affect the mechanics in certain cases - witness all the discussion about whether oozes can be knocked prone, what hit points mean, or about how Come and Get It works. But players shouldn't have to do this kind of reasoning in order to play the game.)

 

[Alex319]

I might do something like, "Choose two allies adjacent to you who are also adjacent to each other. They each gain a +5 power bonus to their AC until the end of your next turn as long as they remain adjacent to you and each other. You gain this bonus as well. If an ally so protected moves, the bonus to their AC immediately ends."

Do you keep the bonus to your AC if you move?

Does there have to be two allies adjacent to use this power, or can you use it even if there's only one?

 

[The Cartographist]

Go to the beginning of the thread to see the latest, updated version of the Martialist and the full Heroic tier (including feats).

Do you keep the bonus to your AC if you move?

Does there have to be two allies adjacent to use this power, or can you use it even if there's only one?

Yes. One ally works fine. I'll need to update the description.

 

[The Cartographist]

Having looked over the Heroic tier of the Martialist, I've found some holes in the exploits that I'm going to patch before moving on to the Paragon tier. I don't think that I have enough exploits with the Grapple keyword, nor do I have enough with the Foot keyword. In the interest of having enough variety of exploits for the Grappling builds, grappling exploits are my priority right now. Of course, work does continue on other aspects of the class.