Tiers Excerpt (merged)

[The_Fan]

Seems like all you get for level 30 is a gold watch, a handshake, and a pension, courtesy of your epic destiny.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I love this update.

I admit that I am just surprised that it seems the only power you get from your Epic Destiny is a utility power, rather than a daily or encounter power... I imagine that such a utility power must be very useful indeed. Considering the text regarding the epic tier, the epic utilities must be capable of breaking game rules and turning everything upside-down. I really hope they give us a sample soon.

Also, the rules for assigning magic items to a character of higher level is pure elegance.

 

[HeinorNY]

Seems like all you get for level 30 is a gold watch, a handshake, and a pension, courtesy of your epic destiny.

lol
Maybe the character gains another feat, or a something very very special.

Or maybe the article's table is wrong. Maybe the character gains an Epic Encounter at 21, and an Epic Daily at 30. It would make sense considering the logic of the progression.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

lol
Maybe the character gains another feat, or a something very very special.

Perhaps at level 30, you fully realize your "Epic Destiny" and thus unlock something unique to that Destiny.

 

[brislove]

Originally Posted by Benimoto
Yeah, the HP chart is pretty interesting. It looks like one reason some of the high-level monsters don't seem to do a lot of damage is that PCs don't actually have as many HP as the monsters might. After all, the monsters we've seen have (6, 8 or 10 HP * (level +1)) + Con score for HP. PCs have 4, 5 or 6 HP/level plus that other stuff.

If that's right, that's another asymmetry between PCs and monsters. PCs have less HP, and presumably do more damage than equal-level monsters.

I'm looking at a couple D&D minis cards (the back sides with monster stats...)

Level 6 brute (gnoll marauder) with a 14 con score has 54 HP. a level 6 defender with a 14 con would have 59 (9+14+36). that seems fairly equivlent to me.

level 19 Soldier (Ice archhon) 19 con 117 HP. Vs. Defender with the same con has 142.
6x19=114+19(con score)+9=142 (assuming that

I don't think damage delt is going to scale as quickly as it seems many people are expecting...combats will last 10/15/20 rounds or more at higher levels, the damage output doesn't seem to increase by a massive amount.

note: Defenders will break 200hp by 30. since 30x6 is 180 and they get 9 for free. I hope they have at least 11 con score. I'm fairly confidant that there will be other ways of gaining hp aside from the basic stats as well.

 

[Cadfan]

Prediction- paragon paths and epic destinies also come with always-applicable abilities, other than your selection of path or destiny powers.

There's just too much design space available for all possible always-active abilities to be given out at first level. The game will need a new injection of them after a while, as more powerful abilities become balanced. Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies are the logical point to distribute these.

 

[malcolm_n]

hehe, maybe there is no level 30... Maybe, you gain experience to level 30, but upon reaching the end goal, the game just says, "congratulations, You're now a story device."

 

[FireLance]

Using the information we got from the Excerpts, Pregens and some speculation, I think this is a probable progression.

I think ability score increases fill in the gaps between powers. It was mentioned that you get ability score increases at 4th, 8th, 11th and 14th level which, with the exception of 11th level (the starting level for the paragon tier), are levels in which you get no new abilities.

This implies that we might also see ability score increases at 18th, 21st, 24th and 28th level, as previously speculated.

 

[small pumpkin man]

note: Defenders will break 200hp by 30. since 30x6 is 180 and they get 9 for free. I hope they have at least 11 con score. I'm fairly confidant that there will be other ways of gaining hp aside from the basic stats as well.

Toughness and 20 con gives you 241. You might be able to go higher, but I think it's unlikely to be by much.

 

[D'karr]

It seems like they really are making a huge effort to keep the game exciting at every level. No more dead levels. I agree that the entry into each tier is the perfect place to infuse additional powers or retrain old ones.

The explanations of each tier and what you might expect to encounter at each was also exciting.

Now that I've seen how progression will work, my first mission when 4e comes out is a conversion of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. My October game is going to rock.

And the following quote totally rocked:

In the heroic tier, your character is already a hero, set apart from the common people by your natural talents, learned skills, and some hint of a greater destiny that lies before you. Your capabilities are largely determined by your choice of character class and to a lesser extent by your race. You move around on foot or on a relatively mundane mount such as a horse. In combat, you might make mighty leaps or incredible climbs, but you’re still basically earthbound. The fate of a village might hang on the success or failure of your adventures, to say nothing of the risk to your own life.

No more dirt farmers killed by single blows and an awesome justification for it.

Now to wait for the "but I don't want my first level character to be a hero." "Everyone should start as a dirt farmer" crowd.