Tomb Under the Tor (New Playtest Report)

[Mercule]

Or the Ranger class itself grants a special ability that allows it. Or perhaps a feat/fighting style? This may not necessarily be something that any character can automatically do.

Right. I took it more as an "uncanny dodge" type of thing, which seems pretty rangery to me.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

That sounds like a bad idea to me. The end result would be gish chars that ran around fighting with staves. A gish that used a sword would be gimped and the ones that used wands to poke out people's eyes in melee would have the advantage.

Well I think there would be some functional difference between Quarterstaff and Magic Staff, just as there is now.

Additionally, Wands have never been useful as a weapon in the past. I mean, I could see the value of using some current wands as physical melee weapons, touch attack spells and the like.

--fje

 

[Thaumaturge]

Or it could be "Combat Reflexes". It allows you to make AoOs and such while flatfooted.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Oldtimer]

The Ranger had noticed the goblins, and so wouldn't have been flatfooted. The Warlord, Fighter, and Wizard are the ones who would've been caught flat-footed had they been attacked.

Wrong under 3.x rules. He is not surprised, but since the goblin acted before him, he would most certainly be flat-footed at that point.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Hmm... I wonder what this means? Are shields becoming useful? Are they going to help in ways besides +1 Armor and providing cover?

Flavor text. The wolf's attack missed by 1.

 

[teitan]

Where do I find info on the Eladrin?

 

[KarinsDad]

Getting back to the playtest itself, did anyone else notice the number of actions that were done within a surprise round?

It appears that a surprise round might be no different than a normal round in 4E except that some creatures can act on it and some cannot. This might make "perception" type skills more critical.

If the NPCs can throw the entire kitchen sink at the PCs during a surprise round, PCs might need to be acting on the surprise round as much as possible.

 

[McBard]

Yeah, it looks like the two PCs who acted in the surprise round both used what we would presently call a full-round's worth of actions: shooting two arrows (with rapid shot) would take a full-round for the ranger, and Tian's rush through the door would be at least a move action to the door and a move action to open the door...perhaps opening a door is free now.

On another note, have I missed it in the thread, or has nobody commented on the following bit from the playtest report:

Tian lost more than half his hit points in one blow, and to add insult to injury...

Losing more than half hit points in one blow sounds like it kicks in a condition. Cool.

Also, I agree with earlier posters who hope taking a second wind can be done at any point. Sure, it might behoove you to wait until you've lost enough hit points to maximize its benefit...but you surely want to avoid those weird situations where players say "if I could only take 1 more hit point of damage I'd be at half, and so could take a second wind." No, there's really no reason not to allow PCs to take second winds at any point.

 

[KarinsDad]

Also, I agree with earlier posters who hope taking a second wind can be done at any point. Sure, it might behoove you to wait until you've lost enough hit points to maximize its benefit...but you surely want to avoid those weird situations where players say "if I could only take 1 more hit point of damage I'd be at half, and so could take a second wind." No, there's really no reason not to allow PCs to take second winds at any point.

It actually goes a bit beyond this in Star Wars. There, you have to be half wounded to do a Second Wind.

I had a Star Wars PC who had one hit point more than half wounded, but I could not take a Second Wind according to the rules. So, he got hit again and nearly killed. I think Second Wind should not only be usable at any time (possibly as an Immediate Action) within the round, but also at any time regardless of hit point state.

 

[Traycor]

Where do I find info on the Eladrin?

Monster Manual, 3.5

I think there is some in the Book of Exalted Deeds as well.