Tomb Under the Tor (New Playtest Report)

[Av3rnus]

As for the warforged, I hope they're included as a playable race in the Monster Manual, but not the Player's Handbook. If they add too many new races to the Player's Handbook, there won't be enough room for the old standards, which would make me sad.

Agreed, particularly given the default setting of 4e. After all:

1. Warforged are made, not born. As such, they're essentially slave labor unless deliberately freed.
2. To justify them as a core race, I think they'd need to be pretty common.
3. If they're common, then that means they're relatively easy to construct. If they're easy to construct, then I'm thinking that those vast stretches of dangerous wilderness between settlements become a lot safer. At the very least, I'd have large numbers of warforged patrolling the roads and at best I'd be sending wave after wave of them into the wilderness to take care of any threats.

But I can definitely still picture them as minor (living) sentient constructs. Not as difficult for wizards to make as, say, a full-fledged golem, but still difficult enough that they can't be considered expendable grunts.

 

[hong]

2. To justify them as a core race, I think they'd need to be pretty common.

In an MMORPG, maybe. For a p&p game, all that's needed is that at least N examples exist, where N is the maximum number of warforged PCs who are likely to appear in any given campaign.

 

[Jer]

I can practically see:

Something -> Draconic -> Half-Dragon

Where "Something"=="Kobold"

 

[Traycor]

Wow! If 4E combat is going to be that exciting then I'm all for it. A typical 3E battle against goblins and wolves at lvl 1 would have been:

I attack. You miss. It attacks. It misses. I attack. It's dead. It's friend attacks. You are dead.

Moving opponents around in battle (without AoO rushing)? Counter attacks at first level? Self heals at lvl 1? Able to survive crits? This is fantastic! Now when we roll new chars they are going to be someone special. No more, "you are a lowly lvl 1 fighter". Because there should be nothing lowly or pathetic about the heroes of the story (and likely the entire world): You

 

[GreatLemur]

I'd say the aasimar-turned-eladrin is as confirmed for the PHB as the tiefling is, but I'd still be really surprised if the warforged made it in. I don't think I care a whole lot either way, though: I think that warforged are great, but then again they're also a really integral part of Eberron's unique flavor, so they don't really have a lot of business being part of a generic D&D setting.

Anyway, wizard strike sounds like something I've been wanting for decades.

Eh, I hope not. I like the idea of racial progressions such as the racial paragon classes from UA, or abilities themed for a particular race-class combination such as those found in racial substitution levels but I don't like the idea of actually chaging your race.

Instead of the characters actually changing their race, look at it as them embracing an existing potential within themselves. The same way a human can learn to use magic and those gain Wizard levels, a planetouched character might learn to wield some of the powers that his planar blood gives him access to.

Eh. That's like saying a half-elf becomes more and more like an elf as it gains levels.

Or more like a human. I'm guessing that half-elves gain access to otherwise elf-specific and human-specific racial feats as they gain levels, so you're probably not too far off. Similarly, eladrin and tieflings will probably gain access to appropriately celestial and fiendish feats.

 

[Traycor]

That wolf attacked Domna, but she fended it off with her shield.

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

 

[hong]

Instead of the characters actually changing their race, look at it as them embracing an existing potential within themselves. The same way a human can learn to use magic and those gain Wizard levels, a planetouched character might learn to wield some of the powers that his planar blood gives him access to.

You mean, like in 3.5E racial feats?

 

[GreatLemur]

You mean, like in 3.5E racial feats?

Exactly. They've already said that racial feats are going to be a bigger thing in 4E, and this is a pretty logical way for them to use 'em.

 

[hong]

I think if this happens, it will be a general thing that affects all races, not just tiefling/eladrin/aasimar. So you'll have dwarf feats, elf feats, gnome feats etc. Maybe even human feats, although I guess humans will just get more (bonus) feats rather than just human-specific ones.

 

[Kaodi]

The other thing I am wondering is what dynamics the new wizards will be using for their spellcasting. We see the wizard casting through a staff at 1st level ostensibly, and there was a quote that once a wizard blows off their memorized spells they'll still be at about 80% power.

So, I am thinking that perhaps the spellbook still governs that extra 20%, and the staff the other 80%. Perhaps a wizard without a staff is like a fighter without a sword using improved unarmed strike. Makes me wonder if you could in fact specialize in using magic without a staff and spellbook. Kind of like the 4e equivalent of a sorcerer, but still using the wizard class.