Winning Races: Dwarves

[Prestidigitalis]

I'm surprised no one caught this:
As per HotFL (and maybe PH 1), Dwarven Resilience is technically an encounter power that allows character to activate second wind as part of the power, which is a minor action to use. Because that's technically a encounter power, the additional second wind would have to be activated on its own as normal, using a standard action.

Definitely not in PHB 1, which is why people have been concerned. But if what you describe of HotFL is correct, you make an excellent point.

 

[fuzzlewump]

I like the feats generally speaking.

They are a bit sexier than PHB feats, but it seems like thats going to be true across the board for Essentials.
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I am kinda sad that dwarf feats don't really have being a dwarf as a prerequisite. It seems like they're doing away with a lot of that.

I think thats cool though. A halfling raised among dwarves who has their weapon training or whatever

 

[True_Blue]

This is going to sound blasphemous to some, but I don't care about flavor or fluff, I just want the bare bones mechanics. I can skin my character around that however I want. There are many things wrong with the feats in this article, but a lack of the "dwarf" prerequisite is not one of them. A fault of many earlier articles was that they were entirely too specific to be of use to a large audience. I really don't want to get a set of feats that help Shifter Avengers who use a falchion at midnight when there is a full moon. It may be flavorful, but it's not helpful.

This article actually would get major kudos from me for catering to a greater audience despite being a racial article, were it not for all the other shortcomings in the crunch.

I actually totally disagree. I'd love for there to be more feats that are race specific. Since races are getting more stats that they are able to pick, more races are becoming more similar. I like this in that I want to pick a race, and still have whatever ability scores I want.

The difference in races should be in what powers they provide and what feats can be taken. I would love to see really cool powers for dwarf fighters, dwarf wizards, etc..and then see the same for Eladrin fighters, Eladrin wizards, etc.

I want Race to impact my racial powers *and* feats. If feats are generic and everyone can use them, then basically the only difference between the races is generally the racial power. I want more diversity.

 

[Mengu]

I actually totally disagree. I'd love for there to be more feats that are race specific. Since races are getting more stats that they are able to pick, more races are becoming more similar. I like this in that I want to pick a race, and still have whatever ability scores I want.

The difference in races should be in what powers they provide and what feats can be taken. I would love to see really cool powers for dwarf fighters, dwarf wizards, etc..and then see the same for Eladrin fighters, Eladrin wizards, etc.

I want Race to impact my racial powers *and* feats. If feats are generic and everyone can use them, then basically the only difference between the races is generally the racial power. I want more diversity.

Good argument.

I think it's a philosophical difference in approach. I find feats to be expensive, and there is a whole crowd of them. Say I'm playing a Dwarf Summoner Wizard. It's very easy for me to start burning feats on Toughness, Superior Implement, Expertise, Unarmored Agility, Improved Initiative, Implement Focus, Improved Tome of Binding, Second Implement, and my dwarf doesn't really have room to be more of a dwarf.

The feat field is pretty saturated, unless we want even more power creep to make a race+class feat more enticing. I suppose this could be done with a new category of feat, as your "race+class" feat that's character defining and maybe counts as a multi-class feat, that gives you a free racial skill and some interesting per encounter benefit.

If races aren't feeling different enough out of the gate, that's not something to remedy with feats. Honestly for me, the racial encounter power does a lot to show the distinction. Halflings and Drow, while they share a stat pair, feel rather different in play due to their racial features and powers, not necessarily feats.

I guess in the long run I don't really care if new feats are race restricted or not as much as I care that they are both attractive *and* not overpowered.

 

[True_Blue]

I agree that there are a lot of feats out there, and so many that people would like to take. I rarely feel like I am able to take racial feats that I think are cool, let alone even some class feats. Instead, a lot of times, I'm taking mostly the ones that I feel like I almost have to take.

Honestly, it would be nice to gain a feat every level. But feats would be broken up into class, race, and general. At first level you may gain a race feat. At second level a class feat, third a general, then fourth another race, and so forth.

I'm sure there would still be a lot of feats that people would feel they "need" to take, but I feel like this would maybe cause a little bit more diversification.

I just would like to see more diversity between the races. I pretty much want my ability scores to be the same no matter what race I pick, but there be other things that cause me to feel like a member of a different race. I like the racial abilities a lot, I may play a Goliath who can shrug off some damage, or an Elf who can reroll one of my attacks, etc.. and I'm ok with one maybe being better than another. Its harder for me to give up feats that are giving me extra to hits, more damage, or more survivability (Toughness and Durable) to take other things. Its not that I never do so, I just wish I would be able to do so more.

Now maybe I should just suck it up and create one with some fun feats and not worry so much about getting those great feats, I realize this may be a problem with me. But I feel like with any concept I come up with, I'm only willing to give up so much "power" and still feel like I am a good character. This, as I mention above, usually translates into 1 feat I'm willing to play around with, possibly two at the max.

edit: So my point being that I understand where you are coming from, I can feel the limitations of feats. I've just found this is the main way to have races be different from eachother, so I would like to see it expanded upon.

 

[Mika]

I'm surprised no one caught this:
As per HotFL (and maybe PH 1), Dwarven Resilience is technically an encounter power that allows character to activate second wind as part of the power, which is a minor action to use. Because that's technically a encounter power, the additional second wind would have to be activated on its own as normal, using a standard action.

No, you use your Second Wind as a minor action, thereby expending both powers (Dwarven Resilience and Second Wind). See the Ranger utility power Invigorating Stride for a similar power that lets you use your Second Wind with a move action (quite handy for non-Dwarf Rangers).