Wotc_Huscarl on the Biggie Smalls playtest, part 4.

[Tortoise]

Rangers get +4 to attack rolls at will? Interesting. I wonder if there's some downside to that power that didn't get mentioned, like reduced damage or something.

Yes that does seem to be missing info. Strange that Rangers would get +4 to hit every round just for choosing or receiving "Careful Strike".

 

[FireLance]

It's probably a per-encounter power.

Nope, it was mentioned in the quote as an at-will power. If so, the trade-off is probably the need to spend more actions, e.g. a full-round action instead of a standard action or whatever the equivalent 4e terminology is.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Rangers get +4 to attack rolls at will? Interesting. I wonder if there's some downside to that power that didn't get mentioned, like reduced damage or something.

One easy downside could be that it's a standard action to use Careful Strike. Then you have the opportunity cost of choosing which standard action power you use each round.
All of the Paladin Strikes mentioned in the preview are standard actions.

 

[SeRiAlExPeRiMeNtS]

One easy downside could be that it's a standard action to use Careful Strike. Then you have the opportunity cost of choosing which standard action power you use each round.
All of the Paladin Strikes mentioned in the preview are standard actions.

Or like some SWSE feats "use 2 extra swift actions for a reroll (now a +4) in any ranged attack"?

 

[Doug McCrae]

I remember them saying damage rolls would be more like dice + large modifier, thus a fireball might instead of being 6d6 would be d6 or 2d6 + 20.

That's a very, very good idea.

It's ridiculous the number of rpgs where you have to roll 6+ dice at a time.

 

[SeRiAlExPeRiMeNtS]

That's a very, very good idea.

It's ridiculous the number of rpgs where you have to roll 6+ dice at a time.

Remembers me of this: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060929a

 

[TwinBahamut]

I think Scholar & Brutalman has the right of it. It is probably a choice between using Careful Strike, which gives you a +4 to hit, or something like Hurting Strike (complete speculation), which gives you extra damage at your normal attack bonus. Opportunity Cost seems to be the balance paradigm of the new edition, rather than absolute cost.

 

[Abstraction]

+4 to hit every round, as long as you don't use any other at-will, per-encounter or per-day actions. It sounds powerful, but only in the vacuum of not knowing the other classes comparable powers. With all classes having the same BAB progression, martial classes NEED abilities like this.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

On interesting word choice was "minor action". "Major actions" were mentioned in the recent podcast, iirc. I'm guessing the current rules break up the round into one minor action, one major action, and one move action.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Nice find, and I hope it's true.