Wotc_Huscarl on the Biggie Smalls playtest, part 4.

[Bishmon]

I'm guessing second wind as a minor action is now a human racial power.

Or a dwarf power. It was mentioned in R&C that dwarves had a racial power that let them use second wind an additional time each encounter. A power letting second wind be used with a minor action would fit well with that.

And if it's not a dwarf power, I'm making it one. I just love the idea of formations of dwarves with their well-made armors and improved constitutions utilizing their improved second wind abilities to hold the formation for incredible amounts of time, exhausting enemy forces with stamina, tactics, and cohesion.

 

[Lackhand]

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.

I hope you're wrong -- I hope it's minor action, major action, and keep good old swift actions.

Because both minor and move? Too muchness!

 

[Demigonis]

To make it work more simply when combined with Elven Accuracy? This way, an elven ranger won't have to juggle two different re-roll abilities if he wants to use them on the same attack.

This was the first thing I thought of when I read it, I think you're right.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

+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.

Very true. It also makes a lot of sense that rangers would have a "default" attack with a good to-hit; that way, they can have more damaging per-encounter abilities, where part of the built-in tradeoff is that they're 20% less accurate than a Careful Strike would have been.

ANYWAY, the "minor action" thing is mentioned in the podcast as something carried over from SWSE. (They also mentioned that a "move action" is now strictly for moving.) Anyone familiar with that system wanna explain the new action types? The difference between a swift and a minor action?

 

[Oldtimer]

To make it work more simply when combined with Elven Accuracy? This way, an elven ranger won't have to juggle two different re-roll abilities if he wants to use them on the same attack.

Why would it not work with elven accuracy? SWSE has rules for how you combine re-rolls with dual-rolls, so why shouldn't that work for 4e?

Personally, I think re-rolls and dual-rolls are better design than straight bonuses, since they increase your probability to hit, without increasing the upper limit of your result.

 

[Gundark]

Good stuff. Looking forward to playing 4e and seeing it in action for myself. I am a little concerned about the bonuses given by class abilities and the what not. +x because of this talent/feat, +y bcasue of this, +Z because of this. It gets to be a little much IMHO. However we'll have to see how it all plays out in context fo the full rule set.

 

[RigaMortus2]

because its faster or maybe they were trying to reduce the number of crits rolled

How is it faster? You can roll two dice at the same time. You can look at two dice at the same time. It's not like math is involved, you're not adding the results together. You are just choosing the higher of the two. How is it slower than rolling 1d20?

If anything, the 1d20+4 is slower since there is actual adding involved. Heh.

 

[Rechan]

Something people are ignoring: Rangers get a power that lets them attack and move away without garnering an AoO.

 

[FireLance]

Why would it not work with elven accuracy? SWSE has rules for how you combine re-rolls with dual-rolls, so why shouldn't that work for 4e?

Well, my original point was not that it wouldn't work, but that it would be less simple. However, thinking through it again, I've concluded that it won't be that complex. If the dual-roll is at will and the re-roll is per encounter, what's likely to happen in game is that the player will do the dual-roll first, and if the higher of the two results is still pretty low, then he'll try the re-roll.

 

[FireLance]

Something people are ignoring: Rangers get a power that lets them attack and move away without garnering an AoO.

Sounds a lot like Spring Attack, actually. I wonder if the must move at least five feet both before and after the attack clause will still be retained.