|
My Lovely Horse posted:One of my players has made a paladin with STR and CHA 12 and CON and WIS 18. His reasoning is that he doesn't care so much about hitting as about soaking up damage and being able to Lay On Hands, and he's planning to take mainly powers with effects. I've actually thought of doing some similar things; Essentials leaders have "Effect: "lines on all their attack powers, so you could pump DEX and play your Sentinel/Warpriest as an archer (however suboptimal that is). Changing your primary attack stat in spite of your class opens up your race options, if nothing else. Skalds have a similar (read: better) sort of flexibility because everything they do keys off of basic attacks, and they can use STR or CHA for MBAs (paladins for some reason don't get this, even in essentials). Those ideas are more for when you're the last player in the party to make their character, and it turns out you need ranged attacks and/or DEX skills and a healer. What I actually want to try is building/playing a Blackguard as an archer.
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:50 |
|
|
# ? May 8, 2024 05:32 |
|
thespaceinvader posted:If you want to optimise damage, you kind of have to pick a trick and stick with it unfortunately. Charging's a decent one, but multi-attacking is still king.
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:54 |
|
Archer Blackguard works (for a given value thereof) because their encounter power and class features don't have to be melee. Doing the same with an e-leader other than the Skald will just result in you not having viable encounter or daily powers and being terrible.
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:54 |
|
thespaceinvader posted:Archer Blackguard works (for a given value thereof) because their encounter power and class features don't have to be melee. Doing the same with an e-leader other than the Skald will just result in you not having viable encounter or daily powers and being terrible. Yup. But I was just following from the quoted player's mentality of "I only care about effects." Damage is king, dead monsters get no actions, etc. On that line of thought, it bugs the crap out of me that they made e-leaders WIS/CON. And their class skill lists suck; that's nothing new for 4e, but Cavaliers actually saw the paladin list un-shitted up a bit so
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:04 |
|
Class skill lists are probably the worst thing about 4e, so...
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:40 |
|
thespaceinvader posted:Class skill lists are probably the worst thing about 4e, so...
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 21:20 |
|
Here's a stupid edge-case question: Are there any good reasons to pick Half-Elf Past Life as a Revenant? You don't get a Dilletante power, so Versatile Master is basically useless. You can't take Human or Elf feats. Are there racial paragon paths worth considering?
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 22:04 |
|
P.d0t posted:Here's a stupid edge-case question: The Half-Elf Soul Feat from Dragon 376, allows you to get Dilletante, however, the Past Soul feat from Heroes of Shadow somewhat confuse this. If you use the most current version of the feat (from Heroes of Shadow), if you can characterize Dilettante as a racial power, then you can get it, if not, then you can only get Knack for Success. Legit Businessman fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Feb 9, 2014 |
# ? Feb 9, 2014 22:27 |
|
The Leper Colon V posted:Isn't that what backgrounds are for? Nope, they're for picking up weapon proficiency or making your HP based off your highest stat They are a band-aid, but they don't fix things like the Ranger getting 5 class skills and the Fighter getting only 3.
|
# ? Feb 9, 2014 23:02 |
|
Okay, so the challenge: Create a character in 4e who has any drat reason whatsoever to be running around with two pistols. Striker, is the goal. Looking at a (gasp!) custom character class. Pistols in Zeitgeist, FYI, are kind of like Hand Crossbows, but in return for longer loading times, they get Brutal 2 and High Crit. I'm thinking this is incredibly easy, but check me if I'm wrong here. Basically, I just want a mix of Scout and Hunter, right?
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 01:05 |
|
Making a striker class? Easy. Making a unique striker class? A little harder. Maybe you could borrow PoE's rogue mechanic and have scaling damage bonuses depending on the number of conditions the target is suffering from. Dazed? That's +1d6. Dazed, immobilised, prone and marked? +3d6 and roll twice on all your damage die. This damage would be dependent on having two ranged weapons equipped at once. Call it 'Opportunity Shot' or something.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 01:10 |
|
Wait, I'm an idiot. Why not treat the brace of pistols as a single weapon, and treat it like a Musket?
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 01:16 |
|
dwarf74 posted:Okay, so the challenge: Rogues can do well with Two-Fisted Shooter, and Drow Rogues can always pick up Ruthless Hunter to bump the damage dice to d8. The Zeitgeist CBLoader package even updates the feats to reference pistols as well, which is nice. Sharpshooter Weapon Talent doesn't work with the Zeitgeist weapons via CBLoader, but that's pretty a pretty easy fix to make. I'm going to need to update the Zeitgeist.part to include the higher-level theme bonuses when I get to that point, so if nobody's done it by then I will. quote:Wait, I'm an idiot. Why not treat the brace of pistols as a single weapon, and treat it like a Musket? This also works, in which case Ranger, Seeker, Hunter, etc. are all valid options.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 01:25 |
|
FYI, the zeitgeist .part I posted apparently un-errata's Blinding Barrage... But yeah, I'll just do the reskin bit!
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 01:48 |
|
What .part are you all talking about?
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 02:12 |
thespaceinvader posted:Class skill lists are probably the worst thing about 4e, so... Class proficiencies could be better, too. Fighters are proficient in almost every kind of armor and weapon, yet a lot of other melee classes don't have that kinda versatility and need to spend feats, and fighters can only have so many functional builds that use a bow or daggers or whatever.
|
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 02:32 |
|
Error 404 posted:What .part are you all talking about? e: And my player loved the idea of reskinning one musket into two pistols. She'll be going with that as a ... minotaur? Well, whatever. dwarf74 fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Feb 10, 2014 |
# ? Feb 10, 2014 02:39 |
|
Well at least the gunsmith's level 1 ability allows you to use your primary stat for the attack roll.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 02:49 |
|
So here's some cheese I noticed while I was looking through Heroes of the Feywild. Skalds can use their CHA for MBAs with one-handed weapons. This possibly includes using versatile weapons two-handed. Two-Handed Weapon Expertise gives bonuses when using two-handed weapons, but presumably doesn't work when using versatile weapons two-handed. I think I'm about as much of a degenerate char-opper as one can be without an Insider subscription.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 10:35 |
|
In 4e as a DM, how often am I going to draw out a dungeon room/area on the battle map? Do i just stop the play and draw something up real quick? It seems like doing that would indicate pretty clearly an encounter is about to start.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 18:36 |
|
InsomniacTurtle posted:In 4e as a DM, how often am I going to draw out a dungeon room/area on the battle map? Do i just stop the play and draw something up real quick? It seems like doing that would indicate pretty clearly an encounter is about to start. When I'm feeling industrious, I have a 1" square grid presentation pad I can prep ahead of time and bring out when the fight starts. Don't stress about your players knowing when an encounter might start.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 18:54 |
|
4ed is one of those games where a seamless transition between fight-mode and explore/roleplay-mode isn't all that important. Most 4ed players get pumped up when they know it's time to roll initiative and get down to business.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 18:57 |
|
Echoing the above. 4E is a game fundamentally about interesting combat. Players just get excited when they know that you're about to do the thing that the game is best at. Keep in mind that 'encounter' can mean a lot of things though. If there's a drawn-out room with no (visible) enemies in it, players don't know if it's a trap/puzzle room, an ambush, or what. They just know that fun is at hand. I've also had good luck using dungeon generators beforehand and then drawing the whole thing as we go. You occasionally have to erase and redraw, and of course players know that something (trap, treasure, puzzle, or fight) is going to be in most rooms, but when you do this the act of drawing is no longer a signal.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 19:17 |
|
With drawing dungeons, do I draw the entire thing out at once, or is it a room by room kind of things?
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 19:21 |
|
Elmo Oxygen posted:4ed is one of those games where a seamless transition between fight-mode and explore/roleplay-mode isn't all that important. Most 4ed players get pumped up when they know it's time to roll initiative and get down to business. I literally have said "okay so the screen shatters, everything goes all swirly and you guys are in a fight now."
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 19:22 |
|
P.d0t posted:So here's some cheese I noticed while I was looking through Heroes of the Feywild. 1: Yep. 2: Nope. And that's not even remotely close to degenerate CharOp.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 19:28 |
|
Prison Warden posted:I literally have said "okay so the screen shatters, everything goes all swirly and you guys are in a fight now." I had to call a moratorium on the final fantasy victory fanfare when a dude kept doing it after every. single. encounter.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 19:40 |
|
InsomniacTurtle posted:With drawing dungeons, do I draw the entire thing out at once, or is it a room by room kind of things? Generally room by room. I have a pretty small chessex mat (20"x22"?) and every "encounter room" usually takes up the whole thing. Do the NES Zelda thing and have each room in a dungeon be the same shape, just change where the possible exits are; that's basically what our DM is doing currently.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 19:49 |
|
InsomniacTurtle posted:With drawing dungeons, do I draw the entire thing out at once, or is it a room by room kind of things?
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 20:48 |
|
InsomniacTurtle posted:With drawing dungeons, do I draw the entire thing out at once, or is it a room by room kind of things? If you have a large enough mat or a small enough dungeon, drawing the whole thing and then covering the parts they haven't been to yet saves a lot of time at the table.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 20:56 |
|
homullus posted:If you have a large enough mat or a small enough dungeon, drawing the whole thing and then covering the parts they haven't been to yet saves a lot of time at the table. I used to draw it all out on a computer then print it at my colleges library/work allows for rapid switching.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 21:27 |
|
I have the whole thing drawn out on Tactiles and place them as the players explore. I will reuse a lot of maps, too. For example, I have one Neverwinter sewers map that I have used at least three times so far in our current campaign.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 22:04 |
|
PeterWeller posted:I have the whole thing drawn out on Tactiles and place them as the players explore. I will reuse a lot of maps, too. For example, I have one Neverwinter sewers map that I have used at least three times so far in our current campaign.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 22:16 |
|
The throne room map from Cairn of the Winter King has seen multiple uses in my campaigns.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 22:28 |
|
I've been scanning maps from old Judge's Guild products and using them on Roll20
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 22:29 |
|
Captain Walker posted:You're no worse than Bethesda/Bioware, at least. Haha, that's actually where I got the idea. I figured if Bioware, with all their resources, could get away with using the same map over and over again for Baldur's Gate's extensive sewers, I could get away with doing the same for Neverwinter. I never start them in the same entrance/room and change little things here and there, but it really helps from a DMing perspective--if the players go into the sewers and have an encounter for any reason, I have a map ready for them. I also have stock "Blacklake District Alley" and "Protector's Enclave street" maps for any surface level encounters that pop up.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 22:36 |
|
Hey, I'm working on V Daivve maps and a Masterplan file for the 4e RHOD campaign I'm running. Would anyone be interested in the files once I'm done? I'll probably upload them by parts. Or even just posts about the encounters and how they were handled? Or is there a better thread for that?
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 23:06 |
|
For me it's mostly a design question. I can do room by room where each room will contain one encounter (and be tailored to it) or I can do a whole dungeon to explore that has a population of certain enemy types where encounter setups are more fluid and dependant on which direction the party goes. Both are fun, the latter tends to be more elaborate I think so that might be good for climactic scenes and setups whereas the first is more "here is a cave with goblins."
|
# ? Feb 10, 2014 23:52 |
|
The Leper Colon V posted:Hey, I'm working on V Daivve maps and a Masterplan file for the 4e RHOD campaign I'm running. Would anyone be interested in the files once I'm done? I'll probably upload them by parts. Or even just posts about the encounters and how they were handled? Or is there a better thread for that? I'd be interested! Love me any and all extra materials to work with when possible
|
# ? Feb 11, 2014 03:34 |
|
|
# ? May 8, 2024 05:32 |
|
Well, looks like I underestimated my party's capabilities. Because the walked all over the encounters. I might go back and buff them up a bit before I let anyone else see them. Because my shame at how badly they whupped what was supposed to be a tough solo fight is... significant. They had fun at least.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2014 08:34 |