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For various plot reasons in my game, a character is probably come into possession of an artefact pretty soon (it was his evil father's). Fluff wise, I've got it worked out as a magic evil elemental ice gauntlet that makes any weapon the hero wields into the "artefact weapon". Are there any major pitfalls I should avoid in designing this thing towards making it too powerful? I've already established it can manipulate and create ice and teleport Nightcrawler style by cutting a hole in the air. The player it's going to is a Fighter, any advice for cool powers that would be useful for him to have?
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Mar 16, 2014 13:30
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| # ? May 8, 2024 17:22 |
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Fighters: shutting down enemy teleports is good, slowing and immobilising is good, increasing his defences is usually good, increasing his damage is usually good. I'd start with a base of a straight Frost Weapon and work from there.
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Mar 16, 2014 13:34
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I ran a 4e game for a few years for five players who hated charop. The way I handled levelling was to pick three non-trap feats or powers whenever a player levelled and give them the choice between those, cooperating with the player to figure out how the character gained this new power. That seemed to work pretty well.
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Mar 16, 2014 14:04
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I played a Teleporting ice-nightcrawler a while back, but he was an eladrin hexblade. By early paragon he had at-will teleporting and invisibility and great damage from frostcheese + white lotus hijinks.
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Mar 16, 2014 19:19
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I'd be curious about the best teleportation builds. As far as I can tell warlocks are best at it, followed closely by swordmages and psions, and I was able to make a guy who can teleport six squares as a move by early epic.
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Mar 16, 2014 19:24
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If you're going to build your character around teleporting, it's generally best to go Bard and do the "taxi" build with Bardic Wayfarer that allows you to share all your teleports with your team. One guy devoted to teleporting himself around is okay, one guy devoted to teleporting EVERYONE around is super useful for any party. Battleminds are also pretty good at teleports if you're in Heroic and grab Persistent Harrier. They have a theoretically unlimited range teleport every encounter (but that hinges on being hit by an enemy, and only works for the very first round) as well as plenty of teleports and other mobility powers, especially if you go Quicksilver Demon for your paragon path.
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Mar 16, 2014 19:40
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:I'd be curious about the best teleportation builds. As far as I can tell warlocks are best at it, followed closely by swordmages and psions, and I was able to make a guy who can teleport six squares as a move by early epic. http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3142141#503908599 is my ALL THE TELEPORTS build - Staff of the Traveler is neat for that, it works just as well for a Monk (indeed, better, monks are more shifty). In practical play it changes a lot in Epic because of the feat Fey Shift, which means you can teleport 2 + extenders = 9 (I think, at a maximum including non-LFR ones) as a move action. It gets a bit less teleporty, but changing to Hammers lets you use Overwhelming Impact and Daze all the things. It's also kind of out of date - it uses Eladrin Ringmail, Shiradi Champion and a number of other options differently than presented there. It's actually also a surprisingly useful defender - good at clustering enemies, at Epic, good at making them stay in its aura, has a way to shut down enemy teleports, has a solid punishment which can invalidate attacks entirely, as well as the comedy Warp in the Weave trick, plus it's a functional taxi too. What more could you desire?
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Mar 16, 2014 20:39
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Is there any need to worry about a bugbear's Large weapons? It seems to me that's all they get, so it'll be fine in the long run. I have a bugbear barbarian joining up next week. Level 1 game.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:00
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PC minotaurs can also use large weapons and I don't think that hosed anything up.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:09
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dwarf74 posted:Is there any need to worry about a bugbear's Large weapons? It seems to me that's all they get, so it'll be fine in the long run. One gets the most out of bugbear by rolling as many weapon dice as possible. They're a good race but if a game has dwarves it can suffer bugbears.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:10
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Lurdiak posted:PC minotaurs can also use large weapons and I don't think that hosed anything up. No they can't?
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Mar 17, 2014 19:25
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My favorite teleport build is a Shiere Knight hybrid Warlock|Swordmage, or alternately the probably-more-effective Evermeet Warlock with the same classes. It uses Armor of Dark Majesty, Cloak of Translocation, and the Arcane Hand familiar to hotswap in an Aversion Staff for maximum stacking +defenses with either the level 16 Shiere Knight feature or the level 11 invisibility Evermeet Warlock feature. I used Battle Standard of the Hungry Blade and World Serpent's Grasp to keep one enemy completely locked down using Aegis of Assault along with Eldritch Strike. If the enemy attacks me, I'm stacked defenses to the gills, if they attack someone else, they're slid and proned into the middle of a slow zone. It was a completely worthless build against multiple enemies and kind of iffy vs teleporters, and wasn't really that great before level 10, but when it worked it frustrated my DM to no end. One neat teleport trick is the Purple Dragon theme's Focused Disciple stance, which lets you shift 1 square after hitting a melee basic attack. If you're carrying a Staff of the Traveler (can be your weapon, or just held in the off-hand, or hot-swapped in with Arcane Hand familiar), you turn that shift into a teleport and that lets you teleport everywhere from I mention this combo because since it's a theme, it can be applied to any class that uses melee basic attacks. Hopefully that gives you some ideas. I personally don't think its worth it to stack teleportation distance bonuses, because the other things you can do with teleports are so great that you only really need one or two distance bonus items.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:35
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Lurdiak posted:PC minotaurs can also use large weapons and I don't think that hosed anything up. No, they can't. Bugbears large weapons gets them basically a point of average damage per [W]. It's not brilliant, but it's not terrible. They have gently caress-all support otherwise. Use a Bugbear Ranger with Dwarven Thrower Gouge and Eternal Defender ED for maximum hilarity. It actually breaks the weapon size tables.
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Mar 17, 2014 20:23
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:One gets the most out of bugbear by rolling as many weapon dice as possible. They're a good race but if a game has dwarves it can suffer bugbears. I remember I thought they were broken early in the edition, but now that racial support is a thing, I'm good with it.
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Mar 17, 2014 20:42
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That's the thing with broken in this edition. A lot of things sound, and are (or particularly, were early on) decried as 'broken' when in actually fact they're average to weak options - like this, for instance. When [W] was thought to be... you know, important... the Bugbear sounded hilariously broken, but these days, we know that [W] is naff-all of the damage, and broken usually arises out of unexpected synergy between completely separate game elements.
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Mar 17, 2014 20:54
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I'm famous at my table for Boggo, a bugbear rogue who took the (largely terrible) Versatile Duelist feat and bastard sword proficiency so he could roll d12s as a rogue. I wouldn't recommend doing this with anyone but a bugbear and it's suboptimal even then, but it's hilarious with a charge kit. You have to get a little creative with your PP to go past heroic tier with it. Bugbears also get a head start via +Athletics on making Great Leap a fantastic at-will movement utility, which is what he's doubly famous for at mid-paragon and after. I'm a huge bugbear fan because I like the bugbear flavor and they are exhibit #1 in "PC race selection in 4E is a total freakshow."
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Mar 17, 2014 21:07
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I could see a bugbear thief being pretty sick for level 1 if you could cadge a background with the right proficiencies. Also I rolled a ranged bugbear slayer which literally bloodied or killed a monster every single round at level 1.
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Mar 17, 2014 21:11
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I think the only "broken" thing about bugbear/large weapons is when you start rolling more dice with each [W], the Brutal tag gets a whole lot better.
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Mar 17, 2014 21:17
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Not really. Look at Exe Axe - 1d12b2 = 12+2/2=7 average damage. 2d6b2 =12+4/2=8 average damage. Goes up a point. Longsword: 1d8=8+1/2=4.5 average damage. 1d10=10+1/2=5.5 average damage. Same bump. Because going up to two dice doesn't increase your maximum damage, it's not actually all that hot for averages and it does nothing for crits (albeit ex axe has native high crits so YMMV)
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Mar 17, 2014 21:37
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thespaceinvader posted:Not really. Look at Exe Axe - 1d12b2 = 12+2/2=7 average damage. 2d6b2 =12+4/2=8 average damage. Goes up a point. Longsword: 1d8=8+1/2=4.5 average damage. 1d10=10+1/2=5.5 average damage. Same bump. Because going up to two dice doesn't increase your maximum damage, it's not actually all that hot for averages and it does nothing for crits (albeit ex axe has native high crits so YMMV) I'm still okay with this.
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Mar 17, 2014 21:42
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Oh, balls, true. Yeah, it's a little bit better. But broken? gently caress no.
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Mar 17, 2014 21:48
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thespaceinvader posted:Oh, balls, true.
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Mar 17, 2014 21:59
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dwarf74 posted:Definitely. Also, I can tell him to roll 2d4 and add 2 instead of rerolling. Everyone knows the reason you play a Bugbear is to eventually get a power that uses 5[W] and being able to finally get some use out of that 16d6 chessex set you haven't touched since 3.5.
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Mar 17, 2014 22:17
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thespaceinvader posted:No, they can't. drat it, I was thinking of the Monster Manual version. 
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Mar 18, 2014 03:17
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Lurdiak posted:drat it, I was thinking of the Monster Manual version. Back in the day they were Large, which helps lead to me not being able to find a figure for the one I play right now.
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Mar 18, 2014 03:19
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Couple questions: Would you rather play in a game that is limited (including feats & equipment) to: a) PHB1 b) HoFL & HoFK Secondly, how did 4e Encounters work? Was it pregens only, or were there criteria/limitations for building your own? If so, what were they?
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Mar 19, 2014 04:24
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P.d0t posted:Couple questions: I think it was "suggested" that your characters be built with the latest handbook that had come out, or stay in Essentials once those came out, but I never had any issue bringing in whatever character I wanted, as long as it was character builder legal, and it's not like the DM was checking anyway.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:29
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Klungar posted:I think it was "suggested" that your characters be built with the latest handbook that had come out, or stay in Essentials once those came out, but I never had any issue bringing in whatever character I wanted, as long as it was character builder legal, and it's not like the DM was checking anyway. I forgot to ask, how did character levels work? And wealth/item levels? Like, what levels did the GM plan around/did the characters show up at? If you showed up with a level 3 toon and everyone else was level 9, did you just level up your Dude to the rest of the party and run with it? I ask because my 3.5 DM is running a pretty strict Living Greyhawk home game and if you make a new toon it's back to level 2 for you, sucker.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:46
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P.d0t posted:Couple questions: For me or for a table? For myself I'd prefer the PHB1 (six good classes in there with the Pally being a little weak and the Ranger a little strong - they've got the other six errata'd online). For a table I'm almost certain that there will be someone who wants to Just Hit Stuff and not worry about the mechanics. I wouldn't play a slayer but they are perfect for some people and there are enough classes in HoF* that I have choice and can give others choice. quote:Secondly, how did 4e Encounters work? Was it pregens only, or were there criteria/limitations for building your own? If so, what were they? A season started at level 1 and ended at about level 3. You could build your own using the latest splat but no one cared too much if you used other sources in my experience.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:51
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Encounters will vary from store to store. Technically you are supposed to use specific rulebooks and track your XP and whatnot, in practice you'll find that the DM won't care enough to enforce it. At the store I go to they'll level everyone at the same time, and if you join late you'll just get bumped to the same level as everyone else. Bring whatever (legal) build you want, just don't use any magic items you don't acquire through play (though I've seen that one broken and most people don't even notice). You could show up with a new character every week and nobody would complain. Living Greyhawk is a different beast though, as that is a registered event that runs for years and you're intended to be able to take your character from one table to another without issues even if you're three years into a campaign. Encounters resets every ~12 weeks so nobody really gets attached to their characters and everyone is ignoring the plot anyways (the Feywild season is a great example of nobody really knowing what was going on).
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Mar 19, 2014 05:06
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P.d0t posted:Couple questions: I would prefer the Essentials books. I like the E-druid and prefer the builds for the other classes. I do, however, wish they had warlords, or at least bards.
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Mar 19, 2014 06:31
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PeterWeller posted:I would prefer the Essentials books. I like the E-druid and prefer the builds for the other classes. I do, however, wish they had warlords, or at least bards. Warlords + basic attack classes would own. I don't get how Warlocks got the essentials treatment over some other classes.
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Mar 19, 2014 06:48
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isndl posted:Encounters will vary from store to store. Technically you are supposed to use specific rulebooks and track your XP and whatnot, in practice you'll find that the DM won't care enough to enforce it. At the store I go to they'll level everyone at the same time, and if you join late you'll just get bumped to the same level as everyone else. Bring whatever (legal) build you want, just don't use any magic items you don't acquire through play (though I've seen that one broken and most people don't even notice). You could show up with a new character every week and nobody would complain. I am not sure the people who played every week in Feywild knew what was going on.
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Mar 19, 2014 09:44
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Advice needed: my group is about to get in the middle of a war. Theyll have a week or so before the enemies are at the city. I need some side quests they can do to make sure tje battle is won. One is killing a clan of lizardfolk who are going to end up flanking. Another is to destroy a magical bridge so thaat the enemy cant bring their secret weapons (4 giant beasts). Any ideas?
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Mar 19, 2014 18:46
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jimcunningham posted:Advice needed: my group is about to get in the middle of a war. Theyll have a week or so before the enemies are at the city. I need some side quests they can do to make sure tje battle is won. -Surveying the surroundings. Fight some brigands and various road-banditry, convince them to fight on the PCs' side, talk them into just providing good intel to you / bad intel to the enemy / helping the PCs' side set up traps and ambushes in the countryside/along main roads into the city; going out into the woods and doing so yourself and driving local murder-fauna in the direction of the enemy so they have to fight off wolves and displacer beasts and poo poo before they get to the city. -Gaining local support. Punch out a crooked local tax collector; convince some pacifist cleric/monks to help defend the city; get an eccentric local sage to agree to give the local army some potions/scry on the enemy/ward up the city walls; talk some veterans of a past conflict/old adventurers into One Last Fight on your side. -Miscellaneous 'make us stronger fast' stuff: Descend into a crypt beneath the city to reclaim an ancient treasure to use in the conflict; look for a rumored lost enclave of elves in the woods/goblins in the desert/gnolls in the swamp who guard a magical spring that invests the drinker with great, if fleeting, power; sharpen your blades on the hide of an immortal beast rumored to be roaming nearby. Stuff like that! Small goal-oriented sidequests in the service of a greater cause (than "give us xp and gp") own.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:58
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Bargain with a local dragon/strong magical beast of your choosing to aid in the city's defense; alternately, if the dragon's terms are too demanding/the dragon's an rear end in a top hat and says "no," kill him and use his horde to fund & fortify the city's defense. Engage in a stealth operation to assassinate the approaching armies' officers/generals, reducing their moral and putting them in disarray. Also everything Chernobyl said while I was typing this.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:02
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I had a similar situation a few years back. We played it out Seven Samurai style, with each PC going off to do his own thing to prepare for the siege, then regrouping for the big battle. Basically, a big session long skill challenge with lots of improv and RP and little (if any) combat. Or multiple skill challenges. Then when you run the big battle, show them the ways their choices and preparation made a difference, for better or worse.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:07
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Im going to let them find out info for themselves to see if they can figure anyhthing out. None of these guys had played before. They made it to lvl 4 last night. I like the suggestions. I think im going to add in a group of bad rear end mercernaries, a small tribe of giants, and using some counterspies as possibilities but itll really be up to them to discover. Im wagering they just end up going toe to toe w no help. DMing is so much fun. Our wizard accidentally burnt a boys legs off then tried to put him out his misery, blowing off one of his arms. Poor fella.
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Mar 19, 2014 21:52
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P.d0t posted:Warlords + basic attack classes would own. That would own, but mainly I'd like that set to include a leader who wasn't a priest of some sort. As for Warlocks, I think they got the E-treatment because WotC was still interested in expanding the idea of what was "core" D&D. That's why dragonborn got included as well. Also, the E-Warlock is a surprisingly good fighter/mage style character, something that was "core" D&D until 3E.
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Mar 19, 2014 22:01
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PeterWeller posted:That would own, but mainly I'd like that set to include a leader who wasn't a priest of some sort. Um, that depends if by 'E-Warlock' you mean Hexblade, which is awesome if totally nonfunctional under the rules, or Binder, which is unplayable garbage. I assume the former, but I just want to remind people that making a non-terrible E-Warlock still took them two tries.
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Mar 19, 2014 22:06
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