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Agent Boogeyman posted:During Heroic you want to keep combats as close to the level of the party as possible, usually Level+0 or Level+1 or +2. This really depends on the char-op levels of your group. L+0 wouldnt even be a speed bump for our group and it's probably not going to feel challenging until at least L+3. And, in my opinion, if a fight isn't challenging you shouldn't have that fight. Fights in 4e take so long that I don't think you should waste your group's time on any kind of mediocre poo poo that's just padding out play length.
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Sep 23, 2015 20:20
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:It looks like my gaming group wants to play Revenge of the Giants. The one big problem with battlemind (that I've noticed) is that they don't get a good basic attack, which hinders their stickiness significantly, but there are a couple ways to get around this (just taking melee training or, better yet, convincing your gm to let you have it for free is the simplest). Otherwise, the only problem with them is the problem with most phb3 classes in that they didn't get nearly as much support as phb 1 or 2 classes.
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Sep 23, 2015 20:28
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Raenir K. Artemi posted:The one big problem with battlemind (that I've noticed) is that they don't get a good basic attack, which hinders their stickiness significantly, but there are a couple ways to get around this (just taking melee training or, better yet, convincing your gm to let you have it for free is the simplest). Otherwise, the only problem with them is the problem with most phb3 classes not named the monk in that they didn't get nearly as much support as phb 1 or 2 classes. Fixed that for you. It was much easier for the dragon/essentials crew to come out with new monk stuff than it was for them to figure out the power point system.
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Sep 23, 2015 20:58
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Battlemind, like most psionic classes, entirely revolves around spamming certain at-wills, most of which he only gets later in life. Otherwise you get into weird stuff like "the Battlemind is bad at protecting other players, but really good at protecting himself!" BM can be the spongiest class in the game without the use of healing.
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Sep 23, 2015 21:35
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:Battlemind, like most psionic classes, entirely revolves around spamming certain at-wills, most of which he only gets later in life. Otherwise you get into weird stuff like "the Battlemind is bad at protecting other players, but really good at protecting himself!" BM can be the spongiest class in the game without the use of healing. Well I think I would start the character at 12th level because that's what the adventure is designed for. So if they aren't good by 12th level or so I'll pick something else. I really like the idea of being a mobile rear end-kicker. On another note, I didn't realize the adventure was partly written by Mike Mearls. 
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Sep 23, 2015 21:54
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Depending on what you want your BM to do, the best powers come at 13th, but that's the last level they get anything massively relevant.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:14
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thespaceinvader posted:Depending on what you want your BM to do, the best powers come at 13th, but that's the last level they get anything massively relevant. is that the level they get Brutal Barrage? because that power is busted.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:23
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I don't want to break the game over my knee, btw. Something solid would be fine.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:33
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Madmarker posted:is that the level they get Brutal Barrage? because that power is busted. It's only busted if you go out of your way to MAKE it busted. Otherwise it's pretty crap. The ones to look into for actually accomplishing your role are Lightning Rush and Forced Reversal. Most BMs will build around one or the other, some around both. Both makes you a horrible catch-22, once per round. Some stuff the BM does is way better when combined with another defender, because Lightning Rush can force other marks to trigger.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:36
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Isn't Lightning Rush or whatever at level 7?
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Sep 23, 2015 22:37
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Yes. Brutal Barrage is 13 and I think Forced Reversal might be as well? I'm pretty bad at Battleminds generally.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:39
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I built an epic dwarf battlemind at one point who got back a third of his 240+ hp back every time he surged, which he did a lot. Also he ignored a lot of damage. On the other end you can do things like double up on samurai to make a battlemind who starts the fight in whatever square he drat well pleases. This is leaving out their weird tanking-but-not-tanking things like Lightning Rush. Brutal barrage is OK if you have a high crit range and if you want to invest totally in it you can do the hammer feat that deals damage on a miss, but that is SUB-OPTIMAL. At some point they get a daily that knocks the opponent unconscious too, which is amazing.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:40
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:I don't want to break the game over my knee, btw. Something solid would be fine.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:47
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No Brutal barrage is horribly broken because you can do things like be a BM|Twofold Pact Elemental Warlock Genasi Firesoul/Lightningsoul with Shocking Flame and Headsman's Chop and a Firewind Blade and so on and so on and wind up spend every standard action doing like 16 damage instances each with vulnerability and murderdeathkilling everything. E: crit-op also helps it a lot. It's not quite as bad as rebreathers, but it's pretty bad if you go all out. Don't go all out.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:52
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I'm trying to look this up in the compendium, are there explodable potions you can throw at a guy?
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Sep 24, 2015 00:21
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Alchemical Items. Mostly crap, unfortunately. Better to just take a ranged class and reskin its attack powers.
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Sep 24, 2015 00:22
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thespaceinvader posted:No Brutal barrage is horribly broken because you can do things like be a BM|Twofold Pact Elemental Warlock Genasi Firesoul/Lightningsoul with Shocking Flame and Headsman's Chop and a Firewind Blade and so on and so on and wind up spend every standard action doing like 16 damage instances each with vulnerability and murderdeathkilling everything. E: crit-op also helps it a lot. I arrived at a magic missile charger wizard build on the somewhat flimsy pretext that a Shadar-Kai can use magic missile during a charge. Add on a charge kit (providing a damage roll) and I was off to the races hitting/not hitting people with... Damage that was outclassed by just about any dedicated striker, but when you build around an at-will you can use your other powers for all sorts of junk, like making a really tanky wizard with lots of off-turn nonsense. Then I had to go take a shower. Name Change fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 00:33
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Really Pants posted:Alchemical Items. Mostly crap, unfortunately. Better to just take a ranged class and reskin its attack powers. It's a good thing they're crap. Burning gold to gain temporary combat advantage is a pretty lovely system to balance around.
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Sep 24, 2015 00:36
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They don't seem crappy. My GF is playing a Dragonborn Ardent, with a Heavy Warpick and a Dejada as her back-up ranged weapon. If I'm reading the RAW correctly, then she gets 1d8 damage for using the Dejada, and 1d10 for using Alchemical Acid in it. Doing a total of 1d10+1d8, and if she takes that power that lets her use her breath attack as a minor ability, she'd be doing 1d6+3 In total, her damage for a turn at level 2 or 3 would be 1d8+1d10+1d6+3 Unless I missed a rule or something.
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Sep 24, 2015 00:45
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Turtlicious posted:They don't seem crappy. My GF is playing a Dragonborn Ardent, with a Heavy Warpick and a Dejada as her back-up ranged weapon. If I'm reading the RAW correctly, then she gets 1d8 damage for using the Dejada, and 1d10 for using Alchemical Acid in it. Doing a total of 1d10+1d8, and if she takes that power that lets her use her breath attack as a minor ability, she'd be doing 1d6+3 Alchemist's Acid isn't ammo. It, like the other alchemical items, is a consumable with it's own standard action attack. Unless you're referring to something else?
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Sep 24, 2015 01:04
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The Dejada can lob potions as ammo. E: DND COmpendium posted:Simple one-handed ranged weapon So I assume the special ammo functions the same as a magic arrow Ice Arrow posted:Freezing ArrowLevel 3+ Uncommon Turtlicious fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 01:07
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Khizan posted:It's a good thing they're crap. Burning gold to gain temporary combat advantage is a pretty lovely system to balance around. EDIT: And that says "Extend the range of", which would seem to indicate to me that it just lets you use them at logner range rather than adding them to the weapon's damage. Zereth fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 01:14
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Turtlicious posted:The Dejada can lob potions as ammo. It extends the range of thrown alchemical objects. It doesn't actually make them ammo.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:15
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Oh, that makes more sense from a balance point of view. (And no sense from a realism point of view.)
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Sep 24, 2015 01:18
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Eh, Brutal Barrage is broken when you do the same thing that sorta breaks a lot of the game: stacking the poo poo out of vulnerabilities. The solution is less "don't break Brutal Barrage" and more "don't abuse the vulnerability rules." Almost literally every time you see a Firewind Blade, someone's doing something that'll cause problems. The other big sign is the horribly tortured logic used at times to claim things as multi-taps that were clearly never intended to be separate damage rolls. Mind you, the devs made plenty of mistakes on their own there (lookin' at you, Flame Spiral), but people got kinda crazy about it. Striker optimization ended up just coming down to "how many things that you can argue as being separate 'attacks' can you do in one round?" In the end, at least on the Striker side, 4e's biggest mechanical flaw (ignoring the generic ones like feat overload) boils down to "multi-hits are grossly overencouraged and overpowered."
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Sep 24, 2015 03:42
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Brutal Barrage is a pretty binary skill, is the thing. It's broken or it's useless.
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Sep 24, 2015 03:51
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Another rules question, since I haven't run 4e consistently for a while: Maw of the Guardian has a property of quote:This weapon deals extra damage equal to your Constitution modifier while you’re in a guardian form. Form of Mountain's Thunder Attack has an effect: quote:Each enemy marked by you takes lightning damage equal to your Strength modifier. Since the Maw doesn't specify damage rolls, does the bonus damage apply to the effect (since the power has the Weapon keyword)?
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Sep 24, 2015 11:13
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UrbanLabyrinth posted:Another rules question, since I haven't run 4e consistently for a while: Yes, the bonus damage applies to the lightning in this case. It doesn't apply to the thunder hit that you get from the form, though.
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Sep 24, 2015 12:13
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How do dragons' instinctive traits interact with limited use powers? The MV Lv12 dracolich can use its Mesmerizing Glance as a free action at an initiative count of its initiative check + 10. Mesmerizing Glance is a minor action, at-will but limited to 1/round. Does the use as a free action circumvent the limitation, or does it just mean it gets to use Mesmerizing Glance early (and is that fair, considering that other dragons' instinctive traits give them additional attacks, but also that Mesmerizing Glance dominates)? e: even trickier: the 1/round limitation means if you use an effect limited to 1/round, you regain its use at the start of your next turn. So the dragon could use Mesmerizing Glance twice in the first round of combat (once at ini + 10, once during its actual turn), but would then not have it available to use instinctively in round 2 (and all further ones), rendering the trait pointless. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 13:49
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That sounds like the intent was "once on the dragon's main turn, and a second time on its initiative+10" but they hosed it up. What does Mesmerizing Glance actually do?
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Sep 24, 2015 14:11
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Hit: dominate (save ends) Miss: if the target willingly moves closer to the dracolich, or to an adjacent square, before the end of its next turn, it takes 15 damage Effect: slide 2 Funnily enough, that's a lot more powerful than the same ability on the lv22 version, which doesn't have the miss line and half the range. Go figure. And yeah, the other dragons all have unlimited powers as their instinctive actions, except Green, which can use a recharge power, and the same question applies. I might just change it to a more generic "on ini + 10, use bite or claw as a free action" trait, just because dominate is such an annoying effect and even in a six PC party, two potential dominates a round is pretty tough.
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Sep 24, 2015 14:59
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Honestly with a dominate I feel like the 1/round thing where you can use it twice the first round and then once every round after is intentional. Since it goes on init+10, the dragon will (barring extremely bad luck) probably get to use it on at least one of the strikers, and then they are either dominated (bad for their party) or they take 15 damage (bad for them). Either way, it gives the dracolich a very good chance to stop the momentum of the alpha strike that's almost definitely coming and it can then use it again on its turn to hit the other striker or a controller to start throwing around more status effects.
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Sep 24, 2015 15:08
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Has anyone moved the CharOp guides on the WotC forums to another site yet, or should I take some time this weekend to copypaste some stuff?
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Sep 24, 2015 15:13
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Some stuff has been moved to ENWorld, but it's never too early to move more.
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Sep 24, 2015 15:34
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And if you're going to move stuff, someone built a conversion tool to make it less painful.
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Sep 24, 2015 16:10
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My Lovely Horse posted:How do dragons' instinctive traits interact with limited use powers? I'm no expert on 4e, but the design principle seems to be that the Instinctive Domination will wipe dominating and stun effects to prevent the common problem with boss monsters that it's easy to "stunlock" them since stunning the boss means stunning 100% of the encounter instead of just 25% of it. The effect is on its own initiative count and that initiative count is going to be really high to minimize the number of free potshots the players can get in while it's stunned if the effect was otherwise part of the boss' normal turn. (they do the exact same thing with 5th edition's Legendary Actions/Lair Actions, which tells me that that's just another feature of that game that's already been done before and isn't anything new, but I digress) I think what happens is: Round 1: On initiative (average) 30, Instinctive Domination triggers. The Dracolich is neither dominated nor stunned (since the players haven't even acted yet), so it gets to use Mesmerizing Glance The players get to act The Dracolich gets to act. It already used Mesmerizing Glance this round, so it cannot use it again (or reverse the order, Dracolich gets to act, then players get to act, whichever) Round 2A: On initiative 30, Instinctive Domination triggers. If the Dracolich is dominated/stunned from the players' actions in round 1, Instinctive Domination removes it. The players get to act The Dracolich gets to act. It has not yet used Mesmerizing Glance this round, so it can use it now Round 2B: On initiative (average) 30, Instinctive Domination triggers. The Dracolich is neither dominated nor stunned, so it gets to use Mesmerizing Glance The players get to act The Dracolich gets to act. It already used Mesmerizing Glance this round, so it cannot use it again And so on and so forth.
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Sep 24, 2015 17:39
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Has anyone tried to install CBLoader on Windows 10? A friend tried to install it on a fresh upgrade but it hangs when trying to upgrade. Any suggestions?
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Sep 24, 2015 19:04
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Works fine on my upgraded PC but I didn't try to install it fresh, I just upgraded a system that had it already.
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Sep 24, 2015 19:11
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I put it on my totally fresh Win10 install a few weeks ago, and it's working all right. (The CBLoader that was already just unpacked to a directory wasn't, is why I had to reinstall it.)
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Sep 24, 2015 19:23
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bbcisdabomb posted:Has anyone tried to install CBLoader on Windows 10? A friend tried to install it on a fresh upgrade but it hangs when trying to upgrade. Any suggestions? Here's my system: 1. Run DDISETUP2009April in administrator mode. Install to default path (assuming "C:\Program Files (x86)\Wizards of the Coast\Character Builder" ) 2. Run Character_Builder_Update_Oct_2010 in administrator mode. Change path to match that of step one (usually "...\Program Files (x86)\" ) 3. Run CBLoader-1.3-Setup in administrator mode - Set first path to installed path from step 1 and second path to your preference 4. Create 'custom' folder in Character Builder Path from step 1 5. Copy contents of 'custom' folder in this directory to directory created in step 4 6. Create shortcut to CBLoader.exe on desktop -- To Run - Launch CB Loader shortcut in administrator mode
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Sep 24, 2015 20:24
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