Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
Cha/Int works just as well tbh - probably better for Warlock|Executioner. Dex/Cha if your DM goes with the more lenient translation of certain executioner powers. Either way, assuming you want to make a striker, you are absolutely taking a second pact as your level 11 feat, grabbing Star, and going into the Star only paragon path (don't recall it's name off the top of my head). The Caiphon one.

But to be frank you can still make a non-hybrid warlock striker just fine. Hybrid warlocks mostly mean going in melee - if you want to stand back and rain curses and dark magics on your enemy, no hybrid needed.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Similarly there's these builds. Sigil Carver is also a good Paragon Path for a hybrid warlock|swordmage since at level 16 you can make an MBA as an OA to punish an enemy who attacks an ally, which pairs with your normal swordmage immediate actions and if you have Eldritch Strike you can also do curse damage.

sysdefect
Jul 25, 2015
Anyone ever try homebrewing a dungeon crawl like system into 4e? I've seen some of the lair assaults and I've seen people talk about 4thcore and those seem to get the closest but I want to incorporate specific older elements from D&D and elements of roguelikes . For instance, I want to add scrolls, and wands with use magic device type checks to allow adventurers to build up that ready for any occasion type arsenal.

I've been trying to imagine a good alternative to the extended rest mechanic that would fit within dungeon crawl tradition. Randomly generated food is a pretty appropriate choice.

I'm thinking it would be cool to randomly generate dungeons and have a solo PC or maybe one or two henchmen for a Wizardry effect.

Mendrian
Jan 6, 2013

sysdefect posted:

Anyone ever try homebrewing a dungeon crawl like system into 4e? I've seen some of the lair assaults and I've seen people talk about 4thcore and those seem to get the closest but I want to incorporate specific older elements from D&D and elements of roguelikes . For instance, I want to add scrolls, and wands with use magic device type checks to allow adventurers to build up that ready for any occasion type arsenal.

I've been trying to imagine a good alternative to the extended rest mechanic that would fit within dungeon crawl tradition. Randomly generated food is a pretty appropriate choice.

I'm thinking it would be cool to randomly generate dungeons and have a solo PC or maybe one or two henchmen for a Wizardry effect.

Some ideas:

One of the issues with old-school play in 4th is the idea of attrition. By default there are two resources that are going to dwindle over the course of the adventuring day in 4th - surges and dailies. Old school play adds elements of resource management, which are hard to do in 4th. Part of this is that if you're building encounters correctly players will rarely try to avoid them; and avoiding fights was a great source of resource management in old-school play. Also, older versions of DnD added elements of time management to play; the longer you stay in the dungeon, the more you're going to burn through torches, rations, and other survival elements.

One of the time-critical factors was the decision to rest. Not only was resting dangerous, but it could result in additional monsters. A problem you could run into there was that a.) 4th doesn't really have an appropriate random encounter mechanic (but you could make one) and b.) longer fights can make random encounter mechanics a little tedious.

So, off the top of my head:

- Because you want players to feel under pressure for resource management, make encounters harder than normal, but end them more quickly; whether that means cutting monster HP in half or just having them run away, that's your call. This will make the first round or two tense but end fights more quickly, allowing you to sprinkle more in over the course of the day (including random encounters.) It may also make them question whether or not it is wise to engage a particular monster.

- Add random encounters if you want to, but remember that 4th is balanced around the assumption that players will have access to at least their encounter powers.

- Additional consumables are easy to come up with. There are a bunch already but pulling from other material shouldn't be difficult. You can do random treasure parcels if you want but I think it would probably suit you better to do something a bit more focused, giving them weird consumables that are unique to the kinds of problems you want them to overcome.

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011
It's not strictly what you're asking, but if you're looking at doing actual dungeon crawls in 4e, with big, busy dungeons, you want to do node-based design. This goes into how it would look. Each node can be equivalent to one of 4e's usual dungeon levels, about a battlemat's worth of space for a handful of encounters. Actual check the doors and go room by room play is just not what 4e is designed for, and makes it die on the vine.

The Angry DM wrote a very useful tool for stocking and differentiating 4e dungeon levels. His introduction to it is here.

The two first-party published examples of actual dungeon crawls that I know of are Thunderspire Labyrinth and Halls of Undermountain. Thunderspire Labyrinth is a good example of node-based design; the PCs travel across a huge abandoned city, but it's only the specific sites that are detailed. Everything else is narrated through or done as a skill challenge. Halls of Undermountain goes through a classic megadungeon (Undermountain) and chops it up in a bunch of different ways to work for 4e, examining specific sites and hooking things together with directed adventures. Halls also talks about rest, resource management, and other dungeon crawl staples in 4e, and includes random room generation/dungeon dressing tables. Both are worth mining for ideas.

edit: And google around and look at a bunch of OSR blogs about dungeon creation and megadungeon design. Even the Alexandrian has his immensely useful article on "Jaquaying the Dungeon", for example.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
Scrolls and wands would theoretically be as easy as giving them limited-use amounts of powers that you think are cool.

Perhaps the harder part is getting the math just right so that they're actually worth it to use: too strong and they cut into the assumed depletion of daily powers (but maybe that's the point), too weak and they'll never use them. And then you have to think about how they fit into the action economy, too.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

Myconid trip report: first encounter, they completely scrambled the party. Almost killed the squishier members until they caught on to the gimmick and spread apart. Poison resistance potions are getting brewed almost as a matter of necessity now. Second encounter went much better for the party, but the ability where any myconid can share damage with another proves to be quite powerful. Verdict: fun and memorable, would design again, but need to watch out so they don't overstay their welcome.

e: the bard wears a mushroom hat now and "trip report" may become literal. Also there's going to be a myconid/cordyceps infected rust monster.

My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Mar 27, 2016

sysdefect
Jul 25, 2015

Arivia posted:

It's not strictly what you're asking, but if you're looking at doing actual dungeon crawls in 4e, with big, busy dungeons, you want to do node-based design. This goes into how it would look. Each node can be equivalent to one of 4e's usual dungeon levels, about a battlemat's worth of space for a handful of encounters. Actual check the doors and go room by room play is just not what 4e is designed for, and makes it die on the vine.

The Angry DM wrote a very useful tool for stocking and differentiating 4e dungeon levels. His introduction to it is here.

The two first-party published examples of actual dungeon crawls that I know of are Thunderspire Labyrinth and Halls of Undermountain. Thunderspire Labyrinth is a good example of node-based design; the PCs travel across a huge abandoned city, but it's only the specific sites that are detailed. Everything else is narrated through or done as a skill challenge. Halls of Undermountain goes through a classic megadungeon (Undermountain) and chops it up in a bunch of different ways to work for 4e, examining specific sites and hooking things together with directed adventures. Halls also talks about rest, resource management, and other dungeon crawl staples in 4e, and includes random room generation/dungeon dressing tables. Both are worth mining for ideas.

edit: And google around and look at a bunch of OSR blogs about dungeon creation and megadungeon design. Even the Alexandrian has his immensely useful article on "Jaquaying the Dungeon", for example.

I will have to check Undermountain. I've understood what you say to be true, regarding kick down the door style gameplay and 4E but perhaps I haven't had the experience to know exactly why. Would it require too much overhaul or would it just be unfun? I want to use random generators like the DonJon dungeon generator and other tools I've seen online to generate loot tables. Solo play seems to me would be the most difficult thing to balance without at least one henchman/controlling an additional PC.

Is it that the power climb requires too specifically a tailored equipment progression? Classes aren't robust enough to make use of mostly random equipment?

Mendrian posted:

Some ideas:

One of the issues with old-school play in 4th is the idea of attrition. By default there are two resources that are going to dwindle over the course of the adventuring day in 4th - surges and dailies. Old school play adds elements of resource management, which are hard to do in 4th. Part of this is that if you're building encounters correctly players will rarely try to avoid them; and avoiding fights was a great source of resource management in old-school play. Also, older versions of DnD added elements of time management to play; the longer you stay in the dungeon, the more you're going to burn through torches, rations, and other survival elements.

One of the time-critical factors was the decision to rest. Not only was resting dangerous, but it could result in additional monsters. A problem you could run into there was that a.) 4th doesn't really have an appropriate random encounter mechanic (but you could make one) and b.) longer fights can make random encounter mechanics a little tedious.

So, off the top of my head:

- Because you want players to feel under pressure for resource management, make encounters harder than normal, but end them more quickly; whether that means cutting monster HP in half or just having them run away, that's your call. This will make the first round or two tense but end fights more quickly, allowing you to sprinkle more in over the course of the day (including random encounters.) It may also make them question whether or not it is wise to engage a particular monster.


Attrition has been a key element in guiding my thinking. I feel like food can be more gamey than it has traditionally been where eating is only important when you're thrust in a situation where you have no food and even then the effects are mild. I imagine food could essentially spawn on a d4 toss, if an extended rest is equivalent to about 4 encounters. Your capacity to regenerate is directly dependent on your ability to eat. Restore x healing surges and a daily. This would force a stricter economy of HP so managing the random trap or wandering monster in addition to the encounters is still important. Eat monsters when you're starving [no surges].

Wandering monster triggers could be something like a d6 (I believe was traditional) inside and outside of encounters with conditional modifiers to account for noise or the pursuing monsters after a retreat. I want the ability for wandering monsters to add risk to taking too much time fighting an encounter and short resting between encounters. The more healing surges you spend, the longer the rest, the greater the chance of a wandering monster. I haven't figured a way to account time by any other discrete measurements say to do exploration time and wouldn't want to do the ol' you've been thinking too long now here are some monsters bit but really since this is combat focused, I feel it is practical to measure things by encounter and rest.

Half HP monsters sound like a good idea or perhaps 2 hit minions. Also traits where the monster may lose defense after a hit/after x. The average encounter should go 4-6 rounds? I figured this shouldn't be a problem with a reduced party count but could be shorter. I like the wandering monster roll for being able to add uncertainty to even normal or easy encounters and it's not uncommon to see waves of monsters. Either way there should be a way to retreat if it is too much.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

sysdefect posted:

I will have to check Undermountain. I've understood what you say to be true, regarding kick down the door style gameplay and 4E but perhaps I haven't had the experience to know exactly why. Would it require too much overhaul or would it just be unfun? I want to use random generators like the DonJon dungeon generator and other tools I've seen online to generate loot tables. Solo play seems to me would be the most difficult thing to balance without at least one henchman/controlling an additional PC.

Is it that the power climb requires too specifically a tailored equipment progression? Classes aren't robust enough to make use of mostly random equipment?

I think the main thing is that 4e's combats take too long for the amount that you'd expect to happen in a classic dungeon crawl, unless you do some significant rejiggering like implementing a morale system.

Mecha Gojira
Jun 23, 2006

Jack Nissan
My favorite houserule in 4e is just as DM, looking at the battlefield and going, "Yep, this fight's done. Moving on." Get those fun gimmicks out of the way in the first couple rounds, but unfortunately with as swingy a die as d20, mopping up can take forever if the rolls aren't coming in so just call it when appropriate.

Not sure how that'd help a classic dungeon crawl scenario, though, because 4e is better focused around set piece battles and not random fights. Also, 4e is not meant for solo play. I wouldn't even recommend it for any less than three people since class roles are so important. And having to keep track of one character is difficult enough in 4e, I can't imagine trying to run multiple, even with the stripped down DMG2 companion NPC rules.

Mendrian
Jan 6, 2013

gradenko_2000 posted:

I think the main thing is that 4e's combats take too long for the amount that you'd expect to happen in a classic dungeon crawl, unless you do some significant rejiggering like implementing a morale system.

Yeah this. I think that would be your first obstacle. And I think a morale system or messing with HP is a good bet.

A lot of it depends on the level of the group. 6-8 rounds may well represent a full hour (or more) of combat. I recommend shooting for 2-3 round combats.

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011

sysdefect posted:

I will have to check Undermountain. I've understood what you say to be true, regarding kick down the door style gameplay and 4E but perhaps I haven't had the experience to know exactly why. Would it require too much overhaul or would it just be unfun? I want to use random generators like the DonJon dungeon generator and other tools I've seen online to generate loot tables. Solo play seems to me would be the most difficult thing to balance without at least one henchman/controlling an additional PC.

Is it that the power climb requires too specifically a tailored equipment progression? Classes aren't robust enough to make use of mostly random equipment?

It's just going to be unfun. The whole listen at the door/search every square/wandering monsters clock isn't what 4e is built for. You'll get bogged down in a lot of boring, irrelevant fights that will just eat up a ton of time. 4e's encounters are meant to be set pieces with customized terrain and obstacles, wandering monsters don't fit that at all.

I agree with you that wish lists aren't really the best, and that treasure is fun if the PCs don't know what they'll get. There are two significant problems with this: 1) the item treadmill does require PCs to have a weapon +whatever at a given level, and the same for defensive items and 2) some builds do need specific items to work at all. You can solve 1 by using innate bonuses (found in DMG2 and the Dark Sun Campaign Guide) and you can solve 2 by allowing PCs to request a single item for them every 5 levels. Then you can just hand out whatever else, although you need to keep to 4e's strict treasure budget. I recommend handing out parcels from the DMG1, just combine them or customize them as appropriate.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

sysdefect posted:

I want to use random generators like the DonJon dungeon generator and other tools I've seen online to generate loot tables.

Is it that the power climb requires too specifically a tailored equipment progression? Classes aren't robust enough to make use of mostly random equipment?

Just want to throw out there that, having done the math, as long as you cover the feat taxes for free and the inherent bonus rules, you can give the players just about anything and it'll work out. That includes nothing, but also all sorts of homebrew effects and weapons, like a classic "+1 sword, +3 versus lycanthropes"

To be clear: a "+1 sword" would be over and above what the inherent bonus would provide you, with the caveat that you cannot count on getting a +1 sword at all, since all loot is random.

Mecha Gojira posted:

My favorite houserule in 4e is just as DM, looking at the battlefield and going, "Yep, this fight's done. Moving on."

This is good advice for any game, really, but especially for 4e.

Mecha Gojira posted:

Get those fun gimmicks out of the way in the first couple rounds, but unfortunately with as swingy a die as d20, mopping up can take forever if the rolls aren't coming in so just call it when appropriate.

On that note: 4e with Escalation Die. Would you play it?

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011
My problem with saying fight's done, moving on is that it gives the PCs a pass on those last few powers expended/damage taken, which in turn doesn't stress their resources as much and messes around with the entire idea of the adventuring day.

Generic Octopus
Mar 27, 2010

Arivia posted:

My problem with saying fight's done, moving on is that it gives the PCs a pass on those last few powers expended/damage taken, which in turn doesn't stress their resources as much and messes around with the entire idea of the adventuring day.

If you've already beaten down Ulag and Zhormu the twin orc bandit lords and their trained dire wolf Skippy, the 3-4 remaining goblin minions aren't gonna drain enough resources to matter, at least not enough that I wouldn't rather save 10-20 minutes by calling the fight and having them surrender.

sysdefect
Jul 25, 2015
Yea I figured the issues with combat speed would may be helped by having fewer PCs/monsters in play but it would be something else to surmount the inherent team play design of the classes. I was thinking that a PC is supposed to stand 1:1 with an on level monster, and at which point does that scaling really break. Naturally, it could be only in conjunction do PCs equal 5 on level monsters, or at least 4 when you have all the roles covered. Solo play is really out there. Controllers and strikers can maintain their role advantages but defenders and leaders main features depend on another person. I tried playing something like this using two henchmen for a PC but progressing them seems like something of a pain especially. The use of wands and scrolls is something that could allow for expanded versatility.

Encounter design could still potentially be intelligent as you want it to be but you have a point, random may just not be fun.

sysdefect fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Mar 30, 2016

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011
If you want a good, well-balanced solo system with a ton of support, look up Kevin Crawford's Scarlet Heroes. It's as far as you can get away from 4e (it's an OSR game, and it shows in a lot of ways), but it's by a very good designer who writes good games.

You will find that much easier to run than trying to run 4e solo.

Mecha Gojira
Jun 23, 2006

Jack Nissan

gradenko_2000 posted:

Just want to throw out there that, having done the math, as long as you cover the feat taxes for free and the inherent bonus rules, you can give the players just about anything and it'll work out. That includes nothing, but also all sorts of homebrew effects and weapons, like a classic "+1 sword, +3 versus lycanthropes"

To be clear: a "+1 sword" would be over and above what the inherent bonus would provide you, with the caveat that you cannot count on getting a +1 sword at all, since all loot is random.


This is good advice for any game, really, but especially for 4e.


On that note: 4e with Escalation Die. Would you play it?

Having played a tactical grid combat system with an Escalation mechanic, I can say that yes, I would play 4e with an escalation mechanic. There might have to be an adjustment to Healing Surges per day or something along those lines, but things getting progressively deadlier as a fight goes a long way in ramping up tension and keeping fights more interesting especially if they even make it into the later rounds. It'll put a lot of emphasis on rocket tag if not properly balanced, though, but considering that one of 4e's big things is CharOp and To-Hit is the MOST IMPORTANT THING YOUR CHARACTER CAN HAVE EVER, it's not much of a change.

Mecha Gojira fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Mar 30, 2016

Jolyne Cujoh
Dec 7, 2012

It's not like I've got no worries...
But I'll be fine.

gradenko_2000 posted:

On that note: 4e with Escalation Die. Would you play it?

I've been running it for like a year and the players seem to enjoy it, it doesn't make a huge difference most of the time but they really like it when it adds just enough to let them hit


Arivia posted:

My problem with saying fight's done, moving on is that it gives the PCs a pass on those last few powers expended/damage taken, which in turn doesn't stress their resources as much and messes around with the entire idea of the adventuring day.

no one in 4e is going to be stupid enough to drop a daily when the fight is in the mop-up phase and the DM is gonna call it, especially because your players saying "I don't feel like I need to spend a daily" should be one of those signs that it's time to just call it. As for the damage stuff, usually when I call a fight early I'll just say "hey, everyone lose a surge, 2 if you were adjacent to an enemy/more than one enemy" or whatever. Granted, I also run a consistent, 3 combat long adventuring day (levels every 2 days) so I'm probably not the person to talk to about enforcing the resource-management part of 4e

Cthulhu Dreams
Dec 11, 2010

If I pretend to be Cthulhu no one will know I'm a baseball robot.

gradenko_2000 posted:

On that note: 4e with Escalation Die. Would you play it?

I really want to try this, has anyone got any good rules on how to make it work? I'm not totally sure it should just be a direct pot of the 13th age die. I've looked at:

Turn 1: Nothing
Turn 2: Escalation die set to 1. Monsters with recharge powers on a 4+ get them back
Turn 3: Die 2. Monsters with 5+ recharge powers get them back.
Turn 4: Die 3. Monsters with Recharge powers on a 4+ get them back
Turn 5: Die 4. Monsters with 5+ recharge powers get them back.
Turn 6: Die 5. Monsters with Recharge powers on a 4+ get them back
Turn 7: Die 6. All monster encounter powers are refreshed, maybe minions (re)spawn?

I think it also needs another effect tied to it, like the BBEG's damage ramps up, the ritual completes or minions spawn or the building collapses. But I'm a bit scared to roll it out into a live game. I also question if the shot clock of the turn 7 will ever come into effect.

Jolyne Cujoh posted:

As for the damage stuff, usually when I call a fight early I'll just say "hey, everyone lose a surge, 2 if you were adjacent to an enemy/more than one enemy" or whatever. Granted, I also run a consistent, 3 combat long adventuring day (levels every 2 days) so I'm probably not the person to talk to about enforcing the resource-management part of 4e

I just have the monsters explode/surrender/run away if plausible for them to do so (e.g. implacable undead hordes don't, but if the leadership is all killed they will collapse or w/e). I make fights a bit harder to compensate - basically with 5 players they have an XP budget of 6 players. I also regularly use huge swarms of minions because from asking for feedback and listening to chatter everyone is like 'holy poo poo that was really close' in fights when 20+ figures hit the table for the bad guys and minions are a bit overcosted in the budget.

Cthulhu Dreams fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Mar 30, 2016

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
Personally I run monsters with the "MM3 Followup" HP, which is about ~66% of what normal MM3 math already puts out, and that's kept most fights I've run in the 2-4 round range.

I probably let combats run to its full and final conclusion more often than I should, because of what Arivia said about squeezing out every last bit of attrition, but I do still call fights early if it's like one monster left, and I've just finished their turn, and it's another cycle through the initiative count before I get to act again.

Cthulhu Dreams posted:

I really want to try this, has anyone got any good rules on how to make it work? I'm not totally sure it should just be a direct pot of the 13th age die. I've looked at:

Rob Heinsoo himself wrote an article about porting it over in an issue of Kobold Quarterly, and his advice is to either tag some powers as usable by the monsters only at 3+. That seems like a straight nerf in some cases if you're preventing a monster from using an Encounter/Recharge power that they'd normally be able to unleash on round 1.

I personally would just do a straight port of "only players get to benefit, cut, print", but if you really wanted to have some benefit to the monsters, I would probably do something like a free Recharge and/or the recovery of an Encounter power at 3+

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

Arivia posted:

My problem with saying fight's done, moving on is that it gives the PCs a pass on those last few powers expended/damage taken, which in turn doesn't stress their resources as much and messes around with the entire idea of the adventuring day.
I'll generally say "fight's done" at the point where there's only one monster left, maybe two and one's really hurt, and it's the whole party's go before their next turn is up. Often in the round before the only question is whether the monster can get off another attack and I just let the group roll quick attacks to see if they beat it down before that happens, without bothering to track movement exactly by the square.

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Cthulhu Dreams posted:

I really want to try this, has anyone got any good rules on how to make it work? I'm not totally sure it should just be a direct pot of the 13th age die. I've looked at:

Turn 1: Nothing
Turn 2: Escalation die set to 1. Monsters with recharge powers on a 4+ get them back
Turn 3: Die 2. Monsters with 5+ recharge powers get them back.
Turn 4: Die 3. Monsters with Recharge powers on a 4+ get them back
Turn 5: Die 4. Monsters with 5+ recharge powers get them back.
Turn 6: Die 5. Monsters with Recharge powers on a 4+ get them back
Turn 7: Die 6. All monster encounter powers are refreshed, maybe minions (re)spawn?

Every two rounds, increase all To-Hit and Damage rolls by 1 per tier? Nice and simple, easy to remember.

Yukari
Feb 17, 2011

"That's going in the cringe reel for sure."


Fullblade or Gouge on a frontliner Barb? Initially, I had written down Gouge, but it's pretty much guaranteed that I'm going to get Agile Opportunist as there's a Cunning Bard in the party, so I had thoughts of abusing Heavy Blade Opportunist, but it'd involve giving up Surprising Charge. I think we're running with pre-errata Agile Opportunist, but if we were running with post-errata, would I still be able to use Heavy Blade Opportunist with the immediate interrupt I get from Agile Opportunist?

As an aside, how do you balance making new weapon types in 4e? Like if my DM was to make a Heavy Blade + Spear combo as a martial or superior weapon, what would be considered balanced for weapon die and additional modifiers?

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!

Yukari posted:

Fullblade or Gouge on a frontliner Barb? Initially, I had written down Gouge, but it's pretty much guaranteed that I'm going to get Agile Opportunist as there's a Cunning Bard in the party, so I had thoughts of abusing Heavy Blade Opportunist, but it'd involve giving up Surprising Charge. I think we're running with pre-errata Agile Opportunist, but if we were running with post-errata, would I still be able to use Heavy Blade Opportunist with the immediate interrupt I get from Agile Opportunist?

As an aside, how do you balance making new weapon types in 4e? Like if my DM was to make a Heavy Blade + Spear combo as a martial or superior weapon, what would be considered balanced for weapon die and additional modifiers?

Gouge all day everyday.

Honestly, I don't think there are any truly broken baseline weapons at this stage. Hammer/Spear is probably the best combo, but Flail Expertise has that niche covered.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!
Post errata would be a no, because Agile Opportunist specifically says you make an MBA, and Heavy Blade Opportunity only works for opportunity attacks (also: it doesn't apply to other attacks made as an opportunity action that aren't specifically opportunity attacks).

The big thing about making new weapons is that the weapon's proficiency bonus and damage dice aren't quite as important as the fact that combining weapon types opens up a lot of new avenues for optimization by letting you combine various feats and item enhancements to create even more punishing combos. I don't think Spear + Heavy Blade brings a bunch to the table compared to what a gouge already does outside of heavy blade opportunity, but I don't have full confidence in that statement so someone else can probably give you a better opinion.

WiiFitForWindows8
Oct 14, 2013
so are there any other systems that make bards loving amazing like in 4e? :(

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

thespaceinvader posted:

Gouge all day everyday.

Honestly, I don't think there are any truly broken baseline weapons at this stage. Hammer/Spear is probably the best combo, but Flail Expertise has that niche covered.

Hammer + Mace would let you use Overwhelming Impact and Dizzying Mace with the same attack (maybe Hammer Shock as well if you're a knight) and just dumpster an enemy's turn at-will. Hammer + Flail could let you use Flail Expertise and the usual flail boosters plus Hindering Shield and then Overwhelming Impact for rendering someone dazed and prone well away from the fight. Polearm + Flail adds Polearm Momentum to round out a flail-user's bag of tricks, though Repel Charge already covers some of that.

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!

LightWarden posted:

Post errata would be a no, because Agile Opportunist specifically says you make an MBA, and Heavy Blade Opportunity only works for opportunity attacks (also: it doesn't apply to other attacks made as an opportunity action that aren't specifically opportunity attacks).

The big thing about making new weapons is that the weapon's proficiency bonus and damage dice aren't quite as important as the fact that combining weapon types opens up a lot of new avenues for optimization by letting you combine various feats and item enhancements to create even more punishing combos. I don't think Spear + Heavy Blade brings a bunch to the table compared to what a gouge already does outside of heavy blade opportunity, but I don't have full confidence in that statement so someone else can probably give you a better opinion.

HB/Spear would be fine; as you rightly say Gouge adds most of the same bends to the game that that does.

WiiFitForWindows8 posted:

so are there any other systems that make bards loving amazing like in 4e? :(

5e bards are probably the best class in 5e, but that doesn't really answer the question.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

WiiFitForWindows8 posted:

so are there any other systems that make bards loving amazing like in 4e? :(

5e :v:

bbcisdabomb
Jan 15, 2008

SHEESH

Mecha Gojira posted:

My favorite houserule in 4e is just as DM, looking at the battlefield and going, "Yep, this fight's done. Moving on." Get those fun gimmicks out of the way in the first couple rounds, but unfortunately with as swingy a die as d20, mopping up can take forever if the rolls aren't coming in so just call it when appropriate.

I wish I could do this, but the group I run for really enjoys the mop-up stage of combat. One kobold left? We gotta go run that down in three turns and hit it! I really shouldn't be complaining since the players are having fun, but sometimes it gets a little ridiculous.


Playing a Bard in a 5e game that was earlier a 4e game, I wish :sigh:

djw175
Apr 23, 2012

by zen death robot

WiiFitForWindows8 posted:

so are there any other systems that make bards loving amazing like in 4e? :(

In 13th Age, Bards are the best class bar none.

Jolyne Cujoh
Dec 7, 2012

It's not like I've got no worries...
But I'll be fine.
Even though, yeah, Bards are the best classes in 5e and 13A, they are also very different than the 4e bard in how they function. In 5e and 3A, they can just be built to be better at basically every role than anyone else, but in 4e they are playing super weird chess that no one else really gets to play. Warlords are better at giving people attacks, runepriests are better at flat number bonuses, Clerics are better at healing, etc., but no one just fucks with positioning on a battlefield like a bard does, shooting an arrow at a dude and then having another one of their friends teleport over from 50 feet away to smack them or pushing a guy into a super lovely position with music or whatever, and none of these other systems have anything even slightly resembling that chessmaster feeling.

Mendrian
Jan 6, 2013

No other class I've ever played in any game comes close to the 'pro-active support' role that Bards fill in 4e, unfortunately.

Mecha Gojira
Jun 23, 2006

Jack Nissan
If you really want an opportunity attack build on a Barbarian, hybrid it with Cleric (Battle Cleric's Lore, immediate Scale Prof) pick up the Cleric strength attacks that let you make opportunity actions against enemies who don't attack you, then pick up Tactical Warpriest as your Paragon Path. Its level 16 lets you mark an enemy with an at-will attack and punish with an opportunity attack.

Edit: But don't forget to grab all of your crit and charge enhancing stuff too, though! Melegaunt's Darkblade/Jagged Weapon for expanded crit in Paragon, Charging Rampage so that, well, you get to charge on that crit and of course the classic Badge of the Berserker/Horned Helm combo. That at-will attack to mark at 16 can be your charge, after all! And if you want to off-defend, congratulations, both Cleric and Barbarian have incredible powers that also mark!

Second Edit: Gouge vs. Fullblade? Depends, do you like ax and spear feats? I personally do. In paragon Deadly Axe turns your Gouge into a High Crit weapon and Impaling Spear lets you target AC OR Reflex on a melee basic attack. On the other hand, the Fullblade is already high crit, but it doesn't have the brutal property (or the inherent +1 advantage of 2d6 over 1d12). However, it is 5% more accurate with the +3 prof bonus and that accuracy carries over to all of your attacks, not just your MBA's, and now you can use the Barbarian's 1[w]+2d6+Str At-Will as your opportunity attack. Either way, Darkblades come in Heavy/Light Blades and Jagged comes in Heavy/Light Blade and Ax, so you're covered there. And since that power qualifies as a Barbarian power for the purposes of Hybridization and you have an expanded crit range, high crit weapon either way, and something along the lines of charging rampage or other rampage boosters? Yeah, have fun with that.

Mecha Gojira fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Mar 30, 2016

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Jolyne Cujoh posted:

Even though, yeah, Bards are the best classes in 5e and 13A, they are also very different than the 4e bard in how they function. In 5e and 3A, they can just be built to be better at basically every role than anyone else, but in 4e they are playing super weird chess that no one else really gets to play. Warlords are better at giving people attacks, runepriests are better at flat number bonuses, Clerics are better at healing, etc., but no one just fucks with positioning on a battlefield like a bard does, shooting an arrow at a dude and then having another one of their friends teleport over from 50 feet away to smack them or pushing a guy into a super lovely position with music or whatever, and none of these other systems have anything even slightly resembling that chessmaster feeling.

Mendrian posted:

No other class I've ever played in any game comes close to the 'pro-active support' role that Bards fill in 4e, unfortunately.

Yeah, jokes aside 4e bards are fantastic and my favorite of the leader classes with so many fantastic options that it's hard to choose from builds like a multimage trickster to a valorous bard who enables so hard that you run into the problem of "I have already given myself and everyone in my party a basic attack or charge as a free action and I still have two standard actions left to use this turn."

WiiFitForWindows8
Oct 14, 2013
BOY. I hate being canadian and not being able to find a print copy of Monster Manual 3 for less than eighty dollars.

slap me and kiss me
Apr 1, 2008

You best protect ya neck

WiiFitForWindows8 posted:

BOY. I hate being canadian and not being able to find a print copy of Monster Manual 3 for less than eighty dollars.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-toys-games/o...gationFlag=true

Email that guy, maybe he'll mail it to you.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

The Assassin's Shadow Step is one of the most consistent sources of amusement in my group, because we refluff it as Secret Assassin Shortcut. So whenever there's something in range that's hard to get to and someone makes a great effort to get there, our assassin makes a point of stepping out from behind a bush or something and meaningfully checking his watch.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Yukari
Feb 17, 2011

"That's going in the cringe reel for sure."


I have a choice of picking between a daily cha vs wis dominate until EONT in place of any utility spell on Bard. How powerful is this in comparison to the options I'd normally get? (Probably going to take Moment of Escape if I don't get this)

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply