Player's Handbook 3 preview: Cloth Armor becomes playable!

A character using Cloth Armor in D&D 4E is a rare occurrence. Right now, there are only two kinds of cloth-wearing PCs: those who are forced to do so because of their class features, like Avengers and Monks, and those who are waiting to level up and grab Armor Proficiency (Leather). The truth is that the upgrade from Cloth to Leather armor is one of the best conceivable uses for a feat slot, rivalling even the almighty Expertise (and arguably even better, at Heroic Tier). Because of this, dresses, robes and vestments have banished from the wardrobes of most adventurers, as even Wizards go around wearing leather jackets. Thankfully, Player's Handbook 3 is going to put an end to this madness, by allowing players to remain unarmored without incurring in significant mechanical penalties. Let's see how this will happen.

Remember how the Brawler Fighter from Martial Power 2 was sneakily previewed in a FAQ page? Well, it appears that they liked the trick, because they are doing it again with Player's Handbook 3. This time, we are shown a simple heroic feat called Unarmored Agility. It has no requirements, and grants you a +2 bonus to AC as long as you are wearing cloth. This is, very conveniently, just as good as Leather Armor Proficiency, and has three major implications for the game: a change in aesthetics, the redeeming of an entire magic item category, and an unexpected AC boost for certain strikers.

The aesthetic change

Wizards, Sorcerers and Psions are no longer punished for wearing their iconic robes. Hooray! Sure, we could (and did) use Leather for the mechanics while saying that our character was dressing as we liked, but this is the real deal. I'm glad this has changed.

The forgotten treasures

There is quite a bit of space in both Player's Handbooks and Adventurer's Vaults devoted to Armor enchantments available solely for Cloth - I counted around 40 of them, and this will surely increase with PHB 3. Most of this space was as good as blank before, but now it will actually be of some use. I'd recommend to take a look at these books (or the Compendium, of course), because there are some real jewels waiting to be uncovered. Among my favourites are the extremely cool Robe of Eyes, the incredibly useful Shimmering Armor and the almost broken Bloodthread Armor.

AC Inflation (and erratas undone)

Avengers and Monks rejoice, for you have just gained 2 extra points of AC. Which is very odd in the case of avengers, since they just lost a similar amount a few months ago. In that occassion, I commented the following: "The Armor of Faith class feature has been changed to work only in Cloth Armor, removing the potential for ridiculously high AC ".

Well, I guess this change gives them back the potential for ridiculously high AC. Admittedly, this cuts 2-3 points off the maximum defense score that could be achieved through extreme optimization and feat investments, because upgrading to Hide Armor is no longer feasible. On the other hand, Bloodthread Armor will partially compensate for that, making the AC cap (getting hit on 20s only) dangerously close for bloodied, epic Avengers.

With the new feat, even an 'innocent', non-optimizing Avenger is going to have impressive defenses:

Level 1 Avenger, 18 Dexterity or Intelligence, Unarmored Agility: AC 19 (N18)

A *normalized AC* of 18 is equivalent to Scale Armor and a Heavy Shield, and other than investing a single feat, this character is not sacrificing anything - and certainly not the ability to wield a massive two-handed weapon. An additional feat (*Improved Armor of Faith*) brings this on par with Plate + Shield, or even better at Paragon and beyond.

Let's see a more extreme scenario, though:

Level 30 Avenger, starting 18 Dexterity or Intelligence, Unarmored Agility, Improved Armor of Faith, weapon with the 'defensive' property, +6 Starweave Bloodthread Armor, Demigod Epic Destiny and two-weapon Defense: AC 52 (N21), or 54 (N23) while bloodied.

It is virtually impossible for a defender character to match these results. And I'm pretty certain that you could get an extra point or two, with enough optimizing. This character, while bloodied, would be just 2 points below the cap (N25), which is a real nightmare for most monsters. This just feels wrong. Maybe Improved Armor of Faith should be changed into a flat +1 bonus, rather than a scaling one.

What about monks? It will depend on the feat selection they get. If there is anything like "Improved Unarmored Defense", I'm afraid they will also outperform shielded defenders on the AC department - otherwise, they will be more or less at their level.

Level 1 Monk, 20 Dexterity, Unarmored Agility: AC 19 (N18)

Overall, I can't say I'm happy with the way Unarmored Agility interacts with these classes. On the other hand, I do like what it does for casters with robes. I think those in charge of Errata should definitely be keeping an eye on the following items:

- Improved Armor of Faith

- Bloodthread Armor

- Any monk feat enhancing Unarmored Defense.

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Player's Handbook 3 Debut: Battlemind

Battlemind. Not the most exciting of names, but coming up with iconic and simple ones for something like a Psionic Defender can't be an easy task. You shouldn't take this as a signal that the game developers are running out of ideas, though, because this class' mechanics and power selection are among the most imaginative that the game has to offer. Let's take a look at them.

This is not a generic fighter with a brilliant halo painted over her head. Honest.

Overview

Gear-wise, the Battlemind is a defender of the old school: a reliable set of heavy armor, a solid chunk of metal to bash enemies with, and possibly a shield. On a battlefield, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart from regular Fighters, if not for the silly Halos around their heads. According to their flavor, they have egos that occupy several squares, and their combat style overwhelms opponents with sheer prepotence (which is somehow tied to their Constitution modifier). One might question whether their fighting prowess really justifies this degree of self-confidence, but there is one thing you can't deny: they have some really cool tricks up their sleeve.

As all other Psionic classes (except for monks, who aren't really psionic, but we love them anyway!), battleminds use a groundbreaking resource system for their powers. You can find a detailed description in my Psion review but, in short, instead of at-wills and encounter powers they have at-wills that can be augmented (in two different ways) by expending Power Points... which, appropiately, are regenerated each encounter. Dailies and Utilities remain unaffected.

So far, we had seen a basic use of power points in the Psion class, and a terrible one with the Ardent. Battleminds get to be the creative powerpointers. Baseline effects that would have looked completely out of place in non-psionic at-wills (like non-standard actions), lesser augmentations that are actually worth using, and even augmentable class features make sure that Battleminds are not just "like that other class, but with power points". Unlike ardents.

Features

I am torn between loving and hating the class features. On the one hand, they are flavorful, slightly weird, and just different from those of other classes. On the other... they don't quite work as they should. While I'm writing this, D&D message boards all over the world are raging about the class' alleged incompetence at the Defender role. As usual, there is a good deal of exageration here but, as much as I want to like the class, even I have to admit that it feels weak on certain areas.

Their method of marking is actually pretty good, with an at-will power that lets them mark a creature within 3 squares for the rest of the encounter - or until you mark a different one. There is an option to spend one power point to make this affect two foes at once - something you won't want to do very often, but that could be extremely handy in certain encounters. In addition, there is a good amount of at-will powers that can mark enemies (sometimes in multiples!). Overall, they have multimarking capabilities almost as good as a warden's, as well as a Swordmage's ability to maintain marks at range. This would make them good candidates for Swordmage-like mark-and-run strategies... if not for their punishing mechanic.

The punishing mechanic, it must be said, is one of the coolest things that I've seen on a player's handbook. A power called Mind Spike triggers against enemies breaking a mark, hurting them for as much damage as they have dealt an ally. It's concentrated karma punching the monster on its face.

Unfortunately, its efficiency leaves a bit to be desired. It only works against adjacent enemies, it won't trigger on missed attacks, and it costs an immediate action. It is true that it never misses and that, looking at average monster damage values, it hits slighly harder than a maxed out Divine Challenge (by a few points)... but the basic attacks of other defenders will easily outdamage it.

Along with Fighters, Battleminds are the only defenders who can penalize enemies for shifting around them. But the similarities end here - if Fighters answer shifts with a swing of their blade (which is their universal answer to all problems), Battleminds prefer to do as their foes, and shift after them. Except that it isn't exactly 'after'. The power in question, Blurred Step, costs an Opportunity Action, thus resolving before the enemy gets a chance to get away.

While this is a good thing when attacking, in this case it prevents the battlemind from going into the square their foe is going to leave. Among other complications, this means that shifting enemies in a diagonal square from a Battlemind are gone for good - there is no way to end up adjacent to them. Also, a much-criticized side-effect of the Opportunity Action cost is that you'll never get an Opportunity Attack if the enemy then chooses to charge. Then again, that OA would have been equally impossible without Blurred Step, and at least there is a chance of moving to an advantageous position.

The build-related feature for the Charisma build ("Quick Battlemind") is quite original, as well as extremely useful for a defender. It grants them a free movement when the combat starts, giving an unprecedented control of where the front line will be set. I have lost count of the number of times that my fighter rolled a low initiative, only to see allies and monsters maneuver into hardly defendable positions - incidentally, this is part of the reason why I value powers like come and Get it so highly. At any rate, I see this as a major incentive to take the class.

As for the Wisdom Build, Resilient Battlemind, it honors its name with a power called Battle Resilience, which triggers the first time they are attacked, granting a high resistance to damage for a turn. This has the potential to go wasted if, for example, the triggering attack misses and nobody else attacks the character during that turn, but if you can somehow attract the attention of several enemies from the beginning, you can prevent a lot of damage.

Overall, the class suffers from a punishing mechanic that is difficult to use, so the plain mark penalty will often be the only adverse effect that marked enemies take. This is aggravated by the lack of good basic attacks, which makes the Melee Training feat a must.

Powers

Although the features left a bittersweet taste, a Battlemind's catalogue of powers is nothing but pure sugar. There is, inevitably, some filler material, but most choices are interesting either in their at-will or their augmented form, which creates a nice tension. More importantly, there are several at-wills that are radically different from those of any other class - great examples of the potential of the Power Point mechanic.

The basic lineup of level 1 at-wills isn't all that impressive, but covers essential functions. There are at-wills to mark, push, and penalize attacks, and augmentations for close bursts, blasts, and even a blinding debuff, all of them very tempting as spammable encounter powers. But the undeniable star is Iron Fist, a strike that grants resistance equal to Wisdom modifier whether you hit or miss. This looks like a better version of the Temporaty HP- granting powers of other defenders - which is to say a lot.

The real surprises begin at level 7. Lightning Rush is an Immediate Interrupt at-will attack! It triggers when a nearby enemy attacks an ally, allowing you to move adjacent and attack, sacrificing the standard action of your next turn (a necessary, but profitable tradeoff). If that wasn't enough, both augmentations offer great effects.

Also at level 7, and competing for the same slot, is Psionic Speed, which could be described as a marking, better version of Dual Strike that hits three enemies and can be used with two-handed weapons. This will typically be similar in effect to a Sword Burst, but it can easily be upgraded to a close burst 2 with a reach weapon. Also, the mass-marking should prove invaluable.

Even more gems await at level 13. Brutal Barrage is the first at-will (and probably the last) in the game that lets you attack a single target three times, incidentally knocking him prone if two or more hit. Of course, in order to keep the damage at a sane level, each hit only deals your Constitution modifier in damage - which, multiplied by three, is acceptable but far from stellar. Accuracy is nothing short of insane, though, and I personally find the interaction with Hammer Rhythm hilarious.

The next remarkable power is Armor of Blades (level 23), a variant of Lightning Rush that trades out-of-turn movement (along with its great reach) for the awesome effect of redirecting enemy attacks to oneself. It isn't probably worth taking over Lightning Rush, but I would be very tempted to take both.

Finally, Brilliant Recovery is another unprecedented at-will effect, though one that I see as horribly unbalanced. It is a minor action attack that you can only use after missing. It would be extremely effective, but actually fair, if it was somehow limited to one attack per turn, but it isn't. As it is, there is a huge incentive to force a miss on your first attack (say, attacking bare-handed with your eyes closed) in order to blow two minor actions for an improved Twin Strike. This really deserves errata, but once it gets it, it will be one of my favourite powers.

The selection of dailies is merely passable, in my opinion. For each level, there is an attack that comes with a stance that boosts opportunity attacks. Some of these are quite good, others less so. Nevertheless, I'm not sure it is a mechanic that justifies so many slots, as it gets boring quick. Utility powers are also decent, my favourites being an at-will Water Walk at level 2, and an encounter power that lets you turn a melee strike into a ranged 10 attack.

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Superior Implements sneak preview!

Edit: Mike Donais has confirmed, at the wizards.com forums, that "The Dark Sun preview was just one option from many". What surprises await us?

Edit 2: An early spoiler of PHB3 in rpg.net clarifies that each superior implement will have one or two special abilities (like 'brutal' in weapons). I have added a new section at the end commenting on this.

The D&D Experience convention this weekend is bringing lots and lots of interesting D&D news. Some of them I will comment in detail in the following days. For now, I'd like to talk about the first glimpse at one of the most solicited new mechanics in Player's Handbook 3. This is a day of joy for casters everywhere, for superior implements have been revealed, and they are good!

Well, kind of. I am not questioning their goodness, but even I have to admit that this revelation hasn't been very... revealing. See, in the premade Dark sun character sheets from DDxP (which are featured on Critical Hits!) there are two level 1 PCs with some superior implements listed in their equipment list. Of course, these sheets come with all the numbers precalculated, and we can only guess at where each bonus comes from. To complicate the matters, we know that the sheets are not 100% accurate, as a handful of bugs can easily be spotted. So we have to extrapolate, and some of our assumptions could be based on erroneous data. That said, I think I have worked out what the implements do, so let me share my theories.

1 - Feat cost.

No feats are listed for the characters, but the two characters with superior implements are humans (which should have 2 feats total) and their stats suggest Implement Expertise as the first feat. So I think it's safe to assume that superior implements will be accessed through a feat called 'Superior Implement Proficiency'.

2 - Specific items.

By substracting the known bonuses to the characters' attacks and damage values, we find that they sometimes get a +1 to attack, and sometimes have a +2 to damage. I think it breaks down as follows:

* Crystal orb (superior implement)

+1 to hit on attacks vs. will / +2 damage on psychic attack rolls

* Deathbone rod (superior implement)

+1 to hit on attacks vs. will/ +2 damage on necrotic attack rolls

3 - A general formula?

From this, we can expect at least one general category of superior implements, where each one grants a +1 to attack against a specific defense and a +2 to damage (potentially more at higher levels) with specific energy types. It remains to be seen whether there are other types of implements, and if there will be a huge table of defense-energy type pairs or you will be able to pick combinations at-will. One thing is for sure, though - these are well worth a feat, and the bonus may just be good enough for most players to forget about weapon-as-implement nonsense. I particularly like the way they encourage themed power selections, but some classes might have a rough time using them unless there are more generally useful versions.

4 - (Updated) Implement keywords

Recently revealed spoilers suggest that each superior implement will have a combination of two keyworded special abilities, taken from the following:

• Deadly: +1/+2/+3 damage
• Unstoppable/Unerring/Undeniable: +1 to hit vs For/Ref/Wil
• Energized [Energy type]: +2/+3/+4 damage with powers of chosen type
• Empowered Critical: Like High Crit, rolling d10s
• Distant: Extra range
• Accurate: +1 to hit, counts as two abilities
• Shielding: +1 AC and reflex on a hit
• Forceful: Increases forced movement

With this model, the Crystal Orb would have Energyzed (Psychic) and Undeniable, whereas the Deathbone Rod would be Energyzed (Necrotic) and Undeniable. These abilities allow for great flexibility and variety, so I think the choice of implement, post PHB3, will be an even more interesting decision than picking a weapon currently is. Also, the existence of the plain "accurate" ability means every caster will have at least one strong superior implement to take.

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Player's Handbook 3 Debut: the Ardent

A warlord with power points. December's preview class from PHB3 is called the Ardent, and consists in a psionic leader based on a great concept: emotion manipulation to boost allies. Also, it is mechanically innovative in that, like all psionic classes except the monk, it features an alternate resource system based on power points, replacing encounter powers. However, despite these interesting premises, Ardents have only managed to instill one emotion on me so far: disappointment.

Despite their other flaws, they do look good in picture.

More than any other class in D&D 4E, Ardents give me the impression that they have nothing new to bring to the game, other than a cross in the intersection of a power source and a role. The unfortunate comparison with the Warlord ("The Ardent is a psionic Warlord") appeared in the first developer commentary, and I couldn't take it off my head as I read the class description, because it's true.

In play, Ardents closely mimic the Warlord style of play, as heavily armored leaders focusing on melee weapon attacks. Their primary ability score is Charisma, but other than that, there's little to set them apart from their martial counterparts: In their case, psionic power manifests in a very mundane way, so most of their powers consist in weapon strikes that grant a boost here or a penalty there - just like a warlord. Oh, there is the occasional teleportation or zone and a couple of attacks even deal psychic damage. But most of the effects could have been done by a Warlord or a melee Cleric. And, what is worse, many of them have.

It's not that the power selection isn't solid, but I failed to find a single at-will or "encounter" (augmented, really) effect that the class could claim as its own. Likewise, the class features are decent yet unexciting: a bonus to defense against opportunity attacks, an encounter attack that grants free movement to your group and a healing word tweaked to grant bonus to either attack or defense, depending on build.

Maybe I am spoiled by the fact that almost every class design since PHB has been nothing short of amazing. To be fair, the class probably plays better than it reads, and it seems to be perfectly capable of fulfilling its role. The addition of psionic power points to a familiar archetype may be just a gimmick, but it does change the way a character is played.

Is that change for the better, though? The psionic resource system uses three augmentable powers for all your at-will and encounter slots. In the best-case scenario, this gives a player up to three at-wills and three encounter-equivalent powers to choose from, which is a net gain of one at-will power above a standard class, and three lesser augments on top of that. On the other hand, the ability to mix and match different styles of attacks is greatly diminished, since each "encounter power" is a stronger-but-similar version of an at-will. Furthermore, the lesser augments for this class are decidedly on the mediocre side, and I can easily see many players ignoring them altogether.

Another problem with the psionic system that I have found for Ardents lies in power progression. Starting at 7th level, whenever you would gain a new encounter power you replace an augmentable at-will with a new one. Psions handled this well, but in the case of Ardents, it is not always clear that each new level offers something you want to upgrade to! Oddly, one of the reasons fo this is the high quality of the 1st level powers.

Of the three level 1 at-wills available to ardents, two have very strong and interesting effects. Energizing Strike and Focusing Strike can be disregarded on first sight due to the fact that they are, essentially, a cleric's Sacred Flame power split into two different weapon attacks. On the other hand, Sacred Flame is one of the best, and more versatile powers in the game, and each one of these Ardent powers has improvements over the corresponding half. Aside from the fact that a [W] attack will typically do much more damage than Sacred Flame's measly 1d6, the temporary hit point power is based on a primary ability (netting 2-3 THP more) and augments into Healing Strike, whereas the saving throw one can also be used on oneself.

You really want to have these powers available throughout the character's career but, unlike Psions, Ardents don't seem to have strictly superior versions of lower level powers. So, when you get to 7th level, the level 3 at-will is actually the most likely to get replaced. And at level 13th, you might not even want to trade any of them...

We will have to see how psionics work in actual play, and how much the class improves when we see the remaining, unpublished half. For now, it leaves a bit to be desired.

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Player's Handbook 3 Debut: The Monk

This month's PHB3 Debut consists in one of the builds for the final version of the Monk class. It is the same build (Centered Breath Monk) that we were presented six months ago as a playtest article, and the changes from one article to the other are nowhere near as many as I would have expected.

From my experience playing with monks, I had the impression that not only were they slightly underpowered as Strikers, but they were also missing something in the 'special' department. The thing is, they do have a unique, fun mechanic in full disciplines (which add both great mobility and flexibility), and the playtest version of flurry of blows was different enough from previously see striker damage mechanics, but still... that didn't seem to be enough. The Unarmed Combatant and Unarmed Defense features were basically a wash, since they changed the aesthetics of the class (no weapons, no armor) in a way that made no mechanical difference. Monks needed a power boost to become competitive, and some kind of new feature to become interesting.

They got their power boost all right, but it turns out that the feature that could make it all work was already there, and only needed a small tweak. Here is the complete list of changes from the playtest version.

• Changed all weapon powers to implement powers. The monk is now a purely implement-based class, though they can use any weapon they are proficient with as an implement.
• Monk Unarmed Strike is no longer enchantable, but the same effect can be achieved with a new Magic Item type, Ki Focuses (First seen in the Assassin class description).
• Overall damage increase, affecting a lot of powers as well as the Flurry of Blows feature.
• Centered Flurry of Blows now always slides your target, and can actually move it away from you if it wasn't the victim of your original attack.

The first three points are fine, addressing balance concerns and cleaning up the class mechanics. The last one, though, is what finally made everything click for me. Sliding someone every turn is exactly the kind of trick that could make the class stand apart, and the only reason I didn't think of it before is because it was already there, but didn't work quite right.

See, the early implementation was terribly clunky, in that you could only slide a guy if you hadn't targeted him with an attack, and he had to end adjacent to you. So you ended up adjacent to at least two enemies, which is an uncomfortable position for a striker, as even with the monk's increased mobility, it's not that easy to get away from that without taking multiple opportunity attacks. The slide was still a cool maneuver, particularly in any scenario with hampering terrain, but it took a bit too much effort to pull off.

The new version of the flurry slide may not seem too much at first, but it is way, way better. First of all, moving someone away is more often than not what a Striker wants to do with forced movement, particularly when that someone isn't your main target. Depending on your at-will selection, you could have the option of pushing your primary target and running away, or knocking him prone and shifting just short of charge range, which combine well with the ability of sliding away another enemy (or enemies, at Paragon tier and beyond). And second, but also important, moving one or more enemies every turn grants you an amazing control of the battlefield.

Overall, Monks look like a really fun class that can pull its weight in a battle. They have great mobility, and decent single-target damage, but they also have pretty good area attacks, and can kill minions like nobody's business. I'm pretty certain that the Centered Flurry's slide will drive many DMs crazy, and turn any map with a pit into a celebration for PCs. Which is a pity, because I will probably be on the DM side when I see it. My only complaint is that they have only released one feat for the class so far, but thankfully we can houserule some more while we wait for PHB3.

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New feats for the Seeker class

Following the tradition I started with the monk and psion reviews, here are some homebrew feats for your brand new Seeker characters. As usual, I provide a couple of straightforward yet useful multiclass feats, as well as a few more creative ideas. Enjoy!

Expansive Shot
Prerequisite: Seeker, Inevitable Shot class feature
Benefit: When making a ranged attack, you can take a –2 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you treat creatures within 2 squares of the target as if they were adjacent to the target, for the purposes of any effect caused by the attack.

Familiar Terrain
Prerequisite: Seeker
Benefit: When you create a zone with a Seeker power, enemies gain vulnerable 2 against your attacks and damaging effects while within the zone. Increase the vulnerability to 3 at 11th level, and 4 at 21st level.

Hunter's Focus
Prerequisite: Seeker, Inevitable Shot class feature
Benefit: When you hit an enemy with a ranged basic attack, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with non-basic ranged attacks against that enemy until the end of your next turn.

Guidance of the Earth Spirits
Prerequisite: Any primal class
Benefit: When you make a ranged attack against a prone enemy, that enemy grants combat advantage to you and doesn't get a defense bonus from being prone.

Archery Training [multiclass Seeker]
Prerequisite: Dex 13
Benefit: You gain training in the Nature skill.
Choose a 1st-level seeker at-will power. You can use that power once per encounter.

Initiate of the Bow [multiclass Seeker]
Prerequisite: Dex 13
Benefit: You gain training in one skill from the seeker’s class skill list.
Once per day, you can use the Seeker's Inevitable Shot power.
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Class Review: The Seeker

This month's debut content from Player's Handbook 3 on DDI consists, again, on a new class: the Seeker. These days, it looks like we are getting some new class almost every month, which would eventually become hard to justify, if not for the fact that the designs look better each time. If last month's Assassin quickly became one of my all-time favourites, today's Seeker doesn't let me down, either.

Rather than a completely novel idea, Seekers consist on an interesting variant for a relatively untapped archetype: the Archer. This class' twist comes in the form of primal spirits that imbue your missiles with energy, granting special effects. If Archer Rangers were like Robin Hood or Legolas, Seekers play more like a Green Arrow or Hawkeye, almost every arrow coming with some kind of trick or surprise. Though this niche had partialy been covered by Artificers, as well as Prescient Bards, the emphasis on archery is greater here - while these other classes had the ranged weapon as one of many options for channeling attacks, the Seeker is one with his bow (or crossbow, or whatever). When you think of it, not even Rangers can claim such a devotion to archery, as only one of that class' builds is really focused in ranged combat.

None of the powers shown so far feature this kind of arrow trick, but there's still hope.

Rules-wise, the Seeker is a controller of the Primal power source, though its secondary roles seem to be way more predominant than in most classes. The one build that has been released, the Bloodbond Seeker, is suppossed to dabble as a Striker, but that hardly makes him justice. The class features of that build give them a level of maneuverability that most pure Strikers only dream of, and only the lack of a single-damage boost keeps you from wondering if we should actually think of them as strikers with a touch of controllers, instead of the other way around. I'm really intrigued for the Spiritbond build, which we won't see until PHB3 is released, as it is said to have a Defender splash. Defender archetypes don't mixed well with ranged attacks, so that won't be easy to pull off.

The class features are few, but very relevant. If there is one that will make players of most other classes green with envy, it's the ability of the Bloodbond build to shift as a minor action, every turn. We finally get to play kobolds! I'm really, really excited by this, and it's an ideal fit for an archer, as your greater concern is usually to get surrounded by enemies, unable to attack without taking opportunity attacks. This will never, ever happen to Seekers, though. If that wasn't enough, the build comes with Encaging Spirits, an encounter power that pushes and slows all enemies around you -no roll to hit required- useful for not only running away, but locking down opponents as well. Finally, the class-defining feature that will be available regardless of the build is called Inevitable Shot, and it allows you redirect missing arrows to attack elsewhere, once per encounter.

Seeker powers are notaby short on bursts and blasts, for a controller class. Instead, the most common method for damaging groups of enemies is the single target attack with splash damage around it. There is also plenty of zones and hindering conditions, typically originated from the target of a ranged attack. As the attacks deal weapon damage and Seekers are proficient with bows and crossbows, they are all but guaranteed to have the highest single-target damage of all controllers, which along with their extraordinary mobility and moderate area damage makes for a distinct combat style. However, this damage won't grow at the same rate as other weapon users, as encounter and daily powers tend to roll a few weapon damage die plus some other fixed amount of dice. That is, where a Fighter or Ranger would get 3[W] damage, the Seeker rolls [W]+2d6, or something like that. This reduces both their overall damage and the degree to which they depend on superior weapons, but also allows for greater variety in attack powers' damage and effects.

Regarding the power selection, I think that the reduced power list released as Debut Content (3 at-wills and a mere 2 options per level for the rest of slots) isn't very tolerant to the presence of mediocre options. For some slots, it seems you'd do better taking a lower level power than one of the available options: Levels 9 and 29 in particular come to mind. Not that I will be playing epic level Seekers anytime soon, but it is a letdown looking at the supposedly most powerful attacks available to the class, and find them bland and unexciting. Fortunately, the at-will selection is solid, and provides enough variation on the theme of single attacks with a splash effect. The default attack of choice is likely to be the amazing Stinging Swarm (a ranged attack that inflicts an attack penalty on the target and close enemies), but the other ones will be good alternatives whenever you want to clear minions or just deal area damage.

To conclude, I'll comment on a few powers that called my attention:

- Hunter's Instinct (level 2 Utility) Is a Stance that increases your crit range, but only when you shoot from 2 squares from the enemy. It's a risky strategy, but the reward is great, the class has enough mobility to pull it off, and it should be a blast to play. I wouldn't mind seeing more effects of this kind for the class, on PHB3.

- Escaping Shot (level 3 Encounter) honors its name. A ranged attack that doesn't provoke, dazes the target, and lets you shift a billion squares, it is probably overkill for a class with such a great mobility, but it's nevertheless cool.

- Blurring Stride (Utility 6) grants you the Warlock's Shadow Walk ability for one encounter per day. I always loved that feature.

- Wave of Sleep (Daily 15) is the Wizard's Sleep spell on steroids. Increased accuracy, no friendly fire, and a guaranteed daze, this improves on a classic.

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Psion in 4E: Mind-blowing!

If you are a DDI subscriber, go login to D&D Compendium right now. If you aren't, this could be a good time to start. The first playable chapter of Player's Handbook 3 has just been released on the compendium and character builder, as promised. It shows the new Psion class, featuring the weirdest class mechanig yet seen on 4E. Psionic Power Points are back, there are augmented at-wills instead of encounter powers, and the D&D universe will never be the same.

An iconic Psion

Ok, maybe I got a bit carried away. But there has never been an exception to 4e's strict power system before. Amazingly, this might not break the game, after all. The basic principle isn't too complex: you start at level 1 with 2 at-wills and 2 power points (more on that later), gain an extra at-will and power points at level 3, and from there on, you get new PPs and an option to replace an at-will with another of higher level whenever you would get an encounter power.

Power points are used to augment at-will powers, enhancing their effects or damage. Several augmentations are listed per power, but only one can be used at any given time. The beauty of the system lies in the fact that at any given level, if you use the strongest augmentations available you get an equivalent effect to that of another class' encounter powers. And you have roughly enough power points to get as many such pseudo-encounters as the number of encounter powers other classes would have. So it's kind of a wash.

Except it isn't - there is the option to use lesser augmentations, which gives you unprecedented flexibility.

I'll make a more in-depth post on this topic one of this days. Meanwhile, here are a few cool compendium links (subscriber-only, I'm afraid), but you'd better check it out for yourselves.

Dishearten (at-will 1) - The ultimate controller at-will
Memory Hole (at-will 1) - Are psions pacting with fey?
Betrayal (At-will 1 ) - Reverse Commander's Strike!
Mental Trauma (Daily 1) - Despite power points, daily powers still exist.
Mind Blast (Daily 9) - Go Illithid on your enemies!
Dominate (Daily 15) - Guess what this one does...

Full Psion class description. My poor tooltips won't do the job here, just click on it.
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Second preview of Hybrid Multiclass rules is out!

Short review: This is going to work...

The Hybrid multiclass system, to be released in next year's Player's Handbook 3, is probably the most ambitious addition to 4E rules to date. A while ago, we saw an early playtest of the rules, which was very, very promising, even if it had a few significant glitches. Yesterday, a second iteration was released, addressing most concerns. These are the most important improvements:

• Classes from PHB2 have been added, so every currently released class is now supported.
• Hybrid class stats now have fractional hit points, so that hybrid characters no longer have lower total HP than normal. This was more of an annoyance than a real balance issue, but it's good to see it fixed, nevertheless.
• The Hybrid Talent feat, arguably the most broken item in the previous version, has been overhauled. Rather than granting access to any class feature (a pretty nebulous concept, to start with), Hybrid Talent now allows to choose from a list of features specified in each hybrid class description. The strongest, more synergistic of these features are only available in weaker hybrid versions, to prevent obsoleting single-class characters. Still, some very powerful, maybe broken options remain, such as the Avenger's Armor of Faith, and Fighter Weapon Talents.
• Armor proficiencies, another weak point of the early rules, can now be picked as a Hybrid Talent option. This is a huge cost, but definitely worth it for hybrid defenders, at least until their level is high enough to have spare feats for both conventional armor proficiency and a different Hybrid Talent.
• Paragon Hybrid multiclass is a new option replacing the character's Paragon Path. Basically, this allows to get a second Hybrid Talent and new powers from either of their classes.

My overall evaluation is very, very positive. This material is good enough to be published as is, and it can still get even better before reaching print. If you have a subscription to DDI, be sure to try it out in a couple of weeks, when they release it for Character Builder. And, if you are not a subscriber but are intrigued by the idea, this is the kind of stuff that could actually be worth paying 10+ bucks to get a year early. It's that good.

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Player's Handbook 3 out on July, 2009?

Lots of news today, not all positive, but definitely surprising. First of all, Player's Handbook 3 will be available to play as early as next July. The catch? It will be only for subscribers of D&D Insider, which will see a very convenient price rise (up to $72 for a one-year subscription, from the current $60) that very month. The announcement promises "Complete sections of final, playable material", to be released each month until March, 2010. More importantly, this content will be included in both Character Builder and Compendium, which have become essential in my games. As if to prove that they really mean it, they are also showing the gorgeous cover for PHB3:

What does all of this mean for DDI? Here are my conclusions, including a few reasonable guesses.

• WoTC thinks DDI is mature enough to start charging full price. Either that, or they can't afford the current subscription fees.
• An ideal scenario would have the price increase concide with the next software release, recently announced to be a set of *Campaign Tools (since the virtual gaming table is indefinitely postponed). This will probably not be ready for July.
• They need a new, major feature for DDI to justify the raise, and it MUST come out on July. Since a software release is too risky or unfeasible, this means gaming material. A new Player's Handbook is as major as it gets.
• Nevertheless, I'd bet that the Campaign Tools, or a subset of them, will be finished sometime this summer. Fans won't be as forgiving for delays, with the new prices.

In addition, we now know the following tidbits about PHB3:

• Cover art will be the best of any 4E book to date, by far.
• Power sources will be psionic, divine, and primal. I was expecting another brand new power source in addition to psionic, like Shadow or Elemental. They have to reserve something original for PHB 4 and 5, I guess. It's not difficult to imagine a psionic class for every role (including monk), but I didn think there was so much design space left for Divine and Primal classes.
• Races will include minotaurs, Gith-something and Gith-the-other, and the previewed Wilden.
• Before the book comes out, we will have seen 102 of its pages, which should be a bit less than half the total. This averages a dozen pages each month. As a reference, the monk preview from this month is 11 pages and includes half the class. I'm almost certain that the chapter dedicated to hybrid classes will be among the first shown. There's room for 5-6 half classes, or maybe 3 full classes divided in a couple of months each, plus a feats issue and probably another one dedicated to races.

So, what do you think? Is this an improvised cover for their software blunders? I may be too soft on WoTC, but I love the idea, even if I would be willing to pay the increased price just for the current service. Read More......

A bunch of feats for the Monk playtest

The playtest article for the Player's Handbook 3 Monk class came out this week, and it's as good as you could expect. I'll post a detailed review soon (the short review is: I love it, but find it slightly weak) for those who haven't read it yet. Today's article, however, is for those who have.

The Monk Playtest, like all previous playtests, has the frustrating limitation of lacking feats. I guess you can call it an improvement, though, as it features a brand new feat, which happens to be a mix of Weapon and Implement Expertise. Since that's hardly enough for me, I've made a bunch of my own, which you can see below. Most of them are basic, almost obvious ideas that I wouldn't be surprised to find in PHB 3. A few (like Unarmored Mobility) include mechanics that I'd like to see in the base class. Enjoy!

Monastic training (Monk Multiclass)
Requisites: Dex 13, Wis 13
Benefit: You gain training in one skill from the monk's class skill list.
Choose one monastic tradition. Once per encounter, you can use the flurry of blows power associated with that tradition as an encounter power.
In addition, you gain the Unarmed Combatant class feature.

Monastic defense (Monk Multiclass)
Requisites: Dex 13
Benefit: You gain training in one skill from the monk's class skill list.
You gain the Unarmored Defense class feature.

Unarmored mobility
Requisites: Monk, Unarmored Defense class feature
Benefit: While you are wearing cloth armor or no armor and aren't using a shield, you gain a +1 bonus to AC against opportunity attacks, and have resist against those attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Improved Flurry of blows
Requisites: Monk, Flurry of Blows class feature
Benefit: When you use a Flurry of Blows power, you deal 1 extra damage. Increase this extra damage to +2 at 11th level, and +3 at 21st level.

Improved Unarmored Defense
Requisites: Monk, Unarmored Defense class feature
Benefit: Increase the bonus to AC from your Unarmored Defense by 1.

Centered Breath mastery
Requisites: Monk, Centered Breath tradition

Benefit: When you slide an enemy with your Centered Flurry of Blows power, increase the distance of the slide by 2. You can't move the target into squares not adjacent to you this way.

Fierce Unarmed Strike
Requisites: Monk, Unarmed Combatant class feature
Benefit: You become proficient with the Fierce Unarmed Strike, which is a weapon with the attributes shown below. You must have both hands free to use your Fierce Unarmed Strike.
Special: Each time you make an unarmed attack, choose one type of Unarmed Strike that you can use.
Special: Any enhancenment bonus or magic ability affecting your Monk Unarmed Strike also applies to your Fierce Unarmed Strike.

Weapon	Prof.	Damage	Range	Price	Weight	Group	Properties
Fierce Unarmed Strike	+2	1d12	-	-	-	Unarmed	-

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The Wilden: A Player's Handbook 3 preview race.

With the dew of their creation still wet upon their brows, the wilden emerge from the Feywild’s unspoiled reaches, from ancient bogs and primeval forests. Awakened to combat the growing corruption plaguing the lands, they shoulder the burden of restoring the natural order and purging the aberrant horror from the world.

The Wilden, previewed from PHB3 in a recent Dragon article, is the most alien core race presented to date. As a tribe of plant-people from the Feywild, they should fit perfectly with the primal classes in PHB2, and please players with a taste for the unorthodox. Although the article describes its origin as an obscure race from 3rd Edition's Races of the Wild book, for most players it will be a completely new concept.

A female Wilden. Current concept art is unclear on whether or not they will have mammary glands.

Their main racial feature are their aspect powers. Each day, a Wilden chooses one of three aspects of nature that will strongly condition their personality and grant him a unique encounter power. This is a very interesting idea, as it provides variety not only from a mechanic point of view, but for role playing as well. The powers are:

• Wrath of the Ancients: Requires an area attack, and allows you to teleport and gain a bonus against your enemy this turn. Only seems useful for controllers.
• Wrath of the Destroyer: Requires an enemy to attack you or an adjacent ally, and you can attack or charge that enemy. The attack can even impose a condition on the enemy - A really great power, but its name doesn't quite fit. It's more of a defender thing, so I'd try 'Wrath of the Guardian'.
• Pursuit of the Hunter: When someone moves close, you shift a lot and get a striker bonus damage against him.
  

As for personality traits, the race lacks a sense of individuality - they see themselves as parts of a greater whole, and always use the plural, 'we', when speaking of themselves. As a young race without prejudices, they are characterized by their curiosity and openness, and a tendency to adopt the cultures of those they live with. However, They are prone to drastic personality changes, depending on the aspects they have adopted. Finally, the settlements they form tend to be small, and indistinguishable from the nature that surrounds them.

Overall, we have a new, exotic race that will add a bit of color and variety to the game, which was to be expected after the first two player's handbooks covered the basic niches. While I don't think these will be a hit like the Dragonborn, with enough support and a good visual design they would definitely have a chance to catch on, and become a permanent part of the D&D mythology.

House ruling the Wildens

I have some concerns with the implementation of the Nature's Aspect feature. Each power roughly corresponds to a role - controller, defender, striker - but while two of them provide an ability of that role, the third essentially requires you to already have that role. I think these powers would work better if their requisites focused mores on game actions and less on character builds - that is, you would tend to play a different style depending on the power you had chosen. In addition, Wrath of the Destroyer is probably too good, while Voyage of the Ancients and Pursuit of the Hunter are a bit underwhelming. Finally, Pursuit of the Hunter gives a damage bonus that really should scale over the tiers. I'd suggest the following changes:

Voyage of the Ancients - Allow the trigger to also work on ranged attacks (so that almost any character can trigger if they try hard enough), and instead of the current effect on the enemy, teleport it 3 squares. With this change the power changes from something a bit generic to real Feywild awesomeness.


Wrath of the Destroyer - Really, change it to Wrath of the Guardian. And, since the effect is really, really good, but I'd like to keep it that way, you should make the triggering condition more restrictive - have it only work when an adjacent ally is hit, but not when he is missed or when you are attacked. This way, you'd have to maneuver to make good use of it.


Pursuit of the Hunter - I'm not clear about how the trigger works, as written, but I think it would count enemies moving close to you. A better restriction would be that an enemy already close moved, changing it to something like 'an enemy that started its turn within 2 squares of you moves or shifts". Also, have the extra damage increase to 2d6 at 11th level and 3d6 at 21st.

Edit: The extra damage should definitely be limited to once per round, as it can get out of hand in combination with multiple attack powers and action points.


Wilden racial feats
No racial description is complete without a couple of race-specific feats to highlight that race's strengths and customize their features. Since the original article didn't take this into account, I suggest the following feats:

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Hybrid classes: A Player's Handbook 3 preview

While I'm still waiting for Amazon to deliver my copy of Player's Handbook 2, the very first preview of PHB3 has just come out on D&D Insider (for subscribers only). The article (labeled as 'playtest', since it's an early version of the rules) shows a very interesting concept to be presented in that book: a new multiclass system to make hybrid characters. Unlike current multiclass rules, this allows a nearly even split of features and powers between both classes from the first level. When this preview was announced, before I knew how it would be implemented, I was convinced that such a system was doomed to be utterly broken. I was wrong.

If they fix a few issues, 'real' multiclassing will be clean and fair.

I should start by stating that I really like how multiclass works in 4E. The system, admittedly conservative, allows access to some powers and most feats. Class features, on the other hand, are mostly unreachable except in a very limited form. It takes a significant feat investment to multiclass, and the most important benefits, like at-will powers and actual class features require sacrificing your paragon path, which is prohibitive. Overall, the system is costly and limited, but also flexible and almost safe. It's usually worth it for every character to multiclass a bit, and sometimes it opens very powerful options.

Enter Hybrid Multiclassing. The current system falls short when it comes to allowing characters to be as good in one class as in the other, but hybrid classes do just that. For each class, you get half the at-wills, more or less half the other powers, and roughly half the features. This could have turned out disastrous, had the designers chosen the easy route of just handing out a selection of class features. Instead, they have come up with some very clever solutions that handle most problems, at the cost of a slightly increased complexity.

It works as follows: each class has a hybrid class entry, much like a regular class description, but with reduced statistics and features. To make a hybrid character, you pick two classes and add the benefits from each hybrid entry. A character made this way should be close in power to a single class one. In addition, you can pick your powers from either of your classes, but you must have an at-will, encounter or daily power from both classes before you take a second power of the same type for a single class.

The key here is that, rather than having regular class features, hybrid characters get hybrid features, which have reduced power or restrictions in their use. Although feature selection varies, you'll always have, at least, the signature abilities for your role: defenders have marks, strikers deal extra damage, leaders heal, and controllers cry. It seems they are still experimenting with feature restrictions, though: some have decreased frequency (like healing word, limited to 1/encounter), others see their effect reduced (Divine Challenge just deals Cha modifier damage), and the rest only work when using powers of the appropiate class (like Combat Challenge or Sneak Attack). This last group is my favourite, and I hope it sees more use.

I also like how proficiencies are managed. A hybrid character is proficient with all weapons and implements available to any of its classes, but only gets armor proficiencies possessed by both. That is, a Fighter/Wizard hybrid gets martial weapons and arcane implements, but can't wear armor heavier than cloth. This ensures that characters will have the tools for each class' attacks and prevents hybrid combinations with excessive defenses, although it may make too many builds have below average armor class.

Although the whole premise is, in my opinion, very solid, we have been shown an early iteration, and it's not without issues. There is, in particular, one point where the system could fall apart - the method for acquiring additional class features. Right now, there is a feat called Hybrid Talent that you can take (just once) to gain any single class feature from one of your classes, as long as you don't already have a hybrid version of that feature.

This is wrong at many levels, and I expect it will get changed before the final version. Features vary too much from one class to other for such a feat to work properly: among other potential problems, for some classes with few relevant features it would allow hybrid characters that had virtually all the benefits from their first class, plus the hybrid feature from the second. This would be true for Wizards (who would only miss the lackluster Spellbook) or Rangers (who would get everything but the often-unused Prime Shot). In addition, there is a lot of potential abuse with strong features like Battlerager Vigor.

Overall, we have a very promising system that could add a lot of variety to the game, and induce many players to rebuild their characters from scratch. This could definitely become a major selling point for Player's Handbook 3, if they get it right. Unfortunately, PHB3 is almost a year away, and the version presented isn't fully functional: only the eight PHB classes, plus the Swordmage, are supported, and the vital Character Builder won't be compatible for now. Still, it shouldn't be difficult to adapt the rules for new classes, and there are already fan-made suggestions of hybrid versions for the PHB2 classes.

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