Heroes of the Feywild spoilers

Heroes of the Feywild is coming out this month, and some people have been able to get early copies and share information about its contents. From what I have heard, this could be the best player book to see print since last year. Not that there has been much of a competition - the D&D release schedule has dried up lately, and the only player-oriented products since January have been Heroes of Shadow (which many found underwhelming) and the Neverwinter Campaign Setting (which was split between DM and player content). Nevertheless, the Feywild is an exciting environment of which we still know very little, and the mechanic content revealed so far seems to be rock solid.

The new class options appear to take the best of the Essentials and pre-Essentials styles. On the one hand, we have highly flavorful concepts, a focus on builds for existing classes rather than brand new archetypes, mixed power sources, class features gained at higher levels, and different roles present in a single class (including a genuine striker/defender hybrid!). On the other hand, all options seem to be highly modular and customizable, with few or no fixed power slots, and powers that can be traded freely between new and old builds. And, what is better, not all material is aimed at Fighters at Wizards this time!

There are four new class builds, for Wizards (the Witch), Bards, (the Skald), Barbarians (the Berserker) and Druids (the Protector).

• The Witch is a Wizard variant which replaces the spellbook for a built-in familiar. Other than that, it’s not too different from a Mage or Arcanist wizard, apart from a fixed encounter attack at first level. The best part is the new array of spells, available to any wizard build, including lots of polymorph effects. The spoiled powers include a vicious controlling melee at-will, a Thunderwave variant that works as a close burst, and dailies to turn your enemies into helpless frogs - or savage monsters.
• The Skald is a bard with a martial touch who specializes in close combat, casting inspiring spells when hitting with a basic attack. It replaces the usual Healing Word mechanic with a healing aura, which allows allies to heal themselves a couple of times per encounter. Many powers are tied to that aura, and there is a feat that allows regular bards to replace their Majestic Word with the aura, in order to have access to these new attacks.
• The Berserker Barbarian is the first real dual role class in the game, and it’s based on a very cool concept. A berserker starts an encounter as a martial defender, using martial exploits and a defender aura. However, it has the ability to enter a rage which turns it into a primal striker, switching off the aura, and turning martial attacks into more damaging primal powers. The berserker has complete control over when this change happens (the first time he uses a primal attack), but there doesn’t seem to be a way to switch back. This change of roles should add a lot of tactical depth to the class, and I look forward to trying it out.
• The Protector is a pure spellcaster druid, without an animal companion or beast form. This is something the class had really been missing, since I always found that the humanoid form had very little going for it. The new build has the power to create a permanent zone of difficult terrain each encounter, which looks very much like a role-defining class feature for a controller. And it doesn’t stop there - from what I have seen, there are plenty of strong controller powers that can be used both by protector druids and regular druids in humanoid form. These follow the trend introduced by recent wizard powers, of adding miss effects on encounter attacks, and include stuff as impressive as an encounter that dominates, as early as level 7. The new dailies focus on summoning beasts with instinctive actions, with the leaked examples looking decent at most, but still playable - an improvement over the mediocre summons from Heroes of Shadow.

To round the book, there are a bunch of new themes  (including the amazing Fey Beast tamer, which grants you a companion that is suspiciously close to that of a Sentinel Druid), and three fey races: The Satyr, the Dryad, and the Pixie. The first two sound pretty boring to me, but the pixie is quite an achievement, in that it allows you to play a tiny flying character that nevertheless remains (mostly) balanced! This is a bold move, but I can see pixies becoming an instant favourite among players, due to how different (and, admittedly, strong) it is compared to most races.

I’m definitely buying this book.

Update: A great, detailed review of the book can be found in The Chamber of Mazarbul

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Bladesinger preview

The upcoming Neverwinter Campaign Setting supplement is including a brand new character class: the Bladesinger, the first level of which was previewed last week. In previous editions, Bladesingers had warriors of elven origin that mixed martial techniques and the arcane arts, usually fighting in light armor and channeling deadly spells through their swords. This comes off as a bit of a deja vu, since only a couple of years ago, we were introduced to a 4E sword-wielding fighter-wizard hybrid in the swordmage class, included in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting  (with the fact that Neverwinter is located in the Realms only contributing to the redundancy). Then again, whereas the swordmage performed the defender role, Bladesingers are labeled as controllers. More specifically, they are melee controllers with defender-like AC, and an extra damage mechanic not unlike that of an striker. Oh, and they actually count as a Wizard subclass. Confused yet? This is only the beginning.

A note of caution: like most of the material released in the last year, the Bladesinger is a post-Essentials design, meaning that the class deviates from the classic 4E structure of at-will, encounter, and daily powers, gains class features as you level up, shows a love for basic attacks, and tends to sacrifice build variety for flavor, simplicity, and focused mechanics. That said, I believe there are a lot of things to love. The core of the class is solid enough: they have striker hit points, are proficient with swords (both as weapons and implements, since they can use them as wands) and leather armor, use Intelligence as a primary ability and Dexterity as secondary (it is, after all, a class for elves-eladrins), have a good basic attack, and gain a shield bonus for free. That alone makes them competent melee fighters. On top of that, they count as a wizards, so they can benefit from plenty of great feats and utility powers, though access to actual wizard attacks (the strongest element of that class, by a mile) is far more tricky.

So far, what we have seen is interesting, but not all that original. It is in the attack power department where the Bladesinger shows the most innovative (some would say heretic) ideas. To sum it all up, they get at-wills that add damage and controlling effects to their melee basic attack, a fixed selection of encounter powers (of which the one that has been revealed is awesome at so many levels), and daily attacks that are actually wizard encounter powers (!).

The at-wills are my favourite part of the class, by a mile. Called Bladespells, they are ranged attacks that trigger when you hit with a melee basic attack, and hit automatically for a fixed amount of damage (based on your Dex score) and a control effect. The really nice part is that you can target different foes with the basic attack and the bladespell, opening up some strategies that are unavailable to most other characters. Notably, you can use your melee attack against whatever monster the party is focusing fire on, and use a bladespell to hinder the actions of a different enemy on the other side of the battlefield. Or kill a minion just about anywhere without sacrificing much damage. And, of course,something that most controllers are usually unable to do: unleash both attacks on the same target, weakening it and hitting for a total amount of damage not too far off that of the party striker. Add to that the fact that a bladesinger can choose three bladespells (out of a total of 6), with a wide variety of useful controlling effects and energy types, and we have a very versatile class, with a unique fighting style.

As for the encounter attacks, there is a selection of three fixed powers whose effect will scale across tiers. This means that the experience of building a bladesinger character won’t be as varied or interesting as with other classes, but it looks like, at least, the powers that you end up getting are well worth it. Only one of them is shown in the preview, but it is impressive on all fronts. Called Bladesong (though “God-Mode” would also be an accurate name), it provides a significant two-turn boost to the character’s stats: damage, accuracy and defenses. Damage-wise, it is easily equivalent to two Power Strikes or similar attacks, and of course the synergy with action points and daily powers (and perhaps other encounters) is nothing short of amazing. As for the remaining two encounter attacks, only the name is provided, but we can hazard a guess. The level 7 one is called Steely Retort, and it will likely consist in an immediate action attack dealing fixed damage and an extra effect to an enemy hitting you, much like the powers Hexblades get. At level 3 you get Arcane Strike, which sounds similar to Power Strike, so I expect some special trigger when you hit with a basic attack. Linking these effects to Bladespells (for example, by allowing additional uses of  Bladespell when you use them) is a potential design solution, and one that I’d enjoy very much.

Finally, we get to the most controversial point: the daily attack slot. The good news is, Bladesingers get to choose among a huge amount of powers with a variety of effects here. The bad news is that they achieve so by using the Wizard’s encounter attacks as their dailies. This kind of move is unprecedented in the game, so let’s try to make some sense out of it. To begin with, we have to be realistic: with a class so front-loaded on features and at-will powers, there was no way they could have been given access to regular wizard dailies without being grossly unbalanced. That said, how lackluster are wizard encounters for a daily, after all? In my opinion, not as much as you’d think. Keep in mind that most of them have received errata to have miss effects, so they will at least meet the minimum criteria for a daily: have an impact on the board whether or not you hit. The downside is that the second requirement usually asked for those powers (have effects lasting for several turns, if not the whole encounter) is pretty much out of the question. That said, this power list includes some fairly impressive area attacks (something that Bladesingers can’t have through their at-will or encounter slots), as well as strong controlling effects such as stuns, or area blinding and immobilizing. Add to that the fact that Spellsong will virtually always be active when you cast a daily, and you have, at the very least, the ability to unleash highly damaging Fireball effects and extremely accurate control. To be the weak point of the class, your dailies may not compete with those of a true Wizard, but they don’t have that much to envy those of non-controlling classes.

Conclusion

I like this class, and I think I would enjoy playing it. Although this is just a preview, we are actually two class features short (the level 3 and 7 encounter attacks) of having all of the essential information for playing it all the way through epic tier. I think this is the best implementation of the elusive arcane fighter archetype to date: the Swordmage is pretty decent (at least for the playable builds), but I don’t think the defender role is what most people have in mind when thinking about spellcasting swordsmen; as for Hexblades, they aren’t too bad, either, but they offer less variety in both build and combat options, and aside from the amazing Gloom Pact build they feel slightly underpowered. I am still growing accustomed to the idea that Bladesingers are a Wizard subclass, but this has the advantage of providing plenty of support for daily and utility powers, as well as paragon paths and feats. This kind of design works great for adding new classes to the game without requiring any additional support, and we can only wish they had thought of it when implementing stuff like Runepriests or Seekers.

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Heroes of Shadow previews

Heroes of Shadow, the first D&D book that will be released after the Essentials line, isn't easy to classify under 4E standards. We have grown accustomed to structured, predictable book series, but these seem to have come to an end, in favour of a more freeform style of publishing. Its content will consist in options for player characters, that much is for certain, but other than that, the book looks like a strange hybrid between a Player's Handbook 4, a Shadow Power book, and a Players Essentials: heroes of the Shadowy Places.

There are the new races and classes usually associated with a Player's Handbook, with a mixture of brand new stuff and subclasses for existing archetypes (similar to those in the Essentials player books). But the format and pagecount coincide with those of a Power book (a 160 page hardcover), and there are also new builds and powers. Also, the information is structured like in the Essentials style, with separate progression tables for each class, and a lot of flavor. Add to this that the builds featured in the book are corrupted (shadowy) versions of classes from all kinds of power sources, that there were rumors of DDI-exclusive material getting reprinted, and that we didn't even have clear estimations on the number of races and classes to be included, and the result is a very confusing product. That is, until we got to see a preview of its content table.

We can now tell that the book includes one new class and three subclasses, each with two builds and a paragon path. In addition, we get new builds and powers for cleric/warpriests, warlock/hexblades, and wizard/mages. On top of that, there are three races, ten paragon paths, four epic destinies, and a bunch of feats. Here is a detailed summary of what we know about them so far.

Reprinted material: Executioner and Revenant

Let us start with what is probably the most controversial issue related with the product: the Executioner assassin subclass and the Revenant race. The reason why these are problematic is that they were originally released on the digital magazines - as DDI-exclusive material. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if Wizards was just putting to print a random Dragon article - after all, there was the precedent of the Dragon Annual. But they went and made a point about how this specific class and that very race were awesome material that wouldn’t be available in book form, and how only subscribers to the digital service would benefit from them. What’s worse, the Executioner got published just a few months ago, yet there was no mention of its eventual reprint until the time came for it to get included in Character Builder. Oh, well. At least it is good material, but I would have preferred some clear communication on the matter from the beginning.

New class and subclasses: Blackguard, Warlock, Vampire

Anyway, on to the new stuff. The three subclasses introduced in the book actually look pretty cool. We get a corrupted Paladin in the Blackguard, which adds the shadow power source to this divine class, and changes its role to striker (since shadow characters are a bit morally handicapped to perform as defenders). The Blackguard rules seem to mirror those of the Cavalier build from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, with a similar structure but turning Cavalier Virtues into Vices (the ones included in the book are Domination and Fury, and we should expect a few more on a DDI article in the following months. The marking features have been replaced by an extra damage mechanic, and they get ways to hurt themselves to improve their attacks. Finally, the smite attacks have been replaced by an encounter power that deals extra damage and ongoing damage on top of that. Overall, it looks like a very nice subclass, though I’m still not sold on the way it fits into the paladin archetype. It’s nice that they are thrown together to remark how they are anti-paladins, but letting blackguards get any power or feat from the good guys feels a bit wrong. Maybe after seeing the whole class it will make more sense.

The second subclass that tries out the ‘corrupted by shadow’ trick is the warlock, though in their case it’s not so much about getting corrupted as corrupting in a different way, as warlocks were pretty nasty to begin with. Anyway, the Binder Warlock switches the class role to controller (not a huge shift, as warlocks were among the most controlling of strikers) and adds the shadow power source on top of arcane. From what we have seen so far, they will keep many of the classic warlock features, including Shadow Walk, a revision of Prime Shot, and possibly their Pact Boon (though they get their own, separate pacts - Gloom and Star, in this case). Also, the power structure seems to follow the original at-will/encounter/daily pattern, meaning that Binders should be able to freely choose powers in all slots (with some likely restrictions for at-wills, following the warlock tradition). Since controller powers are supposed to be stronger than their equivalents from other roles, Binder attacks are getting a reduced effect for non-binder warlocks (as any other build-specific power), but the fact that players can pick and choose between subclasses is encouraging. The only point of concern is that some previewed character sheets included really lousy attacks, particularly in the daily slot, which brings to question just how efficient Binders will be at their role. I just hope these bad powers are an exception, or that they get fixed on the printed book.

The new full class is the part of the book we know the least about. The Vampire class is fully shadow powered, and includes two builds, or bloodlines: the Beguiler and the Stalker. From their names, one should incline towards control, charm and domination (classic vampire tropes, after all), and the other seems to favor stealth and subtlety. But other than that, we haven’t been told much. I expect the class role to be striker, though this is mere speculation. It does look like a very nice concept, and a bold approach to class design at a time where most niches were starting to get filled. If it works out well, we’ll probably get a lycanthrope class sooner than later, and maybe some other monster-inspired class. As a side note, this class was originally rumored to come out with the Ravenloft campaign setting, but they probably chose to move it around when the book (box?) was delayed.

New builds: Death Warpriests, Gloom Hexblades, Death and Shadow Mages

As for the new builds (which are a level below subclasses, for those confused by the Essentials character categories), they are shadow-themed options for cleric/warpriests, warlock/hexblades, and wizard/mages. Thankfully, this doesn’t mean that only Essentials characters can benefit from them, as they should include many new powers available to any character of their class.

Clerics get the Death Domain for the warpriest subclass, which will probably involve a ton of necrotic-based attacks, and powers with debilitating effect. This build should present a much reduced emphasis on healing, compared to other clerics, and there is even the possibility of changing the leader role or at least changing the Healing Word feature... though I wouldn’t count on it. Apart from the array of encounter powers included in every warpriest domain, there is a section with new powers that will likely have necrotic daily attacks and deathly utilities.

I don’t know much about the Gloom Pact for the Warlock Hexblade, other than it should make warlocks the class with the most absurdly high amount of builds in the game. I wonder why they chose to name it Gloom, when there is precedent of a Shadow pact for the classic Warlock, but it probably has to do with the strong drow theme of the original shadow pact, which has little to do with the Shadow power featured in this book. Anyway, there will also be a bunch of shadowy dailies and utilities for all warlocks.

Finally, Wizards will have two new mage schools focused on dark magic: necromancers and nethermancers. These seem to have a strong focus on summons, with an interesting twist: unlike with most summoning spells, the creatures brought by a necromancer or shadowmancer do not disappear at the end of an encounter. The trick, then, should be at managing to keep them alive. Another unprecedented change for a wizard build is how some of these powers will not be available at all for non-shadow wizards, which is unorthodox, but not a bad way to keep balance and preserve the uniqueness of the new ‘mancers. More worrying is the notion that these summons ,and as a result the new builds, might in fact be significantly underpowered. The previewed powers look quite unimpressive for a wizard, at the very least.

Races: Shade and Vryloka

Leaving aside the reprinted Revenant, the races featured in this book introduce an interesting mechanical concept: racial utility powers. That is, on top of the usual encounter racial, there is the possibility of using utility slots to gain more powers exclusive for your race. This looks like something that could easily be extended for existing races, and I wouldn’t mind finding that on a future book or magazine article.

The one race we have seen previewed so far is the Shade, and I must confess it looks a bit underwhelming. Not because of the much-commented fact that it is the first 4E race to have an actual drawback (unless you count small races), in that they get a -1 penalty to their amount of healing surges - I think this is a touch that adds flavor with a minimum impact on real character power. But even without it, the other features are nothing to call home about. Their racial allows them to use the stealth skill (on which they are always trained) with the slightest of cover or concealment, and can be used at-will... but has a prohibitive cost of a standard action, meaning that it should only be worthwhile to use outside of combat. The previewed utilities are cool, but not strong enough to justify playing the race in the first place. Since it is doubtful that the book will include any race-specific feats, the Shade’s future looks a little dark, unless they somehow got changed before going to print.

Less is known about the oddly-named Vryloka. Do not let the fancy name deceive you: this is a “human vampire” race. Although it may seem an odd choice, given that the book already has a vampire class and that this brings strange interactions such as characters with the vampire class, the vampire race, and maybe a vampire bloodline just for fun, it actually makes a lot of sense. The vampire is a strong stereotype with a lot of versatility, and it’s cool to be able to mix it with all races and classes in the game, so that you can make an elf vampire or a vampire wizard, if you want.

The rest

As could be expected, most of the paragon paths and epic destinies included in the book have a Shadow, Darkness or Gloom in their names, though they have managed not to make them too repetitive. I rather like the one path that has been previewed, the Shadowthief, which isn’t terribly powerful but introduces a new resource in a kind of shadow points that you gain by killing enemies that can be then used for various effects - a mechanic I always enjoyed.

The book also includes some generic feats for shadow characters, but I am surprised about the little space devoted to them - a mere 3 pages. This is way less than what we usually see on a player book (there are Dragon articles with more stuff, for that matter), but if they have the same general purpose and overall quality as the feats found in Essential books, we might still get a lot of mileage out of them.

Conclusion

Obviously, we haven’t still seen enough of the content to properly evaluate the product, but judging from the previews and the structure alone, we can tell that this is a very different book from anything that has preceded it. The old, predictable formulas, which I happened to enjoy a lot, seem to be gone, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I can see a lot of innovation and weird experiments going on in this book, and many great ideas. Barring some serious screwups in implementation (of which we have seen a few in the previews, unfortunately), this has the potential to be an awesome and enjoyable book, and I’m certainly going to give it a try. And whether this new approach works or not, we already know that there will be at least one more book following it: Heroes of the Feywild, scheduled for this November.

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Essentials Warlock: Conjured swords, simple mechanics, amazing flavor

D&D Essentials class previews

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin - Ranger (Hunter) - Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

The original Warlock from Player’s Handbook was a flawed class that nevertheless grew on meover time. And the same could be said about the Hexblade, the Essentials take on the class that is included in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. Despite the many changes introduced, Hexblades still share some of the Warlock’s strong points (best flavor in the game, soul-collection minigames) as well as its weak points (restricted power selection, aggravated by a wasted at-will slot). However, two year of 4E design experience haven’t been in vain, because the legendary difficulty for building a competent warlock character (at least until later supplements filled in the many gaps) has been replaced with extremely straightforward builds that are playable out of the box. This is a huge improvement, even if the sacrifices in character customization have gone a bit too far.

Starry Transformation is a devastating daily spell unlocked by paragon Hexblades of the Star Pact. It totally looks like this.

Like its predecessor, the Hexblade is a striker of the arcane power source. But, with the addition of their namesake magic swords, they are no longer purely ranged characters, but hybrids that can switch seamlessly between flinging spells from afar, and slashing at their foes in the front lines. The confusing and rarely welcome dual attack attributes have been eschewed in favor of Charisma, which now powers all spells, and is complemented by Constitution, Intelligence or Dexterity, depending on build. And the builds themselves retain much of the flavor and ideas from those of the original warlock: they are called Pacts, are defined by the choice of patron providing the character’s arcane magic, determine first level at-wills, and have a Pact Boon that rewards you when foes are slain. The three hexblade pacts revealed so far match the warlock pacts offered in Player’s Handbook: Infernal, Fey, and Star.

One point about the hexblade that cannot be overemphasized is the quality of its flavor. All Essential classes care about backstory, and have rich descriptions for every game element, but hexblades, like other warlocks before them, take this one step further. You are not some random magic guy throwing colored rays at goblins, but a reckless individual struggling with sinister entities to borrow (or steal!) their unnatural powers. Your sword has names like Blade of Annihilation or Starshadow Blade, and is made up of the essence of dead devils, or by folding molten nightmares in the forge of a star. Where other characters hack away with Adjective Strikes, you have spells like Soul Eater and Blazing Doom of the Void. Humility is not a trained skill for Hexblades, but after reading a couple of pages, one can’t help but think that playing one of these crazy types must be the coolest thing in the multiverse.

It is an unfortunate turn of events, then, that the class mechanics are not up to the awesome expectations generated by their description. For all their pretentious titles and fancy background, hexblade features and powers tend to be rather bland, particularly when compared to warlocks of old. Warlock Curses are gone, replaced with flat damage bonuses. Instead of the excellent Shadow Walk we get improved armor proficiencies. Your pact at-wills feel more mundane than ever, and the encounter slots are usurped by a single attack that you can use multiple times. One of your precious at-will slots is still wasted in the hideously boring Eldritch Blast, now renamed Eldritch Bolt. At times, you feel like little more than a glorified Slayer with a colorful sword.

And yet, it mostly works out. The simplifications may feel excessive (and build customization takes a serious hit), but it all results in a class that is still enjoyable, and can be played safely without fear of the character spontaneously imploding (which happened all too often with the original warlock). There is still fun stuff going on, like collecting corpses for Pact Boons (now working off adjacent enemies, since there is no curse), and some new, brilliant ideas: summoning representatives of your patron, or dual wielding swords and implements (with powers that share weapon and implement keywords, opening a world of optimization potential). And daily spells are still around, so the difference with a classic power stricture isn’t that large.

Ultimately, hexblade players will probably tolerate the unneeded restrictions and enjoy the Fey out of the class, because the character concepts are that cool. As much as the limited options hurt, it would have been difficult to sustain the level of awesomeness (and trust me, it’s pretty high) for an additional couple dozen powers. I still think it would have been more enjoyable for me, had they left a greater number of options for the encounter slot, never mind the at-wills. But that would also brought back the inevitable filler, and might have diluted the good ideas. One thing is for sure: those novice players that Essentials is aimed at should really, REALLY love this one.

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue - Wizard
Druid - Paladin - Ranger (Hunter) - Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

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Essentials Paladin: Defender’s aura, shift prevention, less choices.

D&D Essentials class previews

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin - Ranger (Hunter) - Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

The preview for the Essentials paladin, or Cavalier has been out for some time now, but I hardly found enough newsworthy material to justify posting about... until now. Some lucky player has got hold of an early copy of Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, and there’s a thread at Enworld with him answering questions about the book, including stuff about the latest iteration of the Divine Defender. We can now make reasonable assumptions on how it will play out, and though I must say I’m not terribly impressed, it still looks like it will be a solid package overall.

The new paladin is simple enough for a half-orc to grasp

The best way to describe the Cavalier is as a hybrid between an Essentials Knight (from which it borrows most of its defender mechanics), and a classic Paladin. The power structure is very close to the traditional at-will/encounter/daily, but certain slots (such as the level 1 daily, and the level 2 utility) have been replaced by class features, and there are too many fixed choices to my taste (including at-will and encounter attacks). On the other hand, all this streamlining has a very clear advantage, in that Cavaliers just work. All too often, when building a pre-Essentials paladin, one was left with the impression that the class was pulling in too many directions at once, making it impossible to end up with an entirely satisfying character. This is no longer the case.

Originally, paladins suffered from a lack of definition regarding ability score requirements. In order to be fully functional, you needed Charisma for your defender punishment, Wisdom to power Lay on Hands and similar features, and Strength to have a decent opportunity attack. Never mind that, as a defender, some Constitution was also advisable. But attempts to support more than two scores usually ended in disaster. Divine Power mostly solved the issue through new feats and powers, but the fact remained that you had to sacrifice some valuable slots in order to achieve basic functionality. Not only that, but any novice player who forgot to take Melee Training or Virtuous Strike for the Charisma build, or Mighty Challenge for the Strength one, was still likely to end up with a poor defender. Cavaliers solve this problem by dropping Wisdom altogether, and requiring just Strength (for attack powers and opportunity attacks) and Charisma (for defender punishment, and extra effects in most attacks).

Two Cavalier builds are provided, named after two paladin virtues: Sacrifice (focused on healing) and Valor (apparently . Each virtue determines one of the character’s at-wills (the other being fixed) and a level 1 feature called Spirit of Virtue. Judging by the progression table, no other powers or features appear to be linked to virtues at heroic tier. However, we know that each virtue’s description takes about 3 pages, so we can expect at least some paragon path elements tied to them, and maybe some heroic elements that are not evident by looking at the table. At any rate, level 1 Cavaliers of Sacrifice will be getting a very nifty Lay on Hands proxy, with a power that lets them trade their Second Wind for a ranged heal, whereas Cavaliers of Valor are stuck with a flat bonus to initiative and surge value.

The defender features will be familiar to anybody who has seen the Knight class. Defender Aura makes a comeback here, a word by word copy of the Knight feature, clearly meant to replace the marked condition for Essentials builds. And complementing it we have Righteous Radiance, a mixture of the knight’s Battle Guardian, and the old Divine Challenge. As a paladin, the cavalier will still punish offending enemies with Cha-based, autohitting rays of divine light, but they will now have no problem handling crowds (since the ray triggers as an opportunity action whenever any enemy within the aura ignores you), as well as enjoying an unprecedented stickiness: shifting enemies will also get hurt.

Oddly, despite being an almost strict upgrade over regular paladin marks (sacrificing a bit of range, but becoming much easier to apply in return), the whole package can’t help but feel like a cheap version of the knight’s feature, having pretty much the same functionality with lower damage output. In fact, the flat radiant damage barely beats what any knight can achieve on a miss. It does have a niche application in making minions miserable (since they get killed instantly if they try to ignore you), but it’s not like they were much of a threat anyways. To make things worse, cavaliers are notoriously lacking in the forced movement department, so they rely on their allies for repositioning enemies, and collecting them inside the aura (which should be a basic strategy for essentials defenders).

That is not to say that cavaliers are not capable defenders - even if their toys are individually weaker than those of a knight, they do get more. Specifically, they have a feature called Righteous Shield which triggers on an ally taking damage, and lets the cavalier absorb the damage instead (true to the Paladin style) while gaining a bonus for the counterattack. Working once per encounter, this is clearly a tool for emergencies that can’t replace a real defender mechanic - but it complements it well. In addition, it gets better at higher levels (there is a Level 7 feature called Improved Righteous Shield), adding a small, build-dependent effect.

In the power department, having fixed at-wills for each build is a step backwards, in my opinion. At least they managed to get an interesting attack selection... for one of the virtues, anyway. The common, staple attack will be Valiant Strike, a power included in the original PHB that never got the chance to really shine. This time, however, the added stickiness of the cavalier’s defender aura should ensure that groups of enemies stay close to the paladin long enough for Valiant Strike to reach a respectable (about 2-3 points) bonus to accuracy - that’s some cool synergy. As for the virtue-specific ones, Cavaliers of Sacrifice got lucky with Strike of Hope, a healing attack for nearby allies that only gets better in presence of bloodied friends. Its effect doesn’t beat the best equivalent leader powers (i.e. Sacred Flame and Energizing Strike) at the highest levels, but is otherwise very attractive. The same cannot be said about Virtue of Valor’s Vengeful Strike, a respectable damage dealing attack that unfortunately is only useful with nearby bloodied allies. I’m all for conditional bonuses, when well implemented, but turning off one of your two at-will attacks when the condition isn’t available is far from satisfactory.

As for the rest of the powers, the encounter slot is condensed in Holy Smite, a divine version of Power Strike which adds some radiant damage on top of another attack, as well as dazing the target. I can’t say I’m thrilled by the lack of options, but this one is at least solid enough, and actually looks like a significant improvement over Power Strike, which should make up for the class’ shortcomings in other areas. An additional use of the power is gained at level 3, and likely again at 13, like Power Strike. Thankfully, paladins get to choose their daily powers as normal, even though the level 1 slot is missing from the table (perhaps sacrificed in behalf of the Righteous Shield feature?). Apart from that, utilities are mostly unchanged, but the level 2 one has been replaced by something called Restore vitality, which sound very much like a heal-focused utility of some sort.

There’s not much left to say. A mount-related feature at level 4 called Pace of the Virtuous Charger does not actually provide you with a horse, but it improves your riding speed when you do have one. More interestingly, the level 8 feature Spirit of the Virtuous Charger doesn’t really have anything to do with mounts, but provides a significant damage and speed bonus to charge attacks. Paladins lack the mobility to base their tactics on frequent charges, but this is still a very useful tool, for whenever they need to close a distance.

Conclusion

This is not my favourite Essentials class by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not a bad one, either. Although one of the builds (virtue of Sacrifice) looks compelling enough, the other one strikes me as terribly bland. And the lack of options is almost unprecedented, even when compared to an Essentials martial class: the only build choice a level 1 character is presented is the Cavalier’s Virtue! On the other hand, the core gameplay looks is well thought out: the class will be able to defend all right, with a style that sets it apart from other clases. I really like the Defender Aura concept, even if Knights seem to squeeze more out of it, and just that could be enough to make this worth trying over a regular paladin.

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue - Wizard
Druid - Paladin - Ranger (Hunter) - Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

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Essentials ranger preview: Redeeming Twin Strike

D&D Essentials class previews

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin - Ranger (Hunter) - Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

Update (11/11/10): Ok, I ran some numbers about Twin Strike, and it looks like it's not as bad as I thought, unless you go out of your way to optimize damage. When making a ranger, a multiattack power will still beat most alternatives, but the comparison with other strikers isn't as terrible as I suggested. So take everything below with two grains of salt.

Edit (03/11/10): Toned down Twin Strike hate.

I have long considered the ranger the most flawed class in 4E, mostly because of its notoriously overpowered at-will, Twin Strike. It is frequent for a ranger to spam Twin Strike in detriment of anything else, on account of its outdamaging most encounter powers, and downright obliterating at-will alternatives a LOT. In this context, it comes off as a surprise that when Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms brings us a Essentialized ranger subclass called the Scout, which consists on a melee dual-wielding striker stripped of daily powers and based on attacking all turns in a very Twin-Striking way, the final result might be something I’d enjoy playing with.

Given that the book included both drows and dual-wielding rangers, it must have been difficult to use any other races for the sample character. I appreciate the effort.

Exploring the class

Much like its cousin the Hunter, a Scout is a hybrid of martial and primal power, though the martial component is by far the most prominent, from the heroic tier preview we have been shown. The core gameplay of this striker consists on the use of Dexterity-based melee basic attacks modified by at-will primal stances called Aspects of the Wild (which take the place of other classes’ at-will attacks) and occasionally boosted by pseudo-encounter attack Power Strike (a feature previously seen in the Essentials Fighter). The class has no other attack powers (notably lacking dailies), but has utilities as usual. True to tradition, the Scout fighting style is based on dual wielding; the striker extra damage feature is called Dual Weapon Attack, and it allows for an additional off-hand attack after hitting an enemy, once per turn. It’s as brutal as it sounds.

The parallels with Twin Strike are obvious as well as alarming, but thankfully the developers seem to have done their homework this time. The worst sin of the original was, by far, the repetitive gameplay it generated, since it rewarded players for spending every single standard action in the overpowered at-will, while dismissing any encounter attack that couldn’t be used with a minor or immediate action doing nothing but bland double attacks, turn after turn. In this regard, although it is true that all Scout turns will include some combination of basic attack and dual attack, the fact that these are modified by a number of wildly different stances effectively turns them into multiple twin-strike-flavored powers (2 at first level, plus additional ones at 7th and 17th). Like other Essential martial builds, this is a drop in complexity and variety from most regular 4E classes - but I’d take it over a Player’s Handbook ranger any day.

Only a few of them have been revealed so far, but each ranger stance seems to beat knight and slayer stances in both number and variety of effects. They tend to offer a mix of mobility and attack boosts, adding an interesting layer of depth to the class since you may want to switch stances both before and after attacking. Of the known stances, two are shared with the Hunter build, and a third is brand new. Aspect of the Cunning Fox is perhaps the least impressive of the pack, though it definitely has interesting applications - it provides free shifts after each attack (whether or not it was successful), triggering multiple times if you get to attack with the off-hand, and generally allowing you to race through the battlefield, switching targets or just escaping enemies. It also reduces significantly any damage taken from opportunity attacks, but that should hardly come up outside of desperate situations.

Aspect of the Dancing Serpent has more of an incentive for offense-oriented characters, as it improves attack and damage rolls against enemies as long as they aren’t close to their allies. It only applies to your main basic attack, though any hit rate improvement will affect Dual Weapon Attack indirectly, by increasing its chances of triggering. It also grants a free shift at the end of turn, which makes it the main contender for a post-attack stance switch. Both of the stances described above can work either in melee or at range, which is a nice added bonus, should a scout ever need to resort to his longbow. Nevertheless, the most striking (pun intended) Aspect is that of the Charging Ram, which only works on charges but makes them truly devastating. It combines the ability to ignore opportunity attacks provoked by the charge (which is huge!) with extra damage (this is gargantuan!) and knocking prone on a hit (colossal!). The synergy of prone enemies and additional melee attacks is quite nice, as is the interaction with typically situational feats like Headsman’s Chop.

Striking a balance

So variety is more or less handled... but what about balance? In 4E, making multiple attacks is inherently superior to any other mechanic for extra damage, and this has made Twin Strike (and the few comparable attacks, like Hellish Rebuke) the best offensive strategy, barring some convolute optimizations. What is to prevent Dual Weapon Attack from similarly topping the at-will damage charts? The answer is: not much, but there are other drawbacks.

Going by my initial calculations, the scout may well be the strongest build in the game for raw at-will damage output, at least at lower levels (since there is little point in evaluating anything beyond that with so many higher level features missing). That doesn’t necessarily mean it will blow up the world, as the class has significant limitations that can make up for it. The most obvious one is lack of dailies and proper encounters, which actually demands that a class has above-average at-will performance to be able to stand to classic builds.

To understand how this balances out (or not), we should take a look at its mechanics in detail. Scouts use main hand weapons and regular-sized off-hands (unless double weapons are involved), and depending on build and off-hand weapon choice can get a +1 to hit rolls (if they use a light blade) or a +2 to damage (if they wield an axe). The initial attack is a melee basic (which can apply your Dexterity modifier if you wish) plus whatever modifiers get added by the active Aspect, and the off-hand one is non-basic, Dex-based, and only happens once per turn, after hitting with the basic. Notably, both attacks get to add an ability modifier to damage, so compared to the original Twin Strike, each individual attack hits much harder, but the off-hand has a significant chance of not triggering, that gets higher the worse your hit rate is. It should also be mentioned that scouts have no Hunter’s Quarry, which didn’t make a huge percentage of Twin Strike’s damage, but contributed nonetheless. Overall, the relationship between Twin Strike and Dual Weapon Attack is a complex one, favoring the former in scenarios with high damage bonuses or low hit rates, and the latter otherwise. That said, for low level characters fighting standard monsters, the Scout outdamages a Ranger with at-will attacks by a good margin.

More importantly, scouts also appear to beat other Essentials martial classes (also lacking dailies and sporting strong at-wills) at their game. Examining a number of heroic character samples, the scout would be the best at at-will damage, with thieves close behind and slayers lagging slightly below that. The difference is likely to increase at higher tiers, though it is quite hard to tell how much, without seeing more features. On the other hand, that only tells half the story. Both thieves and slayers will get more mileage out of their encounter attacks than a scout (even if Power Strike is the same for fighters and thieves, a slayer’s will hit harder thanks to the two-handed weapon), and a slayer’s action point is far more impressive (as neither Sneak Attack or Dual Weapon Attack can trigger more than once per turn). High reliance on hit rates also means that scouts will be worse off against higher level monsters or soldiers - and, on the other hand, they get to slaughter brutes and lesser foes. Interaction with leaders is also interesting - DWA not working in other characters’ turns means that a scout isn’t a good target for leader extra attacks (unlike slayers and thieves, which are awesome in that department). On the other hand, offensive bonuses are great for them. Looking at other factors, scouts get great AC and mobility, but their opportunity attacks are mediocre, they are only decent with ranged weapons, and they lack the HP and surges of a slayer.

Conclusion

At heroic tier, and from what we have seen, the scout is a very strong character, but not to the point of overshadowing other classes or breaking encounters. I would really like to see it remaining the same over the paragon and epic tiers, but the chances are slim. On the other hand, it will still be as enjoyable to play as other Essentials martial characters, which is more than can be said about the original ranger. I’ll cross my fingers and hope it turns out all right.

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue - Wizard
Druid - Paladin - Ranger (Hunter) - Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

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Essentials Druid heals, brings back Animal Companion

D&D Essentials class previews

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin Ranger (Hunter) Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

When it was revealed that the Druid build in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms would be primal leader, we guessed that the class powers and features would be significantly altered. Today we have taken a first look at this Sentinel Druid, and it doesn't let down: Wild Shape is nowhere to be seen, the power progression has been slightly streamlined, and the character concept has changed from a shape-changing hybrid of beast and caster to melee weapon user with a faithful animal companion!

The animal companion (an inevitable throwback to druids of ancient editions) is the focus of this first preview and, in an unprecedented move for a bestial sidekick in 4E, it looks like this one will just work. The first incarnation of animal companions in this edition of the game were those of the Beastmaster Rangers from Martial Power, which had unnecesarily complicated rules as well as some serious implementation flaws, which we reported here and attempted to fix. The sentinel’s, by contrast, is... well, a different beast.

Two different animals are provided here, though I don’t doubt we’ll see more in future Dragon articles. They cover two of the most iconic pet archetypes, the Wolf and the Bear. Both have defenses and attack bonuses that scale with character level, with values that are unimpressive, but equivalent to those found in monsters. Hit points are tied to those of the character, since they equal his bloodied value, much like a summoned creature’s. And the weakest link from the previous iteration, attack damage, is nothing but solid this time.

Since I spent a good amount of time looking for solutions on the issue of ranger beast damage, I find it particularly interesting how it has been addressed this time. Although the lack of enhancement bonuses remains, this time the base damage depends on the character`s own abilities: the sum of Wisdom and Constitution modifiers. Not only that, but you get a couple of extra points at paragon tier and again at epic, so that the base damage for a beast hit slightly exceeds that of a non-optimized character’s. Lacking extra damage dice on critical hits means that the druid would still come up ahead on average damage, but it’s close enough for the beast not to be a joke.

As is often the case, the bear companion is associated with the more defensive build, whereas the wolf concentrates on offense. Both have continuous auras, one for making adjacent enemies grant combat advantage, and the other for granting defensive bonuses to close allies. Apart from that, wolves have stats similar to those of skirmisher monster, whereas the bear resembles a brute. Either of them can be healed, and even resurrected, by spending the druid’s healing surges and a minor action, and short rests conveniently restore them to full hit points without surge loss.

A major point that isn’t explained in the preview is how the companion’s actions will be managed. It is to be expected that companion and druid will share a common pool of actions, so that the druid can spend a standard action to attack through the beast, or a opportunity action to make opportunity attacks triggered by enemies adjacent to the beast. But until we get to read the whole class description, this is pure speculation. What we do know, however, is that the build will feature a fixed power called Combined Attack in place of normal encounter powers. Unsurprisingly, Combined Attack lets both druid and beast attack in melee; the fact that both can choose the same target places sentinels among the hardest-hitting leaders in the game.

The existence of Combined Attack might suggest that sentinels mirror the resource system of Essentials martial classes, but it is in fact the only concession to power simplification. Sentinels will still have at-wills and daily attacks like traditional classes, though whether they will be exchangeable with those of controller druids remains to be seen. At any rate, sentinels lack Wild Shape, which shuts down more than half of the existing druid powers, and seem to focus on attacking with melee weapons - favoring traditional druid tools like scimitars and maces, with features that boost them into playability. But implement proficiency is still there, so perhaps this can result in even-more-hybrid druids, like spellcasting sentinels, or weapon wielding beast druids.

There are a few features that haven’t been revealed, such as Healing Word (which, given its name, might be exactly the same as the cleric feature) and Wilderness Knacks (likely similar ot its hunter ranger analogue, which gave skill-related abilities). At higher levels, we get something called Hear the Voice of Nature (level 7), and Restore Life at level 8, whose effect should be evident.

With almost no class powers revealed, the druid’s is easily the most cryptic Essentials class preview to date. The framework that has been shown has potential, and all the elements detailed are a good match for the druid concept, but we will have to wait for the complete power selection to give a proper evaluation.

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin Ranger (Hunter) Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

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Preview of September Rule Updates

Coinciding with the release of Heroes of the Fallen Lands, Wizards of the Coast has compiled a document with all the game rules, feats, powers, items and features that have been modified by that book. The list is 5 pages long, though most of it is taken up by the revised Wizard attacks (of which there are a lot) and to add rarity to existing magic items. For those concerned about stealth edition changes or whatever, it is true that a few of these changes weren't strictly necessary, but I sincerely think that most, if not all of them, are an improvement. Most importantly, though, the document (available for free) includes all necessary information to play with the upgraded stuff.

Curiously, this is only a fraction of this month's Rule Updates, which will come out "in the near future". It seems an effort has been made to prevent any further confusion (of which there has been plenty!) on how Heroes of the Fallen Lands interacts with previous books.

Changes of note include:

- A lot of Wizard encounter powers reprinted in the book gain miss effects.

- In addition, some Wizard classics have received additional tweaks. Lightning Bolt is stronger and more straightforward, and Fireball... gets an extra d6 damage. Ok, at least they tried.

- Strangely, nothing is said about adding Evocation, Enchantment or Illusion as keywords to wizard spells.

- Sneak attack is confirmed as 1/turn, rather than 1/round. Rogues are the Warlord's best friend, now.

- Rapier becomes martial! This is great news for small melee characters.

- Some races have the option to choose different ability score bonuses. Humans can take a racial power instead of a third at-will.

- Implement proficiency has been streamlined.

- The horribly broken wizard daily, Visions of Avarice, has finally been fixed.

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First Reviews of Heroes of a Fallen Lands

Those following this site lately will have guessed by now that I'm VERY interested in Heroes of the Fallen Lands and the rest of the Essentials line. Well, although sadly I still don't have the volume in my hands, it looks like some lucky reviewers have received early copies. The blog Dungeons and Dragons and Retail is one of them, and has written an in-depth analysis full of juicy information - I recommend you to check it out. Here are the highlights:

• There is a list of the builds in the next book in the line, Heroes of a Forgotten Kingdom. It's full of surprises, as it has a leader druid (the Sentinel), controller ranger (Hunter) and what looks like a melee warlock (called Hexblade!), as well as more traditional builds like a defender paladin (the Cavalier) and striker ranger (the Scout).
• Feats are organized in the following categories: Armor Training, Weapon Training, Two-Weapon Training and Implement Training; Enduring Stamina, Vigilant Reflexes and Steadfast Willpower; Divine Devotion, Learning and Lore, and Quick Reaction.
• Only Common magic items (i.e, the ones craftable by players if you use the new magic item rules) are included.
• No rituals.

UPDATE: For more spoilery goodness, take a look at this thread at Enworld

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Essential preview: a striker fighter!

D&D Essentials class previews

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin Ranger (Hunter) Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

Ever since the release of the first Player’s Handbook, Fighters have been one of the most damaging classes in 4E. Forget about roles and that stuff for a moment: these defenders have the right combination of class features, paragon paths and feats to give them a realistic shot at beating many strikers at their own game, when properly built. If you think that is frightening (and it is!), imagine a fighter build that was even more focused towards bringing pain, to the point of eschewing defender marks in favor of striker-like extra damage features. Heroes of the Fallen Lands brings us exactly that - it’s called the Slayer, and it looks brutally straightforward - and terribly effective.

More than any mechanical innovation (though there are a few), the most surprising thing about the Slayer is the Role line. It’s a Martial Striker, with a touch of defender - not the other way around. This marks (heh) a major shift in class design in D&D 4E, since there was precedent of builds of a class with different secondary roles, but never before had we seen a change in the main role. And there is no reason why it shouldn’t happen again, so the class lineup for the second D&D Essentials player book, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms becomes more intriguing than ever: which classes will be given new roles? It’s easy to imagine Druids as defenders or leaders, Paladins as leaders, and Rangers or Warlocks as controllers. However, there will likely be at least one build for each of these classes that keeps the current role, so I doubt we’ll see more than a couple of these changes. Still, it’s an exciting prospect.

As for the rules details there’s little new about the Slayer - it shares the same basic core as the Knight, with basic attacks and stances replacing at-will attacks, Power Strike replacing encounter powers, no daily powers, and several new features at higher levels. The major differences lie in the defender features (which are missing: forget about Defender Aura and Battle Guardian), and the brand new striker feature. That one is called Heroic Slayer, and it lets you add your Dexterity bonus (Slayers use Strength as main ability, and Dexterity as secondary) to all weapon damage.

Apart from that, we get to know about the Weapon Talent feature which, as expected, grants a +1 to hit on all weapon attacks. Also, we can see a couple of the at-will stances, including Berserker’s Charge (which boosts movement and accuracy in charges, and would be the enfy of any Barbarian) and Unfettered Fury (which looks like a stronger version of Power Attack). It remains to be seen whether Knight and Slayer stances will be interchangeable or not, as they have no built-in requirement, like requiring a shield or a two-handed weapon. This is rounded up with the same HP, surges and proficiencies as ordinary fighters (though there is no shield proficiency), making for an extremely sturdy striker.

Conclusion

Unlike with other classes in D&D Essentials, we actually get to know every Slayer class feature available at level 1 so, apart from a couple missing at-will stances, we have everything that is needed to build a first level character. I haven’t experimented too much yet, but it’s safe to say that they will be very capable strikers. Not only that, but they are clearly the easiest class to play in the game. Just pointing at an enemy and attacking will work, with perhaps a change of stance every other turn. All martial characters in Essentials already had pretty straightforward mechanics, but the Slayer goes a step further, and also removes many of the strategic nuances. After all, rogues need some effort and finesse to keep Combat Advantage every turn (and are relatively fragile), whereas knights have to perform the more subtle defender role. A Slayer is very much like a barbarian without encounter powers or rages, which is to say, a well oiled killing machine with few concerns apart from getting close to an enemy and smashing it to a pulp. I can’t say I’m personally thrilled to play one, but it’s a great option to have in a product aimed at introducing new players.

As an aside, it’s interesting to note that the Slayer also presents yet another nod to old school D&D players, in that many primitive fighters were purely focused in damage, with little of what we currently associate with a defender, apart from the heavy armor and high HP pool. Not only that, but bow-wielding fighters (or, at least fighters capable of performing decently at range) are now possible, if not actively suported, since some class features (and crucially the striker damage) also work with such weapons - a controversial decision that is sure to bring some wacky builds.

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin Ranger (Hunter) Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

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Essentials Fighter spoiler: Battle Guardian revealed!

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the previews for the new fighter builds to be included in Heroes of the Fallen Lands. As could be expected, the preview teased us with a handful of class features and powers, from the many that the final text will have, which was all the more frustrating since there was one missing piece in the puzzle that was, well, essential. We had an innovative mark-like mechanic in Defender's Aura, but lacked the all-important class feature focused on punishing enemies for attacking your allies - the very core of any defender class. Thankfully, this feature (alongside other interesting information, which I may comment in a later post) was leaked in D&D Community Manager Trevor Kidd's site at wizards.com. Let's talk about it.

Battle Guardian is a class feature that takes the place of Combat Challenge. Though it shares many points in common with CC, it also introduces a few twists. In game terms, it:

• Works against all adjacent enemies not marked by your allies (i.e. enemies within your Defender Aura, see the Essential Fighter preview for details)
• Triggers whenever an adjacent enemy shifts or attacks an ally.
• Allows you to make a melee basic attack as an opportunity action.
• Deals Strength damage on a miss.

Rules-wise, there are a couple of interesting details about how the feature is implemented:

• It works properly with other marks or defender auras: you can’t trap an enemy between multiple defenders due to poor wording.
• It does nothing against enemies attacking other enemies, so it’s the first defender mark that doesn’t make the dominated condition even more brutal. I wonder if the marked condition will receive some errata to match this?
• It removes one of the most confusing rules issues for unexperienced players with the fighter: the fact that some enemy actions were punished as an interrupt, and other as opportunity actions, and that the Combat Superiority effects weren’t shared by Combat Challenge. Now everything uses the same type of action, and although the miss damage is specific to Battle Guardian attacks, it’s nowhere as critical as occasionally stopping movement.

So, what does this all mean towards the Knight's power level, and the way Essentials Fighters are likely to be built?

• Knights (and probably other Essentials Fighters) will be the best defenders in the game to lock multiple enemies. Not only does their mark (ok , defender aura) apply automatically on all adjacent foes, but they can make their punishment attack once to each one of them (since it is an opportunity action). Note that daily powers can boost other characters’ ability to punish groups beyond this level, though only temporarily. Also, awesome encounters such as Come and Get It are another advantage for traditional PCs.
• Knights are incredibly sticky, but less so than conventional fighters. Any kind of movement around them triggers a melee basic attack, which should be as good as other classes’ at-wills, thanks to their Stances. Known stance effects include extra damage, cleave, and even slowing (more on this in the following section!). Nevertheless, the almost assured lack of an equivalent to Combat Superiority (at least at level 1) means that their opportunity attacks, though still great, aren’t as awesome.
• It looks like it will be possible to have Knights with primary abilities other than Strength, thanks to the Melee Training feat. However, the strength-dependent rider in Battle guardian (damage on a miss) is good enough to keep that ability as a secondary at the very least and, along with the saved feat, a decent incentive to play as intended and have it as the primary ability.

Conclusion:

In my previous article about the Essentials Fighter, I commented the following:

“The not-quite-a-mark could be as good as Combat Challenge (which is to say, really good), or almost useless, for all we know (again, I doubt that will be the case)”

Amazingly enough, the combination of Defender Aura, Battle Guardian and stances has turned out to be downright better than Combat Challenge, which is no small feat. The original fighter will still have an edge when it comes to opportunity attacks thanks to Combat Superiority, but I’d say that Essential Fighters have better overall defender capabilities than their predecessors (and other pre-Essential defenders, for that matter), before accounting for encounter and daily effects. Other defenders will be stronger when such powers are available, though just how much will be hard to tell, before knowing everything about the knight.

Nevertheless, even if we still lack information on many class features, the Essential Fighter with just the previewed material is quite playable, and definitely competent at its role.

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D&D Essentials preview: The rogue

D&D Essentials class previews

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin Ranger (Hunter) Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

The last of the four character classes to be revamped in Heroes of the Fallen Lands has been revealed today. The Essential version of the Rogue is known as the Thief (in yet another nod to old school D&D fans), and shares many of the mechanical innovations first seen in the Essential Fighter: a new power progression that lacks dailies and is based on applying modifiers to your basic attacks, and a wider range of class features, some of which are acquired at higher levels. We have been able to catch a glimpse of some of these powers and features, including interesting details such as the rediscovered ability to wield shortbows.

Shortbow rogues like Haley couldn’t easily be implemented in 4E, but Essentials will change that.

Rogue powers

The core of the Essential Rogue gameplay consists in a series of powers that alter basic attacks, resulting in effects that are very similar to those of an at-will attack. This follows a similar principle as the Essentials Fighter, though instead of stances, thieves get Rogue Tricks. These are movement actions that grant some kind of movement and boost your attacks for a turn. You start off with two of these but, unlike at-will attacks from a conventional class, you learn more as you level - and at a faster level than an Essential Fighter, too. So far, we have seen that extra tricks become available at levels 4 and 7, and it’s likely that more will come up at higher tiers.

From the three tricks we have seen, it looks like the attack effects won’t deviate much from existing at-wills. Tumbling Trick is a Cleave-like trick to deal Strength damage to a different adjacent enemy. Ambush Trick is a very welcome addition to the rogue’s arsenal, as provides an easy way to gain combat advantage against isolated enemies at short range. By comparison, Feinting Trick looks quite unimpressive, as it provides a bonus to damage based on your Charisma whenever you lack combat advantage - typically, you’d be better off dealing sneak attack damage with Ambush Trick .

More interesting is the way you can get different types of movement from your tricks: some of them simply let you move your speed, but Tumbling Trick actually allows you to shift 3 squares, which is quite an awesome thing to do at-will. Other powers should do even cooler things, such as “run along a wall or shift past an enemy”. It’s clear that Rogue Tricks have been inspired by the monk’s Full Disciplines, with the advantage that they are much more straightforward and easy to grasp. I really like this new emphasis on mobility for strikers, since it’s a feature of the role which is often forgotten in favour of raw damage.

The existence of Rogue Tricks has serious gameplay implications. First of all, there is a strong incentive for rogues to move before attacking. Each trick has a single movement type, so you’d really want a power selection that includes at least some tricks that shift, and some that move your speed. And your move requirements will influence the kind of attack you end up making. For example, Ambush Trick is an excellent attack but it doesn’t allow to shift, so if you have an enemy adjacent, you can only use it to attack that enemy in melee, sacrificing movement for that turn. It also means that rogues will be seriously hindered by the dazed condition, as it prevents them from activating their tricks.

Then there is the fact that you are actually using basic attacks instead of powers. It is unconfirmed, though extremely likely, that the first level class feature Weapon Finesse allows the use of Dexterity for melee basic attacks with light weapons. This means you can charge, make opportunity attacks and benefit from other kinds of effects that provide basic attacks without needing to take the Melee Training feat. However, all of these abilities may not be available from level 1 - there is another feature called Improved Finesse at level 9, so it’s possible that Weapon Finesse only works for attacks made during your turn, and Improved Finesse unlocks the rest. Anyway, Melee Training is a great feat to have for free, even by installments, and it only gets better when your basic attacks can benefit from Rogue Tricks and other class features. Also, you should keep in mind that Dexterity is now an option but no longer a requirement, and that you can have melee rogues attacking with Strength out of the box, or even with other abilities like Charisma, if you do take Melee Training after all.

As with fighters, rogues also have some special rules replacing encounter attacks. Instead of a choice of encounter powers, they get a power called Backstab at level 1, which can be used once per encounter when you have combat advantage and activates before rolling for an attack. It grants a hefty bonus to hit plus some damage, in addition to the effects you may have gained from a Rogue Trick. It is simple yet effective, easily outperforming most average rogue encounters (though not the best ones). Another difference with conventional classes is that they don’t seem to gain additional encounter attacks at levels 3 and 7. However, there is a feature called Improved Backstab, which should provide additional uses of Backstab in some way, maybe through a recharge mechanic.

Rogue weaponry

A defining quality of the Rogue class is their favoured weaponry, as they excel in the use of light weapons that other characters would dismiss due to their low damage. In game terms, this means that most rogue powers and special abilities specifically restrict the weapons they work with, as otherwise most players would go for the less elegant but far more deadly strategy of backstabbing with greataxes. The Essential Rogue handles this a bit differently.

None of the ‘attacks’ (that is, Rogue Tricks or Backstab) have any kind of weapon restriction. Rogues are only limited by their weapon proficiencies and the Sneak Attack feature. These have suffered slight changes, in that Shuriken proficiency has disappeared (not that many characters ever used them), seemingly replaced by shortbows, which make a triumphal comeback to the class. Another subtle difference is that Sneak Attack now works specifically with Hand Crossbows, instead of crossbows of any kind, as Superior Crossbows were excellent (if un-roguish) the weapon of choice of many sniper characters.

What this means for the Essentials rogue is that you can actually use a greataxe to Backstab, after all - it’s only the Sneak Attack (and probably Weapon Finesse) that won’t work. In practice, you’ll always want to Sneak Attack when possible, even with a measly dagger, but it would be possible to take a massive weapon (a Greatbow at range, or a Fullblade in melee if you are a Strength rogue or have Weapon Training) for backup. Feinting Trick could be a particularly interesting trick for these situations.

More changes

Other tidbits that I have collected from the preview article and forum posts are the following:
- Sneak Attack now works 1/turn instead of 1/round, meaning that rogues can have huge opportunity attacks, as well as becoming a Warlord’s best friend. Designer Mike Mearls has confirmed this as intended and will also apply to non-Essentials rogues, but other classes such as Warlocks and Rangers will NOT be getting a similar treatment.
- Feats and items that provide huge boosts to basic attacks (such as Deft Blade, from Martial Power 2, or Eagle Eye Googles, from Adventurer’s Vault) are being looked at for future errata, as they interact insanely with Essentials classes (as well as Seekers, though nobody cares about those).
- Class features include versions of First Strike (available at level 1) and Weapon Talent (at level 2), presumably granting similar benefits as the features of the same name for conventional rogues.
- Among the new class features are Skill Mastery (gained at level 3), Cunning Escape (level 5), and Combat Readiness (level 9).

Conclusion

Although Essentials rogues look as weird as the new Fighters, they seem a bit cooler to me. This may be in part because the Fighter preview was missing many important features (including the mark punishment), so we don’t really know how it will play out. In the case of the rogue, even though it still isn’t complete, the previewed rules are enough to build a playable character - and it looks like such character could be quite a blast to play. In addition, Rogue Tricks look more interesting than stances, offering variety, mobility, and a few strategic dilemmas. Overall, this is a class I’m looking forward to play.

Introduction
Cleric - Fighter (Knight) - Fighter (Slayer) - Rogue -Wizard
Druid - Paladin Ranger (Hunter) Ranger (Scout) - Warlock

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