tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342640173817458901.post8373737191586382547..comments2023-09-21T10:30:10.699+02:00Comments on Square Fireballs: Fighter Essentials: The Great WeaponPericohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12414348870266960204noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342640173817458901.post-26976586981676771772009-09-29T08:50:00.956+02:002009-09-29T08:50:00.956+02:00My apologies in advance for the wall of text - I w...My apologies in advance for the wall of text - I wanted to explain the subject in detail, and got carried away.<br /><br />Re: Pinning Challenge.<br /><br />There is only one abusive maneuver I'm concerned with Pinning Challenge, but I think it's really effective. It consist on the following: the first turn you engage an enemy, you use a random attack - probably an Encounter, since you won't be needing it in the following turns - and mark him. On each of the following turns, you attack the same enemy with a basic attack and shift so that you (and hopefully the rest of your party) end up away from his reach. Many enemies are completely shut down by this, and others will have to resort to rechargable close attacks and the like, likely losing a few turns in the process.<br /><br />The tactic is somewhat tricky to pull off without a reach weapon, as shifting in and out of reach usually means you can only use it every other turn. On the other hand, with a polearm you can just spam basic attack and immobilize an enemy out of the combat.<br /><br />What I don't like about this feat is that it makes your basic attack so much more powerful than your at-wills. Also, conditions that negate enemy turns (an immobilize can do just that, against the right enemies) are among the strongest effects in the game, and definitely shouldn't be available at-will. Even a casual approach at this feat, where you don't spam basic attack but you occasionally immobilize an enemy, then switch to a different target, can have too strong of an <br /><br />effect to my tastes.<br /><br />By contrast, if the feat didn't work on your turn but affected opportunity attacks and Combat Challenge, it would <br /><br />just improve the fighter's already impressive movement negating capabilities - but only against enemies trying to <br /><br />get away from him, who can otherwise spend their standard action atttacking him. That's fair game to me.<br /><br />Re: Warding Steel.<br /><br />I like that they attempt to give some use to the fighter's forgotten minor actions, I really do. But growing his AC out of proportion is not an appropiate effect, from my point of view. One thing you have to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as a "+3 shield", so the only difference in AC between a Shield Fighter and a Greatweapon one is 2 points, plus or minus whatever defense-enhancing feats each one has taken. That is, Warding Steel makes a fighter with a 2H weapon (even one with a lowly Con!) WAY better in defense than any shield wearer could dream of! <br /><br />You don't really need to stack it with anything to make it too good, and you can't use it with a shield, anyways. On whether it stacks with itself, we have been discussing it on the DDI forums, and the only rulebook quotes that have been found on the matter say that you don't add together bonuses of the same type, but untyped bonuses always stack. Penalties, on the other hand, don't stack when they come from the same power. I'm not totally sold on this, though, so if you can come up with a quote saying otherwise, it will be welcome ;) Here's the link to the discussion, anyways:<br /><br />http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/20181369/Dragon_379__Fighter_Essentials__The_Great_Weapon?num=40&pg=1<br /><br />As an at-will power, I wouln't be comfortable with Warding Steel granting anything more than a +1, for this reason - I'm all for improving his AC, but you really need to keep it below shield AC, or there is no point in using a shield anymore.<br /><br />On the other hand, if we turned it into an Encounter power, a bonus between +5 and +8 to AC for one turn each encounter is huge, particularly when your Ac is already good (and, with scale armor at the least, it will be). I can't find many similar powers, but there is Shielded Sides (Utility 2, +2 AC and Reflex plus a minor benefit, for one round/encounter), which my Shield Fighter loves to take and use, and probably would continue doing so at 16th level. I'm convinced that, as an Encounter Power, Warding Steel would (still) be one of the best options available at the level.Pericohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12414348870266960204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342640173817458901.post-8342586816050169382009-09-29T05:10:41.850+02:002009-09-29T05:10:41.850+02:00Is Pinning Challenge really that big of a deal? ...Is Pinning Challenge really that big of a deal? If you're doing your job right and foes are following your mark, they should be adjacent to you and hitting you anyway. Furthermore, anything with a close blast or burst attack is just as good next to you as they are away from you. In fact, a foe with a really good blast 5 or burst 3 may benefit from the fact that your mark will never trigger - you're included in all their attacks! I can see this mattering with solos who suddenly have a good portion of their movement tricks taken away, but let's be honest; if there's only one of you on the field, you're going to get swarmed. I'm not convinced this is a problem.. yet. <br /><br />Same thing with Warding Steel. First off, your Fighter probably doesn't have a lot of things to do with his Minor in the first place, so might as well give him a use for it. You can't stack it with itself because even though it's untyped, you can't gain multiple bonuses from the same source. At 16th level, making this an encounter power would be pointless. Since you have a Con modifier at this point of probably around 5, this is basically equivalent to a +3 heavy shield, which is about right for the level. My only change would be to label it as a shield or power bonus to avoid overlap with other powers or class features from multiclassing and call it good. The two-hand fighter needs all the AC he can get, really, because you're probably not packing Dex or Int and you can't carry a shield.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12804034302999404869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342640173817458901.post-28214598279409640392009-09-28T09:24:03.860+02:002009-09-28T09:24:03.860+02:00Alas, the Dragon compilation has come out, without...Alas, the Dragon compilation has come out, without any changes to the Fighter article, including Warding Steel. Not that they should be expected to fix it in the two (weekend!) days from article publication to compilation, but...<br />I wonder if there will be some exceptional errata after this, as the power (and its availability through multiclass) will seriously disrupt Paragon tier play.Pericohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12414348870266960204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3342640173817458901.post-83601243541593086302009-09-28T00:43:04.675+02:002009-09-28T00:43:04.675+02:00Warding Steel will see an errata soon enough... Ni...Warding Steel will see an errata soon enough... Nice blog by the way, just found it, felicidades, esta bien escrito ademas.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com