Nebin, Gnome Illusionist

Ronak’s totally awesome gnome illusionist from Monday’s delve run.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Nebin, level 4
Gnome, Wizard
Arcane Implement Mastery: Orb of Deception

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 10, Dex 13, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 10, Dex 13, Int 15, Wis 14, Cha 15.

AC: 17 Fort: 13 Reflex: 17 Will: 19
HP: 32 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 8

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +13, Nature +9, Insight +11, History +11

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +3, Bluff +6, Diplomacy +6, Dungeoneering +4, Endurance +2, Heal +4, Intimidate +6, Perception +4, Religion +6, Stealth +5, Streetwise +6, Thievery +3, Athletics +1

FEATS
Wizard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Phantom Echoes
Level 2: Gnome Phantasmist
Level 4: Improved Initiative

POWERS
Wizard at-will 1: Phantom Bolt
Wizard at-will 1: Illusory Ambush
Wizard encounter 1: Grasping Shadows
Wizard daily 1: Sleep
Wizard daily 1 Spellbook: Horrid Whispers
Wizard utility 2: Shield
Wizard utility 2 Spellbook: Float
Wizard encounter 3: Hypnotic Pattern

ITEMS
Spellbook, Cape of the Mountebank +1, Darkleaf Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) +1, Orb of Inevitable Continuance +1, Magic Dagger +1, Adventurer’s Kit, Flask (empty), Oil (1 pint) (2)
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

Generic Human Barbarian

A simple-but-effective human barbarian to compliment Greywulf’s character concept render.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Human Barbarian, level 1
Human, Barbarian
Feral Might: Rageblood Vigor
Background: Geography – Mountains (+2 to Athletics)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 15, Dex 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 11.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 15, Dex 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 11.

AC: 16 Fort: 17 Reflex: 14 Will: 11
HP: 30 Surges: 10 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS
Perception +5, Intimidate +5, Athletics +10, Endurance +6

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Arcana -1, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering, Heal, History -1, Insight, Nature, Religion -1, Stealth +1, Streetwise, Thievery +1

FEATS
Human: Action Surge
Level 1: Deadly Rage

POWERS
Barbarian at-will 1: Devastating Strike
Barbarian at-will 1: Recuperating Strike
Bonus At-Will Power: Howling Strike
Barbarian encounter 1: Avalanche Strike
Barbarian daily 1: Bloodhunt Rage

ITEMS
Adventurer’s Kit, Hide Armor, Greataxe
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

Novakri, Kalashtar Avenger

I really like the idea of a kalashtar’s quori spirit being able to manifest itself in badass ways. I did something to this affect for Bat Jew’s cleric back when I ran Age of Worms: he eventually attained a custom psionic power that let him physicall transform partially into a tsucora quori (higher level variations let him “stack” these manifestations, perfecting the transformation and getting more and more out of it).

So, here’s a simpler concept that will work for now until I can make some custom psion disciplines. This avenger channels her quori spirit in order to glean the benefits of her class: armor of faith creates a brief shimmering effect as her quori soul deflects attacks, and aspect of might actually affects a partial physical transformation.
This provides an interesting foundation for describing the look and feel of her powers, and really I didnt have to change anything at all.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Novakri, level 1
Kalashtar, Avenger
Avenger’s Censure: Censure of Retribution
Background: Breland (+2 to Insight)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 11, Dex 13, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 12.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 11, Dex 13, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 10.

AC: 17 Fort: 11 Reflex: 14 Will: 15
HP: 25 Surges: 7 Surge Value: 6

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +8, Acrobatics +8, Stealth +6, Streetwise +6

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +3, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering +4, Endurance, Heal +4, History +3, Insight +8, Intimidate +1, Nature +4, Perception +4, Thievery +1, Athletics -1

FEATS
Level 1: Improved Armor of Faith

POWERS
Avenger at-will 1: Bond of Retribution
Avenger at-will 1: Radiant Vengeance
Avenger encounter 1: Avenging Echo
Avenger daily 1: Aspect of Might

ITEMS
Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing), Greatsword, Adventurer’s Kit
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

Monster Builder Review

I remember trying out my first D&D character builder almost a decade ago, E-Tools. It was an attempt to do…something. You could erect the very basic framework of what might be considered a character, but that was about it. Since it never got updated, ever, you were also resigned to the core rulebooks and fuck the rest. While it certainly wasnt very conducive to character creation, I suppose was a nice gesture by Wizards of the Coast to try and make our lives easier.

Along with 4th Edition came another Character Builder, and I must say I was incredibly skeptical about it, given that I actually had to pay for it (past Beta, anyhow). This was one of the many things that I was surprised to see from WotC: a digital whats-it that actually works. Slowly, but technically still works. They even patch it and update it, ensuring that it stays useful as their product line expands. Its one of those things that many in my group subscribe to DDI for, considering Dragon to be so much gravy (and I like gravy).

Now, WotC has ushered out a beta for “Adventure Tools”, which comes loaded with a monster builder application. There are other buttons that dont highlight and offer absolutely no clue as to whats to come, but I suspect that this is the DM’s digital toolset and the rest will be mapping stuff and other shit that we dont know about.

So, how does Adventure Tools the Monster Builder hold up? Pretty well. At least, better than what I’d expected after I’d seen the first iteration on the site (which I started to use, said fuck all, and went back to my Microsoft Office table that I’d built).

My major complaint is that its slow. Slow like Character Builder, which is to mean that I guess its “normal” speed. You click on something, and then after a bit of delay it rouses itself to perform whatever task you ordered it to do (such as type some text in a field). Kind of annoying, and honestly this is enough to keep me relegated to MS Office if it werent for a lot of key features.
Note: On my desktop it seems to run very well, despite my laptop having a 2.4Ghz dual-core Intel and 4Gb of RAM. Oh well, such is life.

First, it has every fucking monster in the game in a database. You can search these by level, role, and secondary role such as minion, elite, and solo. This means that I can sit on my ass and not have to surround myself with a million books in order to browse and compare notes with the stuff I am making. You can also just search by powers, if you are looking for specific inspiration.

Second, it does the math for you. This is actually pretty minor since I have memorized all the formulas for statting out monsters with the exception of paragon and epic-tier damage values. Mostly I think its going to stop me from making minor mistakes on the math if I decide to change a level or role. For others, this is going to be incredibly handy, especially if you are creating your first custom monster.

Third, it adds your creations to the database. This allows you to easily store and manage your creations without having a folder filled with text files and/or images. There is also a filter on the home page for Custom only, so you can quickly find what you’ve done.

Fourth, you can opt to copy a monster stat block as an image and paste it in a word processor that can handle images, or just use image-editing software. If you can print files as pdfs, you can also print them that way (though it seems to stretch them out quite a bit). You can also just copy it as text and port it that-a-way.

Finally, it lets you copy and edit existing “official” monsters. It will not allow you edit them directly, so you can be sure that you wont accidentally alter them from their official stats. This would let you easily find and edit monsters that work as a baseline for something else, or to just make your own “houseruled”versions.

The two major complains that I can find are the lag issue and much of the layout. Having a big fucking X button doesnt seem like an exit/back, especially when its by the save function. I thought it was a delete option at first.
The close button should be in the corner and clearly labeled as such, and the print should probably be located by the save option.
I would also make a button for exporting as an image, and if possible allow the program to export pdfs on its own (I have Adobe PDF), so you can quickly make a monster and immediately export it.

As a side note, there is a “Marital” keyword built into the keyword list for damage. Umm. Yeah.

Thats basically it. It looks very promising and very functional. Looking forward to the finished thing, as well other digital utilities from WotC.

Pathfinder Preview #12: The Wizard

I havent talked much about Pathfinder since plenty of people do that on RPGnet. However, I’ve always liked the idea of wizards in D&D, so this one hits closer to home than the rest. The guest star this week is Ezren, a really old dude that apparently is not too old for this shit. He’s showed off at level 10, allowing us to see…nothing really new.

Coming into this fairly blind (I read the Beta awhile back), my impression is that if you’ve played wizards before its the same song with a slightly different dance. There are words that talk about shit you dont know about (hand of the apprentice and metamagic mastery), but mostly its what you can get in 3rd Edition: a list of spells per day, feats, skills, and trivial magic trinkets that people forgot about almost immediately after picking them up.

Spells are still extremely limited, which I didnt expect to change. This just means that I also expect to fall back on a shitty mundane weapon with which I have no chance of applying with any efficacy. So, wizards are wizards for part of the day until they invariably putter out into glorified commoners. As a wizard player, this isnt something I enjoy(ed). I dont like having to determine somehow which spells to hoard, which to use, and also set the party’s bedtime. On top of that, I didnt like having to guess which spells to use in a given day, hoping to get to use them and cursing Jack Vance when we came to an obstacle or challenge that would have gone a lot smoother, “if only I’d known!”

Anyway, thats just my impression at a glance. Nothing new, nothing impressive. I’m sorry, but it takes more than a larger Hit Die and additional mechanics like the Fly skill to graps my interest. Not to fret, as Jason Bulmahn is happy to explain these things to us in an effort to pimp his ride. Its just too bad that all it does is reinforce why I got out of 3rd Edition before 4th Edition had even come out. Before I get into the first part, I want to highlight the failback plan of every wizard before 4E: mundane weapons. He’s got a club attack, which at a +5 to hit will never be used in any reasonable scenario. In the unlikely (read: 5% chance) situation that he does hit, it deals a whopping 1d6 damage…

…and hand of the apprentice is about as lame. Its like a ranged club attack, except that it actually has a viable chance of succeeding. The downside? Still 1d6 damage, because for some bizarre fucking reason it is keyed to Strength. I guess Pathfinder wizards can apply Xena-physics to their staffs or some shit. Seriously, there isnt anything “wizardy” about this. Its pathetic. Sure, it might hit, but the damage is crap. Why not let him add his Int modifier to the damage? You’re letting him get away by using it for attacks. +6 damage isnt going to overpower him: he has the rest of his class features to do that.
It might be cool if you could actually do interesting things with it, but you cant (no combat maneuvers). So, there’s that.

Metamagic mastery lets you add metamagic feats to spells up to a point, but you only get it at level 8, and you still have to apply it beforehand. At least with this mechanic I might be tempted to burn a feat on one of them and actually use it. Score a point, here.

He talks about how necromancers dont have to be evil, now (though they didnt before, and there was an issue of Dragon that had necromancers of all nine alignments). This school specialty lets you turn/rebuke undead, and even though (from what I recall) Pathfinder copy and pasted the mechanics from 4E I still think its kind of retarded since thats basically something that divine characters do. I could see a necromancer commanding undead, but not obliterating them into dust.
Still, if it gives necromancers an ability to actually use something thematic, its better than necromancers in past editions (which couldnt really do anything with undead until two levels after clerics were creating them). I’m willing to make a tentative concession here and dole out a half point (not that the points matter).

Specialists can now cast prohibited spells by doubling up the spell slot, though there is no mention of how this affects items (meaning that they can now freely use any and all spell completion items, so its not much of a restriction if you can call it one at all).
Teleport and other plot-ignoring spells get nerfed. They can still ignore the plot, but its just harder to do, so players are more likely to simply derail it instead.

Wall of force kinda-sorta-maybe got nerfed. It can be busted through after awhile…perhaps? Its got a hardness of 30 and about 200+ hit points, so while technically the tarrasque could claw through it in an average time of 80 rounds/8 minutes assuming the same damage from 3E (only the bite and tail have any chance at all of inflicting damage, and its a stretch for the tail to pull it off). Thats…plenty of time to either setup a plan or just to get the fuck out of dodge. It might as well be indestructible.

He’s got a +2o to Concentration, which I guess means that he, “can defensively cast 5th-level spells on a 5+”. Honestly, I never really liked Concentration at all. I mean, I liked it going into 3rd Edition because it let a wizard do something with a greatly reduced risk of auto-failing a spell. Now? It just seems like a lame-ass skill tax for spellcasters. “You cannot use your class features reliably if you dont dump a shit-load of points into this ability that basically negates all of that.” Weak.

As with everything from Pathfinder thats not entirely reserved for art, I just dont give a shit. 3rd Edition was fun for its time, but there are better games that cater to the same genre and play style. Paizo can lump on all the mechanics and features that they want, but it still doesnt resolve the actually problems, instead trying to distract you with shiny jangling keys…except sometimes the keys arent very shiny or jangly.

Delve Night: Gnolls

Josh stepped behind the screen again last night to run another delve for like, the third fucking time in a row. I think he’s going to stop coming over because he invariably gets drawn into the role of a three-act DM every damned time. Last night was actually a scheduled run, to be fair. One of our players was off for a birthday or somesuch, and so we decided to have Josh run something (again). Plodding through Dungeon Delve, he decided to run something for a level 4 gang. Our impromptu party was as follows:

• Dwarf great-weapon fighter w/ executioner axe
• Human great-weapon fighter w/ big-fucking sword
• Goliath warden w/ greatsword
• Wilden bear shaman
• Gnome illusionist

Holy meat-shields, Batman! I was strongly considering giving Branch the axe just so I could jump in with an avenger, since all the defenders had some kind of “gimme hp/regen” ability, an I wanted to make sure that combat didnt take forever. We just rolled with it, figuring that two fighters with two-handed weapons would carry enough “striker” to see us through, and in the end it was the gnome that walked away with MVP for the delve.

Ronak decided to try out a classic concept by combining the gnome with every illusion-keyword power he could pile on from Dragon articles and Arcane Power. We were both skeptical, since one of them didnt even deal damage but simply pulled a target towards the center of effect. Uh, yawn. He stuck to his guns, despite all things considered, and in the end we were oh-so-glad he did.

The first encounter opened up with a trio of gnolls just kind of gnawing on…“food”. Simple and straightfoward. We rolled initiative and set upon them, using Branch’s spirit Bear Muffin as point since anyone next to him got a constant bonus to NAD, unless he already made an attack during the round. With the combination of an all-defender phalanx, thp from Bear Muffin, and the gnome’s ability to impose attack penalties and slide shit around, only New-Guy-Lex took any damage at all.
To be fair, he took quite a bit of damage as the gnolls manage to chew through four of his healing surges in one combat. You see, Josh is a fan of playing monsters as he thinks they should be played, and decided that the gnolls wanted to take down the dwarf first since they got first blood on him. This included having them provoke opportunity attacks to get to his leathery dwarf skin-and beard that probably had rotting meat in it anyway (and hyena’s are scavengers!).

With that warmup out of the way, it was on to encounter two, which had a pack of hyenas, some gnolls with spears, and a few archers in the mix to shake things up. Things might have been a bit more hectic if Ronak wasnt able to drop sleep on everything except the archers (who would waaay in the back) and essentially change this battle into weak-sauce. We just kind of ignored the archers as we proceeded to turn everything else into spotted pin cusions. It was more anti-climactic than when Optimus came back to life in Transformers 2 (warning: that was a spoiler back there).
The biggest problem we had was when we were afraid that one of the archers was going to get away and trigger the third encounter before we could rest up a bit for it. Again, Ronak used one of his illusions to draw the gnoll away, and then we just stood in front of the hallway and mauled him to death.

Last encounter: gnoll demonic scourge, more hyenas, another archer or two, and a well. Dun dun duuuuun! Ronak used his goddamn illusion that pulls monsters to cause all but one hyena to pitch itself into the well and cause the scourge and other hyena to go prone in front of it. He then spent the rest of the battle constantly trying to use his at-wills to force creatures to blunder into the fucking thing, until a grell floated out of it, apparently pissed off that things kept (literally) dropping in on him while he was trying to nap.
With three defenders it was extremely easy to control the battle, as each of them paired up with something not in the well and traded blows while the gnome and shaman just provided support to whoever complained the most. Eventually it was reduced to Grell versus Party, and in the end Josh just declared us the victor to avoid a repetitive battle of attrition.

Having given the wilden a run, I have to say that I only noticed that I was a wilden because I was using a dryad mini to represent Branch. That was basically it. I could have played another dwarf, but I wanted to mix things up a bit. I should really try out a barbarian or druid, something that can better head into melee, and see how the various aspects hold up then. I used the bonus-damage one once because I kept forgetting about it the entire time until the last battle. Myeeeh… Otherwise, lots of fun to be had. Illusionists rock, even if not all the powers roll out shit-tons of damage.

Players Handbook Heroes 2 Review

Player’s Handbook Heroes 2 is, as the name implies, the second set of PC-centric minis for Dungeons & Dragons to be released by Wizards of the Coast. It makes it easy for players to get a mini for use as a character without having to buy a bunch of D&D Minis boosters, especially given that most of the PC figures were rares (meaning that on Ebay you could expect to fork over $5+ before S&H for a single). I guess it sucks if you only like one class from a given power source, but thats what your local game store/Ebay is for.

Like Player’s Handbook Heroes (1), each set comes in a trio of minis organized by power source, and you can see everything that you are going to get (ie, not randomized). At $11 a pop, this means that you are paying about $3.66 per mini. This is a good deal for me since I expect to pay almost that much for unpainted metal, which I utterly despise since its prone to flaking and chipping. Add in the cost of supplies and time, and I’m more than happy to shell out a fraction of the price for a shit-ton of convenience.

I think taking the time to assemble and paint your own minis is actually a bad idea, unless you are doing it for display purposes only. Why? Well, having been “the guy” to almost exclusively paint his own minis, as well as Warhammer/Warhammer 40k armies for his friends, it cuts sooo much more deeply when one of your babies invariably breaks. If I could buy a pre-painted army for a pittance of what it took to do it myself, I think I’d be a much more dedicated wargame player nowadays.

And now, on to the actual product.

I’m generally willing to make a concession on the paint job so long as the its dynamic and versatile. I understand they have to crank out a lot of these fuckers, but I also understand that they have to look semi-decent (even if from a distance). If its got weapons, wings, or whatever hanging over the edge of the base its going to be a bitch to position in close quarters (the huge white dragon is guilty of this). Similarly, if its a dragonborn in plate armor using a trident, then its going to be very limited in what I can actually use it for.

For example, I really like the male human invoker. He’s got a very cool pose, and is basically a robed dude wielding a staff. Obviously he’s got what it takes for an invoker, but could also be used for a wizard or cleric. Hell, you could swing druid if you dont mind the color scheme.
On the other hand, I dont much care for the male shifter ranger. First, the pose is kind of weak. Second, he looks like he’s just wearing a plain white shirt. Bright, light clothing isnt something I expect rangers to run around in. I would be more inclined to use it as a two-weapon monk, rogue, or perhaps even a swordmage. Something that actually uses cloth-or-no armor.

Martial Characters 3

• Male dragonborn warlord isnt anything new if you were into Angelfire. Still, it works and would also do for a fighter or paladin. Dragon’s tenacity is a encounter utility that grants you and bloodied allies an attack bonus, and if you’re a dragonborn the bonus is increased.
• Female elf fighter is falls flat on the color department. The pose is also very weak, like she’s all bunched up from being too cold or something. Pretty meh. Would also double as a paladin or a sword-using cleric, I suppose. Close the gap is a level 2 utility that lets you move your Dex mod after dropping an enemy in addition to marking something that you end adjacent to.
• Male gnome rogue is also kinda flat, but looks a bit better than female elf fighter. He’s a but more action-oriented, which helps. I plan on using him as a barbarian of all things, but I could see him performing decently as a bard, ranger, or even fighter. Clever strike grants you combat advantage against the target at any time another ally is next to it and is able to attack. Another name for this at-will could also be called sneak attack-attack.

Martial Characters 4

• I like the male tiefling fighter, but we really need a tiefling warlord that is using a polearm instead of…whatever the hell it is using kplzthx. Phalanx leader is a level 10 encounter utility that grants adjacent allies a bonus to AC, Reflex, and attacks for a turn, but you must be using a shield.
• The male shifter ranger is one that I really dont care for, which I explained above. Shield of blades is an at-will attack that deals weapon damage and grants you an AC bonus for a turn.
• Female human warlord is a basic sword & board archetype, and would work well as a fighter, paladin, or cleric using an edged weapon. Pretty versatile. Inevitable wave grants allies a damage bonus for a turn against a critter you hit. You can use it when charging.

Divine Characters 2

• Male human paladin looks a bit comically grim-dark, and ironically will probably work better as a NPC villian. Would also work great as a fighter or warlord. I got the paladin cards mixed up, but I think this one had flare of divine vengeance, which is a daily utility that lets you burn a healing surge and gives you an attack bonus against a challenged enemy that hits you.
• Warforged cleric is very meh. Too flat. Should have done a bit more. Will likely be used in my Eberron games as a warforged NPC or commoner, most of the time. I could also see him as an artificer or (very) mebbe a monk? Invigorating assault deals weapon damage and grants an adjacent ally your Wis mod in thp.
• Female human avenger is a kalashtar bodyguard reskin. I dont like her for numerous reasons: the pose is bad (its like an after-action shot), her armor isnt something I see an avenger wearing (way too tight), and the colors clash. My least favorite out of the set, just narrowly losing to warforged cleric. Focused fury deals weapon damage, and if you hit your oath of enmity target it also pushes another target away from you.

Divine Characters 3

• Male human invoker is made of win (see above). Astral wind is a close blast 3 that pushes targets, and deals Con mod damage if they move closer to you on their turn.
• Male genasi paladin uses a too-short-sword, but otherwise works out alright. I would have rather seen a swordmage, but I’ll take what I can get, damnit. Would also be very appropriate for a sword-and-board fighter. I cant remember which got which, but I think this is the one that had forbidding strike, which deals weapon damage and grants resist all to an adjacent ally. Very nifty, even if an AC booster is probably a better idea in general.
• Female human cleric is great despite being a reskin of the combat medic, but I preferred her in red. Healing circle restores hit points to all allies in the AoE, and gives them a lot of bonus hit points whenever they burn healing surges within the zone.

Arcane Characters 3

• Warforged artificer is okay, but I’m not exactly a fan of the pose (I prefer the warforged wizard from “back in the day”). Unbalancing force is pretty basic, dealing force damage and pushing a target if an ally hits it before the end of your next turn. Nice setup I suppose, and fits with the leader role.
• Female human wizard is good for a wizard, obviously. She wields a staff and wears a mask that makes her look like Destro’s daughter, but I think its because she was a witch-something from Forgotten Realms, originally. I dont know/care. Its one of the better ones, at any rate: good pose and at least a passing attempt at drybrushing for shadow effects. Refocus is a utility that lets you swap out a utility or daily for another one of the same level or lower, and gives you an attack bonus to boot.
• Male human swordmage is very well done. The color scheme is good, there are shadows and highlight effects, and even the eyes were done perfectly. Combined with the invoker and female wizard, these guys set the bar on what I would like to see as the “bare minimum” for future sets. He would also do for a fighter or warlord, especially with wizard multiclassing. Frostwind blade is a cold-based at-will attack that deals Con mod cold damage to another marked enemy, making it somewhat like a ranged cleave.

Primal Characters 2

• The male halfling barbarian is mostly naked, which isnt something most barbarians can get away with. Kinda meh, but would work alright in Eberron. Clawfoot berserker rage deals triple damage and grants you an attack bonus plus an immediate reaction basic attack whenever an ally becomes bloodied.
• The male human druid is pretty darned good, and would also work very well as a staff-using wizard, nature-oriented cleric, and possibly even an invoker. Leaf wall is a daily utility which creates a wall (surprise) that grants concealment to allies and causes enemies to grant combat advantage.
• Finally, the female human barbarian is okay. I just wish she wasnt so…blue. If it was darker or a different coler (like, red), I think it would have been a looot better. Still, she would work out for my shifter barbarian. Frenzied berserker rage deals triple damage and lets you damage yourself as a minor action to deal automatic damage to an adjacent enemy.

Overall this set was good. I like at least half of the figures, which is more than I could have said for previous randomized sets. The quality seems consistent with the last PHH set, but hopefully we’ll see an increase in quality in the future. A few looked waaay too plain, more at home as nameless NPC figures than anything else (especially the halfling barbarin, shifter ranger, and warforged cleric). At least they hopefully got the kalashtar bodyguard pose out of their systems, its just annoying to look at and the sword gets in the way.

Divine Power Review

The third power source-specific book, Divine Power provides new options for avengers, clerics, invokers, and paladins in the form of class features, powers, and paragon paths. Chapter 5: Divine Options presents more widely applicable feats and epic destinies, but also has a fluff-section on deities and divine backgrounds.
Basically, the book serves to expand upon the choices you make when creating any divine character. In some cases, such as paladins and divine sanction, it adds new mechanics to the existing set, but without making it part of the core ruleset and “requiring” that you have the book in order to play the basic game.

The first chaper is for avengers. I’ve never played one, but that might change since Josh is going to run something this coming Monday. Their new feature is Censure of Unity, which gives you a damage bonus against your oath of enmity target for each adjacent ally. So, unlike the other censures, this one rewards you for ganging up on a single monster. Sounds like it would be great for handling elites and especially solos.

Bonds of censure is a ranged at-will that pulls a target towards you, and deals radiant damage if they end adjacent to you.
Leading strike is a weapon attack that grants an ally a damage bonus if you hit the target.

Cataclysmic duel is a level 29 prayer that deals 7[W] damage, and for the entire encounter if the target hits you an ally gets knocked prone, but if you hit it, then one of its allies becomes dazed (save ends). Bad idea for a solo battle, but the dazed condition could prove extremely devastating against a group battle.

Clerics can opt to swap out channel divinity: turn undead for channel divnity: healer’s mercy, which lets allies within 5 squares burn a healing surge, but weakens you for a turn. Great if you want more healing and/or a better pacifist concept.

Astral seal is a Wis + 2 vs. Ref attack that deals no damage, but imposes a defense penalty and heals allies who hit the target before the end of your next turn.
Recovery strike is a Strength vs. AC weapon attack operates in a similar manner, but actually deals damage and restores fewer hit points.
I like realm of battle, which is a level 19 prayer that creatures a close burst 3 zone of angels. It deals radiant damage, in addition to granting allies an attack and AC bonus.
Revive is likewise pretty sweet: its a level 22 utility prayer that can restore a dying or dead ally up to bloodied hit points, as long as the ally died during the encounter that you use this in. Also, it removes the failed death saves, so that if she falls again, she gets a fresh start.

The invoker is a class I wasnt terribly interested in playing until I saw the chapter art: its looks really badass. I’ve since made a tiefling invoker, and its one of many characters on my list of shit to play when I have infinite time.

Anyway.

Covenant of Malediction lets you push targets with your encounter and daily powers, and also grants you channel divinity: maledictor’s doom, which imposes an attack and saving throw penalty for one turn to enemies in the burst (you can also push them if you nail them with a fear effect).

Visions of blood just sounds awesome. It deals psychic damage and a defense penalty, but hits all creatures in the area-of-effect.

Paladins, par for the course, have gotten quite a bit of flak even in 4th Edition. People accuse them of being shitty defenders due to their very limited mark, as well as Multiple Ability Dependancy.
Divine sanction is basically divine challenge, except that it gets applied by using various powers and feats. You can do both, so it allows a paladin to mark more than one creature at a time (thus being a stickier defender).
There are two new class features that can be swapped out with lay on hands. Ardent vow lets you deal bonus damage to a monster and automatically apply divine sanction for the rest of the encounter each time you hit it. Virtue’s touch lets you automatically remove a condition on an ally as a minor action. Both powers can be used a limited number of times each day, based on your Wisdom modifier.

Ardent strike will probably end up being incredibly popular. Its a Strength or Charisma at-will that deals damage and applies divine sanction. Good for any paladin build, easily allowing you to lock down two monsters instead of just one. Better yet? You can use it while charging.

With all of the classes wrapped up, that brings is to the last chapter: Divine Options. The chapter opens by reintroducing Divine Domains, a throwback to domains and spheres from past editions. Of course, 4E does them a bit differently. See, each deity has a list of domains, which represent their “spheres of influence” or portfolio. Each domain has two related feats: one of them gives you a new channel divinity power, while the other one alters how your at-will powers work. A simple-yet-excellent way to better represent your devotion, methinks.

After domains, there’s a section on deities and conceptually how each divine class works with them. Good stuff for a character foundation, and it can translate into settings with either gods that share a similar mindset or function. There’s also a list of new divine-themed backgrounds, such as Followed a Cult and Out for Revenge.

Breath of Life is a dragonborn-cleric feat that prevents your dragon breath from hitting allies, but grants allies in the area thp. Works well with the leader role.
Taunting Visage is a very cool changling/doppelganger feat: you can use change shape to assume the form of your oath of enmity target, you gain combat advantage until the end of your next turn. Kind of like getting your racial twice per encounter.
Radiant Vessel really lets you pile on the healage, granting another +2d6 hit points on healing word if you use it after using any cleric attack with the Radiant keyword.
Divine Health is an epic feat that grants you poison resistance and renders you immune to any disease of level 30 or less.

New Rituals adds eight rituals, including Create Holy Water (level 1). Holy water is categorized as an alchemical item, has a throwing range of 3/6, and deals 1d10 radiant damage to only undead and demons. Ease Spirit is pretty handy, as it reduces the death penalty by 1.
Mark of Justice debuts as a level 12 binding ritual that forbids specified behavior, or suffer from a 24-hour flexible penalty (specified by the ritual caster). Penalties can be that you have to roll again if you succeed on a check, gain vulnerable 10 all, or even become blinded and defeanded.
My personal favorite is Hallowed Temple, which creates a 15 square by 15 square temple that you and your allies can shack up in, is immune to damage, and undead and demons cannot enter.

The sidebars have been getting quite a bit of attention for containing a lot of really good story content. Here is every sidebar, and the page that it can be found on.

• Avenger Origins (pg 6)
• For the DM: Avengers in the Campaign (pg 140)
• Serving Multiple Masters (pg 16)
• Whom To Hunt? (pg 18)
• Dwarves Who Dont Worship Moradin (pg 36)
• Small Devotions (pg 39)
• Dead Gods (pg 40)
• Rise of the Raven Queen (pg 43)
• Crafting a Covenant (pg 60)
• Destined for Greatness (pg 63)
• Words of Creation (pg 64)
• Serving Evil Gods (pg 65)
• Invoker Origins (pg 66)
• The War of Winter (pg 67)
• Avandra and the First Doppelganger (pg 69)
• Divine Sanction (pg 82)
• The Divine Compromises (pg 92)
• For the DM: Evil Feats (pg 122)
• Rites for the Deities (pg 143)
• Avatars Have Many Uses (pg 145)
• Creating Avatars (pg 147)
• Trappings of Justice (pg 148)
• Divine Allies Bring Divine Enemies (pg 152)
• Dark Saints (pg 155)

All in all, this book succeeds because its got me wanting to play a divine character more than I wanted to before. My first 4th Edition character was actually a cleric, but I branched away from the divine power source and started doing my warlord and barbarian thing until PH2 came out, at which time I got more interested in the bard and shaman (being leaders). The avenger got some gears turning, but failed to maintain my interest against other strikers.
That being said, Divine Power has shown me the light, and I think for the coming delve this week I’ll give a tiefling avenger a shot. If you like divine characters (especially paladins), this is a must-have.

Delve Night: Psion Playtest

Josh came over at random today, and so it was declared after much Taco Bell that he run a delve for one of our neighbors (since apparently my neighbors are a collective of like-minded geeks) and myself. We ran Orc Fortress, the level 3 delve out of Dungeon Delve. The party consisted of a dwarf great weapon fighter, tiefling psion, and longtooth shifter beastmaster ranger, all level 4.

The first encounter was kind of shaky, and served as a portent of things to come. I’d taken an artificer multiclass feat since no one was a leader, and that barely saw us through the delve. Honestly, we only won because Josh was juggling stats and shit around to account for the fact that we had a smaller party than normal, new people, and no leader. That, and the ranger kept forgetting basic ranger-stuff like designating quarry, using encounter attacks, and sometimes attacking period. Even by removing monsters to adjust the XP value there was simply no fucking way we stood a chance without some hardcore fudging and outright removal of monster powers.

But, thats really not the overall point of this. I want to talk about my brief experience with the psion. I really like the psion. Before, the power point system was really just a more flexible spontaneous spellcaster that required more bookwork and headaches for the DM that didnt have a shitload of time to prep/didnt own the book. Plenty of potential for abuse, and also if you made it so that magic and psionics were “different”, well, that was just another thing you had to worry about accounting for in your adventures. Bleh.

Not any more. Power points give it a different feel, as well as a nifty resource management mechanic that doesnt require a lot of paperwork to manage. It adds flexibility, but not all the abuse that could come with it.
Its a lot of fun having a huge bundle of at-wills that I can boost in power as the situation calls for it. Against one critter, I could just roll out mind thrust or memory hole. Oh, a bunch of minions clusterd up? Fine then, lets boost up memory hole with a couple points and explode all their heads. Big bad brute has a pretty powerful attack, so I’ll roll a few more points on to betrayal and let him maul his own commander to death. Shit like that. I love it. I normally hate complicated subsystems, but this really isnt. Its simple, easy to figure out, and pretty damned easy to use.

Josh is going to run another delve on Monday. I’m going to give the monk a shot and see how it works. That, or a tiefling avenger. We’ll see.

Reed, Half-orc Warden

A foundation for a playtest that I want to run using fell taints and taking place in the Shadow Marches (Eberron). Thus, a half-orc makes perfect sense. I’ve never played a half-orc, and no one has tried the warden, and I think this works out really well. No shield, so I’ll see how well a two-handed warden fares.

I’ll only be using three characters, and one of them will be a psion of some sort since want to see how it works (and is mostly the reason behind doing this delve). Not sure which race for the psion, or what type of leader I want to make, but I’m leaning towards goblin shaman with a rat animal spirit…

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Reed, level 1
Half-Orc, Warden
Guardian Might: Earthstrength
Background: Shadow Marches (+2 to Nature)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 16, Dex 13, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 10.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 16, Dex 11, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 10.

AC: 16 Fort: 15 Reflex: 11 Will: 12
HP: 33 Surges: 12 Surge Value: 8

TRAINED SKILLS
Nature +8, Athletics +8, Perception +6, Endurance +9

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics, Arcana -1, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering +1, Heal +1, History -1, Insight +1, Intimidate +2, Religion -1, Stealth, Streetwise, Thievery

FEATS
Level 1: Weapon Proficiency (Fullblade)

POWERS
Warden at-will 1: Strength of Stone
Warden at-will 1: Earth Shield Strike
Warden encounter 1: Thunder Ram Assault
Warden daily 1: Form of the Fearsome Ram

ITEMS
Fullblade, Hide Armor, Adventurer’s Kit
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