D&D 4E: Seekers of the Sand

In an effort to try and get paid for my efforts I finally put something up on Drivethrurpg today (technically yesterday, but it was not approved until today): Seekers of the Sand.

It is a collection of “desert”-themed evocations for the seeker–because I know everyone is chomping at the bits for more seeker stuff–that fill up your Heroic tier selections, along with a paragon path if you go past that point, and some magic items to round everything out.

It runs five bucks, because when it was about half as long someone I showed it to said that they would pay that much if I added more stuff, so I did. It did not reflect the cost of me Photoshopping my own cover. That luxury is free.

Lemme know what you think. Hopefully it is worth the cash and I did a good job balancing them against existing powers (there is a 3-page preview, so you can check out almost half of it for free). I have some other thematic stuff in mind for other classes, so if this is something that interests the 4th Edition crowd that would be good to know.

Monk Basics

This is a nice tutorial article that gives you an in-depth look on each of the monk’s class features, as well as giving you tips on ideal races—including a sidebar on what race best matches which tradition—and multiclass options, and a sidebar with some ideas on naming your personal style.

New Feats

• Flurry Resounding: You can burn an action point to use flurry of blows again, even if you have already used it this turn.
• Internalize the Basic Kata: You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for melee basic attacks, as well as use flurry of blows on an opportunity attack.
• Master of the Fist: A multiclass feat that gives you training in either Athletics or Acrobatics, Unarmed Combatant, and ki focus proficiency.
• Piercing Palm: You can use Sneak Attack with a monk’s unarmed strike.
• Shielding Whirlwind Style: This is great for monks with a quarterstaff. You gain partial cover against ranged and area attacks for a turn after using flurry of blows, and also do not grant combat advantage for flanking.
• Slashing Kama Style: You can use a sickle, and when you use flurry of blows with one you deal ongoing damage instead of just plain old normal damage.

New Disciplines

• Deflect Arrow (level 2 encounter): An immediate interrupt that not only gives you superior cover against ranged weapon attacks for a turn, but allows allows you to shift as a free action each time you are missed.
• Wind Through the Willows (level 3): This seems like a much more elegant way to handle an attack that is supposed to represent you moving through a bunch of enemies and beating the shit out of them; instead of telling you to shift and make an attack against enemies you move next to, you instead affect a close blast and can shift into a square in the blast or directly next to it (hit or miss). As for the actual attack, it does decent damage for an area-effect, and also slows and prevents charging for a turn, and the movement part lets you swap places with an adjacent target.
• Water Gives Way (level 5): Another immediate interrupt that lets you deal damage against a target, slide it, and then knock it prone. The best part is that if the target charges you, you get a nice bonus to the attack and damage roll. The downer is that while you do not expend the power on a miss, you cannot try to use it again for the rest of the encounter (making it bad for delve runs, one-shots, or boss battles).
• Brilliant Counterstrike (level 7): The damage seems kind of low, but any enemy that attacks you for a turn takes automatic damage as a free action. The move portion lets you either end a grab or mark, and shift a couple squares.
• Stone Warrior Training (level 9): This is a really nice “training montage” power that lets you teach an ally how to better work with you. In game terms until your next rest, whenever you hit an enemy with an attack your ally gains a damage bonus equal to your Strength modifier.

Gond’s Way: Artificers of the Realms

Outside of Arcane Power I cannot remember the last time artificers saw some decent support. At this point despite my fondness for Neverwinter I would still not say that I am an overall fan, but almost all of the flavor content can serve as a foundation for other campaigns despite all the Realm’s references; for example instead of Gond you could substitute Moradin or Ioun, and the Lantan Scholar background can just be renamed to whatever lost civilization you want. I do like the idea of tying the artificer to a divine organization, if for no other reason than I have been playing Space Marine and it makes me think of techpriests.

There is also seven spells and two feats for the crunch fans:

• Ice Shard Traps (level 1 encounter): You create two invisible traps on the ground that deal cold damage and both cold vulnerability and combat advantage for a turn after an enemy steps on one. The downside is that they only last for a turn, so they would work best for groups that have forced movement (or you could combo it up with thundering armor or unbalancing force). Depending on your DM, you could use these with as part of a surprise attack against patrolling monsters.
• Shadowy Figurine (level 2 daily): You create a sustainable figurine that grants partial concealment and a Stealth bonus to nearby allies. 
• Smokepowder Detonation (level 5): A ranged attack that deals fire damage and ongoing fire damage. As an effect, an ally can make a basic attack (with an attack bonus from your Con or Wis if the initial attack hit).
• Arc Infusion (level 7): Lightning damage, grants an ally a save with a bonus from your Wisdom, and deals more damage plus a daze if the ally’s save actually worked.
• Siphon Fate (level 17): Targets one or two creatures, deals psychic damage and imposes an attack and defense penalty (save ends). As an effect, an ally gains a bonus to attack and defense bonuses based on the number of targets you hit.
• Synchronized Weaponry (level 25): A sustainable effect that allows you and an ally to attack a monster after the other has hit it as an immediate reaction, but both attacks need the weapon keyword.
• Coiled Spring Traps (level 27): Similar to ice shard traps, this gives you three, and they deal force damage, slide and prone, and impose a penalty to AC and Fort based on your Con or Wis for a turn.
• Arcane Trapsmith: Gotta be trained in Thievery, but it lets an artificer use her Intelligence mod to disable traps and open locks. Even better, you gain an Arcana bonus when dealing with traps or hazards.
• Hammer of Gond: You have to worship Gond (but any good DM will handwaive this), and it lets you use a warhammer as an implement (which you can treat as a heavy thrown with a range of 6/12).

Making Race Count

The first in hopefully many articles brings power support for dwarves, half-elves, halflings, and humans. In 4th Edition race became a much more meaningful choice due to the feat support and race-specific paragon paths, and adding powers to the mix (especially in light of the vryloka and shade) is a natural progression. Each race gets a utility from levels 2-16, and there is no “cost” to take them except that if you have a spellbook and take a racial utility, you do not get an extra wizard one.

Dwarf

• Avalanche Rush (level 2 encounter): When you bull rush a target, you can push them farther based on your Con modifier.
• Dwarven Pride (level 6 encounter): When you are subjected to most forms of forced movement, you gain a damage bonus for a turn based on the number of squares you were moved.
• Stone Stubborn (level 10 encounter): When you are dominated or stunned, you are instead dazed until the effect ends.
• Mountainborn Tenacity (level 16 daily): When you are dropped, you can spend a healing surge and gain damage resistance for a turn based on your Con modifier.

Half-Elf

• Help Is Here (level 2 encounter): You automatically use aid another on an adjacent ally.
• Sudden Switch (level 6 encounter): You swap spaces with a creature and gain combat advantage for a turn against all adjacent enemies.
• Lockstep (level 10 encounter): You and an adjacent ally shift 6 squares, and must end the movement next to each other.
• Persuasive Words (level 16 daily): You gain a bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight, and Intimidate for the rest of the encounter.

Halfling

• Happy Feed (level 2 encounter): When a creature starts its turn, you can shift.
• Minor Threat (level 6 encounter): A stance that you can trigger while bloodied, granting you a bonus to defenses and Stealth.
• Pay Your Debts (level 10 at-will): If a flanked enemy moves, an ally flanking it still has combat advantage for a turn.
• Underfoot Hustle (level 16 encounter): You shift your speed with a bonus, can move through enemy squares, and they grant combat advantage to you for a turn.

Human

• Extra Effort (level 2 encounter): You can reroll a save with a bonus, but the next save takes a penalty.
• Rapid Move (level 6 daily): As a minor action you can take a move action.
• Flush With Success (level 10 encounter): If you hit with an attack, you gain scaling temp hps and can shift a short distance.
• Courageous Determination (level 16 daily): If a en enemy bloodies you, or hits you while you are bloodied, you can burn a healing surge, shift your speed, and gain a defense bonus for a turn.

Holy crap a lot of these are really awesome. Sure, avalanche rush is best suited for characters built around forced movement and charging, but I could see a lot of halflings taking minor threat (which is also very thematic for them). The human spread is really nice all around. I am really impressed by how much I like this article despite playing almost none of the featured races. Now to wait and see when/if tieflings get any power love.

Homebrew: Seeker Evocations

I wrote up some seeker evocations with a desert theme in mind for those that read this blog and actually use third-party/homebrew material. It is a hard class to write for because the concept seems kind of un-refined; you throw axes or shoot arrows, and spirits pop out to beat shit up. That much is made clear in Player’s Handbook 3, though some of their powers let them knock critters into the feywild, grow quills, and ignore difficult terrain because the “land recognizes you and your allies as friends”. It really makes it difficult to put some boundaries on what sort of things a seeker should be doing, as well as how to explain it.

Battle Cleric Options

Courtesy of Mearls, there’s now additional options for Strength-based clerics to the tune of a variant class feature, variant Channel Divinity power, and sixteen at-will and encounter attacks ranging from levels 1-27. This is a hefty addition, and I’ll need to let my Saturday game’s dwarf cleric player do some retraining (especially because she even went so far as to take Scale Armor Proficiency). Lets take a look at the alternate features and powers, first.

• Battle Cleric’s Lore gives you a shield bonus to AC and proficiency with scale. That right there is nice, essentially a small bundle of feats (except that you do not actually have to carry a shield), but it also grants allies an attack bonus instead of bonus hit points when you heal them. This basically gives you a hands-free defender’s AC, but your healing words still get some extra perks on the side. As it stands it seems a bit too good, especially compared to Healer’s Lore (bonus hit points healed equal to your Wisdom modifier).
• You can swap out  divine fortune for favor of the gods, which gives one creature a free reroll before the end of your next turn. It isn’t something you can use when they miss, you target them with it on your turn, and if they miss they can opt to give it another shot. Kind of like a more conditional version of divine guidance, and I like it a lot more than divine fortune.
• You can swap out turn undead for punish the profane, which is a weapon attack that deals radiant damage and immobilizes the target. It also deals half damage on a miss and has a secondary effect that targets all undead within an area of effect, dealing a small amount of radiant damage and pushing them on a hit. This one I don’t necessarily like more than turn undead, but seems very flavorful for a battle cleric.

New Cleric Powers 

There are two at-wills, and both work better with simple weapons. Battle cleric’s weapon mastery, in addition to needing a shorter name, has a built-in attack bonus and gives you a damage bonus if you are using it with both hands. It is basically a souped up melee basic attack. On the other hand, weapon of divine protection deals an extra d6 damage if you are using a simple weapon, and grants allies next to you a defense bonus as an effect. So, that’s pretty leader-y.

The rest is a bunch of encounter attacks that extend all the way to epic tier, two per level. They all follow the general theme of gaining an attack bonus (ie, Strength +1 vs. AC) and damage bonus if used in two hands, or just one or more d6’s if you are using a simple weapon in general. Some of them are just improved versions of themselves (for example, sundering might and divine beacon), and I would have preferred if they just used the formatting that they use with powers that scale if you take them at a higher level.

These new encounter attacks really seem like Mearls just going through the motions of trying to wrap up support for a class concept, which is actually very good because despite the fact that any competent DM or player could have done the same thing: I know many people do not allow something that didn’t come out of a book–specifically, an official D&D book, and sometimes not even then. 

You will like it if you play clerics in general (especially for the alternate features), but obviously if you want to emulate a warpriest then this should have you covered.

Hierophant Druids

In case you’re one of those people that think that the Essentials line divided classes pre-and-post release well, this article is geared for both druids and sentinels, as indicated by the Player’s Handbook 2 and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms stamps of approval. So, ha. You know, if they’re going to put little icons in the article that denote which book they pertain to, they could at least make them not so blurry/more stylish.

The article is kind of a throwback to 2nd Edition, in which you could only advance to a certain level before you had to start offing other druids of your level, as there could be only a set number of a given level. Mostly, it’s about an organization that tries to blend primal magic with elemental forces, something that most druids don’t like due to the Primordials’ prior agenda of keeping the world in a constant state of elemental flux.

The article also provides a couple new evocations, intended as benefits for Hierophant members, but technically anyone can pick them up. Unfortunately, you have to be at least 22nd level, which severely limits the scope.

• Elemental passage is a 22nd-level daily utility that lets you vanish, presumably into the Elemental Chaos, and reappear when your turn starts. When you return, there are four different effects that can occur, each tied with an element: push, pull, create difficult terrain around you, or impose fire vulnerability. It’s a standard action to use, which is a turn-off.
• Summon elemental warrior is a 25th-level daily attack that, as the name implies, lets you summon an elemental. The exact element is up to you, and there are four stat blocks to choose from. They all mark targets that they hit (along with a kicker effect, like ongoing damage or forced movement), and have an opportunity action that works on marked creatures. About what I’d expect.

EDIT: A buddy of mine pointed out that the evocations have the Elemental keyword (and Primal). Does this mean that Wizards is considering a class with the Elemental power source, or is this just a keyword that serves to globally encompass the four classic elements (instead of printing out a bunch of keywords). Frankly, I don’t see how much different an Elemental class could be, especially considering that wizards can summon elementals, and chaos sorcerers tap into it a bit as well.

And to wrap things up, the master hierophant epic destiny. I think the coolest part is the Immortality part: you eventually leave the world, drift through the Astral Sea, and become a new world. It’s kind of like radiant child, but for druids instead of warlocks…and a planet instead of a star. I could see this being used for an adventure hook, where the players have to explore the Astral Sea for a new world forged from the body of an ancient druid. Hell, you could use this as the basis for having a solar system, as the worlds don’t have to look like our own.

• Level 21: You gain a Wisdom bonus, as well as a bonus to something else.
• Level 24: You are immune to disease, stop aging, and can enter suspended animation once per encounter, during which you gain regeneration and make saves when you turn starts and ends. The regen only works while bloodied, and it renders you unconscious. On the plus side, you can end it when your turn also ends.
• Level 26: You gain elemental transmogrification, which makes you a Huge elemental with a variable benefit based on the element you choose.
• Level 30: You can use two options from elemental transmogrification, and once per day if you get dropped below 1 hit point, you immediately regain a shitload of them.

The article has some nice inspiration for campaigns of any level, but the provided crunch is intended entirely for epic-tier play, which reduces its utility. Personally, I’d like to see elemental evocations for a wider level spread, allowing players to be Hierophants from a lower level. Great for druid players approaching epic tier, also good for DMs.