geebs | (no subject)

Looks like I'm on bed rest for the next couple of days. Which is fine, I have a TV and a laptop and plenty of books to read.

Even though I don't foresee myself playing 4e anytime soon, I did pick up a bunch of the sourcebooks over the past few weeks- the first three PHBs, and the two Martial Powers, so I've been pouring through those as of late.

Yeah, after checking out the various classes, I have no interest in playing anything but the striker role. I mean, if I had to rank them in terms of interest playing as, striker would be #1, followed by defender, controller then lastly leader. It seems to me it takes a specific type of person to play a leader type, someone satisfied with directing peeps and buffing and de-buffing. I am not that type of person. Controllers have impressive power, but are pretty much fire support. Sure, they can kill plenty of peons at once, and prolly have enough firepower to take out bigger prey, just not very efficiently. Like the leader they're more a support role, thinning the enemy ranks and herding them for the defenders and strikers.

Defenders are okay, they have some pretty bad-ass abilities, but as their name suggests, they're better at defending. And I don't mean in a better AC/HP sort of way, its just that many of their powers are reactive. They can put a hurt on people, but they can put an even bigger hurt on them just standing there and countering the enemies' attacks. Which is well and good, but I'd rather have a more active choice in what I'm doing, rather than having that decision made for me based on what the enemy does.

Striker is the mentality that resonates with me the best. Just go in there and take people out. In any case, even limiting myself to strikers there's so many striker choices to choose from!

Rogue- my all-time favorite class. I've always favored speed and stealth over brute force, plus they always got the highest number of skills. In any case, they're devastating as strikers because of their sneak attack ability. Though you can only get sneak attack damage on one attack per turn, its pretty easy to be able to sneak attack. You get it whenever you have combat advantage on an enemy, and there are plenty of ways to get that, the simplest being just standing on the other side of an enemy from your ally. But the rogues get all sorts of tricks to gain combat advantage, so it doesn't seem that hard to get the damage. Plus, there's the emphasis on teamwork in 4e, particularly tactical thinking, and there's a plethora of things other classes can do to get you combat advantage.

Ranger- The bad-asses. They pick a guy and just concentrate their killing skills on it, whether it be sniping from a distance, or closing in with paired weapons and carving the enemy up. Their key trick is hunter's quarry, which translates to extra damage dice (not as much as rogues get) on an enemy they pick. The description of the ability sounds funky, where in you can designate the enemy closest to you as your quarry, which evokes imagery of not being able to pick the optimum enemy to focus your damage on because another enemy is closer. I don't like that wording, because all its basically saying is get close to guy X, make him your quarry and you get to hit him harder than normal. Plus, its not like you have to decide on your quarry right at the start of the battle. With a Ranger's mobility, its not that hard for him to get around whatever is in his way to get close to his target and then mark them. Plus, that mark lasts until it dies or you designate something else as your quarry, so its not like if someone comes closer, you lose that effect on the enemy you're hunting.

Warlock- I know, you're thinking, a mage class?! Actually, warlocks are pretty cool. They get their magic from pacts with either the fey (not gay elves, fey like those in NWoD or Exalted, the really scary kind like in Pan's Labyrinth), the stars (kinda like Nephlite, though I think there are also implications of the great old ones), or devils/demons. Like rangers and rogues, they have a special ability that lets them get extra damage on a particular enemy by cursing them. Unlike rangers, they can curse as many folks as they want. And they'll want to, because they get all sorts of cool things when a cursed enemy dies, be it temporary hit points, bonuses to rolls, etc. The infernal pact warlocks in particular have a cool paragon path called life-stealer, wherein they get the cursed enemy's soul when it dies, which they can hold in reserve for cool stuffs. I've said before, I've always liked being able to get stuff from killing enemies.

Sorcerer- Another magical class?! Yeah, I was surprised that I'd like this too, I didn't think they would be a striker class, I figured they'd be a controller like the wizard. I mean, they can lay down some decent AoE spells, but the majority of their spells are focused and quite potent. What I like about them even more is that since they're magic is innate, and not based on study, their key abilities are cha, str, and dex! So you can be a spellcaster without being a wimp and the weak link when it comes to doing typical adventuring stuff like trying to traverse rough terrain or sneak around!

Anyhoo, there's two flavors of sorcerer, those that get their power from having a little dragon in their bloodline (which was how 3e claimed sorcerers got their power), or from chaos. Obviously, there's a lot of synergy if you playing a dragonborn and pick dragon magic sorcerer as you class. Anyways, dragon based sorcerers are quite strong and resilient, being able to deal damage and take it. Chaos mages are interesting due to the randomness of their abilities. Their first attack rolls in a round, if the number is even, they get an AC bonus that round, whereas if its odd, they get to make an extra saving throw that round. Plus, unlike the dragon sorcerer that picks a particular damage type and gets both resistance to it and ignore an enemy's resistance to that damage (to a certain point!), after they rest, they roll a d10 and randomly get an energy type, which does make things interesting.

Barbarian- Now, this was a class that didn't interest me at first, because I thought they were just primal defenders. But nope, they're strikers, and defender isn't even their secondary role, its controller. Unlike previous editions, "rage" isn't just some state they get into where they get increases to attack and damage and AC and temporary hit points, but once they come down, they're in a weakened state. In this one, there's no "crash" after the rage, and rages do all sorts of things, from getting to attack every enemy around them after they've made their primary attack, to giving the enemy negative effect like slowing, blinding them or knocking them prone.

So with the barbarian, you just charge into the thick of things and wreak havoc. (I like how on criticals, not only do they get critical damage, they get to make another attack right after that). Particularly with those rages, not only are you doing damage, the secondary effects can soften them up for other strikers in your group. Also, apparently in primal power, there's a must have feat for barbarians that lets them substitute con for int and dex in determining AC. Which makes them even more monstrous! Because you're already focusing on cha, str and con for your barbarian stuff, you either have to focus on a fourth ability (dex, because why would you do int if you're a barbarian?!), or just take the hits and rely on the temp hit points you get from the various barbarian powers. But this way, you can keep your focus and be as hard to hit as the rogues and rangers!

Monk- The psionic striker. These guys are just too bad-ass. Their movement is phenomenal, they do pretty good damage and have really good to hits (since in addition to the proficiency bonus from unarmed strikes, their powers target reflex/con rather then AC) So while the barbarian just charges in like a maniac and goes to town, the monk just dances into the crowd, striking everyone while dodging their attacks. I mean, most of the time they should be hitting at least two enemies per turn with their flurry. But they also have plenty of powers where they dive into a group and strike them all in a whirlwind of fists and kicks and wot-not, or where they just run their movement and hit everyone they come across while they're moving.

Avenger- The divine striker. I hear a lot of people online raving about this class, comparing it to the batman of the D&D world. They play very similar to what you'd expect an assassin to play like, which is no surprise, since they're basically divine assassins. So while the paladin is the champion of a deity, a shining beacon for their followers to gather behind, the avenger is who that god goes to when he wants something smote.

While I've said 4e focuses more on teamwork, the avenger is kinda a loner. He picks his target and goes after it, and has all sorts of powers to keep up pursuit of it and preventing other folks from interfering. However, unlike the rogue, ranger, and warlock, they can only mark one person per encounter. So they better pick the right person they want dead. Anyways, rather than extra damage, avengers basically roll twice for every attack they do on their sworn target and pick the better result. So they should be hitting more often then not.

But yeah, while obviously working with his teammates can be helpful, particularly if they can soften up his target for him, since he has that sole focus, he can't really be doing anything other than attacking his target. Like I said though, he does have plenty of abilities that basically turn it into a one on one battle. Plus, he has stuff that gives him bonuses to kill his target on his own rather than relying on his teammate' tricks. The censure of pursuit avenger gives the avenger a straight up damage bonus whenever the enemy willingly runs from him until the end of his next turn. The censure of retribution avenger though, gets a cumulative bonus equal to his int modifier whenever other enemies hit him until the end of his next turn. So he can wade into the thick of things and just focus on his target, and if the target's allies try to stop him, the target suffers even more.

So all in all, if I were to ever play 4e, even limiting myself to strikers, there's still a wealth of different character types to play! It sucks the assassin isn't out as a PC yet though.