I just started reading the article on the Warden class, which, as when new classes are introduced, had me thinking about my post here on the role/power-source pairings.
Since that post, Griff and I mulled around the ideas of classes that would pair up the future power sources, the ones that didn't make it into the Player's Handbook but had been mentioned there or elsewhere, such as Primal, Psychic, Ki and Shadow. We took our inspiration from the splat books of 3rd edition, trying to decide what existing classes would fit which roles.
The resulting table is too big for the blog's format, but you can see a live version (which might not match what I'm saying here, if you are looking at it in the future), here. The bold class names are ones that have been defined in rulebooks or other articles; the italicized entries are ones that were our guesses. For the Arcane Defender we had the Spellsword from Tome and Battle; and the Barbarian we had put into Primal Defender, not because we thought it fit perfectly, but because we wanted to place Barbarian somewhere, and had already put a Striker in (forgetting, of course, that we have two Martial Strikers from the get-go.)
Got any guesses for this chart?
Back to the Warden class. Right off the bat, I like the class features; they're nicely in line with the Defender concept and the title of "Warden", finding resistances and defenses where others do not.
The "marking" idea of 4e is one that I haven't fully evaluated. It gets used during our campaigns, but I think we've still got some time before we really see it shine. I like the concept, but it's contrary to the "not having to keep track of things" mentality of 4e -- luckily my players are good at reminding me when they've marked something (just as I'm saying that the target is attacking someone else). The Warden, rightly, gets powers based on marking, which helps cement that Defender role by drawing the enemy to her (or at least penalizing them if they don't).
Lots of the Warden powers deal with movement: pushing/pulling, slowing, sliding, shifting. Again, that works well with the Defender idea -- if the enemy can't move, they can't get to the rest of your party.
And of course, they have the requisite bit of polymorphing in there. In 3.5, I was strongly drawn to the Druid, and the Shifter, and the Verdant Lord... everything that the Primal power source is going to encompass (not counting the Barbarian). Right now, I think that the Warden would have my vote if I was to play a Defender role.
Until we get psionics, right Griff?
Showing posts with label marked. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marked. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Conditions look favorable
The Save My Game article from a few days ago had a few tidbits in it.
Bloodied. We've seen this term before, but I always assumed that it was something that, when a creature has at half of its hitpoints, it got some special ability like a rage, or a penalty like slower speed. It looks like there's a flipside, though, where some creatures get a bonus against you if you're bloodied. That's definitely interesting! I can see a character getting a particularly nasty beating, and then all-of-a-sudden it's the target for all of the foes -- some bloodscent that drives them crazy. The whole party scrambles to help defend that poor bloodied character!
Marked. This is also interesting. I can just picture a paladin, in all of her majestic shiny glory, pointing at the goblin chieftain in the middle of the battlefield, and the whole battle hushes, as both sides slowly back off to allow the two champions to fight it out, one-on-one. Or maybe I've seen too many movies. This is probably the first time that the roles have shown any value to me - apparently the ability to mark an opponent belongs to the "defender" role.
Combat Advantage. I like how they're streamlining some of the concepts into a single term, so the rogue's numerous conditions that allowed a sneak attack in 3rd edition are now summarized into one condition (though the various ways to reach that condition still need to be known).
One thing I didn't like, however, is how Radney-Macfarland uses tokens, markers and cards to help manage all of the conditions and powers of 4e. For a game that is intended to help simplify and streamline play, we're now requiring more and more aids to keep track of the simpler rules. What have we really gained?
Bloodied. We've seen this term before, but I always assumed that it was something that, when a creature has at half of its hitpoints, it got some special ability like a rage, or a penalty like slower speed. It looks like there's a flipside, though, where some creatures get a bonus against you if you're bloodied. That's definitely interesting! I can see a character getting a particularly nasty beating, and then all-of-a-sudden it's the target for all of the foes -- some bloodscent that drives them crazy. The whole party scrambles to help defend that poor bloodied character!
Marked. This is also interesting. I can just picture a paladin, in all of her majestic shiny glory, pointing at the goblin chieftain in the middle of the battlefield, and the whole battle hushes, as both sides slowly back off to allow the two champions to fight it out, one-on-one. Or maybe I've seen too many movies. This is probably the first time that the roles have shown any value to me - apparently the ability to mark an opponent belongs to the "defender" role.
Combat Advantage. I like how they're streamlining some of the concepts into a single term, so the rogue's numerous conditions that allowed a sneak attack in 3rd edition are now summarized into one condition (though the various ways to reach that condition still need to be known).
One thing I didn't like, however, is how Radney-Macfarland uses tokens, markers and cards to help manage all of the conditions and powers of 4e. For a game that is intended to help simplify and streamline play, we're now requiring more and more aids to keep track of the simpler rules. What have we really gained?
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