Bigotry and hatred!

You know, there's a certain subsection of players who seem to dislike Epic play not for anything reasonable (and let me tell you, there are reasons to dislike epic play), but out of some sort of almost hipster-esque distaste. The type of person who insists that even an Essentials build at that level is "too complex."

Being that I'm in the staging process for building a new planes hopping campaign that starts at 21st level, I've found myself having to ask how to deal with this problem.

BTW: for those of you wondering whatever happened to my "NEVER AGAIN!" mentality, well, let's just say old habits die hard.

When Is a Basic Attack Not a Basic Attack?

You know, it's really nifty to have things like Power of Skill in the game, letting you use At-Wills as basic attacks. But it's fundamentally a bad idea.

So many other items, feats, feature, etc, are all based on the idea of affecting either Melee basic attacks specifically, or affecting only powers of a certain category. With the latest Hybrid rules for Executioners, we get to see this again-a hybrid build that's supposed to apply only to melee basic attacks but, combined with powers from another class (such as Warlock), makes for a hybrid striker that basically has the striker features of two different classes.

And it's not just hybrids. A Knight Half-elf with Eldritch Strike and a staggering weapon can essentially automatically hurl opponents away, negating enemy attacks against allies entirely.

When something calls upon a melee basic attack, it's making the assumption of what a melee basic attack does-namely, damage, and precious little else. When you have ways of applying everything from slide to daze to melee basic attacks by having melee basic attacks not be melee basic attacks, that dynamic fundamentally breaks down. It's an awesome game mechanic, but it's a Pandora's Box of imbalance.

Selling Out: Helping the destruction of Wizards

So, if we're going to jump on this "Nerf Wizards!" bandwagon, let's see some other nerfs.

First of all, all powers that deal damage upon entering the zone should be limited to once per turn. Note that this should apply not just to Wizard powers, but to powers in general. I'm not going to go through and itemize them however.


Furnace of Sand also needs to be nerfed to a static value, probably 5 + Intelligence modifier.



Stonewrack can serve as a passable exception to the once per turn rule as long as we modify the text to read "Whenever a creature that is not prone enters or moves within the zone-" that way, the first time the target suffers damage, it falls prone, which would mean it's immune to suffering the damage again while prone. Due to its smaller area and immobility, we can accept the Prone element, so it makes sense to give the damage a Cloudkill esque level, at a flat 10+Intelligence modifier.

If going through with all these nerfs, I strongly recommend changing Summon Marilith to instead make melee attacks against all enemies within reach, rather than the intense damage of multiple hits. Possibly add a rider that increases the Marilith's defenses for every hit (in order to compensate for the fragility of summons).

Wizard Playtest: Farewell Slide Shenanigans

Well, that's not entirely accurate. There are still plenty of powers out there that deal damage dice of damage upon entering a zone, and the new cloudkill is actually pretty potent. If anything, this spells the end of the Staff of Ruin necessitation for zone wizards.

For those not in the know, you can find out here: http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dra/201107wizard

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Letting non-essentials wizards pick their own cantrips is a nice bonus, and Elemental Maw actually got an UPGRADE depending on how you look at it (Hint: It requires Spell Accuracy), but all in all, the Slide Spam build-aka the one I'm playing in another game I'm in-took a seriously heavy hit. Not only that, but wizards can no longer auto-obliterate minions left and right, with the vast majority of powers that deal damage from a zone being changed from start of turn to end of turn.

It's certainly true that the existing wizard powers were way too strong, and the modifications to Stinking Cloud and Cloudkill, not to mention Flaming Sphere, do address the Wizard's propensity for insane amounts of autodamage. But I'm left wondering if it isn't a little too much. What's odd is that since the article couldn't address every power, anyone who's playing with anything outside of Core will just take Furnace of Sand, which is now demonstrably more powerful than most daily powers.

I think it's a step in the right direction but also most likely a step too far. Damage once per turn was definitely necessary. ALSO making damaging zones into static damage, so that Cloudkill can deal a maximum of 20 damage if you just happen to end your turn in it, was probably too much.

Staying on One's Guard

It just occurred to me that, in addition to your standard "Spend actions to make perception checks" when you suspect something is up, wouldn't it be prudent to be persistently using the Total Defense action? With a defensive weapon, you're actually very resilient to surprise attacks.

Not sure why I haven't thought of that before.

Solos: Hecatoncheires (Test Build)

I don't have any campaigns going on at the moment, but I was toying around with some various concepts. Here's the Hecatoncheires I was working out.

Hecatoncheires	Level 31 Solo Skirmisher
Huge	XP 115,000
HP 1290; Bloodied 645 AC 47; Fortitude 43; Reflex 42; Will 41 Speed 10 Saving Throws +5; Action Points 2	Initiative +27 Perception +22
Traits
Fifty Heads, a Hundred Swords
The Hecatoncheires acts on its initiative and on an initiative count of its initiative +10, and regains the usage of its Immediate Action whenever it takes a turn. If the Hecatoncheires is stunned or dominated at the end of its turn, that effect ends.
A Hundred Mistakes
Whenever the Hecatoncheires fails to hit with any attacks while using Scimitar Barrage, any effects currently present on the Hecatoncheires end.
Infinite Actions
The Hecatoncheires has Threatening Reach, and can take an unlimited number of opportunity actions each turn. The Hecatoncheires is still limited to one opportunity action per trigger.
Ignore the Challenge
Whenever the Hecatoncheires attacks a creature that has marked it, that mark immediately ends.
Standard Actions
m Scimitar • At-Will
Attack: Melee 3; +36 vs. AC
Hit: 2d10 damage (Crit: 3d10+20), and the target suffers ongoing 10 damage (save ends).
M Scimitar Barrage • At-Will
Target: One adjacent creature Effect: The Hecatoncheires makes five Scimitar attacks against the target. If the target is suffering from ongoing damage and all five attacks hit, the target's ongoing damage doubles.
Scimitar Dance • At-Will
Requirements: The Hecatoncheires must be bloodied.
Effect: The Hecatoncheires moves its speed. During this movement, it does not provoke attacks of opportunity and can enter enemy spaces. The Hecatoncheires makes a Scimitar Barrage attack against any enemy whose space it enters.
Minor Actions
Rage of the Chained One • At-Will 1/round
Requirements: The Hecatoncheires must not have attacked this turn.
Effect: The Hecatoncheires gains a cumulative +10 damage to its next usage of Scimitar Barrage. The Hecatoncheires cannot attack before the end of this turn.
Triggered Actions
M Blade Ward • At-Will
Trigger: An enemy makes a melee or ranged weapon attack against the Hecatoncheires.
Attack (Immediate Interrupt): Melee 3 (The triggering creature); +36 vs. AC
Hit: 2d10 + 0 damage and the Hecatoncheires gains a +4 bonus to defenses against the triggering attack.

This solo monster doesn't have a dedicated cleanser power that it can use on its own, but has some various ways to counter immobilization and restraining effects. Most notably, any attack penalty effects can result in the triggering of it's cleanser power, so there's a trade-off in applying them.

Trials and Tribulations of a Leaderless Game

So, last night-that would be Monday evening, I suppose, though it's somewhat seeing as how I pen this in the wee hours of the morning-I took part in the game wherein I am a player. We were faced with a Long Fight in a pokemon stylized battle. But the significant element of the battle was that, like the battle before, we were without a leader. That is, our healing consisted of a single potion of vitality (each), Second Wind, and whatever other personal heals we had availible (which to the best of my knowledge was "none.")

Frankly, it was awesome-part of the reason we were able to win (sort of: technically we had to stop mid-fight since the DM had to head to bed, but it's clear that we're going to nuke the enemy before it acts again) is because of ridiculous terrain features (and myself, the overpowered this-should-seriously-be-nerfed-but-no-not-really-because-I-don't-want-to-suck forced movement user). The other half is probably due to the Monty Haul style of treasure usage for the campaign.

Sadly, we didn't make it out unscathed-the party avenger bit the dust when in phase three, a plant based pokemon (I told you it was a pokemon stylized battle didn't I?) used a really nasty "Unconscious (Save Ends)" attack. With all the Coup De Graces going on, there was really nothing we could do to save her. Not sure we could have had we had a leader though.

My thoughts on the matter are that, you can really quite wildly reduce the overall difficulty level of monsters just by removing healing from the game-or rather, severely limiting it. It creates such a tremendously different play experience, which can be refreshing if you've gotten tired of the "Defender drops to 0, healer drops a Healing Word" style of play. But the flip side is, everything is suddenly a lot more lethal, making the game ultimately more swingy.

Kind of reminds me of 3rd edition.