"That girl is an albatross, captain!" "As I remember it, the albatross was good luck, until some damn fool went and shot it." To Inara, "Yes, I read a poem. Try not to faint."
My Warden just acquired the level 2 Utility Daily: Nature's Abundance which creates a Zone which provides Cover in a Burst 3 for me and my allies (AWESOME!). To make sure that I fully understand the mechanics of this skill, I need to know if this skill will provide my allies and me cover from adj...
I just saw that, and am actually considering posting an answer-your-own question about 4e's inconsistency re: using partial cover and cover to mean the same thing.
I should explain that when I say we don't have a dedicated magic user I mean that most of our characters are proficient in something but we don't have anyone who is a mage sorcerer or cleric in the party. The closest we have is a bard and a Hexblade (so basically it's just me ;.;).
Your response times for questions are pretty amazing. :) I've learnt more about D&D from you guys in two days than I have from reading the players handbooks. XD
@Vi D&D character creation is designed to create PCs that must work together; no one character can be entirely self-sufficient. It encourages teamwork and strategy... and at least in theory discourages backstabbing.
If you're attracted to magic, I can't blame you. 3.5e puts all the fun stuff in the hands of the magic users and stiffs the rest toward the end. But 4e isn't like that: EVERYONE in 4e has Magic! Just that in 4e, it's called "Exploits", "Prayers", and other things.
@JonathanHobbs I don't think I'm supposed to link the video that appropriate depicts my reaction to seeing warlocks with fey and star pacts when I first read 4e.
And then I added the alchemy theme on top of that to give him the ability to craft stuff he can throw into battle, though most of that has turned out to be extra crappy.
@Vi Alchemy's great flavor.... but if you can't at least get your GM to go along with Brian's idea about allowing them to scale with level, flavor's about all it'll be.
I'll be interested to hear how your play experience goes. I'm afraid you may be trying for too many roles at once, but it sounds like you're reaching a compromise you expect to be content with.
Unless you sacrifice everything else and the stars align, one character can usually achieve excellence at one role and a minor ability in a second, or decent ability in two, but in either case which two is dependent on the class. Hexblades are strikers, as are rogues.
@Vi When you say "controller" do you mean the multiple-target aspect of controller, or the ability to control the battlefield through applying effects to your enemies?
My motive here is this: You want to create a character who's a hexblade/rogue, but looking past that, there's a result you're trying to achieve to which hexblade/rogue is only a means. You have Arcane, Intimidate, Thievery, Sneak, and Bluff, and those are also means to an end (the end is being good at several important skills, which is quite reasonable).
I am trying to understand what the ends are you want to achieve because as a player familiar with 4e, I have insight into how you'd achieve that.
@Vi "High utility value" is every power ever
And impeding the enemy is controller business. If your party already has a controller, that's done! You don't need to do that yourself necessarily.
And if you do, there's better ways to do it than crafting alchemy stuff. You could be an assassin who multiclasses into wizard to pick up some impeding controller powers, for instance.
Depending on this other guy's choices that's not necessarily an impediment; there are two different classes called Assassin, and each has three different specialties.
Straight-up Assassin is an A-class with Dex as the primary and a choice of Con and Cha for secondaries.
The Con choice gives you temp hp every time you hit an unbloodied target.
The Cha choice gives you a damage bonus against targets that aren't adjacent to any of your other enemies ("Come over here and let's you and I have a chat").
And there's a third choice that's basically a straight-up damage buff encounter power.
By the way, does anyone know if the pact encounter power and Pact bonus spell (Elderich bolt) replace your choice of the regular ones or if Hexblades get two?
@Vi The significance of BESW mentioning that the two different assassin classes have three different specialities each is this: picking different specialities means you're going to wind up very different to the other assassin. I don't know exactly it goes for Assassins, but for Warlocks, the four different specialities have a HUGE impact on how you play your class.
Feylocks are COMPLETELY different from Star warlocks who are COMPLETELY different to Infernal warlocks. The only thing they have in common is they're warlocks.
Assassins wind up being quite different, especially if the other guy's an executioner; he's a Cha-based guy who specializes in switching from melee to ranged and back at a moment's notice, using different weapons to proc different effects.
Feylocks teleport all around the place, go invisible, and force enemies to move around. Star warlocks keep enemies under the weight of crowd control. Infernal powers sacrifice all of that just to hit things harder
So it's unlikely you'll be stepping on this other assassin's toes.
A Con Assassin is a melee engager who teleports from person to person through their shadows, drops shrouds of shadow on their enemies to increase damage, and uses nooses of pure shadow to pull ranged targets in close.
@Vi The reason we're yammering on about Assassin so much is because it seems to be a superior means to what you're trying to get out of your character. Bearing in mind that a 4e party doesn't need a magic user, because everyone has magic (it just isn't called magic), are you open to the possibility of being something other than a Hexblade/Rogue? Or are you pretty attached to playing out that combo?
@JonathanHobbs Yes. They're teleporty light-blade melee DPS with some minor control options, and they have the rogue skill set without spending extra feats.
(And you can make them Con-based and have them get free temp hp!)
Also in chat: using an @ to respond to someone, or clicking the bent arrow on the right-hand side of a post when you mouseover it, helps people understand who you're replying to or what you're replying to.
@Vi It's the flavor, really. I want to play an eladrin astrologer who thinks she's tapped into some Star Science and slowly goes mad without realizing it.
@Vi Put it this way: Telling me "whoa hey hold on there, I just want to be a hexblade and I don't want to be any other class" is fine. If you let me go on for half an hour about assassins without saying that, however, just because you didn't want to offend me, you'd leave me wondering what the hell is going on that all my words are apparently falling on deaf ears, and if I'm wasting my time, and whether there's any point even having this conversation. So be honest. We can handle it.
Theoretical situation for the point of illustration, also. I haven't gone on about assassin for half an hour. But I have been wondering why it appears to all be falling on deaf ears.
So that explains it, and now we can just yammer on about cool hexblade stuff instead, and then we'll be cooking with gas.
"While you hold your implement in one hand, you can use a minor action to manifest your pact weapon in the other hand. The pact weapon you create depends on your pact. Your pact weapon persists until you no longer hold either it or the implement, or until you dismiss it as a free action."
@Vi He'll find out, don't try to sneak like that ;o
Sneaking around rules deliberately is going to put y'all in a weird position later, when he won't know whether to break your class's rules or break your character.
Every time you gain a level, you can retrain a feat OR a power to another that you also qualify for. In the case of powers, I believe you can't train in a new one that's a higher level than the one you're training out.
Lasting Frost Paragon Tier Prerequisite: 11th level Benefit: Once per turn, the first target you hit with a power that has the cold keyword gains vulnerable 5 cold after the attack. The vulnerability lasts until the end of your next turn.
Wintertouched Heroic Tier Benefit: When attacking a creature that is vulnerable to cold, you gain combat advantage when you use a power that has the cold keyword.
@Vi Taking the straight-up Weapon Expertise feat is hardly ever a good choice.
War Wizard's Expertise Prerequisite: Any arcane class Benefit: You gain a +1 feat bonus to the attack rolls of arcane powers and basic attacks that you make with a light blade or a heavy blade. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level. Also, when you use an arcane attack power with a light blade or a heavy blade, your attack rolls take a –5 penalty against your allies.
Light Blade Expertise Benefit: You gain a +1 feat bonus to weapon attack rolls that you make with a light blade. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to the damage rolls of weapon attacks that you make with a light blade against a creature granting combat advantage to you. Both of these bonuses increase to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
