D&D 4th Edition - Quest, Feats, and Paladins
Its been a little while since I’ve gotten to any Dungeons and Dragons 4E updates - one reason though is we’ve been playing a lot of D&D here at Rust Monster and lining up characters to battle it out in the Rust Monster Arenas. Go check it out!
So this update will try and pack in several new tid bits released by Design & Development over at Wizards of the Coast. Recently they’ve talked about Quest, Feats, and Paladins in the new 4th edition of the game.
Quests - well nothing too exciting here but they are trying to reinforce the idea of story awards. Are they trying to put the ‘role’ back in role playing? This may be something many of us do already but maybe not. For those who are strictly by-the-book you might only be awarding experience points for defeated challenges. The idea of the story award is simply awarding experience points when players completed adventures - in addition to the other XP you dish out. So while you’re clearing out the Dungeon of Dastardly-Deed Doers, don’t forget to pick up the lost prince’s signet ring and bring it back to the king.
More interesting is what’s cropped up about feats. While feats have been one of the most popular additions of 3rd edition here is what WotC is saying about them in 4E:
“When we started talking about feats for 4th Edition, we already knew that we wanted the bulk of a character’s powers - the exciting actions he performs in combat - to come from his class. Even character classes that hadn’t traditionally offered class-based power options (that is, non-spellcasters) would now acquire these special attacks, defenses, maneuvers, and so on directly from their class’s list of such abilities.”
Hmm, nice hint at what’s to come from the revision of the classes but what does that mean for feats? Are we stuck with simple utilitarian feats that give a skill boost, or bump those saving throws? Nooo way - peep this:
“So what design space did that leave for feats? After some discussion, we came to see feats as the “fine-tuning” that your character performed after defining his role (via your choice of class) and his build (via your power selections). Feats would let characters further specialize in their roles and builds, as well as to differentiate themselves from other characters with similar power selections.”
Sounds tantalizing (and what the heck are power selections). Once again we are still left wonder about all the juicy details but at least it sounds like things are on the right track. And just to prove themselves check out these previews:
Toughness
Tier: Heroic
Benefit: When you take this feat, you gain additional hit points equal to your level + 3. You also gain 1 additional hit point every time you gain a level.
Alertness
Tier: Heroic
Benefit: You don’t grant enemies combat advantage in surprise rounds.
You also gain a +2 feat bonus to Perception checks.
First Reaction
Tier: Paragon
Benefit: If you are surprised, you may spend an action point to act during the surprise round.
Golden Wyvern Adept
Tier: Paragon
Benefit: You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can’t exceed your Wisdom modifier.
You say Pal-a-din I say Pa-lad-in - but it doesn’t matter how you say it things are looking up for the Righteous Might. Here WotC drops a nice preview about the Paladin’s smite ability:
“In 4th Edition, D&D smites really come into their own. Now a subset of the paladin’s renewable (read, encounter-recharge) powers, smites allow a paladin to deliver a powerful blow with the character’s weapon of choice, while layering on some divine effect (and I mean that in both meanings of the word) on allies or enemies.”
Yes folks it will do more than take out the trash, it will clean up after itself too! What I mean is a smite at level 1 not only adds extra damage to your enemy (which is double damage BTW) but adds a boost to your allies AC. And higher level smites do more - at 13 it heals your allies, at 27 the target cannot gain line of effect to anyone but you until the end of your next turn.
So as your paladin progresses as a defender of the faith, smites, like all of your abilities, will grow in power and utility. This adds a splash of leader flavor into the paladin’s defender role making them the true champions they should be.
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