Martial Controller Duex

After posting my pronouncement last week, that I would be working up a controller build for the Ranger class, I went and looked over the class and immediately realized I had made a huge mistake. Unlike the Rogue, the Ranger has very few powers that impose conditions or force movement. Most of the Ranger's powers are simply more damage. So while I can't simply trade out the striker damage dice, I set about trying to figure a way to put my money where my mouth is. I think I've got it, finally, so let me know what you think!

New Class Feature

When you make your ranger, and you choose the Archer Fighting Style, you may choose this power instead of Hunter's Quarry.

Scattershot Ranger Feature

You have sacrificed the lethal focus of your ranger brethren in order to unleash a hail of arrows with every draw of your bow.

At-Will * Martial

Free Action

Effect: When you use a ranged martial attack power, you reduce the damage die of your weapon by one size (e.g. d10 becomes d8) and the attack becomes area burst 1. Any conditions or forced movement caused by the power are applied to all targets hit by the power.

Scattershot Ranger

You are a master of the multi-shot, the archer of many arrows. You scorn the idea of focusing upon one foe to the exclusion of all others, and instead direct your skills toward the thinning of herds, and controlling your enemies. Your allies know that when your bow is in hand, no swarm of savage fiends is too large, no host too great. The hum of your bowstring sings a song of evened odds and approaching victory.

Take Dexterity as your highest ability score since it dictates attack and damage for your ranged attacks. Make Wisdom your second highest since many of the extra effects of your powers will rely upon it. Strength can be tertiary in case you are forced into melee combat. Make sure you use a ranged weapon since Scattershot requires it, and focus on ranger attack powers that have the ranged weapon requirement. Whenever possible, choose powers that also impose a condition or forced movement, since your damage is lower than a normal ranger.

Suggested Feat: Far Shot (Human: Improved Initiative)

Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Dungeoneering, Nature, Perception, Stealth

Suggested At-Will Powers: Careful Attack, Nimble Strike

Suggested Encounter Power: Evasive Strike

Suggested Daily Power: Hunter's Bear Trap

So there it is. Not thrilled with it, but I think it's workable, otherwise I wouldn't put it out there. Pouring over the Ranger powers reminded me of another pet peeve of mine. There are only four classes so far that have to choose between two primary abilities for their character and that choice will dictate power choices for the rest of the game. Most classes have a uniform primary ability, such as Wisdom for Avengers and Invokers, or Intelligence for Wizards. Ranger, Warlock, Cleric, and Paladin were split between two abilities. I'm not sure why this is, and I think next week, I'm going to spend a little time dissecting that design choice to see if I can find a reason for it, and if not, see if there is a reason the obvious fix is a bad idea. Tune in next week, same Bat time, same Bat channel!

Class Bloat, Past and Present

I was hitching a ride to a game this evening with a friend. Love my new house, hate how far away from everything I find myself. Oh well. Anyhow, we were discussing 4th Edition, our various grievances with the system, what we liked, etc. I was groaning about the pending release of Martial Power 2 in February of 2010. This led to the topic of the missing "Martial Controller" (All other Power Sources have one of each party role, only Martial has two strikers and no controller). The missing controller led to a more general discussion about class bloating. In D&D 3.5, after several years of source books, the base classes were getting unwieldy. Granted, there were still relatively few base classes, but with prestige classes, and relatively lax multi-classing, things were starting to get a bit out of control in terms of the number of classes. My friend was looking forward to the simplification of the system the new edition (4th Edition) would bring by paring down the number of classes. Now, he admitted, it was starting to feel like the old days. Invokers, Avengers, Wardens, and so on meant that while each Power Source had their requisite class fitting that certain role, you also had to have myriad source books and a solid grasp on the pros and cons of each class relative to its counterparts under other Power Sources.

On the whole, I like the flavor that each Power Source gives. I like being able to play a Shaman instead of a Cleric and have that decision mean something in how my character relates to the world. However, I understand my friend's point, and I certainly agree that the number of classes is getting somewhat extensive, perhaps even burdensome.

Fortunately, my friend did not simply complain about the state of the game, he made a suggestion. One that I thought held a lot of merit. So, with his permission (kind of) I am going to steal his idea and run with it. Instead of introducing more classes, create builds and selectable class features that alter a core class to fill a different party role. Clerics could sacrifice some healing in favor of damaging capabilities and suddenly you have a divine striker without having to bring in the Avenger. As an experiment in this vein, I've created rules for a "Martial Controller" build that doesn't add a class to the game, but instead uses on that is already there: the rogue. Here it is:

Mischief-maker Rogue

Any fool with a dagger can kill a man. It takes a true professional to sow discord amongst the ranks of his enemies. The talented don't need to kill with blades; they kill with misdirection, guile, and trickery. You have perfected the art of mischief-making, and through the mayhem you create, you bring your foes to their knees, where your allies can more easily dispatch them. You may not deliver the deep, life-ending blows so often associated with adventurers of your ilk, but your allies know your worth, and are just as happy to have you along. Your attacks use Dexterity, so make that should be your highest ability score. Charisma should be second highest because you still rely on combat advantage and using your force of personality to misdirect your foes' attentions. Strength falls third, because you rarely use brute force in a situation where speed and guile would suffice, but may find yourself in a corner and needing to fight "fair" for once.

Class Feature: Mischief-Making*

Suggested Feat: Distant Advantage** (Human: Far Shot)

Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Insight, Perception, Stealth, Thievery

Suggested At-Will Powers: Sly Flourish, Disheartening Strike***

Suggested Encounter Power: Impact Shot***

Suggested Daily Power: Blinding Barrage

*New option presented here.

** Presented in Arcane Power.

*** Presented in Martial Power.

Mischief-Making

If you choose this class feature instead of selecting Artful Dodger, Brutal Scoundrel, or Ruthless Ruffian, you also give up the Sneak Attack class feature. Instead, when you use a martial attack power that causes forced movement or imposes a condition on your target, you may make the attack against additional valid targets equal to the number of Sneak Attack dice you would normally have at your level. (e.g. A 3rd level Mischief-Maker rogue could choose to attack 3 targets within range with his Impact Shot power and could push all three assuming they were hit.)

There you have it, the "Martial Controller" Rogue. Turns out there are an awful lot of rogue powers that have a controller flavor to them, and if you expand the number of targets struck, the rogue suddenly fits the bill pretty well.

WARNING: DO NOT use this build if you are expecting the rogue to be the group striker. This is not a striker build, and therefore changes drastically the expectations upon a rogue.

Lastly, I got my hands on the DMG2 and Primal Power finally. I can say that I am quite happy with the attention "fluff" is getting in these newer books. In terms of straight crunch, both books are adequate, well designed, and seem to add some significant options for most classes (or campaigns in the case of DMG2.) My DM asked me what I thought of Primal Power stacked against other Power books and I'll just throw out this bit for you guys: unless you are playing a primal power source class in a campaign currently, I would wait until you are to snag Primal Power. It's great stuff, but not terribly useful outside of its direct sphere. Martial Power and Arcane Power seemed to be more broadly applicable. That said, the book is good, and well worth the cost if you can put it to use for you.

Next week: I think we'll take a look at the ranger and see if we can't make a controller build out of that class, in case your rogue player isn't interested!

Slap-Dash Bard Suggestions

I was going to have an awesome post full of deep, thought-provoking insight and intriguing suggestions. However, I recently purchased Dragon Age: Origins and therefore have not been doing much of anything except playing that game. So here's some half-baked ideas that I've tossed together as I rush off to work:



New Feats:

Cunning Recovery

Prerequisites: Bard, Virtue of Cunning class feature, 11th level

Benefit: When you miss with an arcane attack power with the healing key word and that power has no effect on a miss, you or an ally within range of your Virtue of Cunning regains hit points equal to your Intelligence modifier. This hit point gain cannot be increased by any means.



Valorous Tenacity

Prerequisites: Bard, Virtue of Valor class feature, 11th level

Benefit: When you miss with an arcane attack power with the healing keyword and that power has no effect on a miss, you or an ally within range of your Virtue of Valor gains temporary hit points equal to your Consitution modifier.



Prescient Pause

Prerequisites: Bard, Virtue of Prescience class Feature, 11th level

Benefit: When you miss with an arcane attack power with the healing keyword and that power has no effect on a miss, you or an ally within range of your Virtue of Prescience gains a bonus to all defenses equal to your Wisdom modifier until the end of your next turn.

I built these off the paragon feat created by Logan Bonner in his Class Acts article in Dragon Magazine on clerics. I felt like clerics, of all classes were the least needful in terms of needing that little bit of extra healing, and bards seemed a lot higher up on that list. Of course, then I figured I'd flavor them out for each bard build, since making it Intelligence-driven would be useless for Valor and Prescience bards. Anyhow, I am also toying with making it a touch more powerful (they are paragon feats after all) and making it a substitution for the Virtue power usually allowed (like sliding your ally when an enemy misses them). I limited the Virtue of Cunning feat because of the obvious synergy with the Summer Rhymer paragon path that would have your typical Cunning bard healing an ally for 8-12 hit points on a miss when a hit might have been less healing. Of course, if it were a substitution for the use of the Virtue power for the round, I might be a bit more inclined to allow for modifiers, but ultimately I think you run the risk of a paragon bard missing with a power that grants 10 hit points on a hit including the bonus for the Summer Rhymer paragon path granting 3-4 from the Intelligence modifier, +5-6 for the Summer Rhymer paragon path, +3-4 for a healer's brooch... suddenly that miss is more beneficial than a hit. I think I'll leave it limited, but won't make it mutually exclusive with the Virtue power.

That's all for this week. Hopefully I'll break that video game's vampiric hold on my soul and get something decent out next week. But in the meantime: if you liked Baldur's Gate and felt the original was in many ways the pinnacle of Bioware's RPG craft, you should check out Dragon Age: Origins. I avoid talking about video games on this blog, since it's a bit off topic, but since Green Ronin Publishing is making a PnP RPG of the game, I feel like I can at least mention it. Usually, I'm not a big fan of Green Ronin, but the backstory of this game is so good, I might have to check it out.

Getting a Handle on Enemies

I can't recall a time that I ran a Star Wars: Saga Edition game. I've always played in games run by a friend. And he runs pretty killer games. One thing he always grouses about, and even stumbles over as the game is running, is the stat blocks for enemies. After all the trash I was talking about 4th Edition D&D last week, I figured I'd play nice and try adapting the new monster stat block from 4th Edition for use with Saga Edition. I've also times myself at it to see roughly how much prep time it would consume to convert a few stat blocks for use at your game table. I grabbed a handy SW:SE book, so the NPCs come out of The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide. So hopefully, this is helpful to some of you besides my erstwhile GM. If it is, let me know!


Imperial Jump Trooper CL7

Force 1; Darkside 5
Init: +8; Senses: Perception +12(can reroll must take second result); Low-light vision
hp 51 bloodied 25 (threshold 20)
Defenses: Ref 24(FF 21); Fort 20; Will 16
Speed 6 (Flying: jetpack)
M: unarmed +9 (1d4+4)
M: Grapple +10
R: Blaster Rifle +12(3d8+3)
R: Rail Detonator Gun +12 (3d8+3, 1 square splash)
R: Strafing Run +10 (3d8+3) Targets a line 1 square by 4 squares (autofire) or all squares flown over while using jetpack (autofire)
S: Takes no penalties for firing into melee, or attacking a target with concealment.
S: Can move before and after an attack, provided movement does not exceed normal movement. S: +1 to attack and damage at point blank range.
Skills: Jump +11, Stealth +13
Str 13, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Possessions: rail detonator gun, blaster rifle, jumptrooper armor with helmet package, jetpack, comlink

Imperial Radiation Zone Trooper CL4

Force 1, Darkside 5
Init: +5; Senses: Perception +11, Low-light vision
hp 34 bloodied 17 (Threshold 19)
Defenses: Ref 19 (FF17); Fort 19 (25 vs Radiation); Will 14
Speed 6
M: unarmed +7 (1d6+2)
M: Grapple +7
R: Blaster Carbine +8 (3d8+1)
A: Autofire Blaster Carbine (Area 2 blast) +6 (3d8+1)
A: Frag Grenade (Area burst 2) +7 (4d6+1)
S: Aid Another is automatically successful when target is adjacent or at point blank range.
Skills: Endurance +10, Mechanics +9, Survival +9
Str 12, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Possessions: Blaster carbine, 2 frag grenades, Radtrooper armor with helmet package, comlink, radiation survival kit.

So it took me about 30 minutes to throw these two together. However, I had to look up several feats to make sure I incorporated their effects into the stat block for easy reference, and I had to look up some talents as well. I think when you start familiarizing yourself with those feats and talents, it will become even faster. In fact, the second stat block took roughly half as long as the first.

In newer Saga Edition books, the stat blocks have started resembling the 4th Edition monster block a little more closely, but even so, the choice not to include the specific numbers for autofiring, talents and feats that modify attacks, etc. has made running those stat blocks a little less GM-friendly. With a few minutes of quick work, they can be "streamlined." And they're reusable once you've converted them!

Hope this helps, and let me know how it works!