by Bart Carroll
This month, we meet the druid, explore the fey demesnes, and dare examine the most vile of books!
Talk about this preview here.
Why would someone play it?
That protector Druid is just, ugh, I don't know.
Why would someone play it?
Without seeing, well, any of the attack powers (we've seen the summoning power, but not any of the creatures it summons), who can say? All we have is a controller class feature that actually feels controllerish, which is nice, that it has some cantrips, which is nice, and that it's locked into summoning powers for its dailies, which is less nice, but we can't really judge how functional that is without seeing the creatures it can summon.
Presumably it still has the normal selection of at will and encounter powers, and non-shaping druids have some decent controller powers in those categories to begin with before we even ask what powers this brings to the table.
So why would you want to play the protector druid? Presumably because you like the human-form controller powers of the regular druid, would like to trade wild shape for a class feature you can use while remaining in human form, and you want to trade the usual druid daily powers for these new summons. Again, whether anyone would want that depends on whether the summons are in and of themselves a respectable selection of daily controller powers. If they are, the Protector will be a fine choice (better then the Sentinel by a wide margin), if not then the subclass is a dud, but at least the original druid will be able to poach more from it then they can from the sentinel.
I'm also curious as to what divine devotion feats are. I figure Vile Feats are simular to what they were in 3.x.
I'm also curious as to what divine devotion feats are.
We've already had a load of Divine Devotion feats in Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms; they're basically domain feats that anyone can take.
My guess is that the Divine Devotion feats in this book will cover those domains which exclusively belong to evil/chaotic evil deities; namely darkness, destruction, madness, poison, strife, torment, tyranny, undeath, and vengeance
I'd say most would be shadow as its the only source that has an inherant dark feel. I could see rever as martial, bloody bezerkier as primal, cultist as divine same with demonologist (small chance of demonologist being elemental). Of course there is a chance that Vile will be its own power source.
cultist as divine
IIRC, the term 'cultist' in 4e is only used for someone who worships an entity that is specifically not a god - usually a demon or primordial. So I would not expect its power source to be divine.
Of course there is a chance that Vile will be its own power source.
I believe they are done with new power sources, they dropped Ki, and I belive Elemental has also gone bye-bye; yes we have the upcoming Heroes of the Elemental Chaos, but the 3 subclasses are all but confirmed (no new power sources).
I see no reason that these builds won't be dual source like most of the builds in HOS.
Of course there is a chance that Vile will be its own power source.
Vile doesn't make sense as a power source. At best I could see it being a keyword, but I doubt that would be the result of good design.
Vile is a thematic trait, not a form of energy.