Dragon 384Winterkin Eladrin
Winning Races
by Robert J. Schwalb
Winterkin have strong bonds with the Feywild and rarely emerge from their sparkling realms.
Archfey have little interest in interfering with their subjects’ lives, and thus do not place expectations on their subjects or concoct complex laws. They leave the fey people to abide by the ancient customs that have always informed life in this unruly plane. The archfey’s presence permeates the landscape and its inhabitants, altering them to reflect its nature. Anyone who lives under an archfey’s influence for long tends to acquire certain traits and characteristics that set them apart from fey inhabiting other realms in the Feywild.
Talk about this Article here.
I'm SO glad that they finally realized that they could do this. I hope we see it a lot more often from now on...
As side note, this still do not address the "critical problem": upon critical those powers do very little damage. In addition, the base damage of many do not take into account the bonus that normal attacks receive from weapon implements.
i would simplify it whit a single keyword:
"Spontaneous"
"The to hit roll of spontaneous powers add a +3 to hit, increase it to +6 at 11th level and to +9 at 21th level.
Additionally, add +3 to damage rolls, increase it to +6 at 11th level and to +9 at 21th level.
On critical hit, add 1d6, at 6th increase it to 2d6, at 11th increase it to 3d6, at 16th increase it to 4d6, at 21th increase it to 5d6 and at 26th increase it to 6d6."
Errata:
The following powers gain the spontaneous keyword (For powers older than this errata, change the to-hit roll whit the above whitout changing the charactristic modifier involved and apply the bonus to damage and to critical damage):
List of powers whit reference to the race/paragorn path involved.
...This will also allow for a new serie of feat that modify the spontaneous powers as whole
Fairy stuff? Meh.
I know I will regret this, but ... yeah, so? It's an Eladrin article. What else were you expecting? They're Fairies. I mean, really, why even bother commenting? Judging from what I know of your tastes in races, I assume you knew you were going to be overly enthusiastic about pointy ear human articles anyways? Why even make the effort then?
I mean, you're free to dislike it, just as much as people that like Eladrin are free to like it. But I just don't get why you felt the need to post that. Just accept it's not something useful to you, do what I do and suggest often for races you do want to get the WR treatment (like Changelings in my case) and move on.
this is good stuff in my book. i hope that these winning races articles stay on the level. the past few have been very good and really add personality to the race, not the class, build... so it's nice to see the race get some attention beyond the racial bonuses and racial powers.
though, i don't entirely agree with the' your highest ability score'. i'd say that if you lived in the frozen wilderness of the feywild, and want to exude that winterfey attitude, then you ought to be thinking of endurance and constitution as key elements of that theme. so, i'd say that using magic cold should come from CON, INT, or CHA not simply any highest score.
i'd say that using magic cold should come from CON, INT, or CHA not simply any highest score.
So in your book Winterfey cannot be WIS based casters? One of the most frustrating things I've seen in this edition is when some cruch gets realeased with PERFECT fluff for your concept, but the stat requirements keep you from using it. By allowing any stat we avoid this problem.
If you look at it a bit deeper, the paragon path powers are calling in your pact with the archfey, and storywise should have no bearing on your attribute- they used the highest stat to make sure the numbers are balanced throughout the game.
It's not the mechanics I'm upset about. It's more fluff on various types of elven subraces again.
It's not the mechanics I'm upset about. It's more fluff on various types of elven subraces again.
Well, I know what you are talking about and I agree, but In this case I also believe that some additions of this type are nice and welcome. They have deeper characteristics , that set the sub-race from the race apart than e.g. … appearance. 
YAY! I'm super excited about this. Granted, in Races and Classes (that wacky preview to 4th edition) I seem to remember something about their reasoning on seperating Eladrin and Elves were due to the massive amount of subraces (What, like 3 different types of aquatic elf?) but I'm glad to see that they said "Screw it. We need to make more elves."
It's not the mechanics I'm upset about. It's more fluff on various types of elven subraces again.
No. WotC never said they were getting rid of subraces. What they did say is that they were getting rid of subraces being seperate races, which is what they've done.
i'd say that using magic cold should come from CON, INT, or CHA not simply any highest score.
So in your book Winterfey cannot be WIS based casters? One of the most frustrating things I've seen in this edition is when some cruch gets realeased with PERFECT fluff for your concept, but the stat requirements keep you from using it. By allowing any stat we avoid this problem.
If you look at it a bit deeper, the paragon path powers are calling in your pact with the archfey, and storywise should have no bearing on your attribute- they used the highest stat to make sure the numbers are balanced throughout the game.
i'm certainly not going to homebrew any ruling if i do have a player that takes eladrin with intent to follow the heritage of winterfey. and, i can't see a problem with WIS making use of feywild cold as it might be completely applicable to primal characters. and pulling the cold from the fey-arctic through strength or dexterity--i won't complain.
I guess what i mean with it is that the extensive effort to make sure that everything is balanced for any class...well, then the player loses a bit of the strategy of growing a character. they can simply min-max and know that their favorite powers will always rely on their highest scores. so say you take a martial character that doesn't place much stock in magic from divine, primal, arcane, shadow, or psionic source. and then wants to use their strength to pull off a magic-like ability that comparably another class would have to use WIS, CON, INT, CHA to pull off.
to me it just makes every option available to every class, but why should that be? i don't mind having a few options to choose from. for example, i like that blood drain of vampiric heritage gives the option of CON, STR, or DEX. still a difficult thing for a caster as those are not likely key abilities. or maybe the Dborn's breath weapon off STR, DEX, or CON. that kinda means that a Dborn taking a class that doesn't have much need for those abilities might not have a great to-hit bonus with breath weapon. the option is still there and the ability could be grown over time so that the breath weapon becomes more useful.
so, like i said, i'm not going to homebrew some restriction. but i do support some powers keying off abilities that might not be optimal for all classes so that a player has be a bit choosy about how to make the most of their character.
When the forgeborn dwarf article was released we had a picture that did not match the actual description of the subrace. What physically sets these guys apart from normal eladrin? How would one differentiate betweem these and normal eladrin in a tavern?
Well ... in this case the art actually does match the physical description - red eyes for one. Normal Eladrin don't go red. And Winterkin tend to have pasty white, albino, or even blue-white skin, none of which is normal for Eladrin.
Im glad the art matched this time.
Nice one, i liked the "always slow you" theme, also the obscures and difficult terrain effects. I believe this race is very nice!
I think this would make them pretty good Defenders. At least for the type of defenders that want to stay close to their enemies. I think a Warden or a Fighter would like these abilities a lot. So if you want to pick a class that's not optimal fit for the Eladrin ability score modifiers, this could be a way to compensate a little.
If its a variant it should change something, not just add on. Now since it takes a feat slot to play the variant, the change can be to something better or can include a little extra, but it shoudn't just give you some new stuff.
to me it just makes every option available to every class, but why should that be?
Because part of 4e is allowing every race/class combination to work. When a paragon is tied to a race and only a race, every member of that race should have it as an option.
They should make it pay in form of something extra, like "you cannot take feats that have as prerequisite your original race unless they also require this feat", or things like that.
Have fun sleeching around the battlefield! Also a great way to start that encounter all bunched up together!
This piece has not seen one single session of playtesting.
to me it just makes every option available to every class, but why should that be?
Because part of 4e is allowing every race/class combination to work. When a paragon is tied to a race and only a race, every member of that race should have it as an option.
well, its true that WotC devs have tried to make sure that every race can be comfortable and effective playing every/any class. and i think that's a great part of the edition.
what is not, IMHO, required is that every class be comfortable and effective in every/any paragon path that the PC has access to.
so, even as a PP that is related to only the eladrin race, i just don't see it as a requirement that it be comfortable and effective for every/any class.
that being said. many eladrin are great in roles such as arcane classes, some martial classes, and some psionic classes.
this PP, and again IMHO, seems to be great for arcane or primal classes, a reasonable choice for divine and psionic, reasonably appropo for shadow (and if it happens to come into existance, elemental). it doesn't seem to fill themes in martial classes, but then, that's a player choice how to grow their character. i can easily imagine an eladrin (insert any martial class here) with a frostbrand weapon that would enjoy additional powers to make use of cold as a (insert martial class here).
honestly, i don't want to start something, but i'd still rather see thematic powers drawn through thematic abilities. i can't imagine a character using STR or DEX to draw the arcane cold of the fey-arctic for powers. but thematically, Arcane, Primal, Divine, Psionic, Shadow, Elemental all would build upon a theme of drawing upon fey-arctic cold damage type.
i'm not going to make a houserule about it. but i don't see how it is really all that important to offer that every race and every class be comfortable and effective in every/any PP or ED. I don't see any problem with having to tell a player, "that's not quite the optimal choice, but if you want that build, you can work toward that."
All of the initial Bloodline feats (Vampiric Heritage, Deva Heritage, Vistani Heritage, Forgeborn Heritage, and Mantle of Misfortune), with the exception of Dusk Elf Stealth, grant either a new encounter or a new daily power plus some sort of additional minor bonus (usually some type of resistance or a conditional bump to a skill). In many ways, they're kind of like multi-class feats, which are also a bit more powerful than standard feats, because you can only take one of them.
If anything, the confusion comes in from Mike Mearls's article on tieflings which did have power swap feats; however, those were not bloodline feats (even though you can only take them once, if I remember correctly, because you're required to give up infernal wrath).
In any case, I don't think the granted encounter power is very powerful, so blowing a feat on it and restricting your future choices is a valid trade IMO.
I really don't understand the excitement about this new paragon path. The player who picks this becomes a nemesis for everybody, because he has an aura 1 that inflicts the SLOWED condition on EVERYONE, including his allies.
Have fun sleeching around the battlefield! Also a great way to start that encounter all bunched up together!
This piece has not seen one single session of playtesting.
People aren't excited about the paragon path, they talking about the feat to become a Winterkin Eladrin being really awesome. The PP is meh in many ways beyond being unfriendly to your teammates and mounts.
- Heritage feats are an excellent way to handle 'subraces', ie express the distinctive flavor in actual gameplay.
- Im glad the initial feat, Winterkin Heritage, is powerful. Requiring a substandard (or even standard) feat to access the rest of the heritage feats, sucks. Elsewhere, there are just too many excellent feats to choose from. Because players can only choose one initial heritage feat (sorta like multiclass feats), the extra oomph seems fair. Even tho the feat is powerful, it is especially flavorful, and this seals the deal.
- The racial paragon path is respectable.
- I love the fact, players can choose the heritage feat ANDOR the racial path to access the subrace theme, in this case the Fey Winter Court flavor. This gives players flexibility for how to build their character concept.
- The emerging subrace format works so well, the Genasi should probably have been written using this format as the standard - in fact could be rewritten using this format.
Anyway, good stuff.
See here:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...(Winterkin)_Eladrin
However, I'm also looking forward to other orientations for fey characters aside from cold. The Winter Court has been so far heavily favored but not so for other courts. Winter Fey make for good antagonists, so building up on them is understandable. Then, seeing you've built them up, it makes sense to base other articles on those to build up on the lore you already have - we have Koliada the Winter Witch in her own adventure, the Prince of Frost plus associated feats/paragon paths, and now finally the winterkin plus associated feats/paragon paths.
However, tying your Eladrin character up with a force that makes for good antagonists can get... questionable, especially with your adventuring companions. As a DM, I'd enjoy my group's Eladrin Wizard PC have more options toward other forces; the Summer Court and the Tulani of Summer Noble Eladrin comes to mind... especially seeing his penchant for fire spells.
I'd like to see more Summer Court too. I'm getting sick of winter. (Perhaps because if we have one more blasted snowfall here I will scream, knock it off, RQ. Hey Corellon, get to work on that 'Spring' thing of yours.)