Dragon 385Winning Races: Half-Elves
By James Auwaeter
Today in Dragon, Half-elves get a bunch of feats for making their Dilettante power better, as well as a PPath, the Half-Elf Polymath, that focuses on their Dilettante!
Lia assessed the battlefield as the fight raged around her. The magebred had pushed them hard and were trying to pin them against the walled ruins. She was out of healing infusions, and Graven looked tapped as well. They needed a chance to regroup.
Talk about this article here.
Adept Dilettante is a definite offender with regards to balance as well. Its second Benefit paragraph should be excised entirely.
Eh, I'm not the king of char-ops, but it seems like just another WRP. It can see how it might be going a bit far.
But Effortless Dilletante seems like the clear offender to me.
And I'll reitereate what I said in the CharOp thread - if Adept Dilletante is an indication that A) the pre-PHB3 races are getting versatile stats after all, and B) Half-elves are getting Wisdom, then I really hope they get made into Con +Cha/Wis instead of Cha +Con/Wis. If for no other reason than the massive amount of nerdraging it will result in from all the people that still can't get over them getting Con in the first place.
Adept Dilettante is a definite offender with regards to balance as well. Its second Benefit paragraph should be excised entirely.
I don't get why so many are up in arms over the stat swapping part - I think that should stay as is. But I agree the multi-class part is highly questionable, and needs changing or total removal.
I don't get why so many are up in arms over the stat swapping part - I think that should stay as is. But I agree the multi-class part is highly questionable, and needs changing or total removal.
Personally, I don't get the problem with the multiclass part. It seems a natural extension for Half-elves to be able to expand upon abilities related to their dilettante class. Just how broken a feat combo can they possibly get out of this, considering that in order to mix feats from 2 classes other than their base a half-elf would need to spend 4 feats (Adept Dilettante, a base multiclass feat, plus one feat from each class). Bards of any race can already do this and more. Is it really so bad to let half-elves of any class do the same.
As for the other feats, the main problem seems to be with interaction relating to Versatile Master. As such the obvious fix would seem to be to add a clause to each of these new feats stating that the benefit can only be used once per encounter, thus eliminating the interaction with Versatile Master.
As has already been said by Char Op (a lot), Effortless Dilletante is far too powerful. The rest of the article is potent yet acceptable, but Effortless Dilletante either needs to lose the charge ability or be limited to once per encounter.
isn't your dilletante power an encounter power already? I'll admit i don't read Char Op much at all, but the multiclassing feature of adept dilletante seems much more potentially dangerous.
isn't your dilletante power an encounter power already? I'll admit i don't read Char Op much at all, but the multiclassing feature of adept dilletante seems much more potentially dangerous.
It can be turned into an At Will in Paragon with a feat from PHB 2. So with a few feats, your Half Elf Avenger Daggermaster with Dilletante Twin Strike can wreck things.
On a Charge and on an Opp Attack.
With Radiant damage; doesn't need to use a particular weapon.
-Rozman
isn't your dilletante power an encounter power already? I'll admit i don't read Char Op much at all, but the multiclassing feature of adept dilletante seems much more potentially dangerous.
It can be turned into an At Will in Paragon with a feat from PHB 2. So with a few feats, your Half Elf Avenger Daggermaster with Dilletante Twin Strike can wreck things.
On a Charge and on an Opp Attack.
With Radiant damage; doesn't need to use a particular weapon.
-Rozman
ah, shows how much attention i've payed to half-elves.
But I agree the multi-class part is highly questionable, and needs changing or total removal.
I'd just like to see that feat get the "[Multiclass]" tag. That would actually weaken it substantially, especially for people without access to Windrise Ports.
I'd just like to see that feat get the "[Multiclass]" tag. That would actually weaken it substantially, especially for people without access to Windrise Ports.
Seriously, is having more than 1 multiclass really all that broken? Seems too feat intensive to me. Sure there are probably some great combos, but how many of them are actually wort the opportunity cost?
Bards can do it, Windriseports can do it, so what's the big deal with letting half-elves do it?
Also, isn't the feat melee-only? I doubt EVERY half-elf user will be using this feat when they picked ranged powers instead for their dilettante.
Seriously, is having more than 1 multiclass really all that broken? Seems too feat intensive to me. Sure there are probably some great combos, but how many of them are actually wort the opportunity cost?
Bards can do it, Windriseports can do it, so what's the big deal with letting half-elves do it?
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think you're right.
On the other hand, I've never really liked Windrise Ports, and wish it would be removed.
Seriously, is having more than 1 multiclass really all that broken? Seems too feat intensive to me. Sure there are probably some great combos, but how many of them are actually worth the opportunity cost?
Bards can do it, Windriseports can do it, so what's the big deal with letting half-elves do it?
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think you're right.
On the other hand, I've never really liked Windrise Ports, and wish it would be removed.
Ironically, I don't like Windrise Ports either in the general sense, since it's mostly used to enable combinations which seem to bend the intent of how feats work (e.g. Polearm Momentum being used on an implement attack). I did feel that half-elves should get a chance to join their Dilettante class a little more than what they do now. They still don't get the implements of that class, but with Adept Dilettante, they get most of the rest.