Got some good stuff in it, even though I'm not and never really have been a Realms guy. The Paragon Paths will honestly be the big draw for me, as they look to have a lot of applicability outside of FR; most of them manage to be both generic and cool at the same time. The new Warlock pact looks fun, particularly the pact power. Swordmage I was mentally prepared for, so it didn't have the impact it probably should have.
I love the way they handled spellscars, though. I'm going to be trying to sell my DM on letting me pick one up tonight at our game.
Did I ever mention I hate you? Having both TFU and the FRPG, darn you.
Several times, actually. If I remember correctly, it was generally when the elf-maid held her nose and jogged past you to get to me. ;)
In all seriousness; yeah, I'm a lucky bastard. I swear, though, if I had a store around that wasn't a soulless corporate chain, I'd wait for the books. As it stands, I'm choked by urbanization and a complete lack of good places to buy gaming supplies. Thus I'm forced to go to Borders and get the books early.
That's my story and I'm sticking with it. :D
Lucky that those soulless chain even sell those...the only place *I* can buy these books is in actual gaming stores.
Question: Did you get any hot new info about the Swordmage?
Not on a quick glance through.
The multiclass feat gives the shielding ability for one encounter a day, I know that. And there's a feat that seems to let you use your Int instead of Str for making basic melee attacks, but I'll have to look that over again to be sure.
I didn't really have any time in the two block walk from the store back to work to absorb that much, I'm afraid.
What I'm eagerly awaiting is Adventurer's Vault...
Lucky that those soulless chain even sell those...the only place *I* can buy these books is in actual gaming stores.
That's actually what I was hoping would be out today. It wasn't and I was disappointed, until I passed the stock cart on my way out and spotted the PG.
Heck I have to go across town on the off chance that my FLGS will have it. If not I gotta go more than 40 miles away to physically buy something. I usually get my fix from amazon...
Good job acquiring them bats. So what are the regionals like? Do they look adaptable to other worlds? Do they appear to be a good template to make your own off of?
Everything in the book looks remarkably modular, like it could easily be transplanted elsewhere, it just happens to be stationed in FR at the moment.
There's some good stuff to act as jumping points for homebrew, to be sure. The thing that caught my eye was the spellscar stuff; it's effectively a multiclass feat that doesn't have a class attached to it. It gives you one of three basic abilities and opens up a list of powers to choose from via the training feats.
I haven't had nearly the chance to look it over that I want to. Hopefully I'll be able to absorb some more on the way to our game tonight and give better answers in the morning.
That's actually what I was hoping would be out today. It wasn't and I was disappointed, until I passed the stock cart on my way out and spotted the PG.
It annoys me how even the WOTC site doesn't have a precise date for the Vault ><
I want it for my first shot at DM. I want some alchemical stuff.
Not on a quick glance through.
The multiclass feat gives the shielding ability for one encounter a day, I know that. And there's a feat that seems to let you use your Int instead of Str for making basic melee attacks, but I'll have to look that over again to be sure.
I didn't really have any time in the two block walk from the store back to work to absorb that much, I'm afraid.
Is the feat Swordmage only? or any class?
It annoys me how even the WOTC site doesn't have a precise date for the Vault ><
I want it for my first shot at DM. I want some alchemical stuff.
Sept 16
Is the feat Swordmage only? or any class?
It's got Swordmage as a requirement. I'd assume you can multi for it, but otherwise, yeah, it's SM specific.
Sept 16
Thanks!
One week to wait then ><
So what are the regionals like?
Ok, I just snuck another look to see about this stuff specifically.
It looks like the baseline for the regional abilities was "add two specific skills to your class skill list and gain a +1 bonus to each of them." Some are different, like one that lets you use your Wisdom instead of Constitution for starting HP (but not surges). They all look to be easily portable to other worlds if need be.
Thanks!
One week to wait then ><
not even!!
5 days!Ok, I just snuck another look to see about this stuff specifically.
It looks like the baseline for the regional abilities was "add two specific skills to your class skill list and gain a +1 bonus to each of them." Some are different, like one that lets you use your Wisdom instead of Constitution for starting HP (but not surges). They all look to be easily portable to other worlds if need be.
Oh that sounds really nice. Sounds like they had a brain when they did Regionals this go around.
I figure I would get stuff early from Borders, if this particular borders was even able to put books on the right shelf - most of their new RPG books end up spending about 3 weeks on the shelf with manga, fantasy novels, or comic books.
The thing that caught my eye was the spellscar stuff; it's effectively a multiclass feat that doesn't have a class attached to it. It gives you one of three basic abilities and opens up a list of powers to choose from via the training feats.
That sounds interesting. Details when possible please.
I know there will be more cool classes to choose from in the future, but I want to play them now :'( pout B)
One thing I'm interested in about that book is whether or not the swordmage is the only new class released. Do they have more campaign-specific classes? I'm still kind of used to 3.5 where they would have several to a book, are they greatly slowing the flow for 4e?
I know there will be more cool classes to choose from in the future, but I want to play them now :'( pout B)
The Swordmage is the only full class in the book. There's a new Warlock pact and a new set of powers that exists purely as a multiclass, though.
There's also a Warlock PP that works just as well for those multi'd in as it does for those that started in the class, which I think is a big step forward. It doesn't have abilities that trigger via the curse, so it's theoretically just as useful for a Fighter/Warlock as it is a Warlock/Fighter.
There's something similar for the Ranger (though the prerequisite is "Any Martial Class"), so they kind of took care of that as well. It's not quite the same, but it's a good step.
The Swordmage is the only full class in the book. There's a new Warlock pact and a new set of powers that exists purely as a multiclass, though.
There's also a Warlock PP that works just as well for those multi'd in as it does for those that started in the class, which I think is a big step forward. It doesn't have abilities that trigger via the curse, so it's theoretically just as useful for a Fighter/Warlock as it is a Warlock/Fighter.
There's something similar for the Ranger (though the prerequisite is "Any Martial Class"), so they kind of took care of that as well. It's not quite the same, but it's a good step.
^ would that be Purple Dragon ^ *already previewed :P* he he
I kinda feel like I'm cheating, given the fact that my local borders has zero respect for street dates. I picked up The Force Unleashed for Saga yesterday, and I found the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide there today (Nevermind that it was on a cart and not the shelf. What? Don't look at me like that, it was there and they rang me up, I did nothing wrong.)
Got some good stuff in it, even though I'm not and never really have been a Realms guy. The Paragon Paths will honestly be the big draw for me, as they look to have a lot of applicability outside of FR; most of them manage to be both generic and cool at the same time. The new Warlock pact looks fun, particularly the pact power. Swordmage I was mentally prepared for, so it didn't have the impact it probably should have.
I love the way they handled spellscars, though. I'm going to be trying to sell my DM on letting me pick one up tonight at our game.
I work for a certain company which sells. I can tell you first hand, if it's not on the street date list, we don't care...guess which publisher never has their products on our street date list...
We were selling Threats of the Galaxy a week before the date it was suppose to.
Although you better believe i had to sign a sheet stated I wouldn't not sell "War Within" and "Breaking Dawn" before street date or be fired...go figure
That sounds interesting. Details when possible please.
It's hard to explain. Basically, you multiclass in and can pick from a selection of powers like if you multi'd into Rogue or Wizard. They're all spellscar related and it even has it's own Paragon Path.
^ would that be Purple Dragon ^ *already previewed :P* he he
Actually, it would be Dragon Coast Corsair (or something like that). The Purple Dragon Knight has to be a Fighter, Paladin or Warlord.
I've had mine (and my Adventurer's Vault) for three days (I'm pretty sure Chapters.ca ships preorders as soon as they get the stock in). It's not terribly exciting for me personally because there's not much I can use with my current character (I was already using the LFR background for Cormyr, and I'm already multiclassed so I can't have a spellscar, but there's one paragon path I might consider if Martial Power doesn't have something better), but for the rest of the party there's a lot of stuff that could be useful (going to suggest our shadar-kai warlock takes a look at taking the second pact feat from Dragon and investing in the Dark pact - especially in light of the low-level encounter power that adapts its damage type to match a foe's vulnerabilities).
I'm going to suggest to our Eladrin Fighter, who has charged into combat and been knocked unconscious 3 out of the last 4 encounters, that he look into Moon Elf Resilience. The running joke at this point is that runs up, gets waylaid and waits until the enemy moves past him before someone heals him enough to put him back on his feet, thus finding himself in a flanking position. Being able to spend another healing surge each combat for doing what he's doing would be a huge boon.
I like the Ghost of Eventide path, since it makes it a little easier to become hidden (I've discovered that Stealth is really important for a thrown-weapon specialist rogue since there's practically no other way to get combat advantage at range). Only problem is that the powers for the path are all melee-focused, and I don't like to get into melee if I can avoid it...
I prefer to just use Master Infiltrator and Bracers of the Perfect Shot. One round of invisibility plus the Stealth Utilities and Feats combined with intelligent use of terrain and hiding behind allies can keep you hidden for the entire fight. Rogues tend to primarily have melee based powers, but the Bracers can make up for that to some degree.
I'm excited. :bounce:
I reserved a copy and I'm getting it 30% off. :evillaugh
I'm gone!
The FRPG seems fairly functional, for lack of a better term. It could have done to expand more for little background bits, for the $30 asking price, such as actually provide a picture for the linguistic alphabets it describes, which the 3e FRCS did. However, the new races are nicely presented, the new class is shiny, and even outside of FR, it's worthwhile for providing the first real expanded playable content since the 4e core books. For the purpose of FR alone, the presentations of each national background and explanation of racial roles is nice. They get the point across, and don't say anything a player doesn't need to know.
If there's one real complaint I have, it's the absolute lack of anything at all for Returned Abeir beyond Akanul and Tymanther. This might be a mixed blessing, really, for those of us fleshing out the new continent to our own desires (which I am), but just a mention would have been wonderful.
As for the time being, I'll pretty much just be passing this around my current group, to help them out with the roleplay, and maybe use the new stuff to entice some other players in.
On another note: For Scepter Tower, it seems...utilitarian. There's just enough encounter-fodder mixed with roleplaying hooks to form a nice adventure framework, but I can't imagine running this one without at least a little bit of fleshing out.
I kinda feel like I'm cheating, given the fact that my local borders has zero respect for street dates. I picked up The Force Unleashed for Saga yesterday, and I found the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide there today (Nevermind that it was on a cart and not the shelf. What? Don't look at me like that, it was there and they rang me up, I did nothing wrong.)
Got some good stuff in it, even though I'm not and never really have been a Realms guy. The Paragon Paths will honestly be the big draw for me, as they look to have a lot of applicability outside of FR; most of them manage to be both generic and cool at the same time. The new Warlock pact looks fun, particularly the pact power. Swordmage I was mentally prepared for, so it didn't have the impact it probably should have.
I love the way they handled spellscars, though. I'm going to be trying to sell my DM on letting me pick one up tonight at our game.
picked it up this morning, not had a chance to read a lot of it yet but I am in love with the swordmage, so making a warhammer style elven swordmaster with it, assuming i can ever play instead of run
Here I am, checking Borders, Barnes & Noble, Hobbytown and two local game shops... and I never, ever, manage to find anything early.
I figure I would get stuff early from Borders, if this particular borders was even able to put books on the right shelf - most of their new RPG books end up spending about 3 weeks on the shelf with manga, fantasy novels, or comic books.
mine was at borders but no vault yet