Hi.
A long long time ago, I made a thread about making the different bending styles from the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender into 4th edition classes. Then I stopped for whatever reason, then Usagi got interested and starting asking me questions. This, for whatever reason, got me interested in the project again and so many months later, it was finished.
It had full classes for the airbender, earthbender, firebender, and waterbender with 7 or 8 paragon paths each, epic destinies, feats, new mundane and magic items, hybrid classes, etc. The whole shebang to make a viable Elemental power source for the game and to make a strong foundation for a campaign based on the world of Avatar.
It's been about five or six months now and we've decided now's a good time to revisit the classes and update it with what feedback we've recieved. I know a few of you were talking about trying them out and well... we want to know how it went and how we could make these classes better.
I know I want to go back and rewrite some of the powers to be a bit more interesting. I know that stuff just did not get put into the PDF (small stuff, mainly, like keywords, certain changes, etc.).
So there. Open call.
www.megaupload.com/?d=4EHZR7EH
While some might complain about how you've seperated so many of the elite abilities of the characters into seperate paragon paths, I personally think that was a perfectly reasonable, balanced equation. After all, D&D isn't the TV show; PCs can't just do everything, and besides which, if you really want to represent the TV characters, in the context of their universe they're basically epic tier characters who chose a second Paragon Path in lieu of an Epic Destiny. Toph would be an Earthbender/Seismic Adept/Metalbender, for example, while Azula would be a Firebender/Blue Flame Adept/Lightningbender.
Speaking of Epic Destinies, the ones you chose were both quite flavorable and yet at the same time felt like they could fit into the world of the TV series, if it operated just a tiny bit more like Dungeons & Dragons.
Ex: Earthbending Dabbler [Multiclass Airender]
...and I'm fairly sure that the Fire Nation Uniform is not a Military Melee Weapon.
Also like the throw in a comendation for the vast amount of work that must have gone into this...
Ahhhh! It's good to be back. Well, I for one am excited to get a chance to update this thing. I am still surprised that we finished it, let alone so long ago. I will be around, let's talk straight crunch, but don't forget we will be writing in some new stuff that we thought of too late to put into the finished product, so if you feel like your favorite character got shafted and they totally deserved a paragon path, tell us!Characters I'm thinking of writing material for:
King Bumi: Distraction and confusion based Earthbender build. Ability to confuse enemies and appear less dangerous than you are.
The Cabbage Merchant: This one is for the laughs, I'm thinking anyone can be a Cabbage Merchant, something for the goofy person in your party. I have no idea what abilities this character would have, but one of the has to be called MY CABBAGES!
The Rough Rhinos: This is one I'm really sad that I missed. Weapon's specialist Firebender path, works well with allies. Kinda like a Kensai with a touch of Firebender. Might turn out to be a more Elite Fire Nation Soldier path so I can include the Yu Yan Archers.
June and the Shirshu: Tracking is fun. So is riding a giant animal. I feel like June was pretty obviously a beastmaster ranger kinda deal, but I will rewatch her episode and see if there are some things that a unique to her.
The Mechanist: Yeah! This one's gonna be fun. Explosives, flight machines, buildy powers.
Mai: Yes, I heard all of you people saying you wanted a path for Mai. Well I've decided to build some more stuff for characters that would be very easy to approximate with other classes. After all, I can't count the number of times I've seen people saying "Oh... you could just be a warlock... that's like a Firebender" so what was with me saying "Oh... you could just be a rogue... that's like Mai."
What do you think? Who am I missing?
Keep the balance stuff/noticed mistakes coming.
-Usagi
As for the Mechanist, I had an idea a while ago for alchemy/ritual style traps, bombs, vehicles, etc. That might be the easiest way to go about it...
As for new builds, I'm kind of tapped out for ideas. I had a GREAT idea right after we finished the first draft, but I'll be damned if I could remember it...
Aerial Acrobat:
You gain a +3 bonus to Acrobatics checks and, once per encounter, you may make an Acrobatics check as a free action.
This confuses me. An acrobatics check to do what? Jump? If so, you might want to add in a, you can use acrobatics instead athletics to jump feature.
Soundbender:
Deafening Action (11th Level): each creature adjacent to you is deafened. You may daze adjacent creatures instead of taking another action.
Perhaps you meant to a when you spend an action point, at the beginning of that one. You also probably need to add a duration to the deafened and dazed conditions.'
Windstaff glider:
Ride the Winds (16th Level): You gain a fly speed equal to your land speed.
Potentially unbalancing sinc you could feasibly stay in midair for most of your career and ignore every melee monster in the book completely.
Airbending/Earthbending/Firebending/Waterbending:
This is more personal preference than anything else, but it would be nice to see these powers scale with level.
Bend the Earth (Earthbender 2):
You might want to specify that one square of ground within range is elevated.
Dai Li:
“...” A glove made of stone flies out of the shad-
ows and asphyixates you.
Minor quotation typo.
Also, the level 20 daily seems rather situational. Perhaps add a less amazing effect if the target is not suprised?
...and I'll continue scouring the book later. Thanks for the confirmation that someone is reading these
. Also, Happy Holidays.Apparently me and CJ are of different minds.
I should clarify, I'm looking for a way to make each character if they haven't been made before. June, for example, is probably a ranger, like we said, but I think she definitely has some powers that make her Shirshu a little more unique. That probably means we make a stat block for the Shirshu beast companion, a couple powers that link with that and then a feat or two.
Mai is the same dealie, she's clearly a rogue or a ranger, but let's look for a feat or a power that is really Mai.
I know a couple of Epic Destinies are in my brain:
Stone Monolith: A shaperish path. It would focus on defense and indomitability. Think Juggarnaught with a dash of Golem.
Eternal Flame: Our long awaited Harmonious destiny. I'm thinking it would be an aura based Destiny, bending the raw emotional power of fire into rainbows of death. Good times to be had by all.
Leviathan: This one is CJ's, you remember the end of season 1, like that.
As always, I haven't got a clue what the Airbender should have.
Back when I was working on this, I was writing these things in my sleep, I would go out to pick some veggies and think of a couple of new classes while I was out. I'm hoping to be back in the groove soon. Keep the critiques coming sisters and brothers! Happy Seasonal Gift Exchange!
-Usagi
Rage of the Dragon (16th Level): When you are first bloodied, increase the extra damage from your source of strength by 4. 2 and you can’t go over your maximum Source of Strength dam- age.
Typo.
Lightningbender
Lightning Crush (16th Level): Whenever you use a firebender or lightningbender attack with the Lightning keyword, you may choose to take a -2 penalty to the attack roll to increase the damage dealt by 4.
This seems kinda useless. +4 damage is (in 99.8% of cases) worse than +2 attack.
White Lotus Novice
Effect: Use a melee or ranged at-will attack power. If you hit, you may slide the target a number of squares equal to half your level. The target grants combat advantage to you until the end of your next turn.
This could get kinda crazy at level 30. 15 square slides are rather dangerous...
White Lotus Specialist - White Lotus Gambit
Whoa. You get to let a ton of allies leap forward and use souped up MBAs, then stun the target, as a move action!?!
The Moon Spirit - Moons Wrath
Until the stance ends you gain a +2 power bonus to Waterbender attack powers
+2 to attack? +2 to damage? +2 to both?
For typos and other missteps where the solution is obvious, we will simply fix, but for rules changes, I'll post what I think the solution ought to be. In some cases these are left-overs from a previous draft that didn't get updated properly. Also, please include either a page number or a short quote so we can easily find and catalogue whatever's wrong.
Lightningbender
Lightning Crush (16th Level): Whenever you use a firebender or lightningbender attack with the Lightning keyword, you may choose to take a -2 penalty to the attack roll to increase the damage dealt by 4.
This seems kinda useless. +4 damage is (in 99.8% of cases) worse than +2 attack.
Agreed. The solution:
Lightning Crush (16th Level): Whenever you use a firebender or lightningbender attack with the Lightning keyword, you may reduce your Source of Strength damage by 2. If you do, the attack deals an additional 1d10 damage.
Now the saavy among should notice that's just the text from the Lightning Burst feat. Well, upon looking back that feat seems disappointing for Epic Tier. The idea still rocks, so here's the beefed up Lightning Burst
Lightning Burst: Whenever you use a firebender or lightningbender attack with the Lightning keyword, you may reduce your Source of Strength damage by 6. If you do and the attack hits, the target is stunned until the end of your next turn.
White Lotus Novice
Effect: Use a melee or ranged at-will attack power. If you hit, you may slide the target a number of squares equal to half your level. The target grants combat advantage to you until the end of your next turn.This could get kinda crazy at level 30. 15 square slides are rather dangerous...
This is as good a time as any to make a confession. I had an innaccurate understanding of the rules when I wrote this. Specifically, I thought all of those powers that say "the target a number of squares equal to your Dexterity modifier" affect a target equal to you Dex + half your level and such and such. This is a pretty common misconception and... well, I still think the rules are unclear, but yeah, that's how I wrote a lot of these powers with that concept in mind. This is a major reason why the book needs a rehaul.
This power should read:
... you may slide the target a number of squares equal to your Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma modifier...
White Lotus Specialist - White Lotus GambitWhoa. You get to let a ton of allies leap forward and use souped up MBAs, then stun the target, as a move action!?!
Sure... too much? Should it be changed to a Standard Action? Let's change it to a Standard Action...
The Moon Spirit - Moons Wrath
Until the stance ends you gain a +2 power bonus to Waterbender attack powers
+2 to attack? +2 to damage? +2 to both?
When I wrote the power I was thinking both.
Until the stance ends you gain a +2 power bonus to attack and damage rolls made with Waterbender, Waterbender paragon path and Moon Spirit powers...
If you are having a dearth of ideas, take a look at themes. If you haven't seen them before, a theme is chosen at 1st level and grants you a power, and past that point, whenever you gain a power, you can choose a theme power or a class power. I dunno, but it seems like concepts like southern/kyoshi warrior could be conveyed better by a theme than a feat system that makes you bleed for every power.
Great. Can you direct me to some source material so I can look into Themes?
Aerial Acrobat:
You gain a +3 bonus to Acrobatics checks and, once per encounter, you may make an Acrobatics check as a free action.This confuses me. An acrobatics check to do what? Jump? If so, you might want to add in a, you can use acrobatics instead athletics to jump feature.
Yes. That is, normally an Acrobatics check is a move action or even a Standard action. This way, once per encounter while making an Acrobatics check you can declare that it will only take a free action. It's not a jump, but it could be another, more creative,kind of movement of suitable airbendery badassery.
Soundbender:
Deafening Action (11th Level): each creature adjacent to you is deafened. You may daze adjacent creatures instead of taking another action.
Perhaps you meant to a when you spend an action point, at the beginning of that one. You also probably need to add a duration to the deafened and dazed conditions.'
Also yes. Until the end of your next turn, since it can hit multiple targets.
Windstaff glider:Ride the Winds (16th Level): You gain a fly speed equal to your land speed.
Potentially unbalancing since you could feasibly stay in midair for most of your career and ignore every melee monster in the book completely.
Yes again! You are on a roll here! Well let's see, this one needs a major overhaul.
A: Ride the Winds (16th Level): Whenever you run, you may fly for the second half of that movement.
B: Gliderstaff (11th Level): As long you are concious and not helpless, you never take falling damage.
C: Ride the Thermals, LvL 11 Daily Utility, Minor Action, Daily
Effect: You gain a fly speed equal to your land speed and you may hover until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists
Airbending/Earthbending/Firebending/Waterbending:This is more personal preference than anything else, but it would be nice to see these powers scale with level.
I'm inclined to agree. Right now we have added in a simple feat for benders who want to focus on this ability. What do you think internet?
Also, the [Dai Li] level 20 daily seems rather situational. Perhaps add a less amazing effect if the target is not suprised?
...and I'll continue scouring the book later. Thanks for the confirmation that someone is reading these . Also, Happy Holidays.
Target: One creature
Hit: 2d8 damage and the target is grabbed.
Special: If the target is surprised, the attack deals no damage and the target is instead unconcious [save ends].
Good, aweseome, great. Fun? Yes, fun.
-Usagi
. These all seem like really good fixes, but I'd to quibble a bit on the Dai Li again.
I still think that the lvl 20 daily could be a bit stronger, perhaps 3d8 or 4d8, and maybe let the power have an attack roll bonus if the target is suprised? I just think that most lvl 20 dailys have to be not just good, but on the "Whoa." *Re-reads power* level.
Source material for themes... Hmmmm...
Sadly the only thing I can think of is their original source the Dark Sun Campaign Setting. It's a nice setting anyway, but the themes were part fo what sold it to me. Unfortunately, I don't know of any good/free theme homebrew.
The Mai Addendum: What really struck me about Mai was that she had a tendency to pin people to walls/ships/columns and throw 2-5 daggers at once.
Mounts: I dunno, but adding mounts would be nice, since there are a fair amount of them in Avatar.
Metalbender: Again, the level 20 daily does not seem close enough to the edge of brokenness.
I shall return with more input, and possibly some theme homebrew of my own.
On Facebook, I was talking back and forth with a guy who was actually running an Avatar campaign at the time. Here are some snippets.
Point of confusion for me, paragon paths are acquired at lvl 11, so why the lvl 10 paragon powers for everyone? Is there an optional rule/errata I've missed?
(This one made me feel really embarassed.)
The air bender got a lot more play this game. All told I've come to the conclusion that the air bender is a more controllery controller than the original, which is a good thing.
We had our earth bender rebuild his character between games (after the first "tutorial" fight in the building game made him unhappy) and he's much happier. Helping with the rebuild I'm feeling like the shaping earthbender isn't too good as a defender, while the quaking is. I'm not sure if they are balanced overall, but I'm a huge fan of playing up your role, so it lacks appeal to me.
I also kinda feel the same about the torrential water bender, who feels like it is role confused about leader v controller. I see a potential point there, but something about it lacks appeal. I think mainly because the calming build, which is the leadery leader has both stats in the same block, which would encourage players to lean towards the torrential build.
Fire bender made me smile. Striker that works in an interesting and effective way. Though I have some worries that it is overpowered overall. The usual weakness of strikers is that they can't get a lot of enemies at once, and the firebender can. I'd like to compare them in totality against some of the other strikers a bit more.
And here are the contents of that mysterious document I found.
Airbender
Tornado Project – Level 1 Daily
Up to 3d8.
Leaping Tackle – Level 3 Encounters
2d8
Cut Through the Air – Level 5 Daily
Up to 3d8.
Miss: Half damage.
Gale Blast – Level 5 Daily
4d6 damage. Target is slowed UENT and pushed 5 squares.
Air Pelt – Level 9 Daily
Remove the combat advantage (save ends). Instead: Allies may move through the target's square without provoking an opportunity attack.
Mighty Lungs – Level 9 Daily
-4 to attack rolls (se)
Aurora Wall -- Level 13 Encounter
Up to 3d8.
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, the wall blocks line of sight and effect.
Pathfinder -- Level 13 Encounter
Increase range to line 5. Reduce damage to 2d6.
Air Funnel -- Level 15 Daily
Up to 4d10.
Earthbender
Make a new feat that gives a +2 feat bonus to earthen shield and shifting grounds. This increases to +4 at 11th, and +6 at 21st.
Waterbender
Fix gradient on first page.
Water Whip
Allies: Allies may shift 1 square as a free action.
Level 1 Encounters
They all do 1d8 damage.
Level 1 Daily
Chi Funnel
Might need a boost.
OK, let me start this off with a bit of a (probably unnecessary) preface.
I'm currently a handful of games into running a campaign using the rules as they currently stand. I've restricted a few things, like class selection is just 8 options (4 benders, guerrilla, rouge, fighter, warlord). The players all all benders right now, 5 players. One of each and two water benders.
I've got a few years of college art school behind me. I know that seems irrelevant. But all projects end with a crit (critique) where the whole class sits in a circle and lets loose on the project. So I want to say that if i seem harsh or overly free with my opinions, that's my excuse XP.
Most importantly I'm really impressed by the whole thing, the game has been a complete blast so far, and I think you did a great job. ^_^ Given that I'm kind of a judgmental so and so, that's hopefully worth something. Now, onto the crit part...
Let's take this in sections. First, the overall rules things...
Paths/Lines - I think both of these are excellent overall ideas. They really reflect the style of avatar "magic", and after reading the blurb on them I find myself wanting them in the rest of the 4th ed world. I especially feel like lines are an exciting and meaningful part of the game. On the other hand, paths kinda aren't. Not because the idea doesn't work, but because there are VERY few of them floating around. Since the idea is so fun I would really like to see more of them.
Perhaps my only real solid complaint is that they lack a type (which they desperately need) of one of: Close, Area, Ranged, or Mellee. For purposes of my game I've appended Close to all line or path attacks. Seems to be working.
Equipment - I feel the gear is mostly pretty solid. It is obviously not enough for a full campaign, but is more than enough for a decent DM to work from to fill a whole campaign. A couple of items have minor issues of their own. The one that jumps out to me is the fire days mask. Given that there are only two path powers in the fire benders total list this items ability (which seems super cool) is actually really hard to actually use. This feels mostly like a disconnect between the items and the classes they support. Not a big one, but worth a crack at bringing together.
Class Bending Powers - The generic at will bending powers of the classes are a problem. They seem at first glance like something really cool/versatile/win but when you start trying to use them they keep coming up on weird and uncomfortable limits/lack of limits. I recommend replacing them with a utility power block (ala the core books wizard) for each class.
Some examples of powers I recommend in there
Torch at will * elemental, Fire
Minor action Ranged 5
Effect: Cause a ball of fire the size of a lit torch to appear.
Sustain Minor
Special: You may move its to any other square within range as a minor action.
Also, you may light a torch or other easily flammable substance with this.
Also, you may move this into an opponent's square to attack them.
(attack)
Dex vs reflex
Hit: 0 dmg (plus source of strength) and the small fireball goes out.
Rock Cart at will * elemental
standard action close blast 1
effect: you cause the ground to rise up into the shape of a rock cart, capable of carrying friends and gear.
Roll Attack roll, results determine capacity.
9 or lower, 250lbs
10-24 500lbs
25 - 39 1000lbs
40+ 2000lbs (taken from tenser's floating disk)
Sustain standard
Special; When you spend a move action to move normally you may choose to have this cart stay adjacent to you (move with you) If you do not it crumbles as soon as it is not adjacent to you.
You may spend a move action to move this cart your movement in a straight line, it crumbles at the end of the move.
Also things like; Earth Tent; Warm/Cool Breeze; fish snag; stone sculpt; fire show; ghost sound(for a few of them); help/hinder swimmer; etc
OK, now for the meat of this thing (yeah, that was just the warm up, what of it?)
Classes!
Air - First off i love air benders in this book. They are definitely the best done of the classes in it, and are probably some of the better done controllers period. The focus on push/pull/slide and prone is exactly how an air bender feels like they "should" be to me, and it makes them fill their role as controllers better than so many (cough AOE wizard cough)
That said, nothing is perfect. ^_^ The biggest thing I would like to see is more path powers. Especially some very long range weak impact path powers. It just seems to me that paths sum up the air bender way so very well. I would also like to see a few powers that capitalize on the air bender's mobility a bit more. Flyby attack style.
Silly detail, air benders have very few minor actions. That could probably stand to be improved.
Earth - For everything good I had to say about air benders I must say ill of earth benders. These are definitely the worst of the classes in this book. So let me take a moment and triage what I feel is up with these guys.
The problems I have with the earth bender all end up boiling down to role confusion. I feel like the earth bender is too busy trying to be a bit of everyone to successfully be itself. A defender needs to do two things, and do them very well. Foremost it needs to punish opponents for attacking allies other than itself, and second it needs to live through being the one hit. The earth bender tries to do this via the earthen shield and shifting ground abilities. Unfortunately they just don't work very well for that.
Both moves don't really punish, they reduce the effectiveness of the opponent's attack. While that does extend the lifespan of your allies, it isn't nearly as tactically useful. Worse still the ability can be used on yourself. This makes it function like an anti-taunt. Just what a defender never wants.
Plus the earth bender powers are severely role confused. I see a lot of controller movement/terrain changing and the like. If that made the enemy focus on attacking the defender (IE movement away from the earth bender is difficult terrain) that would be cool, but often it actually makes attacking the earth bender harder. Example, force of earth gets them away from you, not a good thing. Propelling stone is likely to make you hard to hit, can be used to cover an ally, but is hard to use that way.
Mostly though I think the earth bender needs a new core mechanic that controls agro better.
Fire - Fire is a solid striker, and honestly may be a bit OP. I think you mixed the good of the usual striker (high damage) with a good usually reserved for the controller (AOEs) and resulted in multiplying the first in a way that isn't usually achievable. Thus far though my worries in that area have not been born out by my campaign. So I could be worried over nothing.
There is one problem though. The harmonious build is stronger than the raging build. I like the mechanics for both, but the harmonious is more useful overall. I don't imagine that would be too hard to tweak together.
Personal thought on the matter. I would love to see the two builds play a little more differently, so perhaps keep the harmonious just as it is and change the raging to provide a bonus to crit chance or something similar instead of standing damage. Makes the harmonious feel reliable while the raging feels reckless. just a thought.
Water - I like the water as well, especially the calming build. Feels like a nice mix of different styles of support. The torrential build feels a bit too controllery too me, but it ends up playing acceptably. The flowing strike feature can be a bit hard to keep straight sometimes, but it is far from unplayable. Also, is it meant to not work on area and close attacks?
Avatar - Seems a bit OP for just a few feats. Especially changing the stats on the powers you get from other classes to your own. I really like the idea of being the ultimate multi classer, but i think it needs to be tweaked back a bit. I wondered at one point if it wouldn't do better as it's own class, with class features of its own and picking from the others power lists depending on level, but I'm not sure if that would work better or worse.
I think along the lines of new content what I'd like to see is a little more core role focus. For example the rough rhinos would do well as a paragon path open to martial classes that allows firebending to be used in a more defensive manor, giving the fighter and it's ilk some new defender-y options.
June struck me as a controller myself. With a focus on incapacitating her opponenets. Then again, that was mostly the creature. A Brute/Controller Elite mob?
Cabbage Merchant, defender based around "art of distraction" style powers? Ok, maybe that's too silly of an idea... ^_^
Oh, and on the topic of controller business. Push, pull, and slide are way more powerful than shift or move. Forced movements never draw an AOO, even when you force yourself. So they let you get around things like the fighters mark. They also work when prone with no ill effect (move and shift are halved, round down) and last but far from least they work unimpeaded when immobilized. In short replacing Shift with slide in all those powers makes them way more powerful, which may or may not be what you want. Perhaps most should be changed to shift, with a couple kept on slide for that sort of awesomeness.
Having played a few more games since I wrote that I've come to feel that the firebender is more powerful than I originally suggested. In a couple of fights I ran the numbers and the firebender alone did more damage than two rouges and a wizard taking full independant actions could have (assuming all three stood in the same square the firebender did and were hells bent on damage)
^_^ Have fun sirs.
I really want make use of your Avatar style character classes, even though I mostly DM the 4e games I play. However, I am having difficulty downloading the PDF files from either of the sites offered, as the connection keeps timing out. I was wondering if you could attach the PDF to an E-mail, or barring that, pull the text from it and ship it to me as a Notepad document. My e-mail address for this account is Aura.flare21@gmail.com. I would greatly appreciate it if you would kindly consider my request.
Thank you again,
GhostWing2010
Quickly, I am comfortable increasing the damage of the Dai Li's power, especially since using it to not knock someone out would be sorta lame by comparison. Err...
Okay. That's a lot of stuff to process and I will come back later to answer it bit by bit, but for now I wanna ask two questions:
1. What do you mean when you say:
"The generic at will bending powers of the classes are a problem. They seem at first glance like something really cool/versatile/win but when you start trying to use them they keep coming up on weird and uncomfortable limits/lack of limits."
What are the limits/lack of limits? I think the powers would be satisfying to use, and I would hate to get rid of them, though I might be willing to weaken them and then add in some of these specific powers. So you would get Bending and two Utilities based on your class. That way there would be a bunch of simple things you could do with Earthbending, which can do a lot of little things and you would have two more specific and therefore more powerful options at your disposal. But I can't start writing that until I hear more about what exactly is wrong with what we wrote already.
2. In regard to the Earthbender:
I agree, looking back there are a lot of powers that protect the Earthbender. I think CJ will agree we should change most if not all of them (I've been wrong about that before, but still). But you say preventing attacks is "less tactically useful" and I wanna understand that.
You raised a bunch of good points, I will respond to more of them soon. Also... this post, CJ are you gonna have to a be the middleman between the Forum and this friendly buddy of yours?
Oh, also, Cabbage Merchant is brewing in my head. I have ideas, I will post it soon.
-Usagi
I was talking to ANOTHER guy who played earthbenders a few days ago who said that he was very surprised that earthbenders didn't have a lot of stances available to them which I totally agree with. We should also utilize more powers that center on watched allies.
So... how do we wanna do this? Fixing everything, that is.
Another guy who runs an Avatar game asked me via Facebook to post this for him, as his Wizards account is broken.OK, let me start this off with a bit of a (probably unnecessary) preface. I'm currently a handful of games into running a campaign using the rules as they currently stand. I've restricted a few things, like class selection is just 8 options (4 benders, guerrilla, rouge, fighter, warlord). The players all all benders right now, 5 players. One of each and two water benders.I've got a few years of college art school behind me. I know that seems irrelevant. But all projects end with a crit (critique) where the whole class sits in a circle and lets loose on the project. So I want to say that if i seem harsh or overly free with my opinions, that's my excuse XP.Most importantly I'm really impressed by the whole thing, the game has been a complete blast so far, and I think you did a great job. ^_^ Given that I'm kind of a judgmental so and so, that's hopefully worth something. Now, onto the crit part...
Well I'm here to hear some critisism, so it looks like we're gonna be pals.
Let's take this in sections. First, the overall rules things...
Paths/Lines - I think both of these are excellent overall ideas. They really reflect the style of avatar "magic", and after reading the blurb on them I find myself wanting them in the rest of the 4th ed world. I especially feel like lines are an exciting and meaningful part of the game. On the other hand, paths kinda aren't. Not because the idea doesn't work, but because there are VERY few of them floating around. Since the idea is so fun I would really like to see more of them.Perhaps my only real solid complaint is that they lack a type (which they desperately need) of one of: Close, Area, Ranged, or Mellee. For purposes of my game I've appended Close to all line or path attacks. Seems to be working.
I agree on both counts, more Line/Paths which are now Close attacks. Any of you disagree?
Equipment - I feel the gear is mostly pretty solid. It is obviously not enough for a full campaign, but is more than enough for a decent DM to work from to fill a whole campaign. A couple of items have minor issues of their own. The one that jumps out to me is the fire days mask. Given that there are only two path powers in the fire benders total list this items ability (which seems super cool) is actually really hard to actually use. This feels mostly like a disconnect between the items and the classes they support. Not a big one, but worth a crack at bringing together.
Right, well this is also solved by the previous fix. Also, anyone who has ideas for equipment please throw it at me. I had the most trouble with that part because I simply couldn't remember much of it and I didn't want to watch the show all over again just looking for objects.
Class Bending Powers - The generic at will bending powers of the classes are a problem. They seem at first glance like something really cool/versatile/win but when you start trying to use them they keep coming up on weird and uncomfortable limits/lack of limits. I recommend replacing them with a utility power block (ala the core books wizard) for each class.Some examples of powers I recommend in thereTorch at will * elemental, FireMinor action Ranged 5Effect: Cause a ball of fire the size of a lit torch to appear.Sustain MinorSpecial: You may move its to any other square within range as a minor action.Also, you may light a torch or other easily flammable substance with this.Also, you may move this into an opponent's square to attack them.(attack)Dex vs reflexHit: 0 dmg (plus source of strength) and the small fireball goes out.Rock Cart at will * elementalstandard action close blast 1effect: you cause the ground to rise up into the shape of a rock cart, capable of carrying friends and gear.Roll Attack roll, results determine capacity.9 or lower, 250lbs10-24 500lbs25 - 39 1000lbs40+ 2000lbs (taken from tenser's floating disk)Sustain standardSpecial; When you spend a move action to move normally you may choose to have this cart stay adjacent to you (move with you) If you do not it crumbles as soon as it is not adjacent to you.You may spend a move action to move this cart your movement in a straight line, it crumbles at the end of the move.Also things like; Earth Tent; Warm/Cool Breeze; fish snag; stone sculpt; fire show; ghost sound(for a few of them); help/hinder swimmer; etc
Right, well as I said before, I don't fully understand what you mean by "limits/lack of limits" sooooooo, here's my idea. We tone down the generic bending powers so that they each do... one or two things. Move the element and on thing unique to the class in question (Firebenders can make a fire, Waterbenders can boil and freeze water, Earthbenders can dig and Airbenders can push or pull objects, for example), then we write up three or four very simple abilities for each class and you get to choose one at character creation. We can also, since we're reducing the overall utility of the abilities slightly, make these abilities more powerful and give them the ability to scale with level.
I also think we should consider adding in Paragon level bending At-Wills as a Class standard. Since high level bending isn't limited in the show and all. I've been looking at the Earthbender and it's got lots of utilities that need to go, I was never that attached to a lot of the Waterbender's utility and so on...
OK, now for the meat of this thing (yeah, that was just the warm up, what of it?)Classes!Air - First off i love air benders in this book. They are definitely the best done of the classes in it, and are probably some of the better done controllers period. The focus on push/pull/slide and prone is exactly how an air bender feels like they "should" be to me, and it makes them fill their role as controllers better than so many (cough AOE wizard cough)
This one is solidly on Ekio, I have no idea how Controller's work and the Airbender is his baby.
That said, nothing is perfect. ^_^ The biggest thing I would like to see is more path powers. Especially some very long range weak impact path powers. It just seems to me that paths sum up the air bender way so very well. I would also like to see a few powers that capitalize on the air bender's mobility a bit more. Flyby attack style.
Silly detail, air benders have very few minor actions. That could probably stand to be improved.
Noted. We'll see if there are some less than exciting powers that can be dropped.
Earth - For everything good I had to say about air benders I must say ill of earth benders. These are definitely the worst of the classes in this book. So let me take a moment and triage what I feel is up with these guys.
The problems I have with the earth bender all end up boiling down to role confusion. I feel like the earth bender is too busy trying to be a bit of everyone to successfully be itself. A defender needs to do two things, and do them very well. Foremost it needs to punish opponents for attacking allies other than itself, and second it needs to live through being the one hit. The earth bender tries to do this via the earthen shield and shifting ground abilities. Unfortunately they just don't work very well for that.Both moves don't really punish, they reduce the effectiveness of the opponent's attack. While that does extend the lifespan of your allies, it isn't nearly as tactically useful. Worse still the ability can be used on yourself. This makes it function like an anti-taunt. Just what a defender never wants.Plus the earth bender powers are severely role confused. I see a lot of controller movement/terrain changing and the like. If that made the enemy focus on attacking the defender (IE movement away from the earth bender is difficult terrain) that would be cool, but often it actually makes attacking the earth bender harder. Example, force of earth gets them away from you, not a good thing. Propelling stone is likely to make you hard to hit, can be used to cover an ally, but is hard to use that way.Mostly though I think the earth bender needs a new core mechanic that controls agro better.
Well that's a lot of problems. Like I said, we'll be changing a lot of their utilities. I also agree with the "anti-taunt" being a problem, I always felt it didn't fit. CJ suggested changing AC bonus to Con, I'm not opposed. I think there are some simple fixes here (changing defensive powers so they affect the watched allies instead).
Fire - Fire is a solid striker, and honestly may be a bit OP. I think you mixed the good of the usual striker (high damage) with a good usually reserved for the controller (AOEs) and resulted in multiplying the first in a way that isn't usually achievable. Thus far though my worries in that area have not been born out by my campaign. So I could be worried over nothing.There is one problem though. The harmonious build is stronger than the raging build. I like the mechanics for both, but the harmonious is more useful overall. I don't imagine that would be too hard to tweak together.Personal thought on the matter. I would love to see the two builds play a little more differently, so perhaps keep the harmonious just as it is and change the raging to provide a bonus to crit chance or something similar instead of standing damage. Makes the harmonious feel reliable while the raging feels reckless. just a thought.
Noted. I agree that they have more area attacks than most strikers. I was looking at the Sorcerer when I made them and that kid makes stuff blow up, I'm not worried. I've heard critisism, but everyone so far has followed it up by saying that haven't seen it actually being a problem.
As for the Raging vs. Harmonious distinction... hrm... I can see that. You make multiple attacks and build up your Source of Strength and then burn it on one big attack. I'll think on it.
Water - I like the water as well, especially the calming build. Feels like a nice mix of different styles of support. The torrential build feels a bit too controllery too me, but it ends up playing acceptably. The flowing strike feature can be a bit hard to keep straight sometimes, but it is far from unplayable. Also, is it meant to not work on area and close attacks?
Flowing Strike is meant to be a one-on-one sort of boost that gets affected primarily by melee attacks (close attacks included). One feat gives you ranged defense too, perhaps I should add another that protects against area attacks?.
Avatar - Seems a bit OP for just a few feats. Especially changing the stats on the powers you get from other classes to your own. I really like the idea of being the ultimate multi classer, but i think it needs to be tweaked back a bit. I wondered at one point if it wouldn't do better as it's own class, with class features of its own and picking from the others power lists depending on level, but I'm not sure if that would work better or worse.
The first thing I wrote after we finished was a streamlined Avatar. I will post it soon.
-Usagi
Right, well as I said before, I don't fully understand what you mean by "limits/lack of limits" sooooooo, here's my idea. We tone down the generic bending powers so that they each do... one or two things. Move the element and on thing unique to the class in question (Firebenders can make a fire, Waterbenders can boil and freeze water, Earthbenders can dig and Airbenders can push or pull objects, for example), then we write up three or four very simple abilities for each class and you get to choose one at character creation. We can also, since we're reducing the overall utility of the abilities slightly, make these abilities more powerful and give them the ability to scale with level.
I also think we should consider adding in Paragon level bending At-Wills as a Class standard. Since high level bending isn't limited in the show and all. I've been looking at the Earthbender and it's got lots of utilities that need to go, I was never that attached to a lot of the Waterbender's utility and so on...
I like your suggestions, but feel I should respond in more depth to the limits I'm feeling.
Part of the likely source of the problem is my groups other game. We play Old World of Darkness Mage. This game has VERY open ended rules and really really rewards creative applications of powers. This has somewhat trained my players to look at open ended abilities a little more... dangerously. Some examples I've encountered so far in my game include...
-I'm a water bender and he is in water, I can just drag him down and insta kill him right?
-I can make as much water as I want "rough?" right? Wait, only 1gal worth? There's no way that's good enough for 25 sq ft...
-I seriously can't waterbend enough water from the ocean right there to put out a fire on our boat?
-I can earthbend a tool/object of any complexity I want right? Like a clock from scratch or the like?
-Can't I just create a fire in front of me with firebending for defense? According to the books rules for stepping into a campfire it's pretty deadly.
-I can just earthbend out the ground from under him, over and over again, can't I? It will either prone him or I can move him about as a minor action.
-Can't I just airbend the air out of his lungs?
-I can carry pretty much anything templar's floating disk style with earthbending right? Wait, I can't do that ever? Not even an earth cart like the show?
-How many water benders does it take to push a boat (answer is something like 15,000 someone did the math, not me)
So yeah, there's a bit better idea I hope. Also, I'm definately ok with seeing the utility bending going down, the players are warriors after all, but I would be interested in maybe making utility bending a greater option. maybe a bunch of utility bending oriented feats? Or even a multiclass branch for each bending of "Utility Bender".
Well that's a lot of problems. Like I said, we'll be changing a lot of their utilities. I also agree with the "anti-taunt" being a problem, I always felt it didn't fit. CJ suggested changing AC bonus to Con, I'm not opposed. I think there are some simple fixes here (changing defensive powers so they affect the watched allies instead).
You also asked how I didn't think the stopping attacks was quite right. In the end that comes down to tactical play. When I see effective defenders rolling around their big trick always results in them looking right at the DM and saying "You sure you wanna attack someone other than me? You really really sure?" and the DM going "Ummm... not really... but I don't wanna attack you... you can't make me... or maybe you can..." That's why I kept mentioning the whole agro control idea. While the earthbender does but a hit on the damage delt by the enemy he can't really control where it is dealt like a fighter can.
Flowing Strike is meant to be a one-on-one sort of boost that gets affected primarily by melee attacks (close attacks included). One feat gives you ranged defense too, perhaps I should add another that protects against area attacks?.
I probably would. Though I'd really like to see flowing strike move more towards the waterbender's leder role and give its bonus' to allies. Give that defender and striker some more boosts (they never seem satisfied).
Most of these are clarified directly and explicitly in the book:
pg. 3:
"Nothing you create with this technique can deal damage, serve as a weapon or tool, or hinder another creature’s action. This technique cannot duplicate the effect of any other power. (Of course, DM”s discretion.)"
-I'm a water bender and he is in water, I can just drag him down and insta kill him right?
This would both hinder a creatures action and damage a creature, so no.
-I can make as much water as I want "rough?" right? Wait, only 1gal worth? There's no way that's good enough for 25 sq ft...
This however, is correct. You can, with the base power, only control up to a gallon of water. The Superior Bending feat makes the range of the ability 5 (pretty good) but only doubles the quantity you can bend at any one time.
-I seriously can't waterbend enough water from the ocean right there to put out a fire on our boat?
This confuses me, I assume the water is not in range? If that's not the case, then it must be a quantity question. I agree, Waterbenders should be able to move enough water to put out a fire.
-I can earthbend a tool/object of any complexity I want right? Like a clock from scratch or the like?
Nope. "Nothing you create with this technique can... serve as a... tool"
-Can't I just create a fire in front of me with firebending for defense? According to the books rules for stepping into a campfire it's pretty deadly.
Nope. "Nothing you create with this technique can deal damage..."
-I can just earthbend out the ground from under him, over and over again, can't I? It will either prone him or I can move him about as a minor action.
Nope. See above.
-Can't I just airbend the air out of his lungs?
Nope. See above.
-I can carry pretty much anything templar's floating disk style with earthbending right? Wait, I can't do that ever? Not even an earth cart like the show?
I wholeheartedly agree. Earthbenders should definitely be able to move stuff like this. Waterbenders should be able to do it over water and so on. This will definitely go in for the rewrite.
-How many water benders does it take to push a boat (answer is something like 15,000 someone did the math, not me)
Agreed. That is silly and will be fixed.
So yeah, there's a bit better idea I hope. Also, I'm definately ok with seeing the utility bending going down, the players are warriors after all, but I would be interested in maybe making utility bending a greater option. maybe a bunch of utility bending oriented feats? Or even a multiclass branch for each bending of "Utility Bender".
What I think is more likely is there will be a generic bending power for each class, and choice of one low level specialty. Then, as you level up, you'll either get more of these powers or more powerful specialized bending, depending on what we come up with. There will, of course, be feats to enhance this, but I think we will do some work on the basic idea first.
You also asked how I didn't think the stopping attacks was quite right. In the end that comes down to tactical play. When I see effective defenders rolling around their big trick always results in them looking right at the DM and saying "You sure you wanna attack someone other than me? You really really sure?" and the DM going "Ummm... not really... but I don't wanna attack you... you can't make me... or maybe you can..." That's why I kept mentioning the whole agro control idea. While the earthbender does but a hit on the damage delt by the enemy he can't really control where it is dealt like a fighter can.
That makes sense I suppose. Although I think the Earthbender can do this to some extent by watching a certain ally. Me and Ekio are thinkin' on this one.
I probably would. Though I'd really like to see flowing strike move more towards the waterbender's leder role and give its bonus' to allies. Give that defender and striker some more boosts (they never seem satisfied).
From pg 53.
"Hit: You or one ally within range gains a +1 to all defenses against the attacking creature until the end of your next turn. Increase the bonus to +2 at 11th Level, and +3 at 21st Level.
Miss: Choose an ally within range or yourself, they gain a damage bonus to their first attack against the attacking creature equal to your Dexterity or Charisma modifier until the end of your next turn."
As you can see, both bonuses can be applied to you, or an ally. They are only triggered when you are attacked however, which is why I want to go back and make the Torrential build subtype Defender instead of subtype Controller. Most people have a little bit of a problem with the Torrential build and, honestly, we have enough Controllers *cough, cough, everythingekiowritesisacontrollercough, cough*!
Oh... err... sorry. I've got a bit of a cold. I hope that clears up the confusion. From what I can see, the powers are never too good, just a little on the weak (or at the very least uninteresting) side. I will try to fix that.
Okay, the Waterbender is my baby, so I start with her. Here's the treatment I'm thinking of giving each class:
Waterbending: You gain the Waterbending class feature and you may choose one other At-Will power with the Bending Keyword. At 11th level you may choose a second At-Will power with the Bending Keyword, at 21st level you may choose a third. These powers do not count against your standard power total.
Waterbending--Waterbender Class Feature
You have learned how to manipulate water, moving it, changing it from ice to steam, or drawing it from your surroundings.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Bending
Minor Action, Ranged 2
Effect: You may do any one of the following: ♦ Move up to ten gallons of water from any location within range to any other location within range. ♦ Produce up to a gallon of water from moisture in the air, water in the ground or other inanimate sources. ♦ Freeze or boil up to a gallon of water within range. Special: Nothing you create with this technique can deal damage, serve as a weapon or tool, or hinder another creature’s action. This technique cannot duplicate the effect of any other power. (Of course, DM's discretion.)
Ice Bridge--Waterbender Class Feature
By carefully freezing the surface of the water, you can create a walkable surface.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Bending
Minor Action, Path 4
Effect: Squares in this power's path that are made of water become frozen and may be walked on until the end of your next turn.
Wave Motor--Waterbender Class Feature
With a repetitive pushing motion you can move through a body of water very quickly.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Bending
Minor Action, Close Burst 1
Effect: You and friendly creatures within the burst move your speed. Creatures affected this way must end this movement adjacent to you.
Special: This power only affects creatures submerged in water or standing on a mobile platform in water.
More to come, obviously only if people think this is a good idea.
We should, at the very least, provide some more distinctions between the different bender's powers. Right now they are all about the same. This is just one possible solution to that, one that allows for a space to put in other ideas later (i.e. homebrew alternatives to these mini-utilities so that player's can really customize what kind of bending they do). I really like the idea of putting a little more emphasis on each characters bending skills.
One choice that we should certainly consider is just making it standard that all the Bender classes get at least one At-Will utility at every Utility level. That would be sort of half-way between this idea and what we have already. If that were the case, the powers would be more powerful too. Not a bad thing.
-Usagi
That said, i really don't think path is necessary. I mean, couldn't you do something like the following and get basically the same effect?
Close burst x
Target: y creatures, no two of which may be more than z squares from each other
Unless the path is used when laying down a zonish type effect... But then couldn't you just do a Close wall?
Close wall 4
Target: Each creature in wall
Effect: squares in the wall... Etc.
I, for one, think we should definitely take advantage of them and maybe cull some of the close blasts and remake them into lines and paths. Especially the firebender (holy ****).
So, I was trapped at home with a computer, but without internet, the other day. It was right after a game of Avatar, so i was thinking about the game. And... well... I made a new earthbender. Not 100% done, but pretty much have the "core" down.
Here it is, for your perusal, use, reworking, or mockery, as your desires lend you.
(sorry if the post is a tad over-huge, also, the original had nice formatting that this one lacks.)
Earthbender
This is how I would like to see the earthbender, sort of my take on it. I was wondering if it could be made to fill my defendery desires without feeling like it has left the show's style too far behind. I'm pretty happy with it. You are welcome to use any or all of the parts here for your project, or not. ^_^ Consider this my contribution to the discussion, well, another contribution.
You can probably also tell that I'm fulfilling my single greatest 4th ed desire. I want more defendery defenders. I love the role, and would like to see it get morel ove from all over. To that end I've tried to make the earthbender the most defender like defender to have ever defended. They often sacrifice for their party, and even grow in strength as a side effect of sacrificing.
Any time you see the word Note I'm reminding myself, or the reader, of something, or just explaining why I went a certain way.
***Note: Any power that mentions "an ally" cannot be used to mean yourself, it will say "you or an ally" in that case.
Role: Defender
Source: Elemental
Key Abilities: Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence, Constitution
***Note: the decision to go strength over con is still pretty debatable. I did it to be more agro control (with standard AOOs) but I can see the argument that the earthbender could trade some agro control for survivability.
also more key abilities mean more viable builds, and reduces the odds of having one "Correct" build. Though I'm not sure I've managed that.
Armor Proficiencies: Coth, Hide, Chain, Scale, Plate
Weapon Proficiences: Simple Melee, Simple Ranged, Unarmed Attack
Implement: Ki Focuses, weapons with which you're proficient
Defense Bonus: +2 fortitude
Hit Points at 1st Level: 15 + Constitution Score
Hit Points for each level gained: 6
Healing Surges: 8 + Constitution Modifier
Skills: Insight (Wis), Perception (Wis), Choose two more skills at 1st level from:
Class Skills: Athletics (str), Endurance (con), History (int), Arcana (int), Religion (int)
Build Options: Thoughtful Earthbender, Willful Earthbender
Class Features: Resilience, Reactive Strike, Neutral Jing, Earthbending
Resilience
Choose one of Resilient Mind or Resilient Spirit.
When you spend a healing surge to regain hit points, or are effected by a power that acts as though you did (I.E. lay on hands and cure minor wounds) you regain additional hit points equal to your resilience.
When you are bloodied your Resilience goes up by one, this may stack if it occures mutiple times in an encounter
When you are dropped to zero or fewer hit points your Resilience goes up by two, this may stack if it occures multiple times in an encounter.
When an Ally is dropped to zero or fewer hit points your Resilience goes down by one.
Resilient Mind
Your Resilience starts each encounter equal to your Intelligence Modifier, and maxes out at your Intelligence Score.
Resilient Spirit
Your Resilience starts each encounter equal to your Wisdom Modifier, and maxes out at your wisdom score.
***Note: the Resilient Mind focuses on mindor controlleryness, moving enemies away from allies and the like while the Spirit focuses on leaderyness a bit, bonuses to allies and the like
Also, this power is pretty much the only thing keeping the earthbender up. Since most of what an earthbender does makes it (rather than it's allies) more likely to die, these bonus HPs are desperately needed.
Reactive Strike
When an enemy attacks an Ally you may use reactive strike. This is dependant on two factors.
One, that you still may use an AOO this turn, as reactive strike uses your AOO for the turn in question.
Two, that the positions of yourself, the ally, and the enemy qualify for one of the two strikes. If the positions qualify for both you may use whichever one you prefer. If you are not adjacent to either the enemy or the ally you may not use reactive strike.
The listed Reactive Strike powers do not themselves draw AOOs, but with Neutral Jing Reactive strike can be used to draw AOOs.
***Note: this is the difinatave power of the earthbender. It is a little more powerful than the fighter's mark at first, but lacks the ability to deny movement, the fighter's best trick. It also is designed to turn neutral jing into a monster.
If you are adjacent to the enemy making the attack you may use Shifting Ground
Shifting Ground Earthbender Feature
A wave of ground drives your enemies away from your allies.
At Will * Elemental, Implement
Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: An adjacent enemy attacks one or more allies
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + Strength modifier damage and the target is pushed one square away from one of the allies it is targeting (this may negate the attack, causing them to have wasted an action).
If you are adjacent to the ally being struck you may use Earthen Shield
Earthen Shield Earthbender Feature
A shield of earth rises up, taking the hit for an ally and driving back to return it whence it came.
At Will * Elemental, Implement
Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: An adjacent ally is attacked
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Strength vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + Strength modifier damage and the ally recieves a bonus to all defenses equal to your resilience for this attack (and any secondary attacks attached to it).
***Note, secondary attacks does not include mere mutliple attacks a round. So this would effect a poison based secondary attack vs fort, but would not effect a ranger's twin strike for the second hit.
Neutral Jing
You may spend a Standard, Move, and Minor action on your turn to use Neutral Jing. (Note: you may not use neutral Jing if you are lacking an action from dazed or the like, but you may act the turn you use it if you have action points)
Neutral Jing lasts until the begining of your next turn. While active you gain three benifits.
One, when you deal damage you deal additional damage equal to your Resilience.
Two, when you could perform a Reactive Strike or AOO you may instead perform any standard action, including reducing it to a move or minor action. This is still considered an immediate interrupt.
Three, enemies draw an AOO from you when they enter a square adjacent to you. This attack resolves immediately after the entry, unlike a normal AOO. (Note: this AOO can still be changed to another standard action)
***Note: Neutral Jing was meant to grab what I felt was the core of the earthbender's philosophy in the show. Which was simply "don't act, react." Let your opponent commit to a course of action first, so that your course of action will always be the right one.
Earthbending
I would prefer to work this out as a series of "cantrips", but that's another discussion entirely.
Level 1 At Wills
Force of Earth Earthbender Attack 1
The very earth around you turns into a whirlpool, moving your enemies and allies allike where you deem best.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close Blast 1
Target: All Creatures in Blast
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6 + Strength Modifier damage and the target is slid one square, but cannot be moved from the blast.
21st Level: 2d6 + Strength Modifier damage
Fortifying Strike Earthbender Attack 1
You reawaken your energies with one unyeilding blow.
At-Will * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength Modifier damage and you gain temporary hit points equal to your Strength modifier.
21st level: 2[W] + Strength Modifier damage
Supporting Strike Earthbender Attack 1
You reawaken an ally's energies with one unyeilding blow.
At-Will * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength Modifier damage and an Ally adjacent to you or the target gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier.
21st level: 2[W] + Strength Modifier damage
Grounding Stone Earthbender Attack 1
You command the earth to hold back your foes, and it obeys
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Range 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + Strength Modifier damage and if the target moves before the begining of your next turn they take an additional Intelligence Modifier damage.
21st level: 2d6 + Strength Modifier damage
Distracting Rock Earthbender Attack 1
With a single well placed stone you remind your enemy who they should be targeting.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Range 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs Will
Hit: 1d4 + strength modifier damage and the target takes a -3 to attacks against all targets except you until the end of its next turn.
21st level: 2d4 + strength modifier damage
Level 1 Encounters
Spike Drive Earthbender Attack 1
You drive the enemy into the dirt, keeping them right where you want them.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 2[w] + strength modifier damage and the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn.
Resilient Mind: Target is instead immobilized, Save ends.
***Note: Keep'em near ya, simple enough
Gravity Pull Earthbender Attack 1
You draw in your enemies like the earth itself, letting them burn like a meteor.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: You pull the target your wisdom modifier squares. The target draws AOOs as though it were performing a standard movement.
Resilient Spirit: Any Ally who recieves an AOO on the target gains a bonus to hit and damage equal to your wisdom modifier.
***Note: this power only punishes enemies who aren't attacking you. Since it is a pull it won't do shite on an adjacent enemy. This should strongly punish enemies who target your striker first, giving the striker a free hit and bringing them next to you at the same time.
Double Strike Earthbender Attack 1
You and the earth strike in perfect concert
Encounter* Elemental, Implement(first attack), Weapon(second attack)
Standard action Melee weapon
Target: One or two creatures
First Attack: Strength vs Fortitude
Hit: 1d10 + Strength modifier damage
Second Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 1[w] + strength modifier damage
***Note: So you sure you wanna walk by my Neutral Jing Character? I have double strike ready and I get my resilience damage to both hits ^_^
Level 1 Dailys
Unyeilding Earth Earthbender Attack 1
You reach into the earth, and borrow a little of its endless resolve.
Daily * Elemental, Stance
Standard Action
Target: Self
Effect: Your speed is reduced by 1. Whenever your hit points are reduced by an enemie's attack (Note: not temp hit points) your resilience goes up by 1. Any time an Ally is bloodied your Resilience goes down by 1.
***Note: stances rock, I wanna see more stances.
Cascade of Earth Earthbender Attack 1
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 2[w] + Strength modifier damage and the target is knocked prone and immobilized (save ends both)
Resilient Mind: Target takes a penelty to saves against this effect equal to your intelligence modifier.
Miss: Half Damage and the target is knocked prone.
Razorsand Pit Earthbender Attack 1
You drive your opponent into the dirt, Which drives itself painfully in as a series of tiny dealy spikes.
Daily* Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Hit: 2[w] + Strength modifier damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends)
Miss: Ongoing damage only
Special: The target may not attampt to save against this effect on a turn during which it has attacked.
Feats
Calming Breath
Prereq: Earthbender, Resilience feature
Benefit: You may spend a standard action to increase your Resilience by 1. If you do this while using neutral jing you gain 2 instead of 1.
Perfect Reactions
Prereq: Earthbender, Reactive Strike feature, Resilience feature
Benefit: If your resilience is greater than zero and your reactive strike is activated and you have your choice of which reactive strike power to use you may use both, first the Shifting Ground then the Earthen Shield, in return for which you reduce your Resilience by 1.
***Note, this requires that you be adjacent to the enemy, adjacent to the ally, have some Resilience, spend 1 resilience, and that that enemy attacks that ally. Such a hard one to pull off, but so nice if it does. Especially if it goes off while neutral jing is up, giving you two standard actions of your choice.
Here it is, my update to the Waterbender. I'm trying to fix two problems here:
1. Flowing Strike is only activated by Melee attacks (and ranged attacks with a certain feat). Now it get's one more catagory depending on your style.
2. From what I've heard, the Torrential build is good, but a little underwhelming. Also, we have too many controllery things in this book. Now the Waterbender can be defendery, an oft ignored secondary role (in my opinion at least, I haven't crunched the numbers). Some powers will be changed to reflect this and I will be adding feats in. The biggest change will be in the style dependent Torrential bonuses.
Text that differs from what's in the book is underlined and in italics.
WATERBENDER
“Flow like the water itself: steady and calm like a stream and fierce and torrential like the storm.”
CLASS TRAITS
Role: Leader. You use your bending powers to direct the chi inside your allies, healing wounds and raising spirits. You can also push enemies around and craft things out of ice to present advantageous situation to allies. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you might lean toward defender as a secondary role.
Source: Elemental. The waterbenders gather their power from the moon and its natural pull on the oceans, directing the waters in the same way.
Key Abilities: Wisdom, Dexterity, Charisma.
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, Leather, Hide.
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, simple ranged.
Defense Bonus: +1 Fortitude, +1 Will.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score.
Hit Points for each Level gained: 5.
Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution Modifier.
Trained Skills: Choose four skills at 1st level. Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Nature (Wis), Religion (Wis).
Build Options: Torrential waterbender, Calming waterbender.
Class Features: Healing Waters, Moon’s Blessing, Flowing Strike, Waterbending
Flowing Strike -- Waterbender Feature
You are as versatile as water itself, turning any attack into an advantage for you and your allies.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Free Action Range 10
Trigger: An enemy targets you with a melee attack.
Calming: The effect may be triggered by an area attack.
Torrential: The effect may be triggered by a close attack.
Effect: The effect depends on whether the attack hits, or misses.
Hit: You or one ally within range gains a +1 to all defenses against the attacking creature until the end of your next turn. Increase the bonus to +2 at 11th Level, and +3 at 21st Level.
Miss: Choose an ally within range or yourself, they gain a damage bonus to their first attack against the attacking creature equal to your Dexterity or Charisma modifier until the end of your next turn.
Special: You may not affect the same creature with this power more than once in the same round. When you create your character, choose Dexterity or Charisma as the ability score you use when giving damage bonuses with this power. These two choices remain throughout your character’s life and do not change the power’s other effects.
CALMING WATERBENDER
There’s no need to be offensive with it. Being calm and content, you bend the water with ease, helping your allies and hindering your enemies. Steady as the stream, complacent as the pond. Make Wisdom your primary as it dictates your powers. Make Charisma your secondary as you’ll rely on it to remain calm in the heat of battle. Make Dexterity your tertiary, to help you react quickly to changes in the fight. This build complements your role as leader.
TORRENTIAL WATERBENDER
Despite your calm demeanor, you direct the water in overtly fierce ways, creating dangerous tidal waves and torrential conditions. You wade into the ocean of battle, using powerful blasts of water to protect your allies from harm. Make Wisdom your highest stat as it determines your general bending prowess. Dexterity should be your second highest stat as you need bursts of quickness to direct such terrible power. Charisma should be your third stat to help you coax and control the chi of your allies. Your secondary role is defender.
MOON'S BLESSING
Choose one style of waterbending.
Torrential: You gain proficiency in light and heavy shields. In addition, when an enemy bloodies an ally, you may shift a number of squares equal to your Dexterity modifier towards that ally.
(Alternatively, this could give proficiency in better armor, what do you kids think?)
Calming: You are trained in Heal. Whenever an enemy bloodies an ally, that ally may shift a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier towards you.
(Because of this change, the suggested skills for Calming waterbenders would be Diplomacy, Religion, History, Nature)
first being, The Airbender's Airscooter, have you already discussed that or not?
going through earthbenders at-wills, the Earthen shield and Shifting ground are listed at immediate reactions/interrupts respectfully, from how i interpret those abilities, they have no maximum range or limiting on them, essencially saying as a level 1 earthbender, i can make sure none of my allies ever get hit ever, am i interpreting that right, or no?
Ground Plate Armor as a level one daily power is good, but i think that attack is more about the AC boost than anything else.
So, as a level one earthbender, you can annoy melee enemies with a one square slide, and protect one ally from sniper fire approximately 50% of the time.
Oh, and I think the torrential defender looks cool, and that lines and paths are fine the way they are.
Also, when it says "Make Constitution attack against the ranged attack roll" in the sourcebook, there is a typo.
To be honest, the Resilience mechanic seems a little clumsy to me. Its important for a few things in the class, but overall is underwhelming. I like the idea though, but I'm not sure how I would incorporate it.
The earthbender's class features, on a whole, are fine and dandy. I think I do want to readjust the Neutral Jing class feature. Let's see...
NEUTRAL JING
You are in tune with the flow of combat, knowing to hold your fist to land the perfect blow later on. During your turn, you may spend your standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, which enboldens your defensive capabilities. While you have Neutral Jing, you gain a bonus to attack and damage with earthen shields, shifting ground, and any power that is centered on a watched ally. This bonus is equal to your Strength modifier if you are a Shaper earthbender or your Wisdom modifier if you are a Quaking earthbender.
While I'm on a roll... here's how I'd figure the two earthbender features.
Earthen Shield Earthbender Feature
When an enemy lets an arrow fly towards an ally, you repel the attack and launch your own against the offender.
At-Will * Elemenetal, Implement
Immediate Interrupt Close burst 5 (increases to 10 at 11th level and 15 at 20th)
Trigger: An enemy makes a ranged attack against a watched ally.
Effect: Make an attack roll against the target's ranged attack roll. If your attack roll is equal to or greater than the triggering attack, the target takes 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the attack is negated. The watched ally may shift 1 square after this is resolved.
21st Level: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
Rebuking Offense Earthbender Feature
An enemy goes in for the attack an enemy and you bring the earth against him, beating the attack back and landing choice blows.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Immediate Reaction Close burst 5 (increases to 10 at 11th level and 15 at 20th)
Trigger: An enemy enters a square adjacent to a watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy.
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex.
Hit: 1d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed 1 square.
21st Level: 2d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed 2 squares.
I definitely want to go through and change some of these Encounter and Daily powers into the "centered on watched ally" type powers. That's something I feel we didn't utilize enough.
Thoughts? Comments? Jeers? Ideas?
Ekio, that is, in a word, poifect. I think with that addition the Earthbender will start to feel like a real, proper defender.
As long as we are updating the Earthbender, can I say that I think it's Earthbender Resiliance needs to be cooler? I definitely think it's a great ability, I mean, very powerful. But I don't like it when the only thing seperating two builds is which stat you use to modify something. I think the Shaper should definitely keep it the way it is, to help her survive while wading into battle, the Quaker though, I think they ought to get something that interfaces with the new Neutral Jing ability. But first, Neutral Jing needs a bit of a rewrite:
NEUTRAL JING: You are in tune with the flow of combat, knowing to hold your fist to land the perfect blow later on. During your turn, you may spend your standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, which enboldens your defensive capabilities and lasts until the end of your next turn. While you have Neutral Jing, you gain a bonus to attack and damage with earthen shields, shifting ground, and any power that is centered on a watched ally. This bonus is equal to your Strength modifier if you are a Shaper earthbender or your Wisdom modifier if you are a Quaking earthbender.
Quaking: When you use a standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, it lasts for a number of additional rounds equal to your Strength modifer (e.g. with a Strength modifer of +1 the bonus would last until the end of the turn following the turn where it would have ended normally).
I think this is a pretty powerful ability, the Quaker will be, overall, a better long distance defender, especially if they sink an extra point in their Tertiary stat and roll with a 14 in Strength. For 1 Standard action, they could get a +2 or +3 on any defensive attack for 3 turns. But remember Earthbenders have pretty low AC's for Defenders (Hide Armor is their most powerful armor choice). The Shaper will stand out from the Quaker for having an AC that is, likely, 2 to 3 points higher.
I thought of this in class today, I want to replace my two least favorite Waterbender attacks (Water Bullet and Waving Uppercut) with souped up versions:
Icicle Trap--Waterbender Attack 1
You block an enemy's retreat with razor sharp icicles.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Cold, Implement
Standard Action Range 10
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier cold damage and until the end of your next turn, if the enemy moves away from you or an ally who they were adjacent to when this attack hit, they take Wisdom modifer cold damage.
21st Level: 2d6 + Wisdom modifier damage.
This fills two holes, firstly it's a second choice for the new Torrential build, secondly it's a cold At-Will for the ice based Waterbender. Sheilding Ice is not a Cold attack, and I would rather keep it that way. I reduced the damage slightly since Water Bullet swung for 2d4, which was really it's only good side. Move your full speed seemed like a good idea, but in practice it's hard to justify any intelligent creature not just moving 1 less than their full speed after the first instance. This is more consistently good, still offers motivation not to move and just generally seems cool.
Waving Uppercut--Waterbender Attack 1
You raise your hands and a bolt of water lifts up, connecting to the target’s chin.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Range 10
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and one ally you choose does not provoke attacks of opportunity from the target until the end of their next turn.
21st Level: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Waving uppercut feels like... it's so lame. One ally gets to move their full speed away from a target without take and AOO... yay? Again, though it seemed good in production, in the field it was underwhelming. I had a Waterbender who chose this and Water Whip, and after a while she just relied entirely on Water Whip because, well, it's just not good how we wrote it.
There you go.
-Usagi
So that's one no on keeping the Shaping bonus just a boost to AC. Looking at the books, I find that most classes that provide a straight AC bonus also provide a secondary bonus to a basic ability (second wind) or a Class Feature (Combat Superiority). However, I do think that the abilities are balanced right now, so let's just add to them.
Quaking: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, when you use a standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, it lasts for a number of additional rounds equal to your Strength modifer (e.g. with a Strength modifer of +1 the bonus would last until the end of the turn following the turn where it would have ended normally).
Shaping: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, whenever an Earthbender power would increase your AC, that bonus applies to your Fortitude defense as well. If the effect would normally apply to both, it applies to your Will defense as well.
That is a bit weird, but I think it works. Defensive vs. Offensive. Both versions now have comfortably higher AC's, probably a good plan anyway, and a flashy ability to go with it. Furthermore, with the updated Nuetral Jing and the revised Opportunity attacks, the Earthbender is really shaping up! HA!
............. okay.
Lines that don't go left, right, up or down may go diagonally as long as they proceed in a straight line, i.e. corner to corner. They, like movement, do not behave differently when going diagonally.
Okay. Bye.
Re: lines that aren't in cardinal directions. I would make a diagram, but I'm doing this from my phone... let's try anyway. Let's say there's an airbender, using Air Path Attack Daily Attack Hyper Combo, which is a Line 3. And the airbender (represented by the A) doesn't want to attack in a cardinal direction. The line would look like this, with the E's being the squares affected.
E X X X X X
X E X X X X
X X E X X X
X X X A X X
X X X X X X
(hopefully that doesn't get garbled up)
I was also thinking about the firebender's damage dealing mechanic. In the show, they fight relentlessly against their target, using attack after attack after attack. You rarely see them just use one attack, but rather one attack followed up with at least 20 attacks. I want to replicate this, but I am not sure how. I thought it would be cool if we did a strikers mechanic like this...
Firebender's Barrage
You don't let your enemies rest for one second, closely following up with another strike.
At-Will (Special) * Elemental, Implement
Minor Action. Melee touch or range 10
Target: One enemy you have dealt damage to this turn.
Attack: Dexterity + 2 vs. Reflex.
Hit: 1d8 damage.
Special: You may only use this once per turn. If you use this attack against the same enemy you hit with this power last turn, you gain a +2 to both your attack and damage roll with this power this turn.
21st Level: 2d8 damage.
Immediately, what jumps out is that it is a bigger die than the rogue, warlock ranger, etc. But it has the downside of having to roll to deal your extra damage. But you have the benefit of switching your "quarry" on a whim. But it definitely rewards you if you concentrate on an enemy.
I dunno. I think that's pretty cool. But there is no need to reinvent the wheel. If the Source of Strength is popular, then ignore this.
By the way, this post was made on my phone. I bet autocorrect has sneaked in here somewhere...
Quaking: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, when you use a standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, it lasts for a number of additional rounds equal to your Strength modifer (e.g. with a Strength modifer of +1 the bonus would last until the end of the turn following the turn where it would have ended normally).
Shaping: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, whenever an Earthbender power would increase your AC, that bonus applies to your Fortitude defense as well. If the effect would normally apply to both, it applies to your Will defense as well.
I dunno. I think that approximately +3 to attack and damage of the Earthbender's mark enforcement for 2 turns is definitely not equal to an occasion small buff to fort or will. Maybe you could add some sort of buff to shapers oppurtunity attacks? Perhaps make their OAs slow the target 'till end of your next turn? It seems like a feature like that could make the Earthbender much more competent in melee.
Dirt snakes up your body and congregates to your fist before you strike.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon.
Target: One creature.
Attack: Constitution vs. AC.
Hit: 1[W] + Constitution modifier damage and you gain a +1 to AC until the end of your next turn.
21st Level: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage.
If you are a shaping Earthbender and you don't take Grounded Fist, you are a fool. +1 to AC and Fort with each attack allows you to gain the benefit from your Build bonus any time you like.
Ground Plate Armor, Dirt Headbutt, Lingering Debris also grant AC bonuses, generally until the end fo of the Encounter. This is far too few attacks, I admit, I will go through and see if we can't shoehorn the AC bonus onto a few more attacks.
If you consider the bonus to be something that an Earthbender can get At-Will and from, at any given level, at least one of her daily or encounter powers, does it feel more balanced or does it still feel lacking?
-Usagi
I see your point with Grounded Fist etc...
But I think my point still stands. While the AC/Fort bonuses DO make the earthbender even more resilient than it is now, I think that the earthbender needs to somehow be better at defending allies from melee attacks.
Let's say that an melee-based enemy is on the front lines and the earthbender smacks it with ground plate armor.
Earthbender: "Fool! I am as resilient as stone itself! I cannot be defeated!"
DM: "I don't really care! I can just walk right by you and your pathetic oppurtunity attack and beat the crap out of this rogue."
Earthbender: "What! No! He's my watched ally!"
DM: "So that means you can (maybe) slide me one square away from the rogue, and then I can walk right back and kill him next turn? I'm quaking in my boots. Or I could just go beat up that other guy that you aren't protecting."
This is really a problem for both earthbenders, but I think the quakers are OK since they have many more powers that prone/slow/immobilize and they are able to act at greater range with many of their powers.
Edit: Pretend this post never existed. I forgot the rebuking offense writeup.
People keep saying that the Earthbender is a sub-par defender. I agree that it needs some power updates and that the opportunity actions needed damage added to them (Note: We wrote up new versions, they are on the first page)
Here's the Fighter for comparison, the protypical defender:
COMBAT CHALLENGE: In combat, it’s dangerous to ignore a fighter. Every time you attack an enemy, whether the attack hits or misses, you can choose to mark that target. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if its attack doesn’t include you as a target. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place. In addition, you gain the Combat Challenge power.
COMBAT SUPERIORITY You gain a bonus to opportunity attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier. An enemy struck by your opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack. If it still has actions remaining, it can use them to resume moving.
So the fighter gives a penalty to attacks made by a marked enemy. The Earthbender gives the same mechanical bonus, but to whoever they are watching. This means the distinction is between neutralizing a single enemies attacks against any target and bolstering a single ally against any attack made against it. This feels perfectly equivalent for me. It's a little different, and leads to differing tactics, but it's not worse.
So, when someone walks past the fighter they can get smacked by an attack with a Wisdom bonus that stops their movement.
When someone walks past the Earthbender, as you described, they don't get hit by a normal opportunity attack (one Opportunity action per combatants turn) but instead get hit by, in this case, Rebuking Offense, which targets Reflex (almost as good as the Fighter's Wisdom bonus as Reflex is, on average, about 2 lower than AC), deals a little damage and pushes the opponent 1 square. Like the Fighter, this attack cannot prevent an opponent from walking over to a weaker ally if they are determined enough, as movement isn't interrupted by opportunity actions (however the Fighter forces them to take another action). Rebuking Offense deals damage and can prevent the target from getting to the opponent (only if they run out of movement). In this sense it is a bit weaker than the Fighter's Combat Superiority.
But you've still smacked someone for some damage, messed with their movement a bit and made them less likely to hit your ally. So, if your issue is with the fact that it doesn't force the enemy to stop moving, then I might agree with you (because Fighters can't protect allies they aren't near/protect allies against ranged attacks like the Earthbender). Otherwise, I don't understand why it's worse.
If that is the distinction, and it is deemed that the protection from ranged attacks/ranged protection doesn't make up for it, one possible fix would be to make the trigger "An enemy ends their movement adjacent to your watched ally." Instead, as they would have to end their movement in order to attack, get pushsmacked and then either use another move action or make a ranged attack.
Understand that, while I currently disagree, I am interested in agreeing with you, I just don't know where it is that you see the Earthbender being worse right now.
-Usagi
There's also no indication if a line power provokes. The range determines both the area that can be targeted AND whether the attack provokes. Lines should be either close or area lines, to indicate that, or else there needs to be a universal rule about it.
Also, how is straight away determined? By which I mean, the following seem like they'd not be a legal use of a line 3, but I'm not sure;
XXEXXX
XXEXXX
XXEXXX
XXXAXX
XXEXXX
XXEXXX
XXEAXX
XXEXXX
XXEAXX
XXEXXX
In each of those, you pick an origin square and extend it three squares in a straight line. The description of a line is ambiguous enough that those all might be possible.
I'd suggest to either a) switch lines to paths; paths are better than lines because there's more player choice involved in them; or b) tighten up the wording on lines to something like the following;
To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line, you may move orthogonally or diagonally, but not both, and each square chosen must be farther away from you than the last. Line attacks do not provoke opportunity attacks.
So lines can only be done at angles that are multiples of 45 degrees? If that's the case, it REALLY needs to be spelled out. 60 and 30 degrees are hard to do on a grid, but some people might interperet the way line is described as allowing for that. There's also no indication if a line power provokes. The range determines both the area that can be targeted AND whether the attack provokes. Lines should be either close or area lines, to indicate that, or else there needs to be a universal rule about it. Also, how is straight away determined? By which I mean, the following seem like they'd not be a legal use of a line 3, but I'm not sure;
XXEXXX
XXEXXX
XXEXXX
XXXAXX
XXEXXX
XXEXXX
XXEAXX
XXEXXX
XXEAXX
XXEXXXIn each of those, you pick an origin square and extend it three squares in a straight line. The description of a line is ambiguous enough that those all might be possible. I'd suggest to either a) switch lines to paths; paths are better than lines because there's more player choice involved in them; or b) tighten up the wording on lines to something like the following; To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line, you may move orthogonally or diagonally, but not both, and each square chosen must be farther away from you than the last. Line attacks do not provoke opportunity attacks.
Awesome. You are dead right. The reason we made lines/paths instead of just using Walls is because Lines and Paths always extend out from your space. I believe they are Close Attacks, as they always happen right next to you.
Origin Square: A close attack’s area of effect defines the attack’s origin square, which is the attack’s starting point. A close burst uses your space as its origin square. A close blast uses a square within your space as its origin square. For a target to be affected by a close attack, there must be line of effect from the origin square to the target. Pg 271, PHB
Lines and Paths are like limited Close Blasts. So, using your excellently worded description, here is a new description of Paths and Lines:
Lines:
Lines are always close attacks. To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line, you may move orthogonally (side-to-side) or diagonally (corner-to-corner), but not both, and each square chosen must be farther away from you than the last.
Paths:
Paths are always close attacks. They work the same as lines except you may move both orthogonally and diagonally and each square need not be farther away from you than the last.
I believe that should alleviate any confusion. The basic idea is that Lines move in one direction, so your choice factor is which direction they radiate from, whereas Paths are like more specific blasts. They don't automatically cover an area, but they do give you much more control.
Lines are meaningfully distinct from Close Walls because of thier one-directional restriction and Paths are meaningfully distinct because they can connect corner-to-corner and bunch up with more than two sides touching another part of the same Path.
Does that clear things up? Furthermore, do you think it is nessacary to include the bit about how they are different from Walls?
-Usagi
Do note, though, that by making Paths and Lines close powers, you're opening a bunch of interactions with existing material that affects that, though I'd argue for that being a feature, not a bug.
It also occurred to me that, with 4e grid-math, farther away from you is not the same as farthest away from you. By which I mean, the following is technically legal per both of our suggestions;
XXEXX
XEXXX
XXEXX
XXXAX
See what I mean? There needs to be something like 'straight away from you', but I'm not sure how exactly that should be worded.
I think sprinkling 'behind the curtain' design notes throughout the document could be fun. Explaining why you guys went with lines and paths instead of walls could easily be one such sidebar.
Edit: Are you planning on making third builds for each of the classes? I'd really like to see that, personally.
Lines and Paths are like limited Close Blasts. So, using your excellently worded description, here is a new description of Paths and Lines:
Lines:
Lines are always close attacks. To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line, you may move orthogonally (side-to-side) or diagonally (corner-to-corner), but not both, and each square chosen must be farther away from you than the last.Paths:
Paths are always close attacks. They work the same as lines except you may move both orthogonally and diagonally and each square need not be farther away from you than the last.
Agreed. I, for one, find your pedantry very helpful. I note here that they are always Close attacks becuase... it makes the most sense to me to clarify that that is always the case. I have also looked through all the published feats that a person can take that effect all close attacks, and found a few that would be awesome, but none that would breaks. Although there is one that... every Airbender should take.
I suggest changing it to this then.
Lines: Lines are always close attacks. To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line you may move orthogonally (side-to-side) or diagonally (corner-to-corner), but not both. Furthermore, the square following the origin square, and all subsequent squares, must be touching either the corner or side that is on the exact opposite side of the line as you.
Paths: Paths are always close attacks. To use a power with a path x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to x squares in length. Each square added must be in contact with either the side or corner of the previous square.
Clear?
-Usagi
Thanks!
Adobe InDesign CS4. *dun dun dun!*
So, soon enough, I'll start posting changelogs of what I do to the PDF. So... nightly (doubtful)/weekly PDFs of the changes when I start doing it? Yea or nay?
www.4shared.com/document/aauRzpoV/Avatar...
AVATAR 4E CHANGELOG (02-02-11)
-Added “This does not go over your maximum.” to the Blue Fire heroic tier feat on page 84. This follows a suggestion in post #7.
-Changed Firebender and Earthbender multiclass feats to reflect what class they were supposed to be a part of. This follows a suggestion in post #8.
-Aerial Acrobat (Airbender Paragon Path)'s path feature, Leaps and Bounds, changed to read “Leaps and Bounds (11th Level): You gain a +3 bonus to Acrobatics checks. You may use Acrobatics instead of Athletics to jump.” This follows a suggestion in post #11.
Replaced one instance of “Air Bison” to “Sky Bison” in Airbender Paragon Paths. This follows a suggestion in post #11.
-Changed the Soundbender's Deafening Action to read, “ When you spend an action point, each creature adjacent to you is deafened until the end of your next turn. You may daze adjacent creatures instead of taking another action.” This follows a suggestion in post #11.
-Changed the Windstaff Glider's path features Gliderstaff (“You are always ready to fight the effects of gravity. As long you are concious and not helpless, you never take falling damage.”) and Ride the Winds (“Whenever you run, you may fly for the second half of that movement.”) This follows a suggestion in post #11 and the correction in post #15.
-Changed the Lightbender's (Firebender Paragon Path) Lightning Crush path feature to read “Whenever you use a firebender or lightningbender attack with the Lightning keyword, you may reduce your Source of Strength damage by 2. If you do, the attack deals an additional 1d10 damage.” This follows a suggestion in posts #11 and #15.
-Changed Lightning Burst, a Firebender epic tier feat to read, “Whenever you use a firebender or lightningbender attack with the Lightning keyword, you may reduce your Source of Strength damage by 6. If you do and the attack hits, the target is stunned until the end of your next turn.” This follows a suggestion in post #15.
-Changed the White Lotus's Pai Sho Tactics power to read “Use a melee or ranged at-will attack power. If you hit, you may slide the target a number of squares equal to your Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma modifier The target grants combat advantage to you until the end of your next turn.” This follows a suggestion in posts #11 and #15.
-Changed the White Lotus's White Lotus Gambit power. The effect allows an ally to hit a target as opposed to the target. Additionally, it was changed from a Move Action to a Standard Action.
-Changed the Moon Spirit (Epic Destiny) power The Moon's Wrath to read, “Until the stance ends you gain a +2 power bonus to attack and damage rolls made with Waterbender, Waterbender paragon path and Moon Spirit powers...” This follows a suggestion ins posts #11 and #15.
-Changed the Windstaff Glider's Utility power to read, “You gain a fly speed equal to your land speed and you may hover until the end of your next turn.” This follows a suggestion in posts #11 and #15.
-Changed the Dai Li's 20th level daily power to read “Target: One creature, Hit: 2d8 damage and the target is grabbed. Special: If the target is surprised, the attack deals no damage and the target is instead unconcious [save ends].” This follows a suggestion in post #11 and #15.
-Changed the Blue Spirit's Utility to a Free Action instead of an Immediate Reaction. It didn't work with the rules previous (immediate actions can't be used on your own turns). This follows a suggestion in post #19.
-Changed EVERY Paragon Path (in Airbender, Earthbender, Firebender, Waterbender, and Miscellaneous Paragon Paths, anyway) 10th level power to saying 11th level power. This still bothers me to do this day. How the **** did that slip by us?
-Made the... many changes to the Waterbender's class features per post #34
-In the Earthbender's Watched Ally feature, I removed the option to watch yourself. Removed references to Shifting Grounds. Took out Shifting Grounds. Added in Rebuking Offense. Changed Neutral Jing as per post #37.
-TOOK OUT THE FLOWING KEYWORD SIDEBAR. Because the two new at-wills, Icicle Trap and the revised Waving Uppercut (from post #38), kind of ****ed with my layout. It will go back in, but not right now. >
-Changed the Lines and Paths sidebar as per post #51.
NOTE
When there's a word that is cut off by a “-” and continued on the next line, typically that is not a typo. That just means that the line is too big for the spacing. I could fix every instance of this, but it would seem overzealous.
While playing an Airbender, I almost never had use for my minor action in combat. Part of this is I don't know 4th edition that well, I could have at least used the Nature and Religion skills for information about the opponents. If that's what I was supposed to do, it would have been helpful to have Arcana for the occasional dragon that exists. The level 6 utility Monastary Studies was helpful for that.
Why does Monastary Studies give me bonuses to skill that I can't take as class skills? It says I remember something from my studies.
Also, how common were dragons in Avatar? We've faced 2 and heard of a 3rd in Suni's game, yet Arcane is on no one's skill list. I understand if they should be in Religion for Eastern themed settings, but I could also understand Arcane being used for studies of numbers, astrology, and the dragons. I guess I should take this up with Suni as much as with you. ^_^;
If you are looking to give each class a secondary role build, I think Airbender is already almost a defender who does her job by moving allies out of the way. Zephyr, Air Lasso, Cut through the air, Guiding winds, there is a whole line of abilities that help with this already. You have a bunch of abilities that make it harder to hit allies once. That can't carry a fight, but add a helpful encounter ability with 'minor sustain' and I'd never put it down.
I just thought I'd give you all my thoughts on the matter before making my new fighter. My character died because... well, we had bad enough strategy to deserve it.
1. The Earthbender thought it would be a great idea to start a fight while we were trapped in the tunnel he made.
2. We were in crap
3. Our healers and striker ran away at the start of the fight while I and the Earthbender absorbed all of the damage. See my kvetching at #2.
Heheh, so I know the Firebender would have killed off the swarms fast enough that I wouldn't have died had a Waterbender had made me their mission. I know that staying there the first round and facilitating the other party member's retreat was too much trust. Lesson learned I guess. I'm posting this now because changing classes means this is all the feedback I'll give on this book, unless I take Jian Swordsman.
In. The. Whole. World.
Astronomy is a lost art. No one performs non-elemental magic. There are a few scientific characters, but most of the advanced technology is military and belongs to the Fire Nation.
So no, no one get's Arcana.
However, I am a big fan of the intellectual ascetic, and that's what the Airbender's ability is about. The Air Nomads hold onto certain knowledge that is lost to the other nations, but they are still in the dark about virtually every aspect of Arcana skill. It's meant to reflect information they came by while studying or cataloging many hundreds of manuscripts, a few of which were written by ancient scientists or wizards, but most of which were philosophical/religious in nature.
I agree that the Airbender is a bit Defendery, but I think it's more of a subfunction of being a controller, since the Airbender can't, as you unfortunately realized first hand, take any kind of direct blast to the face. So, defenderish... sure, but I don't think we'll be taking the class any further in that direction.
The Jian Swordsman is easily one of my favorite parts of the book. I can't say why, I never play martial characters. I guess I just like Sokka a lot.
-Usagi
Well here's what I would say. If you are talking Avatar Dragons we are actually talking about Lung Dragons. While I'm not going to say anything about the creative choices you've made in your game (most Lung Dragons aren't evil, and it seems in Avatar as well) I will say this, Lung Dragons are elemental creatures, some of them have power over fire, others have power over the ocean, some have power over storms, wood, metal... the elements. So, if you are rocking the Avatar world, make getting info on Lung Dragons based on Nature checks.
-Usagi
I think that activating it should give some sort of boost to your watched allies. Either giving them a bonus to defense or allowing them to move around.
NEUTRAL JING: You are in tune with the flow of combat, knowing to hold your fist to land the perfect blow later on. During your turn, you may spend your standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, which enboldens your defensive capabilities and lasts until the end of your next turn. While you have Neutral Jing, you gain a bonus to attack and damage with earthen shields, shifting ground, and any power that is centered on a watched ally. This bonus is equal to your Strength modifier if you are a Shaping earthbender or your Wisdom modifier if you are a Quaking earthbender.
Quaking: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, when you use a standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, it lasts for a number of additional rounds equal to your Strength modifer (e.g. with a Strength modifer of +1 the bonus would last until the end of your next-next turn).
Shaping: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, whenever an Earthbender power would increase your AC, that bonus applies to your Fortitude defense as well. In addition, the power bonus lasts for a number of additional rounds equal to your Wisdom modifer (e.g. with a Wisdom modifer of +1 the bonus would last until the end of your next-next turn).
So in this version the benefit from Neutral Jing is essentially for your allies, but it's done through a bonus to the Earthbender. Leaders tend to give simple bonuses to allies, but Defenders are all about doing stuff that protects allies. So in this case you get a bonus to your Watched Ally powers. The Shaping Earthbender gets longer lasting defense bonuses that also apply to the Fortitude Defense. The downside here is that Neutral Jing is, at best, a good last ditch effor for the Shaping Earthbender. It would only be good for the Shaping Earthbender if they know that their allies are going to be targeted by multiple enemies in one turn so you can really milk that bonus. However, unlike the Quaking Earthbender, the Shaping Earthbender can roll into combat swinging an AC and Fortitude several points higher. Just as long as the Shaping Earthbender hits with Grounded Fist every two turns they are garaunteed to have a +1 bonus to AC.
Anyway, problems, issues, details, changes?
-Usagi
I only have one suggestion: the Striker damage feature for Firebenders seems very low. While it caps at a high value, it takes so long to get there that I feel they would never benefit, especially at higher tiers. A Paragon Sorcerer is dealing Stat +2 extra damage to each target, compared to a max of Stat +6 for the Firebender. At level 14, the secondary stat will be 18 or 20, so it takes the Firebender 6 or 7 rounds just to be equal to the damage bonus of the Sorcerer. Most combats are not going to last that long, and they would need to last for another 4 rounds in order for the Firebender to fully benefit from his damage bonus.
If you want to keep the mechanic, perhaps have it increase by 2 each round.
First of all, this is awesome. Great job; the format looks very professional. I don't know if you did this with the latest version (I used the link on the first page of this thread), but you might want to put the paragon paths on separate pages. It makes it a bit easier on the reader.
I only have one suggestion: the Striker damage feature for Firebenders seems very low. While it caps at a high value, it takes so long to get there that I feel they would never benefit, especially at higher tiers. A Paragon Sorcerer is dealing Stat +2 extra damage to each target, compared to a max of Stat +6 for the Firebender. At level 14, the secondary stat will be 18 or 20, so it takes the Firebender 6 or 7 rounds just to be equal to the damage bonus of the Sorcerer. Most combats are not going to last that long, and they would need to last for another 4 rounds in order for the Firebender to fully benefit from his damage bonus.
If you want to keep the mechanic, perhaps have it increase by 2 each round.
Thanks for the comment! The reason I made the paragon paths one big streaming section is because of a lack of art. I could put paragon paths on individual pages, but it would look really empty and empty, white space really bugs me as a graphic designer. I could definitely do one of the sections up that way and see if it looks okay.
Regarding the firebender, that is a very very valid point. While most of the feedback for the firebender has been "omg op," there is definitely validity in what you said. Maybe an increase of 2 each round would work... hm...
First of all, this is awesome. Great job; the format looks very professional. I don't know if you did this with the latest version (I used the link on the first page of this thread), but you might want to put the paragon paths on separate pages. It makes it a bit easier on the reader.
I only have one suggestion: the Striker damage feature for Firebenders seems very low. While it caps at a high value, it takes so long to get there that I feel they would never benefit, especially at higher tiers. A Paragon Sorcerer is dealing Stat +2 extra damage to each target, compared to a max of Stat +6 for the Firebender. At level 14, the secondary stat will be 18 or 20, so it takes the Firebender 6 or 7 rounds just to be equal to the damage bonus of the Sorcerer. Most combats are not going to last that long, and they would need to last for another 4 rounds in order for the Firebender to fully benefit from his damage bonus.
If you want to keep the mechanic, perhaps have it increase by 2 each round.
Thanks for the comment! The reason I made the paragon paths one big streaming section is because of a lack of art. I could put paragon paths on individual pages, but it would look really empty and empty, white space really bugs me as a graphic designer. I could definitely do one of the sections up that way and see if it looks okay.
Regarding the firebender, that is a very very valid point. While most of the feedback for the firebender has been "omg op," there is definitely validity in what you said. Maybe an increase of 2 each round would work... hm...
Oh, yeah, I didn't think about the white spaces...that would bother me too! You might have to find some artwork, heh heh.
Well, I didn't look at the Firebender's powers. If they get a lot of multitarget powers then I could see a reason to keep the damage bonus lower; but this really makes them more of a controller than a striker.
*Harmonies will use a minor action to gain a +2 to their Source of Strength. Ragers will remain the same but gain a +3 or +4 per hit to make up for the power divide. Both builds will have fewer attacks that hit multiple targets.
*Ragers will use the "pool" of... err... fire points(?) gained by hitting targets to boost the liklihood of a critical hit either passively (i.e. for every 3 points reduce the critical threshold by 1 point, from 20 to 19, from 19 to 18 and so on.) or actively (spend 2 points to reduce the critical threshold by 1 point for your next attack). In the first instance a successful critical hit would reset the score to 0 or perhaps your Stat bonus. The second example pays for itself.
*Ragers will use the "pool" of fireypointage to grant themselves additional attacks called Firebarrages. They might require a second roll, they would probably deal sneak attackish damage.
*Ragers also charge when they are hit (as per the Ragers Paragon path, which would get a boost.)
*Harmonies will stay the same, focusing on area attacks, making them secondary controllers while Ragers will have something done to make them pure-striker.
Other ideas?
Also, on a related note, if you find some art that we could use, that would be great. Solid screencaps would be fine, but fan-art would be better. Find a Paragon path you like and find a picture that fits them! Should be a way for those of you who don't like to homebrew rules so much, but still want to help to... er... help.
-Usagi
*Harmonies will use a minor action to gain a +2 to their Source of Strength. Ragers will remain the same but gain a +3 or +4 per hit to make up for the power divide. Both builds will have fewer attacks that hit multiple targets. I like this alot. +3/+4 to hit is a rather hefty bonus, though speed SOS is pretty dangerous too. Looks good.
*Ragers will use the "pool" of... err... fire points(?) gained by hitting targets to boost the liklihood of a critical hit either passively (i.e. for every 3 points reduce the critical threshold by 1 point, from 20 to 19, from 19 to 18 and so on.) or actively (spend 2 points to reduce the critical threshold by 1 point for your next attack). In the first instance a successful critical hit would reset the score to 0 or perhaps your Stat bonus. The second example pays for itself.Rage points? Anger points?
*Ragers will use the "pool" of fireypointage to grant themselves additional attacks called Firebarrages. They might require a second roll, they would probably deal sneak attackish damage.OK. It seems like you may be buffing the firebender in alot of different ways, you probably already thought of that.
*Ragers also charge when they are hit (as per the Ragers Paragon path, which would get a boost.)Above, except specifically ragers.
*Harmonies will stay the same, focusing on area attacks, making them secondary controllers while Ragers will have something done to make them pure-striker.OK.
Other ideas?Nothing applicable, and nothing non-applicable other than mount writeups that I've already mentioned.
Also, on a related note, if you find some art that we could use, that would be great. Solid screencaps would be fine, but fan-art would be better. Find a Paragon path you like and find a picture that fits them! Should be a way for those of you who don't like to homebrew rules so much, but still want to help to... er... help.
-Usagi
Bolded commentary above.
1: Harmonies will use a minor action to gain a +2 to their Source of Strength. Ragers will remain the same but gain a +3 or +4 per hit to make up for the power divide. Both builds will have fewer attacks that hit multiple targets.
I like this alot. +3/+4 to hit is a rather hefty bonus, though speed SOS is pretty dangerous too. Looks good.
2: Ragers will use the "pool" of... err... fire points(?) gained by hitting targets to boost the liklihood of a critical hit either passively (i.e. for every 3 points reduce the critical threshold by 1 point, from 20 to 19, from 19 to 18 and so on.) or actively (spend 2 points to reduce the critical threshold by 1 point for your next attack). In the first instance a successful critical hit would reset the score to 0 or perhaps your Stat bonus. The second example pays for itself.
Rage points? Anger points?
3: Ragers will use the "pool" of fireypointage to grant themselves additional attacks called Firebarrages. They might require a second roll, they would probably deal sneak attackish damage.
OK. It seems like you may be buffing the firebender in alot of different ways, you probably already thought of that.
4: Ragers also charge when they are hit (as per the Ragers Paragon path, which would get a boost.)
Above, except specifically ragers.
5: Harmonies will stay the same, focusing on area attacks, making them secondary controllers while Ragers will have something done to make them pure-striker.
OK.
Other ideas?
Nothing applicable, and nothing non-applicable other than mount writeups that I've already mentioned.Also, on a related note, if you find some art that we could use, that would be great. Solid screencaps would be fine, but fan-art would be better. Find a Paragon path you like and find a picture that fits them! Should be a way for those of you who don't like to homebrew rules so much, but still want to help to... er... help.
-Usagi
Bolded commentary above.
I have renumbered each suggestion so they can be more easily discussed.
It appears that I misrepresented my #1, i.e. the "+3/+4 per hit" means that while the Rager only boosts her Source of Strength "pool" when she hits with an attack (which is harder to do than burning a Minor action), she boosts it by a larger margin. This, I think, is represented well by building anger.
What do people think of the boosting the critical hit chance? Keening? Whatever?
-Usagi
CLASS FEATURES
SOURCE OF STRENGTH
Firebending is a martial art that relies on building yourself up, progressively growing in power as the battle goes on. As you fight, your Source of Strength damage increases. You start out dealing 0 extra damage with each attack. Depending on your build, your extra damage increases when you perform certain actions. Your maximum Source of Strength damage is equal to 4 + your Constitution/Charisma modifer (for Harmonious or Raging respectively). This increases to 6 + Constitution/Charisma at 11th level and 8 + your Constitution/Charisma at 21st level. Your Source of Strength damage resets to 0 at the end of the encounter.
Harmonious: You breathe deeply, fnding the eternal fame within yourself. Once per round, you may sacrifce your minor action to increase your extra Source of Strength damage by one. This is culumative.
Raging: You use your anger to fuel your fre-bending. Once per round when you hit a target
with an attack with the fre keyword, increase the amount of extra damage by 3. This is cumulative.
Maybe each build could have a power associated with spending their Source of Strength points. Like, the Rager could spend to increase his crit range and the Harmonious build could spend points to... do something. I really like the idea of that, actually.
EDIT: I've gotten an email from a guy who's planning on running an Avatar game who said he'd really like a Monster Manual of sorts. I know we've tossed that idea around since forever, but maybe we should get on that. Or have someone get on that.
...and on the subject of the quality of this homebrew, the fact that you know how the mechanics work, listen to feedback on how they work, and are capable of going back and fixing things that didn't work puts you ahead of the greater portion of things you see floating around these forums.
...and you also have a really nice looking handbook
, that helps .Ramblerambleramble.
By all means, please! Whatever monsters you make, I'll lay them out into a PDF and get a Avatar Monster Manual (needs an awesome name, btw) going. I had an idea earlier to put out some feelers on EnWorld and RPG.net to see if we could some guys to make some monsters and stuff, but I haven't decided whether or not to yet.
One thing though, if you have the Adventure Tools program that can export monsters as an image, that would make my life SO MUCH EASIER.
So much easier.
(Did you know? One of the top Google searches leading to the document on Scribd is "how to bend air with your hands." I have a feeling that we disappointed some 12 year olds...)
Creatures of the Four Nations
or, for the alliterative,
Flora and Fauna of the Four Nations
or, for the literal,
Monster Plus Another Monster Manual
or, for the humorous,
Mooselions, Tigerdillos and Platypus Bears, OH MY!
or, for the snarky,
What Do You Get When You Cross a... Manual
I actually like the second one the most, but the others are good for a laugh. Maybe we could use one as a subheading, preferably the Wizard of Oz reference.
-Usagi
P.S. Here is a list of all the creatures from the show and the relevant info.
avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Flora_and_Fauna_in...
If you want to see this stuff made, go on there and copy down the names of the creatures you want to see made here then post it! You kids rock!
I don't know any creatures in particular...
Except for the ELEPHANT ARMADILLO. FORGED WITHIN THE JUNGLES DEEP IN THE EARTH KINGDOM, THESE MONSTROUS BEINGS ARE EXTREMELY SCARY. THEN THEY ROLL UP INTO A BALL AND ****ING RUN OVER EVERYTHING. WHEN THEY ARE DONE ROLLING AROUND, THEY COME OUT OF A BALL AND WITH THEIR MIGHTY BARBED TUSKS, THEY JUST RAMPAGE AND STOMP ALL OVER THE ALREADY FLATTEN **** THEY JUST ROLLED OVER. THEY'RE KNOWN TO BE EXTREMELY TERRITORIAL AND WILL RUIN YOUR DAY WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT.
AGGGGGHHHHHH.
What do you guys think about seriously crowd sourcing Avatar monsters?
I think Creatures of the Four Nations sounds cool.
I don't know any creatures in particular...
Except for the ELEPHANT ARMADILLO. FORGED WITHIN THE JUNGLES DEEP IN THE EARTH KINGDOM, THESE MONSTROUS BEINGS ARE EXTREMELY SCARY. THEN THEY ROLL UP INTO A BALL AND ****ING RUN OVER EVERYTHING. WHEN THEY ARE DONE ROLLING AROUND, THEY COME OUT OF A BALL AND WITH THEIR MIGHTY BARBED TUSKS, THEY JUST RAMPAGE AND STOMP ALL OVER THE ALREADY FLATTEN **** THEY JUST ROLLED OVER. THEY'RE KNOWN TO BE EXTREMELY TERRITORIAL AND WILL RUIN YOUR DAY WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT.
AGGGGGHHHHHH.
What do you guys think about seriously crowd sourcing Avatar monsters?
There were quite a lot of bear-things mentioned in one of the Ba Sing Se episodes~
[rant]I cannot re-install adventure tools because WotC has decided that they need to destroy the pile of occasionally-moderately-functional dung that is Adventure Tools, in order to work very hard on creating a NEW and IMPROVED worthless tool, leaving me up the creek without a paddle until they release their next priority. Based on the VTT, that'll be somewhere around 5th edition. Bah.[/rant]
I think Creatures of the Four Nations sounds cool.
I don't know any creatures in particular...
Except for the ELEPHANT ARMADILLO. FORGED WITHIN THE JUNGLES DEEP IN THE EARTH KINGDOM, THESE MONSTROUS BEINGS ARE EXTREMELY SCARY. THEN THEY ROLL UP INTO A BALL AND ****ING RUN OVER EVERYTHING. WHEN THEY ARE DONE ROLLING AROUND, THEY COME OUT OF A BALL AND WITH THEIR MIGHTY BARBED TUSKS, THEY JUST RAMPAGE AND STOMP ALL OVER THE ALREADY FLATTEN **** THEY JUST ROLLED OVER. THEY'RE KNOWN TO BE EXTREMELY TERRITORIAL AND WILL RUIN YOUR DAY WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT.
AGGGGGHHHHHH.
What do you guys think about seriously crowd sourcing Avatar monsters?
I'm down with every single inch of this. Every. Single. Inch. Also,
Elephant + Armadillo =
Hiyoooooooooo!
I will happily do a series of posts about this, make it easier on everyone, go into the Avatar Wiki, find anything that would be worth Statting (as much as I love Koalasheep, no one needs to be able to fight one) with a short description, maybe a recomendation for Creature Role if it comes to me.
-Usagi
Here are the Air Nomad and Water Tribe animals, with descriptions where necessary, and my vote for whethey we should include them and what they do.
EDIT: Animals that have my vote will have their names in Green.
Animals of the Air Nomads:
Firefly: These are your every day, run of the mill bioluminescent insects. Might work as a swarm, might be better as a Magic Item.
Hermit Crab: These are furry Hermit Crabs. Not much to say.
Sky Bison: Oh ho ho, here it is. I was going to say Brute, but I changed my mind, Soldier. Appa plants himself and then protects his allies, like a hero.
Winged Lemur Again, not that suitable for a fight, but could make a great Familiar.
Wildlife of the Water Tribes:
Arctic Hen: These are chickens... that live in the arctic!
Arctic Hippo: As far as I can tell... this is a hippo.
Arctic Seal: As opposed to the well known City-Dwelling Seal and it's close relative the Flying Seal.
Buffalo Yak: These guys are downright majestic. They would have to have a Mount Ability of some sort. Other than that, these guys are Brutes all the way, CHAARGE!
Otter Penguin: Okay, bear with me here, Level 1 Mount. Genius! Everybody go Penguin Sledding with me! Their mount ability would only work in arctic conditions or if you have a water bender on your team! These guys are probably Skirmishers.
Polar Bear Dog: These guys would make good Beast Companions for a Water Tribe Ranger. They would also be Skirmishers.
Polar Leopard: Another Beast Companion for ye, these would probably be Lurkers with some sort of "Blend into Snow" ability.
Polar Sea-Lion: It's an Sea-Lion with... tiger stripes? Whatever. Aquatic threat, not that interesting.
Turtle Seal: So cute! I want stats for a Turtle Seal Familiar!
White Hamsters: White hamster, the worlds fuzziest hero! Flying through the in his rocket powered dirigible, with his sidekick, the neon gerbil. (These are just housecats.)
So that's that. The Earth Kingdom has twice as many as both of these combined, so it gets a seperate post.
-Usagi
Here is the Earth Kingdom list. And it's long... so loooooong.
Ecological Entities of the Earth Kingdom:
Armadillo Bear: Okay, that's awesome. Brute with an encounter power that gives it a high defense for a short time.
Armadillo Wolf: Aw yeah! Again, I think these would be good Skirmishers. They could have a sort of "Wolf Mode" where they move around and bite, or a "Armadillo Mode" where they curl up and roll over their enemies, get three of them employing different tactics and you've got a fight on your hands.
Armadillo Lion: Okay, so it's the third Armadillo + Something, but that doesn't mean it's redundant. These kids are Lukers. You know what that means! All Armadillo Hybrid encounter!
Badgermole: These guys invented Earthbending. They are also HUGE and blind. As far as role, say the first one is an Elite Lurker, the second one is a Solo Leader Soldier?
Blue Jay: These guys invented Featherbending, but Featherbending sucks so no one does it and no one cares.
Bear: Our first unique creature, the Earth Kings bear is a sort of once in a Campaign encounter, like the Tarrasque, or Orcus.
Bearded Cat: These guys are great. I want one. Make 'em a Familiar!
Boarcupine: I was really hoping these guys would be our first Artillery monster, but they pretty much just charge over and over again. I'm gonna call Skirmisher, but a tough one, cause one of these dudes almost took Appa down. They have some defensive abilities. Also, babies, there should be stats for the babies.
Bull Pig: These guys are wicked metal, two tusks, two horns, all badass. Since the Boarcupine already exists, I'm going to call Brute.
Buzzard-Wasp: Okay, they are giant wasps, they live in hives, I don't know... Lurker? Maybe one kind could Lurk, another kind could be a Soldier. I'm going to say they are caste-based.
Cabbage Slug: We have to include these guys, otherwise the upcoming Cabbage Merchant class won't have any weaknesses.
Camelephant: Aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww... I don't want to fight one! I want to ride one. Definitely a mount. Probably a Brute.
Canyon Crawler: So Lurker it hurts. They say these guys are spider-alligators, but think they are spider ants.
Cat: Fluffy white cat with green eyes. Probably an Epic level threat.
Cat Owl: It's a flying cat! That's... that's it. Familar? Maybe...
Catgator: Goodie, something aquatic. These guys rock, but they are also surprisingly nice animals. Stingy Quills for a secondary attack? Lurkers.
Chameleon: These are so lame, they don't even get a page on the Avatar Wiki. 'Nuff said.
Chicken: These are just a rip-off the Arctic Hen.
Dragonfly: They're bugs and dragons! YAY! They also have three heads... yay? Familiar? Low level Skirmisher? Maybe they should come in swarms.
Duck: I have no idea what this is a cross between. Maybe a sheep and a labrador retriever?
Eel Hound: "Nothing runs faster over land or swims quicker than a giant Eel Hound", mounts all the way. These things are so fast, they serve as a late-game Deus-Ex-Machina in the show.
Elbow Leech: Enormous leech, attaches only to elbows. Ha ha... what?
Elephant Koi: These are giant fish. Like GI-ANT. We're talking Large Whale to Small Leviathan here. Also, you can ride them like Free Willy. Awesome.
Elephant Mandrill: I don't know, this might be cool, but I can't think of anything other than an ability that involves a giant, shiny, red butt.
Elephant Rat: I know what you're thinking "Is it a giant rat or a tiny elephant?" Well the answer is... neither... it's a normal rat with a trunk and I hate it for being so disappointing.
Fox Antelope: These look exactly like Antelope. Again, disappointing.
Gemsbok Bull: If you've never heard of a Gemsbok, think Ibix, if you've never heard of an Ibix, think giant ****ing Antelope. Brute, but they should always appear in herds.
Gharial Hog: It's like a pig-o-gator. I don't know, at this point I'm getting totally callous to this nonsense.
Giant Beetle: These already exist in, like, every edition of DnD ever. It's a giant Rhinocerous Beetle, it should be able to toss someone like an evil seesaw. It's also a mount, wait... that's starting to sound cool.
Giant Fly: Okay, you know what I'm noticing? Any animal that people eat turn out to be super lame as a monster. Oh, did I mention these are harvested for food? They are? By magical Hillbillies.
Giant Night Crawler: This could be cool. A regenerating Lurker that burrows and can split into two minions when it dies.
Gilacorn: These are great. They are basically just lizards, but they steal ****. They should be included in an encounter with something big, so while the party is distracted the come up and take your ****. I'm gonna call Controller on this one, since it can disarm a PC for a little while.
Glow Fly: What? Another one? Really? Okay, what's different about this bioluminescent insect? It's tiny but it can glow so brightly that it blinds you and it induces hallucinations in people who look at it? Oh. Well that's awesome. Also a Controller.
Gopher Bear: It's a bear, but it can tunnel underground. Yes folks, they like bears and armadillos in this show. A lot. Lurker.
Gorilla Goat: Wow. That's awesome. No seriously. It's a gorilla that can climb on/eat anything. It's great. I think we should include a Soldier and an Artillery subtype. The first one tears people in half, the other one is smaller and throws stuff form high places.
Hippo: This is another one of the animals that makes me think the creators were on drugs. I mean... what in the world?
Hybrid Pigs: Some of them look like sheep, some look like cows. I think they should get a spot just for being so silly. Also, chicken-pig.
Hog Monkey: Another animal that deserves Artillery status. They should probably be able to squeal as an attack as well as climb and hurl objects.
Hopping Llama: It's a Llama that jumps really high. Skirmisher, maybe a mount, if you are up to it.
Jackalope: Okay, this thing is great. I think they should be Brute Minions, like they have some awesome charge attack, but they are basically just rabbits. It will surprise your party the first time it happens.
Leech-A-Pillar: These would have to come in swarms, but why bother, we already have Hopping Llamas.
Meadow Vole: D'AAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Ostrich Horse: Another kooky mount. I liked it better when it was called a Chocobo.
Platypus Bear: (There should just be a section of the book devoted to things that are also bears.) Okay, little known facts about Platypi, 1: They have venom secreting barbs in their back feet, and their venom is apparently one of the most painful in the animal kingdom. 2: They hunt with sonar. 3: The only reason they don't rule the earth is cause they aren't the size of a bear OOOOOOOOOOSHHIITT! Two kinds, the Venompaw Platypus Bear, which is a lurker that comes up and is like STINGPOWER and the other is like some sort of Duckbill Killtypus that is all like MAUL and is probably a soldier.
Poodle Monkey: No! Bad Poodle Monkey, go to your box, naughty, naughty Poodle Monkey! Get out of here!
Possum Chicken: I don't know... like... a chicken that hangs upside down.
Purple Pentapus: Okay, all we know is that these are adorable and when you put them on your skin the make it look like you have the plague. If they go in the book, they should get a baby version and a adult version and those should come as a package feature. Maybe the babies are minion controllers that stick to you and keep you from doing stuff and the adult is a Leader Artillery that attacks people who have little Pentapuses on them.
Pygmy Pumas: These are basically tiny Sabretooth Tigers.
Quilled Chameleon: These are Chameleons but, get this, they have quills! Or feathers... or... **** it. They are lame.
Rabbiroo: Now that is something I can get behind! Yes. Giant Bipedal Rabbits. These are Skirmishers through and through.
Rabbit: It's like this list isn't happy unless it's disappointing me. What the hell would I want a rabbit for when we already have Jackalopes and Rabbiroos?!
Reptile Bird: Polly want a creative idea. Polly want a creative idea.
Saber-tooth Moose-Lion: Okay, heres how this goes. You have the baby, or babies, which don't attack, they just get in the way. The have some ability that makes distracted so you can't use an ability for turn, like they jump on your face and immobilize you with licks or whatever. Anyway, they aren't a threat, but if one of them dies, the adults get more dangerous for the rest of the fight. So the adult is a Brute, obviously.
Scorpion: Why?
Screeching Dodo: These things don't have a face and they make such a loud noise that it can be heard for miles. Artillery. Adorably Artillery.
Serpen: "A serpent-like seahorse." says the Avatar wiki, I was all like... another boring animal. But no no, this is the giant sea-monster from Serpent's Pass. It's a huge Controller, makes waves, eats people. Also, importantly, it's not a dragon. There are only two dragons in the world of Avatar, and that's an important thing to keep in mind.
Se Tu: Giant, green catfish with human face! GAH! They should come in swarms and they should be Controllers, cause they leap out of the water and taunt people with their horrifying faces!
Scorpion Bee: It's not much cooler than a bee. I don't really think they are worth out time, but I suppose you could make them a Minion Controller Swarm.
Shirshu: What's a Shirshu? If you said a giant-giant anteater that can track someone by scent across a continent and paralyzes it's prey with a giant, lightning fast tongue then you've seen that episode of Avatar, cause no one would guess that by its name. You hear that, you are a cheater. Anyway, mount, elite, Controller, done.
Singing Groundhog: YAY! They sing, they dance, they... don't do anything dangerous. I don't know, they could be a form of really, really wierd Hazordous Terrain.
Skunk Bear: Yay, now our bear encounter has Artillery!
Skunkfish: Why eat a fish when you could eat a fish that smells terrible?
Sooty Copper Fritillary: It's a butterfly. A pretty, pretty butterfly.
Sparrowkeet: Tiny bird. Moving on.
Spider: I don't know, I think it's phonetic Korean or something... I can't even figure out how to pronounce it.
Turkey Duck: The mysterious "duck" returns! This time mixed with some sort of living Key thing... could be cool in a dungeon. "WATCH OUT! THAT'S NOT THE KEY TO THE TREASURE CHEST! IT'S A TURKEY... duck."
Unagi: I like to think that whole "The moon was the first waterbender" thing is a bunch of bunk cause Waterbenders didn't want to admit they learned magic from a giant Eel. That would explain why the Unagi hangs out in the Earth Kingdom, where it gets some respect. Colossal Solo Artillery.
Viper Bat: Okay, this is scary. Silent, flying veneous predators that can see in the dark and hunt in swarms. Awesome. Clearly a Swarmy Lurker.
Wolfbat: This is the description from the Wiki: "Wolfbats are the size of a wolf, and for the most part, resemble the creature, apart from their bat-like wings and face." That's right, fear them. They are the scariest thing on this list. Also: "It is unclear whether the Wolfbat uses sonar to determine the locations of its prey (like a bat), or relies primarily on scent (like a wolf)." Oh GOD THERE IS NO WHERE TO HIDE!
Wood Frog: If you suck on this thing, it cures you of dementia and fever. It has to be frozen though... uggh... I don't know, it was a wierd episode.
Fauna of the Fire Nation:
Anteater Sloth: They are kinda silly looking. I don't see much potential, even though those are two of my favorite animals.
Badgerfrog: Awwwwwwwwwwwww... That's... I don't think so, but cute!
Cave-Hopper: More cute not good at anything.
Clam: Nope.
Cow Hippo: What? It's a Cow and a Hippo. Brute? Sure.
Dragon: Okay, this one is going to hard. We have lots of dragons for this to be compared to. It's gotta compete with... well... Dragons. They breathe fire, the can do things with fire that other dragons can't, they invented Firebending! I'm thinking the power to move flames in crazy ways, around corners, up, down, surrouding themselves with fire to repel attackers, they can probably also shoot lightning and bend heat.
Dragon Hawk: They are just hawks. They can send messengers, decent Familiar idea.
Dragon Moose: Okay, these things rock! They are tough, probably soldiers, limited firebending powers.
Eagle Hawk: What? Okay. They... moving on.
Iguana Seal: It's a giant lizard, it swims, it bites stuff. I like it. Skirmisher.
Koala Sheep: Ha... okay, I changed my mind. Can we please include these guys. They would be like Drunk sheep. Maybe when you get close to them you get kinda drunk. Controller
Komodo Rhino: Woah! These guys rock. Also mounts, chargy, I want to say Soldier, cause they seem like they would come over and bite and hurl someone away from an ally. Like evil Appas.
Lion Vulture: This feels like such old-school DnD. It's a lion, but it has wings and a vultures head. Lots of options, but I think it should be a Lurker.
Maggot Slug: No.
Mongoose Dragon: This thing is also pretty cool. They clime walls, they run fast, they eat people. Skirmisher
Raven Eagle: It's a cool looking Eagle. I'm getting sick of these Fire Nation Bird+Bird animals.
Sea Lion: Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. I get it. It's a lion that... it's not a lion that swims?! It's a giant ****ing Sea Lion. It's adorable and it can pull ships. Yes. Absolutely yes. Brute.
Sea Raven: Not even in the show. It's just a bird. Screw this country.
Sea Slug: Nope.
Snail Sloth: Really? Okay, this has to go somewhere. They only move every-other Initiative step, they attack at a long range, but they have HUGE AC's and they grab onto you and never let go. Ranged attacks don't work very well against them, either hitting the shell or bouncing off the squishy flesh.
Tigerdillo: Armadillos? No we haven't done one of those yet. Cool, I'll mix it with... what's something we haven't done... big cats? Awesome. Tigerdillo.
At this point, I am convinced that we should write a seperate supplement with just Armadillo hybrids. These guys are... I don't know, lurkers... who cares?
Toucan-Puffin: BLOODY BIRDS!
Turtle Duck: Ha... okay. That's great. Definitely a Familiar.
Two-Headed Fish: What's not to like, it's a normal fish with two faces, there's only one of them and it's already dead. Why haven't these guys been published in the main Monster Manual.
Legendary Lifeforms:
Koh the Face Stealer: If you show emotion near him, he steals your face. Also, he's a giant Centipede with a mask... or... someone's face for a face... or a monkey... Anyway. Unique, Solo.... Controller? I don't know how we would do the Stolen face thing other than "You face is stolen" I imagine would be like being restrained or stunned, maybe you could make a saving throw to see if you could act that round. It would be powerful, like... hella dangerous.
Wan Shi Tong: It's a gigantic Owl that has all written knowledge hidden somewhere in it's enormous library. It has an army of hilarious foxes that work for it. This is an encounter in itself, and I would be sad if it died, so I think it, and Koh and Hei Bai and the other Spirits should sorta, dissolve, or reincarnate when they die. Unique Solo Soldier with a bunch of high level Minion Skirmisher foxes.
Hei Bai: It's that panda thing, I like it. Normally it's a giant panda, but if you threaten the forest it turns into a giant six-legged screaming demon monster who kidnaps people into spirit world. Awesome. Unique, Solo Soldier.
Tui: Moon spirit fish... not really something you fight.
La: Ocean spirit fish, also not really something you fight.
Lion Turtle: Awesome, it's so big it's an island. This is a Unique, Solo Controller, turns off magical abilities, this is our Tarrasque.
Two-Headed Rat Viper: It's a normal snake, but it has two heads. What's not to like?
If we were to roll with every one of the things that I like, we would end up with the following spread:
Air Nation=2
Water Tribes=5
Earth Kingdom=37
Fire Nation=10
Legendary=5
Total: 59
This would be about 1/6 to 1/5 of the Monster Manual 1. That is, assuming that each creature here only gets one stat-block, which is unlikely since I'm in co-charge of this project and I'm rediculous. However, before someone gets all worried about how ambitious this is I will point out a few things:
1: I'm insanely obsessive about this project. Go back, look at how many Paragon Paths I wrote each day. I was averaging 2-5 of'em.
2: I am, by no means, the only person who will be working on these monsters.
3: Some of these monsters will get dropped for being too similar to another monster we are working on (Although I promise we won't be losing any of the Bears/Armadillos. They get their own sections.)
4: I literally can't count all of the times I heard from someone online that we shouldn't bother making these homebrew classes when we could "just as easily" play sorcerers with "special flavor." Then we made the book, and I haven't heard one bad thing about it (okay, there was that one guy, but last I checked his project never got past the 6th level Firebender). They were wrong before, they will be wrong again this time.
5: The power of love. We are an online collective of screaming nerdy magicians with one purpose, to build a series of books that allow us to play a game with comprehensive fan rules based on a cartoon that only some of us have ever watched. No force in the 'verse can stop us! TALLY HO!
-Usagi
I think I did a damn good job, if you want to look please do, but don't comment here until the contest is over, and follow the comment guidelines there. Obviously, mine is one of the most recent submissions, but take a look at the others, as they are quite awesome as well.
-Usagi
Edit: I wrote this before the above was posted. Make of it what you willl.
Neutral Jing
Free Action
Trigger: You begin your turn
You are slowed. Once, until the start of your next turn, you may designate a new ally as your watched ally, or you may gain a +Wis/Con bonus the damage roll of Rebuking Offence or Earthen Shield.
Being permaslowed is not fun. Standard sustain:minor is a godsend compared to permaslowed. You probably mean "+wis/str bonus"
Yes Wis/Str. The intention of this power was that you could decide to be slowed (probably in a situation where you want to use a ranged power, or are 2 squares or less from an enemy), in order to be able to swap watched allies in the event you need to.
Earthbender: I use big scary earthquake attack! I designated Barbarian Bob as my watched ally. Since I don'e need to move, I'll use Neutral Jing.
BBEG: I COULD charge Barbarian Bob, but he's watched, so I'll attack the rogue.
Earthbender: I spontaneously switch my watched ally to the rogue.
I still think that UsagiYojimbo's is better, especially with the Quaking/Shaping riders. On firebenders, I think that the lesson of the OAssasin is one we should learn from. I don't think the current incarnation of the Firebender is anywhere near the deficiency of the Assasin. The assasin had to build up his damage on a single target (Firebender-no), loses his bonuses when his attack lands with full buildup (Firebender-no), and lost his dice if the target died.
Edit: I can't seem to fix the formatting. Sorry.
No no no... you misunderstand. What we are discussing is a weaker version of Sneak Attack that you can increase with a trigger (Minor Action, Hit Attack). This is a static damage bonus that lasts throughout the combat. However there is motivation throughout combat to "spend" those dice, thus forgoing the extra damage until you refill your pool. When you spend a die your attack power gains something because of it, say a larger range ("I choose to deal less damage to more enemies this round," says the Harmonious Firebender), a defensive bonus or even extra damage ("I gamble this 1d4 to hopefully deak 6 extra damage," says the Raging Firbender). That's why you have to spend it before you roll. Otherwise you would only spend dice when it would make your attack stronger and never risk losing the extra damage which is both thematic and the major difference between Source of Strength and Sneak Attack.
It is my understanding that you have to choose to make those kinds of choices before you attack, although I can't remember an example right now (it's been a while since I flipped through a rulebook).
The Firebender's attacks already deal less damage than other Striker's, so the supplementary damage is meant to close the gap.
I've heard that people didn't like starting combat with no damage bonus, so I decided there should be a die in the pool at the beginning of combat.
SOURCE OF STRENGTH
Firebending is a martial art that relies on carefully controlling your inner flame. If you make it to small, it could go out, if you let it become to large, you could lose control. You begin with a pool of extra dice, depending on your level, that are added to damage for your firebender attacks. You may also spend these dice to improve an attack power with the Inner Flame keyword. You must choose to spend your die before making an attack roll. When you spend Source of Strength dice, that number of dice in your pool reduces by that much. The manner in which you increase the dice in this pool depends on your build.
Harmonious: You breathe deeply, finding the eternal flame within yourself. You may use a minor action to add a d4 to your source of strength pool. In addition, when you use hit with a firebender attack while your dice pool is full, you:
A: may shift X as a free action.
B: gain a +X bonus your AC until end of turn.
Raging: You use your anger to fuel your firebending. When you hit with a firebender attack power add a d4 to your dice pool. In addition, when you hit with a firebender attack that you spent source of strength dice on you:
A: gain X temporary hit points.
B: gain a +X bonus to your next attack roll made before the end of your next turn.
That's not the issue I pointed out, the issue is that building damage over time is an issue.
Please help me understand why. Is it bad? Is it good? What am I balancing against?
-Usagi
"At the start of your turn, as a free action, you can designate one ally you can see as your watched ally. That ally remains watched until the end of your next turn. On your turn, you can spend a minor action to designate an extra ally as your watched ally."
Also, Jingy isn't the keyword, but the idea is a good one.
-Usagi
That's not the issue I pointed out, the issue is that building damage over time is an issue.
Please help me understand why. Is it bad? Is it good? What am I balancing against?
-Usagi
Is it bad? Ossassin.
Is it good? Ossassin.
What are you balancing against? I would assume you would like it to be better at its job than the Ossassin, yes?
EDIT: On a more constructive note, if you're going to do it that way, make sure the powers make up for it. The Ossassin's damage mechanic sucks and its powers fail to pick up the slack.
I knew I wasn't getting it right! >.<
Now I get it! So you alway deal extra damage equal to your pool, and you can take special measures to increase or decrease the amount of dice in the pool. It all makes sense now.
Firebenders are awesome!
Do we have a max? I already calculated that 3d4 is almost equal to 2d6. So is that the max size of the dice pool at heroic? Or should it be 4d4 since we have ways of decreasing it? The hybrid version would then be 2d4 at heroic?
When I spend a d4 from my pool of dice to increase the (for example) range of a power, do I then have to "win it back" or did I forgo that amount of damage just for this attack?
I'd like to point out, Ekio, that the Ossassin proved that "building up" is not an acceptable way to do a Striker mechanic. Might I suggest modifying the avenger's Censure damage? Say, a flat bonus to damage equal to your build's secondary, with more for meeting a condition that suits the theme of the build?
And on another (maybe?) useful note, I'd like to suggest Charisma vs. Wisdom for the Firebender's secondary stats. I agree that Charisma fits great for Ragers, but between the Sun Warriors and Iroh, I think Wisdom fits better for Harmonious benders.
On building damage over time:
Someone brought up the excellent point that building damage up over time has not been the most successful conecpt ever. The Insider assasin was the other iteration of this idea and it is undoubtedly an amazingly sub-par class, mostly because this is, it's striker damage feature.
Assassin's Shroud
You cause invisible shrouds to settle on your foe. At your command, the shrouds reveal the target’s weak points to your keen gaze.
At-Will 
Shadow
Free Action Close burst 10
Target: One enemy you can see in the burst
Effect: You subject the target to your shroud. If any of your shrouds are already on the target, you subject it to an additional shroud, up to a maximum of four. The shrouds last until you use this power against a different enemy or until the end of the encounter.
Before you make an attack roll against the target, you choose to invoke either all your shrouds on it or none of them. If you invoke your shrouds, the attack deals 1d6 damage per shroud, minus one shroud if the attack misses, and all your shrouds then vanish from the target. This damage roll never benefits from bonuses to damage rolls, and is in addition to the attack’s damage, if any.
Level 11: 1d6 + 3 damage per shroud.
Level 21: 1d6 + 6 damage per shroud.
Special: You can use this power only on your turn and only once per turn.
I can't believe I thought once you DID the damage it would just disappear. This feature works exactly like hunter's quarry, warlocks curse etc. except you can deal the damage against any creature and you can increase the static extra damage by set measures. This is the coolest striking mechanic EVER!
"Firebending is a martial art that relies on carefully controlling your inner flame. If you make it to small, it could go out, if you let it become too large, you could lose control. You begin with a pool of extra dice, depending on your level. When you make an attack you deal extra damage equal to the number of dice in the pool. You may also decrease the number of dice in your pool to improve an attack power with the Inner Flame keyword. You must choose to do so before making an attack roll. When you roll for initative, your pool is automatically set to 1d4 at heroic tier, and is decreased to 0d4 during a short rest. The manner in which you increase the number of dice in this pool depends on your build. "
There. Now I think we have managed to avoid all confusion regarding any connection between Inner Flame and Assassins Shroud. Suggestion of changing "improve" into "amplify", and use that word for the concept of "decreasing your pool to change the effects of a power".
When making multitarget attacks, does the Inner Flame damage apply to all targets or do I pick one? What about area powers?
Player: Yeah, and I'm going to amplify my flame cyclone with two Inner Flame dice to make it only affect enemies within burst.
DM: Ok, you now have 1d4 in your pool.
I am pretty convinced by this new watched ally idea.
"At the start of your turn, as a free action, you can designate one ally you can see as your watched ally. That ally remains watched until the end of your next turn. On your turn, you can spend a minor action to designate an extra ally as your watched ally."
Also, Jingy isn't the keyword, but the idea is a good one.
-Usagi
Yay ^^
@mhbjarkistef:
Harmonious: You breathe deeply, finding the eternal flame within yourself. You may use a minor action to add a d4 to your source of strength pool. In addition, when you use hit with a firebender attack while your dice pool is full, you:
A: may shift X as a free action.
B: gain a +X bonus your AC until end of turn.
Raging: You use your anger to fuel your firebending. When you hit with a firebender attack power add a d4 to your dice pool. In addition, when you hit with a firebender attack that you spent source of strength dice on you:
A: gain X temporary hit points.
B: gain a +X bonus to your next attack roll made before the end of your next turn.
So Harmonious Firebenders gain bonuses for dealing mass amounts of damage, and Raging Firebenders gain bonuses for amplifying their attack powers in various ways. Somehow it feel like it should be the other way around. That the Harmonious Firebender finds ways of changing his attacks according to the flow of the battle while the Raging Firebender puts as much energy he can into the simplest of techniques in order to dish out as much destructive force in a single blow as possible.
IMO, amplifying firebender attacks should be expensive. 1d4 is not enough since it's so easy to get back. An Harmonious Firebender can immediatly take a minor action to get it back and the only thing a Raging Firebender has to do is hit with the attack. 2d4 should be the basic price for a decent amplyfication. Minor stuff can be 1d4s. It is Harder for Raging Firebenders to gain more dice, but I think that complements the build: Don't waste your dice doing anything other than dealing damage. Your dice are precious and hard to earn. Once you earned them, don't let go and let the damage you deal be a demonstration of your power.
I think Raging Firebenders should gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls when their pool is full and Harmonius benders should gain temporary hit points each time they spend a minor action to increase the amount of dice in their pool. This means that Raging Firebenders will do more damage (and eventually do it more easily) than Harmonious benders and also that Harmonious Firebenders will keep trying to find ways of emptying their pool to be able to gain temporary hit points. Or you could keep the traditional format of:
Harmonious "When you make a firebender attack with the Inner Flame keyword and choose to amplify it you gain temporary hit points equal to your wisdom modifier (or whatever the secondary abilty score of the Harmonious Firebender is)"
Raging: "When you make a firebender attack with the Inner Flame keyword without amplifying it you gain +1 bonus to attack rolls unti the end of your next turn"
IMO, amplifying firebender attacks should be expensive. 1d4 is not enough since it's so easy to get back. An Harmonious Firebender can immediatly take a minor action to get it back and the only thing a Raging Firebender has to do is hit with the attack. 2d4 should be the basic price for a decent amplyfication. Minor stuff can be 1d4s.
Agreed.
It is Harder for Raging Firebenders to gain more dice, but I think that complements the build: Don't waste your dice doing anything other than dealing damage. Your dice are precious and hard to earn. Once you earned them, don't let go and let the damage you deal be a demonstration of your power.
This doesn't fit for me. Flavorwise, your inner flame is powered either by your anger or hatred or by inner calm and self-control. The Ragers should be better at getting dice, but more will to spend them. Right now it's to hard for them to increase it. But, ideally, it's a matter of gaining and expending your emotion in short bursts, which is why Zuko could beat Azula in the last episode, he was conserving his inner flame.
But I love, love, love your wording change. Although you don't need the statement about short rests:
"Firebending is a martial art that relies on carefully controlling your inner flame. If you make it to small, it could go out, if you let it become too large, you could lose control. You begin with a pool of extra dice, depending on your level. When you hit with an attack you deal extra damage equal to the number of dice in the pool. You may also decrease the number of dice in your pool to improve an attack power with the Inner Flame keyword. You must choose if you will do so before making an attack roll. You begin encounters with 1 inner flame die, which returns to 0 at the end of the encounter. The manner in which you increase the number of dice in this pool depends on your build. "
Now, the idea of increasing when you hit is clearly weaker, but it's so thematic! What do you think about doubling it? When you hit, add 2d4 to your pool. Sure, that could be good, but the Rager is rewarded for spending dice, so you need to hit in order to hit better, it seems like it would control itself. It's a good risk-to-reward theme that build has, you gotta hit to hit harder.
Here's how it breaks down:
Harmonious: Turn 1, (minor) boost, (minor) boost. 3d4 in the pool, attack, gain the benefit for being Harmonious. You don't get to move, and so you get a defensive bonus.
Rager: Turn 1, Move, Minor, Standard, if you hit, you go to 3d4 immediately. Next turn, you get to sacrifice dice to get a cooler power (increased range, extra targets, a damage rider), and if you hit you can do it all over again!
That still feels a little off. Harmonious gets to have that bonus forever, and if they want to spend dice, they just boost the next turn (or that turn if you don't need to move!). They can sacrifice some minor actions every now and then without being too affected, and you are rewarded with every attack you make!
SO, crazy idea, Ragers get a die when they Attack and when you Hit with that attack! As a striker, you'll be doing that every round anyway, but if you keep missing, you'll still be able to recover. It's a little better and a little worse than the Harmonious build. As a result, I think we should reward both classes for spending dice.
Harmonious: When you amplify a firebender attack, you get X defensive bonus.
Raging: When you amplify a firebender attack, you get X offensive bonus.
I still don't know what the bonus should be, but I think it will 10 times harder to balance the Amplifications if we have to account for "If I don't amplify, I get this flat bonus and extra damage if I'm this build, but if I do it I get this flat bonus and no extra damage if I'm this build." It's just too complex for me to hold all at once in my brain.
-Usagi
The d4s you see in the damage output is added power -> Raging Firebenders like this added power -> Raging Firebenders like having a full pool of extra damage dice. Harmonious builds know that to much power will end in lack of control, so they keep reducing their pool in order to maintain balance. We can build on this by making the harmonious gain bonuses for decreasing their pool, namely amplifying attacks, and the Raging Firebender for having a full pool, namely doing a lot of damage without thinking about control. This means that most amplifycations will result in a "smarter way to figh" and unamplifyed attacks will result in "simple attacks that demonstrate raw power".
Examples of the two, Raging before Harmonius, where Raging firebenders keep their pool full and harmonius firebenders gain bonuses for controlling their inner flame, making sure it wont go out of hand.
3d4 extra damage and line 3 power (Raw power that destroys everything in its path.)
1d4 extra damage and path 4 power (Smart use of a less powerful blast, but this use dodges allies and trees that could start a forest fire
3d4 extra damage and close burst 1 (A burst of fire that goes uncontrolled in all directions)
1d4 extra damage and close blast 3 (The same burst, but this one can be controlled and directed)
3d4 extra damage and line 3 (creatures in burst) Raging firebender goes all in for one attack.
No extra damage and line 3 (enemies in burst) Harmonious firebender takes care and plans ahead.
This is how the firebenders fight when I picture them fighting in my head.
Now, the idea of increasing when you hit is clearly weaker, but it's so thematic!
Wait a minute...
Encounter starts, each build has 1d4 in his dice pool and both fight to gain their bonuses.
Raging Firebender attacks and after two attack powers he is at full power and has his bonuses. If he so chooses he can keep his bonuses for the rest of the encounter.
Harmonius Firebender uses a minor action to increases his pool to 2d4. This is enough to gain an amplification and therefor a bonus. He does so but now his pool is back to 0d4. It will take him two minor actions to get back to where he wants to be.
In retrospect, the harmonious build can only benefit from his bonuses 1/2 the encounter while the Raging Firebender can keep his bonuses througout the encounter.
What if the Raging Bonus is +1 to attacks and the Harmonius' bonus is enough temporary hit points to last him two rounds? Ideal would be to find a way to balance their Inner Flame dice income, but this works just as well. Instead of giving the Harmonius build more ways of gaining his bonuses, why not just make the bonuses last twice as long. +2 to ac would last until the end of his next turn. Howerever, temporary hit points are a completely different matter. A standard, 1 round dose of THP at heroic tier is around 5 temporary hit points. Instead of giving the Harmonious Firebender 5 temporary hit points, lets just give him 10. Now his bonus lasts (in theory) twice as long and it doesn't matter if it takes him more time to reconstitute the condition for which he gains bonuses for.
If we do this then we are going to limit the Inner Flame increase of the Harmonius build to "Once on your turn, as a minor action, you can increase..."
Is this bogus or?
SO, crazy idea, Ragers get a die when they Attack and when you Hit with that attack! As a striker, you'll be doing that every round anyway, but if you keep missing, you'll still be able to recover. It's a little better and a little worse than the Harmonious build. As a result, I think we should reward both classes for spending dice.
So when a Firerager hits with a multitarget attack he can gain a full pool of dice? I don't think so.
I was watching the Dai Li yesterday, and I saw them climb on walls over and over again. Does the earthender have a technique that demonstrates this "Earthclimb" ability?
Question: If a firebender where falling from a building, could he aim a huge, constant fireblast at the ground to slow himself down?
Question: If Iroh and other firebenders can redirect lightning, what would you make the DnD prerequisite for the encounter power "Immediate Reaction. Trigger: You are hit by a lightning attack. Effect:You take no damage from the triggering attack. Make an attack. Implement, Close burst 5, one creature in burst. Hit: your dexterity modifier lighting damage"
There's just something about strikers and bonuses with combat advantage that's so classic. Is there any way of rewarding Firebenders for attacking with combat advantage? Like "When you attack with combat advantage you can choose to decrease your inner flame by 2d4 dice to deal 10 extra damage for that attack"
2d4 = Max 8 damage. Since doing this technically reduces your damage by 3d4 to 4d4 (2d4 for this attack and at least 1d4 for the next attack). 3d4= max 12 damage. 4d4= max 16 damage. 10 reliable damage is pretty kool. This is simply a fun nova bonus, nothing that makes the class more or less powerful since the numbers add up (sacrifice dice that deal damage to deal damage) and neither build gains a bonus (other then extra damage) for doing this.
However, if we strip each of the firebender's area burst/close blast powers and make it a necesity that you spend dice to make awesome burst/blast attacks, I think it would work out.
I dunno. I gotta go. .-.
Airbender:
Dex and Int
Dex and WIs
Firebender
Dex and Con
Dex and Cha
Earthbender
Con and Str
Con and Wis
Waterbender
Wis and Dex
Wis and Cha
Do these classes fill up all the required skill for a whole party?
There are many builds that have high wis and dex, but the only INT and CHA builds really have to have access to skills based on those ability scores. Otherways the party will lack a face or Arcana checks. So the Firebender needs a diplomacy class skill and the airbender needs arcana class skill. I know these classes are meant to mix with martial (and even primal) classes. Just felt like pointing these things out.
However. I think this is a time when a good mechanic outweighs good flavor, because your explanation is just as good as mine. And, it seems, that if we make Firebender attacks that are amplifiable, we are also hosing whichever build doesn't like to amplify. Imagine a psionic class that was built around having lots of unspent psi-points... I don't know what they are called in 4e, but hopefully that makes. Also, hopefully, there isn't a class that does that that I don't know about.
Anyway, it's worse, cause this is a build in a class built around spending dice that doesn't like spending dice.
In combat, minor actions are versatile, you can use them for a lot of things. The Harmonious bender has an easy choice, they can always at the very least sink an action into getting extra dice. I don't think it would be fun to make it impossible for them to capitalize on that. It would be like if the Rogue had to choose between making sneak attacks and using certain really cool dailies.
The simplest solution is to abandon this Spend vs. Don't-Spend idea. As flavorful as it is, it's clearly hard to balance, we can't agree on which side should be which and it sorta robs one build's potential by making them have to choose between their builds special bonuses and their classes interesting mechanic.
That's the best I can put it.
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Oh, about the Dai Li, they have their own paragon path. Currently it gives them no bonuses to climbing, but you can teleport through rocks.
The Yu-Yan archers will be here soon. Just gotta get some things in order.
-Usagi
That said, a thought occurs. Why not have the firebender start with all his available extra dice? Then you differ the builds by having, say, the Rager regains his dice by smacking people around, while the Harmonious has to stop and center himself again. Or, since the discussion seems to be about output, give them both flat damage bonuses a la the sorcerer, and have the "augment pool" just act separately. For example, a Harmonious firebender can get +1 to-hit by stoking his fire, while a Raging firebender gets +2 damage for doing the same, or something like that.
...Yes, I still kinda want this to work, if only because I'm too lazy to homebrew my own Elemental classes. :3
Example set-up; a set action builds points on the firebender; let's call these kata points for the sake of the example. Probably a minor action. IOW, both builds use the harmonious point-gain method. In this set-up, I'd probably make it a once-per-turn thing, though.
Every bender can spend kata points before an attack to get a number of extra damage dice on it's attack. If it misses, it still deals some portion of the extra damage.
Additionally, some (or all, this isn't really thought through very thoroughly) of the firebender powers have a build-based alternate kata-spending option. Harmonious alternate costs are more control / effect focused, whereas raging benefits allow movement or increased damage. Alternatively, instead of building the alternate spending methods into the powers, they could just be class features.
Just spitballing here.
The Inner Flame idea is a bit complicated, but still kudos for a creative and cool new striker mechanic.
WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP COMPARING THIS FEATURE TO THE ASSASSIN'S SHROUDS! THEY HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON! >.< Once you build up the damage for a firebender YOU CAN KEEP DOING THAT DAMAGE. The shroud damage goes away when used.
This is all true. We could abondon the whole Inner Flame dice pool idea and just do this like the airbender is done. A bonus to this for one build and a bonus for that for the other build. A +1d8 bonus to damage and the ability to reroll one damage dice per turn sounds cool. Then let the rest of the build diffrences come with the powers. This is a simple yet effective way that works just as well as anything else.
The Inner Flame idea is a bit complicated, but still kudos for a creative and cool new striker mechanic.
WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP COMPARING THIS FEATURE TO THE ASSASSIN'S SHROUDS! THEY HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON! >.< Once you build up the damage for a firebender YOU CAN KEEP DOING THAT DAMAGE. The shroud damage goes away when used.
Because it's still apples to apples. I'm comparing a striker who builds up damage over time to a striker who builds up damage over time. Whether or not that extra damage goes away after use is immaterial; it's still useless until the "mop up" stage.
@Syberys: I'm actually feeling good where we are. A dice pool for their extra striker damage works in my brain and if both builds incentivize spending dice and we make enough Inner Flame powers, it should be really cool and useful. I don't currently want to make them both boost with minor actions, but the I will give in if it turns out there is still a serious power divide between Minor,Minor Harmonies and Attack, Hit, Ragers.
Since the point of the build bonus will be to help undermine the weakness of missing and losing dice, I think that Harmonious Firebenders will get a +1 bonus to attacks (+2 Paragon, +3 Epic?) when they spend dice and Ragers will get miss damage equal to their Charisma mod, maybe Charisma +2 Paragon and Charisma +4 Epic. That way they both risk less by spending dice!
Oh, and we haven't thought of a good "ceiling" for the Inner Flame dice. 3d4 max at Heroic seems obvious. Should we go with 5d4 at Paragon and 7d4 at Epic? I'm modeling this off of Sneak-Attack damage, since you should be able to be swinging it most but not all rounds of combat.
-Usagi
"I can pin a fly to a tree at a 100 yards... without killing it."
Prerequisites: Proficiency with a Longbow, Dexterity 18
The only thing deadlier than a Yu-Yan Archer's arrow are the arrows of your team mates. Your aim is precise, your technique perfect, your teamwork flawless. No one dares cross the path of your vision without your say so. You fight at your best from a distance, in formation and with other archers working with you.
YU-YAN ARCHER PATH FEATURES
Aim From Cover (11th Level): You are especially deadly when you are hidden. Attacks you make with a bow during a surprise rounds are considered critical hits on a roll of 19-20.
Pinning Action (11th Level): Your arrows can kill, but they can also pin your opponents limbs to nearby walls, or even the ground. When you spend an action point to take an attack action, you may choose to deal half damage with that attack before making an attack roll. If you do and you hit, the target is Restrained (save ends).
Perfect Aim (16th Level): Nothing is more precise than a Yu-Yan Archer's aim. You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls made with Bows.
YU-YAN ARCHER TECHNIQUES
Volley of Arrows --- Yu-Yan Archer Attack 11
By yourself you are deadly, with allies, you are unstoppable.
Encounter * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2d6 + Dexterity modifier damage and up to two allies within 5 squares of you may make a ranged basic attack.
Effect: Allies within 5 squares gain a +2 bonus to the next ranged attack they make before the end of your next turn.
Jade Eye --- Yu-Yan Archer Utility 12
Your weapon is not your bow, your weapon is your gaze.
At-Will * Martial
Move Action Close Burst 5
Effect: You and one ally in the burst gain a +2 to Perception checks until the end of your next turn.
First to Fire --- Yu-Yan Archer Attack 20
Your arrow may be the first, but it is never the last.
Daily * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged weapon
Target: One creature.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 3d6 + Dexterity modifier damage.
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, whenever you hit with a ranged attack, allies within 5 squares of you gain a +1 bonus to the next ranged attack they make before the end of your next turn.
@Eisenritter: Two serious differences. 1, the damage builds over time, with the Assassin it appears you spent several turns preparing and then dealt lots of damage all at once which resets everything. The firebender should have a full pool by the second turn at latest, and the first turn if they are lucky enough to hit/not need to spend their other actions.
@Syberys: I'm actually feeling good where we are. A dice pool for their extra striker damage works in my brain and if both builds incentivize spending dice and we make enough Inner Flame powers, it should be really cool and useful. I don't currently want to make them both boost with minor actions, but the I will give in if it turns out there is still a serious power divide between Minor,Minor Harmonies and Attack, Hit, Ragers.
Since the point of the build bonus will be to help undermine the weakness of missing and losing dice, I think that Harmonious Firebenders will get a +1 bonus to attacks (+2 Paragon, +3 Epic?) when they spend dice and Ragers will get miss damage equal to their Charisma mod, maybe Charisma +2 Paragon and Charisma +4 Epic. That way they both risk less by spending dice!
Oh, and we haven't thought of a good "ceiling" for the Inner Flame dice. 3d4 max at Heroic seems obvious. Should we go with 5d4 at Paragon and 7d4 at Epic? I'm modeling this off of Sneak-Attack damage, since you should be able to be swinging it most but not all rounds of combat.
-Usagi
Should also be a feat or else a common paragon path feature to either add more dice or increase the rate of gaining dice. If you're going to stick with building it up, I'd suggest 3d4 (3-12) at Heroic, 5d4 (5-20) at Paragon, and 8d4 (8-32) at Epic, to make it feel just a little more worth the effort.
Also, make that hit bonus a flat one (or at least, make sure it's limited to attacks in which you use your Inner Flame). No class gives a scaling bonus to-hit from the get-go, and giving it to the Harmonious Firebender is a way to guarantee its superiority over the Raging one. ^_^
Usagi, you're right. It's not the mechanic that's unbalanced, but the stuff we've added onto that mechanic.
The mechanic at it's simplest works. This "baby" mechanic is really all the firebender needs.
Baby Version of the Firebender:
There is only one build and this is it's striker mechanic:
Inner Flame (Heroic)
Firebending is a martial art that relies on carefully controlling your inner flame. If you make it to small, it could go out, if you let it become too large, you could lose control. You grow stronger as battles goes on, using the heat of battle to improve your attacks. You begin with a pool of extra dice. The size of the pool depends on your level. When you make an attack you can deal extra fire damage equal to the dice in the pool. You may also decrease the number of dice in your pool to amplify an attack power with the Inner Flame keyword. You must choose to do so before making the attack roll. When you roll for initative, your pool is automatically set to 1d4 at heroic tier, and is reduced to 0d4 during a short rest. At the start of your turn you can add 1d4 to your Inner Flame dice pool as a free action.
Now, what's messing things up are the builds and the balance between them. If we start at the "Baby mechanic" and slowly work our way forward we should have balance between the two builds. Lets just add one thing at time, one step at a time, and make sure that at each step there is perfect balance between the builds.
Step 1 - Introduction of the Builds
Harmonius: Fights smart with superior control of his/her bending.
Raging: Fights with fiery passion and ferocity.
Harmonius Accuracy
As an Harmonius Firebender you take care, planning ahead every move you make. You gain a +1/+2/+3 class bonus attack to all Firebender and Firebender paragon paths powers, and all attacks with the fire keyword.
Raging Ferocity:
You go all out with every one of your attacks. You don't think about your bending the way the Harmonius Firebender does, you control the destructive force of the fire, and you demonstrate that force with every single on of your attacks. You deal extra fire damage equal to your charisma modifier on a miss with all Firebender or Firebender paragon path power and attacks with the fire keyword.
Okey, can anyone calculate the DPR of a basic attack to check if there is balance between +1 to hit and +3 avrg damage on a miss? If no; Can anyone calculate the DPR to find out where that balance is?
Once we have that balance we can take the next step.
Do we want the builds to gain any special bonuses when amplifying an attack with the Inner Flame keyword? What about something like:
Step 2 - Bonuses when amplifying attacks.
______ Firebender: You have aquired superior control over your breathing that allows you to stay in the fight longer. When you choose to amplify an attack with the Inner Flame keyword with any number of damage dice from your Inner Flame dice pool you gain temporary hit points equal to _________
______ Firebender: You know the importance of correct positioning in battle and fight hard to aquire the higher ground. Before or after you make an attack with the Inner Flame keyword that you have chosen to amplify with any number of damage dice from your Inner Flame dice pool, you can shift 1 square as a free action.
Is there balance here? Is shifting comparable to temporary hit points? If this is to be balanced, how many temporary hit points would the first feature grant? Does one build favor ranged attack powers/powers that need careful positioning such as lines more than the other? Once we have balance at this step we can think about the next and etc.
NOTE: Stuff above is made up on the spot to show how to work out the class in small steps.
Idea/Comments/Rants:
Just to be sure I want to say that I really like what you've done. But when I read something like this my mind just goes crazy with ideas and suggestions, and I would feel bad if I wouldn't share my ideas with you guys. Nothing here is "man, you did a bad job" but more like "hm, did you ever think of *my suggestion*" or maybe even "since I don't know what you're going for here I can't really comment on this, but IMO *my oppinion*. So nothing I say here is said to make you feel bad, ok? I'm just trying to help by coming up with as many suggestions as I can.
I love the fluff. :D
Make it "Proficient with a short or a longbow" so halflings and gnomes can benefit from it too. ;)
Aim from Cover: Make it "when hidden you can score a critical hit" or "When attacking with combat advantage". This is good but nothing compared to DAGGERMASTER paragon path, so it's not overpowered. ^^
Pinning Action: Don't be afraid to go all in. This is a paragon path designed for martial rangers first and foremost, and should be balanced as such. Sharpshooter and Battlefield Archer allow a reroll of an attack/damage or make another attack as a free action. Balance against that.
html_removed Pinning Action (11th Level): Your arrows can kill, but they can also pin your opponents limbs to nearby walls, or even the ground. When you spend an action point to take an attack, html_removed you can make a ranged basic attack with a bow or a crossbow as a free action before taking the extra action. This attack deals half damage and on a hit the target is restrained (save ends).
This is really good since making the target restrained increases your crit chance (if you use my suggestion of "Aim From Cover")
Perfect Aimt: Wow, forget about what I said about "you don't have to be afraid of doing powerful stuff". This is crazy xD This is f*%$#ing awesome. Is it too awesome? I don't know. Perhaps you want to change this into a +dex mod bonus to damage when attacking with combat advantage / while hidden. Or say " you gain a +3 bonus to ranged attacks against a target granting combat advantage to you instead of the normal +2".
You always have combat advantage against a creature that can't see you, right? Say making that the theme of this path is not out of the question. Right?
Volley of Arrows. Why does it have "Ranged Weapon" and "2d6 damage"? Make it "Ranged Weapon" and 1 or 2 [w] damage. Where did that 2d6 come from?
Does the effect take place before or after you give your allies the attacks?
Jade eye: When I read the fluff I think "Perfect Aim" but for you and your ally. What about "Lead by Example"-type thing. Next time you make a ranged attack and hit before the start of your next turn, choose one or two allies within 5 to gain a bonus to his next ranged attack roll before the end of his next turn. I just think this is a really bad utility power. Sorry...
First to Fire: Again, where do these dice come from. Make it 3[w] damage.
I think this attack is inferior to many other paragon path dailies, but I still like it. Perhaps you should make it "requirement: You must be hidden" or "requirement: You must have combat advantage against the target" and up the damage a bit.
You must remember to balance this paragon path with the most popular archery paragon pahths out there. Either make the looks and feel of this PP be something completely different to the other ones or make it as powerful but with a different theme to it. Why else would anyone pick this paragon path? What's stopping me from picking up the sharpshooter path and reflavour myself as a Yu-Yuan archer.
At this point, I'm ready to start going through Firebender attack powers and adding some amplifications to boring powers.
The Earthbender is going to get a bit revamped to include "stickiness" related powers as well as the new "Jingy" powers.
I agree with your opinion on the Yu-Yan Archers for the most part. I'll update it.
-Usagi
What do we do in the meantime? If the firebender has been figured out and the earthbender is pretty much planned, what can we do? Now I have nothing to obsess over
Meh, maybe i'll fix the formatting on my Playable Mind Flayer...
Aim From Cover (11th Level): Make it so the 19-20 crit rate applies when you have combat advantage. This is much too situational.
Pinning Action (11th Level): Also sub-par. Many other PPs tack on save ends effects when you spend an action point, full damage ought to be OK unless I'm not seeing something important.
Perfect Aim (16th Level): You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls made with Bows.
Volley of Arrows --- Yu-Yan Archer Attack 11: OK. Not really sure I love the whole "leader of archers thing", but if thats's what you're going for...
Jade Eye --- Yu-Yan Archer Utility 12: Eh. A +2 to perception when you already know you're looking for something is decidedly meh.
First to Fire --- Yu-Yan Archer Attack 20: OK.
Pinning Action (11th Level): Also sub-par. Many other PPs tack on save ends effects when you spend an action point, full damage ought to be OK unless I'm not seeing something important.
Pinning Action: When you shoot an arrow into somone's foot/palm, it does not do as much damage as if you'd target his torso...
Pinning Action (11th Level): Your arrows can kill, but they can also pin your opponents limbs to nearby walls, or even the ground. When you spend an action point to take an attack action, you may choose to take a -1 penalty to that attack before making an attack roll. If you do and you hit, the target is Restrained (save ends).
It has an associated penalty (which you apparently think it needs), but it isn't so crippling that it makes the attack not worthwhile.
Apparently I should clarify, although I thought I was being pretty clear, the builds only get their bonus (+X to attack roll, Charisma miss damage) when they Amplify. Rogue's get Rogue Weapon Talent, Fighters get some sort of weapon specialization... but the basic gist of it is that classes only ever get a flat +1 bonus to all attacks. The attack bonus/miss damage is something put there to help make it less likely that your Amplified attacks, and thus up to two turns of preparation, are wasted. It's to help reward and encourage your firebender using the amplify mechanic instead of just using the extra damage over and over again.
At this point, I'm ready to start going through Firebender attack powers and adding some amplifications to boring powers.
The Earthbender is going to get a bit revamped to include "stickiness" related powers as well as the new "Jingy" powers.I agree with your opinion on the Yu-Yan Archers for the most part. I'll update it.
-Usagi
That would be what I was hoping for. Though (from an Op standpoint, anyway) Harmonious seems strictly better than Raging (more HPs, better accuracy). I'd like to suggest taking away Con as a secondary again; make it less of "why would I want damage on a miss when I can be less likely to miss AND able to take a punch?" and more a choice of "do I want to miss less often or do something even if I do miss?"
There are two kinds of powers we want to replace:
1: Powers that do not fit the classes (The Earthbender powers that make them harder to attack for example).
2: Powers that are just underwhelming.
Hopefully there aren't very many of the second one, but I don't want to accidentally get rid of a power that most of you think is cool. So, at some point, I'll start posting powers I think should go on the cutting block and we can come up with new ideas that make the powers cooler, better and more fitting.
As far as the Yu-Yan Archers goes, I've noted all of the criticism. Just saying that here so I don't have to post a revision right now.
-Usagi
Winding Grasp Earthbender Attack 1: The shaping rider refers to a saving throw. The powers duration is end of your next turn.
That makes the penalty logical, not balanced. Restrained is a OK effect, (immobilization, plus -2 to attack, plus combat advantage) but half damage makes it almost not worth applying the benefit. If you want it to be both balanced AND logical, you need a different option. I suggest:
Pinning Action (11th Level): Your arrows can kill, but they can also pin your opponents limbs to nearby walls, or even the ground. When you spend an action point to take an attack action, you may choose to take a -1 penalty to that attack before making an attack roll. If you do and you hit, the target is Restrained (save ends).
It has an associated penalty (which you apparently think it needs), but it isn't so crippling that it makes the attack not worthwhile.
I like it.
I think Usagi should be the one to post the most up-to-date class features.
INNER FLAME
Firebending is a martial art that relies on carefully controlling your inner flame. If you make it to small, it could go out, if you let it become too large, you could lose control. You begin each encounter with a pool of extra dice depending on your level. When you hit with an attack you may roll additional damage equal to the number of dice in the pool. You may also decrease the number of dice in your pool to improve an attack power with the Inner Flame keyword, this is called Amplifying your attack. You must choose whether or not an attack will be amplified before making an attack roll. Amplification lets you temporarily decrease your overall damage in order to gain some other powerful benefit. When you roll initiative your dice pool is automatically set to +1d4. When you take a short rest you must remove all dice from the pool. The manner in which you increase the number of dice in this pool depends on your build.
Raging: As a raging firebender your inner flame is fueled by powerful, often negative, emotion. You may add a d4 to your pool the first time you make an attack roll each round as well as the first time you hit with an attack each round. In addition, whenever you amplify a firebender attack you deal Charisma modifer damage to your target if you miss with the attack. This damage increases to 2 + Charisma modifier at 11th level and 4 + Charisma modifer at 21st level.
Harmonious: As a harmonious firebender your inner flame is powered by careful control and energy borrowed from life itself. You may add a d4 to your pool by spending a minor action. In addition, whenever your amplify a firebender attack you gain a +1 bonus to hit with that that attack until end of turn. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
(SIDE NOTE: As a way of balancing the builds further, I think I agree with the criticism of Constitution based Harmonies. Whether or not it makes sense, it's way better to be a Striker with lots of hit points one way, whereas the other is pretty tame. I say we change it to Dex, Wis, Thirdstat.)
Harmonious: As a harmonious firebender your inner flame is powered by careful control and energy borrowed from life itself. You may add a d4 to your pool by spending a minor action. In addition, whenever your amplify a firebender attack you gain a +1 bonus to hit with that that attack until end of turn. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
(SIDE NOTE: As a way of balancing the builds further, I think I agree with the criticism of Constitution based Harmonies. Whether or not it makes sense, it's way better to be a Striker with lots of hit points one way, whereas the other is pretty tame. I say we change it to Dex, Wis, Thirdstat.)
" html_removed In addition, whenever your amplify a firebender attack you gain a +1 bonus to hit with that that attack until end of turn."
Why the duration note?
Side note: Yes, this is a wonderful improvement :D
Wow you guys really hacked out an awesome mechanic for the firebender. I like the new mechanic and will turn it over to my player who is a firebender. I am still voting on Wis instead of Con. But on the "too many hitpoints" part if the build is Con based, remember the monk already did that, so its not really that bad.
Harmonious Firebenders get an accuracy boost. Let me point something out. A +1 bonus to accuracy is better than any bonus to damage. In this, Raging Firebenders are already behind, plus their bonus for amplifying only occurs on a miss. At this point, if the Harmonious build is Con-secondary, it's another nail in the Raging build's coffin.
That being said, I'm anxious for the next version's release at the moment. I want to get the pdf again so I can be a bit more helpful, but I feel like I should wait until it's updated. :3
EDIT: Sorry if that seems a bit too harsh. I really don't like the "X class already did it, so it's okay" defense....
A +1 bonus to accuracy is better than any bonus to damage. In this, Raging Firebenders are already behind, plus their bonus for amplifying only occurs on a miss. At this point, if the Harmonious build is Con-secondary, it's another nail in the Raging build's coffin.
True. Though it is possible that since the Rager gets about 1.5 dice per round on average the playing field will be vaguely more level. Still, I think the rager needs something else to make it equal to the harmonious build, especially if thw harmonious build ic Con-secondary.
This is true, the rager's bonus happens on a miss. Frankly, if you are missing with your attacks so many types that it balances you with a +1 to attacks, then you're doing something wrong....
We've already found out that +1 to attacks and con secondary puts the harmonious way out of balance, so it has been decided to make int wis secondary just for that reason.
This is true, the rager's bonus happens on a miss. Frankly, if you are missing with your attacks so many types that it balances you with a +1 to attacks, then you're doing something wrong....
I seriously hope that is a typo, intelligence as a secondary??? Actuallly I really like that, give them the ability to use Int for will defense as a class feature and they would be golden. I know it doesn't fit at all with the typical firebender.....it just seems cool.
Int and Dex for a class is very bad economically speaking.
Wow, that is a bad typo xD Ofcourse that was meant to be wis. Each of the two firebenders use one of the will-defenses. One uses cha and the other wis.
Int and Dex for a class is very bad economically speaking.
And I wish to the dice gods it wasn't, since those are probably my "best" ability scores in real life
. I have been tinkering with a Rogue build that gets the Int to will bonus I mentioned, I just can't get the flavor right. Oh well I hope to see the compilied pdf soon so I can build one of them with the old character builder.
Now posting from a different state with a brand new Bacholor's Degree and a whole lot of free time. Punch it Chewie.
The Harmonious Firebender is running Will, that seems like a clear choice.
The Damage vs. Accuracy debate is more of a priority, here's my view. The upside of the Rager is that it charges for "free," that is, she gets a bonus to her damage every time she attacks. And let's face it, the Firebender is a striker with ranged attacks, she should be attacking every round. That alone is awesome. Also, if our rager does hit, she gets a second bonus die for free. So, yes, damage is worse than accuracy, but it's not the cool thing that Ragers get, it's there to make it more attractive to spend those extra dice.
As I see it, Harmony over there is cool because of how much control you get, you spend an action, you get a die, you spend a die, you are more likely to hit. Rag... err... Ragina over there is awesome because she has more power, but she really isn't as fast unless she gets kinda lucky. As we've said, Harmony charges on the first round and blasts, Ragina just blasts. Once Harmony's dice are spent, it's harder for him to recover, but he's better at amplifying.
So, as it stands, I'm entirely comfortable with that disparity, because it's covered by the sheer awesomness of the Rager's Inner Flame schema.
Ekio, use this version, it has the fixed description as well as some important clarifications and a sidebar about Rager's timing:
INNER FLAME
Firebending is a martial art that relies on carefully controlling your inner flame. If you make it to small, it could go out, if you let it become too large, you could lose control. You begin each encounter with a pool of extra dice called your Inner Flame dicepool. When you hit with an attack you may roll additional damage equal to the number of dice in the pool. You may also decrease the number of dice in your pool to improve an attack power with the Inner Flame keyword, this is called Amplifying your attack. You must choose whether or not to amplify an attack before making an attack roll for it. Amplification lets you temporarily decrease your overall damage in order to gain some other powerful benefit. When you roll initiative you immediately add a d4 to your Inner Flame dicepool. When you take a short rest you must remove all dice from the pool. The manner in which you increase the number of dice in this pool depends on your build. The maximum number of dice a firebender can have in his or her Inner Flame dicepool depends on his or her level. At first level you may have no more than 3 dice in your pool, this increases to 5 dice at 11th level and to 8 dice at 21st level.
Raging: As a raging firebender your inner flame is fueled by powerful, often negative, emotion. The first time you make an attack roll each round, as well as the first time you hit a target with an attack each round, you may add a d4 to your Inner Flame dicepool. In addition, whenever you amplify a firebender attack you deal Charisma modifer damage to your target if you miss with the attack. This damage increases to 2 + Charisma modifier at 11th level and 4 + Charisma modifer at 21st level.
Harmonious: As a harmonious firebender your inner flame is powered by careful control and energy borrowed from life itself. You may spend a minor action to add a d4 to your Inner Flame dicepool. In addition, whenever you amplify a firebender attack you gain a +1 bonus to hit with that that attack. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
SIDEBAR---> RAGING INNER FLAME
The timing of how the raging firebender adds dice to his or her Inner Flame pool is more complex than the harmonious firebender. When a raging firebender declares an attack, an additional die is immediately added to their Inner Flame dicepool, unless the pool is already full when the attack is declared. At this point, the raging firebender may then spend this die to amplify this attack, as long as he or she hasn't made an attack roll for it yet. This means, effectively, that the raging firebender always has an extra die to either spend or add to the damage of every attack he or she makes. Finally, whenever a raging firebender hits with an attack he or she immediately adds another d4 to his or her Inner Flame dicepool and then rolls damage.
Rager: We sure on adding the bonus to damage only on a miss, not on a hit and also if the attack misses?
Dicepool: 2d4? Then I hope the powers make up for the missing damage :D
Congratulations Usagi, and welcome to "another state"! :D
Edited.
EARTHBENDERIN'
Here is my Final draft of the Watchful Ally/Nuetral Jing situation. I've decided our keyword will be Jing, because it's snappy and less silly than Jingy. I wavered for a bit on the Shaping Resiliance bonus and decided I wanted it to be something you could always take advantage of. Plus, since the Quaker is based on keeping enemies away from allies, I figured the Shaper should be based on keeping enemies near them. So I settled on the ability to move enemies adjacent to you.
I vaguely remember us discussing making the Watchul Ally thing a free action that can only be done once per turn, on your turn. That sounds good to me, but maybe I'm just making it up. Right now the Watchful Ally feature is literally more than twice as good as it was before. You don't have to sink an action into it and you don't have to be near an ally. This is both because people are insisting that watching is less awesome than marking and becuase the Earthbender (similar to the new Firebender) requires you to sink resources, specifically Standard and Minor actions into "unlocking" its potential. This will also alleviate concerns about the "action economy" of the Earthbender, while making it a more interesting class, which was my most significant concern.
WATCHFUL ALLY
As an earthbender you can balance attacking your enemies with protecting your allies. Your primary concern is keeping your less resilient allies safe, and you can do that in a number of ways. Once per turn, on your turn, as a free action, you may designate an ally you can see as your watched ally until the end of your next turn. Watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to their defenses. In addition, you gain the powers rebuking offense and earthen shield and can use these powers, as well as certain others, in relation to your watched ally.
Neutral Jing --- Earthbender Feature
You are in tune with the flow of combat, knowing to hold your fist to land the perfect blow later on.
At-Will * Elemental
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You gain a bonus to attack and damage rolls with earthen shield, rebuking offense, and any power with the Jing keyword until the end of your next turn.
Quaking: The bonus to your attack and damage rolls is equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Shaping: The bonus to your attack and damage rolls is equal to your Strength modifier.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists until the end of your next turn.
EARTHBENDER RESILIENCE
Choose one of the benefits below.
Shaper: You can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifer when determining AC. In addition, when you use your neutral jing class feature, you may pull an enemy within your Strength modifier + 1 squares adjacent to you.
Quaking: You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier when determining AC. In addition, when you use your neutral jing class feature squares adjacent to your watched allies are treated as difficult terrain by enemies until the end of your next turn.
Okay, so let's do something a bit fun for a hot minute here. Fire up your brains, get your imagination boiling and let's talk about Firebender utility bending tree!
So the new plan is that each class will get a really, really simple bending power at 1st level. Then at every level when you would get a Utility power, you also get a utility At-Will with the Bending keyword. Here's a Heroic Firebender tree:
Firebending --- Firebender Class Feature
A fire burns within you, with a strike the fire bursts forth.
At-Will * Elemental
Minor Action Ranged 2
Effect: You create or extinguish a flame, up to the size of a campfire in an unoccupied square in range.
So initially you can shoot flame from your fists, pretty cool, but as you level up you can choose from a few more powers.
Mass Extinguish --- Heroic Firebender Utility
You can exinguish flame with a sweep of your hand.
At-Will * Elemental, Fire, Bending
Minor Action Close burst 3
Effect: Non-magical flame within the burst is extinguished.
Flame Motes --- Heroic Firebender Utility
Flame can be gentle, a source of warmth, a source of light.
At-Will * Elemental, Fire, Bending
Minor Action Close burst 3
Effect: You create up to 5 flame-motes in the burst that last until the end of your next turn. Each mote produces light as a candle.
Block Flame --- Heroic Firebender Utility
You take the defensive, losing time but protecting yourself from a burst of flame.
At-Will * Elemental, Fire, Bending
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Trigger: An enemy makes an attack with the fire keyword against you.
Effect: You gain a +4 to your defenses against the attack and you're dazed until the end of your next turn.
Special: You cannot use this power if your are dazed.
I wrote this next one and then decided I didn't like it, but I want to use it as an example, so here it is:
Hot Foot --- Heroic Firebender Utility
What was once a childish prank can now give you the edge in a fight.
At-Will * Elemental, Fire, Bending
Move Action Melee
Effect: Target adjacent opponent grants combat advantage until the end of your turn.
This is already turning into a wonky kinda thing. I personally would not mind the extra book keeping because of how much I like the idea of having versatility. However, after I wrote a new version of Hot Foot I realized that I wanted to reexamine this idea a bit.
The idea here is that you can only do 1 thing with each power, and you collect them to form a suite of powers that let you bend in all the ways you want, and better than the natural ability we built for the original version. Naturally, this means things will be complex so I want to limit what powers can have the Bending keyword:
1. They have to be At-Wills, characters never ran out of bending per se, they became exhausted from combat but basic bending shouldn't tire them.
2. They have to be Utilities. This is obvious, we have lots of attacks, these are utilities.
Some other things I'm considering:
3: These powers don't "level-up" with you. Instead, there are more powerful versions you can get, sure, but they get a boost if you know the lower level ability. This is flavorful, in that it shows you are specializing in a particular utility power, and not particularly clunky.
Heat Theft --- Paragon Firebender Utility
You have learned how to draw the power from a flame as you extinguish it.
At-Will * Elemental, Fire, Bending
Minor Action Close burst 3
Effect: Non-magical flame within the burst is extinguished. If you extinguished at least 1 square this way, you gain a +2 bonus to the next firebender attack you make before the end of your next turn.
Special: If you have the mass extinguish power, the area of this power is increased to Close burst 5 and the damage bonus is increased to +6.
I know this is not very 4th ed, but it's not a Prerequisite, it's just a bonus you can get for having both. I want the trees to be things you have to get, so you can get mass extinguish. This is because I want to draw a hard line between specialized benders and all-purpose benders.
Flame Shield --- Paragon Firebender Utility
You can use fire to interrupt any attack, not just a flame based one.
At-Will * Elemental, Fire, Bending
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Trigger: An enemy makes a ranged attack against you.
Effect: You gain a +4 to your defenses against the attack and you're dazed and immobilized until the end of your next turn.
Special: If you have the block fire power, you are not immobilized.
I await your comments.
So, what? Every utility power is going to be a branch of these trees? An epic-level bender would be able to master two, or one and a few others? Is that right?
Seems a bit fair, except for these all staying as at-will powers. Especially ones with combat applications, like hot foot and flame shield. Those should be encounter powers at best. Unless you're going to add more requirement lines and whatnot, 'cus I really don't see any reason not to take hot foot and spam it before every attack...
Any firebender should be able to put out a fire. Making the PC spend character resuorces on choosing that - even if they're extra resources granted by the class - seems needlessly restrictive, IMO.
1. The cantrips have to level appropriate for every level, which means they either need to level up with you or they need to be very simple, and therefore kinda weak. We went with the 2nd option, partially because we wanted to finish the project.
2. The powers have to be 4th Ed, not 3rd. This means they can't be worded in such a way that they let clever players become god-like. If you could firebend, can you set fire to someones lungs? Can airbender's suffocate anyone at level 1? Can an earthbender make a pit and then crush whoever falls into it? The answer has to be no, but when you word it in such a way as to prevent all of these options from coming from a simple power, you cut off the potential for any of them and that means that, for example, a Level 30 Waterbender can only move a few gallons of water at a time within a few yards unless it's a combat situation, in which case they can shoot dragons made of ice out of their fists. There's something wrong there.
So here's where it is, do we let the Waterbender play like a Waterbender? 4th Edition characters don't really get much opportunity to behave differently outside of combat, but the Benders should, darnit! I like this project too much to shortchange it so they fit perfectly into the game. So here's where were going:
I'm going to revamp the "Bending Cantrips" from before so they level with you and I'm going to make Utility trees. This will be an optional rule, and we'll put a disclaimer about it being pretty different from other 4th Ed material. That way we'll all be happy.
The rest of the utility trees could easily be worked in to the class if you're completely sold on 'em, I'm just saying the solution is simpler than having a whole slew of powers.
Sorry it took my so long to respond :D
1) Earthbendrin'
Marking is not more awesome than watching, just a bit more practical ;).
2) Watcful ally
"Your watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to all defenses" is bettter wording that "Watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to all their defenses"
3) Earthbender resilience.
"When you use your neutral jing class feature you may..." should be "when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature you may..."
So, wait, enemies that are within burst 5 (at level 1) of the shaper can be pulled adjacent to me as a part of the minor action that takes to sustain neutral jing? Which is better, that or "When you use or sustain your neutral jing and have a watched ally within your line of sight you can pull up to X enemies adjacent to your watched ally X squares as a part of that action".We also need a flavor text for the quaking class feature. How does this keep enemies away from my allies? What am I really doing? Do the enemies see that the squares are difficult terrain and think "Oh, boy, this is difficult, I'm gonna go somewhere else"?
I suggest "When you use or sustain neutral jing and have a watched ally within your line of sight you can push all enemies adjacent to your watched ally x squares. This push is centered on your watched ally."
Now... on to the next post...
Mass Exringuish is going to be so handy! Make it close blast 3?
Flame motes! I remember when Zuko did that! In ba sing se!
Block Flame... That's kind of excessive. I think you should forget the daze stuff and say "You gain resist 5 fire against the triggering attack. The resistance lasts until the start of your next turn". You could even have a rider that decides how long the resistance lasts. This is more of class utility power than bending utility power.
Hot foot is a nice idea, but doesn't translate well into DnD. I say drop it completety.
I like heat theft, but because of it's usefullness in combat I suggest you make it a class utility rather then a free bender utility. Just put a disclaimer "If your bender is ment for an Avatar campaign, the following powers can be selected as Bending Utility powers. However, you you're going to be playing in a non-avatar campaign they should be selected as class-utility powers instead.
This is not to say that ALL Bending Utilities have to be selected as class-utilities, just the more combat-powerful ones.
Utility Trees
I see what you are doing here, but like i said before I think you should just dedicate a chapter in the PDF at level 11 and 21 to "REPLACE POWER X WITH THIS HIGHER LEVEL VERSION OF THE SAME POWER. IT USES THE SAME ACTION BUT FAR MORE EFFECTIVELY SO THERE IS NO REASON WHY YOU SHOULDN'T WANT TO DO THIS"
I suggest this as a class utility:
Flaming Armor Firebender Utility 2
You protect yourself with a mantle of flame
Encounter · Arcane, Fire
Immediate Interrupt · Personal
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you gain a +1 power bonus to all defenses, and any creature that hits you with a melee attack takes 1d6 fire damage.
It's based of an existing 4edpower, so it's 100% balanced.
I like what you are doing with these bending utilities. You are taking a single "CAN I DO THIS" question and answering it with "Yes, at this level you get the choice of this power which allows you to do so. If you don't have said power your character has either not figured out how to do it right, or doesn't think of it it the heat of battle".
Tangent: Seriously though, have you ever seen an at-will or encounter power and think "my character can do this! He just chooses not to." Your choice of encounter and at-will powers is not a decicion of what you CAN do, just what you do naturally in the heat of battle. I am a ranger and when I select an encounter power it is usuall something like this "Sooo... I can either take a power that allows me to... shoot arrows from my bow oooooooor... a power that allows my to shoot arrows from my bow, but now I shoot his FOOT and not his FACE". I bet my ranger can do both, he's just tought himself to spend his energy using one of those powers and not the other one. A big part of fighting is just self-tought reflexes and natural (trained) instincts. Your most basic instintcs are your at-wills, then your choice of encounter powers. I can shoot both in the foot and the face, but my natural insincts are trained to aim at his face rather than his feet. Do you get what I'm saying?
The "turning a creature's lungs on fire" is a really REALLY cool encounter power :D
Bending Trick Bender Feature
flavour text
Encounter
Minor · Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Primary Ability Score +4 vs. Reflex.
Level 11: +6
Level 21: +8
Hit: The target grants combat advantage until the end of your nex turn.
Airbender:
· +5 or +10 to acrobatics to reduce falling damage 1/encounter. At 11 and 21 both the bonus increases and you can do it 2/encounter and 3/encounter. Aang did this quite a lot if I remember correctly.
· +5 to athletics to jump 1/encounter.
· Slide one square in mid-air when you fall 10feet or more. Could even have it 1 square per 10feet he falls. This should be an at-will IMO.
Waterbender:
Most of the out of combat stuff takes either a standard action or can be done during a short rest (5 minutes).
· Clean 1 sqr of water (will be used out of combat, so standard action is OK).
· Gather water from earth. (will be used out of combat, so standard action is OK).
· Gather water from earth and put in 1 square of earth to make a difficult terrain square of mud.
Earthbender:
· Make 1 square of earth slippery or slope-y.
· Make a staircase out of earth.
· Lower 1 sqr of earth within range. Getting out of the pit takes 1 extra square of movement.
· Gain a +5 power bonus to an athletics check to jump. You must be jumping off bendable material.
And this one, which is a free-utility since its trigger is really hard to meet:
Really Cool Power Eartbender Utility
When an enemy falls towards the ground, you stomp your feet and quickly raise the earth to increase the impact of the fall
Immediate Reaction
Encounter · Bending
Trigger: An enemy within range falls 10 feet or more
Attack: Primary ability score + 2 vs. Reflex
Hit: The target takes 1d6 extra falling damage from the attack.
Then at level 11 in the "REPLACE POWER X WITH ITS MORE-AWESOME VERSION"-chapter it would become +4 to attack and 2d6 damage, and at epic it would be +6 and 3d6.
I'll think of some more tomorrow. Good night, forum :D
COMMENTS ON EARTHBENDER
Sorry it took my so long to respond :D
1) Earthbendrin'
Marking is not more awesome than watching, just a bit more practical ;).
2) Watcful ally
"Your watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to all defenses" is bettter wording that "Watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to all their defenses"
3) Earthbender resilience.
"When you use your neutral jing class feature you may..." should be "when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature you may..."
So, wait, enemies that are within burst 5 (at level 1) of the shaper can be pulled adjacent to me as a part of the minor action that takes to sustain neutral jing? Which is better, that or "When you use or sustain your neutral jing and have a watched ally within your line of sight you can pull up to X enemies adjacent to your watched ally X squares as a part of that action".We also need a flavor text for the quaking class feature. How does this keep enemies away from my allies? What am I really doing? Do the enemies see that the squares are difficult terrain and think "Oh, boy, this is difficult, I'm gonna go somewhere else"?
I suggest "When you use or sustain neutral jing and have a watched ally within your line of sight you can push all enemies adjacent to your watched ally x squares. This push is centered on your watched ally."
Now... on to the next post...
Agreed on all counts.
Utilty Trees? So my choice at level 1 will decide which bending techniques I can use at level 30? Isn't that just making things more complicated then necissary? What's wrong with making it like the wizard's rituals. At "this" and "that" level you can pick 2 bending techniques of your level or lower. Then at level 11 there is just a HUGE chapter dedicated to "Replace your ________ with the paragon tier ______ technique".
Agreed, there will be no "prerequisites" in the utility trees, they are meant to provide more freedom, not less.
Every bender can cause a target to grant combat advantage. The following power is based of drow's darkfire:
Bending Trick Bender Feature
flavour text
Encounter
Minor · Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Primary Ability Score +4 vs. Reflex.
Level 11: +6
Level 21: +8
Hit: The target grants combat advantage until the end of your nex turn.
I'm not sure why each class should provide that. I understand how, and I agree that they all could, but I'm hesitant to add another feature to all four classes. What if this was just an ability that each Bender could take as a Bending utility. If that's where we go with it, it should have a subtely distinct effect dependant on which bender is using it. (Firebenders could get a 1 point bonus to damage, Earthbender could grant a watched ally Resist 1 for the next attack... little things.)
Airbender:
· +5 or +10 to acrobatics to reduce falling damage 1/encounter. At 11 and 21 both the bonus increases and you can do it 2/encounter and 3/encounter. Aang did this quite a lot if I remember correctly.
· +5 to athletics to jump 1/encounter.
· Slide one square in mid-air when you fall 10feet or more. Could even have it 1 square per 10feet he falls. This should be an at-will IMO.
Waterbender:
Most of the out of combat stuff takes either a standard action or can be done during a short rest (5 minutes).
· Clean 1 sqr of water (will be used out of combat, so standard action is OK).
· Gather water from earth. (will be used out of combat, so standard action is OK).
· Gather water from earth and put in 1 square of earth to make a difficult terrain square of mud.
Earthbender:
· Make 1 square of earth slippery or slope-y.
· Make a staircase out of earth.
· Lower 1 sqr of earth within range. Getting out of the pit takes 1 extra square of movement.
· Gain a +5 power bonus to an athletics check to jump. You must be jumping off bendable material.
Are these ideas for Free Utilities? Some of them are totally awesome, a few of them feel redundant or overly specific (like the staircase one.)
But keep the ideas coming nonetheless.
-Usagi
Can you show me how you visualize the utilitree (hehehe, utility+tree=utilitree)? 'Cause the way I see it, it's a bad idea. That has lead me to think that what I'm seeing in my brain when you say "utility tree" is not at all what you have in mind. I would like a demo, just to insure that we're on the same page.
Bounding Leap is a good template for a utility power. So is Dragonflame mantle.
Can we talk epic destinies soon? :D
The way I see it, the Utilitree (love it!) will be more like a Utilipool. There are three, one for each tier, and you get one every time you could get a Utility power. They should be pretty specific, just a hair above "build a staircase" specific. Like, if an opponent is falling you can deal some extra damage, or you can reduce your fall by 10 feet or something. Those are great. They have to be really simple because players will be getting a lot of them.
Having higher level versions "eat" lower level versions is cool, but if that doesn't require a prerequisite then it just takes 2 slots to be better at something or 1 slot if you plan ahead. Like, say you can take Rock Cart, which lifts 50 lbs. but then, later on, you want to get Rock Skiff, which lifts 100 lbs., you shouldn't be punished for taking Rock Cart by losing a slot nor should you be punished for not taking rock cart by making it so you can't have Rock Skiff.
The most obvious solution is retraining. Here is an example:
Rock Cart
Woah Nelly! Rocks and Carts!
Blah Blah Blah, this lifts 50 lbs.
Rock Skiff
Oh Snap! Rocks and Skiffs!
Blah Blah Blah, this lifts 150 lbs.
Special: You lose the rock cart bending utility. If you do, take a different bending utility of the same tier.
Rock Battleship
Wait... really, Rocks and Battleships?
Blah Blah Blah, this lifts... like... 500 lbs.
Special: You lose the rock cart and/or the rock skiff bending utility. If you do, take a different bending utility of the same tier.
That way it's the same if you get all three or if you wait till epic tier to start carrying things.
Each power should be short, simple and, as you've pointed out, should have no combat applications.
Then, aside from this, there is a the general problem of making the actual Class Utilities better. Some of them are, simply put, just lame. In addition, some of them will be replaced with one of the free utilities, we'll get to that when we get to that.
We've rewritten the basic aspects of two of the classes, and most people, mercifully, seem to like the current Waterbender and Airbender. So, although we're looking at almost a full reworking of two of the classes, this should all be pretty doable.
If you have ideas for Epic Destinies, please put them on the forum. I thought of two of them while I was out haying one day, but I didn't post them cause we had just finished the project. Now, I haven't the faintest idea what they were. Ekio has always been the organized one between us, I'm afraid with me... err... "leading" the project right now, things will get out of order, so until we're totally done with the Firebender/Earthbender reworking, I think we should stay away from too many side projects, but one or two cool ideas will only serve to enthuse people, I think.
So let's say I pick up a character and as I level these are my utlity power selections:
Level 2: I pick a utility power "Heroic Gazebo"
Level 6: I pick a utility power "Heroic Dungeon"
Level 10: I pick a utility power "Heroic Dragon"
PARAGON TIER:
Level 16: I pick a utility power "Paragon Gazebo" and retrain "Heroic Gazebo" into " Heroic Bumblebee"
Now I have:
Paragon Gazebo
Heroic Dungeon
Heroic Dragon
Heroic Bumblebee
EPIC TIER:
Level 22: I pick a utility power "Epic Dragon" and retrain "Heroic Dragon" into "Heroic Doctor Who".
So know I have:
Epic Dragon
Paragon Gazebo
Heroic Dungeon
Heroic Doctor Who
I could've picked the "Epic Gazebo" and retrain "Paragon Gazebo" into "Paragon Bumblebee" and retrain "Heroic Bumblebee" to "Heroic Doctor Who", but that's beside the point. If that was what I would do then i'd have:
Epic Gazebo
Paragon Bumblebee
Heroic Dungeon
Heroic Doctor Who
Is this how you picture it? My idea was more like:
Level 2: I pick a utility power "Heroic Gazebo"
Level 6: I pick a utility power "Heroic Dungeon"
Level 10: I pick a utility power "Heroic Dragon"
Paragon Tier gives me upgrades and a new utility power, which gives me:
Paragon Gazebo
Paragon Dungeon
Paragon Dragon
And level 16 Paragon Bumblebee
EPIC TIER gives me upgrades and a new utilty power:
html_removed Epic Gazebo
Epic Dungeon
Epic Dragon
Epic Bumblebee
Epic Doctor Who
About all the more specific fixes, such as levels of various powers, wording and individual paragon paths, will you take care of the updating process or will you post "WE ARE NOW FIXING PAGES FROM 10-33 IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS/IDEAS POST THEM NOW" at the appriopriate times?
As of now though the Airbender and Waterbender seem to be well enough designed and thus, don't need the overhaul we are giving to the Earthbender and Firebender.
You got it mostly right on the picture there. I would only say that not all of the abilities have to have more or less powerful versions, some could just stand alone, or start at Paragon level. The idea is that, although each power wouldn't be game changing, the versitility you get from having... what... 7 of them at 30th level, makes up for it. That's 7 counting the Paragon Path and Epic Destiny utility, which I see no reason to exclude here.
-Usagi
I read over the pdf and I'm going to post my opinions and nit-picks of all the classes. I'm gonna start with heroic tier for each class, then take a look at feats, paragon paths etc.
Airbender
I'm starting with the Airbender, checking every sentence for stuff to whine over xD. Please note that I have not yet played the airbender, so my opinions don't have any playtesting to back them up.
"The Stuff Before The Powers"
I think the "about airbenders" could talk a bit more about their monastic traditions. Didn't the air nomads have a code or list of virtues or a set of rules to live by? Writing about that here would be ideal.
Hurricain Airbender should somwhere read "You lean towards striker as your secondary role"
Zephir Airbender: Sounds like a lockdown and slide-controller. Let's see if the powers and riders are on the same page as this description of the Zephir Airbender.
Class Features:
Evasive Currents: This feature would be better if the airbender's AC was a tad higher. With his AC it's either "avoid being targeted, or take a hit", being missed with an attack isn't really an option. None of his defenses is crazy-high and his fortitude and AC are really lacking, if I'm reading this right.
It also says "Additionally bla bla bla bla". Does that mean that if a creature misses me with an attack, I get a tiny window of opportunity to boost my AC by 2 for a small period of time? If the idea of this class feature was to make him hard-to-hit evasive and highly mobile, you're doing it wrong. I don't dislike this feature, I just dislike how rarely one gets to use it.
There is a Ranger Daily Power called "skirmishing stance". What it does is that it forces the player to go for the "skirmishing" fighting style by rewarding him to do so. What if we do the same thing here? The airbender is supposed to be highly mobile and use its mobility to dodge attacks, so if the player plays his airbender with high mobility he gets that defensive bonus he needs.
I suggest: During your turn, if you move 2(3?) or more squares away from where you started your turn, you gain a +2 shield bonus to AC and Reflex until the end of your next turn.
Although this means that whenever the airbender goes melee, he'll lose his +2 to AC. To cover that we might also add something like "In addition, when you are not wearing heavy armor you can shift as a minor action."
Quick Step: This is a beautiful class feature that emphasizes what the airbender is all about!
Sidenote: This is a cool effect to enhance the Airbender's mobility in combat:
"Effect: After the attack, you shift to a square within the blast" or "Effect: After the attack, you shift to a square adjacent to the blast"
Powers:
IMO the airbender might need some more ally-friendly powers. A "enemies in burst" here and there would be nice. What would be really sweet to see is a "Targets one, two or three creatures (in blast or in range)", low damaging at-will power.
Thunder powers! There are loads of powers with the thunder keywords that are just "mighty roar" or "cacophonous sound" and the like. The airbender could have far more thunder powers in its arsenal. There are a few, but they all do untyped damage nontheless.
Hurricanes: It might be difficult to write powers for a striker on one hand and controller on the other hand, but I think many dice is the key. Like the Weaponmaster has many builds that represent different rolls the hurricane is the build that makes the controller class into a striker. This can be done by the use of many small dice and the brutal property. Instead of making a power deal 2d10 make it deal 3d6 or even 4d4, and then give the Hurricane a brutal 1 property (or make him get a devistating ki focus) and the low-damagin attacks suddenly a lot more. The attack is still subpar on damage, but with a little love those small dice can be the base for a striker build. The calming airbender will probably likes that "if I roll all 1s one those dice, i still get a fairly high average" but a hurricane can work hard to optimize those dice. 2d4 isn't really great damage (5 on avarage) but with a devistating ki focus and hurricane class feature its average becomes 7+dex. An average of 6d4 is 16, while a devistating ki focus makes the average 21. All I'm saying is that an airbender feels like a class that should do subpar damage with a very good avarage, but with effort it can become a decent striker (devistating ki focus + hurricane class feature). 3d6 is only 2d8, but with brutal 2 it becomes a lot more. There you have it, a low damage class (controller) that can easily do enough damage to consider himself a striker.
This also means that making a ki focus for the hurricane airbender is easy, just give it a brutal or easy-crit property and it's golden. The calmin airbender will probably pick something that increases his slide.
Wind Path: Fix wording into "Creatures adjacent to the target take damage equal to your wisdom modifier"
Wind Summon: Fix Wording to "The target takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn"
When this attack hits multiple enemies, trying to remember who has already made an attack since the penalty was imposed can be a bitch.
Crushing Winds: Tak a look at the invoker's encounter powers. Can we make a few more ally-friendly powers for the airbender? Crushing winds would be a really cool "enemies un burst" power, although that might make it a bit over the avarage power level of these powers.
Forceful Push: A nice rider for this power would be a similar to a fighter power I once saw: "Special: If you have dexterity 15 or higher you can target an additional creature"
Eye of the Storm: Well, with the airbender's low AC and mostly ranged powers, having a close burst daily power seems kinda... useless. Look at the monk's daily powers for inspiration. Although a close burst is themetically right, it just doesn't work with a ranged, highly mobile guy that prefers not to go into the middle of the fight.
Flurry of Blows: Speaking of monks xD. "Target: One, two or three creatures in burst". The hurricane rider is really powerfull (up to +5 to attack on a daily power). It's fun, but not very traditional. I personally don't mind giving my players +5 to hit with their daily powers, but someone decided that DnD classes must be balanced against each other, and therefor I must address this one. This +5 bonus is way out of line. What we could to is make this power a stance without riders. Do daily powers even have riders in traditional 4e? I don't think so...
Tornadeo Projection: Huh, none of these dailies really "wow" me. I think we could easily get more "interesting powers" my taking some of the invoker, wizard or cleric powers and give them an airbender theme. For example, zones. Zones are fun. Why not a daily that makes a turnado which sucks creatures into it? We need more controllerism and less monkism (but mobility is still cool).
I would really like to see a stance in here somewhere. Something like "whenever you hit a target with an attack you can choose to slide it one square after the attack has been resolved" or something contollery ^^
I know i've been going on and on about "take a look at this" and "take a look at that" but it's a solid plan. There is no need to think about balance over something the WoTC have already balanced ;)
Utility Powers:
Airball is great and creative, air lasso is perfect (might want to make it target an additional creature (see divine call (invoker)))
Leaping Burst: Fix wording to: "Effect: You jump your speed"
Level 3 Encounter Powers.
Fierce Vortex: This is what I'm talking about! Great control, good rider, beautiful damage.
Path of winds: Oooo, I really do like the level 3 encounters :D
Leaping Tackle: -like-
Leve 5 Daily powers
Cut Through the Air: Recommend replacing it with something like this:
Cut Through the Air Airbender Attack 5
Surrounding yourself with a vortex of air, you dart
through the battle, smashing into your enemies
Daily · Implement, Elemental
Standard Action · Melee Touch
Effect: You shift your speed and make the following attack once against
each enemy that you move adjacent to during the shift.
Target: One enemy
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d6 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone
Miss: Half damage, and you push the target 1 square.
Gale Blast: Not the coolest of names, but I like the powers. It deals enough damage for the Hurricane and slowes. It might need a miss effect though (how do you dodge wind?). Or is the lack of a miss effect perhaps your way to balance the high-damage?
Thundering Swipe: fix wording to "Zephir: The target is pushed a number of squares equal to 1+your intelligence modifier": This means that even if your int is low (-1, 0 or +1) it still has an effect thats worth a rider.
Utility Powers 6
Gravity Walk: Fix wording into "on solid surface" not "ground". Should this be "end of your turn" or "end of your next turn"?. Minor action is great, wouldn't have it any other way. (Any other way would eliminate the ability of double-moving)
Monastary Studies: What do these checks have in common? Why those skills? I don't know if this is a better idea or the "No action, when you roll a skill check and dislike the result. Effect: reroll the skill check, you must use the second result"
Encounter 7
I LOVE THE LEVEL 7 ENCOUNTER POWERS
Controlling winds is a cool idea, but I think it can be better executed. This is probably a (very) personal opinion. Does the airbender have a heavy-slider already? I forgot to check. I think we really need a "1 + int modifier" slider, either an encounter or at-will, that can then be augmented by feats and items. The wizard gets a heavy slider (hypnotise) as an at-will. I think that would be thematicall accurate. When I think "Airbender at-will" i think a) Mutlitarget, push b) path 4 power c) A power that does low damage but pushes like crazy.
WHICH REMINDS ME! There are currently no official items that increase sliding distances. We might need a ki focus that does just that (property or encounter power), and perhaps an airbender feat that replaces "orb expertise".
Utilty 10
Quick on your feet should be "half your speed"
Shielding wind is good. You could also make it produce "razor sharp winds", each creature that attacks the airbender while the utility power is active takes 1d4 damage or is pushed 2 squares or something.
Can the airbender get a utilty power that works as a bubble to breathe in when underwater?
The End: Now i've read through the whole heroic tier airbender, and I must say you have done a real good job. Reading this I can just SEE the hard work that went into all of this. Very well done indeed :D
I'm not going higher, since I almost solely play at heroic tier. Let's take a look at the next class. PP, feats and items are something that I'll save until the end. ;)
Powers
I do remember making a level 4 earthbender and thinking that he really needs a new set of powers. Some are ranged, but the earthbender's selection of ranged powers is not good enough for one to go fully-ranged and his melee powers somehow really lacked a theme or a common goal. The new Warpriest of the Earth is something we could really look at. Although it is a melee leader we can still look at it and learn from it. For example he has at-will that the earthbender is just BEGGING for xD. The earthpriest focuses on granting bonuses to defenses and pushing/proning enemies. That is exactly what the Earthbender does, so I guess these to classes have more in common than you'd think, dispite being different roles.
Roles: The earthbender really should be "Defender and leans towards either controller or leader as secondary roll". This means that he alway has his watched ally feature, but can also boost allies or knock enemies prone half way across the battlefield without feeling guilty.
The earthbender really needs a "What to do when your element is not around" or "Powers with the elemental keyword require you to have access to your type of element, in any form or shape".
Utilities:
The earthbender really needs some mass-watching utilities, preferably right at level 2. He is a defender first and foremost, and multi-watching should be available. Look at the chaladin's first levels, he gets up to 3 full rounds of mass marking before level 3 if I remember correctly (tiefling feat, encounter power, utility power)
Bend the earth: This could be downgraded to a minor action, I think.
Earth Wave is beautiful.
Earth's whisper can be changed into a daily that latsts until the end of the encounter, since you don't need it often enough for it to work as a "usuable every encounter" type of power.
Columns of earth is great
Divided attention is good
Smooth sailing can be downgraded. Once you remove difficult terrain it stays removed. If you want an ally to "ignore the presence of difficult terrain" this could easily be transferred into an at-will power. Since there are many types of difficult terrain I recommend you use the words "Effect: The target gains the earthwalk ability...". It has drawbacks and is not that great. It definetly deserves an at-will stamp.
Earth's Protection: This being a ranged power, does it provoke opportunitu attacks? This does look like a burst 5 power to me. Fix wording into (the equivalent of) "You use your earthen shield or shifting ground and miss with the attack".
There are a few Warpriest of the Earth utility powers that can also be mentioned here. In Tune looks like "Stone Speak". Please look at the earthpriest, it give a lot of inspiration.
Raise The Earth is cool and very useful in combat and non-combat situations.
The earthbender's powers need to be more defender-y. :/
Since this class is also getting a makeover, I'm going to focus on ts utility powers.
Blue Fire Scorch: I've never seen anything like this, and I like it!. Fix wordin into "Until the end of your next turn, you gain a +2 power bonus to attack and damage rolls"
Speed of Light: Not what I expected from a firebender. The more traditional version is "speed +2"
Daggers of Flame: +2 is more traditional.
Thirsty Charge: This really doesn't feel firebendery to me. Is that just me? Can we come up with something else than this power?
Transfer Blessing: I don't really understand how this one works, but I like its effects. What is the difference between "close burst 5" and "ranged 5" for this kind of powers?
Does this one work as a new utility power?
__________ Firebender Utility 2
flavour text zomg wow
Encounter · Elemental
Minor Action Melee 1 (or melee touch?)
Target: One creature
Effect: Until the start of your next turn, the next ally who hits the target and has combat advantage for the attack deals damage equal to your current --striker class feature--- damage.
I am going to allow myself to look at one power:
Spitfireball: Fix wording to: "If the target moves before the end of your next turn, it takes 2d8 (fire?) damage.
Next time: Waterbender and hopefully a few feats :D
For starters: Does a waterbender gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls during the night/full moon? I know this sounds silly, but why not? We could make it a feet bonus to balance it out. ...ok, ok ,ok, silly question, moving on now.
Class Traits and stuff other than powers.
The waterbender really needs a "What to do when you're out of water" or "How much can you achieve with just a flask of water" and perhaps "Powers with the elemental keyword require you to have access to your element, any shape or form"
Moon's Blessing
This does make the difference between the builds quite obvious. One weares a shield and fights in the middle of the battlefield (warlord) while the other one focuses on being the party's medic. One moves into the fight while the other moves injured allies out of the fight.
Healing Waters
This is a very nice healing power. Its + modifier to heals and a saving throw make it one of the best (without feats). But that range >.< It is nice and balance, but its short range miht be a bit challenging to overcome (ok, that's not true. The power's range is a total bitch). OA and soldiers make a habit of locking one down in combat, and it sucks having a great healing power and not being able to use it. I think making it a burst 5 at level 1 and follow inspiring word or healing word for level scaling of the range honestly won't make it overpowered.
Flowing Strike
This is not my favourite class feature, but I guess it works. I do have a couple of fixes to it though (if fixing is the goal, not replacing).
Reactive Chi migth also be a better name for it, since that's essentially what it does.
Flowing Strike Waterbender Feature
You are versatile as water itsel, turning any
attack unti an advantage for you and your allies
At-Will · Martial/Elemental?
Free Action · Close Burst 10
Trigger: The trigger depends on your choice of class features.
Calming: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a melee or area attack.
Torrential: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a melee or close attack.
Effect: The effect depends on whether the attack hits or misses.
Hit: Your allies gain a +2 power bonus to attack rolls against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Miss: Your allies gain a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Special: You can use this power once per round.
· Why does this power originally have the Elemental and Implement keywords?
· What is the difference between Ranged 10 and Close Burst 10?
· Having multiple allies gain bonuses against multiple creatures is difficult to track and trying to keep track of them can sometimes really slow down the game. Keeping track of universal bonuses is much easier since everybody at the table are tracking the exact same thing.
· Should this power state "Until the start of your next turn" or "Until the end of your next turn"? Should the waterbender be able to utilize these penalties or not? If you decide to change it into "Until the end of your next turn" make sure you change the effect line into "You and your allie gain a +2 power bonus...."
· I don't play above heroic tier, so the scaling of the power's effects is up to you guys.
Powers and fun!
Reading the stuff above, the waterbender seems to be a class that either likes to be in the middle of the fight, or right outside of it. I am expecting to see a lot of close powers and perhaps a few ranged powers mainly targeted at the Calming Waterbender.
At-wills:
Right of the bat I see 2 line powers and 3 ranged powers. I guess each line power is supposed to be for each of the builds. Well, Water Whip is a really good leader power, and icicle trap seems to be defending. So I guess the idea is that he can lead and defend from a distance? Then why does he have the shield and the "shift into battle" ability if the best place for him to stay is outside of combat? Maybe the waterbender needs a little polishing. Either go with ranged-defender (and drop the shield proficiency) or a melee-defender (and give him a close power that defends).
Icicle trap is a good defender power and shielding ice a perfect leader power. Both buils would probably pick up the Water Whip power. Let's see what the build description advise:
Torrential at-wills: Waving Uppercut and Water Bullet.
Well the only defender-esque at-will power is the icicle trap and there is no power called "Water Bullet", so there's a problem...
Calming at-wills: Water Whip, Shielding Ice.
Ok, agreed. These power are really good for a leader class.
Shielding Ice: Fix wording to "... and an ally adjacent to the target gains temporary hit points equal to..."
Icicle Trap: This power can be simplified, and should be. I suggest: "1d6 + wisdom modifier cold damage. If the target moves before the end of your next turn it takes cold damage equal to your wisdom modifier"
Byrsting Geysers and Water Whip: These are the two non-OA provoking attacks, so I guess each build will pick one, just in case. The bonuses are a bit untradtional. Make it a +2 bonus or a bonus based of the secondary ability of the build it's suited for.
I see now that the waterbender is supposed to have the ability to semi-defend from a distance. The only at-will that supports this is the icicle trap. This needs to be a bit clear. The Flowing Strike and the shield proficiency both imply that the defender-waterbender is a close-combatant, but he's not. Can we please get a better defenition for each build and how they work.
Encounter
Greater water whip is beautilful
Freezing Ray: So, this is a torrential power with a calming rider? It doesn't matter which build you pick ,this is a great pwoer. It helps with locking down targets and grants a shitload of temp hp.
Wave of Water: Torrential rider that gives a push? That's not defendery. The power is good (although just meh compared to the other two), but it somehow feels like the defender power got the leader rider and the leader power got a controller rider meant for the defender build... Confusing.
Daily Powers 1
Chi Funnel: Fix wording to "The next ally that hits the target with an attack before the end of your next turn can spend a healing surge". The rider is appropriate
Icy Tracks: I don't know where that d12 came from but I like it!
Arctic Blast: Thank you, a torrential power with an appropriate rider. You could probably add "Aftereffect: The target is slowed until the end of your next turn". That would make this power less of a waste if the target saves right away.
Utility 2
Protective Wall: Fix wording to: "Trigger: An enemy moves into square where it is flanking you or your ally" and "Target: The triggering enemy" and "Effect: The target is pushed 2 squares and slowed until the start of your next turn". This power is a bit more controller than leader/defender, but very useful nontheless.
Soothing Mist is nice
Waterwalk is a pretty sweet power :D
I got an idea for a power. Let's say a waterbender, at a full moon, channels her healing abilites (and a healing surge) into a flask of special water, effectively making a spiritually enchanted healing potion:
Lunar Water Waterbender Utility 2
Spiritual energy threads through you, coalescing into
shimmering water ripe with healing magic
Daily · Healing, Elemental
Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points.
Instead, you create a vial of shimmering water. The vial of
water lasts until consumed or until the end of your next
extended rest. A creature carrying the vial can take a minor
action to drink from it and regain hit points equal to 10+
your healing surge value.
Encounter 3
Cascade of Water: Make the shift of the allies 1 square, otherwise a solid power.
Push of the Tides: Let's see, a defender-rider. I like it, although the rider doesn't so much defend as it does control.
Moon's Push: Wait, a calming rider based of the torrential's secondary stat? Must be a typo. Although this power is both leader and defender at once, I think you should make it pure leader. Base it of charisma and make it a wall within 10 IMO
Daily 5
The Morning Tide: You are a leader or a defender, and an ally of yours is reduced to 0 hp THEN YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. Don't make a daily power's trigger be something you should prevent from happening at all costs. Return from Death's Door (cleric) does have the same trigger, but its effect prevents said ally from dying. If you want to alter this power as little as possible, change the trigger to "When an ally is bloodied with an attack". If changing is ok make it "Hit: 1d10 + wisdom modifier damage and the target is pushed two squares and the ally regains hit points equal to your charisma modifier". If the torrential is a defender build make his rider "Torrential: The target is pulled instead of pushed". IF you want a bit more controllery rider then make it "Torrential: The target is knocked prone at the end of the push".
Trapping Water: This power needs a serious makeover
Trapping Waters Waterbender Attack 5
You blast your foe with icy water, and then freeze him in place.
Daily · Elemental, Implement
Standard Action __________
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier cold damage and the target is restrained (save ends)
Miss: Half damage and the target is knocked prone.
Rider: a rider that possible gives a penalty to the saving throw.
Streaming the water is to original and creative to comment on.
Level 6 utility tecniques.
Cooling Vapors I like this power, it makes sense. Can I do this during an endurance-based skill challenge where we are walking through the incredible desert heats of athas? If yes, that should be noted in the power.
Icy Patch: This needs a revisit from a rules-geek greater than me.
Evening Tide: Utility powers usually don't have riders. Change to "Trigger: An ally within 10 squares of you is reduced to 0 hit points" and "Effect: You slide the target 2 squares and makes a saving throw with a bonus equal to your charisma modifier."
Encounter 7
Mercy of the Sea: I love this power. It is a flowing power that is also ranged 10. Is that allowed? If no then change it into path 4. I really like this power.
Part the Seas: Solid.
Steamshot: Nomnomnomnom
Level 9 daily
Hail of icicles: This is a beautiful power. It has become completely clear that the torrential build is not a defender but a controller, and the waterbender always leans towards controller as a secondary role.
Octopus Form: I can't believe you included this technique! You guys are awesome! Break it down into two attacks, one that is a stance and one that is at-will power. And we have got to chill with the daily riders, it's not this common that daily powers have riders.
Octopus Form Waterbender Attack 9
You create eight arms to protect you and your allies from all sides
Encounter · Elemental, Implement, Stance
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You assume the stance of the octopus. While in this stance
you and all allies adjacent to you gain a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex.
Until the stance end you can use the Octopus Slam technique.
Octopus Slam
At-will · Elemental, Implement
Immediate Interrupt/Reaction · Melee 2
Trigger: An enemy within reach shifts or makes an attack that does not include you.
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6+ wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
now THIS is a defender power. Can we please just pick a role? Defender or controller, what will it be?
Should the be melee 1 or 2 or something else?
Watersprout is a recycled attack, put it works. We should come up with something new though.
Level 10 utility
Cleansing Mists: "Target: A creature within range taking ongoing damage" "Effect: The target can make a saving throw. In addition, the target gains resist 5 against ongoing damage until the end of your next turn" and "Close burst 5"
---- more on the way----
I will now begin to respond to this monster post. Bit by Bit.
-Usagi Yojimbo
Airbender
I'm starting with the Airbender, checking every sentence for stuff to whine over xD. Please note that I have not yet played the airbender, so my opinions don't have any playtesting to back them up.
"The Stuff Before The Powers"
I think the "about airbenders" could talk a bit more about their monastic traditions. Didn't the air nomads have a code or list of virtues or a set of rules to live by? Writing about that here would be ideal.
Hurricain Airbender should somwhere read "You lean towards striker as your secondary role"
Zephir Airbender: Sounds like a lockdown and slide-controller. Let's see if the powers and riders are on the same page as this description of the Zephir Airbender.
Class Features:
Evasive Currents: This feature would be better if the airbender's AC was a tad higher. With his AC it's either "avoid being targeted, or take a hit", being missed with an attack isn't really an option. None of his defenses is crazy-high and his fortitude and AC are really lacking, if I'm reading this right.
It also says "Additionally bla bla bla bla". Does that mean that if a creature misses me with an attack, I get a tiny window of opportunity to boost my AC by 2 for a small period of time? If the idea of this class feature was to make him hard-to-hit evasive and highly mobile, you're doing it wrong. I don't dislike this feature, I just dislike how rarely one gets to use it.
This part means that you have a static +2 to your AC as long as you move at least 2 squares each turn. Since they're secondary stats are both keyed to AC, with this ability, they should have mid-to-high Armor Classes, especially for Controllers.
There is a Ranger Daily Power called "skirmishing stance". What it does is that it forces the player to go for the "skirmishing" fighting style by rewarding him to do so. What if we do the same thing here? The airbender is supposed to be highly mobile and use its mobility to dodge attacks, so if the player plays his airbender with high mobility he gets that defensive bonus he needs.
I suggest: During your turn, if you move 2(3?) or more squares away from where you started your turn, you gain a +2 shield bonus to AC and Reflex until the end of your next turn.
Although this means that whenever the airbender goes melee, he'll lose his +2 to AC. To cover that we might also add something like "In addition, when you are not wearing heavy armor you can shift as a minor action."
As stated above, this is already how the class feature works, minus the shifting as a minor action. I'm glad to see you came to the same conclusion as us though. From playtesting, I do not believe we need to make the Airbender even more mobile, he's got a suite of absurdly mobile abilities already.
Quick Step: This is a beautiful class feature that emphasizes what the airbender is all about!
Sidenote: This is a cool effect to enhance the Airbender's mobility in combat:
"Effect: After the attack, you shift to a square within the blast" or "Effect: After the attack, you shift to a square adjacent to the blast"
Powers:
IMO the airbender might need some more ally-friendly powers. A "enemies in burst" here and there would be nice. What would be really sweet to see is a "Targets one, two or three creatures (in blast or in range)", low damaging at-will power.
Thunder powers! There are loads of powers with the thunder keywords that are just "mighty roar" or "cacophonous sound" and the like. The airbender could have far more thunder powers in its arsenal. There are a few, but they all do untyped damage nontheless.
Hurricanes: It might be difficult to write powers for a striker on one hand and controller on the other hand, but I think many dice is the key. Like the Weaponmaster has many builds that represent different rolls the hurricane is the build that makes the controller class into a striker. This can be done by the use of many small dice and the brutal property. Instead of making a power deal 2d10 make it deal 3d6 or even 4d4, and then give the Hurricane a brutal 1 property (or make him get a devistating ki focus) and the low-damagin attacks suddenly a lot more. The attack is still subpar on damage, but with a little love those small dice can be the base for a striker build. The calming airbender will probably likes that "if I roll all 1s one those dice, i still get a fairly high average" but a hurricane can work hard to optimize those dice. 2d4 isn't really great damage (5 on avarage) but with a devistating ki focus and hurricane class feature its average becomes 7+dex. An average of 6d4 is 16, while a devistating ki focus makes the average 21. All I'm saying is that an airbender feels like a class that should do subpar damage with a very good avarage, but with effort it can become a decent striker (devistating ki focus + hurricane class feature). 3d6 is only 2d8, but with brutal 2 it becomes a lot more. There you have it, a low damage class (controller) that can easily do enough damage to consider himself a striker.
This also means that making a ki focus for the hurricane airbender is easy, just give it a brutal or easy-crit property and it's golden. The calmin airbender will probably pick something that increases his slide.
Wind Path: Fix wording into "Creatures adjacent to the target take damage equal to your wisdom modifier"
Wind Summon: Fix Wording to "The target takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn"
When this attack hits multiple enemies, trying to remember who has already made an attack since the penalty was imposed can be a bitch.
Crushing Winds: Tak a look at the invoker's encounter powers. Can we make a few more ally-friendly powers for the airbender? Crushing winds would be a really cool "enemies un burst" power, although that might make it a bit over the avarage power level of these powers.
Forceful Push: A nice rider for this power would be a similar to a fighter power I once saw: "Special: If you have dexterity 15 or higher you can target an additional creature"
Eye of the Storm: Well, with the airbender's low AC and mostly ranged powers, having a close burst daily power seems kinda... useless. Look at the monk's daily powers for inspiration. Although a close burst is themetically right, it just doesn't work with a ranged, highly mobile guy that prefers not to go into the middle of the fight.
Flurry of Blows: Speaking of monks xD. "Target: One, two or three creatures in burst". The hurricane rider is really powerfull (up to +5 to attack on a daily power). It's fun, but not very traditional. I personally don't mind giving my players +5 to hit with their daily powers, but someone decided that DnD classes must be balanced against each other, and therefor I must address this one. This +5 bonus is way out of line. What we could to is make this power a stance without riders. Do daily powers even have riders in traditional 4e? I don't think so...
If dailies don't have riders then we have to strip... a whole lot of powers.
Tornadeo Projection: Huh, none of these dailies really "wow" me. I think we could easily get more "interesting powers" my taking some of the invoker, wizard or cleric powers and give them an airbender theme. For example, zones. Zones are fun. Why not a daily that makes a turnado which sucks creatures into it? We need more controllerism and less monkism (but mobility is still cool).
I would really like to see a stance in here somewhere. Something like "whenever you hit a target with an attack you can choose to slide it one square after the attack has been resolved" or something contollery ^^
I know i've been going on and on about "take a look at this" and "take a look at that" but it's a solid plan. There is no need to think about balance over something the WoTC have already balanced ;)
Utility Powers:
Airball is great and creative, air lasso is perfect (might want to make it target an additional creature (see divine call (invoker)))
Leaping Burst: Fix wording to: "Effect: You jump your speed"
Level 3 Encounter Powers.
Fierce Vortex: This is what I'm talking about! Great control, good rider, beautiful damage.
Path of winds: Oooo, I really do like the level 3 encounters :D
Leaping Tackle: -like-
Leve 5 Daily powers
Cut Through the Air: Recommend replacing it with something like this:
Cut Through the Air Airbender Attack 5
Surrounding yourself with a vortex of air, you dart
through the battle, smashing into your enemies
Daily · Implement, Elemental
Standard Action · Melee Touch
Effect: You shift your speed and make the following attack once against
each enemy that you move adjacent to during the shift.
Target: One enemy
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d6 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone
Miss: Half damage, and you push the target 1 square.
Gale Blast: Not the coolest of names, but I like the powers. It deals enough damage for the Hurricane and slowes. It might need a miss effect though (how do you dodge wind?). Or is the lack of a miss effect perhaps your way to balance the high-damage?
Thundering Swipe: fix wording to "Zephir: The target is pushed a number of squares equal to 1+your intelligence modifier": This means that even if your int is low (-1, 0 or +1) it still has an effect thats worth a rider.
Utility Powers 6
Gravity Walk: Fix wording into "on solid surface" not "ground". Should this be "end of your turn" or "end of your next turn"?. Minor action is great, wouldn't have it any other way. (Any other way would eliminate the ability of double-moving)
Monastary Studies: What do these checks have in common? Why those skills? I don't know if this is a better idea or the "No action, when you roll a skill check and dislike the result. Effect: reroll the skill check, you must use the second result"
Encounter 7
I LOVE THE LEVEL 7 ENCOUNTER POWERS
Controlling winds is a cool idea, but I think it can be better executed. This is probably a (very) personal opinion. Does the airbender have a heavy-slider already? I forgot to check. I think we really need a "1 + int modifier" slider, either an encounter or at-will, that can then be augmented by feats and items. The wizard gets a heavy slider (hypnotise) as an at-will. I think that would be thematicall accurate. When I think "Airbender at-will" i think a) Mutlitarget, push b) path 4 power c) A power that does low damage but pushes like crazy.
I think we can up the ante on Jet of Air. It's only a Line 3, although it has the best damage of the Airbender At-Wills. I think we can make it slide Dex instead of push Dex. Also, it's pushing Dex, let's make that "Dexterity or Intelligence" so we don't arbitrarily hate on one of the two builds.
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WHICH REMINDS ME! There are currently no official items that increase sliding distances. We might need a ki focus that does just that (property or encounter power), and perhaps an airbender feat that replaces "orb expertise".
Utilty 10
Quick on your feet should be "half your speed"
Shielding wind is good. You could also make it produce "razor sharp winds", each creature that attacks the airbender while the utility power is active takes 1d4 damage or is pushed 2 squares or something.
Can the airbender get a utilty power that works as a bubble to breathe in when underwater?
The End: Now i've read through the whole heroic tier airbender, and I must say you have done a real good job. Reading this I can just SEE the hard work that went into all of this. Very well done indeed :D
I'm not going higher, since I almost solely play at heroic tier. Let's take a look at the next class. PP, feats and items are something that I'll save until the end. ;)
Like I said before, the Airbender is pretty much the most well put together of our classes. There are grammatical things, sure, but most of the powers are great.
Again, thank you for your help.
EarthbenderNext up is the earthbender. The earthbender is already getting a huge makeover, so I can't really say much. I think I will still be looking at its utility powers.
Powers
I do remember making a level 4 earthbender and thinking that he really needs a new set of powers. Some are ranged, but the earthbender's selection of ranged powers is not good enough for one to go fully-ranged and his melee powers somehow really lacked a theme or a common goal. The new Warpriest of the Earth is something we could really look at. Although it is a melee leader we can still look at it and learn from it. For example he has at-will that the earthbender is just BEGGING for xD. The earthpriest focuses on granting bonuses to defenses and pushing/proning enemies. That is exactly what the Earthbender does, so I guess these to classes have more in common than you'd think, dispite being different roles.
Roles: The earthbender really should be "Defender and leans towards either controller or leader as secondary roll". This means that he alway has his watched ally feature, but can also boost allies or knock enemies prone half way across the battlefield without feeling guilty.
The earthbender really needs a "What to do when your element is not around" or "Powers with the elemental keyword require you to have access to your type of element, in any form or shape".
Pretty early on we decided we wanted to steer clear of neutering the Bender's when they are in the wrong environment. I think we did this on the assumption that it would be unfun to play a Waterbender in the desert, but I had a revalation, Fighters become much less powerful when they are disarmed, yet we rely on our DM's to not exploit this too often and make the fighter feel useless. Let's set a
Utilities:
The earthbender really needs some mass-watching utilities, preferably right at level 2. He is a defender first and foremost, and multi-watching should be available. Look at the chaladin's first levels, he gets up to 3 full rounds of mass marking before level 3 if I remember correctly (tiefling feat, encounter power, utility power)
As I said before, at least 1 daily from each level will be filling this role with a psuedo-watching ability. This will help with the defensive stuff, but I agree, there will be more watchy utilities.
html_removedBend the earth: This could be downgraded to a minor action, I think.
Earth Wave is beautiful.
Earth's whisper can be changed into a daily that latsts until the end of the encounter, since you don't need it often enough for it to work as a "usuable every encounter" type of power.
Columns of earth is great
Divided attention is good
Smooth sailing can be downgraded. Once you remove difficult terrain it stays removed. If you want an ally to "ignore the presence of difficult terrain" this could easily be transferred into an at-will power. Since there are many types of difficult terrain I recommend you use the words "Effect: The target gains the earthwalk ability...". It has drawbacks and is not that great. It definetly deserves an at-will stamp.
Earth's Protection: This being a ranged power, does it provoke opportunitu attacks? This does look like a burst 5 power to me. Fix wording into (the equivalent of) "You use your earthen shield or shifting ground and miss with the attack".
There are a few Warpriest of the Earth utility powers that can also be mentioned here. In Tune looks like "Stone Speak". Please look at the earthpriest, it give a lot of inspiration.
Raise The Earth is cool and very useful in combat and non-combat situations.
The earthbender's powers need to be more defender-y. :/
Firebender
Since this class is also getting a makeover, I'm going to focus on ts utility powers.
Blue Fire Scorch: I've never seen anything like this, and I like it!. Fix wordin into "Until the end of your next turn, you gain a +2 power bonus to attack and damage rolls"
Speed of Light: Not what I expected from a firebender. The more traditional version is "speed +2"
Daggers of Flame: +2 is more traditional.
Thirsty Charge: This really doesn't feel firebendery to me. Is that just me? Can we come up with something else than this power?
Transfer Blessing: I don't really understand how this one works, but I like its effects. What is the difference between "close burst 5" and "ranged 5" for this kind of powers?
Both of these powers can go, especially since Thirsty Charge is based on the old Source of Strength feature. Basically, a lot of these powers are going to change a lot.
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Does this one work as a new utility power?
__________ Firebender Utility 2
flavour text zomg wow
Encounter · Elemental
Minor Action Melee 1 (or melee touch?)
Target: One creature
Effect: Until the start of your next turn, the next ally who hits the target and has combat advantage for the attack deals damage equal to your current --striker class feature--- damage.
I am going to allow myself to look at one power:
Spitfireball: Fix wording to: "If the target moves before the end of your next turn, it takes 2d8 (fire?) damage.
Cool cool cool.
Airbender:
The Big Misunderstanding (see "spoiler")
-
Evasive currents:
"Mid-to high AC for a controller" is neccessary for a "in the fray" controller. The wizards gets a starting score of 18-20 int and always stays far back, using his ranged powers to make sure his enemies wont come close. The airbender starts with 16-18 and fights in close-range of his opponents. A big monster (reach 2-3) leaves the airbender constantly within hitting-distance. Not only is he 1 AC short of the wizard, but also needs it more. All controllers try not to get hit (via positioning). A bonus to AC that triggers of getting hit and fishing a miss does not encourage the player to fight like an airbender. A reliable +2 bonus to AC (+1 to match the wizard and +1 for fighting at-close range) that encourages the right kind of playstyle (mobility/skirmishing) is a triple improvement IMO. That's why I suggested the "shadow walk" meets "skirmishing stance"-type feature.
The easy way to fix this is to give each build one of the following:
· You gain Unarmored Agility as a bonus feat, even if you don't meet the prerequisites.
· You gain gain Armor Proficiency: Leather as a bonus feat, even if you don't meet the prerequisites.
But that encourages no playstyle at all....
I know I sound like I'm argueing, but I'm not (I swear) xD I just want you to see why I think this is the way to go (a)
*re-reads the post.... then the pdf... then the post*
WaterbenderOkey, the waterbender IMO does need some revisiting.
For starters: Does a waterbender gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls during the night/full moon? I know this sounds silly, but why not? We could make it a feet bonus to balance it out. ...ok, ok ,ok, silly question, moving on now.
I can see a feat for this, but as a class feature would be either totally useless or occasionally too powerful.
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Class Traits and stuff other than powers.
The waterbender really needs a "What to do when you're out of water" or "How much can you achieve with just a flask of water" and perhaps "Powers with the elemental keyword require you to have access to your element, any shape or form"
Moon's Blessing
This does make the difference between the builds quite obvious. One weares a shield and fights in the middle of the battlefield (warlord) while the other one focuses on being the party's medic. One moves into the fight while the other moves injured allies out of the fight.
Healing Waters
This is a very nice healing power. Its + modifier to heals and a saving throw make it one of the best (without feats). But that range >.< It is nice and balance, but its short range miht be a bit challenging to overcome (ok, that's not true. The power's range is a total bitch). OA and soldiers make a habit of locking one down in combat, and it sucks having a great healing power and not being able to use it. I think making it a burst 5 at level 1 and follow inspiring word or healing word for level scaling of the range honestly won't make it overpowered.
The idea here is that the power is a little more powerful than other healing powers. The two builds balance it out, the Torrential Waterbender is (or rather will be) better at getting near your allies with the Defender subtype while the Calming Waterbender is just better at healing, giving you support if you are hit while healing someone and making your higher risk have a higher reward.
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Flowing Strike
This is not my favourite class feature, but I guess it works. I do have a couple of fixes to it though (if fixing is the goal, not replacing).
Reactive Chi migth also be a better name for it, since that's essentially what it does.
Okay, let's see here. I really like Flowing Strike (not the name so much, but the idea of the power), and I don't think we have any reason to get rid of it. It's elemental because the class is elemental. I may be wrong, but I've never seen a power that has more than one power source. Like, nothing is ever Psychic, Martial, right? Anyway, that's not super important.
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Flowing Strike Waterbender Feature
You are versatile as water itself, turning any attack unti an advantage for you and your allies
At-Will · Elemental
Free Action · Close Burst 10
Trigger: The trigger depends on your choice of class features.
Calming: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a melee or area attack.
Torrential: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a melee or close attack.
Effect: The effect depends on whether the attack hits or misses.
Hit: Your allies gain a +2 power bonus to attack rolls against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Miss: Your allies gain a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Special: You can use this power once per round.
· Why does this power originally have the Elemental and Implement keywords?
· What is the difference between Ranged 10 and Close Burst 10?
· Having multiple allies gain bonuses against multiple creatures is difficult to track and trying to keep track of them can sometimes really slow down the game. Keeping track of universal bonuses is much easier since everybody at the table are tracking the exact same thing.
· Should this power state "Until the start of your next turn" or "Until the end of your next turn"? Should the waterbender be able to utilize these penalties or not? If you decide to change it into "Until the end of your next turn" make sure you change the effect line into "You and your allie gain a +2 power bonus...."
· I don't play above heroic tier, so the scaling of the power's effects is up to you guys.[/quot]
Wow... errr... this really nerfs the power, I realize it was written in a complicated way, but, there has got to be a better way. The flavor of the power is that you react to being hit with a defensive response and to a miss with an offensive response, both of these are offensive. I like the idea of making it only work once per round, that is definitely a more elegant limit than the "can only affect a creature once in... blah blah blah." Generally speaking, I love what you did here, but it's too far from my original vision, let's try this:
Flowing Strike Waterbender Feature
You are versatile as water itself, turning any attack unti an advantage for you and your allies
At-Will · Elemental
Free Action · Close Burst 10
Trigger: The trigger depends on your choice of class features.
Calming: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a ranged or area attack.
Torrential: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a melee or close attack.
Effect: The effect depends on whether the attack hits or misses.
Hit: Allies in the burst gain a +1 power bonus to all defenses against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Miss: Allies in the burst gain a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Special: You can use this power once per round.
Powers and fun!
Reading the stuff above, the waterbender seems to be a class that either likes to be in the middle of the fight, or right outside of it. I am expecting to see a lot of close powers and perhaps a few ranged powers mainly targeted at the Calming Waterbender.
At-wills:
Right of the bat I see 2 line powers and 3 ranged powers. I guess each line power is supposed to be for each of the builds. Well, Water Whip is a really good leader power, and icicle trap seems to be defending. So I guess the idea is that he can lead and defend from a distance? Then why does he have the shield and the "shift into battle" ability if the best place for him to stay is outside of combat? Maybe the waterbender needs a little polishing. Either go with ranged-defender (and drop the shield proficiency) or a melee-defender (and give him a close power that defends).
Icicle trap is a good defender power and shielding ice a perfect leader power. Both buils would probably pick up the Water Whip power. Let's see what the build description advise:
Agreed, my vision of the Torrential Waterbender is that they have defendery capabilities primarily at close range but also at long range, though the long range stuff just serves to bring enemies in close to them. The Waterbender wants to be attacked, even though they are a leader, because of their above average healing powers and because Flowing Strike. The Shield proficiency feels a bit boring now that I think about it, but I'll keep it there unless I can think of something cooler.
Torrential at-wills: Waving Uppercut and Water Bullet.
Well the only defender-esque at-will power is the icicle trap and there is no power called "Water Bullet", so there's a problem...
Water Bullet was complicated, wierd and not very good. It did below average damage and made enemies fall prone if they moved, but, like, it just didn't work right, so we made it into Icicle Trap.
Calming at-wills: Water Whip, Shielding Ice.
Ok, agreed. These power are really good for a leader class.
Shielding Ice: Fix wording to "... and an ally adjacent to the target gains temporary hit points equal to..."
Icicle Trap: This power can be simplified, and should be. I suggest: "1d6 + wisdom modifier cold damage. If the target moves before the end of your next turn it takes cold damage equal to your wisdom modifier"
Byrsting Geysers and Water Whip: These are the two non-OA provoking attacks, so I guess each build will pick one, just in case. The bonuses are a bit untradtional. Make it a +2 bonus or a bonus based of the secondary ability of the build it's suited for.
I see now that the waterbender is supposed to have the ability to semi-defend from a distance. The only at-will that supports this is the icicle trap. This needs to be a bit clear. The Flowing Strike and the shield proficiency both imply that the defender-waterbender is a close-combatant, but he's not. Can we please get a better defenition for each build and how they work.
Agreed on all counts.
Encounter
Greater water whip is beautilful
Freezing Ray: So, this is a torrential power with a calming rider? It doesn't matter which build you pick ,this is a great pwoer. It helps with locking down targets and grants a shitload of temp hp.
Wave of Water: Torrential rider that gives a push? That's not defendery. The power is good (although just meh compared to the other two), but it somehow feels like the defender power got the leader rider and the leader power got a controller rider meant for the defender build... Confusing.
As stated before, none of the Torrential powers have been updated. I appreciate you pointing this out, so much though! Anyway, from now I'm, just gonna ignore this kind of comment, cause it's gonna be true across the board, but I'm still taking note.
Daily Powers 1
Chi Funnel: Fix wording to "The next ally that hits the target with an attack before the end of your next turn can spend a healing surge". The rider is appropriate
Icy Tracks: I don't know where that d12 came from but I like it!
Arctic Blast: Thank you, a torrential power with an appropriate rider. You could probably add "Aftereffect: The target is slowed until the end of your next turn". That would make this power less of a waste if the target saves right away.
Utility 2
Protective Wall: Fix wording to: "Trigger: An enemy moves into square where it is flanking you or your ally" and "Target: The triggering enemy" and "Effect: The target is pushed 2 squares and slowed until the start of your next turn". This power is a bit more controller than leader/defender, but very useful nontheless.
Soothing Mist is nice
Waterwalk is a pretty sweet power :D
I got an idea for a power. Let's say a waterbender, at a full moon, channels her healing abilites (and a healing surge) into a flask of special water, effectively making a spiritually enchanted healing potion:
Lunar Water Waterbender Utility 2
Spiritual energy threads through you, coalescing into
shimmering water ripe with healing magic
Daily · Healing, Elemental
Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points.
Instead, you create a vial of shimmering water. The vial of
water lasts until consumed or until the end of your next
extended rest. A creature carrying the vial can take a minor
action to drink from it and regain hit points equal to 10+
your healing surge value.
I agree with all the power changes and I love, love, love this!
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Encounter 3
Cascade of Water: Make the shift of the allies 1 square, otherwise a solid power.
Push of the Tides: Let's see, a defender-rider. I like it, although the rider doesn't so much defend as it does control.
Moon's Push: Wait, a calming rider based of the torrential's secondary stat? Must be a typo. Although this power is both leader and defender at once, I think you should make it pure leader. Base it of charisma and make it a wall within 10 IMO
Daily 5
The Morning Tide: You are a leader or a defender, and an ally of yours is reduced to 0 hp THEN YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. Don't make a daily power's trigger be something you should prevent from happening at all costs. Return from Death's Door (cleric) does have the same trigger, but its effect prevents said ally from dying. If you want to alter this power as little as possible, change the trigger to "When an ally is bloodied with an attack". If changing is ok make it "Hit: 1d10 + wisdom modifier damage and the target is pushed two squares and the ally regains hit points equal to your charisma modifier". If the torrential is a defender build make his rider "Torrential: The target is pulled instead of pushed". IF you want a bit more controllery rider then make it "Torrential: The target is knocked prone at the end of the push".
Trapping Water: This power needs a serious makeover
Trapping Waters Waterbender Attack 5
You blast your foe with icy water, and then freeze him in place.
Daily · Elemental, Implement
Standard Action __________
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier cold damage and the target is restrained (save ends)
Miss: Half damage and the target is knocked prone.
Rider: a rider that possible gives a penalty to the saving throw.
Streaming the water is to original and creative to comment on.
Level 6 utility tecniques.
Cooling Vapors I like this power, it makes sense. Can I do this during an endurance-based skill challenge where we are walking through the incredible desert heats of athas? If yes, that should be noted in the power.
Icy Patch: This needs a revisit from a rules-geek greater than me.
Evening Tide: Utility powers usually don't have riders. Change to "Trigger: An ally within 10 squares of you is reduced to 0 hit points" and "Effect: You slide the target 2 squares and makes a saving throw with a bonus equal to your charisma modifier."
Encounter 7
Mercy of the Sea: I love this power. It is a flowing power that is also ranged 10. Is that allowed? If no then change it into path 4. I really like this power.
Part the Seas: Solid.
Steamshot: Nomnomnomnom
Level 9 daily
Hail of icicles: This is a beautiful power. It has become completely clear that the torrential build is not a defender but a controller, and the waterbender always leans towards controller as a secondary role.
Octopus Form: I can't believe you included this technique! You guys are awesome! Break it down into two attacks, one that is a stance and one that is at-will power. And we have got to chill with the daily riders, it's not this common that daily powers have riders.
Octopus Form Waterbender Attack 9
You create eight arms to protect you and your allies from all sides
Encounter · Elemental, Implement, Stance
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You assume the stance of the octopus. While in this stance
you and all allies adjacent to you gain a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex.
Until the stance end you can use the Octopus Slam technique.
Octopus Slam
At-will · Elemental, Implement
Immediate Interrupt/Reaction · Melee 2
Trigger: An enemy within reach shifts or makes an attack that does not include you.
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6+ wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
now THIS is a defender power. Can we please just pick a role? Defender or controller, what will it be?
Should the be melee 1 or 2 or something else?
Watersprout is a recycled attack, put it works. We should come up with something new though.
Level 10 utility
Cleansing Mists: "Target: A creature within range taking ongoing damage" "Effect: The target can make a saving throw. In addition, the target gains resist 5 against ongoing damage until the end of your next turn" and "Close burst 5"
---- more on the way----
For those of you still following the project, now is the ideal time to come in with suggestions, criticism and help regarding everyone's favorite Tai Chi related Aquaphiles.
First up, I'm gonna do our friend a nice Defender Sweep, so I'm going through all of the powers and updating the Torrential ones to fit the new sub-role. I'm also going to hit the feats and Paragon Paths, but that'll come later. First off, as previously stated, this is the new Flowing Strike:
Flowing Strike
Waterbender Feature
You are versatile as water itself, turning any attack into an advantage for you and your allies.
At-Will · Elemental
Free Action · Close Burst 10
Trigger: The trigger depends on your choice of class features.
Calming: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a ranged or area attack.
Torrential: An enemy you can see hits or misses you with a melee or close attack.
Effect: The effect depends on whether the attack hits or misses.
Hit: Allies in the burst gain a +1 power bonus to all defenses against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Miss: Allies in the burst gain a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Special: You can use this power once per round.
Onto the At-Wills!
Waving Uppercut Waterbender Attack 1
You raise your hands and a bolt of water lifts up, connecting to the target’s chin.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Range 10
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and one ally you choose does not provoke attacks of opportunity from the target until the end of their next turn.
21st Level: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
This is another power I never liked, but people do seem to like it, I want a power that does something like this, but just more interestingly and with less book-keeping. I wanna replace it with something more defendery.
Vortex Uppercut Waterbender Attack 1
You expertly throw your foes off balance, allowing allies a chance to recover.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee reach
Target: One adjacent creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC.
Hit: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and enemies in burst 2 cannot make opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn.
21st Level: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
YAY for wierd powers! It effects enemies in a burst, but it can only target someone adjacent to you!
Shielding Ice Waterbender Attack 1
After blasting an enemy, you use the residue of the water to protect an ally.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Range 10
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 2d4 + Wisdom modifier cold damage
and an ally adjacent to the target gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier + one half your level.
21st Level: 4d4 + Wisdom modifier damage.
All good here, I think this power is done.
Icicle Trap Waterbender Attack 1
You block an enemy’s retreat with razor sharp icicles.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Enemies in burst.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier cold damage. If the target moves before the end of your next turn it takes cold damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
21st Level: 2d6 + Wisdom modifier damage.
I'm going for a more defendery bit here, it's got good damage and it can affect multiple targets, neutralizing a few threats at once and making a whole area clear for allies to travel through. Still, I'm not sure about it, is the damage too high?
Bursting Geysers Waterbender Attack 1
Lifting your arms, the ground cracks as water explodes upward from it.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement, Flowing
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each creature within line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex.
Enemies: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Allies: Allies within the line get a bonus their next damage roll equal to your Wisdom modifier.
21st Level: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Water Whip Waterbender Attack 1
With a crack, a stream of water lurches up and knocks your opponent.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each creature in line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex.
Enemies: 1d4 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Allies: Allies in line gain a bonus to their next attack roll equal to your Wisdom modifier.
21st Level: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and allies gain a +4 bonus to their next attack.
Okay, I think this cool, I realized that, as we had it, Water Whip was strictly better, both dealing more damage and giving a bonus to Attack Rolls, which is always better than an equal bonus to damage. In fact, I would rather get a +1 bonus to hit than a +5 bonus to damage anyday. As far as making this keyed to a secondary ability, I don't like it, I don't want someone to have to choose one because of their build, you should be able to customize that without being penalized. A Wis bonus seems a bit extreme, but remember the ally has to be next to you, and this is your attack for the turn, normally you don't want to trade a standard action for a bonus unless it's a good one. One non-traditional, but certainly feasible solution would be to halve the Wisdom bonus, which would make it very similar, if not the same as, your secondary stat bonus. As always, I await the brilliance of the swarm.
Okay, there's my attempt at fixing up the At-Wills and such. Now we are starting to feel secondary defendery hopefully. Tomorrow, I'll plunge into the Heroic Tier powers.
Yay! For waterbender week!!!
And yay for jumpstarting my favorite thread on the forums!
Usagi, do you know what I love doing? I love fixing the fixes! XD
-All powers that are "range 10" are actually "ranged 10"
I love changes, especially when they are to the better. Seeing that you're finishing the torrential build is a feeling of relief for me.
Both builds seem to get pretty solid bonuses for getting hit. An at-will power or a class feature that works as a solid resource of temporary hit points seems to be needed for a class feature like that, or above-average hit points for a leader. If neither of those are present the waterbender is not gonna be likely to go look for a beating (especially since many of his powers grant bonuses to "allies" and not himself.
An idea would be a class feature that either changes depending or build, or one default class feature that then gets replaced if you go torrential... Ah, ****! I had an idea, then the phone called and I forgot! >.< Sunuvabitch!
Waving Uppercut vs. Vortex Uppercut is a nice choice. This allows the class to grant a very solid benefit whether he's ranged or melee. Ranged waterbender will pick up the Waving Uppercut and the melee Vortex Uppercut (which is obviously much more effective if you're already planning on going melee)
Vortex Uppercut: Melee reach, one adjacent creature? You mean melee touch, right?
Icicle Trap: Agreed, like, cool, great :D, damage not to high (look at the swordmage for reference)
Water Whip: Agree on the rider thing, actually. There are powers out there that state "The higher of your x or y-modifier", if you want to lower the bonus.
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So, with these new at-will, what would each build pick?
Both builds would pick the water whip, that bonus can do wonders for a striker or someone thinking about using a daily power.
Calming would take shielding ice, it is an amazing source og THP and works well from a range.
Torrential would probably take Icicle trap, but even more so if it would slow/prone instead of deal damage *wink-wink*
Humans with an extra at-will would probably take their pick of the Uppercuts, which is a lifesaver when a wizard or other fragile class has found himself in a melee situation.
It looks to me like this class is missing a "Special: You can use this attack as a melee basic attack"-type attack. Something simple, something warpriest-y. Just a simple attack with a good all-around benefit. Don't you agree?
As for now we have covered:
· Line 2
· Close burst 1
· Ranged 10
· Melee Touch
This is great, a good array of ranges. What bonuses?
· Negate OAs
· THP
· Attempt at being sticky
· Bonus to attack
· Bonus to damage
When you but it like that, you have yourself a solid array of at-will powers :D
Some of us are actually subscribing to this stuff, it would be wonderful to get each class in a separate PDF as soon as it's finished. Personally I don't think I can wait until all the classes, all the feats and some of the PPs have been revisited xD
Sincerely, me.
Water Whip: All around good power.
Bursting Geyser: All around good power.
Icicle Trap: Close range defending.
Waving Uppercut: Long range defending, Ranged Basic Attack.
Vortex Uppercut: Close range Defending, Melee Basic Attack.
Shielding Ice: Temp HP for the Leadery Leaders.
Err... how about if Torrential Waterbenders get the Toughness feat as a bonus, shield proficiency and Toughness, sounds good right!?
Freezing Ray is cool, I don't see why it's a Torrential power, is that cause it's ice based? No, shielding ice is Calming... err... is that cause it immobilizes? That seems like a Leader/Controller thing to me. However Wave of Water needs to be updated to be defendery, I'm changing the name, the flavor text and making it pull instead of push.
Wave Counter Waterbender Attack 1
Pushing and pulling the water into a rhythm, you turn your enemies strikes into steps.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Flowing
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each creature within line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Enemies: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target grants combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
Allies: Allies in line gain a +2 bonus to all defenses untl they are hit by an attack.
Torrential: The target is pulled a number of squares equal to your dexterity modifier.
With Protective Wall, the solution is simple, make it slide the enemy, that way if you're a calming waterbender, you can move it away from you and your ally, but if you're a torrential bender you can pull them!
Protective Wall Waterbender Utility 2
You quickly dispatch a creature sneaking up on one of your allies with a freezing blast.
Encounter * Elemental
Immediate Reaction Raged 10
Trigger: An enemy moves into a square where it is flanking you or your ally.
Target: The Triggering Enemy.
Effect: You slide the target 2 squares and they are slowed until the start of your next turn.
Obviously Lunar Water is going in here and I'm going to take out Waterwalk, but fear not, it will return in the form a Heroic Bending Utility power! Furthermore, it will totally be awesome. Let's change Push of the Tides so that it fits the Defender role a bit better. Again the flavor of the power is off since the change, I'm gonna call this one Eroding Strike and change the flavor to:
Water is patient, water waits, and when it comes time to strike, even mountains are weakened by its touch.
Sliding enemies that are already adjacent to you is definitely out, how about:
Torrential: You gain a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks made against the target until the end of your next turn.
Now the power is more a defensive strip, which is Leadery, but with a twist where they can't run away fore fear of an OA with a +4 bonus! Is there any reason to have something grant a bonus to OA's until the end of your next turn? Should it just be the start of the turn? Should it be a +1 bonus?
Moon's Push! I love Moon's Push! It's supposed to be a sort of united power, but that makes no sense and I don't know why I thought it did. I agree, change it to Charisma, however I don't want to make it not a Flowing power! Flowing powers are the centerpiece of the class, and each level needs to offer at least two. If you think it's too weak right now, perhaps we could add damage to the Enemies section, something like 1d6 + Wisdom?
Let's keep Morning Tide the way it is except for your changes, which I have changed slightly:
Trigger: An ally is bloodied with an attack.
Hit: 1d10 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is pushed 1 square.
Effect: The ally regains hitpoints equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Torrential: The target is pulled 3 squares toward you and knocked prone.
How's that? Also, rules question, Pushing and Pulling, do those care about the origin square or the initiator of the attack? I wrote this assuming that what mattered was the origin square, thus, if you're torrential, the monster gets hit, gets pushed so they are not adjacent to your ally and then pulled toward you and knocked prone. This is so much fun, I missed this!
I'm totally down with your version of Trapping Water, make it Ranged 10, and have the rider read:
Calming: The target takes -2 penalty to saving throws against this effect.
I'm happy you like Streaming the Water, it's one of the first powers I wrote for this I think, or maybe CJ wrote it and I changed it? I'd have to go back to the original post, which is a monster. Anway, I'm done for now, I'm gonna go visit my Grandfather and then make a replica of Captain America's shield becuase I'm a dork.
-Usagi
-Usagi
You're right, there's nothing that indicates that Freezing Ray is a torrential power, except maybe for its range and attempt at being sticky xD I probably said it was torrential due to the range, completely forgetting that Healing Waters is Melee touch, so a short ranged power isn't necessery a torrential power.
Like the change of Wave of Water
Protective Wall is good
Talking about Eroding Strike... That +2 to OAs... we can use that... You were talking about how we could make the waterbender more defendery...
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SUGGESTIONS:
For some reason I always think the build-bonuses of the waterbenders don't boost the role of the build enough.
Calming
Is a healer leader. He grants very good temporary hit points to his allies and has good healing powers.
Build-bonuses:
Range of Healing Water is increased to Close burst 5
Torrential
Is a defensive leader. Get's increased stickyness and control through riders.
Build-bonuses:
Gains a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks, and can use Wisdom instead of strength when making melee basic attacks.
If you think of another bonus for the Calming build you can even give the torrential build a Combat Challenge-like power (you know, "when an enemy adjacent to you shifts or makes an attack that doesn't include you). Just make it an encounter power.
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Sorry, I kinda lost it there, I guess I just really dislike flowing strike, I keep trying to find replacements for it :/ (it's not a bad power, I just dislike it. Personal opinion, you see ;))
Eroding Strike:
+2 sounds good, wording is fine. How do you get that +4 bonus to OAs?
Moon's Push: A wall is essentially a path that provokes an opportunity attack. Paths/lines can be flowing, why not walls? Don't think the damage is neccessary, but fun nontheless.
Morning Tide: Ok, agree on that change, although it sucks if that player gains bonuses for being bloodied... Push 1 square and then pulled a few more. That's a funny image to have of the enemy xD For clarification, if you were thinking "pushed away from the triggering ally" then simply write "and is pushed 1 square away from the triggering ally" in the power. I think pulling and pushing is always calculated from the origin of the attack, i.e. the caster of the "spell". I think it's the same with area powers, push is always away from the caster. Can't be bothered to check my rules compendium though
Say hello to your Grandpa from me, and good luck with the shield!
A fragmented PDF would be wonderful ^^
I agree with the encounter combat challenge dealie, I wonder if we can just get away with something simple like:
Water's Reflection Torrential Waterbender Feature
You are a still pool, reflecting your foes attacks back upon them.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: An enemy who is adjacent to you shifts or makes an attack that does not include you as a target.
Effect: You can make a melee basic attack against that enemy and they take a penalty to their defenses equal to your Dexterity modifer until the end of your next turn.
And, of course, the Waterbender can get:
Moon's Blessing Calming Waterbender Feature
You are a calm stream, gently pulling your allies from danger.
Encounter * Elemental
Immediate Reaction
Trigger: An ally is bloodied.
Effect: The triggering ally may shift a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier and spend a healing surge.
Eroding Strike already has a rider that reduces a single defense score by 2 (save ends), so with the Torrential rider, you'd get a +4 bonus to the opportunity attack. I don't think it's a big deal.
I agree, walls work fine for flowing powers, but I think that should be a thing that you get at Paragon Tier or so.
You can always choose not to use Morning Tide, it's not mandatory, so I'm not worried about it.
Okay, new set of powers.
Level 6 utility tecniques.
Cooling Vapors I like this power, it makes sense. Can I do this during an endurance-based skill challenge where we are walking through the incredible desert heats of athas? If yes, that should be noted in the power.
Does resist provide a boost to endurance checks? I don't think there is an official rule, so I think you'd already need to houserule this, thus, you might as well leave that kind of thing for a creative player to think up.
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Icy Patch: This needs a revisit from a rules-geek greater than me.
This is a simple fix, the power is supposed to make your enemies slower and your allies faster:
Icy Patch Waterbender Utility 6
Ice may slip your opponents up, but it only speeds your allies up.
Daily * Elemental, Zone
Minor Action Area burst 4 within 10
Effect: The burst creates a zone of icy ground that lasts until the end of your next turn. Enemies treat the zone as difficult terrain. Allies moving through the zone may move 1 additional square.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists.
Look how much simpler that is!
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Evening Tide: Utility powers usually don't have riders. Change to "Trigger: An ally within 10 squares of you is reduced to 0 hit points" and "Effect: You slide the target 2 squares and makes a saving throw with a bonus equal to your charisma modifier."
Throw in the Healing Surge and we have a deal!
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Encounter 7
Mercy of the Sea: I love this power. It is a flowing power that is also ranged 10. Is that allowed? If no then change it into path 4. I really like this power.
Part the Seas: Solid.
Ahhh, another Torrential Controller power, definitely fun, not particularly Defendery though.
Part the Seas Waterbender Attack 7
You push enemies to the side and break up their ranks.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One or two adjacent creatures.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC.
Hit: 3[W] + Wisdom modifer damage and knock the target prone.
Torrential: Until the start of your next turn, you may use Water's Reflection on the target even if you have already used it this encounter.
Look at that! I think that's pretty great. Do you think we need to make more weapon powers? This is only the second one, they should definitely be able to use their weapon as an implement, otherwise this won't work.
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Steamshot: Nomnomnomnom
Level 9 daily
Hail of icicles: This is a beautiful power. It has become completely clear that the torrential build is not a defender but a controller, and the waterbender always leans towards controller as a secondary role.
Octopus Form: I can't believe you included this technique! You guys are awesome! Break it down into two attacks, one that is a stance and one that is at-will power. And we have got to chill with the daily riders, it's not this common that daily powers have riders.
Octopus Form Waterbender Attack 9
You create eight arms to protect you and your allies from all sides
Encounter · Elemental, Implement, Stance
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You assume the stance of the octopus. While in this stance
you and all allies adjacent to you gain a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex.
Until the stance end you can use the Octopus Slam technique.
Octopus Slam
At-will · Elemental, Implement
Immediate Interrupt/Reaction · Melee 2
Trigger: An enemy within reach shifts or makes an attack that does not include you.
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6+ wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
now THIS is a defender power. Can we please just pick a role? Defender or controller, what will it be?
Should the be melee 1 or 2 or something else?
I love it, melee 2.
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Watersprout is a recycled attack, put it works. We should come up with something new though.
Level 10 utility
Cleansing Mists: "Target: A creature within range taking ongoing damage" "Effect: The target can make a saving throw. In addition, the target gains resist 5 against ongoing damage until the end of your next turn" and "Close burst 5"
---- more on the way----
I would like to a have a discussion regarding the build-bonuses ;)
Icy Patch: Wow, that was pretty well done. Fix the effect line accordingly: "Allies moving through the zone may move 1 extra square as a part of that movement". We need to find a way to have the power depict that this movement-boost only works if the person is touching the ground. Does "move through the zone" and "move in the zone", and "when an ally enters the zone" have the same meaning?
Evening Tide: I love power-haggling xD
Part the seas: What if I haven't used it? Can I still use it in this manner without expending the power? Does it still cost an immediate action? I like it.
Yeah, weapon as an implement is a must. Weapon powers (especially torrential ones) are good. The only real difference between "Melee weapon" and "Melee reach/touch" for the waterbender are weapon-related feats and properties of weapons. Having weapon powers is definitely a plus for the melee waterbender.
Cleansing Mists: Agreed, I too thought it was very specific.
The waterbender does need more seudo-marking/punishing utility powers. Stuff like giving allies (and only allies) +2 to defenses for a period of time, or perhaps:
(I'm really bad at names, this is just to get an idea of the flavor of the power)
Energy Conversion Level 6?
The energy of the mighties blow can be converted through your healing waters.
Daily · Elemental, _______
Minor Close burst 5
Target: One enemy in burst
Effect: You mark the target until the end of your next turn. In addition, whenever the target makes an attack that does not include you, the target of its attack can make a saving throw as a free action.
This leads and punishes your enemy for attacking your allies.
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Raging River Form:
Fix IMO: "Whenever an ally is bloodied by an attack" and "You regain the use of…"
Also, we need a utility power that says "You mark the target until the end of your next turn. When the marked target shifts or makes an attack that does not include you can use the following power as an immediate interrupt:
*A POWER THAT IS CLOSE BURST 5*
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As soon as you reach Paragon Tier you are out of my league :S
I'm gonna go think about build-bonuses now ;)
I agree, marking is a neat little side-note dealie. We'll drop some power, maybe Cooling Vapors. I think that power will work wonderfully as a "Bending" utility.
I'll fill in the gaps here:
Water's Mirror Waterbender Utility 6
You are a still pond, reflecting your opponents back upon themselves.
Daily · Elemental, Implement
Minor Close burst 5
Target: One enemy in burst.
Effect: You mark the target until the end of your next turn. In addition, until the end of the encounter, whenever the target makes an attack that does not include you, the target of its attack can make a saving throw as a free action.
YAY!
Gosh, it's getting hard to think of things to do with these powers! I really like both of the level 13 powers, but they are pretty much the same thing except inverted and so, if you don't like the first one, you won't like the other one and... well... anyway, I'm changing Wetstone pretty much entirely, both because it's the Torrential power and because I like it less than Softened Blows.
Reflecting Pool Waterbender Attack 13
Your weapons blows are guided, lengthened and sharpened by the water you control.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each creature in line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Enemies: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and you mark the target until the end of your next turn. When the marked target shifts or makes an attack that does not include you can make an opportunity attack against them.
Allies: Until the end of the encounter, target ally has a +2 bonus to defenses against opportunity attacks.
Torrential: Until the end of the encounter you gain a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks made against targets you have marked.
Bluh bluh... I'm tired... What do people think?
-Usagi
Chi Exchange: I'm not seeing why this is a cold power, but I'm happy with it otherwise.
Ice Crush: This seems like a perfect power.
Simple. Moving on.
Slick Surface Waterbender Attack 15
The ground turns slick beneath you, preventing foes from retreating from you.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon, Cold
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: One adjacent enemy
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 3[W] + Wisdom modifier cold damage.
Effect: Until the end of the encounter spaces adjacent to you are considered difficult terrain to enemies who are moving away from you.
Ocean's Kiss: This seems fun and flavorful and super totally Calming
Regrouping Cascade: I like this power a lot, it works for either build.
Versitility of the Water: This is another utility that I simply adore.
Okay. That's good, let's move on.
So, I suppose all the changes are here, I'll just start reading this monster from the beginning...
-Usagi
This is pretty much your last chance to critique the Waterbender
The new Flowing Strike!
Flowing Strike
Waterbender Feature
You are versatile as water itself, turning any attack into an advantage for you and your allies.
At-Will · Elemental
Free Action · Close Burst 10
Trigger: The trigger depends on your choice of class features.
Calming: A creature you can see hits or misses you with a ranged or area attack.
Torrential: A creature you can see hits or misses you with a melee or close attack.
Effect: The effect depends on whether the attack hits or misses.
Hit: Allies in the burst gain a +1 power bonus to all defenses against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Miss: Allies in the burst gain a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against the triggering creature until the start of your next turn.
Special: You can use this power once per round.
Calming Build-bonuses:
The range of your Healing Waters Class Feature is increased to Close burst 5.
Moon's Blessing Calming Waterbender Feature
You are a calm stream, gently pulling your allies from danger.
Encounter * Elemental
Immediate Reaction
Trigger: An ally is bloodied.
Effect: The triggering ally may shift a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier and spend a healing surge.
Torrential Build-bonuses:
You gain a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks, and can use Wisdom instead of strength when making melee basic attacks.
Water's Reflection Torrential Waterbender Feature
You are a still pool, reflecting your foes attacks back upon them.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: A creature who is adjacent to you shifts or makes an attack that does not include you as a target.
Effect: You can make a melee basic attack against that creature and they take a penalty to their defenses equal to your Dexterity modifer until the end of your next turn.
AT-Will Powers:
Powers:
Waving Uppercut gets:
Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and until the end of your next turn the target cannot make opportunity attacks.
Special: You may use this power as a ranged basic attack.
NEW ATTACK!
Vortex Uppercut Waterbender Attack 1
You expertly throw your foes off balance, allowing allies a chance to recover.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee reach
Target: One adjacent creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC.
Hit: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and enemies in burst 2 cannot make opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn.
21st Level: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
Special: You may use this power as a melee basic attack.
Shielding Ice Stays the Same.
Icicle Trap gets:
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Enemies in burst.
Bursting Geyser gets:
Enemies: 1d8 + Wisdom damage.
Allies: Allies within the line gain a bonus their next damage roll equal to your half your Wisdom modifier rounded up.
21st Level: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Water Whip gets:
Enemies: 1d4 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Allies: Allies in line gain a bonus to their next attack roll equal to half your Wisdom modifier rounded up.
21st Level: 2d4 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Wave Counter Waterbender Attack 1
Pushing and pulling the water into a rhythm, you turn your enemies strikes into steps.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Flowing
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each creature within line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Enemies: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target grants combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
Allies: Allies in line gain a +2 bonus to all defenses untl they are hit by an attack.
Torrential: The target is pulled a number of squares equal to your dexterity modifier.
Replace Waterwalk with:
Lunar Water Waterbender Utility 2
Spiritual energy threads through you, coalescing into
shimmering water ripe with healing magic
Daily · Healing, Elemental
Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points.
Instead, you create a vial of shimmering water. The vial of
water lasts until consumed or until the end of your next
extended rest. A creature carrying the vial can take a minor
action to drink from it and regain hit points equal to 10+
your healing surge value.
Change Protective Wall to:
Protective Wall Waterbender Utility 2
You quickly dispatch a creature sneaking up on one of your allies with a freezing blast.
Encounter * Elemental
Immediate Reaction Raged 10
Trigger: An enemy moves into a square where it is flanking you or your ally.
Target: The triggering enemy.
Effect: You slide the target 2 squares and they are slowed until the start of your next turn.
Push of the Tides:
Change name to Eroding Strike, change flavor text to:
Water is patient, water waits, and when it comes time to strike, even mountains are weakened by its touch.
And change the Torrential rider to:
Torrential: You gain a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks made against the target until the end of your next turn.
Moon’s Push: Increase damage to 1d6 + Wisdom.
Trapping Waters Waterbender Attack 5
You blast your foe with icy water, and then freeze him in place.
Daily · Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier cold damage and the target is restrained (save ends)
Miss: Half damage and the target is knocked prone.
Calming: The target takes -2 penalty to saving throws against this effect.
Morning Tide changes:
Trigger: An ally is bloodied with an attack.
Hit: 1d10 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is pushed 1 square.
Effect: The ally regains hitpoints equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Torrential: The target is pulled 3 squares toward you and knocked prone.
Icy Patch Waterbender Utility 6
Ice may slip your opponents up, but it only speeds your allies up.
Daily * Elemental, Zone
Minor Action Area burst 4 within 10
Effect: The burst creates a zone of icy ground that lasts until the end of your next turn. Enemies treat the zone as difficult terrain. Allies moving through the zone may move 1 extra square as a part of that movement.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists.
Replace Cooling Vapors:
Water's Mirror Waterbender Utility 6
You are a still pond, reflecting your opponents back upon themselves.
Daily · Elemental, Implement
Minor Close burst 5
Target: One enemy in burst.
Effect: You mark the target until the end of your next turn. In addition, until the end of the encounter, whenever the target makes an attack that does not include you, the target of its attack can make a saving throw as a free action.
Evening Tide: Change to "Trigger: An ally within 10 squares of you is reduced to 0 hit points" and "Effect: You slide the target 2 squares and they may spend a healing surge and make a saving throw with a bonus equal to your Charisma modifier." Remove Calming Rider.
Mercy of the Sea: Change to Path 4.
Change Part the Seas to:
Part the Seas Waterbender Attack 7
You push enemies to the side and break up their ranks.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One or two adjacent creatures.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC.
Hit: 3[W] + Wisdom modifer damage and knock the target prone.
Torrential: Until the start of your next turn, you may use Water's Reflection on the target even if you have already used it this encounter.
Change Octopus Form to:
Octopus Form Waterbender Attack 9
You create eight arms to protect you and your allies from all sides
Encounter · Elemental, Implement, Stance
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You assume the stance of the octopus. While in this stance
you and all allies adjacent to you gain a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex.
Until the stance end you can use the Octopus Slam technique.
Octopus Slam
At-will · Elemental, Implement
Immediate Interrupt/Reaction · Melee 2
Trigger: An enemy within reach shifts or makes an attack that does not include you.
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6+ wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
Replace Cleansing Mist with:
Raging River Form Waterbender Utility 10
You must be calm to master waterbending, but you needn't always be calm afterward.
Daily * Elemental, Stance
Minor Action Personal
Effect: Until the stance ends, whenever an ally is bloodied by an attack, you regain the use of Water's Reflection if it is expended.
Reflecting Pool Waterbender Attack 13
Your weapons blows are guided, lengthened and sharpened by the water you control.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each creature in line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Enemies: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and you mark the target until the end of your next turn. When the marked target shifts or makes an attack that does not include you can make an opportunity attack against them.
Allies: Until the end of the encounter, target ally has a +2 bonus to defenses against opportunity attacks.
Torrential: Until the end of the encounter you gain a +2 bonus to opportunity attacks made against targets you have marked.
Chi Exchange: Remove Cold Keyword
Slick Surface Waterbender Attack 15
The ground turns slick beneath you, preventing foes from retreating from you.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon, Cold
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: One adjacent creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 3[W] + Wisdom modifier cold damage.
Effect: Until the end of the encounter spaces adjacent to you are considered difficult terrain to enemies who are moving away from you.
Ocean’s Kiss:
Change to an Encounter power:
Effect: The target may spend a healing surge.
Regrouping Cascade:
Effect: Slide allies within the burst 5. They gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
Ice Hammer
You hurl a watery blast at your opponent and,
just prior to hitting them, you freeze it solid.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon, Cold
Standard Action Range weapon
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 3[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.
Torrential: The target is stunned until the end of your next turn.
Special: You may use this power as an opportunity attack.
Change Flash Boil to:
Whirlpool Prison Waterbender Attack 19
You and a foe disappear behind a swirling mass of water, when you emerge, the battle is over.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: One creature in burst.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 3[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is also immobilized [save ends].
Effect: The target is marked.
Tsunami’s Strength Waterbender Utility 22
The strength of the tsunami is instilled within whoever you deem worthy.
Daily * Elemental
Minor Action Close burst 5
Target: You or one ally in burst.
Effect: The target gains resist 5 until the end of the encounter and may slide their speed.
Change Rain Storm to:
Rain Storm Waterbender Utility 22
You create a rain storm with which to conduct your waterbending, moving the life energy of your foes to your allies.
Daily * Elemental, Zone
Standard Action Close burst 5
Effect: You create a zone of rain in burst 5 that lasts until the end of the encounter. Enemies in the zone suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls. Allies within the zone gain regeneration 2.
Change Watering Ram to:
Allies: Until the end of your next turn, when any of your allies hit an enemy, that enemy is immobilized until the end of their next turn.
Remove Effect Line.
Torrential: Whenever
Change Icicle Barrage to:
Enemies: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier cold damage and the target is slowed.
Allies: Allies in line gain a +4 bonus to their next attack made against an enemy that is slowed.
Change Glacial Onslaught to:
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Line 4
Target: Each enemy in line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 4[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is dazed and slowed [save ends both].
Miss: Half damage and the target is slowed [save ends].
Torrential: The target is marked and, until the end of the encounter, whenever the target provokes an opportunity attack from you, you regain the use of Water’s Reflection if it is expended.
Change The Tides of Healing to:
Torrential: Until the end of the encounter, anytime the target regains hit points, you make mark them.
Change The Moon’s Grasp to:
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Hit: 6[W] + Wisdom modifier you slide the target 3 squares.
Miss: Half damage and the target is pulled 3 squares.
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, whenever the target moves, you may shift 1 square as a free action and slow the target.
Torrential: Until the end of the encounter, whenever an enemy moves out of a space adjacent to you, you may mark that enemy.
Awesome! So, anything that's not here is not gonna get changed unless you point it out to me!
I will begin doing the same thing with the Waterbender Paragon Paths (this will be quite the task, as we'll have to include support for new subthemes and changes that make the torrential builds make sense now)
Also, a Feat I'm thinking about:
Reach of the Tides
Prerequisites: Waterbender, 11th Level
Benefit: You may treat any Flowing Encounter power as if it had a range of Path 3.
AAAAAaaand!
Grasp of the Waves
Prerequisites: Waterbender, 21st Level
Benefit: You may treat any Flowing Encounter power as if it had a range of Wall 4.
Extremely excited about hearing from you, as always, don't hold back on the criticism!
-Usagi
I always understood difficult terrain as a square that costs one extra square of movement to enter. Didn't know it had any slowing effect when leaving such as square.
I love the idea of publishing each chapter is it is complete (or in "beta" condition). :D
I will look at the "last chance to critique" post later tonight :D
You do seem to be correct about the difficult terrain thing, which is lame cause I've been operating under the wrong idea since I started and there are at least half a dozen places in the book that need to be fixed now. But at least someone caught it.
Here the problem is just Slick Surface so, to get approximately the same effect:
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, when an adjacent enemy moves to a non-adjacent space, that enemy is slowed until the beginning of your next turn.
Ugh... that's both hideous and inneffective...
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, when an enemy adjacent to you shifts, they are slowed until the end of your next turn.
Hrm... that's a little better, they either get slowed or smacked, makes sense... what do you think?
-Usagi
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
We finished the last draft on July 22, 2010, so in just two days, PDF will be a year old! Ekio's first post was on June 26th 2009, so we're over two years old now!
Well, the original post ended with comment #342 and garnered an unspeakable 10,612 views. Together with that and this, where the magic is currently happening, the project overall has a grand total of:
15,716 Views
575 Posts
So... huh... that's an enormous amount of time, energy and love. Ekio, who keeps up with boards all over the web, has found many, many posts of people starting their own Avatar 4e projects and then dropping them and joining ours. On one occasion, a fan who had just finished a campaign using our book drew a picture of her party and put i up on Deviant Art. She played a Waterbender (which is really my class out of all of them, I've done the most work with the Waterbender) and well, it's just a nice feeling to hear from people who've used this stuff.
If any of you have seen something like that, you should post i here, I would love to have a catalogue of our web-impact.
Anyway, I'm pushing this up to 576 I suppose, and I'll be posting more about the Waterbender Paragon Paths soon, possibly later tonight.
Much love,
Usagi
Still, I worry that the feel will be off, since an Effect line is sort of secondary to the Hit line. I don't want the attack aspect to overshadow the ally-benefit half. Does anyone else have an opinion.
Bloodbender
Blood Control (16th Level): When you are first bloodied in an encounter you may immediately spend a healing surge as a free action. The first time you would make a death saving throw in an encouter, you may immediately spend a healing surge as a free action.
I really like the Follower of the Moon Spirit, but I've decided its central mechanic is hard to describe/confusing and also not very powerful.
Follower of the Moon Spirit
Phases of Power (11th Level): You power changes as you use your powers. You begin each encounter in the Phase of the New Moon. When you use an Encounter or Daily power, you may enter a different phase and immediately gain its benefits.
Phase of the New Moon: You have concealment.
Phase of the Crescent Moon: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and a +2 bonus to damage rolls.
Phase of the Gibbous Moon: When you enter the phase of the Gibbous Moon, you or one ally with 10 squares gains 10 temporary hit points.
Phase of the Full Moon: When you enter the phase of the Full Moon, you or one ally within 10 squares may make a melee basic attack as a free action.
I think those are pretty cool, essentially, everytime you use an attack power you can switch things up, the Gibbous Moon and Full Moon effects have to be good enough to justify them only working the one time.
Blue Moon
Trigger: You or an ally uses a healing surge or makes a saving throw.
Effect: You and each ally within range may spend a healing surge or make a saving throw.
Bluh... this is such an underwhelming level 20 power, it's boring and flavorless like stale rice-cake.
Tui's Mercy Follower of the Moon Spirit Attack 20
The kindness of the moon spirit extends to your allies and no farther.
Daily * Elemental, Implement, Healing
Standard Action Close burst 5
Target: Each enemy in burst.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is weakened [save ends].
Special: There is an additional effect depending on which phase you are in when you use this power, each of these effects last until the end of the encounter.
New: Allies within the burst gain concealment until the end of the encounter.
Crescent: Allies within the burst gain a +1 to attack rolls and a +2 to damage rolls until the end of the encounter.
Gibbous: Allies within the burst gain 25 temporary hit points.
Full: Allies within the burst make make a melee basic attack with a +3 bonus as a free action.
Awww Hell yeah! First two down... a whole lot to go!
Pushing and pulling the water into a rhythm, you turn your enemies strikes into steps.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Flowing
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each enemy in line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target grants combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
Effect: Allies in line gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until they are hit by an attack.
Torrential: The target is pulled a number of squares equal to your dexterity modifier.
A simple fix, but should suffice. Might get tricky when the power actually has an effect along with its hit line:
EXAMPLE:
Wave Counter Waterbender Attack 1
Pushing and pulling the water into a rhythm, you turn your enemies strikes into steps.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Flowing
Standard Action Line 2
Target: Each enemy in line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target grants combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
Effect: Allies in line gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until they are hit by an attack. In addition, the line creates a zone that lasts until the end of your next turn. Each time a creature enters or starts its turn within the zone it is flabbergasted and can't take full actions, attacks of opportunity or use any other 3e terms until the end of the encounter.
Torrential: The target is pulled a number of squares equal to your dexterity modifier.
Okey! Let's do this! Final write-up of the waterbender!
Flowing Strike is not my favorite power/feature, but it works. I (very) personally would like to find something else. The writeup is good, the idea is cool and it gets the job done.
Moon's Blessing: This is not 3e. Spending a healing surge is no problem, it's surge-efficiency that a leader has to offer. a group only has x many healing surges per day, and only a leader can make these healing surges be worth twice as much. My suggestion is to make Moon's Blessing a true heal. Either a d6 per tier or hit points equal to the calming's secondary ability score. After looking through the waterbender I've realized that he has noting like the d6s of the Healing Word or anything compared to healer's lore, which make him not very surge-efficient. The saving throw does help, but only up to a point.
I love the new Torrential feature! It needs rewording though.
Trigger: An enemy that is adjacent to you shifts or makes an attack that does not include you as a target.
Effect: You make a melee basic attack against the triggering enemy.
Hit: The target takes a penalty to all defenses equal to your Dexterity Modifier until the end of its next turn.
Waving Uppercut: …and the target cannot make opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn.
Vortex Uppercut: It should probably be melee touch. But I really don't know the difference. Does this mean that each enemy that is CURRENTLY within 2 squares of me cannot make an OA, or that if an enemy moves into the area he then cannot make an opportunity attack while within it? "…and each enemy within 2 squares of you cannot make…"
Bursting Geysers: You knew you were going to hear from me with this one xD
A bit unconventional, it's for you decide whether that's a good or a bad thing.
Why "rounded up"? Why not just the half? Why not base it on a secondary ability score? Or "equal to the higher of your charisma or dexterity modifier"?
Water Whip: Same as above.
Wave Counter: The allies line needs revisiting, but I can't find a good way to put it.
Protective Wall: Trigger: An enemy enters a square where it is…" this means the move can be a shift, run or whatever.
Make it a close burst so that it doesn't provoke an OA from the enemy moving to flank you… unless making it a ranged attack was fully intentional.
Effect: You slide the target 2 squares and it is slowed until the start of your next turn.
more later...
Its almost finished. i just got to watch the final two seasons to know what the Fire nation and Ba Sing Sei region are like. But I have most of it done so I can send you the current map.
More on the waterbender:
Water's Mirror: So if the marked enemy attacks 3 of my allies, each of them can make a saving throw? Does the saving throw come after the attack roll and before the hit line/damage?
Evening tide: replace "they" with "the target"
Can we have a power that allows me to use Water's Reflection on a trigger as a no action (That is, whether i'm able to take free actions or not), or as a free action (and therefore use it even though i've already used my immediate action)?
The usefulness of Reflecting Pool is solely based on how many marking techniques you are able to pick up before level 13.
Ocean's Kiss: Remember what I said about surge efficiency?
Regrouping Cascade: Each ally in the burst gains a +2 bonus to…
Ice Hammer: Somehow I feel like it should be like the Swordmage power where he can make a ranged attack with his melee weapon, especially since the waterbender's implement is a ki focus.
Standard Action Ranged X
Requirement: You must throw your melee weapon at the target
Attack: Wisdom vs. NAD
Hit:
etc.
Effect: Your weapon returns to your hand.
An encounter power that stuns o.O, I don't play paragon tier so I don't know if that's normal or not.
I LIKE THIS POWER! :D
Whirlpool prison I like, it gave me an idea for an additional power. A power that has the line "… and the target cannot move away from you (save ends)"
Tsunami's Strength: What's the duration of your ally's ability to slide their speed? "The target can slide its speed and gains resist 5 to all damage until the end of the encounter" or "Until the end of the encounter the target gains resist 5 to all damage and can use a move action to slide its speed"
I recommend the top one.
Rain Storm: "The burst creates a zone of rain that lasts…", Each enemy within the zone takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls, and each ally that starts its turn within the zone regains 2 hit points.
The last bit is not perfect, but it adds a duration to the regeneration effect, which was previously missing.
You have done an amazing job!!! This project is so amazing, and the fact that we are actually starting to make "pdf-ready" versons of the powers is just so cool! I can't wait to see the full pdf! It is going to blow people's mind, not to mention if it starts with A MAP OF THE AVATAR WORLD!!!!!
FOLLOWER OF THE SEA SPIRIT
This one needs to be redone, since it's based on the Torrential build being a Controller build. The first ability seems fine, it encourages you to attack a bunch, that seems fine.
The second ability makes it possible to shake three fairly debilitating statuses with an Action point... it seems lame since the Waterbender is so good at giving saving throws. Let's change that:
Grasp of the Tides (11th Level): When you hit an enemy with an Encounter or Daily attack power, you may mark that enemy as a free action.
Cascading Attack also doesn't work, since it rewards you for pushing enemies.
Cascading Attack (16th Level): You deal additional damage equal to your Dexterity modifier with opportunity attacks.
Kiss of the Sea is totally not doing the right thing.
Kiss of the Sea Follower of the Sea Spirit 11
Like a polite gesture, you tug at your opponents, and then violently drag them into your swinging weapon.
Encounter *Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Line 3
Target: Enemies in line.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
Effect: The target is pulled adjacent to you.
Cascade is... sooooooo wierd! What was I thinking?!
Rush of Water Follower of the Sea Spirit 12
The water splashed from your attacks serves you again by preventing your foes retreat.
Daily * Elemental
Immediate Reaction Close burst 1
Trigger: An adjacent enemy moves to a space that is not adjacent to you.
Effect: The enemy is pulled adjacent to you.
Vortex is also super weird! But, like, at least it makes sense.
Vortex Crash Follower of the Sea Spirit 20
In the ocean, even the most powerful warrior is helpless, you bring the ocean wherever you go.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Close burst 4
Target: Enemies within burts.
Attack Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
Effect: Targets are pulled 4 and take ongoing 5 (save ends).
Yata!
Oh gosh... that was exhausiting
A little something I notice right now:
Tui's Mercy - "Special" should be "Effect," because it works either way, and it is not breaking any pre-established rules. Also, the Phases need to be indented (I understand there is difficulty with that on these forums), because they fall under the "Effect," and are not their own true entry in the power.
Generally speaking, this later point also applies to any power that is modified by a class feature choice. The name of the feature should be indented, underneath the effect that having that class feature modifies.
Also, this might be helpful to some people. It isn't perfect, but it's not bad, and looks nice. ruigekonijnen.nl/blockbuilder.html
Also, To make posting revisions easier, I highly recomend using a combination of OpenOffice to redily create PDF files, and using DropBox to upload your files easily for distribution here.
Or at least, that is my cunning plan.
I have done as you suggest and made a Dropbox.
I currently contains the most up to date PDF:
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
The Waterbender update in a TXT file (please note all changes you make to this on the forum):
UPDATED 1.1
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
And the hexmap our illustrious collegue Yellowdingo created: dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
If you would like to have access to the folder, you will need to sign up by sending me a private message with your e-mail address. Anyone who is interested is welcome to it.
Lastly, I'm not sure, but I'm reasonably certain, that making the powers into fully fledged blocks doesn't help Ekio in the process of making the actual PDF, so I don't really do it. However, they will be rendered as such in the final PDF.
Anyone else seen the seasons 2 and 3 of the series in full who might know the geography of the Areas I have not filled with terrain symbols?
Items of concern
1. Island of the Sun Warriors might be part of the Western Air Nomad Territories chain.
2. Agricultural land will be between the inner and outer walls of Ba Sing Sei, and Barren Plains outside the outer walls to some considerable distance from the city.
Is there a working link for the current version? I can't find a working link to any updates...
I'm working on an up to date document on all of the stuff for the Waterbender. That way I can send it to Ekio, and he'll update that chunk of the book, which will in turn, please the people who are waiting for new content and hopefully bring some more developers in.
Or at least, that is my cunning plan.
I have done as you suggest and made a Dropbox.
I currently contains the most up to date PDF:
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
The Waterbender update in a TXT file (please note all changes you make to this on the forum):
UPDATED 1.1
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
And the hexmap our illustrious collegue Yellowdingo created: dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
If you would like to have access to the folder, you will need to sign up by sending me a private message with your e-mail address. Anyone who is interested is welcome to it.
Lastly, I'm not sure, but I'm reasonably certain, that making the powers into fully fledged blocks doesn't help Ekio in the process of making the actual PDF, so I don't really do it. However, they will be rendered as such in the final PDF.
I can't wait for this thing to be done, you guys are awesome!
Is there a working link for the current version? I can't find a working link to any updates...
I was worried, from your post, that I hadn't set Drop Box up properly and that only I could follow the links, but it appears that I can follow them even when my computer doesn't know who I am, please try the above links and tell me if they, specifically, are not working. If they aren't, I will post all of those files somewhere I know they can be accessed.
-Devin
I'm actually going to do some 'playtesting' of this with my little sister, so if I find some stuff that could be fixed, I'll be sure to post it here.
-Usagi
I am glad to see someone has taken up this effort. My kids love D&D and Avatar so I can't wait to run a game for them. Let me know if there is anything I can help with other than just enjoying the fruits of your labor.
· Fixing all the classes
· Fixing most of the paragon paths in relation to class changes
· Fixing most of the epic destinies in relation to class changes
· Fixing most of the feats in relation to class changes
· checking if any items need to be revisited
What is the status of everything right now? I haven't really been active on the forums and have completely forgotten most of the things we did here xD
1). Can I get a brief overview of what is different between the file Avatar 4e 020211 and Avatar 4e 2? I've briefly skimmed both files and couldn't really find anything, I'm sure there is differences I just haven't found them yet...
2). Since I'm not a designer of any sort really (I'm just good at coming up with nifty combinations of preexisting things) I have refrained from throwing in my two cents as I wouldn't know where to start. ;p
3). I've been playing a hybrid fire/airbender with the Raging and Hurricane class features and I have to say it has been a blast playing him
For those that care he is an elf in service of the Summer Court (we aren't in the Avatar Universe obviously) who blessed him with his powers
4). My only real complaint is that if I don't constantly spam my fire powers I have no chance of getting my source of strength damage maxed out.
Anyways thats all I have to say and once again thank you all for your hard work!
AGAIN!
But, like, for reals this time. One more final, long push and we'll send off what we have to Ekio and get our final document.
@Eisenritter: The Firebender is not done yet, really, right now, the only class that's finished is the Waterbender, I'll see if I can get the waterbender Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies finished by oxt (not today, but the one after this) Saturday.
@Alessaunder: There was a time when I could have answered your question, but I'm afraid I've lapsed in my duties and project leader and now only the forum knows for sure. Roughly though, we are changing an enormous amount about everything but the Airbender.
Waterbenders got revamped heavily, but it still does the same stuff, just in a more interesting way.
Earthbenders has been heavily redone to meet its original vision but in a more traditionally Defendery way.
Firebenders will be getting a simplified and more Build Differentiated Source of Strength feature, which should fix the problem you were having AND some others other people have had.
And, on top of that, we fixed a number of design problems, spelling and grammatical errors, and generally broken bits from the first round.
@mhbjarkistef, you are basically co-head of the project at this point what with all the help and support you've been offering. That is, you know, if you want to be.
-Usagi Yojimbo
To bad that at this point most about the classes and their changes falls into the "only the forum knows" area. I have forgotten most of the changes and will have to read up on pretty much everything.
Talk to Olrox17, he is one of the most talented homebrewers IMO on these forums, he made mobs for the entire Castlevania series, which is pretty impressive. He and N20 helped me a lot with my Lifestealer class and it is worth draggin him into this project :D
Too bad that my knowledge of the game is pretty much limited to heroic tier, but I'll see what I can do. I'm going to start with re-reading the thread xD
What to do:
Usagi, you really have to make a check list for all we've done and all that needs to be done, that gives us a very good overview of the project and what needs to be done. It also means that each and every one of us can pick something he's good at and finish it independently, whether that's what's going on on the thread at that time or not. Remember to divide the check list between classes, since some of us are better at working with some roles than others.
But that map in there! It's beautifully done and looks to me like it's quite accurate. The hexagon (pentagon?) grid is a bit unnecessary though.
Do we know for sure that Ekio is willing to format the PDF once we are done? I haven't seen him on this thread for some time (and I cant be bothered to check what was the last thing he said). With Usagi back (again) we might see the end of 2.0 after all! :D
Glad to be back and happy to have something more to work on :D
I think we'll figure stuff out as we go along, and I'll go back through the forums to rekindle my memory. I do remember very clearly that I was nearly (80%) done with the Waterbender.
I like the checklist idea.
Ekio has told me that while he doesn't much want to come back to the project, he would like it to be finished and he will make the PDF when the time comes. Now, he did tell me that a few months ago so he might have changed his mind. But he's a good guy and him and I are friends I think, so he will definitely help us. Worst comes to worst, we might have to look through the forums for someone who knows InDesign to help finish this stuff buuuuuuut...
That's all down the road folks, we need to finish the project before we can worry about that.
The Waterbender: Mostly finished, in the Dropbox that is... somewhere here, I'll get the link after I post this and edit it back in. In said Dropbox is a rewrite of every power, class feature and about half of the paragon paths.
Epic Destinies haven't been touched.
Feats haven't been touched.
The Firebender: Somewhere on here, there are fully, or nearly fully, flushed out rules for a total revamp of the Source of Strength class feature.
Powers haven't been touched.
Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies haven't been touched.
Feats haven't been touched.
The Airbender: To my knowledge, all that needs to be fixed here is that a few powers are a little on the lame side. This is the class that will be changing the least in Avatar 2.
The Earthbender: Same as Firebender, brand new class features, no powers, paths, destinies or feats.
So, heres the plan, when you find something in the forums, copy this, link to it in the appropriate sections. If you remember something, but don't know where it is, copy this and make a note in the approriate section.
a √ in a slot means "has been revisited and fixed" or "we looked at it and decided it does not need fixing". I am then going to compose a word document that will work as a sketch for the pdf. No pictures or fancy stuff just the most up-to-date version of each bender.
Now you can basically pick a line and say "I want to work on that", post it on the forum and if it gets a green light from Usagi and the rest of the forum I'll check it on the list and add it to the document.
Of course I will upload the documend and add the link here
Here's the list, no fancy formatting as of now, but I'll make headings pop out later.
[-] Is in progress, requires further discussion and second opinion
[o] Has been fixed but requires confirmation, forum approval or other kind of second opinion.
[√] Has been fixed and approved.
[!] Needs to be updated ASAP
Bending:
[ ] "How Bending Works" and "Bending out of combat" section
[ ] Airbender Cantrips
[ ] Earthbender Cantrips
[ ] Firebender Cantrips
[ ] Waterbender Cantrips
So, I'll start working on the document. You have a checklist that needs to be finished, just pick something and have at it :D
-Usagi
I'm doing a full write-up on the new pdf as .docx. It's a tedious job and I'm still on the airbender. Just to give you guys something to think about I'm going to write up my comments so far.
I'm not changing anything from the original PDF accept for stuff this thread has already approved on and grammatical changes. All changes in the documents will however be highlighted so you can easily see what has been altered once I'm finished.
My current comments on the airbender that needs to be addressed:
· Evasive Currents The airbender's low AC gives him a choice of either to avoid being targeted or get hit. A class feature that proccs on hit is a rarely-used feature. In addition, he loses his bonus to AC whenever he goes melee (when he needs it the most). What he really needs is a way to keep up that bonus while in melee, or a way to get out of melee. I suggest to give him also a bonus when he shifts, not just when he moves, or allow him to shift as a minor action when starting a turn adjacent to an enemy. What'd'ya think?
· Monastic Training: Can we give the hurricane the following line "Whenever you make an attack with the implement keyword that deals damage you may treat that implement as having the brutal 2 propery". And then make sure the airbender's dice never go above 1d8. This makes the hurricane's avarage damage far more viable without overpowering the Zephyr through big dice.
· Airbending: In my doc there is a full empty page reserved for the Airbending class feature. Usagi, can you prioratize finishin that page for me? Having an empty page kinda bugs me xD
Airbender powers:
1· When a burst of wind hits you, would you categorize it as physical damage, force damage or thunder damage?
2· Wind summon feels underwhelming
3· The airbender cannot slow as an at-will, although he can prone, wich i guess is just as good.
4· The airbender lacks an at-will that gives his allies a speed-buff
5· If we go with the brutal 2 idea for the hurricane there are a lot of d10s that need to be replaced with 2d6 or 2d4.
6· What do you think about having Forceful Push push 2 square and make the rider "if you have dex 15 you may target an additional creature"
7· There are too many pushes and slides based on dex, making the Hurricane a better controller and a better striker. This needs to be addressed. Sphere of air ahs damage based on int which is... interesting.
8· Eye of the Storm needs to be replaced, i'll post the explanation in the .docx
There, now I don't feel like you are waiting on me, you can start finalizing the airbender right away ^^
Please try to answer all of the questions and comments above, all of you, since I will not stop asking until you do ;)
Evasive Currents: I'm not sure what you mean by "A class feature that proccs on hit is a rarely-used feature." but I agree that the simple fix would be to give the bonus whenever the Airbender shifts. Either we should make it read "if you move at least two squares or shift at least one square before the end of your turn..." or we should change it to ""if you move or shift before the end of your turn..." Neither allows the Airbender to get multiple bonuses in a turn, which is the biggest danger with adding in shifting in my mind. I'm partial to the first one.
Monastic Training: That's a good fix, I like it.
Airbending: I'll get right on that.
Airbender Powers:
1. Physical damage, for ease, consistency and management.
1.5. Wind path should read "Enemies adjacent to the target take damage equal to your Wisdom modifier."
2. Let's fix that.
Wind Summon Airbender Attack 1
The wind is at your heels, the heels of your allies, and in the way of your foes.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Area burst 2 within 10.
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex.
Hit: Wisdom modifier damage and you may shift the target 1 square.
Effect: Allies in burst may shift 1 square.
21st Level: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier damage.
3. Wind Path slows and does splash damage. Which one of us missed something?4. Does the new Wind Summon fit the bill?
5. Noted, go ahead and fix that.
6. I love it.
7. Please note each instance, we'll go back and divide them up. The INT damage is likely a relic of an earlier draft, when we started out, we didn't have concrete secondary scores for each build.
8. I await your wise council.
What do you need me to do, like I said, I'm not totally clear on what you're up to. Do you want me to go through the class? If so, here is my To-Do List:
1. Finish updated Waterbender Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies (80% Done)
2. Write up new Airbending Class Feature (0% Done)
3 Look over Airbender (10% Done)
Final thought, everything I wrote was written with the misunderstanding that when something says Dexterity Modifier, that that incorporated half of the characters level. Generally, this means abilities with effects based on those are underpowered.
You are rapidly becoming my hero mhbjarkistef, I hope you're feeling better.
-Usagi
Wow, answering that one (and thouroughly!) took you shorter that I anticipated... You really are back :D
I just finished updating the pdf. I am at page 9 xD
I wont be doing many fixes by myself, and even fewer fixes for stuff up from level 10, since I've only ever played in heroic tier. I will however post comments i n green where ever I think something might be done better. From now on, when you quote my posts (and later when we will be passing this .docx file between use like I and my friends did with yo mama last night) I want you to post all your comments in blue.
Fixes, new stuff and replacements will be typed in red
I'm not entirely sure I understand what the .docx is going to be. Are you writing up everything from the PDF and then cross-referencing it with the forum posts? If so, I'm pretty sure you're totally nuts and that you are one of my favorite people.
Evasive Currents: I'm not sure what you mean by "A class feature that proccs on hit is a rarely-used feature." but I agree that the simple fix would be to give the bonus whenever the Airbender shifts. Either we should make it read "if you move at least two squares or shift at least one square before the end of your turn..." or we should change it to ""if you move or shift before the end of your turn..." Neither allows the Airbender to get multiple bonuses in a turn, which is the biggest danger with adding in shifting in my mind. I'm partial to the first one.
I'll put this into the .docx. A good way to make it not stack is to make it a shield bonus to AC and Reflex. Sounds good?
Monastic Training: That's a good fix, I like it.
Airbending: I'll get right on that.
Airbender Powers:
1. Physical damage, for ease, consistency and management.
Are there any force/thunder feats and items that we are taking out of the airbender's reach by doing so? If so, we might want to reconsider.
1.5. Wind path should read "Enemies adjacent to the target take damage equal to your Wisdom modifier."
I don't remember asking about Wind Path. The current version reads "each creature adjacent to ther target.." but I'll change it into "enemies"
2. Let's fix that.Wind Summon Airbender Attack 1
The wind is at your heels, the heels of your allies, and in the way of your foes.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Area burst 2 within 10.
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex.
Hit: Wisdom modifier damage and you may shift the target 1 square.
Effect: Allies in burst may shift 1 square.
21st Level: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier damage.
I love it!!!
3. Wind Path slows and does splash damage. Which one of us missed something?4. Does the new Wind Summon fit the bill?
lol, must have missed that one. Scratch that, moving on...
5. Noted, go ahead and fix that.
6. I love it.
7. Please note each instance, we'll go back and divide them up. The INT damage is likely a relic of an earlier draft, when we started out, we didn't have concrete secondary scores for each build.
I'll highlite each INT and DEX modifier with a very notable color.
8. I await your wise council.
What do you need me to do, like I said, I'm not totally clear on what you're up to. Do you want me to go through the class? If so, here is my To-Do List:
1. Finish updated Waterbender Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies (80% Done)
2. Write up new Airbending Class Feature (0% Done)
3 Look over Airbender (10% Done)
Final thought, everything I wrote was written with the misunderstanding that when something says Dexterity Modifier, that that incorporated half of the characters level. Generally, this means abilities with effects based on those are underpowered.
You are rapidly becoming my hero mhbjarkistef, I hope you're feeling better.
-Usagi
Yes, I am writing up every single page of the original PDF and putting in all our fixes. I'm only ever in the mood to do this with the heroic tiers, but I'd rather do this all myself than dividide the docx evenly, since I know combining the work of many is just as tedious as doing all the work yourself.
We are going to finish this eventually, and when we do it's going to be great! The goal is to be able to send Ekio my word document and say "make this into a pdf", then he doesn't have to think about any of the words, just the layout and pictures.
Keep up the good work!
Edit
Wow, answering that one (and thouroughly!) took you shorter that I anticipated... You really are back :D
Yeah! My negligence has ceased! Still though, watch yourself...
I just finished updating the pdf. I am at page 9 xD
I wont be doing many fixes by myself, and even fewer fixes for stuff up from level 10, since I've only ever played in heroic tier. I will however post comments in green where ever I think something might be done better. From now on, when you quote my posts (and later when we will be passing this .docx file between use like I and my friends did with yo mama last night) I want you to post all your comments in blue.Fixes, new stuff and replacements will be typed in redI'm not entirely sure I understand what the .docx is going to be. Are you writing up everything from the PDF and then cross-referencing it with the forum posts? If so, I'm pretty sure you're totally nuts and that you are one of my favorite people.
Evasive Currents: I'm not sure what you mean by "A class feature that proccs on hit is a rarely-used feature." but I agree that the simple fix would be to give the bonus whenever the Airbender shifts. Either we should make it read "if you move at least two squares or shift at least one square before the end of your turn..." or we should change it to ""if you move or shift before the end of your turn..." Neither allows the Airbender to get multiple bonuses in a turn, which is the biggest danger with adding in shifting in my mind. I'm partial to the first one.
I'll put this into the .docx. A good way to make it not stack is to make it a shield bonus to AC and Reflex. Sounds good?
Make it a shield bonus.
Monastic Training: That's a good fix, I like it.
Airbending: I'll get right on that.
Airbender Powers:
1. Physical damage, for ease, consistency and management.
Are there any force/thunder feats and items that we are taking out of the airbender's reach by doing so? If so, we might want to reconsider.
I'm just hesitant to make the whole class have one kind of damage, if we do, it should be Force though, since Thunder is, to my knowledge, the new version of Sonic damage and should be sound based. I beleive the Soundbender has Thunder based attacks.
1.5. Wind path should read "Enemies adjacent to the target take damage equal to your Wisdom modifier."
I don't remember asking about Wind Path. The current version reads "each creature adjacent to ther target.." but I'll change it into "enemies"
That's why I made it number 1.5, cause I saw it while I was going through things to answer your questions. However my version reads:"1d6 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn. Targets adjacent to the target takes Wisdom modifier damage."
Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage and the
target is knocked prone.
And now I'm worried we're working from different versions of the PDF.
2. Let's fix that.Wind Summon Airbender Attack 1
The wind is at your heels, the heels of your allies, and in the way of your foes.
At-Will ♦ Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Area burst 2 within 10.
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex.
Hit: Wisdom modifier damage and you may shift the target 1 square.
Effect: Allies in burst may shift 1 square.
21st Level: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier damage.
I love it!!
3. Wind Path slows and does splash damage. Which one of us missed something?4. Does the new Wind Summon fit the bill?
lol, must have missed that one. Scratch that, moving on...
Different versions of the PDF could explain this.
5. Noted, go ahead and fix that.
6. I love it.
7. Please note each instance, we'll go back and divide them up. The INT damage is likely a relic of an earlier draft, when we started out, we didn't have concrete secondary scores for each build.
I'll highlite each INT and DEX modifier with a very notable color.
8. I await your wise council.
What do you need me to do, like I said, I'm not totally clear on what you're up to. Do you want me to go through the class? If so, here is my To-Do List:
1. Finish updated Waterbender Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies (80% Done)
2. Write up new Airbending Class Feature (0% Done)
3 Look over Airbender (10% Done)
Final thought, everything I wrote was written with the misunderstanding that when something says Dexterity Modifier, that that incorporated half of the characters level. Generally, this means abilities with effects based on those are underpowered.
You are rapidly becoming my hero mhbjarkistef, I hope you're feeling better.
-Usagi
Yes, I am writing up every single page of the original PDF and putting in all our fixes. I'm only ever in the mood to do this with the heroic tiers, but I'd rather do this all myself than dividide the docx evenly, since I know combining the work of many is just as tedious as doing all the work yourself.
Fact. And I won't lie, I'm happy you're willing to take on the tedious task. Feel free to send some busywork my way though, if it doesn't seem like it would just complicate things.
We are going to finish this eventually, and when we do it's going to be great! The goal is to be able to send Ekio my word document and say "make this into a pdf", then he doesn't have to think about any of the words, just the layout and pictures.
Keep up the good work!
-Usagi
I'm half-way through the airbender. It's mostly the first two pages of the class that needs discussing (features, builds and at-wills) rest I can pretty much fix on my own. I'll make it red though so you can easily see what has changed.
The next you'll hear from me is when I start cross-referencing the earthbender :D
Usagi, you concentrate on the airbender feature, can somebody else start doing the paragon paths?
In the meantime, check out this ranged defender. I think Adam really nailed it, don't you? :D
Edit:
I have finished going over all the airbender powers! There are some riders that I'm not sure if I should touch (replace, fix, remove, leave as they are), so I'll let you guys take care of that. I'm going to do a spellcheck on the current .docx and send it to Usagi and then he'll upload it for you guys to fix and enjoy :D
Edit edit:
I hate having a ton of tiny posts, so from now on I'm gonna be doing this when I just want to add a couple of lines xD
· Can somone start reading over the airbender's paragon path and check if everything isn't good. Once we're done with that we can start on the earthbender ASAP. Personally I can't wait to start on the waterbender, there is so much there that is already fixed since we didn't replace any class features in waterbender week like we did with source of strength and neutral jing. :D
These updates have given us a cleaner, more simple and more stylish way of making class features and various benefits. It is because of these things that I have to address (probably using that word wrong) the Earth- and Firebender heaviliy before I can start writing their updates versions. So while im getting a clearer image of those to classes in my head I am starting on the waterbender.
You guys really updated the Waterbender throughly, and I'm not sure how to crossreference this class or what I should crossreference it with. Do I compre the 020211 version with the "updated waterbender" link above or to I search the forums for the must up-to-date forum approved-updates? I think I'll start with the link above unless somone here has any problems with that...
Yeah, I haven't played D&D in a good... six months. I've kind of lost my interest in it, but Avatar 4e remains one of my proudest achievements with the game. I will always be willing to update the PDF and I am super happy that Usagi's still a part of it and you guys have jumped in to help him out.
Whenever you guys are ready, just send me a changelist of the most recent PDF (Usagi knows how to contact me).
Much love, guys.
- Ekio
Ohokay. The Updated Waterbender document is a document of all the changes we made. It is entirely made up of changes, if something isn't in there, that's because I felt that the original version is fine i.e. in the PDF.
I read your message mhbjarkistef about the Firebender and the Earthbender which, for the non-privvy, highlighted a few basic points:
1. All the benders are primarily ranged. We need a class that can do melee.
2. Earthbenders are primarily ranged, whereas Firebenders fight in the melee, so perhaps we should give the Firbenders a little more defendery stuff and let the Earthbenders be primarily ranged.
Earthbenders, in my opinion, are doing pretty good as far as builds go. One build likes range, one one build likes melee, allowing any Earthbender the opportunity to do either pretty well. I wholeheartedly agree that the Firebender should be better in Melee, perhaps with a fire-shield type build bonus. The new Waterbender build is sub-defender, so that makes two classes that are half-way Defendery-melee and one that is all the way. How is that mhbj?
I will return tonight with a protoype Airbending feature.
-Usagi
Airbending
All airbenders of any skill level are capable of moving currents of air in close proximity to their bodies. Unlike other bending cultures, the intense ascetic lifestyle of the Air Nomads means that each and every child born to them learns to bend. At 1st level, Airbenders receive the Airbending class feature and may choose 1 heroic tier Airbending Trick. You may take additional tricks at 3rd, 6th and at 9th level.
Airbending Airbender Class Feature
Your studies of the wind and air around you allow you to move it and compress it into a nearly solid state.
At-Will * Elemental
Minor Action Ranged 2
Effect: You create a gust of wind. The force of this technique is sufficient to push objects weighing less than a pound, clear a square of gas or smoke or snuff out a candle. You may also use it to dry an object of up to medium size.
Breath Deep Heroic Airbending Trick
You can use your airbending to supplement your lungs, allowing you to hold your breath for longer.
At-Will * Elemental
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You gain a +3 bonus to the next endurance check made to hold your breath made before the end of your next turn.
Light as Air Heroic Airbending Trick
Using upward currents of air, you make an object seem light than it is.
At-Will * Elemental
Minor Action Range 2
Effect: One object within range is considered to 25 lbs. lighter until the end of your next turn.
Wind at Your Heels Heroic Airbending Trick
The wind pushes at the backs of you and your allies, helping you walk long distances.
Benefit: When calculating overland speed, the party uses your speed, rather than the slowest character’s.
Suck It Up Heroic Airbending Trick
You have learned to pull the air from a nearby area and create a controlled vacuum.
At-Will * Elemental
Minor Action Range 2
Effect: You create a vacuum which pulls air into it. This vacuum isn’t strong enough to lift objects or completely remove air from any area, but it can be used to starve a fire or create suction sufficient to move a gallon of water through a closed system.
These are some basic tricks I thought of. It's a simple system that is designed to be homebrew compatible. Basically, you can creat gusts of wind, they aren't very strong, but you can eventually take tricks that let them be powerful in certain respects. My goal is to have a handful of tricks ranging from niche to generally powerful, none of which have particularly complicated abilities.
Wind at Your Heels is cleary as powerful as a feat... so... I think that might just be a feat. What do people think? What are some other utility things an Airbender ought to be able to do?
I do realize that this is the first write-up of these features and things always change.I'm still gonan will write it up to the docx now and then if you guys update it I'll just make edits accordingly.
I do wish to see some changes to the 3 non-airbender classes, but I'm a bit hesitant to tell you my opinion since it will mean more work for us, and make some significant changes to what you guys worked so hard on doing. I've sent Usagi the most up-to-date docx depicting all my ideas, hopes and wishes and now I'll just wait and see what gets approved and what get's frowned upon xD
Here's what I can be dared to tell you:
· To make things simpler and easier to balance I want to remove builds where they are not needed. Who says every class has to have two very unlike builds?
· I want to see the Earthbender become fully ranged, but for you melee lovers I suggest somthing simple as a feat or optional class feature "All your Ranged X Attacks now have the range of Melee 1 and you gain proficiency with light shields"
· I find something very thematically wrong with having a defender Waterbender. If the waterbender was to have two builds I'd say healer/enabler where one focuses on redirecting the chi in one's allies and the other in restricting the chi flow in one's enemies (along with some freezing bursts).
· I did make some simplifications to Source of Strength that I know you are going to like :D
Once I've gotten the docx back from Usagi, I'll read it over, send it back and then we'll publish it for ya'll :D
If I come up with anymore ideas I can post them up here but until I get a better grasp of balance I won't be able to flesh things out mechanically, but if someone takes an interest in my zany ideas they are more than welcome to use them for this project or any others they might be working on
I will return this evening to check in more completely, but for now allow me to present to you the
98% complete (Sans Airbending Tricks) AIRBENDER
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
In case you haven't yet seen the old version, here is the most recent PDF:
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
There is another version of this file with lots of notes and different colored text, but I want to be sure the final product can speak for itself.
All my love for those of you who have attached themselves to this project, you are the reason I keep coming back.
-Usagi
EDIT: Look below for a post containing the entire Airbender.
The best idea I can figure is to include a page of example effects and let people be as creative as they want to be. Here is my best attempt at this idea:
Airbending Airbender Class Feature
Your studies of the wind and air around you allow you to move it and compress it into a nearly solid state.
At-Will * Elemental
Minor Action Ranged 2
Effect: You take control of the air and wind around you, performing any number of techniques as per your personal style of airbending. This ability is very open ended and you should feel encouraged to think of novel ways of utilizing your bending abilities outside of combat. Regardless of how you use it, this ability cannot be used to inflict damage or move an unwilling creature.
The effects of this ability can be generally divided into two categories:
Force: You may use air to create up to 5 pounds of force. The maximum possible force increases to 15 pounds at 11th and 35 pounds at 21st level.
Summoning: You may summon air or wind into an area 1 within range. This increases to area 3 at 11th level and area 5 at 21st level.
The range at which you can use this ablity is increased to 4 at 11th level and 6 at 21st level.
From this (and the use of Attack Powers and Utility techniques) an airbender ought to be able to produce enough effects as to feel like an actual bender. Is there any aspect of Airbending that isn't represented here? If so, please tell me and I will make certain it gets space either in this ability, in an attack, utility or feat.
-Usagi
Airbender
“Stay as a leaf on the wind, passing the wind currents around you”
Role: Controller. You bend the air itself, conjuring powerful currents and tornadoes to pacify and disable your opponents.
Source: Elemental. It is said that airbenders first learned their abilities from the sky bison who, dispite their size, take into the air easily.
Key Abilities: Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, simple ranged.
Implement: Ki focuses, weapons with which you have proficiency.
Bonus to Defense: +1 Reflex, +1 Will.
Hit points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution Score.
Hit Points for each Level gained: 4
Healing Surges per Day: 6 + Constitution Modifier.
Trained Skills: Religion (Int). Choose three more skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Acrobatics (Dex), Diplomacy (Cha), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Nature (Wis), Perception (Wis), Religion (Int).
Building Options: Hurricane airbender, Zephyr airbender.
Class Feature: Evasive Currents, Monastic Training, Quick Step, Airbending.
Air Funnel Airbender Attack 1
With a hop and an extension of your arms you project a blast of harsh winds.
At-Will · Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close Blast 3
Target: Each creature in blast
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier damage and you push the target 1 square.
21st Level: 2d6 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Wind Path Airbender Attack 1
Gesturing forward, a wall of air conjures
At-Will · Elemental, Implement, Force
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn. Enemies adjacent to the target take damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
21st Level: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Jet of Air Airbender Attack 1
Pulling back and pushing forward, you conjure a rush of air.
At-Will · Elemental, Implement, Force
Standard Action Line 3
Target: Each creature in line
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage an
d you slide the target a number of squares equal to the higher of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifer.21st Level: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Ravenous Gust Airbender Attack 1
Whether it is your fist aided by the wind or the wind itself, no foe stands in the face of your element.
At-Will · Elemental, Implement, Force
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Hit: 1d6 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
Special: When charging, you may use this power instead of a melee basic attack. If you do it is a melee attack and you may shift as a free action afterward.
21st Level: 2d6 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Wind Summon Airbender Attack 1
The wind is at your heels, the heels of your allies and in the way of your foes.
At-Will · Elemental, Implement, Force
Standard Action Area burst 2 within 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: Wisdom modifier damage and you slide the targe one square.
Effect: Allies in the burst may shift 1 square as a free action
21st Level: 1d6 + Wisdom modifer damage.
“I am a leaf on the wind, watch me soar.”
Prerequisites: Airbender
You ride the wind effortlessly. You focus on freedom of movement, never staying in one place for too long. Gravity holds no meaning to you when you are carried up and around. Airbending isn’t just about blasting enemies and wind manipulation. It is first and foremost a way to move quickly, and elegantly.
Aerial Acrobat Path Features
Leaping Action (11th Level): When you spend an action point to take another action, you may fly your speed as a minor action until the end of your next turn.
Leaps and Bounds (11th Level): You gain a +3 bonus to Acrobatics checks. You may use Acrobatics instead of Athletics to jump.
Forced Acrobatics (16th Level): When you pushed, pulled or slid by an enemy, you gain a +2 bonus to your speed and defenses until the end of your next turn.
Aerial Acrobat Techniques
Flash Entrance Aerial Acrobat Attack 11
After a long jump, you land on the ground, blasting air at all sides.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Force
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Each creature within burst.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 3d6 + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is pushed 2 squares.
Special: You may fly your speed before this attack.
Gentle Fall Aerial Acrobat Utility 12
You find yourself plummeting down, further and further. Good thing you know about this airbending stuff.
Encounter * Elemental
Immediate Reactiion Personal
Trigger: You finish falling
Effect: You land safely.
Freefall Touch Aerial Acrobat Attack 20
After hurling your target into the air, you turn them into a ballistic weapon.
Daily * Elemental, Implement, Force
Standard Action Melee touch or ranged 10
Target: One creature.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d10 and the target is teleported 6 squares. Make a secondary attack.
Secondary Target: Each creature adjacent to the target after the teleportation.
Secondary Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex
Secondary Hit: Wisdom modifier damage and the target is knocked prone and pushed 3 squares.
Miss: Half damage and the target is teleported 3 squares.
Keep working, we love what you guys have done so far.
May have already managed to gather a group of people that wants to play this and I am looking forward to see how it'll progress.
So any progress on firebenders and earthbenders, those would be fun to see.
Preferably firebenders first? THE PYROMANIA, IT BECKONS.
EARTHBENDER
“Know when to strike. Patiently wait for an opening in your enemy’s defense and turn the earth beneath them into a weapon. Attack head on, never hesitate.”
Class Traits
Role: Defender. Using your martial discipline, you can mold and shape the earth around you to protect your allies.
Source: Elemental. The first earthbenders learned the art from the Badgermoles, enormous, reclusive creatures who tunnel through the ground by molding the earth around them.
Key Abilities: Constitution, Wisdom, Strength.
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, Leather, Hide.
Weapon Proficiences: Simple melee, simple ranged, military melee.
Implements: Ki focuses, weapons with which you are proficient.
Defense Bonus: +2 Fortitude.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 15 + Constitution.
Hit Points for each Level gained: 6.
Healing Surges: 8 + Constitution Modifier
Skills: Insight (Wis). Choose two more skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Dungeoneering (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis).
Build Options: Shaping earthbender, quaking earthbender.
Class Features: Watchful Ally, Earthbender Resilience, Neutral Jing, Earthbending.
Earthbending is an ancient art form concerned with molding and manipulating the earth itself. Earthbenders use their skills to shield themselves and their allies. Like the element of earth itself, earthbenders are almost universally proud and obstinate, but above all enduring.
The key to Earthbending is neutral jing, which involves waiting and listening for the right moment to strike, and when that moment comes, acting decisively.
Take a strong stance, focus inward, and shape the earth to your will. Protect your allies against the dangers that seek to harm them. Most of all, stand your ground, for neither you, nor the earth around you will bend to anything other than your will.
Creating an Earthbender
There are two dominant styles of earthbending.
Shaping Earthbender
You bind the earth to your body, constructing a suit of armor, an deadly stone-fist or a curving blade of obsidian. Your bending is an extension of your body, allowing you to fortify your defenses and wade into battle. By playing the role of the stalwart defender, you protect your allies by keeping enemies near you. Even if they flee from your presence, you just keep pulling them back beneath the hammer of your fist. Make Constitution your highest stat, as your durability is what ties you to the earth you command. Make Strength your second highest stat, as you use your physical might to make a dent in the battlefield. Make Wisdom your third highest stat to support the calm, resolute mind necessary to bring the earth under your control.
Suggest Feat: ...
Suggested Skills: Insight, Endurance, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: ...
Suggested Encounter Power: ...
Suggested Daily Power: ...
Quaking Earthbender
You control the ground in waves emanating outward, forcing opponents to sink or swim... sometimes literally. With a raised hand the earth surrounding your allies turns against aggressors. And at the center of this tellurian tumult you stand, keeping a strong, meditative stance. By turning the very terrain against your enemies, you can ensure they never have the high-ground and are always struggling not to stumble onto a readied blade. Make Constitution your highest stat, so as to keep your footing as you violently shake the earth around you. Make Wisdom your second highest stat, so you can percieve the best time to strike and control the advantage you offer your allies. Make Strength your third highest, even the tactician must sometimes act as a warrior.
Suggest Feat: ...
Suggested Skills: Insight, Perception, Dungeoneering
Suggested At-Will Powers: ...
Suggested Encounter Power: ...
Suggested Daily Power: ...
Class Features:
WATCHFUL ALLY
As an earthbender you can balance attacking your enemies with protecting your allies. Your primary concern is keeping your less resilient allies safe, and you can do that in a number of ways. Once per turn, on your turn, as a free action, you may designate an ally within 20 squares of you as your watched ally until the end of your next turn or you lose line of sight. Watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to all of their defenses. In addition, you gain the powers rebuking offense and earthen shield and can use these powers, as well as those with the Jing keyword, in relation to your watched ally.
Earthen Shield Earthbender Feature
The ground leaps upward at your behest, deflecting a projectile and sending shards of stone at the assailer.
At-Will * Elemenetal, Implement
Immediate Interrupt Close burst 5 (Watched Ally), (increases to 10 at 11th level and 15 at 20th)
Trigger: An enemy makes a ranged attack against a watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy.
Effect: Make an attack roll. If your attack roll is equal to or greater than the triggering attack roll, the attack is negated. If the enemy is in range, they take 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
21st Level: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
Rebuking Offense Earthbender Feature
To protect a vulnerable ally, you rip the ground from beneath the feet of an advancing foe.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Immediate Reaction Personal (Watched Ally)
Trigger: An enemy enters a square adjacent to a watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy.
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex.
Hit: 1d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed 2 squares.
21st Level: 2d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed 4 squares.
NEUTRAL JING
Neutral Jing --- Earthbender Feature
You are in tune with the flow of combat, knowing when to halt your actions and prepare for the perfect attack later on.
At-Will * Elemental
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You gain a bonus equal to your Strength or Wisdom modifier to the attack and damage rolls of earthen shield, rebuking offense, and any power with the Jing keyword until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists until the end of your next turn.
EARTHBENDER RESILIENCE
Choose one of the benefits below.
Shaper: You can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier when determining AC. In addition, when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature, you may pull an enemy within your Strength modifier + 1 squares adjacent to you.
Quaking: You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier when determining AC. In addition, when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature, squares adjacent to your watched allies are treated as difficult terrain by enemies entering them until the end of your next turn.
Notes: The Quaking Resilience ability is immediately obvious as a problem here. I love its flavor, but the Shaper can watch one ally and, if need be, pull an enemy away from another, the Quaker has to hedge their bets moreso. This is the lingering problem people had with the whole class design, that enemies can choose to ignore the effects of the defender by attacking a different ally, but not the defender themselves.
I think the most elegant solution is to give the Quaker more area attacks, which will allow them to control the battlefield like... well... a controller. The Shaper will have more abilities in the form of stances, immediate attacks and crushing blows against opponents i.e. secondary Striker.
I do not know what I was thinking when I made the ability "Range of Sight," that will only lead to Shenanigans. It is now limited to 20 feet regardless of level. That's a little insane, but remember that is the benefit of this ability. You can mark one enemy, forcing them to deal with you but you need to be in combat with them, or you can protect one ally, do your own thing and never even get near the enemies or your ally. I hope this plays out as balanced in practice.
Fortifying Strike Earthbender Attack 1
The earth’s power lingers on you after you attack, absorbing any counterstrikes.
At-Will * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature.
Attack: Constitution vs. AC.
Hit: 1[W] + Constitution modifier damage and you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier.
21st Level: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage.
Notes: This is the all-star from the first build, it does something simple and direct that any Earthbender will want to be able to do. It can't be used with an implement, which is an idea I'm not sure I support, since some benders use weapons but all benders can bend without them. Human Earthbenders will really like this power, but if you had to pick just two, I'd want them both to be from the following list.
Stomp Launch Earthbender Attack 1
Your foot slams the ground and a chunk of rock blocks your enemy’s retreat.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 2 squares.
21st Level: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Notes: This is our first Shaper Attack. With this ability you can Neutral Jing to pull one enemy up to 5 squares and attack another enemy to move them 2 squares toward you, then on your next turn or now if you wanna Action it up, you can hit them both wiiiiiiith...
Earthen Burden Earthbender Attack 1
A threefold strike, first a broad spinning kick, then a barrage of dirt which covers and drags your targets to the ground.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close path 3
Target: Creatures within path.
Attack: Constiution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn.
21st Level: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
Notes: And here is the Shaper as we hope to build it. An attack that can be used at a range but is ideal for hitting several nearby enemies with the added fact that they are now can't get away from all of your pulling. Clearly the Shaper Dailys are gonna need to be good at a close range.
Rings of Stone Earthbender Attack 1
Most earthbenders attack with large stone coins, marked with the symbol of their people and launched vigorously into the face of those that stand against them.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature.
Special: If the target is adjacent to an ally, rings of stone gets a +2 power bonus to attack and damage.
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex.
Hit: 1d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
21st Level: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Notes: Here is an interesting attack. It's mostly just a normal ranged attack, but when an ally is under attack it hits Striker Level damage. The only thing I don't like is that it kind of incentivizes letting enemies get near your allies.
Stone Eruption Earthbender Attack 1
To keep control of the battlefield, sometimes it is necessary to control the battlefield.
At-Will*Elemental Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature.
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + Constitution modifier damage and you slide the target 1 square.
21st Level: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Note: And the last remnants of Ekio's "Every Role is a Controller" design philosophy. In this case our damage isn't worse than a sub-optimal rings of stone. 1 square of sliding is pretty strong for a Defender, especially when you remember that it lets you yank an enemy way, then Neutral Jing some Difficult Terrain in between them and your Watched Ally.
Notice all of these attacks give a little Watched Ally-ness to anyone in your party, that is key. The Earthbender can lend some serious fortitude to one person, and then devote all their energy to protecting one other, that's defending half the party at a distance. Someone come here and tell me that isn't as good as marking. I dare you.
It's hard to see if this was addressed already or not, but one thing noticed in a personal attempt at a Firebender build was that a Feat to suppport the various [W] attacks with Unarmed strikes might not go amiss. Just something to make that a viable option compared to a weapon would be welcome... even if all it does is allow you to emulate a chosen Firebender proficiency weapon, with some minor side benefit (kind of like a class-specific form of Quick Draw)?
Of course the other route, which is how I see this being fixed most often now, is to simply house-rule a "weapon" as the statistics for a personal manifestation of close combat firebending. This would just be a more elegant solution I think for those who visualize their Bender in the 'unarmed martial artist' trope.
Would you mind hosting your updated book somewhere for download? I'll appreciate it.
That's how the monk does it, and allow me to point out it is MUCH simpler than mixing both types.
The book can be downloaded from my Dropbox Public Folder by clicking this:
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
And the updated Airbender can be downloaded for your perusal in its text wonderfullness. Feel free to post any critiques, even though it's totally done we'll still change anything major or minor:
dl.dropbox.com/u/14402169/Avatar%20Proje...
All of your support is extremely appreciated.
-Usagi
Do you have any plans to add the Chi Blockers from Korra in the book?
This is a fantastic work, thank you very much for the initiative!
The updated classes, like the Earthbender that you posted two weeks ago, are already on that pdf?
Do you have any plans to add the Chi Blockers from Korra in the book?
This is a fantastic work, thank you very much for the initiative!
There is a Chi Blocker paragon path in the book based on Ty Lee that I think will work. As of now I'm not planning on adding in Korra related material, since most of it is functionally the same. I think people can pretty reliably play all the characters I've met except for Tophs Daughter, who does Metalbending stuff our path simply cannot offer you. I may make an Epic Destiny that works with her, since I want to add one Epic Destiny to each class to give you more options.
The Airbender is the only class that's been fully updated. The others will get updated here first for final critiques and then sent to the good man Ekio to get integrated into a final PDF. So, in short, no. All the classes are playable as they appear in the 2nd Updated PDF I linked to, but there are some pretty serious gameplay problems that people have brought up.
I'll post the finished Heroic Earthbender Techniques tonight.
...a bloodbbender epic destiny would be awesome.
Class Traits
Role: Defender. Using your martial discipline, you can mold and shape the earth around you to protect your allies.
Source: Elemental. The first earthbenders learned the art from the Badgermoles, enormous, reclusive creatures who tunnel through the ground by molding the earth around them.
Key Abilities: Constitution, Wisdom, Strength.
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, Leather, Hide.
Weapon Proficiences: Simple melee, simple ranged, military melee.
Implements: Ki focuses, weapons with which you are proficient.
Defense Bonus: +2 Fortitude.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 15 + Constitution.
Hit Points for each Level gained: 6.
Healing Surges: 8 + Constitution Modifier
Skills: Insight (Wis). Choose two more skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Dungeoneering (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis).
Build Options: Shaping earthbender, quaking earthbender.
Class Features: Watchful Ally, Earthbender Resilience, Neutral Jing, Earthbending.
Earthbending is an ancient art form concerned with molding and manipulating the earth itself. Earthbenders use their skills to shield themselves and their allies. Like the element of earth itself, earthbenders are almost universally proud and obstinate, but above all enduring.
The key to Earthbending is neutral jing, which involves waiting and listening for the right moment to strike, and when that moment comes, acting decisively.
Take a strong stance, focus inward, and shape the earth to your will. Protect your allies against the dangers that seek to harm them. Most of all, stand your ground, for neither you, nor the earth around you will bend to anything other than your will.
Creating an Earthbender
There are two dominant styles of earthbending.
Shaping Earthbender
You bind the earth to your body, constructing a suit of armor, an deadly stone-fist or a curving blade of obsidian. Your bending is an extension of your body, allowing you to fortify your defenses and wade into battle. By playing the role of the stalwart defender, you protect your allies by keeping enemies near you. Even if they flee from your presence, you just keep pulling them back beneath the hammer of your fist. Make Constitution your highest stat, as your durability is what ties you to the earth you command. Make Strength your second highest stat, as you use your physical might to make a dent in the battlefield. Make Wisdom your third highest stat to support the calm, resolute mind necessary to bring the earth under your control.
Suggest Feat: ...
Suggested Skills: Insight, Endurance, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: ...
Suggested Encounter Power: ...
Suggested Daily Power: ...
Quaking Earthbender
You control the ground in waves emanating outward, forcing opponents to sink or swim... sometimes literally. With a raised hand the earth surrounding your allies turns against aggressors. And at the center of this tellurian tumult you stand, keeping a strong, meditative stance. By turning the very terrain against your enemies, you can ensure they never have the high-ground and are always struggling not to stumble onto a readied blade. Make Constitution your highest stat, so as to keep your footing as you violently shake the earth around you. Make Wisdom your second highest stat, so you can perceive the best time to strike and control the advantage you offer your allies. Make Strength your third highest, even the tactician must sometimes act as a warrior.
Suggested Skills: Insight, Perception, Dungeoneering
Suggested Daily Power: ...
WATCHFUL ALLY
As an earthbender you can balance attacking your enemies with protecting your allies. Your primary concern is keeping your less resilient allies safe, and you can do that in a number of ways. Once per turn, on your turn, as a free action, you may designate an ally within 20 squares of you as your watched ally until the end of your next turn or you lose line of sight. Watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to all of their defenses. In addition, you gain the powers rebuking offense and earthen shield and can use these powers, as well as those with the Jing keyword, in relation to your watched ally.
NEUTRAL JING
Earthbenders know that impulsiveness is the enemy of the tactician. To aggress uses Positive Jing, to defend is to use Negative Jing, to wait for the most opportune moment to strike is the use Neutral Jing. You gain the class feature Neutral Jing.
EARTHBENDER RESILIENCE
Choose one of the benefits below.
Shaper: You can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier when determining AC. In addition, when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature, you may pull an enemy within your Strength modifier + 1 squares adjacent to you.
Quaking: You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier when determining AC. In addition, when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature, squares adjacent to your watched allies are treated as difficult terrain by enemies entering them until the end of your next turn.
EARTHBENDER POWERS
An earthbender’s attacks are called techniques. They are martial techniques through which you have learned to channel elemental magics.
Neutral Jing --- Earthbender Feature
You are in tune with the flow of combat, knowing when to halt your actions and prepare for the perfect attack later on.
At-Will * Elemental
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You gain a bonus equal to your Strength or Wisdom modifier to the attack and damage rolls of earthen shield, rebuking offense, and any power with the Jing keyword until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists until the end of your next turn.
Earthen Shield Earthbender Feature
The ground leaps upward at your behest, deflecting a projectile and sending shards of stone at the assailer.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Immediate Interrupt Close burst 5, centered on your Watched Ally.
Special: The area increases to 10 at 11th level and 15 at 20th.
Trigger: An enemy makes a ranged attack against a watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy.
Effect: Make an attack roll. If your attack roll is equal to or greater than the triggering attack roll, the attack is negated. If the enemy is in range, they take 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
21st Level: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
Rebuking Offense Earthbender Feature
To protect a vulnerable ally, you rip the ground from beneath the feet of an advancing foe.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Immediate Reaction Personal, centered on your Watched Ally.
Trigger: An enemy enters a square adjacent to a watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy.
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex.
Hit: 1d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 2 squares.
21st Level: 2d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 4 squares.
Earthbender will be done soon, then I'll start on Firebender and after that I'll just need to make adjustmens to the Miscelaneous sections, like Feats and Equipment.
Then Ekio will set up the PDF and there will be much rejoicing.
-Usagi
Honestly, I've been following this for a couple months and, going by what I've seen, it's going to be awesome.
I'm already working on a campaign for it, that's how stoked I am.
“Know when to strike. Patiently wait for an opening in your enemy’s defense and turn the earth beneath them into a weapon. Attack head on, never hesitate.”
Class Traits
Role: Defender. Using your martial discipline, you can mold and shape the earth around you to protect your allies.
Source: Elemental. The first earthbenders learned the art from the Badgermoles, enormous, reclusive creatures who tunnel through the ground by molding the earth around them.
Key Abilities: Constitution, Wisdom, Strength.
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, Leather, Hide.
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, simple ranged, military melee.
Implements: Ki focuses, weapons with which you are proficient.
Defense Bonus: +2 Fortitude.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 15 + Constitution.
Hit Points for each Level gained: 6.
Healing Surges: 8 + Constitution Modifier
Skills: Insight (Wis). Choose two more skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Dungeoneering (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis).
Build Options: Shaping earthbender, quaking earthbender.
Class Features: Watchful Ally, Earthbender Resilience, Neutral Jing, Earthbending.
Earthbending is an ancient art form concerned with molding and manipulating the earth itself. Earthbenders use their skills to shield themselves and their allies. Like the element of earth itself, earthbenders are almost universally proud and obstinate, but above all enduring.
The key to Earthbending is neutral jing, which involves waiting and listening for the right moment to strike, and when that moment comes, acting decisively.
Take a strong stance, focus inward, and shape the earth to your will. Protect your allies against the dangers that seek to harm them. Most of all, stand your ground, for neither you, nor the earth around you will bend to anything other than your will.
Creating an Earthbender
There are two dominant styles of earthbending.
Shaping Earthbender
You bind the earth to your body, constructing a suit of armor, a deadly stone-fist or a curving blade of obsidian. Your bending is an extension of your body, allowing you to fortify your defenses and wade into battle. By playing the role of the stalwart defender, you protect your allies by keeping enemies near you. Even if they flee from your presence, you just keep pulling them back beneath the hammer of your fist. Make Constitution your highest stat, as your durability is what ties you to the earth you command. Make Strength your second highest stat, as you use your physical might to make a dent in the battlefield. Make Wisdom your third highest stat to support the calm, resolute mind necessary to bring the earth under your control.
Suggested Skills: Insight, Endurance, Intimidate
Quaking Earthbender
You control the ground in waves emanating outward, forcing opponents to sink or swim... sometimes literally. With a raised hand the earth surrounding your allies turns against aggressors. And at the center of this tellurian tumult you stand, keeping a strong, meditative stance. By turning the very terrain against your enemies, you can ensure they never have the high-ground and are always struggling not to stumble onto a readied blade. Make Constitution your highest stat, so as to keep your footing as you violently shake the earth around you. Make Wisdom your second highest stat, so you can perceive the best time to strike and control the advantage you offer your allies. Make Strength your third highest, even the tactician must sometimes act as a warrior.
Suggested Skills: Insight, Perception, Dungeoneering
Class Features:
WATCHFUL ALLY
As an earthbender you can balance attacking your enemies with protecting your allies. Your primary concern is keeping your less resilient allies safe, and you can do that in a number of ways. Once per turn, on your turn, as a free action, you may designate an ally within 20 squares of you as your watched ally until the end of your next turn or until you lose line of sight. Watched allies gain a +2 power bonus to all of their defenses. In addition, you gain the powers rebuking defense and shifting ground and can use them as well as powers with the Jing keyword in relation to your watched ally.
NEUTRAL JING
Earthbenders know that impulsiveness is the enemy of the tactician. To aggress uses Positive Jing, to defend is to use Negative Jing, to wait for the most opportune moment to strike is the use Neutral Jing. You gain the class feature Neutral Jing.
EARTHBENDER RESILIENCE
Choose one of the benefits below.
Shaper: You can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier when determining AC. In addition, when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature, you may pull an enemy within your Strength modifier + 1 squares adjacent to you.
Quaking: You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier when determining AC. In addition, when you use or sustain your neutral jing class feature, squares adjacent to your watched allies are treated as difficult terrain by enemies entering them until the end of your next turn.
Powers to follow today.
EARTHBENDER POWERS
An earthbender’s attacks are called techniques. They are martial techniques through which you have learned to channel elemental magics.
Neutral Jing --- Earthbender Feature
You are in tune with the flow of combat, knowing when to halt your actions and prepare for the perfect attack later on.
At-Will * Elemental
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You gain a bonus equal to your Strength or Wisdom modifier to the attack and damage rolls to rebuking defense, shifting ground and any power with the Jing keyword until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists until the end of your next turn.
Rebuking Defense Earthbender Feature
Stones, hurled at your command, rain upon your allies aggressor.
At- Will * Elemental, Implement
Immediate Reaction Ranged 10
Trigger: An enemy makes an attack against your watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d10 + Constitution modifier damage.
21st Level: 2d10 + Constitution modifier damage.
Shifting Ground Earthbender Feature
To protect a vulnerable ally, you rip the ground from beneath the feet of an advancing foe.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Immediate Interrupt Ranged 10
Trigger: An enemy makes an attack against your watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: You shift the target 2 squares.
21st Level: You shift the target 4 squares.
LEVEL 1 AT-WILL TECHNIQUES
Fortifying Strike Earthbender Attack 1
The earth’s power lingers on you after you attack, absorbing any counterstrikes.
At-Will * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Constitution modifier damage and you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier.
21st Level: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage.
Stomp Launch Earthbender Attack 1
To keep control of the battlefield, sometimes it is necessary to control the battlefield.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 1 squares.
21st Level: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Earthen Burden Earthbender Attack 1
A threefold strike, first a broad spinning kick, then a barrage of dirt which covers and drags your targets to the ground.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close line 3
Target: Creatures within path
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn.
21st Level: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
Rings of Stone Earthbender Attack 1
Most earthbenders attack with large stone coins, marked with the symbol of their people and launched vigorously into the face of those that stand against them.
At-Will * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
Special: If the target is adjacent to an ally the attack deals 1d6 additional damage.
21st Level: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage.
Negative Jing Strike Earthbender Attack 1
If they don’t retreat, you’ll crush them, if they do, you’ll crush them more..
At-Will*Elemental Implement
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: Constitution modifier damage and the target provokes an opportunity attack from you if it shifts before the end of your next turn.
21st Level: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage.
LEVEL 1 ENCOUNTER TECHNIQUES
Double Strike Earthbender Attack 1
You pull two boulders from the ground and launch them forward.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Range 10
Target: One or two creatures
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex, two attacks
Hit: 1d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Erupting Quake Earthbender Attack 1
As your ally is surrounded, the earth retaliates against your enemies.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Close burst 1, centered on your Watched Ally.
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed one square.
Quaking: The area of the attack is Close burst 2.
Winding Grasp Earthbender Attack 1
Stone wraps around your hand, and then around the throat it is grasping.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage and the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn.
Shaping: The target takes additional damage equal to your Strength modifier.
LEVEL 1 DAILY TECHNIQUES
Crash to the Ground Earthbender Attack 1
An elbow drop knocks your target to the ground, which catches them for you.
Daily* Elemental, Implement, Jing
Immediate Interrupt Melee weapon
Trigger: An enemy attempts to move out of a square adjacent to you.
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Constitution vs AC
Hit: 3[W] + Constitution modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
Miss: Half damage and the target is knocked prone.
Earthen Thorns Earthbender Attack 1
As you command the earth rises up and impales your enemies.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close line 5
Target: Enemies within line
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: The squares in line are difficult terrain for your enemies until the end of the encounter.
Ground Plate Armor Earthbender Attack 1
Stones fly towards you and cover your body and you charge across enemy lines.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage and you gain a +1 power bonus to AC until the end of the encounter.
Miss: Half damage and you gain a +2 power bonus to your AC until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 2 UTILITY TECHNIQUES
Stoneskin Earthbender Utility 2
Tough as rocks and twice as stubborn
Daily * Elemental
Minor Action Personal
Requirement: You must have hit an enemy with either rebuking defense or shifting ground this turn.
Effect: You regain hit points equal to 1d6 + your Constitution modifier + your Wisdom modifier.
Earth Wave Earthbender Utility 2
Instead of running, the ground rises up and carries you where you need to be.
Daily * Elemental
Move Action Personal
Effect: Shift your speed. Squares you move through are difficult terrain until the end of your next turn.
Ground’s Whispers Earthbender Utility 2
The reverberations around you flow from the dirt to your feet and through your body, showing more than your eyes can see.
Encounter * Elemental, Stance
Move Action Personal
Effect: You gain tremorsense 2 until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 3 ENCOUNTER TECHNIQUES
Orbit Circle Swing Earthbender Attack 3
You raise your foot from the ground to kick, and the ground comes with it.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Constitution modifier damage and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn.
Piston Earth Earthbender Attack 3
The earth beneath your enemies launches them into the air.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 4 squares.
Rattling Rocks Earthbender Attack 3
As they raise their weapon, you pelt your target with stones to throw them off.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target takes a -2 to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 5 DAILY TECHNIQUES
Earth’s Coiling Grip Earthbender Attack 5
A shower of soft dirt quickly hardens into a thick shell.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is immobilized (save ends).
Sink and Deliver Earthbender Attack 5
You stand tall as your target is pulled underground, beneath the battlefield and ejected at your feet.
Daily * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Area burst 1, centered on your Watched Ally.
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 5 squares and knocked prone.
Miss: Half damage and the target is pulled 2 squares.
Quicksand Burst Earthbender Attack 5
The ground swirls to quicksand at your behest.
Type * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close burst 3
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is slowed (save ends). Make a secondary attack.
Secondary Target: Enemies adjacent to an ally within 10.
Secondary Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex.
Secondary Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 2 squares.
LEVEL 6 UTILITY TECHNIQUES
Columns of Earth Earthbender Utility 6
A stone wall erupts from the ground in front of you.
Daily * Elemental
Move Action Wall 3 within 10
Effect: You create a wall in unoccupied squares that blocks movement and line of sight. It lasts until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Move: Repeat the effect.
Rockslide Ambush Earthbender Utility 6
Did they get lucky, or were you just waiting for an opening?
Daily * Elemental, Jing
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: You or your watched ally are hit by a critical attack.
Effect: The character that was hit gains 10 temporary hit points, gets a +2 to all defenses until the end of your next turn and may shift as a free action.
Jing: The character that was hit may make a melee basic attack as a free action before the shift.
Divided Attention Earthbender Utility 6
To act decisively leads you irrevocably down one path. Take pause and you can follow every path.
Encounter * Elemental
Minor Action Personal
Effect: Each ally within 5 squares of is your watched ally until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 7 ENCOUNTER TECHNIQUES
Dirt Headbutt Earthbender Attack 7
You introduce your target to your new helmet by cracking them in the head with it.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.
Effect: You gain a bonus to AC equal to your Constitution modifier until end of your next turn.
Fissure Path Earthbender Attack 7
You tear a hole in the battlefield right underneath the feet of your enemies.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close line 3
Target: Creatures within line
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
Quaking: You may push the target a number of squares equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Cage of Stone Spears Earthbender Attack 7
With a stomp, the stone explodes upward, interlocking and pinning..
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 9 DAILY TECHNIQUES
Earthfall Earthbender Attack 9
You raise and control a destructive storm of earth and rocks.
Daily * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Close path 10
Target: Enemies within path
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is blinded until the end of your next turn.
Effect: Each ally within the path is your watched ally until the end of your next turn.
Erupting Smash Earthbender Attack 9
As your weapon strikes downward, the earth strikes upward.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage. Make a secondary attack.
Secondary Target: Area burst 1 centered on your watched ally
Secondary Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude.
Secondary Hit: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pulled 2 squares.
Shaping: You have a +2 bonus to the primary and secondary attacks.
Seismic Wave Earthbender Attack 9
You bring a mighty fist down and the earth ripples like water.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close burst 5
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: Squares within burst are difficult terrain for your enemies until the end of the encounter.
LEVEL 10 UTILITY POWERS
Earth’s Protection Earthbender Utility 10
You cannot fail. It just can’t happen.
Daily * Elemental
Immediate Interrupt Ranged 10
Trigger: You use rebuking defense or shifting ground.
Effect: Each of your Watched Allies gains resist 10 until the end of your next turn.
In Tune Earthbender Utility 10
If you listen closely, you can hear most anything.
Encounter * Elemental
Free Action Personal
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you gain a +5 power bonus to Perception checks and may ignore any penalties to Perception checks.
Raise the Earth Earthbender Utility 10
The earth carries you, raises you above the spears of your enemies.
Encounter * Elemental
Move Action Close burst 2
Effect: The area’s ground is elevated 10 feet until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 13 ENCOUNTER TECHNIQUES
Granite Guardian Earthbender Attack 13
In order to hold the line, you have to be in two places at once.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Conjuration
Standard Action Ranged 5
Effect: You conjure a stone warrior that occupies 1 square within range. It may make the following attack when it appears, and as an opportunity attack. Allies adjacent to it are your watched ally. The warrior lasts until the end of your next turn.
Target: One creature adjacent to the guardian
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 3d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Sand to Stone Earthbender Attack 13
You mar your enemies in quicksand and then harden it to stone.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is restrained until the end of your next turn.
Jing: The attack is area burst 2 within 5 instead, and the target is restrained (save ends).
Terra Blast Earthbender Attack 13
Stone shrapnel flies in torrents, moving in tune with the slightest movement of your outstretched hand.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d8 + Constitution and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.
Special: When you use rebuking defense or shifting ground for the first time during an encounter, regain the use of terra blast if it’s expended.
LEVEL 15 DAILY TECHNIQUES
Earthen Uppercut Earthbender Attack 15
With a rising punch you rocket an opponent into the air.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon, Jing
Standard Action Melee weapon or ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 3d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed 2 squares.
Effect: The target is knocked prone.
Jing: Make the attack a second time against a different target.
Rockslide Earthbender Attack 15
They brace against your earthen assault, leaving them open to the more conventional variety.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed 2 squares. You may charge the target as a free action following this attack.
Special: You may use this attack instead of a melee basic attack during a charge.
Rock Crush Earthbender Attack 15
You drop a boulder on your opponent, breaking up their formation and keeping them apart.
Daily * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Area burst 3 within 10
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d12 + Constitution modifier damage.
Jing: The attack deals double damage.
LEVEL 16 UTILITY TECHNIQUES
Earthen Upheaval Earthbender 16
You rip the ground up, deflecting projectiles back at their source.
Encounter * Elemental
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Trigger: An enemy makes an attack against an ally other than your watched ally.
Target: The ally who is being attacked.
Effect: The target is your watched ally until the end of your next turn.
Indomitable Stone Earthbender Utility 16
You become as hard to move as a mountain, and even harder to break.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You gain a +2 bonus to your AC, resist damage 10, may not be forced to move and your speed is reduced to 2 until the end of the encounter.
Gift of Granite Earthbender Utility 16
With focus you are able to impart your resilience to an ally.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One ally
Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points from it, instead your target gains a +2 bonus AC until the end of the encounter and gains temporary hit points equal to 15 + your Constitution modifier.
LEVEL 17 ENCOUNTER TECHNIQUES
Dancing Jing Earthbender Attack 17
You exploit the discipline of both positive and negative jing in a single blow.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon, Jing
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One enemy and one watched ally
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage. Simultaneously teleport the enemy to the space occupied by your watched ally, and teleport your watched ally to the space occupied by the enemy.
Jing: You may make a melee basic attack against the target as a free action.
Follow Through Earthbender Attack 17
The ground splinters, feet are swallowed with a sickening snap the ground closes again.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Path 5
Target: Enemies within path
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d6 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn.
Jing: Each ally in the path is your watched ally until the end of your next turn.
Debris Field Earthbender Attack 17
The dust that settles after a particularly vicious attack is just as much a weapon as the stone that produced it.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target:
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage.
Effect: Enemies within 5 squares of you and your watched allies take a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 19 DAILY TECHNIQUES
Living Rampart Earthbender Attack 19
You oversee the battlefield, springing from the earth as a wall of living stone to protect your closest ally.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon, Jing
Immediate Reaction Melee weapon
Trigger: An enemy makes an attack against a watched ally.
Target: The triggering enemy
Effect: You teleport to a square adjacent to the target and make the following attack.
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 3[W] + Constitution modifier damage and you push the target 5 squares. They are immobilized (save ends).
Miss: Half damage and the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn.
Stone Prison Earthbender Attack 19
Slabs of granite crash upwards, a perfect, life-crushing stone prison.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: The target is restrained and takes ongoing 10 damage (save ends both).
Miss: The target is immobilized and takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends both).
Terraquake Earthbender Attack 19
A hand rises, palm as flat as the terrain around you, suddenly the palm and the earth begin to violently shake.
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is slowed.
Quaking: Each ally within the burst is your watched ally until the end of your next turn.
Rippling Reinforcement Earthbender Utility 22
A rippling radius of stone kicks your allies back to their feet.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Move Action Close burst 10
Target: You and each ally within burst
Effect: Each target is your watched ally until the end of your next turn. They each gain 15 temporary hit points.
Inaction Assault Earthbender Utility 22
The last possible moment is often the most devastating time to attack.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You gain a +4 power bonus to each attack you make before the end of your next turn. In addition, whenever you hit with an attack before the end of your next turn, you may make a melee or ranged basic attack as a free action.
Unbreakable Stone Earthbender Utility 22
A rain of blows splashes harmlessly across you like rain on granite.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: You are reduced to 0 or fewer hit points.
Effect: You regain hit points to bring you to your maximum. You are slowed until the end of the encounter.
LEVEL 23 ENCOUNTER TECHNIQUES
Quakebreaker Earthbender Attack 23
Shockwaves burst forth across the battlefield, breaking the ranks of your aggressors.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Close burst 2
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is pushed 3 squares.
Special: Repeat this attack once for ally within 10 squares of you. Each time pick an ally that hasn’t been chosen yet, they are the center of the attack.
Rippling Ground Earthbender Attack 23
A ripple of stone bursts up, coiling the battlefield to give you the high ground.
Encounter * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Close path 4
Target: Enemies within path
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d10 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is knocked prone.
Quaking: Repeat the attack, centered one of your Watched Allies.
Stone Blade Strike Earthbender Attack 23
It takes effort to hurl a boulder.
It takes refinement to sharpen it first.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon or Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 3[W] + Constitution modifier and the target has vulnerable 5 (save ends).
Shaping: You get a +5 power bonus to damage rolls until the end of your next turn.
LEVEL 25 DAILY TECHNIQUES
Avalanche Hammer Earthbender Attack 25
Your strike cracks your opponent’s defenses. When they try to collect themselves, you strike again.
Daily * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 4[W] + Constitution modifier damage. Until the end of the encounter, at the beginning of each of your turns you may pull the target 2 squares.
Boulder Volley Earthbender Attack 25
Because sometimes all you need is a really big rock. Or six.
Daily * Elemental, Implement, Jing
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature within range
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 4d8 + Constitution modifier damage. Until the end of the encounter, whenever you sustain your Neutral Jing the target takes 5 damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Crag Hammer Earthbender Attack 25
With a slam the a wave of sediment rises from the ground, as it descends it envelops your enemies while rippling earth pushes your allies to safety.
Daily * Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close blast 4
Target: Each creature within blast
Attack: Constitution vs. Reflex
Hit: 3d8 + Constitution modifier damage and the target is stunned until the end of your next turn.
Miss: Half damage and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.
Effect: Before the attack, you slide any number of allies each to a square adjacent the affected area.
Quaking: Increase the area to Close blast 6.
LEVEL 27 ENCOUNTER TECHNIQUES
Spire Burst Earthbender Attack 27
A wave of stalagmites burst forth all around you, rippling outward in wave after wave of destructive force.
Encounter* Elemental, Implement
Standard Action Close path 5
Target: Enemies within burst
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + Constitution modifier damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Special: Until the beginning of your next turn, each time an ally is hit by an attack, repeat this attack centered on that ally as an immediate reaction.
Tellurian Spear Earthbender Attack 27
A great stone spear big enough to skewer an Elephant-Crab rips violently through the battlefield as it pulls you into position..
Encounter * Elemental,
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC
Hit: 4d10 + Constitution modifier damage.
Effect: You slide adjacent to the target.
Giant Metal Ragefists Earthbender 27
Your plunge your hands into the earth, they re-emerge encased completely in obsidian and granite.
Encounter * Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC.
Hit: 3[W] + Constitution modifier damage and the target is dazed (save ends). Whenever the target makes a successful saving throw against this effect, you regain the use of this power.
Shaping: Until the end of the encounter, you gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls made against enemies that are dazed.
Things I'm Looking For (In No Particular Order)
- A power seems to weak or too strong.
- You think you've identified a theme and would like to talk about it.
- A theme you see needs to be reinforced by making more powers that work with it.
- A power is not cool enough
- You have an idea for a power you don't see anywhere (especially the last few Epic Techniques I haven't written yet)
Thank you for your patrience, anticipation and appreciation, the project will be finished soon.
-Usagi
To make it better, change it from THP when you roll initiative to "You have resist 5 all for the firt damage you take in every encounter, this resistance increases to 10 at 11th level, and 15 at 21st level."
Making it a single instane of resistance, instead of THP, makes it easier to work with other THP granting options. Having it scale per tier, makes it not worthless later in the game.
A bit of necromancy to top off the evening.
So, I discovered this a few days ago, and fell in love with it. I would truly love it if there was an updated PDF posted with all the changes included; don't know if the authors decided to stop working on it or whatever, but it would be awesome if it were completed.
Is this dead now? I was really looking forward to v2.0