[4e] Battle Standards

[MammonAzrael]

New preview on WotC: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080828b

I like the battle standards. BS of Honor seems darn useful, and give me hope for the others. I can see how BS of Tactics would be useful, but I think most groups aren't quite as picky about knowing where peeps be on the battlefield. Regardless these look to be great for the part tanks.

The Solitaire (violet) I have two thoughts on. 1. This is pretty useful, crit and then a free standard action. Pretty great stuff. And the fact that it's labeled (Violet) and that you can only use one Solitaire per encounter means there will be other Solitaires, makes me think a bit of Ioun Stones.

And finally, the Amethyst Band of Invisible Eyes seems useful, but not overly so.

Oh, and apparently Faerun regional difference are still around thanks to this preview:http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/excerpts/FRPreview_PG_GreatDale.pdf

[Tadanori Oyama]

Like with Reagents I probably won't be making use of them as a player but I'll almost certainly be throwing them into the treasure mix for my players when I DM to see what they come up with.

[fractic]

That band of invisible eyes looks like it's pretty fun. Normally teleporting requires line of sight but not line of effect with that band line of effect but not line of sight will also do.

[tyckspoon]

I like the battle standards. BS of Honor seems darn useful, and give me hope for the others. I can see how BS of Tactics would be useful, but I think most groups aren't quite as picky about knowing where peeps be on the battlefield. Regardless these look to be great for the part tanks.

The Solitaire (violet) I have two thoughts on. 1. This is pretty useful, crit and then a free standard action. Pretty great stuff. And the fact that it's labeled (Violet) and that you can only use one Solitaire per encounter means there will be other Solitaires, makes me think a bit of Ioun Stones.


The Tactics standard also removes the requirement to have line of sight to target your own allies. I can see that as being very useful, since one of the quickest ways to get a character killed is to have him separated from his party so that he can't be targeted with buffs or heals- having the Tactics standard up could bypass interference from enemy Controller-types (you could ignore effects that create obscuring terrain, for example, and just not care if somebody blinded your healer.)

I think the Solitaire probably is actually an Ioun Stone. Don't know why it was renamed, but then I never knew why ioun stones were called that either so it doesn't bother me.

[Knaight]

That said Ioun Stone has a better ring to it. That said Battle Standards look pretty cool. I might even consider borrowing them, or would if I didn't already have short totem poles doing the same thing for a shaman character. Maybe next game.

[Mr.Bookworm]

That said Ioun Stone has a better ring to it.

Assuming it is actually an Ioun Stone with a different name, it's probably due to the fact that Ioun is now an actual core D&D god.

EDIT:

Yeah, Battle Standards look pretty neat.

[RTGoodman]

Assuming it is actually an Ioun Stone with a different name, it's probably due to the fact that Ioun is now an actual core D&D god.

Nope, there's already an Ioun Stone of True Sight in the PHB (pg. 249), a level 28 head-slot item. I assume the Adventurer's Vault'll have a bunch more.

I think these Solitaires are probably just a new wondrous item type. You can only use one per encounter, and they seem to be based on color (which IS similar to the 3.x Ioun stones).

If I had to guess, I'd say there's probably one for each of the prismatic colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet). This Violet one is probably the highest-level solitaire.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Nope, there's already an Ioun Stone of True Sight in the PHB (pg. 249), a level 28 head-slot item. I assume the Adventurer's Vault'll have a bunch more.

I think these Solitaires are probably just a new wondrous item type. You can only use one per encounter, and they seem to be based on color (which IS similar to the 3.x Ioun stones).

If I had to guess, I'd say there's probably one for each of the prismatic colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet). This Violet one is probably the highest-level solitaire.

Ah, yeah.

I forgot about the Ioun Stone in the PHB.

[Blackfang108]

You and your allies automatically know each other’s positions even if you cannot see one another, and can target one another with powers even without line of sight.

I can see this being VERY useful, especially for Warlords and Clerics.