[4e] Forgotten Realms Advice

[Burley]

Aight. I picked up the book last night. (Gift cards and a discount to Barnes and Noble make D&D affordable.) I've flipped through it a bit and I've got a few questions for you all.

1) The Genasi looks kinda neat, because it's "customizable". But, after taking a closer look, I'm left feeling...want. It doesn't seem very well balanced to the PHB races, and it's all somewhat situational. Good flavor, but questionable mechanics, no?

2) Spellscarred. Multi-class only? Is it just me or is that lame? Some of the powers look a little strong, so, I can understand it, but... a lot of the powers look like Warlock powers, re-texted.

3) Feats. Some of them seem really, really good. Scion of the Gods gives Tieflings +1 to fortitude and will. Bam, just like that. No situational bonus, just free bonuses. Are there other feats I should strive for? (I'm already drooling over War Wizard.)

4) Did WotC decide that proof-reading should stay with 3.5? Yikes. Their publishers seriously need to double check things.

5) How many pictures have you seen recyced in 4e books? There is a paragon path in there that uses the same picture as a prestige class from the Complete Scoundrel...

[allonym]

That's funny, you said you were looking for advice but it seems you merely wanted to complain about it...apart from the feats, of course ;). Main problem with Scion of the Gods is if you go into paragon, it won't stack with the +2 to one defence feats in the PHB, since they're all specifically Feat Bonuses...

[BardicDuelist]

On the proof-reading and recycled pictures comment:
WotC is notorious for not proofreading. I don't think that they will ever get better at this.
They were ALREADY recycling pictures in 3.5, so while I was a little surprised at first, I'm not shocked.

[Burley]

Okay. You caught me. I ranted. I didn't mean to, but I did.

I actually do want some comments on the Genasi and the Spellscarred, though. Has anybody ever seen a whole class for spellscarred? Would it be a good idea to have one homebrewed? Could you just take the warlock base block and switch the powers?

[RTGoodman]

Okay. You caught me. I ranted. I didn't mean to, but I did.

I actually do want some comments on the Genasi and the Spellscarred, though. Has anybody ever seen a whole class for spellscarred? Would it be a good idea to have one homebrewed? Could you just take the warlock base block and switch the powers?

I don't know about the Genasi (I haven't really looked into them at all), but I personally LIKE the idea of certain multiclass-only "classes" like spellscarred. I did the same thing (sort of) with 4E Vestige Binding (you can find it through my sig), where a Warlock would take a feat to gain access to a Vestige and then could swap in and out powers from that vestige. I don't know anything specifically about the Spellscarred, but I think as long as the benefits are as good as (or, at least, not strictly better than) the standard multiclassing benefits it should be fine since no one (excluding the Bard) can take more than one Multiclass feat.

[Ealstan]

The reason Spellscarred isn't a full class is because it's pretty much a random grab bag of magic powers. There is no Role that the powers fit into. There are powers for every role to take if they wish, but no single role gets focus.

[Yakk]

Building a full class in 4e is hard -- it is not quite as hard as coming up with a 3e class with a decent spell list that doesn't share any spells with any other class, but it is closer to that order of magnitude than tossing together a "standard" 3e class.

Scion of the Gods gives Tieflings +1 to fortitude and will.

Getting +2 to a non-AC defense for a feat is a standard tradeoff. If Scion of the Gods is a feat bonus, it is actually sub-par. If it isn't a feat bonus, that makes it nice -- but not insanely strong.

[allonym]

I am pretty sure Scion of the Gods is +1 to all three non AC defences, but I am away from books. It's a good choice for defenders I feel. I was tempted to take it for my tiefling paladin, but then I took over GMing instead...

[Starsinger]

It is a +1 feat bonus to Fortitude and Will defenses. In Heroic tier it's nice. In Paragon tier you'll want to retrain it for (and grab) Iron Will and Great Fortitude if you're all about the defenses.

[KKL]

Scion of the Gods is +1 to Fort/Will, and it's a good feat for Tieflings. Not amazing or game breaking, but solid. Genasi are quite nice, and Spellscar powers are amazing, barring obvious Gravity of Moment wanking.