4e Exerpt - Racial Benefits and Sword Wings

[SamTheCleric]

Original Article: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080502a

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Original Design Intent
Before we began 4th Edition design, James Wyatt decided that he wanted a player character’s race to matter a lot more in 4E than it did in 3E. Andy Collins and I heard about James’ decision during our first week of brainstorming together. James said something like, “I won’t be happy with this design unless it gives me a reason to care about what race I am all through a character’s career. Not just something that happens at first level.” That sounded great to me and Andy.

Our early designs put race on par with paragon paths and epic destinies as character elements that would be secondary to class for ten levels at a time. Race supplied features and powers from levels 1-10, paragon paths took over at levels 11-20, and epic destinies capped characters off at levels 21-30.

One drawback of our original “race offers powers at levels 1-10” approach was that it made race abilities less significant at higher levels. Another drawback was that our classes were already plenty rich. We realized that we didn’t need race, path and destiny competing directly with the class-based power lists that were the heart of the design.

4E Solution
So we settled on a hybrid approach. Each 4E race gets a small roster of abilities that make them stand out from other races. Each race gets a single unique power at first level that stays cool and useful over the character’s entire career. And each race has a unique selection of feats that flesh out the race’s advantages compared to other races.

Styles of Racial Feats
There are at least three different styles of racial feats in the Players Handbook.

Racial Power Related Feats: The logic for these feats is that you’re the only race in the game that can pull off a stunt that everyone else envies. Letting you choose feats that utilize your racial power makes you feel even better about your power. You’re opting to improve an already good power instead of choosing a feat that could shore up a weakness, so we aren’t shy about making racial feats a good deal.

Take the Enlarged Dragon Breath feat for the dragonborn as an example.

Enlarged Dragon Breath [Dragonborn]
Prerequisites: Dragonborn, dragon breath racial power
Benefit: When you use your dragon breath power, you can choose to make it blast 5 instead of blast 3.

A dragonborn’s breath weapon isn’t going to be its most powerful attack, but it is one of the few minor action attacks in the game. Increasing the blast area from 9 squares to 25 squares? It’s a no-brainer for any weapon-using dragonborn who isn’t already capable of attacks that blast many enemies at once. Once you’ve played a dragonborn with 5-square breath, playing a dragonborn with a wee little 3-square blast won’t cut it.

Flavorful Feats that Don’t Need to Clutter Basic Race Abilities: Some 3E races have laundry lists of abilities supplying situational benefits. In 4E, we have laundered those lists. Small situational benefits are great as feats that a player chooses because it suits their character concept, not as good as something that every player of a particular race has to keep track of. Here’s an example from the dwarf.

Dodge Giants [Dwarf]
Prerequisite: Dwarf
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to AC and Reflex defense against the attacks of Large or larger foes.

3E dwarves all ended up having AC bonuses against giants. 4E cuts this advantage out of the standard dwarf package and rephrases the advantage as a feat that can help dwarves against all bigger creatures, not just the few bigger creatures that happen to be actual giants.

Feats that Capture the Essence of a Race: Okay, I admit this last category is a bit broad. The perfect racial feat of this style supplies the race with a wonderful little feature that members of other races would love to have but don’t deserve. Sometimes we succeed perfectly, other times we get as close as we can.

Any guesses about the hardest race? Which race was the hardest to peg with feats that felt distinct and appropriate?

Other designers may have other answers, but I’d say it was humans. The problem is that you all know humans. You’ve got a pretty good sense of human capabilities, and even in a fantasy world with elves and dwarves and succubi, there are a lot of abilities that we could try to peg onto humans that would make you and most all your friends **** an eyebrow and hone your mockery skills.

So we settled on the idea that humans, at least the PC humans we’re concerned with, are the action-hero race, winning against improbable odds and fighting to the last breath. Try the following feat as an example:

Action Surge [Human]
Prerequisite: Human
Benefit: You gain a +3 bonus to attack rolls you make during any action you gained by spending an action point.

That’s an example of an ability nearly any PC would like to have, but as a feat, it’s only available to humans. You think you’ve got a human finished off and they pull out some heroic stunt that saves the party.

Full Circle
Enlarged Dragon Breath, Dodge Giants, and Action Surge have one point in common: all three are racial feats you can take in the heroic tier that will still be useful even when your character is 19th or 28th level. We made good on James’ original hope—your PC’s race always matters, and if you want to choose a number of racial feats, your PC’s race can matter a lot.
--Rob Heinsoo

Racial Traits
Each character race offers the following types of benefits.

Ability Scores: Your character race gives you a bonus to a particular ability score or two. Keep these bonuses in mind when you assign your ability scores.

Speed: Your speed is the number of squares you can normally move when you walk.

Vision: Most races, including humans, have normal vision. Some races have low-light vision; they see better in darkness than humans do.

Languages: You start off knowing how to speak, read, and write a few languages. All races speak Common, the language passed on by the last human empire, and some races let you choose a language.

Other Racial Traits: Other traits include bonuses to your skills, weapon training, and a handful of other traits that give you capabilities or bonuses that members of other races don’t have.

Racial Power: Several races give you access to a racial power, which is an extra power you gain at 1st level in addition to the powers your class gives you.

Racial Feats (Heroic Tier)
{table]Name | Prerequisites | Benefit
Action Surge | Human | +3 to attacks when you spend an action point
Dodge Giants | Dwarf | +1 to AC and Reflex against attacks of Large or larger foes
Dragonborn Frenzy | Dragonborn | +2 damage when bloodied
Dragonborn Senses | Dragonborn | Low-light vision, +1 to Perception
Dwarven Weapon Training | Dwarf | +2 damage and proficiency with axes and hammers
Eladrin Soldier | Eladrin | +2 damage and proficiency with longswords and spears
Elven Precision | Elf | +2 to reroll with elven accuracy
Enlarged Dragon Breath | Dragonborn, dragon breath racial power | Dragon breath becomes blast 5
Ferocious Rebuke | Tiefling, infernal wrath racial power | Push 1 square with infernal wrath
Group Insight | Half-Elf | Grant allies +1 to Insight and initiative
Halfling Agility | Halfling, second chance racial power | Attacker takes a –2 penalty with second chance reroll
Human Perseverance | Human | +1 to saving throws
Light Step | Elf | Add to overland speed of group, +1 to Acrobatics and Stealth
Lost in the Crowd | Halfling | +2 to AC when adjacent to at least two larger enemies
[/table]

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Be sure to return Monday for a look at skill challenges!

Swordwing Stat Blocks

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Swordwings are supreme collectors, gathering rare items and arranging them in galleries within their cavernous lairs. A swordwing’s collection defines it as an individual. A typical swordwing favors one particular collectable, while crownwings keep multiple collections. Typical “collectables” include skulls, weapons, gems, magic items, books, monster eggs, and victims’ hearts.

Swordwing
Level 25 Soldier
Medium aberrant humanoid XP 7,000 Initiative +21 Senses Perception +18; low-light vision
HP 234; Bloodied 117
AC 42; Fortitude 40, Reflex 38, Will 32
Speed 6, fly 10 (hover)
Armblade (standard; at-will)Reach 2; +30 vs. AC (+32 against a bloodied target); 2d6 + 9 damage (crit 2d6 + 21), and the target is marked until the end of the swordwing’s next turn; see also vicious opportunist.
Sudden Strike (immediate reaction, when an adjacent enemy shifts; at-will)The swordwing makes a melee basic attack against the enemy. The attack deals an extra 2d6 damage if it hits.
Vicious Opportunist The swordwing’s opportunity attacks deal an extra 2d6 damage.
Alignment Evil Languages Deep Speech Skills Endurance +25, Stealth +24
Str 28 (+21) Dex 24 (+19) Wis 13 (+13) Con 26 (+20) Int 10 (+12) Cha 10 (+12)

Swordwing Tactics
A swordwing swoops into battle and hacks enemies to pieces with its armblade, using its sudden strike power against those that try to shift away. The creature is incensed by the blood of its enemies and attacks bloodied foes with greater accuracy.

Crownwing
Level 26 Skirmisher (Leader)
Large aberrant humanoid XP 9,000 Initiative +24 Senses Perception +20; low-light vision
HP 238; Bloodied 119
AC 40; Fortitude 36, Reflex 38, Will 32
Speed 6, fly 10 (hover); see also flyby attack
Armblade (standard; at-will)Reach 2; +31 vs. AC; 2d6 + 10 damage (crit 2d6 + 22) plus an extra 2d6 damage if the crownwing is flanking the target.
Flyby Attack (standard; at-will)The crownwing flies up to 10 squares and makes one melee basic attack at any point during that movement. The crownwing doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when moving away from the target of the attack.
Mark of Death (standard; encounter) Ranged 10; allies gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls and deal +10 damage against the target.
Alignment Evil Languages Deep Speech Skills Arcana +22, Endurance +24, Intimidate +21, Stealth +27
Str 30 (+23) Dex 28 (+22) Wis 15 (+15) Con 22 (+19) Int 18 (+17) Cha 16 (+16)

Crownwing Tactics
The crownwing places its mark of death upon the foe it perceives as the most dangerous, then orders its underlings to attack that target while it takes out weaker prey using its armblade and flyby attack power.

Swordwing Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Dungeoneering check.

DC 25: Swordwings are insectoid creatures that inhabit the Underdark. One of their arms ends in a scimitarlike blade, hence the name.

DC 30: Swordwings live in clusters of tall “nesting spires” built from resources chewed out of the surrounding environment. From a distance, these towers resemble stalactites or stalagmites made of grayish-white paper, but in truth the structures are as hard as stone.

Encounter Groups
Swordwings occasionally ally with other Underdark dwellers such as mind flayers, beholders, and gibbering orbs.

Level 25 Encounter (XP 37,000)
4 swordwings (level 25 soldier)
1 crownwing (level 26 skirmisher)
Level 29 Encounter (XP 76,000)
3 swordwings (level 25 soldier)
1 gibbering orb (level 27 solo controller)

[Azerian Kelimon]

Interesting. Races are still semi-minor things, but not dodge-like minor. Something to take into account. Thanks for providing us with this, Sam.

Edit: Odd...the swordwing and crownwing are, at first glance, MUCH weaker than the angel of vengeance. Anybody notice that? Apparently, swordwings are mooks, while angels of vengeance are insanely tough because they're Solo monsters and that was omitted.

[SamTheCleric]

Sure thing... And I've finally fixed that table in the first spoiler... so you can see the full list of racial feats that they previewed.

[Jimp]

I love the Halfling feat Lost in the Crowd. Hilarious and effective

[Kurald Galain]

There's a large variety in quality here.

Humans, elves, and dragonborn get good feats. Half-elves get a poor one. Dwarves get a highly circumstantial one, and one that is largely irrelevant (casters don't need weapon prof, melee types likely have it already).

Race matters... but only in certain builds.

[Cyclone231]

You’ve got a pretty good sense of human capabilities, and even in a fantasy world with elves and dwarves and succubi, there are a lot of abilities that we could try to peg onto humans that would make you and most all your friends **** an eyebrow and hone your mockery skills.

Board filters make things much more vulgar than they are.

Heh. "**** an eyebrow".

Oh forums, your overzealous censors never cease to amuse.

[InaVegt]

Interesting. Races are still semi-minor things, but not dodge-like minor. Something to take into account. Thanks for providing us with this, Sam.

Edit: Odd...the swordwing and crownwing are, at first glance, MUCH weaker than the angel of vengeance. Anybody notice that? Apparently, swordwings are mooks, while angels of vengeance are insanely tough because they're Solo monsters and that was omitted.

It's just that the angel of vengeance is an elite monster, and, as shown in the excerpt about customizing monsters, those have a /lot/ of hit points.

Gouging from the excerpt on customizing monsters., I wouldn't be surprised if an elite brute would've 10 additional hit points for every level and an additional bonus equal too it's constitution. If you subtract that, you're left with 233 hit points, which is roughly the same as that of the 'wings, but the 'wings are superior in every other field. To compare, I've included a templated crownwing, which should be roughly equal in power to a leve; 26 elite.

Note that it is much more powerful than the angel of vengeance.

Spoiler

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Crownwing vampire lord
Level 26 elite Skirmisher (Leader)
Large aberrant humanoid (undead)
XP 18,000
Initiative +24
Senses Perception +20; low-light vision, darkvision
HP 468; Bloodied 234
AC 42; Fortitude 38, Reflex 40, Will 34
Immune disease, poison
Resist 5 necrotic at 1st level, 10 necrotic at 11th level, 15 necrotic at 21st level
Vulnerable radiant 10
Saving Throws +2
Action Point 1
Speed 6, fly 10 (hover); see also flyby attack
Regeneration 10 (regeneration does not function while the vampire lord is exposed to direct sunlight)
MeleeArmblade (standard; at-will)
Reach 2; +31 vs. AC; 2d6 + 10 damage (crit 2d6 + 22) plus an extra 2d6 damage if the crownwing is flanking the target.
MeleeFlyby Attack (standard; at-will)
The crownwing flies up to 10 squares and makes one melee basic attack at any point during that movement. The crownwing doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when moving away from the target of the attack.
RangedMark of Death (standard; encounter)
Ranged 10; allies gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls and deal +10 damage against the target.
Melee Blood Drain (standard, encounter; recharges when an adjacent creature becomes bloodied) Healing
Requires combat advantage. +28 vs. Fortitude; 2d12 + 16 modifier damage, and the target is weakened (save ends), and the vampire lord heals hit points equal to one-quarter of its normal total.
Ranged Dominating Gaze (minor, recharge 6) Charm
Ranged 5; +28 vs. Will; the target is dominated (save ends, with a –2 penalty to the saving throw). Aftereffect: The target is dazed (save ends). The vampire lord can dominate only one creature at a time.
Mist Form (standard; encounter) Polymorph
The vampire lord becomes insubstantial and gains a fly speed of 12, but cannot make attacks. The vampire lord can remain in mist form for up to 1 hour or end the effect as a minor action.
Alignment Evil
Languages Deep Speech
Skills Arcana +22, Endurance +24, Intimidate +21, Stealth +27
Str 30 (+23)
Dex 28 (+22)
Wis 15 (+15)
Con 22 (+19)
Int 18 (+17)
Cha 16 (+16)

[Abardam]

There's a large variety in quality here.

Humans, elves, and dragonborn get good feats. Half-elves get a poor one. Dwarves get a highly circumstantial one, and one that is largely irrelevant (casters don't need weapon prof, melee types likely have it already).

Race matters... but only in certain builds.

+2 damage is hardly irrelevant. Also, if you'll look at the preview characters, the half-elf has Action Surge. This is either something they changed before the release, or half-elves can also take human and/or elf feats. Yeah, but Group Insight seems pretty eh.

[Spiryt]

Well, it looks like it will be more options in character development which is always great.

Still, it's kind of weird to have only bonuses... I mean it's all only a matter of perspective, sure, but it's a bit easier to give human 'average' strenght and give halfling lower score, than to give halfling 'average' score, and then give everyone else a bonus. And if somebody would like to play some pixie or something some day?

Although it seems that halfings can be no weaker than humans at all.

[Vortling]

I agree that there's a large gap in the quality of these feats. Hopefully the quality improves in the expanded amount of racial feat available in the PHB. The dwarven dodge feat is underwhelming.

Their intent to make race matter through all the levels makes me wonder about the significance of the +1 and +2 bonuses. Are those going to be relevant at high levels? That suggests that the overall difference between the three game tiers won't be terribly significant. Of course complete speculation there.

The lore part of the swordwing stat block bothers me. You make a DC 30 check and don't learn anything useful about the monster? That doesn't seem right. Even if it is fairly easy for a level 25 character to make the DC 30 check (assuming +5 for trained in appropriate knowledge, +12 from levels, and a probable +2 from relevant ability score means they only need to roll a 11 or better to make the check), you should get some info about fighting the creature. There isn't even a higher check listed that gives the players any useful tactical information. Monsters exist to be killed by the players. Why isn't there any tactical information in the lore check info? Kinda disappointing.

Edited for grammar and spelling.

[EvilElitest]

I am in Awn. Did 4E just take a suggestion i made almost a year ago seriously.....i recommended a similar idea (not exact) for similar reasons. i don't know what to say
from
EE

[Swooper]

Do we know what the racial powers are going to be like? I know about Fey Step for the Eladrin (a short range dimension door - useful at all levels) and the breath weapon Dragonborn get (which presumably does meh damage like everything else we've seen from 4E, but it's apparently a minor action so why not?). The table mentions Tieflings' Infernal Wrath and Halflings' Second Chance, which I have very little idea what are. Anything else? Also, since some of the racial feats have both a specific race and a racial power as a prerequisite, does that mean that you get to choose a racial power from a list?

As for the racial feats... Yay more tiny bonuses. I'm unimpressed.

The swordwing made me notice something. It has an AC of 42. Every class will have half it's level as BAB. How does a level 25 melee type hit something with AC 42, when his BAB is only 12? He'll need an additional +10 just to hit it on a 20, and +9 more to hit it half the time he swings. What is missing from this equation? Ability mod, yes they'll be a bit higher than in 3.x... likely a magic weapon, but what covers the rest?

[SamTheCleric]

As for the racial feats... Yay more tiny bonuses. I'm unimpressed.

...

Ability mod, yes they'll be a bit higher than in 3.x... likely a magic weapon, but what covers the rest?

The aforementioned tiny bonuses that you're unimpressed by?

[Mewtarthio]

So, humans are going to be an entire race of badasses, then? I think I can live with that.

[Kurald Galain]

The swordwing made me notice something. It has an AC of 42. Every class will have half it's level as BAB. How does a level 25 melee type hit something with AC 42, when his BAB is only 12? He'll need an additional +10 just to hit it on a 20, and +9 more to hit it half the time he swings. What is missing from this equation? Ability mod, yes they'll be a bit higher than in 3.x... likely a magic weapon, but what covers the rest?

Ability mods, yes. Since negative numbers are too difficult to play with, they start at +0 rather than -4, and thus are four points higher on average. Plus you get more increases as you level up.

The main difference is in the attacks. Most powers/maneuvers/whatever give an attack bonus, which could easily be +12 or up for the paragon tier.

[Terraoblivion]

One thing i noticed that i am really happy to see is that they actually added a justification for the existence of a common language. Common is basically Latin and this is the early years of the dark ages. Of course it will probably be more common than Latin was in the early years, but still it is nice to see that they have given some thought to this.

[Morty]

One thing i noticed that i am really happy to see is that they actually added a justification for the existence of a common language. Common is basically Latin and this is the early years of the dark ages. Of course it will probably be more common than Latin was in the early years, but still it is nice to see that they have given some thought to this.

It also looks as if languages are dependent on race instead of Int modifier, which means not every person with above-average intelligence is an amazing linguist. I do hope there'll be an option to learn more languages than standard, though.

[Artanis]

I agree that there's a large gap in the quality of these feats. Hopefully the quality improves in the expanded amount of racial feat available in the PHB. The dwarven dodge feat is underwhelming.

Their intent to make race matter through all the levels makes me wonder about the significance of the +1 and +2 bonuses. Are those going to be relevant at high levels? That suggests that the overall difference between the three game tiers won't be terribly significant. Of course complete speculation there.

The lore part of the swordwing stat block bothers me. You make a DC 30 check and don't learn anything useful about the monster? That doesn't seem right. Even if it is fairly easy for a level 25 character to make the DC 30 check (assuming +5 for trained in appropriate knowledge, +12 from levels, and a probable +2 from relevant ability score means they only need to roll a 11 or better to make the check), you should get some info about fighting the creature. There isn't even a higher check listed that gives the players any useful tactical information. Monsters exist to be killed by the players. Why isn't there any tactical information in the lore check info? Kinda disappointing.

Edited for grammar and spelling.

Well, they've said that smaller bonuses are going to be a lot more relevant (and keeping that relevance at higher levels). Whether it works in practice has yet to be seen, of course.

I CAN tell you, however, that the Human Perseverance feat is going to be godd*** HUGE at all levels because of the way saves work in 4e (which is pretty d*** different from how they work in 3e, just for the record).

[Duke of URL]

A dragonborn’s breath weapon isn’t going to be its most powerful attack, but it is one of the few minor action attacks in the game. Increasing the blast area from 9 squares to 25 squares? It’s a no-brainer for any weapon-using dragonborn who isn’t already capable of attacks that blast many enemies at once. Once you’ve played a dragonborn with 5-square breath, playing a dragonborn with a wee little 3-square blast won’t cut it.

What I don't like about this is that I really dislike any feat (or PrC in 3.5) that comes across as "must have" -- basically, it forces the player to spend a feat on a particular choice or be gimped. Everything should have a more significant trade-off then that.

[MammonAzrael]

What I don't like about this is that I really dislike any feat (or PrC in 3.5) that comes across as "must have" -- basically, it forces the player to spend a feat on a particular choice or be gimped. Everything should have a more significant trade-off then that.

I completely agree with you, but I think that what they meant wasn't that you HAD to take the feat, it's just that you'd miss the extra range. Which you probably would occasionally.

[Artanis]

What I don't like about this is that I really dislike any feat (or PrC in 3.5) that comes across as "must have" -- basically, it forces the player to spend a feat on a particular choice or be gimped. Everything should have a more significant trade-off then that.

I agree that having "must-have" feats would be a really bad thing, especially if done intentionally.

However, I don't think any of these look remotely "must-have" after seeing the multiclassing article. They're pretty good, but if nothing else, it would be pretty hard NOT to have something worth spending a feat to multiclass into.

[wodan46]

especially since that one combos with another feat that makes dragon breath use bigger die.

Granted, this if you choose to spend feats on racial specialties, rather than general abilities, or multiclassing.

that said, the Angel of Vengeance was Elite, meaning its supposed be able to take on 2 of these swordwing critters.

Its unclear, but it looks like the thing gets a regular 2d6+9 attack, does 2d6 extra damage on opportunity attacks, and gets a bonus attack when an opponent shifts, effectively a second opportunity attack. In all, the Bladewing can do up 10d6+27 damage per round. That is considerably more than the Angel of Vengeance can. Basically, its like that Stormwarden, going slash happy on anyone nearby. Probably best to take it on 1 on 1, rather than let it get a ton of extra attacks on your allies.

[Saph]

I really hope the small situational stacking bonuses aren't as numerous as these articles are making them appear. One of the big problems with higher-level D&D combat is the sheer number of small bonuses and penalties to keep track of. 4th ed is looking at the moment like it's going to make this worse.

- Saph

[AKA_Bait]

Am I the only one that's confused about what the ecological niche of medium to large winged insects in the underdark?

[Terraoblivion]

Probably not AKA_Bait. I just shrug it off as another bit of DnD weirdness when it comes to the ecology. I mean DnD has more apex predators than other parts of the food chain combined.

[hamishspence]

underdark got a boost in accessibility in 4th ed: more light down there, easier to get to, less a deadly desert with a few oases. At least, compared to 3ed ed. Mind you, invertebrates are surprisingly common down there even in older novels. Spiders, Giant caterpillers (grubbers) Vermin lords, more recently.

[Artanis]

Am I the only one that's confused about what the ecological niche of medium to large winged insects in the underdark?

Ever seen Pitch Black?

[AKA_Bait]

underdark got a boost in accessibility in 4th ed: more light down there, easier to get to, less a deadly desert with a few oases. At least, compared to 3ed ed. Mind you, invertebrates are surprisingly common down there even in older novels. Spiders, Giant caterpillers (grubbers) Vermin lords, more recently.

It's not so much the being a bug thing, as the wings thing.

[KIDS]

Simple, elegant, devious. I like it.
- Lt. Kerrigan

SO MANY SCALING THINGS!!! NICE!!!

[Mewtarthio]

It's not so much the being a bug thing, as the wings thing.

I know what you mean. It seems like exactly the wrong place for them. I can only guess that there are large caverns down there.