[citansdnd] Re: UpdateJuly2010.pdf (application/pdf Object)
- From: marbleminotaur@xxxxxxx
- To: citansdnd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 19:06:23 -0400 (EDT)
Magic Missle's change seems lackluster at first glance, but I think they might
have just actually made it overpowered. Ridiculously so. In trade off for
reducing the power's damage output, there isn't an attack roll necessary. They
just gave Wizards a free minion killer move as a first level At-Will, which I
can see being abused to Hell and back. In fact, that was the entire reasoning
behind forcing an attack roll on Magic MIssle in the first place. Usually
Controllers' minion auto-kill moves happen at the start of the minion's turn,
and sometimes at the end, giving the minion a chance to act (Opportunity
Attacks, ongoing effects, and the like) in the meantime before it inevitably
dies. This change basically translates to: Minions no longer get a turn. Period.
On top of that, the auto-damage is STILL going to be at MINIMUM, 6 damage at
first level for a WIzard. That's actually a pretty big chunk of damage if you
think about it. Hell, it's more damage than if you had rolled a 1 on the die
for a different power that both requires an attack roll AND a damage roll. In
addition, you can add the enhancement bonus of your implement to the damage.
This just gave Wizards, at level 1, close to striker-type damage without even
having to roll for an attack. And it's an AT-WILL. There's all kinds of crazy
broken things you can do with that. Here's an example: Take for instance, a
party of four folks, one of whom is a Wizard. Now, say the rest of the team
decides to multiclass into Wizard using the Arcane Initiate Feat. At the time
of taking the feat, the player chooses a Wizard At-Will they can use once per
encounter, as per the benefit of the feat. Would there be ANY reason to NOT
take Magic Missle? It doesn't require an attack roll, and it does at least 2
damage even if the character has no INT mod. The entire team can take out a
group of minions at LEVEL 1 with barely even lifting a finger!
They're going to have some serious backpedalling to do in terms of errata to
put this bad boy back on a balanced track. This is actually the first errata
I've seen where there isn't a mechanical reason for the change. All other
errata, whether you liked it or not had an underlying reasoning behind it, and
those reasons were always related to the game mechanics and number crunching.
Those reasons make the errata not only acceptable, but often times preferred
over the original structures. But this one... I can't even begin to understand
why they changed it, other than to appease people who griped about Magic Missle
no longer auto-hitting. The change disregards the game mechanics entirely,
possibly opening up a plethora of exploitable loopholes that errata are
supposed to GET RID OF. This isn't errata, this is pandering to the whiny 3.X
loyalists who are still butthurt over how different and NOT BROKEN 4th edition
is. This is actually the first errata I honestly say I am going to flat out
ignore. This should never have happened, not in a million years, and as far as
I'm concered, it didn't.
But enough about Magic Missle. The free actions ruling was honestly kinda
needed because it puts some monsters in their place. There are a few monsters,
especially at late Paragon, early Epic that got to do the whole "free action
attack a bazillion times a turn" gimmick and it made them more dangerous than
they needed to be. It's not very common, but it WAS exploitable, and I'm glad
they finally put a lid on it.
Also, it is important to note that I am in EXTREME happiness that they changed
Dispel Magic into an Encounter Utility. Wizards are still the only class that
can get rid of enemy "zones" and even at low levels enemies throw them around
all willy nilly. And more often than not they are CRIPPLING. Especially
Darkness Zones. They REALLY needed a way to get RID of those easier. They can
still only be dispelled once an encounter, but it's WAY better than once a DAY.
It was the only reason I wouldn't touch Dispel Magic, and now they actually
made it a viable option. On the flip side, Wizard's Escape got changed INTO a
Daily. It's still a good utility power, but it's potency got knocked down a few
notches. Interetsing to note that both Utilities are Level 6, meaning I believe
I'll be changing my Wizard character's Level 6 Utility from Wizard's Escape to
Dispel Magic. It's a good trade off, I think.
I haven't played a Cleric yet, but changing those action types was definitely
something that should have been done right from the start. Bards get the same
type of powers, and THOSE are Minor Actions. Allowing a Cleric to NOT eat up
their entire turn buffing allies is a good thing.
The Monster damage table got changed up quite a bit, and frankly I rather like
it. It allows homebrewed monsters not be so "samey" when they lie within the
previously established three level gap. Originally, monsters that were between
1 and 3, 4 and 6, 7 and 9 and so forth all did the same amount of damage, which
was kinda bland when you ran them. They also played around with the Monster's
accuracy table I see. Another decent change, as previously some monsters were
either garaunteed to hit the players, or garaunteed to miss the players. I'm
looking at YOU, Artillery, Brutes and Soldiers.
Oh Jesus Christ, we're back to freaking Magic Missle again. Good Lord! Could
they have been any MORE retarded? I forgot about the WAND OF MAGIC MISSLE. What
says "I'm BROKEN!" better than free damage AND a 1 square push from a magic
item EVERY ENCOUNTER? Yeah, they changed it, and no, apparently it didn't occur
to them just how loopholetastic their new Missle ruling is even when they're
looking at a perfect example of it while working on THIER OWN ERRATA. Now
excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall for an hour.
Yawn, surgeless healing doesn't reap the crazy benefits anymore, but that's
alright. Clerics and their surgeless healing was borderline broken to begin
with, so I see no qualms with these changes. It's not like it truly detracts
from their surgeless healing abilities in the slightest. In fact, it puts the
Shaman in its rightful place as the King of Surgeless Healing, making them more
appealing in the long run.
Hahaha, holy cow the Monk class started with a LOT of really powerful
abilities. 3d8 + DEX damage against multiple targets with a Level 1 Daily?
Yeah, glad THAT got fixed. I'm beginning to see a pattern though, I think the
most errata'd mechanic is when it comes to recursive exploits. I can't even
count how many they've had to squash because of that little loophole.
Wow, Space Vortex's errata brought a smile to my face. "This update prevents a
character from teleporting the target to a distant location, such as a mountain
top." Why do I get the feeling that wasn't a rhetorical example? I want to meet
the man who tried to send the campaign's main villain three thousand miles away
to the top of Mt. Everfire and shake his hand.
-----Original Message-----
From: warrl <warrl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: citansdnd <citansdnd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, Jul 8, 2010 9:37 am
Subject: [citansdnd] UpdateJuly2010.pdf (application/pdf Object)
July update is attached. This file is the short format, new changes only.
There is some discussion in the D&D forums of Magic Missile and related wizard
owers/feats. (Mostly about how there was really no need to change it.)
There's a new rule that you get only one free-action attack per turn. (Still
any
umber of
on-attack free actions that the DM will put up with, and still that's per turn
ot per round.)
Cleric has a few powers that were formerly standard actions but are now minor
ctions. But
hey continue to weaken surgeless healing with a change to Healer's Armor and
ossibly
ther things.
A couple of Monk level-1 dailies got changed. Since there are so few (it being
a
ew class)
here's a pretty good chance that Brother Wu is affected.
And the Windrise Ports background was modified. It no longer allows
ulticlassing into two
lasses.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/UpdateJuly2010.pdf
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