hobbygamers ~ View topic - Heroes of Shadow (Previews and Discussion)

A Look At The Classes

They showed a preview of Vampire class. Bloodlife is cool, almost making sure it never dies. I never knew you could actually "store" excessive healing surges before they "dissipate" into nothing. Though I don't recall any way you could gain them from previous source books. Usually those have the clause "cannot exceed your healing surges per day". Also, I wonder if someone who'd play this will be "instantly destroyed" Twisted Evil

New warlock pact is Gloom Pact. It does say that it's for Hexblade, but I wonder if there's a version for non-essential Warlock.

Based on the Heroes of Shadow Table of Contents (pdf link), the gloom pact is for both the hexblade and the binder. All is well, though - it seems like there are 3 pages of warlock (universal) powers as well. (Btw, binders, according to erwin's preview, seem to be a warlock subclass with the controller role.

Vampire is now a class? That's news to me. Can it be modded is such a way it can sparkle? ?___?

@Xtian: Morninglord of Pelor PP

cool link BJ. Looks good, what with the tons of options on it.

I wonder how vices work for blackguards. And since there's an equipment section, I guess we'll get to see some 'shadow'-inclined weapons/gears/tools of some sort XD. Probably garrotes and blowguns will be there, but I hope we get to see new ones as well.

I second Xtian's question. I do know of a Morninglord PP in the FR Player's Guide, but as it's FR it's about Amaunator and not Pelor.

Either way, a vampire multiclassing to a divine class that worships a sun god to get a sparkling PP is just...just... forced. I say just make it sparkle instead of burn in sunlight if that's really want you want to do, problem solved. I mean, from reading the class, the whole "circumvented by wearing a heavy cloak" thing sounds like "you can ignore the penalties at-will" to me anyway.

oh here is a vampire-like race

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20110314

My bad, I accidentally mixed Morninglord and Radiant Servant of Pelor. Morninglord is what I mean, from FRPG.

An alternative would be Student of Caiphon, perhaps.

I didn't notice at first that Vryloka (the new 'vampire-touched' race) can be a Str-Cha race. hmmm...

Funky ability features as well. Blood Dependency makes it hard for them to go from bloodied to above bloodied HP. Also, Living Dead can be a pain when you have clerics/invokers in the party.

Bloodwolf Form is awesome as you can activate and deactivate it. Better than most polymorph powers that does not allow you to attack, or dispels on attack.

For some reason I thought the Vryloka was the Shade which is why I didn't read it too much. But anyway.

I like the design for Unnatural Vitality. It doesn't really feel like a daily; I mean, it's more like once you get it, you're effectively a Warforged (if not a tad easier to kill). Although it is just a tad restrictive, since you'd primarily only be interested in it as a melee-based character.

An interesting race, and likely a good fit for HoS's (presumably) sizable plethora of striker classes.

For those of you who think HoS won't have anything for non-Essentials characters, I give you Servitude in Death:

I like it. Compared with the wizard's Animate Dead (Dragon 372 p.24), it has a lot less hit points and is dazed, so it'll only get 1 action in a round. However, it acts on its own turn (meaning you don't spend actions for it like a summon), and you have access to all its at-will powers.

The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that it doesn't have the "until end of the encounter" condition. I think there's an obscure rule that says powers last only 5 minutes or until the end of the encounter by default, but I'm not sure.

I am waiting to see the epic destiny preview ^__^

Me too, Xtian. XD

But for now, let's look at PPs.

Heroes of Shadow Paragon Path preview

Played right, Servant of Death power rocks. I had a hunch cleric shadow powers will be good. Twisted Evil

Hunter of 2 Worlds feature of Nocturnal PP looks limiting. using a move action in place of standard action, then spending a HS for phasing? I guess it's not something WotC wanted you to do every turn. Other features sounds great though, especially phasing while charging Cool

Shadow Thief PP would work great for sorcerers, gives incentive for blasting minions while you throw all shadows against the bigger foes. The only downside is if you're against one big solo, where you're only shadow resource is the Shadow Lance power, or you crit/bloody the monster.

Nocturnal looks just awesome for charge builds, like charger rogue or fighter (just MC into Primal I guess). Isn't "Charge" considered an at-will attack power? Wouldn't that mean you get to charge thrice in a round with an AP (albeit against two different targets, unless you have some way to consistently end up two squares away from the one target post-charge somehow)? That is darn tasty, especially when your build is like CHARGE MAX.

Shadowthief seems interesting, but I have to say the main feature seems like it could be conducive to a lot of OoC silliness.

I don't think charge is an at-will power, since said action requires you to make a melee basic attack or bull rush at the end, both of which are actual at-will powers.

In that case, perhaps some build that has an at-will with built-in movement, for some Charge + AP-at-will + Charge action

Epic Destiny preview is up

Guardian of the Void doesn't seem flashy yet looks good, not very impressive features. Except for 30th level feature, which is simple and straightforward. Also promotes being with party with same EDs as some abilities benefits from being with other GotV.

Twilight Tribune sounds cool fluff-wise, an appointed undead seeker of Raven Queen and banish them back to their deaths. Hopefully the features would also look good.

Preview of Necromancy and Nethermancy School of Wizards

Disrupt Undead would have been good except for the fact that it's ranged 5, and would be useless when you get to lvl 10 Master Necromancy Mage, which will totally negates necrotic resistance of any kind. (at least the way it's worded on the preview). I do hope it's an additional cantrip that non-mage wizards could use though.

One thing I noticed in Summon Shadow Servant power is that:

Shadow Feats Preview

Ghost Eyes is the soft answer for those invi creatures at low levels. Worth taking I believe.

Tainted Wounds is pretty good, great against combat with healers. And those fight against monster with second wind, or orcs (ones with warrior's surge).

Design and Development: Blackguard

Get warforged. Choose blackguard. Now all I need, WotC, is a Death Knight Epic Destiny. Then I get this:

I don't remember that part of Combatron :/ I do want to see a Death Metal as a character, though I'm not sure if blackguard class is gonna allow him to shoot lasers Laughing

Awesome mechanic description for blackguards. Able to burn tempo HP they get to deal damage for domination (lawful evil) then combat advantage abuser for fury (chaotic evil) blackguards. In truth, I wanna see how it's worded Very Happy

I am curious how it feels to play 4ed blackguard.

Wow, is that PP really called Grim Blackguard? Laughing

There's a sad security guard joke there somewhere. Razz

I'm just happy that they showed new expertise feats (hooray for holy symbols and ki foci). *keeping fingers crossed for totem/tome and pick expertise*

Design and Development: Vampires