Notes all over the place.

[alexandraerin]

Hey, if you're looking for a good cause to give to this holiday season, there are a couple of them linked to in this article about the problems facing women returning home from combat duty overseas. Highlighting this is not meant to diminish the reality that all our armed forces personnel and veterans need support, but so much of the existing infrastructure and good will is directed towards "our boys in uniform". Our boys are not alone, and in the midst of insurgency and guerrilla warfare, there is no "front line" to keep women away from.

I'm tempted to say something about the ETA of me having a working desktop computer again, but I don't want to jinx anything. I've run out of how many times bitten and how many times shy I am at this point. If I don't have a working computer on hand at the end of the week, I'll come up with alternative arrangements for some of the things I've been putting off.

Random note: now is a great time to get into 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons... they're offering a limited release holiday bundle of the first two players' handbooks at $34.95. One of the more common laments from people who thought the new edition looked cool was that several classes that were core under 3rd Edition weren't present at launch. With PHB 1 and 2, you get all the 3E core classes except Monk, plus several nifty original ones.

The next PHB that comes out (I think in March?) is going to be a major game-changer. The test version of the rules it includes for making hybrid character classes are already accessible online and through the character creator. I love the game as it is, but I think this upcoming release is going to really cement its place and bring its full potential into fruition. Buying the bundle now could save you money in the long run if you think you might get into the game eventually... you can avoid having to buy every splatbook that comes out and still get all the various foo for your characters through the character generator, but having the core PHBs actually on hand adds a lot to the experience of learning the game and making characters, in my opinion.

The Q&A is more work than I expected... I didn't expect as many responses, and I didn't realize how many I had when I started compiling them. Don't be fooled by the fact that the first two updates both spanned about three letters... the characters' names and the number of questions per character are far from evenly distributed across the alphabet. The whole thing is actually a little under half done. In case people are curious about why I included the "Dear Amaranth, why do you suck so much?" questions, it's because I felt the character deserved a chance to answer them in her own words. I also had a feeling that posting them would bring her supporters... who often get drowned out in the comments... out of the woodwork.

My day started off very nicely today, despite a lack of sleep the night before: I got a confirmation/reminder email from Priceline.com about my flight to Maryland, which leaves two weeks from today.

Comments

[mattwolf.livejournal.com]

Cool, I'll make a Fighter/Rogue/Magic-User/Bard/Monk/Ninja/Sage. I'll need someone to roll a Cleric/Druid/Paladin to keep me healed. Any takers?

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

The hybrid rules actually only cover two classes... though you can train into a third class using the existing 4E multiclass rules.

And if you were a Bard you could heal yourself. Bards are a Leader class in 4E, which I love... instead of being a weaksauce Fighter/Rogue/Wizard combo, they're bards: poets and tricksters and musicians who inspire and uphold their allies in combat while bringing their foes down through cruel wit and cunning prophecy.

[lystania.livejournal.com]

Squeee!! Bards are decent now?! Hooray! I started a redesign of 3E rules when I saw the original 4E GSL, and Bards were one of the biggest things I hit, because originally they sucked except as a pure role-play character. Not that you *couldn't* do one effectively, but they certainly *were* weaksauce.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Bards are their own creature now and they better fit what I personally expect a Bard to be. For their attack powers, there's a mixture of implement (read: spell-like) and weapon powers to choose from, so you can go for the "dashing swordsman" or the spellcaster type, or mix and match between them. The Arcane Power supplement adds bows and prophecy to their repertoire. One of my favorite utility spells in the prophecy vein lets you roll 3 d20s at any point in an encounter and save the best result, which can then be switched for an ally's roll at a later point... that might not seem like much, but it usually means you can all but guarantee that someone in the party will hit with one attack, chosen by you. We've set up some pretty impressive chains of events to wrap up a battle based around that.

The implement-based attacks are a mixture of things that are all very distinctly bardic... one of my favorite PCs I've used carries no weapon, she insults her enemies to death.

(A Paragon tier feat, Arcane Admixture, lets you add a second damage type to any arcane attack... I used it to change her Vicious Mockery from psychic to psychic/fire... she cusses people out so hard they catch fire. It doesn't change the use of the spell directly that much, but fire damage is more often specifically useful than psychic damage so it's good mechanically to have... but I mainly took it for the image.)

All their attack powers are magic using Charisma for hit and damage bonus, even if they're weapon based, so you can switch between them with few optimization issues.

Bards are also the only class that can double (or triple, or quadruple, or so on) dip into the game's multiclass feats, retaining the "jack of all trades" feel. They can also take a feat to use Charisma for hit rolls with any other class's powers that they've acquired through multiclassing.

Outside of pure combat, Words of Friendship gives them a +5 to Diplomacy once per encounter, which combined with their Charisma generally makes for an impressive roll. A feat extends this to cover Bluff as well.

As a Leader class, they can heal twice per encounter using Majestic Word (think a rousing speech or words of encouragement bolstered by magic) and they can boost healing while the party is at rest if they play music.

The musician aspect is also highlighted with bardic rituals... Bards have a special subset of rituals that they can perform without expending costly reagents but which require the Bard to play music for the ritual's casting time.

[lystania.livejournal.com]

*drool*