Interesting new article. Stats for some guardsmen and NPCs, some new Fighter/Wizard powers, a Rogue PP, some items and even two Paragon Eladrin feats! Wow!
There was a bit of discussion earlier on this board about what an Eladrin city would look like; here is a chance to see.
Check it here!
I liked that article for the flavor. Most of the crunch was good, too, except that it would take a PC following the Paragon Path to be level 20 before he or she could have the abiities of a level 12 NPC. Admitted, those NPCs are elite, but, still, if the ability is not balanced for a PC to have until level 20, then a level 12 NPC shouldn't have it either.
Yeah, a nitpick :)
But, overall, I'd give it an A-. Pretty darn good article.
I liked that article for the flavor. Most of the crunch was good, too, except that it would take a PC following the Paragon Path to be level 20 before he or she could have the abiities of a level 12 NPC. Admitted, those NPCs are elite, but, still, if the ability is not balanced for a PC to have until level 20, then a level 12 NPC shouldn't have it either.Yeah, a nitpick :)
But, overall, I'd give it an A-. Pretty darn good article.
I think lots of abilities are balanced for an NPC at a lower level than would be appropriate for a PC. A Troll's regeneration comes to mind (I'm not sure how it works in 4E though; speaking of previous editions mostly)
That said, I liked it too, but what is REALLY frustrating is that this was one of the articles I'm least excited about this month! I want rituals, Star Pact Warlocks, and thoughts on FR's 100 year leap dang-nabbit! Harumph too!
First, I like the article -- good flavor.
But (again!!) I think they need to pay more attention to detail. I was just on another board where someone pointed out a number of errors and oddities:
Mistakes:
- Flavor: The article mentions that all eladrin have forgotten about the war and the original purpose of the citadel, except for a select few. The problem is that noble Eladrin are immortal, the normal eladrin and very long-lived (~300 years), and it was a huge war. Furthermore, the city is only a couple hundred years old.
- Flavor: Mentions meeting someone after mid-day, and other references to time of day, etc... Except that elsewhere the Feywild is described as a land in perpetual twilight.
- Mechanics: The Reactive Fey Step feat is an Immediate Reaction, not an Immediate Interrupt, so it can't negate the forced movement. It just allows you to Fey Step after you've been moved (and fallen off a cliff, etc...).
- Mechanics: The Arcane Blade power has the Thunder keyword, even though it can't do Thunder damage.
- Mechanics: The Mithrendain Steel Weapon is missing the enhancement bonuses for the items at each level.
- Mechanics: The Shield of the Barrier Sentinels has three levels, but no mechanical difference between the levels.
- Mechanics: The Shunt Between Worlds power is both a Close and a Ranged power.
- Flavor: Eladrin have no flavor or association with light blades. They are all trained with Heavy Blades, and a few also learn to master the Spear. Yet all the Fighter powers in the article mention Light Blades and Spears, and none mention Heavy Blades.
- Mechanics: The Mithrendain Steel Weapon allows you to teleport a foe 2 squares. It doesn't say anything about ending on solid ground. But in other forced-teleport powers they have added text to that effect (see below). Intentional or an oversight?
- Interesting Observation: The arcane power Shunt Between Worlds specifically states that the forced teleport must result with the person ending on solid ground. That either validates all of the other forced-teleport powers as allowing them to teleport upwards, and/or it's an indication that they will soon be errata'ed.
It looks like Lothlorien (ummm a high elf city/settlement) to me.
Fine with me. Eladrin arguably draw more inspiration from Tolkien's high elves than anywhere else -- so long as it's not slavish duplication, I don't mind more of the same. There's still plenty of unique Eladrin-stuff.
I've said it before -- I'm not staying on the 4e bandwagon if the support is flawed. Personally, I don't have the time or inclination to fix what WotC doesn't bother to get right.
There do seem to be a lot of errors in the 4e material. It is my understanding that they are willing to fix/correct many issues like spelling etc before they post the entire magazine for download.
There do seem to be a lot of errors in the 4e material. It is my understanding that they are willing to fix/correct many issues like spelling etc before they post the entire magazine for download.
How magnanimous :P
How magnanimous :P
I'm willing to appreciate them for it. All too often in 3E they'd just let errors go and not bother with fixing them later. People finding the errors and posting them no doubt helps them get a corrected copy out for the compiled issue. It'd be nice if the individual articles increased in quality over time however!
As for the Forced Movement thing, I think the intent is clear that you shouldn't be pushing things upwards, and I think we can reasonably expect some eratta to that effect.
Cheers! :)
I liked that article for the flavor. Most of the crunch was good, too, except that it would take a PC following the Paragon Path to be level 20 before he or she could have the abiities of a level 12 NPC. Admitted, those NPCs are elite
Except that an Elite is worth two ordinary monsters of that level.
So technic'ly your hypothetical NPC's level is actually level 24.
Mechanics: The Mithrendain Steel Weapon allows you to teleport a foe 2 squares. It doesn't say anything about ending on solid ground. But in other forced-teleport powers they have added text to that effect (see below). Intentional or an oversight
I was just wondering where I could find the text about having to end on solid ground? The first thing I thought of was teleporting someone off a cliff or some such and I discussed this with one of my fellow DMs (we switch out every once in a while) and we arrived at the following:
Forced Movement states:
1. You can't move the target vertically
2. Can't move a target into a space it couldn't enter by walking.
3. If forced over a precipice or pit, the target can try and catch itself.
We took this to mean the following (with regards to the Steel Weapon power):
You could use this to teleport someone one square off a cliff. A person could step off a cliff, so it satisfies condition 2 above and allows them to try and catch themselves.
You could not teleport them 2 squares from the cliff edge as it breaks condition 2 above and it would mean that the target would be denied the chance to catch themselves on the edge.
We are happy with this, as it really equates to a Bull Rush attempt using a power. It is a Daily power and it would only occur if fighting within 2 squares of a drop off.
A couple of other useful scenarios we came up with for this power (again, that could only come up in specific situations):
1. Fighting with someone near a barrier, you could teleport them to the other side of the barrier.
2. Fighting someone on an edge of a 5 ft. crevace and teleporting them to the other side.
Both would serve as an ability to divide and conquer opponents.
I liked that article for the flavor. Most of the crunch was good, too, except that it would take a PC following the Paragon Path to be level 20 before he or she could have the abiities of a level 12 NPC. Admitted, those NPCs are eliteExcept that an Elite is worth two ordinary monsters of that level.
So technic'ly your hypothetical NPC's level is actually level 24.
No, an elite is worth 2 monsters of the level for encounter building purposes. So, when you design the fight, he eats two of your 'badguy' slots for each elite. A party of 4 levels 12s would get 2 of them instead of 4 normals. Basically, all 'elite' means is 'My build cost is doubled.' By no means does it make a level 12 elite equal to a single level 24 monster. If it did, an elite would mean TPK.
I'll happily pit a Storm Giant, Fell Wyvern, or Rakshaha Dread Knight against one of those Eladrain spies :) Those are all normal level 24s :)
I'd just like to point out that the artwork is awesome.