Overall, the powers and alternate class features are good/balanced, and I personally recommend it. Of course, if you don't want to play a martial character, don't buy it.
Now, is there anything more specific about it that you would want to know? (Alternate class features, interesting powers, etc.)
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Now, is there anything more specific about it that you would want to know? (Alternate class features, interesting powers, etc.)
Nothing specific, I haven't seen the book and my local gaming store won't have one in for a week or so. I was just seeing if people using the book thought of it as a useful addition to play or just "an interesting read". I DM mostly so I was keen to find out if its the kind of thing that will give players a little more choice without making the those with martial characters from the PHB/PHB2 feel ripped off. Glad to hear you think it is balanced.
Cheers,
S.
Nothing specific, I haven't seen the book and my local gaming store won't have one in for a week or so. I was just seeing if people using the book thought of it as a useful addition to play or just "an interesting read". I DM mostly so I was keen to find out if its the kind of thing that will give players a little more choice without making the those with martial characters from the PHB/PHB2 feel ripped off. Glad to hear you think it is balanced.
Cheers,
S.
Overall I like the options it presents as it grants a lot more options for martial characters as well as those who multiclass into martial classes. I haven't delved into it incredibly, but I think that overall the individual options in the book are balanced compared to what one would find in the Player's Handbook.
I do think that any higher level martial character that has access to this book will have an significant boost in power from those who don't use it just because of the dramatic increase in options, specifically feats. As in, I think that a martial character using this book will have more paragon and epic feats than if they had just used the Player's Handbook.
MP is cover to cover crunch for martial characters. If you play any of the martial classes I would say it is completely worth its price. Outside all the new power and new build options presented there are a good variety of feats and paragon paths. MP has made me look forward to the other power books for months. Arcane Powers 4/21 btw ;-)
On a related note, I have a DDI subscription, is there anything I'm missing from Martial Power? (Other than the obvious it's a "physical book I will own", of course.) It seems to be pretty much pure crunch, and I think all of it made it into DDI. But I wanted to make sure.
On a related note, I have a DDI subscription, is there anything I'm missing from Martial Power? (Other than the obvious it's a "physical book I will own", of course.) It seems to be pretty much pure crunch, and I think all of it made it into DDI. But I wanted to make sure.
The bulk of the book focuses on alternate class features, powers, paragon paths, feats, and epic destinies for PH martial classes.
There is little fluff in the book, the largest bit there is similar to what you would find for descriptions of classes, builds, paragon paths, and epic destinies. Less than half a page for each on the history of the item or what the character might be like who takes up that option.
Also, throughout there are small sidebars that touch on a few subjects like what kind of deities would this martial class be most likely to worship or some quick suggestion that you might think about how you would describe how some martial class feature (like hunter's quarry, sneak attack, martial healing, etc.). Also included are a few pieces of very short fiction, usually composed of a few paragraphs.
On a related note, I have a DDI subscription, is there anything I'm missing from Martial Power? (Other than the obvious it's a "physical book I will own", of course.) It seems to be pretty much pure crunch, and I think all of it made it into DDI. But I wanted to make sure.
I believe you are missing the actual affects of the Rattling and Invigorating keywords, yes? They appear on Fighter and Rogue powers mostly, but have affects which can theoretically be applied by anyone (Fighters and Rogues each get a class feature in MP that utilizes these keywords, respectively, however.)
To a lesser extent, I suspect this is much the case with the Beast keyword employed by the Beastmaster Rangers, except their new class feature spells out nearly everything you need to know anyway ...
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The DDI Compendium will contain the definitions of the keywords introduced in Martial Power, although the Character Builder won't.
I got the Martial Powers book, and adore it. It brings the Animal Companion Ranger build into full effect, and presents a lot of good options for all builds of the martial classes. I'm already using a couple of the Warlord powers in my current game.
There's not a lot of material in the book a DM would need unless you're trying to build an NPC that uses some of the powers or options in the book. For the most part, it's aimed very solidly at players.
Great, thanks! That's the impression I had, but wasn't sure. And sorry for the sidetrack in the thread.
With the DDI subscription (and 5 mouths to feed including my own), I'm trying to be more targeted in 4e book buying than the "MUST HAVE DAY OF RELEASE" attitude I had in 3.x. The "Power"s books looked like DDI might cover the majority of it.
Now if I can just resist impulse buying Arcane Power when it comes out (that's definitely my favorite power source so far).
Thanks!
About the only "must-have" thing in Martial Power as I see it is the info on building Beastmaster Rangers and their Animal Companions. Not sure if all the explanations are in the Compendium. But it's only 2-3 pages of info - worth reading once from someone else's copy & jotting down a quick note - not necessarily buying a whole book.
The Adventurer's Vault and Manual of the Planes have been extremely value-packed, though, IMO. So that might be a better place to put the book money.