Where the Characters at?

[Mr. Analog]

D'oh, that sucks were these known side-effects? If not you should call your doctor right away I bet there are alternatives.

BAD KITTY stay away from TOMMY!!

Rogue is a striker (like Monk) it's all about offense and dealing high damage to single targets, we really need a Defender who can deal average damage and put up the shields over our Controller/Leader. In terms of battle tactics ideally we have our Controller dealing lots of effect damage, our Leader granting buffs, a striker taking out priority targets and a Defender holding it all together so that none of us die before the end of an encounter.

Like if we had a party with no Defender and both Strikers become unconscious it's not like the Cleric or Wizard is gonna hold @%&# together for long, they need that guy who can get in there and wave a weapon around and take the beats while the Cleric and Wizard keep things running.

You know you want to be a Darven Paladin (Brotherhood of Iron, living in fortified bunkers, hoarding magic weapons heh-heh)

Or maybe a Prizefighter of some renown training their way to the top of their game and trying to get the girl. Eye of the Tiger!

The terrifying "Doctor Mental" an up and coming Battlemind whose martial and mental prowess scar the battlefield, why does he do it? BECAUSE HE CAN

The Warrior aka "Buddy" an aspiring Kensei (Fighter), who needs to hone his swordsmanship to claim his rightful place as The King. His skill with a blade is unsurpassed, well, maybe not yet but it will be. Buddy won't just fade away..

So many potential options in the defender role for interesting characters!

[Tom]

D'oh, that sucks were these known side-effects? If not you should call your doctor right away I bet there are alternatives.

Completely known and they are normal, and should go away after a couple weeks.

Rogue is a striker (like Monk) it's all about offense and dealing high damage to single targets, we really need a Defender who can deal average damage and put up the shields over our Controller/Leader. In terms of battle tactics ideally we have our Controller dealing lots of effect damage, our Leader granting buffs, a striker taking out priority targets and a Defender holding it all together so that none of us die before the end of an encounter.

Like if we had a party with no Defender and both Strikers become unconscious it's not like the Cleric or Wizard is gonna hold @%&# together for long, they need that guy who can get in there and wave a weapon around and take the beats while the Cleric and Wizard keep things running.

You know you want to be a Darven Paladin (Brotherhood of Iron, living in fortified bunkers, hoarding magic weapons heh-heh)

Or maybe a Prizefighter of some renown training their way to the top of their game and trying to get the girl. Eye of the Tiger!

The terrifying "Doctor Mental" an up and coming Battlemind whose martial and mental prowess scar the battlefield, why does he do it? BECAUSE HE CAN

The Warrior aka "Buddy" an aspiring Kensei (Fighter), who needs to hone his swordsmanship to claim his rightful place as The King. His skill with a blade is unsurpassed, well, maybe not yet but it will be. Buddy won't just fade away..

So many potential options in the defender role for interesting characters!

I did say half tempted After I got to reading the book, I still think I'm going with a fighter. Maybe Dwarven, Maybe dragonborn, either  a follower of Kord or The Raven Queen. I have't decided yet. We could do some pretty interesting things with both. I didn't get very far into reading the book (page 22 ), but thats the ideas I've got so far.

[Mr. Analog]

D'oh, that sucks were these known side-effects? If not you should call your doctor right away I bet there are alternatives.

Completely known and they are normal, and should go away after a couple weeks.

Well, on one hand that's good to hear, at least you know its:
a) temporary
b) to be expected

Nothing like having medication surprise you with problems eh!

Rogue is a striker (like Monk) it's all about offense and dealing high damage to single targets, we really need a Defender who can deal average damage and put up the shields over our Controller/Leader. In terms of battle tactics ideally we have our Controller dealing lots of effect damage, our Leader granting buffs, a striker taking out priority targets and a Defender holding it all together so that none of us die before the end of an encounter.

Like if we had a party with no Defender and both Strikers become unconscious it's not like the Cleric or Wizard is gonna hold @%&# together for long, they need that guy who can get in there and wave a weapon around and take the beats while the Cleric and Wizard keep things running.

You know you want to be a Darven Paladin (Brotherhood of Iron, living in fortified bunkers, hoarding magic weapons heh-heh)

Or maybe a Prizefighter of some renown training their way to the top of their game and trying to get the girl. Eye of the Tiger!

The terrifying "Doctor Mental" an up and coming Battlemind whose martial and mental prowess scar the battlefield, why does he do it? BECAUSE HE CAN

The Warrior aka "Buddy" an aspiring Kensei (Fighter), who needs to hone his swordsmanship to claim his rightful place as The King. His skill with a blade is unsurpassed, well, maybe not yet but it will be. Buddy won't just fade away..

So many potential options in the defender role for interesting characters!

I did say half tempted After I got to reading the book, I still think I'm going with a fighter. Maybe Dwarven, Maybe dragonborn, either  a follower of Kord or The Raven Queen. I have't decided yet. We could do some pretty interesting things with both. I didn't get very far into reading the book (page 22 ), but thats the ideas I've got so far.

It all sounds good, what I like with the new PHB is that they give you snippets for each class to give you an idea of what that class can do and how they play. I'd just read through all those first and get some inspiration.

Come up with a few ideas and then pick which one you think would be the most fun.

[Melbosa]

A Minotaur (PHB3) or Goliath (PHB2) Warrior would be kewl, which was a suggestion from Thorin.

[Mr. Analog]

Whoo yeah, big guy battles!

[Tom]

Yeah, I still have some reading to do. But I was a bit zonked last night after hanging out at ENTS yesterday afternoon.

[Mr. Analog]

Yeah, I still have some reading to do. But I was a bit zonked last night after hanging out at ENTS yesterday afternoon.

Cool! So see anything cool yesterday?

Yeah no sweat, lots of time to make a character still. I find it easiest to start with an idea rather than reading everything and coming back, I only thumbed through the other new classes. Usually I will read all the 1st level powers and maybe the paragon stuff to see what I get off the bat and where things can go if I make it to level 11.

I *almost* picked Warlock, but Monk gave me lots of cool hands on powers that let me rearrange the battlefield this was just too fun sounding to pass up.

[Tom]

Yeah, I still have some reading to do. But I was a bit zonked last night after hanging out at ENTS yesterday afternoon.

Cool! So see anything cool yesterday?

RenderMan was working on his walking stick made out of clear pipe, which he then puts a super bright LED in to light the whole thing up. I used the Hot Air Reflow station to fix someone's laptop. Was also there to learn about Cisco (bi weekly cisco class \o/).

Yeah no sweat, lots of time to make a character still. I find it easiest to start with an idea rather than reading everything and coming back, I only thumbed through the other new classes. Usually I will read all the 1st level powers and maybe the paragon stuff to see what I get off the bat and where things can go if I make it to level 11.

I *almost* picked Warlock, but Monk gave me lots of cool hands on powers that let me rearrange the battlefield this was just too fun sounding to pass up.

Yeah, I plan to read through the first book tonight, at least the sections I'll need as a fighter. And maybe start into PHB2-3.

[Thorin]

Mr. Analog, you sound quite happy with what you've seen of 4th edition so far.  I take it looking at all the new material has been a positive experience?

[Mr. Analog]

Mr. Analog, you sound quite happy with what you've seen of 4th edition so far.  I take it looking at all the new material has been a positive experience?

So far so good, you can tell they wanted to make things easy and approachable. I see a lot of mechanics streamlining and outright re-thinking of some concepts which is good (the simpler a system is the more fun / flexible it is to play). I also like the flow of powers, the "one battle a day" thing really slowed down the storytelling aspects, the designers finally saw this and came up with something to keep the challenge of battle alive (through multiple encounters) without slowing things down (exhausted party after 5 minutes).

I'm willing to bet that battle is going to run a lot smoother combining our experience with the smoother mechanics, I don't have the DM guide but I get the feeling that rewards are plentiful too which means faster progression over time.

The only gripes I have are that beyond the WotC site (and maybe a few forums) there doesn't seem to be a lot of community for 4e (IP licensing issues no doubt) the other is even with a simple system there is a LOT of errata and some very heated debate regarding some wording. I know I bumped into an article yesterday that talked about using Bluff in combat to hide... just wow! 3.x had it's share of errata, don't get me wrong

I suspect it will be fun, but then when is playing games NOT fun?

[Mr. Analog]

Yeah, I still have some reading to do. But I was a bit zonked last night after hanging out at ENTS yesterday afternoon.

Cool! So see anything cool yesterday?

RenderMan was working on his walking stick made out of clear pipe, which he then puts a super bright LED in to light the whole thing up. I used the Hot Air Reflow station to fix someone's laptop. Was also there to learn about Cisco (bi weekly cisco class \o/).

Nice haha

Yeah no sweat, lots of time to make a character still. I find it easiest to start with an idea rather than reading everything and coming back, I only thumbed through the other new classes. Usually I will read all the 1st level powers and maybe the paragon stuff to see what I get off the bat and where things can go if I make it to level 11.

I *almost* picked Warlock, but Monk gave me lots of cool hands on powers that let me rearrange the battlefield this was just too fun sounding to pass up.

Yeah, I plan to read through the first book tonight, at least the sections I'll need as a fighter. And maybe start into PHB2-3.

Do you have a rough idea of what you want to be?

[Tom]

Yeah, I still have some reading to do. But I was a bit zonked last night after hanging out at ENTS yesterday afternoon.

Cool! So see anything cool yesterday?

RenderMan was working on his walking stick made out of clear pipe, which he then puts a super bright LED in to light the whole thing up. I used the Hot Air Reflow station to fix someone's laptop. Was also there to learn about Cisco (bi weekly cisco class \o/).

Nice haha

Yeah no sweat, lots of time to make a character still. I find it easiest to start with an idea rather than reading everything and coming back, I only thumbed through the other new classes. Usually I will read all the 1st level powers and maybe the paragon stuff to see what I get off the bat and where things can go if I make it to level 11.

I *almost* picked Warlock, but Monk gave me lots of cool hands on powers that let me rearrange the battlefield this was just too fun sounding to pass up.

Yeah, I plan to read through the first book tonight, at least the sections I'll need as a fighter. And maybe start into PHB2-3.

Do you have a rough idea of what you want to be?

I have a few ideas. But not all that fleshed out yet. I could see all of them being interesting and fun. It just depends on what the rest of the book(s) have to say, maybe I'll find some interesting feats/abilities that push one idea over the top.

So far these are my ideas:
1. Typical hero jock, out so save the world, and the girl (Follower of I don't know)
2. Similar to #1, but doesn't so much care about saving the world, he just likes fighting and winning, especially if theres a reward, or prize (follower of Kord)
3. Not like the other two, more dark, maybe brooding, doesn't much care about rewards or recognition. But does have a reason to fight. Does not take kindly to people trying to circumvent mortality, or play with life. (follower of The Raven Queen) Has an enemy (not planned out yet )

I'm kinda leaning towards 3 and 2.

[Mr. Analog]

I'd take it down to what you want to be able to do in and out of battle, and then develop your character from there.

It would be really, really nice if there were no quiet brooding characters though

I'm officially sick of the typical fantasy hipster hobo (aka brooding half-elf rogue LOL)

Let's have a bright and happy half-orc warrior named Artuo "It's-a Me! Artuo"

And he goes around with a giant hammer (+2 against turtles and Myconids LOL)

[Tom]

I'd take it down to what you want to be able to do in and out of battle, and then develop your character from there.

It would be really, really nice if there were no quiet brooding characters though

I'm officially sick of the typical fantasy hipster hobo (aka brooding half-elf rogue LOL)

Let's have a bright and happy half-orc warrior named Artuo "It's-a Me! Artuo"

And he goes around with a giant hammer (+2 against turtles and Myconids LOL)

Sory, but I know quiet thats what I do. But yeah, even that character doesn't have to be brooding.

We'll see. Those are just the ideas I got within the first 24 pages of the PHB. My first idea was #2. And I might still go that way. He'd be a bit outgoing. But I don't really /do/ outgoing all that well.

[Melbosa]

I find 4E to be faster and streamlined, but with a new element of strategy around Marks and Battlefield manipulation.  I also find you can run into the MMO problem of way to many choices for powers and focus on only a few in your arsenal as you get higher levels.  While more choice isn't necessarily a bad thing, it isn't something I've run into with Paperback RPGs as often.  Typically (like in 3.5) your casters might have a variety to choose from, but in 4E everyone gets that chance.