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Hellcow wrote:

With all of this being said, the goal was also to ensure that there are multiple marks that appeal to each character type... so it's not the case that ALL leaders want the Mark of Healing, all defenders want the Mark of Warding, etc.

Now that's good to hear. It would start to get boring if every Defender took the Mark of Warding.

Hellcow wrote:

To me, this emphasizes the idea of magical evolution. The Arcane Lock ritual was developed so that other people could artificially duplicate what Kundarak did naturally (at least on Khorvaire - the giants probably had their own version of Arcane Lock long ago). Thus the mark gives you the inborn ability to lock doors, and for a long time on Khorvaire, Kundarak was the only source of this service... but over time, the Arcane Congress (or whoever) has developed a ritual that performs the same function.

Now that's interesting. It would be interesting to set a game in the time when rituals are starting to get invented so you could have a war between the Dragonmarked Houses and those creating rituals.

Lyran wrote:

Why would he want to take it, though? Simply for the sake of his character.

That would be one good reason. I've got a Warforged Warden who would love to have the Mark of Hospitality. There could also be some synergy between multiclassing and the marks. If you take Student of the Sword feat and a Mark of Warding feat, you gain the ability to mark people like a defender can.

That probably won't happen, but it'd be neat if they did.

Also a Playtest for Hybrid Characters is getting printed again so it could be this will be a more balanced version and with it getting put in the Character Builder, people could start experimenting with hybrid classes. So a cleric who normally wouldn't get marking, could as a Fighter/Cleric hybrid, making the Mark of Warding useful for them.

Oblivion_Necroninja wrote:

What are the Aberrent Dragonmarks going to be like?

Where would they be? Are PCs suppose to have free access to Abberant Dragonmarks?

Omen_of_Peace wrote:

There is the issue of race though: if Warforged can suddenly get any Mark, that would upend the setting quite a bit.

No it doesn't actually. To my understanding, all that has been stated about the marks is that they can now appear on other races, but is extremely rare. ie they only appear on players of a race not normally allowable, because the players are the exceptional beings in the world and can be marked by the prophecy. NPC's however, should almost always follow the rule that they have to be from the specific house/race - Jorasco are halflings, Kundarak are dwarves, Lyrandar are half-elves, etc, etc. Now, depending on the house, some may be more accepting of seeing a warforged with a mark, others may not and the same goes for other races. If your group is giving out or taking dragonmarks with every character, there is a good chance that your group is powergaming. Marks should still be extremely rare. But that is, of course, just a personal opinion.

I hope the Mark of Warding enhancing marking will be an exception, and that most classes get to benefit from most Marks (yes, I know, the rituals are always there). Hospitality seems fine if it grants a healing power: anyone can use that.

[Yoda]Benefit always there must be for class hmmm? Always a need for mechanical advantages there are?

Long have I watched these players.

Never a thought on what is good for story, hmm.. What is good for plot.

No, game with these players, I cannot.

Too munchkin they are to begin the story[/yoda]
In all seriousness though, this is the flaw that is making me like D&D less and less - the idea that every choice you make has to be the optimal one. If I want to have a wizard that has the mark of warding and uses it to protect the women he loves, who happens to be the defender, by 'drawing aggro' and marking the target, isn't that a great reason to take a feat that is less than optimal for your build? Story and character wise I'd say hell yes.

Wis/Cha makes sense to me too for Kalashtars.

Thanks for the info !

I do agree with this, though, wisdom and charisma the way they are worded both represent willpower - something Kalashtar need to help them stay focused and 'sane'.

Lyran wrote:

If you're are a warlock and you take this feat for the Mark of Hospitality it doesn't inprove your powers or make you more dianamic, it's a waist of a feat.

So is Linguist a waste of a feat?

Linguist doesn't improve your powers. Its benefits are purely social. If you're in a dungeon and the DM hasn't specifically worked in some way for knowledge of Infernal to play a role, the fact that you can read Infernal is utterly meaningless. However, if the DM has created an adventure in which you're infiltrating an enclave of demons, Linguist (Infernal) may be far more powerful than Power Attack or Astral Fire.

From what we've seen, marks have three components:

• A mechanical enhancement effect that improves certain powers or class abilities. According to Hellcow, many to these are more useful to particular character types, but not all of them.
  
• Some form of preferential ritual access.
  
• The less tangible benefit of being a member of a dragonmarked house (presuming you're of the right race and choose not to be an orphan or excoriate).
  
• In 3E, certain magic items could only be used by people with a particular dragonmark. Since some of these items (message stones, airships) are vital to the economic power of the houses, I see no reason to assume that the same isn't true in 4E.

So, you have a dwarf invoker and you want to take the Mark of Warding. You don't mark people and you have no interest in multiclassing to gain a marking ability. You already have Ritual Caster as a bonus feat. So what does the mark get you? Well, there's the minor benefit of being able to cast the rituals in question without a ritual book. Fairly trivial, but there is still some flavor to that. There's the issue of Dragonmark focus items; we don't know how useful these are. More important, you are a member of House Kundarak. You have access to their enclaves. You are likely to be more trusted by their barons. If you spend your entire time in a dungeon, this may be utterly useless... just like Linguist in a dungeon where you never encounter the languages you chose. In a highly political game where the houses play a major role, this social connection could be incredibly important. You'll have to decide whether you're better off with a +1 feat bonus to damage... or three languages... or a social connection to dragonmark houses.

So the Mark of Warding as shown is clearly more useful to a character with a marking ability than any other character. But it's not entirely useless to another character; it's simply a social benefit as opposed to a combat benefit.

Beyond that, as said, we haven't seen if there's higher-tier feats that build on it; if there's dragonmark focus items or rituals that can only be used by people with dragonmarks, like bardic rituals (for example, the Mark of Warding references a ritual called "Fluid Funds"; perhaps it's Kundarak only). Unique mark-only rituals seems like a logical way to add flavor to the houses IMO.