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3 years ago ::
Apr 13, 2010 - 9:33PM
#1
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 Dragon 386
Human of the Wild:
On Civilisation's FringesBy Robert J. Schwalb In today's Dragon article, we get four Human bloodlines related to tribes of the near wilderness – Bogtangle, Foamgather, Sunspray, and Wolfstone. These bloodlines include a number of backgrounds, as well as bloodline feats with associated powers. By an outsider’s estimation, the Hastaani are a primitive folk, spread across simple and backward communities without any of the modern innovations found in the civilized lands. Yet, as Uri learned, they made do with what they had, lived in peace with one another, and presented a united face through social obligations and strong connections that acted as a glue for all the people in each village. Though simple in demand, Uri learned they were clever, due to having overcome their hardships through surprising ingenuity and determination. Talk about this article here. 
A great man once said "If WotC put out boxes full of free money there'd still be people complaining about how it's folded." – Boraxe
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3 years ago ::
Apr 13, 2010 - 10:15PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2008
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Dragon 386
Human of the Wild:
On Civilisation's Fringes
By Robert J. Schwalb
In today's Dragon article, we get four Human bloodlines related to tribes of the near wilderness – Bogtangle, Foamgather, Sunspray, and Wolfstone. These bloodlines include a number of backgrounds, as well as bloodline feats with associated powers.
By an outsider’s estimation, the Hastaani are a primitive folk, spread across simple and backward communities without any of the modern innovations found in the civilized lands. Yet, as Uri learned, they made do with what they had, lived in peace with one another, and presented a united face through social obligations and strong connections that acted as a glue for all the people in each village. Though simple in demand, Uri learned they were clever, due to having overcome their hardships through surprising ingenuity and determination.
Talk about this article here.
Everything in this article is great, but Wolfstone is made of pure golden win. I want to play in Wolfstone. It's a little bit Ragnarok, a little bit Helm's Deep, and all awesome.
WotC and Robert J. Schwalb, Tell me more about Wolfstone. Tell me more about the hard men and women who live there. Who runs the show? What sort of slime skulks in the cold shadows, making plans to betray the Captain of the Guard while swearing oaths to him and taking rings as gifts in the mead hall? What Terrible Thing slithers about the ancient caves underneath the keep? Why now have the dwarves returned to a place they left a thousand years ago? What are the forces arrayed against the mighty fortress? Where are their lairs, so I can sneak in, cut the throats of my enemies, and rob them for justice? I gotta know!
The Chaos Scar is great, but building something out of Wolfstone could define 4e in the way that B2 defines Basic D&D. These guys are fighting the hopeless Dusk War right now, and I want to get in there and fight the good fight with them, shoulder to shoulder. This stuff is compelling, which I have so far found lacking in most other material for 4e.
I killed Aleena.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 12:24AM
#3
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Interesting article. I like all the fluff and the fleshing out of backgrounds, but seems to me that giving humans racial powers kind of breaks the system as far as game balance compared to the other races. Sure humans have to spend their extra feat at 1st level to get it, but then they still get the extra trained skill and at-will power which makes them inherently more versatile. I don't see why you wouldn't choose one of these tribes if want to play a human.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 12:51AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Dec 22, 2008
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While I don't think the mechanical benefits of the feats presented are quite good enough from a power-level point of view, the idea of offering Humans feats to add flavor to their race is simply brilliant.
Humans usually seemed a little bland to me in 4E, which is oddly ironic, considering how diverse they were in previous editions and how Humans can be good at any class, but it was likely the lack of cultural flavor.
Adding this way of adding some flavor at the cost of a feat is pure genius, and drawing the Human racials into it, namely that they get Bonus Feat with which to pay for this, and adding a cultural at-will attack power to replace the Bonus At-Will only adds to the brilliance.
I do hope this way of flavoring the 4E Humans will see more support, possibly in the form of more cultures and flavors, such as the glacier barbarians (resist cold?) illustrated in the article, or maybe humans from magic-rich environments (bonus to Arcana?).
EDIT: Clarification.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 2:19AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 25, 2007
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Interesting article. I like all the fluff and the fleshing out of backgrounds, but seems to me that giving humans racial powers kind of breaks the system as far as game balance compared to the other races. Sure humans have to spend their extra feat at 1st level to get it, but then they still get the extra trained skill and at-will power which makes them inherently more versatile. I don't see why you wouldn't choose one of these tribes if want to play a human.
Um ... yeah, and? There are already three other Heritage feats out - Dhampyr, Vistani, and Deva (Aasimar) that all do the exact same thing, except they can be taken by anyone and not just humans. Ok, they don't provide extra trained skills, but they give other beneifts plus a racial power instead. So why complain about these feats? Humans have been able to do this for over a year now.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 3:06AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2007
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This article actually makes me want to play a human, something that hasn't happened for a long time!
I have to say that Dragon is really impressing me lately!
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 6:08AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 20, 2004
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Schwalb knocks one out of the park, as usual. While the mechanics in this article are great, I really like the new lore -- especially Wolfstone, though Foamgather is conceptually brilliant as well.
Hope to see more human bloodlines in the near future!
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 7:31AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2009
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The most fun part for me will be figuring out where these groups might appear in my Eberron campaign. Bogtangle: This bloodline would be great for portraying the oft-overlooked human clans of the Shadow Marches. Alternately, they could be Q'barrans who've settled in the Basura Swamp, far from Newthrone's influence. A little less likely, but the poison-use theme jives nicely with a group that's learned from the Poisondusk lizardfolk. Foamgather: This screams out Lhazaar Principalities to me. It's perfect for them. Alternately, the half-elves of House Lyrandar (who can take feats with the Human prerequisite) would also fit this theme-- especially if they're born and raised in Stormhome. Sunspray: This one's a little harder. There's only one significant desert on Khorvaire, and that's the Blade Desert, with the Talenta halflings on one side and the Valenar elves on the other. Still, the "Sunspray" could work very well as a marginalized human tribe trying to make a go of it in the one place the halflings and elves don't want. Wolfstone: A lot of the resolute, honorable warrior stuff would work well for Karrnath, so maybe they're Mror-influenced humans of the Icetop Mountains. The Graywall Mountains, bordering monster-infested Droaam as they do, could also inspire a culture with a "hold the pass" mentality. Best part? Once I pick a proper geographic location in Eberron, I can drop the names from the article! 
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 8:25AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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Um ... yeah, and? There are already three other Heritage feats out - Dhampyr, Vistani, and Deva (Aasimar) that all do the exact same thing, except they can be taken by anyone and not just humans. Ok, they don't provide extra trained skills, but they give other beneifts plus a racial power instead. So why complain about these feats? Humans have been able to do this for over a year now.
For myself, I don't have any problem with the idea of heritage feats that grant powers, I just have a problem with these specific ones being way too powerful. Well, not all of them, but I specifically dislike:
1) The fact they all give a +2 bonus to a skill. Vistani, Dhampyr and Deva Heritage all give a +2 bonus for very specific purposes, which is much more reasonable than a +2 bonus accompanying a free power (already a very strong offering from a feat.) If these gave more restricted bonuses I'd be much happier with them.
2) Of the specific powers, Bathed in the Light seems pretty strong - immunity to fire (or radiant) for essentially two attacks an encounter? (The one it absorbs and the one offset by the healing.) I might find that ok for a class utility, but for one gained through a feat, it seems a bit much. Same goes for the Unrelenting Mountain power, which would be fine if it wasn't for the Resist 5 All. Even while bloodied, that is very potent, and can trivialize things at level 1 - especially being able to acquire this power for classes that might already have such defenses, like Battleragers or Swarm Druids. A smaller amount of Resist, or removing it entirely, and the power would seem reasonable to me.
Now, despite all this, I found this a fantastic article, with some incredible flavor and ideas I liked. I can see myself making good use of Wolfstone and Sunspray in particular, and I just like the idea of a city of floating ships.
Which is why I'm hoping to see these powers fixed - as it is, it is one of the first Dragon articles I'd consider not allowing in my games, and I certainly don't want to do that with an article full of such excellent flavor.
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3 years ago ::
Apr 14, 2010 - 9:03AM
#10
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This is how that Wizard article a couple of months ago should have been, rather than using a feat to replace a Utility that your PC already has with a more mediocre Utility. Essentially it cost the Wizard a feat and none of the powers were really greater than the power they replaced (they should have been as good as a feat AND a power since it cost both).
I understand that the Wizard article may have changed in the editing process. Perhaps the Human article made it through differently. This is a good direction. Please keep up the good work.
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