So will this playtest be legal for D&D Encounters, given the next session is D&DE centric and this is an essentials build? You would hope they'd want as much playtesting as possible and a new campaign would offer a nice opportunity to mass test the build.
Probably not - as far as I know playtests are never legal for WotC sponsored events.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, been away from D&D 4e for a bit. Does the Attack Finesse add Dex to "to hit" and Damage?
Gonna give my old assassin a makeover with this build and see how it plays out.
Basically. What it does is let you use Dex instead of Strength for your basic attacks. Plus of course the striker bonus damage. So instead of adding your Str mod, you add your Dex mod for attack and damage rolls.
1) From level 1 to level 17, you end up gaining 4 at-will attacks. Each guild only HAS 4 at-will attacks, so your choices are irrelevant. Sooner or later, you will have every attack! Moreover, the one that's left to get at level 17 is the one you kept NOT picking, in other words the one you are LEAST INTERESTED IN. Congratulations, you reached level 17! Your reward: the power you haven't wanted for the last 16 levels! Hooray! The same goes for the poisons. Sure, you don't end up with ALL the poisons, and some new choices do become available at later levels, but in the end you are choosing nine out of twelve total poisons to have. That doesn't leave a lot of room for one Assassin to be different from another. If you look at any two Assassins, their final poison repertoires will be at least two-thirds the same.
2) Those 4 at-will attacks each use weapons from a different group, so if you though Weapon Expertise was a feat tax before get ready for four times the fun when you need Weapon Expertise (Light Blade), Weapon Expertise (Blowgun), Weapon Expertise (Crossbow), AND Weapon Expertise (Bola)! Well, I guess light blades are also implements so you could get them on a twofer with Versatile Expertise. But even so, that's still three feats to fix math errors. People have been complaining about ONE! And being a weapon-based striker class, you can bet players will want Weapon Focus on all the attacks as well. I guess that's why you have to wait until level 17 to get the last weapon attack, so you have enough time to buy up all these feats!
3) The Unarmed Throw power is against AC, but the Assassin doesn't get a proficiency bonus to unarmed attacks, so it's going to be pretty hard to get it to hit. I guess you could use a spiked gauntlet, but what thematic sense does it make to say that spiked gauntlets make it easier to throw people?
4) The article claims Charisma is the build's secondary stat, but nothing uses anything but Dexterity. There's really no reason to NOT buy 18 Dex at the start, because it's not like you'll really use anything else. Sure, there's NADs to consider, but there's no real reason you'd need Charisma over Wisdom, and of all the other stats you'd probably get more mileage out of the additional hit points and surges you'd get by investing in Constitution.
5) The poisons that apply to weapons or ammunition are a real kick in the pants for the guild that uses all ranged weapons. It's not so bad if you apply it to a shuriken or a bola as long as it has at least a +1 enhancement, but you might not bother with those as you're probably getting your enhancements from a ki focus, especially at the earlier levels. But if you're using blowguns and hand crossbows, have fun chasing down that one piece of poisoned ammunition, if your DM even lets you reclaim spent ammo (I don't believe RAW explicitly supports it). The only ones that AREN'T a pain in that situation are the ones that only affect the next guy you hit after applying the poison, and then only if you hit on your first shot. And since you have to keep picking poisons from that same damn list over and over, you will end up with at least five such poisons in your repertoire.
Speaking of bolas with a +1 enhancement, how does a magic bola that returns to the thrower after use continue to immobilize the target of bolas takedown until the end of your next turn?
Overall my main problem with the class is that there's so little room for variation. The only things available to an Executioner Assassin that you DON'T get in a single build are the 4 at-wills from the other guild, the 6 utility powers you don't choose, and the 3 poisons you don't choose. That's a REALLY small amount. Prior to Essentials, there were always far more options that you DIDN'T get in any given character than options that you did get. With this build, Assassins are all going to be largely the same, especially within the same guild.
EDIT: 6) The "Crippling Poisons" sidebar suggests that the scarring effects some poisons might affect the victim's Charisma. I thought we all understood by now that Charisma represented force of personality and not physical attractiveness. Why would a scar affect your force of personality? And I have to say, do the non-rules-based secondary effects of some of the poisons, like being "driven permanently insane" or "permanently and visibly scarred" remind anyone of the April Fool's Witchalok class, who could cause targets to become "totally blown away" or "sad (save ends)"?
I will use this post to argue with the previous poster hehe...
And here I go: @OcelotX, you are only stating either typos (Cha being secondary, unarmed proficiency), things related to the fact this is only playtest and early (having only 4 at-wills and having them all: of course we're going to get more with time), things you don't know how they will interact with Essential feats (weapons being from more groups: there's going to be a feat for "weapon masters", it has been previewed somewhere), and trivial things (poisoned projectiles).
You'll get all the variation you want once this actually is released, and even more after that.
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1) From level 1 to level 17, you end up gaining 4 at-will attacks. Each guild only HAS 4 at-will attacks, so your choices are irrelevant. Sooner or later, you will have every attack! Moreover, the one that's left to get at level 17 is the one you kept NOT picking, in other words the one you are LEAST INTERESTED IN. Congratulations, you reached level 17! Your reward: the power you haven't wanted for the last 16 levels! Hooray! The same goes for the poisons. Sure, you don't end up with ALL the poisons, and some new choices do become available at later levels, but in the end you are choosing nine out of twelve total poisons to have. That doesn't leave a lot of room for one Assassin to be different from another. If you look at any two Assassins, their final poison repertoires will be at least two-thirds the same.
2) Those 4 at-will attacks each use weapons from a different group, so if you though Weapon Expertise was a feat tax before get ready for four times the fun when you need Weapon Expertise (Light Blade), Weapon Expertise (Blowgun), Weapon Expertise (Crossbow), AND Weapon Expertise (Bola)! Well, I guess light blades are also implements so you could get them on a twofer with Versatile Expertise. But even so, that's still three feats to fix math errors. People have been complaining about ONE! And being a weapon-based striker class, you can bet players will want Weapon Focus on all the attacks as well. I guess that's why you have to wait until level 17 to get the last weapon attack, so you have enough time to buy up all these feats!
This is a non issue. Via ki focus, the assassin only needs one set of feats to become good at all of those weapons. Any feat taken in ki focus will apply to all of those weapons.
3) The Unarmed Throw power is against AC, but the Assassin doesn't get a proficiency bonus to unarmed attacks, so it's going to be pretty hard to get it to hit. I guess you could use a spiked gauntlet, but what thematic sense does it make to say that spiked gauntlets make it easier to throw people?
4) The article claims Charisma is the build's secondary stat, but nothing uses anything but Dexterity. There's really no reason to NOT buy 18 Dex at the start, because it's not like you'll really use anything else. Sure, there's NADs to consider, but there's no real reason you'd need Charisma over Wisdom, and of all the other stats you'd probably get more mileage out of the additional hit points and surges you'd get by investing in Constitution.
5) The poisons that apply to weapons or ammunition are a real kick in the pants for the guild that uses all ranged weapons. It's not so bad if you apply it to a shuriken or a bola as long as it has at least a +1 enhancement, but you might not bother with those as you're probably getting your enhancements from a ki focus, especially at the earlier levels. But if you're using blowguns and hand crossbows, have fun chasing down that one piece of poisoned ammunition, if your DM even lets you reclaim spent ammo (I don't believe RAW explicitly supports it). The only ones that AREN'T a pain in that situation are the ones that only affect the next guy you hit after applying the poison, and then only if you hit on your first shot. And since you have to keep picking poisons from that same damn list over and over, you will end up with at least five such poisons in your repertoire.
Speaking of bolas with a +1 enhancement, how does a magic bola that returns to the thrower after use continue to immobilize the target of bolas takedown until the end of your next turn?
Overall my main problem with the class is that there's so little room for variation. The only things available to an Executioner Assassin that you DON'T get in a single build are the 4 at-wills from the other guild, the 6 utility powers you don't choose, and the 3 poisons you don't choose. That's a REALLY small amount. Prior to Essentials, there were always far more options that you DIDN'T get in any given character than options that you did get. With this build, Assassins are all going to be largely the same, especially within the same guild.
EDIT: 6) The "Crippling Poisons" sidebar suggests that the scarring effects some poisons might affect the victim's Charisma. I thought we all understood by now that Charisma represented force of personality and not physical attractiveness. Why would a scar affect your force of personality? And I have to say, do the non-rules-based secondary effects of some of the poisons, like being "driven permanently insane" or "permanently and visibly scarred" remind anyone of the April Fool's Witchalok class, who could cause targets to become "totally blown away" or "[want] to hang out sometime maybe, if you aren't too busy"?
This is a non issue. Via ki focus, the assassin only needs one set of feats to become good at all of those weapons. Any feat taken in ki focus will apply to all of those weapons.
You're right that Versatile Expertise (Ki Focus) works (Implement Expertise does not), but the point still stands for Weapon Focus, since there's no such thing as Weapon Focus (Ki Focus). And since there's no such thing as a non-magic ki focus, you still can't get Expertise with both of your attacks at level 1 unless you're a Human and blow both your feats on it. Well, you could if you chose shurikens/kukris for one of your starting two weapons and got Versatile Expertise (Light Blade) for your implement, but what if you wanted to start blowguns and crossbows or something? It's needlessly limiting.
I think the class could stand to have a clause that any feat bonuses that apply to attack and damage with one of the guild's four weapons apply to all of them, like the Arena Fighter in Dark Sun had.
Wow. This is my kind of assassin. I like the fact that the shadow magic is not over used. The use of poisons is interesting and I love the guild weapons. The first thing that popped into my mind was ninja! I am really excited about essentials if this is a precursor of what is to come.
One thing I am curious about is the damage for the blowgun attack only includes the dex. modifier, is that correct?
1) From level 1 to level 17, you end up gaining 4 at-will attacks. Each guild only HAS 4 at-will attacks, so your choices are irrelevant. Sooner or later, you will have every attack! Moreover, the one that's left to get at level 17 is the one you kept NOT picking, in other words the one you are LEAST INTERESTED IN. Congratulations, you reached level 17! Your reward: the power you haven't wanted for the last 16 levels! Hooray! The same goes for the poisons. Sure, you don't end up with ALL the poisons, and some new choices do become available at later levels, but in the end you are choosing nine out of twelve total poisons to have. That doesn't leave a lot of room for one Assassin to be different from another. If you look at any two Assassins, their final poison repertoires will be at least two-thirds the same.
This is a valid concern.
This is indeed a valid concern, but one where I'm going to spot WotC some benefit of the doubt. All playtests get slim numers of powers and little if any feat support. It was the same for Barbarians and Monks, and sure enough they wound up with enough powers in the end. Now this is a somewhat different case in that instead of remembering to make 4-5 Daily powers per level, they would be lumped into 12-15 poisons per tier. It kinda seems like a "car keys" case, there's no reason to forget them when you leave the house, but sometimes you just do.
Wow. This is my kind of assassin. I like the fact that the shadow magic is not over used. The use of poisons is interesting and I love the guild weapons. The first thing that popped into my mind was ninja! I am really excited about essentials if this is a precursor of what is to come.
One thing I am curious about is the damage for the blowgun attack only includes the dex. modifier, is that correct?
This is a non issue. Via ki focus, the assassin only needs one set of feats to become good at all of those weapons. Any feat taken in ki focus will apply to all of those weapons.
You're right that Versatile Expertise (Ki Focus) works (Implement Expertise does not), but the point still stands for Weapon Focus, since there's no such thing as Weapon Focus (Ki Focus). And since there's no such thing as a non-magic ki focus, you still can't get Expertise with both of your attacks at level 1 unless you're a Human and blow both your feats on it. Well, you could if you chose shurikens/kukris for one of your starting two weapons and got Versatile Expertise (Light Blade) for your implement, but what if you wanted to start blowguns and crossbows or something? It's needlessly limiting.
I think the class could stand to have a clause that any feat bonuses that apply to attack and damage with one of the guild's four weapons apply to all of them, like the Arena Fighter in Dark Sun had.
Last I checked, the character builder does let you take weapon related feats with ki focus. It is my understanding that the designers want players to be able to treat ki focus as a "weapon," but the bonuses apply to any weapon you use while you choose to use your "ki focus" energy, or however it is explained. I believe that is what they are explicitly trying to say when they make statements such as:
Assassins focus their shadow energy through a ki focus, which is not an object they wield but a reservoir of magical power within themselves. When using a ki focus, an assassin taps into the power of shadow magic and channels it into both implement and weapon attacks.
Indeed, because a ki focus is a "magical reservoir of ower within themselves," an assassin should be considered to always have a ki focus on themselves. An assassin just needs to find a magical manual or item, a focus item if you will, in order to gain the benefits of an "enhanced" (or "magic" as in "magic item in terms of benefits gained") ki focus.
So, I am pretty sure you are wrong on this. I could, however, be mistaken.
One other thing I really don't like, the shield is really anti-thematic. It felt weird on the old build, and it feels weird on this one. Can you guys not just give the build free proficiency in the parrying dagger or something like that? Mathematically, it is about the same. Thematically, it is a lot more appropriate.
I just wanted to quote this. Designers, please take notice! Your fans DO NOT WANT ASSASSINS WITH SHIELDS! It is lame. Find some other way to grant assassins that defensive bonus.
