So that's one no on keeping the Shaping bonus just a boost to AC. Looking at the books, I find that most classes that provide a straight AC bonus also provide a secondary bonus to a basic ability (second wind) or a Class Feature (Combat Superiority). However, I do think that the abilities are balanced right now, so let's just add to them.
Quaking: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, when you use a standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, it lasts for a number of additional rounds equal to your Strength modifer (e.g. with a Strength modifer of +1 the bonus would last until the end of the turn following the turn where it would have ended normally).
Shaping: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, whenever an Earthbender power would increase your AC, that bonus applies to your Fortitude defense as well. If the effect would normally apply to both, it applies to your Will defense as well.
That is a bit weird, but I think it works. Defensive vs. Offensive. Both versions now have comfortably higher AC's, probably a good plan anyway, and a flashy ability to go with it. Furthermore, with the updated Nuetral Jing and the revised Opportunity attacks, the Earthbender is really shaping up! HA! ............. okay. Lines that don't go left, right, up or down may go diagonally as long as they proceed in a straight line, i.e. corner to corner. They, like movement, do not behave differently when going diagonally.
Okay. Bye.
I'm one of the minds behind the Avatar the Last Airbender 4e Project. We're about a quarter of the way through releasing the revised PDF, containing all four bender classes, paragon paths, epic destinies and a menagerie of feats and items from the show. Come by and lend your mind to the swarm.
Re: Neutral Jing. I totally gleaned a great idea off that. Maybe along with the ability to use your secondary stat to boost your AC, the use of Neutral Jing could trigger things that would benefit your watched allies, i.e. whenever you activate Neutral Jing, your watched ally can shift a square, gain temporary hit points, gain a bonus to attack, feel better about themselves, or make a saving throw. Definitely something to ponder.
Re: lines that aren't in cardinal directions. I would make a diagram, but I'm doing this from my phone... let's try anyway. Let's say there's an airbender, using Air Path Attack Daily Attack Hyper Combo, which is a Line 3. And the airbender (represented by the A) doesn't want to attack in a cardinal direction. The line would look like this, with the E's being the squares affected.
E X X X X X X E X X X X X X E X X X X X X A X X X X X X X X
(hopefully that doesn't get garbled up)
I was also thinking about the firebender's damage dealing mechanic. In the show, they fight relentlessly against their target, using attack after attack after attack. You rarely see them just use one attack, but rather one attack followed up with at least 20 attacks. I want to replicate this, but I am not sure how. I thought it would be cool if we did a strikers mechanic like this...
Firebender's Barrage You don't let your enemies rest for one second, closely following up with another strike. At-Will (Special) * Elemental, Implement Minor Action. Melee touch or range 10 Target: One enemy you have dealt damage to this turn. Attack: Dexterity + 2 vs. Reflex. Hit: 1d8 damage. Special: You may only use this once per turn. If you use this attack against the same enemy you hit with this power last turn, you gain a +2 to both your attack and damage roll with this power this turn. 21st Level: 2d8 damage.
Immediately, what jumps out is that it is a bigger die than the rogue, warlock ranger, etc. But it has the downside of having to roll to deal your extra damage. But you have the benefit of switching your "quarry" on a whim. But it definitely rewards you if you concentrate on an enemy.
I dunno. I think that's pretty cool. But there is no need to reinvent the wheel. If the Source of Strength is popular, then ignore this.
By the way, this post was made on my phone. I bet autocorrect has sneaked in here somewhere...
Quaking: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, when you use a standard action to acquire Neutral Jing, it lasts for a number of additional rounds equal to your Strength modifer (e.g. with a Strength modifer of +1 the bonus would last until the end of the turn following the turn where it would have ended normally).
Shaping: While you are not wearing heavy armor, you can use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC. In addition, whenever an Earthbender power would increase your AC, that bonus applies to your Fortitude defense as well. If the effect would normally apply to both, it applies to your Will defense as well.
I dunno. I think that approximately +3 to attack and damage of the Earthbender's mark enforcement for 2 turns is definitely not equal to an occasion small buff to fort or will. Maybe you could add some sort of buff to shapers oppurtunity attacks? Perhaps make their OAs slow the target 'till end of your next turn? It seems like a feature like that could make the Earthbender much more competent in melee.
Grounded Fist---Earthbender Attack1 Dirt snakes up your body and congregates to your fist before you strike. At-Will ♦ Elemental, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon. Target: One creature. Attack: Constitution vs. AC. Hit: 1[W] + Constitution modifier damage and you gain a +1 to AC until the end of your next turn. 21st Level: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage.
If you are a shaping Earthbender and you don't take Grounded Fist, you are a fool. +1 to AC and Fort with each attack allows you to gain the benefit from your Build bonus any time you like. Ground Plate Armor, Dirt Headbutt, Lingering Debris also grant AC bonuses, generally until the end fo of the Encounter. This is far too few attacks, I admit, I will go through and see if we can't shoehorn the AC bonus onto a few more attacks. If you consider the bonus to be something that an Earthbender can get At-Will and from, at any given level, at least one of her daily or encounter powers, does it feel more balanced or does it still feel lacking? -Usagi
I'm one of the minds behind the Avatar the Last Airbender 4e Project. We're about a quarter of the way through releasing the revised PDF, containing all four bender classes, paragon paths, epic destinies and a menagerie of feats and items from the show. Come by and lend your mind to the swarm.
Edit:Disregard this post! I see your point with Grounded Fist etc...
But I think my point still stands. While the AC/Fort bonuses DO make the earthbender even more resilient than it is now, I think that the earthbender needs to somehow be better at defending allies from melee attacks.
Let's say that an melee-based enemy is on the front lines and the earthbender smacks it with ground plate armor. Earthbender: "Fool! I am as resilient as stone itself! I cannot be defeated!" DM: "I don't really care! I can just walk right by you and your pathetic oppurtunity attack and beat the crap out of this rogue." Earthbender: "What! No! He's my watched ally!" DM: "So that means you can (maybe) slide me one square away from the rogue, and then I can walk right back and kill him next turn? I'm quaking in my boots. Or I could just go beat up that other guy that you aren't protecting."
This is really a problem for both earthbenders, but I think the quakers are OK since they have many more powers that prone/slow/immobilize and they are able to act at greater range with many of their powers.
Edit: Pretend this post never existed. I forgot the rebuking offense writeup.
So... this is the thing I don't understand. People keep saying that the Earthbender is a sub-par defender. I agree that it needs some power updates and that the opportunity actions needed damage added to them (Note: We wrote up new versions, they are on the first page) Here's the Fighter for comparison, the protypical defender: COMBAT CHALLENGE: In combat, it’s dangerous to ignore a fighter. Every time you attack an enemy, whether the attack hits or misses, you can choose to mark that target. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if its attack doesn’t include you as a target. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place. In addition, you gain the Combat Challenge power. COMBAT SUPERIORITY You gain a bonus to opportunity attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier. An enemy struck by your opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack. If it still has actions remaining, it can use them to resume moving. So the fighter gives a penalty to attacks made by a marked enemy. The Earthbender gives the same mechanical bonus, but to whoever they are watching. This means the distinction is between neutralizing a single enemies attacks against any target and bolstering a single ally against any attack made against it. This feels perfectly equivalent for me. It's a little different, and leads to differing tactics, but it's not worse. So, when someone walks past the fighter they can get smacked by an attack with a Wisdom bonus that stops their movement. When someone walks past the Earthbender, as you described, they don't get hit by a normal opportunity attack (one Opportunity action per combatants turn) but instead get hit by, in this case, Rebuking Offense, which targets Reflex (almost as good as the Fighter's Wisdom bonus as Reflex is, on average, about 2 lower than AC), deals a little damage and pushes the opponent 1 square. Like the Fighter, this attack cannot prevent an opponent from walking over to a weaker ally if they are determined enough, as movement isn't interrupted by opportunity actions (however the Fighter forces them to take another action). Rebuking Offense deals damage and can prevent the target from getting to the opponent (only if they run out of movement). In this sense it is a bit weaker than the Fighter's Combat Superiority. But you've still smacked someone for some damage, messed with their movement a bit and made them less likely to hit your ally. So, if your issue is with the fact that it doesn't force the enemy to stop moving, then I might agree with you (because Fighters can't protect allies they aren't near/protect allies against ranged attacks like the Earthbender). Otherwise, I don't understand why it's worse. If that is the distinction, and it is deemed that the protection from ranged attacks/ranged protection doesn't make up for it, one possible fix would be to make the trigger "An enemy ends their movement adjacent to your watched ally." Instead, as they would have to end their movement in order to attack, get pushsmacked and then either use another move action or make a ranged attack. Understand that, while I currently disagree, I am interested in agreeing with you, I just don't know where it is that you see the Earthbender being worse right now. -Usagi
I'm one of the minds behind the Avatar the Last Airbender 4e Project. We're about a quarter of the way through releasing the revised PDF, containing all four bender classes, paragon paths, epic destinies and a menagerie of feats and items from the show. Come by and lend your mind to the swarm.
So lines can only be done at angles that are multiples of 45 degrees? If that's the case, it REALLY needs to be spelled out. 60 and 30 degrees are hard to do on a grid, but some people might interperet the way line is described as allowing for that.
There's also no indication if a line power provokes. The range determines both the area that can be targeted AND whether the attack provokes. Lines should be either close or area lines, to indicate that, or else there needs to be a universal rule about it.
Also, how is straight away determined? By which I mean, the following seem like they'd not be a legal use of a line 3, but I'm not sure;
XXEXXX XXEXXX XXEXXX XXXAXX
XXEXXX XXEXXX XXEAXX
XXEXXX XXEAXX XXEXXX
In each of those, you pick an origin square and extend it three squares in a straight line. The description of a line is ambiguous enough that those all might be possible.
I'd suggest to either a) switch lines to paths; paths are better than lines because there's more player choice involved in them; or b) tighten up the wording on lines to something like the following;
To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line, you may move orthogonally or diagonally, but not both, and each square chosen must be farther away from you than the last. Line attacks do not provoke opportunity attacks.
astralArchivist.com - 4e D&D house rules, homebrew, and story hours - now featuring ENWorld's Zeitgeist adventure path!
Will Thibault is a winged, feathered serpent rarely found anywhere except in warm, jungle-like regions or flying through the ether. Due to his intelligence and powers he is regarded with awe by the inhabitants of his homelands and is considered to be divine.
So lines can only be done at angles that are multiples of 45 degrees? If that's the case, it REALLY needs to be spelled out. 60 and 30 degrees are hard to do on a grid, but some people might interperet the way line is described as allowing for that. There's also no indication if a line power provokes. The range determines both the area that can be targeted AND whether the attack provokes. Lines should be either close or area lines, to indicate that, or else there needs to be a universal rule about it. Also, how is straight away determined? By which I mean, the following seem like they'd not be a legal use of a line 3, but I'm not sure; XXEXXX XXEXXX XXEXXX XXXAXX
XXEXXX XXEXXX XXEAXX
XXEXXX XXEAXX XXEXXX
In each of those, you pick an origin square and extend it three squares in a straight line. The description of a line is ambiguous enough that those all might be possible. I'd suggest to either a) switch lines to paths; paths are better than lines because there's more player choice involved in them; or b) tighten up the wording on lines to something like the following; To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line, you may move orthogonally or diagonally, but not both, and each square chosen must be farther away from you than the last. Line attacks do not provoke opportunity attacks.
Awesome. You are dead right. The reason we made lines/paths instead of just using Walls is because Lines and Paths always extend out from your space. I believe they are Close Attacks, as they always happen right next to you.
Origin Square: A close attack’s area of effect defines the attack’s origin square, which is the attack’s starting point. A close burst uses your space as its origin square. A close blast uses a square within your space as its origin square. For a target to be affected by a close attack, there must be line of effect from the origin square to the target. Pg 271, PHB
Lines and Paths are like limited Close Blasts. So, using your excellently worded description, here is a new description of Paths and Lines:
Lines: Lines are always close attacks. To use a power with a line x range, choose an origin square adjacent to you. Counting that square, extend the area to be x squares in length. When making a line, you may move orthogonally (side-to-side) or diagonally (corner-to-corner), but not both, and each square chosen must be farther away from you than the last.
Paths: Paths are always close attacks. They work the same as lines except you may move both orthogonally anddiagonally and each square need not be farther away from you than the last. I believe that should alleviate any confusion. The basic idea is that Lines move in one direction, so your choice factor is which direction they radiate from, whereas Paths are like more specific blasts. They don't automatically cover an area, but they do give you much more control. Lines are meaningfully distinct from Close Walls because of thier one-directional restriction and Paths are meaningfully distinct because they can connect corner-to-corner and bunch up with more than two sides touching another part of the same Path. Does that clear things up? Furthermore, do you think it is nessacary to include the bit about how they are different from Walls? -Usagi
I'm one of the minds behind the Avatar the Last Airbender 4e Project. We're about a quarter of the way through releasing the revised PDF, containing all four bender classes, paragon paths, epic destinies and a menagerie of feats and items from the show. Come by and lend your mind to the swarm.
Not to be pedantic or anything, but instead of putting the close description in the line and path description, it should be in the power description like with blasts or bursts. IE, Close line 3.
Do note, though, that by making Paths and Lines close powers, you're opening a bunch of interactions with existing material that affects that, though I'd argue for that being a feature, not a bug.
It also occurred to me that, with 4e grid-math, farther away from you is not the same as farthest away from you. By which I mean, the following is technically legal per both of our suggestions;
XXEXX XEXXX XXEXX XXXAX
See what I mean? There needs to be something like 'straight away from you', but I'm not sure how exactly that should be worded.
I think sprinkling 'behind the curtain' design notes throughout the document could be fun. Explaining why you guys went with lines and paths instead of walls could easily be one such sidebar.
Edit: Are you planning on making third builds for each of the classes? I'd really like to see that, personally.
astralArchivist.com - 4e D&D house rules, homebrew, and story hours - now featuring ENWorld's Zeitgeist adventure path!
Will Thibault is a winged, feathered serpent rarely found anywhere except in warm, jungle-like regions or flying through the ether. Due to his intelligence and powers he is regarded with awe by the inhabitants of his homelands and is considered to be divine.
