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Let's assume that you went through a campaign from levels 1-30 and you decided to look back upon what made your character more powerful (mechanics wise). Your class does decide a lot of what your power comes from (especially for Essentials style classes), but that's hard to lock down as classes come with many different features and powers which all could be considered separate things. In the case of Defenders and Leaders, the feature might be important to the role and impossible to put a value on. Things like feats and powers are rather important, but 1 power or 1 feat is never in a vacuum.

To me, the biggest choice that affects your character power is your paragon path. You get a bunch of features and some powers. How strong those powers are and how strong those features are can make a huge difference. Take for example, the humble Artificer. This is a fairly easy class to analyze, with so few paragon paths to compare.

Let's start with the best. Did you just take offense? Show

The best Artificer paragon path is the Battle Engineer from the Eberron Players Guide. It's obvious why. Greater Magic Weapon, even if you scale it down to the version I have in my "Inside the Box" article, is one of the best leader powers in the game. This power took your "Nova" and turned it into a PBS documentary on ownage. It's that good. The level 12 utility is nice. The level 20 daily is meh, but all of the best paragon paths usually have a bad apple. Aggressive Action and Brutal Enchantment are decent; but not "hop up and down in joy on your slain enemies" good. On the other hand, Accurate Enhancement is that good. This class feature turns the Artificer into the best buffer in the game. Magic Weapon is always going to be there with the +3 (or +4 at epic) for an attack buff for everyone adjacent to you (assuming they're using melee attacks). Greater Magic Weapon gets the steroids it needs to make it so your allies won't miss on their next attack (assuming they don't roll a 1), if it wasn't already that good.

On the other hand, the Arcane Armorer from Dragon 381 is the worst Artificer Paragon Path out there. In all fairness, I think that the Arcane Armorer is flavorful. I wouldn't even say its that bad, power wise, compared to the other crap out there. But, its the worst of the Artificer lot. I'm not going to dive into much explanation. My major problems with this paragon path is that leader buffs to defense are generally something I would want to use on a defender; yet the powers given by this path are Defender unfriendly (for instance, giving a huge defensive buff and then getting the target to a point where there are going to be fewer enemies around). I want my allies to stand and fight, not hide behind me like wimp after I make them able to withstand anything, including being trampled by 5 Huge creatures. It also doesn't help that Shielding Elixir is a bit underwhelming for most campaigns.

But enough about tactics, I've made my point and incase you've missed it: There's awesome paragon paths and there are bad ones. Battle Engineer gives a great power and a feature that effects the things that Artificers do best. Arcane Armorer has some lackluster powers and has features that don't mesh well with the Artificer's strengths.

The biggest indicator (I wanted to say cause, but the player is always the cause) of disparity of power between classes or players is likely coming from paragon paths. They give out so much and those things are going to stick throughout the character's career. Many level 20 PP powers are the best daily powers they're going to get until level 29; and even some of them are going to be better. Many paragon path features are pure gold in the right character's hands. On the other hand, there are crappy paragon paths that won't affect a character encounter to encounter all that much. And that is a rather wide difference.

D&D and real life does have some similarities. There's only so much money I can spend on entertainment; and during the course of a year, I can expect that there's going to be a lot of high quality stuff that is going to be released. This year, it's Stronghold 3. I can't wait till September 27th. It's going to be ~awesome~. And I have no problem shelling out $50 for it; even though Stronghold 2 was disappointing and Stronghold Legends was Stronghold 2 with dragons that were less than terrifying.

Stronghold 2 wasn't a terrible game mind you. Most of the game was fairly well designed and there was enough new stuff that made me go "ooh". But there were a lot of simple flaws. Without patches, your Lord's popularity would turn into a death spiral if you weren't careful or if you were unlucky (Your castle would get filled with rats, crap piles, and criminals, literally.) I wouldn't buy Stronghold 3 if I thought that the same errors would be made. In fact, if I hadn't read some of the interviews with the designers of Stronghold 3, I might give it a miss or wait until it's $20-30. The interviews showed a couple of things: That they knew what the problems were and that they were making an honest effort to fix those issues. They didn't need to impress me with the new stuff, which they did. I can expect that there is going to be cool new stuff.

D&D is the same way. I remember when I was creating my first Artificer, I was having problems choosing a weapon. I knew I wanted to be a melee character and cast spells, but every option for doing so required me to have subpar damage and/or accuracy or spend two or three feats. That's not fun at all. I looked through my DM's Dragon Magazines to see if there was anything to help. I didn't find anything that would help my weapon/implement problem, but I did find this in Dragon #376 in the Design and Development article on the Artificer.

The artificer has both weapon powers and implement powers, but not very many ways to use both through the same item. ... We’ve also had discussions about creating feats or other options to blend the two together, which would serve more than just the artificer. As it stands, the artificer could still just use a staff, or get a blade using Arcane Implement Proficiency from Arcane Power to take the swordmage’s implement, but that solution seems a bit convoluted, and I think there’s space for a better solution.

It's a little thing. But it told me that the people who were making the game knew that I was having a problem and that they were trying to fix it. However, now we're on issue #401 of Dragon, so it's been a good 2 years. They've made "Crossbow Caster" (which I would put under the category of "convoluted solutions", but it's better than nothing), but nothing new in the implement world for those Arties that used melee weapons. Tough luck, Mr. Artificer.

And then there's other little things that tend to poison the waters. In PHB3, they seemed to understand that issues that people were having with Weapliment classes when they made "Versatile Expertise". I was rather happy with this. But then, come Heroes of the Fallen Lands, here comes the new expertise feats, large, in charge, and with the same problems. It's a little issue, I can just take Versatile Expertise and have a little bit smaller of bonus. But it shows that the designers don't understand the problems that players have. The same can be said of the errata to Weapon/Implement Focus. They've thrown weapon+implement users under the bus again. While I can play a perfectly effective character without it, there was nothing wrong with it before.

So, designers: These are the little things that make me think that you haven't rolled up a character of a class that you've made. They're not game breaking issues, but it's like someone whistling while you're trying to pee or taking a test or sleeping: it's annoying and if you would cut it out, that would be great.

1. When you changed "Surgeless Healing" and the items that gave a bonus to healing, you made it so Artificers can't use those items on their Curative Admixture and Paladins can't use those items on their Lay on Hands. In addition, what kind of silly world is it that every other leader class except the Artificer has a main healing power that they can add a magic item bonus to healing to? Really? Come on.

2. You need to have a "Focus" feat that applies to all attacks, whether implement or weapon.

3. You need to have a "Critical Range Expansion" feat that any class can take at epic tier.

4. You need to have "Expertise" feats apply for Weapon and Implement attacks equally, or even better, put expertise in the game math.

5. You need to give Artificers weapon proficency with Military Weapons, and implement proficency with Crossbows/something else. They've got weapon powers, so it's not like you didn't mean for them to kick ass, take names, and run out of bubble gum while wielding swords and axes. See also: Bard, Rogue (Rapiers, come on!)

6. Swordmages should be able to use any weapon as an implement. You've done the same thing with the bladesinger: You're cutting off legitimate concepts because you haven't fixed dual-typed weapons yet. See also: Rogues (Sneak Attack)

Work in Progress:

I'm going to release this now, feel free to offer feedback on what is there. I still need to go through some of the encounter powers, daily powers, and utility powers and see what sort of changes may need to be made; however, I'm likely to be more conservative on that end than I have been with other powers. I would also like to fix up formatting so it doesn't look like a massive wall of text.

This is going to be a sister article to my other blog, Artificers: Outside the Box. Inside the box, you're going to see errata to Artificer powers, feats, and class traits. In the sister article, you would see things that you would expect out of a "Featless" system that I conceived a while ago.

For the most part, I've divided my errata into three parts. The first part is errata to the class itself; class traits and class features. The second part is errata to specific types of powers in order to better meet my expectations; these powers all have something in common and I'll explain why they needed to be errataed as a group. In the third part, I'll go through certain powers that are over or under performing individually.

Luckily for me, there's a lot less riding on whether I get this right; but I still want to make sure that readers understand my expectations. Along with the changes I've made, I've put a section explaining the changes and why they were necessary. Sometimes, it's as simple as "This didn't scale" or "This was too good". Sometimes, I've changed things to make the class easier to play out of the box. Other times, I've changed options in order to make the choices that go with those options more meaningful.

I would also like to thank those who designed the Artificer and those who have written ofificial articles for the Artificer, which includes the designers of the Eberron Player's Guide (EPG), Rodney Thompson (Author of the "Warrior Forged Artificer" in Dragon 381), and Robert Schwalb (Author of the "Class Acts: Artificer" in Dragon 387). I understand that sometimes it can be difficult to tell how strong a particular mechanic will be and thus, I've tried to make the mechanics be balanced enough that players will be able to enjoy the awesomeness of the ideas that you've presented and I've tried to make sure that the changes were in line with the original idea. I would also like to thank Ronnie James Dio for sponsoring the entertainment that I was listening to while writing this blog.

Class Traits and Features

Class Traits

Weapon Proficencies: Add Military Melee and Military Ranged

Pretty much any Artificer that is going to use weapons, which is going to be a sizeable number, is going to take a Weapon Proficency Feat. Meant to make the Artificer more playable out of the box.

Implement Proficencies: Add Crossbow and Blades

Same as above. There's a lot of people who weapliment; and they all need a feat if they want to avoid Swapaholism or Split Weapon and Implements. Meant to make the Artificer more playable out of the box.

Class Features

Healing Infusion: You gain Shielding Elixir, Curative Admixture, and Resistive Formula instead of Curative Admixture and one other.

Shielding Elixir is too situational to stand on its own. Since the Artificer is still constrained by the amount of infusions he has during an encounter, the situational power that you wouldn't take can instead be used as the situation comes up.

He Who Was Not Named: On page 46 of the EPG under Implements and Weapons, it says that thrown weapons automatically return to Artificers, regardless of whether they are magical or not.

A pet peeve I guess. Needs to stand out more than this.

Power Groups

Armor Buffs

Mostly seen in Dragon 381, there were daily attack powers that gave allies an encounter long buff and allowed the Artificer the ability to make an at-will attack while the armor was in effect. These powers do not meet daily power strength. The encounter long buff was often too situational to be of use consistently and the at-will attack was a Standard Action that did not surpass the power of other at-wills (or did not surpass at-wills enough).

My solutions are inspired by the Guardian Forms that Wardens can enter. I've modified the encounter long buffs with more useful ones and replaced the at-will power granted with an encounter power.

You'll also notice that I'll use the wording, "Ignores Resistances and Immunities" quite a bit. I wanted to make sure that these armors were useful in the situations where you would think they would be the most useful (for instance, Flameburst Armor versus Fire Giants); but I knew that those who best deal a damage type also tend to resist such damage. Without the attacks ignoring resistances, you run into situations where the time when you would most enjoy the passive effects of the armor would also be the times where its secondary attack would be the least effective.

Flameburst Armor (Dragon 381, p. 56)

Change the effect to: You infuse the target's armor with an elemental fire spirit. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains resist 5 fire and whenever an enemy hits the target with a melee or close attack, that enemy takes 5 fire damage. The damage from this effect ignores resistances and immunities. Once during this encounter, you can make the following implement attack while the primary target is within 5 squares of you.

Change the secondary attack to:

Standard Action * Close Burst 1 centered on the ally you targetted with Flameburst Armor

Secondary Target: Each Enemy in Burst

Attack: Intelligence v. Reflex

Hit: 2d6+Intelligence modifier fire damage.

Effect: The enemy is marked by the primary target until the end of your next turn.

Special: The secondary attack ignores resistances and immunities.

 Thunderclap Armor (Dragon 381, p. 58)

Change the effect to: You infuse the target's armor with an elemental thunder spirit. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains resist 5 thunder, and any enemy that ends its turn adjacent to the target takes 5 thunder damage and is pushed one square away from the primary target. The damage from this effect ignores resistances and immunities. Once during this encounter, you can make the following implement attack while the primary target is within 5 squares of you.

Change the secondary attack to:

Standard Action * Close Burst 2 centered on the ally you targetted with Thunderclap Armor

Secondary Target: Each Enemy in Burst

Attack: Intelligence v. Fortitude

Hit: 1d10+Intelligence modifier thunder damage and you push the secondary target 2 squares and knock it prone.

Miss: Half Damage and the target is pushed 1 square.

Special: The secondary attack ignores resistances and immunities.

 Static Shell (Dragon 381, p. 58)

Change the effect to: You infuse the target's armor with a static charge. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains resist 5 lightning and each square within 2 squares of the target, wherever it moves, is difficult terrain for your enemies. Once during this encounter, you can make the following implement attack while the primary target is within 5 squares of you.

Change the secondary attack to:

Standard Action * Close Burst 2 centered on the ally you targetted with Static Shell.

Secondary Target: Each Enemy in Burst

Attack: Intelligence v. Reflex

Hit: 2d8 + Intelligence modifier lightning damage, and you pull the secondary target 1 square to a space adjacent to the primary target.

Miss: Half Damage

Special: The secondary attack ignores resistances and immunities.

 Ice Archon's Armor (Dragon 381, p. 59)

Change the effect to: You infuse the target's armor with an elemental cold spirit. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains a +1 power bonus to AC, resist 10 cold, and any enemy that starts its turn adjacent to the target is slowed until the end of its next turn.. Once during this encounter, you can make the following implement attack while the primary target is within 5 squares of you.

Change the secondary attack to:

Standard Action * Close Burst 2 centered on the ally you targetted with Ice Archon's Armor.

Secondary Target: Each Enemy in Burst

Attack: Intelligence v. Reflex

Hit: 2d6 + Intelligence modifier cold damage and the target is immobilized until the end of its next turn.

Miss: Half Damage and the target is slowed until the end of its next turn.

Special: The secondary attack ignores resistances and immunities.

 Radiant Forcefield (Dragon 381, p. 60)

Change the effect to: You infuse the target's armor with radiant energy. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains resist 10 radiant and regeneration 5. Once during this encounter, you can make the following implement attack while the primary target is within 5 squares of you.

Change the secondary attack to:

Standard Action * Close Burst 2 centered on the ally you targetted with Radiant Forcefield.

Secondary Target: Each Enemy in Burst

Attack: Intelligence v. Reflex

Hit: 2d8 + Intelligence modifier radiant damage and the target is blinded until the end of its next turn.

Miss: Half Damage and the target treats all allies as having concealment until the end of its next turn.

Effect: The primary target can spend a healing surge and regain extra hitpoints equal to the amount of enemies you hit with the secondary attack.

Special: The secondary attack ignores resistances and immunities.

 Armor of Storms (Dragon 381, p. 60)

Change the effect to: You infuse the target's armor with an elemental lightning spirit. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains resist 15 lightning and any effect that would stun the target instead dazes the target for the same duration.  Once during this encounter, you can make the following implement attack while the primary target is within 5 squares of you.

Change the secondary attack to:

Standard Action * Close Burst 2 centered on the ally you targetted with Armor of Storms.

Secondary Target: Each Enemy in Burst

Attack: Intelligence v. Reflex

Hit: 2d10 + Intelligence modifier lightning damage and the secondary target is dazed until the end of its next turn.

Miss: Half Damage

Special: The secondary attack ignores resistances and immunities.

 Auramorphic Armor (Dragon 381, p. 61)

Change the effect to: You infuse the target's armor with dynamic, variable energy. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains resist 5 to all damage and resist 20 damage to any one damage type of your choice. Once during this encounter, you can make the following implement attack while the primary target is within 5 squares of you.

Change the secondary attack to:

Standard Action * Close Burst 2 centered on the ally you targetted with Auramorphic Armor.

Secondary Target: Each Enemy in Burst

Attack: Intelligence v. Reflex

Hit: 2d10 + Intelligence modifier damage of the type you selected when you cast Auramorphic Armor and the secondary target is stunned until the end of your next turn.

Miss: Half Damage

Special: The secondary attack ignores resistances and immunities.

 

Summons

Artificers don't have the same sort of control elements that are necessary to make the summons "sticky". I've tried to add in minor control elements and minor leader elements to make them more unique, more useful, and able to meet my expectations of how strong a daily power is.

 Obedient Servant(EPG, p. 48) 

Add the following in the Effect line: "As a free action, at the start of your turn, the Obedient Servant can mark an enemy within 2 squares of it until the end of your next turn."

Dancing Weapon (EPG, p. 50)

Add the following to the effect line: "You may use either the enhancement bonuses of the weapon or use the Inherent Bonuses system when attacking with this summon."

Flameheart Defender (EPG, p. 50)

Change "Any enemy adjacent to the flameheart defender at the start of your turn is marked by it." to "Any enemy adjacent to the flameheart defender at the end of your turn is marked by it until the end of your next turn."

Relentless Harrier (EPG, p. 52)

Add the following in the Effect Line: "Any enemy adjacent to the Relentless Harrier grants combat advantage to your allies, excluding the Relentless Harrier.

Animate Arbalester (EPG, p. 53)

Add the following to the effect line: "You may use either the enhancement bonuses of the weapon or use the Inherent Bonuses system when attacking with this summon."

Clockwork Acid Wasp (EPG, p. 54)

Add the following to the effect line: "Any ally adjacent to the Clockwork Acid Wasp does extra acid damage with weapon attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier."

 

Melee Daily Powers

This is a bit of a personal issue with me. There are no melee weapon daily powers for Artificers until Level 29. On the other hand, some of the Ranged Weapon Daily Powers have nothing, except perhaps their name, that would make them poor Melee Weapon Powers. With this in mind, I'm making many of these powers Melee or Ranged Weapon powers in order to open up a broader array of character options to those who enjoy Artificers with Melee Weapons.

Unfortunately, even with these changes, there's a severe lack of melee weapon daily powers; and at some levels, Ranged Weapon Daily Powers aren't in very good shape either.

Change the range of these powers to "Melee or Ranged Weapon"

Brittle Skin Missile (EPG, 51)

Burrowing Projectile (EPG, 54)

All Consuming Missile (EPG, 56)

Planestorm Anchor (Dragon 381, 60)

Tactical Detonation (Dragon 381, 61)

  In addition, add the following to the effect line:  The secondary attack does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Other Powers

Overpowered Options

Gale Force Infusion (EPG, 50)

Change the power bonus to AC to Constitution Modifier.

Too large of an AC bonus during paragon tier; one that could reach 6 or 7 with some characters.

Greater Magic Weapon (EPG, 59)

Change the power bonus to attack to +3. Add in the following line: "Increase the power bonus to damage to 1d6 + either your Constitution or Wisdom modifier at 21st level."

Having a power bonus to attack as large as a secondary stat modifier can create a situation at Epic level where attacks begin to "Auto-Hit", especially given the level 16 feature of the paragon class. I've boosted the damage bonus at epic to make it feel "Greater" than "Magic Weapon".

Energy Shroud (EPG, 52)

Add the following line to the end of the Secondary Attack: Special: You can only make this attack once per turn.

This attack can overperform in the case of enemies spending action points or those that have "Twin Strike" like attacks.

Life Stealing Shroud (EPG, 56)

Add the following line to the end of the Secondary Attack: Special: You can only make this attack once per turn.

See above.

Prismatic Strike (EPG, 56)

Remove the damage from the Hit (Will) line.

This power was essentially a triple attack, and a really good triple attack at that. Removed the damage on the Will line in order to make it less of a striker power.

 

Underpowered Options

At-Will Powers

Aggravating Force (EPG, 47)

Change the Hit line to: Hit: 1 [W] + Intelligence modifier force damage and you slide the target 1 square. An ally adjacent to the target before or after the slide may shift one square.

The power was too close to Magic Weapon and under nearly all circumstances, intelligent players can get more mileage out of Magic Weapon. I tried to change the power to be a leader power that still fit the flavor of the power while making it fundamentally different than Magic Weapon.

Static Shock (EPG, 47)

Increase the penalty to damage to 3+Constitution Modifier at 11th level and 6+Constitution Modifier at 21st level.

The damage reduction did not scale enough to make it a worthwhile power at higher levels.

Ethereal Chill (Dragon 381, 56)

Increase the damage that enemies take for attacking your ally to 3+Wisdom Modifier at 11th level and 6+Wisdom Modfier at 21st level.

The damage did not scale enough to make it a worthwhile power at higher levels.

From the thread, What Works, What Fails:

Three and a half weeks and 900+ posts later, things are finally slowing down. You guys are amazing. Now we need to hire an intern to sift through all of this raw data and collate it into a meaningful presentation.

Now it only took me a couple seconds to recognize that this was my true calling in life. I was going to summarize this thread into a meaningful presentation through interpretative dance a blog.

I'm going to summarize what I feel are the major highlights of the thread. I'm going to try to avoid things that are specific to one class or aren't huge issues. I will try to include some of my own biases, because I like my biases. They are fun. I've also only done the player's content side of things. Over this way is the DM side of things and summarized in Wrecan's blog.

What Works

I apologize if this list is short. I suppose it's easy to sum up the major things that we like about 4e because the major things we like about 4e affects everyone. Also, people really wanted to get their dislikes in because that's what you need to hear more.

In Post #6, Kilpatds probably highlights the major features that I like.

In Post #69, GreatFrito loves on Class/Racial Feats, Combat Styles, and Errata.

In Post #113, Alcestis talks about Errata. I especially liked his recommendation to add a "Report a Source Error"; though I might expand it further to be a gage of what needs errataed.

In Post #116, Timmeh talks about the powers he likes.

In Post #197, Vestras talks about healing surges, power formatting, and powers.

In Post #282, Keithric talks about the ways how the complexity of the game enhances his fun.

In Post #362, Undeadpool says, "the best part is that even the guys who post rude and obnoxious things directed at the designers or other posters love the game because it is freaken fun and it is a good game, there are some things that need some fixing, but  overall this game kicks ass"

What Needs More Support (And Where?)

This is a really tricky part of the blog. In some ways, it appears that WoTC has expressed interest in supporting classes such as these, but in other ways, it appears that that support is unlikely to come. It's that uncertainty that I think causes a gap between what R&D thinks the players want and what the players actually want. I will say that many of these classes WORK. However, with a little bit more support, these classes could expand to fill many common concepts without the need for creating an entire subclass.

In general, Artificers need more class feats, especially at paragon and epic, errata to the Armor Daily Powers in D381 (underpowered), and proficency with military weapons.

Strength Clerics need 1-3 more paragon paths. I believe you can reasonably give all cleric military weapon proficencies.

Non-Shielding Swordmages need support for their mark retaliation and an at-will melee basic attack based off of a class feature or as an option for an at-will power.

Battleminds need an at-will option for a melee basic attack.

Assassins need their striker mechanic errataed to meet the expectations of normal strikers.

Runepriests and Psionic Power Point users need to do more damage with their at-will powers during epic. Runepriests also need some "non-Rune" feats and a little bit larger power selection.

Summoners need feats that add a meaningful addition to a daily resource and summons need to have strong control elements (in the case of controllers) or strong leadership elements (in the case of the Artificer). Furthermore, it is possible to write general feats that help summoned creatures, and these would be preferable to class feats in many, but not all, situations.

I hope I didn't miss anything; because I'm feeling like I did.

What Fails

First; I'm going to point you to the "Book of Red" that was compiled during the thread. A huge shoutout goes to Joshua_Randall for compiling this and others for helping. For those unaware, Character Optimization Guides are often guides that critique feats and powers by themselves and compare them to the other options that you can take. The "Red" options are those that are either traps, terribly bad, or obsoleted by another option you can take at the same time.

In Post #1, Kilpatds summarizes the events of the previous, disfunct thread. He also quotes Herid's summary of the entire thread up until about post #800; which summarizes many of the Rules Questions and Overpowered Combinations that I did not feel I needed to mention directly. He also brings up many problems with 4e itself. These problems absolutely need to be fixed and should be considered High Priority.

In Post #7, Bgibbons explains why Slow and "Until End of Next Turn/Save ends" does not meet design expectations.

In Post #15, Erachima explains about damage and how strikers work and don't work. Multiple Damage Instances, Charging, and Critfishing are considered the biggest sources of damage.

In Post #17, The_Yakk gives a good solution to the problem of being able to use an opportunity action and a immediate action to the same trigger.

In Post #28, Timmeh talks about Temporary Hitpoints and Items adding to Healing. It is clarified in Post #32.

In Post #30, Mengu74 talks about Item and Feat taxes. Kilpatds proposes a solution in Post #33.

In Post #41, Timmeh talks about Critical Hit Range; and how the class feats that boost it are delivered unequally; and proposes a fix.

In Post #45, Style75 talks about Alchemy and Low HP Monsters.

In Post #52, LightWarden talks about At-Will Advancement and Alternative Ability Scores for Skills. A similar issue to At-Will Advancement is mentioned about Psionic classes at epic.

Linking to a spreadsheet, Kerrus shows the differences between Monsters and Players as they level up.

In Post #143, Alandmj talks about multiclass feats training skills. I remember my DM telling me that CustSupport told him that Skill Focus could be a meaningful replacement if you've already got the skill trained; and I've seen many groups use this houserule.

In Post #149, Crimson_Concerto talks about racial features and powers; and how they may encourage a narrow type of play.

In Post #160, Keithric talks about many of the issues above, but also Normal v. Optimized DPR.

In Post #301, Lady_Auralla talks about the general feel of what is going forward and what we've been hearing from WoTC lately. Also, many +1's. (Addendum from myself: I think you guys need to put your own stamp on D&D and not worry so much about the past. It seems like everyone, including players, is stuck in the 3e mindset, with worrying about edition wars and with 3e campaign settings and 3e classes. Go ahead and wow us. Don't make the old classics Try to make a new classic, like you did with the Warlord.)

In Post #383: Samrin says that wield needs to be officially defined (and that's all he/she wrote).

In Post #397: Litigation says to "Buff Other Options".

Other Issues that I did not see explained well:

Non-Shielding Swordmages: Aegis of Assault and Aegis of Ensnarement both seem really underpowered in terms of Mark Punishment. Aegis of Ensnarement suffers in comparision to other marks because attacks always increase in power beyond normal scaling. Aegis of Assault is just rather... underpowered. The "hit anyone no matter where they are" is nice, but the movement isn't enough to distinguish it from Immediate Interrupt attacks or from the Paladin's Divine Challenge/Sanction support that they receive.

Beastmaster Rangers: Rule of Cool would say Beastmaster Rangers are awesome. But they just don't feel all that awesome. Part of the issue is that their damage doesn't scale well. Another part is that the powers for Beastmasters kind of suck. I think R&D needs to take a good hard look and figure out something.

Basic Attacks: Ugghh. I think many many people agree that some classes/builds need basic attacks built in. The Battlemind and Assault Swordmage are the two worst offender that I think everyone except the most stubborn would agree on. Otherwise, I think that all classes that are able to make melee weapon at-will attacks should have a melee weapon basic, ranged weapon at-will have a ranged basic, etc. Why? Many of your magic items/feats/other allow people to make basic attacks along with Warlords granting basic attacks. By not having basic attacks built into classes, these items become less or not at all useful.

What Fails: Major Problems Overview

Many of the problems that I've noticed in this thread have dealt with issues relating to being able to play the concept you want at first level. For instance, basic attacks, math feats, and armor/weapon/implement proficencies all fall into this category. Fix these issues with errata, please. Anything that is completely necessarily to play a concept should be included in the class.

Math Feats: These feats are just must haves. They overshadow so many feats even they aren't necessary for keeping you on-par with monsters. Imagine a person creating a level 6 character. Of those 4 feats, what does that character have? Furthermore, many players play a very optimized game. At low levels, Math Feats really hurt their ability to play in these optimized games while still customizing their characters.

Multiple Untyped Damage Bonuses: This isn't just that untyped damage bonuses can be stacked; it is that they promote a certain character type. Charging bonuses are insanity when stacked.

Temporary Hitpoints Powers: Some powers are just non-options at high levels. Many Temporary Hitpoints granting powers are these. A secondary (or even primary) statmod of Temporary Hitpoints starts to get old in middle heroic and doesn't get better.

Zone Reintry: Damage Damage Damage.

Errata: I think a lot of people feel like you're unwilling to errata some stuff; and unwilling to look at the errata forums. Let me give you an example that I think sums up a lot of Char-Ops feelings about errata pretty well.

Schwalb: "Closing the loopholes is not unlike playing Whack-a-Mole. Loopholes keep popping up and smacking one down sends another jumping up. Plus, optimizers do what they do because they enjoy the challenge and live to show off their creativity and, in some cases, their mechanical genius to everyone they play with."

Unnamed Optimizer (paraphrased): The reason why we bring these abhorrently overpowered builds to conventions is to draw attention to these builds and get the developers to errata them.

Immediate Action/Opportunity Action Vagueness: I think Mr. Mearls has caught onto this one, at least a little, so I don't feel a need to describe it in depth. In essence, sometimes the timing of actions can make it difficult to tell if an immediate action power will be useful or not.

Differences between Optimized and Normal Characters: Probably the biggest issue; and it's a source of tension in the boards. Some players like to optimize and some people abhor it. But Optimized Characters and Normal Characters are too far apart. I think if you fix some of the major issues we presented, that you'll see a great improvement.

Save Ends v. Next Turn: Save Ends needs to be better. End of Next Turn is often better than Save Ends. Furthermore, the powers that are save ends are often Daily Resources; which causes problems with otherwise great powers.

Recently, I asked one of my DMs if he would be open to homebrewing items. He was hesistant. It seems like whenever one goes into things that might break the system; people start to shy away. And it's totally understandable.

I suppose that in a theoritical sense, I really like the idea of creating homebrewed magic items. I think that there are advantages that homebrewed items can give that items from Wizards cannot give. I think that when done correctly (correctly being a rather broad term) that it can add a new element of fun to the game.

Of course, it's not for everyone. Homebrewing takes time and effort. It takes creativity. But let's hold off on that for a while. Now, I want to explain why homebrewing items can be good.

Homebrewed Items v. Official Items

Now, let's think about how Wizards of the Coast goes about making items. To me, they're going to have a couple goals when they release an "Adventurer's Vault". Note that I'm strictly talking about normal items; but many of the same principles can be applied to rare items.

• Make Flavorful Items
• Make Items that are Balanced with others of the same level, less powerful than those that are higher level, and more powerful than those that are lower level.
• Make Items that have a broad appeal.
• Make items such that each character will likely be attracted to 3 or 4 of the items (per item slot) in the book.

Now, these are all really good goals to have. The first two are rather easy to conceptualize and are also goals you want to have when homebrewing items. The last two points are those that are unnecessary when you're homebrewing items for your players.

Wizards knows their audience. They've got an audience of thousands. You've got an audience of around 3-6 people. Not only that, but given that you're DMing them, you're also able to communicate with them. Thus, your items don't need to have broad appeal, they just need to appeal to one person. Second, you only need to make 1 item to appeal to the player; where Wizards needs to release many items that appeal to the player.

What are the advantages of homebrewed items?

• You can make items based off of specific features or powers.
• You can make items that cater specifically to a players wants.
• Homebrewed items may be more "special" to the player and enhance the roleplaying experience.

How to Homebrew

Now, I've explained how to homebrew, but of course, there's going to be pitfalls. Here are some things that you should take into account when making the items themselves.

1. Don't give your players anything that you would want to submit to Wizards of the Coast in a submission. Players may be trustworthy; but you don't want to see an exact replica of your item in a Dragon Magazine with the author being one of your players.

2. For weapons, implements, armor, and neck slots, don't worry about assigning a level to the item. Unless if you expect your players to buy the item with some gold pieces, it really doesn't matter all that much. The holy blade that your Paladin was given by the High Priestess doesn't need anything on it except what it enhancement bonus is and what properties/powers it has.

3. Don't give out anything that the player would be unwilling to part with. This is most dangerous with passive abilities. For instance, if you give a player with Aegis of Ensnarement an item that allows him/her to make a melee basic attack as a part of their immediate reaction, that's going to be really hard to take back.

4. (linked to the above) If you think that your player should have something for his entire career (let's use the example in #3), then just give it to him as a special ability that isn't going away.

5. Make items that tailor to the player and character's wants and needs. If you're going to have some undead in the upcoming levels, there's nothing wrong with handing out a holy blade that can allow the player to do radiant damage. Furthermore, if your Paladin is about to be initiated into a Knightly Order, why not give him a "Holy Blade" as a gift from the clergy?

6. Naming items: Sometimes, you want to name an item, even a common item, if it has a history. The reverse is true. If your artificer forges his own hammer, don't give it a name, and leave it up to the player to decide what to call it.

Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration

Did I say collaboration? Did I spell collaboration right? *clicks the spell check button* Yes, this is by far one of the most important parts of homebrewing items. You've got to know your audience. Have your audience help you make the items. Have your audience help you make the plot that gives them the items.

For instance, the player playing the Paladin decides that it would be nice if he could join that Knightly Order that helped the party at a lower level. Why not make a questline about it? Why not have a purely roleplaying encounter with it?

You could have the Paladin have to stop the bandit attacks on a local village (with the aid of the party) to earn his way in. Perhaps the Paladin will need to do silent vigil in the forest, where he only needs to pray to his god.

But, also as important as the character reason for wanting a homebrewed item is the player's reason for wanting the homebrewed item; notably, the mechanics behind it. What does the player have on his wishlist? What kind of effects does he like? Is there any sort of effect that the player likes that the official items don't provide? These are questions that need to be asked. If your player has a Dragonborn Paladin; perhaps an item that makes him even better when bloodied would be a good theme to go along with his Dragonbornness. Perhaps an item that let's him add radiant damage to his Dragon's Breath would be good. Perhaps an item that let's him smite his enemies with his Dragon's Breath instead of the normal "Light from On High" Divine Challenge/Sanction damage would be cool.

Have your players work with you. Take into account their opinions and try to have fun homebrewing things together. If it's not fun or you don't have the time, then don't offer to homebrew anything (at all, or only for a time if you think you might be less busy at another time). And furthermore, don't be afraid to break the game. Tell your players that you're a mad alchemist and whatever you make might blow up in your face. Tell them that this might mean that you giveth overpowered item and you taketh it away. Tell them that you'll try to be as fair as possible. Then, try be as fair as possible. If a player has concerns, listen. But overall, try to have fun. You might like what sort of avenues this might open up.