 Goto [ Index ] |
The Good: The Classes in play are downright fun in the Heroic Tier, especially the Runepriest which has a lot of options going at any given time. Skill Powers are a clever addition, but for my group haven't been so strong as to be mandatory picks.
The Bad: Hybrid character creation is messy and an odd addition considering that there was already a path to multiclassing present in 4E. While Hybrids offer more mechanical tweaking opportunities, they can also blur character roles and may not work well in games with four players or less. Superior Implements only occupy two pages of discussion, and after such a long wait are surprisingly simple. The Shardmind seems a little strong, especially when naturally paired with the Psion Class.
The Physical Thing
At $34.95 this 224 page full color hardcover showcases the same excellent production values found in other Wizards of the Coast products. Good editing and formatting result in an easy to read work that's attractive to the eyes. Excellent use of beautiful artwork throughout does a great job of supporting the text while illustrating the many new game options to be found within. A comprehensive table of contents makes navigation a snap.Under the Cover
While PHB3 does have occasional bits of setting, this is definitely a heavy mechanics book focused solely on bringing new options to the table. The general background – that psionics came into the world when creatures of madness from the Far Realm incurred beyond the Living Gate and psionics users live to oppose their evil – is certainly interesting enough to get anyone started. In this review I'll look at each new mechanical option in turn, offer some detail on how these options work, and occasionally critique the options in terms of effectiveness or fun at the table.New Races include the Githzerai, Minotaur, Shardmind, and Wilden. While the Githzerai and Minotaur were already options in the Monster Manuals, they have had a few tweaks here. Each of these Races has one set attribute and two optional attributes. Minotaur, for example, now receive a +2 Str and player's choice of +2 Con or +2 Wis. Githzerai and Minotaur otherwise are largely the same, with Githzerai receiving an initiative bonus and defensive interrupt encounter power while Minotaur are still focused on charge attacks.
Shardmind are humanoid beings of living crystal, fragments from the Living Gate, with exceptional minds. They receive +2 Int and +2Wis or Cha, Common, Deep Speech and another bonus language, +2 Arcana, +2 Endurance, +2 to any other Skill, Speed 6, normal vision, Telepathy to 25', Resist 5 psychic (scaling to 10/15), Living Construct quality, Immortal quality, and the Shard Swarm power (close burst 1 combat advantage and teleport half speed as an encounter move). This is a pretty potent package of abilities, resulting in a race that gets a little more power than other races. It also happens to be a fantastic option for the Psion Class, thanks both to native abilities and Feats which offer excellent synergy.
Wilden are humanoid Fey creatures that are embodiments of nature. With +2 Wis and +2 Con or Dex they have plenty of build options. Low Light Vision, +2 Nature and Stealth, a +1 to a NAD, and three different encounter powers of which they may have one active at a time come together to create a flavorful race that will fit well with certain character concepts. I don't find them to be quite as nice of an addition as the other races, but the usefulness of their three switchable encounter powers is very helpful. Wilden, along with the other races included here, receive several Background options for those making use of the Background rules.
Each Race receives a new Paragon Path focusing on what it's good at. Minotaur receive Blooded Champion which focuses on charging even more, offering modest changes such as getting to use Second Wind to regain the Minotaur charge power instead of hit points. While it does have a nice Daily 20 power (damage + slide 4 + knock prone), on the whole the Path strikes me as being a little underwhelming especially considering the many other options already available.
Nature's Avatar, the Wilden option, focuses on their three encounter powers by boosting them and making them easier to shift to. It further augments the race by tossing in cold and fire damage abilities, quite suitable for a creature of nature and easy to integrate with many builds. Rrathmal allow Githzerai to be even better at fighting mindflayers and other psionic entities, with a large resistance to psychic damage, daze, restrain, slow, and immobilize ending when an AP is spent, and general speed and mobility perks coming together to provide the character with an overall effectiveness boost. If you like going first and staying mobile then this is an attractive Paragon option.
Finally, the Shard Disciple buffs the Shard Swarm power, grants 2 more power points, and offers several useful defensive abilities. It ultimately culminates in a Daily 20 that creates a zone around the Shadmind which provides a 50% reduction in most damage, immunity to many effects, damage 10 to enemies ending a turn in the zone, burst 3 with sustain minor. A very attractive power for a Psion who wants to encourage enemies to find a different target, or for any tight combat area thanks to its selective targeting of enemies only.
While the new Races are enjoyable additions, the new Classes are what I've enjoyed the most so far. Ardent, Battlemind, Monk, Psion, Runepriest, and Seeker each have a unique setup and in play they've felt notably different from any class previously published. While the Runepriest and Seeker do not make use of the psionic power source, they're still wonderful additions to the options we have available. Let's take a look at each of these in turn.
The Ardent, along with the Battlemind and Psion, makes use of power points to augment their powers. For these Classes a character gains new At-Will attack powers, never having more than three at a time, instead of Encounter powers at 3, 7, 13, 17, 21, 23, and 27. These start out being about as strong as any At-Will, but they can be augmented once or twice with power points producing an effect more in line with an encounter power. Each augment option is different, and some situations may result in just one power point being a better deal than two though this is uncommon. Characters begin with 2 power points and gain more at levels where they would have gained encounter attack powers. All power points are regained with a short or extended rest.
The Ardent is a psionic Leader focused on melee combat and using emotions against enemies. Cha is the key Ability with Con for the Euphoric option and Wis for the Enlightened option. Enlightened go with the Mantle of Clarity which offers Wis mod bonus to all defenses to all allies within 5 of the Ardent but only against opportunity attacks. Mantle of Elation, the other option, does the same but offers a Con bonus to damage rolls of allies' opportunity attacks instead of defense. Both powers also grant a +2 bonus to two different Skills. Choice of Mantle also grants an Encounter power that either gives burst 5 combat advantage against enemies in range when the ardent is bloodied or a movement burst under the same condition.
Ultimately this means that the two builds focus on either delivering more damage for the party or aiding party defense as they move around the battlefield. With a solid healing power that grants a Surge + 1d6 (scaling upward) HP and an additional bonus based on mantle, the Ardent is well suited to be a primary healer for a group. Different melee At-Wills can provide temp HP, boosted defenses, debuffs, or even a Tactical Warlord-style attack instead of the Ardent for a person next to the Ardent. This is definitely a class that is meant to stay on the front lines.
While the Ardent keeps everyone alive, the Battlemind puts monsters where she wants. This psionic Defender has access to a nice mix of forced movement, charms, and a multitude of debuffs. Built with Con as the primary stat and either Wis (Resilient) or Cha (Quick) as the secondary stat, the Battlemind's At-Will attacks do not scale damage even at high levels without the expenditure of power points. Despite this, I find the class to easily make up for it in terms of versatility of battlefield control. The many augmentable options provide the character with a constant opportunity to do whatever is necessary to hold on to the nastiest enemies.
Every Battlemind has three core powers. Battlemind's Demand is a minor burst 3 that marks a creature until the power is used again or the encounter ends, with Augment 1 to make it two creatures. Blurred Step allowed the Battlemind to shift 1 when an adjacent marked enemy shifts. Mind Spike deals damage to an enemy that hit an adjacent ally instead of you equal to the damage it dealt. On the whole, I find these three bread and butter powers to definitely be up to the task of defending. They allow the Battlemind to heavily punish those that attack nearby allies while keeping up with enemies as well.
The Resilient build also gains Battle Resilience which, once per encounter, gives the Battlemind 3/6/9 + Wis mod damage resistance until the end of the next turn after an enemy first misses the Battlemind. This encourages the Battlemind to charge right into large group of enemies at the start of an encounter, taking far less damage especially against minions. The Quick Battlemind gets to move 3 + Cha mod squares as a free action when initiative is rolled, thereby allowing her to easily hamper foes from the very start of any combat – even an ambush!
While those two form a psionic party defensive backbone, the Monk is the only psionic Striker and also the only psionic character to make no use of power points. Instead, the Monk is built like other characters but also features a build idea called Full Discipline powers. All Monk powers are Full Discipline and offer both a standard action power and an optional move power. This results in an incredibly mobile character that is constantly sliding, shifting, charging, or whatever else in addition to executing solid Striker powers.
Monks are primarily built on Dex with Str (Stone Fist) or Wis (Centered Breath) determining their secondary options. Stone Fist offers a little more damage with the monk's Flurry of Blows power, a minor action that triggers when the monk strikes an enemy and does either additional damage to that enemy or to an adjacent enemy. Centered Breath shifts enemies around instead of dealing the extra damage. Monks also feature a +2 AC bonus while unarmored and an unarmed strike (+3, 1d8) though the unarmed strike is only normally used for attacks of opportunity. Monks make use of implements instead of traditional weapons, and mechanically tend to have set damage or damage rolls for all of their powers instead of relying on weapon characteristics.
In play my group was initially concerned that the Monk powers would result in the Monk falling behind in terms of DPS. Especially when considering the benefits of various weapon Feats not to mention superior weapons like the Executioner's Axe, it seemed like losing out on this option was going to result in a highly mobile Striker unable to do damage on par with other classes. In play this proved to not be the case thanks to the continuous damage supplied by the Flurry of Blows power. In fact, our Monk player had a great time with the class in the Heroic tier and found it to be wonderfully atmospheric in terms of the character performing effects that make perfect sense for a martial artist.
The Psion also showed off his power in our group, using a lot of force movement to keep enemies right where he wanted them. With Int as his main stat and either Wis (Telekinetic) or Cha (Telepath) as the secondary, this psionic Controller is focused around either doing a lot of debuffs and mental status effects (Telepath) along with psychic damage or doing lots of forced movement (Telekinetic) along with force damage. Telepath Psions gain the Distract (target grants combat advantage, minor action) and Send Thoughts (Range 20 send 1 message and receive reply) Encounter powers. Telekinetics receive the Far Hand (20 pound telekinesis with sustain minor) and Forceful Push (slide target 1 square but not into hindering terrain) powers.
Both build options are very consistent throughout, and this is both a strength and a weakness. Telekinetics are stuck doing Force damage unless they dabble in other powers, with Telepaths consistently doing psychic damage. Forced movement is the theme of Telekinesis, but it's such a constant theme that I can't help but wonder if the option would get a little tiresome. It's backed up with knock downs and slows to prevent enemies from being able to rejoin the combat, though this does limit the Telekinetic's effectiveness at controlling ranged attackers. Still, with a Wizard or other class throwing up some nasty zones the Telekinetic has the potential to do large amounts of damage with the right synergy.
The Telepath focuses more on debuffs, dominates. illusions, and similar effects. With power point expenditures each option has a broad variety of possible control actions at any single point, and this versatility does a lot to overcome a single damage type and strict control theme. In play we found the Telekinetic, in particular, had great synergy with the monk by setting up enemies for Flurry of Blows.
Runepriest is one of two non-psionic additions, in this case a divine Leader. A Str user, Runepriest either takes on a more offense-oriented approach with the Con secondary (Wrathful) or more defense-oriented with the Wis secondary (Defiant). At any point the Runepriest is in either the Destruction or Protection runic state. Destruction offers allies a +1 attack bonus against enemies adjacent to the Runepriest while Protection offers adjacent allies 2/4/6 damage reduction. The Runepriest can switch his state whenever he uses a power with the runic keyword (all of them) and each power has a different secondary effect depending on which runic state the Runepriest is in.
The difference between Wrathful and Defiant is only slight, with Wrathful gaining Con mod bonus damage against an enemy that strikes him while Defiant gains Wis mod damage against an enemy that misses. This is a melee heavy Leader option that generally does a bit more damage than other Leader builds but lacks certain defensive options. It is at its best in a melee-focused party, as many of the defensive powers are only useful when adjacent to the target.
In play we found the Runepriest to be quite fun, so much so that several members of my group want to play the Class in our next campaign. That each power has different secondary effects at will, combined with the melee focus, resulted in a class that had a lot of options at the table and, at least in the Heroic Tier did a surprising amount of damage for a Leader. What's more, the Class has an excellent thematic feel and fits into most campaigns with little trouble.
Our final addition is the Seeker, a primal Controller meant to use either bow and arrow or throwing weapons. Wis is their primary attribute, with Str (Protecting) or Dex (Vengeful) as the secondary. The Seeker gains Inevitable Shot as an encounter power which turns a ranged attack miss into another shot as a basic attack. The Protecting build gains a bonus with thrown weapons, may use Str to determine AC when not wearing heavy armor, and has thrown weapons magically return to the hand after use. The Vengeful build gives a minor action shift when not wearing heavy armor along with a close burst 1 encounter power that pushes enemies 1 and slows them.
Both Seeker builds have a lot of variety going on, and the class looks downright fun to play. A nice mix of weapon attacks with powers that summon the forces of nature results in a character that's constantly leaping about the battlefield with dagger or bow in hand, dazzling foes as the natural world answers the Seeker's call. Another excellent addition to our Class options, and other than Runepriest the Class I most want to play in a long term game.
Each of these six Classes is accompanied by four new Paragon Path options. These Paths are enjoyable and further develop a certain aspect of the Class. In addition to that, new epic destiny options are presented including the Diamond Soul (Monk), Godmind (any psionic), Invincible Mind (Battlemind), Master of the Eternal Hunt (Seeker), Rune Maker (Runepriest), and War Master (Ardent). While these aren't the most interesting Destinies I've seen, they offer excellent synergy with the options presented in PHB 3.
In addition to new Classes, the Hybrid Class system is introduced here. In this system players choose two Hybrid Class options they want to combine to create a whole class. These often involve taking the average of various abilities, picking defenses from one of the classes, having both class abilities in a more limited fashion, and taking powers from both classes. The Hybrid Talent Feat can be purchased to pick up additional class options from the two classes.
So far the Hybrid option seems reasonably balanced, though I'm sure the character op boards have found exceptions. The downside to the system is that it's a little more involved than standard character creation. It can also blend character roles, and those who don't have a clear build goal in mind may find that their character has a harder time working as part of the group. This system is best for those who have a strong handle on the rules and are playing in a game where they will either still take plenty of options to maintain a role or where the key roles have already been taken up.
Superior Implements have been added. For a Feat your character can make use of them, and the ones presented here take the form of holy symbol, staff, wand, rod, tome, totem, and orb. Each has either the Accurate power (+1 to all attacks) or a pair of other powers, typically increasing range, damage, critical strike, or attack under certain circumstances. I consider the options here to definitely be worth the Feat so long as the DM is actively seeding superior implements in the game or the players are making their own.
Skill Powers are new powers available to any character with the corresponding Skill instead of a utility encounter power. For example, Endurance offers a level 2 Daily that prevents damage for a round. Players may also spend a Feat to acquire any Skill power they qualify for. While I don't find any of these to be overly powerful, some can be quite nice for certain builds and they do make Skills a little more important. Given all the options already available to characters with Feats, I suspect many people may pick up an extra power or two in the Heroic Tier and train out of them later on when they have more powers than they know what to do with.
Finally, Player's Handbook 3 provides plenty of Feat and item support for the classes introduced here. Some of the Feats are nice general options for anyone, such as a Feat that provides a +1 bonus to attack with both a weapon and an implement, but the majority of content is focused on the new material. Magic items are heavily focused towards making certain the new classes have plenty to choose from, and few options are available for existing classes. No new Rituals are included among the options here.
