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So ... when we finished designing our characters for the D&D 4e game Lyle is going to run starting this weekend, he brought his copy of Martial Power along. So naturally, I flipped through it to see if there were any good alternative 1st level rogue goodies for my character.
The Confounding Attack daily ability caught my eye. Basically, it lets you trick a foe into hitting one of his own allies. Suits the kind of trickster-rogue I want to play. I very nearly dropped Easy Target for it. Then I glanced to the end of the description.
No “Miss” listing.
You see, many, if not most, Daily abilities in D&D 4e do something even if you brick the attack roll, not as much as when you hit, naturally, but if you use your precious one-a-day ability, it will do something. This is good design, because it alleviates the inevitable player frustration of spending that one-time ability and getting... nothing.
No such option for Confounding Attack, whereas Easy Target still does half damage and grants combat advantage for one round on a miss. Given that, it was no contest.
The lesson: the coolest ability isn’t worth that much if you only get one shot with it and there’s a reasonable chance that it won’t work at all.
Looking forward to playing this weekend!
The Confounding Attack daily ability caught my eye. Basically, it lets you trick a foe into hitting one of his own allies. Suits the kind of trickster-rogue I want to play. I very nearly dropped Easy Target for it. Then I glanced to the end of the description.
No “Miss” listing.
You see, many, if not most, Daily abilities in D&D 4e do something even if you brick the attack roll, not as much as when you hit, naturally, but if you use your precious one-a-day ability, it will do something. This is good design, because it alleviates the inevitable player frustration of spending that one-time ability and getting... nothing.
No such option for Confounding Attack, whereas Easy Target still does half damage and grants combat advantage for one round on a miss. Given that, it was no contest.
The lesson: the coolest ability isn’t worth that much if you only get one shot with it and there’s a reasonable chance that it won’t work at all.
Looking forward to playing this weekend!
