From an optimization perspective, Practices are not a good choice. Unlike other passive feats, there’s no clear-cut benefit to having them. Feats that give bonuses to attacks, skills, and the like are very clear in their use and in many cases you are amplifying existing abilities or adding new abilities that you know when you plan to use them.
From a fun perspective, Practices can be awesome. To steal a extremely good analogy ’God’s given me a gift. I shovel well. I shovel very well.’ So for the cost of one feat you get access to a handful of new gifts. If you spend another feat or two you get access to more gifts, plus the residual of getting the +5 to the skill you just increased.
Most of your other listed options are also extremely situational: darkvision, attacks vs. fortitude, escapes from grabbed, etc… in the past year that we’ve been playing how many times were you in situations that these abilities would have changed the game?
Of the lot Duelist’s Panache seems best, however that assumes you do not and won’t have any other abilities that give feat bonuses. Following a close second is Underdark Climber, which assumes you’d be spending more time looking for difficult things to climb.
One thing which may make martial practices more attractive is that per Martial Power 2, you can train players practices which you know for 1/2 the initial cost. If you could convince Killjoy, Jub-Jub, or Karrock that there’s a benefit to Practices, you could split the cost.
Also, I was confused in what you said about taking another feat (Practiced Study) to gain more practices. You should have that feat. The only other feat I saw related to practices shortened the duration by 50%. Could you explain?
What’s the point of getting martial practices, when I’ll only use them maybe once a year. It’s almost like you’ll for most of the ones I have or want that you’ll have to plan opportunities for me to even use them. Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to invest feats into skill and fighting abilities which are less specific and more versatile.
For instance, now I have forgery
-not only does it cost me money and a healing surge, but how often will I use it.
If I spent another feat to get practiced study I could pick up three more and a forth when I get to level 11.
The three I’d probably get are: (they all cost a healing surge to use and I only have 6)
Hidden pocket- 10 minutes to hide a small object on yourself a little better. (use-rare)
Peerless search- +20 to search a normal sized room, almost an automatic find everything (useful, but how fun is it for the DM to say, I guess you find everything again every time)
either the fixing something that’s 10 × 10 (rare use) or the master of disguise- I can make a disguise to change my weight or height 10% and change my gender and race a little(rare use and costs money)
The good thing is that I would get an occasional study now and then.
On the other hand, I could get duelist panache (+ charisma modifier to acrobatics and athletics). I have +3 and will soon have +4 with it increasing incrementally until the end. This is a versitile thing to have, as it affects escapes, acrobatic tricks, climbing and jumping. Not to mention all the newer skill challenges we’ve been having.
I could also get dark vision up to two squares(useful lately in combat, steath missions and possibly for thunderspire mountain—did I mention that no one in our party can see in the dark).
Since Fortitude is my weakest defense, it might be prudent to improve it with one of the defense incremental options, or with an escape feat. There’s one that allows me to escape +5 (grabs are usually against fortitude) easier, as well as try to save against the conditions slowed, restrained and immobilized at the beginning of my turn.
Then there’s underdark climber, which allows me to use my acrobatics to climb with a +2 bonus to acrobatics (occassionally useful)
What do you all think? Because I’m thinking of swapping out forgery before we go to Thunderspire.
Adherence to dogma (especially for non-divine classes) is mainly for role-play. For example, Priests and other devout agents would seek destruction since undead are repulsed by their goddess.
The general populace of Sehanine’s flock however, probably has a less aggressive stance. They view their goddess just like you or I might, such as respecting religious holidays or saying a prayer when the odds are against them. It is also normal to say prayers to other gods when needed, unless that god is in direct opposition to your god’s goals.
Your choice of deity could also impact your outlook on life. Sehanine is a more protective goddess, so her followers would on average be less destructive (without reason) than someone worshiping Kord or Bane. She disdains undead, which is common for most good and many neutral gods. So you’d know that dealing with Blacktongue is bad. You’d also know that creating undead is really bad. She is also a goddess of dreams and divinations, so her worshipers may place some value in those practices.
That’s correct, invites have been sent to you and Jub-Jub. Once you accept I can link your account to your campaign characters.
I think the only sections you’ll be able to edit will be the Forums, Comments, and your own characters. If that’s true we can use the Forum section to send updates you’d like added to specific wiki pages.
It’s 50 xp to RSVP, and one XP coin (100xp, one re-roll, or one Action Point)to add content to the wiki.
Nice items, they look cool.
I wonder if 50 points for the wiki is really as equal as 100 points for saying we’ll show up though.
From an optimization perspective, Practices are not a good choice. Unlike other passive feats, there’s no clear-cut benefit to having them. Feats that give bonuses to attacks, skills, and the like are very clear in their use and in many cases you are amplifying existing abilities or adding new abilities that you know when you plan to use them.
From a fun perspective, Practices can be awesome. To steal a extremely good analogy ’God’s given me a gift. I shovel well. I shovel very well.’ So for the cost of one feat you get access to a handful of new gifts. If you spend another feat or two you get access to more gifts, plus the residual of getting the +5 to the skill you just increased.
Most of your other listed options are also extremely situational: darkvision, attacks vs. fortitude, escapes from grabbed, etc… in the past year that we’ve been playing how many times were you in situations that these abilities would have changed the game?
Of the lot Duelist’s Panache seems best, however that assumes you do not and won’t have any other abilities that give feat bonuses. Following a close second is Underdark Climber, which assumes you’d be spending more time looking for difficult things to climb.
One thing which may make martial practices more attractive is that per Martial Power 2, you can train players practices which you know for 1/2 the initial cost. If you could convince Killjoy, Jub-Jub, or Karrock that there’s a benefit to Practices, you could split the cost.
Also, I was confused in what you said about taking another feat (Practiced Study) to gain more practices. You should have that feat. The only other feat I saw related to practices shortened the duration by 50%. Could you explain?
What’s the point of getting martial practices, when I’ll only use them maybe once a year. It’s almost like you’ll for most of the ones I have or want that you’ll have to plan opportunities for me to even use them. Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to invest feats into skill and fighting abilities which are less specific and more versatile.
For instance, now I have forgery
-not only does it cost me money and a healing surge, but how often will I use it.
If I spent another feat to get practiced study I could pick up three more and a forth when I get to level 11.
The three I’d probably get are: (they all cost a healing surge to use and I only have 6)
Hidden pocket- 10 minutes to hide a small object on yourself a little better. (use-rare)
Peerless search- +20 to search a normal sized room, almost an automatic find everything (useful, but how fun is it for the DM to say, I guess you find everything again every time)
either the fixing something that’s 10 × 10 (rare use) or the master of disguise- I can make a disguise to change my weight or height 10% and change my gender and race a little(rare use and costs money)
The good thing is that I would get an occasional study now and then.
On the other hand, I could get duelist panache (+ charisma modifier to acrobatics and athletics). I have +3 and will soon have +4 with it increasing incrementally until the end. This is a versitile thing to have, as it affects escapes, acrobatic tricks, climbing and jumping. Not to mention all the newer skill challenges we’ve been having.
I could also get dark vision up to two squares(useful lately in combat, steath missions and possibly for thunderspire mountain—did I mention that no one in our party can see in the dark).
Since Fortitude is my weakest defense, it might be prudent to improve it with one of the defense incremental options, or with an escape feat. There’s one that allows me to escape +5 (grabs are usually against fortitude) easier, as well as try to save against the conditions slowed, restrained and immobilized at the beginning of my turn.
Then there’s underdark climber, which allows me to use my acrobatics to climb with a +2 bonus to acrobatics (occassionally useful)
What do you all think? Because I’m thinking of swapping out forgery before we go to Thunderspire.
Here’s the link to The hidden club.
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25474357/The_Rules_Of_Hidden_Club:__Targeting_things_you_cant_see_in_DD..
Adherence to dogma (especially for non-divine classes) is mainly for role-play. For example, Priests and other devout agents would seek destruction since undead are repulsed by their goddess.
The general populace of Sehanine’s flock however, probably has a less aggressive stance. They view their goddess just like you or I might, such as respecting religious holidays or saying a prayer when the odds are against them. It is also normal to say prayers to other gods when needed, unless that god is in direct opposition to your god’s goals.
Your choice of deity could also impact your outlook on life. Sehanine is a more protective goddess, so her followers would on average be less destructive (without reason) than someone worshiping Kord or Bane. She disdains undead, which is common for most good and many neutral gods. So you’d know that dealing with Blacktongue is bad. You’d also know that creating undead is really bad. She is also a goddess of dreams and divinations, so her worshipers may place some value in those practices.
If I worship Sehanine and worshipers dislike the undead, does that mean that I might not like Blacktongue who is an undead vampire?
That’s correct, invites have been sent to you and Jub-Jub. Once you accept I can link your account to your campaign characters.
I think the only sections you’ll be able to edit will be the Forums, Comments, and your own characters. If that’s true we can use the Forum section to send updates you’d like added to specific wiki pages.
I think we need an invitation from your campaign to be invited. I can’t do anything on your website right now.