Earlier in the month, I and a few other bloggers and podcasters were given copies of the upcoming Players Handbook 2 for the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. In exchange, we agreed to write about it and share with our readers.
The Players Handbook 2 features 5 new races: Deva, Gnome, Goliath, Half-Orc and Shifters (2 sub-races: Long Tooth and Razorclaws). It also has 8 new classes: Avenger, Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Invoker, Shaman, Sorcerer and Warden.
I was assigned to present to you the Warden, and I’m happy that I got that one because I find it to be one of the classes I would love to play. Since this class was already previewed (level 1 to 3) to subscribers of Wizards D&D Insider service, I thought I’d go a little further and present you a PC I created and describe shortly each and every power and feature I would pick during the Heroic Tier of the game (i.e. level 1 to 10), I would then describe one level 29 power, because, you know, it’s fun to see what awaits us at the top.
As it’s name implies, the Warden is a protector. It is charged with defending the natural world from those that wish to destroy it or corrupt it to their own dark ends. A Warden ‘s role in a party is to act as a Defender, drawing all it’s powers (called Evocations) from the Primal source. As all classes of the PHB2, the class can also play a secondary role, depending on the mix of powers a player chooses. In the case of the Warden, it can lean toward either a controller role or a striker one.
In fact, for those who are fans of Avatar, think of the Warden as an Earth-bender. Many of the powers have a ‘Manipulating of the elements” feel to them.
Being a Primal defender, it is limited to Cloth, Leather or Hide armors, but all kinds of shields can used. The class also can use all simple and military melee weapons as well as simple ranged weapons.
Some of the class features of the Warden will call out to players who want to be on the front lines and dislike D&D’s status effects like Ongoing damage and Immobilization. As such with Font of Life, the Warden is allowed to roll saving throws both at the start AND at the end of the turn. That means that if you would be stunned for your turn, you get to roll a save and if it’s successful you brush off the effect and play your turn normally.
I know my friend Yan, who plays a Fighter in our current game would love that!
Each Warden must choose among two types of connection to the natural world. As with many other classes, this gives you some mechanical power or advantage and will modify certain powers. In the case of the character I created, I chose Earthstrength. This allows me to use Constitution instead of Dex to determine bonus to AC and gives me a short boost to AC whenever I use Second Wind.
Another very cool feature of the Warden is Nature’s Wrath which allows the Warden to mark all adjacent ennemies once per turn. Attached to this are 2 At-Will powers: Warden’s Fury and Warden’s Grasp that allow an immediate action against marked enemies that ignore you when they make attacks against your allies. For instance, Warden’s Fury allows you to make a melee attack that then causes the target to grants combat advantage to you and your allies until the end of your next turn.
That’s such a great combo with Rogue PCs.
All right so I made myself a PC. He’s a Goliath (think medium sized Stone-Giant) Earth Warden. I called him “The Guardian” mostly because WWE owns the rights to “The Rock”.
Level 1 Warden
Str 18, Con 18, Dex 10, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10
HP 35 (yup, they’re tough)
Fort 15, Ref 10, Will 13, AC 18
Healing Surges: 13 per day (Nice!)
Warhammer, Hide Armour, Light Shield, 6 throwing hammers, Adventurers Kit
Okay, so at Level one, I took the following at Will powers (on top of the two granted by the Nature’s Wrath class feature)
Earth Shield Strike: A melee attack that grants a +1 AC bonus if target is hit.
Strength of Stone: A melee attack that grants a few temporary HP when target is hit (4 in the case of my PC)
My Encounter power:
Thunder Ram Assault (I love the name): A Melee attack that deals thunder damage that then blasts a 3X3 area with additional thunder damage. The primary target gets pushed 4 and all others get pushed 1
Some of the Warden’s daily powers are different from most other classes. They are part stance, part attack, they are a polymorph power where the Warden takes the form of a particular nature guardian. This grants the warden (and often allies) a buff that lasts until the end of the Encounter. Additionally, each such powers allow the Warden to make one special attack during the power’s duration. Hit or Miss, the buffing effect remains.
So for my PC, I chose:
Form of Winter’s Herald: Ice plates form, granting a +1 AC bonus and granting 5 cold resistance on the warden. All squares within 2 of the PC are considered difficult for enemies. Additionally, I can do a Burst 1 attack to deal cold damage and immobilized all adjacent enemies until they make a saving throw.
That’s quite a cool level 1 power!
All right, what would I pick for the following levels?
Level 2 Utility power:
Nature’s Abundance (Daily) : I can create a Burst 3 (that’s huge) zone of plants that grant cover to my allies and myself until the end of the encounter. That means the plant protect us but move away for enemies.
Level 3 Encounter Power:
Earthgrasp Strike: A melee attack that knocks the target prone on a hit. My Earthstrength feature makes the target unable to get up until the end of my next turn. Plus the target gets a face full of rocks (1d10+Str damage) when he finally gets up.
Earth-bending Power go! 🙂
Level 5 daily power (I decided to go with flavour here):
Thunder Step: You teleport up to 5 squares and then you make a melee attack (vs reflex) that that deals thunder damage and dazes the target until it saves.
Yup, the Warden also steps on the Blink dog express and can move right in the middle of a pack of opponents… hit one and mark them all!
Level 6 utility power
Bear’s Endurance (daily): If the PC drops to zero or fewer HP, it gains HP as if it spent a healing Surge without actually using one.
It’s a neat power that comes in useful when the party is running low on healing or an enemy scores a critical with an Encounter power.
Level 7 Encounter Power:
Earth Gift: Melee attack that deals damage and heals the PC 10 HP
Simple, useful. Plus I’m not all that interested in the other ones. Although Thorn Burst allows sf Minion control by dealing poison damage over an area around a target.
Level 9 Daily (The second Form of… power)
Form of the Stone Sentinel: Gain HP as if an healing surge was spent and gain regeneration based on Constitution modifier until end of encounter. Additionally, also until the end of the encounter, you can make one melee attack vs a target and you’re allowed to spend a Healing Surge while doing so (regardless if attack is successful)
While I wasn’t initially impressed with these “Form of” dailies.. upon re-reading them, I’m finding then to be quite interesting. At least you seriously limit the whiff factor when you do miss your attack. However, the attacks you gain are not high damage dealers like some of the all or nothing striker dailies.
Level 10 utility power:
Shield of Stone (Daily): You pick an ally within 5 squares, you can slide him/her for 5 squares and grant resist all 5 and a +2 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
That’s a useful power to get a friend out of a bad jam.
That’s it for the 1-10 build! From that point on you get to chose one of 4 paragon paths (or one of the new racial ones offered in the PHB2 if you prefer). I won’t describe them… I’ll leave some surprises to those who will read the class.
As promised though, here’s the level 29 daily power I would pick:
Form of the Starmetal Warrior: Until the end of the encounter, you become real hard (+3 AC) and all flying creatures within 10 squares of you have their flying speed dropped to 1. Additionally you can make a close burst 2 attack that deals 3W+ Str and ignores all resistances.
There you have it. The Warden, Primal Defender and all around swell person… provided you don’t step on the lawn.
Want to learn more about Player’s Handbook 2? Read on…
- Atomic Array: Episode 018: Player’s Handbook 2
- Game Cryer: Player’s Handbook 2 Review
- Gnome Stew: A Veteran GM’s Take on GMing and the PHB2
- Critical Hits: The Avenger
- Campaign Mastery: The Barbarian
- Uncle Bear: The Bard
- Critical Ankle Bites: The Druid
- Kobold Quarterly: Review: Player’s Handbook 2
- The Core Mechanic: The Invoker
- Flames Rising: The Shaman
- Stupid Ranger: The Sorcerer
Drop by Wizards of the Coast today!
This sounds like a class I could use! I like the “spending healing surges without actually expending one” powers a lot; really reflects the warden as well as the Goliath, bein’ tough and all.
Maybe I’m kind of hitting a sensitive spot here (and drifting off-topic), but I am very curious about the inner WotC discussions about re-implementing several of the 3.x and lower (though not necessarily worse 😉 ) races and classes. I mean, is this book for nostalgic people with regards to those classes & races, or was there a lot of incentive to get a little back to basic to try and get more people still stuck on 3.x and lower to make the transition to 4e?
Anyways, good luck at hospital (again). I enjoyed the read, thanks!
Chatty, thanks for the review. The Warden does sound seriously tough. I don’t like the description of them as Protectors of the Wilderness. To me this was always the job of the Ranger and the Druid. As you indicated they can play a duel roll of either striker or controller. Begs the question do we need the Ranger?
Wimwicks last blog post..Necromancer: Epic Tier
Looks pretty awesome.
Ron Baileys last blog post..Flick Faves Mosaic 03-13-09
Wow, I was not really interested in the warden until reading this!
Flying Dutchman: I think that the races in the PHB2 were chosen to fit the primal theme: half orcs, goliaths, and shifters. (and unless they were given some primal theme, Devas were put in as a counter balance for tieflings and Gnomes were the last 3.x core race not included. )
MacGuffins last blog post..What class are you?
@ MacGuffin
Ah I see! The mop-up rulebook 😉 Release was probably planned beforehand, but I always get sensionalist visions about entire squadrons of marketing managers with their hands in their hair:
Manager #1: “They’re not buying our books! Whatever must we do!”
Manager #2: “We have no choice, we must give the people what they want!!!”
Manager #1: “Certainly you can’t mean….”
Manager #2″: *squints his eyes, and stares remorsefully at the picture of his children on his desk* “Yes… We must bring back to life…. the GNOMES”
*Insert angsty theme music*
This review really put the Warden on the map for me. It sounds like a very interesting take on the Defender role.
Based on the image next to Goliath’s character stats, I see that “earth bending” also causes some “gender bending”. 😉
Chatty, do you mind if I ask you about the accountability in these reviews? What caught my attention was your comment “I was assigned…” Obviously you have a contact that has a number of review copies and wants his friends/acquaintances to take on certain sections of the review. But what is the agenda of these reviews? Is there one? Are the people chosen for the sections of the reviews expected to provide positive reviews or never get another copy again? I am kind of playing a devil’s advocate with these questions but I cannot help but wonder how this business of D&D is driving itself.
HermitDaves last blog post..fatigued disposables
I’ll tackle some of these questions for ChattyDM while he’s busy. I was one of the others who got a copy.
@Flying Dutchman –
We aren’t privy to internal WotC decisions. We just got review copies of the book. That said, I do know it was said that the only reason that Gnomes weren’t in the PHB1 was that they weren’t ready yet. The MM1 had a later deadline. And the PHB2 version is further revised and improved from there.
The other thing that I believe the PHB2 was being designed as the PHB1 was being released, or very shortly thereafter. As such, many of the decisions about what to include were probably already made at that point.
As a point of reference, Mike Mearls just finished his work on the PHB3, which isn’t due out until… fall sometime?
So don’t get too cynical about that stuff. The production schedules don’t allow for it.
.
@Wimwick –
The Warden does not replace the ranger, by any means. Just as the 3e Ranger and Druid didn’t replace each other, despite similar flavouring, and the Warlock and Wizard don’t negate each other, the Warden does something completely different from the Ranger.
Yeah, he can lean into striker somewhat. Just like the Fighter leans into striker. But that doesn’t make the Rogue obsolete, because striker is his primary job, and he’s far better at it than the Fighter is. Same thing here.
.
@HermitDave –
We actually are not accountable to WotC at all, aside from providing reviews and not copy/pasting excerpts straight from the books.
The organiser of this event was Ed Healy, of Atomic Array and other fine sites. He was given the opportunity through WotC, but we dealt through him. When Chatty mentions being “assigned” the Warden, he is referring to the decision that the March 13th posts would focus on the classes, one class per blog. I chose Druid. Chatty was “assigned” Warden because he didn’t request anything before they were all taken. Keep an eye on the blogs linked above over the next few days, though, as more posts about other things will be going up.
As far as any “agenda” goes, if there is one we weren’t told about it. The only agenda we saw was that WotC is now seeing the viability of using bloggers to generate hype.
So, yeah, we’re part of the WotC hype machine, but only by choice. If we hated the book, or were very disappointed in it, there is nothing to stop us from saying so.
From what I know of the D&D folks, though, I think that a dishonestly positive review would be faster to ensure us a place on the “no more books” list than a critical one. Dishonestly positive reviews are discovered soon enough, and don’t look good for either the blog or the publisher.
There’s no conspiracy here, man.
@hermitdave- I don’t think that someone who has a D&D blog WOULD be likely to give it a bad review, especially someone who wanted a free pre-release copy of the book. (not saying they are biased) But just because they were given a free copy does not mean that they got them by signing their souls (or integrity) away. Have some faith in people.
And I think that the picture is supposed to be for the warden, not the goliath.
MacGuffins last blog post..The terrible truth
Gah I had answered all those questions but I never actually posted them.
Thanks Graham, as usual you saved my bacon. (Put it on my tab)
Yeah, I gave the Warden a positive review because I genuinely liked it. Were I to play a D&D 4e PC (something I really do not do often), I would likely chose the Avenger, the Warden or the Cleric. So you see, 2 PHB2 classes make it into my top 3… not bad.
However, to be honest, the powers still read like it was a telephone directory… But I think it’s something we’ll have to learn to live with.
@MacGuffin –
I was trying to say that as well, but couldn’t word it right so left it out. Thanks for finishing my sentences! 😛
@ChattyDM –
I’ve also been thinking hard about my next 4e character, as we’re doing a big thing for game day. My top choices are Wild Sorcerer, Avenger and Bard.
But that’s no surprise, as I always gravitate to the new and exciting stuff. I jumped on 4e with no hesitation, after all.
I’d love to play a low-level Warden, too. But, personally, it loses a lot of its charm at higher levels, as the higher-level “Form” powers just don’t inspire me. They’re good powers, but they just don’t make me go “So awesome!”
In fact, I think my favourite “Form” power so far is a level 1. The Form of the Fearsome Ram.
thanks guys! I already knew the answer but I wanted to hear it out loud. It has been a discussion on blogs in general for the past few years. If you get free stuff how do you dance the line where you might not get more free stuff (pre releases make anyone go “squeeee”) if you don’t give favorable reviews.
HermitDaves last blog post..fatigued disposables
P.S. People before you get cranky at me for questioning Chatty’s integrity, I wasn’t making the judgment call at all. I was just asking the question.
But I guess it’s already too late for that 😀
HermitDaves last blog post..fatigued disposables
Damn, that’s why I hate missing a day when a big article comes out.
@Hermit Dave:At no point did I think you were questioning my integrity. I totally got your question as you wanted it to be understood. I’m totally cool with all that. As you say, getting free stuff and then giving out an honest review is not an easy line to walk.
So it’s all good manl
In the coming days, as more posts on the PHB2 come out, I think we’ll see a wider array of thoughts on the book.
For instance, I saw that Wolfgang Baur loved the classes but hated the flavour text.
@hermitdave
I apologize, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions… about you jumping to conclusions… >.< I’d like to get free stuff before it comes out too and if one of the awesome bloggers like chatty is not above the influence of free junk then what chance do small time bloggers like me have? T-T
@Chatty DM
Thanks for the awesome post, I wasn’t really that interested in the warden until I read this!
and how is Nico doing?
MacGuffins last blog post..The terrible truth
@HermitDave –
Personally, I don’t dance any lines. If I get given something to review, I’ll review it honestly. If that pisses them off, then fuck’em. I don’t need to deal with that kind of bullshit.
WotC seems to be very good for that, too. Which is good, and means we’ll get along well in the future.
But all of us who volunteered for this PHB2 thing were pretty amped about it, anyways, so the reviews are going to be largely positive. That’s just how things turn out when you give excited fans a chance to review a product they like.
To the folks asking:
While it is possible that some companies aren’t like this, most companies that are willing to attempt using nonaffiliated bloggers to talk about their products are very careful to make it clear that what they want in exchange for their product is an honest review.
This is from my own limited experience as well as talking to a number of web comic artists who have received fairly nice things with the stipulation that they try them out and then talk about their experiences (Sumo springs to mind.) As well as a good friend of mine who writes a baby hacking blog and receives sample products constantly with the requirement that if she writes about them she does so honestly.
Essentially, as mentioned above, most forms of bad press is better than no press, and bad press is considerably better than getting caught encouraging false good press (and if you don’t think a company like wotc would get caught…)
(Plus usually you target people who you believe are likely to like your product. If you aren’t confident of your stuff’s quality, then maybe review copies aren’t the way to go.
Michael Phillipss last blog post..Post Valenti Post
Something that bears mentioning though is that WotC is, possibly for the first time, successfully tapping into the power of Web 2.0 at very little cost. (Their foray in Facebook also bears mentioning, seeing how many people ‘played’ Tiny Adventures)
I don’t know if Ed charged Wizards anything (I don’t think he did), but if an established marketing company had offered Hasbro to coordinate 12 websites (plus a few gaming forums and other social networking services) to hype a product before it came up, they would have charged a bundle.
This is an untapped market for RPG advertisement. Individually, we all got a free book, for which we’re very grateful! Its sum total is impressive. I remain stunned at how effective this had been for such a low cost to Wizards. (All our traffic spiked in the last 24 hours and continues to do so)
In one of the recent Edition wars post, someone said that Dungeons & Dragons was more than a game, it was also a form of Social Networking. I believe this.
This little campaign, unless I’m mistaken, is a glimpse at something bigger.
The only thing negative I’ll say about it all is how cheap RPG bloggers are willing to work for. Then again, none of us spent a whole week writing these preview articles (although some of the reviews had quite a lot of work put into them).
@ChattyDM Absolutely. Congratulations to Wizards for embracing the blogging fan community, and a heartfelt thanks to all of you for co-ordinating this and delivering it so professionally. Seriously, you’re a credit to yourself and to the game, and done a service to both Wizards and fan blogdom at large.
Fan-driven marketing works. You’ve proved it.
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I believe I just realised why this is coming up.
When 4e released, Playtesters were asked not to say anything. Eventually, they were allowed to tell their positive experiences with the game, and some people were outraged that they couldn’t share the negative impressions.
But even this had its reasons. The games the playtesters played were not final 4e. As such, many of the negative points would not apply to the final game.
So I hope people don’t take that as their general policy, or anything.