[Tactics] Provoking Opportunity Attacks for more Damage : Use that Defender!

I. Intro

The scope of this article is exploring how to use intentionally provoked Opportunity Attacks (OAs) in conjunction with a Defender in order to achieve more damage output for the party, and the Pros and Cons of doing so.

A note about Defenders
All Defenders have a marking ability and these marks all have a damaging component associated with them (arguably with an exception to the Aegis of Shielding Swordmage). Instead of gaining that damage through Cursing, Quarries, or Combat Advantage like a Striker does however,  Defenders gain extra damage through punishing the enemy for attacking their comrades.

What this means is, the Defender needs to

WotC adds response to the 4E haters of the world

WotC have put up a new animation from On the Set of 4th Edition.  It adds a nice little swipe at the kinds of complaints that we have all heard on the net and the huge threads of edition wars.  If you haven’t seen any of the Dragon cartoons, do so now, it’s definately worth the time!

Ecology of the Genasi

Those of you who have been giving some thought to playing a Genasi character in the LFR sessions, then you need to check out the latest issue of Dragon for Ecology of the Genasi.  They flesh out the race quite a bit, and they have some new feats (finally some feats!) although in my opinion they are a bit lackluster.

Sneak Peak: Tempest Fighter

Over at the WotC page, we have a sneak peak at one of the builds coming in the martial power book: The Tempest Fighter.

New Build: Tempest Fighter

Rather than a shield or a big weapon, you have specialized in fighting using a weapon in each hand.

You see it as the best of both worlds—given the right training, you can deliver good damage and make up for the lack of a shield with deft parrying. Strength remains any soldier’s bread and butter, and good battlefield awareness—Wisdom—is a must. You also rely on speed, maneuverability, and agility—Dexterity—to get your dirty work done. Constitution is a tertiary ability for you, granting useful staying power against foes not so easily fooled by your fancy footwork and feints. The Tempest Technique class feature is designed to complement this build.

Suggested Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting (Human feat: Two-Weapon Threat*)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Streetwise
Suggested At-Will Powers:dual strike,* footwork lure*
Suggested Encounter Power:funneling flurry*
Suggested Daily Power:tempest dance*
*New option presented in Martial Power

Tempest Technique
When you wield two melee weapons, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with weapons that have the offhand property.

You gain Two-Weapon Defense as a bonus feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites.

When wearing light armor or chainmail, you gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with melee and close weapon attacks when you are wielding two weapons. This bonus increases to +2 with weapons that have the off-hand property.

So it look to be a variation of the Fighter class, with some new powers and abilities (two weapons, light armor incentives) that make it similar to the Ranger, but it emphasizes moving the enemy around the battlefield.  Also a light footed, mobile, agile fighter finally has a build that caters to them, which should make a whole lot of people happy.  Martial Powers seems like THE book to have this coming winter season.

More sneak peaks!

Over at the preview section of WotC, we see some new excerpts from the Adventurer’s Vault, a new paragon path in Forgotten realms in the form of The Purple Dragon Knight, and a sick Daily Attack Level 29 Rogue power, amongst other things.

The Purple Dragon Knight (pdf found here) needs to be either a Fighter, Paladin, or Warlord and be loyal to Cormyr.  They appear to be a buffer/debuffer Paragon path, and they look mean as hell to fight against too.  Seeing as how Bangkok is part of the Dragon Coast, it is very much in the realm of possibilty we will be fighting some of these guys later down the road.

Even more loot was posted up from the adventurer’s vault, and they have lots of nice goodies for characters, seeing as how big the list is for jsut levels 8-12 (pdf found here)

Martial Power is going to be amazing for all of us fans of martial powered characters.  They gave us a snippet of a new Rogue Paragon Path called the Master Spy, as well as a new awesome level 29 power:A

Murder of One

Rogue Attack 29

You flip and flit, stab and slash, as if flying among your foes.

Daily Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Prerequisite: You must be trained in Acrobatics.
Requirement: You must be wielding a light blade.
Primary Target: One creature
Primary Attack: Dexterity vs. AC

Hit: 4[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.

Effect: You can shift 3 squares and can shift through squares occupied by enemies during this movement. Make a secondary attack.

Secondary Target: One creature other than the primary target

Secondary Attack: Dexterity vs. AC

Hit: 3[W] + Dexterity modifier damage. If the primary attack hits, this attack deals 1[W] extra damage.

Effect: You can shift 3 squares and can shift through squares occupied by enemies during this movement. Make a tertiary attack.

Tertiary Target: One creature other than the primary and secondary targets

Tertiary Attack: Dexterity vs. AC

Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage. If the primary or the secondary attack hits, this attack deals 1[W] extra damage.

Three attacks, with shifts, to hit three targets for massive damage each time?  Yes please!

Sneak peak at upcoming Dragon Article; Barbarian Playtest!

So over at WotC at the Dragon page, they have listed the table of contents for this month.  One exciting thing is a look at the Barbraian class from PHB2.

Playtest: Barbarian
By RPG Staff
Our next playtest opportunity is here! Check out the barbarian class from Player’s Handbook 2, which doesn’t release until 2009.

I can’t wait to see what is in store for this class.  Get ready to get your rage on!

Divine Challenge Blueprint

It seems that the people over at the enworld boards are STILL arguing over how Divine Challenge works for a paladin.  It’s been two months!  Here’s the way that I see it (literally):

New excerpts from FR and Adventurer’s Vault

Posted over at WotC, we have excerpts of feats from the FR Player’s Guide, which have some absolutely amazing feats to choose from.

We also have excerpts of Holy Symbols from the Adventurer’s Vault, which should make any Divinely charged class drool.  Symbols specific to deities with their own special powers are making an appearance here.