April 2000

April 2000, and we're four months away from the launch of the 3rd edition. This month there are, as before, two things to cover: the Rogue character on the WotC Archive, and Dragon 270's Countdown article.

The online character is Lidda, the Halfling Rogue. The brief description at the beginning doesn't give any new insights into how this rogue is different from a prior edition thief, but we'll see what comes up.

Her Dexterity is an impressive 17 at 1st level, and bumps to 18 at 4th level. She has plenty of skills, as promised, but there appears to be one missing; she should have a minimum of ten based on her Int bonus of +2, but there are only nine listed. Her 7th-level sheet includes Gauntlets of Dexterity +2, which boosts her Dex to 20 and a +5 bonus on Dexterity things (most of her skills, not to mention her AC and ranged attacks).

There's not much else to note on this sheet, except that there are no racial special abilities listed for this halfling. You would think halflings gain something, but I'll have to wait until the Player's Handbook to find out. In the meantime, we'll move on to the Countdown article.

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Dragon #270

Okay, so as promised, this Countdown introduces us to the 3rd edition Fighter and feats. Feats are explained as being 'not skills', but rather bonuses to skills, combat, or other actions. And every character gets a feat at 1st level and one every three levels thereafter. The little sidebar tells us that fighters start with bonus feats, start with proficiency in all simple and martial weapons, can specialize at 4th level (presumable weapon specialization), get bonus feats every other level, and use any armor and shield. That's a pretty good summation of their abilities. The sample picture is a dwarf wearing some really ornate and weird-looking armor and carrying a nasty double-headed axe that is taller than he is.

The sample feat given is a pretty high-level one: Whirlwind Attack. It requires high Intelligence and Dexterity, four other feats, and a base attack bonus of +4 or better. So, lots of prerequisites to gain this ability. Some feats, such as Alertness, are standalones, while others such as the best combat feats will have several prerequisites to keep people from getting them too early.

Next, fighters are briefly described. They gets lots of bonus feats (at 10th level they can have ten feats while other characters only have four), so they'll get lots of combat abilities. And there are more than 70 feats available, so fighters can be customized in a way they never could before.

Weapons are split into three categories: Simple, Martial, and Exotic. Fighters, as mentioned before, get proficiency in all the Simple and Martial weapons right off the bat, rather than having a limited number of weapon proficiencies as in prior editions. This is...both good and bad, I think. I like the wider range of weapons available to fighters, but it is a step back toward making all fighters look mostly the same. After all, odds are you'll be able to use any magic weapon that shows up in a treasure horde now, but otherwise you can have six fighters standing side-by-side with the same weapons kit and only their feats to distinguish them.

Armor is also split into Light, Medium, or Heavy types. Shield are also split up; fighters get proficiency in all of these at 1st level. Exotic weapons, however, have to be taken separately as a feat; there's no 'Exotic Weapons Category' feat to shortcut that. Which makes sense, since exotic weapons are, by definition, unusual and rare. Examples given in the sidebar box include the bastard sword, dwarven waraxe, spiked chain, dire flail, or the dwarven urgrosh, which I have no clue what it might be.

Specialization is described as a feat available to 4th-level fighters only; no rangers or paladins need apply. Specialization in 3e only gives a +2 to damage; the +1 bonus of old is now incorporated into the Weapon Focus feat instead. Ranged weapon specialization bonuses only apply if the target is within 30 feet.

Combat Options are briefly described as well; the basic combat actions are attacking, charging, and making a full attack (which takes up your entire round). There are also other options such as a bull rush, disarm, grapple, feint, overrun, and striking a weapon.

Finally, there's a sidebar on how fighters benefit from different racial types. Half-orcs are getting a Strength bonus now; halflings and elves get Dex bonuses, Gnomes and Dwarves get Con bonuses. Humans just gain the bonus feat, as mentioned earlier.

So, there we have it. We've seen the new spellcasting rules, the new skill rules, and now the rules on feats in our Countdown; next, we'll learn about the monk making their official return to the game after a lengthy hiatus.