Dungeons & Dragons: Level Eight

We hit level eight last week which brings with it more choices. At level eight you get to raise two of your stats by one point each and you get an additional feat.

Stats in 4th edition are very streamlined. The only time a stat up matters is when you hit a new even number. Going from 20 wisdom to 21 wisdom, for example, has no impact at all on the game. Well, it gets you that little bit closer to 22 wisdom... The highest you could have gotten a stat at level 4 (where we started) is 21 and my entire party took 21 in their primary stat. Except me! That 21st point was really expensive and I was able to get a bunch of other stats instead which made me better from levels 4 to 7. Now that we're level 8 I'm going to be substantially worse! (Oh well!) Clearly I need to put one of the stats into wisdom so that I'll be a lot better next time I gain a stat. But what do I do with my second stat-up?

I have 3 relevant stats. Wisdom adds to my chance to hit, the damage I do, the amount I heal, my will defense, and every skill I've trained. It's awesome. My second stat is intelligence which adds to my reflex defense, my armour class, and modifies some of my abilities. (It will add one to the damage of my primary attack and will add one to the temporary health I dish out every time I summon my pet.) My only other relevant stat is constitution which adds to my fortitude defense, my maximum health, the amount I get healed when I spend a surge, and my number of surges. It can also impact some of my abilities though I haven't taken any that care at this point.

Wisdom I should raise every chance I get now that the cost is identical. But what about choosing between int and con? Int seems a fair bit better than con, but having more health is a real thing. If neither was going to get to an even number or if they both would then int seems right. Right now, however, I have 18 int and 13 con. Putting the point into int does nothing for the time being. Putting it into con has a big impact. I even managed to get knocked out last session so being tougher seems like it could be really good. I'm probably again giving up long term benefit for short term gain but hey, I'm living in the now baby!

The other thing I get is a feat. At this point I've taken all of the really good feats and am left picking between a bunch of merely good stuff. Probably the most powerful feat that remains is to add +1 to hit from an exotic implement, but I only actually attack in maybe half of the rounds. (My standard at-will attack gives someone else an attack.) There are a bunch of feats which add to my defenses which all seem fine. I could get +5 to initiative in a few different ways. Going before the enemies seems pretty strong and all, but less so for me. My standard attack requires a friend to be in range of an enemy and if I'm going first that isn't going to be the case. When I roll high I often find myself delaying until later on in the fight anyway.

It turns out that there's a feat which lets you pick up a 'skill power'. Sky is going to want me to take the perception ability which retroactively turns an attack from targeting AC to one which targets reflex. If you're paying enough attention to enemy defenses you're bound to get a free hit every combat out of this which is very powerful. But I don't want to need to worry about likely enemy defenses. I spend enough time making people better as it is... There was another option that intrigued me. It doesn't fall into the 'powerful' category at all, but it does seem interesting and fun. And plays very well with how I tend to play my character. It's an insight skill ability which is an immediate interrupt. (Important since I make use of all of my actions every turn.) The trigger is when an enemy within 5 squares of me moves voluntarily. The result? I get to shift half my movement speed for free.

This seems like it could do a lot of different interesting things for me. First and foremost if an enemy runs up to punch me when I'm weak I can run for cover. Maybe I can get out of range of their attack entirely. Maybe I just get beside the tank and they won't want to attack me anymore. I never want to move (I spend my move actions as minor actions to get more shields up) and this might give me the positioning advantage I need without having to spend an action on it. I can also envision getting to block someone's movement if we're fighting in a tight spot and prevent them from getting at a weak teammate. Maybe I can get into a good flanking position.

It might turn out to not be very useful and then I'll just swap it out for something else. Part of me now wants to look through all the other skill powers to see if I want to train up different skills to get something else!