4 comments

1. 

   Comment by Zero_Armada on December 2, 2010 at 4:25 PM

   Just notice that the “Lending a Foot” Level 2 Utility is colored Red for an encounter power, but labeled as a Daily.
   Same for the Level 6 Utility “Spirit Surge” & the Level 10 Utility “Ancient Circle”.
   The Level 10 Utility “Spirit Link” is in reverse of the above; colored black, labeled Encounter.

2. 

   Comment by Matt C on December 13, 2010 at 12:50 PM

   I am really impressed with the quality of the class here both in mechanics and in presentation.
   I am interested in using this class in my games.
   I have some questions/comments though.

   The drake is an interesting addition to the class. It’s inclusion reminds me of the FFXI iteration of the dragoon. However, the drake doesn’t seem to be of any use to a skysoul dragoon on paper to the point of it being discarded as a couldwalker (which, I must say, is a really clever way of implementing the classic Kain/FFTactics Dragoon). Did you find that skysoul dragoons neglected their drakes as a vestigial mechanic or do they have benefit that is not readily apparent outside of play?

   One drake, the spitting drake, has a ranged basic attack, but all of the drake powers presented key off of strength and all but one are Drake melee 1. This drakesoul power doesn’t seem to have much apparent synergy (especially since reaching targets with the dragoon’s impressive mobility doesn’t seem to be an issue). Is the purpose of the rba to have an additional option or did you have some other intent behind it?

   The final question, how do you handle this character indoors or in other situations where jumping is impossible, impractical, or a really bad idea?

   I want to reiterate how much i like this class (just because I have concerns/nitpicks doesn’t mean I don’t like it).
   -Matt

3. 

   Comment by Corwin on December 13, 2010 at 1:29 PM

   @Zero

   Thanks for the catches; fixed the colors.

   @Matt

   For the skysoul focus dragoon, the drake is still a very important part of the class, though I can see how it doesn’t look like it on paper. The skysoul is all about movement and jumping around the battlefield to position, often forcing creatures to come get you – here’s the real focus of your drake in this situation: opportunity attacks.

   Although you have to spend actions to make it move, attack, or perform minors, the drake takes opportunity attacks as normal for free. So while you’re hopping around, position your drake to be able to take a swipe at any enemy that will need to pass by it. Getting your drake into the mix to take opp. attacks at enemies that are ranged, focused on you, the defender, or another player becomes a surprisingly consistent amount of damage during an encounter.

   The tradeoff here is that you’re also vulnerable if your drake dies, so it’s a game of getting it into position, then to safety, then back for opp. attacks, but above all making sure it doesn’t die and you don’t take the death penalty. But the dragoon doesn’t do as much damage as other strikers, so to stay on par with them as a skysoul, you’ll have to make clever use of your drake’s opp. attacks.

   Thematically, I wanted to keep the drake in all of the builds at least until paragon level, because I wanted to reinforce the idea of you having your soul being almost inextricably connected to this drake. The Cloudwalker path was to appease the few people that just didn’t want a pet, no matter what, and wanted only to focus on the jumps and being a “normal striker”.

   For the spitting drake, it would make the most sense to change the basic attack to the ranged spit, and make the drakesoul power an increase its strength and melee damage. That way the skysoul dragoons will get the benefit of a ranged attack, and the drakesoul dragoons would still have a high STR modifier to use with the drake’s attacks.

   For the indoors thing, it hasn’t really been a crippling issue yet. Sometimes there will be a low ceiling, and that does take away Boost, but Leap is more of a lateral jump, maybe only 5-8 feet off the ground, so they can usually still make use of it. For being the ONE class that can jump great distances and heights at ease, automatically, without a check or chance of failure – I feel they can deal with an encounter or situation every now and then that doesn’t let them (or discourages them to) jump all over the place.

   Obviously there are still some kinks to get out, mostly with the drakes, but I’ll keep working on it and I appreciate the feedback! It’s by far the easiest way for me to see mistakes and figure out a way to fix the mechanics.

   Thanks!

4. 

   Comment by Matt C on December 14, 2010 at 11:49 PM

   Wow!
   I did not expect this level of detailed reply, nor so quickly.
   Huzzah, sir!
   I see what you mean about opp attacks with the drake. However, the current wording of the document relegates the drake opp attacks to costing you an immediate interrupt to take advantage of.
   Granted, you only have a handful of powers that are immediate interrupt/reaction (Dive, Lending a foot, Taunting Kick, Toss Ally, Deflecting Guard, Inertia, Into the Maw), but there are enough to make the cost significant and it limits you to 1 opp attack / round (as opposed to the normal 1/turn) with your drake.
   One concept that kept coming back to me was the idea of the dragoon as an almost defender. The synergies of Protective bond + Guard Drake + reach weapon + leaping are tantalizing. The enemies would have trouble getting you, but have a hard time ignoring you.
   I was also curious about the significant penalty placed on the feat, Dragon scales. A dragon soul by virtue of secondary ability score will have a lower AC than a sky soul, which makes scale that much more enticing. Unfortunately, below level 5 you end up trading scale for momentum (and possibly until level 9 depending on how you round).
   Some food for thought.
   I am hoping we can field this class at a game soon.
   It would be fun to toss this in with another class I have in play-testing.

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