1.) The Speed of Thought encounter feature is useful, but it could use significant alterations to improve its utility, such as having the movement be shifting such that a battlemind is not halted by the front line of the opposition.

2.) The battlemind does not possess a viable melee basic attack by default. The swordmage suffers from this exact same weakness, and worse still is the fact that the tax feat for amending this is located in the same rulebook as the class itself. Intelligent Blademaster would have been somewhat more forgivable if it had appeared in a later supplement, but the feat appearing in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide is tantamount to Wizards of the Coast proclaiming, "We acknowledge that the swordmage starts off with deficient melee basic attacks, but rather than us solving this predicament via class features, you are arbitrarily forced into selecting Intelligent Blademaster as your first feat." But I digress. Wizards had not its lesson. It is unjust for Melee Training (Constitution) to be a nigh-compulsory feat for the battlemind.

3.) The Battle Resilience encounter feature has a strong probability of outright failing to accomplish anything. It triggers on a missed attack, and its "until the end of your next turn" duration may very well expire prematurely, before any other enemies have received the opportunity to attack the battlemind.

4.) Mind Spike may appear to be an extremely potent mark punishment class feature, but in truth, it is highly unreliable. It requires the enemy to hit your ally despite the -2 penalty to attack rolls that it takes. Even should that occur, the average damage of a medium or high normal monster damage expression (Dungeon Master's Guide, page 184) is often less than the average damage of your typical Combat Challenge attack or Warden's Fury benefiting from an item bonus to damage rolls, both of which are more accurate than a potentially-Mind-Spike-triggering enemy attack. As well, Mind Spike is an immediate reaction rather than an immediate interrupt, preventing any possible disruption of the enemy's attack.

5.) Blurred Step is an opportunity action and allows a battlemind to shift only 1 square. A marked enemy adjacent to a battlemind can simply shift 1 square and then either charge or perform a ranged or area attack against one of the defender's allies, and the battlemind can do naught but helplessly stand by due to her opportunity action having been consumed by Blurred Step. Should difficult terrain be a prominent feature of the battlefield, or should she encounter enemies that can shift more than 1 square (skirmisher monsters, for example), the battlemind is neutered even more severely.

I had previously proposed a set of five amendments to the battlemind's class features that elevate the class into a competent, viable, and smoothly playable defender should they be applied (>>8571727). I have directly integrated these reparations into the battlemind class entry, along with one extra trained skill and two additional class skills such that the battlemind is not utterly inept at non-combat encounters. The result is the following, which I offer with pride and the best intentions for the poor, poor battlemind:

Battlemind Rewritten

"My mind is a far deadlier weapon than some ill-crafted bit of iron"

Class Traits
Role: Defender. You are tough and fast, while your mastery of psionic magic allows you to outwit your foes. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you lean toward either controller or striker as a secondary role.
Power Source: Psionic. You are a psionic warrior, a weapon master who combines physical might and a cunning intellect.
Key Abilities: Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail, scale; light shield, heavy shield
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged
Bonus to Defense: +2 Will

Hit Points at 1st Level: 15 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 6
Healing Surges per Day: 9 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Endurance. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Arcana (Int), Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis), Streetwise (Cha)

Class Features: Psionic Augmentation, Psionic Defense, Psionic Study

As wanderers, mercenaries, and adventurers, battleminds are carefree warriors who seek only to test their skill against the mightiest and most dangerous opponents. Battleminds posses a potent combination of psionic and physical skill, allowing them to use their magic to manipulate and deceive their foes even as their fighting skill lets them carve a swath through enemy ranks. Battleminds tend to be bold and sometimes arrogant, an attitude earned through bringing ruin to enemies over the course of many conflicts.

You might not share your fellow battleminds' arrogance, but you do have access to an array of combat abilities that let you manipulate, baffle, and defeat your enemies. Your mind is as deadly as your weapon, and with the aid of your psionic magic, your body can turn aside attacks as effectively as a suit of plate armor can.

Let those who would stand against you might quiver in terror when you approach, for you are a battlemind, and supremacy in combat is your birthright.

Battlemind Overview
Characteristics: Your heavy armor allows you to take on your enemies' attacks without fear, and your melee attacks that are augmented by psionic magic let you control your enemies like puppets and set them up for defeat. You excel at controlling the battle line and forcing enemies to fight you while your allies wreak havoc.

Religion: Battleminds who live up to this class's renowned arrogance rarely pray to the gods, and stories abound of battleminds whose ill luck could be placed at the feet of their impiety. Those battleminds who do follow the gods typically revere Kord for his martial skill and strength, Bahamut for his practice of justice, or Ioun for being the originator of psionic magic.

Races: Dwarves and wilden make excellent resilient battleminds, putting their Constitution and Wisdom to great use in shaping their bodies to meet the needs of combat. Half-elves are ideal quick battleminds, channeling their natural Charisma into psionic alacrity. Goliaths' sheer physical power makes them well suited for this class, and many gnome and tiefling warriors are drawn to the guile and trickery of some battlemind powers.

Battlemind Class Features
Battleminds have the following class features.

Psionic Augmentation
Through discipline and careful study, you have mastered a form of psionic magic that offers greater versatility than other characters command. You know a broad array of at-will powers, each of which is a conduit through which you can pour as much or as little psionic energy as you choose. You channel psionic energy into a reservoir of personal power—represented in the game as power points—that you can use to augment your at-will attack powers, replacing the encounter attack powers that other characters use.
Because of this class feature, you acquire and use powers in a slightly different manner from how most other classes do.
At-Will Attack Powers: At 1st level, you choose two at-will attack powers and one daily attack power from your class, but you don't start with any encounter attack powers from your class. You can instead augment your class at-will attack powers using power points. These powers have the augmentable keyword.
You gain new at-will attack powers from this class, instead of new encounter attack powers, as you increase in level. At 3rd level, you choose a new at-will attack power from this class. At 7th, 13th, 17th, 23rd, and 27th levle, you can replace one of your at-will attack powers with another one of your level or lower. Both powers must be augmentable and from this class.
Power Points: You start with 2 power points. You gain 2 additional power points at 3rd level and 7th level, 1 additional power point at 13th level, and 2 additional power points at 17th, 21st, 23rd, and 27th level. If you gain power points from another source (such as your paragon path), add them to your power point total. You can use your power points to augment any augmentable power you have, regardless of how you gained the power.
You regain all your power points when you take a short or extended rest.

Psionic Defense
Three powers—Battlemind's Demand, Blurred Step, and Mind Spike—help you maintain tactical superiority in combat. You can use these psionic powers to demand your enemies' attention, follow them if they try to avoid you, and punish them if they attack your allies. This combination of mental compulsion and psionic enhancement of your own capabilities makes you a force to be reckoned with in battle.

Psionic Study
As a battlemind, you learn how to execute the fundamentals of battle through your psionic talents. When you make a melee basic attack, a ranged basic attack, a grab attack, or a bull rush, you can use your Constitution, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls.
Battleminds learn to fight using their bodies as weapons. Some battleminds alter their own form to fit their needs. Other battleminds use their psionic power to predict the best position for launching an attack.
Choose one of these options.
Battle Resilience: You gain the Battle Resilience power, which reflects your ability to use your psionic power to bend your own body to protect yourself.
Speed of Thought: You gain the Speed of Thought power, which allows you to always be ready for a fight.

Creating a Battlemind
Battleminds rely on Constitution, Charisma, and Wisdom for their powers. You can choose any powers you like, but many battleminds choose powers that complement their choice of combat style.

Resilient Battlemind
You use your psionic power to transform your body, altering it to take on the qualities of iron or stone, or to transform your weapon so it hits harder or bypasses your foes' protections. Make Constitution your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom to reflect the strong mental control you have over your physical state. Dexterity or Intelligence is a good third choice. For daily powers, consider those that alter your form and provide additional augmentations you can use for your other powers.
Suggested Class Feature: Battle Resilience
Suggested Feat: Weapon Proficiency (Human feat: Versatile Expertise)
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Heal, Insight, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: Bull's Strength, Iron Fist
Suggested Daily Power: Aspect of Elevated Harmony

Quick Battlemind
You use your psionic power to make yourself faster, increasing your speed and agility in combat. Make Constitution your highest ability score, followed by Charisma to reflect your ability to project your psionic power into the world. Dexterity or Intelligence should be your third-best ability. For daily powers, consider those that manipulate your foes, hindering them with conditions and penalties, ensuring that they can't outmaneuver you.
Suggested Class Feature: Speed of Thought
Suggested Feat: Weapon Proficiency (Human feat: Versatile Expertise)
Suggested Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Endurance, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: Twisted Eye, Whirling Defense
Suggested Daily Power: Allies to Enemies

Battlemind Powers
Your powers are called disciplines; they combine your fighting ability with your mastery of psionic magic. You can plant images in a foe's mind and use psionic power to lend unmatched speed and strength to your weapon blows.

Class Features
Each battlemind has the powers Battlemind's Demand, Blurred Step, and Mind Spike.

Battlemind's Demand, Battlemind At-Will Feature
You draw your foe's concentration, taunting the foe to strike at you.
At-Will ✦ Augmentable, Psionic
Minor Action, Close burst 3
Target: One creature in burst
Effect: You mark the target until you use this power again or until the end of the encounter.
Augment 1: Target: One or two creatures in burst

Blurred Step, Battlemind At-Will Feature
You bend reality with the power of your mind, flashing across the space between you and your enemy.
At-Will ✦ Psionic
Free Action (Special), Personal
Trigger: An adjacent enemy marked by you shifts or teleports
Effect: After the enemy's movement is resolved, you shift a number of squares equal to your Wisdom or Charisma modifier, ignoring difficult terrain.
Special: You can use this power only once per combatant's turn.

Mind Spike, Battlemind At-Will Feature
You force your enemy to feel the pain that it inflicts on your friend.
At-Will ✦ Force, Psionic, Psychic
Immediate Reaction (Special), Melee weapon
Trigger: An enemy within reach marked by you hits or misses with an attack that doesn't include you as a target
Target: The triggering enemy
Effect: If the target had hit and dealt damage, it takes force and psychic damage equal to its highest damage roll result for the attack. If the target missed, it rerolls the triggering attack against itself without the -2 penalty from your mark and without provoking opportunity attacks. If it hits, it takes the damage of its attack as force and psychic damage and no ongoing damage or other effects from the attack.
Special: You can use this power even if you are dazed or dominated.

The Psionic Study option that you choose determines whether you have Battle Resilience or Speed of Thought.
Battle Resilience, Battlemind Encounter Feature
You steel yourself for battle, girding yourself against your foe's initial assault.
Encounter ✦ Psionic
Free Action (Special), Personal
Trigger: A creature hits you and deals damage for the first time in an encounter
Effect: You gain resistance to all damage (including the damage of the triggering attack) equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier until the end of your next turn or until the end of the triggering creature's next turn, whichever comes later. The resistance increases to 6 + your Wisdom modifier at level 11 and 9 + your Wisdom modifier at level 21.
Special: You can use this power even if you're surprised.

Speed of Thought, Battlemind Encounter Feature
You move in the blink of an eye, reaching your foes before they can draw their weapons.
Encounter (Special) ✦ Psionic
Free Action, Personal
Effect: You shift a number of squares equal to your speed + your Charisma modifier, ignoring difficult terrain.
Special: You can use this power even if you're surprised.

The class powers of the battlemind rewritten are identical to those presented in the Player's Handbook 3.

Hybrid Battlemind Rewritten Class Traits
Role: Defender
Power Source: Psionic
Key Abilities: Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail, scale; light shield, heavy shield
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged
Bonus to Defense: +1 Will

Hit Points at 1st Level: 7.5
Hit Points per Level Gained: 3
Healing Surges per Day: 4.5

Class Skills: Arcana (Int), Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis), Streetwise (Cha).

Class Features: Psionic Augmentation (Hybrid), Psionic Defense (Hybrid)
Hybrid Talent Options: Battle Fundamentals, Battlemind Armor Proficiency, Psionic Study

Class Features
Hybrid battleminds have the following class features.
Psionic Augmentation (Hybrid): This class feature functions as the battlemind class feature (page 43), except that your power point total varies depending on your selection of powers. See "Psionic Augmentation and Hybrid Characters" (page 137) to determine the number of power points you have.
Psionic Defense (Hybrid): This class feature functions as the battlemind class feature (page 43), except that you must choose either Blurred Step or Mind Spike.

Hybrid Talent Options
If you take the Hybrid Talent feat, you can select one of the following options.
Battle Fundamentals: When you make a melee basic attack, a ranged basic attack, a grab attack, or a bull rush, you can use your Constitution, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls.
Battlemind Armor Proficiency: You gain proficiency with leather armor, hide armor, chainmail, scale armor, light shields, and heavy shields.
Psionic Study: You gain either the Battle Resilience power or the Speed of Thought power (page 44), or a power that can be taken in either one's place.

That is all. Should you wish to view more of my suggested errata for the Player's Handbook 3, please refer to >>8571551, or should that have gone extinct, its archived version:
http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/8571551

God grief. This'll take a moment to digest.

It's been decided. No Touhou Week lasts forever.

>>8581704
Didn't you hear. No touhou week was a farce?
Sorry, your post is negated.

>>8581704

>>8581704
No touhou week was a lie.

> monomachypsyche

wat

>>8581766
>>8581774
>>8581778
You shitspammers MADE it a lie by spamming toushit as hard as you can.

>>8581678

Reading through >>8571727 should aid you in comprehending the alterations that have been made to the class.

>>8581813

Deal with it!

>>8581791
Monomachy is a word meaning "duel" (one-combat). Psyche means "mind".

>>8581252

As an aside, it should be noted that this is the flavor description of the battlemind taken verbatim from the Player's Handbook 3. To quote a certain post on the Wizards Community (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/22657777):

"Half the time, this class tries to be a telepath, projecting thoughts and creating distorted images. Half the time, it tries to be an egoist, turning itself into other things. Unfortunately, these two things really, really don't go together.

"How exactly does psychometabolic control, the power to change your own physical properties, allow you to bend an enemy's thoughts and create illusions? Because that is exactly what the Battlemind does; he uses Constitution to project mental powers that effect the psyche.

"The Psion unlocks the secret of her own mind to allow her to project her personal will. The Ardent channels emotions (and occasionally teleports people, but I'll let that go). The Monk creates unity between mind and body, a perfect harmony that unlocks a path of mastery. The Runepriest uses the language of the gods, the Seeker channels spirits of the hunt, the Artificer manipulates the energies of magical items, the Paladin channels faith to augment physical ability via divine will, etc, etc, etc.

"But the Battlemind? Well, the closest thing to flavor it has is that they are so damn arrogant that they say "I'm special" and things happen. And no, it doesn't even say "you believe in yourself so much that you break physical barriers and unlock power". No, I'd even accept that at this point, because that would be more effort than the writer took into detailing this class.

"Compare it, meanwhile, to the only other Con-primary class, the Warlock. The 'lock has a damn good reason for its ability; it is channeling horrible powers through a pact, and the Constitution represnts its ability to survive the hellfire, hence the blurb that says "the dark energy you wield is inherently harmful to the mortal body, and only through sheer physical resolve and discipline can you wield it safely." Flavor, sometimes it is useful!

"But, no. That would be too much effort. Why bother explaining what the Battlemind does when you can simply say "you are tough and fast", then throw together a bunch of random powers?"

The fact that the flavor of the battlemind amounts to "You are a 'badass!'" does reek of slothful writing.

The following, from the same post, is a rather inspiring set of flavor that I may consider adapting into a variant of the battlemind rewritten, the Tormentor, the terror-themed psionic defender who forces her foes to face their fears. The Tormentor of Flesh would be the Constitution/Wisdom build, whereas the Constitution/Charisma build can serve as the Tormentor of Mind.

"And before you chime in, yes, I know that the Con thing could be explained by reflavoring. In fact, it could be explained really, really well.

"If the Psion is mental mastery, the Monk is enlightenmend, the Ardent is emotion, the final Psionic class would do an amazing job if it relied upon the Id.

"Rather than lifting itself to new heights, the class would delve into the darkest corners of the mind, the horrors of the subconscious and the base urges at the core of every being. Unlocking the nightmares within, the class channels them up from the darkness of its own mind, unleashing them upon its foes. Some project them outward as phantasms and illusions to shatter their enemy's psyche with raw terror. Others literally become the monster they fear, transforming themselves into unnatural shapes of nightmare given flesh. Thus, the character relies upon his own resilience most of all, for not only does he tap into the most basic instincts of the mind, but he himself must survive the forces he unleashes upon the world, the inner demons which cackle in the corners of his mind.

"Thus, the Bastion. A con-based defender who uses psychic attacks and fantastic transformations, all flavored around the aspect of the Id. Firmly rooted in philosophical ideas and mental imagery, capable of many anachronisms such as Form of Doom, all contained within a single mold that stands alongside its fellow Psionic brethren. It would even explain the potential "all low mental stats, high con" character, an abberration with raw psionic talent who projects his base urges and terrors because that is all he is.

"Just an example.

"But no, apparently it wasn't worth even half-assing any flavor, because a simple idea like that only took two minutes. Apparently, though, that is too much bother. My point isn't that the atrocity called the Battlemind can't have flavor, it is that they didn't even bother. They just said "You are a warrior, you have mind powers, go do stuff", and chucked together a pathetic mess without rhyme or reason. And that, I'd say, is downright sloppy, and I expect better from a professional publication."

>tldr homebrewfilth

>>8582841
Best line from that thread:

>Personally, i like the "U r teh totalz badass!!!!" fluff. So when i bring it to the table and watch myself get outpaced by every other defender i can say "At least Wizards thinks im cool"

Fuck year.

>>8583766

Obviously Kamina was a Battlemind. He ran on pure badassery alone, but obviously began to lag behind Simon, Kittan, and Yoko, and eventually was such shit tier he died. Giga Drill Breaker was a DM's saving throw.

No thanks.

>>8584800
Bravura warlord would like to have a word with you.

I can understand Constitution as a Primary trait of a Psionic class. Back in 2e, the traits a Psionicist needed were Wisdom, Intelligence and Constitution. Intelligence to shape psionic effects, Wisdom to coax psionic power out of your body, and Constitution for your body to manufacture that power in the first place.

So while the Battlemind still uses mental traits as Secondary stats (and replace intelligence with force of personality) and they create mental effects like emotion control or teleporting, their chiefly reliant on their body for raw power.

However, I still agree that their base Defender mechanics are impossibly bad.

> Reading through >>8571727 should aid you in comprehending the alterations that have been made to the class.
it's gone. is it available elsewhere?

>>8585670
found it
ht tp://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/22642289/The_battlemind_is_a_horrifically_underpower
ed_defender.

Post some Eirin!

As an additional note, I do not accept the belief that the battlemind was designed as a defender who must remain near her allies to ensure a satisfactory degree of efficacy for two reasons:

1.) The other four defender classes of the system are flexible with their range of defense. Why must the battlemind bear the onus of being a severely short-ranged defender?

2.) If the battlemind had indeed been developed as a defender who must stay close to her comrades, then we would not have the Speed of Thought power in its current state.

It also occurs to me that while a Constitution/Wisdom setup for the Battle Resilience battlemind is acceptable due to its connections to hardy races such as the dwarf and the wilden, the Speed of Thought battlemind has no business whatsoever as a Constitution/Charisma-based build. Granted, there is no Constitution/Intelligence player-legal race, and a Constitutioin/Dexterity setup would fail to capture the "mind" portion of "battlemind," making Constitution/Charisma a necessity for the build.

bump

Making the target reroll the attack if it missed is a clumsy mechanic that slows down play.

>>8590964
Not having +2 to your secondary stat isn't even CLOSE to a big deal. CON/INT is fine.

Oh look, we actually have to have someone fix the broken shit in a 4e core book!

Isn't a balanced and easy to learn game fun?

>>8581704
Why do you bother posting?

>>8592592
>one of the classes in the third PHB is kind of underpowered, if you're playing in a game where people are optimizing
>therefore, 4E is totally unbalanced, guys. No balance at all.

0/10.

>>8592583

It is nevertheless a point against the mechanical potency of a Constitution/Intelligence-based build in comparison to a Constitution/Charisma-based build. Skill-wise, the battlemind could easily have Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Streetwise on its class skill list, supporting Charisma as a secondary score; whereas having only Arcana and History (Religion apparently being out-of-bounds due to its flavor) would effectively penalize the out-of-combat capacities of a Constitution/Intelligence-based character.

I would just like to point out that Battlemind is a really gay name.

>>8592659
I prefer FIGHTBRAIN.

>>8592632
>It is nevertheless a point against the mechanical potency of a Constitution/Intelligence-based build in comparison to a Constitution/Charisma-based build
It's incredibly minor. "This class shouldn't use this stat pair because no PC race has that bonus stat pair" is just... mindbogglingly dumb.

It can have class skills that don't match its primary stats--tertiary stat plus training lets you do it fine, and they can excel in History and Arcana and Religion if they want. "We shouldn't use this stat pair because not as many skills use this stat" is pretty nonsensical.

>>8592708

Once again, I would prefer to not tone down the power level of the battlemind by having its adequate, yet somewhat unthematic in some regards (in others, Charisma perfectly exemplifies its arrogance and force of will), Constitution/Charisma setup be eschewed in favor of Constitution and Intelligence. Minor as it may be, it is a downgrade nonetheless due to the lack of support for Constitution/Intelligence-based class builds.

>It can have class skills that don't match its primary stats--tertiary stat plus training lets you do it fine
Training in a skill tied to your primary or secondary ability score is a significantly more appealing choice than training in a skill not keyed to either of your two highest ability scores due to the nature of skill bonus and skill check DC scaling. Additionally, I submit that the wandering mercenary stereotype of the battlemind lends itself more to skills such as Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Streetwise more than Arcana and History.

I would like to reiterate that the following can serve as a swift, yet non-drastic, reparation to the battlemind class:

Add the following as an additional paragraph to the Psionic Study class feature:
As a battlemind, you learn how to execute the fundamentals of battle through your psionic talents. When you make a melee basic attack, a ranged basic attack, a grab attack, or a bull rush, you can use your Constitution, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls.

Replace the Blurred Step at-will feature with the following:
Blurred Step, Battlemind At-Will Feature
You bend reality with the power of your mind, flashing across the space between you and your enemy.
At-Will ✦ Psionic
Free Action (Special), Personal
Trigger: An adjacent enemy marked by you shifts or teleports
Effect: After the enemy's movement is resolved, you shift a number of squares equal to your Wisdom or Charisma modifier, ignoring difficult terrain.
Special: You can use this power only once per combatant's turn.

I played your level 10 wilden battlemind way back when the first bits of the PHB3 got leaked. Needless to say, it was painful.

Have a bump, I like this.

>>8596690
Perrpetuating toushit spam, WHY?

I don't like how there's a stance for better OAs at every daily attack level, but they can't be used because Blurred Step takes up your OA for the enemy's turn.

>>8581136
I know how much you love naming your images.
>Cirno Advent Wolf.jpg
It's called the Nargacuga, from the Monster Hunter series.

>>8596744
SUPER DRIVER TOUSHIT MAKASETE~

I for one am grateful for all the energy and thought Touhoufriendfagfriendfag puts into its work. I do not play 4th Ed., but I can appreciate it as a system that accurately models fantastical, squad-based warfare, and in that sense I can also appreciate what Touhoufagfriend does for those of us who are into this sort of thing.

I like Touhoufag, and I approve of this thread.

>>8599268
You spiece of spam-loving shit. Leave /tg/, don't return.

>>8599287

You ... you have a very odd definition of "spam", my friend.

is there rs for phb3?

>>8599299
Yeah, this is not a nations game, troll and tell, furry porn, /v/, or quest thread.

>>8599299
Spam = hundreds of posts with wall of text and touhou diarrhea'd into the image field

>>8599359
24 posts in this thread = hundreds

>>8599359

But that's not spam. Each post is unique; he does not repost content unless asked to do so, and each instance of Touhoufriend's 4th Ed. advice threads are consistently of high quality. I'll acquiesce that it is persistent; certainly the volume of his advice puts this forth as evident. However, there is nothing irrelevant or annoying about its threads. All you need do is hide it and ignore it; your experience of /tg/ is nothing the lesser for it, indeed it may even better for Touhoufag's presence as its threads draw many of the 4th Edition fans to it, allowing you to pursue your own interests in peace.

>>8599787
It's spam because you're pushing more relevant and less crappy threads off the front page.

>>8599807

Your arguments rely on highly subjective points. Whether the thread is "crappy" (as you put it) or not is entirely up to opinion, and I cannot contest you yours'. Irrelevancy, however, is another matter. This is (in case you are unaware) the Traditional Games board. We concern ourselves with all manner of tabletop games and derivatives thereof (which do not necessarily have to include any roleplaying elements whatsoever - Ludo, for example, doesn't), and whether you like it or not, 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons falls within this category easily.

This thread - and the several like it - is relevant.

>>8599912
And you douchetastically do not include sages in your "I must rebut all comers and have the last fucking word... always" posts

>>8599807
>implying having mostly 40k threads is more relevant and less crappy.

>>8599932 "I must rebut all comers and have the last fucking word... always"

What you did there - I see it.

Why should I sage ? I don't see any reason to, for the reasons described above and certainly, you've provided no reason whatsoever for me to do so, either.

>>8599983

Your comment adds nothing. If you want people to stop saging, make this thread relevant again.

>>8600089

A good point. I was afraid you were unable to put forth a convincing argument - I'm glad I was mistaken.

Sage added.

>>8600089
This thread is now about 4e.

How well does this power point system stack up against the usual at-will/encounter system? I'm trying to compare them but its a lot of new stuff to consider.

>>8601292
WotC fucked up big time on it.

>>8601292

To quote myself from a previous thread, I believe that the power mechanics of the ardent and the psion were an utter failure due to the fact that the most optimal strategy for selecting your three at-will powers is, with a diminutive handful of exceptions, to have them all be heroic-tier powers. This is because such powers continue to scale at the paragon and epic tiers as much as they do at the heroic tier. The 2-point augments of heroic-tier at-will powers are much more economical than the 4- and 6-point augments of paragon- and epic-tier powers, and worse still is that level 23 and level 27 powers, when unaugmented, do not deal the 2[W]-equivalent damage appropriate for an epic-tier at-will power. For a D&D 3.5 analogy, imagine if the damage of the 2nd-level Energy Missile was tied to your manifester level rather than the power points spent, significantly reducing the value of the 4th-level Energy Ball.

An optimal level 22 psion, for example, still uses the same three at-will powers that she had at level 3: Betrayal, Dishearten, and Mind Thrust. With a Charisma modifier of +8, a 2-point Dishearten inflicts a -8 penalty to attack rolls against an area burst 1, whereas a 2-point Mind Thrust imposes a -8 penalty to all defenses on a single creature. Mind you, a psion of this level has 11 power points (13 with a psionic paragon path). She can afford a 2-point augment for five rounds each encounter, effectively owning virtual at-will powers.

Likewise, an optimal level 30 Mantle of Elation ardent with 15 power points (17 with a psionic paragon path) still uses Demoralizing Strike, Energizing Strike, and Forward-Thinking Cut as her three at-will powers. Can you really blame her when an unaugmented Energizing Strike doles out 24 temporary hit points at level 30 with a +9 Charisma modifier?

For all of its faults, however, the battlemind is graced with more appropriate design for its at-will powers, design that encourages them to select progressively higher-level disciplines. A Speed of Thought battlemind, for example, is best off working her way through increasingly higher-level powers such as Lightning Rush, Brutal Barrage, and Brilliant Recovery.

bump

>>8605153
That... is pretty damn shit. Can it be fixed up with boosting damage, or is the entire utility of these powers similarly gimped?

Oh look, it's this thread again.

>>8601292

Rather poorly.

But hey, at least the Monks are awesome.

>>8608060
Fuck yeah Monks.

>>8607854

The issues with the at-will attack powers of the ardent and the psion lie in the core of the power point system itself. In most cases, using a 2-point augment three times across three rounds of an encounter vastly trumps using a 6-point augment in one round of an encounter and unaugmented powers the next two rounds. It is akin to a non-psionic character trading in her level 13 encounter power for a level 3 encounter power and a level 7 encounter power, which is an extremely optimal exchange.

Wizards of the Coast should have remained faithful to their existing system of at-will, encounter, and daily attack powers rather than experimenting with power points and failing. The monk is the most well-designed of the psionic classes for a reason.

>>8610111

What if you reverse engineered the hybrid psionics rules? 2 PP for having a heroic power, 4 PP for a paragon power, 6 PP for an epic power.

Reasons why the Battlemind kicks ass:

1. Iron Fist. This at will gives you Resist All as an effect. The battlerager was considered horribly broken because it had a similar, though lesser, effect. On the other hand, Iron Fist even protects vs ranged attacks.

2. Mind Spike. Deals the full damage of the original attack, to its attacker. No chance of missing, only need to activate it if the enemy's attack actually hits.

3. Stances. Always a nice draw of a class, the battlemind's level 1 stance gives him an initial 3dw+con attack, and a 2dw+con opportunity attack for the rest of the fight.

4. Brutal Barrage. Holy christ, an at will that gives 3 attacks vs the same enemy, and that lets you spend 1 psi to make that 4 attacks instead.

5. The Iron Guardian paragon path. For the Fighter, there's the Dreadnought, which makes you immune to all but straight up damage. For the Paladin, there's the Hospitalier, which is code for "your entire party is now indestructable forever." And for the Battlemind, there's the Iron Guardian. They get 55% fortification (3e style), plus an at will that gives them a 55% chance to ignore all damage from any hit, and a 45% chance to only take half damage.

>>8613821

It would remedy the issue to an extent, although the strategy for ardent and psion powers then would be to keep two paragon/epic-tier powers in your repertoire and one heroic-tier power that you gratuitously make use of the augment 2 of. The power point system is unbalanced at its core, once again.

>>8613961

>1. Iron Fist. This at will gives you Resist All as an effect.
Iron Fist is the most potent power that Battle Resilience battleminds have going for them. However, the lack of stickiness of the battlemind undermines its effectiveness.

>2. Mind Spike.
Please refer to point #4 in >>8581192.

>3. Stances. Always a nice draw of a class, the battlemind's level 1 stance gives him an initial 3dw+con attack, and a 2dw+con opportunity attack for the rest of the fight.
The battlemind has daily attack powers of average strength, though its stances are its weakest ones by far. Opportunity attacks do not occur often enough for the battlemind for them to be appreciable, especially as Blurred Step consumes an opportunity action, and having them be Constitution-based is no substitute for Melee Training.

>4. Brutal Barrage.
Brutal Barrage and a paragon path such as the Lyrandar Wind-Rider or the Pit Fighter converts a battlemind into quite a potent defender/striker. Lightning Rush used with a Lightning Weapon and the Mark of Storm make the character quite the defender as well. I had even created a build centered around these powers (http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/7907530) a month and a half ago. However, this, along with the Avernian Knight paragon path at level 16 and above, seems to be the *only* means by which to render the battlemind a defender as reliable as, say, a fighter or a paladin.

>5. The Iron Guardian paragon path.
>They get 55% fortification (3e style)
In the previous edition, a critical hit from a monster inflicted twice its regular damage in most cases. In the new edition, a critical hit from a monster inflicts anywhere from 1.2 to 1.8 times its regular damage. Consider that the medium normal damage expression of a level 16-18 monster is 2d8+7, dealing 16 average damage on a regular hit and 23 damage on a regular hit. It has a 5% chance of scoring a critical hit on any of its attacks, and when that does occur, you have a 50% chance of negating that extra 7 average damage. This is of negligible value.

Even in the best case scenario of the level 16-18 monster using its 4d12+7 high limited damage expression attack, which deals 33 average damage on a regular hit and 55 damage on a critical hit, you have a 50% chance of deflecting that additional 22 average damage on the off-chance that it scores a critical hit. Attacks of this magnitude are quite rare, particularly since elite and solo monsters are often given multiattacks of normal damage expressions instead of single attacks that deal tremendous amounts of damage.

>plus an at will that gives them a 55% chance to ignore all damage from any hit, and a 45% chance to only take half damage.
Iron Defense requires you to expend a standard action, in other words, not attack using Iron Fist or Brutal Barrage. Keep in mind that your ability to enforce your mark is already highly questionable as a battlemind.

So, is teh scan of PHB3 already out? Does anyone know?

>>8614532
All character builds are campaign and party dependent. The battlemind is extremely effective for defending other melee characters, as their OA shift + mind spike will function perfectly fine for them.

The only time the OA shift + mind spike is not a winning proposition is if you have back row characters who also aren't smart enough to position themselves so that they cannot be charged.

>>8614632

In other words, the battlemind can handle certain tasks of defending decently enough (though Blurred Step tends to fail with the presence of difficult terrain or monsters that can shift more than 1 square), and is defective at tasks that, say, a fighter or a paladin can handle with ease. This is not indicative of a good defender class.

>>8614798
The fact that battleminds aren't particularly good defenders to pair with an all ranged party is more than compensated that they're the only defender that can easily survive being swarmed in heroic tier, which seems ten times as important.

The bizarre attitude that a defender is only there to defend party members makes me wonder, what do such players do when they find out most defenders can't survive being ganged up on any better than anyone else?

Continually bumping a shitty thread that gets no replies = lololol

This thread has been around for THREE DAYS and nobody other than OP and his circle of circlejerking aspies even give a shit

>>8614892

>aren't particularly good defenders to pair with an all ranged party
A battlemind need not find herself in a party with four other ranged party members and no other melee characters for her to be a subpar defender. Two other melee allies and two ranged allies is all it takes.

>they're the only defender that can easily survive being swarmed in heroic tier, which seems ten times as important.
Once again, the lack of stickiness of the battlemind undermines the effectiveness of Iron Fist. Additionally, what of those battleminds who concentrate on Constitution and Charisma?

>what do such players do when they find out most defenders can't survive being ganged up on any better than anyone else?
Higher defenses on average, higher hit points, and a larger pool of healing surges all contribute towards a defender being more durable throughout the day than most other characters. At, say, level 3, even a sword-and-shield fighter with Strength 16+2, Constitution 12, Dexterity 12, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 16+2, and Charisma 8 is going to be more durable than the vast majority of other characters.

>>8614914
Good thing this isn't a shitty thread.

At least the Invincible Mind ED is badass.

>>8617050
What you did there.

sage for touhou

> bottlemind
> InVINcible Mind ED
heh

suddenly a Drunken Master flavor'd Battlemind intrigues me

>>8617484
age for faggot