Here’s another installment of the new kin powers from 13th Age 2E.
If you played using the original core book, you probably noticed that wood elves rocked. That presented a challenge which we did not tackle in the Alpha Playtest Packet. Here’s what’s coming in the 2E Beta Playtest Packet in a few weeks
Wood Elves
Kin power: Choose one of elven grace, fortunate fey, or Queen’s eye.
Elven Grace (Kin Power)
At the start of each of your turns, roll 1d8 to see if you get an extra standard action. If your roll is equal to or lower than the escalation die, you get an extra standard action that turn. You then stop rolling for elven grace until you’ve taken a quick rest. Alternatively, you can opt not to take the extra action and keep rolling each turn.
Champion Feat: Once per arc, roll a d4 for elven grace instead of a d8. If you don’t get an extra action, this option is not expended.
On elven grace: You could say that the 1st edition version of elven grace was out of step with the other kin powers. You could also be more melodramatic about it: the original version of elven grace danced leagues ahead of anything the other kin could muster. We had a clear choice as we started designing 13th Age 2E: “Do we nerf elven grace or do we redesign all the other kin powers to match its impact?”
I’m not a big believer in raising power levels to match a mistake. I’m also happier when character class powers stay more important than kin powers. We nerfed grace.
Rolling a d8 means that there are a few battles when elven grace won’t help you. But it will almost certainly help in serious battles that last a long time, and that seems right. It’s no longer the automatic choice of all wood elves. Or in the case of two campaigns I ran, all the freaking PCs.
Fortunate Fey (Kin Power)
Three times per arc, but never more than twice per battle, you can reroll a d20 roll that is not an attack roll or an initiative roll and that has not already been rerolled. You must abide by the reroll and can’t reroll again or benefit from any other tricky methods of replacing the reroll.
Champion Feat: You can now use fortunate fey rerolls five times per arc.
On fortunate fey: Unlike most kin powers that have a moment to shine each battle, fortunate fey offers a style of control that some players adore. You might use it for a save, you might use it to try to maintain a bardic song, or disengage, or even to try to avoid causing a twist with one of your icon connections. Elven grace is for daredevils who trust the dice, fortunate fey is for gamblers who like to control the odds.
Queen’s Eye (Kin Power)
Once per battle when the escalation die is 2+, turn your miss with a ranged attack into a hit.
Champion Feat: Once per arc, instead of turning a miss with a ranged attack into a hit, you can turn a hit with a ranged attack into a critical hit.
On Queen’s eye: When each kin had only a single power, this type of specialist approach was a problem. Now that all the kin have at least one other power to choose from, we can offer powers that appeal to a subset of characters. Wood elf sorcerers, rangers, and bow fighters could be happy with this power. Other wood elves have no complaints choosing between elven grace and fortunate fey.
(Elves still rock.)
(There are some other elves here, dwarves here, and humans here.)
(Perhaps you noticed the term “arc” used several times in this update. Arc is what 2E uses to refer to what 1E called a day. You’ll fight 3 or 4 battles per arc, between full heal-ups, and many spells and powers have usage patterns of “arc” or “2/arc” instead of “daily” and “2/day.”)