U41.4 Preview 2: Iconic Tiefling Scoundrel

[Cocomajobo]

Disclaimer

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release. Specific extra disclaimer on the current visual appearance of Tiefling and Tiefling Scoundrel.

First, if you haven't already been there please check out the U41.4 Preview 1 Main thread.

How to Access
You can access the Tiefling Scoundrel Iconic Eberron Race on the Preview server by speaking to Lord Poincelot in the center of the Test Dojo and then purchasing it in the Lamannia DDO Store.

Description
The Tiefling Scoundrel is a new full Iconic Eberron race debuting soon, with its own past lives as well as horns and fully animated tails. Their tails are animated to interact with cloaks without clipping through them, so you'll be able to enjoy the many options for customization without worrying about intersections.The position of the horns on the head, just like Dragonborn, exclude them from the appearance of many helmets that cover their face or brow.

The Tiefling iconic race, the Scoundrel, is a melee focused Bard with an emphasis on Sonic and Fire damage. In addition to a different darkness specialization path than the heroic Tiefling race, the Tiefling Scoundrel iconic also features their own unique animations for Bardic Music that revolve around their Fiddle.

This Iconic Race involves many new animations for all of DDO's various weapon styles; please let us know where things don't look right.

Base Racial Trait

• Ability Scores
  
  • +2 Charisma
• Feats
  
  • Infernal Ancestry: You gain Fire Resistance equal to your Character Level. You gain +2 to the Balance skill, as well as a +2 bonus to Saves vs Spells. You have a +2 bonus to hit and damage against Lawful Outsiders and Good Outsiders. You are Immune to Fear.
  • Fiendish Arpeggio: SLA: Enchant your fiddle to cast this spell, dealing 2d4 fire damage, plus 1 fire damage per 2 caster levels (max 2d4+10), to a target. The damage repeats itself every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. Passive: +18 Spell Points.
• Past Lives
  
  • Passive: +1 Reflex Save per Stack of this Past Life (max 3).
  • Toggle: Gain 10/20/30% Enhancement Bonus to Movement Speed (does not stack with Striding/Speed items or Haste).
• Where their Journey Begins
  
  • Tiefling Scoundrel's begin with 1 level of Bard
  • Tiefling Scoundrel's currently begins in a Sharn Prison. For now, they are sent out to Stormreach after leaving the prison. This may not always be the case.

Enhancement Tree

• Cores
  
  1. Bloodsong Your weapon attacks add 1d4 Sonic damage to enemies under 75% HP. This damage scales with 100% Spell Power. Passive: +5 Fire and Sonic Spell Power.
  2. Charisma +1 Charisma
  3. Bloodsong Your weapon attacks add 1d6 Sonic damage to enemies under 50% HP. This damage scales with 100% Spell Power. Passive: +10 Fire and Sonic Spell Power.
  4. Charisma +1 Charisma
  5. Bloodsong Passive: +20 Fire and Sonic Spell Power. Your weapon attacks add 1d8 Sonic damage to enemies under 25% HP. This damage scales with 200% Spell Power.
• Tier 1
  
  • Hellish Rebuke SLA: Enveloped in a cloak of infernal flame, you have a chance to deal fire damage to foes that strike you in melee range. Enemies have a chance to take 1d10 Fire Damage +1 per Caster Level. This damage scales with Fire Spell Power. 5 Minute + 1 Minute per character level Duration. 12 Second Cooldown.
  • Scoundrel's Skills +1/2/3 Balance, Bluff, & Spellcraft
  • Dashing Weapons You are trained in the art of fine weaponry. You have +1 to Hit and Damage with the following weapons: Shortsword, Rapier, Handaxe, Light Hammer, Light (non-repeating) Crossbow.
  • Saves +1/2/3 Saves vs. Spells
  • Obscuring Darkness SLA: You can channel your fiendish nature to manifest a zone of Obscuring Darkness at will. Creatures inside the darkness suffer a 20% chance of missing any attack they make due to concealment. This does not apply to attacking misted targets from outside. 10 SP. Lasts 30 seconds. 30 second cooldown.
• Tier 2
  
  • Hellish Reverberation While Hellish Rebuke is active, enemies that strike you have a chance to be dazed with no save.
  • Infernal Resistance Multiselector. Choose one of:
    
    • Infernal Resistance (Acid): You gain Acid Resistance equal to your Character Level.
    • Infernal Resistance (Cold): You gain Cold Resistance equal to your Character Level.
  • Improved Dashing Weapons +1 to Hit and Damage with your Dashing Weapons.
  • Traditionalist Caster +3/+6/+10 Universal Spell Power when wielding an Orb or Staff.
  • Lasting Darkness Enemies that enter your Obscuring Darkness have a chance to be Blinded with no save.
• Tier 3
  
  • Ash Imprisonment Your Fiendish Arpeggio attempts to turn an enemy to Ash. This acts similarly to a Flesh to Stone Spell, and affects anything your Fascinate can affect. DC (1d20+Perform Skill) vs Will. Bosses immune and instead take -4 AC and 25% Fort penalties.
  • Infernal Resistance Multiselector. Choose one of:
    
    • Infernal Resistance (Acid): You gain Acid Resistance equal to your Character Level.
    • Infernal Resistance (Cold): You gain Cold Resistance equal to your Character Level.
  • Scoundrel's Inspiration Your Inspire Courage adds an additional +1/2/3 to Attack and +0/0/1 to damage
  • Greater Dashing Weapons +2 to Hit and Damage with your Dashing Weapons as well as 1 sneak attack die.
  • Dance in Darkness While inside Obscuring Darkness, you gain +3 Saving Throws, +3 Magical Resistance Rating, and +15 to Magical Resistance Cap.
• Tier 4
  
  • Staccato Sovereign You use your Sonic spell power as if it were your Fire spell power if it is higher, and vice versa.
  • Charm Hearts Enemies that attack you have a 10% chance to be subjugated to a Fascinate effect (Will Save vs 1d20 + Perform Skill negates).
  • Enthralling Weapons While wielding a Dashing Weapon, you gain +2 hit and damage, 1 Sneak Attack Die, and 1 Enchantment DC
  • Magic of Melodies +1 Enchantment DC, +1 Caster Level and +1 Max Caster Level with Enchantment Spells.
  • Sonata of Darkness While inside Obscuring Darkness, you gain Displacement, +5% Dodge, +2 to Enchantment DCs.

Currently Known Bugs

• There are some work in progress animation issues scattered amongst the various weapon styles for male and female. If you find them, please let us know.
• Tiefling Scoundrels currently select from Forgotten Realms deities when taking Divine class levels; they should, instead, select from Eberron deities.
• Fiddle item exists but does not currently do anything.
• Scounrels Buckler is race restricted to Sun Elves.

Bugs Fixed since Preview 1

• Numerous unfinished/polished animations
• "Obscuring Darkness" (Tier 1) tooltip does not mention any mechanical effects of the darkness.
• Bonuses granted while standing in the Obscuring Darkness cloud do not have their short duration reapplied unless you leave and reenter the darkness.
• Grand Chord Works is currently a passive enhancement that does nothing instead of the active enhancement it is meant to be.
• Tiefling Scoundrels currently begin their life in the Wheloon tavern Iconic starting area. This is not where they will begin when released on the live servers. As a result, Elminster is not set up to properly recognize a Tiefling Scoundrel and players are advised to seek training elsewhere (the Test Dojo perhaps).
• Hellish Rebuke has been replaced with an erroneous copy of a skills boost enhancement from the Aasimar Tree.
• There is an enhancement called "Infernal Songs" currently listed in Tier 3. This is both non-functional and not intended to be in the final version of the tree.
• Using the fiddle uses default bard song SFX
• Tiefling Scoundrels do not use their fiddle to cast spells
• Fiddle does not have an icon
• Tiefling Racial feat does not grant Fire Resistance
• Charm Hearts does not apply reliably
• Scoundrels are free to VIPs
• Various icons are missing
• Chargen is missing a header image and imagery for the Scoundrel buttons

[Tist]

From the iconic gearset, the shield "Fortified Fiddle" is set to require race : sun elf.
Er, you note that already.

Instead I'll say ... meh, the horns all look a bit bolted on to the face. I'd select the smallest I could to try and mitigate this, but there aren't really any small ones.

[SerPounce]

Any thoughts on bard generally, or tiefling scoundrels in particular, getting charisma to hit with swashbuckling weapons? Odd that the ultimate charisma bard is a PDKs with a shortsword.

[Fivetigers33]

Any thoughts on bard generally, or tiefling scoundrels in particular, getting charisma to hit with swashbuckling weapons? Odd that the ultimate charisma bard is a PDKs with a shortsword.

I was thinking the same thing. If you devs don't want to add it, it'd be nice if you just said so. And even nicer if you said why. Selectively ignoring several posts of feedback on the same topic just seems juvenile.

I'm not sure what's causing the hesitation. Are you afraid all the monks will TR into bards if they are given Charisma to hit?

[Steelstar]

Any thoughts on bard generally, or tiefling scoundrels in particular, getting charisma to hit with swashbuckling weapons? Odd that the ultimate charisma bard is a PDKs with a shortsword.

I was thinking the same thing. If you devs don't want to add it, it'd be nice if you just said so. And even nicer if you said why. Selectively ignoring several posts of feedback on the same topic just seems juvenile.

We have no current plans to add Charisma-to-Hit to Swashbuckler or Tiefling Scoundrel.

[AbyssalMage]

We have no current plans to add Charisma-to-Hit to Swashbuckler or Tiefling Scoundrel.

[Thar]

I am awesomely beautiful and can stab a monster better because of that! makes no logical sense for to hit or damage.

str and dex - of course makes sense
int/wisdom - stretching it... but ok your smart enough or wise enough to hit the right spot...
con - to damage don't really see this as "right" either... unless the fat dwarf sits on the enemy...

[Fivetigers33]

We have no current plans to add Charisma-to-Hit to Swashbuckler or Tiefling Scoundrel.

Thank you for at least clarifying.


Makes sense I guess since melee bards have been OP for so long.

[SerPounce]

We have no current plans to add Charisma-to-Hit to Swashbuckler or Tiefling Scoundrel.

Thanks for the response.

I understand that you don't want everyone just picking whatever stat they want for hit/dmg, but it seems like we've gone so far down that path already that they few classes left out feel really far behind for hybrid builds. You can build a nice hybrid druid, wizard, cleric, favored soul, or artificer by getting your casting stat to hit/dmg. In fact you can make a nice hybrid bard too, if you pick PDK as your race. On top of that when swashbuckler was introduced there wasn't the same AC inflation that we got in the proceeding years of legendary content so the lack of cha to hit didn't seem like such a large problem.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

If anyone cares to know what this is going to do:

The Flame-touched Fiddle is a Quiver-slot item that, unlike the Scoundrel's other items, is BtA and has no race restrictions. When equipped, your Bard Songs (regardless of what race you are) use the Fiddle animation/music instead of the traditional Bard animation/music.

Doesn't quite work in this build, but we've fixed it internally.

Are there plans for it to do something for Scoundrels? Currently, they play the fiddle with or without the, er, fiddle. Is it planned that they'll play the lute without it?

I am awesomely beautiful and can stab a monster better because of that! makes no logical sense for to hit or damage.

It's less "I'm pretty!" and more using your CHA to bluff and feint and dazzle your opponent. It makes far more sense as a to-hit than damage, other than maybe your feinting opens up vulnerable spots?

[Grace_ana]

We have no current plans to add Charisma-to-Hit to Swashbuckler or Tiefling Scoundrel.

I guess I’m just really confused by this when you also have things like a tree that will let you swashbuckle with crossbows. It’s a really, really strange choice. I mean, you can swash with crossbows but mostly suck at it, and spend a bunch of AP to get there, but why? There should be some cohesion.

[unbongwah]

The default path starts with max CHA & CON and dumps everything else. If I might make an alternate suggestion:

Bard 20
True Neutral Tiefling Scoundrel


Stats
               32pt     Level Up
               ----     --------
Strength         8       4: CHA
Dexterity       14       8: CHA
Constitution    16      12: CHA
Intelligence     8      16: CHA
Wisdom           8      20: CHA
Charisma        20


Skills
          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
         ------------------------------------------------------------
Perform   4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
Concent   4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
Diplo     4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
UMD       4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
Balance   3  1  1  1  1                                   1  1  1  1  11
Haggle                   1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1              11
Tumble    1                                                            1
         ------------------------------------------------------------
         20  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5


Feats

 1        : Single Weapon Fighting
 3        : Weapon Finesse
 6        : Precision
 9        : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
12        : Improved Critical: Piercing
15        : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
18        : Quicken Spell

Basically a variation on the Count of MC. Bumped up DEX so I could add Precision; while I was at it, took Weapon Finesse too for the added to-hit and I like DEX builds. Quicken is a must-have for any melee caster, IMO; Concentration only carries you so far (which the current path lacks, I noticed). The downside is dropping the shield feats, but there's only so much room on a pure bard.

[unbongwah]

I guess I’m just really confused by this when you also have things like a tree that will let you swashbuckle with crossbows. It’s a really, really strange choice. I mean, you can swash with crossbows but mostly suck at it, and spend a bunch of AP to get there, but why? There should be some cohesion.

I dunno that it's enough to make it a good idea, but I tested Dashing Inquisition + Swashbuckling tonight and the following appears to work with light crossbows:

• the Doubleshot and Enhancement bonuses from the cores
• the Doubleshot bonus from Dashing Scoundrel
• the sonic-on-crit damage from Resonant Arms
• Battering Barrage's Destruction effect

I didn't bother testing the tier-5 Swashbuckler abilities (i.e., ranged Coup de Grace / Exploit Weakness / Thread the Needle) because frankly I can't see any dual-crossbow build not taking the 30% Ranged Alacrity bonus from tier-5 Inquisitive. And since there's no stat-to-damage option in the Inquisitive tree, I'm just presuming a xbow Swashbuckling Inquisitor will need one of the other available options for xbows instead (i.e., Falconry, Harper, Mechanic, Insightful Damage). The other option is presumably Divine Inquisition + Favored Soul's Grace / Knowledge of Battle feats, but that can't be combined with Dashing Inquisition.

[Hjarki]

My Fiendish Arpeggio is hitting for both Sonic and Fire damage. Not sure if WAI or not.

[Steelstar]

• Fiddle item exists but does not currently do anything.

If anyone cares to know what this is going to do:

The Flame-touched Fiddle is a Quiver-slot item that, unlike the Scoundrel's other items, is BtA and has no race restrictions. When equipped, your Bard Songs (regardless of what race you are) use the Fiddle animation/music instead of the traditional Bard animation/music.

Doesn't quite work in this build, but we've fixed it internally.

[cru121]

Magic of Melodies:
+1 Caster Level works
+1 DC works
+1 Max Caster Level does not seem to work. I tested on a Bard 1 / Favored Soul 14. Aid spell is an enchantment with max caster level 10. The duration remained at 10 minutes, and spell granted 18 temporary HP (8+caster level, max 10).

[Tist]

toggling helmet display on/off results in no helmet dislplaying ever, and horn artifacts detatched from anything, floating near the head

[GramercyRiff]

If anyone cares to know what this is going to do:

The Flame-touched Fiddle is a Quiver-slot item that, unlike the Scoundrel's other items, is BtA and has no race restrictions. When equipped, your Bard Songs (regardless of what race you are) use the Fiddle animation/music instead of the traditional Bard animation/music.

Doesn't quite work in this build, but we've fixed it internally.

Why in the quiver slot?

[AbyssalMage]

If anyone cares to know what this is going to do:

The Flame-touched Fiddle is a Quiver-slot item that, unlike the Scoundrel's other items, is BtA and has no race restrictions. When equipped, your Bard Songs (regardless of what race you are) use the Fiddle animation/music instead of the traditional Bard animation/music.

Doesn't quite work in this build, but we've fixed it internally.

Oh, that sounds awesome.

[lain5246]

If anyone cares to know what this is going to do:

The Flame-touched Fiddle is a Quiver-slot item that, unlike the Scoundrel's other items, is BtA and has no race restrictions. When equipped, your Bard Songs (regardless of what race you are) use the Fiddle animation/music instead of the traditional Bard animation/music.

Doesn't quite work in this build, but we've fixed it internally.

Please tell us that it appears as a cosmetic