Executioner's Axe

[Chainsaw]

Where's this weapon listed? Did I miss it in the PHB? Also, what are its stats and what does it look like - is it essentially just the axe wielded by the Death Dealer in Frazetta's painting? I'm guessing it's a superior weapon, requiring a feat like the bastard sword or something?

I started playing my first 4E game (and with a new group) a few nights ago. The warlord and other fighter both had the executioner's axe, while I had the greataxe.

 

[cpendlet]

Its from the Adventurers Vault. And yes it is a superior weapon.

 

[Chainsaw]

Thought so. Cool, thanks.

 

[Larrin]

As to its appearance, yes, the death dealer axe is as pretty good representaion.

 

[jeffhartsell]

It is a great axe with brutal. You need AV or DDI to get the rules for brutal.

 

[Chainsaw]

Gotcha. Are there alot of legal, but otherwise unpublished, rules on DDI?

 

[timbannock]

Gotcha. Are there alot of legal, but otherwise unpublished, rules on DDI?

Depends on how you define "rules." There are not many rule sections, per se; i.e., you won't find a listing of the different movement rules.

However, all the items (normal and magical), monsters, statted NPCs, races, classes, and powers that have been published by WOTC show up in DDI. All core books, all splat books, all issues of Dungeon and Dragon...all of it is there.

And everything is "official" or "legal"...though to me that makes it sound like you're playing a Magic: The Gathering tournament, and not D&D! But that's just me...no offense meant.

Oh, and all the rules in DDI are from a published source...though occasionally people find rules for books that haven't come out yet. But they do eventually get published.

 

[Chainsaw]

So if you have DDI, you don't need to buy the supplements - like Martial Power, for example?

Edit: No offense taken on the "legal" bit. I never, ever used to think in those terms until I joined a group that plays Living Forgotten Realms. Every other group I've ever played with did whatever the hell it wanted, heh. If we decided everyone started with 20's across the board, they did. If we decided a bastard sword did 1d20 damage, it did. Those are extreme examples, of course.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

So if you have DDI, you don't need to buy the supplements - like Martial Power, for example?

That's how I'm working it, yup. Of course, it's harder to browse through an online resource than it is to sit with a book, so there is a chance you simply won't notice some things.

However, as more and more books come out the DDI subscription just looks better and better.

 

[timbannock]

So if you have DDI, you don't need to buy the supplements - like Martial Power, for example?

Edit: No offense taken on the "legal" bit. I never, ever used to think in those terms until I joined a group that plays Living Forgotten Realms. Every other group I've ever played with did whatever the hell it wanted, heh. If we decided everyone started with 20's across the board, they did. If we decided a bastard sword did 1d20 damage, it did. Those are extreme examples, of course.

That's another "depends"...unfortunately!

I'm a DM, and I resolved once I got DDI that I won't be buying any supplements unless they have lots of fluff I want (because "fluff" is not found in the DDI entries).

But a player may want the books: a lot of that "fluff" includes descriptions of the classes and races, cohesive entries about the rules to use the different items, etc.

So it's hard to say. The books are still useful, I'd say, for reference and clearer understanding (as well as organization). But if you ONLY want the stats for Magic Item X, or Power Y, or Class Z, then yeah DDI is fine, and will have it all.

Just to extend the example: books I use to prep for game = DMG (encounter building info is not in DDI, nor are traps and I believe diseases), MM (just to glance through, but otherwise all stats are in the DDI), and PHB (for combat rules reference). I use DDI for magic items, monster stats, and if I need to reference class powers. I would totally pick up the various published adventures in the future, and I use adventures from Dungeon magazine (as well as some of the articles from Dragon...but of course, both these come with a DDI subscription).

I personally won't pick up Draconomicon (the fluff is stuff I feel I can come up with on my own), Martial Power (again, I'm never a player in my group), or even PHB2 or MM2. I might pick up AV2 because there's more than just items in those books, there's also rules for how to use and create them, as well as variant rules and essays on changing up items that I find useful, and that won't be in DDI.