Ulfhednar advice?

[Drachenwulf]

I am looking for advice on building an ulfhednar, particularly what actives and passive son to either consider or avoid. Note that the main thing that drew me to this archetype was the blood wolf form.

[raleel]

So I don't think there is a bad power in fate of the Norns. Andrew has done a fine job of mathematically balancing all of them. So ones to avoid has a lot more to do with your play style. I tend to opt towards flexible powers, because I like options in almost every game I play.

You like blood wolf form. Who doesn't? No reason to not play on that, but it is good to think that if you don't get blood wolf in your Wyrd that you might want another option. Power attack, raging charge, and hamstring all are off the center space and all are nice flexible powers. I'm a big fan of lunging attack because I like a move and an attack.

As for passives, they are all good, but I like tactician a lot. I prefer martial prowess to unarmed power, but only because I want a bonus if I am not in wolf form. Generally, that upper right quadrant is going to be good for wolf stuff, and the others for non wolf. The exception there is death charge, which specifies a weapon. In my game, I house ruled that to Trample instead.

As for void rune choice, wooden is probably your bet, but the other ones are good. They are just different. I personally am a big fan of eater of eyes, because I like eye rake, but it's not like any really suck at all.

Also, I will give you (and your born, if they are inexperienced with fate of the Norns) that blood wolf will shock your group in how powerful it is. It's sort of the entry power for "oh, this is a different kind of roleplaying game". It is SUPPOSED to be very omg omg omg there is a giant wolf and I am having a hard time challenging the party. Things I will tell the Norn, because it invariably comes up
1) use mental damage. It can bring the ulfhednar out of wolf form
2) impede him. That takes away a big advantage.
3) degeneration works well as well
4) don't be afraid to encourage more elaborate combos from the rest of the players. They can do it just fine.

Blood wolf, under the covers, doesn't have an attack. That's a big part of it. You are spending a whole rune to move into that form. Also note, YOU MUST HAVE A MAINTAIN FOR IT TO LAST MORE THAN A ROUND. You can go blood wolf for a round and get the attack as a blood wolf with an another rune, but if you don't have a maintain, it goes back into essence at clean up. So that means to transform, maintain, and attack in the same round, you need three runes. One of these can be a void rune.

[Drachenwulf]

Is the fangs passive effective when not in wolf form? Also should I be looking to be raging when I can? Is the “blood drinker bite” built on when using an active attack power (example mauling) or is it replaced?

[raleel]

fangs works when not in wolf form. Alter the flavor text to work as you see fit. Also, note, Fangs was errataed in Denizens of the North. see http://www.fateofthenorns.com/phpBB3/vi ... p?f=3&t=46

as for blood drinker bite, I've treated it as a the name of the unarmed mechanism to attack, meaning that it can be used with active powers, including mauling. I'm fairly certain this is the rules as written. It's very close to a two handed weapon in power, so I think that's the intent.

[Drachenwulf]

So based on that thread, at level 12 are the bonuses for fangs +2/+2/+2 or +3/+3/+3 as shown in the example?

[raleel]

at level 12, it would be +3 across the board - +1 for the base, +1 per 5 levels in addition (so, +2 at level 5, +3 at level 10)