Article:
Player's Handbook 3 Debut: Ardent
With the release of the Ardent Class, there is now one less known unknown from the PB3's lineup of classes. The Ardent is a Psionic Leader, with Cha/Wis and Cha/Con builds. Between the ability scores used, and the class flavor based around manipulating emotions, the Ardent seems custom-made by WotC to highlight the strengths of the Kalashtar and Half-Elf races by matching their ability scores and underlining their racial narratives as the "emotional" and "people-person" races, respectively.
So, what can we expect an Ardent to look like in battle? Well, it's a melee leader who starts with proficiency in martial melee weapons, chainmail, but no shields, which means Ardents will tend towards two-handed weapons, especially since they often won't have the Strength to take shield proficiency feats. Polearms should be especially popular, because they work well for leaders who often appreciate the ability to hide behind tougher melee allies. Unfortunately, Ardents will usually lack the Dex or Str needed for the great polearm feats like Polearm Gamble (15 Str) and Polearm Momentum (15 Dex).
The Cha/Wis Ardent also has a great basic "shtick." It grants all allies within 5 squares a bonus to defenses against opportunity attacks equal to the Ardent's Wisdom modifier. This bonus will generally start at +3 to +4, which is very nice, but at high levels it eventually becomes +7 to +8. A higher-level Ardent's comrades will find that they can almost ignore opportunity attacks, and enjoy nearly unlimited freedom to walk multiple squares in combat instead of shifting just one, which should be a huge advantage.
Some quibbles:
1) The Cha/Wis Ardent is yet another build with terrible secondary defenses (low Reflex and Fortitude). The Cha/Wis clerics and bards of the world can at least hide in the rear lines, but the Cha/Wis Ardent joins the Cha/Wis paladin on the front line, where it will find its Reflex and Fortitude frequently targeted, and easily hit, by numerous foes.
2) Although the article says they changed the way humans gain a bonus psionic at-will from the Psion write-up, the text indicates that they still seem to be stuck with a single unaugmentable 1st level at-will, which is pretty weak. All other classes get 1st level at-wills that scale at 21st level, so they stay useful throughout the PC's career. But psions and ardents are supposed to replace their 1st level at-wills with higher level at-wills, and thus their 1st level level at-wills don't scale. So humans will still find their best racial trait devalued highly for these classes.
3) The Ardent's healing shtick is pretty dull. It heals the same amount as the Warlord (healing surge plus a d6, scaling at higher levels) and adds either +1 attack or +1 to defenses until the end of the next turn. +1 is pretty minor, and kind of forgettable, especially as compared to the interesting heals most other leaders get, which are either stronger, more flexible, or have other useful boosts like the bard's bonus movement. Note that the Heartening Surge feat Ardents can take makes the boost into a +2, which will make the effect much, much more noticeable.
So, all in all, and interesting new class which should stand out on the battlefield from other leaders, due to different weapons, different passive boosts, and the flexibility provided by power points and augmentable powers. Also, a build that really highlights the Kalashtar, which is nice.
