D&D 4E Playtesting 4e... what its like

Skornn2k7 · Sep 22, 2007

I seen in a Wizards blog that one of them was creating pre-gen chars for playtesting. He was making 5 chars of lvls 2 , 4 , 6, and 8. I am wondering if that is just the first stage of playtesting the Heroic lvls ?

I would think they would playtest the Paragon too, lvls 12 14 16 18. Most campaigns break 10th within the first 4-6 months. It sounds like that the new 4e will get you thru those lvls pretty fast.

If you had the chance to playtest for Wizards, what do you think you would put thru the grinder the most , Heroic Paragon or Epic.

Flynn · Sep 22, 2007

Skornn2k7 said:
I seen in a Wizards blog that one of them was creating pre-gen chars for playtesting. He was making 5 chars of lvls 2 , 4 , 6, and 8. I am wondering if that is just the first stage of playtesting the Heroic lvls ?

I would think they would playtest the Paragon too, lvls 12 14 16 18. Most campaigns break 10th within the first 4-6 months. It sounds like that the new 4e will get you thru those lvls pretty fast.

If you had the chance to playtest for Wizards, what do you think you would put thru the grinder the most , Heroic Paragon or Epic.

It has been my experience that most campaigns in 3E break 10th level in the 11-12 month range, if you start from 1st level. However, assuming that 20 levels in 3E equals 30 levels in 4E, that implies that in 4E, you'll hit 10th level in 4E around the same time as you would hit 6th or 7th in 3E, so we're looking at 5-8 months range.

It makes sense that the playtesters would focus on the Heroic ranges the most, since most campaigns start at lower levels and then end in mid levels. It's just the nature of the beast. That's why there are more low level adventures than mid level adventures, and more mid level adventures than high level adventures.

Were I to be a 4E playtester, I would first playtest the Heroic levels, then push the envelope to make sure the "sweet spot" is preserved through the upper end of the Paragon levels, followed by an Epic level playtest if I had time.

If my time was very short, though, I would playtest the Paragon level the most, simply to insure the "sweet spot" extended as far as I could make it go into the upper levels. But that's because the "sweet spot" is of particular interest to me, as I prefer to DM.

With Regards,
Flynn

Azgulor · Sep 22, 2007

Color me confused. I thought one of the goals of 4e was to "extend the sweet spot". Shouldn't playtesting be done at all levels (Heroic, Paragon, Epic - I think that's right)? Wouldn't that be the only way to verify that the goal had been met?

And I'm not 100% certain that 20 3e levels = 30 4e levels. With faster leveling, overall power increase, and 10 levels devoted to Epic, it just doesn't add up.

RigaMortus2 · Sep 22, 2007

Azgulor said:
Color me confused. I thought one of the goals of 4e was to "extend the sweet spot". Shouldn't playtesting be done at all levels (Heroic, Paragon, Epic - I think that's right)? Wouldn't that be the only way to verify that the goal had been met?

And I'm not 100% certain that 20 3e levels = 30 4e levels. With faster leveling, overall power increase, and 10 levels devoted to Epic, it just doesn't add up.

Sure it adds up. 1 3E level = 1.5 4E levels.

Beckett · Sep 22, 2007

Keep in mind, Greg said he went from working on the 2,4,6,8 level cleric to working on all five characters at those levels... but that doesn't mean he's the only one making characters. There are probably other staff members creating the characters at other levels. Even if they aren't right now, these could represent the first wave of the playtest- trying out 20 characters is going to take some time, after which higher-level characters might get sent out.

breschau · Sep 22, 2007

The most likely reason why is so WotC doesn't have to include the character creation chapter in the playtest packets. Without that, it's a simple matter of "test these rules with the x level characters, then report. Ok, now do the same with the next higher level characters, then report." Lather, rinse, repeat. They don't need to playtest character creation, they need the game in action where the blood and guts are.