Races and Classes--I has it!

Reaper Steve · Dec 15, 2007

Lucky score at the bookstore today!

Haven't had time to read it yet, but I will say the book is high-quality and gorgeous!
I am impressed with the layout and hope it carries over to the 4E rulebooks.

A couple things:
The first few pages are the design timeline... if after you reading this, you are not convinced that 4E is helmed by a stellar team and that the game will be the best edition to date, then nothing will convince you.

Dragonborn look awesome, and the bits I've skimmed do a great job of making them a natural part of the game.

BTW, the creature on the cover of H2 is not a dragonborn... it's features are much more similar to a tiefling's (but I don't think its one of those, either.)

More later!

Nyaricus · Dec 15, 2007

More now!

Anything, in particular, stick out that hasn't been covered in other previews we've been privy too?

cheers,
--N

Reaper Steve · Dec 15, 2007

OK, I accomplished a cover-to-cover skim (while wrangling a 5-yr old and 2-yr old that were alternately fighting and watching Cars.) Full digestion is still in order.

Noteworthy:
The art is gorgeous! I particularly like the new look for Dwarves, especially their arms and armor.
I really like the Dragonborn and Tieflings. Very well thought out races that break the mold. Articles on Dragonborn society and family are genius, as close to a brand new innovation as possible in the genre. Brilliant moves, IMO. Excellent art again, as well.

I didn't read much of the class info... too hectic around here to properly digest.

I really like the stuff on heroic-paragon-epic. It neatly provides 10 levels o crawl the dungeon, 10 of save the kingdom, and 10 more of become an immortal legend.

Orcs and hobgoblins are balanced against the middle of the heroic tier. Gnolls and trogs received a significant increase in power. Gnolls have Abyssal allies (sweet! I love the Abyssal Maws, Skulkers, Ravagers, and Eviscerators in Chainmail 2.0)

Next time I'll try to read class stuff... and take notes!

WhatGravitas · Dec 15, 2007

Reaper Steve said:
I really like the stuff on heroic-paragon-epic. It neatly provides 10 levels o crawl the dungeon, 10 of save the kingdom, and 10 more of become an immortal legend.

Also got the book today!

The tier stuff is very neat, to expand:

Paragon paths are basically what are prestige classes now (but I think we already knew that), and the epic destinies are supposed to give PCs a reason for retirement at the end (founding an academy or leaving the mortal plane are examples in the book). Really dig the "retirement" thing.

As with Reaper Steve, more to come later! (also ask questions... as with Reaper Steve!

)

Cheers, LT.

Szatany · Dec 15, 2007

Say more about humans, dwarves, elves and halflings. In particular, how they differ from 3e.

Doug McCrae · Dec 15, 2007

Reaper Steve said:
Orcs and hobgoblins are balanced against the middle of the heroic tier. Gnolls and trogs received a significant increase in power.

Great stuff. The humanoid progression - kobold, goblin, orc, hobgoblin, gnoll, bugbear - got left behind too quick in 3e.

WhatGravitas · Dec 15, 2007

Szatany said:
Say more about humans, dwarves, elves and halflings. In particular, how they differ from 3e.

Humans
They've said that humans were difficult to design, because they have no "shtick", so they're now the most flexible race, and "all about dramatic actions and dramatic recoveries", coupled with their racial feats, they're going to be useful with all classes.
Fluffwise, they're people with an emphasis on jack-of-all-trades, and also "corruptible" (meaning they're more prone to temptations) - mainly because they wanted to give all races a negative trait, flavourwise (you know, elves are arrogant, dwarves are greedy and so on).

Elves
Taller now. Elves are now emphasising their grace and dexterity shtick, not said a lot about it.
Fluffwise, all Elves were the same, then they've split into three races - Elves, High Elves (which call themselves Eladrin) and Drow. Is interesting stuff to read and I really like Eladrin now.

Dwarves
They're getting rid of the Charisma-penalty, so they're now equally excelling as Fighter and Paladins. They're still sturdy and resilient, as before. Ah, and darkvision is going away, because it makes normal vision too weak (since everybody and their dog has darkvision in 3E) and makes the job easier on the DM, since he doesn't need to describe rooms for the normal-vision and the 60'-darkvision and the 120'-darkvision guys separately.
Flavourwise, they're quite similar, but live on surfaces to make them less sequestered from the world, are quite devout people, producing more divine characters (i.e. Paladins and Clerics) and... I like the new conception of dwarven women. The artist in the commentary strived to give them a more feminine look... and works pretty well.

Generally, they wanted to up the power of all races a bit, because they were very restrained with designing new races after the core races of 3E, since the power level was so low, forcing them to use LA (which is clunky), so all races are now a bit more powerful, mainly to open up design space.
They've made a comment about the Drow (which are not in the PHB, because tieflings are more compelling "evil-curious" characters)... in which they stated that not all Drow have the classic Drow abilities, but most have - by taking racial feats (which most NPCs are supposed to do), so they're seemingly putting higher LA stuff into feats and just say "NPCs always take these feats" to keep the image. Nice approach.

Cheers, LT.

Doug McCrae · Dec 16, 2007

Lord Tirian said:
Humans
"corruptible" (meaning they're more prone to temptations)

Elves
Taller now.

Tolkienesque.

withak · Dec 16, 2007

I'd like to know more about Eladrin and how they fit into the world. Does it say anything about their connection to the Feywild, etc.?

I'm trying to figure out how to fit them into my homebrew world, and it's been tough without having any real info on them whatsoever...

WhatGravitas · Dec 16, 2007

Doug McCrae said:
Tolkienesque.

VERY! The elves give me a very Tolkienesque-vibe, as all elves were invited by Corellon into the feywild first, then were split apart into Eladrin, Elves, and Drow. Gives me a Nolder/Sindarin vibe.

More interesting tidbit: Eladrin are very feywild-ish and have cities there, that can shift into the mortal world and back at certain times. And their cities can be dark and dangerous during nights. They're really trying to include the amoral fey-concept into the feywild, which is highly interesting.

withak said:
I'd like to know more about Eladrin and how they fit into the world. Does it say anything about their connection to the Feywild, etc.?

I'm trying to figure out how to fit them into my homebrew world, and it's been tough without having any real info on them whatsoever...

Ah, just seen that... as said before, they're all Elves, invited into the Feywild by Corellon (god of magic now). They've split apart when the Drow were rising, and the elvish empires in the Feywild were destroyed.
Some elves then abandoned the ruins for a simpler, more natural lifestyle (and are now our Elves), while others strived to rebuild their cities (which are Eladrin now). They're relatively sequestered, but pass still the barrier "with nary a thought", even their cities can shift back and forth at certain times.

Cheers, LT.