Broken NDAs or Elaborate Trolls?

Gundark · Feb 16, 2012

Mircoles said:
The return of vancian magic means that I won't be playing it.

Well to each his own I suppose . This shouldn't come as a surprise though. It was mentioned in the seminars by the design team. Also I am a 4e gamer and prefer it over any edition thus far .That said I don't get how daily powers are not vancian . I get the feat tax arguement, but we don't know quite how feats work in 5e , feats could just be present to give power like options.

Siberys · Feb 16, 2012

Dislike. All I'm seeing is a mess of extra tracking and dice rolling; if there's one thing I dislike about 4e, it's tracking issues, and all this does is make it /worse/.

EDIT: And rolled Hit Points? Ewww. Not that I couldn't houserule averages in or anything, but still...

Alaxk Knight of Galt · Feb 16, 2012

Siberys said:
Dislike. All I'm seeing is a mess of extra tracking and dice rolling; if there's one thing I dislike about 4e, it's tracking issues, and all this does is make it /worse/.

EDIT: And rolled Hit Points? Ewww. Not that I couldn't houserule averages in or anything, but still...

I'll point out that this information falls into one of two catagories

1. Hoax / Troll
2. Violation of NDA material that is still in development

I'll wait patiently for the beta playtest this spring.

Gundark · Feb 16, 2012

As far as rests go, the designers have made comments about party composition , and not making someone feel like they have to play the healer/leader so for example a party of rogues and fighters could exist and still be playable . There is a lot of hate for healing surges, the gain hit points when resting thing does work towards this end. But does need to be ironed out for sure.

the Jester · Feb 16, 2012

I really hope we don't return to the "have a good night's sleep and forget all your injuries" trope of 4e.

Yes, I know it can be flavored however you want- "You wake up bruised and sore but healed" or whatever- but 4e never feels like you've been seriously injured. One of my beefs with it is the full recovery thing.

Blacky the Blackball · Feb 16, 2012

pauljathome said:
DndNext : Even more dice rolling than ever before.

D&D Next. Twice as much d20 as the d20 system.

In fact I heard (i.e. just made up) a rumour that the replacement to the OGL will be the 2d20 License.

Unfortunately, the logo - a pencil stub and two d20s in a dice bag - looks rather obscene...

Estlor · Feb 16, 2012

Definitely something to keep in mind here is the context of the information. They were playing Keep on the Borderlands. Perhaps the 2/1/1 rest limitation was a function not of adventuring day limits, but of the adventure they were running.

Also, as this is an early playtest, and one that was run at level 1, things certainly can and will change. It's likely the rest mechanic was an attempt at striking a midpoint between 3e and 4e's way of handling it. Things that don't make a ton of sense - namely 10 minute rest = 1 hp back at 1st level - were probably commented on and the devs have put more time into it. And the comments say rolled HD was implied, but not stated outright. It's also entirely possible that static HP/level is part of the core, with the HD value assigned for groups that prefer a little randomness in their hit points.

As to the validity of this information - I will point out the posting date was January 29th, which was before the blog about wizards was posted. So if NDAnon is making this up, he got very lucky about being right on the opposed roll on spells.

I encourage anyone disheartened by anything they read to do two things:

Don't judge until you see the actual public beta
If this upsets you, get involved in the playtest so you can help steer them away from odd things.

Iosue · Feb 16, 2012

Personally, the rest system makes sense to me. If we look at loss of hp as being loss of energy and vitality (until that last few critical hp), it jives very much with my own experience in sustained exercise. At first short rests have an effect, but as the sustained exertion continues, short rests have less and less of an effect, and longer ones need to be taken. An hour into mountain hiking, a short rest does wonders. Two, three hours later, the same rest hardly seems to help. It feels nice when you're not doing anything, but as soon as you start hiking again, the soreness and tiredness returns. As a matter of fact, I'd adjust the system even further: first 10 minute rest gives you level x2 hp back, second 10 minute rest gives you level x1 hp back, third gives you nothing. An hour long rest gives you the level x1 hp rest back, and the eight hour rest resets the whole thing.

Of course, I don't need all the complication, so I'm just as likely to go with the system as detailed by the playtester. But, yeah, I totally buy how it works. It fits my experience.

Piratecat · Feb 16, 2012

Mircoles said:
The return of vancian magic means that I won't be playing it.

Hmm. Wouldn't it make more sense to make that decision based on on what it has, but what it doesn't have? For instance, I'll be surprised if the game doesn't end up with options (or modules) for both Vancian and non-Vancian spellcasting. That should allow a DM to pick whichever one he wants for his game. I'll personally make my decision based on whether my preferred rules are supported, not based on what other rules are there that I plan to ignore anyway.