A Lot of Things to Rememberize?

[Celebrim]

That is what I've been thinking too. So you get some extra time back by cutting out AoOs and grappling and full attacks... which actually added some extra detail to the system, but whatever... then all the time you save from that, and then some, seems to be taken back by a bunch of new rules to keep track of. So there are no full attacks, but you can still get more than one attack by having ability X or feat Z. There are no AoOs, but you can make an attack as an imediate action against anyone who does X or Y. Oh, and we want you to keep track of 5 times more bad guys. So in the end, do you even have a more streamlined game? Is it really any faster, better, or just different?

Not faster, because that extra detail that was added to the system is not something you want to lose. And the fact is that detail and complexity are pretty close to the same thing in this context.

Definately different, although alot of it may be just repainting the fence - the basic mechanic may effectively be the same with new labeling.

Better is subjective. It's going to be better for somethings and probably worse for other ones. Whether that is better depends on what you are trying to do.

 

[Jhaelen]

What is interesting to me, speaking as a programmer, is that the combat as described (if the underlying mechanics are what I think that they are) is much easier to program a real time game for than D&D's historical mechanics. In other words, its a good bet that one of the design goals of 4th edition was to make transition between paper and CPU as seemless in either direction as possible.

Absolutely! They'd be pretty stupid if they didn't take that aspect into account for anything new they design.

Another aspect is the new look for iconic monsters: It would make sense to change them in a way that makes it easy to create a digital presentation for them and even more important:
Make it easy to create a mini for them.

 

[howandwhy99]

The biggest scare for me was 500 hps. How long are these fights supposed to last? Am I really supposed to subtract 100s of hit points from multiple creatures each round? I hope not. There comes a point where simple subtraction isn't so simple anymore.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I think that the example is an extreem. When your presenting, you show your audience the best of the best. The dragon scenario i think is as complicated as the game will get, and is most likely at level 30.

in 3.5 building dragons takes almost as much time as ncs. I mean they have spells, you need to calculate thier damage and attacks etc etc... i hope that dragons still have age progressions but i wonder if their is some easer way to show this that saves space, and can be used at a glance.

 

[hong]

The biggest scare for me was 500 hps. How long are these fights supposed to last? Am I really supposed to subtract 100s of hit points from multiple creatures each round? I hope not. There comes a point where simple subtraction isn't so simple anymore.

Dragotha, the dracolich in AoW, has about 750 hit points. IIRC, that fight took us about 4 rounds, meaning he lost about 150-200 hp each round.

 

[Dragonblade]

I'll chime in and say that as a player, I love tons of options. I loved Bo9S because of all the cool maneuvers I could choose from. Having a lot of options helps avoid the cookie cutter effect where all PCs begin to look the same because they all take the same "good" feats. It also provides fun and exciting tactical options to choose from in combat.

As a DM, I want it the exact opposite. I want a few easy to remember abilities. But I still want those abilities to give the monster plenty of cool tactical options in combat. As a DM I want to have my cake and eat it too!

 

[MightyTev]

I bet Game Table will allow you to design encounters (both social and combat) and print out an "encounter sheet" to help you run it with all of the rules and stuff you need.

 

[Jhaelen]

The biggest scare for me was 500 hps. How long are these fights supposed to last? Am I really supposed to subtract 100s of hit points from multiple creatures each round? I hope not. There comes a point where simple subtraction isn't so simple anymore.

Yup, I was a bit disappointed about that, too. I had hoped, they'd have found a way to avoid video-game style amounts of hit points and damage. I've even hated that back in the old days of Bard's Tale:

'You hit the vampire lord 8 times and do 326 damage with your legendary sword of legend.' Meh.

Why do high level monsters need to have 500 hp and high level characters dealing 100 damage per hit. What's the advantage over having monsters with 50 hp and characters dealing 10 damage per hit?

 

[hong]

Yup, I was a bit disappointed about that, too. I had hoped, they'd have found a way to avoid video-game style amounts of hit points and damage. I've even hated that back in the old days of Bard's Tale:

'You hit the vampire lord 8 times and do 326 damage with your legendary sword of legend.' Meh.

Why do high level monsters need to have 500 hp and high level characters dealing 100 damage per hit. What's the advantage over having monsters with 50 hp and characters dealing 10 damage per hit?

To provide a contrast between 10th and 20th level characters and monsters, of course.

 

[RFisher]

How many details I have to remember is a significant factor in whether I just by the PHB or all three books.

Though I will be impressed if they manage to match the fear I felt at the mere thought of running a dragon whilst looking at their list of abilities in 3e. (^_^)