I thought the mechanics from the last seminar were terrible and stupid. So you spend 5 minutes arguing with the DM that you should be able to use your Intelligence on every saving throw ever because you're a wizard, and unnamedwizard magic has your back, while he's in the corner explaining the to the PCs that the orc strongmen use strength because they bathed in the Great Strength Fire...just like all his other high strength monsters. You still get punished for playing an orc wizard. You can seriously trade damage out for "I win" effects which bolster your social abilities too. There is both an attack roll and defense roll, so if you hate long combats, go cry in the corner. And the fact that you need to pick combat OR social skills OR exploration is terrible. And I suspect the fighter is still the useless gimp he was in every non 4e edition.
I hope to be proven wrong.
That would suck. There's a lot I love about 4e, but endless fiddly little modifiers to remember are not one of them.Except that at 20th level, the list may look like this:
+2 when stealing
+2 when hiding
+2 when in urban areas
+2 when escaping bonds
+2 when climbing masonry walls
+2 to all checks when the target is unaware
+2 against bugbears
+2 against poison
+2 against shadow magic
+2 with dagger of ultimate doom
+2 if the moon is full (favor of the Moon Goddess)
Add to that beneficial magic boosts, bardic songs, circumstance modifiers... the bajillion little bonuses are impossible to add up in actual play.
Yes. Isn't that his job? To be judge, arbiter, and referee? Does not the DM generally tell you when you have to roll for a skill?However... who decides what's outrageous? The DM?
I won't talk about the mechanics at all, but I will say our DM smiled through most of the game and at one point he pretended to hand me the gold card out of his wallet based on some BS my character was slinging around. He'd played everything from 1E forward and he was pleased.
Yet based on their approach to use modular add-on rules, that is pretty much a given.We know that the basic system will be skill-less.
We don't know if there will be an advanced game option with skills, or not.
What the hell did they threaten you people with???![]()
I played the new D&D at D&D Experience. I'll admit, I was very skeptical but hopeful. Have 4E edition warriors sit down with 3E until I die grognards? Bring back some 1E guys and some kid brand new to RPGs? And we all play together, roleplayers and number crunchers whatever system edition we favor? Yeah right.
I won't talk about the mechanics at all, but I will say our DM smiled through most of the game and at one point he pretended to hand me the gold card out of his wallet based on some BS my character was slinging around. He'd played everything from 1E forward and he was pleased.
On the other hand, a twelve year old (with his Dad) mostly stuck to what his character sheet had. He did better than I did the whole game from a mechinal standpoint. Monte mentioned advantage in the seminar and as he mentioned a player can gain that. But the young guy didn't use that rule (that Monted discussed in the seminar) and he did great.
Monte quote:
What we've done now is we have this thing called "advantage" that a DM can hand out if the players set themselves up with a good description.
We never slowed down, we never argued, and the DM seemed relaxed and energized. We did need to stay engaged and pay attention since the game rolled along quickly based on the design of the adventure. I could see a DM being able to easily moderate the pace.
I've played every edition since AD&D including 4E. Even in rough playtest form, this version was the best. The fact was that I was able to play it with strangers, one from another country and another a kid, and we were all on the same team with some of us yelling out in character and others focusing on what the character could do. And we had a 4E guy that had played all the way to 30th level in his home campaign and another guy who left D&D because of 4E and they worked together well. That was priceless. You can't sell that kind of synergy. Well, you could, if I could pre-order D&D N.
I'd say, wait for the playtest docs before making a decision. Even in rough form, I'm convinced the playtest docs will let everyone make an informed decision. The playtest convinced me hands down that I can't wait to get a game going.
NOBODY broke the NDA all weekend...and it's not like WotC has any way to really enforce it.
What the hell did they threaten you people with???![]()