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What Did You Want Fourth Edition to be Like?
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<blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 4692342" data-attributes="member: 8158"><p>Preach it.</p><p></p><p>In 4e, it's almsot to the point where ability scores are obsolete. If class is going to dictate how you assign ability scores, forcing you to need one ability scores to be the highest, and others high but not quite so high, and anything that's left over you simply don't need at all--well, then what was the point of allowing players to move the numbers around in the first place? </p><p></p><p>What 4e does too much is use variables to determine the effectiveness of powers. The [W] variable is the worst case, but nearly as bad is using ability scores as power variables. It's one of the things that turned me off of Mike Mearls' Iron Heroes. The problem is that with many powers, if the variable deviates too much from the value that the guy who designed the power expected, things go out of whack quickly. For instance, a wizard's orb implement mastery class feature allows him to force a saving throw penalty onto a target. The penalty is equal to his Wis modifier, which the designers probably thought would stay around -2 or -3. One exploitable character design that gets paraded around RPGNet is the "orbizard"--a wizard whose utmost concern is abusing orb implement mastery to apply such a stiff penalty to saves that a monster is essentially "savelocked" with a penalty of -10 or greater. That starts out by trying to puff up Wisdom any way you can, by race or just by promoting it higher than Int. </p><p></p><p>Supposedly, using ability scores as variables is supposed to reward a character for assigning a good number to that ability. However, if it's the same ability used constantly for every power, as it is with most classes, then the intent has been defeated, because the fix is in before the player even got around to making any choices. It's a fait accompli. </p><p></p><p>It's a really a shame they couldn't find a niche for Intelligence. Tieflings and gnomes are supposed to be natural rogues, but their Int bonus really doesn't do them a bit of good.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Felon, post: 4692342, member: 8158"] Preach it. In 4e, it's almsot to the point where ability scores are obsolete. If class is going to dictate how you assign ability scores, forcing you to need one ability scores to be the highest, and others high but not quite so high, and anything that's left over you simply don't need at all--well, then what was the point of allowing players to move the numbers around in the first place? What 4e does too much is use variables to determine the effectiveness of powers. The [W] variable is the worst case, but nearly as bad is using ability scores as power variables. It's one of the things that turned me off of Mike Mearls' Iron Heroes. The problem is that with many powers, if the variable deviates too much from the value that the guy who designed the power expected, things go out of whack quickly. For instance, a wizard's orb implement mastery class feature allows him to force a saving throw penalty onto a target. The penalty is equal to his Wis modifier, which the designers probably thought would stay around -2 or -3. One exploitable character design that gets paraded around RPGNet is the "orbizard"--a wizard whose utmost concern is abusing orb implement mastery to apply such a stiff penalty to saves that a monster is essentially "savelocked" with a penalty of -10 or greater. That starts out by trying to puff up Wisdom any way you can, by race or just by promoting it higher than Int. Supposedly, using ability scores as variables is supposed to reward a character for assigning a good number to that ability. However, if it's the same ability used constantly for every power, as it is with most classes, then the intent has been defeated, because the fix is in before the player even got around to making any choices. It's a fait accompli. It's a really a shame they couldn't find a niche for Intelligence. Tieflings and gnomes are supposed to be natural rogues, but their Int bonus really doesn't do them a bit of good. [/QUOTE]
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