Thorntangle said:
Guess the changes time:
Half-orcs get Scent
Skill Focus is now +3
Tracking becomes a skill instead of a wonky feat.
Rangers get access to Tracking skill and bonus feats instead of TWF frontloading.
Monks may multiclass
AoO get Sage diagrams inserted
Shield/Tower Shield clarified
IMO the only thing you can count on here is the tower shield clarification. A change to Skill Focus is possible--or even dropping it altogether as is done in d20 Modern in favor of double-dipping skill feats ala Alertness--but rather than make it a numerical change, they can add a feature (e.g. the skill is always treated as a class skill). This way the skill is technically still backwards-compatible.
Here are some of my personal hopes and expectations:
Elves and Half-elves-If elves' favored class is wizard, then give them a racial package that actually makes for good wizards, not good rangers. Do SOMETHING special with half-elves, or just drop them completely.
Paladins-Core classes should offer some flexibility. Keeping with that spirit, a core class should not be confined to a single alignment. It makes no sense to say that there are others sorts of holy warriors out there that are different from the paladin, and yet possess mostly the same abilities. Why is paladin core while the others are all prestige classes (e.g. Blackguard, Holy Liberator)? Good clerics and evil clerics have some profound differences, but these are accounted for within a single cleric class. Why should it be any different for paladins? Rename the class something more ubiquitous, like “Crusader” or “Holy Champion”.
Rangers-While I’ve always been able to finger the aspects of the ranger that I didn’t like (dual-wielding, spellcasting), I’ve never been able to decide what exactly a ranger should receive in their stead. At any rate, I think the only major change will be adjusting the Favored Enemy ability so that the damage isn’t dependent on the enemy being subject to critical hits. Perhaps the option for defensive favored enemy bonuses from MotW will be offered.
Clerics-Hoo boy. The most munchkin of the 3e classes, they probably still won’t receive any necessary balancing. That would require sufficient paring as to be considered a major “nerfing”, and I’ll bet the farm that there won’t be none of that. They may only start with one domain, and gain more as they advance, perhaps at the same rate that wizards gain their bonus feats. I very much suspect that at least some of the divine feats from DotF will be included (hopefully the extremely broken Divine Might feat will not be one of them). I would like prestige domains to make it in, and that perhaps clerics can access them at some point during their career (after 10th level) without taking a prestige class. I hope that the divine spells that allow a cleric to co-opt the fighter’s role are SERIOUSLY tweaked (Divine Power, Divine Favor). Oh, and PLEAE make them learn spells-don’t just give divine casters full access once they reach the proper level.
Barbarians-Stagger the fast movement ability up to 2nd-level. Damage reduction should kick in earlier. Why 4 skill points?
Sorcerers-Sure hope they don’t perform Monte Cook’s mucho-nerfed version. The appeal of playing a sorcerer is NOT less power, more skill points.
Bards-The bardic knowledge class as presented in the current PHB is pretty much just an artifact left over from 2e. We have Knowledge skills now. Give bards a bonus to those skills, and let them make untrained checks. Allow them to properly ID items for pete’s sake (q.v. the loremaster PrC).
Wizards-Compared to his divine-spellcasting counterparts, this fellow got quite a raw deal. Worst hit points and BAP, only one good saving throw, can’t wear armor, no class features other than spellcasting. The bonus feats are nice, but spread far apart. The inadequacies become obvious when designing wizzie-oriented PrCs; unlike other classes, there’s very to “barter-off” for prestige class features, so you wind up with that every-other-level spell progression rubbish.
Druids-Is anyone else as perturbed as I am that spells with animal names like Bull’s Strength and Cat’s Grace AREN’T on this bugger’s spell list? I always envisioned the druid’s party role as being the master of “buff” spells. Seems an obvious niche. Throw stoneskin on that list while we’re at it.
Prestige Classes-What’s it been, three years? And I have yet to see a warrior/mage PrC that’s worth a darn. Let’s get moving on that.
Armor-Would be nice if a warrior had more complex decisions when walking into the local armor shop than High Dex = chain shirt, Low Dex = full plate. For all the penalties that it incurs, the best medium armor you can get provides only one more point of AC than the best light armor? Did anybody spend any time whatsoever mulling this over? Designers? Playtesters? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?
Rogues-No complaints here, except that they should have proficiency with slings. Go read a Gray Mouser story sometime.
Weapons-I can’t stand the fact that bows were made flat-out superior to every other ranged weapon in existence in every respect. Crossbows have more going for them than just being simpler to wield. Thrown weapons should have their advantages, (such as not drawing attacks of opportunity) and I know a lot fighter/rogues out there who would love to be masters of throwing knivers, and are quite annoyed that they can only toss one per round (even though nocking an arrow obviously takes longer than hurling a blade).
Spells-Fix Shield so it gives a more reasonable AC bonus and clarify whether or not two Shield spells can give a character 3/4 cover from all directions. Insert all of the ability score enhancement spells from the splat books. Let's see the end of no-save, no-defense spells like Harm and Time Stop, as they screw up the game at all levels of play. Lessen the material comp cost of Stoneskin. And most importantly, have some rhyme and reason to how a powerful a spell should be for its level. It's stupid how fireball and lightning bolt are such a MASSIVE step up from any 2nd-level spell, and even more stupid that they're better artillery than some higher-level Sor/Wiz spells (e.g. Ice Storm).
Items-Seems that the designers assigned a low gp value on items that grant a lot of mobility (boots of speed, boots of striding & springing, wings of flying), and that was a real mistake. Spell activation items should require some sort of level restriction. Gettng pretty tired of seeing 4th-level wand monkey priests of Boccob/Wee Jas in full plate with Shield wands getting AC’s of 30+ while tossing fireballs and lightning bolts.
Skills-Follow D20 Modern's lead here. Lots of copying and pasting.
Feats-Divine feats from DotF (drop Divine Might, very broken), Wild shape feats from MotW, 2-weapon feats from MotW, Toughness feats from MotW, Sneak attack & bardic music feats from SaS, metamagic feats from DotF and ToB, parrying feats from Dragon magazine. Certainly expect to see all of the non-epic feats that were presented in the ELH. Please WotC, pretty please, embrace the concept of feat chains so that fighters have something to work towards as they ascend to high levels. And insert more dual-skill feats like Alertness (again, take a cue from D2M).
Combat-Definitely hope that the new PHB specifically states an unarmed character does not threaten the 5' area around him without the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. It's stupid to slow the game down because a wizard wants to make a feeble 1d3 unarmed strike as some foe moves past him (which, being an unarmed attack, provokes an AoO from the person he's attacking; lame waste of time!). Also would be nice to have more 5-square-grid diagrams. Throw in the section on flanking large creatures from SaS, and some elaboration on how reach extends the threat radius around a creature.
Monsters--Utilizing the same format adopted in MM2. Expect to see ECL's and "Society" notations for most monsters. Expect abilities to be more clearly explained. Expect grapple check bonuses for creatures with Improved Grab.
OK, I realize most of that stuff is just wishful thinking, but if they act on even a tenth of that, I'll be happy to cough up another $90.
