News Archive #5 December 1999 News from December 1999: December 31, 1999 3E Products Available for Pre-Order! You can now find entries for the D&D 3E Player's Handbook, Character Record Sheets, and the D&D Adventure Game at Amazon.com!  Before you rush off to pre-order, be aware that at this early stage Amazon has not set its discounts yet.  As always, you can keep tabs on new and upcoming releases on my Buy D&D Stuff page.  I've added links to products that will see release in May and June of 2000.  I'll keep you posted on any new pricing information as it is released. Time to Party like it's 1999!  Happy New Year to all!  Best wishes, and may you experience no Y2K related troubles! Yet more on Criticals:  Playtester Der Verdammte discussed the way weapons are balanced in terms of their ability to dish out critical hits (on the 3E Message Board):  "Some have a better crit range, while others have a better multiplier.  In general weapons with a good multiplier have a worse crit range, are harder to learn to use, or both." Why have Criticals?  TSR VP Ryan Dancey addressed the issue of why 3E even has a critical hit system in the first place (on DND-L): Really, if you think about it, a generally applied (monsters and PCs) crit system is bad news for the PCs.  Johnathan Tweet likes to say that anything that increases randomness in combat favors the weaker party.  In just about every situation that the PCs face, they are in general the stronger party. The crit system introduces substantial randomness. With critical hits, a PC may do several in the course of an adventure; but the implicit assumption in D&D is that the PCs are going to win >anyway< when they enter combat.  The danger becomes that the monsters now have a slight chance to do massive damage - enough perhaps for a goblin or an orc to whack a PC.  The PCs will fight each monster once.  All the monsters will fight the PCs repeadedly.  Eventually, the Monsters will crit.  The environment just became more dangerous for PCs. But players seem to like them, plus it gave the design team a whole new way to make weapons distinct, which is good.  As long as everyone is generally happy, I'm happy.  (but I do have to say that it's funny how few people complain about adding what is clearly a "PC negative" to the game after all the work we've done to make the game more PC friendly...) December 30, 1999 Critical Hits:  As we saw with Ryan Dancey's recent post about critical hits, different weapons have different critical hit multipliers. Der Verdammte indicates that weapon critical hit multipliers "range from x2-x4 (only two weapons I can think of have x4 multipliers)."  (on the 3E Message Board) Der Verdammte's Page:  Playtester Der Verdammte's Obligatory Third Edition D&D Site was updated about a week ago with new questions and answers.  His site is always a good read so make sure you stop by often.  Here are a couple of recent additions: How do you handle multiple attacks with the new initiative system?"Multiple attacks occur all at once, at the character's initiative." Will characters advance in level slower or faster in 3e relative to 2nd edition?  "Characters advance as quickly or slowly as the DM wants them to.  There is a set of excellent guidelines for pacing your game.  It is also easy to balance challenges against high-level players..., and there are several chapters on adventure, dungeon, and campaign design in the DMG which should help with that, too." December 29, 1999 Dwaren Mages and Magic Resistance:  An early 3E rumor indicated that naturally magic-resistant races, such as Dwarves, who choose to study magic lose this resistance.  Apparently, this is only true sometimes, and only partially true other times, according to Ryan Dancey (thanks to jbs and Tim Burke for the scoop): "Creatures can be both "Spell Resistant" and spellcasters (Divine or Arcane).  The Drow are one example." "There is one saving throw bonus related to being affected by spells or spell-like effects that a Dwarf who gains the ability to cast Arcane magic loses." Alternate Character Generation System:  This little tidbit was dropped off by George Harris, who found it on the Greyhawk "Living World" discussion group.  Apparently, one of the alternate methods of generating character ability scores will use a "graduated cost system," as described below.  A number of alternative methods of generating character scores will be presented in the 3E DMG. 3E "Graduated Cost" Atribute Generation System You have up to 28 character creation points to purchase your character's Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma from the following table:  Attribute   Cost  8            0 9            1  10           2  11           3  12           4  13           5  14           6  15           8  16          10  17          13  18          16  For example, using the full 28 character creation points a character's attributes might be purchased as follows:  Attribute   Cost Str 15      8 points  Dex 13      5 points  Con 14      6 points  Int 10      2 points  Wis 11      3 points  Cha 12      4 points  -----------  Total       28 points  Racial modifiers to attributes are applied AFTER the base scores are determined in this manner (and thus can cause stats to range from 6-20).  Attribute points that characters earn later though level advancement are  applied normally.  Maximum Damage Correction:  Yesterday's post from Ryan Dancey regarding the maximum damage a beginning level 3E character could theoretically do had one minor math error with a major effect:  "The critical system in 3e is supposed to multiply all the damage bonuses as well.  So in the case of our fellow with the two picks, the damage should be:  (STR bonus + Weapon Bonus + Weapon Damage) x 4, not STR Bonus + ((Weapon Bonus + Weapon Damage) x 4) as I described.  The correct value should therefore be: (7+6) x4 = 52 x 2 = 104 points."  (thanks to Ryan Dancey for the scoop) December 28, 1999 3E Products & More:  The WotC Product Catalog has been updated to include products through August 2000.  (thanks to Pierre-Paul Durastanti for the scoop) Items relevant to 3E will start appearing in stores in August, including: The 3E Player's Handbook ($19.95), which will include a free character generator program on CD-ROM.  How extensive the program will be is yet unknown -- it is unlikely it will be as complete or comprehensive as the Core Rules program, but who knows?  Here's the quote:  "New characters and more flexible character classes are easier than ever to create using the new CD-ROM character generator included free with every handbook." 3E Player Character Record Sheets ($9.95). An introductory 3E D&D Adventure Game which will retail for about $10 and will include dice and miniatures.  (Hey, maybe it will have some DMG and MM goodies in it to tide us over until September and October 2000) Other new products of note: May 2000:  Reverse Dungeon (D&D Adventure) and Dungeon of Death (FR Adventure). June 2000:  Cloak & Dagger (FR Accessory for the city of Westgate), Die Vecna, Die! (D&D Adventure that includes both Ravenloft and Planescape locales), and the Gamma World campaign setting for Alternity. July 2000:  with the exception of Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate (FR Accessory), this month is all novels, including a very optimistically planned novel for Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. August 2000:  Death of the Dragon (a FR novel by Greenwood & Denning). Maximum Damage.  TSR VP Ryan Dancey posted a very interesting message about the theoretical maximum damage a first level character could dish out in a single combat round.  As Ryan indicates, the chances of this exact circumstance happening are exceedingly rare.  Mixed in with the math is a lot of interesting material. (on DND-L; thanks to Hagy-Weatherbee for the scoop) The absolute maximum damage I can imagine with stock 3e characters would require the following: 1.  A half-orc barbarian.  The player needs to have rolled an 18 for ability scores.  The +2 STR bonus of the half-orc will take that character up to 20 STR. 2.  The barbarian could take a heroic feat named "Ambidexterity".  (Just a note - there are Feats that the barbarian is far likelier to take.  But for the purpose of this example, we're having our barbarian take a suboptimal Feat for the purpose of improving the chance of hitting twice with two attacks.) 3.  The barbarian must fight with two weapons (taking a -6 penalty to both attacks - adjusted for Ambidexterity) [that's a pretty hefty penalty!].  Those two weapons will be "Pick, Heavy", 1d6 damage, crits on 20, x4 on critical hit [this confirms a couple of old rumors about different weapons having different critical hit chances and effects]. 4.  Once per day, the barbarian can "Rage", getting a +4 bonus to STR, taking it up to 24. (And taking a -2 AC penalty) 5.  The character must score a Critical Hit with both attacks, and must roll max damage for each critical. In this extreme case, the character will do two attacks, rolling two 20's for the crits, plus two more successful hits (at a net bonus of only +1).  The character must roll 8 '6's in a row for the crit damage, and will inflict a total of 24 (crit) + 7 (STR) x 2 (attacks) == 62 points of damage. Assuming that the opponent being faced by the barbarian has an AC of 10 (unarmored), and that the second "check" roll on the criticals is 9 or higher (+1 net attack bonus) (55% of the time), the odds of doing this much damage are:  20*20*6*6*6*6*6*6*6*6 == or 671,846,400 to 1. The odds of doing two crits at minimum or better damage (16 points +) are 400 to 1. Dwarven Mages, Redux:  TSR VP Ryan Dancey had this to say about rumored XP penalties for demihuman races that take non-traditional classes:  "Dwarves who play mages will not take an XP penalty.  Dwarves who are multiclassed as Mages might, depending on how many levels difference there is between their first class and their second."  (on DND-L, thanks to Tim Burke for the scoop) Playing Monsters:  TSR VP Ryan Dancey addressed the issue of playing monstrous races in 3E (on DND-L, thanks to Hagy-Weatherbee for the scoop) The concept of "playing the monsters" is not covered in the PHB.  The concept and execution is covered in the DMG.  The monsters themselves are covered in the MM. Essentially, you assume that the hit dice of a monster equals the character level of that monster if the monster is played as a character (either player character or fully fleshed out non player character).  For purposes of party balance, the DMG recommends against having a wide variety of levels within the party.  So, in the case of the Minotaur, the DM shouldn't put a Minotaur character in with a bunch of 1st level characters because the Minotaur will make them all feel less than useful. When a "monster character" gains a level, it either gains a "monster level" - i.e., gets a new hit dice, or it gains a "class level", i.e. takes one of the character classes at 1st level or advances an existing class by one level.  Multiclassing penalties to XP apply.  The character level of a monster is essentially monster level + total class levels.  Monsters advance on the same XP chart as everything else in 3e; so a Minotaur with 5HD of Minotaur and 5 levels of Barbarian would be a 10th level character, and should really only be adventuring with 10th level party members. Needless to say, there are some monsters that just won't make good characters.  My wife was joking the other day about playing a green slime (which is, by the way, treated as a "Hazard" in 3e, not a monster, but I digress).  Her actions would consist of either "still clinging to the wall" or "falling on a PC".  What fun! There are also some monsters that could make for great characters, but the DM and the other players better be ready to really rumble.  Playing a 15th level Cleric of Hextor who happens to be a Balor might be an unforgettable game experience, but it will wreak havoc with most DM's campaigns! In any event, Rule 0 (Check with your DM) will probably keep the number of such characters to a minimum in any game - at least until the length of the campaign exceeds several years of play... :) December 22, 1999 More than a Pretty Face:  Charisma's definition in 3E is a little more detailed than in previous editions of D&D, but not actually that much different, according to TSR VP Ryan Dancey.  Here's the official 3E Charisma ability defined: "Charisma measures a character’s force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness. It represents actual personal strength, not merely how one is perceived by others in a social setting."  Playtester Der Verdammte elaborates:  "It's more of a clarification than a change.  The real "change" is in how the ability affects the game mechanically.  Charisma has much more of an impact on class abilities, NPC relations, and skills than it used to.  Basically, the idea of charisma isn't just getting lip service now."  In 3E, as we've seen, Charisma affects a number of things -- from a Bard's or Sorerer's ability to learn more spells to a Cleric's ability to Turn Undead.  (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to Der Verdammte for the scoop) December 21, 1999 Wizard Spells in Cleric Domains?  Yup.  Some Cleric domains contain spells that normally only wizards can cast, according to a post from Sean Reynolds on the 3E Message Board. December 20, 1999 Search this Site:  I've added a search engine to my site.  You'll find it at the end of the current news section, below.  It not only searches the 3E stuff, but it also searches my collection of online RPG materials (adventures, adventure logs, etc.).  Give it a try. More Cleric Info from Dragon #267:  3E Message Board poster Allister Huggins reminded me that I had only scratched the surface of the recent article about 3E clerics.  Here are some of the tidbits I left out: Healing:  A cleric who swaps a spell in exchange for healing ability gains the power to cure d8 hp per level of the spell exchanged, plus 1 hp per cleric level, up to a maximum of +15. Extra Attacks:  Clerics gain extra attacks per round starting at 8th level. Domain Names:  The "Gods of 3rd Edition" chart shows the names of the domains for each god in the core 3E rules.  They include Good, Law, War, Earth, Protection, Animal, Plant, Sun, Trickery, Healing, Strength, Chaos, Luck, Death, Magic, Destruction, Knowledge, Travel, Air, Fire, Water, and Evil.  As we've heard, a domain will contain one spell per level (for a total of nine) and each cleric may claim access to two of the domains (in addition to the large selection of "generic" cleric spells).  However, each god reigns over three to six domains, so two clerics of a particular god might have access to totally different domains.  See below for the complete chart. Turning Undead:  Clerics will be limited in how many times per day they can use this power -- 3 plus their Charisma bonus per day.  However, if they so choose, they can make more than one attempt per combat. The Gods of 3rd Edition Deity Portfolio Alignment Domains Heironeous Valor LG Good, Law, War Moradin Dwarves LG Earth, Good, Law, Protection Yondalla Halflings LG Good, Law, Protection Ehlonna Woodlands NG Animal, Good, Plant, Sun Garl Glittergold Gnomes NG Good, Protection, Trickery Pelor Sun NG Good, Healing, Strength, Sun Corellon Larethian Elves CG Ghaos, Good, Protection, War Kord Strength CG Chaos, Good, Strength, Luck Wee Jas Death & Magic LN Death, Law, Magic St. Cuthbert Retribution LN Law, Strength, Protection, Destruction Boccob Magic N Knowledge, Magic, Trickery Fharlanghn Roads N Luck, Protection, Travel Obad-Hai Nature N Air, Animal, Earth, Fire, Plant, Water Olidammara Thieves CN Chaos, Luck, Trickery Hextor Tyrany LE Destruction, Evil, Law, War Nerull Death NE Death, Evil, Trickery Vecna Secrets NE Evil, Knowledge, Magic Erythnul Slaughter CE Chaos, Evil, Trickery, War Gruumsh Orcs CE Chaos, Evil, War December 19, 1999 "Intense. Brutal. Beautiful. Haunting. Bold. Epic. Irreverent. Majestic. Scary. Fun.": Those are the words used by 3E artist Sam Wood to describe the look and feel of 3E, as revealed in an interview posted at the official 3E site.  The interview is nothing earth-shattering ... but then, if you're not obsessed with every particle of 3E minutiae, what are you doing here?  ;-)  The interview page has a link to a large audio download which I haven't listened to so I can't even give you a tiny hint what it contains.  (thanks to Der Verdammte for the scoop) 3E Message Board Cornucopia:  As playtester and 3E Message Board poster Der Verdammte put it, "The [3E] message boards have gotten pretty hot lately."  Take a look at some of these juicy tidbits: Giant Halflings? (Ryan Dancey):  "The new 'race' art on the 3e WotC web site is not to scale....  For scale, assume that the halfling comes up to about mid-thigh on a human.  Imagine a 6' Human.  Half-Orc at about 5.5", Orc at about 5"...etc." Hairy Halfling Feet?  (Ryan Dancey):  "Hobbits have hairy feet.  3e halflings aren't hobbits." Combat Bonuses (Sean Reynolds):  Rangers still have a species enemy, and dwarves still get a combat bonus against certain races. Minimum Intelligence for Spellcasting (Sean Reynolds):  "Nobody would play a wizard with an Int of 9 in 3E D&D because you need at least an 11 Int to cast 1st level spells."  So, INT 11 for 1st level ... does that mean INT 19 for 9th level?  Sounds possible.  Does that translate to cleric spell access (WIS 11 for 1st level) and sorcerer/bard spell access (CHA 11 for 1st level)?  Again, sounds possible. December 18, 1999 3E Art Update:  The 3E site recently unveiled its new D&D Art Gallery.  Until recently, it was just the character concept art that we've seen but in a different layout.  A new piece has appeared, called the Character Race Conceptual Art Gallery.  It's a montage of characters of seven different races:  elf, half-elf, halfling, lizardman, half-orc, kobold, and orc.  The half-elf image appeared in last month's Dragon Magazine (I misidentified it as an elf).  The pics are awesome!  My only complaint is that I wish they were bigger so more detail could be seen. (Thanks to Allister Huggins for the scoop). December 17, 1999 More about Cleric Spells:  Allister Huggins posed some questions about clerical spellcasting in 3E, which TSR VP Ryan Dancey kindly answered (Allister's questions are in red, Ryan's responses are in gold): How many domains are there?  I count 23. Do any of the domains have the same name as any of the current spheres?Yes. Are there any spells that exist in more than one domain?  I don't think so. How big is the generic spell list? What I mean is, what is the ballpark figure of the number of spells per level in this generic list? There are 25 spells in the 1st level "Cleric Spell List".  Some of those spells appear in domains. Some of the spells in Domains do not appear on the general "Cleric Spell List."  There are 9 spells in the 9th level "Cleric Spell List".  On very quick review, I found only two spells that also appeared in a domain. I assume there are more spells per level at lower levels than at higher levels?  Yes. Spell sources: Do all of them come from just the PHB or do they incorporate Tome of Magic and other sources?   There are spells from all over - including brand new spells. Does the DMG address how to create "holy water"?  No.  That material appears in the PHB.  There are explicit instructions. Cleric Domains:  WotC Designer Sean Reynolds posted an example of how 3E clerics gain access to domain spells (on the 3E Message Board): Example: You worship a fiery war god. Your domains are "Fire" and "War." A 3rd level cleric has X 1st level spells from the main list and Y 2nd level spells from the main list, plus one 1st level domain spell (which could be Burn Your Face from the Fire domain or Thump from the War domain) and one 2nd level domain spell (which could be Burn Your Face and Chest from the Fire domain or Big Thump from the War domain). Der Verdammte's Page Updated:  Okay, I probably won't remind you daily that you should check playtester Der Verdammte's Obligatory Third Edition D&D Page frequently for updates, but to get you in the swing of things ... let's just say he recently answered a few questions posed on the topics of Sorcerers, Bards, poison, weapon specialization, metamagic feats, and spell mastery.  Sean Curtin sent in the scoop and was kind enough to summarize some of the new info (thanks, Sean!): Bards get "social, entertaining, and practical" spells, not spells like (specific example) Magic Missile. Wizards can "master" a spell, letting them cast it without memorizing it; however, once a spell is mastered, it can't be "un-mastered". Weapon specialization is still limited to fighters, but other classes can become "unusually skilled" in a weapon. December 15, 1999 3E News from Dragon Magazine #267:  The January 2000 issue of Dragon is out, and in it are some interesting new facts about 3E: New Illustrations:  previously unreleased drawings of a Male Human Cleric, a Female Human Cleric, and a Female Human (?) Druid with scimitar -- very cool. All About Clerics:  The "Countdown to Third Edition" column includes a bunch of new info about clerics: Spheres of spells, which could include anywhere from a scant handful to a plethora of quasi-related spells in 2nd Ed., have been replaced with domains. "A domain is nine spells, one of each level from 1st to 9th, each of which relates to the domain's overall theme -- plus a granted power."  Apparently, each cleric gains access to two domains, and can cast an extra spell per spell level from either of these two domains, rather like a specialist wizard's extra specialty spells.  This implies that there's a list of "universal" or "general" spell that all clerics can draw from as well. The clerical ability to turn the undead is available to all clerics, and is an extra granted power beyond those offered by whatever domains the cleric selects.  The ability to turn the undead has a steady improvement from the lowest to the highest character levels, and does not "top out" at 14th level as it does in 2E.  The ability to turn undead is modified by the cleric's Charisma score. Cleric spells range from 0-level "orisons" to 9th-level spells. Clerics may take a Heroic Feat that allows them to gain proficiency in one martial weapon; otherwise, they're generally restricted to simple weapons.  All deities have a favored weapon for their followers, though clerics are not necessarily required to learn that weapon. The 3E core rules will name names when it comes to gods, using the Greyhawk pantheon as the examples of the deities worshipped by clerics.  Some of the gods include Moradin (Dwarves), Yondalla (Halflings), Corellon Larethian (Elves), Boccob (Magic), Hextor (Tyrany), Nerull (Death), and Gruumsh (Orcs). Druids do not gain access to domain spells or granted powers; instead, they have their own special abilities that replace this extra spellcasting power. Natural Healing:  In 3E, a character who rests for a full day gains 1 hp/character level. New 3E Site:  3E playtester Der Verdammte is a regular poster of juicy tidbits on the 3E Message Board.  As a playtester, he has all sorts of inside scoops -- some he can share, some he cannot.  What he can share he has posted to his new 3E web site, what he calls My Obligatory Third Edition D&D Site.  You'll want to take a look!  And just a reminder -- I have links to other unofficial 3E fan sites at the bottom of this page. December 14, 1999 Interviews:  The official 3E site has posted two new interviews:  one with Rich Baker, the other with artist Todd Lockwood.   No really stunning revelations in either one.  (thanks to Der Verdammte and Ralph for the scoops) December 12, 1999 I Feel Drained:  Neverwinter Nights Lead Programer Scott Greig had this to say about level draining abilities of monsters in 3E:  "There is a complete set of rules governing level draining attacks in third edition, but as usual we can't discuss them in detail (sigh). The good news is that most of them are only temporary effects."  Neverwinter Nights is a Forgotten Realms CRPG that will use the 3E rules.  (Spotted on Planet Neverwinter by Joseph Provenzano) Monsters are People, Too:  Playtester Seanchai mentioned yet another way monster stats will be treated like Player Character stats (on DND-L):  "Monsters can now have Heroic Feats and skills, meaning they'll have access to some of the same stuff the fighters will be using on them."  Prior to this, we knew that monsters would have other Player Character attributes, such as Ability Scores, Constitution bonuses to hit points, and the ability to take character classes.  (thanks to JBS for the scoop) December 11, 1999 Bard Magic:  The December Playtest Group of the Month's Playtester's at Work section has been updated.  This week, we learn that the Bard now casts spells "just as Sorcerers do, not needing to memorize them beforehand or keep a spellbook."  The December Group's arguement was that "casting spells by a unique form of verbal and musical components makes the bard much more interesting than having him lug around a spell book."  For both the Sorcerer and the Bard, high Charisma will impact the number of spells these spellcasters can cast per day.  (Thanks to Allister Huggins and Nexx Many-Scars for the scoop) December 10, 1999 Can't ... update ... playing Planescape: Torment ... a yugoloth stole my brain ... Forgotten Realms Specialty Priests:  TSR VP Ryan Dancey commented on the development of the 3E version of the FR specialty priests: "The FR team is right in the middle of creating concepts for what specialty FR priests will look like in 3e.  The rules for 'specialty clerics' in the core rules are designed to be used as a foundation for any campaign to allow DMs to easily create pantheons and servants of those pantheons that are balanced and interesting.  It is also 'generic' enough that when we use a specialty cleric in an adventure, it won't stick out like a sore thumb.  The FR specialty priests are far more complex, both in scope and in balance.  The 3e FR book will handle this issue in great detail.  I believe that everyone will be quite happy with the result." (on DND-L) December 9, 1999 More Excellent Advice:  WotC Brand Manager Keith Strohm had some good words of wisdom about judging 3E before it's complete (on DND-L): "Please keep in mind that Eric's site, while absolutely wonderful, does not contain all of the information available on 3rd Edition D&D. Eric does a fantastic job of gathering rumours and tidbits of official info, but we have kept a few things hidden. So be careful about drawing conclusions from incomplete info."  Some things on this site are true; some will stay true; some aren't true now but were once true; and some things were never true.  That's half the fun -- guessing, contemplating.  But don't draw too many conclusions about a product that isn't complete yet!  :) Everybody do the Jar-Jar Dance!  Wizards of the Coast has acquired the license to produce Star Wars roleplaying game products.  We'll be seeing the first fruits of this effort in the Fall of 2000.  Check out the official press release for more info.  (Thanks to James Wyatt and LrdTuerny for the scoop)  In addition, there is now a message board at the WotC site for the Star Wars line. December 8, 1999 Notes from the Rich Baker chat:  Baloo was kind enough to send a summary of tonight's chat with Rich Baker.  He has posted the log of the chat as well.  Here's what Baloo had to say about the chat... Humans get an extra heroic feat at 1st level, and don't suffer any penalty for combining classes. Specialty priests will be like specialty wizards, getting a bonus spell at each spell level. They also have access to a limited list of cleric spells to balance their bonus spell, and they still have granted powers that are now tuned to the spheres you select. Prestige classes were compared to the old computer game Wizardry, where you could change into a "host of new kick-butt classes that weren't available before" when you hit certain levels - such as "the anti-paladin, the arcane archer, the dwarven defender, etc." They hope to include PC information in the appropriate MM entries. Character classes now "stack" with monster HD, so you could have a 6th level fire giant sorcerer, a 15th level wemic ranger, or whatever. About so-called weapon balance (response to a comment about weapon speed factors no longer being used): "Some weapons are strictly better than others. That's OK; it rewards characters who have access to better weapons (like fighters). You may be able to use feats or class abilities to mitigate some weapon differences or get more buck out of your dagger, but generally the long sword is a superior choice." About conversion: "To be perfectly honest, you're better off to recast your character instead of converting." Multiclasses and priests will be more difficult to convert. Bards have their own spell list with "cool bard-only spells" (not only exclusives). As for prestige classes, bards would have an easy time becoming "shadow dancers" or assassins. As part of the effort to balance races, the way stats are set up make sure that elves have a -1 hp/die adjustment as opposed to humans (this would mesh well with the -2 CON/+2 DEX adjustment that was mentioned way back). Also: "You don't have to sweat min-maxing anymore. We did all the hard work for you. We invite the players to min-max the game; it's OK. They're not breaking the rules, and they're not doing anything bad. The races and classes are so tightly balanced that a player really can't break the game without the DM's active help (i.e. handing out too much in the way of magic items)." The sorcerer uses the wizard spell list in "a new and unique way. Wizard is to sorcerer as cleric is to druid, but more so." "Most of the "weird" specializations (the elemental mages from Tome of Magic or Al-Qadim, the specialists from Spells and Magic, etc) aren't really discussed in the core rules set. We hope to address this in future product. In the meantime, most spells do more or less what they did in 2E, but they've been balanced against spells of similar level."  Some spells have changed level, but "[m]any of the classic D&D spells made it onto our "sacred cows" list, because D&D wouldn't be D&D if you couldn't fireball people at 5th level.)" About feats: "The basic notion is that you have a cool option or advantage open to you that other characters don't get. For example, you might be able to perform a whirlwind attack on all enemies within reach, or you might have a bonus to your saving throws, etc. The most potent feats are reached by a "ladder" of lesser feats, so humans start off a rung ahead of everyone else." The prestige classes are described in the DMG. Kits will in the future be used as a "template" for purchasing skills and feats. They won't have "significant" game benefits, but will be used as help with character concepts. Dwarfs, gnomes and halflings will be becoming more different from one another. "Forget proficiencies. It's skills now. There's a pretty good list to choose from. Things like Fast-Casting would probably be feats (in fact, we have a whole class of feats called metamagic feats that allow spellcasters to alter the ways their spells work.)" Spell level caps have been standardized: no more than 5 dice of damage at 1st level, 10 dice at 2nd and 3rd, 15 at4th and 5th, and so on. "Many of your 2E adventures and accessories will be a little dated, but you could update them or convert them with some work. I ran A1 for a bunch of friends a couple of months ago; it took me a couple of hours to write up new versions of the pregenerated characters for "Slave Pits of the Undercity", but the game ran fine otherwise." As a response to a "anything else you can tell us that we haven't thought to ask you" question, Rich said "One of the problems with the 2E cleric was that there were entire spell levels where all of his spell selections just seemed lame. We really punched up the priest's spell list by including a good variety of offense, defense, and miscellaneous spells. There are dozens and dozens of cool new spells (or spells from sources such as Spells & Magic) for 3E." Closing statement by Rich: "In closing? Well, I strongly feel that the game sells itself. If you don't know what to make of it, hey, just look at a copy of the PHB when it comes out. You can make your own decision about whether or not you want to buy it." Constitution Hit Point Bonus:  WotC Game Designer Sean Reynolds confirmed (on the 3E Message Board) that, among other things, non-warriors can take advantage of high Constitution to gain extra hit points: "All classes get the full benefits of their ability scores (within reason ... a fighter doesn't get bonus spells for high Int because fighters don't _get_ spells) - another layer of needless complexity removed."  See the 3E Ability Score Chart for details on just what hp bonus your 18 Constitution wizard will be getting.  :)  (thanks to Henry Link for the scoop) Multiclass XP Penalty:  Playtester Der Verdammte cleared up the issue of the rumored penalty for having an unbalanced multiclassed character (on the TSR Message Board):  "Actually, it's a cumulative penalty for classes that are too far apart.  Thus, your 11/2/2 character would suffer two steps of an XP penalty, but a 7/6/2 character would only have one step of penalty." Barbarian vs. Cavalier:  On the 3E Message Board, WotC Game Designer Andy Collins addressed some of the gripes about the perceived inclusion of the Barbarian class at the expense of other possible classes, especially since not much is known about the Barbarian's abilities: "Maybe [Barbarians] have an uncanny sense for the presence of sorcery, or the ability to ignore magical effects, or special bonuses to wilderness skills, or super-athletic abilities, or a different combat progression than Fighters, or the ability to avoid ambushes and traps, or an indomitable will that makes them immune to charming?  Or maybe they have a different array of "unique" abilities and I just made all those up. (I'm such a tease...) "The point is, you know (or *think* you know) what makes a Ranger special, so you accept the Ranger class. You don't yet know what makes a Barbarian special. (For that matter, you don't know entirely what makes a *Fighter* special.) "And you know what? You probably *could* make a unique Cavalier class using 3E. Or a Witch, or a Swashbuckler, or a Ninja, or whatever else you wanted. Just because the designers didn't think it necessary to the *core rulebooks* doesn't mean you can't make one for your home campaign (or that an official version won't necessarily appear at some point down the road). (I know one of my Planescape players will probably want to make a Corsair class to mimic his character, and I'll be happy to help him--that is, if he's not satisfied making him into a Fighter/Rogue.) "At some point, though, we just had to stop making classes for the PHB. In August, you'll see which classes 'made the cut.' If something's still missing for your game--and we'd be foolish to think that there won't be *somebody* out there who wants a class we didn't include--by all means go to town! Whip up that Gladiator, or Samurai, or Mystic. If you do a good enough job, post it on your website or even submit it to DRAGON." Patience, Young Jedi:  WotC Game Designer Andy Collins had some good advice for all of us:  "Please, folks, be wary of making final decisions (or uninformed comments) about a game that won't be released for 8 months. You're doing yourself, your fellow list readers, and the game itself a disservice.  Sure, it's hard to wait. And yes, it's interesting and exciting to guess about how certain rules will work. But it doesn't do any good to make up your minds now. Wait until the game comes out, and *then* you can have informed debates about the ramifications of various rules. Otherwise, you're simply replaying the "three blind men examining an elephant" story over and over and over again."  (On DND-L; thanks to George Harris for the scoop) Weapons:  TSR VP Ryan Dancey was quoted on  DND-L discussing weapon choice, particularly what factors will play into keeping character from picking the most damaging weapons (thanks to George Harris for the scoop): 1)    The class you're playing may not allow you to use that weapon without incurring substantial penalties.  Setting aside that issue (which clarifies the need for perhaps half the weapons on the equipment list), let us examine a few special cases: 2)    Some races get bonuses with some weapons.  In the hands of a Dwarf, Weapon X may not be the "best" weapon, because Dwarves get additional bonuses with Weapon Y. 3)    You will be making a tradeoff between using a weapon one handed or two handed.  Some weapons can only be used two handed, or only do maximum damage two handed.  Thus, you won't be able to use a shield.  In 3e, this is a tough choice, as opposed to 2e, where shields were always the suboptimal selection. 4)    Maybe you have a magic weapon that has bonuses or abilities that provide a net effect greater than the nonmagical alternatives. 5)    Perhaps you are interested in delivering nonlethal damage, or disarming an opponent, or being able to use a weapon while grappling - all these choices may restrict your weapon selection. 6)    Style, baby. 7)    There are some Feats and/or Skills that allow certain types of attacks with certain types of weapons (like charging while mounted, for example) that may require you to use a certain type of weapon in a certain type of attack.   "Prestige Class":  We've heard that the Assassin is going to be a "prestige class."  Discussion on the 3E Message Board has revealed a couple of semi-solid rumors: A "prestige class" is something along the lines of the 1E Bard -- i.e., a class that one could only take after progressing in different character classes beforehand.  (The 1E Bard had you take a few levels of Fighter, then dual-class to Thief, then later dual-class to Druid -- at that point, you became a Bard.) The Assassin isn't the only "prestige class" in 3E. This opens up a number of questions: What class(es) must one progress through to become an Assassin? What are the other prestige classes?  The Monk?  The Sorcerer?  Something yet unamed?  (various messages on the 3E Message Board) December 7, 1999 A More Correct Combat Bonus Table:  This chart came my way a few weeks ago and I wanted to check on it before posting it.  I also have been asked to edit it a bit.  What you see here is the majority of the 3E Combat Bonus table, minus a couple of "iffy" things that probably would cause more confusion than anything else at this point... 3E Combat Bonus Table (revised 12/7/99) Level Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Fighter +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10 +11 +12 +13 +14 +15 +16 +17 +18 +19 +20 Cleric/Rogue +0 +1 +2 +3 +3 +4 +5 +6 +6 +7 +8 +9 +9 +10 +11 +12 +12 +13 +14 +15 Wizard +0 +1 +1 +2 +2 +3 +3 +4 +4 +5 +5 +6 +6 +7 +7 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10 How the chart works:  The number that corresponds with the character's class and level is a bonus to a d20 roll.  The total of the roll and the bonus (plus bonuses for Strength, Dexterity, Specialization, Magical Items, etc.) is the Armor Class hit. Notes:  This chart raises a few questions.  1)  Since classes won't be in "groups" as they are in 2E, why are the different progressions named with the four "basic" class names?  (This is the way it was sent to me, more or less).  2)  Going along with that, what chart do the other classes use?  Do Barbarians, Rangers and Paladins use the Fighter table?  Do Bards and Druids use the Cleric/Rogue table?  Do Sorcerers use the Wizard table?  What about an in-between class like the Monk? Congrats to Mr. Wyatt!  Long-time Dragon and Dungeon magazine contributor James Wyatt has just landed the dream job -- game designer for Wizards of the Coast!  Some of his recent work includes the Alternity adventure "Deepstrike" in the most recent Dungeon, and "Feathered Friends and Foes" in the most recent Dragon.  Congratulations, James!  :-) Viva Humanity!  Sean Reynolds discussed the issue of why anyone would want to play a human character in 3E now that demi-human level limits have been removed (on the 3E message board):  "[Demi-humans have] XP penalties to multiclassing (which humans have a great way to get around). [There are] extra goodies for human characters.  Humans learn faster, are more versatile, and are less likely to be hit by an XP penalty when multiclassing.  In 1E/2E, races were defined by how they were better than humans (there weren't enough things that were worse than humans to make it worth not playing a human). In 3E D&D, each race is defined by itself (or, nominally, by how they're different, but not necessarily better, than humans). People will want to play humans in 3E D&D, both for their advantages at 1st level and their continuing bonuses at higher levels."  (thanks to Remathilis Eveningwind for the scoop) December 5, 1999 Designer Skip "The Sage" Williams gave an example of how to convert a multiclassed 2E character to 3E on DND-L.  A 2E 9th/9th multiclass "character will become 12th level and the player decides how to split those up."  So he could be 6th/6th, 7th/5th, etc.  How did The Sage arrive at that number?  It appears that he either a) took 2/3 of the total levels of the 2E character to arrive at the total number of 3E character levels, or b) took 1/3 of one class (let's say the lower amount if not even) and added it to the second class.  Let's look at some examples of our own: Using formula "a" -- a 2E character that was 4th/2nd has 6 2E levels, which becomes ( 2/3 x 6 = ) 4 3E levels that could be split up however the player decided; for instance, 3rd/1st.  A 10th/3rd 2E character would be pretty rare, but possible; this character would have ( 2/3 x 13 = ) 8 3E levels to split up between classes (if we drop fractions).  This doesn't seem as logical a conversion for some reason (the 3E character loses a lot of levels, relatively). Using formula "b" -- the 4th/2nd 2E character would convert to [ 4 + (1/3 x 2) ] -- but let's say we drop any fractions, so 1/3 of 2 becomes 0 -- = 4 levels to split up.  Just like formula "a".  The 10th/3rd 2E character would have 10 + (1/3 x 3) = 11 levels to split up among classes; the player could make a 10th/1st, 9th/2nd or 8th/3rd character, which seems closer to the mark.  Using this formula, the character has at minimum the number of levels of his highest class to split up, and more if the class levels are closer to equal amounts.  So my guess is more along the lines of formula "b" being correct.  Time will tell. December 4, 1999 3E Tidbits in Dungeon Adventures:  Issue #78 (January/February 2000) of Dungeon arrived in my mailbox today, and inside were several bits of 3E news as it pertains to the future of the magazine: Dungeon will continue to publish Alternity adventures. Dungeon will publish fewer campaign-specific adventures, instead offering sidebars for how to adapt the "generic" adventure to a more specific setting, if appropriate. Greyhawk-based adventures will contain few Greyhawk-specific references to make them as generic as possible. Dungeon's adventures will all be playable using only the core books; any additional rules that might apply will presumably be presented within the text of the adventure. Forgotten Realms adventures will be published occasionally. The first few issues of Dungeon that contain 3E-only adventures will be written by playtesters and in-house talent, as well as adventures that were written for 2E but converted to 3E. Aspiring adventure authors may still submit adventures using 2E rules, and those that are accepted will then need to be converted to 3E by the author when the rules are available to the general public. Character Creation:  Sean Reynolds quoted the 3E DMG verbatim on the basics of creating a character:  "Step Zero:  Check with Your Dungeon Master.  Your Dungeon Master (DM) may have house rules or campaign standards that vary from the standard rules."   In other words, dwarven mages might be permitted per the 3E rules, but not necessarily by a DM in his or her campaign.  :-)  (on the 3E Message board) December is here, and thus it's time for the December Playtest Group of the Month to debut on the official D&D 3E site.  In their Playtesters at Work section, we learn something about the powers of the Barbarian:  "Barbarian Rage: When he needs to, the barbarian can fly into a screaming blood frenzy. In a rage, a barbarian gains phenomenal strength and durability but becomes reckless and less able to defend himself. He temporarily gains +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, and a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but suffers a -2 penalty to Armor Class."  What isn't included in this description is how long the power lasts or how often it can be used.  (Thanks to Synaptic Dragon for the scoop)   The December Playtest Group of the Month's Quote of the Week (try saying that ten times fast!) concerns their opinion of the new multiclassing system: "One word . . . SWEET!!!! This is the way multiclasses should have always been done.  ...these new rules have us talking about breaking out some of the old PCs and running a mega-high level adventure for nostalgia's sake." December 3, 1999 Priest Spell Levels:  Apparently, priest spells will be divided into nine levels like wizard spells in 3E.  Some spells will be moved up from seventh level into the 8th and 9th level spots, some of those upper-level spells will be a few of the Quest spells from Tome of Magic, and new priest spells will be added to those upper levels as well.  (discussion on the 3E message board) Mini See:  WotC Miniatures Line Revealed!  Check out the minatures page at the WotC site.  The minis pictured will be sold in individual packs for $2.99 each.  (Thanks to "Weaponsmith" for the scoop) December 2, 1999 There are a couple of 3E chats scheduled for December.  The first is with Rich Baker on 3E Character Design, on Wednesday, December 8, from 6-7 PM PST.  The other is with 3E artists Todd Lockwood and Sam Wood, on Wednesday, December 22, from 6-7PM PST.  Click here when the time comes.  (Thanks to Pierre-Paul Durastanti for the scoop). TSR VP Ryan Dancey was active on DND-L recently, commenting on a number of topics (thanks to George Harris for the scoop): Multiclassed from the start?  Not in the core rules, most likely, according to Ryan:  "There are draft rules to accomplish this.  They're hairy.  They probably won't make it into the core rulebooks.  Essentially, you end up with a character with two 'half' classes that slowly gain full class abilities as the character advances towards 2nd level.  For the sake of usability, I think we're going to go with no 1st level multiclassed characters in the core books." Which spells made it into the 3E PHB?  "I am pretty sure that all the spells in the 2nd Ed PHB are in the 3r Ed.  Plus." On converting spell durations:  "As a general rule, convert 2e 'rounds' to 3e 'minutes'.  If a spell obviously is supposed to have a very short duration then use 3e rounds." December 1, 1999 Playtester Der Verdammte helped clear up the difference between skills and feats in 3E (on the 3E message board):  "Feats of all kinds are available to all classes, with the exception of two that I can think of (and those are more like special class abilities which happen to be optional than feats)....  Skills are skills are skills [i.e. they're not separate from "Crafts"].  "Craft" is one skill, though you could have a character with Craft: Blacksmith, Craft: Chef, and Craft: Toymaker all at once.  But they're still skills and they have ratings just like all other skills.  Some skills are class-restricted (very few); most allow any class to pick up.  But you'll have a lot of trouble if you want your fighter to be as skilled as your party's rogue, for example--and you'd probably be wasting your time and points.  Feats are 'super-skills' (sort of) which don't have a rating.  They make you better at things you can normally do with penalties, give you permanent bonuses to certain things, and generally allow you to do things outside the skill system.  That is not to say that there are not feats that affect skills (or vice versa).  Feats, as I said above, are available to all classes.  You will probably not see many wizards with melee feats or fighters with magic-based feats, though."  Sounds like the skills are like 2E non-weapon proficiencies, but grouped into broad and specialty skills.  This is like Alternity, where you have to learn the Computer Science broad skill before you can learn its related specialty skills such as Hacking, Hardware and Programming. Do monsters still all use a d8 hit die to generate hit points?  No, according to Der Verdammte:  "Monsters have been reorganized, and monster HD type, as well as many other factors -- including combat progression -- depend on creature type.  Yes, dragons have their own progression (before you ask)."  (on the 3E message board) The official Pool of Radiance II: The Ruins of Myth Drannor web site has appeared.  It's a little light on info right now but I'm sure it will grow over the next few months.  PoRII will be the first computer game released to use the 3E D&D rules.  (Thanks to Rob Rogers and Silverdawn for the scoop)  You can also keep up on PoRII news at The Scrying Room. WotC RPG Business Manager Keith Strohm addressed the effect of 3E on the viability of the Encyclopedia Magica and the Wizard's and Priest's Spell Compendium series (on DND-L):  "Both the spell compendiums and the Encyclopedia Magica already span 2 editions of the game. The way spells work has not changed significantly -- that is, it's still the same basic system, and the spell descriptions will have a similar format. In general, I think that spells will be one of the easiest facets of 2nd edition to convert to the new edition. So, overall, the Spell Compendiums will still be useful (with the possibility of a little bit of conversion, like most 2nd edition rules 'heavy" books).  Some spells may have changed their level assignment (that is, a 3rd level spell under 2nd edition may have changed to a 2nd or 4th level spell under 2nd Edition, as the entire system is more balanced), but there has already been talk of a fan-generated conversion clearinghouse for 2nd edition product, which should do the job until the 3rd edition update for these books is issued."  [Hey -- that's this site!  :-) ] Dungeons & Dragons, D&D 3E and AD&D are all property of Wizards of the Coast.