WotC Mailbog Podcast up

[Rechan]

http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4pod/20081124

Direct download:
http://media.gleemax.com/podcasts/DnD_Episode29.mp3

 

[Shroomy]

I only got a chance to listen to the first 10 minutes last night, anything new in there after that?

 

[Piratecat]

It was fun to listen to. A few revelations for me: the section on sure strike and careful attack, what they're finding isn't working, and the section at the end on D&DI.

 

[Fifth Element]

Hmm...I don't find their answer about sunder and disarm terribly convincing. Sunder I'm fine with, but disarm does seem like something you should be able to do.

They talk about not wanting to make it a power because it won't always be applicable depending on the opponent, but why not an alternative to a basic attack, similar to how it was in 3E?

I suppose then they'd have to consider how monster powers are affected. But with a weapon keyword in the powers that shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

If your can make a gelatinous cube prone, you can disarm a bear.

Seriously. Target can't make attacks until it spends a move action to recover.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Seriously. Target can't make attacks until it spends a move action to recover.

Hmm... I could see then any attack that knocks a opponent prone could work. Since it takes a move action to get up and the negatives inflicted upon the target match pretty well with if you lost your weapon.

So you could simply narrate that instead of being knocked down as disarming the opponent.

 

[justanobody]

Sunder: big problems here with the financial aspect. Crap breaks when used. Tough noogies. that just shows where the faults in the economic system are because you cannot buy more weapons. Hope your DM doesn't use criticals and you have a critical miss!

Of course, if you cannot have your item destroyed, then you also should not be able to destroy an opponents. Where is that entire line of tactics?

Backgrounds: Yup. Ask your DM, end of story. You can always make a bigger background for your character than your DM requires, but still get things approved through your DM so you don't claim some nobility that isn't observed within the game.

Home-brew: Birthright sucks. Don't emulate it.

Class abilities: Says challenge the player not the stats like "detect evil". :clap:

Favorite campaign/character: who cares....why not ask how is your college room mates father's sister's cousin's pet? totally wasted air time and bandwidth to download. put it in a blog so I can avoid it.

Powers: WotC over-values a LOT of their own work. Maybe things should be valued from outside of the building with more importance. That is where the customers come from afterall. Dave: At-wills are used all the time not just situational. It is built into the system, why not use it?

Pronunciation: Ask Frank Mentzer for a spelling guide for phonetics for D&D.

Fungible: ....

Feedback, 4th isn't working: zzzzzzz

Healing surges...WHY!?!?!?!: No. He probably means the idea behind healing surges all together. I feel this question was not answered, but twisted to what they wanted to answer. No I would be a cleric without the stupid roles like "leader". I also never use my healing surges. I don't even have them on my character sheet.

Starting a group: The DMG should tell people this, no question needed.

PHBII: If you have a pH of 2, you are probably dead or being digested by something.

Power gamers: Yup, they are jerks. Oh goody, we get graded on Dungeon Delves. Do we get gold stars, or put in detention or summer school if our scores are too low?
-Gnome Chasing! A new game due out in time for Christmas! Great as a stocking stuffer along with Three Dragon Ante and Inn-Fighting!

DDI: Character Builder, Mike; not creator. Recover from your system shock home-brew rules for 4th before podcasting. Adventure Builder would take a LOT of scripting for D&D! Dave: RAWR! Mac support! iPhone, bad; dice rollers good.

The preceding thoughts were typed while listening to the podcast, and are impromptu based on a first listen.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Hmm...I don't find their answer about sunder and disarm terribly convincing. Sunder I'm fine with, but disarm does seem like something you should be able to do.

They talk about not wanting to make it a power because it won't always be applicable depending on the opponent, but why not an alternative to a basic attack, similar to how it was in 3E?

I suppose then they'd have to consider how monster powers are affected. But with a weapon keyword in the powers that shouldn't be too difficult.

Agreed. Craptastic answr regarding disarm. So what if it doesn't work on every monster? With that logic, no fire-based powers would be in the game.

Disarm should be in just like grab.

And I can't believe that they didn't see the sure strike issue popping up. I was shaking my head as soon as I read the four fighter at-wills.

 

[evilgenius8000]

For those of us who don't like sitting and listening to a podcast for an hour, what is the deal with sure strike?

 

[Cadfan]

For those of us who don't like sitting and listening to a podcast for an hour, what is the deal with sure strike?

Basically, they said that many people "in the building," which I take to mean working for WOTC, feel that accuracy is very, very important. And then they took kind of a pro/con approach, with one guy arguing that accuracy was a little overvalued at WOTC, and the other guy arguing that people "outside the building" weren't valuing accuracy enough.

They then discussed how, in higher paragon and epic tier play, its ok if your at will powers are situational. You have a lot of encounter and daily powers at that point, so they take up a larger proportion of your standard actions per fight. That means you use your at wills left often, so its ok if an at will only works in some situations rather than all or most. Meaning that accuracy boosting attacks are ok at that level even if you only use them against particular foes, because that's the role an at will adopts at that level of play.