RITUALS will be officially modified :)

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

from the amazon.com page for [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Players-Option-Champions-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958251/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289733281&sr=8-1-spell"]Player's Option: Champions of the Heroic Tier[/ame]

we learn that there will be a new take on rituals! And there will be relics for divine characters and rules for adventuring companies...

• Themes allow characters' pasts to play a role in their future.
• New backgrounds allow players to create hill dwarves and wood elves.
• An all new take on rituals makes those magical abilities more useful in the heroic tier of play than ever before.

For wizards, warlocks, and other arcane characters, familiars are useful assistants when exploring ancient dungeons. Clerics and paladins gain access to relics, items imbued with the power of the gods. Professions allow characters to dabble in the more mundane side of adventuring life, while the rules for adventuring companies allow groups of heroes to combine their efforts in new ways.

 

[Dice4Hire]

That looks like it might well be the next book I buy

 

[Pseudonym]

• New backgrounds allow players to create hill dwarves and wood elves.

The rest looks good, but I could really do without that. 4E and Essentials have resisted subrace creep for the most part. I really don't want to see it come back.

 

[Klaus]

I hope you give the racial backgrounds a shot. They were really cool to write.

 

[tuxgeo]

That looks like it might well be the next book I buy

This title will be released on July 19, 2011.

I don't want to have to wait that long. . . .

Kudos to [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION], Rich Baker, and [MENTION=607]Klaus[/MENTION], especially for writing up wider use of Themes (beyond Dark Sun), and any use at all for Professions.
(We already have rules for backgrounds, rituals, and familiars; but updates might enliven those options even more.)

 

[zoroaster100]

Interesting...that little Amazon preview contains a lot of tantalizing bits of information. Rituals, familiars and themes were all subsystems which seemed promising but not yet quite designed to their full potential in 4e. I have hope for much potential fun if they have been improved with the same skill as other Essential improvements to the rules.

 

[babinro]

Out of curiosity, what exactly is the problem with Rituals as they are now for typical players?

I have no objection to them at all as they are great for the roleplaying aspects of 4e. Is it the idea that they are not combat oriented or slow that turns people off? Because that is very easily houseruled.

I'll be interested to see the new take on rituals for what its worth...but I see nothing in the current system that needs changing...I'd rather this attention go elsewhere in the game.

 

[UnknownAtThisTime]

The rest looks good, but I could really do without that. 4E and Essentials have resisted subrace creep for the most part. I really don't want to see it come back.

I agree. If I want a hill dwarf, I make a dwarf, and fluff and crunch him in to a hill dwarf. If I could synthesize my one "minor beef" with 4E, (and probably every game system from the last 15 years), it is that they create additional product to address what could easily be left to the players by using existing material. (I'm not naive, I understand and accept why they do it)

Cranky Old Guy Rant: "There are too many PC races as it is. In my day ......"

I hope you give the racial backgrounds a shot. They were really cool to write.

I bet they were a blast to write. And they are cool for players to write as well.

 

[Klaus]

I can't comment on the racial backgrounds of the book (due to the Mark of Justice on my forehead), but I'll say this: I was never a fan of "17 flavors of elves" from earlier editions.

 

[MarkB]

Out of curiosity, what exactly is the problem with Rituals as they are now for typical players?

In my experience, it's a combination of the costs and time involved.

Combined with 4e's structured approach to treasure rewards, it often feels like a poor return to spend your money on a one-shot ritual casting than to put it towards your next magic item (though maybe the new Common / Uncommon / Rare item system will mitigate this, by making most items something you don't save up money for).

And the time element means that, in many cases, you can either find a non-ritual solution faster than using the ritual, or else using the ritual will simply take more time than you have available.

Yes, either factor can be mitigated with house rules, but I'd certainly welcome a new approach to rituals that didn't require such workarounds.