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Am I mis-remembering, or does the rogue get _two_ trained feats as class trained skills? I think the balance in his case is that he gets Thievery and Stealth as free trained skills.

I went 9, myself. I can't remember the last time I was this interested in an RPG product, and I'm so long-tired by 3.5 that I can't even remember where I put my dice. 4e is giving me a vastly sturdier framework to hang my preferences on than 3.5 ever did. Too many times in 3.5 I'd make a change...

Acolyte: "Why, honored elder, is mighty Bahamut's blessing denied unless we are smiting our foes?" Priest: "By the terms of the Compact of the Gods, our lord is forbidden from interfering directly with the world, lest his struggles with the other gods destroy what they would claim. Only by the...

I'd suggest that he understands the concept of "flavor text" and its relation to mechanics just fine. The PHB itself explicitly calls out flavor text as to-taste and says to change it if you feel like it- using screaming skulls for Magic Missile is the example it gave. Unless Mearls missed the...

An archer is now a ranger, not a fighter. You want a heavily-armored archer? Buy armor proficiencies; none of the ranger powers shown so far require you be in light armor to use them. You want a fighter that's identical to the existing class, except unarmored? Take away their armor proficiencies...

In 4e, Defenders look like they're going to be doing at least as much single-target damage as the wizards, if not more. They'll also usually be the last ones down unless the party's about to die, because if your enemies are tough enough to take out your front line, they're certainly tough enough...

I think it's a little premature to be too certain about what you're giving up by tanking Dexterity and Wisdom. We've already seen at least one very useful wizard feat hinge on Wisdom, and with the absence of stat-boost equipment, if you start your PC as a clumsy fool, he's going to stay a clumsy...

I'd have to agree with the designers' statements that they don't see any merit in forced symmetry. There's simply no need for every power source to have representatives for every role. Magic can plausibly let a PC do any job, but sheer muscle and prowess can't plausibly do mass crowd control...

I find that there's a very substantial difference between WoW hybrids and tabletop hybrids. Namely, in WoW, the party leader decides what classes everyone else in the group might bring. If he decides that there will be no shammies, there will be no shammies. In tabletop, the players decide what...

I'd suggest that it's distinctly premature to declare that they're wrong. We've got some people here claiming that clerics aren't required in 3e, and that game's been out eight years. We're now supposed to speak with certainty about required classes for a game that's not even out yet? WotC's...

From what I've seen so far, it's just not going to be practical to take an extended rest mid-adventure the way it's currently practical in 3e. First, it's been strongly implied that you can only take one extended rest per day. Second, it's been indicated that teleportation and fast-travel powers...

A defender who dumpstats Con will have, on average, 2/3rds of the long-term endurance of a defender who maximizes it. I would be very, very surprised if a character class predicated on getting hit a lot could just casually give up 5 healing surges, even if he somehow manages to avoid all his...

How? How do you make every attribute desirable for every class in a way that will make a wizard as eager to take Strength as he is to take Intelligence? And would it be a good thing if you succeeded?

Are you sure you want to make Intelligence such a great stat for the Duskblade? His armor is invariably Light, which means he can add his Int bonus to his armor class. He can use his Int bonus for all attacks, including basic attacks, and if he picks Arcane Archer he can use it for all ranged...

It's a venerable old magic-user spell that allows you to step temporarily into the demiplane of shadow and travel overland a great deal faster than normal in the "real world". In 4e, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it dumped you in the Shadowfell for the movement portion of the spell. It's...

Weapon Proficiencies: Having proficiency in a single weapon is iffy. He's completely helpless at range, since none of his listed powers work with ranged attacks. Even paladins can grab a crossbow or throwing hammer. Armor Proficiencies: For a Defender, this guy's armor class is horrendous. He...

In an X-second combat round, the fighter is making, say, 8 actual swings of his weapon. The rogue is lining up one perfect Deft Strike, and the wizard is shooting one magic missile. A high-Reflex enemy might do fine at dodging those singular, aimed attacks, but crowd him in with a flurry and...

You're right- most of the time, it is in their interest to open up early and hard with encounter powers. Yet the penalty for holding it back is minimal. 30 HP damage out of a 100 HP monster means almost the exact same thing at every HP range from 100-31. It can be more advantageous to save the...

Because at-will powers are balanced to be spammed. They are not especially strong, and will not unbalance an encounter of unlimited access to them is given. In terms of combat flavor, they are meant to be broken up by use of encounter powers. If encounter powers are spammed, and at-wills are...

Providing the ability is used on the first round, that's a 50% of getting it twice in the fight- which strongly incentivizes using rechargeable powers as early and often as possible. I really don't want to see PCs encouraged to spam a single ability whenever possible. It's evocative for...