D&D 4E 4E tidbits from WotC blogs (Updated:David Noonan on Social Interactions)
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Grimstaff
Explorer
Some old schoolers (myself not included) irrationallyhate games that are still in print, and take any and every opportunity to unload the old snark guns at them. Check out the feeding frenzy over 4E on the Dragonsfoot boards. But that's why they're so lovable...mhacdebhandia said:
Agamon
Adventurer
Grimstaff said:Some old schoolers (myself not included) irrationallyhate games that are still in print, and take any and every opportunity to unload the old snark guns at them. Check out the feeding frenzy over 4E on the Dragonsfoot boards. But that's why they're so lovable...
LOL. If you're playing oD&D/1E/2E, why would you even care that 3E is giving way to 4E?? I think you're right...
Mike commented he was amazed so many people hated Vancian magic. I've hated it for years and many of my friends who don't want to play D&D avoid D&D b/c the casting as pell and then forgetting it just sounds stupid to them. It's the ONE thing you do, you're intimately familiar w/the words and gestures and such, yet when you cast if it isn't memorized more, oops!.
Arcana Unearthed/Evolved was a great game if for no other reason than the much more flexible magic system and the banishing of fire and forget. Let along more complex spell systems like Mage or even the flexibility added in spell point systems like Palladium.
I know I made sure to develop a spell point system based on the spell chart provided in the PHB. It added a lot more flexibility to all the spellcasters (esp since I ditched fire and forget and memorization) and made everyone happy b/c the chance of them running out of useful abilities was much smaller.
Arcana Unearthed/Evolved was a great game if for no other reason than the much more flexible magic system and the banishing of fire and forget. Let along more complex spell systems like Mage or even the flexibility added in spell point systems like Palladium.
I know I made sure to develop a spell point system based on the spell chart provided in the PHB. It added a lot more flexibility to all the spellcasters (esp since I ditched fire and forget and memorization) and made everyone happy b/c the chance of them running out of useful abilities was much smaller.
Dr. Awkward said:
No you're not. When the party fighter is getting hit for 50 or 60 points of damage in one round, what good is a wand of Cure Light Wounds going to do? It's like trying to put out a bonfire with a squirt gun.
Plus, there's no guarantee that the party will be able to find or buy these wands anyway, and without a cleric or druid, they can't make them themselves.
And what if someone gets level drained? Or diseased? Or blinded? What then?
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The thing is, D&D has never simulated low-fantasy well.
For example, take any Conan novel. Be it from the beginning when Conan was a simple barbarian, or a novel in the mid-point when he was a thief/pirate and tell me which novel wouldn't make Conan feel small in the pants if he was partnered with a 5th level wizard (any edition, 1E or 3E).
What about LotR? Other than the balor, there wasn't a fight in the book that a 5th level 1E wizard couldn't solo by himself.
For example, take any Conan novel. Be it from the beginning when Conan was a simple barbarian, or a novel in the mid-point when he was a thief/pirate and tell me which novel wouldn't make Conan feel small in the pants if he was partnered with a 5th level wizard (any edition, 1E or 3E).
What about LotR? Other than the balor, there wasn't a fight in the book that a 5th level 1E wizard couldn't solo by himself.
Shortman McLeod
First Post
Agamon said:
Actually, the word "genius" long predates AD&D. But, you know, thanks for comin' out 'n all.
thedungeondelver said:
No, thedunegondelver, they didn't. At least, the information we have to date certainly doesn't indicate it. We are coming to the point of recognizing this sort of persistent negativity as threadcrapping. It doesn't add to the discussion, and serves to make everyone on the boards generally more crabby. Including us mods. So we aren't taking it kindly anymore. Be warned.
Victim
First Post
AllisterH said:
WTF? Conan is an absolute terror. He out grapples big strong beasts, fights giants, defeats more powerful wizards, and rips apart demons from space with his bare hands. The part that DnD doesn't simulate well is Conan's general lack of dependency on stuff.
An unscreened 1e wizard wouldn't have the defensive ability to survive those fights - he could devastate a tightly packed bunch with sleep or fireballs, but the others would probably be able to swarm him. That being said, ~5th level doesn't sound too far off for the LotR characters - it's not a bad level for dealing with lots of low HD humanoids.
SHARK
First Post
Greetings!
Hmmm...well, if the whole helpless, lame and incompetent Stormtrooper thing from Star Wars is going to be a main feature, forget it.
That's one rule I will "Rule 0" in a *snap*
In my view, that kind of reasoning is not "innovative"--but rather, it is going *back* to some things that many of us couldn't stand about 1E AD&D--the whole "My 10th level Fighter can ignore that mob of 1st-3rd level watchmen, and mow through them like grass, because none of them can even hit me unless they score a natural 20!"
Storytelling be damned. I want the players to take pause when they encounter a squadron of watchmen, or a warband of orcs. Yes, they may very well mow through them. Usually they will. However, they can't get too cocky, because there is a chance that one or two of them might get lucky with strong crits and damage rolls, and just jackhammer the player.
That's good. That element of danger keeps the heroic players from being invincible, or arrogant.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Hmmm...well, if the whole helpless, lame and incompetent Stormtrooper thing from Star Wars is going to be a main feature, forget it.
That's one rule I will "Rule 0" in a *snap*
In my view, that kind of reasoning is not "innovative"--but rather, it is going *back* to some things that many of us couldn't stand about 1E AD&D--the whole "My 10th level Fighter can ignore that mob of 1st-3rd level watchmen, and mow through them like grass, because none of them can even hit me unless they score a natural 20!"
Storytelling be damned. I want the players to take pause when they encounter a squadron of watchmen, or a warband of orcs. Yes, they may very well mow through them. Usually they will. However, they can't get too cocky, because there is a chance that one or two of them might get lucky with strong crits and damage rolls, and just jackhammer the player.
That's good. That element of danger keeps the heroic players from being invincible, or arrogant.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
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