Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Toryx" data-source="post: 3961947" data-attributes="member: 56441">My own thoughts based on what we've heard:NO MORE LEVEL DRAIN - Good. I don't mind bad things happening to characters, and I don't mind scary things, but this always struck me as too big a punishment. 3.5 made it less so, but still...it doesn't contribute to the fun of the game for me.NO MORE (temporary) ABILITY DRAIN - Mixed. It sucks to have that happen, and the record keeping is a pain, but on the other hand, this seems to succeed in giving the characters a real source of terror without being as heavy on the punishment as level draining. It seemed like a good compromise. I won't miss it though.NO MORE SAVE-OR-DIE - Good. I hate spending a lot of time putting together a character and exploring it's development only to have it all end with one bad roll. When it happens in the beginning of a massive climatic battle it's not at all fun.NO MORE ETHICAL ALIGNMENTS - Skeptical/ Bad. I don't think they're getting rid of ethical alignments. Personally, I'd rather they dropped alignments as a mechanic altogether and just offer a paragraph or two or roleplay suggestions. Having an alignment mechanic at all, even a dumbed down one doesn't appeal to me at all. I'll either have to choose my DM more carefully than usual or dump it altogether.SNEAK ATTACK ON ANYTHING - Mixed. To me, it really depends on how the sneak attack mechanic works. I've never liked Sneak Attack in the past and I'm hopeful they made some changes to 4th ed. but I don't really know enough at this point to have a strong opinion.FASTER GAME MECHANICS - Good. There's nothing wrong with making game play faster and more involving for all the players as well as the DM. FASTER (N)PC CREATION - Good, if true. I believe that the NPC and Monster set-up times are improved...and that's great. PC creation, I am doubtful about. It'd be good if it were easier...the one thing I disliked most about the skill system in 3.5 is how complicated it is to create characters at higher levels.NO MORE EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF MAGIC ITEMS - Best News Yet! Alas, I think they're going to weasel out on this one. If they drop the excessive amounts of Magic Items and especially the reliance on magic items to survive, I will be overjoyed. From little bits of offline rumors and hints in Insider articles, however, I think they've chickened out and backed away. Which means for me that if they don't lessen the reliance on magic items, that'll be the thing I dislike the most about the new system. I can hardly tolerate it with 3.5 now.NO MORE (or less) VANCIAN CASTING - Good. I'm so tired of the vancian system it's not even funny. I'm not sure the power system is a good replacement, but I'm willing to give it a shot.NO MORE SPELL SCHOOLS - Neutral. I don't know enough about the new system to have any opinion here.FOCUS ITEMS - Neutral- As per above. Not enough information.SKILL SYSTEM REVAMP - Mixed. I like simplifying the skills so that there aren't so many of them (Athletics for Jump, Climb, and Swim for example). But I don't want the skill system as a mechanic to be simplified to the point where you hardly use them, and I fear that's the direction they're going in. I'd much rather see something more similar to Iron Heroes.BASIC RACES CHANGES - Good. I've liked everything I've heard so far. I won't miss the Gnome at all.RACIAL PANTHEONS GETTING THE BOOT - Indifferent. I've only rarely used the published pantheons anyway. I prefer my homebrewed systems of religions.ELIMINATION OF PRESTIGE CLASSES - Good. I'd far rather they focused on making core classes fun to play all the way through the advancement table. EFFORT TO BALANCE FEATS - Good. I haven't heard anything bad about it yet. I hope they have a lot of racial and class linked feats.PARTY ROLES - DEFENDER, LEADER, ETC. - Mixed. I don't mind it if it's to help people, especially beginners, design strong party dynamics. I will be very annoyed, however, if each role is required for a party. I don't want party design to be put into a box.POINTS OF LIGHT SETTING DESIGN - Good. I like what I've heard, and even if I didn't, I'd design my own anyway.LACK OF BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY - Neutral. I don't really care that much.</blockquote>

Verification