A very small bone from Greg Bisland's Blog

[fuindordm]

Tuesday night I got together with four of my five players and started with character creation. Unfortunately we timed this with a pre-release of MTG’s Lorwyn set, so we were a bit pressed for time. Character creation, which I thought would only take an hour or two, ended up going until about 9:30 PM. Of course, the process was not fully dependent upon determining powers and ability scores, for I also had to introduce elements of my campaign setting and to work with the Hero Builder’s Guide to determine the characters’ background. I enjoy integrating character backstory into my campaigns and find the “Creating Your Character’s Personal History” section to be a useful ally in this process. I’ll forego describing the character backgrounds here because they’ll be included in my playtest report that should appear next week after we officially begin the campaign. I will say that we have a Tiefling Warlord, a Rogue, a Human Wizard, and a Half-Elf Fighter. There might be a fifth character, but class and race is yet to be determined.

I've underlined the two points I find interesting.

First, it seems you get to choose "powers" (presumably talents or alternate class abilities) at first level. That sounds pretty good.

Second, half-elves are confirmed as a PH race. I find that a bit disappointing, do we really need three degrees of elf (half-elf, elf, eladrin)?

Third, the rogue's race is not mentioned. Either the player is undecided, or they chose something new that WotC isn't ready to reveal.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Second, half-elves are confirmed as a PH race. I find that a bit disappointing, do we really need three degrees of elf (half-elf, elf, eladrin)?

Well, one of the first 4th Ed articles on the WotC site did mention the half-elf and a racial inspire confidence type ability or something, if I recall.

I still wasn't sure Warlord was confirmed, though, so thanks for posting this.

 

[Snapdragyn]

Bet it's changeling for the rogue.

 

[Davelozzi]

Second, half-elves are confirmed as a PH race. I find that a bit disappointing, do we really need three degrees of elf (half-elf, elf, eladrin)?

I don't think this confirms that half-elves are in the PH1. Other playtests have included races and classes that they said are not. It sounds like a lot of stuff is being developed now, some of which will be in the PH1, others which will come out later.

However, I agree with you that half-elves are unnecessary, at least in the first PH>

 

[fuindordm]

It's not 100% certain, but WotC did recently confirm that the content of the PH has been finalized. So it seems likely that everyone there is now playtesting with same options.

The changeling is a good race, but I don't really want to see a PH full of half-breeds.

 

[BASHMAN]

I don't think this confirms that half-elves are in the PH1. Other playtests have included races and classes that they said are not.

I think they are doing that to create a smokescreen so that we cannot "reverse engineer" 4th ed before it comes out-- they way it was done with 3rd. Heck, the entire SRD was practically available on the net before the game was ever released. They are being very closed mouthed compared to last time.

 

[Nifft]

Third, the rogue's race is not mentioned. Either the player is undecided, or they chose something new that WotC isn't ready to reveal.

OMGWTF Rogue is a race! 4e isn't D&D any more.

Cheers, -- N

 

[jolt]

However, I agree with you that half-elves are unnecessary, at least in the first PH>

I also agree. And if they are going to go the half-race route, then it should be fully fleshed out. Right now we only have the Elf and Orc willing to intermingle, but only with humans. Personally, I could do without the half-races entirely but if they're going to be part of the core D&D "mythos" then there should be some kind of mechanic for combining any two core races.

jolt

 

[jolt]

OMGWTF Rogue is a race! 4e isn't D&D any more.

Cheers, -- N

Heh. Not only is rogue a race, but you'll have the new rouge as a class! Now you can be a rogue rouge! Or even better; a half-rogue rouge!

jolt

 

[Nahat Anoj]

OMGWTF Rogue is a race! 4e isn't D&D any more.

Yes, class is now the new race and race is the new class. So unlike in previous editions where you were an elf fighter, 4e now has you as a fighter elf (but WotC doesn't want to release a coversion document for such a substantial change in game design).