D&D 4E AICN 4e Review Part 2: DMing 4e

[Dragonblade]

Cool read. Check it out!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35799

 

[Shroomy]

Gaaaah!!!! June is so far away.

 

[Dragonblade]

Just finished reading that review. Wow, I have to say I'm even more pumped about running 4e games now. He also flat out says its easy to control the magic item level and that its easily possible to run entire campaigns that feature no combat at all but consist entirely of social encounters and intrigue.

Seriously, if the game delivers the goods in the way that this reviewer feels it does, then I see 4e becoming a huge success. I know that virtually my entire gaming group is eagerly looking forward to June.

 

[Holy Bovine]

And when slightly more complicated rule calls come into play, don’t worry. The way they’ve set up the rule chapters are simple, clear and pure genius. Everything in the combat chapter is alphabetized. You need the grappling rules? Turn to the G’s. How about Charging? C. And once you’re there, you’ll find that all the major rules are listed as bullet points. Any and every instance for a rule is listed separately in its own bullet point and there aren’t any more of those infamous important rules buried at the end of a paragraph somewhere in the middle of chapter 9.

I read this and thought (a little angrily actually) 'Why the Hell weren't all of the DMG's done like this?! Gah!'

I really sounds like they made the rule books much easier to reference. As it should be, imo. They are rulebooks first and foremost to me.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Thanks for the link Dragonblade!

Okay, the D&D XP for monsters could be something like:

1st: 100 XP
2nd: 125
3rd: 150
4th: 175
5th: 200
6th: 250
7th: 300
8th: 350
9th: 400
10th: 500
11th: 600
12th: 700
13th: 800
14th: 1000
15th: 1200
16th: 1400
17th: 1600
18th: 2000
19th: 2400
20th: 2800
21st: 3200
22nd: 4000
23rd: 4800
24th: 5600
25th: 6400
26th: 8000
27th: 9600
28th: 11,200
29th: 12,800
30th: 16,000

Minion 30th: 4000
Elite 30th: 32,000
Solo 30th: 80,000

Of course this doesn't explain why the Pit Fiend is 18,000 XP rather than 16,000, but it could be that monsters can use everything from their level, up to, but not including the next. So the 26th-level range is 8000-9599 XP.

A few musings. If 4 minions = 1 standard monster, 2 standard = 1 elite and 5 standard = 1 solo, then the following seems logical.

Standard = Minion +8
Elite = Minion +12, or Standard +4
Solo = Minion +17, Elite +5 or Standard +9

Ergo (while the math itself may need to be rejigged?) a 26th-level Elite Pit Fiend would be a potential:

21st Level Solo Monster
30th-level Standard Monster
(Hypothetical*) 38th-level Minion Monster

*

 

[Quartz]

Me like!

 

[Praeden]

My favourite quote:

"And there’s no such thing as a magic item shop anymore."

I have memories from 20 years ago of my fellow players trying to persuade me to buy the Staff of Striking+2, because I only had the +1 version. While I wept quietly into my character sheet. A less fanastical D&D scene I would struggle to imagine.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Just finished reading that review. Wow, I have to say I'm even more pumped about running 4e games now. He also flat out says its easy to control the magic item level and that its easily possible to run entire campaigns that feature no combat at all but consist entirely of social encounters and intrigue.

Seriously, if the game delivers the goods in the way that this reviewer feels it does, then I see 4e becoming a huge success. I know that virtually my entire gaming group is eagerly looking forward to June.

For pure entertainment value, I looked into the comments to the post and "learned" that people can read anything out of a text if they want to. One of the critics understood the 1 item per level as mandatory and flamed on that...

Well, i stopped reading the comments after that. AICN comments aren't as useful as EN World or Gleemax to find interesting (including criticizing) posts to that article. Too many non-gamers...

 

[MarkAHart]

I really like the idea of using alphabetization for the combat chapter...a nice, useful innovation, I think.

Great review!

 

[Clavis]

I've read the review, and it sounds like the writer is suffering from Embedded Reporter Syndrome. Whenever people are granted exclusive access to something, it creates a feeling of comradery and belonging. People feel like they are co-soldiers, or in this case, co-designers. Consequently, they become disinclined to report negatively on anything, beacuse it feels like a betrayal. Its why the military embedded reporters with units during the invasion of Iraq, for example. The Pentagon knew that that if they made the reporters feel like they were part of the units they reported on, there would be no Vietnam War-style negative stories. Smart marketers know that as long a product isn't totally awful, they can create positive buzz by granting a select few people pre-release access. The real reviews will be written by people who have no psychological investment in the quality of 4th Edition. For now, I feel justified by history in not putting too much stock in the reporting of officially-sanctioned insiders.