D&D 4.0 - What the?

[evileeyore]

Hmmm.

I would like to see a return to 4 base classes. Warrior/Fighter, Divine Caster, Arcane Caster, Skilled Guy/Rogue. Allow Feat and Feat chains to define particular flavor of base class and add in PrC that start at 2nd or 3rd level to define 'Alternate' classes like Unarmed Fighter(Monk), Wilderness Skill Guy Divine Caster (Ranger), or Divine Fighter guy (Paladin or Cleric). In fact a base Caster class and the choice of making it Divine or Arcane permently when taken could work.

I would like to see the different Casting styles presented as seperate campiagn choices (do you like Vancian okay here it is, or do you favor cast-on-the-fly?) with the capacity to make them integratible. Casting styles cover Vancian(Current Wizards/Cleric), Spontaneous-once/day(Sorceror/Bard), and Spontaneous/regen pool(Like the Psychics are now).

Skills are pretty good the way they are...

Magic is fairly balanced at this point...

Of course Combat is the Sacred Cow...

Magic Items are a bit unbalanced with the EL system IMO. I don't know how to change it, but a system that measures magical items and stats into your EL might help. For instance in one campiagn we were very magic and stat heavy and tended to walk through encounters above our EL.

Base Races should remain as they are however I feel that the "Half-Breeds' (Orc, Elf) should become perhaps a template... Am I the only one who wonders where all those Orc-Elf or Dwarf-Goblin crossbreeds end up? Or are Humans the only race that can crossbreed? And in that case where are the Half-Dwarfs? and don't even try telling me that they're Gnomes, cause I don't buy it (their Beards is too short-Or does that mean they are the Evil Twins of Dwarves with their Gotees and all... hmmm.)


TTFN

EvilE

 

[diaglo]

4ed already exists.

it is called Hackmaster. just read the introduction in the GMG.

 

[francisca]

Hello everyone,

I noticed on a different site someone commenting about the possibility of a not too far away 4th edition and thought whoa boy

How about a link so we can read it ourselves, oh wise one?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Bah, what I'd like is simple.

[snip list]

That's such a fantastic list, you just earned yourself a free copy of Grim Tales.

Email me your address, you get the first copy off the press.


Wulf

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Wow I got quoted twice and here I thought I was on everyones ignore list.

For those wondering:

Classless levels like M&M.

I agree that classes are sacred cows... I can remember when being an elf or dwarf was a class and not a race. I think it's the eventual evolution your seeing it in the complete fighter with it's magicless ranger variant.

Do I think it will be as classless as M&M nope but I think you’ll end up with more options for each class, maybe more like Diablo II (the game not the RPG) and the paths its class can take.

I believe that we'll be seeing D&D 4e sometime before 2010. While I can't think of anything major I'd change about D&D, here is a list of things that I feel are too much a part of the D&D expirience to remove:

• Classes
• Levels
• Alignment
• Hit points
• Armor Class
• Vancian Magic
• Saving Throws
• Expirience points
• The six ability scores (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha)

As Rich Baker once said in an interview, if any of these were missing, it just wouldn't feel like D&D anymore.

To add to that list:

• OGL

I would agree with both Dark Jezter and Rich on this but I wouldn't mind seeing Cha broken up into well charisma and comeliness/appearance. If we could just end one age-old debate with 4.0 I would be a happy man.

Also I'm not happy with how knowledge is applied to the game or at least the cross class aspect of it.

 

[Larcen]

...For goodness's sake, let there be a Fighter-esque class that isn't assumed to wear full plate....[/list]

I have recently read that there is a question as to whether rogues are even required in adventuring parties anymore. Perhaps they can be tweaked to fill the non-armored swashbuckling fighter type role in some way? Sort of like make them more effective in melee with light weapons, but tone down their sneak attacks? For instance, level-based AC bonuses when lightly armored. Would be a great and invigorating update for the class I think. Just an observation.

Along these lines, I would even flip the core classes HD a bit in regards to this: Fighter=D10, Rogue=D8, Cleric=D6, Wizard=D4. Clerics are powerful enough and their buff spells can make up for this. Make the D8 crusader type clerics a PrC.

 

[tetsujin28]

Classless levels like M&M.

Either that, or the way classes are done in d20M.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

If we want to influence the creative process we must discuss this now. It's too late to influence Unearthed Arcana, for example, since the book is finished and is just waiting to be printed. So don't bother about buying or not buying right now - just jump in and give us your 2 cents!

D&D has already done what I wanted. There is NO thac0! Plegh! Sweet mother of all monkeys I did the happy dance of joy when I realized that 3e abolished thac0.

... Okay. I would like it if there was a way for multiclassing to be more synergistic somehow. PrCs were an interesting idea for mixing the elements of various classes, but ultimately, I think they confuse the issue.

And, I agree that I wouldn't want to see it until around 2010... Maaaybe 2008, but I'll still be pissed off. Since they've started releasing things like Complete Warrior for 3.5 after saying that they wouldn't redo the 3e class books. That was rather rude. They need to do something about how and when the bring out new books, because the chimps they have throwing darts at a calender isn't working out.

Secondly, if and when they come out with a new revision, they need to have the basic set bundle ready AT LAUNCH. It would have been nice if, at the start of all of this, I could have just bought one little box with everything I needed in it.

Wow... That's a lot of text from somebody who said she didn't want to think about it...

 

[Larcen]

I have another idea for 4.0. I feel so STRONGLY about this one that I ask people to please forgive all the caps used below.

[PLEAD]
TO WOTC: PLEASE post the SRD4.0 FIRST, before you print the books. Make them available for a good 3 months or more. Invite the enormous amount of players and rules experts that are out there to PLAYTEST AND CRITIQUE the proposed new rules. There will be lots and lots of people that would love to that, for free. Then WATCH the boards and chat rooms (your own only if you like) and get a FEEL for what people like or don't like about the newly proposed rules. Take polls on touchy areas that arise. AFTER the game community at large has had a time to review, and test, and debug, and balance, and offer input, then and only then send the perfected 4.0 rules to the printer.

Trust us, WOTC, you will get MORE sales of the new book this way, not less. I did not buy 3.5 because I kept reading how a lot of people were unhappy with what they felt were bad judgement calls here and there. Well I for one, would feel MUCH better buying a book that I know has had the ENTIRE D&D gaming community involved in the making. We would all feel we had a hand in making this new game great instead of feeling it's just another set of rules that were sprung upon us and now must live with.

Go ahead. Be different, again. Take the marketing risk. The rewards WILL be there. Thanks for listening.
[/PLEAD]

I say we should all start signing petitions or something.

 

[Numion]

Invite the enormous amount of players and rules experts that are out there to PLAYTEST AND CRITIQUE the proposed new rules. There will be lots and lots of people that would love to that, for free. Then WATCH the boards and chat rooms (your own only if you like) and get a FEEL for what people like or don't like about the newly proposed rules.

Harvest the WotC boards for ideas? Now thats a good idea

NOT!

While I think that 3.5e wasn't in all ways what people wanted (or what I wanted, since I didn't buy it), I still wouldn't consider WotC boards as a representative of the majority of D&D players. Or the whole on-line D&D community.