D&D 4E Dark sun 4e

[brehobit]

So I was working on doing a dark sun conversion to 4e and finally noticed that there is a Dark Sun campaign setting coming out for 4e in August.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts. In my mind, Dark Sun was always about hack-and-slash against great odds and that fits 4e fairly well. But the general philosophy of 4e has been balance, and Dark Sun just was never about that. Half Giants were huge (ok--large but very out of balance), magic items rare, and everyone was gimped in some way (casters had restrictions, warriors didn't have good weapons, etc.).

The best I've found for this is just to break 4e down and start over somewhat. Arcane casters get more restrictions but become potentially quite powerful (defiler), half giants stay large and get +6 STR +2 CON, etc. I really can't see them breaking the 4e mold that much. I think it can be done so all races are viable, but I suspect we are going to see a bunch of +2/+2 races with no major differences from the core books. It's what they did with Eberron. Even the distinctive things (warforged, Artificer) were made to fit the generic mold.


Thoughts?

 

[darjr]

Oh man are you in for a treat. There are a few threads around here that go into details that have been released so far.

I can't wait, personally, and I'm looking forward to the RPGA and Encounters in Athas.

 

[renau1g]

Well there was a playtest at the PAX East event recently. If you search the general thread there are even the CS's from the event. I believe there were stone and bone weapons. Re: Magic weapons? They could just go with the inherent bonuses from DMG2 to address that. They won't do large half-giants, in fact, the half-giants are the goliaths from PHB2. I'm interested how they treat arcane casters though as that was such a big part of Athas. Oh, don't forget about the broken thri-kreens, multi-arms FTW


Edit:NINJA!

 

[DracoSuave]

Well there was a playtest at the PAX East event recently. If you search the general thread there are even the CS's from the event. I believe there were stone and bone weapons. Re: Magic weapons? They could just go with the inherent bonuses from DMG2 to address that. They won't do large half-giants, in fact, the half-giants are the goliaths from PHB2. I'm interested how they treat arcane casters though as that was such a big part of Athas. Oh, don't forget about the broken thri-kreens, multi-arms FTW


Edit:NINJA!

Apparently, arcane classes all get a power that allows them to damage the fellow players (as well as the ring of ash) in order to get a bonus to attack/damage. Thus, you -can- defile if you want, and the temptation is always there.

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

D&D XP 2010: Dark Sun Characters : Critical Hits

 

[Mort_Q]

Thoughts?

I like the 4e approach for most things, and Dark Sun is no exception.

Restrictions become opportunities.

Defiling and Weapon Breaking... only if the PC wants to push it.

I'm looking forward to August as well.

 

[brehobit]

Things like power sources not mattering much in 4e seem to be a bit off for Dark Sun.

Also, I really don't like the idea that the strongest humans are as strong as the strongest half-giants. Just seems really wrong.

I think I like the breakage rules though. Not sure about moving the base-line weapons, but I don't see a better solution myself...

 

[DracoSuave]

Also, I really don't like the idea that the strongest humans are as strong as the strongest half-giants. Just seems really wrong.

The strongest humans don't roll twice on Athletic Rolls and keep the best.

Physical might can be more than a mere attribute score.

 

[Garthanos]

The strongest humans don't roll twice on Athletic Rolls and keep the best.

Physical might can be more than a mere attribute score.

Exactly do a raw lift or simple arm wrestle... the Goliath is functionally like +4 on the human... use it as part of complex activity like physical combat and the size might be encumbering and slowing his burst movement.

Allow three roll offs for an arm wrestle event (it allows an initiation a comeback and a climax that way) the end effect is the human has next to no chance of winning unless some other player uses some technique to really distract the goliath. I was suggesting changing difficulty class for simplistic use of strength, Goliaths have some of that built in (halflings and gnomes feel too strong)... not that athletics is necessarily simple. In most cases if it wasn't a pure lift I wouldn't penalize gnomes and halflings either they should be able to match humans for a lot of athletics.

 

[brehobit]

The strongest humans don't roll twice on Athletic Rolls and keep the best.

Physical might can be more than a mere attribute score.

Good point. Still bothers me. If we're going to do it that way, a level 8 fighter with a 22 STR is stronger (both in terms of stats and Athletics) than a level 1 half-giant.

Still seems off. But I agree that helps a lot.