Dear Wizards of the Coast...

[Wednesday Boy]

The problem with a Ghost is that they are by nature insubstantial or at least have phasing. That's a bit powerful to give right off the bat, but doesn't make sense why they wouldn't get it at 1st level. It's the nature of being a ghost. It'd be weird to be a ghost but be locked into a solid shape so enemies can damage you, yes?

Although I do think it'd be so easy to do a Werewolf class.

I can see where you're coming from because not having permanent phasing departs from the traditional image of ghosts and having permanent phasing would give the character a lot of room for circumventing many mundane challenges. (I don't think insubstantial is as much of a concern since it doesn't have a cinematic effect. It just translates to having extra staying power.)

But I think there's room to balancing the two so the character feels like a ghost while not being overly powerful. Since I can accept that a vampire doesn't get to turn into mist (Gaseous Form) until 10th level for balance reasons, it's not difficult for me to concede that a ghost class shouldn't get permanent phasing early either (regardless of how much I would want it). I can understand how it is a strike against the concept and potentially enough of a departure from the iconic image of a ghost to dissuade WotC from attempting to make it a class.

The element that I think a ghost class has over a werewolf class is that there are a number of iconic ghostly themes that could lend themselves to interesting and varied suite of powers: spooking, invisibility, phasing, death touch, poltergeisting, etc. Werewolves, on the other hand, don't have much going for them besides animal form, human form, and hybrid form. I don't see much room to develop a unique class from those elements that couldn't be covered with a theme (like the Pack Outcast from Neverwinter CG) or bloodline feats (like the Vampire Heritage feats).

But I'm not a creative game developer (although I am slowly trying to put together a ghost class of my own) and the WotC folks are. It would not surprise me at all if they developed an ghost or werewolf class that I found interesting and enjoyable to play!

 

[OnlineDM]

A DM book dedicated to Fey and the Feywild!

I mean we've gotten Plane Below, the Plane Above, and the Shadowfell book (not to mention an Underdark book). We've gotten a book of Demons, Undead, and two Dragon books.

Why has there not been a book on the Fey/Feywild? I want to see a book on them. Furthermore I want to see stuff on Fey psychology. Skill challenges on trying to resolve something (like escaping the party that entrances you to dance forever, or to defeat a fey by having a musical instrument contest). Not to mention bargains/boons you can get.

And then there's the Feywild itself. It's pretty new as far as planes go in D&D, so it should have been one of the first ones explored.

Well, Heroes of the Feywild is coming. It's not DM-specific from what I understand, but I at least expect it to have some good Feywild fluff.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Can we have some Epic Tier stuff and a few more adventures* (all tiers).

*Preferably shorter adventures of about 8-12 primary encounters rather than the big rambling 25+ encounter mega-modules that really run out of steam far too quickly.

 

[Rechan]

Well, Heroes of the Feywild is coming. It's not DM-specific from what I understand, but I at least expect it to have some good Feywild fluff.

Meh. I anticipate it will have as much fluff as Heroes of Shadow.

 

[SSquirrel]

Well, Heroes of the Feywild is coming. It's not DM-specific from what I understand, but I at least expect it to have some good Feywild fluff.

Personally I'm kind of surprised we don't know a bit more about what is coming in the book. We used to see more preview articles about upcoming products. While I expect to see some Eladrin and Gnome focused crunch, I could also see more support for some of the primal classes like Wardens and Druids.

As far as the adventures go, other than the complete lack of epic support, a DM new to 4E who picks up a month of DDI has access to a ridiculous amount of adventure material. If you have been playing for awhile but just haven't used much from Dungeon yet, there is still quite a variety of stuff. Again, barring Epic tier

Besides, the one thing that seemingly everyone* agrees on is that WotC doesn't do adventures all that well. Do we really want them forcing out even more adventure material if it continues to be of the same low grade most people seem to rate it? Hire people who write better adventures you say? Yeah, that would be the obvious answer, but it hasn't been getting done to date, so why would we expect a change there?

* Bunches of people on ENWorld posting unending complaints about WotC adventures is pretty much my definition of "seemingly everyone" here

 

[MrMyth]

Personally I'm kind of surprised we don't know a bit more about what is coming in the book. We used to see more preview articles about upcoming products.

I'm not sure anything has changed. We do see pretty solid amounts of previews for upcoming books. Typically one article a month (via the monthly "In the Works" preview columns), starting a few months in advance, plus a dozen or so in the month leading up to the product.

Heroes of the Feywild is still a few months out - I suspect we'll see some info next week in the "September and Beyond" column, and then excerpts in October and November.

 

[MrMyth]

Besides, the one thing that seemingly everyone* agrees on is that WotC doesn't do adventures all that well. Do we really want them forcing out even more adventure material if it continues to be of the same low grade most people seem to rate it? Hire people who write better adventures you say? Yeah, that would be the obvious answer, but it hasn't been getting done to date, so why would we expect a change there?

Also, your assumption of universal agreement here seems flawed as well. Yeah, there is pretty universal agreement than 4E has had many poor adventures - but also (from what I've seen) many folks who feel that has improved. I can point to plenty of offerings in the past year that I'd absolutely be glad to say "yes, more of that please!"

 

[Rechan]

WotC making poor adventures is nothing new. There are maybe 3 adventures they put out in 3e that I would consider running.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I would like to see an Unearthed Arcana for 4th edition in book form. They can still keep it "unofficial" just by labelling said options as such in the CB and Compendium.

Oh and *legit* PDFs. I'll pirate them if I must, but since I buy most of the books anyway, how hard would it be to market a "digital edition" that comes with a download code or something?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Also, your assumption of universal agreement here seems flawed as well. Yeah, there is pretty universal agreement than 4E has had many poor adventures - but also (from what I've seen) many folks who feel that has improved. I can point to plenty of offerings in the past year that I'd absolutely be glad to say "yes, more of that please!"

Yeah, I think they're perfectly capable of doing good adventures. I'd like to see adventures focusing on some really creative story elements. Some more unusual and imaginative settings, interesting story items, elements of intrigue, stuff like that. It is all certainly doable, but 4e can do it WELL and they've really missed that entirely.