Horacio said:
What could I do to make somebody of WotC fall in love with my sister?
What could I do to make some WotC guy to fall in love with ME.
Just kidding.
I am curiously waiting for Deities & Demigods, though thus far I am bit dissapointed how they handled some things.
You see, I've played a lot of epic games, and every game system I've ever played has problems with handling higher power levels. They choose easy way aka. let's keep our actualy system stats in easily handable power level (stats, levels, skills, spells etc.) and instead give them couple of special abilites to make them 'seem' powerful. Problem is, to me, they only seem powerful, but don't feel powerful. And gods are supposed to feel epic and powerful, otherwise they lack mythical qualities that drives people to worship them. Of course, this is campaing specific, but "your avarage high-level campaing" doesn't really need "power intimidating" gods, they aren't probably around that much anyway.
This is something I find very easy to do myself. Giving couple of uber-special-ablities and other stats to pretty much about equal to higher ranks of dragons otherwise. Of course i like cool special abilites, especially one's I didn't manage to think up myself. Problem is, they aren't always cool, and sometimes, if they are only sight of unusual power, they come up as pretty lame excuse of just designers getting off easy here.
Then we get Marvel super hero.... um, epic handbook later to be used by our 'mortal' player characters, which could very well just continue rising up levels as monsters get HD, if need be. What you need those epic powers for really, are stories where epic monsters, nature's cataclysms and gods (or something akin) are involted. If you keep using just MM monster-slaying themes, you end up playing said superheroes game, with all the more easy way to slay your non-unique tarrasques. Not that there is anything wrong with that as long as it is fun. That, or then we just get book full of lame, hafl-baked feat min-max hell. This means turning meaning of 'epic' or 'high level' character into super specialists, where one has to think up character's feat-picking from start of 1st level character creation, or you never get those that 'cool stuff' at somewhere around 40th level. Problem with this is, that it makes every high level monk of certain PrC to look the same, so to say.
But please, dismiss my said thoughs on that, my true opinions never form until I actually see stuff I speak of, and even them they are likely to change many times over.
I'd wanted to see WotC make three books. One to combine epic and divane rules, with few examples, Greyhawk specific rather, since they use that world their basic one, anyway.
Then book about deities, where pantheon specific rituals, spells, monsters, artifacts and others such goodies would be found toom.
Then epic 'goods' book, with more epic characters, magic items, monsters, demon&devil lords (those not also gods), and one or two short epic adventures could be found.
Then there would still be room for Faints & Avatars, for those playing in FR, with more spesific goods for specialist priests or whatever one wants to call them, and other such setting religion stuff, besides thos divane stat.
Whatever WotC would loose money or gain it by doing it this way, I know not, but I am certain major reason they did it way they did it, is because that's the way it wa< done in prior edition.
I am really tired currenly, so forgive my writing style.
