Detect Magic is Dead

[JVisgaitis]

Yes, but given that picture of them that's going to be in the Monster Manual (the one we got the preview of), all that is pretty well grasped, isn't it?

Eh, somewhat. The artist in me wants to agree, but saying that one image and a paragraph is enough to get across even the fundamentals of a race is seriously stretching it at best.

The number of players who are going to buy only the first three books (remember their new definition of "core", now) are pretty small compared to the ones who are going to buy a few more books (for settings and the like.)

OK, let's look at it your way. Let's say that people will change their buying habits and buy into this whole core is all of these products philosophy (which I don't believe for one bit especially considering the economy and the fact that no setting will be classified as core). Even if that is the case, all of the marketing that is pushing for D&D is happening now. At what point are we going to actually have a complete setting to use?

 

[JVisgaitis]

In Beyond the Black River, Conan actually draws an arcane rune and uses magic while it may technically count as well in "The Tower of the Elephant" when he uses the Heart of Yag-Koska to kill Yara.

Conan by the end still doesn't trust magic but he does understand the basic principles.

Is that the one with Belit? I don't remember that. I'll have to read it again. The whole heart of Yag-Koska is debatable. I'd say it's more that the heart used him. I have no problem with fundamentals of magic though. I have a problem with knowing everything there is to know about any given item in 5 minutes.

 

[DandD]

The first setting will be the new Forgotten Realms-Setting in the coming year. Next year, there will be Eberron, following by something yet unknown. One setting a year is what Wotc intends to. They'll both have orcs who are more than simply barbaric savages who worship Gruumsh and like to fight. As far as it seems, the new FR-Orcs will have some kind of semi-civilized kingdom somewhere in the north, whereas the Eberron-Orcs are your WarCraft-wannabe-noble savage-lookalike who do some druidic stuff to protect the world from Aberrations.

 

[Aaron L]

Because it's easier to add complication to an easy system than it is to remove complication from a complicated system.

Amen.

 

[hong]

It should be noted that by the latter books, Conan himself can not only read and understand magical runes but he can actually cast rudimentary runic magic. The selfsame question came up in the book as to how Conan knew this and he pointed out quite rightly, he had been doing it for all of his adult life...

By plain Osmosis, I'd expect a fighter to gain some rudimentary understanding of magic. I mean, pre -4E, even a wizard gained some fighting skill so why couldn't the fighter gain the inverse?

A long time ago in a newsgroup far away, I proposed a house rule that caster level == character level, as a fix for the 3E spellcaster multiclassing issue. The contribution that noncaster levels made to your casting prowess was explained by a fighter becoming more cluey about magic, just due to general experience. For some reason, people didn't think much of it. THE FOOLS.

 

[DandD]

hong, crush those fools, drive them before you and hear the lamentations of their women!

 

[malraux]

To use them in an encounter? Nothing. To craft a good story around them or understand where they live, what they look like, or know what they do you need more.

The 4e entry on orcs apearence, culture, geography, etc is about as informative as the 3.5 MM entry.

 

[Toras]

Alright, there are a few things I would like to add to this. Just from a logical point of view. While part of me likes the idea of a non-magical character being able to turn the proper elements, into a magical weapon and craft something that normally would have required a wizard during other editions. That I do certainly like.

However, I can certainly see it being difficult to identify an item for pretty obvious reasons.
1) You have a flaming sword with a command word, you probably don't want it to be something easy to guess. And probably don't want it to be the same as the off password. As it would kind of suck if the enemy could turn the items on and off.
2) Tactical reasons. I don't want you to know what secret powers might items maybe granting me and if I am captured I don't want you to know what things you need to take off me.
3) Sense of Worthiness. If you cannot solve the riddle or prove yourself worthy, no sword of righteousness for you.
4) Cultural Context. It could be the most common word of the tongue of a people that are long dead or who's culture has long since changed. Doing your homework makes sense.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

The 4e entry on orcs apearence, culture, geography, etc is about as informative as the 3.5 MM entry.

Pretty much, yes. The long ecology/society entries of 2e MM are gone, and fun as those were, I'm not troubled. (If only because, as it's already been said several times over, the orcs of Eberron and FR are quite different anyway.)

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

It's quite clearly a group effort.

All we know about this new rule is that it takes the party a short rest to indentify the property of a single object. There is also mention that rarer object might need an arcana check.

There's nothing in there about a fighter identifying a robe of the archmage. It just means that between the talents of the entire party you can ID most items in short orders.

And yes, fighters can make a contribution to the ID. You think a wizard can tell at a glance if this is a +2 or +3 sword? A fighter will give you that answer upon a 30 second inspection. He'll swing it a few time, test the edge, the flexibilkity of the blade and then he'll tell you if it's exceptional (+2) or masterful, better than the one he's currently using (+3).

Then the Cleric note that the rune at the base of the crossguard is that of an ancient god of fire. A few test later you know you have a +3 flaming sword in your hand and tadaa...

Does this needs rules? Hell no. A few lines of description and let's move on with the story alreeady.