Do you like the name "Golden Wyvern Adept"?

[Lurks-no-More]

It bothers me exactly as much as having Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Otto's Irresistible Dance, or the various Bigby / Otiluke / Mordenkainen spells in the game; ie. not a jot.

 

[Scribble]

It's a cool name... for an in-game title. For a game mechanic - not.

A feat name gets written on character sheets and in stat blocks. It's a handle for the actual mechanic. If the name doesn't connect in any way to the mechanic, it's a bad name - no matter how fancy and colourful it is.

But again what if we translated it into 3e speak and it became:

Adept [Golden Wyvern]

Prerequisites
Member of the Golden Wyvern Order.

Effect
You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can’t exceed your Wisdom modifier.

Normal
Your friend in your blast radius is SOL.

 

[DM_Blake]

It bothers me exactly as much as having Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Otto's Irresistible Dance, or the various Bigby / Otiluke / Mordenkainen spells in the game; ie. not a jot.

At least with those spells, you know what they do.

When you see Otto's Irrestistable Dance on some NPC in an adventure you just bought, you know it makes people dance. When you cast it, you might look it up for specific details, but when you are first deciding which spells to cast, that name is not confusing.

Nor is Tasha's Hideous Laughter, or Bigby's Crushing Hand, or Mordenkainen's Sword, or Otiluke's Freezing Sphere.

What if these spells were called things like "Otto's Adept" and "Tasha's Maneuver"?

If you saw those on the spell list, you would have to look each of them up when it was your NPC's turn, just so you could know what he might want to cast.

*****

That is my problem with Golden Wyvern Adept. Once that is on a list of NPC abilities, crowded in with other abilities, I'm not sure I will remember what it does. Maybe it's just one of many NPC abilities, most of which have equally meaningless names. Now I have a whole list of NPC tricks/feats/spells, whatever, and I have to either look everything up to see what it does, or I have to memorize all the books and future splat books like I have to pass some kind of BAR exam to play D&D.

My fix would be to simply rename the "Adept" part to something more descriptive. How about "Golden Wyvern Friendsafe" or something equally inidcative of the fact that it keeps your friends safe from your AE spells.

As far as calling it "Golden Wizard", i'm not much of a fan of it, anymore than I'm a fan of Otto or Mordenkainen, but it doesn't really bother me either.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I wanted to vote "no I don't dislike it", so I plumped for "yes I like it" because that was close to my feelings.

I don't really care what they name a feat. It is enough for me that it is a useful feat. I imagine that it would be easy to call it "Arcane Shaping" or something similar.

If in my next campaign I decide that I like the flavour and mechanics of the 'Golden Wyvern' wizard sect, but don't like the name and decide to call it the 'Ivory Tower' sect, then I'd rename the feat for my campaign the 'Ivory Tower Adept' since it seems to make sense for the feat to be kept in sync with the appropriate sect.

I imagine there will be heroic level Adept feats for the other sects too.

Cheers

 

[DM_Blake]

But again what if we translated it into 3e speak and it became:

Adept [Golden Wyvern]

Prerequisites
Member of the Golden Wyvern Order.

Effect
You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can’t exceed your Wisdom modifier.

Normal
Your friend in your blast radius is SOL.

Still, it's the "Adept" part that I find objectionable. It doesn't mean anything in game terms.

That's all fine when the PHB has 60 feats to learn. But years from now, when there are over a thousand feats in the various splat books, nobody will know all of them. Having the name mean something, be indicative of what the feat does, makes more sense.

So how about:

Friendsafe [Golden Wyvern]

Prerequisites
Member of the Golden Wyvern Order.

Effect
You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can’t exceed your Wisdom modifier.

Normal
Your friend in your blast radius is SOL

Now when I see that feat in some NPC statblock, I won't have to look it up just to know what it does. Either I will remember the rule specifically and know it exempts a number of squares from the AE based on WIS, or I might have to look that up when he casts an AE spell.

But at least with a name like that, I won't have to look it up when he casts a summons spell, or a teleport, or even a maigic missile. I can save the Delay of Game penalty for when he is casting a spell that matters, which he might not even cast depending on circumstances.

Much more efficient.

 

[The Little Raven]

It's a cool name... for an in-game title. For a game mechanic - not.

Why? It's no different in concept than "Initiate of Bane:" a feat that shows you as a member of an organization and granting you benefits because of that membership.

If the name doesn't connect in any way to the mechanic, it's a bad name - no matter how fancy and colourful it is.

Golden Wyvern initiates are battle-mages who use their staves to shape and sculpt the spells they cast.

Golden Wyvern Adept
Tier: Paragon
Benefit: You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can't exceed your Wisdom modifier.

I fail to see where the confusion is generated, except by those people who try to look at these things without context (which will always cause confusion).

 

[BadMojo]

Why? It's no different in concept than "Initiate of Bane:" a feat that shows you as a member of an organization and granting you benefits because of that membership.

That's OK for a setting book, but the PHB sounds like it's going to have only a bit of an implied setting. At least I hope there's not going to be a ton of setting material in the PHB since that would be wasted space for me.

 

[Driddle]

Based on the other information released at about the same time, I believe the information may have included a typo. It probably should have read, "Golden Wilbur Adept."

 

[The Little Raven]

That's OK for a setting book, but the PHB sounds like it's going to have only a bit of an implied setting. At least I hope there's not going to be a ton of setting material in the PHB since that would be wasted space for me.

Well, you're in for disappointment because they've been very clear for quite some time that the core books will be based on a new, assumed meta-setting which is unconnected to any other worlds, but will be "purely D&D." So, while we may not get geography and dramatis personae, we will have example wizard traditions and such. And that seems to be because Wizards' focus with the first core books is to help new players get into the game as easily and smoothly as possible (and ready-to-use examples are awesome in that regard).

I don't see any of this stuff being a major problem for any experienced DM to change.

 

[Jhaelen]

Still, it's the "Adept" part that I find objectionable. It doesn't mean anything in game terms.

Really? How do you know that? Maybe it does in 4E!

I would have liked a multiple choice poll: I like the feat name and it accurately describes what it's good for!