Dragon's Tail Cut?

[hong]

LOL. That's exactly the problem I have with Bo9S. D&D spells almost all have intuitive names, which makes learning and playing the game easier.

That's just familiarity talking. I can never remember the different between fire storm, flame strike and incendiary cloud.

 

[Henry]

That's just familiarity talking. I can never remember the different between fire storm, flame strike and incendiary cloud.

Yeah, but isn't "fire storm" a storm of fire, "flame strike" an actual strike made of flame, and the "i-cloud" a cloud that burns things? As opposed to a "Dragon's Tail Cut" having nothing to to with a dragon? Just me, I'd rather have the names as more descriptive. Even those German and Italian maneuver names were nothing but stuff like "reverse chop" or "low guard" etc. when translated, rather than being poetic and running the risk of being misinterpreted.

 

[hong]

Yeah, but isn't "fire storm" a storm of fire, "flame strike" an actual strike made of flame, and the "i-cloud" a cloud that burns things? As opposed to a "Dragon's Tail Cut" having nothing to to with a dragon?

It's close enough, given the fluff provided.

 

[Gloombunny]

It really depends on how many maneuvers there are

This is a very important point and I don't know why it's getting overlooked so much. The reason they didn't name the maneuver "Knockdown" is almost certainly because there are several maneuvers that knock the enemy down and they need to have distinct names.

Really, the more maneuvers you have, the less simple and direct the names can be. "Power Attack" is a great name for an ability that lets you hit extra-hard when it's the only ability that does so. When there are a dozen different abilities that increase your damage using various mechanics, you have to dig deeper to get names for them. Sometimes this turns out well, other times... not so much. "Dragon's Tail Cut" would be an example of the not so much.

 

[hong]

Yeah, after a while, the Improved/Greater/Supreme/Epic convention gets boring.

 

[BASHMAN]

From Rich Baker's blog: and other people will say it's yet more evidence that D&D is becoming Exalted. What do you think?

Sounds to me like they should add a maneuver called "Jumping the Shark"

I was fine with it when this ability was called Knock Down attack in 3.0

 

[Hussar]

Gotta admit, not loving the naming conventions.

Just blarg.

Intuitive naming conventions would seem to be a much better route to go.

 

[Imp]

Combat Expertise, however, tells me nothing. Parry might be a better name for that.

You know, I never really have made a full instinctive distinction between Combat Expertise and Combat Reflexes after all this time even though they are very very different feats. They've always seemed kinda interchangeable and I always have to look twice.

* data point *

 

[Mouseferatu]

This is a very important point and I don't know why it's getting overlooked so much.

Because then people might have less reason to be snippy, and apparently, the chance to be snide is more important to some people than reasoned consideration. :\

(Mandatory disclaimer: This doesn't apply to everyone who dislikes the name, but only certain folks, and so on and so on, blah, blah...)

 

[KingCrab]

Another 4ed house rule: Dragons tail cut officially changed to wallop.

I guess it could be worse. Maybe something like "wind of fire and a hundred blades" would not be too wise. Lets hope they're not reading this and use that to replace "power attack".