Dragon's Tail Cut?

[Majoru Oakheart]

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"

I don't know, I read the explanation and now I remember what it does. It is a maneuver, that like a dragon's tail, sweeps from one side to the other and trips the person it sweeps through.

Even though I don't know if a dragon's tail actually trips someone in the game, I imagine that a tail the size of most dragons WOULD knock people over by sweeping their legs.

I don't know, it just makes sense to me.

 

[FireLance]

I don't know, I read the explanation and now I remember what it does. It is a maneuver, that like a dragon's tail, sweeps from one side to the other and trips the person it sweeps through.

I think a small number of people who aren't happy with "Dragon's Tail Cut" would have been okay with "Dragon's Tail Sweep". "Cut" implies slashing more than tripping.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

I go with generic names like "knockdown" and maybe "improved knockdown and greater knockdown".
It is Dungeons & Dragons all right, but there may be campaign settings without Dragons. There may be races for which this sounds not right.
Give us generic names and leave it to the individual groups to get the flair names.
Magic Missile was ok as Magic Missile and not "Susan's Sting of the magic Wasp".

By they way, there was a Dragon article in 02' or 03' called "Eat Steel Maggot" with ideas how to rename Feats and moves for the different races.

 

[Gold Roger]

Alright, this one, I really don't like. Please give me generic names for my powers, even if they don't sound as flashy. I want knockback, fireball and magic missile, not Dragon's Tail Cut, Bursting of the Fifth Sun and Rise of Deathly Stars.

Because frankly, these names are silly, flavor specific and just not very descriptive. I want to be able to know what a power does by reading the name.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I think a small number of people who aren't happy with "Dragon's Tail Cut" would have been okay with "Dragon's Tail Sweep". "Cut" implies slashing more than tripping.

Yeah, that's why I'm guessing that it's a axe or sword maneuver. I imagine that they want it to translate to "that tripping attack you do with a sword". Sweep implies using your foot or something. I'm guessing their original name, "Wallop" was a temporary name for "I hit him so hard I knock him down". And then later in the design, they realized "Well, it's a knockdown attack with a SWORD, I don't really think you're walloping the enemy, rather, you're tripping them with your sword. So what name says that? Tripping Sword Attack? That's kind of bland. Take feet out from underneath guy with your sword? Way too long. So, if someone was going to come up with a name that still explains what the maneuver does precisely and they lived in the D&D world, what would it be?"

And they got an answer. It might even have been "sweep" to begin with he decided that cut was more descriptive.

 

[FireLance]

Yeah, that's why I'm guessing that it's a axe or sword maneuver. I imagine that they want it to translate to "that tripping attack you do with a sword". Sweep implies using your foot or something. I'm guessing their original name, "Wallop" was a temporary name for "I hit him so hard I knock him down". And then later in the design, they realized "Well, it's a knockdown attack with a SWORD, I don't really think you're walloping the enemy, rather, you're tripping them with your sword. So what name says that? Tripping Sword Attack? That's kind of bland. Take feet out from underneath guy with your sword? Way too long. So, if someone was going to come up with a name that still explains what the maneuver does precisely and they lived in the D&D world, what would it be?"

And they got an answer. It might even have been "sweep" to begin with he decided that cut was more descriptive.

For what it's worth, I would rather have a single tripping attack that applied to a variety of weapons (for game purposes, I don't think it's necessary to distinguish between tripping with a sword or a spear or a mace) than to have a separate name for tripping attacks made with each type of weapon.

But - it's a small matter and certainly not something for me to swear off 4e for.

 

[Someone]

I'd vote for "sword sweep", if there was anywhere to vote. "Dragon's tail cut" not only sounds dorky, but also misleading.

 

[Bagpuss]

Hell, Timber would be better than anything with Dragon in the title.

Hey but remember testing shows anything with Dragon in the title sells better. It's how we go the Dragon Magic book.

 

[BryonD]

WOTC just does not get it.

That sums it up.

We may as well get rid of fireball and replace it with a spell called Dragon Marks the Ground.

If you want an "in character" special name for your fireball or fighter knockdown maneuver, then that is very cool. But don't go telling me that every fighter everywhere knows this move by the same name. That is completely stupid.

 

[hazel monday]

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.

Honestly, whether you get knocked down by a mace, or knocked down by a sword, the end results the same. If they 4 different manuevers that knock people down, just call em all knockdown. My players are smart enough to remember what weapons they're using. They don't need to call one manuever "Chocolate Mountain of Doom" just cause it's done with a mace and another "Emerald PeeStomp of the Dawnstar" just cause it's done with a sword, if they both do the same thing.
Whether a Sorcerer or Wizard casts Fireball, it's still called Fireball right? Same principle here. Really, if they want me to buy 4.0 they're gonna have to do something about these played out, corny Street Fighter Turbo type names.
"Golden Wyvern ice" and Dragon Tail Cut".... pffft.