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<blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 4883163" data-attributes="member: 5100">They screwed up the Dragonmarks.I've been reading through all the 4e Eberron stuff (just finished the Dragonmarks chapter of the ECS) and really, really like the 4e books, overall.&nbsp; But... I hate the way Dragonmarks work.&nbsp; In fact, they totally suck.All 4e Dragonmarks do is augment existing abilities.&nbsp; They make healers better healers, fighters better fighters, etc.&nbsp; 3e Dragonmarks were useful &quot;in role&quot;, but they worked as wildcards, too.&nbsp; In fact, I'd go so for as to say 3e Dragonmarks were awesome because they were wildcards.That aspect of Dragonmarks really made the power of the houses make sense.&nbsp; Any marked member of Jorasco could be a healer, even the schmuck commoner.&nbsp; In 4e, they either need to be a member of some class that already heals or be given some sort of &quot;NPCs are special&quot; crap.&nbsp; That implies that Jorasco's power (just to pick on one house) comes as much from them being exquisite Bards as it does from the Mark of Healing, which totally kills the theme of the Houses.I'm not sure whether it's better or worse that this was an intentional decision on WotC's part -- one Dragon article actually said they changed the Marks because &quot;the wrong people were taking them&quot;.&nbsp; I suppose that depends on your perspective, but I think they're now set up to encourage the wrong people to take them.Personally, I'd have much, much, much preferred to see the marks turned into some sort of odd multiclass where you could upgrade to greater marks (like in 3e) by swapping out your class powers.&nbsp; My understanding is that FRPG has something like this, which would have been awesome.&nbsp; Heck, leave the baseline multiclass feat as written in EPG, just give us the rest of it.&nbsp; That'd be enough to encourage Jorasco Leaders and Kundarak Defenders without killing some of what made 3e marks cool.Maybe there'll be a Dragon article that does just that.&nbsp; I can hope.&nbsp; Even discounting the whole wildcard bit, it still seems like the Dragonmarks are pitifully unimportant, mechanically, for the huge importance they have, fluff-wise.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mercule, post: 4883163, member: 5100"] They screwed up the Dragonmarks. I've been reading through all the 4e Eberron stuff (just finished the Dragonmarks chapter of the ECS) and really, really like the 4e books, overall. But... I hate the way Dragonmarks work. In fact, they totally suck. All 4e Dragonmarks do is augment existing abilities. They make healers better healers, fighters better fighters, etc. 3e Dragonmarks were useful "in role", but they worked as wildcards, too. In fact, I'd go so for as to say 3e Dragonmarks were awesome [u]because[/u] they were wildcards. That aspect of Dragonmarks really made the power of the houses make sense. [u]Any[/u] marked member of Jorasco could be a healer, even the schmuck commoner. In 4e, they either need to be a member of some class that already heals or be given some sort of "NPCs are special" crap. That implies that Jorasco's power (just to pick on one house) comes as much from them being exquisite Bards as it does from the Mark of Healing, which totally kills the theme of the Houses. I'm not sure whether it's better or worse that this was an intentional decision on WotC's part -- one Dragon article actually said they changed the Marks because "the wrong people were taking them". I suppose that depends on your perspective, but I think they're now set up to encourage the wrong people to take them. Personally, I'd have much, much, much preferred to see the marks turned into some sort of odd multiclass where you could upgrade to greater marks (like in 3e) by swapping out your class powers. My understanding is that FRPG has something like this, which would have been awesome. Heck, leave the baseline multiclass feat as written in EPG, just give us the rest of it. That'd be enough to encourage Jorasco Leaders and Kundarak Defenders without killing some of what made 3e marks cool. Maybe there'll be a Dragon article that does just that. I can hope. Even discounting the whole wildcard bit, it still seems like the Dragonmarks are pitifully unimportant, mechanically, for the huge importance they have, fluff-wise. [/QUOTE]

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