Excerpt: Racial Benefits

[Immolate]

Well, for Lost in the Crowd, the creatures only have be be larger than the halfling. Since the halfling is small, that means medium or larger. It's probably NOT a bad idea to assume that the defender will "almost always" be up against medium size or larger creatures. The occasional kobold/goblin swarm notwithstanding.

Not being argumentative, but where is it written that a halfling is a small class creature? I don't know that it isn't written, but I haven't seen it. What I have seen is Races and Classes saying that halflings are now four feet tall, which is as tall as a dwarf, and somewhat argues against qualifying for small size. If they are medium like everyone else, that kind of nerfs a whole lot of racial advantage they would have as defenders, and makes them inferior to dwarves.

 

[Rechan]

Oh the dragon guys, yeah they live on another continent you have just heard stories about them.' If a player really has a stiff for playing one it would have to be a drizzt kinda thing, the ONLY one with all the negative attention that can bring.

Wow. That is incredibly offensive.

For one thing, there are some people on the boards who ONLY play Race X. I'm certain you know the guy who will play a dwarf or an elf above all else. That has nothing to do with being "Oh look at me I'm so special" and everything to do with that race jivving with that player.

Two, some of us are sick and tired of Elves dwarves halflings. I have had so much Tolkien I could throw up. I seriously would just start throwing cash at a setting that had NO humans or demi-humans. I would adore getting as far away from Humanity as possible, because I am a human every day of my life. Give me a dragonborn, an undead, a tri-keen, a kenku, a warforged, a lizardfolk, a shifter, a changeling, a kobold, an anthropomorphic animal any day and I will love that thing like it was my long lost brother.

Third, I find it utterly ridiculous to say "Oh yeah, sitting down at a table and pretending to throw fireballs, make pacts with devils and dead gods, kill monsters, and explore strange and alien worlds is totally normal, but if you want to play a strange race, you've crossed a line and the only reason must be emo fanboyism or wanting to be special".

Fourth, considering the number of people who in 3e played half-dragons or Dragon Disciples, or in previous editions played saurials or lizardfolk, and the sales figures for Dragon Magic, people like dragon/reptile races[/i. They are Popular. It has nothing to do with being special. The game is called Dungeons and Dragons, after all; they are intimately tied with the game.

Finally, Dragonborn apparently get a +2 to Str and Cha. This makes them real attractive paladins just from a stats POV.

 

[Ondo]

Not being argumentative, but where is it written that a halfling is a small class creature?

It's listed on the character sheet of the Halfling Paladin from D&D XP.

 

[AllisterH]

It reminds me of feats in the early days of 3E, actually. Back then, feats were just ways to make your character a bit more flexible or give you more options, rather than just more power. Hence +1 to hit with one weapon, +3 hit points, +2 to one skill, etc. Only over time did feats take on the power gain aspect. It'll be interesting to see if the same power inflation happens to 4E.

That's because designers realized that for fighters, FEATS had to be awe-inspiring as the spells themselves...

Technically, a feat should be worth more than a spell given how many spells the spellcasters have, yet there was never a feat that said "Get a spell of the appropriate level".

Hopefully, now that non-spellcasters actually have distinct powers, the impetus would be to create any wahoo feat as a power.

I think I got a handle on what makes a feat different than a power but I would like to see a clearer explanation in the DMG.

 

[jaldaen]

I think I got a handle on what makes a feat different than a power but I would like to see a clearer explanation in the DMG.

Care to share your idle thoughts?

 

[Ten]

Maybe I'm obtuse, but I'm usually happy when a player is excited about the game. I never understood the impulse to shut that enthusiasm down in the interest of my own personal tastes.

This really cuts to the issue for me. As someone who is a player, not a DM, I have grown sick and tired of DMs who act like us players are serving them, like we are somehow enabling their own fantasy world, and we are beholden to their every wish. Yeah, that's pretty cool for the DM, I will admit. I have helped DMs past in creating worlds because it is fun. But that really hurts us players. We play the game to have fun. We play the game to try new things and play a fantasy character. Limiting our choices for the purpose of your own preconcieved notions is doing a disservice to us, and is even doing a disservice to you. Are you implying that your mind is SO limited and boxed in you can't fit within the confines of society some dragonpeople or demonpeople? Why do you insult your own creativity and vision in such a way?

And really, you just "don't like it"? How do you think WE feel about getting our creative jusices flowing on a character concept and you say "No, not in my world". Is our creative choices really so devalued in comparison to yours? Are we your pawns in your intellectual masturbation, or do we have the right to have fun?

 

[Bishmon]

Why do you insult your own creativity and vision in such a way?

How does a DM insult his vision by precluding something that wasn't in his vision?

If a DM creates a world, ideally, he will create something interesting that he is enthusiastic about, hopefully making the game better for the players. For a lot of DMs, that's hard to do if they have to find a place for every bit of flavor that might strike the fancy of a random group of people.

That's not to say a DM shouldn't take into account his player's preferences. Like a lot of things in this world, it requires some amount of compromise. And that compromise is going to be nearly impossible to come by if a DM views his players as annoyances to his vision and/or his players view him as merely engaging in intellectual masturbation.

 

[Lizard]

And really, you just "don't like it"? How do you think WE feel about getting our creative jusices flowing on a character concept and you say "No, not in my world". Is our creative choices really so devalued in comparison to yours? Are we your pawns in your intellectual masturbation, or do we have the right to have fun?

It goes both ways.

OT1H, if I say, "I want to run a game set in a pseudo-celtic world based on barbarian native tribes and an encroaching, corrupt, empire", I do NOT want to have a player say "I want to play a werewolf cyber ninja! And if you don't let me, you're treating my like a pawn in your intellectual masturbation, and that makes the pieces all sticky and gross!"

OTOH, if it's at all possible to fit a player's desires into a world, you should. My current world didn't have warforged. A player wanted to play one. I gave them a backstory and gods, and in so doing, filled out a huge chunk of the world's history in a way I probably never would have otherwise.

Gaming is a *cooperative* effort.

 

[incantator]

That 3.x mind set.

4e, you gain a feat every even level and one at the start of each tier. (1st, 11th and 21st)

Humans presumably still gain a bonus one at 1st. (Along with a bonus At-Will)

Lastly, many old 3.x feats that were "good" are now re-imagined as powers.

OK, lets look as the actual prerelease information. From the Tier Excerpt:

5. Select Feats. You generally don’t have to worry about the level at which you gained a particular feat, since retraining allows you to have the feats you want at any given level. Do watch out for paragon and epic feats, though. For example, a 14th-level character can’t have more than seven paragon feats (those gained at 11th, 12th, and 14th level, as well as up to four retrained feats).

Notice the part about 7 feats, 3 from Paragon levels. That means that a regular character will get 4 (5 for human) feats in its first 10 levels. I don't know whether are at 1st, 3rd, 6th and 9th level, but I would give him the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. Please try not to ridicule another poster before you have all of the facts about the game.

 

[DandD]

OTOH, if it's at all possible to fit a player's desires into a world, you should. My current world didn't have warforged. A player wanted to play one. I gave them a backstory and gods, and in so doing, filled out a huge chunk of the world's history in a way I probably never would have otherwise.

Gaming is a *cooperative* effort.

That's the only trueism in the D&D-game. Work it out together, and play it together. Have fun, together.