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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ZombieRoboNinja" data-source="post: 3943599" data-attributes="member: 54843">I'm honestly not sure if I'm feeding a troll or what, but you asked for specific responses, so here you go.EDIT: Apparently I lost a couple paragraphs here and I'm too lazy to retype em. Oops! This has been mentioned (I believe) as a high-level class ability for some specific classes (like Fighter). It's not a return to invincible elves with platemail.No. Fighters get lots of attacks of opportunity when bad guys attack allies they're protecting, and paladins have abilities that do stuff like giving allies (but not themselves) boosts to AC, so enemies have more incentive to attack the paladin. Paladins also have a high-level mind-affecting ability that forces the enemy to attack them for (I think) one round. But it's been confirmed repeatedly that there are NO "threat scores" in 4e.Here are two official examples of Warlord abilities:"Feather Me Yon Oaf" (temporary name): The warlord points out a specific enemy target, and everyone in the party gets an immediate action to use a ranged attack against it."Hammer and Anvil": The warlord strikes his opponent in a way that leaves it vulnerable, offering immediate attacks to allies adjacent to the enemy.You couldn't replicate those with any "skill combination." The warlord is a "martial leader" class, which means he uses tactical prowess and battlefield experience to guide his party to victory. Played right, it sounds like the party is your greatest weapon as a warlord. It's a role that's super-prominent in all fantasy literature (think Faramir or possibly Aragorn if LOTR is your favorite).We still know very little about these paths and destinies, but I would be REALLY surprised if they didn't have all the flavor and specificity and flexibility of 3e prestige classes.Bear in mind that in 4e, classes don't have different BAB and saving throw progressions, and skills will work pretty differently. So the only big difference between classes is what special abilities and "powers" they get. We also know almost nothing about multiclassing. Some people seem to think it's completely GONE from 4e; others think favored classes are dropped and multiclassing is completely free.For both these cases, we have very little actual info. This makes the pessimists assume WOTC is going to screw everything up and it makes the optimists think they've got the world's best systems lined up, and every complaint they've ever had about prestige classes or multiclassing will be cured in 4e (even if each of them has different and sometimes contradictory complaints). Obviously I'm more in the latter camp, because I don't think WOTC designers are idiots. But also obviously the real answer will probably be somewhere in the middle.Wizards use staffs, wands, or orbs in pretty much all high fantasy, including LOTR. And they're ALREADY IN 3e. 4e is just making them actually build on the wizard's own power, rather than acting as a weird backup spell battery.How so? Cite specific rules changes we know about (good luck), and tell me what complexity is lost in those changes. Most of the changes I've seen seem to make things faster without sacrificing strategic options and complexity. Just the opposite effect, I'd say. Previously, you were penalized for roleplaying - it made your character suckier in combat, because you were spending all those points in Profession: Cheesemonger and Knowledge: History of Applied Entomology while Joe Hackandslash just dumped them into combat-useful stuff like Tumble and Spot.Now, if your character is a cheesemonger with a gentleman's interest in the epic past of that noble hobby of bug-collecting, you can just write that on the "background" section of your character sheet. A decent DM will give you ad-hoc bonuses when those aspects of your character are applicable... just like right now, I can (with DM's permission) write on a character sheet that my character is the Earl of Shadowdale, and expect the DM to give me bonuses and penalties where appropriate because of that.</blockquote>

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