How to fix Dragon

[AngryMojo]

Unless WoTC reprinted the MM1 4e version, there were no 'standard' elementals in it last time I looked.

They were introduced in MM3.

 

[JoeGKushner]

They were introduced in MM3.

So talking about "Not to be too picky, but there is one. It's called "Summon Fire Warrior" Wizard Daily 1 from Arcane Power. They changed the name to avoid confusion if you summon the fire warrior while fighting fire elementals." Arcane Power, which was out considerably before MM3 is a valid point of comparission?

 

[igniz13]

Great analysis and completely agree, with only one real exception - some races and classes have terrible feat support. I can stomach some feats to fill those gaps.


I've run some numbers myself and there are some incredible disparities in support for some races and classes.

#

As someone wanting to write for Dragon (one of the best ways to fix Dragon is to write better articles for it), all this info is very useful.

It'd be good to know how much attention has been lathered on each class and race over the history of Dragon.

I would state that some classes are supported by generic power source and non specific general feats.

Think of Arcane Admixture and the Domain feats. So although some classes and races may be under supported, there is potentialy hidden support for them out there.

 

[tyrlaan]

It does seem like they are running out of ideas... Yet they seem loathe to cover the classics. Classics are classics for a reason!

How many powers, feats, etc do wizards have?

Content should make you want to play it because it sounds fun and interesting, not because you can harvest stat blocks to pimp your DPR (although powers ought to be of at least average effectiveness. It sucks to have Fireball in your spell book but never ever wanting to memorize it because you've got an at-will that can do nearly the same thing with enlarge spell).

It is an eMagazine, they are not exactly going to run out of page space, unless this is some absurd cost cutting measure to limit word count.

It just seems like they don't have follow through on ideas, they try too hard to be "original" at the expense of presenting well crafted classics.

I'd argue they are covering the classics.

Top 10 classes with the most powers to support them: fighter, warlord, ranger, rogue, avenger, warlock, wizard, cleric, sorcerer, barbarian

Top 10 classes in feats: fighter, warlord, ranger, rogue, warlock, assassin, avenger, invoker, paladin, warden

Top 10 in paragon paths: fighter, warlord, ranger, rogue, warlock, paladin, cleric, shaman, wizard, avenger

Top 10 in Dragon representation: warlock, wizard, warlord, avenger, druid, invoker, sorcerer, assassin, fighter, ranger

There are some telling trends in there. The classics seem to be getting pretty decent coverage.

FWIW, the wizard has about 50 feats (not counting "arcane class only" feats and their ilk), almost 300 powers, about 20 paragon paths (not counting non-class specific ones), and it looks like 6 epic destinies (not counting non-class specific ones).

Also, while it is a digital magazine, it still takes time/resources to edit/layout/etc each article. So just because they don't have to deal with production costs of physical print doesn't mean they can put out infinite content.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think the other important thing we have to remember in terms of the fluff to crunch ratio is this... I would tend to believe that most people subscribe to DDI because of access to the Character Builder and the Monster Builder and not the two magazines.

Thus, the magazines need to support what it is the CB and MB give to players. And support them to the point that they inspire those players to keep a continual subscription to DDI active, rather than do the "join for a month, download everything, and then quit for six months" method that so many people advocate.

The best way to do that is to make sure the magazines add enough crunch that, when coupled with the crunch coming in from the game books, gives so much additional info for both Builders that players will not want to wait for six months until their next month-long download fest, but instead want it now and keep their account active in order to get it as soon as possible.

I mean, if I'm a Seeker player and I see that a Class Acts Seeker article is coming up in the next month's Dragon and I know it's going to give me a whole bunch of feat and power support... I might be more inclined to keep my subscription active so that I can get that stuff into my Character Builder right away... not in 6 months when I might ordinarily do my "six and off" routine.

While additional fluff is nice to have... I suspect that it isn't the fluff that is keeping DDI subscriptions active.

 

[AngryMojo]

So talking about "Not to be too picky, but there is one. It's called "Summon Fire Warrior" Wizard Daily 1 from Arcane Power. They changed the name to avoid confusion if you summon the fire warrior while fighting fire elementals." Arcane Power, which was out considerably before MM3 is a valid point of comparission?

If they were thinking ahead and said "Maybe we'll put pure elementals in later." or the fact that many elementals are frequently referred to as fire elementals, even if that's not their proper name, yes. It's the same way with nearly all the summons and familiars. Wizards even summon "Abyssal Maws" and not "Maw Demons"

 

[Zaran]

It doesn't help that the Fire Warrior is rather crappy for a Daily spell. The only good thing about it is the fact that the rogue can flank with it. I pick Flaming Sphere over Summon Fire Warrior every time.

 

[Zaran]

To get back on topic, I wish they would put out less feats and powers and put stuff in their magazine that they think will not sell in a printed form. Like give us stuff to spend gold on besides magical items (especially since half those items can no longer be bought). How about an article on retainers? Or Mass Combat? Stronghold creation? The focus on player classes and powers has been done to death. I actually am starting to feel like the Character Builder is a crutch and they feel like they have to keep adding to it instead of expanding.

Let's hope this Unearthed Arcana stuff pans out. Although, I much rather they do actually do put play-testing into the non-DDI articles instead of just "printing" out untested ideas. That's what we pay them for.