Pinotage said:
You mentioned this in your review, but I thought I'd ask for an expanded view if you have the time. Do you think 4e will be easier to design for?
Good question. Considering I haven't had more than a few minutes with the core books its tough to say. I'll give you my thoughts on what I think now with the caveat that come this weekend I may do a complete 360. Plus, a lot of it depends on how much of a look they give us under the hood of the system. If the DMG spells out everything and gives us the mathematical formulas for how tough something should be at a given level, how much damage a sword should do, and how much of a bonus a feat should grant I don't think it'll be too bad.
I don't think WotC will do that and as a result I think the game will be harder to design for. Certainly someone like John Cooper will have a lot less to gripe about when it comes to monster statistics since everything is now "more art than science." So monster design will be better as its easier when it comes to putting down the numbers.
No matter how well the math works though, monsters are remembered for how they play out on the battlefield. Right now I'm looking through Monte Cook's Best d20 and all of the monsters that appeared from Denizens of Avadnu and a lot of those I'm not sure how I'd convert. You need cool mechanics to back up those designs. 3e was the edition of improved grab, but we managed and did really well. 4e seems like the edition of all attacks do damage and I'm not sure how to work with that.
To be frank, design for 4e has me a little intimidated. When everything was ramping up for 3rd Edition I had access to the books very early and Ryan Dancey was on the list answering questions every night. Can my fears be unfounded? Sure. When I look at the very slight differences in creature design in what I've seen in 4e, the huge list of powers that comes with every core class, and a streamlined set of rules, I just feel that its going to be harder to innovate.
Can I easily make a new monster that's balanced with the math of the system? Sure. Is it going to be cool and evocative and be an encounter that you and other players will remember for years to come? I dunno. There are probably people at WotC reading this thinking I'm an idiot. I wouldn't be the first time I've grossly misjudged something, but my instincts have me worried. We'll see what happens.
