D&D 4E InQuest 4e article

[jasin]

I was looking forward to Bo9S, but was disappointed when it appeared for just this reason. I think I was expecting interesting combat manouevres, rather than spells for fighters...

It has both. Many from Desert Wind and Shadow Hand, and to a good extend Devoted Spirit, are "spells". The rest are combat maneuvers that hardly anyone would call spells if they saw them on film, or even if they saw them in the game, if it weren't for their spell-like presentation in the book.

 

[Li Shenron]

"For example, Slavicsek tells us that “The Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords book, which gave fighter-type characters the same types of options spellcasters do by basically giving them spells for fighters,” was received very well. “That idea has been extremely popular, and we’re adopting something similar for Fourth Edition.”"

This immediately makes me think that World of Warcraft may have a huge impact...

Barbarians with "rage points" that increase during battle, and can be spent to activate special abilities for example.

 

[Aloïsius]

I think they should elminate the half races, half elf *and* half orc. They could add in orcs as a player race if they really feel the need to compensate for the "I want my half orc" backlash but holding on to unnecessary sacred cows was the ultimate problem of 3.x, IMO.

They won't : there is stuff about the half-elves special ability (something charisma related IIRC). So half-elves are still there.

Half*zombi-look*orc, could disappear, if they are replaced bu tieflings (both are somewhat "tainted by evil" but I guess tieflings are sexier from a marketing point of view...)

 

[fuindordm]

It all sounds very interesting, but are the planetouched going to be presented as the "lesser" versions found i Player's Guide to Faerûn, or is level adjustment a thing of the past? I think they'd be too powerful even if their native outsider race was turned into humanoid. It'll be interesting to hear more about, though I hope they don't axe the gnomes. Why axe anything, really? Can't we all just get along...?

They were also talking about expanding racial abilities but with a level progression, and introducing more substitution level options for each class. This makes the tiefling much more viable as a PC--you can start with relatively mild bonuses, and attain some energy resistance and other goodies at higher levels.

I agree, however, that it would be very strange to make tieflings core but not aasimar. Honestly, haven't we had enough demon-tainted publicity? For every "evil" race in the core, there should be one "good" race to balance things out.

Ben

 

[Mark]

They won't : there is stuff about the half-elves special ability (something charisma related IIRC). So half-elves are still there.

If you mean their supposed role as a diplomat, that is an add-on meant to give something to them in 3.x rather than risk unloading the sacred cow last time around. I blame Elrond.

 

[Mark]

If you mean their supposed role as a diplomat, that is an add-on meant to give something to them in 3.x rather than risk unloading the sacred cow last time around. I blame Elrond.

They mention half elves in the new article on races in 4E, so likely that will make the cut.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070816a

 

[avin]

This immediately makes me think that World of Warcraft may have a huge impact...

Maybe something else... maybe Wotc are changing Orc's alignment, get rid of Half Orcs and bringing Orc to PHB basic races... I hate the racial alignment race, so would embrace this one.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I agree, however, that it would be very strange to make tieflings core but not aasimar. Honestly, haven't we had enough demon-tainted publicity? For every "evil" race in the core, there should be one "good" race to balance things out.

Tieflings were originally available as a PC race back in 2e with Planescape and there monstrous compendium entry said their alignment was Chaotic Neutral. But back then they sort of represented all planetouched characters, until they decided to create other planetouched like Aasimar and Genasi in the Planescape Monstrous Compendium II and Planewalker's Handbook.

And honestly I think more players would prefer player Tieflings over Aasimar. It's just a theory of mine, but role-playing a fiendishly tainted character allows you to have more drama for your character than playing a celestial tainted character. While I won't say it's cooler to be a Tiefling because they're edgier and angstier than an Aasimar, it's probably the case for the average player. And even if Aasimar aren't in the PHB, I'm pretty sure they'll be in the MM.

And how many "iconic" Tieflings are out there compared to "iconic" Aasimar? I can think of off Kylie, Alisohn Nilesia, Rhys, Annah from Torment, that guy from BG2, Neeshka from NWN2 off the top of my head. For Aasimar I can only think of Spiral Hal'oight and Qaida (a NE aasimar) who aren't exactly model Aasimar...

 

[F4NBOY]

Barbarians with "rage points" that increase during battle, and can be spent to activate special abilities for example.

That's EXACTLY how "barbarians" (the class is called berserker) work in Iron Heroes, designed by Mike Mearls.
Berserkers suffer damage and get rage points(Fury tokens) and use use them to activate class abilites like rage, bonuses to attack/damage, enhance speed, and other cool stuff. The points/tokens go away when combat ends.
The berserker is one of the coolest classes from IH to play, I hope 4E barbarian looks a little like that. GO MIKE!

 

[blargney the second]

One thing I want to point out, with a song in my heart:



That image is called "DDcoverartcopy".

(Click for a bigger version.)

Holy crap, I hope that ends up being the PHB cover. Too cool.