Iron Heroes...what's your opinion?

[BenBrown]

I rather like it.

It does what it says it does, which happens to be something I like.

Som of my biggest problems with D&D:

1) too many magic items

2) clerics and healing have very few paralells in the fantasy literature I love and would like to emulate the feel of.

3) it takes a lot of levels and usually a prestige class to get a really distinct fighting style.

IH addresses these, and I think it addresses them well. there are a few residual D&D-isms I could do without (money, for example), but overall I like it. Being D20, it's a game I'd much rather play than run, but I may end up running a session or two just to see how it works. I am looking forward to the mastering book.

 

[frankthedm]

Is it just me, or are Berserkers that choose the ability to increase their con while in a temporary rage in big trouble? There is no healing magic to help them out when they go unconscious, and when the rage runs out...

That is the way it supposed to be. You fight, keep fighting past death, then you die.

 

[swrushing]

On multiple backgrounds... IIRC in Thieve's world or maybe it was black company, who used backgrounds too, they had a feat that gave you a second background. So at first level lose a feat and keep your arctic nobleman happy.

As for my impression, i want to like the game and see lots of good things but the overall package is a level or so too much complexity heaped on. i will steal from it, perhaps, but never run it.

 

[Kesh]

After reading through some previews, I just can't get around the tokens. :/ That turns me off the system there.

 

[eyebeams]

Excellent, but could be better organized. The token systems are basically "warrior magic" and should have been organized like that instead of in the body of class descriptions.

 

[Particle_Man]

That is the way it supposed to be. You fight, keep fighting past death, then you die.

This does not sound like fun to play. I want berserkers to live to level 20. I will house rule it away to give temp. hp instead (and a bonus to fort saves).

 

[Geoff Watson]

That is the way it supposed to be. You fight, keep fighting past death, then you die.

In Iron Heroes, you don't automatically die at -10, you get a Fort save.

Geoff.

 

[wolff96]

Also, keep in mind that another beserker ability allows you to use tokens to move HP from Reserve to actual HP pool.

So the beserker that lives long enough could literally save his own skin.

 

[AIM-54]

Having read through this thread, as well as the Mearls interview on Iron League, it sounds like this is really something that will address some of the things I don't like about D&D. The idea of combat where warriors do more than prevent bad guys from closing on the spellcasters really appeals to me, especially because I think magic tends to take away from the tactically interesting aspects of medieval combat (if I want serious stand-off, big explosion fighting, I'll play BattleTech, thank you very much ). It sounds like Iron Heroes is ideal for that.

One thing: in the interview on Iron League, Mearls says:

I wanted a game that rewarded maneuver, speed, and motion.

I want to ask those that have had an opportunity to playtest it a bit, does combat become more fluid? Or does it just break down to stand and bash like D&D fights tend to?

 

[wizofice]

Everytime I think about it, I get a Billy Idol tune (with different words) stuck in my head: "flanking by myself." That alone gets people moving on the battlefield. If you move from 1 to 2 and attack at 2, you gain flanking and all the associated benefits against A:

1A2

Then there's the harrier, whose main job is to run around attacking as many enemies as possible. And there might be objects throughout that you can topple on your enemies, so running over to that shaky pillar and dropping it on them behooves you.