dutorn said:
-Do you find it a pain to not have healing clerics running around? Or does the alternate healing work fine?
The Reserve point system works well enough, also note that natural healing is stronger in IH, and Ability Drain even heals slowly. There is also the Healing Lore feat tree, which if you focus on it can make you an exceptionally skilled healer. You can also use the Heal skill to restore Reserve points. It makes HP more important, since all that healing happens between battles, but in my experience so far it certainly isn't an inconvenience, just a different way of doing things.
-How about the feat trees? Do they become overpowered at all? Or do they just allow a wider selection of actions during combat? Is Iron Heroes more of a "wargamer tactic" session rather than D&D because of all these special actions?
Actually, from what I've seen, those special actions can actually encourage roleplay. Combat in IH is more than "I hit him, he hits me", or "I move over there, do I provoke an AoO?" The Stunts and Challenges systems essentially let you do elaborate and dramatic moves, and get bonuses from them.
Do you want to swing from that chandelier and try and leap onto the bad guy as you charge? There are fairly simple rules for that (and getting a nice bonus to the attack while you're at it). Grab some dirt and throw it in the bad guy's eye before you stab him? The rules cover that too (and inflict a penalty on your foe).
From what I've seen, IH is no more "a wargamer tactic session" than D&D 3.x, they both presume the use of minis and a grid, but can be run without them. The Harrier class excells when a grid is in use (since its abilities focus around movement), but can be run without one.
The feat trees are just fine, and in my experience they do not overpower the game, but remember, that's all written presuming no magic items. IH characters do get more feats, and more powerful feats, but they don't get Stat Boost items, they don't get Amulets of Natural Armor, +3 Plate Mail of Heavy Fortifcation or big +5 Vorpal Swords, so to fight the same creatures D&D PC's fight (all the way up to 20th level), they've got to be more powerful with just mundane gear.
-How about the mana magic? Works well? Casters over/underpowerd at all?
The magic system is the part most tinkered with, by far. Summoning is overpowered (imbalancingly so), while Evocation is strongly underpowered. There are many fixes on the web for the Arcanist class. Also, as long as you rule out item-creation feats, you can transplant a normal D&D spellcaster into IH without a problem (A cleric's spontaneous healing might be a bit much though).
-Overall reasons for choosing (or not choosing) Iron Heroes over regular PHB D&D.
Well, Iron Heroes is excellent for depicting low-magic fantasy. Settings where most PC's will not have lots of magic items and spellcasting is rare and special. For example, it will work really well for Middle Earth, or a semi-historic game, or Conan, or Wheel of Time.
PC parties are not presumed to be composed halfway of spellcasters (Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard), they are generally mostly fighters, maybe with a thief, and maybe with a spellcaster if you're lucky.
Death is pretty much final, a +1 Sword is essentially a Minor Artifact (armor gives you DR/Magic, so besides +1 to hit and damage, it cleaves through the armor of your foes), and characters are much more about their skill than their gear (the game presumes that you never get more than masterwork gear, much like D&D never presumes you get artifacts).
To me, it's "More D&D than D&D", and a game of IH feels a lot more like a fantasy novel or movie, and much less like a video game. I can heartily recommend it.
Now, for the downside, Mike Mearls was hired by WotC late in the production of IH, and it shows. The game does feel like a beta version, and there are a few irregularities (the Armiger class is either very underpowered or overpowered depending on who you talk to), and it is a little rough around the edges. Like D&D it has a certain presumption of power level, genre, and setting, if you want a lot of nonhumans, higher magic, or high fantasy, IH is not suited well for it.
