NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RPG_Tweaker" data-source="post: 3790751" data-attributes="member: 13041">The 4e announcement initially wowed me with promises to fix the two elements that drove me away from D&D 3.0 — the "homework" necessary to prep an adventure, and the cumbersome combat rules.After several news tidbits and much online community suppositions, I've slowly settled into an interested fence-sitter. There are some new elements that sound well conceived, but there are some that make me very skeptical.While most of the info is still speculative, my leanings so far:Anticipation:Simplification of DM prep-timeStreamlining combat (AoO, grapple)Curing christmas tree syndrome (and hopefully golf bag o' weapons)Changes to the magic system (balancing spells, at-will/per-encounter)Devaluing of alignmentContinued support of OGLNo assumed core settingFlipped savesRace having more impact on the nature of a characterLinking elves more firmly to their chrome (more fae)Condensing skillsTalent treesWeapons having more "character"Combat maneuversCircumspectFaster advancement rate Too much potential crunch tied to newly imposed fluffEmphasis on character "roles"Changes to available classes (What is a warlord, and no druid or sorcerer?)Not addressing the "swordmage" archetype in the PHBNo resolution for the "holy warrior" (militant-cleric vs. paladin)Changes to SWSE skill ranking systemMagic item constructionWizard implements (orb, wand, staff)Monsters using different creation rules than PCsChanges to the resource management paradigmUndefined changes to "save or screwed" effectsNothing yet addressing "immune to X" abilitiesDread:Increased overall power levels (heroic @ 1st level?)The growing anime/Wow influence in some of the artThe growing wuxia influence in power-types and naming conventions (ala Tome of Battle)Removal of Gnomes as a core PC race to make room for... tieflings and warforged?  :\ DDI: Potentially vital additonal content being pay-to-play Purchased e-books and Dragon/Dungeon being unable to printIndifferent:Changes to the planesChanges to demons/devilsPoints of lightVirtual desktopBooks beyond PHB/MM/DMG being considered core (PHB2+)My greatest concern is that all the blogs/podcasts indicate they're still in rules development. Considering their announced release date, it seems there is simply too little time remaining to playtest all the rules-in-flux properly.  Despite their specific denial, I see a fat errata waiting in the wings... and 4.5 looming on the horizon.Another, but lesser concern is, I am fearful that WotC hasn't learned anything from their (and TSRs) mistakes of the past: STOP flooding the market with crunchy splat books! They should let the core rules stand alone concentrating on adventures and campaign settings for at least the first year. Allow players to absorb and grow comfortable with the game before hitting us with a parade of Compleat Books of Twinks. Of course both of these will only be revealed after release. But assuming they will eventually start offering rules deviations, they really should playtest the s#it out of each class/PrC, feat/talent, etc., making damn sure they don't clash with previous material or worse, make old stuff obsolete.</blockquote>

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