Hey all.
I just wanted to highlight one thing. I've seen a number of posts (here and elsewhere) which say that I'm calling something out as an amazing innovation - "SHOCKING! You can place limits on raise dead! I could NEVER do that before!" Obviously you could do it before, and the proof is that I (and many others who have posted on the subject) did.
None of my recent posts have been intended to be revelations about 4E. The raise dead quote was just pulled from the section about the role of PCs; I wasn't posting about the wonder of 4E raise dead. The same thing is true with NPCs. If I was running a game at home and didn't feel like writing up full stats for a 3E NPC, did I have to do it? No. But on the other hand, if I was writing stats for a WotC or Paizo module, then yes, I DID have to do it - or at the least, I had to ensure that what I have suggested is possible within the rules. As has been said, a fundamental premise of 3E is that PCs and NPCs follow the same rules - and in 4E, that's not as strictly true (though again, before people take this and blow it out of proportion, I'll remind everyone that I AM NOT A 4E DESIGNER and have not even seen the final to-print rules!). THAT'S what my post was about - that in spite of the fact that Eberron was designed for 3E, some of its underlying premises - in this case, the fact that the PCs are remarkable individuals who do stand out from the commonfolk - are a good match for 4E.
Now, going back to the example of the healer. I pulled +12 out of the air. But let's run with it. I'm writing an Eberron adventure, and I want to put the healer in. NOT doing this at home, in which case I'd certainly just make him a dude with 6 hp and a +12 check - writing an adventure for publication. The editors expect me to follow the rules and to produce a character that any other DM could legally create; among other things, this rules out houserule feats, because other DMs won't have them. Obviously, the 4 ranks is an easy base, and I'll admit I didn't think about the Healer's Kit, so that gives us +6. Skill Focus brings us to +9. However, Wisdom 16 isn't a trivial thing in Eberron, in which people are assumed to use the standard or elite array. So at a minimum he'll end up as 2nd level with a 15 wisdom, if he's elite (raising the question of it the village healer really should be elite, but there you go). Now, I could argue for point buy... and then I could pull it off at first level. But there's a more serious problem... What class is he? Because Heal isn't a class skill for commoners. So now he's presumably an expert... or a 4-5th-level commoner taking cross-class skill ranks.
So fine, he's an expert. But now, as a 2nd level expert, he's got 25 MORE skill points I haven't addressed. What are his other skills?
Did you, as the DM at home, ever have to worry about this? Of course not. You just said "The only thing they are going to do with him is to have him heal. He's a healer. He's got a +12 Heal check. Done." But *I* had to think about it, because that fundamental premise of the system is that all the rules always apply to all characters. That's why we HAVE NPC classes and demographics charts showing the number and level of people with those classes in the DMG, so in theory you can use that to determine if there's a blacksmith in the village capable of hitting the Craft number the players require. It's an underlying assumption of the system.
The shift in 4E isn't objectively better for all sentient beings (well, aside from RPG editors). Some people feel very strongly about the fact that all rules should apply equally to all characters, PC and NPC, and 3E supports that. It's not some miracle - "Why hasn't anyone ever done this before?" But in my opinion, it IS better for Eberron - and that's what all of my recent LJ posts have been about.
Most of all, I will emphasize again: I'm not a 4E designer. I've only been playing for a few months, and I haven't even seen the final version of all of the rules. So what I'm posting is my OPINION - but it shouldn't be taken as gospel about the game, or as holding the same weight as James Wyatt, Rob Heinsoo, or anyone else who's actually worked on the system.
