D&D 4E manual of the planes 4e

[HP Dreadnought]

Hooray for the Astral Dreadnought! I always loved the cover of the 1E MotP.

The stats they gave it never really did it justice though. Maybe in 4th it will finally get its due!

 

[Spatula]

It was on the cover, but IIRC there's only a passing mention of it and no stats in that book.

Yeah, that was always the puzzling thing about it. It didn't get stats until 2e as I recall.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Its rare that I'll say this, but the 1st edition one was way better. The dreadnought just looked nastier, and that mage was so incredibly screwed that the Mayor of Screwedville sent his condolences.

 

[Lizard]

I just hope it includes discussion on building your own cosmology, like the 3x book did. That was a great addition, because it discussed not just 'come up with cool ideas' but 'here are assumptions about cosmology built into the core rules. If you want to roll your own universe, pay attention to this, that, and the other thing'.

Since 4e weaves the fluff into the rules more than any previous edition, calling out such places for the benefit of world- and universe- builders is a Good Thing.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Its rare that I'll say this, but the 1st edition one was way better. The dreadnought just looked nastier, and that mage was so incredibly screwed that the Mayor of Screwedville sent his condolences.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree.

 

[13garth13]

And strangely enough....

.....it was also the inspiration for the Cacodemons in Doom (just ignore the arms and torso and make a circle around the head....voila).

And I concur that the first edition MotP rendition has never, ever been topped (ever!)

Cheers,
Colin

 

[Klaus]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree.

Don't be afraid of agreeing. Be afraid of Jeff Easley's awesome dreadnought.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Its rare that I'll say this, but the 1st edition one was way better. The dreadnought just looked nastier, and that mage was so incredibly screwed that the Mayor of Screwedville sent his condolences.

Are you comparing it to the 4E cover? Because that's almost certainly a placeholder; the final art will probably be a more polished version. (It might be something completely different, but I doubt it--they're going for the homage factor here.)

A point of trivia: This is the first Manual of the Planes not to be written by Jeff Grubb, IIRC.

 

[Saitou]

Am I the only one who thinks Doom's Cacodemon resembles that 1e Ethereal Dreadnought a great deal?

 

[Reaper Steve]

I really hope the 4E cover is a placeholder.
IMO, it's the worst of any 4E cover seen.
Plus, a cover worse than the original is not a good homage.