D&D 5E My D&D Next Experience at DDXP

[aztecman]

The base game really tries to capture a 1E/2E feel;

With that being said then - awesome.

Color this Grognard interested.

 

[Mercule]

I seem to recall that Gygax said that it was because of Bishop Odo, a man who went into the Battle of Hastings with a club because he was forbidden to shed blood. [//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odo,_Earl_of_Kent

Not sure if it's that specific person or not, but it was modeled after some Medieval person/order (Hospitallers?) who had taken an oath not to shed blood, but were pretty legalistic about it.

Clerics are an odd one, to me. Their origin indicates they've got more in common with the paladin than a true priest. But, there's no other class that would let you play a true priest, so the cleric gets that role. I could handle the cleric disappearing and a return of something resembling a (simplified) 2e priest. Merge the cleric with the paladin and let them worry about fighting. Turn the priest into a dedicated divine caster.

Of course, the problem with that is a priest of the god of fire starts to look an awful lot like an evoker, etc.

 

[Deadboy]

That versatility is a feature, not a bug.

Maybe, but all that feature does is put Clerics on a list of classes I'd never play.

 

[Knightfall]

Not sure if it's that specific person or not, but it was modeled after some Medieval person/order (Hospitallers?) who had taken an oath not to shed blood, but were pretty legalistic about it.

Clerics are an odd one, to me. Their origin indicates they've got more in common with the paladin than a true priest. But, there's no other class that would let you play a true priest, so the cleric gets that role. I could handle the cleric disappearing and a return of something resembling a (simplified) 2e priest. Merge the cleric with the paladin and let them worry about fighting. Turn the priest into a dedicated divine caster.

Of course, the problem with that is a priest of the god of fire starts to look an awful lot like an evoker, etc.

Well, there has been some major speculation that the designers have planned two separate "priest" classes: the cleric as per 1e and the mythoi priest as per 2e. Those two classes would be the basic versions of the "priest" classes. The more advanced versions would give you options more like 3e/4e.

It's all in flux right now, so we simply have to wait.

 

[Knightfall]

Perhaps Warpriest will be a theme you add to the cleric class to turn it into a 3e style cleric. It would allow for more diverse weaponry and maybe spontaneous healing.

You pick your theme and it lets you rebuild a basic class for the style of character you want to play.

 

[drunkenmonk]

Your bread and butter are the 4e fans. They're generating revenue and keeping your lights on now, WotC. Not in some marketer's hypothetical future vision of all D&D fans suddenly coming "home" again.

I'm not so sure they are. With the multiple rounds of layoffs, and quick turnaround on edition I am not all that convinced that 4E fans are all that much of the RPG base.

When we have our convention here almost no one is playing 4e. Most are playing White Wolf, Cyberpunk, Pathfinder, or 3e. The ads for more players at the local gaming stores, and the community events for D&D have a real high 3e percentage. 3E seems to be the most popular D&D edition over here, but that might be a regional thing.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

If 4e was keeping the lights on, we wouldn't be seeing 5e anywhere near this early.

 

[Cadfan]

All the young people in my area play 4e.

None of them play Essentials. I'm not sure they'd know what a Fortune Card was if it bit them in the face.

I don't know whether they're buying a lot of products, or whether they outnumber the old people. I just know that when I see young gamers come in the gamestore, particularly in mixed gender groups, they play 4e every time. They like their dragonborn and their eladrin and they tell stories about the table they made for how drunk you get and they tell you stories about their characters that you have to pretend to be interested in because their enthusiasm is too precious to squash and they sound exactly like the older gamers did when they were younger except some of them are girls.

 

[Salad Shooter]

Glad to see they are getting people in on the ground floor, with this! I hope they take the best of everything that people like from previous editions and 5e playtests and come up with a game that stands on it's own, rather than a hodgepodge mismatch of favorite bits from previous editions.

Also - jealous that you got to face Monte Cook across the table

 

[Grazzt]

Your bread and butter are the 4e fans. They're generating revenue and keeping your lights on now, WotC.

Fact that 5E is coming, and coming soon/now, says otherwise.