D&D 4E New "Confessions of a Full Time Wizard" - 4e tidbits!

[Rechan]

Shelly is actually an Associate Brand Manager and manages our Young Adult book Line. She was a Promo Coord. over seven years ago when I was her boss and has worked on pretty much every product at the company from M:TG to kids games. She is a very bright and talented marketer plus she writes her own plays, volunteers at a dog shelter, and can bake cookies that will make your heart stop.

Don't try to cut her down because she doesn't fit into some preconception of who should be writing D&D articles. She's not writing The Cute Girls Guide to Curing Cancer in the JAMA. It's D&D, a game, and it is supposed to be fun. :\

Although it took her a few years at WOTC before she discovered D&D and doesn't have the depth of knowledge of a Chris Perkins, she is passionate about playing the game and shows up at our game every week to kick ass.

I actually think Shelly is a sweetheart and I like her articles a lot. I haven't looked at her book, but I'm thinking about it.

 

[sjmiller]

I am 38 years old, have long hair, wear blue jeans with un-tucked western shirts, and drink beer from the bottle, so please stop calling me Mr. Rouse unless you want my dad to start posting answers.

Well, you see, I like to give you youngsters a little show of manners every once in awhile, to show you it's not dead. Just so you know, I am 42 years old, have long hair (most likely longer than yours), wear blue jeans, but I gotta tuck in the shirt, and I drink scotch from a glass.

Thank you for your responses, I appreciate them. I must honestly tell you, a lot of the changes being made, and the way we are being told about them, are making it hard to like the new edition. At least, that is how I am seeing it. Since it appears that a lot of this stuff is still under a Cloak of Obfuscation, I will wait till later to ask about doing a no holds barred interview.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

I actually think Shelly is a sweetheart and I like her articles a lot. I haven't looked at her book, but I'm thinking about it.

Thats nice. I'll get her to send you some of those cookies, they are like the dark matter of baked goods.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Well, you see, I like to give you youngsters a little show of manners every once in awhile, to show you it's not dead. Just so you know, I am 42 years old, have long hair (most likely longer than yours), wear blue jeans, but I gotta tuck in the shirt, and I drink scotch from a glass.

Thank you for your responses, I appreciate them. I must honestly tell you, a lot of the changes being made, and the way we are being told about them, are making it hard to like the new edition. At least, that is how I am seeing it. Since it appears that a lot of this stuff is still under a Cloak of Obfuscation, I will wait till later to ask about doing a no holds barred interview.

I can appreciate that, change can be hard regardless of what your passion is.

Let me know when you're ready to ask about that interview. D&D Experience may be a good time

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

Until some guy gets a bunch of 11's and a 12 with rolling, then starts whining that the other guy "rolled" a bunch of 18's. Honestly 3.5 editions of this crap was enough.

If I say "choose your path", and a player decides to "roll the dice", they have put the fate of their ability scores in the fickle hands of the Lady Luck...

...which is precisely why the majority choose point-buy, or array.

 

[Spatula]

For the first time in its history, D&D is putting the point buy first. That is the big deal.

That's about as far away from a "big deal" as you can get. Reading someone gushing over how point buy works and how amazing it is, is bad enough. Reading people here argue over whether something should be in a sidebar or not is just a waste of time. Both are going to be in the game, so what does it matter? Use whichever method you prefer and ignore the other. Its presence in the rule books isn't going to ruin your games.

 

[KingCrab]

But magic-missile as an at-will ... I don't know... An attack that never misses (even with the d4 damage) could be overpowered.

You don't know that it's an attack that never misses in 4e.

or that it's still related to a d4.

I'm really happy that point buy is the standard now. Getting a bad roll in an adventure can suck, but getting the bad rolls early on and being stuck with a character that is quite inferior to the rest of the party? That really sucks. With point buy, everyone gets the same advantage in the beginning and has to do what they can with it.

 

[Ahglock]

So when 1/day abilities are attack powers how does this in any way solve the 5 minute workday problem?

First fight, sleep is cast by the wizard, supercalifragulous is cast by the cleric, death by a thousand cuts by the rogue, and heavenly smash by the paladin. After the fight, everyone goes, hmmnnn do we really want to get into another fight without sleep etc?

The fact that they might of spent more of there resources in the 3e model of he 5 minute workday seems irrelevant to those who actually would do this. Some of there best resources were just blown, rest and come back later.

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

I'm really happy that point buy is the standard now.

Point-buy is not the standard. It is one of three options...

 

[kennew142]

So when 1/day abilities are attack powers how does this in any way solve the 5 minute workday problem?

First fight, sleep is cast by the wizard, supercalifragulous is cast by the cleric, death by a thousand cuts by the rogue, and heavenly smash by the paladin. After the fight, everyone goes, hmmnnn do we really want to get into another fight without sleep etc?

The fact that they might of spent more of there resources in the 3e model of he 5 minute workday seems irrelevant to those who actually would do this. Some of there best resources were just blown, rest and come back later.

Even if the best attack powers are 1/day, a character still has X times/encounter powers and at will powers. In third edition, once spells are used up, they are gone until the characters rest. In 4e characters should be able to push on.

Some players may still fight one battle and insist on resting, but it will likely be less prevalent in the new edition. A 3.X wizard with no spells is just a commoner, but a 4e wizard without daily abilities still has magic at his disposal.