New Design: Wizards...

[Wormwood]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

NOT WOD SPLATS AAAAAAARRRGH!

4e is now dead to me.

It looks like they may be consolidating schools of magic from eight to six.

Not necessarily "splats" (unless you considered Illusionists and Transmuters to be "splats").

 

[Stone Dog]

Boy, I really don't like those discipline names. They sound way too kung-fu/Exalted-ish for my tastes.

Funny. Most of them sound like actual mystical/philosophical orders. The East doesn't have a lock on overly dramatic names for esoteric groups.

 

[fuindordm]

I dunno... I did like the idea of there being four implements. That sounds like just enough to give a good variety of wizards, if you have one major and one minor as we've been guessing. I have no regrets that the tome is gone, but a replacement might have been nice.

It also seems wierd to link each implement to an element/energy. If you're going that route, you should at least make a nod to classical symbolism:

staff or wand=fire
dagger=air
chalice=water
orb=earth

But I slightly prefer the idea of relating them to modes of using magic, as they had before.

And all this is just nitpicking. I look forward to seeing what interesting ideas they have come up with.

 

[Mercule]

And really I never had anything against foci in Mage: the Ascension, as I liked it when players tried to come up with creative ideas for foci, using not only wands and staffs, but other ideas like their government agency badge, pistol, DJ equipment or whatever...

I don't really have anything particularly against them. They just had an occasional unintended consequence. The Hermetics and Adepts used words or computer for pretty much everything, which generally worked as a cheap way to add flavor. It's been a while since I've played WoD, but I seem to remember a couple of bizarre twists with Sons of Ether trying to make things fit their paradigm.

 

[Mouseferatu]

*blink*

Okay, that's weird.

I don't think this was done because of people yelling about the tome. The changes to the article are too pervasive for that.

This reads to me more like someone accidentally posted an earlier (and no longer accurate) version of the article.

As far as the discipline names... Eh. I'm not crazy about them, but they're no more disruptive, and I doubt they're any more prohibitive, than spell names. I see no difference between changing "Mordenkainen's Disjunction" to just "Disjunction" (or "Somebody Else's Disjunction" and changing "The Serpent Eye" tradition to the "Smoke of Dreams" tradition or even just the "Mesmerism" tradition.

What this new version of the article does seem to imply, at least to me, is that just as fighters will tend to specialize in one weapon, wizards will tend to specialize in one implement.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I wonder how strict the definitions will be. Can I cut down a sapling and call it a staff? Can I pick up a twig and call it a wand?

 

[Mercule]

Funny. Most of them sound like actual mystical/philosophical orders. The East doesn't have a lock on overly dramatic names for esoteric groups.

After thinking about it a bit, realized that we're (at least I'm) used to hearing Hermetic titles based on Latin or Greek words. Anime/Wuxia/whatever seems to have more words that get translated directly to English.

"Ars Essentia" sounds wizardly and cool. "The Art of Force" sounds weirdly Wuxia.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I don't think this was done because of people yelling about the tome. The changes to the article are too pervasive for that.

I hope that you are wrong. It would be nice to know that the developers are reading, and responding to, reactions to their previews.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

Something like this:

I was envisioning my wizard pulling a Celestial Lion out of his hat.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

*chuckle*

I love the irony of the article changing completely.

I'm sure that I look ridiculous over here with my, "The sacred cows are falling! The sacrew cows are falling!", but I hope we can maintain a good sense of humor about this, because from where I'm standing the, "I don't know anything about 4e, but I'm sure it is going to be awesome!!!!", crowd looks pretty funny juggling its expectations too.

"Any class, any level, just works... as soon as we work out the details."
"4e, we are going for 1e edition feel to the crunch with 3e edition feel to the fluff....or did I get that backwards?"
"4e, more streamlined, and lots more options too"
"4e, kills all your sacred cows but will still stay the same."
"4e, less dependence on magic items, plus lots of phat bling for the MMORPG crowd"
"4e, we are going to completely overhaul the game, and leave it perfectly balanced"
"4e, rigorously playtested and available 2nd quarter next year"
"4e, listening to all fan input with the same degree of attention that clouds flying overhead pay to you"
"4e, faster leveling for the 20% of the market that has demanded it."

Got to love it.

I know I do.