New Design: Wizards...

[F4NBOY]

So if players have magic items they will cake walk an equal level encounter?

Now if characters have too much magic they are gods, in 4e if characters are equal to their level w/o any magic items, they become much more with even a small amount of magic.

No. Character will probably have an edge in ecounters. They got the items as rewards from adventuring, a hard earned reward. So they now deserve to have a little edge in combats, depending on the monsters they are fighting, the place, the classes in party, there are so many elements... What you said would be true if magic items in 4E gave characters +1 class level, but I don't think that's the case

Having an edge in combat because you have a magic item is fun.
Needing to have a magic item in combat to be able to face that challenge is not that fun.

Magic Items in 3E is like cocaine.
In 4E they will be like an Ace in the sleeve.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Now, try that with a wand; the imagery of unleashing something nasty, expansive and point blank simply doesn't go well with it at all. On the flipside, you don't see the little pea-sized fleck of flame that's the signature of a Fireball en-route to its target being spit out of the tip of a staff, but it fits a quick, precise movement of a wand perfectly.

Yep. I can just see the wand wizard, gleefully pointing to the locations of his fireballs, webs and stink clouds like an orchestra conductor during a performance of the 1812 Overture.

 

[Aloïsius]

Hmm...

You know, if "tome" is one of the four tools of magic, that suggests very strongly that the wizard's spellbook--as it was known in 3E and prior editions--is gone.

*makes a happy dance*

I like all those ideas.
Hum. no.

I LIKE all those ideas.

 

[Baby Samurai]

I don't think they will be so stupid to create a mechanic that simply turn one of the aspects of the game, Armour, completelly useless.

I'm not saying I want armour to be useless, I'm saying that there should be a bonus to AC due to level/experience, regardless of armour; just that armour would help even more.

BAB scales, why not AC?

 

[Rechan]

Yep. I can just see the wand wizard, gleefully pointing to the locations of his fireballs, webs and stink clouds like an orchestra conductor during a performance of the 1812 Overture.

I have the feeling that web and stink cloud and such might be handled via the Orb's battlefield control.

 

[sidonunspa]

Why does everything have to get so extreme with you people?

Because after running a living campaign with thousands of players, running over 100 RPGA tables over the last few years and running 5 home games... I can tell you just a 10% increase of magic items allows players to cake walk equal APL encounters. Toss magical item creation into the mix (where the players have the ability to make a +1 frost, shock, acidic long sword because the cleric can always cast greater magic weapon on it later) and you start seeing what I mean.

Now let’s say that an equal level encounter gives the players a 60% chance to hit an equal level bad guy; (I remember reading that a 60% chance of successes being the “fun target number” or something) now seeing we are working on a d20 system, each +1 = roughly an improvement of +5% to hit. You can see how very quickly the players can work the numbers to their advantage.

I have not seen the system yet, so I may be off base...

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I'm not saying I want armour to be useless, I'm saying that there should be a bonus to AC due to level/experience, regardless of armour; just that armour would help even more.

BAB scales, why not AC?

Well I don't think it needs to be inherently increasing. If they put the double stat increase in from SWSE then your 20th level fighter may have increased his Dex. Not to mention the abstraction of hitpoints can account for his surviving longer in a combat. Maybe he also has AC increasing feats or maneuvers in 4e? It's hard to say yet.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Because after running a living campaign with thousands of players, running over 100 RPGA tables over the last few years and running 5 home games... I can tell you

You can tell me, but I don't believe you, and this is where I stop reading your post.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Well I don't think it needs to be inherently increasing.

I do, don't you think a seasoned adventurer would have a slightly better chance at avoiding injury than the 1st level baker who just took up adventuring?

 

[GreatLemur]

Seems like it's an iffy descriptive difference. No insult intended to your interpretive ability, S, because I probably couldn't come up with an alternative description that would be any better. And that's my point -- why link THIS spell with a wand and THAT spell with a staff? The WotC justification is going to be wonky.

Trying to clarify what other folks are saying, it looks to me like the staff is the howitzer, while the wand is the remote trigger. That is, the staff's offensive effects actually emanate from the staff itself: projectiles that require a ranged touch attack, big lines and cones that demand Reflex saves, etc. The wand, on the other hand, causes effects to occur at a distance: oh-crap-where-did-that-come-from sudden Will/Fortitude save stuff, and probably also radius-effect Reflex save things like fireballs, too. (Except, of course, that saving throws are supposed to be changing pretty seriously in 4e, so don't take any of those examples too literally.)