New errata posted, stealth changes official

[burntgerbil]

Frankly, as a gamer, I have been pretty dismayed at wizards' playtesting. Have you seen the playtest list ? There are scores of people I recognize that work for their Magic line - Hell, even Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic, was a playtester. Its not that these people are bad playtesters, but that Wizards was not doing any meaningful playtesting.

They needed to have guys that are dedicated and extremely knowledgeable about the game - like Stalker0 and Hypersmurf and scores of others that really care enough about the game to provide meaningful input and craft a better finished product. Turn to your fanbase and get them involved - it's a win-win situation and a path that Wizards definitely should have taken before now (I'm lookin' at you, artificer !)

 

[Jhaelen]

Its not that these people are bad playtesters, but that Wizards was not doing any meaningful playtesting.

Define meaningful. What do you perceive as the main goal of playtesting?

They needed to have guys that are dedicated and extremely knowledgeable about the game

I disagree. I'd almost go as far as saying these are exactly the kind of guys you wouldn't want as playtesters.

You may want them as part of the development team, though

 

[zoroaster100]

Since a rogue sneak attack damage is double that of a warlock's curse damage or a ranger's hunter's quarry damage, I am pretty sure rogues are not supposed to be able to sneak attack every round. Perhaps about every other round might be closer to the goal of the design team, based on the amount of damage inflicted by the class feature.

 

[MyISPHatesENWorld]

Since a rogue sneak attack damage is double that of a warlock's curse damage or a ranger's hunter's quarry damage, I am pretty sure rogues are not supposed to be able to sneak attack every round. Perhaps about every other round might be closer to the goal of the design team, based on the amount of damage inflicted by the class feature.

"The game's math assumes that the rogue gets sneak attack with just about every attack he makes." - Mike Mearls

Expand the base of your assumption beyond looking at just sneak attack damage, curse damage and hunter's quarry damage and you'll see pretty quickly why.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Frankly, as a gamer, I have been pretty dismayed at wizards' playtesting. Have you seen the playtest list ? There are scores of people I recognize that work for their Magic line - Hell, even Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic, was a playtester. Its not that these people are bad playtesters, but that Wizards was not doing any meaningful playtesting.

They needed to have guys that are dedicated and extremely knowledgeable about the game - like Stalker0 and Hypersmurf and scores of others that really care enough about the game to provide meaningful input and craft a better finished product. Turn to your fanbase and get them involved - it's a win-win situation and a path that Wizards definitely should have taken before now (I'm lookin' at you, artificer !)

An additional problem is that lots of the playtesters only had limited sections of the rules, and were asked to test specific scenarios. Big problem there since to some extent they were looking for input on very specific design decisions, but were not allowing all the playtesters to run riot with everything and actually pick up the stuff that they hadn't thought about.

 

[MerricB]

I'll take your colour coding and raise you a fully colour and layout and design matched entry that you can cut out of a printed errata page and paste over the incorrect entry in the relevant book!

Apparently they think that will work for the DM screen, so why not all books?

That's how it works with ASL.

Cheers!

 

[zoroaster100]

Has anyone tried using the new errataed stealth rules in practice in an actual game yet? I'm curious what your experience has been putting this in practice. I have to run a game for a group soon and will be using the new errata rules for the first time.

 

[frankthedm]

Has anyone tried using the new errataed stealth rules in practice in an actual game yet? I'm curious what your experience has been putting this in practice. I have to run a game for a group soon and will be using the new errata rules for the first time.

Anyone have insight to share yet?

 

[deleteme123456]

Well, in my last session DM'ing, the Brutal Rogue 2 in our party was having -zero- trouble getting combat advantage either from stealth (around corner / behind a door / etc) and then deft striking out, or simply flanking when stealth was going to be hard. Fleeting Ghost allowed him to move further away to get into a position where he could stealth if needed, and in my campaign, FG doesn't let you make a stealth check unless you were hidden already or have total concealment/superior cover, which in a dungeon, isn't very hard.

 

[Gort]

I think the biggest problem rogues have versus the other strikers is not the problem of gaining combat advantage every turn, but the fact that a lot of the places you have to go to get combat advantage are quite unsafe. Flanking a guy sometimes means standing in the middle of his buddies, who then smack you around.

Meanwhile, the ranger is shooting arrows from 40 squares away.