New FR Dragon Article: The Wailing Dwarf. Reveals some new crunch.

[Spatula]

Nice piece, but... trolls can survive without food & water now?

 

[Spatula]

I dunno, were Rath and that lot in 2E a "balanced party"? I never looked into it very closely. I've seen, in previous editions, a lot of "large" NPC parties, like with 6-8 members, which would be "unbalanced" in 3E and 4E rules. I guess a lot of those were TSR, not WotC.

Honestly, I don't know, but have precisely five members of totally appropriate classes? It just seems a bit TOO neat, the sort of thing that breaks suspension of disbelief.

But... just about any group of PCs are set up exactly the same.

In any case, it's the Realms, where adventuring is an actual profession. Adventurers know who & what to bring when raiding tombs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But... just about any group of PCs are set up exactly the same.

That's precisely what breaks the suspension of disbelief. It's a perfect little adventuring party. I don't agree that in the FR "adventuring is a profession and people know which classes to bring". It's too much. Also, in my experience, real parties are rarely that neat, so it makes the versimilitude even less.

 

[Wolfwood2]

Yeah a little bit. On the other hand, some of the ideas seem nice. I was also spectacularly unimpressed having a mile-high statue and managing to make it boring by having the dullest subject matter concievable. Okay, it's a statue made by Dwarves, so it's going to be of a Dwarf, sure. But when it looks exactly like perfect (albeit eye-less) replica of a modern-day male dwarf (despite, pre-gunpowder, probably taking literally hundreds of years to make) holding a YAWN giant double-headed axe in modern-style armour YAWN. Why couldn't it have been of something a little more exotic, evocative, or imaginative? Oh well, easiest bit to re-write, I suppose. Just not very impressed by that.

Unless it turns out that the statue is actually a giant magical mecha, and the control crystal is what the nagas are eternally guarding.

Mile high golems are cool.

 

[Spatula]

I don't agree that in the FR "adventuring is a profession and people know which classes to bring".

So, you haven't read much FR setting material, then.

 

[IanB]

I dunno, were Rath and that lot in 2E a "balanced party"? I never looked into it very closely. I've seen, in previous editions, a lot of "large" NPC parties, like with 6-8 members, which would be "unbalanced" in 3E and 4E rules. I guess a lot of those were TSR, not WotC.

Honestly, I don't know, but have precisely five members of totally appropriate classes? It just seems a bit TOO neat, the sort of thing that breaks suspension of disbelief.

Apparently just about every group I've ever run an adventure for or played in - in any edition - would break your suspension of disbelief.

Seriously I could probably count on one hand the number of parties, out of dozens, that didn't break down more or less like fighter, fighter, thief, cleric, mage.

 

[Slander]

It's a perfect little adventuring party.

It should be. It was a hand-picked, personally financed expedition, and redundancy costs money.

The focus on the super-spiffy magical items irked me too. I thought DnD was moving towards "What can my character do" and away from "What does my character have". I enjoyed the rest of it though.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So, you haven't read much FR setting material, then.

Not 3E stuff, no, that's true, but in 2E it sure wasn't the case, certainly outside of the more ludicrous sections of whatever that dungeon in Waterdeep was called. Every NPC "party" I can think of in 2E was either really wierd, had multiple melees and often no clerics, or had about seven or eight people in it.

IanB - You're missing the point. It's the NPC adventurers having a perfect little adventuring party that breaks suspension of disbelief for me. I guess I should thank god that they don't have an obvious "tank".

 

[Simm]

Heh. How long before somebody complains that Adjective Weapon of Noun magic items are "totally WoW"?

What do you mean totally WoW, Blizzard was using it long beforw WoW ever came out, it's totally Diablo.

 

[Xethreau]

Random thought at board posters: The important thing for someone to do in RP is to suspend disbelief, even if some things strike you as strange. Sometimes its there for a reason, and other times you need to give the person the benefit of the doubt.


My thoughts: Legacy Items. I hope beyond hope that they are in 4e core!!!