D&D General New Interview with Rob Heinsoo About 4E

[MichaelSomething]

I propose "Calvin Ball" become required reading for all DMs

 

[Kaiyanwang]

You're using a magic spell to affect the disposition of a person towards you and make them agreeable to what you are saying? It's what Suggestion does except now it can't overtake a character who specializes in Diplomacy because it follows the same guidelines. You're making yourself sound more convincing through magic.

What is the Arcana skill doing. And if is improvement of magic, why only works with suggestion.

What specifically do you feel is missing exactly?

See the Suggestion sub-thread, but you already answered.

 

[Zardnaar]

It will take time, because I need to go digging through the Internet Archive, but I can promise you a link where Heinsoo explicitly said that he had to repeatedly rein in his team from bumping up the Wizard's power until it was just a little better than everyone else. He had reckoned that the 4e Wizard might be slightly under-tuned relative to other classes as a consequence of this need to continually pull the Wizard back down.

I remember that and paraphrasing he said something close enough.

5E wizard isn't the best until levels no one plays at.

 

[Undrave]

I also ask - are there saving throws in your games? Because if a whole group of monsters fails them at once, they were not supposed to be a threat anyway.

No. In 4e, the offensive character is ALWAYS the one rolling the dice. If you want to hit a group you can target any of their defences: Armour Class, Fortitude, Reflex or Will.

Saving throws in 4e are a timing mechanic. Effects have a duration of 'save end' where you roll a d20 at the end of your turn and on a roll of 11 or more the effect ends.

 

[Kaiyanwang]

No. In 4e, the offensive character is ALWAYS the one rolling the dice. If you want to hit a group you can target any of their defences: Armour Class, Fortitude, Reflex or Will.

Saving throws in 4e are a timing mechanic. Effects have a duration of 'save end' where you roll a d20 at the end of your turn and on a roll of 11 or more the effect ends.

This was addressing people that stated that 3ed mass suggestion solved a whole encounter with multiple targets, but I understand I constructed the post in the least comprehensible manner, my apologies.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I am over simplifying, but not by much. Is an Int related skill used to identify magic-related stuff, recall magical info, etc. You cannot just dismiss it.

It does cover those things. It is also significantly more than JUST those things.

How does this help? - what happens in-universe?

Those things don't help. Actually performing the act of controlling magical energies to improvise a new effect helps. Because it is improvisational, it is not something that works every time.

Athletics and Acrobatics are not fighting skills in fact.

Neither is Arcana.

Not every athlete is a fighter even if it could help.

Not every person trained in Arcana is a battling spellcaster.

The abilities related to them indeed help combat because they are also added to stats that are combat-related.

The ability related to Arcana helps with some spellcasting traditions.

So, apples to oranges.

You have not demonstrated this.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Avoid setting changes (or at least more than very, very minor ones), give the books another year, (apparently) don't just nudge the HP of all monsters up a whole bunch(???), and emphasize presentation, presentation, presentation in the final publication. Avoid the GSL, avoid the murder-suicide that destroyed all future potential of the digital tools, avoid Silverlight which further strangled whatever minimal tools potential remained. Brace for the financial meltdown and focus on low-cost, easy-use books.

The rules would always be controversial. Can't help that. But you can attempt to address the myriad of problems, at least half of which were literally stuff WotC couldn't have known or controlled for.

Oh...and don't write such absolute $#!+ early adventures. Seriously, Keep on the Shadowfell and Pyramid of Shadows are horrible rotten garbage I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, and they made a terrible first showing for a brand-new edition.

Without the GSL, Paizo almost certainly never makes PF, but instead makes more 4e content. Lacking a rallying flag and having fewer complaints (because of the lack of setting changes), the grumbles remain mostly just that--grumbles.

We obviously can't validate this idea, but it is the only plausible alternate 4e universe theory that I have seen. Released under OGL 4e gets wide 3PP support, there's no PF, etc. Instead perhaps we get a wide variety of variant 4e games. Some might well essentially bring back or emulate other games and styles of play, etc. Not saying it would happen, but it is plausible.

 

[Undrave]

I am over simplifying, but not by much. Is an Int related skill used to identify magic-related stuff, recall magical info, etc. You cannot just dismiss it.

4e Skills are not as rigid as 3e ones that's all. Arcana is also the knowledge of energies and planar stuff and there's even powers related to skill training you can take. Heck, there's an Arcana Skill Power that's essentially superior to Suggestion! Arcane Muttering can let you replace Bluff, Diplomacy OR Intimidate with Arcana! You can grab it at level 2 in place of your class Encounter power.

but it is not what the class is for.

Says who?

What is the Arcana skill doing. And if is improvement of magic, why only works with suggestion.

The fluff of the power clearly state:
You weave arcane power through your words, infusing each phrase with persuasive magic.

And the power in itself is a free action that triggers when you would make a Diplomacy check. It's specifically a buff to your Diplomacy. The Arcana check is not improving a spell, it IS the spell, and it's specifically improving your ability to convince others.

 

[SteveC]

What is the Arcana skill doing. And if is improvement of magic, why only works with suggestion.

I'll answer that. In 4E (and, if I'm not mistaken, 5E as well), Arcana isn't just a skill to know things. You can do stuff with it. "Quick, we must close that portal down before the bad guys get through!" Roll Arcana. "There's an ancient spell here that just needs someone to send arcane energy through ... I think I can get it." Roll Arcana. It's the skill you use to do your magic stuff when you aren't using one of your Powers.

The player tells me what they want to do; I examine it and think about what it means in the Fiction. For a spellcaster who wants to try something magical, you probably roll Arcana. You can also feel free to apply the same thing to any other skill. If a character wants to attempt some stunt like toppling a pillar over on enemies, they roll Athletics.

The only thing is, Skill checks shouldn't be used directly to attack because they're on a different scale than Attack powers. If it were up to me, there would be one scale of Difficulties so that you could use them, but that didn't happen. And it didn't happen in 5E, either.

 

[Clint_L]

Dramatically altering the game is essentially the class fantasy of Wizard players. They want to do that as often as possible and whine when the game makes it harder for that to happen. They want ALL the spells to make it easier to have the right one and they want ALL the slots to cast them with.

In Martial terms, they want to crit on a 15 and are angry when they only get to crit on an 18 while everybody only crits on a 20.

I really, really don't understand stereotyping "wizard players" in this way.

It's a grotesque exaggeration. Is every "wizard player" like this? Really? Are they only like this when they play wizards? Or are you talking about players who only play wizards? Are there such players?

I almost never play wizards, because it's not one of my preferred class fantasies. But I have done, on occasion (and all the time as a DM). Do I become like this when I play a wizard?

I don't agree. I don't think there is a "type" of player who is wizard player, a fighter player, or whatever. There are individuals, and maybe a few of them behave like that. I guess. I've been playing for more than 40 years and have never encountered one, though.