One concern (sorta)

[Gargazon]

Trapfinding was going to be a feat, but now it is part of being trained in the Thievery skill.

There was talk about rituals being available to anyone, months back, but the D&D Experience has shown that only some classes get them.

It's still perfectly possible that Rituals will be castable if you take a relevant feat. We won't know for certain until A) Wizard says so or B) someone reads the book.

I can see this being the case as it'd make multiclassing a whole lot easier if that too is now some form of 'take another classes power if you take this feat' deal, which recent speculation seems to believe.

 

[Zaruthustran]

The one thing i have been wondering about, and slightly concerned about, is the number of dailies and encounter abilities that you can have "memorized" in one day.

Not sure I follow, here. It's my understanding that one of the design goals of 4E was to ditch the whole issue of having the wizard player suck up 20 minutes of everyone's time each and every time the party camps (usually after a 15 minute adventuring "day"), flipping through rule books and selecting which spells to memorize.

<shudders at the whole "forgetful wizards" schtick>

Anyway:

Who knows, rituals (or whatever they are called) might handle this issue. It just struck me as one of my only concerns, anyone else feel the same? and/or have any re-assuring words or quotes?

I think you nailed it here. Seems like rituals are there specifically to provide variety and breadth to the caster's repertoire. If you're the type of player that enjoys having many options (I know I am), then you can delve deep into what is (I think) an optional system.

But yeah, I think one of the goals of 4E was for your character to be more consistent throughout any given level. The previously talked-about "swap out powers" thing at levelup means that players can dabble and experiment without fear of making an irrevocably bad choice.

 

[Cactot]

I am eager to see what they do with illusions in this edition also, the vast amount of creativity that you can display (and benefit from) with illusions is astounding and one of my favorite parts of 3.x. I know some things you could previously do with illusions wont be possible (too potentially abusable, like making illusions that end up with the result of save or screwed if you dont disbelieve) but i hope that it isn't limited to making crates to hide behind and impassible terrain features or walls. I doubt it would be, or they will just further piss off all the gnome fans that they irritated with the exclusion of them from the phb = D

I <3 shadowcraft gnomes hehehe. I must say, everything that i have seen so far has been extremely well designed and promising, so I really dont have any fears about most of this stuff, its more of just bouncing some ideas off of you all.

 

[Cactot]

Not sure I follow, here. It's my understanding that one of the design goals of 4E was to ditch the whole issue of having the wizard player suck up 20 minutes of everyone's time each and every time the party camps (usually after a 15 minute adventuring "day"), flipping through rule books and selecting which spells to memorize.

<shudders at the whole "forgetful wizards" schtick>

Sorry i didnt reply to this in the last post, let me clarify.

The impression I have is that you will have X amount of powers but Y amount of "slots" to use them in. For example, maybe at level 12 you choose another encounter power (your 4th one lets say), but you still can only "prepare" 3.

I may be totally wrong in this, and i hope that i am, because if my assumption is wrong, then every time you got access to a new daily/encounter it would give you another daily/encounter use, without making you choose between the new and the old one (which would be especially important as the abilities are supposed to scale with level, right?). That would make it end up with just about exactly the amount of powers i think we should have (assuming you get a new power every odd level, and a feat every even level, or something of the sort, which would give you ~17 powers at level 20).

 

[arscott]

Just pointing out:

Just as trapfinding is simply a function of the Thievery skill, It's quite possible that Ritual use is a function of the Arcana Skill. Only the Wizard and Cleric are trained in Arcana, and only they get the ritual ability.

 

[FreeXenon]

If I am correct, Rogues get the Trap Finding Feat for free which possibly unlocks the usage from Thievery skill?

...and that Arcana and Religion both allow the taking of the Ritual feat (assuming there is one) or that the skills, in and of themselves, allow a character to learn and cast Rituals.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

Just pointing out:

Just as trapfinding is simply a function of the Thievery skill, It's quite possible that Ritual use is a function of the Arcana Skill. Only the Wizard and Cleric are trained in Arcana, and only they get the ritual ability.

hmm... you might be on to something here (and if not, it sounds like a great houserule!)

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Just pointing out:

Just as trapfinding is simply a function of the Thievery skill, It's quite possible that Ritual use is a function of the Arcana Skill. Only the Wizard and Cleric are trained in Arcana, and only they get the ritual ability.

Speaking against this would be that the ability to use Rituals was explicitely mentioned in the character sheet. I don't remember the Rogue class description on the DDI have such a special note for traps.

But my guess is that only spellcasters get rituals per default. Everyone else has to take a feat for it. That's something I would not mind, generally, though it would speak again ideas of using rituals as a base for non-adventuring activities (perform, profession, craft). (Though I never really assumed that this was a "core element" of the rules, and it's more something we - as EnWolrd - came up after the fact...)

For the original topic: I think there will be some considerably limits to how many powers people will be able can use per day/encounter. Otherwise, you would use your encounter powers the whole encounter, and never get to the basic attacks.
Still, there seems to be a significant difference between how many powers people have at all.
Wizards get to pick their dailies. Clerics have powers that use the same "slot" (Divine Challenging), but in turn get more powers known. So it's hard to guess how much powers people will have to choose from, and when they have to choose. (Each Level? Each day? Each encounter?)

 

[sunrisekid]

The impression I have is that you will have X amount of powers but Y amount of "slots" to use them in. For example, maybe at level 12 you choose another encounter power (your 4th one lets say), but you still can only "prepare" 3.

Can you point to any sources suggesting "slots" or of having to select between powers on a daily basis? My reading was that all the powers a character gains per level are known permanently and can be used whenever desired (within the "at-will" through "daily" stricture).

 

[drjones]

On the wizard pregen you select one of the two available Daily powers to be 'memorized' so yo can use only that one.