PHBIII and IV: Oriental Adventures?

[Steely Dan]

I am personally not seeing the point of differentiating all the various power sources like that.

Well, I guess we could have just one power source; Power.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

I am personally not seeing the point of differentiating all the various power sources like that. What's the use, when they all just end up working the same at the end of the day? Best example is the web article on illusions - they are mechanically identical to PHB wizard's spells.
<snip>

Well ... they are wizard spells. They aren't illusionist spells or anything that belongs to a different class. My suspicion is that they put that out to sate the people clamouring for illusion magic before their illusionist class came out.

My point being, since those illusion spells are in fact wizard spells, why should you be surprised that they are mechanically identical to wizard spells? That's like saying you're surprised an apple is an apple because it's an apple.

 

[Caliber]

I think Ki likely will end up being (as someone upthread cleverly put it) Power Source: Asian, and whichever book it shows up with will have a more Eastern flavor in general.

I hope we don't see an Oriental Adventures style stand-alone book really ... I'd prefer it get wrapped into a PHB (although if you want to make another book for the Setting that would be perfectly fine). Essentially, none of my games saw any of the Oriental Adventures classes until some started showing up in the Complete line. I'd like to see the vast majority of new classes stay in the PHB line this go-through.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I think the Complete line showed that it's becoming fairly acceptable to put in Asian flavored classes into a "general" book. The Ninja seemed to be pretty popular judging from the numbers of players I had who wanted to test it out.

 

[Steely Dan]

I think Ki likely will end up being (as someone upthread cleverly put it) Power Source: Asian

I think that would be incredibly lame and cheap if every class with a vaguely Asian/Oriental title gets lumped in the Ki power source.

As they have stated it is the power of the soul, I think it will be non-culturally specific…thank god.

 

[davethegame]

2010 PHIII: for Psionic, Shadow, and Elemental Heroes
Psionic getting the full PH1 Martial in one book coverage.

Setting? DARK SUN

2011 PH: for Ki, Shadow and Elemental Heroes

Setting? Kara-Tur

Dark Sun seemed to be the book that all of R&D wanted to work on, so I wouldn't be surprised at all.

 

[Steely Dan]

Dark Sun seemed to be the book that all of R&D wanted to work on, so I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Yeah, it seems to be the most highly speculated campaign setting for 2010, which is fine by me as I have been a huge fan since back in the day.

It also conveniently compliments the whole PoL business.

 

[Ranger REG]

I hope we don't see an Oriental Adventures style stand-alone book really ... I'd prefer it get wrapped into a PHB (although if you want to make another book for the Setting that would be perfectly fine). Essentially, none of my games saw any of the Oriental Adventures classes until some started showing up in the Complete line. I'd like to see the vast majority of new classes stay in the PHB line this go-through.

*shudders violently in disgust and opposition*

 

[Runestar]

Well ... they are wizard spells. They aren't illusionist spells or anything that belongs to a different class. My suspicion is that they put that out to sate the people clamouring for illusion magic before their illusionist class came out.

My point being, since those illusion spells are in fact wizard spells, why should you be surprised that they are mechanically identical to wizard spells? That's like saying you're surprised an apple is an apple because it's an apple.

Look at 3e, and compare the mechanics for illusion spells to spells from the other schools, such as conjuration or transmutation. While they are all arcane spells, the manner in which they work is more like apples and oranges, rather than just different types of apples. They are just that fundamentally different.

Now look at spells in 4e. I take an existing wizard spell, vary the damage it deals, change the defense it targets, and voila...a new spell of another school? It is more like painting an apple orange and trying to pass it off as an orange.

I mean, what's the point of even bothering to differentiate them if they are all just minor variations of one another?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I'm alright with it as long as they don't make every Asian-themed class the same power source. Because otherwise it shows ignorance.

Much like I've said 100 times before, the Wu Jen should be an elemental or primal class.

And I feel that some of the 'ki' classes should be non-Asian-themed classes. There is after all the classes from Magic of the Incarnum and Tome of Battle to throw into some of the spots.