Player's Handbook II (and other May releases)

[Felon]

Ah, great news. I want that PHB II to be full of crunchy stuff. The DMG II was a good book and all, but players want stuff to play with. I think the WotC staff know that.

I hope to at least see the marshal and scout appear again. I got little use for the warlock, but enough players love it that it's worth re-visiting.

What I'd really love are some more combat options that open D&D fights up a bit. For instance, I want to shake up the "thou shalt stand still if you want a full round of attacks" policy. I want to see brawny barbarians pick two guys up and knock their heads together, then fling them across the room. I don't want being knocked prone in melee to be the world's biggest hosejob.

EDIT--Also, sure wouldn't hurt to compile all of the different uses for skills in one place. Between the three race books, the three environment books, and Complete Adventurer, there's a lot of useful stuff about skills that could stand to be centralized.

 

[Imruphel]

I would think that 4e is at least two years away now. Charles Ryan is still Boss of D&D over at WOTC, and he has promised that we will get at least one year's warning before they release 4e. Seeing as WOTC are about 98% likely to release it at a GenCon, and the current GenCon is just about over without any announcement about 4e, it won't be released until the GenCon after next.

We will know when 4E is about to be released: WotC will announce a fully-functional and genuinely customisable character generator for 3.5E.

 

[the black knight]

Ah, great news. I want that PHB II to be full of crunchy stuff. The DMG II was a good book and all, but players want stuff to play with. I think the WotC staff know that.

I hope to at least see the marshal and scout appear again. I got little use for the warlock, but enough players love it that it's worth re-visiting.

What I'd really love are some more combat options that open D&D fights up a bit. For instance, I want to shake up the "thou shalt stand still if you want a full round of attacks" policy. I want to see brawny barbarians pick two guys up and knock their heads together, then fling them across the room. I don't want being knocked prone in melee to be the world's biggest hosejob.

EDIT--Also, sure wouldn't hurt to compile all of the different uses for skills in one place. Between the three race books, the three environment books, and Complete Adventurer, there's a lot of useful stuff about skills that could stand to be centralized.

I would say 3.5 is anime enough, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

It's not anime, curse you to Hades. It's action. The whole damn game is about heroic fantasy adventure, and that means action.

(Doesn't mean there isn't more to it, such as intrigue and politicking, but the system is oriented towards action.)

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I would say 3.5 is anime enough, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Um...what?!

 

[Silveras]

I think all the suggestions of a compilation of the Complete XXX classes, the new skill uses, and/or the feats from those books are barking up the wrong tree.

The PHB II will most likely not be either a replacement or a compilation of material in other 3.5 books. I would expect that most re-printed material will come from Dragon or Dungeon magazine rather then other sourcebooks.

I would expect to see, perhaps, more combat options like an expanded version of the Dragon article on cinematic combat actions, the one that provided rules for swinging on ropes, riding counterweights, and toppling heavy objects onto attackers below.

I seriously doubt that any existing rules will be revised (getting up from prone, for example); that's the job for a revision or a new edition, not an expansion of the existing rules. Perhaps some additional feats to help mitigate the difficulty might be in there, but not a change to the rules as they are.

 

[Felon]

I would say 3.5 is anime enough, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Not quite sure what you're talking about there, but I'd say that before D&D could even be remotely described as anime, a 10 foot leap into the air would require a Jump DC a smidge below 80.

 

[glass]

There might be enough interest to add Underground to the mix, but that's really covered by the Core rules. Clouds and some sort of "aerial" environment seem more likely to me.

What about jungle?


glass.

 

[Felon]

What about jungle?

Meh. A jungle is, in game terms, a hot, humid forest, and the DMG provides coverage on forest environments. Of course, it covered a lot of the material that just wound being regurgitated in the other environment books, so sure, what the hell. Why not a jungle book? :\

 

[JoeGKushner]

I got one question: Is the PHB2 standard or optional? I mean I don't want my group to show up with PHB2 thinking there are new standard rules mandatory for our D&D sessions, simply because the title have "Player's Handbook" on it.

I'm trying to think how this could possibly be standard. I mean, do the WoTC police come to the house and verify that everyone is using standard rules and burn up all your rule zero documents? Just seems a silly question.

About the only time this might be a valid concern is if you're curious about "official" or "tournament" play and since you've already mentioned that you're not doing the RPGA thing, seems odd.

Now mind you, I've seen some groups only use "WoTC" books as they are "official" and should be able to be used with one another with little to no hassel, but every book, and every rule, is optional. Just let your players know ahead of time.