Revealed: "Bloodlines" from Unearthed Arcana

[AeroDm]

I like it, but I have a serious concern lately... D&D is turning more and more toward Andy Collins game and rules edition...

Not trying to say I don't like, hey, I love 3.5, the ranger is a little off to my liking, but they were always out of the group that makes sense to me, but with this it seems that we have Andy Collin's House Rules Book.

I think it is possible that Andy Collins is using these rules in his home game to test them rather than these rules are being introduced because Andy likes them. Sort of a chicken and an egg thing.

 

[Nifelhein]

I don't think that is so, the Bloodlines thing, while very very interesting is truly derived from his last campaign and the though and hard option for his new campaign, that can be seen udner development in his site, seem to be found in the book too.

Anyway, it is just a concern, somehow connected to D&D being leaded by a single designer now, unlike how 3rd edition was born, through three designers, one very traditional, one very diversified and one that had a good knowledge of many game systems around (in no way limiting their skills, but what I know of them, actually).

Anyway, the bloodlines thing seem interesting, the heroic paths from midnight made such a sucess among my players that one is thinking about using them on a dragonlance game he is DMing now, it is, basically, one more thing to add to the concept of the character!

 

[Davelozzi]

I agree with Nifelhein that Andy Collins weilds too much influence with D&D these days. I'm really looking forward to Unearthed Arcana but I have to admit that so far I've only been disappointed with a lot of the stuff he's done. Not to say that he hasn't done some good things too, but I'd rather see a better system of checks and balances.

 

[John Crichton]

Let's not forget that UA isn't core and it is essentially someone's houserules.


Also, I don't think Collins has too much control at all. If you don't like his stuff, don't use it.

 

[Kai Lord]

I like it, but I have a serious concern lately... D&D is turning more and more toward Andy Collins game and rules edition...

Well its my understanding that the original Unearthed Arcana was simply a collection of homebrews from Gary Gygax's personal campaign, for this book I don't see that it matters.

 

[Nifelhein]

Well guys, while I would love to carry the debate on, as I do believe that making D&D now is a lot on his hands, I don't think we should go hijacking this thread for it.

Anyway, it seems interesting, but I hope it is just not another way of having abilities, but something that brings more flavour to the game.

 

[Simplicity]

Sounds a heck of a lot like Midnight to me... What do they call them? Heroic paths?

 

[Nifelhein]

Nope, there is a very set list of them that are monster named, here is an excerpt from a thread found here:

Bloodlines (take 2) - Ancestors available: Celestial, Demon, Devil, Doppelganger, Black Dragon, Blue Dragon, Brass Dragon, Bronze Dragon, Copper Dragon, Gold Dragon, Green Dragon, Red Dragon, Silver Dragon, White Dragon, Air Elemental, Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, Water Elemental, Fey, Djinni, Efreeti, Janni, Cloud Giant, Fire Giant, Frost Giant, Hill Giant, Stone Giant, Storm Giant, Githyanki, Githzerai, Hag, Lycanthrope, Minotaur, Ogre, Slaad, Titan, Troll, Vampire, Yuan-ti.
There are three bloodline strength - minor, intermediate, and major, giving 5, 10, or 20 special abilities.
All of that uses up 13 pages.

thread is: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76681