D&D 4E Rich Baker on his 4e Warlord

[Mad Mac]

Well, considering that:

snippity-snip

3) Rich Baker's character has really good ability scores

Obviously, this proves that Rich Baker is cheating. Or just pumping him up for the boards sake. I mean, sure, Dave knows that Karhun only has 14 strength and was whacked by a gnome last week. And the less said about the fiendish noodle incident, the better. What happens at the table stays at the table, right?

 

[pemerton]

Lets say power selection is from wisdom, Intelligence lets Wizard know a wider list of spells,. and charisma increases is spell attack power. All of a sudden the absent minded professor(low wis) characters are virtually off the list. Shy book worm(low charisma) off the list.

Maybe I've misunderstood, or mabye I'm really agreeing with you, but I don't see this as a MAD problem but rather as a problem of mismatch between player expectations about the gameworld, and what the rules tell us about the gameworld.

If it really is the case that, in the game, only those with powerful personalities are able to use their magic effectively against others (ie if CHA increases spell attack power) than there won't be very many (anti-personell) casters who are shy book-worms. Most such spell users will be more like Doctor Strange or Professor X or Gandalf - that is, they will be dominating personalities.

This is no different to there not being very many warriors who are so unfit they can't jog to the bus-stop (ie most fighters have average to high CON).

Should the internal logic of the gameworld be set up in this way? I guess the worry is that permitting shy book-worm casters becomes unbalanced if it means that the players of wizards can ignore one more stat in their character build, thereby getting an optimisation advantage that players of other classes don't.

 

[hong]

This is the reason I prefer not to have personalities be dictated (or influenced) by stats. You can have a bookwormy guy with high Cha. It doesn't mean you're a party dude, it means that when you speak up, you tend to get noticed. Being noticed is eminently reasonable for someone who can chuck fireballs around, even if they prefer to keep to themselves most of the time. Similarly you can be an absent-minded professor with high Wis. It doesn't mean you can't forget where your socks are, it means that you have the willpower to stay focused on a goal. (And in fact, a lot of "absent-minded" profs have plenty of ability to stay focused. If they didn't, they'd never make professor in the first place.)

 

[pemerton]

This is the reason I prefer not to have personalities be dictated (or influenced) by stats.

Fair enough, though I'm not entirely sure about the bit in parantheses. For example, a friendly person with a low CHA is presumably going to be rebuffed enough that it's hard to see it not rebounding on his/her personality. Of course, in the case of a PC this issue could be resolved during the course of play - it needn't be part of the backstory.

 

[hong]

Fair enough, though I'm not entirely sure about the bit in parantheses. For example, a friendly person with a low CHA is presumably going to be rebuffed enough that it's hard to see it not rebounding on his/her personality.

In the context of actual gameplay, this kind of thing tends to resolve itself without too much hassle. The character's schtick becomes that of the likable buffoon, whom everyone wants on their side but noone takes seriously. The Tick. Bullwinkle. Minsc. Etc.

Maybe not psychologically rigorous, but hey, we're talking about a game where people pretend to be elves.

 

[pemerton]

Hong, good stuff.

 

[Mostlyjoe]

Minsc.

Ah Minsc. "Go for the eyes Boo!"

...yes I can see it.

 

[Odhanan]

(although I considered half-elf just because they multiclass well)

Does that mean there are still multiclassing restrictions in 4E? If so that's the first thing that strikes me as SUCKING about it! :\

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

In the context of actual gameplay, this kind of thing tends to resolve itself without too much hassle. The character's schtick becomes that of the likable buffoon, whom everyone wants on their side but noone takes seriously. The Tick. Bullwinkle. Minsc. Etc.

Maybe not psychologically rigorous, but hey, we're talking about a game where people pretend to be elves.

Yeah, what he said!

There is more than one way to characterize your character, based on your stats...

 

[Odhanan]

"(At this point I’d tell you exactly what we’re up to with multiclassing so that I could explain Karhun’s wizardliness, but I’m afraid I can’t quite yet. Suffice it to say that multiclassing isn’t like it was in 3e. That’s as much as I can say right now.)" ... this really bothers me. I hope this wasn't Rich's idea, but it seems someone at WotC decided to hold stuff back for no particular reason. "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to hold off releasing this until D&D Experience? That will sell tickets!" Or whatever the reason is. I really don't understand it.

I concur.

WotC people: you cannot say everything about the game right now, for whatever reason. I get it. I really do. Please stop teasing me with statements like this. Somebody asks a question, you can't answer and say so. Fine. But this is a blog post, not an answer to a trigger. Revise your post, present it another way that does not require this sort of statement. Please, stop writing stuff like this. That's really irritating, to me at least. Thank you!