Raduin711
Hero
I brought this up in the two roguezilla threads, but I thought this issue deserved its own thread.
In the above article, does it say that the rogue recieves a total of 6 skills (Stealth, Thievery, plus four skills from the class skills list) or does it say they recieve 10? (Stealth, Thievery, 4 skills of the player's choice, plus four more skills from the list below.)
On my first reading, I thought the rogue only gets six. I thought that because:
-The way the rules repeat the number 4 in both sentences, possibly suggesting that they may be talking about the same 4 skills.
-Of the way 3e treats skills: All skills are filtered through a class skill list. You can take skills cross class, you can multiclass, you can reduce the cost of cross class skills, you can add to the skill list, but nothing is free.
But I have revised my original reading:
-For some reason, it divides what would normally be a very straightforward sentence ("Stealth, Thievery, plus four skills from the following list:") into two sentences.
-In the second sentence, it uses the word "more". While this could just be a throwaway word, it does seem to attempt to clarify that we are talking about four more skills.
I think the former interpretation may be responsible for a lot of the negativity surrounding the 4e rogue. With that reading, it does sound pretty restricted in skill choice.
But I do think the latter interpretation is the correct one, and incidentally would mean that rogues receive a lot of freedom in their skills, solving the cross-class skill issue, helping the player make the character they want, while simultaneously guiding the character towards taking skills that match the flavor of the class and will be necessary for party survival. It just makes more sense from a game design standpoint, in my opinion.
What does everyone else think? I have to admit that a couple neutral 3rd parties have told me they thought it said 6. I will admit that it might be clearer if it was in the order we would normally expect: Free but mandatory skills -> Restricted Choice skills -> Whatever-your-heart's-desire skills.
One counter argument I have read is that the previews have been prone to typos. I haven't really noticed this. Anyone have any examples?
And would it be possible for someone to clarify this without breaching their NDA?
In the above article, does it say that the rogue recieves a total of 6 skills (Stealth, Thievery, plus four skills from the class skills list) or does it say they recieve 10? (Stealth, Thievery, 4 skills of the player's choice, plus four more skills from the list below.)
On my first reading, I thought the rogue only gets six. I thought that because:
-The way the rules repeat the number 4 in both sentences, possibly suggesting that they may be talking about the same 4 skills.
-Of the way 3e treats skills: All skills are filtered through a class skill list. You can take skills cross class, you can multiclass, you can reduce the cost of cross class skills, you can add to the skill list, but nothing is free.
But I have revised my original reading:
-For some reason, it divides what would normally be a very straightforward sentence ("Stealth, Thievery, plus four skills from the following list:") into two sentences.
-In the second sentence, it uses the word "more". While this could just be a throwaway word, it does seem to attempt to clarify that we are talking about four more skills.
I think the former interpretation may be responsible for a lot of the negativity surrounding the 4e rogue. With that reading, it does sound pretty restricted in skill choice.
But I do think the latter interpretation is the correct one, and incidentally would mean that rogues receive a lot of freedom in their skills, solving the cross-class skill issue, helping the player make the character they want, while simultaneously guiding the character towards taking skills that match the flavor of the class and will be necessary for party survival. It just makes more sense from a game design standpoint, in my opinion.
What does everyone else think? I have to admit that a couple neutral 3rd parties have told me they thought it said 6. I will admit that it might be clearer if it was in the order we would normally expect: Free but mandatory skills -> Restricted Choice skills -> Whatever-your-heart's-desire skills.
One counter argument I have read is that the previews have been prone to typos. I haven't really noticed this. Anyone have any examples?
And would it be possible for someone to clarify this without breaching their NDA?
).
