Rules bits we already know

[Sir Osis of Liver]

i'm wondering if UA and the up coming rules compendium might not end up becoming something of a 4e primer. that and the new star wars book.

 

[Destil]

I haven't seen a mention of AC stays... I would be surprised if they didn't go with the Fort/Ref/Will Defense mechanic of SWSE...

"Saves" are mentioned here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drpr/20070816a

Before we begin play, another player is giving Rich grief about one of Rich’s character’s abilities that grants the rest of us a blanket +2 to saves; it just ain’t sexy. Rich says something like, “I don’t know, I doubt I’ll use it that much, but who knows, maybe everyone in the party will get entangled.”

Sure enough, not 10 minutes later this fire-crazed flame priest has entangled half the party with fire snakes! Rich throws up his +2 to saves and, voila, at least two of us get free immediately. I guess that power isn’t so corner case after all.

The way they describe it makes it sure sound like it's good old rolled saves.

Fort/Ref/Will works great for for saga, saves & AC are pretty iconic D&D things, though, and I doubt they'll go away.

 

[Jack99]

There will be paladins.. even evil paladins

From Chris Perkins blog paladins!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Since I miss the rules scoops in the old Eric Noah's 3rd edition web site, I'll start this thread. I intended to include only specific data, like "attacks of opportunity disapear or are thoroughly revamped" instead of geneal statements like "combat is streamlined"

Excellent summary - I knew Someone had to do it!

Keep up the good work mate!

 

[Plane Sailing]

The gleemax post from srhall79 that you linked to also said this

Alignment will not be as it is now. Andy Collins doesn't want it as a mechancial element, Bill backs him, so Andy's getting his way.

Will magic item creation use XP? No. Hell No! XP are not a resource. So says Andy, and again, he gets his way. Likewise, no monsters eating XP.

So changes in alignment and 'level draining' creatures may be on the way?

 

[Plane Sailing]

See Unearthed Arcana, page 214, for some insight into a couple of changes:

a) Fixed XP for monsters; "buying" encounters from a fixed pool of XP

b) XP costs for magic items out-- if you read that section in UA, fixed XP for monsters causes fixed XP costs to go wonky. From this, you can probably extrapolate...

c) XP costs for spells are out.

Backed up, of course, by Andy Collins saying explicitly that XP are not a resource to be spent.

At any rate, if you want to know what he was thinking and why, UA p.214 is a good place to look.

Hi Wulf,

I don't know whether or not you had noticed, but srhall79 (in above referenced thread) also said this:

XP will be easier; no more comparing CR to party level to find out how much they're worth. CR is also gone, melded into monster level. To build an encounter, you determine the XP value you want, and then pick out monsters that total that XP value. This should also make it easier to modify encounters.

Had you already heard it, or were you making a brilliant prediction

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Had you already heard it, or were you making a brilliant prediction

No, no, I had seen it.

I was merely trying to extend the conversation past, "Here's kinda what he said..." to "...and if you want to know what he said and what he probably meant by it, and maybe even what else it might mean, read UA p. 214."

 

[BlackMoria]

It was mentioned that the sorceror will remain and will be quite 'different' from the mage / wizard.

I am thinking that that sorceror will kill the warlock and take his stuff. Warlock is the byproduct of dark powers or pacts, the sorceror is the by-product of dragon/outsider/whatever bloodlines. Sorceror just knows magic intuitively, the warlock has eldritch blast 'intuitively' as an 'at will' ability. In many ways, it makes sense to merge the two classes.

 

[RFisher]

Sorry if this was already posted, & I missed it...

From GamerZer0's interview with James Wyatt: There are four "roles".

• Defender: fighter & paladin classes
• Leader: cleric & warlord classes
• Controller: wizard class
• Striker: rogue & ranger classes

Although two PCs may serve the same role, they may do it in different ways. (Like fighters with different styles.) The roles are geared towards combat; a PC's non-combat aspects can differentiate him further.

He also said that they are still considering the possibility of there being a class or two that doesn't quite fit the four "roles". (Maybe blends two of them?)

 

[RFisher]

Oh, & it was clear he only mentioned the Warlord class because it had been discovered in the screen shot.