Scott Rouse blog - Rogue ability

[glass]

"3 step shift" seems like an unlikely, clumsy, description of movement; as a result I think it is more likely to be referring to something else.

Maybe it is a 'shift' because it doesn't follow the standard rules for moving (like provoking AoO for example)?


glass.

 

[Gloombunny]

In this instance, it is "grind" (the worser of the two) and "tank" (I know, I know, everyone has been using that term since 1977). But it isn't just this post -- it is all the time.

Oh, for... the use of "grind" was completely different from the meaning it holds in WoW. Is he just not allowed to use any word that's been spoken by a WoW player, or what?

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

I feel the same. The vast majority of 4E news leaves me feeling cold. I'm sure I'll get jumped on for saying this, but the more I hear about 4.0, the more it seems like this the corporation mandated version of D&D. It's like the designers are building a marketing strategy instead of a game.

I like most of what I hear about 4e....though lately, mostly in the fluff and the abstract.

It's like when any other subculture gets swallowed by a corporate interest because it could be marketed more efficiently. Like when punk rock sold out: instead of the Dead Kennedys we're now stuck with Blink 182.

Oh, don't get me started on mall punk. Though for the record, I don't think that's happening here.

Like when hip hop sold out: instead of Biggie Smalls we get stuck with Soulja Boy.

Dude, that's adorable. Biggie was pre-sellout??? Come on now. Hip-hop died with gangsta. Run-DMC or nothing, boyyyyyeeee!

I'm done. Seriously.

4E seems like it's a great thing for Hasbro, but not a great thing for me and my gaming group. I hope to resist switching editions for as long as I can.

I actually had a session of the game in my sig last night where I had so much fun with the rules I'm back at my ultimate homebrew, lifting nearly all the 4e fluff I can find a lot of the concepts (Monte's house rules help too).

Take that crap somewhere else before I find the Report or Ignore button.

Then you might want to consider getting some fresh material.

Ya know, I've seen funnier 'just kidding's on webfora before, but the problem really looks like oversensitivity than a poor funny.

Did the design team really kill your dog and use the blood to print PHB drafts, or what?


Also, Reynard? 'Grind' is not a world limited to WoW, MMOs, or really anything - why, I heard it just last night in reference to a BioChemistry mid-term. Am I to believe the midterm exam was an instance raid*, or that it means "A long, hard task"? Also also, 'worser'? Totally not a word. Please don't speak in toddlerisms.

* I have no idea what an instance raid is, except "important to WoW players".

 

[el-remmen]

[mod]

Can folks please stop editorializing on each others comments and stick to speculating or discussing the new tidbit.

The only thing worse than thread-crapping are people who cannot help but pick through that steaming pile and end up smearing it all over the thread.

Consider this a warning.

Thanks.

[/mod]

 

[Gloombunny]

edit: please disregard as per mod instruction. ^_^

 

[Terraism]

Wrong! 3e is broken and busted. The 4e designers said so. If you say you're players ever moved at all in a fight, or if you say grappling didn't make your entire gaming group fall to the floor, twitching spasmodically in their confusion, you must be lying.

Or, you know. There are those of us for whom those two things actually are issues. I'm not saying that it's as many as it's been made out to be, but casually dismissing grappling or static combats as non-problems is as shortsighted as anything else, after all.

That said, I'm relatively inclined to agree with Wulf in that removing disincentives is the way to fix it, moreso than adding more incentives. But I'll wait and see how they handle it.

 

[BadMojo]

As I understand it, D&D has always been the quintisential gamist RPG.

I honestly don't think D&D can get more "gamist" than it already is, which is fine with me. That's all I have to say about that. Nothing can drain the fun out of a game quicker than a GNS discussion.

I still think the original post from Scott Rouse refers to movement and not a condition track. It would make sense that the rogue could do some sort of tumble-y evasive move. Considering the tumble rules as they are now, a DC 15 or even 25 tumble check is a no-brainer for the rogue looking to move around the battlefield.

It makes sense to take the "I tumble around my foe" tactic and just change it to a specific ability instead of a series of skill checks you can't fail.

 

[Exen Trik]

Maybe it is a 'shift' because it doesn't follow the standard rules for moving (like provoking AoO for example)?

Perhaps 'shift' is essentially the new '5 ft. Step', only not necessarily limited to 5 ft? Like the 5 ft. step you don't provoke AoOs for movement, but unlike it the move doesn't sound like a physical impossibility.

 

[Festivus]

I suspect, flavor-wise, it is tumbling. But yes, any time there's a skill every player character of a certain character MUST have, it's worth looking at just incorporating that mechanism into the class itself.

Tumble is one of those rules that could do with simplification. His example specifically he points out multiple enemies and being boxed in. Quick, someone tell me the DC for tumbling through an enemy square while being threatened with multiple others. You whip out the rulebook for tumble, find the base DC, add the modifiers for additional combatants, etc... or in 4E you just execute a maneuver.

 

[Paraxis]

Tumble is one of those rules that could do with simplification. His example specifically he points out multiple enemies and being boxed in. Quick, someone tell me the DC for tumbling through an enemy square while being threatened with multiple others. You whip out the rulebook for tumble, find the base DC, add the modifiers for additional combatants, etc... or in 4E you just execute a maneuver.

I agree with the logic, but there should be some kind of roll or chance of failure. Making rolls is fun, because succeeding at something is fun. No roll = no chance of failure wich = boring.

Looking up numbers is part of an rpg, or estimating a DC on part of the DM if he wants fast play. So sure having the rogue have access to an ability like this is good, and simplification is good, but with no roll involved it becomes dull.

The better solution IMO would be to allow a tumble check DC 15+2 for every square past the first wich is threatened by an opponent to avoid AoO.