D&D 4E Star Wars Saga Edition as preview of 4e?

[eyebeams]

Meh. Classes are currently bloated with abilities to balance against multiclassing, since if abilities are loaded in a cluster of levels you're encouraged to leave the class the moment you complete the cluster. I could do with *fewer* class abilities that *matter* instead of more abilities that are basically templated bonuses and tweaks that aren't very interesting in of themselves.

 

[Ry]

I"d like to see some consolidation in the class feature / talent / feat / extraordinary ability space. I think to a great extent they're all "extraordinary abilities", so the fact there's different general rules for different kinds seems excessive to me. You can probably lump Warlock invocations in there as well.

 

[drothgery]

Oh? Will there?

Are you saying no, then? I mean, I sure hope the scores of +2/+2 feats are gone, but the basic idea of spending a feat (or a talent) to get better at a skill doesn't seem inherrently flawed.

 

[RodneyThompson]

Are you saying no, then? I mean, I sure hope the scores of +2/+2 feats are gone, but the basic idea of spending a feat (or a talent) to get better at a skill doesn't seem inherrently flawed.

I'll just say...wait for this coming week's preview. We've taken great pains to keep the skills system simple, and feats/talents (with ONE exception) that provide a bonus to skills are a thing of the past.

 

[Felon]

I'll just say...wait for this coming week's preview. We've taken great pains to keep the skills system simple, and feats/talents (with ONE exception) that provide a bonus to skills are a thing of the past.

Please, please don't tell us we're gonna get loads and loads of re-rolls as an alternative to modifiers. That's a mechanic that's got a very limited niche. I suspect it will quickly cloy if one goes overboard with it.

One thing nobody has mentioned yet that I am absolutely puzzled by in a system that's supposed to be streamlined and newb-friendly: the preservation of the legacy 3-18 ability score system is still in place. We are still going to have a number that serves little other purpose than to represent some other number?

I had a newbie join my group almost year ago, and when I ask him what his Strength modifier is, he sometimes still shoots me an odd look and says "uh...16?" I think he's still waiting to discover what that 16 is there for when it always seems to be +3. I can't say I blame him.

 

[mmadsen]

I'd like to see some consolidation in the class feature / talent / feat / extraordinary ability space. I think to a great extent they're all "extraordinary abilities", so the fact there's different general rules for different kinds seems excessive to me.

Is there some reason why the notion of a feat list for each class (e.g. the Fighter's bonus feat list) hasn't caught on?

 

[JoeGKushner]

One thing nobody has mentioned yet that I am absolutely puzzled by in a system that's supposed to be streamlined and newb-friendly: the preservation of the legacy 3-18 ability score system is still in place. We are still going to have a number that serves little other purpose than to represent some other number?

This is an excellent point. Unlike 1st and 2nd ed, the stats in 3rd ed are

A)Universal. An 18 provides the same bonus to STR as CON as CHR.

B)Universal formula. There is no change in formula as the stats go up. It's still (10-STAT)/2.

 

[Korgoth]

I suppose I am alone in thinking that there should be less, not more, character customization should there be a 4th Edition. Make it a class based game again, not a point based one.

I'm with you, chief.

 

[Plane Sailing]

It will be interesting to see what has been done with talent trees when considering simple design of high level PCs/NPCs - in d20Modern I found talent trees to be a pain, because they added an additional level of 'prerequisites' that had to be considered when building an NPC.

For my current sci-fi game I ditched all feat prereqs, rewriting where necessary, so that any feat can be taken by anyone at any level (which has greatly simplified both character creation since nobody needs to plan their future carefully and NPC creation too).

So how are talent trees done in SWSE I wonder?

Cheers

 

[Klaus]

It will be interesting to see what has been done with talent trees when considering simple design of high level PCs/NPCs - in d20Modern I found talent trees to be a pain, because they added an additional level of 'prerequisites' that had to be considered when building an NPC.

For my current sci-fi game I ditched all feat prereqs, rewriting where necessary, so that any feat can be taken by anyone at any level (which has greatly simplified both character creation since nobody needs to plan their future carefully and NPC creation too).

So how are talent trees done in SWSE I wonder?

Cheers

Of course, in d20 Modern talents and bonus feats only become necessary when statting Hero characters. Ordinaries don't get either.