The Core Mechanic: New Design and Development

[Reaper Steve]

As a relevant tangent, I would like Armor's 'Max Dex Bonus' to vanish.
That was an awkward rule. They wanted to nod toward realism, but then made a rule that was totally unrealistic.
Armor should give a Dex penalty... then it impacts you regardless of Dex.
Using the Max Dex Bonus system, if my Dex Bonus is +1 but yours is +2 and we both wear the same armor with a Max Dex Bonus of +1, I'm not affected but you are reduced to my level. Even though you are naturally more nimble than I.
However, if the armor gives a flat -1 Dex bonus, then we are both equally affected.

 

[Intrope]

I disagree about the save-or-die effects: often, the Player did create that drama by making an incautious choice.

Further, given the way dragons usually are, many dragon fights will hinge on whether the dragon crits the party with his breath weapon. Which, depending on the hardness of the breath weapon, could very well amount to a "save-or-die" effect that the whole party passes unless the DM rolls a 20. Which is not necessarily bad... just that it isn't consistent.

The "flipped saves" or whatever you want to call them is an interesting idea, though. It doesn't seem better or worse than the old system.

I suspect that a Dragon that is a suitable encounter for the party's level will not be able to do half your hit points in a single breath; therefore, even if it crits it still won't be an instant TPK.

It's worth noting that the example combat round against a dragon had 4 characters all still up in round 4 or 5, implying that the danage-per-round in both directions was far more sane than is typical of 3e. Heck, only a tiny fraction of battles I've played in 3rd lasted 5 full rounds!

 

[Remathilis]

Does Happy Dance.

The SAGA-nization of D&D is my heart's desire.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Does Happy Dance.

The SAGA-nization of D&D is my heart's desire.

It is unavoidable. It is its destiny.

(On that note, I'd love to see D&D-ized Destiny mechanics in the 4E DMG.)

 

[el-remmen]

Ladies and gentlemen...we have the first 4e tidbit that I like!

word.

(though I guess I like the demon/devil stuff, too - but pure flavor things matter less to me - it is how rules affect flavor **coughperencounterabilitiescough** that I am worry about)

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

When you’re surprised, you grant combat advantage, but you don’t need to look at a special AC on your sheet -- the normal number works fine.

This oddly implies to me that AC won't include your Dexterity bonus. Of course, it will probably actually be that you get a +5 to attack a surprised character, or similar. I guess this clears up the classic problem of surprising a turtle, er, I mean Cleric, and finding the AC is the same.

 

[Gold Roger]

Sounds great, except for that bit about apparently being able to crit all targets of a area attack at once.

But there comes in a houserule I've been considering for my 3.5 Eberron game and might carry over to 4th:

-When you get a critical chance, you don't roll to comfirm (already in 4th), but you only crit by spending an AP. This way NPC's always never crit and PC's confirm whenever they need to.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

It's either (a) a Modron or (b) a Gnome.

Cheers!

(c) a Gnodron, new Monster from MM1. It killed the Mdorona nd Gnome and took its Stuff

 

[Tharen the Damned]

Ladies and gentlemen...we have the first 4e tidbit that I like!

In the long run they will get you too!

Mwahaahaaa

 

[Szatany]

I want to know what the heck that picture is of. WHAT IS THAT THING?

Is that a Salamander?

umm, tri-kreen?