The D&D Podcast wants your questions

[mhacdebhandia]

Where may I subscribe to the D&D podcast?

In case Dave doesn't come back to the thread anytime soon:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4pod/20070820e14[

or http://www.wizards.com/dnd/rsspodcast.xml

 

[JDragon]

Good questions, all. So good, in fact, that you should send them to dndfeedback@wizards.com. (I'll admit it: I'm not going to have time for a leisurely surf of the boards before we hit the studio tomorrow.)

And one further note: We're going to prioritize questions about the 4e D&D game itself rather than questions about D&D Insider, the digital game table, etc., simply because that's what Mike and I are doing on a daily basis. We'll sure get the digital folks into the studio and give them the third degree. But not tomorrow.

--Dave.

Can you give us some warning before you do so we can get ?'s for them?

That seems to be where most of my questions are focused right now. Especially since you made it very clear in the last podcast that you'll be talking about mechanics down the road and that many things are still in the air for rules.

Thanks

JD

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Questions e-mailed.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've emailed the following questions. Hope some of them might make the cut!

1. At present a party *needs* a cleric for healing. Is there going to be a way around that (e.g. having hit points refresh per encounter in some way?)

2. At present a party *needs* a rogue for trapfinding. Is there going to be a way around that (so that many different party classes could fulfil such a role)

3. Can you tell us something more about non-combat encounters (social encounters and scaling the mountain pass encounters, for instance).

4. How will prestige classes differ from the current situation?

We've heard that Star Wars SAGA may be giving pointers to 4e…

5. will we expect to see talent trees for the classes?

6. will we expect to see the Condition Track (or something similar) to unify conditions)?

7. will we expect to see iterative attacks disappear and be replaced by a damage bonus?

Final questions

8. The weapon manouevres for different weapons sounds neat. It also reminds me of the excellent Master Of Arms publication by Second World from several years ago. Any similarities there that you know of?

9. We hear from James Wyatt that fireballs don't do 1d6/level any more. Considering fireball as one of the THE iconic spells, could you share what fireball is like now?

 

[Glyfair]

From David Noonan's latest blog post:

Podcast: Just a quick note--we recorded the first post-Gencon podcast, and we blew through a lot of questions y'all sent in. So thanks!

Because we're crazy like that, Mike and I opted to read them cold. Neither of us saw the questions beforehand. Bart Carroll just handed us each a stack and we took turns reading the questions. Then at the end, to get through the stack, we answered them lightning-round style.

For the next podcast, we'll get a designer into the studio and pester him/her with questions.

 

[JVisgaitis]

From David Noonan's latest blog post:

Sweet. When is it going live?

 

[Korgoth]

So, I've been camping the D&D Mainpage for this podcast and it hasn't materialized.

This is the information age you slackers! Get to informatin'!

 

[JoelF]

These are the questions I emailed Tuesday.

1) Can you explain how 4th edition simplifies without changing the rules to D&D Lite? As an example, from what I’ve seen of the Star Wars Saga skill rules, which have been indicated to be a preview of 4th edition, it seems that they remove choice, and make only 2 levels of skill, trained and untrained, instead of a whole numeric scale which you can customize your character’s level of ability.

2) Will the “role” concept pigeon-hole characters more, instead of liberating players as the intent seems to be? If I want to make a fighter who isn’t a defender, and is more of a striker, or for that matter, something else entirely, how much does the 4th edition concept of roles restrict me from doing so?

3) Of the current core classes and races, even if you can’t tell us which aren’t in the core for 4th edition, can you explain the thought process used as to what to cull from the herd?

4) There are hints that for each character level, there is a spell level. While grasping the trunk of the metaphorical elephant, this seems to me to complicate things, rather than simplify. Can you explain how having that many new spell levels (instead of the current 9) makes 4th edition easier to manage characters and run?

5) With the news that magic is getting a vast overhaul, which consists of a mix of powers usable at well, per encounter, and per day, the initial information seems to indicate that casters will have fewer prepared spells per the vancian magic system usable at day, and will instead have at will and per encounter spells. The example being the wizard can magic missile all day and the cleric can heal all day. What if I don’t want to play an evoker type wizard? What if I prefer an abjurer who can use the shield spell at will instead, or an enchanter who can charm person at will, etc? By restricting the number of prepared spells, will that remove lots of the variety of spellcaster types?

6) By removing the Greyhawk setting as the default core setting, and including a setting which includes “spots of light surrounded by darkness” and gods of a mish-mash of pantheons (Thor, Pelor, Zeus, etc.) does this mean that 4th edition core has No default setting, and merely examples from a variety, or does this imply that a brand new setting is going to be presented as the core setting?

7) Grapple has been mentioned as a complicated set of rules which never worked well, and got an overhaul. Were there any rules which were deemed “too complicated” and removed entirely? If so, won’t this remove the options which character have during the game? Can you comment on which were removed entirely?

8) I asked at Gen Con about if armor types were fixed so that there are more than 3 worth wearing (chain shirt, breast plate, and full plate, or hide if you’re a druid) and was told yes. Can you elaborate on how all armors are meaningful in 4th edition?

9) How will death, resurrection, and death penalty (level loss, constitution loss, or some other new option) work in 4th edition?