Tidbits from PHB Viewing

[Rechan]

I can appreciate not covering all 10 dragons in the MMI. With each dragon taking up about 4 (or was it more) pages in the MM, each one removes 2 other monsters. Leaving some dragons out gives more variety to what is presented.

Not to mention how much Use they get. Compare how many times people have fought metallics vs. chromatics, and the answer is pretty obvious.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I can appreciate not covering all 10 dragons in the MMI. With each dragon taking up about 4 (or was it more) pages in the MM, each one removes 2 other monsters. Leaving some dragons out gives more variety to what is presented.

I agree, it also I don't think be too difficult to simply turn the Chromatics into Metallics. Change the appearance, mannerisms, etc.

Since it is a new game, the players won't know, that a Metallic Dragon doesn't have that attack.

 

[thalmin]

Don't get me wrong. The different dragons are VERY different from each other, with different types of attacks besides different breath weapons, different tactics, different habitats, different personalities and motivations. (Sorry I can't provide any examples. The above was gleaned from overhearing two customers as they discussed what they were reading.) Still, you want to fight small creatures, swarms, undead, humanoids, undeads, giants, aquatics, mundanes, etherials, demons, and gnomes some of the time, too.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Oh I know, but that shows how it would be easy to make a Metallic, you take one Chromatic and use it for a Metallic and use a completely different kind for the role of the Chromatic and it will be hard for players to go "hey... wasn't that Metallic just like that Chromatic" if you get my drift.

 

[Sojorn]

I can appreciate not covering all 10 dragons in the MMI. With each dragon taking up about 4 (or was it more) pages in the MM, each one removes 2 other monsters. Leaving some dragons out gives more variety to what is presented.

Whoa. Nice.

So instead of 10 dragons at a page each plus two other misc. pages that boil down to "all dragons are big, fly and breath stuff", we get 5 dragons at 4 pages each, all unique in what they do

 

[pukunui]

I agree, it also I don't think be too difficult to simply turn the Chromatics into Metallics. Change the appearance, mannerisms, etc.

Since it is a new game, the players won't know, that a Metallic Dragon doesn't have that attack.

Oh sure. Don't get me wrong. I don't really mind that they've left out various things like metallic dragons and frost giants and such. I think it's more the principle of the thing. They've spent a bit of time and money talking up metallic dragons and yet they're not going to deliver on the hype for another year. Seems a bit odd, that's all.

Not to mention how much Use they get. Compare how many times people have fought metallics vs. chromatics, and the answer is pretty obvious.

Yes but see that's the thing. They've been hyping up this whole "every monster is there to be fought" thing. That's why angels aren't just "good" anymore. That's part of the aforementioned metallic dragon hype. They're not the "goody two shoes" dragons that no one fights anymore. You're supposed to be able to come into conflict with them just as easily as you can with the chromatics, and there was that early playtest report where the PCs fought a copper dragon on a ship to demonstrate this fact.

All I'm trying to get at is why spend all this time hyping up something you're saving for at least a year later?

 

[thalmin]

All I'm trying to get at is why spend all this time hyping up something you're saving for at least a year later?

So we will have plenty to argue about discuss during the coming year.

 

[LordArchaon]

So we will have plenty to argue about discuss during the coming year.

Yep... If you think about it, doing marketing for D&D is not for economists, it's something any of us disciples could do it, we know what we want, we know what teases us... And they being basically like us, even more into it, know that even better, and we're seeing it...

 

[tecnowraith]

Did you get to see what the class progression is like? Are there any dead levels for class features, not powers? Like what do the classes get per level in features?

 

[pukunui]

Yep... If you think about it, doing marketing for D&D is not for economists, it's something any of us disciples could do it, we know what we want, we know what teases us... And they being basically like us, even more into it, know that even better, and we're seeing it...

On the one hand, I'm glad that I'm finally not being ignored!

On the other hand, though, I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill here. I'm not actually upset about the metallics being left out. I can deal with it. Just like I can deal with the druid and the bard not being in the first PHB either.

The stuff I really want right now is the stuff related to building my campaign world so I can have at least the bare bones of a homebrew campaign ready for when I finally get the books (my group is playing SWSE at the moment and the GM is struggling with the amount of prep time and coming up with enough material for a weekly game and he keeps asking me when I can pick up the reins again ... at this point it probably won't be till late June since I have to wait for the books to be shipped all the way out here and then I have to read through them and then I have to build at least part of a world [I'll mostly be using the default PoL concept but personalized, of course]).


EDIT: I'd really love to know more about the section on religion in the PHB. Thalmin, I know you said you didn't get to look at it closely, but maybe somebody else did? You said there were no evil gods. Does that mean that gods like Bane and Tiamat aren't in the PHB? Or does it mean that they're not evil? Are there any good gods or are they all self-serving Greco-Roman style deities? I'm thinking of doing something like that for my world. I really like the way they've done religion in Eberron. Hopefully there will be something about them on DDI in the coming months (that is, hopefully I won't have to wait until 2009 to see how the 4e mechanics work with the Eberron religion system).