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To all D&D fans - what are the top 3 specific changes 4e needs in your opinion
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<blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 4530863" data-attributes="member: 114"><p>My unrealistic changes:</p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Dramatically change arcane magic so that it is more 'magical', has a lot more rituals around, more different types of rituals, better balance of daily spells etc. Perhaps turn implements into 'weapons', so wands have higher proficiency (e.g. +1 to hit) but scale damage dice back one notch (d8s to d6s). Orbs are as it stands. Staffs are two handed implements, but damage dice scales up one notch (d8s become d10s, etc). Some other implements can be introduced which are 'high critical' implements, or 'versatile' implements, taking cues from the weapons rules.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Give monsters more powers back. Make them more consistent. Admittedly one of the problems of 3e was that most monsters didn't get to use many of their powers because they were only alive for 2-4 rounds. However, with the increased hit points of everything, and the reduced damage done by everybody, I'm now seeing relatively boring monsters that can only do 3-4 different things at best which are lasting for 10-20 rounds. They should either have monsters that die quickly that have few powers, or ones that last longer having a greater variety of powers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Dramatically change powers. It would be better IMO if you started off with some at-wills, some encounter and some daily powers, and as you gained in level you were able to migrate powers so some of your old encounters become at-will, your old dailies become encounter and you pick up new dailies. This would feel much more like organic growth of the character, gaining gradually more and more control over their most powerful effects - and even the martial characters would feel a little more natural.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Can I have four? My ideal change would be to move 4e to the Star Wars saga system of talents and powers. The class based talents gave an incredible degree of configurability of the classes. The powers (force powers) could sit alongside the non-force classes without overpowering them (the arcane/martial balance) and had good recovery methods. From my experience so far it was a far more extensible and pleasant system than the 4e one.</li> </ol><p></p><p>My (slightly) more realistic changes</p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">expose the 'maths' behind powers. They are pretty big on supposedly making the maths on everything work better, but there sometimes seems to be little rhyme or reason behind the calculation of the various powers. Why is there so little difference between Cloudkill (19th) and Stinking Cloud(5th)? Why is Fireball so feeble compared to most other spells? What is the relative value (power level wise) of stun, daze, immobilise, blinded, push, pull, slide etc? What about range and area of effect? How does ongoing damage affect the ranking of a power? It is very difficult for anyone wishing to create new powers (or whole new classes) to assess what is the most appropriate place for new powers - and the lack of exposure of their internal rules (if they exist) is likely to produce rather seriously unbalanced stuff in the future, IMO.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Provide a LOT more rituals - seriously, at least 10 of every odd level for arcane and again for divine/nature people. A lot of the apparent problems of the lack of flexibility of the wizard (and perhaps cleric) is because they have such a paltry, useless choice of 1st level rituals - so all wizards end up with Tensers disk, comprehend languages, messenger and magic mouth (virtually). It would be interesting to include backfire rules which would enable wizards to skimp on either components, caster level or time (to do it more quickly) but with a chance of the spell failing or backfiring. After all, backfiring spells is a fantasy staple. You could include some 'war' rituals as well then - things like giant fireballs or such, which are much longer ranged or do much more damage or something - but are expensive and normally take 10 minutes to cast.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Fix multiclassing. At the moment it is a shambles. My suggestion (which I'm trialling at the moment) is that the initial multiclass feat lets you swap one of your at-wills for an at-will from the multiclass, and if necessary gives you a salient class feature (whether pact boon, hunters quarry etc). Paragon paths need to be fixed so that they remain available and effective to all classes/multiclasses.</li> </ol></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Plane Sailing, post: 4530863, member: 114"] My unrealistic changes: [LIST=1] [*]Dramatically change arcane magic so that it is more 'magical', has a lot more rituals around, more different types of rituals, better balance of daily spells etc. Perhaps turn implements into 'weapons', so wands have higher proficiency (e.g. +1 to hit) but scale damage dice back one notch (d8s to d6s). Orbs are as it stands. Staffs are two handed implements, but damage dice scales up one notch (d8s become d10s, etc). Some other implements can be introduced which are 'high critical' implements, or 'versatile' implements, taking cues from the weapons rules. [*]Give monsters more powers back. Make them more consistent. Admittedly one of the problems of 3e was that most monsters didn't get to use many of their powers because they were only alive for 2-4 rounds. However, with the increased hit points of everything, and the reduced damage done by everybody, I'm now seeing relatively boring monsters that can only do 3-4 different things at best which are lasting for 10-20 rounds. They should either have monsters that die quickly that have few powers, or ones that last longer having a greater variety of powers. [*]Dramatically change powers. It would be better IMO if you started off with some at-wills, some encounter and some daily powers, and as you gained in level you were able to migrate powers so some of your old encounters become at-will, your old dailies become encounter and you pick up new dailies. This would feel much more like organic growth of the character, gaining gradually more and more control over their most powerful effects - and even the martial characters would feel a little more natural. [*]Can I have four? My ideal change would be to move 4e to the Star Wars saga system of talents and powers. The class based talents gave an incredible degree of configurability of the classes. The powers (force powers) could sit alongside the non-force classes without overpowering them (the arcane/martial balance) and had good recovery methods. From my experience so far it was a far more extensible and pleasant system than the 4e one. [/LIST] My (slightly) more realistic changes [LIST=1] [*]expose the 'maths' behind powers. They are pretty big on supposedly making the maths on everything work better, but there sometimes seems to be little rhyme or reason behind the calculation of the various powers. Why is there so little difference between Cloudkill (19th) and Stinking Cloud(5th)? Why is Fireball so feeble compared to most other spells? What is the relative value (power level wise) of stun, daze, immobilise, blinded, push, pull, slide etc? What about range and area of effect? How does ongoing damage affect the ranking of a power? It is very difficult for anyone wishing to create new powers (or whole new classes) to assess what is the most appropriate place for new powers - and the lack of exposure of their internal rules (if they exist) is likely to produce rather seriously unbalanced stuff in the future, IMO. [*]Provide a LOT more rituals - seriously, at least 10 of every odd level for arcane and again for divine/nature people. A lot of the apparent problems of the lack of flexibility of the wizard (and perhaps cleric) is because they have such a paltry, useless choice of 1st level rituals - so all wizards end up with Tensers disk, comprehend languages, messenger and magic mouth (virtually). It would be interesting to include backfire rules which would enable wizards to skimp on either components, caster level or time (to do it more quickly) but with a chance of the spell failing or backfiring. After all, backfiring spells is a fantasy staple. You could include some 'war' rituals as well then - things like giant fireballs or such, which are much longer ranged or do much more damage or something - but are expensive and normally take 10 minutes to cast. [*]Fix multiclassing. At the moment it is a shambles. My suggestion (which I'm trialling at the moment) is that the initial multiclass feat lets you swap one of your at-wills for an at-will from the multiclass, and if necessary gives you a salient class feature (whether pact boon, hunters quarry etc). Paragon paths need to be fixed so that they remain available and effective to all classes/multiclasses. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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