D&D 4E What changes aren't being made in 4E that you think should be

[kennew142]

Use of Metric System.

I'm tired of calculating back and forth from metric and outdated imperial units.

And this is the best reason for using squares instead of feet. Players around the world can convert squares to 5 feet, or 1.5 m, or whatever system they're using.

I've been known to use 3 foot squares in some instances, and 5 foot squares in others. I find it much more convenient.

 

[kennew142]

in 3.x terms, the witch would be a spontaneous wisdom based arcane caster lacking flashy destructive spells (e.g, fireball, cone of cold), and whose spells have an emphasis on divination, charm, illusion and transformation supplemented with some spells involving blessing, curses, healing, nature (animals, plants, weather control) as well as the classic stealing/restoring youth. Additional class features include familiar, bonus metagic and item creation (potions, charms, etc.), the ability to change appearance, and longevity.

Now that I see what you mean by witch, I guess I can see why people would want such a class. I would probably use CHA instead of WIS, but that's just my preference. Can't you do this with the sorcerer, just by adding some healing and removing the flashy evocation stuff from their list?

 

[Liquid Ghost]

Its not just feet. Its miles, yards, pounds, degrees Fahrenheit, inches, ounces, gallons, pints, and quarts too. All of them can be found in D&D.

 

[Professor Phobos]

While we're on the subject of changes I'd really like to see, but don't seem to be, is that I really wish the default wasn't "Use Miniatures." I'd really appreciate the combat chapter split into a hyper-simplified "Basic Combat" (no miniatures, none of the fussy details, closer to classic D&D) going for maybe two or three pages, tops, and then the rest into "Advanced Combat" with all the tactical nonsense you folks seem to enjoy so much.

That'd sell me instantly.

 

[kennew142]

Its not just feet. Its miles, yards, pounds, degrees Fahrenheit, inches, ounces, gallons, pints, and quarts too. All of them can be found in D&D.

I understand. Most D&D gamers reside in the US, where the metric system is not the norm. This is probably not going to change. That said, movement and spell ranges are probably the most commonly used measurements in the game.

When I was in the army and lived in Germany, I ran D&D (1e) for some German friends (thankfully in English, since my German is terrible). I had a handy guide I used when running the game. In 1e edition, distances were measured in inches (talk about a throwback to D&D's roots as a miniatures game) that then had to be converted to 10 feet when in the dungeon or 10 yards when outside. I just converted these measurements to 3 m when in the dungeon and 10 m when outside. A mile became 1.5 km and a pound 1/2 kg.

I do think that D&D could be a little more sensitive to players from other countries. There is really no reason for spells to reference units like degrees Fahrenheit, or gallons, or pounds without at least providing a parenthetical metric equivalent. An exact conversion would be cumbersome and unnecessary, but rough approximations (like I listed above) that are easy to remember would be very nice.

 

[Greg K]

Now that I see what you mean by witch, I guess I can see why people would want such a class. I would probably use CHA instead of WIS, but that's just my preference. Can't you do this with the sorcerer, just by adding some healing and removing the flashy evocation stuff from their list?

Wisdom fits the wise woman/wise man. Charisma as the key stat has been used to represent both innate powre and force of personality.

The other thing I left out was class skills. THe witch class skills would share much with the druid.

Now as for just using the sorcerer and creating a class variant, it would work. However, with all the changes, I would rather just have a new base class with its own spell list for ease of use- and I am probably one of the biggest proponents of Unearthed Arcana style class variants having championed them here, Montcook.com, and wizards.com since the early days of 3.0 right after discovering the Thug variant in the phb.

Thankfully, Steve Kenson and GR already did a great job with the Witch's Handbook which is why I pimp it at every opportunity.

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

I understand. Most D&D gamers reside in the US, where the metric system is not the norm. This is probably not going to change. That said, movement and spell ranges are probably the most commonly used measurements in the game.

Always liked the non-metric measurements in D&D. Metric stuff sounds too modern to my ears, even when it's just being used in the rules and not the fluff.

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

You'll probably find that in Keep on the Shadowfell.

There's Basic D&D for 3e, too, I believe.

I'm guessing that Keep on the Shadowfell will be simplified beyond what I'm looking for. And besides, I don't want a separate product. What I'd like is for the 4e core rules to be easy to learn right out of the gate, and perhaps to stay simple for the first few levels of play - and then at level 4 or so the complexity starts to scale up. 4e sounds to me like it's becoming even more complicated at the outset.

 

[Rechan]

I'm guessing that Keep on the Shadowfell will be simplified beyond what I'm looking for. And besides, I don't want a separate product. What I'd like is for the 4e core rules to be easy to learn right out of the gate, and perhaps to stay simple for the first few levels of play - and then at level 4 or so the complexity starts to scale up. 4e sounds to me like it's becoming even more complicated at the outset.

I highly doubt you'll ever get something like that from anything beyond GURPS.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Always liked the non-metric measurements in D&D. Metric stuff sounds too modern to my ears, even when it's just being used in the rules and not the fluff.

The German RPG "Das Schwarze Auge" does use "archaic" terms, but the actual conversion to metics is simple - 1 mile = 1 km, 1 stone = 1kg and so on. It wouldn't work so well in an american oriented game, because every american would assume 1 mile = 1.6 km (= 1 mile)

Maybe squares should be called maybe "tree span" or "titan cubit" and be referred in-game as such. Conversion is 1.5 metres or 5 feet in real-world units...