Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 5111741" data-attributes="member: 32164">Oddly, I'd say that D&D's common tongue has its roots in Tolkien's Westron, which was even called "the common speech."My pet peeves for years have been Vancian magic and the arcane/divine magic divide (without any real distinction between the two). I never understood why, with all the "healing wizards" in fantasy, D&D never embraced the concept. Other than that, I guess it's the overabundance of magic items. Most D&D characters are decked in magical wardrobes, and carrying golfbags full of magic weapons. Compared to most fantasy, it's a bit jarring. In recent years, I've noticed a stronger "wizards uber alles" trend that bugged me.That said, one of the things I like about Fourth Edition is that it just about (although not quite...) put a bullet in the head of Vancian magic. The downside was an unfortunate drop in spell diversity, but so far, I'm coping. Rituals are a good system that can fill that gap...but still need some work. And oddly, I'm more okay with the divide now that there's more kinds of magic. Which is weird, I know.Magic items still need some work (although even they've taken, IMO, a step in the right direction). All in all though, I think the fact that 4e addressed many of those issues, took a stab at juicing up the fighter types, simplified monster/NPC design, and ditched iterative attacks is why I've embraced it as much as I have. They took aim at a lot of my nagging problems with Third Edition and hit like 4 of 6 bullseyes. Some other issues (like monsters that were more than just "critters to kill") took a hit, but that's in many ways easier for me to fix than something as fundamental as the game's magic system and class power balance.Prior to 3e, it always bugged me that D&D lacked a comprehensive skill system. Non-Weapon Proficiencies just never quite cut it. Some things I love 3e for fixing, even though they never bothered me way back when, like the introduction of BAB and the streamlining down to 3 saves. I'm not sure the defense thing isn't better, mind you, but Fort/Ref/Will beat the tar out of the old mix of Spells/RSW/DM/BW and PPP.Funnily enough, the abstract combat system has never bothered me, despite me being a martial arts (in fact, swordfighting) geek. I guess I'm knowledgeable enough to realize that any attempt at "realism" would be supremely unsatisfying. And I fiddled with various Palladium games enough to know that added complexity isn't always a good thing.</blockquote>

Verification