D&D 4E What has you excited about 4e?

[Simia Saturnalia]

Odd, I've been playing D&D since 1981 and I've yet to come across an "army" in an adventure or campaign. Lots of adventuring groups, lots of bands of monsters, lots of tribes and villages and cities full of NPCs, but no "armies". Are you thinking Warhammer, perchance? (Although I'll grant you that the D&D Rules Cyclopedia had rules for mass combat between armies).

Perhaps there are some plots your DM never used/you never considered using? Ones that involve armies, wars, temporal politics, stuff like that?

Just a thought. Considering the general hue and cry about any elements in the presumed D&D setting that don't line up with Europe of the early second millennium, I should think the fact that the powers of that time and geography were nearly constantly at war with each other would instruct more campaigns.

 

[GeorgeFields]

Odd, I've been playing D&D since 1981 and I've yet to come across an "army" in an adventure or campaign.

Have you not played the "Master of the Desert Nomads (X4,X5,X10) series?
or the Bloodstone (H1-4) series?

4) The chance to buy up 3.X material on the cheap.

AMEN

The stuff they've posted about 4e has been about a 50/50 hit/miss with me.

On the plus side:

I like the new cosmology. I never really liked the Great Wheel but accepted it as I never used it much.

Races affecting abilities as you level is a grand idea IMO.

Codes for CHEAP pdf downloads. I still can't believe WotC wants full price for their 3.x pdfs.

Like the Great Wheel, the Vancian magic system bugged me, but I accepted it. I'll have to actually see the new system before praising it.



All-in-all, I'm not overly excited about 4e; but I'm keeping an open mind and saving my opinions until I actually get to read the new core books.

 

[KoshPWNZYou]

(Although I'll grant you that the D&D Rules Cyclopedia had rules for mass combat between armies).

Not to mention the more recent 'Heroes of Battle.' It has mass combat rules as well as guidelines for parties performing smaller missions in and around a battlefield. Of course, I have no idea if anyone alive has actually used that book; it's never been discussed in my campaigns.

 

[megamania]

Just like the title says.

Bring the positivity!

Everyone rethinking about what makes DnD the game most of us thourghly enjoy.


Discussions about why creatures act as they do and how. They are editionless questions that I like to read about and think about.

 

[Wulfram]

A new system to see broken, proved massively and inherently unbalanced, criticised and argued over.

Should be fun.

 

[megamania]

LOL!!!!!



Seems the way it has started

 

[exile]

The Points of Light theme, while not really even all that novel, has really fired my imagination up.

Chad

 

[Treebore]

I like the apparent return of "morale". Now monsters and NPC's won't necessarily fight to the death all the time.

 

[Truth Seeker]

I would rather base that on the current situation at the time. In the game, and not have a 'rule' dictate otherwise.

And oh, nothing right now, jump out at me.

I like the apparent return of "morale". Now monsters and NPC's won't necessarily fight to the death all the time.

 

[ThirdWizard]

• Re-doing the math. They aren't blindly giving fireball 1d6 dmg per level. They're re-examining how powerful they want offense to be in relation to defense to determine how strong attacks should be. Instead of just continuing to use an old system that was never really intended to go much past level 9, they're looking at what needs to be done to keep the game fun at high levels.
• Faster prep time and easier on the fly creation of encounters! If I want a 5,000 xp encounter, I can just grab enemies until I have the right # there. And no table to look up to determine EL vs. CR and XP? Sweet!
• Per encounter abilities, especially as it pertains to spellcasters. I'm hoping this will also open up new avenues for alternate magic systems, with the Vancian standard disappearing. I love alternate magic systems.
• Monsters specifically designed to come in groups. Zombies! Lots of them! Hoards of goblins! One beholder taking on an entire party without either getting ganked or having to drop a PC a round and still posing a challenge. Dragons who don't need to be high level sorcerers to be a challenge. Finally an end to the spellcasting dragon.
• Spread out racial abilities across several levels. This should allow those pesky +1 LA races to be played more easily without the annoyance of losing a class level. Githyanki, Githzerai, Tieflings, Aasimar, Genasi, and all those races that I love will be bearable to play again.

There's more, but those are the big ones.