Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 4518202" data-attributes="member: 9053">So here's my $.02. What changed with 4E is the business model that WotC is using to sell books and develop the product line. In 4E WotC adopted the "White Wolf" product line method, which is a fundamentally different way of doing things than they had ever used before. By White Wolf, I mean the idea of giving you a small number of powers for each class/clan/whathaveyou and then expanding them dramatically in splats.In the core PHB you get a "taste" of each character class, and you also have much more narrowly defined classes than what we've seen previously. In the case of the martial characters this can be hard to see, because they've gone from being 1-2 page descriptions to filling a dozen pages each. Even so, you rule out a lot of martial characters in the core rules: you can't make a fighter that effectively uses two weapons, for example, because that's a ranger. I know this has been argued to death, that you can take a fighter, multiclass as a ranger and replace powers, but the fact remains that it is far more difficult, and your character will be a lot less effective than a fighter who plays to the basic defender role.What you get is a "starter edition" for characters that can do some very basic things, but you end up missing out on a lot of different options, and those options will be presented to you in later supplements.This is most obvious with magical characters, as you no longer have illusionists, conjurers, and enchanters to name a few. Again, it may be argued that you can kludge together these characters, but they aren't going to be nearly as effective as the splat based classes that are designed to perform those roles by default. Those classes will be back, but they'll be in splats.So if you want to play the kind of character you could play using only the 3X Core books (PHB/MM/DMG), you're going to be buying the core plus one or more splats.When Martial Power comes out, the number of core powers and options for those characters is going to triple, and we're going to see two-weapon fighters, ranged rogues, and rangers with animal companions for just a start. The thing is, we had all of that in the core rules for 3X. To me, that's the difference in the different in the product line strategy for 4E, and I can see where that would not sit well with some of the previous audience. Frankly, it doesn't with me, but I find that there's so much good about the edition that I overlook a lot of it.Please note: this is my opinion, I know a lot of you believe that the multiclass system is a lot more robust than I do, for example. That's all okay in the end, it's just one guy's opinion.EDIT: In case it isn't obvious (and it wasn't when I reread what I just wrote!) I believe it's this change in product line philosophy that has made many folks feel they're no longer in WotC's target audience.--Steve</blockquote>

Verification