D&D 4E Why I'm so excited for 4E!!

[Henry]

It would frustrating to be playing in somebody's campaign and wanting to use materials from other books and being told no. Some DMs power trip on this. I can understand not wanting to rules bloat your game, however I think a DM should be flexible to allowing the people that are playing with him to have other options

To an extent, I agree, but the worst my games have ever gotten was throwing Spell Compendium wide open to my mages and my priests, and allowing all their spells, some of which are truly devastating (that "spell engine" one that tosses off spells as it drains other spells? Elminster's Epurration? Avasculate? Wall of Limbs? Vortex of Teeth? I've seen some really sickening things with those spells!) The dragon Adept's detect magic invocation has made me think more than once about retiring from adventuring and opening a "9 to 5" kiosk that just identifies magic items for profit.

But I'll admit 3.5 has been better than 3.0 was about vetting supplementary material - 3.0 was where the Forgotten Realms allowed our mages to have save DCs in the mid-30's for their spellcastings...

As long as they stick to their rigorous "math model" that's been touted ever since September or so, then 4E's supplements should be a lot better rounded.

 

[Patlin]

My group always allows all WotC products. Only 3rd party stuff is vetted. We've never had a problem. We just require that the player who plays something outside of the PHB, must provide a copy of the book containing said new class to the DM for review upon demand.

That describes our group as well. I have some reservations on the wisdom of allowing the "Touch of Golden Ice" feat from Exalted Deeds, but otherwise it all worked out fine.

 

[pogre]

Further it seems to me that most of the classes will be limited to PHBI, PHBII, ...etc and with some of the classics not making PHBI it will be hard for the GM to say no. At least if they go to 4E I'm not sure how that they could say no.

Woot! Up to three posts!

You are right. This is one of the things that will make core only more difficult for me. It also gives me pause to consider whether I should really go 4e, even though I like most of what I see. I like Flynn's definition of OGL only - that may work for me.

Core only is really not that restrictive for us. Some of you mustr be playing a lot - I'm highly jealous!

 

[The Little Raven]

I would have rather had completely self contained classes, and new books would only introduce new classes, and 'new powers' for existing characters could have been handled by the class training feat.

So, if someone comes up with a bunch of good ideas for powers for the Fighter, after the Fighter is released, they need to come up with an entirely new class in order to put those into a book, rather than just saying "Yeah, here are some new Fighter powers we hadn't thought of before now. Enjoy."?

 

[Iceman75]

You are right. This is one of the things that will make core only more difficult for me. It also gives me pause to consider whether I should really go 4e, even though I like most of what I see. I like Flynn's definition of OGL only - that may work for me.

Core only is really not that restrictive for us. Some of you mustr be playing a lot - I'm highly jealous!

I suppose that over that 8 years I played a fair bit but you know the drill, campaigns start and stop and a lot of the combos get tried out. We have between 4-8 players over that time. It doesn't take that many starts and stops to cover 11 classes. Sure they were not all played to 20th level but I didn't want to play a copy of someone else's character. I would hope that people would enbrace the fact that they are collecting the new classes and I would also hope that they are testing these as they are basically creating a whole new book just for them. But maybe I'm optimistic.

 

[Voss]

So, if someone comes up with a bunch of good ideas for powers for the Fighter, after the Fighter is released, they need to come up with an entirely new class in order to put those into a book, rather than just saying "Yeah, here are some new Fighter powers we hadn't thought of before now. Enjoy."?

Indeed, that is what I said.

 

[Steely Dan]

Also I laugh at the idea that D&D is a money intensive hobby.

Exactly, compared to cars, comic books, wine, art, women, baseball cards etc, D&D is a super cheap hobby.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Exactly, compared to cars, comic books, wine, art, women, baseball cards etc, D&D is a super cheap hobby.

Depends on where you shop for the women, and what kind of wine you can stomach.