WoTC Interview with Rob Heinsoo
- Thread starter Shroomy
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The only thing that I feel is missing from the "every spot is the sweet spot" design is monsters with levels lower than 1.
They kind of need them to make things work right.
Its not a huge issue, but it does mean that your to-hit chances are a little more punishing at level 1 than they will be for most of the rest of the game. You never get the opportunity to fight monsters with easy defenses and low hit points.
Minions sort of fill that role, but not really.
They kind of need them to make things work right.
Its not a huge issue, but it does mean that your to-hit chances are a little more punishing at level 1 than they will be for most of the rest of the game. You never get the opportunity to fight monsters with easy defenses and low hit points.
Minions sort of fill that role, but not really.
Merlin the Tuna
First Post
I have to agree that most of this has been discussed to death at this point. It's a good resource to steer people towards if they're already gamers don't frequent boards like these and haven't given 4E much thought, but there's not much here for we of the endless banter.
I do still wish that we had gotten different power progressions based on power source, though. It would've made the distinction of declaring the power sources in the first place a lot more meaningful for me.
I do still wish that we had gotten different power progressions based on power source, though. It would've made the distinction of declaring the power sources in the first place a lot more meaningful for me.
The only thing I'll disagree with his his notion that 1st level 4e feels like 5th level 3e.
I say its just the opposite. While yes 1st level 4e is more survivable, I feel that I have about the options at 8th level 4e as I do at 5th level 3e. Not saying that's bad, just that I prefer higher levels in 4e than I did in 3e, which makes sense given 4e 30 level progression.
I say its just the opposite. While yes 1st level 4e is more survivable, I feel that I have about the options at 8th level 4e as I do at 5th level 3e. Not saying that's bad, just that I prefer higher levels in 4e than I did in 3e, which makes sense given 4e 30 level progression.
This was the one part of the article that made me roll my eyes. "We didn't need to sweat getting the class right, because we knew we'd have the option to 'fix it" later--you know, in some splat book".
So basically, power creep is a feature, not a bug. If in the future, wizards wind up pulling all of their at-wills and most of their other resources out of Arcane Power than the PHB, that's actually part of the design.
I can't buy that logic, just because a lot of 4e's inequities aren't that hard to spot. It shouldn't have taken much to look at fireball and realize "hey, it doesn't matter how big the AoE is, 3d6 + Int kinda sucks". So, the solution we get is, just don't pick fireball anymore. The "fix" for old, weak powers is to eclipse them with new powers.
Having said that, I overall think there's little else to have qualms about with Rob's article. He lays out a good case for how 4e contains some genuine improvements.
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Dragonblade
Adventurer
The only thing 4e needs, IMO are three things that keep it from absolute gaming perfection:
I want a power refresh mechanic. I hate the entire notion of daily anything. Everything should be balanced per encounter.
I also wish each class had a variant suite of powers that excised all the grid based movement mechanics so that you could play it miniless. I like minis, but sometimes I just don't want to bust out the battlemat.
There should also be a mechanic to speed up ritual casting time and you should be able to cast rituals in combat.
Thats it. Other than that, 4e is my ideal RPG.
As far as edition wars go, it was ultimately inevitable. Everything I like in 4e are the very things that some 3e fans hate, and everything they like in 3e are things I hate and consider bad game design. Its just not possible to make a game system that both sets of fans love since our likes and dislikes are fundamentally incompatible.
I want a power refresh mechanic. I hate the entire notion of daily anything. Everything should be balanced per encounter.
I also wish each class had a variant suite of powers that excised all the grid based movement mechanics so that you could play it miniless. I like minis, but sometimes I just don't want to bust out the battlemat.
There should also be a mechanic to speed up ritual casting time and you should be able to cast rituals in combat.
Thats it. Other than that, 4e is my ideal RPG.
As far as edition wars go, it was ultimately inevitable. Everything I like in 4e are the very things that some 3e fans hate, and everything they like in 3e are things I hate and consider bad game design. Its just not possible to make a game system that both sets of fans love since our likes and dislikes are fundamentally incompatible.
Keefe the Thief
Hero
Yes, because talking about the problems of an edition you worked on equals saying it sucks.
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