I was hearing a lot of things about 4E, most of which I found either good
or
entertaining. Level Adjust is going bye bye, the core books will be for
1-30
(combining PBH and the Epic Level Handbook into, effectively, one thing
and
making "epic" just the high end normal progression). Undead can take
criticals, zombies become horrifying terrors rather than the squishy
(dead)
meat bags that level 1 adventurers pound into a pulp, skill rebalancing
(it's
not hard to make a level 10 character who can make DC 50 on diplomacy
without
rolling and DC 60 on a take-ten).
And so on.
In my paws I've got a copy of the book Wizards Presents: Races and Classes
(4th Edition Preview) and for the most part I've liked everything I've
read.
Dragonborn are a new race, they'll be in the PHB, and are basically the
old
half-dragon. Tieflings, similarly, are a PHB race--as will aasimar, but
they
will be back with a new name--Elves are now the Eladrin (high elves who
live
in shining cities in the Feywild), Elves (wood elves) and Drow (dark
elves) as
three separate races, but separate in culture, not physical (meaning how
they
think about the world, not whether they have a bonus to Dex or Cha).
The mechanics are also changing, Reflex, Fortitude, BAB, Will, Base AC are
all
sort of conglomerating into a single value that is consistent across all
classes (they mention +5 at 10th level) and making the stats (wis, con,
dex)
make the meaning of who's better at what. This also means that the
problem of
a monster who can hit the fighter regularly will hit the wizard every time
(and smash him to a bloody pulp in a few hits) or make it decent on the
wizard, but have no chance in hell against the fighter. No more +30 to
hit, +
65 AC characters (it's not hard at 20th level with only the core 3).
Constructs are losing a lot of immunities--you can't poison them, but they
do
have weak spots: can they walk if they only have one leg? (ditto undead).
Full-out immunities are gone entirely. A fire elemental might be able to
ignore the wizard's fireball but a red dragon's fire breath would
incinerate
it just the same as any other creature. I assume, based off the wording
that
even things that were immune to an energy type will just have high
resestences. Maybe Fire Resist 60 or higher. Or it might be "take 1 for
every 10" type deal. Or like Cube of Force, "take 1 for every 10 above
30"
(40 -> 1, 50 -> 2).
Classes are also getting a lot of make overs. Everyone has a once-per-
encounter self-heal, I believe it's actually called /Second Wind/. A
dwarf
racial "feat" might be to have a second use per encounter. Fighters also
have
more uses than other classes as well as some "spell like" abilities, a
progression like Wizards or Clerics: once-per-encounter and once-per-day
martial stunts (they reworked the Sources of Power: Divine, Arcane,
Martial,
and Psionic--four different ways to do "cool stuff" from some inner (or
outer)
wellspring of poweer).
Warlocks are looking simply diabolical. They have curses that will cause
high
damage and inflict penalties on their opponents. They aren't evil, they
just
do Mean Things (dubbed "Evil-Curious"). Similarly, Tieflings aren't evil,
just Evil-Curious and the warlock path lets a player have fun with the
diabolical and cruel, the dark and forboding while still being part of the
party.
Clerics are now more of a Leadership class (the diffent class types are
Striker, Defender, Leader, and Controler) and will be spending more time
helping in the fight than running around using all their spells keeping
their
allies alive. Not only that, but the healing doesn't use up their spells!
Magic got a make-over too. Good/Evil/Law/Chaos are going away, as
alignment
is less important and more grey, as well as allowing monsters/players to
be
"alignmentless." Arcan and Divine spells are being divided such that they
don't mimic each other, Clerics are Leaders and thus have spells that
reinforce their allies and spells that smite down their foes while the
Wizards
are the back-row area-effect damagers: less damage to more targets
(resulting
in more damage overall). Fighters are Controlers, being the anvil against
which Rogues (Strikers) hit their targets and the sheild that blocks
monsters
from the squishies. Fighters are "sticky" in that not-fighting them is
often
more deadly and going toe-to-toe (Fighters have gotten feats and abilities
that make their attacks of opportunity dangerous, or force opponents back
into
favorable positions, such as being able to move along with a creature that
tries to move around to hit the mage).
I'm really looking forward to this new edition, I like the cool stuff they
mention as well as the various changes in mechanics because D&D was
unweildy
and complicated while at the same time too easily broken.
Anyone else who's heard things, speak up, I'd like to hear your opinions.
--
Draco18s
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Bearer of the Bronze Medal for Most Posts in March 2007 (283)
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