I have to agree that most of this stuff actually looked great to me. Gamma World? Bring it on...we played everything that is published, and are ready for more! DragonLance? Heck yeah!! I am currently running my group through the original DragonLance modules, and they have the best aspects of D&D adventuring. Reimaging of the D&D cartoon? Yeah...I wouldn't turn that down. :-)
I think that using non-scaling defenses to create minions is a good idea, but there should be a way to boost defenses against small numbers of attacks each round. For example, Fighters could take a feat to parry a certain number of attacks if they sacrifice a bit of + to hit on their turn, Rouges can dodge, Wizards and Clerics can cast defensive spells. This allows low level monsters to hit higher level characters if they come in force, while preventing every attack from hitting like in 3.5....
View full commentI think that using non-scaling defenses to create minions is a good idea, but there should be a way to boost defenses against small numbers of attacks each round. For example, Fighters could take a feat to parry a certain number of attacks if they sacrifice a bit of + to hit on their turn, Rouges can dodge, Wizards and Clerics can cast defensive spells. This allows low level monsters to hit higher level characters if they come in force, while preventing every attack from hitting like in 3.5.
This also fits with the complexity scale, so new players don't have to worry about it, while keeping it an option for the more experienced.
One-hour D&D game concept is the single most brilliant idea I have read here so far. It should be the basis of the new D&D. Building from there will be much more logical and accurate.
This is how I always thought, but the mechanic of the game makes it difficult. I'll be running a 3 hours game this Friday, first we ever make it this short. I'll try to cut on the rules (especially in the fights!) and makes it more like a roleplaying game than a throwing dice session. Word of rule is: fun. I'll have to tweak things a bit but i'LL make it FUN! I hope next iteration will encourage short games. Because we gotta admit, we begins to have real lifes now ;)
Thief, Ranger and Slayer are all about on par for power. Slayer is tougher; Thief is more accurate; Ranger is the most damage. Crit fishing Avengers are pretty slammin' too, but it's a specific build. Barbarian and Warlock cross over into other roles, so they're hard to compare. Seeker never should have been written. Knight is on par with Warden for defenses and survivability, but inferior to PHB fighters for off turn attacks, status debuffs, and forced movement. The knight's aura is...
View full commentThief, Ranger and Slayer are all about on par for power. Slayer is tougher; Thief is more accurate; Ranger is the most damage. Crit fishing Avengers are pretty slammin' too, but it's a specific build. Barbarian and Warlock cross over into other roles, so they're hard to compare. Seeker never should have been written.
Knight is on par with Warden for defenses and survivability, but inferior to PHB fighters for off turn attacks, status debuffs, and forced movement. The knight's aura is better than Combat Challenge, but compared to forced movement fighters (shield or polearm) the knight has less versatility. In open terrain or against solid Skirmishers or Lurkers, the Knight loses a lot of its power. ("...This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks." is written into the battle stats for half of the skirmishers I've used.)
I assume you're using the less negative connotation of powergamer -- a player who enjoys system mastery. I'm in two 4e games and run one myself, and all 3 of those games have "powergamers" in them. I'm one too, you could say. We all like 4th ed. better. In 3.x, a powergamer can make a character that is ten times as powerful as the guy sitting next to him. In 4th ed, a powergamer can make a character that is perhaps 50% better than someone with no experience; 30% better than someone with...
View full commentI assume you're using the less negative connotation of powergamer -- a player who enjoys system mastery. I'm in two 4e games and run one myself, and all 3 of those games have "powergamers" in them. I'm one too, you could say. We all like 4th ed. better.
In 3.x, a powergamer can make a character that is ten times as powerful as the guy sitting next to him. In 4th ed, a powergamer can make a character that is perhaps 50% better than someone with no experience; 30% better than someone with a little experience. 30% better is nowhere near as good as 1000% better from an ****'s point of view; but it's a lot better from a friend's point of view. I don't want my pal who doesn't min/max to feel useless, but I'm happy to see some return on my investment learning the system.
In 3.x once you min/maxed a character, in every combat, you would do the same exact thing -- the thing you maximized for. For instance, with the arcane trickster build, you'd Sneak Attack with Scorching Ray or Empowered Shocking Grasp & Quickened Shocking Grasp every round, depending on your level. In 4e, you have real tactical choices.
As far as I'm concerned, there are two kinds of Save or Die mechanics. The easy ones are those wielded by the PCs. If the scope of your game doesn't revolve around small numbers of long, dragged-out encounters (for example, in politics-heavy intrigue games, or old-school-style megadungeons), save-or-die effects are a great way to deal with some kinds of foes *quickly*, while still depleting strategic resources. Hit point *percentage* thresholds (like the bloodied condition in 4e was) lose...
View full commentAs far as I'm concerned, there are two kinds of Save or Die mechanics.
The easy ones are those wielded by the PCs. If the scope of your game doesn't revolve around small numbers of long, dragged-out encounters (for example, in politics-heavy intrigue games, or old-school-style megadungeons), save-or-die effects are a great way to deal with some kinds of foes *quickly*, while still depleting strategic resources. Hit point *percentage* thresholds (like the bloodied condition in 4e was) lose the gloriously fast speed of resolution.
I think absolute hit point thresholds (like with Hold Person in the playtest), though, are *fantastic*. Two thresholds (say 10 hp and 50 hp) would lets you deathspell crowds of kobolds automatically, force a rival wizard to save or die, and have a dragon laugh it off every time, (as he should). The catch is that you have to discipline yourself not to use these abilities on PCs without making sure it has some mechanic to mitigate the effect. That means no randomly giving major demons no-warning deathspells that work on appropriately-leveled heroes. Looking at you, TSR and 3e. Monsters and NPCs exist only to suck and die, but players don't.
The real problem is attacks that kill or paralyze *PCs* in one hit with no warning. You could ditch them, but you're restricting yourself. Those *are* useful to two kinds of game. In a more gonzo game you might WANT PCs to die on a bad run of luck. Playing "Who got Gibbed the Hardest" is half the fun. And seventeen years of DMing has taught me that even if you run a less bloody game, the most dangerous form of this ability can create a lot of useful table drama and encourage players to come up with crazy schemes to evade it. but you need three things to keep it fair: the PCs absolutely *NEED* a warning, an avenue of escape, and a gimmick you can plan to avoid having to save (say, medusas and mirrors).
Save-or-die is a dangerous, but useful tool. Leave it in, but warn new DMs when you use it.
"The biggest drawback is that spellcasters and monsters have to be aware of a target's hit points to decide if an attack makes sense." Not necessarily. Just make sure that if the target FAILS their save, but is ABOVE the hit point threshold, he or she suffers hit point damage. For example: Medusa's Gaze Successful save: Negates Failed saved: If target has 30 or fewer hit points, target is turned to stone. Otherwise, target loses 20 hit points. I don't want to see...
View full comment"The biggest drawback is that spellcasters and monsters have to be aware of a target's hit points to decide if an attack makes sense."
Not necessarily. Just make sure that if the target FAILS their save, but is ABOVE the hit point threshold, he or she suffers hit point damage.
For example:
Medusa's Gaze
Successful save: Negates
Failed saved: If target has 30 or fewer hit points, target is turned to stone. Otherwise, target loses 20 hit points.
I don't want to see Medusa trying to chip away at PC hit points with a dagger or the snakes on her head. The gaze IS the key attack, and always should be.
How about an ability similar to the clerical way of "memorizing" spells? An invoker can memorize a bunch of spells, but burn them for a fireball spell, similar to how a positive aligned cleric can burn (substitute) a bless for a cure light wounds. This allows for more flexibility than a straight vacian system, and allows for more utilitarian spells to be memorized without withholding combat effectiveness. You could go more of an opposite route with a utilitarian specialty memorizing combat...
View full commentHow about an ability similar to the clerical way of "memorizing" spells? An invoker can memorize a bunch of spells, but burn them for a fireball spell, similar to how a positive aligned cleric can burn (substitute) a bless for a cure light wounds. This allows for more flexibility than a straight vacian system, and allows for more utilitarian spells to be memorized without withholding combat effectiveness. You could go more of an opposite route with a utilitarian specialty memorizing combat spells, but changing them out when they really need that illusion or transmute spell.
How about improvised magic as an option? This should be less powerful than planned magic. It is costed based upon the liklihood of the effect. Things that are likely anyway are easy and strange things are expensive. Maelstrom and GURPS both feature concepts like it. Examples are given for the most common cases (ie. iconic spells) and perhaps combat magic (which must be faster to draw upon both for the player and the character) must be of the pre-baked libraries (Vancian or Powers).