|
3 years ago ::
Mar 02, 2010 - 9:20PM
#1
|
|
|
 Â Dragon 385
Ampersand: Beyond Essentials…
…and Other Deep ThoughtsBy Bill Slavicsek Besides being a liar, Bill shows us some pretty cool products and the new monster-block format in this month's Ampersand. Luckily, the look at Essentials and beyond was a truth. Talk about this month's Ampersand here.
A great man once said "If WotC put out boxes full of free money there'd still be people complaining about how it's folded." – Boraxe
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 2:09AM
#2
|
Date Joined:
Apr 21, 2001
|
I approve of the new monster stat block actually, the clear differentiation of the minor and standard actions is really good. It is a bit clunkier though, but overall the number of times I've made a mistake where I failed to spot an important minor action or similar makes it well worth it. Some monsters rely on some easily missed minor action (or similar non-standard) powers quite a bit.
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 5:06AM
#3
|
|
|
Man, what a kick in the pants. As I glanced through the article and saw the bolded heading " E-Books" I felt an instant swell of hope! Then I read the section and saw it was about novels, not source books. Swell of hope... crushed. 
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 6:03AM
#4
|
Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
|
I like the idea of the new stat block, but I think it is off. I like everything from traits down, but the first block seems jumbled and illogical to me.Â
Personally I feel that immunities, resistances and vulnerabilities should be directly below HP. Even more obvious is that the sesnses should be with Perception rather than a couple of lines down... that makes it too easy to miss some alternate means of detecting the PCs. I realize others may disagree, but I don't think HP needs to be the first thing in the block after the heading... You need to refer to defenses before HP. I would have done something like this:
AC 15, Fortitude 13, Reflex 15, Will 13
HP 43; Bloodied 21
Immune blinded, gaze; Resist 5 acid
Initiative +5
Perception +2; Blind, blindsight 10, tremorsense 10
Speed 5, climb 3
Did anyone else notice that the ankheg's tremorsense is in bold print but the ooze's blindsight is not? Is this an oversight or is tremorsense somehow more important than blindsight?
My real question is will the exisiting monsters in the compendium be updated to this new format or will everything remain in the format of it's print version? I copy the stat blocks from the compendium into my encounter sheet when I plan an adventure. Today I simply need to adjust the font size so it fits my page better, but if there are two formats of stat block I'll wind up having to do a lot more work (I am far too much of a stickler to just have two formats on the same page).Â
Of course the best possible solution would be to have the realize that is asking a bit much.
D&D Next... for those who would rather play a version of D&D they dislike the least, rather than the one they like the most!
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 6:10AM
#5
|
|
|
The new monster stat blocks are damn nice. Please tell me the Monster Builder (the best product ever) will auto convert the older monsters to this format?
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 6:13AM
#6
|
|
|
Swell of hope... crushed.Â
I will be absolutely shocked if your hope is not realized by this time next year.Â
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 8:45AM
#7
|
Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2008
|
I really like that stat block. The traits are something I forget about in combat. Having the actions broken down by action type is perfect. It flows a lot better in combat when I look for what else the critters can do that round.
Jan 2011 brings in new stuff for new powers, new classes, and new options. So PHB4? lol. One thing that concerns me is it says it will draw upon the lessons learned from essentials. Maybe you guys should wait to see how the fans react to your products before you start moving on to the next thing. There wasnt much there obviously since its a full year out so I'll reserve further judgement till we get something meatier.
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 11:53AM
#8
|
Date Joined:
Mar 10, 2003
|
It's worth noting that the stat blocks as they originally appeared in the article were not formatted quite right. They've been fixed now. The differences are minor but probably worth having a look at, because they do tidy things up a bit.
Steve
If your only tool is a warhammer, every problem looks like a gnoll.
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 1:32PM
#9
|
Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2008
|
I see that the perception abilities and bonuses are in the upper right corner now. I was thinking that was a lot of unused wasted white space before.
|
|
|
|
3 years ago ::
Mar 03, 2010 - 2:45PM
#10
|
Date Joined:
Sep 18, 2007
|
What on earth are they thinking about trying to go the ebook route. Â After the fiasco of the last year with the rulebook thing, what makes them think this is going to end up any different. Â I bought the original PDF books from Wizards when they came out and I purchased the subsequent books that came out up until the point that they pulled the PDF plug. Â Now, I am stuck with having a split library of electronic books and physical books. Â In order to have a uniform collection I have to go back out and buy physical books. Â Twice the money for the books is a horrible way to treat your customers. Â Shame on you, Wizards!
Â
|
|
|
