Community

No, not because he's "the devil" or "the worst person ever" or what have you.


We need to hear from someone with a different focus, and a different background, who can "talk up" different aspects of the game.

Right now, a lot of what we're hearing about 5e sounds like "3.5, but...", and I think the biggest cause of that is just that, well, we're only really "hearing from" Monte Cook, and 3e is what he knows.  And a lot of how we've seen Wizards and magic discussed has, likewise, been colored by Cook's own love for that class.

And, to be frank, I don't blame him.  If I was in the same situation, I would be doing the same thing - talking about the new stuff in terms of the things I'm most familiar with, and things I most enjoy.


But it would be really, really nice to hear more from people with different backgrounds, different views, different preferences, and different likes.  I want to hear someone who loves Fighters the way Cook loves Wizards explain to me how awesome they're going to be.  I want to see someone whose background is in 4e talk about how aspects of the game are "4e, but...".  Hell, I would love to hear from Rodney Thompson (he's still at WotC, right?) if lessons have been learned from SW:SagaEdition, and how 5e might be like "Saga, but...".



My point is: If this is supposed to be a game to please everyone, it would be nice to hear how it's going from a perspective other than "I know 3e, and I like Wizards."  

Frankly, I associate M. Cook with 2e Planescape more than 3e. I associate rogues with S. Williams, and Epic Play with B. Cordell. I think we need a Champion of Psionics, but no name comes to mind. The way psionics were treated (ignored) in the 3e Epic Book tells me those authors need to stay far, far away from Psionics. Perhaps if E. Greenwood came in, was told to write rules for Spellfire, or for Elminster, then use those for psionics, it wouldn't suck. Seriously though, Psionics is probably best left in the hands of people like R. Baker, M. Forbeck, S. Winter, and T. Beach.

You could try to do the same thing with Fighters - have Greenwood write up some rules just for Drizzt the ranger, change out the name, background, and references to Drow, and then you would have a pretty buff Fighter. Maybe call up J. Grubb about the Paladin or Kensai. Who wrote that monstrosity in 3.5e the Warriors book? A. Collins, D. Noonan, and E. Stark?  Those guys would be great for the Warrior stuff.