Gamer Question on Dungeons and Dragons
Ok, I need an honest opinion here. Do I get the core books for 4th edition or not? I've read very little of it myself and while there are some things I'm not thrilled about, I haven't read nearly enough to form an opinion one way or another. Here are some things to keep in mind to help with your suggestion
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WotC seems to have taken several ideas used by White Wolf in Exalted, such as Primordials who built the world and were imprisoned by the gods afterward, but also including the concept of 1-hit monsters, which allows me to segue into:
Game Mechanics:
D&D 4 Ed now has "minions" - monsters with only 1 hp. They still attack as normal, and do normal damage, but they die the first time someone hits them. However, since you don't know which monsters are minions, and which are not, this just means that you really have like 4 times as many monsters beating on you as before, and any monster that isn't a minion has massively increased hp. I wasn't lying when I said the standard kobold, instead of having, say, 4 hp, now has more like 35.
Attacks, saving throws, etc, are all standardized now - they're all (character level / 2), so a first level character has no bonus to attack, save, or skill, which a 10th level character has +5 to all the above. This is actually not bad. Also, saves are now called 'defenses' and are more like armor class. For instance, instead of attacking vs your AC, a rogue might attack vs. your "Reflex Defense" which would be 10+DEX+level/2 and a magical spell might attack your "Will Defense" which would be 10+WIS+level/2.
Saving throws are kinda interesting... at the end of your turn, you roll 1d20 to try and throw off negative conditions affecting you, such as poison, paralysis, petrification, etc... this can lead to cool situations where you slowly take damage while trying to complete some task. This is good game design.
Then you have skills... where the 'simpler is better' concept totally falls apart for me. Now there are only about 12 skills, and you're either "trained" in a skill or not. If you're trained in a skill, your skill total is (character level/2) + (attribute modifier) + 5; if you're untrained, your skill total is (character level/2) + attribute modifier. So 10th level character with a 20 dex would have a Stealth total of 10, or 15 if they were trained. Apparently people found having different ranks in different skills "too complicated." *sigh*
Overall, I suspected I would be disappointed, but I bought the core set anyways because I'd hate to not give it a fair shake.**** I played 4 or 5 sessions under Duro (he ran us through the best intro scenario for 1st level characters I've ever seen - I swear to goodness I am going to steal this, revamp it for 3.X, and use it if I run an intro campaign again. Heck, I would steal this and use it for other systems - Exalted Mortals or Dragonblooded, even. It was THAT AWESOME). Despite this, my frustration level with the system just kept getting higher and higher to the point where I think Duro thought I was mad at him.***** I don't plan to get anymore of these books until several more years have gone by, in hopes that they'll break out of the straitjackets and give characters some options again.
**** Yes, I brought prejudices to the table. I also shelled out 70 bucks to buy the entire core books.
*****I wasn't, just mad at the system. I also really liked my character, but not the way the system was done, so I converted her over to 3.5, where the character now rocks.
That said, a lot of people don't share my opinion. A lot of people (like Duro) really love the new system. It IS much simpler than 3.X. I'd advise downloading the playtests that Penny Arcade did... they're pretty fun to listen to, and they'll give you a bit of a feel for the changes. The first is here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/05/30/dd-4th-edition/ and you can grab the other 7 from the wizards site (you may have to poke around a bit).
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