4th ed
For those that don't already know, Wizards of the Coast has decided to make D&D 4th edition. Now, my first reaction when I heard about this was to wonder, what the hell for? 3.5 seems to work pretty dang good to me. And the first two things I learned about 4th ed. didn't exactly make me want to run out and get a copy as soon as it's released.
Since we're on the subject, I'll start with what I don't like about 4th edition. (This is all based on what Wizards has said) First off, they've apparently decided to treat saves as AC. What I mean is, instead of you rolling to make a reflex, fort, or will save when hit by a spell, the caster rolls an "attack" and compares it to your save value, just like with normal attacks and AC. Also like normal attacks, 1 miss and 20 crit. That's right, firball can crit in 4th ed. Wonderful.
As if that wasn't bad enough, they've decided to redo how demons and devils work. The new take on demons actually doesn't sound quite so horrible to me. The new take on Devils is just plain stupid. In 4th ed. devils will be fallen angels, whose leader killed the God of there celestial realm. When he died the god cursed the angels and their realm turning it into hell and the angels into devils. WTF? Why the hell (no I'm not fishing for a pun for once) do they think this change is a good idea?
After reading these two things I had pretty much decided there was absolutely no freaking way I was going to convert to 4th ed. 3.5 is plenty good enough for me. Then I read a few more articles about it. Turns out they may do some cool stuff in addition to the other crap. And at least one of those two things is easy enough for a DM to fix in his (or her) game world. Wondering what improvements they could possibly make?
Well, the first thing I saw that I liked had to do with fighters. (big surprise, huh) Apparently they've decided that weapon choice should be a bit more important to fighters. And I don't just mean weapon focus and weapon specialization. I mean the choice of weapon will actually impact your fighting options. Which I naturally love the idea of. With luck I'll love the execution as well.
They've also decided to make your race have a bit more of an impact. Basically, you will have access to certain abilities as a result of your race when you level up. So a level 10 dwarf fighter will be able to do something completely different from a level 10 elf fighter. This also sounds pretty cool to me.
Another cool thing will actually matter more to me if I ever DM again. (Yeah, I know that's really unlikely) Battles are supposed to be able to be bigger without having the individual enemies be complete pushovers to any one member of the party. I definitely remember this being a problem in the one campaign I ran, as a large fight I expected to be difficult ended with very little damage to the PCs as the large group of monsters which gave an encounter level that was supposed to be decent was made up of a bunch of wimps compared to the characters. And I had been afraid I might actually kill someone that session.
Thankis to these cool sounding changes I am no longer in the "there's absolutely no way in hell I'll convert" camp. I'm still not sure if 4th edition will be any good, but if it were to come out tomorrow I'd at least give it a chance. Oh, before I forget, there is one more really bad thing about 4th ed. They've apparently decided to be incredibly stupid about how they release it. Instead of releasing the three core rulebooks at the same time, they're releasing the PHB one month, the Monster Manual the next month, and the DMG in a third month. I'm not sure what the hell they're thinking there.
eltrumpeteer
PS In 4th edition the ancient dragons are absolutely awesome.
Since we're on the subject, I'll start with what I don't like about 4th edition. (This is all based on what Wizards has said) First off, they've apparently decided to treat saves as AC. What I mean is, instead of you rolling to make a reflex, fort, or will save when hit by a spell, the caster rolls an "attack" and compares it to your save value, just like with normal attacks and AC. Also like normal attacks, 1 miss and 20 crit. That's right, firball can crit in 4th ed. Wonderful.
As if that wasn't bad enough, they've decided to redo how demons and devils work. The new take on demons actually doesn't sound quite so horrible to me. The new take on Devils is just plain stupid. In 4th ed. devils will be fallen angels, whose leader killed the God of there celestial realm. When he died the god cursed the angels and their realm turning it into hell and the angels into devils. WTF? Why the hell (no I'm not fishing for a pun for once) do they think this change is a good idea?
After reading these two things I had pretty much decided there was absolutely no freaking way I was going to convert to 4th ed. 3.5 is plenty good enough for me. Then I read a few more articles about it. Turns out they may do some cool stuff in addition to the other crap. And at least one of those two things is easy enough for a DM to fix in his (or her) game world. Wondering what improvements they could possibly make?
Well, the first thing I saw that I liked had to do with fighters. (big surprise, huh) Apparently they've decided that weapon choice should be a bit more important to fighters. And I don't just mean weapon focus and weapon specialization. I mean the choice of weapon will actually impact your fighting options. Which I naturally love the idea of. With luck I'll love the execution as well.
They've also decided to make your race have a bit more of an impact. Basically, you will have access to certain abilities as a result of your race when you level up. So a level 10 dwarf fighter will be able to do something completely different from a level 10 elf fighter. This also sounds pretty cool to me.
Another cool thing will actually matter more to me if I ever DM again. (Yeah, I know that's really unlikely) Battles are supposed to be able to be bigger without having the individual enemies be complete pushovers to any one member of the party. I definitely remember this being a problem in the one campaign I ran, as a large fight I expected to be difficult ended with very little damage to the PCs as the large group of monsters which gave an encounter level that was supposed to be decent was made up of a bunch of wimps compared to the characters. And I had been afraid I might actually kill someone that session.
Thankis to these cool sounding changes I am no longer in the "there's absolutely no way in hell I'll convert" camp. I'm still not sure if 4th edition will be any good, but if it were to come out tomorrow I'd at least give it a chance. Oh, before I forget, there is one more really bad thing about 4th ed. They've apparently decided to be incredibly stupid about how they release it. Instead of releasing the three core rulebooks at the same time, they're releasing the PHB one month, the Monster Manual the next month, and the DMG in a third month. I'm not sure what the hell they're thinking there.
eltrumpeteer
PS In 4th edition the ancient dragons are absolutely awesome.