(no subject)
So I almost died this morning. Thats always fun eh? A trucker hauling cars started to pull out right in front of me, real slow like. It was almost like trying to tell me that he was going to go and I needed to stop for him.
So yeah, that was awesome
Came home yesterday morning to no power, and also apparently not having power since 5pm the previous day. It's all fixed and I feel better about it, but I did almost break things.
Warning: Nerd stuff ahead.
So I bought the players handbook for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. I gotta say, it's already making me work on some builds for characters.
Things I like: Condensing of skills(one skill for all searching and spotting, one for climbing and swimming and jumping), modifiers on all rolls (all rolls start with a base of one half your level), Dragonborn are freaking aweseome, (No really. AWESOME!), Magic items, (a much needed change I think; no stat boosting items, clear concise slots, a very cool way to handle critical hits), Powers.
Things I don't: 30 levels and done, (the way they talk about characters in the book makes it feel very final when a character reaches 30) multiclassing, (This is the 3.5 bit in me that really has a hard time understanding at this point) Alignment change, (Iconic D&D concept completely reduced to just a bit of flavor) no more multiple attacks, (*sighs* Im going to miss throwing 4 attacks at someone) epic destines (only four and of those four only demigod and archmage sound interesting) Powers.
Things that remain undecided until a game is played: Hit points, (good god does everyone have a ton and can heal themselves) classes and paragon paths, (I have a few character concept and builds that would be awesome, but who knows in practice) skill challenges, (cool concept, need to see it in practice) actions in a turn, (standard, move, and minor) overall combat flow, and can you guess the last one? Powers.
Powers deserves it's own spot. This is the core of the game now. Your class is defined by its powers and what you as a player do with them. They're all called something different. Clerics use prayers, martial characters use exploits, and wizards and warlocks use spells, but they are all the same thing. I like them because they create options within the character. A fighter is no longer just a walking feat, hes now, effectively, a warblade with plate armor. An epic fighter and an epic caster are (at least on the surface) equal! This acts as a double edged sword however, because powers also make every character feel the same. Regardless of what you call them, powers are powers, and basically every character: advances the same way, gets new bonuses at the same levels, gets feats at the same time, gets new powers at the same time. Every class is exactly the same in terms of advancement. While this has some positives, it really saps a great deal of flavor from the game. I'm unsure of them because I haven't seen them in action. It's hard to judge and dictate how the powers will ebb and flow without some of my own play testing.
There are some crazy ones too, I can remember one that deals 7 times your weapon die damage to an enemy and then stuns them...and I think it was for a cleric.
After an initial reading, it really feels like I read the rules for GURPS or HERO. What I mean is they describe things in a seemingly generic way. They don't really talk about D&D in terms of a Greyhawk setting. It's something completely different. Some of the names are the same, but the world itself isn't. I think when my friend Adam spoke about a lack of D&D feel and flavor, I think this is the reason. It doesn't feel like D&D because its not Greyhawk, which has always been the default setting.
Overall, I want to play it. I need to see how it fares. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together.
So yeah, that was awesome
Came home yesterday morning to no power, and also apparently not having power since 5pm the previous day. It's all fixed and I feel better about it, but I did almost break things.
Warning: Nerd stuff ahead.
So I bought the players handbook for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. I gotta say, it's already making me work on some builds for characters.
Things I like: Condensing of skills(one skill for all searching and spotting, one for climbing and swimming and jumping), modifiers on all rolls (all rolls start with a base of one half your level), Dragonborn are freaking aweseome, (No really. AWESOME!), Magic items, (a much needed change I think; no stat boosting items, clear concise slots, a very cool way to handle critical hits), Powers.
Things I don't: 30 levels and done, (the way they talk about characters in the book makes it feel very final when a character reaches 30) multiclassing, (This is the 3.5 bit in me that really has a hard time understanding at this point) Alignment change, (Iconic D&D concept completely reduced to just a bit of flavor) no more multiple attacks, (*sighs* Im going to miss throwing 4 attacks at someone) epic destines (only four and of those four only demigod and archmage sound interesting) Powers.
Things that remain undecided until a game is played: Hit points, (good god does everyone have a ton and can heal themselves) classes and paragon paths, (I have a few character concept and builds that would be awesome, but who knows in practice) skill challenges, (cool concept, need to see it in practice) actions in a turn, (standard, move, and minor) overall combat flow, and can you guess the last one? Powers.
Powers deserves it's own spot. This is the core of the game now. Your class is defined by its powers and what you as a player do with them. They're all called something different. Clerics use prayers, martial characters use exploits, and wizards and warlocks use spells, but they are all the same thing. I like them because they create options within the character. A fighter is no longer just a walking feat, hes now, effectively, a warblade with plate armor. An epic fighter and an epic caster are (at least on the surface) equal! This acts as a double edged sword however, because powers also make every character feel the same. Regardless of what you call them, powers are powers, and basically every character: advances the same way, gets new bonuses at the same levels, gets feats at the same time, gets new powers at the same time. Every class is exactly the same in terms of advancement. While this has some positives, it really saps a great deal of flavor from the game. I'm unsure of them because I haven't seen them in action. It's hard to judge and dictate how the powers will ebb and flow without some of my own play testing.
There are some crazy ones too, I can remember one that deals 7 times your weapon die damage to an enemy and then stuns them...and I think it was for a cleric.
After an initial reading, it really feels like I read the rules for GURPS or HERO. What I mean is they describe things in a seemingly generic way. They don't really talk about D&D in terms of a Greyhawk setting. It's something completely different. Some of the names are the same, but the world itself isn't. I think when my friend Adam spoke about a lack of D&D feel and flavor, I think this is the reason. It doesn't feel like D&D because its not Greyhawk, which has always been the default setting.
Overall, I want to play it. I need to see how it fares. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together.