WARNING! GEEK RANT! Step away if you don't know what this means...WTF WotC?!?
4th Edition D&D...if 3rd edition could be called the game that saved a genre (which it really did...2nd edition was stagnating, and Wizards took everything that was still good about the game and made it that much better) and 3.5 improved upon the savior, then certainly 4th Edition D&D would be the crowning achievement of all games to date. It would be the D&D that Jesus played...right?
Okay, so Jesus wouldn't touch D&D with a miracle spell before, and I doubt he'd even think to cast a magic missle at it now. In one word: poop.
You can't multi-class anymore? Don't try and tell me that the multi-class feats fixed anything...Hey, old-school players who loved to multi-class. Here's a feat that lets you take one ability from another class, and you can expend your other feats to take more if you really want to hose your character. Bah!
Epic Destinies? What a crock of shit. There are four of them. One of them is class specific and another one might as well be; the other two choices? Be Hercules (a Demigod Epic Destiny) or choose not to decide on anything (the last destiny is basically a wanderer who chooses no destiny). So I can become a God, or play a Wizard, or be a damned high level thief, or I can choose to follow the advice of Geddy Lee and make a choice by not deciding anything...why does WotC hate us?
One of the abilities in the Epic Destinies reads "Seeker of the Many Paths (24th Level): When you gain a class encounter or daily power by gaining a level, you can choose your new power from any class (emphasis mine)./ Learning a power doesn't necessarily equip you with all the attributes required to use the power...you're usually better off learning powers that are compatible with what you already know." So, sure, you could learn to use some kick-ass wizard power...fighters tossing fireballs are cool right? But you wouldn't really want to do that because your fireball would suck. Thanks WotC...tell me something I didn't already realize, and give me a useful power at epic level, and don't give me fifty-five ways to attack my enemy...not every class needs a damned spell list...and you didn't fool anyone by giving us all the ability to be a sorcerer. You only ever get four of one type of ability, so you don't get to hang on to your abilities. They become more powerful over time, but you give them away eventually to get new abilities...so why do you need them to gain power? WTF?!? Level One wizards in 3rd edition used Shield all throughout their careers. Sure, there were improved versions of the spells (i.e. armor) that made older spells obsolete, but once you've had your higher level spells dispelled and all you have is an old armor spell lying in a level one slot, why the fuck not use it? So instead of making a game where versatility and vast options come standard they made a game which "pigeonholed" every single character.
That's right, there are only four types of characters (almost everything is based off combat, which was my biggest problem with the SW RPG, and even that wasn't such a bad deal) Strikers, Leaders, Defenders and Controllers...well why didn't you just make four classes then? Sure, Paladins (who are defenders) have some Leader qualities, and Rogues (which are strikers) have a lot of non-combat abilities (even though none of them read like non-combat abilities), but if I wanted a Defender/Leader, I would multiclass, then I wouldn't have to feel like a stuffy paladin.
"But Justin, Paladins don't have alignment restrictions anymore." I'm sorry...the word "Paladin" is an alignment restriction. Not anymore. Now you can play a Unaligned Paladin...a Paladin who doesn't give a shit about anything and hasn't picked a side...novel idea...sounds like Eberon 2.0. Sure, their alignment is dictated by the God they choose. Anyone ever heard of a Paladin of Mask? Or a paladin of Malar? I sure as shit haven't...because those Gods wouldn't have a damn paladin...it wouldn't serve their purpose...Aggghhhh!
Some other things I don't like: No animal companions...no familiars...no summoned monsters (there's maybe a couple of spells that summon something, but most of the summoned things just take up space or threaten attacks of op. I think there's one thing that actually can attack, though it takes an action from the summoner to do so, and you don't get that ability till level 19 or 24 or something ridiculous like that...it's not even worth it then) and worse yet, no rules for raising the dead...no necromancy spells to bring about the destruction of the world...I can't even raise one piddly skeleton from an open grave...wtf? Anyone can track, you just need to make a perception check. Sure, rangers and rogues get perception as a trainable skill, which makes them better at tracking, but the damned wizard whose spent all his life in an academy or some tower shouldn't be able to track an elephant through the snow, let alone a deer on a game trail or a goblin crossing a river...that's an easy fix and my first house rule...you can only track if you're trained in perception.
Even beyond my growing hatred for this version of the game (which really is unfounded currently. I need to read all the books to give it a real shot, and even then I need to play it to really know one way or the other) I've found things I like. Wizards get to use Magic Missle as a basic attack! Cool! Fighters can practically move monsters around on the board like a maid moves furniture around a room! Super Sweet! And a Cleric can actually do something besides heal...better than that, he can beat the shit out of creatures and heal his party at the same time! Brilliant! I do like how they did skills. It fixed SW and it will definitely fix D&D as far as skills go...makes it much easier than doling out two-hundred skill points for your level ten rogue. Now the work is done for you by level and the simple act of being trained in the skill. And magic items in the PHB! Woot! Now you don't have to rifle through my DMG, you've got the magic items in your book bitches! And the magic items are so...freakin...cool!
There are some very good things about this game, but I really wish they would have kept that feel of "multi-classing is good" that they captured in the SW RPG. Shame on you WotC for targeting the World of Warcraft audience with your pigeonholed classes...hah! In parting, a fun quotation from a preview article:
"The new edition of the printed game has already caused a rift in the D&D community. Paizo Publishing, an independent company that publishes popular supplementary books for the game, announced last month that it will not support the new edition. It says the previous edition of D&D is a better fit and will even create its own game based on that edition."
Wow...Paizo...Paizo thinks this game sucks...keep your 3.5 books handy people, I may be a Paizo supporter sooner than you think :) To my geeky friends: Let's give it a chance, but keep our options open...what do the rest of you think of the new edition? I'd like some feedback from those who've read it...discussion is fun :)
Okay, so Jesus wouldn't touch D&D with a miracle spell before, and I doubt he'd even think to cast a magic missle at it now. In one word: poop.
You can't multi-class anymore? Don't try and tell me that the multi-class feats fixed anything...Hey, old-school players who loved to multi-class. Here's a feat that lets you take one ability from another class, and you can expend your other feats to take more if you really want to hose your character. Bah!
Epic Destinies? What a crock of shit. There are four of them. One of them is class specific and another one might as well be; the other two choices? Be Hercules (a Demigod Epic Destiny) or choose not to decide on anything (the last destiny is basically a wanderer who chooses no destiny). So I can become a God, or play a Wizard, or be a damned high level thief, or I can choose to follow the advice of Geddy Lee and make a choice by not deciding anything...why does WotC hate us?
One of the abilities in the Epic Destinies reads "Seeker of the Many Paths (24th Level): When you gain a class encounter or daily power by gaining a level, you can choose your new power from any class (emphasis mine)./ Learning a power doesn't necessarily equip you with all the attributes required to use the power...you're usually better off learning powers that are compatible with what you already know." So, sure, you could learn to use some kick-ass wizard power...fighters tossing fireballs are cool right? But you wouldn't really want to do that because your fireball would suck. Thanks WotC...tell me something I didn't already realize, and give me a useful power at epic level, and don't give me fifty-five ways to attack my enemy...not every class needs a damned spell list...and you didn't fool anyone by giving us all the ability to be a sorcerer. You only ever get four of one type of ability, so you don't get to hang on to your abilities. They become more powerful over time, but you give them away eventually to get new abilities...so why do you need them to gain power? WTF?!? Level One wizards in 3rd edition used Shield all throughout their careers. Sure, there were improved versions of the spells (i.e. armor) that made older spells obsolete, but once you've had your higher level spells dispelled and all you have is an old armor spell lying in a level one slot, why the fuck not use it? So instead of making a game where versatility and vast options come standard they made a game which "pigeonholed" every single character.
That's right, there are only four types of characters (almost everything is based off combat, which was my biggest problem with the SW RPG, and even that wasn't such a bad deal) Strikers, Leaders, Defenders and Controllers...well why didn't you just make four classes then? Sure, Paladins (who are defenders) have some Leader qualities, and Rogues (which are strikers) have a lot of non-combat abilities (even though none of them read like non-combat abilities), but if I wanted a Defender/Leader, I would multiclass, then I wouldn't have to feel like a stuffy paladin.
"But Justin, Paladins don't have alignment restrictions anymore." I'm sorry...the word "Paladin" is an alignment restriction. Not anymore. Now you can play a Unaligned Paladin...a Paladin who doesn't give a shit about anything and hasn't picked a side...novel idea...sounds like Eberon 2.0. Sure, their alignment is dictated by the God they choose. Anyone ever heard of a Paladin of Mask? Or a paladin of Malar? I sure as shit haven't...because those Gods wouldn't have a damn paladin...it wouldn't serve their purpose...Aggghhhh!
Some other things I don't like: No animal companions...no familiars...no summoned monsters (there's maybe a couple of spells that summon something, but most of the summoned things just take up space or threaten attacks of op. I think there's one thing that actually can attack, though it takes an action from the summoner to do so, and you don't get that ability till level 19 or 24 or something ridiculous like that...it's not even worth it then) and worse yet, no rules for raising the dead...no necromancy spells to bring about the destruction of the world...I can't even raise one piddly skeleton from an open grave...wtf? Anyone can track, you just need to make a perception check. Sure, rangers and rogues get perception as a trainable skill, which makes them better at tracking, but the damned wizard whose spent all his life in an academy or some tower shouldn't be able to track an elephant through the snow, let alone a deer on a game trail or a goblin crossing a river...that's an easy fix and my first house rule...you can only track if you're trained in perception.
Even beyond my growing hatred for this version of the game (which really is unfounded currently. I need to read all the books to give it a real shot, and even then I need to play it to really know one way or the other) I've found things I like. Wizards get to use Magic Missle as a basic attack! Cool! Fighters can practically move monsters around on the board like a maid moves furniture around a room! Super Sweet! And a Cleric can actually do something besides heal...better than that, he can beat the shit out of creatures and heal his party at the same time! Brilliant! I do like how they did skills. It fixed SW and it will definitely fix D&D as far as skills go...makes it much easier than doling out two-hundred skill points for your level ten rogue. Now the work is done for you by level and the simple act of being trained in the skill. And magic items in the PHB! Woot! Now you don't have to rifle through my DMG, you've got the magic items in your book bitches! And the magic items are so...freakin...cool!
There are some very good things about this game, but I really wish they would have kept that feel of "multi-classing is good" that they captured in the SW RPG. Shame on you WotC for targeting the World of Warcraft audience with your pigeonholed classes...hah! In parting, a fun quotation from a preview article:
"The new edition of the printed game has already caused a rift in the D&D community. Paizo Publishing, an independent company that publishes popular supplementary books for the game, announced last month that it will not support the new edition. It says the previous edition of D&D is a better fit and will even create its own game based on that edition."
Wow...Paizo...Paizo thinks this game sucks...keep your 3.5 books handy people, I may be a Paizo supporter sooner than you think :) To my geeky friends: Let's give it a chance, but keep our options open...what do the rest of you think of the new edition? I'd like some feedback from those who've read it...discussion is fun :)