D&D 4th Edition - Vorfreude und Diskussionsthread

[GuildGoodknife]

Hier ein paar Zitate aus Links von DarkAzrael:

When Andy (Collins), James (Wyatt), and I put together the basic structure of 4th Edition, we started with the conviction that we would make sure every character class filled a crucial role in the player character group. When the bard enters the 4th Edition stage, she’ll have class features and powers that help her fill what we call the Leader role. As a character whose songs help allies fight better and recover hit points, the bard is most likely to fit into a player character group that doesn’t have a cleric, the quintessential divine leader.

Unlike their 3e counterparts, every Leader class in the new edition is designed to provide their ally-benefits and healing powers without having to use so many of their own actions in the group-caretaker mode. A cleric who wants to spend all their actions selflessly will eventually be able to accomplish that, but a cleric who wants to mix it up in melee or fight from the back rank with holy words and holy symbol attacks won’t constantly be forced to put aside their damage-dealing intentions. A certain amount of healing flows from the Leader classes even when they opt to focus on slaying their enemies directly.

Der Barde ist dann wohl der Warlord. Find ich sehr gut, dass Leader supporten und gleichzeitig aktiv am Kampfgeschehen teilnehmen können. Das steigert auf jeden Fall meine eigene Bereitschaft Clerics zu spielen. ^^


Und hier die meaty parts vom Playtest:

To the east, Heron spotted saddled wolves in the barn and a goblin archer in the barn’s loft. Tian spied another goblin peeking out of the modest farmhouse to the north. Neither chose to warn their oblivious comrades, so a surprise round was my players’ first contact with 4th Edition combat.
Their second impression came squarely from the three arrows with which Heron skewered the hapless goblin sharpshooter in the loft. That poor goblin fired on Heron, missing but triggering an immediate counterattack from the ranger, who followed up with two more arrows on his turn. The sharpshooter was dead before the third arrow struck home.

Hier tauchen wieder die Immediate Attacks auf, die anscheinend einen Situationsbedingten Auslöser haben.

Domna rushed a wolf and missed it, after shouting encouragement to her friends (providing a small bonus to them).

Domna ist ein Warlord und kann deshalb supporten und gleichzeitg den Wolf angreifen.

Sasha used a wizard strike with her staff, not only injuring a wolf, but also pushing it away from the prone Heron. This gave Heron the room he needed to stand, move away from his assailants, and regain a few hit points with a second wind.

Ich vermute mal das der Wizard Strike die magische at Will Attacke des Magiers ist (ähnlich wie Eldritch Blast vom Warlock). Interessant ist auch, dass die Second Wind Action aus Star Wars Saga übernommen wurde. Ich zitiert mal aus dem SWS Buch: "Second Wind: If you are reduced to one-half your maximum hp or less, you can catch a second wind as a swift action. This action heals one-quarter of your full hit point total (rounded down) or a number of hit points equal to your Constitution score, whichever is greater. You can catch a second wind only once per day (...) "

[Ostarion]

Wo ist eigentlich der olle MADMACALL oder wie der hiess gibbet den noch?

[Captain Proton]

Wow das ist ja nicht einmal Edelspam,das ist primitiver Spam lieber Herr Ostarion.Also ich bin mal wirklich gespannt auf die neue Edition,kann man sie sich denn schon vorbestellen oder so?

[Yang Kwan Sun]

@Os:

Wenn du spammen willst, spammst du hier und nicht in diesem nützlichen Thread!

@Cap:

Bei Amazon bis jetzt nicht, wenn du den Thread gelesen hättest, wäre dir sicher an irgendeiner Stelle aufgefallen, dass die 4E ab MAI 2008 verkauft wird. Die Frage die sich mir da stellt ist, muss etwas schon 8 Monate im vorraus bestellbar sein?

[Christoph]

Wenn ihr wollt kann ich euch das Vorbestellbar machen, allerdings dann unter vorbehalt des Preises. Ich denke dass der sich im Endeffekt so wie die 3.5 Edition bewegen wird.

Zumindest die drei Grundregelbücher kann ich gern einpflegen.

[GuildGoodknife]

Da der Fluss der krunchigen 4th Edition News grade etwas slow ist gibt's heute einen preview zu den neuen 4th Ed. Illustrationen von Raven Mimura:


Hier sehen wir das Design für die 4th Ed Trolle. Keine Gummiwurzelhexen wie in 2nd und keine Schlabbernasen wie in 3rd, sondern eher ungewaschene Rocker mit spiky Akne.



..und hier die Trolle nach ihrem Meeting mit den Abenteurern


Sieg!


Der 4th Edition Beholder sieht aus als ob seine Großmutter einen Drachen geküsst hätte.

[GuildGoodknife]

Auf D&D Insider kann man den neusten Developer Podcast runterladen in dem Dave Noonan und Mike Mearls ein paar Hörerfragen über 4th Ed.beantworten. Leider waren die meisten Fragen schon in den Designerblogs beantwortet worden und somit war die Spoiler-Ausbeute dürftig:
- Action Points werden Teil der Corerules sein, aber die Mechanic unterscheidet sich von den Action Points in Eberron oder den Force Points in Star Wars.
- Über Regeln für Encumberance haben sie sich noch keine Gedanken gemacht.

---
Desweiteen ist ein neuer Playtest Report erschienen. Hier der interessante part:

In the blink of an eye a dozen vampires poured out of their hiding places in the walls, and mummies starting climbing out of those big sarcophagi. It seemed like every square in the room had something dead standing in it.

Our first instinct was to begin blowing things up. Logan’s warlock laid down a Mire of Minauros on one side of the room, dissolving a couple of vampires and creating a nice acidic bog to guard our right flank. Infandous, Bruce’s “psion,” blasted another bunch of vampires with an area-effect attack. Then Karhun got his turn; I used one of those multiclass abilities I was talking about, and used a wand attack on more of the vampires. We discovered, much to our relief, that we were facing vampire minions—dangerous if they mob you, but otherwise easy prey for some big AoE attacks like the sort we were throwing out.

On my next round I saw several bad guys lined up in a row, so Karhun dashed a few squares over and used another wizard ability—my once-per-day scorch, a powerful fire attack. Karhun blasted two mummies and a hapless vampire minion for a pile of fire damage. After that, we were down to just a couple of monsters left, so Karhun switched over to melee attacks and spent the rest of the fight laying about him with his sword.

[GuildGoodknife]

Übrigens: Wer gerne Playtester der 4th Edition werden würde sollte sich schleunigst nen Forenaccount bei den offiziellen WotC- Boards machen. Den Gerüchten nach soll es diese oder nächste Woche auf der D&D Insider Seite die Möglichkeit geben, sich als Playtester zu bewerben. Dafür braucht man allerdings einen kostenlosen Foren-Account. Also Leute, je mehr von uns sich bewerben, desto größer ist die Chance, dass einer ausgewählt wird! Go Go Go!!

[Yang Kwan Sun]

Ahja *sigh*

In letzter Zeit gibts leider keine sinnvollen neuen Informationen, die man hier posten könnte. Das ist schade, wie gerne würde ich mal was Neues über die neue Edition erfahren und nicht immer wieder das bereits bekannte wischi-waschi Gebrabbel, das in jedem Designer-Blog schon 3x drinsteht. Und inzwischen wissen wir auch alle, dass ihr alle sehr beschäftigte Menschen bei WotC seid.

Naja das "Interessanteste", was in den letzten Tagen drin stand, bezüglich 4E, war wohl das hier:

Zitat von David Noonan

DMG: This morning I'm working on some organizational issues for the Dungeon Master's Guide. One of the things I'm playing with--and keep in mind that this might be a dead end--is organizing the book by DM task.

(And before I see a bunch of "OMG WTF they haven't started the DMG yet" messages, I should be clear. A lot of the DMG rules are written and quietly lurking in our version control software, waiting to get slotted into the actual book. I'm working on organization/presentation issues.)

What do I mean by DM task? Here's the (admittedly tenuous) theory: There are a discrete number of reasonably common tasks that collectively make up, say, 80% of a DM's function. Rather than have the DM flip pages all over the place, you could put all the stuff for "generate a treasure hoard" in one place.

Here's the list of DM tasks I jotted down this morning, off the top of my head. They're in no particular order. And while I think I nailed most of the important tasks, this list probably isn't complete.

"I'm adding a new player to my table."
"One of my players needs a new PC--fast."
"I'm about to start an encounter."
"I just finished an encounter."
"The session just ended."
"I need to generate a treasure hoard."
"I'm making up an NPC."
"I'm making up a new monster."
"I'm customizing an NPC/monster."
"I'm making up a major villain."
"I'm making up a new magic item."
"I'm making up a new trap."
"I need to fill this room with stuff."
"I need to populate a big set of encounters."
"I want to write an adventure."
"I want to design/run a negotiation/interrogation/etc."
"I want to design/run an encounter with a strong obstacle/hazard/chase element."
"I want to do a puzzle/mystery."
"I want to start a campaign."
"I want to adapt a published adventure."
"My game starts in a half-hour, and I got nothin.'"
"My players want to shop/research/train/whatever."

Beyond the tasks, there are a number of common DM issues that might benefit from the same organizational approach--putting all the advice/resources/suggested resolutions in one place. Issues are like tasks, except they're at least somewhat resistant to a checklist approach.

"I have to adjudicate a thorny rules issue."
"The PCs are all dead/captured."
"The PCs missed a clue/are 'stuck' and don't know how to proceed."
"The PCs are seriously going way off the map (literal or figurative)."
"I'm going to have one or more absent players."
"I've introduced a game element, and now I'm having second thoughts."

Here's where you can help: I've started a thread here for your suggestions for common DM tasks and DM issues. Some guidelines:

• A DM task is the sort of thing that you have a mental checklist and at least a vague order of operations for. A DM issue is the land of judgment calls, ad hoc solutions, and solid advice.
• DM tasks in particular should be specific and repeated. In other words, try to drill down to the nitty-gritty of what the DM is actually doing when he sits there staring at the graph paper or the computer screen or whatever. And it should be something that a DM will do more than once.
• It's OK if a DM task leads to other, smaller DM tasks. "I want to write an adventure," for example, is a broad task that's probably going to include a lot of "I need to fill this room with stuff" and "I need to generate a treasure hoard" tasks. But you can imagine a broad checklist and order of operations guiding the adventure writer, so "I want to write an adventure" would be a useful task for the DMG to cover.

So have at it. I look forward to reading your DM tasks/issues, and we'll see whether this approach takes us anywhere interesting.

Haut keinen aus den Socken aber ist auch nicht die schlechteste Idee.

[Yang Kwan Sun]

Nachts heimkommen, nach einer Runde modifiziertem D&D 3.5, in dem der einzige Kampf darin bestand, dass mein Char erschlagen wurde...keine Angst, er lebt wieder, ist irgendwie nicht so cool.

Dann ein Blick in die Designer-Blogs bei WotC und naja, seht selbst:

Zitat von David Noonan

Among the battle highlights:

• Karhun the warlord/wizard fireballed a bunch of the minotaurs... and Hammer, the paladin. Nothing fills a DM's heart with glee more than "friendly fire incidents."
• Sijil the rogue is getting really good at a "rope-a-dope" strategy. Every time the minotaurs try something clever, she's able to evade it, then counterattack with aplomb. Except that once. But that's what healing is for.
• Karhun's magically-aided battlefield mobility enabled a switcheroo (no, that's not the game term) that simultaneously set up about three flanking/sneak-attack type situations.
• Warlock + iron crown of madness = fun for the whole family.
• And Cradle the cleric's seal of righteousness was effective, but the text includes a rules loophole that I'll be spackling shut this morning.
• It's gradually dawning on the PCs that traveling with a 9,700-year-old dwarf may impose some new restraints on their "Here's the plan...get 'em!" combat style.

Ein kleiner Auszug aus dem letzten Playtest. Hört sich doch ganz nett an.

Zitat von Rich Baker

Good morning, everybody! Today, I can talk a little bit about the swordmage.

First, let me say a few words about the origin of the class. Some of you have already observed that the "grid" created by lining up power sources on one axis and character role on another axis is a natural first place to look for class ideas. We don't intend to meticulously fill in each possible combination, or even limit ourselves to one class per cubbyhole, but it's an interesting place to start. The swordmage appeared about 15 months ago when we asked ourselves, "Say, what would an arcane defender look like?"

We liked the idea well enough that at one point the swordmage was well on his way to being included in the Player's Handbook. But for various reasons we decided to go with a slightly different mix of character classes, and so the swordmage is going to wait for a while. It's a class we are going to design and publish someday, but it probably won't be in 2008... with one key exception: I'm featuring a swordmage named Geran Hulmaster as the protagonist in my upcoming Forgotten Realms trilogy, beginning with the aptly-titled novel "Swordmage." It'll be out in May.

Naturally, I needed to know a lot about how the class ticks in order to write about one. Since I don't have a mechanical design to base my Geran's abilities on, I've thought long and hard about what the swordmage class should do, how it looks, and how it feels. So here are a few things I know about the swordmage, based on what I've done for my novel:

* Swordmages aren't "gishes" or bladesingers. Someone over on EN World made an uncannily accurate prediction about the class, which I can confirm here: A swordmage is a warrior who uses magic to fight better.
* Swordmages use spells of armorning and protection instead of wearing heavy armor. At the most basic level, it's something along the lines of an always-on mage armor spell, renewed each morning. Since they're defenders, they need hit points and AC comparable to fighters, and swordmages get there by using persistent magic effects.I think there are other persistent wards in play too, spells that provide some energy resistance, mental defense, things of that sort.
* Swordmages have lots of room for fun, combat-focused "immediate" spells and "move" spells. For example, my character Geran makes use of a few short-range teleports and transpositions, as well as instant shield-like effects. The movement effects will work great for a defender--what better way to get the troll to stop beating on the wizard than to simply trade places with your unarmored friend?
* Swordmages have room for fun attack powers, too. For example, I have Geran make use of a short-duration, self-only strength spell, as well as another one that wreathes his sword in magical flames. There are a few others I touched on in my novel, but I don't want to give any more away 'cause I don't want to spoil things.

Anyway, there you go! Someday you'll be able to play a character like that if you've got the inclination to.

Also gut ein Arcane Defender den wir nicht vor 2009 gepublished bekommen, schöner Ausblick.

Zitat von Bruce Cordell

Writing an adventure that's slated to be released before the core rules offers many challenges.

Of course we'll have to include quick start rules that'll provide all the basic information required to play.

The trick is that we'll have to remember to include things one normally takes for granted when writing an adventure. For instance, if the player characters enter a town with coin burning holes in their pockets, what is available for them to purchase? Last edition, the PHB and DMG provided a method for determining what was available for purchase in average towns of a given size. In Keep on the Shadowfell, we won't have that luxury.

Ein Abenteuer zu schreiben, mit vorab Regeln und allen Infos, die normalerweise auf 3 Bücher verteilt sind (PHB, MM, DMG), scheint kein Zuckerschlecken zu sein. Aber WotC will etwas extra Kohle im Keller bunkern, dann sollen sie halt auch was extra schaffen!


Ich denke alles in allem, mal wieder ein paar Infos, die mir das Gefühl geben, dass ich nicht schon wieder das Gleiche gelesen habe.