Comments on: Reading the D&D 4E Player’s Handbook

By: extrakun

extrakun — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:43:51 +0000

To Kaeosdad: Initially, I believe that was the idea of Hit Points; your focus, tactical advantage and how fatigue you are, not actual wounds. However, it is not consistent. Cure Light Wounds, in this case, should be ‘Bolster Morale’ – like what Lord of the Rings Online does.

That game don’t have HP, just Morale. When you are ‘hit’ in combat, your morale goes down. Music and inspirational cheers from other classes improve Morale. However, at some time this system just break apart (for a computer game, it’s too rigid). For example, LOTRO has death by falling. So you, eh, get really depressed after you jump from Weathertop

By: kaeosdad

kaeosdad — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:34:18 +0000

The hit someone to heal allies mechanics are all about abstract thought. Sort of like quantifying some tactical advantage that may bog down the game in endless modifiers into the simpler ‘gain some hp’. If you look at hp as not just physical wounds but also momentum, morale and luck even it works.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:56:41 +0000

The Invoker class (from the PHB2) makes for a much better Gandalf than the Wizard class does. Which makes sense, really, given the nature of “wizards” in LotR.

By: extrakun

extrakun — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:21:33 +0000

To a certain extend, it’s the fluff text; to another extend it is what the power actually does. For example, the PHB 2 you have the Avenger who gains teleporting powers in his early levels. I am still struggling with the concept of ‘you hit someone, and your allies get healed’

By: Wyatt

Wyatt — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:56:04 +0000

Coming to much the same conclusion you did, was why I found 4e to be the perfect fit for my Spirits of Eden world.

I disliked the feel of Lord of the Rings, and while I can appreciate A Song of Ice And Fire as a novel (and a challenge in remembering all the stuff in it while I wait for the free time to engage the next books), I wouldn’t want to play games set in it.

I do, however, love wuxia and mythology (a lot of which is quite over-the-top – in the Ramayana, Hanuman lobs mountains around, which sadly 4e can’t do) so my setting totally fit with 4e’s power styles.

But I also agree with greywulf. If you change the tone, there’s no reason that 1dX + Y ability score and [rider effect] can’t be something a little more low key…or even something much, much crazier than 4e conceives of right now.

By: greywulf

greywulf — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:03:15 +0000

Interesting thoughts, and I look forward to hearing more. My own first impressions about 4e D&D were that it is Superhero Fantasy where the PCs are larger than life heroes who can fly, throw energy blasts and climb walls, travel at superspeeds and the like. It's only later (and after sitting down and actually playing the thing) that we realised in reality it can be anything you want it to be; a large part of it depends on how you describe the Powers. As written, the PHB presents the fluff text for each Power as being Epic and wouldn't seem out of place in a computer game. Change the fluff & tone and everything changes. For example, here's the Fighter's 1st level Powers converted to Fantasy Noir, just by changing the fluff text. Food for thought, anyhow. Looking forward to the next post!