LibraryOgre
2008-06-22, 05:26 PM
I went to Barnes and Noble today to look through the "4e" player's handbook. The topic of this was my impression: d20 meets Earthdawn. The rigidity of the class system reminded me of Earthdawn (with half-elves turning any At-will power into an encounter power, they're the D20dawn versions of humans), with the classes all getting specific powers that they can use, and little cross pollination between classes. The Dragonborn work well as this system's version of Trolls; the tiefling are somewhat Orkish in function, and the halflings are short, fuzzy t'skrang (with no tails, of course, because how could a mammal match the glory of a t'skrang's tail? They could not, and even tiefling tails are pale shadows of a t'skrang's appendage of astonishing agility and adroitness).
This analogy does not say I didn't like it, or that it is a bad game; far from it. I think that, for certain kinds of games, it will work very well. However, the game as written is redolent of Earthdawn essence, mixed with some tincture of D20. As I was reading, I started deciding how the other classes of D&D would be included. A druid will most likely be a divine controller, and a monk will be, I think, a martial controller. Bards are obvious as arcane leaders; barbarians are likely martial strikers. That leaves Divine Strikers and Arcane Defenders unclaimed. I might have left rangers out of this book, so as to introduce a fourth power source, nature, in the future... that would include Rangers (strikers), Barbarians (defenders... they can work as that), druids (controllers) and shamans (leaders). But that's just an idea, not a solidity. (I obviously missed the sidebar about power sources, as someone pointed out).
One thing I particularly didn't like was the Warlock. The class really has very few options at any given level, once you determine your pact... Your at-wills are decided for you, only infernals have initial choices of encounter or daily powers... and that trend continues. Star can choose 2nd level utility powers, infernals and feys cannot. Feys can choose 3rd level encounter powers, infernal and stars cannot. Compared to a wizard, who gets twice as many powers as anyone else and can choose which to use on any given day, they're straight-jacketed.
Wizards, incidentally, got a lot of love. Not only do they get to choose twice as many powers as others, and then restrict themselves down to everyone else's level on a day by day basis, they get an encounter power based on their favorite kind of implement (orb, staff, or wand), 4 useful cantrips (which are at-will powers), and free use of ritual magic.
The rituals are a good take on the old utility magics... the spells that you memorized in order to get around problems, not to mess up the enemy. They take substantial time and money, many rely on your skills to cast, and can be used as long as you have time, money, skills and knowledge; the old water breathing (now an 8th level effect) can last for hours, and you can cast it again and again (so long as you have the cash to turn into reagents).
Resource management has shifted significantly; encounter and daily powers are far more precious resources than HP, due to the variety of ways in which a character can regain HP (a wizard has 10 HP at 1st level, but, provided they don't all go in one encounter, effectively has 22, as his 6 healing surges grant him 2 HP per use. If he has a +2 Constitution modifier, he goes to 12 immediate, and 34 daily). A 1st level character is, IMO, closer to a 3rd level character in 3rd edition, and maybe a 5th level character in 1st or 2nd... it's a higher power game, set at that level by design.
It's something I'd like to play, to see how it runs, but I still agree with the people who say it feels less like the older editions of D&D. I don't play any MMOs to say it feels like one of those, but it definitely could be tweaked to be Earthdawn, especially once a few more classes come out.
This analogy does not say I didn't like it, or that it is a bad game; far from it. I think that, for certain kinds of games, it will work very well. However, the game as written is redolent of Earthdawn essence, mixed with some tincture of D20. As I was reading, I started deciding how the other classes of D&D would be included. A druid will most likely be a divine controller, and a monk will be, I think, a martial controller. Bards are obvious as arcane leaders; barbarians are likely martial strikers. That leaves Divine Strikers and Arcane Defenders unclaimed. I might have left rangers out of this book, so as to introduce a fourth power source, nature, in the future... that would include Rangers (strikers), Barbarians (defenders... they can work as that), druids (controllers) and shamans (leaders). But that's just an idea, not a solidity. (I obviously missed the sidebar about power sources, as someone pointed out).
One thing I particularly didn't like was the Warlock. The class really has very few options at any given level, once you determine your pact... Your at-wills are decided for you, only infernals have initial choices of encounter or daily powers... and that trend continues. Star can choose 2nd level utility powers, infernals and feys cannot. Feys can choose 3rd level encounter powers, infernal and stars cannot. Compared to a wizard, who gets twice as many powers as anyone else and can choose which to use on any given day, they're straight-jacketed.
Wizards, incidentally, got a lot of love. Not only do they get to choose twice as many powers as others, and then restrict themselves down to everyone else's level on a day by day basis, they get an encounter power based on their favorite kind of implement (orb, staff, or wand), 4 useful cantrips (which are at-will powers), and free use of ritual magic.
The rituals are a good take on the old utility magics... the spells that you memorized in order to get around problems, not to mess up the enemy. They take substantial time and money, many rely on your skills to cast, and can be used as long as you have time, money, skills and knowledge; the old water breathing (now an 8th level effect) can last for hours, and you can cast it again and again (so long as you have the cash to turn into reagents).
Resource management has shifted significantly; encounter and daily powers are far more precious resources than HP, due to the variety of ways in which a character can regain HP (a wizard has 10 HP at 1st level, but, provided they don't all go in one encounter, effectively has 22, as his 6 healing surges grant him 2 HP per use. If he has a +2 Constitution modifier, he goes to 12 immediate, and 34 daily). A 1st level character is, IMO, closer to a 3rd level character in 3rd edition, and maybe a 5th level character in 1st or 2nd... it's a higher power game, set at that level by design.
It's something I'd like to play, to see how it runs, but I still agree with the people who say it feels less like the older editions of D&D. I don't play any MMOs to say it feels like one of those, but it definitely could be tweaked to be Earthdawn, especially once a few more classes come out.