DarkDragoonX
05-27-2008, 11:08 PM
So I'm going to take a minute to completely geek out and bring up Dungeons & Dragons, in particular the fact that on June 7th 4th edition will be available in stores, which has me so excited that I feel the urge to type using lots of bold text. Of course, everybody has at least a passing familiarity with D&D, and if somehow you are completely in the dark about it, I'm not going to explain it, mainly because I can't be arsed. So I'm going to skip all the background stuff and move straight to the second paragraph.
4th edition marks a huge change from 3.5, which on one hand is mildly annoying given that the plethora of 3.5 supplements that many of us bought in varying amounts are about to be rendered obsolete. On the other hand, 3.5 is a bit of a colossal train wreck in the balancing department, in particular the antiquated philosophy that melee classes should be useless beyond level 11. They're also doing away with mage spell preparation, which is a godsend to DMs and players everywhere since it was such a huge pain in the ass. Instead, wizards have spells that work either per day, per encounter, or at will. More powerful spells are per day, whereas traditional mage staples, such as Magic Missile, are now at will.
Classes are also given more customization and defined class roles. Fighters are melee protectors with a focus on offense, namely having high melee damage, and many ways to incapacitate enemies before they can get a chance to attack ranged units. Paladins are also protectors, but are focused on defense, sacrificing their own health and safety to keep other party members alive. Classes can be customized more than ever before using a talent tree system. It's actually kind of ironic, because video game RPGs were based off D&D, and now D&D is drawing heavy gameplay design inspiration from video game RPGs. It's come full circle.
Also, you probably thought I was finished with that stupid bold text joke. You were wrong hahaha.
Anyway, D&D is also being shook up at a lore level, with many traditions being turned on their head or tossed out completely. Tieflings are now a basic race, but apparently no longer have a demonic heritage. Aasimars are nowhere to be seen. Erinyes, the lawful evil counterpart to the succubus, are gone. The biggest change is that gnomes are apparently no longer a player race, but are listed in the monster manual, which as far as I'm concerned means it's open season for gnome murder. And I think we can all agree on that being completely awesome.
Anyway, that's enough of that. I don't know if anybody else here even plays D&D at all (somehow I doubt it), but I'm psyched for the upcoming release. Besides, this topic gave me an excuse to use lots of bold text, which entertains me while at the same time really annoying others, so it was worth typing up anyway.
4th edition marks a huge change from 3.5, which on one hand is mildly annoying given that the plethora of 3.5 supplements that many of us bought in varying amounts are about to be rendered obsolete. On the other hand, 3.5 is a bit of a colossal train wreck in the balancing department, in particular the antiquated philosophy that melee classes should be useless beyond level 11. They're also doing away with mage spell preparation, which is a godsend to DMs and players everywhere since it was such a huge pain in the ass. Instead, wizards have spells that work either per day, per encounter, or at will. More powerful spells are per day, whereas traditional mage staples, such as Magic Missile, are now at will.
Classes are also given more customization and defined class roles. Fighters are melee protectors with a focus on offense, namely having high melee damage, and many ways to incapacitate enemies before they can get a chance to attack ranged units. Paladins are also protectors, but are focused on defense, sacrificing their own health and safety to keep other party members alive. Classes can be customized more than ever before using a talent tree system. It's actually kind of ironic, because video game RPGs were based off D&D, and now D&D is drawing heavy gameplay design inspiration from video game RPGs. It's come full circle.
Also, you probably thought I was finished with that stupid bold text joke. You were wrong hahaha.
Anyway, D&D is also being shook up at a lore level, with many traditions being turned on their head or tossed out completely. Tieflings are now a basic race, but apparently no longer have a demonic heritage. Aasimars are nowhere to be seen. Erinyes, the lawful evil counterpart to the succubus, are gone. The biggest change is that gnomes are apparently no longer a player race, but are listed in the monster manual, which as far as I'm concerned means it's open season for gnome murder. And I think we can all agree on that being completely awesome.
Anyway, that's enough of that. I don't know if anybody else here even plays D&D at all (somehow I doubt it), but I'm psyched for the upcoming release. Besides, this topic gave me an excuse to use lots of bold text, which entertains me while at the same time really annoying others, so it was worth typing up anyway.