Current news implies that the GSL (that lets people publish stuff for 4th D&D) includes language that makes it mutually exclusive with the OGL (the thing that let people publish stuff for 3.x D&D). Possibly over the entire depth of a company. [Insert Nerd Rage]
Lastest bit:
Mini-PHB PDF. Collected info from various leaks in one handy place!
A new, now less ugly book edition is nigh!
Previous cover:
A new, uglier book edition is nigh!
This will be updated soon with more details (suggestions welcome) but for now:
Enworld, really the best place to find 4th edition information.
Wizards main site. A close 2nd.
Hell, otherwise known as the Wizards 4th edition board.
Latest news: OGL and SRD access will be restricted for the first 4 months to those willing to pony up 5 grand and sign some NDA's. Perhaps this will stem the tide of absolute crap in the opening months of 4th lifespan.
What's Changed?
A large amount. For a quick idea go buy Star Wars Saga edition.
Races:
Dwarves, Elves, Tieflings, Halfings and Humans are all returning. Gnomes won't appear in a Player's Handbook for about a year. We get the new Dragonborn and Eladrin. Tieflings are now going to appear in the PHB.
Posts
Right now I expect to talk myself into trying it out, but I'm not 100% certain of it. One way or another, I intend to use what's available to make sure it's as painless to go digital as possible.
Must be a warlord feat.
Any info on the typical campaigns you run? RP heavy, combat oriented, high powered, low powered? Just curious about your style.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
I also tend to be pretty comfortable with weird ass shit, unless all the players want to keep the campaign more traditional, I have no problem with someone playing something somewhat over the top, so long as it can still get along in the world.
Scan through my wiki homebrew if you want to get an idea for the ideas I generate when left to my own devices; it's more or less the setting I submitted to WotC for 3E (Curse you, Hellcow, and your magitech!)
My only really strict thing is to have everyone in the party genuinely cooperative... if two players want to have squabbles, that's fine, but in-game PVP gets tedious -fast- unless it's some long-developed thing, like two characters spending ten levels as rivals culminating in an honor dual.
eberron is still great
not knocking your setting at all incen, haven't even looked at it
but just sayin'
Can I be an anthropomorphic bi-sexual fox Psionicist who wields a buster sword and has a dark past? Also, he's a half-fiend and his eyes glow different colours depending on his mood.
Seriously, though, I'd be interested, though I doubt my schedule would permit it. I'll PM you when I get around to it.
Besides, I get to pretend that Shifters and Incarnium are ripped off from my setting submittal. :P
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Disruptor: Yeah, sure, if you're a multiclassed tiefling fleshwarper/psiwar. You will probably be laughed at by the other fleshwarpers though.
i like being the buff guy. it's why i tend towards clerics.
warlord is a different kind of buff guy, and tha'ts cool.
I really hate that guy's art.
Its the guy who can't draw feet or faces, right?
they really need to stop using him
he really is terrible
It's a Tiefling.
Eladrin are high elves
Say it with me now
Eladrin=High elves.
Elves=Wood elves.
That's all.
Eladrin are the hoity-toity Rivendell-like elves in their ivory towers and flowing robes
Elves are the people in tree-villages with bows and capes made of woven leaves
they're two subraces of the same basic race
in what way
do you mean the planescape tieflings
who all look different because they are all people with a hint of demonic lineage?
yeah because that's not what a 4e tiefling is
they're a distinct race and they all have horns and a tail like that
all of the tieflings in the art look like that
Well, let me explain how I see it as being pretentious. For D&D, I usually like fun romps of awesome characters messing up bad guys. The "style" of the new system seems to be attempting to be edgier, more extreme, darker. But all in such a way that every hero is looking like an anti-hero, and everyone will have pathos from some terrible past. But it's not *really* dark, it's just dark in the way that emo kids are dark, plastic and manufactured.
I guess I just didn't think that Tieflings got horns that big. That's far less subtle then I am used to seeing.
Uhh. Things being edgier, more extreme and darker are really all up to the DM and the people playing the game, isnt it? Likewise isn't a hero actually being an anti-hero and having a terrible past completely up to the player?
and you are basing this on what
the existence of the tiefling and the warlock in the PHB
or perhaps wayne reynold's unfortuante and shitty "extreme" art that has been all over the place
because god i hate wayne reynold's art too but it doesn't make the game "pretentious"
Page 46, "Their small horns, their thin tails..."
just like the 4e eladrin is a different thing than the 3e one, the 4e tiefling is a different thing than the 3e one.
the 4e Tieflings are basically devil people. descendants of a fallen empire that had made a pact with devils, the tieflings all carry that fiendish lineage.
apparently they can "tap into" that lineage even further. they can take feats to grant them wings and whatnot
And yes, the x-treme cover art certainly doesn't help. :P I used to think tieflings were pretty cool. But all good things must come to an end, they are being marketed as the new drow.
I don't really care though, because thats just their base setting. I can't say I ever played Greyhawk, either.
meh
i prefer the art to the single line of text anyway
Fine with me, this sounds excellent.
Again, if schedules allow me to, I would love to play.
And even though its months away, Im thinking Dragonborn defender-ish.
God damnit, I need to stop making characters for games that are months away.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
Hmm. Now I'm just trying to figure out if my knightly type character would feel the need to purge such a race from the world or if they could be redeemed or not.
Also, that is a HELL of a lot of mass to have attached to your ass.
I honestly think the guy just had a hardon for that one painting in the 2E PHB with the topless girl with the big giant tail.
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Inq's claimed Defender #1, but we'll see how it goes. Alas, it's a LONG way until release day, and since I'll be trying to move to another state around August, my usual steady schedule will evaporate. :P Just gotta see cross your fingers.
the people i see who complain the most about things like say, the player races or the points of light campaign setting, are the same people who generally discard the PHB races and play their own homebrew settings anyway.
it's like complaining about stuff they aren't going to use anyway.
it's weird.
Alternatively: Grognards are fanbois, fanbois don't make sense.
I intend to run that when the game first comes out to get the hang of running it.
Later, I might whip up some kind of homebrew setting or races or whatever.
Starting off with homebrew just begs for a migraine.
yeah
how are you going to expect to balance a new race or class you create if you don't even know how the existing things gel with the rules
also, apparently a starting adventure will be coming out for 4e before the core books come out, with pre-gen'd characters, so i might be interested in buying and running that to see how it works out.
Paragon Paths.
They are different from Prestige Classes in one very significant aspect: You don't leave your class to enter them.
You just tack them right onto your class, giving you more powers and customization options.
same with epic destinies
I just wish Amazon shipped faster so I wouldn't be debating between paying full price and getting them later. :P
But I've got some Borders cards to burn anyways, and a decent discount once a week there, so whatever.
By adding new powers in supplement books, they essentially change what a class can do
by adding Class Training feats, you can make varient class concepts with very little changes.