Ty ArthurA Few More Words On Fourth Edition
June 22nd 2008 20:42
There have been a lot more changes to the Dungeons and Dragons game than were expressed in the last post, so in an effort to help people make a more informed decision before deciding whether to switch I'll give an overview of some of the other differences.
Quite a few of the changes are things that don't actually impact how the game is played or could simply be ignored, such as the name changes in deities. It probably doesn't make sense for an ongoing campaign or recurring campaign world to just suddenly switch their deities around, so lots of people will probably junk the new ones. What was formerly Boccob the Uncaring is now a woman named Ioun (presumably to have a reason for Ioun stones to bear that particular name). The Laughing Rogue Olidimarra and the great traveler Fharlagn have been combined into one deity named Avandra. Kord dropped his WWF pro-wrestler image and is now basically just the god of strength and fighting. Wee Jas became "The Raven Queen" and has less of a focus on evil and more on fate, whether good or bad.
The cosmology of Dungeons and Dragons has been completely altered to the point of being unrecognizable, and that isn't something that can be glossed over as it changes some of the core mechanics of the game. Gone is The Great Wheel and planes of existence that correspond to the nine alignments and the four elements. In its place has been put "The Astral Sea", where all the other various realms float. There are still nominally places like Hell and The Abyss, but they float around in the Astral Sea and aren't exactly their own distinct locations. Most of the planes have been removed entirely and replaced with the concept of "The Fae". This might anger some who had a soft spot for a particular plane, but it has enough flavor on it's own to be intriguing. It's very much like the old "Far Realm" from the 3rd edition Manual of the Planes and has a minor Cthulhu Mythos feel.
The alignment system has also been completely overhauled. There are no longer nine alignments that go in steps from Lawful Good down to Chaotic Evil to cover the entire range of good - neutral - evil, but instead there are only four alignments and "unaligned". The new alignments are lawful good, good, evil, and chaotic evil. According the new player's handbook most people would be "unaligned", in that they don't lean strongly enough towards any one system to actually bear that alignment. This is interesting in that it's more realistic, but it does remove some of the flavor that has become ingrained in Dungeons and Dragons and that a lot of people consider central to how the game works. Personally I think if you're going to have Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil you might as well have all the others like Lawful Evil or Neutral Good, or if you want to go for a more realistic system that doesn't railroad players you should just junk alignment entirely.
A few of the changes have been no brainers that many gaming groups already house ruled way back when. Allowing wizards to cast zero level spells an unlimited number of times per day is one such change, as is making the magic missile spell an "at will" power, however now it no longer hits automatically and does require an attack roll. This may bother some since magic missile has worked the same way in every edition since the game's inception, but it seems like a good change to me as it means the level 1 wizard will never be useless in combat again. Magic weapons and armor made by higher level characters also now have better abilities, so buying a magic longsword made by a level 5 wizard will be different than the same type of magic longsword made by a level 25 wizard. Another nice change is that a cleric's holy symbol and a wizard's iconic staff now actually do something for those classes, and have a variety of cool abilities that can be attached to them.
Wizards of the Coast also took a cue from the old Earthdawn game by FASA and used their Recovery Test system to make what are now called "Healing Surges". Basically instead of relying on having the cleric act as the party band aid every class has the ability to heal themselves a certain number of times per day. The system worked in Earthdawn because in that game every character had innate magical abilities, and it seems like Dungeons and Dragons is going the same way, as all classes now draw upon a source of power (be it arcane, divine, or martial) that gives them magic like abilities.
As was explained in the last post, combat has had a massive overhaul. One of the side effects (which was probably intended so people will buy other products besides just the books) of these changes is that the use of miniatures is now basically required for combat. A good chunk of the various combat abilities have language like "...and target slides X number of squares in a certain direction". These abilities are based entirely around moving targets a certain number of squares on a map grid to do various abilities - and the rules that affect these abilities, like opportunity attacks or other powers that are set off by movement, are also done in "squares". Good luck arbitrarily deciding how that works without an actual grid and some minis! Some combat changes are actually pretty cool, like the options that the Warlord character class gets. The Warlord is basically what the Bard class should have been in the past, bolstering the rest of the party and affecting the battlefield in a multitude of interesting ways. Every class as at least one "at will" power that is more effective than a basic attack though, so essentially no one would ever just swing their sword anymore. These special attacks do also lend more of that video game feel than has been present in previous incarnations of the game.
Monsters see some changes from the past as well. There is now a class of creature known as a "minion" which is just a lower powered version of the creature with only 1 HP. Having characters mow through hordes of minions to get to the real enemies gives combat a more epic feel, but again moves the game more towards a video game style. Most of the monsters also have three or more varieties within a single entry such as Ogre Skirmisher, Ogre Warhulk, and Ogre Thug. This keeps players on their toes because they won't know every creatures abilities, but it does evoke imagery of a monster on one level of a video game appearing again later in a different color to give the illusion that there are more types of monsters than there really are.
Dragons are, of course, a huge focus on the game. The new Monster Manual only lists the chromatic dragons this time around. This is presumably because there are several volumes of "Draconomicons" slated for release over the next year which give more in depth detail about all the different kinds of dragons. It's a little bit of a let down, though, since it's become tradition to see the new art for all the new dragons with each Monster Manual. A tradition that was kept up however is the changing of the Marut creature. Go back to the 2nd edition Planescape Monstrous Compendium and read the entry for the Marut. Then read the entry for the Marut under the heading "Inevitable" in the third edition Monster Manual. Now compare to the Marut in this Monster Manual. For some reason every edition of the game drastically changes what this creature is and how it acts. Most of the art in this Monster Manual is completely new, but for some reason a few of the pieces (most notably the Succubus, Malebrance, and Spinagon) are recycled from third edition books. It's not really major, but you'd think a whole new edition would want entirely new art. The succubus is also now a devil instead of a demon, and the Eryines is nowhere to be seen.
It looks like Orcus is going to play a huge role in the overall storyline arc of the game now. He graces the cover of the Monster Manual, has an entire page dedicated to him inside complete with stats (and no other demon lord or duke of hell gets similar treatment!), and the first official adventure has a priest of Orcus as the main villain.
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