In case anyone is still not in the know, Monte Cook is out of the game, and the open playtest starts on May 24th. Though Mearls states that they will “roll out the fighter, cleric, wizard, and rogue, along with the human, elf, dwarf, and halfling”, we are getting pregens instead of the rules necessary […]
I find Rob’s proposal and reasons for adding race frequency to the game very…odd, to say the least, especially with 5th Edition’s purported goal of unifying all the editions. Tagging races as common, uncommon, rare, or whatever does nothing to inform the DM how these might fit into her campaign. It just sets a bar. […]
It’s good to see that the vast majority are in favor to at least some form of limited self-healing. Personally I had grown tired of relying on the casters to keep the game going last edition, and 4th Edition made it easier–I would daresay possible–to manage without a healer at all, or at least without having […]
Looks like the action economy might tank harder than America’s, which apparently is being reduced to “do one thing, and you can also move if you want”. I know that fighter bonus attacks were being pitched as free actions, so that characters multiclassing into fighter could still benefit from them, but I wonder how they […]
As a side trek, most of this is going to be spoilers. Ever since 5th Edition was announced I have not paid much attention to Dragon or Dungeon, largely because the sparse offerings really have not interested me until now. I’m a pretty big fan of Aeryn’s work, so figured I would give it a […]
More good than bad, this time around. The bullet list I can get behind, although some people are contending the part about relating to “archetypal characters, stories, legends, and myths”. What is more interesting to me is the second list; A cleric’s abilities being reflected by her god? I like that. I also like the […]
Backgrounds in 4th Edition were introduced in the Scales of War adventure path, as an option that gave characters a dash of flavor material as well as a small bonus (usually +2 to a skill or something similar…usually). Themes came about much later with Dark Sun Campaign Setting, and were also much more complicated; you got […]
As I said the last time paladins and clerics were brought up, on the concept level they are both very similar. A previous blog post stated that the paladin feels more martially inclined than the cleric, and that they are “exploring” the creative and mechanical space between the cleric and fighter. A good idea, but only […]
Scale reference. Cast Iron Jack (male human Joshian warlord) Lothelle (female moon elf bladesinger) Danh (male goliath serpent shaman) The characters make their way toward the glowing beacon, located in the center of a crater. They experiment with it using Arcana and the litmus test of “throwing things at it”; Lothelle is temporarily blinded by […]
Clearly defined mechanics and flavor text is a good thing, but does it have to come at the cost of 3rd Edition monster creation? 4th Edition made the process quick and simple, providing clear guidelines on what a monster should do at what level. Of course the “official” books did not always cleave to the formulas, […]
Points of Light 