Bront's Forums

I'm liking a lot of what I've been reading.  Mechanically smoother, characters, even fighters, are unique AND will be using their special maneuvers/powers/abilities regularly, and it just feels well thought out.

I'm still not liking the lack of some of the D&D staples like Druids, Bards, Monks (well, I'd understand these missing), Gnomes, and the inclusion of Tieflings and Dragonborn in as core (as well as the Eladrin, they're grey elves darn it!)

I still would like to actually try playing it, but it looks like a lot of fun.

Gnomes ware kind of shafted in genera in most editions with little place in the game (They weren't dwarves, they weren't halflings, they weren't elves, but they had pieces of all three, their leanings depending on what edition you were playingl, it still just doesn't feel right to not have them.  I always thought they would have made a better nature race and move elves more towards magic, but oh well.

Half-Orcs, Yeah, I can see the loss of them, they were kind of odd, though I played a few in my days.

And yes, they didn't fit the power source structure in the game, but it still feels odd to not have them.

And tieflings and dragonborn as core... uck..

But that's all flavoring issues and can be dealt with in game.  The mechanics I still think I like.

On a side note Lath, check out my setting for what I think are good gnomes.  I've been told they are very interesting.  They're more fey related than the standard gnomes, and I think have a better place in the racial hiarchy.  It's 3.5, and still going through revisions, but I put a lot of work into it (and them).

Ok, I did some character creation in 4E, so I'll comment on that.

It took about the same amount of time to create a 4E character not knowing the rules and having to bounce around the book as it did creating a 3.5E character (at 1st level).  Much less math, and I'm fairly sure I could play said character without the book for the most part (Might need it for rules, but not for anything my character can do.)

Generaly, what I've heard, is that combat takes a similar amount of time in 4E vs 3.5E, but you get more rounds in.  There are more hit points and healing flying around, and characters have more options, but their options are generally presented already in a list in front of them with their powers, so turns move much faster.  That's a good thing, as that means that there's less dead time where you're not doing anything.