With an instant of focus, you take careful aim at your foe and strike with the legendary accuracy of the elves.
Encounter
Free Action
Personal
Effect: Reroll an attack roll. Use the second roll, even if it's lower.
Elven Weapon Training: You gain proficiency with the longbow and the shortbow.
Wild Step: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift (even if you have a power that allows you to shift multiple squares).
Group Awareness: You grant non-elf allies within 5 squares a +1 racial bonus to Perception checks.
Elven Accuracy: You can use elven accuracy as an encounter power.
Wild and free, elves guard their forested lands using stealth and deadly arrows from the trees. They build their homes in close harmony with the forest, so perfectly joined that travelers often fail to notice that they have entered an elven community until it is too late.
Play an elf if you want …
to be quick, quiet, and wild;
to lead your companions through the deep woods and pepper your enemies with arrows;
to play a ranger, a rogue, or a cleric.
Physical Qualities
Elves are slender, athletic folk about as tall as humans. They have the same range of complexions as humans, tending more toward tan or brown hues. A typical elf's hair color is dark brown, autumn orange, mossy green, or deep gold. Elves' ears are long and pointed, and their eyes are vibrant blue, violet, or green. Elves have little body hair, but males often grow long sideburns. They favor a wild look to their hair, which is often a shaggy mass of braids.
Elves mature at about the same rate as humans but show few effects of age past adulthood. The first sign of an elf's advancing age is typically a change in hair color -- sometimes graying but usually darkening or taking on more autumnal hues. Most elves live to be well over 200 years old and remain vigorous almost to the end.
Playing an Elf
Elves are a people of deeply felt but short-lived passions. They are easily moved to delighted laughter, blinding wrath, or mournful tears. They are inclined to impulsive behavior, and members of other races sometimes see elves as flighty or impetuous, but elves do not shirk responsibility or forget commitments. Thanks in part to their long life span, elves sometimes have difficulty taking certain matters as seriously as other races do, but when genuine threats arise, elves are fierce and reliable allies.
Elves revere the natural world. Their connection to their surroundings enables them to perceive much. They never cut living trees, and when they create permanent communities, they do so by carefully growing or weaving arbors, tree houses, and catwalks from living branches. They prefer the primal power of the natural world to the arcane magic their eladrin cousins employ. Elves love to explore new forests and new lands, and it's not unusual for individuals or small bands to wander hundreds of miles from their homelands.
Elves are loyal and merry friends. They love simple pleasures -- dancing, singing, footraces, and contests of balance and skill -- and rarely see a reason to tie themselves down to dull or disagreeable tasks. Despite how unpleasant war can be, a threat to their homes, families, or friends can make elves grimly serious and prompt them to take up arms.
At the dawn of creation, elves and eladrin were a single race dwelling both in the Feywild and in the world, and passing freely between the two. When the drow rebelled against their kin, under the leadership of the god Lolth, the resulting battles tore the fey kingdoms asunder. Ties between the peoples of the Feywild and the world grew tenuous, and eventually the elves and eladrin grew into two distinct races. Elves are descended from those who lived primarily in the world, and they no longer dream of the Feywild. They love the forests and wilds of the world that they have made their home.
Varis is an elf ranger and a devout worshiper of Melora, the god of the wilds. When a goblin army forced his people from their woodland village, the elves took refuge in the nearest human town, walled and guarded by soldiers. Varis now leads other elves and some human townsfolk in raids against the goblins. Although he maintains a cheerful disposition, he frequently stares into the distance, listening, expecting at any moment to hear signs of approaching foes.
Lia is an elf rogue whose ancestral forest burned to the ground decades ago. Lia grew up on the wasteland's fringes in a large human city, unable to quite fit in. Her dreams called her to the forests, while her waking hours were spent in the dirtiest parts of civilization. She joined a group of adventurers after trying to cut a warlock's purse, and she fell in love with the wide world beyond the city.
Heian is an elf cleric of Sehanine, the god of the moon. The elven settlement where he was born still thrives in a forest untouched by the darkness spreading through the world, but he left home years ago, in search of new horizons and adventures. His travels lately have brought rumors to his ears that danger might be brewing in the ancient forest, and he is torn between a desire to seek his own way in the world and a sense of duty to his homeland.
Well, there you have it. The first unveiling of a full race entry from the 4th Edition Player's Handbook. Oh, what the heck. I'm feeling generous this morning. It must be the season. Here's a racial feat you can peek at, too.
Elven Precision [Elf]
Prerequisites: Elf, elven accuracy racial power, heroic tier
Benefit: When you use the elven accuracy power, you gain a +2 bonus to the new attack roll.
The Deluxe LSH book was stared in May 1984 to cash in on the comic book boom of the '80s. The upcoming "Eye for an Eye" trade paperback is issues #1-5 of this series.
The L.E.G.I.O.N. was a 20th century team created after the Invasion storyline. It was lead by Brainiac 2 and had Valor, Phantom Girl as the amnesiac Phase among other members. It was created to give the LSH a sense of legacy.
The "re-boot" or post zero hour was a complete re-write of the 30th century. Anti-time erased the future and replaced it with a different one. It started in August 1994 and continued till December 2004 when the curent "Three-boot" LSH started. They did get a cameo in Infinite Crisis where we see they are from Earth 247. The Beginning of Tomorrow is a reprint from this series.
"Is the current series with Supergirl suppose to be the original legion or another parallel universe sort of thing?"
Now that's a loaded question!
With the return of the original LSH in JLA/JSA/ Action comics, who knows? The upcoming JLA: Lightning Saga trade papeback will have the first half of this story. See here for more. The second half is hapening in the current Action comics.
With the realization that there are now 52 Earths in the multi-verse, wouldn't be surprised to see that all of these Legions exist in one of them.
Most likely;
Earth 1 = Original Legion
Earth 2 = Adult Legion
Earth 3 = Morduverse Dark Legion
Earth 5 = Reboot Legion (since it incudes Thunder)
How the current "Threeboot" fits will be interesting.
Over on the Mutants & Masterminds boards, The Atomic Think Tank, there is a section called Roll Call. Here people post write ups for new and existing heroes, including a few LSH write ups.
Technically everything up to Zero Hour is one continuity.
The Regular LSH book became Tales of the Legion when the new Deluxe LSH book was released in 1984. Tales continued for a year and then started reprinting the deluxe book. See Here.
When the Legion books were cancelled and restarted, we have the "5 year gap" and this is what happened during those missing 5 years.
Next we have the "5 years later" LSH and the "Legionnaires" books. Issues #4-6 of LSH provide a major retcon that replaces Superboy with Valor and allows them to change any other past problems that show up. Here is the full run of "5 years later", "Legionnaires" and the Timber Wolf mini-series, at this site.
Now here is The Legion Wiki on the post Zero Hour legion or "Re-boot". This is where the boy/girl names were dropped, new legionnaires were introduced like Kinetix, Gates, XS and Monstress. Both books were cancelled and replaced with several mini-series; Legion Lost, Teen Titans/Legion crossover, Legion World, and The Legion.
Which then brings us to the "Three-boot" legion which is the curent version.
All of the Trade Paperbacks are reprints of other books.
The Great Darkness is the original LSH #290-294
The Beginning of Tomorrow is Re-boot LSH 0 62-65 and Legionnaires 0 19-22
Foundations is Reboot The Legion #25-30
Superboy's Legion is an Elseworld tale.
Here is the Legon Wiki link to the full Publication History of the LSH. Including spin-offs, Elseworld Legions, Reprints and the 20th century L.E.G.I.O.N.
Someone earlier mentioned a "5 Years Later" Legionaire Kent Shakespeare .
Here is a Bio on him, keep in mind when they introduced him, everyone just called him "Kent", the glasses and his powers of Strength and Invulnerability just screamed Superboy!!
His Legion codename was Impulse and he was also a Medical Expert, having spent most of his childhood in hospitals and filled a very needed role.
He is one forgotten Legionaire I would love to see return to the LSH.
Sure I will try and answer any questons you have, I guess that makes me the Computo of your legion? Hmmm, now who wants to be Triplicate Girl?
I wasn't to sure of the Three-boot, but several things have made me really like it.
One, the 31st century technology "feels" like it is future tech. I never understood why the Justice League had a teleporter in the 20th, but the Legion didn't in the 30th.
Two, the Legionaires! They proved you can revise something and make it better. Micro Lad, Projecta admited for her money, and Brainiac 5, they got him and his 12th level intellect perfect.
I knew the Re-boots would come up eventually so I am prepared.
Original Legion of Superheroes
Legion of Superheroes started in Superboy comics as a one-off story like most of his stories were. But the Legion got a response from the fans and they wanted more, so the LSH became a recurring storyline in Adventure comics, Action Comics and Superboy comics. Eventually it became Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes and finally The Legion of Superheroes.
During this time frame, the Legion had its best stories, the Time Trapper, Legion of Supervillains and of course the best of all “The Great Darkness Saga” (Available in trade paperback). Around the same time, Comic book shops had become “Cool” and to support them, DC created deluxe books with better paper, fewer adds and a new brighter ink. A new Legion of Superheroes book was part of the launch of these books and the previous title became “Tales of the LSH”. It continued with new stories for a year and then started reprinting the deluxe book.
The initial run is being released as a trade paperback “Eye for an Eye” and features the Legion of Supervillains stealing a planet and the death of a Legionnaire. Unfortunately, not everyone had a reliable comic shop and many legion fans had trouble getting the book, including myself. This is the one part missing in my collection. But storylines were also affected by the Crisis on Infinite Earths. After the Crisis, Superman was never Superboy, never met the Legion and was the last survivor of Krypton. And thus started the legacy of retcons that continues today.
They tried using the Time Trapper having a pocket universe with a Superboy to inspire the Legion, they replaced Supergirl with a Daxamite, Laurel Gand, a decedent of M’onel and eventually had a magic war that reeked havoc upon the galaxy. Turns out Flight rings and Stargates were more magical that technological. And the Legion books were cancelled.....
Five Years Later and Legionaries
Only to be restarted as “Five Years Later”. The new storyline had the Legion reforming, Earth under Dominator rule and with the death of the Time Trapper, a reality shift that made M’onel
the inspiration of the formation of the Legion as Valor. During the storyline to take back Earth, Batch SW6 was introduced, what was assumed to be clones of the Legion from back during the Adventure Comics days. With the end of the Dominator threat, a new legion book was started, Legionaries. The two books continued until the Zero Hour event and the entire 30th century was consumed by Anti-time.
Reboot
In the new “Reboot”, the boy/girl names were dropped in favor of new names; Livewire, Apparition, Spark, Inferno, Triad and Alchemist. New Legionaries were also introduced like XS (a decedent of Flash), Gates, and my personal favorite Kinetix. Unfortunately, in an attempt to keep the sales up, they kept messing with things. For example Kinetix went from a knockout red head who can manipulate matter, to a white witch knock off, and to a Hypertaxis Terrorform and I really don’t know what that is since the book was cancelled right about then. (Why couldn’t they leave Zoe alone?)
Three-boot
And then relaunched in its current “Three-boot” form. Now in the 31st century, with a very different view of the future. The boy/girl names are back as a homage to Superman and Wonder Woman. The book is currently “Supergirl and the LSH” as she was displaced in time during the Infinite Crisis event. In the upcoming issue #37, Jim Shooter returns. He wrote a bunch of the Original stories when he was 15 and looks like it will be an interesting start to the new year.
Back to the Original LSH
If you are not confused enough, guess what, in the recent JLA/ JSA “Lightning Saga”, the original Legion has returned, it appears Superman was a member and the original Starboy is the current Starman in the JSA and Karate Kid and the last of Triplicate Girls selves, “Una” are part of the Countdown event. And according to an article in Wizard, the positive reaction to the Original LSH means they will be back in Action comics, hopefully with an explanation as to WTF is going on with two Legions.
Animated Legion
Also we have the cartoon LSH in its second season. It has some new takes on old characters; Brainiac 5 as a android, Starboy (three-boot version) with full gravity powers and the Future clone of Superman is a very interesting idea.
The Legion was the first comic I read on a regular basis and to this day it remains my favorite.
And now to activate my Legion database;
"I'd take either Residual Absorbtion, or Power Duplication."
Residual Absorbtion Absorbancy Boy: A failed legion try out who tryed to prove his worth by taking down Tyroc. The official reason he failed was the limitations of him needing some object from each person whose power he wanted to mimic. The more likely reason was Dream Girl's vision of him on a panty raid "I need them for your powers, honest!"
Power Duplication Composite Superman: The Legion once gave Superboy statues of all legionaires. Unknown at the time but the statues contained residual power from each legionaire. When these statues were on display in a Superman museum, the janitor was hit by lightning as it passed thru the statues and he gains the combined power of all legionaires.
Naturally he took the shape of half superman/ half batman and became a super criminal.
Amalgamx: An alien who helped the Composite Superman once, recreated the accident and temporarily gained the same powers to get revenge on Superman and Batman.
B.I.O.N.: In the "5 years later" stories, the Dominators created an android using the Computo matrix and the genetic material of "batch SW6" a group of temporal clones of legion members.
Composite Legionaire: In the "Reboot" timeline, he was a Super Durlan, who could take the form and powers of anyone he "sampled" whith his antenae. He was defeated when Saturn Girl wiped his memories of who he had sampled.
And the Worst of the bunch
Duplicate Boy: Like Peter on HEROES, Ord could mimic the powers of any superhuman, but also like Peter, the power he mimics most often is the power of a Retarded Jackass.
He was Shrinking Violets boyfriend, but when she was kidnapped and replaced by a Durlan, who promptly broke up with him and fell for Collossal Boy, did he use the any of the multitude of powers to discover the switch and rescue Violet? No he chose to be Emo and got so depressed that his powers became unreliable.
When Violet was rescued he rushed to her side and she punched his lights out.
Why would you even need magic items in 4th Edition? I thought they were getting rid of the "Christmas Tree" effect, and just making every class damn super ninjas ala Naruto ("Ok, you'll be the stabbing ninja, and you'll be the healing ninja, and you'll be the flying ninja...").
In 4E the "Christmas Tree" will be Pre-lit with the LED lights built in.
I am trying to understand why a Rope of Climbing is a 10th level item?
I have always considered it a basic item that Commoners would use impress each other.
"We know the wizard. Their focus is now more an evoker than anything else. They blast enemies while remaining in the back.
Spells are divided among at will (lesser power than a fighter’s melee attack), per encounter, per day (the really powerful stuff, these are the most powerful abilities in the game) and rituals. Rituals cover magic item creation, and non-combat spell (divinations are prime examples).
Schools are dead, long live the implements: the orb, the staff and the wand (with others, such as the dagger, possible in later supplement). Staffs are for rays and cones, wands for long distance control, while orb stands for blasts, terrain control, and retributive and perception based effects.
Divinations, long range teleport, restorative effects (the cleric’s remove disease for example) are rituals.
Evocation and illusion are there and now they are the focus of wizardry.
Necromancy was nerfed mostly by removing save or die effects.
Transmutation was a haphazard pile of powers (according to them), and some part remains, other do not.
Enchantment is nerfed to be saved for other classes (others they state that it will be psi).
Wizards spell failure due to armor is gone (hurrah!). Picking the right feats wizards can go around in heavy armor.
Feats don’t have class as a prerequisite. Race, level or skill training might be needed, but no class. You can steer your character wherever you want.
There are class training feats (Fighter training, Wizard training, Warlock training, etc.) that gives some power of that class to someone not in that class.
Power progression
There is 2 or so pages on tiers of power (heroic, paragon and epic). The important part is the paragon paths and epic destinies. They replace prestige classes. They are additional power/abilities, that you can choose once you hit 11th or 21st level. They are very much like prestige classes and battle captain, mystic theurge, weapon master, prince of knaves and cavalier are mentioned.
Epic destiny gives few but very powerful ability. Also it describes how you exit the world (seem like at level 30 you retire). You can become a demigod for example.
Epic level game is much about slaying gods and clearing the Nine Hell (I made the last up).
In the cleric section they muse about gods being redesigned, and one of their goals is, that they can be challenged by epic level characters. "
________________________
I really have problems seeing Pathfinder without Schools of magic. The Runelords are based on being specialists in each school. The schools of magic have defined D&D since the begining, droping them pushes D&D2.0 farther away from what I consider D&D.
Please tell me this book is shipping this week, that "Paladin smites with a Charisma attack against the target's AC" article has left me really needing a D&D booster shot right now.
Here is what is being posted from Hungary again about the Wizards Present: Classes & Races book from WotC boards byway of ENWorld.
"First of all bear in mind that the book reflects the state of the art as of Aug 2007, before the announcement. It still has May as the release date. It is full of fluff and art. Sometime a whole page is just a picture, so don’t expect longish text. There is no mechanic, just a few mentions that hint at mechanics.
Ability scores
Ability score adjustment have a net positive benefit (i.e. not of the type -2 / +2). I think that it will be a flat +2 most of the time. In the entry for dwarves it says that the charisma penalty is gone, thus they might have +2 Con, and that is all.
Races
Each race seems to have a clear “homeland”. Dwarves live in mountains, elves in forests. Now they come up with something for all major races. Humans are tied to plains, Halfling to rivers (swamps and marshes), Dragonborn to deserts (at least their great empire were in desert).
I will list a favoured class. As we know, mechanically it is not the favoured class of 3.x, but they admit, that some races are better at being certain classes. The “favoured class” is not listed as such, I inferred it from the text.
Human
They will remain the flexible, adaptable race as in 3.x.
Their negative personality flaw is corruptible (I don’t think it is mechanic, just fluff or the basis of some racial feat).
The text mention that humans never give up, and try thing again-and-again; this can be a racial characteristic (allow retry in some cases).
Each of them know how to handle at least one weapon (fluff or ability?).
Their homeland is the plains. Horses are important to them.
Favoured class: They fit to all classes equally well (or at least more or less equally well, the text is not that clear hear).
Dwarf
Resilient industrious folks.
One of their racial feat allow a second “second wind”.
They no longer have darkvision, only low light vision (most races will have only normal vision).
Favoured class: Fighter
Eladrin
They are the magical high elves. Both elves and eladrins were elves, but one preferred magic and stone, while the other nature and the woods.
One of their racial feats allows them to briefly enter Feywild and reemerge at another place, making a short teleport (was hinted at one of the playtest report, right?).
Favoured class: Wizard
Elf
Favoured class: Ranger
Dragonborn
Dragonborn are kin to dragon, they are egg laying (so why on Earth do females need a halter?). They are a strong race with martial incline. I think dragonborn replaces half-orc as the main damage dealing race.
At higher level they can choose racial feat that gives them breath weapon or wings.
Probably have claw attack.
Favoured class: warlord
Halfling
Now they admit, that the main source of inspiration for the 3.x halfling is the kender. We suspected it all along. They are still the lucky, bit thievery race as they were. Added their liking for rivers and boats (and thus being a merchant and wandered).
Favoured class: Rogue
Tiefling
Lots of fluff, but really not so much crunch. I never played them, so I don’t know how they were in 3.x. Their look is rather unified now.
Favoured class: Warlock"
"Warforged is mentioned. Apart from the core races (human, elf, eladrin, thiefling, dragonborn, dwarf and halfling) gnome, drow, celestial (aasimar) and warforged is mentioned for a paragraph or two.
A high elf is a high elf. Most races have a little on origin, history, culture and society. Humans got more space because their status is not so clear. A dwarf is a stereotype (a bearded, small human with a gruffy attitude). Humans are variable, thus there is more musing on them. All in all I found it well writen and they worth the extra pages.
Elves really had 2.5 or so pages. Most have 2-3, except for humans. Take into note that there is a lot of art in the book. Full page art mind you. Cool art I have to add.
Gnome were neither elves nor dwarves, but a little bit of both. Lacked focus.
Dwarves and halfling are a bit taller now. They are right, an average halfling were akin to a 3 years old (I have a daughter of that age) and it is just hard to imagine for people. Dwarves are a bit taller too (given the trend dwaves will be 6-8' be 6th edition...).
Dragonborn are a true breeding race that has nothing to do with humans. They are lizards (egg laying). They were never a half race.
Tiefling on the other hand can breed with humans. The result is always a thiefling. I won't give away fluff from the book, but it is great! But their grandparent are definitely not demons, they are thieflings. As for their distant past ancestry, but and read the book.
They said that back then when they designed 3rd, they felt that kenders are cool, but a bit too comic/not serious enough. So halfling (in 3rd and in 4th also) have some of the personality of kenders but they are a serious race. The focus is rivers.
[Tieflings are]Unified in the sense, that they are not the son/daughter of a myriad of devils/demons with wastly different appearance. They are a race, not a collective name for something. They pass for humans from a distance. The text says that they have a small hord extending from their brow and a narrow tail. As they grow in power these thing get more pronounced. In the arts they have very pronounced tail and horn.
...while elves live in the forest in wooden houses (probably), eladrin built cities in the Feywild.
Strange as it is, as half-elves get mentioned from the announcement of 4th edition, but there is nothing in the book about them."
"Here again I start with a disclaimer. The book present the state of the art as of Aug 2007. There could be changes.
Unified progression of defense, BAB and saves. A 10th level character will have +5 of those (thus +0.5 / level). Even at 1st level classes can significantly alter the base value. Class abilities modify them further.
Cleric
All classes will get some self-healing power (already known). Cleric enhance the self-healing capabilities of nearby allies.
Bigger spell will be rituals (raise the dead for example). Rituals are different from spells (as of how I do not know).
Summoning spells are removed along with alignment specific ones (at least for now).
Fighter
You chose to fight with a two-handed weapon or a weapon+shield. Other abilities build on this choice. I hope this will be changed, how would two-weapon fighting figure to this?
Powers can be divided into assault, defense and control. Assault is best suited to two-handed weapons, and ephasize offense and damage. Defense is about higher AC and such things. Control hinder and constrain the enemy (IMHO trip for example).
Some stunt a better if carried out with a specific weapon. Hammer are perfect for stunning opponents, while great swords for cleave.
The role as a defendes admittedly means that you are to defend the wizard and allow the thief to flank. I'm not happy with that. The fighter should be the primary damage dealer, not the rogue or the wizard...
A fighter feat allows Dex to be added to AC even when wearing hvy armor.
Fighters can keep monsters focused on them, by having bonuses on opportunity attacks and by following enemies. They guard allies by "battlefield control".
An example of at will power is the defensive strike. If you hit, you get bonus to AC against this foe.
Per encounter: dance of steel (just the name is given)
Per day: great surge which is a powerfull attack combined with some healing of yourself.
Psi will appear sometime and it will be a different power source. They design arcane and divine magic so that psi can fit in. Power over mind will be the main (or a flagship) feature of psi, thus charms are going to be nerfed (the avoid too much overlap)."
"These classes are mentioned is 3-4 paragraphs, it is not a confirmation that they are going to be in the PHB, just that they were experimenting with them (for some, like the paladin, warlord and the ranger, we know that they are going to be in the PHB).
Paladin: Still have smite ability but there are more types of smites (different form of attacks). Paladins and fighters are both defenders, but paladins rely on divine powers. There are evil paladins.
Ranger: Nothing more that we already know. Some scoutish abilities focus on movement, good with a bow.
Sorcerer: Make it more distant from the wizard. They barely control their spells, but unleash enough energy every time that some remains around them. For example after a fireball, they are cloaked in fire which sears enemies nearby.
Swordmage: An arcane defender with magic shields and armor, flaming sword and some self-bluff abilities.
Warlord: A martial leader, with the ability to buff and control over battlefield positioning.
Barbarian: The ability to rage is the centerpiece ability of this class. There are different rages. There is a mention of a “lightning panther strike” that allow movement and multiple attack. Barbarians are more feral, and bite attack was mentioned
Druid: Their spellcasting takes second seat. The primary ability is wildshape, which they can do a lot more often, but only shapes they have picked (like spells). They have some nature related spell to canst when in humanoid form.
Bard: Gets it power from otherwordly patrons (?). Its powers focuses on illusions and confusions, so that enemies hinder themselves. They can also inspire their allies.
Monk: Still in the design stage, but it will be a mobile striker."
I would have to say no, and for two reasons in particular;
Re-imagining and Resources.
It is becoming more and more obvious that 4th edition is in fact D&D 2.0. They are changing everything but the name! The Ecology of the Death Night, The Dryad miniature, Devils as fallen angels, elemental vortex, 30 levels of spells without Wish, and now we learn that many feats are now class abilities.
On one hand, I have no desire to re-learn how to play and DM this game. And add to that with every change they make, all my knowledge and experience matter less, in fact it most likely would work against me as most of what I see fluff-wise, I don't like. Most of my confidence as a DM comes from that experience with the rules. But by changing the meaning of those rules, they are creating a nightmare situation "Old Rules vs New Rules".
Yes, 3E changed things, but not to the heart of the game. They did not replace the Wizard with the Sorcerer, Feats were something new that added to the game. Imagine if they changed Football to this degree, the players on the field would be unsure what to do and the poor refs would be constantly flaging people for fouls. I do not want to be a DM/Ref who has to constantly flag players for "4E violations".
Also the more they change, the more useless all the books behind me become. I have converted 1E & 2E characters into 3E without any problems, but even the designers are saying you will not be able to do this with 4E. It is starting to look like a completely different game, and not the one I enjoy playing.
In their hurry to have a "Sacred Cow BBQ", they seen to have forgotten that those aspects of D&D are what separate it from other RPGs. That's what makes it unique among fantasy games.
From time to time I play other games, but I always have come home to D&D. Now I fear I no longer have a home to come back to.
Anyone have any thoughts about the specifics of the Binder class (Tome of Magic)?
Given the small bits of cosmology we've been given so far, I can envision the system working more or less as written, with the souls of the famous being drawn back from the "Underworld" to serve those who know how to call them.
Although it seems that Varisian seers and spirit mediums make the most sense for the class, are there any thoughts out there as to any organized society of Binders or similar group?
Any thoughts welcome ...
o
In my D20 Rokugan setting, Binders are exclusive to the Lion clan and instead of vestiges, they bind with Ancestral Spirits, Nature Spirits and Aspects of Kami.
Here is how I have decided to handle Psionics in Pathfinder.
Once psionics was almost as common as magic, but as the Runelords rose to power, they viewed any power they did not control as a threat and they targeted anyone who manifested psionic powers.
The most powerfull manifesters were a tribe of Dwarves in the Mindspin mountains, but a combination of magical diseases and curse magic forced the dwarves to retreat into the Deep Earth and become the degernerate Duergar known today.
This attack did not go unobserved among the Human manifesters. A large group decided to flee to the Astral Plane for their safety and it is believed that they became the Githyanki and Githzerai races over the next 10,000 years.
The last group who tried to leave were attacked by agents of the Runelords and their gate malfunctioned and flung them to some Far off Realm. It is believed that they were changed by this Realm and became abominations beyond description.
The remaining psionic users were forced to retreat to a mountain monestary of a powerful Seer. When the Runelords made their move, they found all of the manifesters dead. Even the Runelords were puzzeled by what they found and the mystery of the deaths has remained for 10,000 years. But in the last few decades a possible answer hs appeared in the form of the Elan. No one knows exactly where they come from, they are normal humans untill their "awakening", after which they are Elan. Some belive that those ancient Psions attemped a form of Psionic Reincarnation and the Elan are the result of this power.
The insect races of Dromites and Thri Kreen are found to the far south and have little to do with most other races. Recently it was decided among the hives that they need to know more about these strange speaking animals to the north, so explorers and spies have been sent to these strange northern lands.
Half giants are similar to Ogrekin, as the result of crossbreeding with humans, but in their case, they have avoided the mutations and inbreeding of the Ogrekin. Many Half giants want nothing to do with thei giant kin and have fled to try to live among their human cousins.
The last two psionic races Maenads and Xephs are liiterally the children of the Runelords. The Maenad race was created by Alaznist, the Runelord of Wrath, and survived the fall of Bakrakham by becoming masters of the seas.
The atheletic and artistic Xephs are the children of Pride and their homeland, a dark forest in a deep rift was believed to be a sanctuary hold of Xanderghul
And here is a good reason why. When we were waiting for 3rd edition, I was waiting in Legend of the 5 Rings Rokugan, in the original AEG version.
When we got D20 Rokugan, I loved it!
When AEG went back to their version, I realized that I prefered the options of the D20 version. I could have a Scorpion Shadowcaster, A Dragon Totemist (Soulmelds as Tattoos) or even a Crane Psychic Samurai. And I assume I am not the only one still playing D20 L5R, since all the recent AEG books have been very "Rules Lite".
One one hand I like this because I can still use them, but on another they are "Some assembly required". They do need some work on my part to make them work as D20. I really don't want to pay more for something that requires me to "finish it" so to speak.
4E falls into a similar catagory, If I want to play a 3.5E Bard, I have the option of a Musical Bard, a revised Healer, a Know-it-all Factotum, a Curse weaving Hex Blade, or a Charming Beguiler. If something a simple as the Druid is an additional year away, it could cripple a basic campaign.
I really like what I am seeing fom Pathfinder, but the same can't be said about D&D2.0 over a WotC. I will still get the Player's Handbook, but with each new revelation, it is moving more and more away from the game I want to play. I really have a hard time even "seeing" the Realms, Eberron or Pathfinder as "Tieflings & Warlocks".
I guess we are in the same boat Erik is in, we are all still waiting to see some concrete 4E rules and the fact they are not showing them to Paizo does not bode well.
I have realized that I really don't like the WoTC adventure format. This "let's put half the adventure over on these pages, but put the actual encounters over on those pages" is just annoying.
Increase skill points per level across the board, add more skills to each class' skill list, make some skills class skills for every class (Knowledge (local) comes to mind as do a few others). Beef the fighter at higher (10+) levels. Fix casters and how multiclassing affect their class abilities (there's a difficult one).
...more later, likely.
My skill fix; All PCs have all Class Skills with ranks equal to their level. You are a 5th level Rogue, you got 5 ranks in all class skills.
Skill points are what you use to better than that other 5th level Rogue next to you, who will be better than you at other skills. This also makes Ability bonuses stand out more.
And for DMs, basic NPC and Mooks would just have their class level. This simplifies NPC creation and reduces the wasted spaces in descriptions.
I have come to realize that WoTC is not making 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons.
They are making D&D 2.0, a re-imagining of the game.
Personally I expect this will go over like "New Coke", Why? Well why did new coke fail? Most re-imaginings are 20+year old TV shows or out of print RPGS. With Coca-cola, they tried to replace something that was still popular, still available and D&D3E falls into that catagory.
Personally, I don't even want to try to re-learn how to play D&D, I already know how to play the game. I mean you don't come along 30 years later and decide to change the rules of Chess or Checkers!
I would fully support a Pathfinder RPG, especially if it was a 3.75 rules. Yes we would lose the non-SRD material, but as Pathfinder has already shown, you guys are more than able to come up with new stuff that is even better!
The thing about the Zombie aticle that bugs me is that they make it sound like it is a new idea to have variant Undead. Dragon magazine's October issues have been doing this for years, so to did Ravenloft's VanRichten guides. But here, they act like it is a great new idea.
The are really starting to sound like Stepford Designers, everything 4E is Great, Magnificent, Awesome, Amazing, Terrific,..uh..um..(where's my thesaurs)
#1 Race: Race is the one last "front end loaded" aspect of the game. You get all these special abilities at 1st level and nothing after that. Remember Gestalt Classes in Arcana Unearthed? What if instead of a second class, you use 1-20 levels of your race. Dwarves would get bonus hit point, elves bonus skill points in search/listen/spot and etc. This would balance out the "powerfull" races and open another door to organizations. Yes, you could make being a memeber of an organization as part of your race and take feats as a part of racial leveling. In Eberron, this would mean Dragonmarked house or in L5R: Rokugan your clan.
#2 Skills & Feats: Yes there are a lot, but many of these do not need to exist! First the skill list does need to be simplified like in the New Star Wars RPG. Another aspect from the new Star Wars is "Trained skills", instead of a +2 bonus, "Skill Training" allows several new uses for an existing skill to come available, such as Tracking for the Survival skill.
Second, we need to re-examine the list of feats, remove those that should be available to anyone, remove those that could become a trained use of a skill, remove those that have the same or similar effects and those that could be merged into a single feat. That should trim the list down a little. I would also add leveling into feats, sort of like those in Iron Heroes. Basically you take it again, with a level pre-requisite, and improve the feat instead of having a chain of Improved feats.
#3 Class Options: Some classes have very limited options, Paladin, Monk & Druid offer very little to differentiate one PC from another. With more and more "Variant class levels" I would consider a version of D20 Modern Talent Trees that would allow for making your Monk different from everyone else at the Monestary.
#4 Prestige classes: Yes there are too many and some are unbalanced compared to others. I think the best Prestige classes I have seen were in the D20 Rokugan Secrets of the Clans and Way of __ books. They were all 5 levels and get right to the point of what they were trying to do.
Also, there are many prestige classes that could be replaced by a couple new feats and spells.
As you might guess, Psionics plays a big role in my games an since once again psionics will be left out of the Playe's Hadbook and not addressed till 2009, I really can't switch over till then. Add to the fact that they are ruining the Forgotten Realms and delaying Eberron till 2009 as well, that also would limit my campaigns.
Another problem is that I have actually been using all the material WotC has released over the last year. I like that I can replace the musical Bard with the scholarly Archivist, the Jack of all trades Factotem or even my retooled Healer. I like having options, and one of the problems I see with 4E so far is that they are limiting your choices. They speak of 4 party roles, but what if my PC doesn't fit any of those?
I will still pick up the 4E PH, (damn Amazon and their Gold Box specials) but right now I am more likely to reto-fit into my 3e campaigns.
My biggest problem with the 4E guys is the arrogance.
They don't have any use for Gnomes, Bards or Elemental planes and so they assume no one else does. To me this is a lack of imagination on their part. I can think of a half dozen ways to use Gnomes and if the musical Bard doesn't work, use the Factotem, Archivist or Healer (ver 2.0).
And this brings me to another problem, in the 3rd edition change, if a monster did not fit their "theme", they created an all new monster to fill that role (see Piercer to Darkmantle). But for 4E, any monster that does not fit their role is completely changed into something else; Bone Devils become Daemons, Erinyes and Sucubui are now the same creature and Death Knights have been downgraded into Skeletal Warriors. Why do that? The Skeletal Warrior is allready there with his bony hand up screatching "Pick me! Pick Me!"
But possibly the worst aspect of their arrogance is the "Well you really can't convert from 3E to 4E, so you might as well just scrap your PCs, your campaign, your whole damn homebrewed world. Oh and you Forgotten Realms players? We just advanced the setting 100 years so everyone not playing an elf, you're dead. And if your elf was a mage, he is too insane to play now. What? You have a cleric of Mystra? Sorry, she's dead too!"
The easiest psionic insertion would be to change Gresgurt from The Monster in the Closet (pgs 16-18) from a Ranger 1 to a Blue Goblin Soulknife 1.
This way the little boy's story about a Blue Goblin with a glowing "Dogslicer" sounds even more like a kid's story.
You can bump him up to 2nd level to let him Throw his Mind Blade to up the threat level to the PCs. You could even change his Wild Talent feat to Hidden Talent and give him one first level power he can use three times.
This would work best depending on just how many PCs are involved in this encounter.
Considering that this encounter is designed to make Goblins more a threat and less comic relief, imagine an encounter with a strange blue goblin that creates a blade in his hands with a thought and then throws at the PCs, only to disappear and reappear back in the goblin's hands.
Over all a very good start. I like the content, especially since there seems to be a bit more "mature" theme to the writing. The adventure was very well written and the details of the setting are very interesting. Really makes me want to see more.
Now for the complaints, well there is only one; Font Size. I know you probably did this to get as much material in the books as possible, but the end result is a lot of little bitty words.
You need to either up the size of the font a little or include free Glasses of Minute Seeing with a new subscription.
Oh and on the pdf question, why not have two options for download, single file or composite file? Personally I prefer the single file.
USPS is the shipping method you chose for your Monster Ecologies, which shipped on Friday and is still in transit. You also have USPS selected for your Pathfinder subscription. However, it appears that you've chosen UPS for your two pending orders, so you can expect a tracking number for those items.
Thanks,
cos
I did not realize I had the UPS option on Pathfinder, but when I tried to change my Pathfinder to UPS Ground, but it would not change.
You can track USPS, but half the time you get your package before it registers on the system and the other half of the time you get a message like;
"Your package is in our system, but we don't know where the hell it is."
When you say "Show me what he would like" do you mean you want a stat block? If so, there's no way four stat blocks are going to fit into a class act article - especially if one of them is a 20th level character. If you mean something else, like just elaborating on your blurbs that I cut out to save space, then you run the risk of having an article that's too "fluffy." (in my opinion)
What Zherog said.
I don't think our pages are best served by statblocks, but I think it would make a good web utility. You should bug Wizards of the Coast about doing something like that on their website or something. They seem to like to put up that sort of utility stuff. :)
No, I don't need anymore statblocks.
If I say "15th level Rogue", the images just jump into your head; a Guildmaster ruling the alleys of a city, Lara Croft exploring a lost tomb, The Grey Mouser on an epic adventure in Lankmar.
The same is true for any of the core classs because they have been around for so long. But what if I say "15th level Binder"? What role does he fill in a fantasy setting? If a 15th level Druid is guardian of a Forest, what does a 15th level Incarnate do?
I guess I am looking for an overall theme and definition byway of an Iconic character.
With all these new classes, I have a suggestion for a new Class Act idea, Iconic Paths.
Sometimes a new class will just "click" (Psychic Warrior= Xena), but sometimes, I need more to "get it". I need to see it in action. Show me a Binder as he progresses in levels. What does a Swordsage aspire to? I need you to give me an Iconic example of the new class that is more than just "Here's a 5th level Totemist".
For example, consider the new Factotem from Dungeonscape, a perfect Iconic version would be Dr Van Ricten from Ravenloft. Show me what he would look like at 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th levels.
At 5th level, he is just a healer and doctor, but then he loses his family.
At 10th level, he is becoming a real threat to the creatures of darkness.
At 15th level, he has become something that vampires fear.
And at 20th level, he has become a living legend.
It is a good issue but it would be better if I had got all of it. As noted over on EnWorld, several of us found our issue #340 was missing pager 51-66.
If your issue goes from a Elf under moonlight to an Illithid having a little snack, you need to contact customer service at the bottom of this page.
there's something to be said for flipping through a book before you buy it... which, if it's hit the stores around here yet, i intend to do today. ;)
Please keep in mind that for those of us who have to buy online, that is not an option. I would have to drive over 30 miles just to find a place that sells D&D books and finding a non-WOC book is like finding a single four leaf clover in a 1 acre field.
Of all those on that list, the Sheet Phantom stands out as what an Ecology article should be. It took a silly monster and turned it into a serious undead threat.
I also would like to see Savage Species Monster levels. It helps me adjust the threat level of a theme monster.
I also like it when the Ecology article expands the monster. The Behir article added a few variant types and the Chimera article introduced us to the Gorgimera.
Imagine a Phoenix article that adds new breeds for Ice, Lightning, Magma,.....no wait that's Pokeman.
Will the Class Acts articles be limited to just the core classes, or will we see the Psionic, Oriental and Complete classes in future issues?
The Oriental classes can be used in a non-oriental setting, change the Samurai into a Noble Knight, the Shukenja into an Elementalist and the Courier works great as a PC Aristocrat.
The one key problem with the Wilder and the Soul Knife is the lack of definition and support, so anything will help them.
The Complete class books just need examples of how to use them in current settings and how to set them appart from the core versions.
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