Will there be retraining rules?

[ElyasRavenwood]

I just have a quick question. When making a characters we sometimes make choices we wish we could later change. In the 3.5 D&D player’s handbook 2, there were rules for retraining. Are there any plans to put some retraining rules in the Advance Game Master guide or the Advanced Player’s guide?

[Morgen]

Fighters, Bards and Sorcerers already have a kind of retraining rule, so I'd think not. If you've got the PH2, you can just use those?

[Golbez57]

Not sure about new content on retraining in those books, and it sounds like you have PHB 2 as an option, but I think I'll be trying a form of the 4th Edition retraining rules--swap out one feat, spell, class feature, etc. when gaining a new level. Would have to watch for some things like cherry-picking the Rich Parents trait and then later swapping for something with an ongoing benefit, but I like the idea of characters evolving, honing, changing their specialties as they literally "gain experience" and I think the simple 'one swap' retraining allows for this in addition to (multi- and prestige) class selection.

[ericthecleric]

I certainly think that rangers should be allowed to change their favoured enemies/favoured enemies bonuses at certain points. Eg. Smite Evil is always useful on an adventure, whereas Favoured Enemy is not if the player has picked the "wrong" types.

[Morgen]

Retraining is all about cherry picking things though? You take feats that are good at lower levels and then replace them with more useful high level feats.

Beyond that it's also a tool to honestly coddle people who don't make good decisions about their characters and the campaign they're playing in. Some are new or inexperienced and deserve a break, others should pay more attention and read more then the big table and look for the real descriptions of what their feats/skills/class abilities do. There are just some people who don't want to open a rulebook, that hate reading for some reason. 4th edition caters to those players in some ways I've seen with the simplifications.

We're gamers, things can be complicated so long as they don't contradict themselves.

Changing out your favored enemy bonus wouldn't be very useful if you choose something poor to start with, since you'd only be able to do it when you level rather then every single fight where it'd be so insanely powerful that it'd break the game. Smite Evil isn't always useful on an adventure. If your not getting into fights, or are fighting against things that aren't evil it's not useful at all.

Favored Enemies that usually are a sure thing to have and be useful are traditionally Humanoid(Human), Construct, Undead and Outsiders(evil). Some are (for more campaigns) always going to be aimed more at lower levels like Humanoid(Gobliniod). That's why you get more options to take for that class ability as you get leveled up.