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geebsGetting a chicken salad at the student center today, I was disappointed in the paltry amount of chicken in the salads they had out. But at least they weren't out of buttermilk ranch dressing and I remembered to get croutons this time. When I got back though, I was pleasantly surprised to see there was more chicken hidden underneath the chicken! Yes, this is what passes for egg-citment in my life, people!
Only a handful of machines left on the list. I don't know why I'm bothering though. The next time it comes around and I'm not the main person doing it, there'll be huge holes again, and I'm just gonna have get everything fixed when its my turn again. Seriously, how hard is this to do? It doesn't take that long to do all of them, but I don't think anyone even comes close to how quick it takes me to complete it. Heck, even if you doubled the time it takes me to do them, still people don't have it done within that time frame. It should only take a day or two at most to do the bulk or at least the important ones.
Owel, I was hoping to catch up on s4 of House after watching the rerun of the season premiere Monday, but the website only has the last four eps! I can't even see the ep that was between the Mira Sorvino one after this year's superbowl and the one where the patient was a really nice guy. At least then I could say I saw all the post superbowl eps. But alas, I guess I'll have to wait if I want to see the rest of fourth season. What time was the show on normally that I wasn't watching it?
Anyways, slowly trudging through 4th edition. Pardon the ensuing geekiness. There's definitely big changes to the system. Like hp and healing. I'm not sure if they beefed up hp. They definitely did increase starting hp- folks like fighters and paladins get 15 + constitution modifier rather than 1d10 (is it normally max at 1st level, or is that only an option?) + con modifier. But every level, they get a straight 6 (no constitution mod) rather than d10. I suck at probability, so I guess the average roll would be 5, and 6 is higher than that, but again, you don't get the bonus from constitution.
Also, every class gets a certain number of healing surges per day. Clerics still have healing powers, but now out of battle other characters can do things to heal themselves, so the cleric doesn't have to spend post-battle getting everyone back to decent health.
Which I guess leads me to the biggest change- there's no more spells. Well, sort of. They changed the mechanics, somewhat. Now, each class get a certain number of at will powers, a certain number of powers one can do per encounter, and a certain number once per day. For the wizard, these powers are called spells, but for clerics, they're called prayers, fighters- exploits, etc. For wizards, that keeps them combat effective since they have a few spells they can do at will. No more standing there like a helpless jackass once you use up all your effective spells for a given sitch. And I just noticed they still have spell books, so unlike other classes, which are only allowed to pick a select number of these powers from the available list, the wizard has more available to him via his spellbook. He's still limited in the number he has available to actually use, but he can rest and learn a different power if he so chooses.
I also just realized these are just the mechanics for the "combat spells". Wizards also get ritual spells which work more like magic did previously and are more utilitarian and intended for use outside of combat, like detect secret doors or raise dead or phantom steed. But spells like fireball and lightning bolt use this new system. Though they seem to be much weaker. And the way the new system works, they get an at-will attack spell, but they have less spells readied.
But I digress. For fighter types, these powers give them a repertoire of cool tricks they can do to make combat more interesting. Now these aren't feats (which still exist, but more on that later) but special attacks that cause extra (usually between 3 to 6x more) damage or other beneficial effects. Well, to the fighter, obviously not to the target. I like it. Some may think it unnecessarily complicates combat, but that's one of my favorite parts of geek fun, the fights! It can get kinda boring just swinging back forth trading blows. I wanna do something cool and exciting (well, cool and exciting in the scope of the game). Exalted has charms, and also has rules set up for "stunting" so you can get bonuses for attempting to do something spectacular and fancy. Feats made fighters more customizable and interesting, but there wasn't nearly enough variety in the feats, or the really interesting ones took forever to get. So I find these exploits to be a welcome addition.
Getting to feats, I haven't actually gotten to that section, but you get way more of them- every even numbered level, and at 1, 11, and 21. Again, I don't know what feats there are now, so I'm unsure if they weakened them since you get more. Though, you can't go wrong with more, so again, a definite improvement.
Not improved? Skills! You don't even get skill points anymore! Skill checks are based off of d20 + half your level + relevant ability score modifier + training (if any). The one half your level thing means you at least get better at everything in general as you level up. But you have a list of class skills at character creation, and you can choose to "train" in a few of those skills, meaning you get a +5 to those rolls. One thing I like about the various white wolf systems is that you can purchase any of the skills. I just don't like tying skills to classes.
The system assumes a party effort, so deficiencies a character has in one area are covered by someone else. But sometimes other characters need those skills. The game, by nature, is about adventuring. Yeah, the rogue is really good at sneaking and navigating precarious situations, but sometimes you're in situations where everyone, not just the rogue, has to sneak by a sleeping orc camp or get past some hard to navigate portion of a dungeon. You could say the wizard spends a lot of time reading books, or the fighter is focused solely on martial combat to be able to pick up such skills, but I call shenanigans. How could they be effective adventurers lacking those skills? I guess you can spend a feat to get training in a skill, but that wastes a feat.
One thing I forgot to mention is the game maps out character growth to 30 levels rather than the traditional 20. And they divide them into tiers- Once you hit 11th, you get a significant increase in power. In fact, at 11th you have to choose a paragon path, which are kinda like prestige classes, so you do have a lot more variety within classes at higher levels. You hit another tier of power once you reach 21. There you can choose an "epic destiny", but I haven't read what the hell that is yet.
Oh, getting back to the attempts to make this game like mmorpgs, I found the mechanics on how those classes in the defender role hold aggro. Characters like fighters, once they successfully hit a foe, can "mark" them. Marked foes get minuses attacking anyone else other than the character who marked them. There are some powers that let the fighter mark multiple foes. Still, even if such an enemy got a minus to attack anyone other than the marking character, since its a human (the DM) controlling the enemy, he can still choose to accept the minus if there's a bigger threat out there! Its not like a computer, that only goes after that which its programmed to do given a certain situation.
But they also incorporate DpS/DoT mechanics. Many of the spells work differently to do DoT rather than straight massive damage in one felled swoop. Take flame strike for example- rather than enemies within the target area taking massive holy fire damage at once, they take a lesser but still relatively significant amount of damage, and continue to take damage until they can pass their save to end the effect. Stuff like fireball and lightning bolt (among others) are still just a certain amount of damage in one felled swoop though.
All in all, fighters seem to have gotten cooler, but I'm still iffy on the mages- having an at will attack spell is good, but the repertoire of spells they have readied seems to be much smaller. Like you can do magic missile to your heart's content, but fireball only once per day, or lightning bolt only once per fight? (and that's only if you choose those as the powers you learn!) I guess that makes them like sorcerers in that they know less spells, but they don't seem to get the benefits that sorcerers did.
Only a handful of machines left on the list. I don't know why I'm bothering though. The next time it comes around and I'm not the main person doing it, there'll be huge holes again, and I'm just gonna have get everything fixed when its my turn again. Seriously, how hard is this to do? It doesn't take that long to do all of them, but I don't think anyone even comes close to how quick it takes me to complete it. Heck, even if you doubled the time it takes me to do them, still people don't have it done within that time frame. It should only take a day or two at most to do the bulk or at least the important ones.
Owel, I was hoping to catch up on s4 of House after watching the rerun of the season premiere Monday, but the website only has the last four eps! I can't even see the ep that was between the Mira Sorvino one after this year's superbowl and the one where the patient was a really nice guy. At least then I could say I saw all the post superbowl eps. But alas, I guess I'll have to wait if I want to see the rest of fourth season. What time was the show on normally that I wasn't watching it?
Anyways, slowly trudging through 4th edition. Pardon the ensuing geekiness. There's definitely big changes to the system. Like hp and healing. I'm not sure if they beefed up hp. They definitely did increase starting hp- folks like fighters and paladins get 15 + constitution modifier rather than 1d10 (is it normally max at 1st level, or is that only an option?) + con modifier. But every level, they get a straight 6 (no constitution mod) rather than d10. I suck at probability, so I guess the average roll would be 5, and 6 is higher than that, but again, you don't get the bonus from constitution.
Also, every class gets a certain number of healing surges per day. Clerics still have healing powers, but now out of battle other characters can do things to heal themselves, so the cleric doesn't have to spend post-battle getting everyone back to decent health.
Which I guess leads me to the biggest change- there's no more spells. Well, sort of. They changed the mechanics, somewhat. Now, each class get a certain number of at will powers, a certain number of powers one can do per encounter, and a certain number once per day. For the wizard, these powers are called spells, but for clerics, they're called prayers, fighters- exploits, etc. For wizards, that keeps them combat effective since they have a few spells they can do at will. No more standing there like a helpless jackass once you use up all your effective spells for a given sitch. And I just noticed they still have spell books, so unlike other classes, which are only allowed to pick a select number of these powers from the available list, the wizard has more available to him via his spellbook. He's still limited in the number he has available to actually use, but he can rest and learn a different power if he so chooses.
I also just realized these are just the mechanics for the "combat spells". Wizards also get ritual spells which work more like magic did previously and are more utilitarian and intended for use outside of combat, like detect secret doors or raise dead or phantom steed. But spells like fireball and lightning bolt use this new system. Though they seem to be much weaker. And the way the new system works, they get an at-will attack spell, but they have less spells readied.
But I digress. For fighter types, these powers give them a repertoire of cool tricks they can do to make combat more interesting. Now these aren't feats (which still exist, but more on that later) but special attacks that cause extra (usually between 3 to 6x more) damage or other beneficial effects. Well, to the fighter, obviously not to the target. I like it. Some may think it unnecessarily complicates combat, but that's one of my favorite parts of geek fun, the fights! It can get kinda boring just swinging back forth trading blows. I wanna do something cool and exciting (well, cool and exciting in the scope of the game). Exalted has charms, and also has rules set up for "stunting" so you can get bonuses for attempting to do something spectacular and fancy. Feats made fighters more customizable and interesting, but there wasn't nearly enough variety in the feats, or the really interesting ones took forever to get. So I find these exploits to be a welcome addition.
Getting to feats, I haven't actually gotten to that section, but you get way more of them- every even numbered level, and at 1, 11, and 21. Again, I don't know what feats there are now, so I'm unsure if they weakened them since you get more. Though, you can't go wrong with more, so again, a definite improvement.
Not improved? Skills! You don't even get skill points anymore! Skill checks are based off of d20 + half your level + relevant ability score modifier + training (if any). The one half your level thing means you at least get better at everything in general as you level up. But you have a list of class skills at character creation, and you can choose to "train" in a few of those skills, meaning you get a +5 to those rolls. One thing I like about the various white wolf systems is that you can purchase any of the skills. I just don't like tying skills to classes.
The system assumes a party effort, so deficiencies a character has in one area are covered by someone else. But sometimes other characters need those skills. The game, by nature, is about adventuring. Yeah, the rogue is really good at sneaking and navigating precarious situations, but sometimes you're in situations where everyone, not just the rogue, has to sneak by a sleeping orc camp or get past some hard to navigate portion of a dungeon. You could say the wizard spends a lot of time reading books, or the fighter is focused solely on martial combat to be able to pick up such skills, but I call shenanigans. How could they be effective adventurers lacking those skills? I guess you can spend a feat to get training in a skill, but that wastes a feat.
One thing I forgot to mention is the game maps out character growth to 30 levels rather than the traditional 20. And they divide them into tiers- Once you hit 11th, you get a significant increase in power. In fact, at 11th you have to choose a paragon path, which are kinda like prestige classes, so you do have a lot more variety within classes at higher levels. You hit another tier of power once you reach 21. There you can choose an "epic destiny", but I haven't read what the hell that is yet.
Oh, getting back to the attempts to make this game like mmorpgs, I found the mechanics on how those classes in the defender role hold aggro. Characters like fighters, once they successfully hit a foe, can "mark" them. Marked foes get minuses attacking anyone else other than the character who marked them. There are some powers that let the fighter mark multiple foes. Still, even if such an enemy got a minus to attack anyone other than the marking character, since its a human (the DM) controlling the enemy, he can still choose to accept the minus if there's a bigger threat out there! Its not like a computer, that only goes after that which its programmed to do given a certain situation.
But they also incorporate DpS/DoT mechanics. Many of the spells work differently to do DoT rather than straight massive damage in one felled swoop. Take flame strike for example- rather than enemies within the target area taking massive holy fire damage at once, they take a lesser but still relatively significant amount of damage, and continue to take damage until they can pass their save to end the effect. Stuff like fireball and lightning bolt (among others) are still just a certain amount of damage in one felled swoop though.
All in all, fighters seem to have gotten cooler, but I'm still iffy on the mages- having an at will attack spell is good, but the repertoire of spells they have readied seems to be much smaller. Like you can do magic missile to your heart's content, but fireball only once per day, or lightning bolt only once per fight? (and that's only if you choose those as the powers you learn!) I guess that makes them like sorcerers in that they know less spells, but they don't seem to get the benefits that sorcerers did.
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Date: 2008-06-04 10:22 pm (UTC)