Well so far I like it. The characters provided are a tiny bit simpler that a 2nd edition character so not too bad. It seems to have an old school feel about it. If they make the rules right and them LEAVE them alone and remake and make great modules they will get my money.
I need to see more class and character options though. Please bring back 3d6 in order with adjustments.
Make some more downloadable PCs.
Attributes have the D20 modifiers as well as the same to very close to hit modifiers. SO a starting character will have the +6 to hit and 1d12 +7 damage with an axe.
Hit Points are CON score plus class HD so characters start out quite able to survive. There are death saves when at 0 HP where if you get 3 in a row you recover or if you fail you take 1d6 damage to a max of your Con + level in negative.
Why does a Fire Beetle have a CHA of 7? Why even have attributes? Most look easy to kill but a few of them have very high Hit Points like an Ogre has 88HP, Owlbears 110HP, Trolls 132, and so on. What is with the huge HP inflation of the larger monsters? Makes them scary but really. In the elegant olden days we just had to hit dependant of hit dice and a set dice number to roll for damage.
Monsters are well laid out and not full paged although they do have attributes and such. The Stat Blocks would be better if you streamlined them even more. It would be nice to have to have the computer or a book to run a game because the encounter stat blocks were only a few lines like in the Blue Box or OE.
FOR Example: ORC AC16 HD1d8 Move30' Damage 1d10 (Weapon) XP20
Monsters get +1 to hit every 2 Hit Dice.
Treasure is XP x 1d6gp in treasure.
The best part is they have removes skills and feats in the D20 form and replaced it with Backgrounds that provide the skill roll bonuses. Such as a Commoner gives you Animal Handling +3, Commerce +3, and Folklore +3. I would assume they join up with the attribute roll which does not seem to be modified by level.
This looks like it is going to be an enjoyable version and I will have to say D&D is BACK!
Looks like min-maxy 3/4e to me.
ReplyDeletethat seems to be the initial reaction ... stripped down 3e with 4e elements bolted on
ReplyDeleteThat's my take as well. I didn't see enough yet to make me want to put down what I'm already using. It really strikes me as "Oops, maybe we shouldn't have been so hasty with 3.x".
ReplyDeleteI have liked what I have read in the playtest so far. I do have a few quibbles here and there but I have that with any version of the game so I just do like I always do and ignore them.
ReplyDeleteMy cautious optimism has now moved to being more optimistic than cautious and if I had to choose based on what I have seen, I'd buy it.
DAMN! The 4E crowd who frequents the boards is whining like a bunch of bitches! If they have anything to do with it it's gonna stay 4th edition. There are many 3E people who wanted 3E back I guess as well. Really though you think that with all the "work" they have been doing on it they would have released a more complete book. They watched Pazio but did not learn from them. This is going to be interesting watching this develop. If they would have just come out with Essentials then everyone would have been happy! Nah just kidding.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised to see so many 3/4e comments among the Old School crowd, but perhaps it is to be expected. I personally am not going to make a decision on whether it is good or bad until I've actually played it, because that's the true test of a system. That being said, I'm more optimistic about this edition than the previous one.
ReplyDeleteMy Thoughts,
Flynn