The Campaign Builder's Guild

QuoteThe Design & Development article series premiered on the D&D website back in September 2005, and has been a staple ever since. With the approach of 4th Edition, and our designers and developers focused on the new edition, this column will be the primary vehicle for 4th Edition coverage. We'll not only give you peeks at what's forthcoming, but also the 'how' and 'why.'

Keep in mind that the game is still in a state of flux, as refinements are made by our design and development staff. You're getting a look behind the curtain at game design in progress, so enjoy, and feel free to send your comments to dndinsider@wizards.com.

Here's a highly probable conversation lifted from the future, one year from today, as two players who've just met at a convention discuss their PC choices for their upcoming D&D game.

'I'm playing a 3rd-level human fighter named Graelar.'

'Cool. Is he weapon and shield or two-hander?'

'He's sword and board, man.'

'Longsword?'

'Yeah. I thought about going high Con and using a hammer, but I wanted to start with the chance to make a couple of attacks, so I'm using rain of blows as my good weapon attack, and I went with high Wis so that I can switch to the better oppy powers later.'

'My elf fighter uses a spear. I like the speed and the option to go past AC. But you've got the fighter covered. I'll play a halfling rogue.'

The names and destinations of the powers mentioned above might have changed by the time the game is in your hands. What won't change is that fighters care about which weapons they use much more than other characters. Other character classes have specific weapons and weapon types that they tend to rely on while still maintaining access to a larger chunk of the weapon chart. The fighter is the only current 4th Edition class with capabilities that depend on the weapon they have chosen to train the most with. Even at 1st level, a fighter who uses an axe has a different power selection than a fighter who relies on a flail or a rapier or a pick. In the long run, fighters can diversify and master powers related to a few different weapons, but most will opt to focus on the weapon that suits their personal style, helps their interactions with the rest of the PCs in the group, and carries all the magical oomph they've managed to acquire.

Many fighters will opt for swords. Swords have the most flexible assortment of powers. In a fighter's hands, the longsword is the queen of the battlefield and the greatsword is the queen's executioner. But each of the other significant melee weapons offers the fighter unique advantages and opportunities. For the first time, you'll be able to say 'I'm an axe fighter' or 'I'm a flail fighter' and that will mean something cool.

QuoteThe Design & Development article series premiered on the D&D website back in September 2005, and has been a staple ever since. With the approach of 4th Edition, and our designers and developers focused on the new edition, this column will be the primary vehicle for 4th Edition coverage. We'll not only give you peeks at what's forthcoming, but also the 'how' and 'why.'

Keep in mind that the game is still in a state of flux, as refinements are made by our design and development staff. You're getting a look behind the curtain at game design in progress, so enjoy, and feel free to send your comments to dndinsider@wizards.com.

Set the wayback machine to May of 2004!

Even at that point, we knew 4th Edition was coming, though official work on it wouldn't start for another year. At the time, the design team used to meet regularly in what we jokingly called the 'Design Cabal.' And one day, in May '04, we started kicking around the question of how many slices of pie a D&D character should consist of, and how big each piece should be.

In 3rd Edition, class and magic items were two big pieces of the PC pie. Race was important at 1st level, but by the time you hit 20th, there was rarely much to distinguish a dwarf fighter from a half-orc fighter. The difference between a +2 here and a +2 over there was drowned out by the huge bonuses from magic items and character level'"it didn't matter any more.

We wanted race to matter all the way up through a character's career. We wanted there to be some difference between two characters of different races, all other things being equal. We had tried out mechanics like the racial paragons in Unearthed Arcana and the racial substitution levels in the Races of . . . series of books, and we liked the results.

In May of 2004, we started kicking around ideas like 'the 20-level race.' In a 20-level race, at each level you gained, you'd get not only new class features, but also new racial qualities. Your race might predetermine which ability scores you increased at some levels, so a dwarf's Constitution would always have an edge over characters of other races. It would grant you new special abilities as you advanced in level, always appropriate to your level, of course.

One key advantage we saw to this system was that it made it much easier to find room for new races without resorting to the kludgy and awkward mechanic of level adjustments. If we spread the tasty magical abilities of drow out through their levels, they could start at 1st level on a par with other character races. Races like the githyanki already anticipated some of that idea by granting new spell-like abilities at higher levels.

Well, over the next few years, things changed, as things are wont to do. We blew the game out to thirty levels, but put your most significant racial choices in the first ten. Above that, other choices started to crowd out room for special abilities coming from your race.

In the final version of 4th Edition, most of your racial traits come into play right out of the gate at 1st level'"dwarven resilience, elven evasion, a half-elf's inspiring presence, and so on. As you go up levels, you can take racial feats to make those abilities even more exciting and gain new capabilities tied to your race. You can also take race-specific powers built into your class, which accomplish a lot of what racial substitution levels used to do: a dwarf fighter with the friend of earth power can do something that other 10th-level fighters just can't do.

The rules have changed a lot since that first idea of the 20-level race, but they still serve the same purpose: to make sure that your race stays not just relevant but actually important all the way up through thirty levels of adventure.

*Half-Elves are still in, and they've gotten a makeover (inspiring presence)
*Racial bonuses gain power by level (I've seen that idea been bounced around alot in these forums).
*WOTC has blatantly lied to us for over two years regarding the coming of fourth edition.
*The Fighter has been changed from master of everything that can kill to specialist with one weapon. Time will tell if it makes any difference.

Quote from: Stargate525So currently confirmed;

Quote from: A Nominal Fee[ic=Sir Vanthas]Very well, foul troll. If you refuse to stand aside, I shall heft your smelly bulk and dash it upon yonder rocks![/ic][ooc]Good thing these new 4e grapple rules are so much faster than those horridly complicated 3e grappling rules. Sir Vanthas will try to grapple the troll and toss it into the rubble. With my one simple die roll to resolve the action, I-[/ooc]
"The Game Table is experiencing Technical Difficulties"

[ooc]Oh, we're back. Good. As I was saying, I'll just quickly-[/ooc]
"The Game Table is experiencing Technical Difficulties"

[ooc]Back again. For this quick little grapple attempt I-[/ooc]
"We're sorry, but your nominal fees are overdue. To resume gaming, please provide us with a valid credit card number."

[ooc]This is taking much longer than I had-[/ooc]
"The Game Table is Experiencing Technical Difficulties"

[ooc]hope 5e grapple faster[/ooc]
"The Game Table is Experiencing Technical Difficulties"

Quote from: IshmaylBest post of the month

Quote from: IshmaylMonster Manual?