The second part of my PHB3 review was just published over at the Eye of the Vortex. I go over each class in detail, including one of my new favorites, the monk. I made a couple of level 8 monks to stick into the 1e module Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan that I am running my players through. There is a room in that module with two seemingly dead but perfectly preserved bodies, and a flask on the table between them with some powder in it. The two are monks, using a magical potion of sleep to enhance their ability to suspend their bodily processes and appear to be dead while still remaining aware of their surroundings.
This turned into a great encounter, as one party member reconstituted the potion and drank a little bit of it in an attempt to identify it, promptly putting himself to sleep for 5,000 years, while the other two party members in the room planned on looting the bodies of the two monks. Hammer, the warforged barbarian, decided to just behead the bodies where they lay to prevent them from animating, but the monk he attempted to behead easily won initiative and proceeded to kick the party's butt all over the place. In the end, only the vials of liquid light (see my last post) that Hammer was carrying ended up saving them - he succeeded in splashing both monks with the substance, and even though the monks rapidly reduced himself and Vomar the bugbear cleric below zero HP and welcomed them to unconsciousness, the monks had to deal with the suffocating liquid light. Beautiful Bob managed to wake up from his slumber several thousand years early with the help of his friend the Gibbering Mouther (who used its psychic bond with Bob to lead him out of the dream world) and negotatiated with the monks, trading them the knowledge of how to remove the liquid light for the safe passage of the party.
One thing I learned is that a couple of monks are a deadly foe for a lower level party (the party just hit level 5 at the end of the session), with the combination of high damage output and incredible maneuverability. The flurry of blows class feature really makes the damage add up and sends people flying around the battlefield. Good times!
Showing posts with label player's handbook 3 review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label player's handbook 3 review. Show all posts
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Player's Handbook 3 Review (4e)
I received a review copy of Player's Handbook 3. Part One of my review was published today at Eye of the Vortex. Part one has a detailed breakdown of the content, goes over the races and analyses the Hybrid Character rules and the new Skill Powers. Part two will cover the new classes, stay tuned!
I personally think PHB3 marks a significant change in the design philosophy of 4e. Up till now, if I had to choose a single overriding design goal as the obvious priority of 4e, it would have been balance. Every class and race and power was carefully balanced against the other options. Unlike 3e, it was genuinely difficult if not impossible to make a character that could not hold her own against the min-maxers best efforts. Unlike 3e, you did not have to carefully analyze what impact feat choices would have far down the road. You could pretty much just pick what sounded cool in 4e character creation and rest assured that the carefully balanced mechanics behind the scene would allow your character to hit and do damage within the frequencies specified by the design parameters.
Well, in a way that is all in the past now. The Hybrid Character rules (see my review for more details on these rules) pretty much throw balance out the window. By allowing complete freedom to mix and max classes, you could easily end up with a horribly unbalanced class that could not pull its weight in combat if you were not careful. I see this as a major shift for 4e - the desire to provide options for players to build the character of their dreams has trumped the desire for balance.
By the way, if you are reading this and have a RPG product you want me to review, drop me an email (carlgnash AT gmail DOT com). The Eye of the Vortex is about to enter another Magic the Gathering spoiler season, and they get a TON of traffic during spoiler season. If you want to expose your product to thousands of kids with disposable income, this is your chance!
I personally think PHB3 marks a significant change in the design philosophy of 4e. Up till now, if I had to choose a single overriding design goal as the obvious priority of 4e, it would have been balance. Every class and race and power was carefully balanced against the other options. Unlike 3e, it was genuinely difficult if not impossible to make a character that could not hold her own against the min-maxers best efforts. Unlike 3e, you did not have to carefully analyze what impact feat choices would have far down the road. You could pretty much just pick what sounded cool in 4e character creation and rest assured that the carefully balanced mechanics behind the scene would allow your character to hit and do damage within the frequencies specified by the design parameters.
Well, in a way that is all in the past now. The Hybrid Character rules (see my review for more details on these rules) pretty much throw balance out the window. By allowing complete freedom to mix and max classes, you could easily end up with a horribly unbalanced class that could not pull its weight in combat if you were not careful. I see this as a major shift for 4e - the desire to provide options for players to build the character of their dreams has trumped the desire for balance.
By the way, if you are reading this and have a RPG product you want me to review, drop me an email (carlgnash AT gmail DOT com). The Eye of the Vortex is about to enter another Magic the Gathering spoiler season, and they get a TON of traffic during spoiler season. If you want to expose your product to thousands of kids with disposable income, this is your chance!
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