Post by Rincewind on Jul 16, 2008 7:27:02 GMT -5
Combat:
Initiative uses half your level, as well as your Dex, as a bonus. Surprise is pretty much the same. Some concepts, like interrupts, will be familiar to veteran Magic: The Gathering players, which shouldn't come as a big surprise given who owns Magic and D&D. As most of you know, Fort, Will, and Reflex saves are now the fort, will, and reflex defenses, so when you roll an attack you are now rolling against their AC, Fort, Will, or Reflex defenses, depending on the attack. This is probably quicker, but seems strange. Saves in 4.0 are all "roll a 10+ on a d20" and apply to many effects, like mind control and continuing fire damage. This seems over-simplified to me, but is easy.
The spells all provoke opportunity attacks, as do bow attacks, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of any way to prevent them. This is particularly important, as 4.0 gives everyone effectively unlimited attacks of opportunity.
Defenses all start at a base of 10 plus half your level. So AC of a 2nd level character in the nude would be 11, if he didn't have a Dex modifier. With light armor, you can add your int or your Dex to AC, whichever is higher. Fortitude lets you add Str or Con, whichever's higher, Reflex is Dex or Int, and Will is Wis or Cha. This is obviously a big change, and theoretically you'd only need half as many high ability scores now. This system also tends to make all of the saves much closer together than they were in 3rd edition. Penalties, unlike bonuses, don't have types, so they can be stacked as much as possible, unless they're from the same power, in which case you use the worst result.
Page 276 finally deigns to clarify that [W] means your weapon's damage die. Good to know after a few hundred pages of use!
Important: Much has been made of the new crit system, "You roll a 20, and it's a crit! What could be simpler!". Oddly enough, this is actually not true. A 20 is an automatic hit, but NOT an automatic critical. It is only a critical if that attack roll would normally penetrate the defense of the target- which will usually happen on a 20, but not always. This avoids the problem of "The only time I hit him, I crit him" which crops up in that situation- it is indeed ridiculous that a creature you could never hope to be hit ordinarily can be critically hit by you 1/20th of the time, and that is not an issue here. This is a sensible change, but not one covered in their overly simplistic explanations of the critical hit system that most people have probably heard.
Crits do max damage, and magical weapons will also do, on average, 1d6 extra damage per plus of the weapon. This makes a crit with a +5 weapon HURT!
Resistances and vulnerabilities- Resist 5 means you take 5 less damage from that source. Vuln 5 means you take 5 more. That's it. It's a bit easier.
Some conditions are interesting- Dominated dazes you and only lets the controlling creatures use your at-will powers. Weakened makes your attacks do half damage. Insubstantial creatures take 50% damage, but seem to have no miss chance or enhancement requirements. So apparently now you can bludgeon a ghost to (un?)death with a table leg. Wusses.
Falling is 1d10 per 10 feet, with 25 damage per 50 feet as a fast alternative to rolling it. Acrobatics acts as tumble to try to reduce falling damage. Saving throws to catch yourself are built into the system. Flanking seems the same, really.
Hm, Phasing now appears in 4th edition, another carryover from Magic?
Aid Another is against an AC of 10 for attacks or 10 for skill/ability checks and gives a +2 bonus.
Charge- at least 2 squares, +1 to attack roll. Doesn't seem to be any minus to AC.
Coups de Gras are always crits if they hit and kill if they deal damage equal to the target's bloodied value (1/2 HP).
Grappling- it's a standard action to Grab, an attack that is your Strength versus their Reflex. You can grab a creature of one size larger than you or smaller. No weapon modifiers for grab, and you only use your reach, not that of your weapon. Escaping seems easier now- it's either your Acrobatics versus their Reflex or your Athetics versus their Fortitude, and it's a move action to do so. It doesn't seem to do any damage, and you can move them around with a Strength versus Fort check at half speed.
Attacks of Opportunity- they don't apply when the creature is forced to move, as many attacks do. This seems to limit the usefulness of moving the enemy *shrug*. You get one attack of opportunity during EACH opponent's turn- they are effectively unlimited in a round. There seems to be no way to get out of being damaged for casting spells. Ow.
Running- As a move action, your movement speed is +2, you get -5 to attacks until end of your next turn, you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal, and you grant combat advantage as well until the end of your next turn (+2 to their attacks, you can be sneak attacked). So instead of being your speed times three or four, it is really about 1.33 to 1.5 times your normal speed but as a move action.
Shift- a.k.a. the 5-foot step. You can't do it over difficult terrain unless you can ignore the effects of it somehow (or you can shift more than 1 square). Shifting one square is now a move action, though.
Standing from Prone- move action, doesn't seem to provoke attacks of opportunity now.
Total Defense- gives you +2 to all defenses.
So, a few large differences there. I'm not fond of all the dang attacks of opportunity (they were already one of my least favorite things about 3.5) but otherwise not too bad.
Healing Surges- You get a fair number of these, they can heal you 1/4 of your total HP once per encounter. Monsters get them too, but as most monsters don't stick around, they'll really only get to use it once. When you use your surge in combat, it's called a Second Wind, is a standard action, and also gives you the +2 to all defenses like Total Defense. You can use as many as you like outside of combat, though, so you could be down to one hit point, heal for 5 minutes or so, and be back at full HP. This strikes me as unrealistic even for D&D, but I guess it can keep you fighting battles longer without resting or needing the cleric to bandage you constantly.
Dying- You're bloodied at 1/2 your hit points, and if you're ever negative by your bloodied value, you're dead. You also die if you fail three death savings throws, getting less than a 10 on a d20 each round. If you get a 20+ on your roll (the plus is for miscellaneous modifiers) you can spend a healing surge to get hit points back. This part of the section is very poorly worded and quite confusing (p. 295 for those who want to look at the train wreck, under Death Saving Throw, 20 or higher). Making you die at your negative bloodied hit points helps keep most players alive longer, making death more likely from failed saving throws than lack of hit points normally. Luckily there's an example of how things work at the end, because it's tough to figure out specifics the way they put it.
The healing surges and death changes are interesting, but I think the surges in particular have no basis in even the quasi-reality of D&D. But again, they keep you hacking and slashing longer, and that's what's important, right? Certainly not the DM's flavor text, hehe.
Initiative uses half your level, as well as your Dex, as a bonus. Surprise is pretty much the same. Some concepts, like interrupts, will be familiar to veteran Magic: The Gathering players, which shouldn't come as a big surprise given who owns Magic and D&D. As most of you know, Fort, Will, and Reflex saves are now the fort, will, and reflex defenses, so when you roll an attack you are now rolling against their AC, Fort, Will, or Reflex defenses, depending on the attack. This is probably quicker, but seems strange. Saves in 4.0 are all "roll a 10+ on a d20" and apply to many effects, like mind control and continuing fire damage. This seems over-simplified to me, but is easy.
The spells all provoke opportunity attacks, as do bow attacks, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of any way to prevent them. This is particularly important, as 4.0 gives everyone effectively unlimited attacks of opportunity.
Defenses all start at a base of 10 plus half your level. So AC of a 2nd level character in the nude would be 11, if he didn't have a Dex modifier. With light armor, you can add your int or your Dex to AC, whichever is higher. Fortitude lets you add Str or Con, whichever's higher, Reflex is Dex or Int, and Will is Wis or Cha. This is obviously a big change, and theoretically you'd only need half as many high ability scores now. This system also tends to make all of the saves much closer together than they were in 3rd edition. Penalties, unlike bonuses, don't have types, so they can be stacked as much as possible, unless they're from the same power, in which case you use the worst result.
Page 276 finally deigns to clarify that [W] means your weapon's damage die. Good to know after a few hundred pages of use!
Important: Much has been made of the new crit system, "You roll a 20, and it's a crit! What could be simpler!". Oddly enough, this is actually not true. A 20 is an automatic hit, but NOT an automatic critical. It is only a critical if that attack roll would normally penetrate the defense of the target- which will usually happen on a 20, but not always. This avoids the problem of "The only time I hit him, I crit him" which crops up in that situation- it is indeed ridiculous that a creature you could never hope to be hit ordinarily can be critically hit by you 1/20th of the time, and that is not an issue here. This is a sensible change, but not one covered in their overly simplistic explanations of the critical hit system that most people have probably heard.
Crits do max damage, and magical weapons will also do, on average, 1d6 extra damage per plus of the weapon. This makes a crit with a +5 weapon HURT!
Resistances and vulnerabilities- Resist 5 means you take 5 less damage from that source. Vuln 5 means you take 5 more. That's it. It's a bit easier.
Some conditions are interesting- Dominated dazes you and only lets the controlling creatures use your at-will powers. Weakened makes your attacks do half damage. Insubstantial creatures take 50% damage, but seem to have no miss chance or enhancement requirements. So apparently now you can bludgeon a ghost to (un?)death with a table leg. Wusses.
Falling is 1d10 per 10 feet, with 25 damage per 50 feet as a fast alternative to rolling it. Acrobatics acts as tumble to try to reduce falling damage. Saving throws to catch yourself are built into the system. Flanking seems the same, really.
Hm, Phasing now appears in 4th edition, another carryover from Magic?
Aid Another is against an AC of 10 for attacks or 10 for skill/ability checks and gives a +2 bonus.
Charge- at least 2 squares, +1 to attack roll. Doesn't seem to be any minus to AC.
Coups de Gras are always crits if they hit and kill if they deal damage equal to the target's bloodied value (1/2 HP).
Grappling- it's a standard action to Grab, an attack that is your Strength versus their Reflex. You can grab a creature of one size larger than you or smaller. No weapon modifiers for grab, and you only use your reach, not that of your weapon. Escaping seems easier now- it's either your Acrobatics versus their Reflex or your Athetics versus their Fortitude, and it's a move action to do so. It doesn't seem to do any damage, and you can move them around with a Strength versus Fort check at half speed.
Attacks of Opportunity- they don't apply when the creature is forced to move, as many attacks do. This seems to limit the usefulness of moving the enemy *shrug*. You get one attack of opportunity during EACH opponent's turn- they are effectively unlimited in a round. There seems to be no way to get out of being damaged for casting spells. Ow.
Running- As a move action, your movement speed is +2, you get -5 to attacks until end of your next turn, you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal, and you grant combat advantage as well until the end of your next turn (+2 to their attacks, you can be sneak attacked). So instead of being your speed times three or four, it is really about 1.33 to 1.5 times your normal speed but as a move action.
Shift- a.k.a. the 5-foot step. You can't do it over difficult terrain unless you can ignore the effects of it somehow (or you can shift more than 1 square). Shifting one square is now a move action, though.
Standing from Prone- move action, doesn't seem to provoke attacks of opportunity now.
Total Defense- gives you +2 to all defenses.
So, a few large differences there. I'm not fond of all the dang attacks of opportunity (they were already one of my least favorite things about 3.5) but otherwise not too bad.
Healing Surges- You get a fair number of these, they can heal you 1/4 of your total HP once per encounter. Monsters get them too, but as most monsters don't stick around, they'll really only get to use it once. When you use your surge in combat, it's called a Second Wind, is a standard action, and also gives you the +2 to all defenses like Total Defense. You can use as many as you like outside of combat, though, so you could be down to one hit point, heal for 5 minutes or so, and be back at full HP. This strikes me as unrealistic even for D&D, but I guess it can keep you fighting battles longer without resting or needing the cleric to bandage you constantly.
Dying- You're bloodied at 1/2 your hit points, and if you're ever negative by your bloodied value, you're dead. You also die if you fail three death savings throws, getting less than a 10 on a d20 each round. If you get a 20+ on your roll (the plus is for miscellaneous modifiers) you can spend a healing surge to get hit points back. This part of the section is very poorly worded and quite confusing (p. 295 for those who want to look at the train wreck, under Death Saving Throw, 20 or higher). Making you die at your negative bloodied hit points helps keep most players alive longer, making death more likely from failed saving throws than lack of hit points normally. Luckily there's an example of how things work at the end, because it's tough to figure out specifics the way they put it.
The healing surges and death changes are interesting, but I think the surges in particular have no basis in even the quasi-reality of D&D. But again, they keep you hacking and slashing longer, and that's what's important, right? Certainly not the DM's flavor text, hehe.