What's Wrong with 4th Edition, Part 1

Esper's Endorsement and My Response

This is a topic that I've avoided for quite some time. It's a topic that gets really, really under my skin. I'm not surprised how many "greybeards" who started with old-school gaming, nor how many young kids who grew up with Diablo and World of Warcraft love 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons. I've watched a dozen youtube videos and read two dozen blogs both praising 4th edition and telling the viewer/reader to "convert" (as if it were some religion) or vilifying the new system and calling it "tabletop WoW," "WoW-lite," or any other permutation of a "WoW" reference.

Now, I'm going to sit back and explain, calmly, rationally, why 4th Edition, despite how fun it may be for a player, game master, or whatever, is not a role-playing game. I'm not saying it's a bad one, what I'm saying is that Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition fails as a role-playing game on every level. Period.

Lots of people disagree. They claim it's fun. Fine. I'll address that near the end. Suffice it to say that I have heard all of the arguments, read the books, talked to friends who've played and both enjoyed and hated it. I've watched it played on YouTube and in real life. I have no interest in playing it whatsoever. I cannot emphasize more how much I find it to be un-fun. I cannot even make a character without becoming frustrated by the game. If I cannot get excited about my character, then I cannot play the game. This is literally a game that I find impossible for me to play. That is why I've never personally playtested it myself. I cannot explain it any better than that. Part of the game is rolling up a character--it is literally a stage of play, when you roll one up you are already playing--and if I cannot even complete that stage without wanting to douse the book in gasoline and light it on fire because it is not only un-fun, unexciting, and uninteresting, it is downright frustrating in a way I have not experienced since that goddamn vulture in Ninja Gaiden.

This is why I have to scratch my head and wonder if something is wrong with me or with all of the people that love 4th edition.

Now, I've heard all of the arguments as to why 4th edition is not only good, it's the best incarnation of D&D yet. Esper actually does a very decent review of it on YouTube and makes a solid case for adopting it. However, his discussion is full of very, very prominent flaws. Go ahead, watch his review before continuing reading.

First, Esper does NOT possess credentials. Having started with 3rd edition does not equate to having credentials by a longshot. He's been playing for 10 years, but I've played for nearly 20 and I know of people who have played since the 1970s and knew Gygax personally.

Second, he does not explain how 1st and 2nd edition AD&D are archaic from a design point-of-view. He just says it, no qualifications, no explanations, just an axiomatic statement that those systems are "out of date." This is extremely telling in that it inadvertently reveals a very prominent bias, making it apparent that he is not approaching it from a purely analytical standpoint. Simply put, he didn't think the game's mechanics before 3rd edition were up-to-date. I could assume he means "not like video-games enough" but that would be assuming (although his statement that he's "been a gamer" since he "picked up an NES controller" indicates that he equates tabletop role-playing with video games on some level). His lament that he felt things in 3.5 were "outdated" again begs the damn question, "What do you mean by 'outdated'?"

To truly understand why he converted to 4th edition we need reasons why he felt 3rd and 3.5 were so flawed and archaic. His complaint that "everybody uses the same stuff" in 3.5 is confusing when, basically, all of the classes in 4th edition are relatively all the same in their mechanics. His discussion of why demons and devils don't teleport out of combat makes sense, but there are spells to prevent that (I guess he forgot about dimensional anchor and similar spells). "NPCs, monsters, and character classes all use the same rules," is his lament. However, from a design standpoint, that is actually a strength because it simplifies things! Otherwise, you get things like White Wolf--where you basically need to throw open your Werewolf the Apocalypse book if you're running a coterie in Vampire the Masquerade and they get jumped by a garou (if you want to represent them accurately and not just use the stats in the back of the Vampire book). But this also ignores the point that we do have hordes of different rules, feats, spells, and more, despite the fact that he put all of the supplements that describe them on display as his favorite additions to the game!

By now, I'm confused. Did he house-rule D&D 3.5 so heavily that he forgot what the actual rules were? Okay, that's a bit harsh. Regardless, I see where he's coming from when it comes to a single spell-list, but I've played games like Rifts and Palladium Fantasy, so I see a definite advantage from a design point-of-view to streamline spells as a result of my experiences. "My cred" if you will. Which stretches back to "Classic D&D" and the Rules Cyclopedia in the late 1980s/early 1990s. If you lived in the Philly area, you were listening to Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up" on Q-102.

Then, he talks about the PC's classes "filling the role in the game that they're supposed to fill." Again, I have an enormous problem with this. I've run VERY unconventional games in D&D. Entire campaigns were run in 2nd edition without clerics or fighters or thieves or mages. Seriously, my Dark Sun campaign sophomore year of college basically consisted of a bard, a gladiator, and a psionicist/defiler. That's it. No cleric. Although the gladiator was a bit of a tank, he wasn't as versatile. The bard was a poisoner, not a thief, so breaking and entering was limited. The defiler had to keep his arcane magic under wraps due to the fact that if anyone knew, they'd kill him, so he stuck mostly with psionics. Yeah. No fighter, thief, mage, cleric roles in that party at all. My current party has a warlock, a dread necromancer, a barbarian and a rogue. No cleric (yet). No standard arcane spellcaster with utility spells. And the party is doing fine. The idea that there are roles to fill is bunk. Hell, plenty of people have blogged about how you don't need a cleric. The idea that a character is supposed to fill a predetermined role is what frustrates me so much about 4th edition. I've played games without classes whatsoever, where you simply developed a concept and built it (like White Wolf or D20 Call of Cthulhu) and had a blast. It's myopic, narrow-minded, and unnecessary. Hell, lots of gamers absolutely hate the existence of classes and frankly quit D&D back in 1st or 2nd editions because they think classes are out-of-date! If that is the case, 4th edition is a step backwards, not forwards, because it shoehorns every character with no flexibility or customizability! 4th edition was outdated before it was even launched!

Esper's lament about how he was unhappy with losing a level is also extremely telling. I know a lot of old schoolers who ran during the Gygax days of White Box and Red Box D&D would sneer at Esper. "Tough luck, pal. It's a consequence. You died." 4th edition is about not having to pay the piper. There are no lasting consequences for a lot of effects. And that is a problem. But I'll get to that later. Anyway, yeah, saying that the level was gone and he couldn't get it back is so skewed. "Your level is gone. You can get it back, though... through adventuring until you get enough XP to get it back." Levels are fluid, in a way. But anyway, I digress.

The item creation costs are stupid. Yes. Spells that cost XP make a bit of sense (you're sacrificing a part of yourself). Small XP costs for item creation may make sense too. Not the exorbitant costs, though. I've had problems with item creation costing XP. I don't like it. It balances things out... a little. But I've allowed players to buy feats and powers with XP, powers and feats they wouldn't have gotten as quickly, or in as much abundance. But item creation? Yeah, you should GAIN XP for that--you did in 2nd edition! It simply shouldn't be so easy as blowing gp and XP, but should take time to gather components and rare objects that both enhance the flavor of the world and make the item itself more special.

Esper's complaint about non-spellcasting classes being boring is also bunk. Fighters can be amazingly powerful and versatile, and are damn good if you use wandering monster tables and random encountes. Rogues can forge documents like passports and royal writs and warrants that can get the party into places without combat. They're incredible skillmonkeys. My favorite rogue of all was a halfling archeologist that I created. Archeologist! Not a thief, but something more akin to a pint-sized Indiana Jones. He was basically what Indy said Marcus Brody was when he lied to the Nazis, "He's got a two-day head-start on you, which is more than he needs. Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. He'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again. With any luck, he's got the Grail already." Yeah. Only Brody was a joke. My halfling, however, was exactly that. High charisma, high dexterity, high intelligence. Yeah, he was shit in combat. But he wasn't built for combat. (This is one of the reasons I hated 4th edition--I couldn't build my halfling archeologist.) With enough finagling, you could built a barbarian from Mongolia or Northern Africa who raged and rode horses. A finesse fighter with a rapier like a Musketeer was entirely possible and at high levels a fighter specializing in longsword could go about saying, "I'm the greatest swordsman that ever lived" like Mad Martigan. Creativity made these classes interesting.

But wait a second, in Part Two of his review, Esper says, "Now, you build the class the way you want." Then he turns around and says each class has a role, and mocks those who think that's constraining. So, wait, you just contradicted yourself and attempted to dismiss that contradiction by logical fallacy--you make a funny voice and attempt to discredit anyone who disagrees by imitating them, and then say, "shut up." Sorry, man, that doesn't fly. And the roles he assigns to the classes? Who the hell did he ever play with? For me, the cleric was always the man BEHIND the leader (who was most often the fighter or paladin). He was the Archbishop Turpin to the paladin's Charlemagne, or to reference the amazing Flesh + Blood, the cleric is Ronald Lacey's "Cardinal" to Rutger Hauer's fighter, "Martin." (As an aside, Ronald Lacey's character is such a great example of how a cleric should be role-played in a party, I feel the movie should be required viewing by DMs and cleric players alike). By-the-way, the fact that the fighter fit on ONE PAGE is actually his strength and he's the most versatile and customizable class in the entire damn game (with the possible exception of the rogue). Seriously, Esper's laments that fighters were "boring and generic" in 3.5 just shows how little imagination he had. Yeah, if you wanted to optimize your fighter, they're all the same. If you didn't care about min/max-ing, you could make a truly unique fighter in a party of truly unique fighters and they'd all be pretty awesome, have different weapons, and fight in interesting ways. I hear more complaints about how the classes are generic in 4th edition (especially since min/max-ers can quite easily optimize their classes and it is just obviously stupid not to do so).

Yeah, that statement about half-dragon-half-minotaur-barbarian-fighter-ranger was just... so telling. So very telling. The more we watch, the more of Esper's tastes in gaming are revealed. In fact, the further I got into watching his video on 4th edition, the less I wanted to play it (if that is even possible) and the more I realized how much he misunderstood 3.5 and all previous editions of D&D.

Esper's statement that he has a solid understanding of the design of previous editions is questionable, because so far we've heard beefs he has with those designs, but not any reflection on what those editions were designed to accomplish. They weren't designed to do what Esper wants. But Esper's playing Dungeons & Dragons, a game that never had him as a target audience. Until 4th edition that is.

I won't say his criticisms are illegitimate. They are! However, Esper is not able to look beyond his own tastes and desires and understand what kind of play the game is designed to facilitate. Like I said, Esper was never the target audience of any edition prior to 4th. And I'll go on to explain why after a few more paragraphs.

Esper then goes on about how the old methods of marketing and open-source materials were gone in favor of loyalty programs and general, overall consolidation of media sources such as print. His tone makes this seem like a Good Thing, then he shows the evolution of Mario from NES to the Wii. That was a not-too-subtle metaphor for progress. And if there's anything I learned from postmodernism, its that positivism and the idea that "progress" (i.e. change brought about by technological developments) are definitely something that is up for questioning. I mean, technological progress enabled millions to die in two World Wars (that very fact spawned the postmodern movement and brought about the questioning of positivism by-the-by). Besides, these new marketing strategies sounded to me like Wizards of the Coast was trying to cash in on new trends in marketing and things like downloadable content. I don't blame them--they're a business and CEOs keep their jobs by pleasing stockholders (just like the CEO of United Fruit when he arranges to have economic hit-men crash the planes of South American presidents who won't sell-out their people). Okay, that's a bit of a logical fallacy for me to equate Wizards with economic hit-men, but you get what I'm trying to say (I hope). These changes are not necessarily Good and in fact, I'm highly suspect because I know that Wizards and Hasbro (by extension) are after MONEY. And as a capitalist, I believe it is my duty to invest my money in products that I believe have a specific standard of design and quality of production. As the first video comes to a close and Esper basically brings up natural selection, it has now become clear that he is being didactic--4th edition is new, therefore superior. The period in which D&D didn't change was it's stagnant era, when TSR was almost destroyed by bankruptcy. Esper has gotten on a soapbox and is basically calling anyone who doesn't "change with the times" a Luddite and is implying that its time for those people to die off. Maybe he doesn't realize he's saying that and doesn't mean it. But it is a not-too-subtle subtext to everything he is saying openly, whether he is conscious of it or not.

When Esper says Kobolds are bland in 3.5, he's obviously never DMed them right. They're like Viet Cong--they're trap-making machines who live underground! I've seen people run encounters with Kobolds that nearly killed 5th-level parties! Attacking by night, using missile weapons, employing false retreats to lure PCs into trapped areas (falling spiked logs, pit traps, etc) and kill-zones, Kobolds can be very ungeneric and... here's the killer... realistic. Let's be honest, if a bunch of 3-foot tall dog-people (2nd edition) or lizard-people (3rd and on) wanted you dead, they wouldn't fight you toe-to-toe, even if they were savage and primitive.

Everything Esper says about his first Kobold encounter sums up what he wants out of D&D--a miniature war game. He wants Necromunda with some roleplaying and grid square maps instead of measuring tape. "Movement was more tactical," he says. That sounds like a miniature wargame to me. This is regression alright, like a lot of 4th edition's critics claim. Gygax and Arneson created D&D because their players wanted to actually pretend they were the figures they were playing with in Chainmail, for crying out loud! And if Esper actually had any real cred and an understanding of the design based on purpose, he'd understand that! Indeed, I try to run 3.5 without miniatures because it slows the game down and I prefer to use my imagination and ability to describe a scene effectively. Everything Esper says about building encounters, calculating XP, statting monsters, etc., just drives the point home--the problems with the game that Esper had all focused on combat. And the visuals make it absolutely undeniable--everything during this opening sequence is a picture of people at miniature-grid tables and mats. I try not to use miniatures and mats as visual aids--I prefer my own descriptive abilities and the use of pictures and photographs to build a sense of atmosphere and environment, not tactical positioning and obstacle-placement.

Anyway, moving on...

Esper is entirely right about how 4th edition was designed as a whole new car as opposed to a remodeled old one (ignoring the fact that old cars are often worth a fortune in good condition). He is right when he says the system is more consistent. He is 100% right about everything he says is strong about 4th edition.

It is designed for a new generation of gamers. A generation of gamers that were weaned on Diablo, World of Warcraft, and other computer games. A generation of gamers that has been brought up being told that they're a precious snowflake, individual and unique. A generation of gamers to whom their schoolteachers have been told "you cannot say the student is wrong" and "you cannot mark their answers with red pens" because of their precious little feelings. A generation of gamers who goes online and makes gay and racist jokes while playing Call of Duty multiplayer. A generation of gamers who cannot associate their actions with the logical consequences that come about. A generation of gamers that got a trophy just for participating. A generation of gamers that are occupying Wall Street because they don't have a job and want a hand-out (not because they think banks and corporations need to be more socially responsible). A generation of gamers who are used to having the government, school, and computers take care of everything for them.

A generation of gamers that are and will be perpetually spoiled children.

I know that sounds harsh, but hear me out. Yes, I know it is hyperbolic, but generations have trends (anyone remember how solipsistic the "Me Generation" of the baby-boomers has been for the past 50-60 years?) and I'm talking in generalities. I'm allowed to. I'm a historian. So what if there are statistical outliers that don't match the norm? When everyone I read or watch who loves 4th edition gives reasons that all lie within one or two standard deviations of the mean, I'm allowed to start making blanket statements. Likewise, when I observe personal tendencies that all seem to conform to the average, I'm again allowed to speak in trends, groupings, and generalities.

Anyway, if you want encounters to be more interesting, don't use game mechanics. That simply reduces every opponent to combat tokens meant to be killed and little else. Yeah, I understand how the powers and stuff 4th edition gives to opponents makes them interesting to fight. What about other forms of interaction? The game is a system that encourages a certain style of play, and that style is to consider every encounter a fight.

Want to make those kobolds more interesting? How about all creatures (not just the PCs) go to negative hp? When the fighter deals that 4 hp kobold a hit for 6 damage, don't have it just die. It collapses, bleeding out. The kobold out of a threatened square with the next initiative then drags his dying friend out of danger by the arm. Next turn, he and another kobold hoist the body onto their shoulders and flee to a safer place where they can try to stabilize him or at least comfort him as he dies. He's their friend. They aren't just evil base-attack bonuses worth 1/2 CR, they're living creatures when you do that. Think realistically. Think the magic words "suspension of disbelief." (I'll probably go deeper into the whole "suspension of disbelief" in my next post on 4th edition.) And read what Justin Alexander has to say about how it is not difficult to design better encounters in 3.5 D&D so long as you approach the text without all your erroneous preconceptions about design purposes.

Anyway, to continue, a lot of this comes from the schizophrenic nature of D&D. It's always been a role-playing game built around a combat engine, an engine derived ultimately from Chainmail back in the 1970s. It isn't a role-playing game with a combat-resolution system as a part of its greater problem-resolution system, like, say, White Wolf. The D20 system addressed this, but the inclusion of miniatures and tactical rules, like attacks of opportunity, actually reinforced the combat elements, as did the removal of the ecology and society segments of every entry in the Monster Manual. More and more classes, toys, and feats all helped to create a combat-heavy bent to 3rd edition and 3.5. The idiosyncrasies this brought about play a huge role in Esper's dissatisfaction with 3.5. They also play a huge role in why the OSR was established.

Esper wants D&D to be primarily a combat engine, with all role-playing elements taking place outside of the actual pages of the rulebooks. Don't deny it, watch Part Two of his review. Every aspect of the game he raves about (except for the online and computer stuff) has to do with combat. Monsters have stat-blocks that describe all his abilities, attacks, and powers? Combat. Races have one good ability that you can use once per encounter? Combat. At surface level, this appears to be what the OSR is about. So why don't they convert to 4th edition? Why do they continually stick with an "outdated" system?

Consequences.

Esper seems to be a bit more mature than a lot of the people I'm going to take aim at, but I'm going to do it nonetheless. Most 4th edition players I've met are geeks, nerds, and dorks. Alright, fine, most gamers period are geeks, nerds, and dorks, but I'm talking about a specific kind--the kind that has a lot of deep-seated insecurities. They were bullied as kids. They sought solace in their hobbies and interests and developed a superiority complex and as a result they act like little Napoleons when they talk about comic books, argue over whether Kirk or Picard was a better captain, or play D&D. I saw this kind at Captain Blue Hen in Newark, DE one day while I was shopping for trade paperbacks of Sandman. They were recording a podcast and were trashing Joe Satriani for calling himself the "Silver Surfer."

"How dare he? Who is Joe Satriani to call himself that?"

I wanted to call them sad, pathetic little virgins, but they've probably got girlfriends (geek girls exist now) or wives (they're old enough to be married). Joe Satriani surfs, he has a silver guitar (upon which he surfs the frets), and he's one of the best guitar players alive. Frankly, more people will benefit from his musical talents than will ever read the damn comic. Grow the f--- up.

It's called a Napoleon complex. I saw it all over the gaming community in Newark, DE, when I was in graduate school. Their self-esteems are so fragile, they have to haze newcomer gamers. They play nigh-unkillable characters. When they die, they whine when they lose a level upon resurrection. They don't like to face the consequences of failure because it subconsciously reminds them of when they couldn't do a single sit-up in gym class or couldn't get a date to the prom.

I've had characters die. I rolled up new ones. If I was purposely f---ed over by the GM, I left the game. If it was just how the dice went, nobody was to blame. If it had been a product of incautious behavior or overlooking an important detail, the fault was mine. Hell, once I had a samurai who was defeated by a treacherous PC in such a way that he felt he had dishonored his ancestors and his lords. He committed seppuku. I basically killed my character because it was what my character would have done. And I rolled up a new one. It's how the game is played.

Actions have consequences. The players of my Forgotten Realms campaign are fully aware of that. Sometimes, they make bad decisions. Hey, if Star Wars was being roleplayed by the kind of gamers who complain about setbacks (like losing a level for having been killed and resurrected), what do you think they'd say when Luke's player got Luke's hand chopped off by Vader and lost the lightsaber duel against a more powerful opponent in The Empire Strikes Back?

Consequences make a game believable. Otherwise, it's just a mentally masturbatory game where you live out your fantasies of revenge and empowerment in a make-believe world. It ceases to tell any kind of entertaining or meaningful story. Some people can't get through John Updike's novels because all of his main characters are assholes. If that is the case, why do I want to watch a bunch of nerds and geeks who are angry about getting bullied turning around and bullying others?

MovieBob covered this pretty damn well in regards to video games, but the "Hard Truth" applies to D&D. Check around 8:35 and listen to what he has to say about Six Days in Fallujah.

Basically, 4th edition isn't challenging. "Balance" is so darn important because every single damn encounter is resolved through fighting (at least, that's what the system lends itself to and how the game is designed to be played). (As an aside, Justin Alexander's essays on "Fetishizing Balance" and balance types discuss how people approach balance wrongly in 3rd edition.) Yeah, you can run it differently, but the point is, because Ron Edwards is right and SYSTEM DOES MATTER, the system has an effect on the player's approach to the game and if it is designed for combat to resolve encounters then playing it any other way is going to bring about just as much house-ruling, inconsistency, and idiosyncrasy as every single previous edition.

The OSR method of playing is incredibly unbalanced and lethal because you're supposed to be smart, think outside the box, and find ways to avoid, kill, trap, or negotiate with the monster in order to get the treasure. Killing creatures earned next-to-negligible XP. Treasure earned lots of it. How to play OS D&D? Think outside the box, dammit! Solve problems! Exercise your damn imagination!

D&D 4th edition isn't designed for that. Since balance is so overly fetishized, it's designed to be the sort of "fun" that comes from "pwning n00bz" not overcoming actual challenges through brains. "Oh, but there's tactics!" Yeah, sure, fine. If I want to play a tactical game with miniatures I'll play Warhammer. I want to solve problems and how to separate the ancient red dragon from his hoard as a third level mage is a damn difficult challenge, but it's worth a whole hell of a lot of XP. If self-esteem, real, true, actual self-esteem is built through accomplishment, then it becomes apparent that OS D&D actually does more to build self-esteem than 4th edition does.

Esper's claim that from a design-standpoint 3rd edition and 3.5 is bad was basically refuted even before it was written by Justin Alexander in "Calibrating Your Expectations." Here's a quote:

I’ve been working and playing with the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons longer than most. Ryan Dancey sent me a playtest copy of the new Player’s Handbook back in 1999, almost a full year before it was released at GenCon 2000. I had been an outspoken critic of AD&D for several years at that point and, more recently, been involved in a number of heated debates with Ryan over the OGL and D20 Trademark License.

By the time I was done reviewing the playtest document and sending my comments back to Ryan, I had basically done a 180-degree turn-around on both. Wizards of the Coast had assembled three incredibly talented game designers – Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams – to rework the system, and they had succeeded brilliantly. They stayed true to the roots of the game and captured the best parts of it, while shedding decades of detritus and poor design. There were still a few quibbles here and there, but they had taken advantage of the largest and most expensive design cycle for an RPG ever conceived and used it to deliver an incredibly robust, flexible, and powerful system.

One of the most impressive things about 3^rd Edition is the casual realism of the system. You can plug real world values into it, process them through the system, and get back a result with remarkable fidelity to what would happen in the real world.

Some people will consider this to be a remarkable claim. It doesn’t take much experience with the roleplaying hobby before you're familiar with dozens of vehement diatribes on the lack of realism in D&D and the resulting shortcomings in the system. Whole laundry lists of complaints (aimed at hit points, the encumbrance system, falling damage, or attacks of opportunity, for example) have been generated. In fact, such claims are so prolific that making the opposite claim (as I have done) is practically a heresy of sorts.

But, in my experience, these complaints largely originate either from people carrying over their criticisms of previous editions (where many of the criticisms were true) or from people failing to actually look at the facts and run the numbers.

So what I want to do, rather than just making my claim, is to take a look at a few rules, actually run the numbers, and demonstrate how effective D&D really is at modeling the real world.

And run the numbers he does. Justin Alexander demonstrates conclusively (in my opinion) that D&D 3rd edition and 3.5 is a highly adept simulation of reality that works extremely well without excessively clunky mechanics that wreck suspension of disbelief (before you say anything about realism and clunkiness of system, go take a look at Riddle of Steel). Johnathan Tweet, Skip Williams, and my God, Monte Cook designed 3.5. Seriously. Monty F---ing Cook.

For nearly every complaint Esper had, I gave a discussion and occasionally posted a link to an essay (by Justin Alexander) on that exact topic which demonstrated that Esper wasn't approaching the game's design in a manner that maximized its actual potentials.

Justin Alexander's observations on the very design decisions of 4th edition are incredibly revealing into the very purpose of the engine's design. Another quote:

Unfortunately, since Mearls started working at WotC, there are plenty of indications that he's swallowed the Kool-Aid. Which leads to the other big strike 4th Edition has against it, in my opinion...

DESIGN ETHOS AT WIZARDS

The current design ethos which seems to be holding sway at WotC is radically out-of-step with my own tastes in game design and gameplay.

Take, for example, an article Mearls wrote on the rust monster as part of the "Design & Development" column at WotC's website. Here we have a rust monster given an ability which corrodes, warps, and cracks metallic equipment and weapons. 10 minutes later, though, the metallic equipment and weapons are A-OK. They just repair themselves without any explanation.

This design is an example of the "per encounter" and "no long-term consequences, because long-term consequences aren't fun" schools of thought which the WotC design department seem to be mired in at the moment. But the result is a cartoony game system: My characters no longer live in a world I can believe in. They live in a cartoony reality where actions don't have long-term consequences and the grid-lines of the holodeck are clearly visible.

Another example from Mearls would be his blog post about skills from late last year, to which I have already written a response. I'm not saying that this skill system is one we're likely to see in 4th Edition, but I am saying that it shows that Mearls' design sense has radically altered since he designed Iron Heroes and The Book of Iron Might.

Let's take a look at a recent quote from David Noonan: "Powers unique to the new monster are often better than spell-like abilities. At first glance, this principle seems counterintuitive. Isn’t it easier and more elegant to give a monster a tried-and-true power from the Player’s Handbook? On the surface, sure. But watch how it works at the table. The DM sees the spell-like entry, grabs a Player’s Handbook, flips through it to find the relevant spell, reads the relevant spell, decides whether to use it, then resumes the action. See where I’m going with this? That’s a far more cumbersome process than reading a specific monster ability that’s already in the stat block. Heck, the physical placement of one more open rulebook is a hassle for a lot of DMs."

This quote is interesting to me, because it shows the type of wrong-headed logic skew that I see prevalent in a lot of the WotC design decisions of late. Basically the thought process here goes something like this:

Step 1: A spell-like ability looks easy to use, since it's a tried-and-true power from the PHB. But, in practice, the DM actually has to open up the PHB to see how the spell works. So instead of having all the information at their fingertips, they have to open up another book. And if the creature has multiple spell-like abilities, you've actually got to look at multiple page references in the PHB to figure out what the creature's range of abilities is.

So far, so good. This is all absolutely true.

Step 2: It would be easier if we put all the relevant information in the monster's stat block, so that it's right at the DM's fingertips.

Right again. Some people might complain about "wasted space", but I would love the utility of it. I have a similar reaction whenever I see "undead traits" in the stat block. You mean I have to flip back-and-forth through my copy of the MM to keep on top of this creature? It took me many months of DMing 3rd Edition before my undead stopped losing random abilities from that "undead traits" entry.

Step 3: So they shouldn't have spell-like abilities. Every creature should have a completely unique mechanic designed just for it.

... what the hell? How did you go skewing suddenly off to the side like that?

The problem is that Noonan is fallaciously conflating two types of utility:

(1) Spell-like abilities make it easier to use the rules because, as your familiarity with the rules for various spells grow, you will gain greater and greater mastery over a larger and larger swath of the ruleset.

(2) Putting all the information you need to run a creature in the creature's stat block makes it easier to use the creature because all the information you need is immediately accessible (without needing to look in multiple places, which also ties up books you may need to be using to reference other information).

There's no need to jettison utility #1 in order to achieve utility #2. The correct solution is to use spell-like abilities and list the
information you need regarding the spell-like ability in the creature's stat block.

(Which is not to say that a creature should never have a unique ability. There is no spell to model a hydra's many-heads, for example. The point here isn't to stifle creativity. The point is to avoid reinventing the wheel every time you want to build a car.)

We actually saw a similar logic-skew in Mearls' treatment of the rust monster:

Step 1: Rust monsters feature a save-or-die attack (and often you don't even get a save). The only difference is that it targets equipment instead of characters. Save-or-die effects aren't fun, because they simplify the tactical complexity of the game down to a crap shoot.

This is absolutely correct.

Step 2: The rust monster should still be able to attack, corrode, and destroy equipment (because that's its schtick and it's a memorable one) but it shouldn't be a save-or-die effect.

Yup.

Step 3: So we should keep the save-or-die attack, but make the armor miraculously un-rust and de-corrode after 10 minutes.

... and there they go again, skewing off towards the cliff's edge.

(The correct answer here, by the way, is: "The rust monster will use the existing mechanics for attacking items. Because we want the rust monster's ability to be frightening and unusual, we will allow it to bypass hardness. The damage will also be inflicted on metallic items used to attack the rust monster. Magic items are affected, but may make a saving throw to avoid the damage.")

I know that's an enormous quote of text, but it essentially isolates two major problems of design and the illogic behind the design of 4th edition--problems that Esper and other gamers actually see as strengths. Make no mistake, they do! Esper's complaint about losing a level is indicative of the whole approach the 4th edition design team took regarding the rust monster.

The game is purposely designed to allow the players to fight through a dungeon as close to consequence-free as possible. And fight is the key word here. All utility and non-combat abilities (especially spells) are relegated to long, time-consuming (in game) tasks or actions (like rituals). Basically, this renders utility spells, like knock, entirely useless. Most of the time knock is used is because you come to a locked or stuck door and need to open it quickly before your pursuers catch up to you. But since there are healing surges and "running away" and "losing a fight" isn't "fun" then why would you need knock for that purpose? Hell, why have knock in the game at all when the rogue can just keep trying to pick the lock ad infinitum?

As Esper describes the fact that monsters use different rules (in his second segment), what he's talking about is how the monster behaves in combat and what powers the monster has. This is because 4th edition has basically reduced all monsters to combat-obstacles to be killed, period.

Again, a quote from Justin Alexander:

This is yet another logic skew at work. They correctly identified a problem ("when combat and non-combat abilities are mixed together in the stat block, it's difficult to quickly find the combat abilities on-the-fly") and simultaneously came up with two solutions:

1. We will have a new stat block that separates the combat information from the non-combat information. This will make it much easier to use the stat block during combat, and if it adds a little extra time outside of combat (when time pressure isn't so severe) that's OK. (You can see the logic behind this solution discussed, quite correctly, by James Wyatt in another column.)

2. We will get rid of all the non-combat abilities a monster has, since they'll never have a chance to use them given their expected
lifespan of 5 rounds.

Now, ignoring all the obvious problems in the second design philosophy, why do you even need to implement such a "solution" when you've already got solution #1 in place?

(In case the design problems in the second "solution" aren't obvious, here's another quote from David Noonan: "Unless the shaedling queen is sitting on a pile of eggs, it doesn’t matter how the shaedlings reproduce. The players will never ask, and the characters will never need to know." What Noonan is ignoring there is that the reason the PCs might be encountering the shaedling queen in the first place is the pile of eggs.

If D&D were simply a skirmish game, Noonan would be right: You'd set up your miniatures and fight. And the reasons behind the fight would never become important. But D&D isn't a skirmish game -- it's a roleplaying game. And it's often the abilities that a creature has outside of combat which create the scenario. And not just the scenario which leads to combat with that particular creature, but scenarios which can lead to many different and interesting combats. Noonan, for example, dismisses the importance of detect thoughts allowing a demon to magically penetrate the minds of its minions. But it's that very ability which may explain why the demon has all of these minions for the PCs to fight; which explains why the demon is able to blackmail the city councillor that the PCs are trying to help; and which allows the demon to turn the PCs' closest friend into a traitor.

And, even more broadly, the assumption that detect thoughts will never be used when the PCs are around assumes that the PCs will never do anything with an NPC except try to hack their heads off.

One is forced to wonder how much the design team is playing D&D and how much the design team is playing the D&D Miniatures game.

This was before 4th edition was even released, and his predictions were correct. 4th edition is basically a miniatures game. It's Chainmail morphed into D&D (minus lasting consequences) all over again. So much for "progress." Like I said above, 4th edition is outdated and Esper is apparently unaware of his inadvertent hypocrisy.

The entire thing is all about the players having a superficial and ultimately empty experience that is "fun" but not "challenging." Once you figure out how the mechanics work and get enough tactical experience down, you can literally use a few simple math formulae to calculate the results of any given encounter simply using the given stats of the PCs and the mean stats for the opponents (which isn't hard, especially for minions). Most of my friends who quit playing 4th edition quit because they would spend 5 minutes calculating the results of a 1-hour combat session and their predictions were so accurate that the game became utterly predictable and boring.

Add-to-that the lack of consequences and what you have is something I am not interested in playing. Ever. I won't even try it. The very system irks me. I've not played with enough good GMs in my life to feel any sort of certainty or trust that whomever runs a 4th edition game and invites me will be willing to let me try to negotiate with the kobolds instead of kill them. I have the feeling that I'm going to echo lindybeige's complaints about the system when the DM says "you can't do that" to me whenever I try to do something that the game doesn't give me an express power.


Why would anyone want to play a game like that? Well, like I said, nobody in generations X or Y can seem to take failure. It hurts their precious little egos. So when they fail in real life, they blame Wall Street instead of getting back on the damn horse. Compare Esper's attitude regarding his character's death to this old grognard's tale I saw on rpg.net a few years ago:

I played a Magic User in Greyhawk .. THE Greyhawk... for a while. Up to 6th or 7th level when I retired him because I was tired of him and went back to my 8th level fighter.

My favorite adventure was as a 1st level MU. I had heard about an entrance to the 3rd level of Greyhawk and went down. Alone. With 3 HP and a Charm Person spell. Just me. A 1st level MU. In Greyhawk Castle. With Gary Gygax reffing.

I hit 2nd level at the end of the night with enough XP to be one shy of 3rd. I ran, I snuck, I threw lanterns (fire, oil, and a handle in one convenient package!), I ran, and I ran some more. It was still one of the best single evenings of gaming I've ever had.

So, I have heaps and heaps of "no fucking sympathy" for people who complain it's boring to play a low level MU.

Someone else posted that one of the designers of 4th edition had played with Gygax as a preteen and was always complaining that his magic-user died, but the kid never learned how to play smart like the others--he wanted to zap and zap and zap away.

Behold. The "Me Generation."

On that same forum, one of the posters wrote: "Though I might argue that the amount of information that a new player has to understand by looking at a 4E character sheet is certainly more to digest than a OD&D character sheet. ... 4E also presumes... or at least encourages through example... a certain style and approach to play. OD&D had so few rules to "anchor" it that it meant that new players could make the game their own. "

The response? "Mechanically yes, but OD&D demanded a lot more out of it's players. Modern D&D demands less. ... [Presuming/encouraging a specific style] is a huge bone in 4es favor.
Again placing more demands on the player. Game design is about crafting a players experience."

I'll reiterate and link again: SYSTEM MATTERS. The worst thing about the whole system of consequences being removed and character death being so remote a possibility is that there's no real challenge (unless the DM basically goes out of his way to try to kill the PCs with extremely unbalanced encounters). Therefore, there's no real psychological reward. Oh, it's fun. But there's no real sense of player agency. By removing challenge and consequences and reducing everything to a series of combat encounters in a linear dungeon, the ability for the players to actually participate in the creation of a story (like the players are doing in my Forgotten Realms game) is diminished. I have half a mind to think that 4th edition is so friendly to DMs because it allows them to railroad the players so effectively and convince them that they're having a grand old time while he's doing it. There's no way in 4th edition the PCs are going to chase the brown bear off using bells, whistles, banging metal, and other things that generally drive bears off in real life. They're going to have to kill it because that's how the game works, that's how it is designed, that is how it is supposed to be played. If the DM allows for anything else, he is literally and most assuredly doing it wrong because he is not using the game for the purpose for which it was designed.

Again, I'll link Ron Edward's article: System Does Matter. And the above paragraph is proof. If you think a good DM and veteran role-players (as opposed to "roll"-players) in your group redeems your game, I'm sorry, you are wrong because your style of play is actually misusing the system, making it do something it wasn't designed to do. Therefore, any arguments that the "fun" and "role-playing" aspects of 4th edition are all dependent on the group composition and DM are hereby demolished.

QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM.

As lindybeige says in his review of 4th edition (linked above), 4th edition "is not a role-playing game at all. It is sort of a weird miniatures skirmish game, and an incredibly slow one at that." Yeah. I'll take 3.5 or OS D&D over 4th edition for the fantasy role-playing and Warhammer Fantasy Battle if I want to spend a fortune playing miniature skirmish games.

Next part, I will discuss the mechanics of the game a little and how it totally destroys suspension of disbelief, which in turn discourages immersion and role-playing.

The Hungover Heroes Guild, Part Four

The Flag of Zhentil Keep

Sometimes, a DM has to be a jerk in order to make the world believable and more importantly to adjudicate fairly. This is difficult, especially when the DM likes the characters and the players and doesn't want to ruin the fun.

Case in point, Session Four of my Forgotten Realms game.

In Session Three, the PCs cleared out the Eagle's Eyrie, an old Dwarven outpost that had been built into a rocky crag just south of Dagger Falls across the River Tesh. It once overlooked the trade routes east to the Moonsea and south through the Dales from the ancient Dwarf realm of Tethyamar. During the session, they'd fought two goblins, managed to scare off a brown bear by banging metal items together, gotten scratched by eagles, bitten by a swarm of bats, and assaulted by fire beetles. Baravis (Luke's character), the tiefling warlock, said a few prayers to Marthammor Duin, the dwarven god of wanderers and exiles, asking him that the Brightblade Clan could have their home back.

Baravis seems to have developed a real liking for the dwarven people.

Well, as the new session picked up they were drinking at the Teshford Arms across the ford from Dagger Falls when two mercenaries and an orcish messenger entered and demanded the PCs come with them to see the Constable, Tren Noemfor. Now, remember, Dagger Falls is fully under the control of the Black Network and is crawling with Zhentilar soldiers. Well, Baravis is already drunk (and hence only capable of healing 1 hp per day since he's not resting--dealing with alcohol inhibits healing because it is strenuous on your liver and other organs) and it's only 10 or 11 in the morning (his penalties due to Lathander's annoyance still apply each morning).

Well, Vlad tries to outwit the orc with questions like, "Are we the adventurers you're looking for? What are their names?" The orc only knows that he's to summon PCs matching their description into the Constable's Tower. The mercs try intimidation checks, but Baravis isn't impressed (although the others are). Baravis tries to intimidate the mercs, and is mildly successful on one. "I just wanna finish my drink."

The one merc picks up Sven's wine glass and dumps it on the floor. So, Baravis eldritch blasts the wine bottle.

Roll initiative.

POW, the one merc decks Baravis, who only has a few hp. The subdual damage is enough to knock him out. Vlad cast's cause fear on the orc, who flees, calling for the nearest Zhentilar patrol walking their beat.

In the intervening rounds, Sven's managed to stab the one mercenary, Vlad cast ray of enfeeblement, and Drog got in a fistfight with the other. Finally, the Zhentilar burst in with clubs. The owner of the inn is screaming in fury at the mess everyone is making of her bar. One-by-one, the PCs are beaten into unconsciousness by the seven Zhentilar soldiers (who, by-the-way, have the coat of arms to the left emblazoned on their surcoats and tabards). The Zhentilar kick the comatose bodies for additional subdual damage before dragging the PCs to the Constable's Tower.

They wake up in the dungeons. They're left there. Baravis tries to eldritch blast his manacles but he can't do enough damage to get around their Hardness. And besides, the racket is met with a threat to cut his hands off. They're left to dangle in chains for three days with no food or water.

Then, Baravis does the one thing that creates a glimmer of hope. He prays to Marthammor Duin.

They suffer from exhaustion and are down to 1 hp when Tren Noemfor comes to a decision. Baravis, Sven, and Drog are stripped of everything, escorted across the ford and told they're not to come back to town or they're dead men.

Now, let's recap. They're down to 1 hp, they have NO weapons, armor, gold... nothing but the clothes on their backs. Anything of worth is gone, including Sven's masterwork dagger from his family and Drog's masterwork greatsword from his grandfather. Gone. They are an inch away from a total-party-kill.

Back in the Constable's Tower, Tren Noemfor grills Vlad on why he left Zhentil Keep, what he was doing with a party of misfits like that, and what he knows about the Dream Fever and the disappearance of the priestess of Cyric beneath the ruined Temple of Lathander. This is conducted in the tower's torture chamber but Vlad satisfies Tren's curiosity so he doesn't need to be tortured. Tren says that Vlad's friends have been executed (he wanted to see Vlad's reaction) and returned Vlad's passport and belongings and put him under house arrest in the Teshford Arms inn until he is to be "escorted" home to Zhentil Keep by the next caravan. Red Morgan, the caravan chief, is given papers authorizing a formal "inquiry" of Vlad once he's reached Zhentil Keep--i.e. he's going to be tortured and if found guilty, tossed in prison or sent to work in the mines.

Well, things are looking grim. I'm actually worried. One bad encounter roll and they're toast. A goblin or kobold could kill them.

Sven and Baravis aid Drog in his Survival check (even with penalties, they find enough food and water to keep alive) and they hole up in the ruins of the lookout tower at Eagle's Eyrie (they wanted to go inside, but the bear had returned to the cavern entrance). Meanwhile, Vlad tried to go to Dulwar Leatherworker's shop but was prevented. So, he told the innkeeper to pass along a message that he needed permission to visit the leatherworker's shop and get some things he'd ordered. Bad idea.

Sven snuck to the Leatherworker's that night and discovered that the Zhentilar had gotten the message and decided to rough Dulwar up and take the masterwork studded leather armor Baravis had commissioned and paid for as well as Baravis' regular leather suit that was being repaired. Told Fulgath was just as likely to give him back his crossbow as turn him in, Sven asked Dulwar to pass a message along to Loudon the Cooper that they were holed up at Eagle's Eyrie.

Making his way back to the Eyrie, Sven dodged the brown bear by climbing a tree and discovered why it had fled it's lair--DWARVES! Marthammor Duin had heard Baravis' prayer. The message he'd asked Loudon to send to them last session paid off when the dwarves arrived to reoccupy the Eyrie. Loudon smuggled some weak weapons and a set of padded armor to the PCs, who were being bed-rest healed by a dwarven physician, and told them that Vlad was leaving in 2 days with a caravan bound for Zhentil Keep. The dwarves rewarded the PCs by taking the carapaces of the four fire beetles and fashioning a chitin breastplate worth a whole heck of a lot of gp! Baravis was named a Friend of Dwarves (he gains the honorary title "Dwarf-friend" that he can tack onto the end of his name) for his growing faith in Marthammor Duin and his services to the Brightblade Clan.

Together, they planned to raid the caravan and rescue Vlad. In the dead of night, sneaking across the river to set up an ambush, Baravis spied two short figures trying to sneak into a Dagger Falls cottage window. He eldritch blasted one, killing it. The other fled into the gloom. Baravis and the dwarves examined it, but it wasn't a dwarf. It's body was short and muscular like a dwarf, but it had brown skin, thick thatchlike hair and beard, tangled with vines, and a supple yet strong, reedlike form. All-in-all kind of treelike. When they threw the corpse into the river, it floated downstream.

Later that day, the ambush went off. The three wagons got away, but the dwarves and PCs managed to rescue Vlad and kill a powerful Zhentilar officer-woman who wielded a battleaxe and nearly killed Drog. Loot was gained, but not much. All but Vlad earned a new level (with Sven multiclassing into Urban Ranger, Drog into Ranger, and Baravis considering Cleric of Marthammor Duin and pledging himself to the dwarven god).

Lots of experience was handed out. Yes, the PCs got into a lot of trouble and lost a lot of their loot. Precious items were diced away to Zhentilar soldiers throughout the town and they may never see their heirlooms again. But they still turned what appeared as a hopeless situation into something much more positive by being smart, having faith and being in the right place at the right time. They didn't just give up. On top of that, even though it wasn't smart to do, when Baravis was knocked out by the merc, they didn't just sit back and take it, they fought together. Yeah, it was kind of dumb for Sven to draw his dagger and for Vlad to cast spells--if they hadn't resisted they'd have been taken quietly, and if they'd just brawled, they'd probably have been handed back their gear and frog-marched into the dungeon beneath Lathander's temple or kicked out of town temporarily. That wasn't too bright on their part to draw daggers and sling spells when their lives weren't in immediate danger.

But like I said, they didn't give up. It would have been easy to do so. Nope, they immediately started coming up with plans to get their stuff back and save Vlad. Triumph in the face of adversity. They earned a lot of XP for their role-playing, for not giving up despite their dire situation, for faith, for turning a hopeless situation into a victory, and for showing party solidarity in standing up for Baravis (despite his drunken foolishness in blasting the bottle and starting a fight) and saving Vlad. Great session.

The Flag of Daggerdale

The Hungover Heroes Guild, Part Three

Did I mention how much I love the Forgotten Realms? Yeah, I have. So far the Hungover Heroes (as we've dubbed them) and I are having a great time exploring this vivid, living, breathing setting as it was in the Year of the Banner, 1368 Dale Reckoning.

Alex couldn't make it tonight, so we had Vlad just hold the horses reins or sleep at the inn whenever anything was happening.

We picked up where we'd left off, a few miles north on the Tethyamar Trail from where Drog had critical-hit the ogre to death. The party continued on the next morning until they saw a curl of smoke off a side-trail in the distance. They took a short detour to investigate and discovered a burned village surrounding an equally burned motte-and-bailey fort. This was all that remained of the village of Black Switch. In the bailey, a large pile of corpses (men, women, and children) had been burned, heads had been mounted on pikes all along the stockade and a sign tacked to the gate proclaimed that all who harbored or supported Randal Morn would face a similar fate. Drog discovered a gold wedding ring in the ashes and kept it, but felt uncomfortable holding an item whose previous owner had suffered such a terrible fate (yet he hadn't wanted it to just sit in the ashes).

Early that afternoon, the party arrived at the village of Tethyamarside, fully occupied by Zhents. Seeking to pawn some of their loot, Baravis, Drog, and Sven visited the local peddler and curio shop. The elderly Daggerdalesman behind the counter was typical of his folk--he didn't trust strangers and asked Baravis to remove his hood. Baravis did so.

Now, understand, Baravis is a tiefling so he has grayish skin and devilish horns. I had to roll a Will save to see if the old man would be scared or merely shocked by Baravis' appearance.

I rolled a 1. Critical failure.

Horrified, the man fled through the back room and raced out of the building's rear entrance, screaming for his wife, "Marta, it's Bane! Bane, I tell you!" Baravis quickly grabbed the nearest valuable (he's Chaotic Good--it seemed like a good idea) hid a gold plate and golden earrings under his cloak and walked calmly out of the store before anyone else arrived. The three made their way back to the inn, but not before Sven noticed something--they were being tailed by someone.

Back at the inn, they intimidated the innkeeper (when bribing wouldn't work) into telling anyone who asked that they had never left the inn (they left the bribe--the unfortunate wedding ring). When the snitch went and told the guard, a small cadre of Zhentilar braced the innkeeper, who successfully bluffed them into thinking the PCs had never left the inn. After greasing the Zhentilars' palms with some silver (well worth it considering the ring), the innkeeper was left alone. Much laughter was had about Old Man McGraw (as we dubbed him) and how the town would be saying that Old Man McGraw was crazy for years. "He says he was robbed by Bane hisself, he does! An evil, dead god! Stole a gold plate, he swears!" The guards who had braced the innkeeper could barely believe it themselves. "Have you seen... Have... Oh, for Cyric's sake, have you seen Bane? Yes, Bane. Old Man McGraw is raving that Bane robbed his store. We're looking for someone who looks like the dead god of strife and tyranny. ... Man, I need a drink. I joined the army for this?" Much laughter was had.

The next morning, the party decided it would be wise to simply leave, so they got on their horses and got out of this small village as soon as they were able. Within an hour they were within sight of Dagger Falls, but decided to follow a small path that led up to a rocky crag to the southwest to see if they could get a good view of Dagger Falls. After making their way up the steep rock face via a crumbling trail, they were attacked by two goblins who had tamed some eagles as pets. After dispatching them, they investigated a cave, managed to drive off the bear that had taken over its entrance with a dented helm and a hammer (banging them together) they disabled some traps and found a secret entrance deep within the cave. This led them into a large vaulted chamber where they were assaulted by a swarm of bats (annoyed by being disturbed) and four fire beetles. By the end of all this combat, Sven, Drog, and Baravis were looking the worse for wear but decided to press on, discovering a forge, altars to Moradin, the bones of dwarves, and a message in Dwarven left by Colderan, the Mage-Lord, seeking vengeance and cursing the dwarves for the murder of his wife Belissaria. Colderan Morn, as they recalled, had been the Lord of Daggerdale two-hundred years before and was Randal Morn's ancestor. He had cast the Brightblade dwarves out, the same dwarves they had met in Anathar's Dell. So this must be Eagles Eyrie!

Leaving for Dagger Falls, they met up with Louden the Cooper, their contact. When shown the secret coins that Randal used to identify his supporters, Louden asked them many questions to ensure they weren't spies for the Zhentarim. Satisfied, he explained a little bit about the Dream Fever and the short, dark figures stalking the town at night. "It's been going on since that Priestess of Cyric went beneath the Temple of Lathander's ruins."

Baravis commissioned a pricy masterwork suit of studded leather armor, all blacked out to help with Hide checks. When Dulwar the tanner was asked about Colderan the Mage-Lord, the tanner simply said that Colderan's tomb is unknown.

The party entered the town of Dagger Falls, settled at the Teshford Arms (after selling loot to the pricegouging Fulgarth, the only caravan supply store and trader in town) and decided to rest up and heal before going down beneath the Temple ruins. And there we stopped.

Sorcerer Variant

Aside from the monk, the sorcerer is the most problematic of the character classes in 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons. (The Ranger is a close third). Why? They simply do not make sense. Let me explain.

Let's look at the 3.5 Player's Handbook to see what they say about how sorcerers cast their spells:

Sorcerers create magic the way a poet creates poems, with inborn talent honed by practice. They have no books, no mentors, no theories--just raw power that they direct at will. Some sorcerers claim that the blood of dragons courses through their veins....

The typical sorcerer adventures in order to improve his abilities. Only by testing his limits can he surpass them. A sorcerer's power is inborn--part of his soul. Developing this power is a quest in itself for many sorcerers, regardless of how they wish to use their power....

Sorcerers cast spells through innate power rather than through careful training and study. Their magic is intuitive rather than logical. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire powerful spells more slowly than wizards, but they can cast spells more often and have no need to select and prepare their spells ahead of time. Sorcerers do not specialize in certain schools of magic the way wizards sometimes do. --PHB, pgs 51-52.

In essence, the sorcerer is born with an innate gift at manipulating magical energy and basically trains himself (or herself) to use it. Makes sense. And since spellcasting is a complex and formulaic process, the sorcerer is probably going to have access to much more raw and unrefined ways to use magic.

At first blush, you'd expect them to work something like the wielders of the One Power in the D20 Wheel of Time game. They can channel weaves of the One Power, which are tied to the four different elements and a fifth element of spirit. There are lots of weaves, but none of them are very detail-oriented or complex. In other words, complicated effects like for Leomund's tiny hut or contingency are non-existent. A channeler of the One Power can, perhaps, open a lock or make something float, throw fireballs or call lightning, or even effect the weather, but they can't do anything extremely specific, highly detailed, or complicated. They can't produce the effect of Evard's black tentacles, they can't change their physical forms, they can't summon demons or create undead, they can't inscribe glyphs that cause sleep, and they can't pass through wood or stone walls.

But they can still do some pretty heavy damage at early levels.

Now, this is what frustrates me about the sorcerer. For someone who uses innate powers, what the heck is he doing casting spells? Oh, he doesn't have to prepare them like a wizard, fine, and heck he can even forget about materials, but he still has the verbal and somatic components. In effect, he's a wizard who just doesn't forget the spells. Which makes no sense. To top it off, for all his inborn abilities, a sorcerer can pick a dozen-and-one spells that have no real relation to one another. There is no concept of a sorcerer who is primarily a fire-wielder while another has an affinity for sound and illusion while a third figured out how to manipulate space-time and open planar gateways. That's like having the inborn ability to dribble a basketball, hit a home run, and slapshot a puck, but not be able to play soccer, baseball, or basketball because one lacks the required skills. Either his abilities are inborn or he learns spells he doesn't forget. Which is it?

This is called fence sitting.

Well, Pathfinder fixed some of that by creating bloodlines. But they didn't fix it far enough. The sorcerer still has access to the same spells as a wizard, but now gets a whole plethora of bonus abilities for having a bloodline.

So I took matters into my own hands. For two weeks I went through all of the spells in the PHB until I had divvied them up among all of the bloodlines that Pathfinder offered. But it wasn't really enough. So I opened the Spell Compendium and went through it, padding out each bloodline until I was satisfied.

So, now each bloodline has its own powers but a very limited spell-pool from which the sorcerer can learn spells. In addition, the sorcerer only gets a familiar if he picks the single bloodline that offers one. However, the sorcerer has access to spells from outside the PHB and each bloodline has special powers and spells that are specific to that bloodline. I kept the bloodline powers the same as Pathfinder's, by-and-large. The only thing I changed was the specific spells the sorcerer has access to. I think this has balanced out the sorcerer pretty well and makes the class make much more sense.

For example, for the Draconic bloodlines, the sorcerer has to pick a dragon color and he gets some abilities and spells that are specific to that color. Why should someone with red dragon blood cast cold or acid spells? The red-dragon-bloodline focuses on fire spells. In addition, he gets a bunch of spells universal to all draconic bloodlines (regardless of color) that help him hide and protect treasure, armor himself, and fly.

On the other hand, someone with the Fey bloodline gets mostly spells that enchant opponents, hide themselves, or create illusions. The Infernal bloodline acquires spells that seduce and dominate others, get others to do their dirty work, and trap souls. Celestial bloodlines get spells that inspire bravery, banish evil creatures, create light, ward and protect.

Here's a sample to illustrate what I mean. You can use either the Pathfinder rules, Monte Cook's variant sorcerer, or the 3.5 standard sorcerer, just so long as you use the bloodline specifically for spells and special abilities:

Arcane Spell-List

The Arcane bloodline focuses on the raw manipulation of magical power to solve problems, defend yourself from harm, create and remove barriers, build and repair constructs, manipulate words and symbols, use telekinesis, and discern the innate workings of magical objects and spells.

0-level (Cantrips): Amanuensis*, Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Launch Bolt*, Launch Item*, Mage Hand, Mending, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Read Magic, Repair Minor Damage*

1^st-level: Alarm, Animate Rope, Familiar Pocket*, Dispel Ward*, Erase, Hold Portal, Identify, Instant Search*, Mage Hand (Greater)*, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon, Nystul’s Magic Aura, Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law, Repair Light Damage*, Sleep, Spell Flower*, Tenser’s Floating Disk, Unseen Servant, Weapon Shift*

2^nd-level: Arcane Lock, Augment Familiar*, Blast of Force*, Cloak Pool*, Continual Flame, Create Magic Tatoo*, Force Ladder*, Invisibility, Knock, Levitate, Magic Mouth, Quick Potion*, Repair Moderate Damage*, Resist Energy, See Invisibility, Rope Trick, Slapping Hand*, Sonic Weapon*, Speak to Allies*, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Web, Wraithstrike*

*This spell is found in the 3.5 Spell Compendium.

Let's take a look at a different bloodline, the Aberrant:

Aberrant Spell-List

The Aberrant bloodline is alien. Spells focus primarily on warping and bending space-time reality in uncanny and strange ways, seeing the unseen, physical mutation, contact and communication beyond this dimension, sanity, thought-waves, and altering intelligence or knowledge.

0-level (Cantrips): Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Prestidigitation, Read Magic, Stick*

1^st-level: Animate Rope, Babau Slime*, Benign Transposition*, Cause Fear, Comprehend Languages, Cutting Hand*, Enlarge Person, Grease, Horrible Taste*, Jump, Reduce Person, Slide

2^nd-level: Alter Self, Baleful Transposition*, Bear’s Endurance, Belker Claws*, Bristle*, Bull’s Strength, Chant of Eyes*, Detect Thoughts, Discolor Pool*, Discern Shapechanger*, Dissonant Chant*, Extend Tentacles*, Fearsome Grapple*, Fox’s Cunning, Fuse Arms*, Inky Cloud*, Malevolent Miasma*, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Slide (Greater)*, Ray of Stupidity*, Razorfangs*, Rope Trick, See Invisibility, Scare, Spider Climb, Touch of Idiocy, Web

That should illustrate my point pretty well. We can see where some of this is going--the bloodlines definitely have access to very different spells. This can make for interesting roleplaying, especially if there are two different sorcerers or a sorcerer and a wizard in a party. I mean, we all know sorcerers are essentially 3rd edition's boomstick.
Wait, before you go off saying that I just nerfed the sorcerer, remember he gets all of the special features from his bloodline that Pathfinder offers. For example, the Arcane gets a familiar, at third level casts metamagic spells at one slot cheaper, and keeps getting interesting stuff. The Aberrant gets a free acid attack that he can use at any time he wants, but gradually develops more and more physical traits that help with combat. I didn't nerf the sorcerer, I streamlined it and made its magical abilities make sense.

The Hungover Heroes Guild, Part Two

Because we're probably not going to play next week, the Hungover Heroes Guild met tonight for a second time this week. This was, by far, one of the BEST roleplaying sessions I've had in years.

Play began with us picking up the PCs as they were entering Anathar's Dell, a small community in Daggerdale, Forgotten Realms. Piqued by rumors of dwarves (or dwarf-like creatures) prowling in the night in Daggerdale villages, the PCs began to ask questions of the populace at Anathar's Hall, the local watering-hole and open-air pavilion-cum-tavern with nearby one-room cottages for rent for visitors.

They picked up some local lore, discovering several new things. The town was built by the wizard Anathar who was slain by a dragon many years ago. The farmers made common cause with the dwarves of the area and built a community here. The dwarves are of the Brightblade clan and swear by their ancestors that they would never dishonor their blood by stalking the streets of the dale villages to the north. They met a Cormyrean knight-errant sworn to join Randal Morn and fight against the Zhentarim (the Black Network of Zhentil Keep) and free Daggerdale from their control. They also encountered a Sembian merchant speaking to two huntsman who may have been members of the Harpers (they wore the black badges with the silver harp).

The next morning, the PCs set off for Dagger Falls, but were slowed by torrential rain. As they camped that evening, they were approached by a patrol of Freedom Riders, followers of Randal Morn (the true and rightful lord of Daggerdale, who seeks to free his Dale from Zhentarim oppression). When Vladimir spoke, the patrol, led by Captain Reiner Trall, took the four companions' weapons and arrested them for being suspected spies. As Captain Trall explained to Vladimir, "We folk of Daggerdale have never known anyone from Zhentil Keep who was not a Zhentilar soldier or a Zhentarim agent." (Note: Zhentilar = the army, Zhentarim = the Black Network, the secret society that rules Zhentil Keep and seeks to control all of the trade in Faerûn.)

They were force-marched across the Serpentsbridge over the rapids of the River Ashaba, where Vladimir was a bit nervous that they were simply going to hang him. But they continued on into the Dagger Hills and came upon the ruins of Castle Daggerdale, where they spent the night.

The next morning, Randal Morn arrived. Together with Tunfer the Stout, priest of Tyr, officiating, Randal Morn heard the trial of Vladimir. He pronounced Vladimir not guilty for want of proof, but since there was no proof Vladimir was innocent, he insisted that Vlad remain at Castle Daggerdale as a guest until riders returned from Anathar's Dell with evidence (if no evidence was to come, he was going to have Vladimir escorted to the borders of the Dale). It seemed the party's ambition to solve the mystery of the Dream Fever in Dagger Falls was going to fall apart, for they refused to leave their companion's side (which earned them the respect of Lord Morn). However, Tunfer offered to cast zone of truth on Vladimir, who repeated his tale and gave his testimony. After a brief cross-examination, Lord Morn pronounced Vladimir innocent.

When the PCs told him they wanted to solve the puzzle of the Dream Fever, Morn outfitted them with light horses and feed (the horses had belonged to riders who had been killed during raids on Zhentilar patrols and Zhentarim caravans). They set out for Dagger Falls the next morning, the day after the Spring Equinox, to warming weather on new mounts and headed north.

They quickly learned how skittish horses can be if they aren't trained for war and battle. The horses would not even walk past the black bear they encountered that was rooting through brambles for wild berries. Vladimir summoned a skeleton warrior that chased the young bear away, allowing them to continue.

Near dusk, though, they saw an ogre trudge up from behind a hill. The horses shied away and the ogre charged. Volleys of eldritch blast from Baravis' hands weakened the creatures as it closed on the party. It charged for Drog, who had dismounted and prepared for battle. The horses bolted, carrying Vladimir, Sven, Baravis' and Drog's horse away from the ogre, but they still attempted to strike it from a distance (with range penalties and -4 penalties for shooting from horseback).

The ogre charged Drog, swung his greatclub, and missed--the hit could have easily killed Drog had it connected, but as it was, it splashed into the mud of the road and left a deep indentation. Drog raged and smote the ogre so strongly that the monster was clobbered (can only take one standard action per turn). It staggered backward, withdrawing from battle. Drog stepped forward and swung again--20, critical threat! DJ rolled again--ANOTHER 20! Kill threat! DJ rolled a third time... and hit! His sword flashed in an arc slicing through the arteries in the ogres' neck and it toppled to the ground.

Drog's horse was recovered, the body was looted for what few useful goods it had (mostly haunches of venison, large rocks, and a wagon wheel were on the ogre) and camp was made an hour's ride north of the battle site. There, the party settled down to eat the venison and XP was divvied up.

Only one combat this session, but it was exhilarating and a nice way to end a session of great in-character roleplaying.