DM Tarkin:
* Also gone are what appear to be the druids, the illusionists while mostly absent in 3.5 without special builds are even further pushed into obscurity.
Bards, Monks, Barbarians and Sorcerers were also left out this time around, but since Wizards plan on publishing several new PHBs (PHB 2, 3, etc.), expect to see them back eventually.
quote:
* The "spells" from the last 20+ years of DND are gone too, replaced by various "powers" which don't even sound familiar. Not all change is good, not all change is bad, but losing flavour might sour some.
Check the 'Rituals'-chapter, to find most of the non-combat 'spells'. :-)
quote:
* The damage progressions for some of the early level "spells" seems weird too. The cleric's Lance Of Faith attack spell - 1D8 damage, increases to a whopping 2D8 at, drum roll please.... 21st level.
Well, to be fair, that's an At-Will power that you get at first level. It also lets the cleric attack at range (5 squares), and gives an ally a bonus to attack the opponent you hit. In addition, it deals Radiant-damage, which I don't think a lot of things are resistant to, so all in all, it's a pretty nifty at-will power that you can throw around every round, all day long.
quote:
* It also seems that everyone gets fixed hit points based on their class. This means outside of con bonuses, you can start predicting how many HPs NPCs have. This could really help the metagamers.
Only if you actually tell the PCs, "This NPC has X levels". Since all premade NPCs had averaged hit points in 3e, that's not really a change, anyway.
quote:
Hopefully more time spent with the book will dispel some of my fears, or confusions.
It should. :-)