Getting Primal

Just read the Dev & Des article on the Primal power source in the PHB2.

A few quick comments.

I like Rob's descriptions of the Barbarian and Druid classes. I haven't seen the PHB2 yet, so I have to take his word for it, but it sounds like they're finally noticably different from the Fighter and Cleric. I've always felt that either or both classes could have been rolled into the latter classes (with feats and optional spell lists opened up by a Prestige Class or something). Whether that changes with 4E's PHB2, well... we'll see.

The Warden, I only vaguely remember from some sneak peek article. It sounds to me at first pass as another Warlord type. A class that exists solely to fill pages in a product. Could the Warden's powers be rolled into the Ranger or Barbarian? Maybe open up some options for those classes versus creating a new cookie cutter?

I'm a proponent of fewer classes and more options. 4E seems to be about more classes with two options (ie. builds) for each.

Then there's the Shaman. I don't even need to read this class. It's clearly a slice of Druid/Sorcerer/Wizard given unnecessary ink. It'll take more than a fancy familiar (aka "spirit companion") to justify this class.

Mike then gives us a look at the Primal classes and how they fit the revamped cosmology. With this, I'm fully on board.

Make the druid into the anti-cleric. Let them butt heads over Gods vs Primordials. Create intra-party tension and conflict. That's good shit.

The rest... well... sounds like the PHB2 could have been about 50 pages.

Back on a high note

Back from a two month hiatus where all things DnD whizzed by completely under my radar. Just my luck that smack dab in the middle of this time there would come a flurry of information released. So much new stuff has come out that I hardly know where to begin.

But, in the spirit of what amounts to a "new beginning" I'm going to focus on the positives.

Although it's a tad late (only a few months!) there were several positives in the Worlds & Monsters book.

It's true. I really like everything they're doing with the cosmos in DnD.

Gone are the days of unwieldy planes tied to the "alignment wheel". No more bizarre rules and quirks that add nothing to the game session. Okay, the Astral plane was interesting but I always had a hard time picturing it in my head. A silvery ether that you will yourself to move through isn't exactly roleplay friendly. Certainly not to the extent of a haunted forest with it's crunch of dried leaves underfoot, or a musty tomb with cobwebs swaying on a mysterious breeze.

Then there are the planes with the "characters take x amount of damage every round unless they are protected by y" rules. Let's face it. If your character doesn't have that protection then going there is akin to a death trap. And if you do have the protection needed, then the rule becomes nothing but a minor annoyance.

So, I for one, welcome the arrival of the Feywilde and the Shadowfell and the Elemental Chaos. The remodeled Astral plane strikes me as much more accessable and easier to picture. I'm not even bothered by the loss of the Blood War between the demons and devils, with both sides being seperated to neutral corners, so to speak.

On the monster side, I'm thrilled to see that alignment is being pushed into the background. While the idea of a lawful good red dragon is still a little alien to me, it's a change that I welcome.

Plane talking

After all of the teases in yesterday's blogs about the new cosmology, the latest Design & Development article was finally posted. And I like it.

As Griff just said to me, it's simpler and more intuitive. The Feywild reminds me of a series of novels from about 20 years ago, where some teens found a bridge between our world and a faerie land where the Tuatha De Denann traipsed. I can't for the life of me remember the names of the books, and Amazon wasn't much help. Perhaps I'll edit this post when I get home and find them.

When reading the description of the Feywild, it reminded me about the Shadow Plane, and how it mirrored things from the Material Plane, but not quite. And then the Shadowfell was next described, with more of a bent on the dead than just shadow.

The merge of the elemental planes makes things a little easier, cutting down on their number, as well as having a plane on which multiple types of environs can appear. And sticking the demons in this plane of chaos helps remove one of the Outer Planes that we're used to.

The Astral Sea leaves the good old astral plane around, a useful environment for any DM, and absorbs the rest of the Outer Planes, as well as providing a new home for the devils.

But a few things are missing. Where's the ethereal plane? Are we missing all of our ethereal spells? Is the Shadowfell also going to take the place of the Shadow Plane, for all of our darkness spells? Will it also provide the role of the Negative Energy Plane? Regardless, where's the Positive Energy Plane?

And perhaps most importantly: is this new cosmology going to leak over into the Forgotten Realms (and other settings)? Although I just talked about how much I enjoy the Forgotten Realms, I must admit that the names of the planes there never stuck with me, having been used to the "main" ones in the Dungeon Master's Guide. A nice compromise would be to stick all of the Realms planes inside the Astral Sea with the other Outer Planes ones.

The planes have been quite underutilized by me as a DM, not because of a lack of desire, but because the Material Plane can be such a good source of adventure that I forget to expand my scope until I need some heavyweight challenges. The Feywild sounds like it might be a good place where lower-level characters can adventure without having to be decked out with specialized equipment just to survive the weather, not to mention the denizens, of a foreign plane.