Dungeon Master's Guide II
-It will include advice for DMs, Source
-It will have a focus on paragon level adventuring, Source
-It will have encounter building tools in it, Source
-It will detail Sigil, Source
-DMGII will extend DMGI mechanics such as monster creation, Source
-Most chapters from DMG1 will have a follow up chapter, Source
-More artifacts, Source
If an Unearthed Arcana book is likely, how soon do you expect to see it? Of course, I'd also be interested in what kind of subjects you'd like to see a 4e UA cover.
Meh. I'm looking at my 1st ed UA here, and it's a very mixed grab-bag of stuff. The way WotC are publishing stuff now, this kind of disparate content would not be smooshed together in one book.
Some of it will hopefully never be published again. "Appendix T: The Nomenclature of Pole Arms" is 6 pages of pure WTF.
Meh. I'm looking at my 1st ed UA here, and it's a very mixed grab-bag of stuff. The way WotC are publishing stuff now, this kind of disparate content would not be smooshed together in one book.
Some of it will hopefully never be published again. "Appendix T: The Nomenclature of Pole Arms" is 6 pages of pure WTF.
I am in agreement with you there, there is a bunch in that book that is iffy at best. However, what I will say is that it came out well after the game had been established. With the new model of distribution (4 PHs, 4 DMGs, etc), if we do ever get a 4E UA, I would not expect to see it for quite some time, and definitely not until all the original power sources are out.
Meh. I'm looking at my 1st ed UA here, and it's a very mixed grab-bag of stuff. The way WotC are publishing stuff now, this kind of disparate content would not be smooshed together in one book.
Some of it will hopefully never be published again. "Appendix T: The Nomenclature of Pole Arms" is 6 pages of pure WTF.
I haven't seen the 1st edition UA, but I wouldn't expect that there would be much in that could be useful in 4e. I was thinking of a book more along the lines of 3e UA.
I am in agreement with you there, there is a bunch in that book that is iffy at best. However, what I will say is that it came out well after the game had been established. With the new model of distribution (4 PHs, 4 DMGs, etc), if we do ever get a 4E UA, I would not expect to see it for quite some time, and definitely not until all the original power sources are out.
While it's dissapointing for me, you're likely correct that a UA style book isn't going to be out before 2012 at the earliest. I wish it weren't so, because as it stands I'll have to spend countless hours to modify the current ruleset in order to play the game in the way I want to. For example, here's a shortlist of what I'd like to see in a UA style sourcebook:
- A wound track system
- alternate progression rules to replace the chart on PHB 29 so that each power source can be more unique
- a way to reintroduce skill ranks
- rules to allow combat manuevers like disarm and trip universally so that any character can attempt those actions without resorting to pg 42
- the 9 point alignment system with unaligned as an option
- a way to allow multiclassing that isn't as limited as the current options
- healing potions that don't use healing surges
Short of a 4e Unearthed Arcana, can anyone see optional rules like these being introduced in any other book?
For example, here's a shortlist of what I'd like to see in a UA style sourcebook:
- A wound track system
- alternate progression rules to replace the chart on PHB 29 so that each power source can be more unique
- a way to reintroduce skill ranks
- rules to allow combat manuevers like disarm and trip universally so that any character can attempt those actions without resorting to pg 42
- the 9 point alignment system with unaligned as an option
- a way to allow multiclassing that isn't as limited as the current options
- healing potions that don't use healing surges
Short of a 4e Unearthed Arcana, can anyone see optional rules like these being introduced in any other book?
Here's my prediction:
Your points no 3, 4, 6 and 7 go directly against current design philosophies, and will thus never see the light of day in any supplement from WotC.
Point 5 is a harmless bit of fluff, but unlikely to see print. Why? Because it only takes as long to houserule as it takes to say it, and there's really nothing more to add after that.
Point 2 doesn't seem very likely to me, but I'm not saying it's totally impossible.
However, point 1 is the only one I really believe stands more than a snowball's chance in hell.
Here's my prediction:
Your points no 3, 4, 6 and 7 go directly against current design philosophies, and will thus never see the light of day in any supplement from WotC.
Point 5 is a harmless bit of fluff, but unlikely to see print. Why? Because it only takes as long to houserule as it takes to say it, and there's really nothing more to add after that.
Point 2 doesn't seem very likely to me, but I'm not saying it's totally impossible.
However, point 1 is the only one I really believe stands more than a snowball's chance in hell.
I would wager #2 will never see print either. It's an important part of the balance of the system, and ensures there are no dead levels.
I doubt we will ever see anything remotely like 3rd's Unearthed Arcana (aka 'the big book of house rules'). It worked (vaguely ...) in 3rd because the edition was big on subsystems, 4th not so much. Hurray for unified mechanics.
1 would be actually kind of a sad excuse though. Since to make the wound system (if you're refering to shadowrun/nWoD style) would require an extensive amount of changes. Either that or it would be an abstract system of the abstract system already in place.
As to 3, I don't think it would be too hard to put into place for those that are really attached to it. Frankly I prefer being able to alot time to level up during a session (instead of requiring it to be done between, or dedicate a session to it), so its not something I'd be interested in going back to. But to each their own.
I would wager #2 will never see print either. It's an important part of the balance of the system, and ensures there are no dead levels.
I doubt we will ever see anything remotely like 3rd's Unearthed Arcana (aka 'the big book of house rules'). It worked (vaguely ...) in 3rd because the edition was big on subsystems, 4th not so much. Hurray for unified mechanics.
Salla, I've seen enough of your opinions throughout the forums to know that we come from opposite ends of the spectrum. I don't want to turn this into a huge debate in this thread, but I see no reason a system with different development charts for each power source couldn't be balanced. I'll be happy to debate you in a different thread.
To the general nay-sayers, I just want to remind you that optional rules don't exist because everybody wants to use them. They exist for the individual, so that one persons game can be tweaked and play differently from other games. They eliminate personal problems with rulesets, not universal problems. That's the reason books like UA were so popular; nobody could've used all the rules in 3.5's UA, but a large portion of players had use for this rule or that.