This is perhaps more of Lauri’s department, but I’m going there.
Monthly Archives: September 2014
Khans of Tarkir Event Deck Review
As usual, I bought the event deck and took it out for a spin.
D&D fifth edition. On characters and design choices
At the point where I am writing this the Dungeon Master’s Guide is not out yet, so this is really too early to form a cohesive opinion about it. My comments will be all over the place; because there is so much that I know that will fit into place only in larger context, and when the game has seen at least a year of usage.
Let’s start with the races. There are all the Tolkienesque races first and after a brief disclaimer the rarer races are introduced. Familiar from D&D4, none of the races get any minuses for their abilities, only bonuses. I like this approach better, as I firmly believe that not handing out bonuses is penalty enough in itself. Dwarves are good fighty types, as much is to be expected. But Mountain dwarf armor training bonus does not mesh with powergaming aspect at all. Same can be said of the half-orc/barbarian combo. Half-orc already has bonuses that a barbarian will get later on, so powergamers won’t get to squeeze all the juice out of it. Wood elves and lightfoot halflings are naturally sneaky and they have Dexterity bonuses as well, so it is a good idea to put them in sneaky classes. There’s no powergaming un-synergy going on in those latter cases. Why? Because fuck you, that’s why!
There’s much unbalance going on here, and it is a good thing in my book! D&D4 tried really hard to be mathematically balanced (without a 100% success, I might add), and ended up being a somewhat bland numbers-crunching game. It is a very good game though, just not for me.
Briefly about the classes. Much has changed, but special mentions go to:
- Barbarian. Despite from what is written in the book, the barbarian does not need a high Constitution (at least from where I am looking at things at the moment). They already have the biggest hit die, and proficiency in Constitution saves. Why put a third bonus into the same basket? They get some class features that would enable the barbarian being an unarmored type, but they also get the a similar benefit from using a medium armor. Why? Because fuck you, that’s why!
- Fighter. Does not need a high Dexterity. This has been true from the days of D&D3, but now it is even more pronounced. They most probably use heavy armor, so they don’t get to add any Dexterity bonus to Armor Class.
- Sorcerer: Oh man I love this. Finally they have realized that sorcerers are all about metamagic! D&D 3.x actually hindered sorcerer’s metamagic usage, and I have no idea what 4e did for them, as I stopped following the line before sorcerer was published.
Right. Onto spells. They have condensed and streamlined whole spell “chains”. Some of the spells are really unbalanced. These unbalances are by design choice. For example, a high level druid could create a whole forest of loyal awakened trees to serve him, without any kind of limiting factor. Why? Because Fuck you, that’s why!
It is as if the design team would have had an epiphany that it is not their problem what goes on in each individual gaming table, it is the job of the dungeon masters to even things out. This is a real improvement to the viewpoint that both 3.x and 4e tried to convey. “We tell you how it is supposed to be played”.
That much said, I must say that I have never been a fan of high level play in D&D. With this edition, I probably wouldn’t go much higher than the 7th level. To conclude, I say that it is very well made, and I will definitely give it a spin someday. There are probably some kinks here and there, but nothing that a little good old fashioned GM work won’t smoothen out.
Khans of Tarkir Brews, pt. 8 – These Just Keep Coming
Not necessarily very good ones, but ideas, still.
Khans of Tarkir Brews, pt. 7
Last week, when I said I’m done… apparently I lied.
Card Spotlight: Cranial Archive
A seemingly weak card, but I do contend it might actually be very, very good… in the right deck.
Card Spotlight: Psychic Intrusion
I published over twenty lists for the new Standard in the last two weeks or so. One card that never made any of the lists, but was continuously in the back of my mind, is [scryfall]Psychic Intrusion[/scryfall].
My First Legacy Experience
A friend of mine offered to borrow me a deck if I wanted to try out Legacy, so I did. Went pretty well. 3-1. Better than I’ve done in Standard recently (although that’s in part because I’ve been mostly just using decks I haven’t thought of as good enough previously, but decided I wanted to try out anyway before the rotation).
Häme Medieval Faire
After a couple of years of trying I finally managed to make a short visit to Häme Medieval Faire (held at Hämeenlinna during last August). Since I have no recollection of visiting this event ever before (this might be false since I was born in Hämeenlinna) I had no expectations for the event. And it blew my mind.
Khans of Tarkir Brews – Just One More, Monowhite Midrange
I thought I would be done with six parts, but during lunch I couldn’t help, but think about this one.