4e Books That Should Have Been

cyvaris wrote:

I would have liked a full book of Utility powers...and a change to Utility powers in general. I love the idea of Utility Powers but in practice, I find myself taking ones that are combat oriented. My current Warlock (Order Adept Theme) took Shield, Caiphon's Leap, and Life Siphon. All of these are immediate interrupts that make combat easier and, while cool, man I wish I could take Utility powers without worrying about them helping combat.

Take the "skill" powers idea and just GIVE each class like four for free. Most of them aren't that game changing and actually make Skills far more interesting then what we currently have.

This would have been fairly cool as well. I liked utilities too. They gave each class non-damaging things they could do which was awesome. Though I really feel like more of them should have been for outside combat use. I really got tired of the overused shifting utilities, and immediate interrupts that add to AC.

Felorn Gloryaxe wrote:

cyvaris wrote:

I would have liked a full book of Utility powers...and a change to Utility powers in general. I love the idea of Utility Powers but in practice, I find myself taking ones that are combat oriented. My current Warlock (Order Adept Theme) took Shield, Caiphon's Leap, and Life Siphon. All of these are immediate interrupts that make combat easier and, while cool, man I wish I could take Utility powers without worrying about them helping combat.

Take the "skill" powers idea and just GIVE each class like four for free. Most of them aren't that game changing and actually make Skills far more interesting then what we currently have.

This would have been fairly cool as well. I liked utilities too. They gave each class non-damaging things they could do which was awesome. Though I really feel like more of them should have been for outside combat use. I really got tired of the overused shifting utilities, and immediate interrupts that add to AC.

Exactly my issue with most Utilities. You can't take the non-combat ones since the combat ones are just so good. Giving each class a handful of Utilities for free on top of other powers adds complexity, but gives that out of combat "oomph" a lot of people say 4e is missing.

I would have love to have seen a DM Guide that shows you how to write your own player themes, templates, and class builds as well as variations that you could do with that. They showed you so much with the other DM tools (Skill Challenges, custom monsters, ect) that it seemed to have been left out. Also a expanded guide to the nature of Magic in 4E and a expanded ritual book with more flavor. Also guides to create your own magic rituals to keep the power balance.

The above comments  brings me back to wanting a DMG3 so badly...Not only do discuss epic level DMing in more detail, but info on making up your own themes, powers, builds, rituals, classes, utilities, etc. while keeping balance intact. You know, a DMG3 that totally pulls back the curtain on all of that stuff.

WotC could have easily gotten 160-200 pages out of all that coolness. Oh well, I guess people like us have to do it piece by piece and share it in forums like this one.

PS: a little advice for different gaming group sizes, and alternate ways of DMing would have been a nice chapter too. For example, I DM 3 people. It took more trial and error than you'd think to get encounter balance down. A few times, I've even just DMed one person...That's actually easier than 3. Don't use solos at all, elites are 'solos', regulars are elites, and 2-3 minions = 1 'regular'.

Another way of DMing we've tried was rotational DMing. It wound up being really fun. Everyone makes a PC, and everyone DMs in 2-3 session chunks, rotating clockwise around our table. When it's your turn to DM, your PC becomes and NPC; and takes a backseat to the party's decision-making. Also, when you DM you make up a bit of the story, kind of like that game 'Exquisite Corpse' that some Surrealist artists used to play. (If you haven't heard of that, it's basically like this: you fold a sheet of paper into sections = to the number of people playing. Each person draws in their section, but cannot see the other sections; aside from a few tiny lines or whatever that hit the folds. Then, you unfold it and enjoy the weirdness you've group-created.)

I agree there needed to be a DMG (the DMG 3) with more rules on building various game elements and actually making epic tier interesting. I feel like epic tier was always way underwhelming, at least in the games I played in (I've never DMed Epic).

Youtube has a channel called PHDnD. They have a series called Moving 4th, where they talk about different elements of 4E, one of which is Epic level play. They have some interesting pointers and examples if you or your DM are looking for ideas. Also, Sly Flourish is a good place to check out ideas.

If you check out this thread: https://4enclave.forumotion.com/t13-may-4th-live-on You will see one of the main inspirations for this site. PhDnD has an account on here too but he told me he is rarely active on forums.

Very nice! Means I'm chatting with the right people.

You are certainly amongst the right people. 4e is a IMO one of the best RP systems. I certainly still needs some tweaking/support, but with CBloader and some dedication....that can be fixed. That's sort of the direction I hope 4e takes now. Lots of fans making mechanically balanced things to fix out the issues Wizards ignored.