Running Conan D&D 4E

emirikol

Mongoose
I was just reading up on some 4E indicators and I see that they are commenting that there will be 4 magic-less core classes:
Fighter
Rogue
Ranger
Warlord

Since I like to use the D&D rules (no offense to you CRPG players..your system's fine), I'm encouraged that we will have more options.

Of course we may still wish to have a "movie"/scholar type class or dabblers in magic..but it depends on our next campaign. We've been through full campaigns in the following areas:
* Brythunia-Turan-Zamora
* Aquilonia-Zingara-Pictland
* Shem-Stygia-Turan-Kush
* Nordheim (current)

I'm thinking Khitai/Hyrkania/Kusan for my next one. Should give lots of fantasy options ;)


jh



"http://www.enworld.org/
Mike Mearls hints here that the Ranger [and the Warlord] will be magic-free, and comments on the ability of the 4E rules system to accomodate classless D&D. Thanks to pukunui and TerraDave for the scoop!

One of the nice things about the roles is that they let you play around with power sources without messing up the basic structure of the game. You can totally do a no magic game with the PH by sticking to the fighter, rogue, warlord, and ranger. You wouldn't have a controller, but it is possible to create a martial one.

You can also roll things back another step and do some crazy stuff with the structure of the classes. Since many of the elements of character progression are unified, you could run classless D&D by allowing players to select maneuvers and spells from any class they want, mingling the two together, or start everyone with access to all heroic abilities and grant access to divine and arcane via feats.

The really nice thing is that this structure allows you to better depict many classic D&D settings and fantasy worlds. You can run pre-War of the Lance adventures in Dragonlance without clerics. You could run Conan with just the heroic classes for PCs and NPC spellcasters as villains and allies.

The one stumbling block is that the game expects fighters to wear heavy armor, but you could get around that by building a simple house rule (a fighter in light armor gets a flat bonus to AC to make up the gap)."
 
It seems that every class will have an abstract "role". It seems that magic-users fit the role of controllers. Yet another layer of complication. So much for those (like me) who thought they would have produced a simple(r) game :roll:
[goes to read WFRP2e]
 
It is a reference to Massively Multiplayer Online games like World of Warcraft. The various classes are divided into various roles: Healer, Tank, DPS, Controller etc. Essentailly the core roles are Tank (who absorbs damage and protects teammates), Healer (who heals the tank... and anyone else who needs it), DPS (Damage Per Second; the role that actually hands out the damage to the foe) and Controller (who controls the fight: Makes sure that enemies the team are not currently fighting are suppressed, ensures that fleeing enemies don't get away and otherwise stacks the battle field in the PC's favour). There are other roles as well (eg "Buffer" who enhances the party).

Of course, most classes can operate in different roles (these days) but generally they have one or two they specialise in. Usually tanks and DPS are specialists, but most others are hybrids. Very few games have a class that can do nothing but heal, for example.

It seems the 4e is attempting to be more accessible to the MMORPG demographic.
 
emirikol said:
What's a "controller" in 4E?

I liked your response Vincent. :lol:

Not sure either, but I have one for my XBOX 360 and PLAYSTATION 2.

What are the odds they will totally screw up D&D with 4E 10,000 to 1

That is my opinion.
 
kintire said:
It is a reference to Massively Multiplayer Online games like World of Warcraft. The various classes are divided into various roles: Healer, Tank, DPS, Controller etc. Essentailly the core roles are Tank (who absorbs damage and protects teammates), Healer (who heals the tank... and anyone else who needs it), DPS (Damage Per Second; the role that actually hands out the damage to the foe) and Controller (who controls the fight: Makes sure that enemies the team are not currently fighting are suppressed, ensures that fleeing enemies don't get away and otherwise stacks the battle field in the PC's favour). There are other roles as well (eg "Buffer" who enhances the party).

Of course, most classes can operate in different roles (these days) but generally they have one or two they specialise in. Usually tanks and DPS are specialists, but most others are hybrids. Very few games have a class that can do nothing but heal, for example.

It seems the 4e is attempting to be more accessible to the MMORPG demographic.

Just great - now I can play MMORRPs on the dinner table with rolling dice, pretending that I am playing a real rpg.
Excuse me, gotta throw up ...
 
I play WoW and im in the "young" age bracket at 22 but i find playing comp games actually reinforces my like of pen&paper rpg's. the comp games are great for playing with friends who live quite a long distance away or just for getting on and killing a bunch of (fill in the blank) monsters but for actual immersion and real fun i find nothing beats the table top with your friends.

To tell the truth ive seen alot that looks good with d&d4, what with the 'heroic' and 'epic' levels being the built in equivalents of prestige classes to the base classes and the announcement that they will be including a social conflict resolution system in the game. BUT. That has all been utterly undermined by the mmo tainted usage of 'roles' for the classes.
 
Back
Top