4th Edition D&D announced

[The Minx]

Have teleport blocking spells be long lasting, affect a decent area, and be low level. Problem solved and teleport remains useful in most situations and for long distance travel.

Seconded. And for an encore, allow teleport blocking spells on the list of spells that can be made Permanent.

[Rogue 9]

Anticipate teleportation and particularly the greater version thereof do a pretty good job, especially if the teleporting mage doesn't know you're running it.

Wow, a spell that spell that gives wizards advanced warning.

Pretty much all you need. It also suspends the teleporters in the Astral for one or three rounds, depending upon the version of the spell, and the teleporters don't know they've been delayed. Meantime, the durations on their buffs tick down. The spells utterly fuck up most "teleport in and kill" schemes I've seen because they almost invariably use time stop to ensure the kill, and the caster doesn't know his duration's gone down. So he arrives, starts planting his delayed blast fireballs, and they all blow up in his face when the time stop ends three rounds earlier than he thought.

Also, it lasts a solid 24 hours, so if it isn't running all the time, the target is incompetent. The duration being what it is, it'd be trivially easy to make an item duplicating the effects as well.

[Cynical Cat]

Pretty much all you need. It also suspends the teleporters in the Astral for one or three rounds, depending upon the version of the spell, and the teleporters don't know they've been delayed. Meantime, the durations on their buffs tick down. The spells utterly fuck up most "teleport in and kill" schemes I've seen because they almost invariably use time stop to ensure the kill, and the caster doesn't know his duration's gone down. So he arrives, starts planting his delayed blast fireballs, and they all blow up in his face when the time stop ends three rounds earlier than he thought.

Also, it lasts a solid 24 hours, so if it isn't running all the time, the target is incompetent. The duration being what it is, it'd be trivially easy to make an item duplicating the effects as well.

It doesn't stop the "teleport into the warlord's bedroom at midnight and kill his sleeping ass" abuse. Three rounds is nothing on the buff durations of a wizard capable of casting teleport. If they've got access to timestop and delayed fireballs then we aren't talking about the kind of abuse mere ninth and tenth level characters can. You don't need to be very high level to abuse the fuck out of teleport, that just makes it worse.

And teleport blocking stops all of that. All you've proved is that the spell, which only works for wizards who cast it and leaves all nonspell casting classes fucked in that situation and any others, is an inferior solution.

[SirNitram]

More Realms info.

The game 'start year' offered is nearly a century after the Spellplague and the massive war in heaven. Ten years following the Year Of Blue Fire apparently had wild magic surges across the globe, with the variety of Bad Shit(tm) that comes with wild magic surges on a global scale.

Mythals and other powerful, persistant spell wards held back the surges, though such places got renewed attacks from the usual suspects, with added assaults by beings warped by the overload of magic and archmagi driven berserk by the power.

Geographical-scale changes include a massive chunk of the Shaar, once known as Landrise, turning into a miles-deep pit(I prefer ravines for my miles deep features, myself) when a chunk of the Underdark simply gave up the ghost and collapsed. Thay's outskirts have buckled up into foothills. Some regions even exist that could not have occoured without the Spellplague, and will harken those who read them back to the Avatar Trilogy(Not Saga. Saga implies Crucible is anything but toilet paper). Oh, if anyone really loved Chondath? ..Bad news. It's one of the largest sites of still-active surges.

For one of possibly a dozen reasons, the Sword Coast has come out (relatively) unscathed. Waterdeep is still a metropolis, now adapting to the near-continous refugee flow since the return of Shade. The main fallout within the city was a sudden reactivation of the Colossi for a few days before they powered back down. The Lords still rule, openly advised by The Blackstaff, heir to Khelben.

Baldur's Gate has actually become a size that justifies all the wierd crap in it. It stretches for miles in a patchwork of cultures and communities. Kinda like New York, but without the East River.

The Moonshae are contested territory between the locals and Amn.

The Empire Of Netheril, dubbed such when Sakkors, the Living City, rose from the depths, is continuing it's expansion. The Anauroch is continuing to terraform, shielded from the Plague by the fact it was a Dead Magic Zone to the normal Weave at the time. The nomadics of the desert are subjugated, and more interestingly, Sembia is now part of the Empire, providing much-needed monies and manpower. A powerful alliance of Evereska, Myth Drannor and Cormyr hold them from expanding.

Oh yea. Cormyr. Azoun V? Turned out to be a badass. Fought Netheril-backed Sembia to a standstill, smacked about the nobility until they got their stuff together, and granted wide ranging rights to the commonfolk. Foril, his son, now rules, and while he's neither uber-warrior nor law-giver equal to his dad, he's holding together a patchwork alliance against the Neth, no mean feat. Cormyr has expanded to hold back the tide, and it's Imperial holdings seem to be perfect for low level adventurers interested in upholding law and order.

Unther got it's ass-kicked. Not by deities-made-flesh(Again), but by portals the size of cities ripping open and vomitting out material. Aeries and castles of partially-draconic beings called Dragonborn(Not the Dragonborn of Bahamut; sadMartin) now dominate the region, and they have been establishing order via the sword.

That's all so far. I had wondered how they would deal with the large number of high magic wards; they simply laughed off the surges.

[Cynical Cat]

I notice the Zhentarim is conspicuously absent from the summary, as is the land connection between Sembia and the Anaoroch. I have the suspicion they took it in the neck.

And the Avatar series became garbage with Waterdeep, which is where I stopped.

[SirNitram]

I notice the Zhentarim is conspicuously absent from the summary, as is the land connection between Sembia and the Anaoroch. I have the suspicion they took it in the neck.

It's Zhentil Keep. How many times since FR got released did it get burned to the fucking ground?

[Cynical Cat]

It's Zhentil Keep. How many times since FR got released did it get burned to the fucking ground?

Only once that I can remember.

I'll miss the Zhentarim. They were a good bunch of bastards.

[Dark Silver]

well, at least Dragonlance isn't being changed by this....Dragonlance already went through the "no Gods of Magic" phase awhile back.

Let's all move to Krynn....it's a silly place, but better than everywhere else in the D&D-verse it seems...

[SirNitram]

well, at least Dragonlance isn't being changed by this....Dragonlance already went through the "no Gods of Magic" phase awhile back.

Let's all move to Krynn....it's a silly place, but better than everywhere else in the D&D-verse it seems...

*Eyes the Tinker Gnomes. Eyes the Kender.* No, no it's not.

[Cynical Cat]

I have to say on those two points alone, Nitram has totally destroyed your argument Dark Silver.

[Dark Silver]

We can always set up someplace away from the Gnomes....it's not like very many of them travel far outside of Mount Nevermind unless it's part of some lifequest.

As for the Kender.....

well.....

We could always just kill them as they come?

[Comrade Tortoise]

I am pissed off that all of the adventurer gnomes are basically being wiped out of existence. I have at least three who's species has been removed as a player race and thus are retconned out of existence

[SirNitram]

I can't feel bad about the loss of the gnomes. They were so blatantly groping and flailling around for some kind, any kind, of purpose, and the one that they tended to fall into (OOOO! ILLUSIONS!) felt so pointless. Why not make a race just for Necromancy, or just for buffing spells?

[LadyTevar]

Nitram and I went over this, and he asked me just what skills/classes made me think "Gnomes".

Illusionist was about the only thing that came to mind as Gnomish Alone. Thieves, yeah.. but you got Halflings for that. Tinkering and Inventing? Dwarves do it better. Being a fuckin' annoyance? Halflings and Kender.

So... what were Gnomes good for? (Other than a race the Kobolds hated above all others?)

[Comrade Tortoise]

Nitram and I went over this, and he asked me just what skills/classes made me think "Gnomes".

Illusionist was about the only thing that came to mind as Gnomish Alone. Thieves, yeah.. but you got Halflings for that. Tinkering and Inventing? Dwarves do it better. Being a fuckin' annoyance? Halflings and Kender.

So... what were Gnomes good for? (Other than a race the Kobolds hated above all others?)

RP. Seriously, why any other race choice? Granted, I dont like the 3/3.5 racial ability mods for them (why con and str when they were int and wis in 2nd edition?)

I LIKE playing gnomes. I like them because of the quirky personalities and jury rigging that is basically a part of the race. I like being able to talk to animals, and walk up and cast shocking grasp on someones testicles.

And more to the point, it should be MY FUCKING CHOICE. So what if there is no "purpose" for them, or they are the "least popular" they have been part of the frachise forever, and some players, including myself like playing them for no other reason than because they are fun. And to remove that option because they use different mechanics for PCs and Monsters is fucking bullshit

[SirNitram]

So play 3.5. Or homebrew up some gnomes. I don't care. Why should one expect them to keep it because it was there 'since the beginning'? Should we have kept 1e Bardic entrance? It was 'since the beginning'. Pure Vancian magic? Ugh. What a stupid rant.

[Cynical Cat]

Gnomes aren't gone. They're just in the Monster Manual, not the Player's Handbook. No characters have been retconned out of existence any more than Drizz't and his horde of clones vanished because drow haven't been in any version of the Player's Handbook. Get a grip.

The reason gnomes are getting the axe is because halflings and dwarves are eating up their niche in the "short people" section. Dwarves and halflings have both gotten more magical, both have been known to dwell underground, and one are known to be skilled craftsmen and the other has trickster associations.

I have no doubt rules for them being used as player characters will either be included in the Monster Manual or be up in a web extra soon after. If not, there will be a thousand home brew gnome stats up on the net to choose from or modify.

[Cynical Cat]

There's some new stuff up about the Realms at Enworld, interviews with some of the people working on it. Some highlights:

1) The Zhentarim still exists.

2) Szass Tam survives

3) Some surviving Halruaans work as mercenaries from a floating citadel and have a few surviving airships.

[Rogue 9]

And also, Rich Baker is of the opinion that the current Realms' diversity is a flaw, saying that it's a problem that what makes it unique cannot be summed up in a sentence. I wonder how much of a shitstorm will result from my post calling that out for being the lazy thinking that it is.

[SirNitram]

And also, Rich Baker is of the opinion that the current Realms' diversity is a flaw, saying that it's a problem that what makes it unique cannot be summed up in a sentence. I wonder how much of a shitstorm will result from my post calling that out for being the lazy thinking that it is.

Did he actually phrase it like that, or was it more that the Realms suffers from 'Everything we can possibly cram in there, and a few kitchen sinks' syndrome?

[Cynical Cat]

I browsed through th Races & Classes preview book yesterday. Didn't buy it, the price was a bit steep for preview fluff even though the art was gorgeous.

Some things I picked up:

1) The horde of elven subraces have been reclassified as eldarin (magicky and otherworldly elves), elves (forest elves), and drow. The various elf races in the settings are eliminated, but the game designers didn't think they needed a separate race heading for each and every single elf variation while humans in all their glorious diversity have one set of rules. So game mechanic wise they've been condensed into the arch-types.

2) All the elven peoples are now fey.

3)ECL is going the way of the dodo. I've seen this other places, but its in here as well. Drow are specifically mentioned as an example, gaining their badass drow abilities as they level. The implication is, of course, that other races gain equally cool special abilities. Its already been mentioned that humans get another second wind (presumably at low or even 1st level), which is a pretty potent recovery mechanic in the Star Wars Saga Edition.

4) Wizards won't need to spend feats on item creation. Their magic is now divided into the following:

rituals: time consuming stuff like identify

spells: at will stuff

invocations: the 1/day high powered cool shit

power words: the 1/encounter stuff

5) Warlocks are thematically redefined as being transactional arcane practitioners, that is they get their powers from striking a deal with some (not necessary malevolent) entity. This distinguishes them from wizards who develop their magic from scholarship and sorcerers who are born with it. It also nicely contrasts with priests and paladins being granted abilities by the beings they devoutely serve.

6) Nice dragonborn paladin art. Very non-traditional look (red and black armour, blade shapes and edges) but still with a noble paladin feel.

7) Mentioned under rogue sneak attack: almost everything can be sneak attacked. As a general rule they're moving away from immunities and towards resistances, especially immunities to core class abilities so that all classes will be able to perform well in encounters and no one's character will be sidelined. Hopefully this includes golem magic immunity, especially since one of the traditional mage ways of dealing with this (summon something big and nasty to throw down with it) is getting beaten removed (I'm for that too. Insta-cast summons are lame).

[Rogue 9]

Actually, what mages in my parties usually do to deal with golems is the humble grease spell. Though I think the monster designers did wise up; a golem we fought a couple sessions ago actually had ranks in Balance straight out of the book. (Force golem; it was in either the fourth or fifth Monster Manual.)

[Comrade Tortoise]

Actually, what mages in my parties usually do to deal with golems is the humble grease spell. Though I think the monster designers did wise up; a golem we fought a couple sessions ago actually had ranks in Balance straight out of the book. (Force golem; it was in either the fourth or fifth Monster Manual.)

I would usually deal with them using secondary effects. Telekinetically tossed objects for example

[Cynical Cat]

Too many of them were in empty room and smooth, narrow corridors where we had to get passed.

Except for the sickstone golem, but we didn't fight it.

[frigidmagi]

I would usually deal with them using secondary effects. Telekinetically tossed objects for example

I would just like to point out that this man I have qouted right here? Is a Grease Spell Whore.