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D&D 4e Character Sheets Released

Category: d20 | News
By aeon | Sat, 2008-03-01 06:46
Character sheets for the forthcoming D&D 4th edition have apparently been leaked online, according to a front-page story on Wired.com (although this would seem to be more of a release, as Morbus points out in the comments below). The big question: what are healing surges?

Wired.com story

Leaked Character sheets

Your thoughts?

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Submitted by aeon on Sat, 2008-03-01 06:50.

My first reaction: Damn, that looks like an old school Basic D&D sheet.

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Submitted by Morbus Iff on Sat, 2008-03-01 12:36.

Erm, note that "leaked" is the wrong term. WotC wants and encourages people to do this during the D&D Experience. I've been following all the blogs, forums, and liveblogs. There's no clandestine operations here. Everything people see at D&D Experience is fully shareable. As for healing surges, based on what I've read: you get, say, 11 healing surges a day. You will always get 11 healing surges a day regardless of your level. The only thing that changes with your level is how much the surge does - at first level, a healing surge may heal 8 points. To quote from a liveblogger: "Extended rest is 6 hours, fully heals you, regain all healing surges, get daily powers back, and action points are reset to 1. Healing wind- once per encounter, can take a standard action to gain second wind. Gives you hit points equal to Healing Surge value and +2 to all defenses until the start of your next turn. Then lose one healing surge." Also of interest, besides these character sheets (which Wizards has yet to officially provide) is that Rules Primer available at the show (which Wizards HAS put up). They talk about healing surges in #5.

I'm still excited about D&D 4E (says he who launched Gamegrene at the same time that 3E was released, and then rarely played it).

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Submitted by Morbus Iff on Sat, 2008-03-01 13:04.

WotC just released the sheets: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/ExperienceCharacters.zip

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Submitted by aeon on Sat, 2008-03-01 17:16.

As more information is made available my overall impression of the game grows more positive. However, my feeling that 4e is less of a true RPG than it was before also grows stronger. It'll be a great tactical adventure fantasy boardgame, but a poor RPG engine, unless you're using the most broad definition of "role-playing".

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Submitted by Morbus Iff on Sat, 2008-03-01 18:28.

I want to say more but, due to lack of time, I'll summarize to: a) I've never found an role-playing rules system I like (probably because I find myself having trouble following the conventional rules of the greatest RPG ever, being Life) and b) The GM and the players are responsible for role-playing, not the rules, and c) Eh. yeah, they're pushing the combat of the system to use their damn miniatures, but the other areas they're focussing on (primarily: more things to do, more MMORPGish powers, etc.) seem to me to be the right direction. I know I, for one, will probably be quite interested in getting a Gamegrene D&D Game Table group going. Not with me as DM (I haven't DM in, Jesus, 15 years now?), but definitely as a player.

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Submitted by Lorthyne on Tue, 2008-03-04 02:00.

Let's see, a simpler, more condensed character sheet. Me likey.

D&D has never really been a system that promotes role-playing, but it has never truly prevented it either. I'll be the first to admit that the best experiences I've had while playing D&D were moments when the ruleset wasn't being used at all. 3.5 is a good system, if a little clunky.

I really like that they're streamlining the rules so that combat is both easier and faster to run. Combat can really bog down in 3.5, and I'm happy to see that they're at least trying to fix that.

I'd love the idea of a Gamegrene D&D Game Table. Count me in.

A new link:
A review of 4E from a un-WotC-affliated playtester. What he has to say really excites me, except for the little weirdness that appears to be Epic play:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35776

and

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35799

and

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35811

"So, back to this whole 'evolution of role-playing games'. See, role-playing games used to be a fish. A stinky fish. And then it crawled out of the primordial ooze that was Gary Gygax's beard. And then it became modern gaming."
-Chad, from the Fear The Boot

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Submitted by zipdrive on Mon, 2008-03-10 11:59.

My feelings echo some of the things said here already.
While I like the move toward simplified, streamlined rules (such as combat), I dislike that this feels more and more like a MMOG (with or without RP in the middle).
The fact that 6 hours of rest heals all of your wounds.
The fact that characters have no reason to use normal attacks (they have at-will powers which are plain better).
The fact that in all the WotC articles I've read, the fact that combats are now more streamlined and quick is used to enable more complicated combats, and not to reduce the amount of combat in a session.
The fact that the game is now more class-based than ever.

Why?

Yeah, and the accentuated miniature slant.

As I posted on the official forums. The new rules might make it a much better game, but it will also feel much more like a game and much less like "heroic fantasy simulation".

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Submitted by Tzuriel on Mon, 2008-03-10 22:42.

I agree with a lot of what you've got to say, zip. I really do worry about the mmorpging of dnd. First, I really hate WoW, and most other online games like that. But one of my main complaints with dnd 3.5 was the blatant lack of rules. By this I mean rules for the world. A world needs to have rules set in (a.k.a. laws of physics cannot be broken, or this particular law of physics cannot be broken, etc.) that help define it. Typical dnd had no rules. No where was this more evident than in the rules for healing and hp. So here they make it even worse. It sounds cool in some ways, but in others, I really don't like it. I especially hate the 6 hours of rest thing. I'm excited for cooler classes, but there's a lot of things to fear here, too. For this reason, I still have 15 gigs of 3.5 on my comp, and it'll prolly stay there for a good long while.

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Submitted by Gazgurk on Wed, 2008-05-07 00:07.

What a complete load of crap

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Submitted by Gazgurk on Sun, 2008-05-11 18:18.

Wait, My new favourite brand of toilet paper!

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you notice a well hidden secret message! +50 experience points. yeah, I know.