Signs of the beginning of the end for 4E.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 2:25 am

I haven't been able to log in for years, and I got the suspended for inactivity thing.

Then I also got the sorry it was a mistake, but not that it was a mistake because I had logged in (A) I haven't, B) my apology was a different wording than someone else who got the "you are an active member")

So basically, it just means, "Hey, remember us! Yeah, accounts still open no matter how long you take! Come by any time! Please!"

The ironic part being that the account isn't fucking open because I have to authenticate the account after the forum switch, but my password is incorrect, but they can't tell me what my actual password is until I authenticate the account to their new forum.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:01 am

ggroy wrote:Perhaps this time around, the 4E GSL "fiasco" was completely deliberate. This was WotC's preemptive strike at preventing a total flood of crappy splatbooks onto the market this time around.

Have you looked at their splatbooks though? Every single one is crappy. I would buy a fucking Mongoose book over theirs, and Mongoose released a PrCl book that surrounded the frigging Scion* with a million and one prestige classes no-one will ever take.

I wonder how many of those 3.5E races books actually sold in the first place.

Sad to say, I actually bought Races of Fanboy/Dragon Cock? I Walk back in the day. I had the money to burn and wanted more stuff for Sorcerers.

*Cleric 7 or Druid 7 needed to qualify. d8 HD, 2+Int, all good saves, Medium BAB, full caster progression, so already it's "Why not?" if you're a Cleric. Level 1 you can 1/day tell someone what they roll on their d20 (yes, "You fail your save vs death" is legit) and get access to all of your god's domains. Later on you get Spontaneous Domain (all) Casting (see: suck it, Sorcerers, I get more spells to Spont. cast), a stat boost, changing to look like your god (including changing your base race if need be), and of course the level 10 ability: gain the half Celestial or half Fiend template for free. It has the drawback of "once you take one level in this, you can't leave it until you take the full 10 levels." Remind me why you would ever want to do that anyway.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:29 am

I got an inactivity e-mail. I have been suspended for six years.

-Username17

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:44 am

Got the mail as well. Never managed to log on since they started that "Gleemax" stuff.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:29 am

Same here.

"We'd love to invite you back to see how vibrant the Wizards of the Coast community is. If you play any of our games, or just like to talk about them, there is no better place than our forums."

Hahaha oh wow. Ah, WotC, always with the funny.

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:08 pm

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:45 pm

I bought Dragon Magic and Draconomicon, too. Full price. All because I thought I could make a Sorcerer as good as a Wizard with them.

I couldn't. But we all know that.

I also bought Weeaboo Fightan Magic, Magic of Blue and Tome of Magic, all pretty much for the hell of it.

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 2:49 pm

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:13 pm

ggroy wrote:A year ago I went scavenging through the bargain bins at several FLGS, where most of the unsaleable stuff remaining from the d20 glut was largely crap. I thought all those 3E/3.5E splatbooks (both WotC and 3pp) which only covered stuff like feats, prestige classes, spells, powers, classes, monsters, races, etc ... whether new stuff or old stuff re-imagined, were largely a waste of paper and money. The worst culprits were all those books on drow, elves, new monsters, gods + pantheons, etc ...

So in other words, you are opposed to rules being written in books?

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:21 pm

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:24 pm

Koumei wrote:*Cleric 7 or Druid 7 needed to qualify. d8 HD, 2+Int, all good saves, Medium BAB, full caster progression, so already it's "Why not?" if you're a Cleric. Level 1 you can 1/day tell someone what they roll on their d20 (yes, "You fail your save vs death" is legit) and get access to all of your god's domains. Later on you get Spontaneous Domain (all) Casting (see: suck it, Sorcerers, I get more spells to Spont. cast), a stat boost, changing to look like your god (including changing your base race if need be), and of course the level 10 ability: gain the half Celestial or half Fiend template for free. It has the drawback of "once you take one level in this, you can't leave it until you take the full 10 levels." Remind me why you would ever want to do that anyway.

WTF book is this in, so I can show it to people and laugh at it?

And yes, I got the 'you will be removed due to inactivity' email as well. Didn't care at all.

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:01 pm

I as well, though I imagine everyone who ever had an account there did. For all the immaturity, they're still above RPG.net for actual threads worth looking it.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:16 pm

ggroy wrote:
Kaelik wrote:So in other words, you are opposed to rules being written in books?
Not specifically.

Another book with a bunch of new feats, prestige classes, etc .... didn't look very interesting to me. Most of the splatbooks with extra feats, prestige classes, etc ... looked like they were superfluous or outright boring.

Not specifically, just generally.

You don't like books that have:
feats
spells
classes
races
prestige classes
powers
(I assume also invocations and items)

That's about everything a player ever uses.

You also don't like books about Monsters.

That leaves traps, environment rules and fluff that DMs use.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you wouldn't buy a book with traps or environment rules either.

So yeah. Keep those rules out of my books! I want my books filled completely with filler text.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:50 pm

TOZ: "Ultimate Prestige Classes" by Mongoose. Didn't even know they were producing shit for 4E.

Kaelik: actually, a lot of books of "stuff for you to use" have been quite shit lately - this isn't a problem where rule-heavy splat books are bad (I would buy no other), but more a case of "They're running out of ideas, and it shows."

So I'd prefer a well-written campaign book (with nice pictures, a handful of useful world-specific races, feats and classes, maybe some new monsters for the DM to use, one or two statted NPCs if really necessary. Oh, and maps of important places with a few notes on "Have the PCs run into such-and-such style enemies here, specifics depending on their level" and soon) to, say, Races of Rabbit Fucking.

But I'd prefer It's Hot Outside or Complete Arcane to either.

Actually, I thought Draconomicon was good for pretty pictures, and I agree that the ready-to-use dragons are really handy. And reading up on some of them was most entertaining. Calamari Cookbook was also a good read, generally, again with nice art, even if it didn't have as much to offer the player.

Still, it had feats (including another +6 to the Grapple Checks of your Elf Wizard), prestige classes (one of them even looks awesome, despite not being that useful in play and a cock-up in prerequisite writing meaning you have to be high level to take it), monsters, grafts (magic items the DM can't sunder/disjoin!), spells and so on.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:59 pm

Koumei wrote:Kaelik: actually, a lot of books of "stuff for you to use" have been quite shit lately - this isn't a problem where rule-heavy splat books are bad (I would buy no other), but more a case of "They're running out of ideas, and it shows."

I agree that they haven't had as much good stuff lately.

But the guy said basically that every 3.5 book with rules in it was shit, and the campaign setting looked good, till he discovered it had a bunch of rules.

I mean, yes, he's obviously a 2e grognard, but that still doesn't explain how he can find FR campain setting mostly crap, and Complete Arcane all crap. That's only explained by hating rules in books.

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:19 pm

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:25 pm

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:29 pm

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:31 pm

If you like crunch-free books, that's a-okay. I don't like them much at all (though I do admit having an creepy fondness towards the Stronghold Builder's Guide and Enemies and Allies.

Regardless, what's your opinion on the 4E FR/Eberron Campaign Guides? They're pretty much crunch-free, except for monsters and knowledge checks to know stuff.

By the way, what's the bare minimum a boxed set needs to have in order to be a worthy 'box set'?

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:45 pm

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:57 pm

Sorry, that was ambiguous.

I mean, what is the minimum amount of materials/feelies something needs to have before it can be called a boxed set?

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:13 pm

ggroy · Post by **ggroy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:57 pm