Today's Legends & Lore is truly painful to read. And makes me sad.
*stream of profanity*
Some brief reactions:
Mearls wrote:Instead, let’s imagine a world that works like this. The core classes—and let’s continue to use the fighter as an example—look a lot like the classes from Basic D&D or AD&D. Our fighter’s attacks improve in accuracy, he gains more attacks, and his hit points steadily increase. That’s the basics of a D&D fighter.
Now, let’s imagine that a group wants more tactical options for the fighter. They want to incorporate 4E-style maneuvers. With the addition of that sub-system, the fighter becomes more powerful.
Firstly, that's hiding the assumption that 2[W]+Push 1 is somehow an upgrade from 3 attacks per 2 rounds. You totally can add maneuvers that do not increase DPR, Defenses, resistance or healing. You know stuff like Disarm, Trip, or increased movement - and while those sorts of maneuvers would add more power in the abstract, they keep things on the RNG to the point that it's well within the ranges of the level / CR system used in 3rd and 4th ed. ( The level vs whatever HD and # appearing system of prior editions is only worth mentioning for the sake of mockery in a discussion of game balance. )
Alternately, if you're making up houserules to give fighters extra maneuvers, you could also make up houserules where fighters traded some of their scaling HP or extra attacks from specialization for those manuevers and the abstract amount of power stayed the same.
Mearls wrote:If the group wants to keep the power level balanced between classes, each other class also gains access to a rules module that makes it more powerful
That is assuming that the power level was balanced between classes to begin with. As that's something that no group of 3 D&D players of any edition has ever been able to agree on it's a pretty fucking big assumption to try to sneak in there Mikey.
MEARLS wrote:
(wizards might get more spells, clerics gain access to domain abilities, rogues could get maneuvers like fighters or a trick or stunt system). The DM might pick out systems to add, or she might tell each player to choose a favorite optional rule for their characters. The characters have all gained, in the abstract, a similar amount of power. Let’s arbitrarily call that one unit of power.
Or you could call it "about +1 level due to houserules", or "add one, or two, or N additional same-level creature to encounters" - you know using the already existent power metrics for such things instead of making up new units that you don't bother to define.
Mearls wrote:The other type of modules serve to create a unique type of campaign. For instance, rules for sailing ships and commanding a crew are useful for a pirate campaign. They might even include a new type of ability that all characters can choose from. However, that rules module has a clear utility for a specific type of campaign; there’s an obvious use for a game inspired by The Odyssey or pirate movies. In contrast, a Dark Sun campaign or one that focuses on dungeon crawls doesn’t need such detailed rules.
SCREW YOU MEARLS!!!!
Seriously, this is the stupidest thing in your entire article. You have it totally backwards here. Dark Sun has fucking Sand Ships of pirates tooling around the desert in fantastic ways. and an area called the Sea of Silt. For a campaign using seagoing vessels I can jolly damn well just pull up Wikipedia's
Entry on naval warfare on any of the four devices around my gaming table for the past 3 years - and I can then wing it based on the real history. But for a campaign in a setting using crazy fantasy tropes that have never existed (and don't match up neatly to a body of fiction my play group is familiar with) I actually NEED rules for how those crazy setting-specific conveyances work and what PCs can and can't do with them - because without such rules, the entire group is totally clueless.
****************
So, in conclusion, the only hope for Super Turbo Championship Edition Hyper Fighting Alpha EX Plus XX #Reload is that Mearls is better at managing than he is at design and writing.
Given the current state of his
homepage and
blog, I despair at such being the case. Nobody cares enough to update his wikipedia entry links to things that work. And that is not a sign of a popular or respected manager in a geek-heavy industry.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
