Hung Over Review: Magic of Incarnum

[Maxus]

Pretty sure that's intentional. Facial hair and the haircut both, and that the spinemelds appear to be protruding through his skin.

Incarnum, though, is pretty much shonen anime. Mastering your spirit to make flashy effects happen through your own body? That's a convention of the genre.

Except WotC can't publish things like

"Azure Soul Sensor (Su): You can see living and undead creatures within 100 feet, despite intervening solid objects. If you take a full-round action to calm down and try to pay attention, this range extends to 1000'."

or

"Battle Aura: Your soul is bigger than your physical body and blazes forth in a colored aura based on your soul and personality (souls are blue), which lets your make melee attacks out to ten feet and your add your character level to melee damage" because that's too explicitly anime for most folks and doesn't give them the wordcount they need like spending three paragraphs talking about how obviously your crown chakra is the top of your head and your brow chakra is your forehead/face and how those are totally different and distinct things.

[Username17]

Chapter Eight: Incarnum Campaigns



Incarnum Campaigns is one of those trite oxymorons. Like “military intelligence” or “jumbo shrimp.” No one runs campaigns about Incarnum. No one is ever going to run campaigns about Incarnum. Everything you do with Incarnum is paid for with feats and class features, it's not even a source of asymmetric power gain like finding magic items on the ground. You have a book about glowing blue power and you assume that it would be the kind of thing murder hobos would stab each other in the face to drag it off in santa sacks. But it's really not. There are so many restrictions on how much incarnum people can use, that people wouldn't even pick incarnum off the ground if it was lying there in a pile.

The chapter itself is divided into three sections: Incarnum Campaign Arcs, Incarnum Locations, and The Pentifex Order. Yeah, there's a whole section at the end of chapter 8 dedicated to explaining what the fuck was supposed to be going on in the flash fiction at the start of the book. You already don't care, but I'm not going to jump out of order just for that. There are three campaign arcs, two incarnum locations, and one Pentifex Order.

Each of the campaign arcs is basically a campaign pitch. It's not a fully leveled campaign arc like the ones in the DMG2, it's just a one-page sketch of an idea. The ideas are essentially: Incarnum is new, Incarnum is old but secret, and Incarnum is old but geographically isolated. There really isn't any particular information given beyond that, you could fit all of these ideas into a single paragraph. It wouldn't even have to be a long paragraph. This gets extended into four pages by being really padded. Not as ridiculously padded as the prestige classes in this fucking book, but ridiculous nonetheless. How padded you ask?

Imagine that incarnum has always been a part of your world, but its mysteries are hidden away in dusty tomes buried in ancient libraries, awaiting discovery by a group of explorers or treasure seekers. Incarnum occasionally makes its presence known, but few possess the understanding required to distinguish an incarnum wraith from a more mundane wraith or to differentiate the lost from the simply mad or possessed.

Alternately: imagine that someone had bothered to actually write up some backstory that anyone gave a shit about.

The Incarnum Locations are... well... there's really just the one Incarnum Location, and it's the Bastion of Souls. Not quite exactly the Bastion of Unborn Souls or the Bastion of Broken Souls, it's just called the “Bastion of Souls” now. The other “location” is just a heading for “incarnum terrain” and it is filled with crap like pools of water that you can spend a standard action drinking from to get one Essentia point that only lasts for one round. Or giant stone circles that give Incarnum users a +1 bonus to attack rolls while standing in them. I'm sure there's some use for that crap, but I actually don't even care what it is.

The Bastion of Souls has been significantly powered down. No longer even attempting to cater to the needs of near epic characters, now it's a CR 9 Planar touchstone that allows you to spend a feat on a slightly weird incarnum feat. When you get there, you face 2d4 Xag-Yas or something. But i'm not sure “face” is really the right term, because most characters could just walk past most of the positive energy monsters on the list. It's not much of a threat, it doesn't even normally want to kill you. But its primary effect is actually just kind of annoying – you get to have one extra soulmeld for one day, and you have to go back to the Bastion to reactivate it. And you have to pay a feat for that. This book doesn't bother telling you what happens if you eat the preincarnate souls (oh noes! Where will I get my goodberries!?), and the requirement to have an artifact to get in has been waived. Now it's just a big unbreakable crystalline structure that doesn't really do anything.


This guy doesn't have anything to do with the book except how I felt while reading it.

The Pentifex Order is an example organization dedicated to policing incarnum “with potential appeal to characters of any race, class, and even alignment.” I would rate that potential as “extremely slight.” No one fucking cares about these guys. They spend their time fighting the lost and necrocarnum zombies. The major advantage of joining the order is that they can turn your steel equipment orange. This has no mechanical benefit, it just isn't steel colored anymore. Other than that, people in the order will tell you where incarnum monsters are, if for some reason you want to fight some of them, which you don't. So that's pretty much that.

Next up: Appendices and wrap up!

[Starmaker]

The ingeniously named Incarnum dragon wouldn't show up for me, and I looked it up at the WotC image gallery. And what do you know, the asshole from Ch.2 is labeled "soulborn" (so, proficient with swords) and the chick with a baby rattle is an incarnate. So, someone spent nonzero effort to get it assbackwards during whatever "editing" this book underwent.

[Username17]

The ingeniously named Incarnum dragon wouldn't show up for me, and I looked it up at the WotC image gallery. And what do you know, the asshole from Ch.2 is labeled "soulborn" (so, proficient with swords) and the chick with a baby rattle is an incarnate. So, someone spent nonzero effort to get it assbackwards during whatever "editing" this book underwent.

Hopefully, the issue with the Incarnum Dragon should be fixed now.

The think with the Incarnate and the Soulborn is actually way more complicated than that. Zenya, the iconic Soulborn has a giant baby rattle, but she also has golden eyes. That is a thing that specifically happens to Lawful Good Soulborns. Now, that's terrible. She's a race whose only defining characteristic is that they have bright blue eyes, and that race specializes in a class whose defining feature is that their eyes turn into solid golden spheres. There is literally only one distinguishing trait of the Azurin and the iconic Azurin doesn't even have it.

Which means that the traits of Soulborn and Incarnates got reshuffled quite a bit between when the (rather terrible) art was commissioned and when the book went to print. This is Zenya:



The image gallery describes this as her being an incarnate using "lightning gauntlets," but as far as I can tell that doesn't actually exist. The actual book describes those as "armguards of disruption" which are actually a thing and actually a thing that people with solid gold eyeballs can in fact use. Meanwhile, the silvery light shining out of that asshole is the "tell" of an Incarnate, meaning that the book caption labeling him as "Stergan, a skarn incarnate" is totally possible. Except for the sword/morningstar thing.

Basically, it's a giant clusterfuck where the soulborns and incarnates were obviously changed a huge amount at the last minute.

-Username17

[Roog]

Lightning Gauntlets (and the picture) are from MIC.

#Edit
And they are not one of the small number of items in that book that actually interact with Incarnum.

[Tumbling Down]

Lightning Gauntlets (and the picture) are from MIC.

Other way around. The Lightning Gauntlets in MIC are very obviously just a pointless joke-item that no one will ever use, that someone spent like two whole minutes pulling out of their ass, so that WotC had an excuse to re-use the art they commissioned for that one book that no one ever bought.

[Username17]

Yeah, the Magic Item Compendium came out 2 years after Magic of Incarnum. So the picture of Zenya using her "Armbands of Disruption" is several years before the picture got reused as "Lightning Gauntlets."

-Username17

[Krusk]

I have a DM who loves this book. Everytime we let her DM she shoehorns all the NPCs in as incarnum users. Either super powered good guy NPCs or the villains of the campaign. Their entire stat block is one of two things. 1 - Poorly optimized, and hardly functional, so the party mops the floor with them. 2 - entirely handwaved so they are good at stuff.

We constantly fight Necrocarnum zombies, and Incarnum Wraiths. I just reread the book and caught on that those are basically the only two monsters that might see play. Now I know why we fight them so often...

She also often times convinces new players to use this system. They almost always hate it and quickly realize their character sucks. Most recently was a sorcerer 4/something 2/soulcaster. We started the game at level 1. So she was a sorcerer and awesome (Except when they convinced her magic missile was the best action, then she would suck. It depended on who sat next to her....). Then she became a sorcerer/incarnum 2, and just sucked. Hard.

This is a book I bought so I could tell WTF was going on when she tried to use the rules and just had no idea how they should work.

Generally we only let her DM 5-6 sessions before I take over. (and she plays a totemist or something ineffectively).

Frank does not exagerate on how difficult these mechanics are to parse out from the book. Its really a "You have to know how it works to use it" thing. The reading the rules is no help at all.

[RobbyPants]

The Spinemeld guy art has sort of a Wolverine vibe.

Game On,
fbmf

I'm not the only one who thought that. I looked at the picture before knowing the context and thought "they moved his claws to his forearms so they wouldn't get sued".

[PoliteNewb]

The image gallery describes this as her being an incarnate using "lightning gauntlets," but as far as I can tell that doesn't actually exist. The actual book describes those as "armguards of disruption" which are actually a thing and actually a thing that people with solid gold eyeballs can in fact use.

The book does describe those as armguards of disruption...but I think that's because while they depict lightning gauntlets, only Incarnates can use Lightning Gauntlets...so I think this is definitely a fuckup where they gave her an iconic Soulborn trait with an Incarnate soulmeld, and they just said "whoops, we'll just say those were armguards of disruption, problem fixed".

Lightning gauntlets, incidentally, do totally exist...in fact, they're in the goddamn table of contents, which puts them on page 76. Where they in fact are. For someone who mocked a dude the other day for not being able to use an index, that's kind of ironic.

[JonSetanta]

I enjoyed Frank's Soulborn but the blade is too powerful for level 1.

The original Incarnum classes blow ass. A friend tried to minmax one years ago it was a sloppy mess of chakra bullshit and subpar abilities.

[Koumei]

That's kind of what the MC gets for running games at level 1, I feel.

That said, Frank's Soulborn is very solid (bordering on RNG-breaking when paired with Tome feats) at later levels, and still gets a lot of the fun powers like X-Ray Vision, Flight and Summoning.

And you could probably understand how it works even if you were drunk or something, whereas for Magic of Blue, you need to take some kind of Zen Awareness drug to parse it all on the first read.

[DSMatticus]

Frank's take on incarnum is undoubtably better than the original (because you would ever actually play it), but it's something of an optimizer's nightmare (or wetdream, I guess).

You want to pair bonuses with abilities where both are likely to see use together. You want to duplicate bonuses as little as possible, but you do want to duplicate bonuses on your higher level abilities. When you do duplicate bonuses, you want them on abilities that are different from the other abilities on that bonus (because +versatility). It ends up pretty complicated, and there's a ton of (albeit minor) "power now for power later" trades where you want the bonus now, but you would rather have it on the ability you get next level or whatever. Prelevelled totemists definitely get a lot of breaks compared to organic ones.

Also, yes. The Soulborn pretty much shits all over the RNG, but I've yet to have a 3.anything game (including Tome) where the RNG actually worked for more than a few levels anyway.

[Ancient History]

I vaguely recall they tried to expand "Psycarnum" a bit, but it only resulted in an even greater muddle.

[Seerow]

Discussion got me to go look at the Tome Incarnum classes. Apparently the Incarnate just never got much of anywhere. It looks like it was being set up to be the Wizard of the trio (daily limited abilities, but more powerful abilities for the level), and then Frank just got bored of it because well... we already have a Wizard.

The other two are pretty cool. Someone else had me look at the Soulborn before, and it makes a lot more sense in context of looking at it as an Incarnum replacement (at the time I believe I was looking at it as more of a Soulknife/Paladin replacement. Which it is as well). I kind of like the whole pick a minor and major ability and custom make your own melds through that, and getting rid of the distinct chakras was probably the biggest thing incarnum needed.

Personally though, the one thing I really liked about incarnum was the whole essence investment thing. The whole triple bonding (shape the meld, invest essentia, bind to chakra) is ridiculous and confusing, but for a long time I've wanted to see a system for magic items/powers that focuses on something similar to just the Essentia, where you invest Essentia into your magic items and/or super powers to get greater effect out of them, and can change where you have that essence invested (not necessarily mid combat, but between combats or at least by day)

[RadiantPhoenix]

Tome has item slots and items that scale to you, but it doesn't have the point-pool accounting for the items.

[Koumei]

Well, when I was tinkering with [dWo] I basically did that, where you gain more open slots as you gain levels, and can use those slots to bind magic items (to make them do anything more than +Scaling) and abilities (to make them stronger and more readily-available), and you gain Mana or something which is basically a pool of Essence that you can put in any bound stuff to make it more awesome. And you weren't binding specifically to your feet or anything.

And when we were batting around with the idea of "New Generation Because 4E is Going to be Shit", we were looking at something different, possibly a little more complex by having the Mana be flavoured by colour.

It ends up pretty complicated, and there's a ton of (albeit minor) "power now for power later" trades where you want the bonus now, but you would rather have it on the ability you get next level or whatever. Prelevelled totemists definitely get a lot of breaks compared to organic ones.

Every level you can change one of your Soulmelds, which includes "the same as before, but it boosts Fire Resistance instead of Charisma". Pretty handy actually.

Also, yes. The Soulborn pretty much shits all over the RNG, but I've yet to have a 3.anything game (including Tome) where the RNG actually worked for more than a few levels anyway.

Basically, yeah. I mean, Always Magic Weapon + Combat School + Good BAB + Best Stat (Smite) + Strength to hit is fantastic, and is basically "would sir like a bunch of free Power Attack?" And then your damage is 1d10 + Str + Power Attack + level + Magic Weapon + Combat School... before you add in Blitz, and if your Soulblade is a reach weapon you can basically feel free to add your BAB (ie level) to that a second time. But that starts to really break off the RNG around the level 10 mark where not too many people care (and where "I hit someone for damage" has to involve reliably doing big numbers).

Getting to add (level/3) as a bonus to allies (including yourself?) and a penalty to enemies is cute too, mind you. I offered to choose not to do so, but the MC pretty much just accepted that it's a sparrow's tears in the ocean by this point (and "add +4 to ally d20 rolls" is less annoying and time-consuming than "summon a level-appropriate Outsider").

[OgreBattle]

So with the Tome classes of Blue, their schemes are...

Soulborn- powers are at-will
Totem- powers are once per encounter (3 turn recharge)
Incarnate- powers are once per day, with an at-will when unused.

Am I correct? Seems like if you mash all 3 together you could get 4e style classes. It could also be seen as a guide to "This is what FrankTrollman considers balanced between atwill/encounter/daily powers"

[Seerow]

So with the Tome classes of Blue, their schemes are...

Soulborn- powers are at-will
Totem- powers are once per encounter (3 turn recharge)
Incarnate- powers are once per day, with an at-will when unused.

Am I correct? Seems like if you mash all 3 together you could get 4e style classes. It could also be seen as a guide to "This is what FrankTrollman considers balanced between atwill/encounter/daily powers"

Eh I wouldn't consider a 3 turn recharge encounter. Then again, in the tome environment it probably may as well be. (Personally I like the Binder's 5 turn recharge)

Tome has item slots and items that scale to you, but it doesn't have the point-pool accounting for the items.

I went and checked it out because it's been a few years since I looked at Tome items. It looks like the numerical bonus scales with level (much like the soulmeld bonuses for the Tome Incarnum classes do), but also like Tome Incarnum, you don't just automatically upgrade the secondary ability, that shit comes with a new item.

What I have more in mind is something like I get a Fire Sword. I bond that and get the 1d6 fire damage. I invest some more essence into it, that bonus goes up, I gain a heat fire aura, granting fire resist and damaging those who attack me. Invest some more, the fire resist and damage scale some more, and gain the ability to flare that aura up into something akin to the Fireburst spell with a few round cooldown. And just keep alternating between gaining new abilities, boosting old abilities, and reducing cooldowns on old abilities.

It'd be a pain in the ass to balance, but basically you want the special abilities of the item to grow with the character, not the bullshit numbers (stuff like +to hit and AC should be mostly removed and handled by class/level/feats).

Spoiler: Bullshit on how I'm planning to run with it in a system I've got a rough draft of (spoilered because it's getting kind of off topic here)

-Each character has a certain amount of essence, scaling primarily with level. Some classes may or may not get bullshit bonus to essence. (So if you decide you want The Fighter to be the guy who does magic weapons the best, he might get bonus essence)

-Each character has a maximum amount of essence they can invest into a single bond. Similar to above, a class may or may not be able to influence your cap here.

-Most common magic items have abilities from one track (ie the above mentioned Fire Sword is a Sword with access to the Fire Track of abilities)

-Some items can have multiple tracks in the same item. This is primarily so you can have shit like Thor's Hammer as a single defining magic item. A character with such an item can invest their essence into multiple tracks for the same item. It's effectively having multiple items, but flavorwise they're the same.
--Possibly include some sort of synergy bonus for investing into multiple tracks in the same item, to help make the combinations matter more/be more unique. Something like this would probably be done with writing a few examples and leaving it up to DM fiat when they make a custom item with multiple tracks to give cool synergies.

Other considerations within the system:
-Rewrite certain SU abilities to be able to invest essence into them to improve them. This would basically be Incarnum style shit without the incarnum flavor. I could see the Monk getting a lot of mileage here, investing essence to make his shitty su abilities actually meaningful.

-Possibility of getting access to item-style bonds without magic items. Either as a campaign choice, or a character option. This dramatically changes the flavor of a campaign (higher magic individuals with lower magic items) without affecting the balance.

[DSMatticus]

Every level you can change one of your Soulmelds, which includes "the same as before, but it boosts Fire Resistance instead of Charisma". Pretty handy actually.

Huh. I just assumed soulborn were like totemists and did not have that particular line.

[Kaelik]

Personally though, the one thing I really liked about incarnum was the whole essence investment thing. The whole triple bonding (shape the meld, invest essentia, bind to chakra) is ridiculous and confusing, but for a long time I've wanted to see a system for magic items/powers that focuses on something similar to just the Essentia, where you invest Essentia into your magic items and/or super powers to get greater effect out of them, and can change where you have that essence invested (not necessarily mid combat, but between combats or at least by day)

I agree. When Frank went over one of his KSF sample classes it included a Necromancer based off of that resource mechanics, which seems a good fit. I like the system, and I could see a Necromancer class using it, although obviously other things might be nice.

If I was still making classes instead of going to law school and playing LoL I would probably have made some by now.

[Antariuk]

I agree. When Frank went over one of his KSF sample classes it included a Necromancer based off of that resource mechanics, which seems a good fit. I like the system, and I could see a Necromancer class using it, although obviously other things might be nice..

Could you elaborate? Sounds interesting.

[...You Lost Me]

Post is here.. It's also in the OP.

Edited because links are hard.

[Username17]

Appendix: Epic Level Meldshapers

Yes. It just says “Appendix.” It's not Appendix A or Appendix 1, it's just called “Appendix.” All the Appendices are named “Appendix.” There are three editors and an editing manager on this project, and the Appendices are not numbered. Since the days of Dragon Kings, the epic rules for Dungeons & Dragons have not worked at all. Fighters don't get nice things, Mages get a pile of bupkiss and also get to break the game in half if they want to do that instead, and really nothing changed between 1992 and 2005 to make that any better.

Epic Meldshaping doesn't make a lot of sense. Opening your heart or soul chakra requires an epic feat, but if there's anything especially epic about either of those I don't know what it is. On the Soul side: The “Planar Chasuble” lets you cast a limited gate once per week. No, I don't know what it means that a meld that is created and only lasts one day has an ability that can only be used once per week. Even with the most generous interpretation possible (that you get a new once per week gate every day and therefore can cast it once per day), it's still just a single 9th level spell. With a Necrocarnum Shroud you can spend a standard action to do a touch range enervation. That one's at-will, but it's a considerably powered down version of a 4th level spell, and again hardly an epic anything. On the Heart side: Lifebond Vestments with a Heart chakra bind allow you to transfer your hit points “at will to any given creature.” I don't even know what that means, because maybe that lets you bypass line of effect and maybe it doesn't, but it's still just spending hit points to heal other people and no one fucking cares. If you bind the Dread Carapace to your Heart, you gain spell resistance. hat spell resistance is 5 + 4 per Essentia. That means that for a 21st level character (the lowest level you could take the Open Heart Chakra epic feat), you would need five Essentia invested to have a better than zero percent chance of stopping a spell of your level that had no spell penetration. The base Essentia Capacity chart caps out at 4. Even if you pick up both Essentia Capacity boosts, level appropriate enemies still blow through your SR on a natural 8, and it only gets worse as you level.

Appendix: The Essentia Tracker

Yes. This appenix is also named “Appendix.” This is where they suggest that you take a pile of glass beads for all the Essentia in your pool and stick them next to your things that use Essentia on your character sheet. Not a terrible idea, but I just described the whole thing in a sentence and they spend a page and a half explaining the concept.

There are a couple of major monkey wrenches in it, which this book pretty much chokes on. The first is that the things you put Essentia into aren't necessarily on your character sheet. Sure, there isn't much reason to change your soulmelds every day, but you can. Presumably you selected soulmelds that work with your build and magical equipment, but technically you can make your soulmelds fresh off the full list in the book each day. That's clearly too many possible entries to put on your character sheet, which leaves this book suggesting that you write and erase a new Essentia Tracker every day. That is too much fucking work.

The second of course is that Essentia has three main distinct refresh periods depending on what you're doing with it. The Soulmelds have an action based Essentia reshuffling mechanic, the spells drag off your Essentia until they are done with them, and the feats expend your Essentia for 24 hours. Since this was a book for focus grouping ideas and charging people money for the privilege, presumably they intended to get feedback on which version people liked the best, but by presenting it all as a single system that people had to use concurrently it all became an incomprehensible clusterfuck.

The third of course, is that the Essentia isn't remotely the only resource you need to be tracking. Many of these powers also have uses per day, and you have chakra limits and chakra binding limits and shit at the same time. There are feats where you burn Essentia into them for a day, and the amount of Essentia you burned gives you daily charges on another ability. How is that supposed to work with an Essentia Tracker? The book doesn't even try to sort that shit out.

And fourthly, what the fuck actually happens when you have temporary Essentia? I have no idea. I don't think anyone really knows. There are ways to get Essentia that don't last very long, and it's very easy to lock your Essentia into various things for a much longer period than that. I have no idea what is supposed to happen at that point. The rules in this book don't seem to address really basic questions. You invest an Essentia point that lasts for one minute into powering a Feat that keeps powered for 24 hours and... what? That's really fucking important, and this 221 page book doesn't seem to think it's worth discussing.

Web Appendix: Psionics of Incarnum

The book actually has some shoutouts to Psionics in it. If for some reason you wanted more, there's an additional appendix on the web giving more Psionics / Incarnum connections. It wasn't written by the people who wrote this book. Indeed, only Mark Jindra has a real name. The other two people are web handles: “JaxRyan” and “Dark Psion.” Yes, really. A guy wants to be credited as “Dark Psion” on this piece, so you know it's quality!



Anyway, the big contribution here is a Psion/Meldshaper Mystic Theurge. In case your DM wasn't sufficiently confused by your character and didn't have a good excuse to punch you in the dick. It's not good or anything. You're still a Psion, a Meldshaper, and a Mystic Theurge. You can't really do anything level appropriate. But you do what you do in a manner so complicated that you could probably just cheat and do something useful and no one would ever know.

There are a couple of bonus soulmelds which are supposed to have a “distinctly psionic flavor.” By and large, there's really nothing psionic about them. One of them adds to the DCs of your enchantment spells and is therefore broken as fuck, but the others are just dumb.

Wrapup

The very last part of the book includes a little “about the authors” section, in which we are given confirmation that the “designers” are actually the “writers.” The two “names” on this project were James Wyatt and Rich Baker. The other two guys felt the need to mention that they had written articles for Dragon Magazine in their “about the authors” paragraph, so they don't even matter.

Beyond the last page, we have a full page given over to chakras and body slots and some printable character sheets. I can't find just the body slots page online, but I can find it paired with a horse for some reason. Imagine that you were looking at just the page with the silhouette of the asshole as a full page to keep track of what went where on all the different body chakra slots this book thinks you need to track:
[img]data:image/jpeg;base64,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It's hard to say for sure whose fault these horribly complicated body slot thingies are, but I'm going to say Andy Collins. He was the head “developer” on Magic of Incarnum. When he got to rewrite the DMG in 2003, he went apeshit about body slots and “associated powers.” When he got to do the 4e body slots in 2008 he did all that crap about paragon ring slots and and shit. And the real kicker is that when he did the Magic Item Compendium in 2007, he included this:



Yes. That's the same fucking thing, but with Regdar instead of Stergan. Even though everyone fucking hated the overly complicated body slots of Magic of Incarnum, Andy Collins just wouldn't let it go. The entire point of this book was supposed to be to decide if they were on the right track making 4th edition, the public and the market said “no” and they didn't change tracks. This seems incomprehensible, but remember that in 2006, David Noonan was doing the same thing! Having solicited feedback from the Monster Manual IV, it was determined that people hated his ideas, and then in making the Monster Manual V he just doubled down on all of them.

WotC corporate culture was apparently simultaneously obsessed with getting “feedback” from fans and totally disinterested in actually responding to any of that feedback by changing their designs or presentations. And I say “was,” but if anyone has been watching the D&D Next playtest, they know that WotC's design culture is actually still like that. Indeed, probably more like that now than it was in 2005.

Somewhere underneath all the shitty accounting and multiple currencies that are all named the same thing, there were actually some decent ideas here. Having buffs and magic items count against the same limit is a fine idea – it puts a limit to how much difference it can make to have or not have good equipment or a buff-happy support caster. But keeping track of a “hands slot” or an “arms slot?” That's too much effort and doesn't even solve anything. Having fungible power points that you can shift from shields to engines to life support like you were a Star Trek engineer is fine. Some people want to do that. But for fuck's sake, keep it consistent. Whatever the rate you can switch power from one thingy to another thingy has to be the same across the board – anything else is just more complexity for no gain. And if you are going to be shuffling power points between thins on your character sheet, they had better actually be on your damn character sheet. The proposition of dumpster diving through books to find things to temporarily have to divert power into makes me want to kill myself.

And finally, this book was all held together by bad math, a crappy last minute flavor rewrite, and a terrible understanding of how the game is played. While the Totemist is, conceptually, kind of cool (in a very weird way), it only actually comes alive for me because of two Wayne Reynolds' drawings. Even he can't make Incarnates be something I care about. And he fucking tried:



Magic of Incarnum was so poorly done that it did a bad job even of properly focus grouping the underlying concepts that were supposed to be on display. The End.

-Username17

[Cyberzombie]

Yes. That's the same fucking thing, but with Regdar instead of Stergan. Even though everyone fucking hated the overly complicated body slots of Magic of Incarnum, Andy Collins just wouldn't let it go. The entire point of this book was supposed to be to decide if they were on the right track making 4th edition, the public and the market said “no” and they didn't change tracks. This seems incomprehensible, but remember that in 2006, David Noonan was doing the same thing! Having solicited feedback from the Monster Manual IV, it was determined that people hated his ideas, and then in making the Monster Manual V he just doubled down on all of them.

WotC corporate culture was apparently simultaneously obsessed with getting “feedback” from fans and totally disinterested in actually responding to any of that feedback by changing their designs or presentations. And I say “was,” but if anyone has been watching the D&D Next playtest, they know that WotC's design culture is actually still like that. Indeed, probably more like that now than it was in 2005.

It's game designer hubris and its an almost universal trait among game designers and would-be game designers. Just look at almost any thread here, and the one thing you'll never see is anyone actually admitting they were wrong and their idea was terrible to start. One of the worst things you can ever do is to bash the proposed idea. The majority of the time, it just triggers an intellectual street fight mentality where both sides refuse to back down. At that point, you can be sure they'll defend the idea with their dying breath and nothing that is said will ever convince them.

It's one of the most destructive personality traits for the hobby in general.