Slashdot | D&D 4th Edition Details Released

[VLSmooth]

D&D 4th Edition Details Released
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... /01/031248

Wired is reporting that some juicy details of Wizards of the Coast's new 4th edition for Dungeons and Dragons are being leaked on to the web from the D&D Experience in Arlington, VA this week.

"Wizards of the Coast, the current custodians of the D&D universe, have been talking about the upcoming fourth edition of the game for months, but they've been fairly cagey about hard details, preferring to tell us more about how elves love footraces than how much damage a fireball does. They're running actual 4e games at D&D Experience, though, and thanks to people with scanners, you can too!"

The fine article (linked in the quote) provides a link to a zip containing a PDF with the basic differences between third and fourth edition.

Edit: VLSmooth: Corrected link comment

[VLSmooth]

The concise two-page PDF sounds promising. The simplicity is refreshing. However, I'm hoping it won't become limiting.

Here's a particular snippet I found interesting:

5. Healing gets an overhaul.

Hit points still measure your ability to stay in the fight, but
healing’s no longer just the burden of one character
anymore. Each character has a certain number of healing
surges. Once during each encounter, you can take a
standard action called a second wind; this gives you a certain
amount of hit points back equal to your healing surge value
and gives you a +2 bonus to all your defenses until the start
of your next turn. You then tick off one of your healing
surges for the day. Some powers (like some cleric prayers)
will also heal you your healing surge value, and you’ll tick off
your healing surges for them as well. When you run out of
healing surges, you’ll want to take an extended rest.

If you’re outside of combat, you can take a short rest and
tick off the healing surges you need to heal up damage.

TIP: If you’ve been knocked down a few hit points and
can’t decide what to do when it’s your turn, taking a second
wind action is a good idea.

[Jonathan]

Well, if anyone runs a campaign on Mondays, I'm in. You know you're up until 9PM PST anyway.

[Jonathan]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35776 -4E review. and Part 2.