More D&D 4.0 news.

It’s getting closer. Pretty soon D&D as we know it will be changed forever! It’ll be grand and exciting and better in all ways! Well, if you believe WoTC. Me, I’m pretty damn skeptical.

And things like this aren’t changing my mind:

Did they run out of money already? Because I know a guy down the street who can do better work for less money in his stolen copy of 3DMax. If that’s the level of quality we’re going to get with the D&D insider and 4.0…well, I’ll just cry quietly in the corner now.

On a maybe more positive note, this rogue class sounds interesting:

Role: Striker. You dart in to attack, do massive damage, and then retreat to safety. You do best when teamed with a defender to flank enemies.
Power Source: Martial. Your talents depend on extensive training and constant practice, innate skill, and natural coordination.
Key Abilities: Dexterity, Strength, Charisma

Armor Training: Leather
Weapon Proficiencies: Dagger, hand crossbow, shuriken, sling, short sword
Bonus to Defense: +2 Reflex

Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 5
Healing Surges: 6 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Stealth and Thievery plus four others. From the class skills list below, choose four more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dexterity), Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Dungeoneering (Wis), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dexterity), Streetwise (Cha), Thievery (Dexterity)

Build Options: Brawny rogue, trickster rogue
Class Features: First Strike, Rogue Tactics, Rogue Weapon Talent, Sneak Attack

I can’t really say how good or bad that is without having the whole system to look at, but it is interesting. Things like HP gained have changed (used to be your CON added to HP at each level), build options is both odd and scary (hopefully that’s just tips for how to build your class, not a requirement to choose one or the other) and I wonder what a Healing Surge is… Is that going to be their way to fix clerics, everyone can now heal themselves a bit…?

We do have one piece of good news from this article on everything currently planned to be released for D&D 4.0:

The PHB cover IS set to change! Scott Rouse confirms in this video snippet that the current artwork on the Player’s Handbook is changing. Wayne Reynolds has been commissioned for the new piece, which will not feature the tiefling.

That’s the first good news I’ve heard about 4.0. The cover they announced a bit back blew chunks (a zing from the past!) compared to the other two books.

Per the norm, nothing really good to report about 4.0 other than that it’s getting closer. I don’t know if that’s really good other than the geek wars it’s sure to cause once you have to (note: WoTC says you won’t have to…) pay a monthly subscription fee to play your PnP game…

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What Would Matt Do: Know what I want to do? I want to rant and rave, I want to meet the designers of 4.0 and show them the backside of my hand…but most of all, I want to not be excited that another version of D&D is coming out. I’m such a god damn addict.