Добавлено (06.12.2007, 00:38)
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Немного о механике.

Хватай кубик д20 да выбрасывай побольше.

Вот основное правило 4ки, впрочем, как и 3ки. Но теперь это закрепилось в основе игры еще сильнее, чем когда бы то ни было.

Когда-нибудь встречались с одним из этих жизнь-или-смерть спасбросков? Часы, недели, или даже годы игры могут замереть в равновесии. Все зависит от одного броска. Вот она, драма! Драма, которую вы не создавали и не хотели.

В новой редакции этого просто нет.

Вы когда-нибудь играли магом? Вы завидовали когда-нибудь тому возбуждению, которое испытывали другие игроки, нанося критические удары? Хотели бы делать то же самое своими заклинаниями?

Разрешаю

Вы когда-нибудь путались в подсчетах вашего touch и flat-footed AC?

Теперь вам не о чем беспокоиться.

Если вы хотите знать в 4ке можете ли вы рассчитывать на успех какого-то действия, то просто берете кубик Д20 и пытаетесь выбросить побольше. Так же как и в 3ке вы добавляете модификатор к этому броску из вашего character sheet, проверяете есть ли дополнительные бонусы (пенальти) от ситуации или от ваших союзников. Ключевая разница 4ки в том, что вы проверяете и что добавляете.

Основные защиты те же (AC, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will), но теперь все они работают как АС. Когда дракон выдыхает на вас огнем, он атакует ваши Reflex и наносит только половину урона, если промахивается. ДМ кидает д20, прибавляет модификаторы дракона и спрашивает ваши значения Reflex. Дракон может выбросить 1 и автоматически промахнуться, независимо от того насколько круче он вас. Правда теперь есть и пугающая вероятность того, что он выбросит 20 и нанесет двойной урон… (хе-хе)

Люди, знакомые с новой Star Wars Saga system распознают концепцию, но она немного изменилась, чтобы лучше подходить D&D. В 4ке, когда существу нужно прикоснуться к вам, чтобы произвести атаку, оно атакует по Reflex. Когда вы удивлены, вы получаете преимущество в бою(???) и вам не нужно смотреть значение специального АС на вашем листе персонажа - работает обычное значение. Если вдруг под вашими ногами проваливается пол, то вы делаете проверку, чтобы отпрыгнуть от опасности. Но когда из ловушки вылетает арбалетный болт, то он попадает по АС.

Когда мы говорим о придании системе гибкости мы имеем в виду: принятие решений, которые сделают обучение и использование игры менее сложной, сохраняя систему такой же живучей (прочной). Что в конце-концов сделает игру более веселой!

The earth quivers. The ground furrows. Turning earth knocks heroes from their feet, and a mated pair of mighty bulettes bursts into their midst.

All granite-hard hide, characteristic fins, and below-ground tactics, the bulette has been a staple of D&D since the early days. Fourth Edition continues to do it honor by making it an elite monster.

Elite Monsters

Elite monsters represent a greater challenge: They count as two monsters of their level for encounter building and rewards. Elite monsters have the word “elite” preceding their level and role.

Here’s how a fight against a pair of such beasts might go:

The bulettes are underground using their burrowing movement. Even though the PCs can hear the creatures (a bulette isn’t exactly stealthy), they can’t attack until the bulettes rise to the surface.
When the bulettes go, they go mean. The first burrows shallowly through the earth under the fighter and rogue – the fighter keep his feet, but the rogue falls down and makes a good target. The bulette leaves the ground to take advantage of this and bites the poor fellow, doing some serious damage.
Bulette number two uses the same opening gambit but knocks over both the cleric and the wizard, who were next to each other. It opts to burst from the ground in a spray of packed dirt and stone. The prone heroes are easier to hit and take more damage from the wave of rocks. The fighter is also in range of the burst, but he brushes the soil aside with his shield.
The party gets to act. The rogue rises. He’s not in a position to flank, but he can still try to do some damage. He doesn’t like the look of the bulette’s heavy armor, so he tries to slip his short sword between two stony plates before the bulette can react and he draws blood.
The wizard’s in a bad spot. He probably can’t lay down an attack without provoking an opportunity attack or burning his allies, so he delays. Good thing, because the cleric places fear in the bulette’s tiny mind, which doesn’t offer much resistance. The bulette burrows away, taking an opportunity attack from the cleric before he gets underground (avoiding like attacks from the fighter and the rogue.
This gives the wizard the chance to stand and cover the bulette’s space with crackling lightning -- the monster’s bulk means it doesn’t have much chance to evade the blast and it doesn’t. The fighter follows with a good, old-fashioned heavy sword swing and gets lucky: a critical hit. The bulette isn’t looking good (it’s bloodied), but now it gets to act.
Bulette number one dives into the earth so rapidly that the heroes around it don’t get opportunity attacks. Safely in the ground, it heals some damage and then burrows under the heroes, who are now clustered close enough that the bulette can affect them all. Bulette number two follows by burrowing back into the action and bursting from the ground to rain more rocks down on the party, reminding them all that it’s time for some healing.
The battle goes on. Even though there are four heroes, it only takes two bulettes to give them a run for their money. Fourth Edition has such elite monsters because you don’t always want a straight one-on-one fight -- sometimes a monster should just be bigger, tougher, and scarier than the norm.

Humans: Now referred to as the most “resilient” race, they receive some kind of feat bonus (“a little extra treat”) and racial feats that involve “dramatic action and dramatic recovery.”

Dragonborn: No longer the race born of a special pact with Bahamut as presented in Races of the Dragon, these guys have been the lesser cousins of dragons since the beginning. In the Points of Light setting, they once ruled a mighty empire later destroyed in a cataclysmic war with the Tiefling empire, and are now organized into wandering clans which sometimes serve as mercenary companies. They have a reputation as honorable warriors who keep their word, but are sometimes arrogant and easily offended. Their racial feats involve things like breath weapons and wings.

Dwarves: Pretty much the same, but their back history now involves an era in which they were slaves to giants, which explains the enmity between the two races. It is also mentioned that most races, including dwarves, no longer possess darkvision (but dwarves have low-light vision). Dwarves also no longer possess a Charisma penalty, and their racial abilities are oriented towards the defender role and underground adaptation.

As an aside, it is mentioned that dwarf women do not have beards, and the new artwork makes them look a lot more feminine, which was intentional on the part of the designers.

Elves/Eladrin: These were once the same race, along with the drow. They inhabited the Feywild, a faerie realm that exists alongside the human-dominated one, but a war precipitated by the drow split the race into three. Basically, elves embody the nature-oriented aspect of elves, and eladrin the magical one. Other elven subraces will exist, but the differences between them will simply be cultural—gray elves, sun elves and moon elves will be eladrin and wood, green and wild elves just elves. Not much is said about the racial abilities elves and eladrin possess, other than elves make for good rangers and eladrin good wizards.

It is also mentioned that 4E elves and eladrin will be taller in stature.

Halflings: These also get a stature boost, and will now be about four feet tall on average. They are now presented as a nomadic race that travels on river barges, one that is instrumental in promoting trade amongst the races, granting them something of an “invisible empire” across the land. They are differentiated from hobbits in that they are lean and athletic rather than portly (and now they wear shoes, too). Their racial abilities evidently involve luck, trickery and trade. It is also mentioned they are good at raising and training animals.

Tieflings: The 4E Tieflings evolved from the corrupt nobility of an ancient, powerful human empire that trafficked with devils to increase their power. As mentioned above, this empire was destroyed in a titanic war with the Dragonborn empire. Not much is said about their racial abilities, other than they have been expanded since 3E and they make good Warlocks. It is also once mentioned that they are “charming,” so I suppose the Charisma penalty is gone.

Other races: A Celestial race, Drow, Gnomes and Warforged are also evidently in the works, but little had been decided on at the time the book was printed, so I guess they won’t be in the first Player’s Handbook. Warforged will apparently be a core race, and it is mentioned that construct immunities will be toned down in 4E. The Celestial race will not be called the Aasimar, and will be a race “plunged through the same transforming fires” as the Tiefling. Gnomes are apparently proving problematic to design--they went through several concepts and rejected them all, with no decision having been reached at the time the book was finished.

Взято от сюда.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 5' 7"-6' 0"
Average Weight: 100-130 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 7 squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Elven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Perception

Elven Accuracy
Elf Racial Power

With an instant of focus, you take careful aim at your foe and strike with the legendary accuracy of the elves.

Encounter
Free Action
Personal

Effect: Reroll an attack roll. Use the second roll, even if it's lower.

Elven Weapon Training: You gain proficiency with the longbow and the shortbow.
Wild Step: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift (even if you have a power that allows you to shift multiple squares).
Group Awareness: You grant non-elf allies within 5 squares a +1 racial bonus to Perception checks.
Elven Accuracy: You can use elven accuracy as an encounter power.

Wild and free, elves guard their forested lands using stealth and deadly arrows from the trees. They build their homes in close harmony with the forest, so perfectly joined that travelers often fail to notice that they have entered an elven community until it is too late.

Play an elf if you want …

to be quick, quiet, and wild;
to lead your companions through the deep woods and pepper your enemies with arrows;
to play a ranger, a rogue, or a cleric.
Physical Qualities

Elves are slender, athletic folk about as tall as humans. They have the same range of complexions as humans, tending more toward tan or brown hues. A typical elf's hair color is dark brown, autumn orange, mossy green, or deep gold. Elves' ears are long and pointed, and their eyes are vibrant blue, violet, or green. Elves have little body hair, but males often grow long sideburns. They favor a wild look to their hair, which is often a shaggy mass of braids.

Elves mature at about the same rate as humans but show few effects of age past adulthood. The first sign of an elf's advancing age is typically a change in hair color -- sometimes graying but usually darkening or taking on more autumnal hues. Most elves live to be well over 200 years old and remain vigorous almost to the end.

Playing an Elf

Elves are a people of deeply felt but short-lived passions. They are easily moved to delighted laughter, blinding wrath, or mournful tears. They are inclined to impulsive behavior, and members of other races sometimes see elves as flighty or impetuous, but elves do not shirk responsibility or forget commitments. Thanks in part to their long life span, elves sometimes have difficulty taking certain matters as seriously as other races do, but when genuine threats arise, elves are fierce and reliable allies.

Elves revere the natural world. Their connection to their surroundings enables them to perceive much. They never cut living trees, and when they create permanent communities, they do so by carefully growing or weaving arbors, tree houses, and catwalks from living branches. They prefer the primal power of the natural world to the arcane magic their eladrin cousins employ. Elves love to explore new forests and new lands, and it's not unusual for individuals or small bands to wander hundreds of miles from their homelands.

Elves are loyal and merry friends. They love simple pleasures -- dancing, singing, footraces, and contests of balance and skill -- and rarely see a reason to tie themselves down to dull or disagreeable tasks. Despite how unpleasant war can be, a threat to their homes, families, or friends can make elves grimly serious and prompt them to take up arms.

At the dawn of creation, elves and eladrin were a single race dwelling both in the Feywild and in the world, and passing freely between the two. When the drow rebelled against their kin, under the leadership of the god Lolth, the resulting battles tore the fey kingdoms asunder. Ties between the peoples of the Feywild and the world grew tenuous, and eventually the elves and eladrin grew into two distinct races. Elves are descended from those who lived primarily in the world, and they no longer dream of the Feywild. They love the forests and wilds of the world that they have made their home.

Elf Characteristics: Agile, friendly, intuitive, joyful, perceptive, quick, tempestuous, wild.

Male Names: Adran, Beiro, Carric, Erdan, Gennal, Heian, Lucan, Peren, Rollen, Soveliss, Therren, Varis.

Female Names: Adrie, Birel, Chaedi, Dara, Ennia, Farall, Harrel, Iriann, Lia, Mialee, Shava, Thia, Valenae.

Elf Adventurers

Three sample elf adventurers are described below.

Varis is an elf ranger and a devout worshiper of Melora, the god of the wilds. When a goblin army forced his people from their woodland village, the elves took refuge in the nearest human town, walled and guarded by soldiers. Varis now leads other elves and some human townsfolk in raids against the goblins. Although he maintains a cheerful disposition, he frequently stares into the distance, listening, expecting at any moment to hear signs of approaching foes.

Lia is an elf rogue whose ancestral forest burned to the ground decades ago. Lia grew up on the wasteland's fringes in a large human city, unable to quite fit in. Her dreams called her to the forests, while her waking hours were spent in the dirtiest parts of civilization. She joined a group of adventurers after trying to cut a warlock's purse, and she fell in love with the wide world beyond the city.

Heian is an elf cleric of Sehanine, the god of the moon. The elven settlement where he was born still thrives in a forest untouched by the darkness spreading through the world, but he left home years ago, in search of new horizons and adventures. His travels lately have brought rumors to his ears that danger might be brewing in the ancient forest, and he is torn between a desire to seek his own way in the world and a sense of duty to his homeland.

Well, there you have it. The first unveiling of a full race entry from the 4th Edition Player's Handbook. Oh, what the heck. I'm feeling generous this morning. It must be the season. Here's a racial feat you can peek at, too.

Elven Precision [Elf]

Prerequisites: Elf, elven accuracy racial power, heroic tier
Benefit: When you use the elven accuracy power, you gain a +2 bonus to the new attack roll.