4e

I wrote most of this post before I got my hands on Manual of the Planes, so it’s a little outdated and the language reflects that. Still, I plan to talk more about Manual of the Planes soon, so this’ll make for a good segue. :P

Out of all of the supplements I’ve read, seen, or heard about so far, Manual of the Planes is the one that excites me the most overall. Here’s why.

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Via Critical Hits, what is this I see? Why, it’s an Editorial Calendar!

All right, so if you’ve clicked that Critical Hits link or read the subject line here, you already know why I’m here, writing to you, dear blog. 

After reading the bard and barbarian playtests (more on those later?), I’m excited about the druid. I’m really curious to see which builds they put in. I heard that they’re going to have a shifter-based built. These are magical words that excite me.

Also, what the hell is this? Invoker? Dave pretty much says it all, except that he lies. He says we’ll find out “soon enough.” You’re not fooling me, Dave. December is, like, eleventy-billion days away!

Do you know what other magical words excite me? (There’s a whole list of ‘em!) Here is one word that excites me: Mercykiller. 

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about how Planescape: Torment is my favorite video game of all time, and by extension that Planescape is my favorite D&D setting of all time. A case in point is the Factol’s Manifesto. This book reads more like White Wolf than D&D, given that most of the stuff in there has little to no crunch and is just pure setting.

This’ll degenerate into wank if I don’t get to the point soon.

So, yes, playtest. Mercykiller. I’m not sure that it’s a paragon path like Dave says, though. Paragon paths are fairly discrete in terms of what they do; I don’t see much need for long-term tuning. Consider also that all of the playtest articles on the table, with the exception of the Adventurer’s Vault 2, feature new classes.

I’m not saying it’s impossible. In fact, I’m probably setting myself up for disappointment. Still, a playtest article implies something a bit more meaty to me. Could the Mercykiller be some kind of divine striker, perhaps? THE MIND REELS.