Critical hits got a press pass to the D&D 4e seminar at the D&D Experience con. His quick notes hit a lot of high points and nail down a lot of specifics. It sounds like there’s still a lot of… “we’ll think about it” for something launching so soon, but we’ll see what comes of it.
[This post, links off to the various 4e coverage at DnD Experience]
Everything that follows is from the first link.
From the beginning: a handout for playing 4e. Its list was as follows:
13 important changes to the rules for the purposes of playing.
- The saving throw mechanic that debuted in the DDM rules IS in.
- Durations are either until save, one round, or entire encounter.
- Action points give an extra action, and they are accrued by finishing encounters.
- Short vs. extended rests- short rest is 5 minutes and recharges per encounter powers. Extended rest is 6 hours, fully heals you, regain all healing surges, get daily powers back, and action points are reset to 1.
- Healing wind- once per encounter, can take a standard action to gain second wind. Gives you hit points equal to Healing Surge value and +2 to all defenses until the start of your next turn. Then lose one healing surge.
There’s lots of good talk about what D&D insider gives you. It’s relatively pricey, but they’re OK with sharing accounts in a household and a subscription gives you some 24 hour guest accounts each month. Technical issues forced them away from limiting content– so now when you subscribe to D&DI, it sounds like you’ll have access to all the rules, whether you own hardcopies of them or not.
The PHB is described as: Player’s Handbook
* 8 classes, 8 races
* 100s of powers
* Over 150 feats
* 200 magic items
* Skills, rituals, paragon paths, destinies
It sounds like they’re pre-planning “Complete X” style books, with at least the martial source making it out in 2008. Here’s it’s description:
Martial Power
* Expanded options for fighters, rogues, rangers, warlords
* Hundreds of new powers, feats, paragon paths, and more
* Like Complete Warrior. One place for where the fighter or ranger goes to for more options instead of having to look at other books.
There’s lots more at the link above if you’re interested.
(WotC’s quick 4e rules guide hits the high points.)