benlehman | (no subject)

If you like listy Gamism (and, boy, do I ever) then Iron Heroes is the bomb. If Arcana Unearthed was everything that D&D should have been, Iron Heroes is everything I wanted D&D to be.

With the exception of the really nonsensical and uninspired weapons and armor lists. Where is that cool double-bladed dagger that the masked executioner chick has? I want one! Also, why are the martial arts weapons still in the game? W/o Monks, there is no benefit to unarmed fighting, so you have a bunch of shitty weapons that just happened to be exotic. I can't believe that Mike Mearls doesn't get the currency of D&D weapons, so am I missing something here? Or was the equipment section a casualty of a fast development cycle? Or what?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

IH is definitely the cool shit. I definitely think some things got rushed for this, especially since Mearls made the shift from Malhavoc to WOTC like a month or two before it released. On the other hand, Mastering Iron Heroes includes stuff that D&D has been crying for, for years, including simplified villain classes ("They need to be balanced against the party- not each other, so you need less details"), a whole chapter on alternate reward possibilities, "Wealth Feats" that are bought with gold and explain how the level 3 NPC Minister rules the city, etc.

My only "nitpick" that bugs me is that reach weapons lose the AoO of people trying to close on them...