That is one of things they are supposedly going to 'fix' in 4th, giving each class a "on command" ability, with clerics from what I've read being able to cast the equivalent of heal light wounds basically w/out limit...

with clerics from what I've read being able to cast the equivalent of heal light wounds basically w/out limit...

I've avoided playing spell casters because I found low-level spell casting to be so limited but it makes sense to me because high-level casters are so powerful, there should be hindrances on the way to gaining that much power. So while it bugs every time our cleric is out of spells and we have to go back to the surface, I'm not sure I like the idea of being able to stay down indefinitely... it takes away a bit of the realism. On the other hand dying sure sucks.

eta- for me 4.0 feels like "we're changing the rules so you have to buy all new stuff!" I'm perfectly happy with 3.5, unfortunately my playmates are not. GM is asking for 4.0 books for his birthday in June and meta-gamer guy is already planning to buy them all. "I'm a collector," he says.

Yeah, I would think they would have stretched out the leveling up process to compensate for the frontloading of abilities, but who knows? Not a lot is not really known about 4th even now. Which is annoying the hell out of lots of publishers...

I heard they've been pushing the release date back. It might not come out in time for my GM's birthday.

We'll know if that is true by the end of this week. The GAMA Trade Show is this week, and if they are going to delay it, announcing that delay after the Trade Show when they won't have to face the retailers, well, it would not be pretty...

my GM docks XP for not playing your character so that helps keep the meta-gaming to a minimum

I haven't played D&D in yonks (like, 25 years), but this sounds like it hasn't changed. The DM of the one game I was involved in for a while would do this. Which, for first time players was actually a good way to get them to play the game and not just themselves. Personally, I don't see the point of playing the game to be just yourself. It was a very good learning experience. I just never kept up with it after that.

my GM docks XP for not playing your character so that helps keep the meta-gaming to a minimum

I toyed with this concept for a while, but found it usually ended up with the player heatedly justifying his behavior with wildly improbable "motivations".

So I resorted to arbitrary death.

So I resorted to arbitrary death.

I'll have to share that with my GM.

come to think about it, the last player who argued about being docked xp- shortly after that his character walked into a wandering portal and hasn't been since.

Well, one player in particulare was just outlandish. I don't recall the specifics, but it was on the order of "I shoot the Prime Minister in the face" while attending a state dinner.

"Why? There's no provocation."

"I think he's the bad guy."

"How...how would you even know there is a bad guy? We just started!"

"There's always a bad guy."

"Yes, in a game world! But your character doesn't think he lives in a game world! He thinks this is real life! In real life you don't shoot important people on the off chance that later he might turn out to be your enemy!"

"Well, my character has a particular view of reality that blah blah blah blah blah blah..."

"The Secret Service shoots you in the face."