Fourth Edition Preview -- A whole lot of talents

[Mataxes]

[Etorian]

Questions:
1. Is what sort of action is Acrobatic Defense? Will the user still be able to get an attack off in the same round?
2. Is distract single target or can it be used on groups?
3. Is what sort of action is Spot Armor Flaw?

Positive:
1. I love Suppress Curse I hope it is as useful as it sounds. My group NEEDS this right now. (I'm a jerk to them sometimes)
2. Also love Awareness and replacing all the different detects. Some may freak out about loosing the benefit of karma added to perception only, but you haven't addressed how you will deal with those discipline powers yet so I'm not going to freak out.
3. Cobra Strike could be my favorite power now. I always wanted it to be this but it just fell short.
4. Dispel as a Talent excites me. Saves casters a matrix, makes sure they have dispel around for utility and makes it scale more fluidly. Hope the Dispel target numbers work with the scaling.
5. Maneuver and Mystic Aim no longer standard action means I'll see them used! Exciting for me.
6. I also like the idea of Tenacious Weave. I hope it doesn't make dispelling impossible for my PC's though.

Negative:
Not a whole lot from me.
Don't necessarily like parry and spirit dodge being gone. Depending on which disciplines get riposte and how early it sounds like it could serve the role parry does (I haven't ever played with parry so we wont miss it really) and I just like the flavor of spirit dodge. Other than that I can't really say if I like these or not until I see the mechanics behind them but I like the write ups. Seem like the thought is going in the right direction.

Nice job overall Josh.

[etherial]

[Tanthalas]

For the new 'Direction Sense' I like etherial's 'Sense Quarry' or 'Target Sense'. It makes it clear that it tells you where something is, not where a direction might lie.

The mechanical face-lift for Beastmasters is also interesting. It would certainly help to keep a weaker pet competitive. However, how does it work with the stronger pets? When a Beastmaster tames something that was meant to be a challenge for the whole party, are these talents game breaking? Is there perhaps a limit based on the base stats of the creature being improved? I'm just thinking aloud here.

Having the Distract talent add the Blindsided effect is also a neat idea. But it does bring up a problem of the mechanics of third edition. RAW allows players to dart around each other and constantly Blindside one another, has the wording of this status been changed? The easiest solution I think would be to allow players to turn as a free action once per round when it is not their turn. But I am interested in any other solutions you may have been kicking around.

I also want to point out the talent 'Wood Skin' which was not mentioned in this blog post. By itself it makes sense and is flavorful, but in a supplement (Namegivers?) you are going to end up with the Purifier who gets 'Clay Skin' which does the exact same thing mechanically. You might want to head this off at the pass and change the talent to 'Toughen Skin' or somesuch before you are forced into these redundant talents for fluff purposes.

[etherial]

[Tanthalas]

[etherial]

[Stormcrow]

I also like Ethariel's "Sense Quarry" name. I just wanted to say I approve of the vast majority of these changes. I'm really looking forward to the finished product. I have a couple of points that may be construed as negative but not many.

1. The Forge changes made me nervous however I "think" they balance each other out since AD hits no longer occur.

2. I suspected parry would either be removed or made a knack. My only disappointment is I used to like the idea of parrying with a shield. However, from a purely balancing perspective I recognise this was a bit unfair.

3. I'm not sure about the temper flesh change. I recognise it may as well be a single Talent but I would like to suggest it to be a higher circle Talent especially now that it requires only one slot. I've found the ability to substantially add to the parties WT it to be a major game changer.

That's it. Like I said I think you are on the right track here. I especially love that you have kept the poison focussed talents but expanded them. I was worried they would be removed but in specific (though admittedly rare) situations they are very useful. As regards other Talents I'm curious about Fire Heal. Is that under consideration for editing?

[Stormcrow]

[kosmit]

I am waiting for updates about:
skills and their relation to talents
spells and matrices
inventory and its relation to new armor defeating hits mechanic.

Panda on his blog compares thread and legendary items between 1st and 3rd pointing out some clearly unbalanced stuff. Are you planning to fix them?
I wish there could be some frame in combat chapter with shortening of mechanic to push talents etc. Just table with cost and effect. My players tend to forget about it because it is in Magic chapter.