D&D 4E Poll about your interest in 4e

underfoot007ct · Sep 15, 2012

A Question for the Path Finder Fan base, regarding the dread 4e game. Just wonder what loyal PF fans experience with 4e was like, If any at all. A poll about if you ever played 4e or purchase any 4e books. Looking at the cross interest of both games.

In NO way am I seeking to start an edition war. No disrespect to PF or the fan base is intended. Just seeking to get a better idea of PF gamer mind. Thanks for your time.

Crothian · Sep 15, 2012

When 4e came out we gave it a try. It wasn't for us, but I do have a lot of 4e books I've been meaning to get rid of.

Anguish · Sep 15, 2012

My group was mostly 3.x, having had older edition experience. We got the PHB/DMG/MM combo as soon as it came out for 4e and gave it a whirl.

The biggest problem we had was the flattening of magic's flexibility. Durations and intensity of spells were nerfed in a way that was very, very balanced, but not very fun for us. We were used to the idea that black tentacles could be combined with silence to be a good mage-killer zone. We were used to and very much liked the idea that spells like fly or invisibility could last minutes and could be used out of combat as well as in-combat. 4e reduced durations and effect for a lot of spells. Again, very, very balanced but in 3.x some spells are just radically different from martial abilities and that's what we liked.

So... we had already decided to just stick with 3.x by the time Paizo announced PFRPG. We gave the alpha and betas a try and moved happily over to that system. 4e isn't bad, it's just not the mechanical flavor of RPG we prefer.

To extrapolate, since we're so happy, odds are slim we'll get involved with 5e. We might buy PDFs of the core book if WotC decides to sell them, and look things over for ideas but we've already got ourselves a very rich and extensive system that gives us what we want. It may not be perfect, but we're happy enough with the imperfections.

Nytmare · Sep 15, 2012

We jumped over to 4th entirely once the playtest stuff started working it's way out into the wild, and played right up until just before the 5th Edition news broke.

I've got a huge collection of 4th Ed stuff, but what we realized is that I had been so enamored by the tools (pre-subscription-rental) and we had been so swept off our feet by the combat system that we hadn't really realized that we weren't roleplaying like we used to.

So, we're on a hiatus, and I'm dipping my feet into Pathfinder till we can see more of what 5th is going to look like.

billd91 · Sep 15, 2012

I was, initially, pretty optimistic about 4e when it was announced - I had liked SWSE and the scuttlebutt was that 4e was based on that design direction - but this was kind of the opposite of my feelings for 3e when it was first announced. When 3e news started coming out, particularly on Eric Noah's site, the game's changes won me over. Again, the opposite happened with 4e and I became less and less confident it was going to be a D&D edition I liked.

When the books came out, I got myself the PH and we started playing it regularly. I bought the DMG. And then I stopped getting the books. The game just wasn't resonating for me. The fights were grindy, I didn't like the power structure, I didn't like the scope of the spells being so reduced (and though rituals were a nice idea, they really weren't a panacea), I didn't like the focus of the game around "the encounter" and virtually little else, and I didn't like the magic items.

We continued to play for over a year and then even the 2 players in the group decided it was too much of a hassle. Now, it gathers dust on all of our shelves and we're play testing D&D Next and otherwise stick with 3.5, SWSE, or Torg.

Of my other gaming group, the one regularly playing PF, I'm the only one who has tried 4e in any extended way. Two others have tried it a couple of times and one worked in game distribution and knew a lot about it. None of them like it.

Of the other groups I know of who shifted to 4e, one DM is pretty sick of the stun locking powers and finds running high levels to be not that much fun. I hear they're looking into PF now. And the other group has largely shifted over because of Paizo's cool APs and because the teenage boys seem to prefer PF/3.5.

DragonLancer · Sep 15, 2012

I do not own any 4E books, though I did read them when they came out. Ultimately it was not to my group and I's liking. Never played it.

Elodan · Sep 15, 2012

Most of my group bought the 3 core books when 4E came out, even though some in the group had doubts based on the previews.

We played for a about a year and ran two different campaigns. At the end of the second we decided 4E wasn't for us. I had picked up the FR books and PHB 2 during that time.

We're currently trying to figure out which system we want to use long term. It's looking like it's between Pathfinder, D&D Next or a return to AD&D.

kenada · Sep 15, 2012

I voted for the last option, so I’ll explain….

I DM’d and played 4e from its release until early 2010 when our game fell apart due to scheduling issues. I picked up the Pathfinder Core Rulebook to play in another game (that never happened) and ended up running Council of Thieves for a few sessions. I’ve since come to prefer Pathfinder, having just finished running Kingmaker for the last 18–20 months.

I don’t think 4e is a bad game. There are some things I don’t like: the skill list is too simplified, rituals were a clumsy way of handling non-combat magic, and class features focused too much on combat abilities. However, I could sit down and play or run 4e and still have fun (though I would obviously prefer Pathfinder).

Starfox · Sep 15, 2012

Voted #2 , meaning I own some books, played it, had enough of it, and no longer play it.

Sure there were good ideas behind 4E, but the execution wasn't stellar.

paradox42 · Sep 15, 2012

I bought the three core books- PHB, DMG, and MM 1- and read through them thoroughly with an eye toward how they'd work with my ongoing game of the time.

Short answer: they didn't.

I had played one playtest of the rules, semi-beta-test, at Gen Con before getting the books. I don't count that as having tried it, since it was a one-off demo and I don't think the rules were quite finalized at the time.

After reading through the books, I was really rubbed the wrong way; I knew immediately it wasn't for me. So, I never started playing it. Stuck to 3.5, and eventually former players of mine (after my game ended) roped me into trying PF. A little over a year ago I started converting my old setting to PF rules and haven't looked back.