D&D 4E [Alternative View] 4E is D&D's Mid-Life Crisis

[Andre]

I think the change over from 2E to 3E is WAAAAAY more drastic than 3E to 4E. If anything, 3E would be D&D's "mid-life crisis".

You may be right, but to me, 3E was "the man in the gray flannel suit" -- so buttoned down, it hurt.

4E may indeed be the red convertible, or it could just be the guy with the bad toupee. Only time will tell.

I'm rooting for the convertible...

 

[12thlvlnrd]

If D&D is going through a mid-life crisis with 4E -- then we can go through our mid-life crisis together.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Why would you say that 2e to 3e is more drastic? 4e, with its alternate races & classes, powers for all characters, alignment reworking, planar changes, and major fluff changes seems like far more of a jump than 3e was.

Mechanics wise it is more drastic. Removal of THAC0, Armor Class now scales up, one die roll to determine most effects (the d20) [miss chance still uses percentages, but rogue skills are no longer percentage based], non-weapon proficiencies gone, addition of feats, skills are streamlined, saving throws reduced to just 3, max hit points at 1st level (i don't think this was a rule in 2e, but i know most people house ruled that), multiclassing restrictions minimized, wizards can wear metal armor and still have a chance to cast spells, dual classing gone or at least folded into multiclassing, no level restrictions for certain race/class combinations, one unified xp chart, monsters no longer give a specific numerical value for XP (though it seems they are going back to that in 4E), any race can be a paladin, and so on...

4E just builds or expands upon all these changes that were made into 3E; 4E does have some unique changes, but nothing as drastics as 2e to 3e IMHO.