Does 4th edition hinder roleplaying?

[Thasmodious]

It's a ridiculous argument. Every edition of D&D has severely limited your creation options if you want to approach it in the manner this guy argues - that it must be able to do everything or it is a hindrance. In some of the editions he holds in such high esteem (he owns all 4 boxes!), if you chose a race, that was your class. You couldn't play an elf that wanted to be a cleric. In 1e, you could play a cleric/fighter/mage but you absolutely couldn't add thief to that mix. You could play some three class combos, but not others. Well, what if you had a story reason, like in REAL LIFE, to be a cleric and an illusionist and a thief? That build would be awesome for a cleric devoted to the god of thieves. But nope, not an option in 1e. In 3e, what if your concept was that of a youth trained as a soldier who turned his back on that because of his intelligence to study wizardry. You better beg your DM to start the game at 2nd level, cause you can't start the game with that concept. You can't start a 3e game with any multiclass concept. I guess all D&D hinders roleplaying.

 

[Njall]

You couldn`t? Or just wasn't it powerful enough for you?

Except that by this token, you can play a monk/sorcerer in 4e too, you know? Just play an Avenger and MC Sorcerer.
Don't use a weapon and just fight unarmed.
Voilà! You're playing your monk/sorcerer. Sure, you'll suck horribly, but if it wasn't a problem in 3e, why should it be a problem in 4e?

 

[Foundry of Decay]

I'll admit here I didn't read what was posted in the original poster's link. I've honestly had my fill of 'your doing it wrong' style arguments. Not that they aren't valid, I'm sure, but honestly I've stopped caring about rants/arguments/theories about the new edition.

I will, however, answer a resounding 'no' to the OP's question. In fact, my group and I now RP more than we have in years. In fact, the last time we had a storyline go on for this long was back in the 1e/2e days. There's something we find freeing about the new edition and as far as I can tell its:

- We care less about niddly rules, or spells/oddball rules that wipe out rp sessions.

- For my group personally, the vancian spell system ruined things often. While this doesn't actually have anything to do with the rp side of things, it did lead to us starting over almost every 3 sessions because we were constantly trying out new spell systems that would agree with us. This is an extremely specific example, since I'm sure other groups didn't have the problems we did, but it did mean I stopped caring about characters because subconsciously I knew we'd simply start over again.

I could probably ramble on endlessly, so I'll stop myself here and say that I'm quite happy with how much character development I'm having in my current campaign. For us the new edition doesn't hinder RP in any way.

 

[Aus_Snow]

No.

But you don't need "mechanical freedom" to Role Play.

My beef with 4e is that characters nolonger make sense in character. Too gamist.

Same here.

Or, to qualify a little more for my own perspective on it, I don't know for sure that 4e doesn't hinder roleplaying - because I haven't actually played it, having absolutely no desire to do so - but would be very surprised indeed if it somehow did. Surprised, because I've not seen, let alone played, a RPG that has. So far.

 

[avin]

I would dare to say: looks like YES, a little bit.

Both my 4E groups want more combat and less RP.

4E does not prevent roleplaying but the guys around here seem less inclined to get in their chars outside combat.

 

[Wormwood]

You couldn't do 4e style multiclassing in 3rd edition, so therefore 3rd edition must have hindered roleplaying too.

"You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to Nightson again."

 

[avin]

My beef with 4e is that characters nolonger make sense in character. Too gamist.

D&D itself is too gamist (what a weird thing to say) compared to some other systems, such as GURPS. Heck, there was level limitations for races some time ago.

That said I'm inclined to agree that, for a martial character, makes zero sense to use a maneuver and "forget it" until next combat or next day and most people have some work explaining Healing Surges outside mechanics... I think that even the most zealous 4E defenders (and chill out 4E defenders such as me ) will agree that it's not that good for character immersion.

 

[Phaezen]

"You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to Nightson again."

Got you covered.

TO be fair most game syatems don't allow complete freedom of multiclassing, even fairly classeless systems like shadowrun don't allow certain combinations (Streetsamurai/Streetmage)

 

[Mallus]

His argument implies every edition of D&D except 3e hinders role-playing, so this is new-school nerdrage.

 

[Bacons]

That said I'm inclined to agree that, for a martial character, makes zero sense to use a maneuver and "forget it" until next combat or next day and most people have some work explaining Healing Surges outside mechanics... I think that even the most zealous 4E defenders (and chill out 4E defenders such as me ) will agree that it's not that good for character immersion.

Isn't the idea that a daily or encounter power is something exceptional or taxing or whatever? A martial character doesn't 'forget' how to perform his encounter or daily powers, but they are either too taxing to perform all the time, are techniques that wouldn't work again as effectively once they've been brought out in battle and your enemy knows to be wary of them, or are based on effects surrounding an attack that simply wouldn't happen every time you did it (a little harder to define than the others, but looking quickly at some lower level fighter powers, something like Victorious Surge or Comeback Strike that represents a surge in morale or a high point in a battle would fall under this category; the advantages of the power over a basic attack don't represent a superior manoeuvre, but a state of mind and morale). The character certainly still has the knowledge and skill to perform the technical aspects of his attacks, he may just not have the endurance or opportunity to do it all the time, or the power may represent the side effects of his attack and place in battle, not the physical manoeuvre itself.

That is how I have been interpreting martial daily and encounter powers and although there are certainly ones that make little, if any, sense, I'm not sure it's accurate to say that having martial powers that can't be used all the time makes zero sense and prevents immersion.

Healing surges are weird, though.