D&D 4E OK OK. A *NOT* negative thread from me re: 4E

[jollyninja]

Well, I love the seeming focus on character abilities over shiny new toys. I also like the simplified stat blocks, though I've been running 3.X for as long as it's existed without ever fully statting a monster. It'll save space in the MM for more monsters. The designers willingness to rethink 30 year old design elements is a breath of fresh air to me. The changes I have heard all seem to be designed to add fun, not remove it.

 

[Hussar]

Well, I love the seeming focus on character abilities over shiny new toys. I also like the simplified stat blocks, though I've been running 3.X for as long as it's existed without ever fully statting a monster. It'll save space in the MM for more monsters. The designers willingness to rethink 30 year old design elements is a breath of fresh air to me. The changes I have heard all seem to be designed to add fun, not remove it.

I listened to the October Podcast last night and one thing that caught my attention was when they talked about, after the first round of filling up the Monster Manual, they had LOTS of space left over and went back and added a whole bunch more monsters.

I'm thinking that you may be very right about the new stats being MUCH shorter than before. I mean, after 5 Monster Manuals, you'd think they'd be able to estimate the pagecount of monsters pretty well by now. That they were shocked to find they were so short really speaks to the shift in the new monster stats.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Maybe they'll put back in the Frost Giant.

 

[MerricB]

Top 3 things:

* Simplified statblock

* Reduction of forgettable bonuses and maths - the number of times I've seen John Cooper rip a book to shreds because of its statblock. What chance do we have if Wizards can't do it right?

* The Feywild. Hate the name, love the plane. Heck, I'll just call it Faerie.

Cheers!

 

[Flynn]

For me, my three favorite things about 4E so far have been:

1. Focus on reducing GM prep time (separate monster construction, simplified stat blocks, etc.) which will help alleviate burnout.
2. More things to do for players that don't lock them into "do nothing" rounds in combat.
3. Streamlined D20 system.

Enjoy,
Flynn

 

[StarFyre]

...

1) more 'stuff' for classes/races to do (feats for races/new abilities over time for races to change class abilities even more)

2) general streamlining of system

3) reduced monster stat block (although I liked random HD)

As a note, what I do not like:

Some of the cosmology changes, but those I like and those I do not like, can easily be put back into my own Planescape cosmology I use now, so not a big deal.

Also I don't like how damage reduction may be gone along with monster special powers/spell abilities...but again, those I can add back in cases that warrant it.

Sanjay

 

[timbannock]

Also I don't like how damage reduction may be gone along with monster special powers/spell abilities...but again, those I can add back in cases that warrant it.

Really? These things might be gone?

I feel like I missed something...


***
Things I like:
- Bye bye alignment having a huge impact on the rules
- Bye bye ridiculously long badguy stat blocks (I just recently statted up a CR 22 or 23 character and -- even using the condensed stat block -- it was 2-1/2 two-column pages in a rather small font. That's stupid-crazy.
- Overall streamlining. D&D will likely always get "rules bloat" at some point in each edition, but 3.5E was getting pretty nuts a while ago. Plus streamlining some of the fluff elements is probably a good idea, too. Really, none of the major settings from WoTC struck my fancy.