D&D 4E Things 4E Did Well & Should be Kept in Some Form

[Connorsrpg]

Please limit your entries to lists - take discussion of specific parts to another forum (as several of them may generate such discussion):

This is for your thoughts. Hopefully a central place to keep things on track

I will get ball rolling, and add more later:

1. No cross-referencing for monsters. Everything in one place.
2. Cool abilities unique to monsters.
3. Complexity in hands of players (who only focus on 1 PC, not many like GM)
4. Movement in combat. I liked that combatants moved around and were not encouraged to stand still for full attacks.
5. The races. Yeas I like new races, and the distinction of Elf and Eladrin.
6. Cosmology. More for the back story of monsters. (Though this need not be in core rules, I do like the explanation of homes for the Fey, what undead are etc).

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

1) Balance. Start from balance. If that's not important to you, its REALLY easy to throw it out, and hand out umpteen spells to wizards to overpower them again. Its harder going the reverse.

2) Player control magic is reigned in. No longer do casters get to pick which dozen plot busting superpowers they want each day. Spell lists need to be focused, and limited. Sure, magic might be able to in theory do anything, but an individual PC wizard should not.

3) Separation of PC's and NPC's. I really dont need a full writeup for each spell a wizard used to create his floating castle populated with mind-controlled were-owlbears. In trying to make everything operate off the same system, 3E made things that should not be in players hands accessible by giving them stats. Similarly, classed NPC's where royal PITA's to make, because they had all the complexities of PC's (and lived for about 3 rounds). By putting NPC's in a different silo, I can, for instance, make higher level human guards challenging without justifying all the magical crap that would be required for them to hit/defend against players (and accordingly have that fall into the players hands).

4) Roles. Its a good idea that when a class gets designed, they should have an idea of how it fits in with the party dynamic. This isnt to say that a class cant have multiple roles (like the new defender/striker barbarian), just that it needs a mechanical reason to exist, and not just be realized with feats/fluff.

 

[Wormwood]

*points to Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms*

That.

 

[Halivar]

1) Prime stat used for most attacks. Multiple-Attribute Disorder died in 4E. No need to resuscitate it.
2) Abilities picked up in multi-classing were of a power level commensurate with your own character's level. Not since 1st Ed. has multi-classing really been rewarded right out the gate. (Just my opinion!)
3) Monsters as a stat-block. No spell lists!
4) The power-level curve in 4E was perfect. Levels 1-20 in 4E felt like levels 4-14 in 3.5E, which was always my "sweet spot."
5) No skill points or cross-class skills. It was overly cumbersome. 4E's skill system needs some work, but I think it's a better starting point than going back to 3.x.
6) Static defenses. 'nuff said.

 

[frankthedm]

4e PHB1 actually had a good balance between Feat Prerequisites since they forced folks to choose between having 18's & 20's or having decent feat selections.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Class roles
non-divine healing
wizard can use a spell every round all day
Full casters do not break game at certain levels
Stricter restrictions on game-breaking spells
Relatively low HP inflation
Different monster and character rules
Ease of DM prep

And probably more

 

[frankthedm]

Relatively low HP inflation

Points at level 1 kobold with 27 HP.

 

[Ahnehnois]

*Rituals
*Skill challenges (the concept, not the execution)
*Monster statblocks with less external references
*Minor actions
*Simultaneous increases to a mental and physical ability score from leveling

 

[Dice4Hire]

Points at level 1 kobold with 27 HP.

Since when does inflation have anything to do with the initial number?

 

[Wee Jas]

* Minor action healing
* Character customization