This is completely my own opinion. And I do not invite argument as that will be a useless endeavor as all opinions are subjective. I post this only to clear my own mind on the matter of 4E and why I don’t like it. I also hope to commiserate with others that feel driven out of a game they have long loved due to a change in mechanics that ruins the entire feel of D&D for them. If that is not you, then I suggest ignoring this post as I don’t expect you to understand my feelings.
It has been a long marriage from which I have derived much pleasure. Yet D&D and I have reached a point of irreconcilable differences, and we must part. It is a sad day for me, though I know D&D is a horrible trollop that does what it must to appease the masses, and thus does not care whether one long-time lover leaves as he is easily replaced by another new lover. But alas, I feel great sorrow at this parting, but the new D&D I do not like and do not think I shall ever like it.
You are no longer that fantasy game that makes me feel as though I were a hero of legend with great power. Instead I feel like something fake, something without substance, as though you are a love that patronizes me for my heroics while at the same time knowing full well that I have not accomplished much nor developed much in power as I grew.
What are my grievances? They are many. And I shall list them only to clear them from my mind as they create the sound of buzzing bees within that drive me to madness.
1. Encounter Powers: Are these supposed to be learned combat skills or spells? If they are, then why must I wait five minutes to use something I learned? When I use an encounter power, I feel as though I blew off my five minute cooldown power and I am now reduced to watching a timer tick down while I use my at will over and over again.
Encounter powers do not feel like combat skills. They literally feel like game powers.
There has always been a fine line between what can be justified as a power with limited use such as spells and what is a skill that can be used over and over again because you spent the time to physically learn to execute the maneuver. The easy justification for divine and arcane power limitations is the reservoir of power you can channel in one day. A simple but very reasonable and easy to understand limitation on power that is plentiful in fantasy literature. Even such powers as barbarian rage are easy to understand as the physical fatigue associated with such an intense act can be fully understood and accepted. Less so perhaps is the monk stunning fist, but since that is somewhat tied to ki power even that can somewhat be understood.
But encounter powers are a purely artificial contrivance that I cannot wrap my head around. There is no rhyme or reason why once you use an encounter power, you suddenly are unable to execute that maneuver again until you rest for five minutes. It is an out and out contrivance that completely removes my suspension of disbelief. I use my encounter power, and I try to think about why I can’t use it again, and the only thing I can come up with is “game balance”. It flashes across my mind over and over again. I can’t get it out of there as it grinds on my fantasy mind like an alarm bell ringing “You are not in a fantasy world. You are not in a fantasy world. This is a game. This is a game.”
On top of that everyone uses every encounter power every encounter whether or not they need to. I have a Ranger player using Evasive Strike and shifting just to use it each encounter even when it is unnecessary. It used to be that people used their powers when they were needed, not just to blow them off because they can.
A barbarian didn’t rage every battle because they wanted to be sure they had it available for hard fights. A wizard didn’t blow off every spell or magic item because they wanted to save those magic items for when they might really need them.
Not so in 4E. They may wait on the dailies, but they blow every encounter power they can. If they are handily winning the fight, they start blowing off encounter powers just to make sure they didn’t fail to use every encounter power every single fight just because they can. It’s a jarring effect to have a guy say “I use Serpent Strike” when there is one guy with half hit points left that doesn’t much require more than a few at will hits.
And for powers that are physical feats, why can’t I do them over and over again? Why can I tumble once per encounter and then suddenly I’m so gimp, I just can’t manage such a feat again. It is an absurd and artificial limitation.
2. I cannot run encounters as I like to run them. I was one of those DMs that liked to run a few simple encounters with one knockdown, dragout fight that would truly tax and drain resources including magic items. A non-stop edge of your seat, no rest, win or die battle against the big bad evil guys.
I now feel like if I don’t give the characters five minutes of rest between each encounter they will be unhappy and feel like I cheated them. I also feel that if they don’t have access to their encounter powers, you can’t possibly take on very tough encounters. Not to mention you will be out of healing. No more using healing for emergencies or to survive really long, tough encounters. Now it’s make sure to use your healing each encounter because you can’t save it up. Two shots of healing and if you can’t handle the encounter with two healing attempts and your second winds, well, you shouldn’t even be able to handle the encounter.
Make sure not to fight anything too tough. You wouldn’t want to tax your ability to heal.
3. Dragons can’t decimate armies of creatures with one blast of their breath unless I make them very small armies. Breath weapons are very limited in range and damage. A dragon would be lucky to decimate a group of lvl 3 Hobgoblin soldiers with their weak breath weapon even at ancient levels.
4. Monster Recharge powers: What is up with this? If I run a vampire and I want it to use dominating gaze, I don’t want it to have to roll a six for it to recharge. I want it to be able to use it when it wants to and needs to use it in and out of combat.
Monster recharge powers are a joke. I ran a Hobgoblin Warcaster with Force Lure. It used force lure and dragged a player 3 squares so allied monsters could get at it. And that player used an encounter power to shift away. The Hobgoblin Warcaster didn’t roll a five or six for another 2 rounds. By that time it had no allies left for Force Lure to be useful. And when it misses, what then? Wait for recharge.
Do you have any idea what it is like as a DM waiting for a monster power to recharge? I sit there thinking of what is running through the monster’s head.
Goblin Warcaster, “Boy, I hope this thing recharges again.” It shakes its staff. “C’mon staff, work again. C’mon baby. Get lucky, let me have one more use of force lure against these players. Aw shucks, DM must have rolled less than a 5. I’m out of luck.”
Monster powers should work, period. They should work often and not be subject to a random recharge roll that might very well make it impotent for long enough that it has no chance of challenging a party. Was that the intent? It sure seems that way.
5. Immobilization: This is what replaced paralysis? The ghoul hit the fighter and immobilized him. I had to figure why exactly he couldn’t move considering he could swing his axe and dodge, but for some reason couldn’t move…even though he was dodging around and swinging his axe with full force. Then he saved at the end of his turn before the ghoul received his bite attack, and was just immobilized again. The one time I did stun him didn’t matter because the other players just continued to beat the hell out of the ghoul killing it well before it had a chance to take advantage of the stun.
So what good is immobilization when there are a party of five or six characters? What? The creature focuses its attack on the immobilized creature while the other four or five characters beat it to death?
6. Insubstantial creatures are a joke. So what if they take half damage, anyone can hit them. They have far fewer hit points than other creatures. They do very little damage and don’t level drain any longer. My party decimated spectures quickly and with little challenge. They don’t hit particularly well and aren’t particularly dangerous.
7. Spells and powers: My goodness. Spells and powers have become things that do a little damage with some minor effect that usually lasts at most a round or two. What happened to spells that work? Saves every round make spells work for a few rounds at the most. Rarely have I seen a spell extend beyond three rounds even with the wizard orb power.
Where are the powerful effects? Slide something a few squares. Take a penalty until the end of your next turn. Take some ongoing damage. Give a power bonus. Make some difficult terrain. Is that the best they have?
Spells and powers seem homogenous save for the flavor text. They lack creativity because the base mechanics lack creativity. Thus they end up often emulating similar effects based on character type.
8. Wizards: I know this is a mixed bag for a lot of people. But personally I like my wizards to be feared. When a wizard steps on the battlefield, that wizard should command immediate respect and fear. He should be able to decimate armies (and not just pathetic minions). He should be able to level creatures and transport himself thousands of miles.
D&D wizards may not have been a perfect fantasy archetype, but they sure did make you feel like you were that wizard in the story. You felt like Gandalf, Allanon, or Rand. You felt like you wielded arcane power that separated you in power from those around you. You felt like the kind of guy that a warrior would go see to help him on a heroic quest because having a wizard was essential to success. You felt like a wizard made a truly fearsome enemy that could be very dangerous to fight, thus you had to find your own wizard to help you. That’s the wizard feel I like.
If a 4E wizard were in a book, he would be laughed at if he tried that “mysterious, powerful arcanist” role you see in so many fantasy books. The defender would just laugh at the guy and say “Why you don’t scorching blast me friend. Yeah, go ahead and do it, you pathetic wizard. Real mysterious, real scary mister low hit points and low damage output. Why don’t you go kill some minions.”
Wizard, “But you need my rituals.”
Fighter, “I had a feat to blow. So I bought ritual casting. Sorry sucker. Like I said, go kill some minions, chump.”
This is the most pathetic excuse for a powerful arcane wizard I have ever seen. Shame on the 4E design team for thinking this thing they call a wizard in the 4E player’s handbook is anything to hold up as a job well done.
I calculated the average damage of a Meteor Swarm with a +6 implement and the appropriate feat for extra damage, and a lvl 30 wizard casting meteor swarm would have trouble killing a group of lvl 3 Hobgoblin soldiers in one hit, and almost no chance of killing a pack of shadow hounds in one hit, and no chance of killing anything of higher level in one hit. High level AoE wizard spells are pittance damage, yet their at will scorching blast is just as good at killing minions so why bother wasting a daily on a pack of creatures that mostly can be killed with an at will scorching blast.
Which brings me to my next gripe…
9. Minions: Is there anything less satisfying (save perhaps a missed attack, especially a missed encounter power or daily) than killing a minion? This has to be one of the most unsatisfying combat acts in the game.
It doesn’t matter if it is a human rabble, an ogre minion, a lvl 9 orc warrior minion, a demon minion, or any other kind of minion in the game, they die with one hit of anything.
Here’s what I see when I see a minion:
Wizard casts a scorching blast leveling five demon minions. Oh, he feels powerful.
Fighter cleaves with his +6 great axe and kills two demon minions. Boy, what a hit. He feels tough.
Rogue decides to punch a minion with his fist (just for kicks) and he kills a demon minion. That was some punch of the fist. Good job rogue. You just had the same effect as a +6 great axe and that uber wizard Scorching blast.
Small boy picks up a rock and tosses it at a demon minion. He gets a lucky hit and kills the minion. Wow, he one upped even the rogue.
On top of that, it is more efficient, and I see no reason why the players wouldn’t eventually surmise this with wizards having a 20 intel and warlords being tactical masters on the battlefield, to have wizards drop at will AoE directly on top of defenders when wiping out minions as they get higher level. Scorching blast does pittance damage even with a powerful implement compared to the hit points a player will have as he levels. For that one scorching blast you eliminate a ton of potential damage as well as extra abilities based on the number of allies from the battlefield, and do minimal damage to your own ally. Heck, why not carry a +1 implement on you just to make sure you don’t hit your ally too hard. When it becomes a better option to drop that oh so powerful scorching blast directly on top of the defender to wipe out all those fearsome demon or ogre minions while doing pittance damage to your defender, that is just wrong.
I will never wrap my head around the idea of this. It makes wizard AoE look like a friggin joke. A pathetic joke with very little sting.
This is a class that used to be able to destroy armies of giants or demons, not soft one hit point minions, but fairly sizeable hit point giants and demons that were formidable in their own right. Minions are the ultimate trash mob. A total waste of time and barely any waste of resources other than a few rounds of weak, wizard at will AoE.
I understand the concept of minions. I utterly hate the actual feel of them as a DM and feel ultimately unsatisfied killing them as a player.
10. First Aid: Who was the genius who thought this up? I can allow someone to use their Second Wind as a free action by standing next to them even with my hands full? I can stabilize the dying while still holding my weapon and shield? What do I do? Step on their wounds until they stop bleeding? How exactly does this work? There’s a fine line between simplification and ridiculous. That line was crossed on the wrong side for the First Aid skill.
11. Classes: They feel homogenous and leveling doesn’t feel empowering. On my third level paladin I chose a first level encounter power because all my encounter power choices were better at 1st level.
Encounter powers for almost every class go from two dice to three or four dice. Basically an average increase of 7 to 9 points of base damage not including static modifiers for most powers that use d8 or d10. Creature hit points seem to rise much faster than that. It doesn’t make me feel very powerful at all.
I used to learn nifty attacks that scaled like Power Attack that I could use all the time on top of getting multiple attacks that boosted my damage output substantially depending on the AC of the creature or Combat Expertise that let me boost my AC in combat when I needed to do it. Now my average per round damage increases by 7 to 9 points for base damage and some increase for stat modifiers, magic items, and feats. Overall, unless I score a crit I’m not denting high level monster hit points which seem to be substantially higher than mine and to rise at a much faster rate than my damage (except of course minions which I could kill with an improvised twig with slightly less ease than using my +6 weapon).
No big deal, because the high level monsters don’t feel particularly challenging anyway. Once they blow their recharge powers, they are lucky to get another shot at using them before they are dead.
On top of that Rangers can’t track any better than anyone else with perception, paladins aren’t immune to fear or particularly special, clerics can channel divinity one time per encounter regardless if there is one undead or many, and rogues can sneak attack once per round regardless of whether they spend an action point to make another attack. Why? Why is this? The almighty game balance.
It makes one wonder why a rogue can sneak attack in the first place. Is it a skill? Is it a “magic” power that is for some reason expended? Why can’t he spend an action point to sneak attack again in that same round? What is the reason? Game balance. Nothing like knowing that something exists solely for game balance purposes to completely take me out of the fantasy of roleplaying.
A lot of people may be fine with this, but I’m not. It is a jarring reality to know that things work a certain way not because the game designers thought about how a power or ability might work, but because it can only happen once a round to maintain the almighty game balance. A vastly overrated idea that I’m glad no writer thinks about before they put word to computer file (or paper if you prefer).
I’ve always thought of RPGs as an exercise in cooperative story telling much as a director directs a movie with actors. And the job of a storyteller is to make each character feels like an important part of the story, something I did not have trouble doing even with disparate combat power levels. Even though one on one a wizard might be able to kill any class in the game save a priest, they still wouldn’t enter a dungeon without a fighter or rogue because they knew full well that their power was finite and they needed the combat prowess of the fighter to wade through the masses of enemies that populate a dungeon and a rogue to circumvent all the nasty traps as well as scout and aid the warrior on the front lines. And no one could dispute the power and advantage of bringing a worthy priest with the group. And this was all accomplished without distilling every class down to equal combat capabilities in terms of damage and attack options.
It may not have been a fantasy standard to have a priest along, but over the years I have come to realize that such a necessity served only to enhance the unique flavor of D&D. Now that a priest is unnecessary, and healing is greatly moderated, I find that I miss the unique story telling and mechanical dynamic that made a priest so essential to a good adventuring group.
I’m well aware that opinions will differ on all that I posted above. I do not wish to start an argument as this is my subjective opinion and thus not something that a debate will change for me or for those who disagree with me.
I just wanted to release this pent up dislike I have for 4E as a 25 year player of D&D. A game I love. A game I spent many years playing with friends, many of those friends I know because of this game. I have moved on with every incarnation of D&D until now.
I still recall not wanting to play 3E, but giving it the same try I gave 4E. But by the time I had played 3E for the same amount of time I had played 4E, I liked 3E. I liked what they had done. It still had the same D&D feel I loved, but had improved on quite a few mechanics. I snapped up all the books and have spent hundreds, if not a few thousand, dollars on 3E D&D.
4E had the exact opposite effect. The more I played it, the more I didn’t like it. I didn’t look forward to leveling. I didn’t look forward to feats or powers. I felt as though you used one power you used them all for a particular type of class. And feats weren’t progressive or particularly interesting. They are all so mind numbingly similar in effect that you barely need to read the words to understand what they do.
I’m sorry to finally close the door on D&D. It is a game I didn’t expect to leave this way in my lifetime. I know I won’t be buying anymore books as I won’t be playing 4E. I know Wizards won’t be missing the few hundred dollars from my pocket, but I do know for certain the game they made isn’t enticing enough to earn that money from me. I hope this Pathfinder might be more of what I was looking for in my D&D game. Something that keeps what I love about the current edition, while improving on some of the odd and unwieldy mechanics.
It has been a long marriage from which I have derived much pleasure. Yet D&D and I have reached a point of irreconcilable differences, and we must part. It is a sad day for me, though I know D&D is a horrible trollop that does what it must to appease the masses, and thus does not care whether one long-time lover leaves as he is easily replaced by another new lover. But alas, I feel great sorrow at this parting, but the new D&D I do not like and do not think I shall ever like it.
You are no longer that fantasy game that makes me feel as though I were a hero of legend with great power. Instead I feel like something fake, something without substance, as though you are a love that patronizes me for my heroics while at the same time knowing full well that I have not accomplished much nor developed much in power as I grew.
What are my grievances? They are many. And I shall list them only to clear them from my mind as they create the sound of buzzing bees within that drive me to madness.
1. Encounter Powers: Are these supposed to be learned combat skills or spells? If they are, then why must I wait five minutes to use something I learned? When I use an encounter power, I feel as though I blew off my five minute cooldown power and I am now reduced to watching a timer tick down while I use my at will over and over again.
Encounter powers do not feel like combat skills. They literally feel like game powers.
There has always been a fine line between what can be justified as a power with limited use such as spells and what is a skill that can be used over and over again because you spent the time to physically learn to execute the maneuver. The easy justification for divine and arcane power limitations is the reservoir of power you can channel in one day. A simple but very reasonable and easy to understand limitation on power that is plentiful in fantasy literature. Even such powers as barbarian rage are easy to understand as the physical fatigue associated with such an intense act can be fully understood and accepted. Less so perhaps is the monk stunning fist, but since that is somewhat tied to ki power even that can somewhat be understood.
But encounter powers are a purely artificial contrivance that I cannot wrap my head around. There is no rhyme or reason why once you use an encounter power, you suddenly are unable to execute that maneuver again until you rest for five minutes. It is an out and out contrivance that completely removes my suspension of disbelief. I use my encounter power, and I try to think about why I can’t use it again, and the only thing I can come up with is “game balance”. It flashes across my mind over and over again. I can’t get it out of there as it grinds on my fantasy mind like an alarm bell ringing “You are not in a fantasy world. You are not in a fantasy world. This is a game. This is a game.”
On top of that everyone uses every encounter power every encounter whether or not they need to. I have a Ranger player using Evasive Strike and shifting just to use it each encounter even when it is unnecessary. It used to be that people used their powers when they were needed, not just to blow them off because they can.
A barbarian didn’t rage every battle because they wanted to be sure they had it available for hard fights. A wizard didn’t blow off every spell or magic item because they wanted to save those magic items for when they might really need them.
Not so in 4E. They may wait on the dailies, but they blow every encounter power they can. If they are handily winning the fight, they start blowing off encounter powers just to make sure they didn’t fail to use every encounter power every single fight just because they can. It’s a jarring effect to have a guy say “I use Serpent Strike” when there is one guy with half hit points left that doesn’t much require more than a few at will hits.
And for powers that are physical feats, why can’t I do them over and over again? Why can I tumble once per encounter and then suddenly I’m so gimp, I just can’t manage such a feat again. It is an absurd and artificial limitation.
2. I cannot run encounters as I like to run them. I was one of those DMs that liked to run a few simple encounters with one knockdown, dragout fight that would truly tax and drain resources including magic items. A non-stop edge of your seat, no rest, win or die battle against the big bad evil guys.
I now feel like if I don’t give the characters five minutes of rest between each encounter they will be unhappy and feel like I cheated them. I also feel that if they don’t have access to their encounter powers, you can’t possibly take on very tough encounters. Not to mention you will be out of healing. No more using healing for emergencies or to survive really long, tough encounters. Now it’s make sure to use your healing each encounter because you can’t save it up. Two shots of healing and if you can’t handle the encounter with two healing attempts and your second winds, well, you shouldn’t even be able to handle the encounter.
Make sure not to fight anything too tough. You wouldn’t want to tax your ability to heal.
3. Dragons can’t decimate armies of creatures with one blast of their breath unless I make them very small armies. Breath weapons are very limited in range and damage. A dragon would be lucky to decimate a group of lvl 3 Hobgoblin soldiers with their weak breath weapon even at ancient levels.
4. Monster Recharge powers: What is up with this? If I run a vampire and I want it to use dominating gaze, I don’t want it to have to roll a six for it to recharge. I want it to be able to use it when it wants to and needs to use it in and out of combat.
Monster recharge powers are a joke. I ran a Hobgoblin Warcaster with Force Lure. It used force lure and dragged a player 3 squares so allied monsters could get at it. And that player used an encounter power to shift away. The Hobgoblin Warcaster didn’t roll a five or six for another 2 rounds. By that time it had no allies left for Force Lure to be useful. And when it misses, what then? Wait for recharge.
Do you have any idea what it is like as a DM waiting for a monster power to recharge? I sit there thinking of what is running through the monster’s head.
Goblin Warcaster, “Boy, I hope this thing recharges again.” It shakes its staff. “C’mon staff, work again. C’mon baby. Get lucky, let me have one more use of force lure against these players. Aw shucks, DM must have rolled less than a 5. I’m out of luck.”
Monster powers should work, period. They should work often and not be subject to a random recharge roll that might very well make it impotent for long enough that it has no chance of challenging a party. Was that the intent? It sure seems that way.
5. Immobilization: This is what replaced paralysis? The ghoul hit the fighter and immobilized him. I had to figure why exactly he couldn’t move considering he could swing his axe and dodge, but for some reason couldn’t move…even though he was dodging around and swinging his axe with full force. Then he saved at the end of his turn before the ghoul received his bite attack, and was just immobilized again. The one time I did stun him didn’t matter because the other players just continued to beat the hell out of the ghoul killing it well before it had a chance to take advantage of the stun.
So what good is immobilization when there are a party of five or six characters? What? The creature focuses its attack on the immobilized creature while the other four or five characters beat it to death?
6. Insubstantial creatures are a joke. So what if they take half damage, anyone can hit them. They have far fewer hit points than other creatures. They do very little damage and don’t level drain any longer. My party decimated spectures quickly and with little challenge. They don’t hit particularly well and aren’t particularly dangerous.
7. Spells and powers: My goodness. Spells and powers have become things that do a little damage with some minor effect that usually lasts at most a round or two. What happened to spells that work? Saves every round make spells work for a few rounds at the most. Rarely have I seen a spell extend beyond three rounds even with the wizard orb power.
Where are the powerful effects? Slide something a few squares. Take a penalty until the end of your next turn. Take some ongoing damage. Give a power bonus. Make some difficult terrain. Is that the best they have?
Spells and powers seem homogenous save for the flavor text. They lack creativity because the base mechanics lack creativity. Thus they end up often emulating similar effects based on character type.
8. Wizards: I know this is a mixed bag for a lot of people. But personally I like my wizards to be feared. When a wizard steps on the battlefield, that wizard should command immediate respect and fear. He should be able to decimate armies (and not just pathetic minions). He should be able to level creatures and transport himself thousands of miles.
D&D wizards may not have been a perfect fantasy archetype, but they sure did make you feel like you were that wizard in the story. You felt like Gandalf, Allanon, or Rand. You felt like you wielded arcane power that separated you in power from those around you. You felt like the kind of guy that a warrior would go see to help him on a heroic quest because having a wizard was essential to success. You felt like a wizard made a truly fearsome enemy that could be very dangerous to fight, thus you had to find your own wizard to help you. That’s the wizard feel I like.
If a 4E wizard were in a book, he would be laughed at if he tried that “mysterious, powerful arcanist” role you see in so many fantasy books. The defender would just laugh at the guy and say “Why you don’t scorching blast me friend. Yeah, go ahead and do it, you pathetic wizard. Real mysterious, real scary mister low hit points and low damage output. Why don’t you go kill some minions.”
Wizard, “But you need my rituals.”
Fighter, “I had a feat to blow. So I bought ritual casting. Sorry sucker. Like I said, go kill some minions, chump.”
This is the most pathetic excuse for a powerful arcane wizard I have ever seen. Shame on the 4E design team for thinking this thing they call a wizard in the 4E player’s handbook is anything to hold up as a job well done.
I calculated the average damage of a Meteor Swarm with a +6 implement and the appropriate feat for extra damage, and a lvl 30 wizard casting meteor swarm would have trouble killing a group of lvl 3 Hobgoblin soldiers in one hit, and almost no chance of killing a pack of shadow hounds in one hit, and no chance of killing anything of higher level in one hit. High level AoE wizard spells are pittance damage, yet their at will scorching blast is just as good at killing minions so why bother wasting a daily on a pack of creatures that mostly can be killed with an at will scorching blast.
Which brings me to my next gripe…
9. Minions: Is there anything less satisfying (save perhaps a missed attack, especially a missed encounter power or daily) than killing a minion? This has to be one of the most unsatisfying combat acts in the game.
It doesn’t matter if it is a human rabble, an ogre minion, a lvl 9 orc warrior minion, a demon minion, or any other kind of minion in the game, they die with one hit of anything.
Here’s what I see when I see a minion:
Wizard casts a scorching blast leveling five demon minions. Oh, he feels powerful.
Fighter cleaves with his +6 great axe and kills two demon minions. Boy, what a hit. He feels tough.
Rogue decides to punch a minion with his fist (just for kicks) and he kills a demon minion. That was some punch of the fist. Good job rogue. You just had the same effect as a +6 great axe and that uber wizard Scorching blast.
Small boy picks up a rock and tosses it at a demon minion. He gets a lucky hit and kills the minion. Wow, he one upped even the rogue.
On top of that, it is more efficient, and I see no reason why the players wouldn’t eventually surmise this with wizards having a 20 intel and warlords being tactical masters on the battlefield, to have wizards drop at will AoE directly on top of defenders when wiping out minions as they get higher level. Scorching blast does pittance damage even with a powerful implement compared to the hit points a player will have as he levels. For that one scorching blast you eliminate a ton of potential damage as well as extra abilities based on the number of allies from the battlefield, and do minimal damage to your own ally. Heck, why not carry a +1 implement on you just to make sure you don’t hit your ally too hard. When it becomes a better option to drop that oh so powerful scorching blast directly on top of the defender to wipe out all those fearsome demon or ogre minions while doing pittance damage to your defender, that is just wrong.
I will never wrap my head around the idea of this. It makes wizard AoE look like a friggin joke. A pathetic joke with very little sting.
This is a class that used to be able to destroy armies of giants or demons, not soft one hit point minions, but fairly sizeable hit point giants and demons that were formidable in their own right. Minions are the ultimate trash mob. A total waste of time and barely any waste of resources other than a few rounds of weak, wizard at will AoE.
I understand the concept of minions. I utterly hate the actual feel of them as a DM and feel ultimately unsatisfied killing them as a player.
10. First Aid: Who was the genius who thought this up? I can allow someone to use their Second Wind as a free action by standing next to them even with my hands full? I can stabilize the dying while still holding my weapon and shield? What do I do? Step on their wounds until they stop bleeding? How exactly does this work? There’s a fine line between simplification and ridiculous. That line was crossed on the wrong side for the First Aid skill.
11. Classes: They feel homogenous and leveling doesn’t feel empowering. On my third level paladin I chose a first level encounter power because all my encounter power choices were better at 1st level.
Encounter powers for almost every class go from two dice to three or four dice. Basically an average increase of 7 to 9 points of base damage not including static modifiers for most powers that use d8 or d10. Creature hit points seem to rise much faster than that. It doesn’t make me feel very powerful at all.
I used to learn nifty attacks that scaled like Power Attack that I could use all the time on top of getting multiple attacks that boosted my damage output substantially depending on the AC of the creature or Combat Expertise that let me boost my AC in combat when I needed to do it. Now my average per round damage increases by 7 to 9 points for base damage and some increase for stat modifiers, magic items, and feats. Overall, unless I score a crit I’m not denting high level monster hit points which seem to be substantially higher than mine and to rise at a much faster rate than my damage (except of course minions which I could kill with an improvised twig with slightly less ease than using my +6 weapon).
No big deal, because the high level monsters don’t feel particularly challenging anyway. Once they blow their recharge powers, they are lucky to get another shot at using them before they are dead.
On top of that Rangers can’t track any better than anyone else with perception, paladins aren’t immune to fear or particularly special, clerics can channel divinity one time per encounter regardless if there is one undead or many, and rogues can sneak attack once per round regardless of whether they spend an action point to make another attack. Why? Why is this? The almighty game balance.
It makes one wonder why a rogue can sneak attack in the first place. Is it a skill? Is it a “magic” power that is for some reason expended? Why can’t he spend an action point to sneak attack again in that same round? What is the reason? Game balance. Nothing like knowing that something exists solely for game balance purposes to completely take me out of the fantasy of roleplaying.
A lot of people may be fine with this, but I’m not. It is a jarring reality to know that things work a certain way not because the game designers thought about how a power or ability might work, but because it can only happen once a round to maintain the almighty game balance. A vastly overrated idea that I’m glad no writer thinks about before they put word to computer file (or paper if you prefer).
I’ve always thought of RPGs as an exercise in cooperative story telling much as a director directs a movie with actors. And the job of a storyteller is to make each character feels like an important part of the story, something I did not have trouble doing even with disparate combat power levels. Even though one on one a wizard might be able to kill any class in the game save a priest, they still wouldn’t enter a dungeon without a fighter or rogue because they knew full well that their power was finite and they needed the combat prowess of the fighter to wade through the masses of enemies that populate a dungeon and a rogue to circumvent all the nasty traps as well as scout and aid the warrior on the front lines. And no one could dispute the power and advantage of bringing a worthy priest with the group. And this was all accomplished without distilling every class down to equal combat capabilities in terms of damage and attack options.
It may not have been a fantasy standard to have a priest along, but over the years I have come to realize that such a necessity served only to enhance the unique flavor of D&D. Now that a priest is unnecessary, and healing is greatly moderated, I find that I miss the unique story telling and mechanical dynamic that made a priest so essential to a good adventuring group.
I’m well aware that opinions will differ on all that I posted above. I do not wish to start an argument as this is my subjective opinion and thus not something that a debate will change for me or for those who disagree with me.
I just wanted to release this pent up dislike I have for 4E as a 25 year player of D&D. A game I love. A game I spent many years playing with friends, many of those friends I know because of this game. I have moved on with every incarnation of D&D until now.
I still recall not wanting to play 3E, but giving it the same try I gave 4E. But by the time I had played 3E for the same amount of time I had played 4E, I liked 3E. I liked what they had done. It still had the same D&D feel I loved, but had improved on quite a few mechanics. I snapped up all the books and have spent hundreds, if not a few thousand, dollars on 3E D&D.
4E had the exact opposite effect. The more I played it, the more I didn’t like it. I didn’t look forward to leveling. I didn’t look forward to feats or powers. I felt as though you used one power you used them all for a particular type of class. And feats weren’t progressive or particularly interesting. They are all so mind numbingly similar in effect that you barely need to read the words to understand what they do.
I’m sorry to finally close the door on D&D. It is a game I didn’t expect to leave this way in my lifetime. I know I won’t be buying anymore books as I won’t be playing 4E. I know Wizards won’t be missing the few hundred dollars from my pocket, but I do know for certain the game they made isn’t enticing enough to earn that money from me. I hope this Pathfinder might be more of what I was looking for in my D&D game. Something that keeps what I love about the current edition, while improving on some of the odd and unwieldy mechanics.
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