Right. And why does the existence of powers change the possible variety in what might happen? Presumably the PCs are fighting varied enemies, in varied locations, with different things happening in the various fights. If the same thing happens in every combat, maybe you need to get a new DM.
In that context the existence of powers has no direct affect on the possible variety... All I was trying to get across is that at-wills are essentially the same as the old 'full attack', in that they're used so often that they lose their charm. Full attack never pretended to be special in the first place.
The fights are different, but the level of tension and excitement varies less than it could. Precisely because after each 5 minute rest your characters 'reset' and dailies are the only excitement, because they're the only ones that don't get used in (nearly) every combat.
Variety comes not only from what powers the PCs possess, but from what effect their powers have on the particular combat, the specific foes and the given situation. By your definition, almost nothing a non-spellcaster did in 3e (leave alone earlier editions) could be exciting, since the vast majority of the time all they did was make full attacks or use one of a limited set of combat maneuvers. But people had exciting encounters in 3e and there's no reason they should be any less exciting in 4e.
Again, the difference from my point of view, is that powers attempt to be exciting. They fail at this because they're seen too often. Whereas basic attacks and full attacks etc in earlier editions never tried to be cool in the first place, so they didn't 'fail'. I'm not arguing that playing full attack every round was exciting. I'm just saying that powers you use every round are equally uninspiring. The same would be said if you used disarm every round in 3E. It's exciting if it's used sparingly and thereby makes an impact on what is otherwise a repeat of normal effects, but used every time it is just as boring.
To take a different simile - Compare Australian Rules Football vs Soccer for a moment. In Australian rules a team may score say 20 goals, and their opponents might get 18 goals.
I find this much less exciting than Soccer where one team might score 1 goal, and that one goal then
really counts. This doesn't mean people don't find Australian Rules Football exciting, but I personally prefer to watch soccer. Others find soccer boring because 'nothing happens' all game except that one goal.
LostSoul said:
If it's just a basic attack, I'd say that a basic attack + push 1 offers more tactical choice and more opportunities for something to happen then just damage.
Absolutely, but I wasn't discussing tactical choice. I was talking about how sometimes Basic Attack + Push is no more exciting than Basic Attack alone.
Taking an extreme of that one example: 2 combatants with equal powers, HP etc on a flat field.
What difference does it make if they push each other around? Neither gains any benefit from doing so. Pushing only becomes exciting when there is something to push into, onto, off of etc. And of course when there are other combatants around to take advantage of the push. But the push itself is not exciting, the
possibilities that are gained from it can be. Having the same set of possibilities (powers) in each combat is potentially less exciting than having varying sets of possibilities in every combat.
Having powers essentially reset in this manner reduces the variety from the point of view of each combat.
Another example: Imagine all powers were effectively dailies, but functioned multiple times per day, and the at will/encounter designation was only an indication of how many times you could use it in a given encounter. So you have 10 at wills, 3 encounters and 1 daily.
If you use up your 10 at wills in the first encounter, the remaining two encounters that day are automatically going to be different to the first one. Even if fought against the same monster type, in the same room. As you might encounter in a siege.