[Folks that like 4e] What are some things from previous editions that you miss?

[Gort]

All previous editions - the ability to make a simple fight that took only 10 to 15 minutes to resolve and "get the blood flowing" without taking up a quarter of the game night.

20 minions attack the party! Go!

I don't think you can get more simple or quick than that in D&D.

 

[weem]

I loved that the DM was the rulebook. Not that (as the DM most of the time) I liked having power over my players, but I felt like I had more creative license.

I liked the simplicity as well. With that said, I love having (lots of) options, but back then I really enjoyed how simple it was - I do miss that from time to time

 

[Akaiku]

I miss LA races, flying at will for anyone who cares and, perhaps moreso then the first two, specific weapon/armor enchantments not being required for a given character build.

In 3.5, not every big sword was bloodclaw and every small sword bloodiron.

 

[UniversalMonster]

I was going to say I missed familiars and summoning and then they came up with familiars and summoning rules that are better than anything we had previously.

I kinda miss Dark Su.. oh wait.

Oh! I miss the revised psionics handbook! The one that had Elan and Dromites and stuff. Those were cool. Looking forward to psionic dromites!

 

[The Little Raven]

Now that all skills are more thrown on 1 pile it has become harder to give a +2 religion check to a certain cult of the adventuring party has been through a long hard ordeal regarding that cult. Small rewards like that have been harder to give out. I miss that a little and takes extra book keeping and slight house ruling.

Page 42 of the DMG, under Use the "DM's Best Friend" tells you to give a +2 bonus on attack rolls and skill checks in favorable circumstances. Spending an entire campaign arc dealing with a cult is definitely a favorable circumstance to increase your knowledge concerning that cult, thus a +2 bonus is not a hard thing for a DM to give out in that situation (unless he's tight-fisted).

 

[amysrevenge]

Time for some brutal self-honesty.

I'm a big fan of the balancing/levelling-out of all the classes in 4E, but I secretly really enjoyed finding the loopholes and combos in 3.x and earlier that let me make crazy broken stupid PCs in ways that none of my friends could predict. I know I wasn't the first person in the world to think of them, but I was usually the first one in my circle to come up with them.

Small Paladin with Sprited Charge and Power Attack doing 200+ damage per round. Druid/beastmaster with a crocodile out-tanking the Fighters. Wizard/Geometer with one Rogue level out-trapsmithing the Rogues. Low-Wis/High-Str self-buffing TWF melee Cleric. And on and on. All ridiculous and broken in their own way. None really repeatable in 4E (it's all for the best, true, but I still kind of miss the "I'm smarter than you" guilty pleasure I'd get when someone's eyes would bug out a bit when I demonstrated what I could do).

 

[Mircoles]

Different colleges of magic and specialty mages.

I miss Ravenloft adventure modules,God those were good.

Dinosaurs, especially the really dangerous ones.

That's about it, I can't think of anything else I miss.

 

[hemera]

Getting to play a straight healer, with slim to none offense. But other than that, I'm pretty happy with 4th. Moreso when psionics comeback, and maybe a good Elements of Magic Conversion

 

[Mouseferatu]

Getting to play a straight healer, with slim to none offense.

Wow. I don't think I've ever met anyone, in RL or online, who wanted to play a character like that.

Nothing wrong with it if that's what floats your boat, but I'm amazed.

 

[The Little Raven]

Getting to play a straight healer, with slim to none offense.

Shielding Cleric, Divine Power.