The DM is supposed to be familiar with the pregens exactly for that reason. How many powers do you think these pregens have? 4 powers is not a "multitude", and the classes for encounters are super simple.
Yes, but the presentation is
frightful.
I do think 4th Ed would have worked a
lot better if there was a paragraph of text or two for most classes explaining what the mechanics represented and how to play them well, and then a further paragraph for the pregens explaining their at wills.
Something like.
"Rogue: As a rogue you are fast, tricksy, and a master at finding the unexpected angle. In game terms this is represented by Sneak Attack - when you have Combat Advantage you do +2d6 damage (on your first hit of the turn). In practice this means that the average damage output from a rogue with combat advantage will be almost twice that of a rogue without, so a rogue in skilled hands will be attempting to gain sneak attack every turn. Sources of Comabt Advantage include flanking, attacking while starting the action
hidden, or attacking an enemy who has been either dazed or knocked
prone by one of your allies (prone, of course, only gives you extra opportunities in melee)."
"Luxor the Rogue. Luxor the Rogue is sneaky, able to appear from unexpected angles, and when given an easy opportunity instead of having to make one, he is very good at exploiting it. Because of this Luxor's At Wills are
Deft Strike and
Sly Flourish. Deft Strike represents Luxor's ability to appear from unexpected angles and can either be used to move you into flanking, or have you leap out of cover and throw a dagger without losing the hidden status until the end of the action (so you can either hide behind something with your move action and then
Deft Strike or
Deft Strike and then hide).
Sly Flourish represents Luxor's ability to fully exploit an existing situation, and increases his damage by 2. This, of course, is not as useful as a full Sneak Attack but means that if Luxor already has combat advantage (for instance from Flanking) he does yet more damage, and if you can see no way to gain combat advantage it's not as much of a loss."
Alternatively for another class:
"Fighter: As a fighter you are a master of any enemies who get into sword range and control the battlefield around you. This is represented by three abilities:
Marking,
Combat Challenge, and
Combat Superiority. Marking represents that you are as good at getting in the enemy's face as a star lineman, point guard, or defender, so they have a -2 to any attempts to ignore you.
Combat Challenge is a big part of the reason they get this -2; you as a fighter are
extremely alert and if a marked target takes their eye off you even to try to sneak away or attack someone else, you see this momentary lapse in concentration and get an opportunity, once per round, to cut them open (something that would make a lineman's job
much easier). And
Combat Superiority represents your superior ability with opportunities normal people would see, giving you a to hit bonus and meaning that the enemy can either stop or run all the way up your sword."
"Bes the Fighter: As Bes, you may be small but you are aggressive and powerful. Your At Will attacks are
Tide of Iron and
Cleave.
Tide of Iron represents your driving aggression, allowing you to force even much bigger enemies back as you advance under cover of your shield - or beating the brains out of anyone stupid enough to stay still and unlucky enough not to parry.
Cleave also represents your brute force and aggressive approach, in this case your ability to deal with superior numbers that would bog a lesser person down - when you hit one foe you can work against a second, doing a much lower (but still significant) amount of damage to them - or simply killing a minion."
Those are just dashed off - and are the sort of thing I see when designing a 4e character (and therefore am
incredibly unsympathetic to the idea 4e lacks flavour). But they aren't actually presented explicitely - instead 4e makes you figure out how things fit together.
And I agree that Healing Surges is a really crummy name. Something like "Endurance points" would be much better.
