I think buff spells are eroding my enjoyment of D&D.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I didn't have a problem with buffs & debuffs until 4Ed. That was mainly because the 4Ed buffs were SO ephemeral and potentially came from every character in an encounter- friend or foe- as opposed to just a few casters. Instead of having to calculate things once or twice in an encounter, you had to do so every turn.

Law of unintended consequences: they wanted individual buffs and debuffs to be less important than in 3.5, and succeeded. Ditto increasing their distribution between all classes. But in doing so they made a system full of plentiful short lived mods that still needed to be tracked.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I should have mentioned my specific distaste for Enlarge Person

In my 4e experience, buffs are only coming from leaders (and vanguard weapons, an optimizer's favorite). Most of the buffs only last a turn, but occasionally players need reminding. For one 4e campaign I'm in, we have a runepriest, who can hand out two wide-ranging buffs each turn. The player made cardstock reminders, color-coded, to remind other players what the buffs are. (In a campaign I just started, the leader, a cleric, doesn't have direct buffs. He didn't take Lance of Faith.)

 

[TwoSix]

In my 4e experience, buffs are only coming from leaders (and vanguard weapons, an optimizer's favorite). Most of the buffs only last a turn, but occasionally players need reminding. For one 4e campaign I'm in, we have a runepriest, who can hand out two wide-ranging buffs each turn. The player made cardstock reminders, color-coded, to remind other players what the buffs are. (In a campaign I just started, the leader, a cleric, doesn't have direct buffs. He didn't take Lance of Faith.)

Yea, I would say party comp plays a big role in 4e as to the number of buffs. Not that it doesn't get annoying when a lot of them are ticking, though. I'd say ongoing damage and effects that are (save ends) are even worse offenders. It's why I always encourage my 4e players to play strikers. Less stuff to track in general.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In my 4e experience, buffs are only coming from leaders...

My Starlock was tossing out debuffs to the foes our fighter and rogue were engaged with; other PCs did likewise. The DM had to track those just as much as we had to track buffs from our leaders.

Also, the foes tossed out debuffs on us.

Aaaaaand then there were all the situational bonuses our own class abilities and powers would kick out.

 

[MJS]

How about this: make a bunch of slider/indicators, and then just have reducing them come at the end of the round? Personally, I don't like buff-heavy mechanics, and play rules light, but thats no solution within the context of your problem. Make these things out of cardboard, or wood. Or use decks of cards. I like the sliders idea though. If anyone in the group is crafty with wood, you could make them really nice...