Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
There are quite a few things I'd liked to have seen them do with a theoretical 4.5e
Eliminate the Cruft - Get rid of junk feats, powers, items, etc. These things should be powerful and dramatic, IMO, especially Feats and Items. Powers should have more options for scaling, rather than replacement in each tier.
Streamline Similarities - roll in a lot of the similar powers by power source into common lists. This includes less base classes and more subclasses. Obviously some powers could be unique to certain subclasses, but for the most part, powers can be pretty universal and subclasses can differentiate based on keywords and rider effects.
Math Tweaks - most of the math works pretty well, certainly far better than other editions, but there are still holes.
More Flexibility - in all aspects. Short of assassinating ability scores entirely, giving players more choice of stats to use with powers (based on power source and or role) and skills (many have justifications for multiple stats) would go a long way to satisfying this for me. Next is taking this in the opposite direction, which I dislike greatly.
Nix the Item Treadmill - I think Inherent Bonuses are the way to go. I've implemented a way to make them compatible with items in my games, but I'm sure someone paid to do this could do better. This is less of an issue if the best part of an item is its effect rather than its plus. I also really like alternative rewards.
Language Cleanup - Some terms, like Healing Surges, are just awkward and contentious and should be replaced. Other things, like Extended Rests, are incredibly powerful tools that suffer from a lack of good explanation on how to use them for best effect in the game. This should be fixed. Skill Challenges are another aspect of the game that suffers from this.
Rituals Are Awesome - They are a great addition and should be given a thorough tuning pass. I have converted them to burning surges in my games (which decreases as you out-level the ritual). Martial Practices are also cool, and would see more use if the feat cost weren't there.
Surge Flexibility - I've houseruled many more uses for healing surges. They're a great and very flexible meta-mechanic that can serve many functions, from power-recharging, to healing, to fuel for rituals, to story pacing. They are an under-leveraged resource in stock 4e.
Three Pillars - Early in talk of Next, much was said about the Three Pillars of character creation: Race, Class, Theme/Background. I think more emphasis needs to be placed on Race and Theme where it concerns build options. Perhaps additional powers or on-demand power-swaps coming from Theme and Race could fill this void. Other ideas include drawing skills from Theme/Background rather than class, or having each one contribute to skills in some way. Tweaks made to the relative importance of the two neglected pillars should remain significant for more of the character's career.
I could go on and on, but I'll leave it at that for now. I've seen quite a few ideas in this thread that I like and are similar to my own. I hold out hope that someday WotC will decide to revisit this edition and give it a revamp. Not holding my breath though. Maybe someday we'll get a Paizo-like answer to this issue.
Eliminate the Cruft - Get rid of junk feats, powers, items, etc. These things should be powerful and dramatic, IMO, especially Feats and Items. Powers should have more options for scaling, rather than replacement in each tier.
Streamline Similarities - roll in a lot of the similar powers by power source into common lists. This includes less base classes and more subclasses. Obviously some powers could be unique to certain subclasses, but for the most part, powers can be pretty universal and subclasses can differentiate based on keywords and rider effects.
Math Tweaks - most of the math works pretty well, certainly far better than other editions, but there are still holes.
More Flexibility - in all aspects. Short of assassinating ability scores entirely, giving players more choice of stats to use with powers (based on power source and or role) and skills (many have justifications for multiple stats) would go a long way to satisfying this for me. Next is taking this in the opposite direction, which I dislike greatly.
Nix the Item Treadmill - I think Inherent Bonuses are the way to go. I've implemented a way to make them compatible with items in my games, but I'm sure someone paid to do this could do better. This is less of an issue if the best part of an item is its effect rather than its plus. I also really like alternative rewards.
Language Cleanup - Some terms, like Healing Surges, are just awkward and contentious and should be replaced. Other things, like Extended Rests, are incredibly powerful tools that suffer from a lack of good explanation on how to use them for best effect in the game. This should be fixed. Skill Challenges are another aspect of the game that suffers from this.
Rituals Are Awesome - They are a great addition and should be given a thorough tuning pass. I have converted them to burning surges in my games (which decreases as you out-level the ritual). Martial Practices are also cool, and would see more use if the feat cost weren't there.
Surge Flexibility - I've houseruled many more uses for healing surges. They're a great and very flexible meta-mechanic that can serve many functions, from power-recharging, to healing, to fuel for rituals, to story pacing. They are an under-leveraged resource in stock 4e.
Three Pillars - Early in talk of Next, much was said about the Three Pillars of character creation: Race, Class, Theme/Background. I think more emphasis needs to be placed on Race and Theme where it concerns build options. Perhaps additional powers or on-demand power-swaps coming from Theme and Race could fill this void. Other ideas include drawing skills from Theme/Background rather than class, or having each one contribute to skills in some way. Tweaks made to the relative importance of the two neglected pillars should remain significant for more of the character's career.
I could go on and on, but I'll leave it at that for now. I've seen quite a few ideas in this thread that I like and are similar to my own. I hold out hope that someday WotC will decide to revisit this edition and give it a revamp. Not holding my breath though. Maybe someday we'll get a Paizo-like answer to this issue.