Tony Vargas
Legend
4e covered exploration and interaction via skill challenges.4e does epic quests with a very strong focus on cinematic tactical combat. 4e is The Encounter - usually combat, not always - while 5e is Three Pillars - exploration, social & combat; in 4e the exploration pillar is unsupported and effectively absent in my successful
4e campaigns.
Nod. 4e had more of a 'cut to the chase' vibe a lot of the time, while 5e harkens back to classic D&D and the CRPGs that imitated it with so-called 'pixel bitching.' I was struck by that, again, running the Death House, actually, the party really did manage to miss one critical thing and, after clearing the place, had to give it once-over to find the entrance to the dungeon.This was really brought home to me recently using Dyson Logos' lovely dungeon maps - they were working great in my 5e game, so I used one in 4e - it was a complete waste of time, just got in the way of play. 4e really doesn't need or benefit from exploration maps
Like anything else, it gets 'managed.' There's only a few ways of stabilizing someone, most take actions, and the action economy is pretty tight. So players have to balance the value of their own action and/or slot vs the potential value of getting an ally back up, or even 'merely' stabilizing them if they don't have a slot available. Unless the enemy starts pounding on fallen allies, you can 'safely' let them fail a death save or two before coming to their aid.As I have introduced the 5e Death Save system 3/3 as well as 25% lover hit points in my own 4.5 version of D&D, I am interested to understand the player take on this. We have only gamed a few times with the new rules so I have not had first time experience of multiple death save rolls. My gut feeling is the risk that players get sitting outside of battle, just waiting to roll a new death save (fast getting bored), or has it lead to healers getting closer to combat to be there to help their friends get back into the battle (which I hope is the result)?
There's healing word, but because it uses a slot, and slots can be used for any other spell you have prepared, there's a steep opportunity cost. Adapting the 5e death saves to a homebrew 4.5, you wouldn't have that latter issue.
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