D&D 4E Are powers samey?

[Eric V]

Zero impact if you do not play it that isn't the same as designing your balance around X encounters a day then only making some of the classes able to exploit it when its different.

For sure. Not the same thing at all. 4e didn't worry about balancing over different levels nor number of encounters.

 

[Garthanos]

The math not working at first is one. But not sameyness.

I hear skill challenges were not awesome out the gate but i didnt even play till 2009 and they had already addressed that. Someone on here pointed out how one could play a lame monk by reflavoring a dwarf ranger as a monk.
And I was sold

 

[Hussar]

Might I suggest, for the health of this thread, that everyone really make a conscious effort to stay on topic. I, for one, find the topic of the specific criticism (saminess) interesting. If you folks want to rehash edition war stuff, can you make your own thread and not derail this one? And that applies to both sides of the fence. Both those derailing and those who are chasing down the rabbit holes of "playstyle" and whatnot are not actually addressing the actual topic of the thread.

IOW, can we please try to focus on the question at hand and not turn this into yet another edition warring dumpster fire?

 

[Zardnaar]

And this has what to do with formatting of the books or saminess?

This isn't a "why did 4e fail" thread. It has a pretty specific topic in the OP which is "Why do people talk about 4e classes feeling samey". Talking about things like playstyle or bringing in other games is not really productive to the question at hand.

This is why these topics are so hard to discuss. Every time we talk about anything specific about 4e, people take it as a "why oh why did 4e have to fail" thread. It's not. It's a thread with a specific topic. So, why are you essentially threadcrapping? Is it really that hard to talk about a specific criticism without having to drag in all this extra baggage?

It's because they draw a false equivalence between 4E samey powers and 5E at will attacks.

Some players like doing the same thing over and over. Others don't. 4E PHB doesn't give you that choice AEDU is in everything. 5E is pick a different class.

If you don't like 4E powers you play a different game. Don't like a 5E fighter play a different class.

 

[Garthanos]

If you don't like 4E powers you play a different game. Don't like a 5E fighter play a different class.

Dont like how you have to guess what skills can do play a different game that takes them seriously

 

[JeffB]

we can skip the quoting and re-reading if you will this time answer a simple question:

Nope. lf you cannot be bothered to actually read what I say, I can't be bothered to answer your questions

 

[Zardnaar]

Dont like how you have to guess what skills can do play a different game that takes them seriously

Not sure on the reference but ok.

 

[Garthanos]

Never mind.

 

[Minigiant]

I hear skill challenges were not awesome out the gate but i didnt even play till 2009 and they had already addressed that. Someone on here pointed out how one could play a lame monk by reflavoring a dwarf ranger as a monk.
And I was sold

Oh the math out at book release was a bit off. Some of the powers were off. The monster HP was off. And Skil challenges were off.They fixed it later when they striped down some of the sameyness. The designers really just needed a few more months.

if PHB1 and MM1 was made like PHB 3 and MM3, a lot of the sameyness and math errors would have been stripped out.

 

[Garthanos]

Don't like a 5E fighter play a different class.

That is one of the most popular classes because of flavor and heritage in all of Fantasy do you really not get how preposterous that is?