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I halve a lot of monster HP, too, though mainly because most of my group are 4e newbs, so fights take long enough just from them trying to figure out their own stats. I don't use monsters with a big level range, but my players also have pretty similar to hit bonuses, so it isn't a big deal...

Wow. I was going to break this up, point by point, and respond, but I find I cannot. I am left in awe at the purity of the nerdrage found in this post. It is unclouded by reason, unstalled by logic. Just reading it nearly made my mind crumple under the cognitive dissonance. You've managed...

As I recall, it didn't really work in Eberron, either.

B-But, they can get Wisdom! Telekinetic Psions use that! Sometime, though, I'd like to play a comedic game with all the races chosen at odds with their stereotypes. Halfling Fighter. Orc Wizard. Goliath Rogue. Drow Pacifist Cleric(of Corellon, naturally).

I've noticed this, too, but for me it doesn't matter so much what system it is as it does how familiar I am with it. The more I know the rules, the more likely I am to consider the ramifications of racial choice in a mechanical light.

Do you find that, in your games, character plays you?

I'd recommend a slightly different approach. Let them have maybe 2 tries, then no more tries, unless the player describes how their next attempt is different. Then they get another shot. For the lock picking example, the first two tries can be done with the Thief saying, "I pick the lock."...

I used to be pretty big on picking my race for RP first, and not budging on it. These days I tend to finalize my race much later in the creation process. Some of it is optimizing, yes, but more and more it's that I am choosing character concepts that simply don't hinge on me playing one...

That would immediately and possibly irrevocably transform the game into a series of "In Soviet Russia..." jokes. We'd have to switch to a superheroes game and start playing in the Cold War.

'Sup, Gorgoroth? I remember last time I saw your hyberbolic anti-4e rants, and we talked about that Druid. About how any of you could have given him a hand, but couldn't be bothered to. So he quit, then? Always interesting to get updates on these kinds of stories. I am curious, though...

If you're the DM, I'd suggest considering handing out free expertise feats. The Bonuses at set levels is good, too, but ime, players like free feats. Of course, if they don't look at the math, or compare themselves to each other, it probably won't be an issue, anyway.

Out of the corner of his eye, Satoshi sees the goblin raiders emerge to cause mayhem. He lets out a small sigh. "I'm too far out now to turn back. If I did, I'd only lose their leader. No, I shall press on." he thinks to himself, as the current carries him onward. I do that, then.

Uh, balance kinda works the other way, by shortening the gap between optimized and unoptimized. Not taking these feats might make you mediocre, but 4e's mediocre is probably nothing to someone who didn't care about optimizing in 3.5. Think of it this way: If you didn't mind playing a Fighter...

I have one of those character ideas I'd like to file away for later use. It involves making a Blackguard|Barbarian hybrid, to get the Blackguardy goodness(er, badness) along with flavoring rages as a sort of semi-polymorph effect. To that end, Warden might be better than Barbarian, but the...

Swiper, no swiping! This goes for my dice, my pencils, my paper, my snacks and anything else you might have your eye on. It does not apply to your dice, your pencils, your paper, your snacks or anything I might have my eye on, however.

Do you figure this counts as a use of Ardent Vow?

As another poster mentioned upthread, artifacts' concordance mechanics provide a very similar function to aligned items. For example, the Eye of Vecna, listed in the DMG, doesn't require you to be Evil, but it gains concordance(and thus, grants the character more power) if you "Betray a close...

Luckily, I can still count my asshat Chaotic Neutral characters on my hands. Or perhaps it isn't luck, as I've only DMed a few times. That was me. True. But I still don't want to hand them extra tools for asshattery.

As the fleshforged's strike digs into Canus's shoulder, the man smiles, and suddenly turns to ice, shattering under the blow. A few feet away, he appears behind his original target, ice still clinging to his form. He then slashes upward with his sword, fey magic still flowing from the blade...

Iirc, questing for Atonement was still possible in D&D. But it is an interpretation thing. The wizard example isn't. The arcane spell failure rules are fairly clear: wear armor, spells might fail. Alignment-based punishment mechanics, on the other hand, puts the DM's interpretation of...