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I think a lot of issues 4e had go directly to the murder-suicide by their lead developer on DDI. Relatively small team and *that* happens? This is not to say 4e didn't have resolvable issues, but I think if that hadn't happened, they would have noticed the larger problems earlier and fixed...

Eh, kind of. They wanted Paizo writing adventure paths for 4e. The decision to give a year's notice in that context makes perfect sense. It would have been stupid for them to make them into adversaries by giving no notice right at the launch of 4e. Which of course makes the decision to try to...

You're only allowed to use one holy symbol at a time — have two and both are non-functional. The one you wear is always considered in use. But if you want, you can swap holy symbols in your hand and use all of them. As long as you don't wear one. Which is what Mirrakkah does. She typically...

Mine was setting up a moral challenge. PCs would get to decide the fate of the world going forward and I wanted to make the players really feel all the ethical dilemmas of the choice. Had them interact with various recently dead NPCs who had small requests to make of them. Seeing if they'd...

In 3e or 5e, maybe. In 4e, if you're in a game where magic item stores are infrequent or unavailable, rituals tend to be one of the more useful ways to get rid of excess gold. Simply because you'll have that +1 sword you no longer use and you'll turn it into residuum and there's nowhere to spend...

The system doesn't really have a lot of assumptions. I wrote into a 4e Organized Play, a pure roleplaying encounter. Not a skill challenge. Just letting the PCs interact with NPCs and letting them mull what was going on. Each time I ran it, I was asked if the PCs were in a skill challenge and I...

Also, spells that automatically negated plot tended to be drastically reduced or gone or replicable with the right skills. A Bard doing a song to be able to lie to people gets to roll Bluff twice as an example. Not lie without the possibility of being caught.

Also three more notes: It was reasonably trivial for a non-caster to pick up rituals via feat. So while casters often had an inherent advantage by starting off with ritual spells, they wouldn't necessarily maintain a large edge. The cost of rituals over time went exponentially towards zero as...

Fighters were one of the most versatile classes. One Fighter could be a close burst attacker, another could be a mock-striker, and yet another could exploit say Paladin MC to do automatic multi marking — in a way that all three would play differently enough that if you didn't know 4e, you'd say...

Each of the initial class Essentials books included the same 160 pages or so of duplicate material. Looking like you're deliberately ripping people off while making it less convenient to game is the fastest way to fail.

I think one of the basic issues is that WotC's had a very complex relationship with the power of multi-attacking and stacking bonuses for a very long time. But I think Essentials introduced 3 basic concepts new to 4e that were self-destructive: Single basic attack attackers — ideally, a striker...

Couple of builds in play in a really high magic item game, couple of free feats, some DMs are former CharOp regulars: Mirrakkah is an angel of the Traveler. She's a pathological liar who carries a cigarette lighter for a holy symbol in her hand for most of her attacks. She focuses on mostly...

Here's what I would do: All bonuses from X are from X. So a feat that gives a bonus to damage is a feat bonus. A power is a power bonus(so are class and paragon features). A bonus from a magic sword is an item bonus. A bonus from a shard is an item bonus. Etc... Vulnerability = bonus to damage...

Yup. Think one of my best early decisions was building a strange Charisma-based Half-Elf Fighter that I played in LFR from levels 1-10. Build looked kind of like this: 1: Soldier of Faith, 2: Melee Training, 4: Novice Power: Valorous Smite So basically, I'd Divine challenge one target and try...

Allows tactical movement in 3.5 — more options to pick who you attack = more options. At every other table of Living Greyhawk, I saw some variation of Barbarian 2/Fighter X, where the PC would repeatedly try to move in next to the nearest target and start power attacking away. They may have...

Right. But your group stayed in 4e — and your Fighter picked a more tactical feat chain choice for 3.5 than most. I'm stating more of the extreme version, but it wasn't particularly complicated — some players don't like to do anything in combat other than roll to-hit+damage and 4e forced all of...

The Fighter I described with a modified Twin Strike is basically functional and solid from levels 1-30. He's not going to be outstanding or broken, but there's nothing wrong with the concept. It will basically do vanilla Ranger damage+a little, but not have encounter/daily powers to boost...

That was too late. D&D has a problem player — the guy who thinks he's awesome at D&D tactics, because he does a lot of damage with simple actions and things die as a result. He always plays Fighters. He doesn't usually particularly like to role-play at all and often, groups work their way...

Right. If I were going to make a Slayer, it isn't at all complicated. Fighter that only gets Utility powers, no Encounter or Daily powers. It has a special basic attack that can be either Melee or Ranged that does 1w+stat and in Epic does 2w+stat. Call it Fighter's Strike. Now, Fighter then...

Sure. But I generally prefer area burst powers that can be enlarged with Enlarge Spell. And Freezing Burst slides and if your party cooperates, generally things work out ok. Only problem I have with that is there are effects out there that are 1-2 hp of damage and involve double-taps. It...