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Ad-hominem notwithstanding, I should have typed ALL heavy armors or just simply PLATE. Beyond that, the fact that essentials felt compelled to offer the Knight to patch that particular problem is fairly suggestive to me that they recognized a mistake.

4E changed the focus of the adventures to a series of stringed encounters with a minor amount of fluff to move the party from one to the next. Some adventures had some variation, but most 4E adventures that I've read are entirely focused on the encounter setup. The format of a 4E adventure is...

The 3E fighter could wear heavy armor without wasting a feat to do so. The 3E fighter could use more than one dang weapon and be really good with it. I like some aspects of the 4E fighter: battlefield control is an aspect my players enjoy. Being able to heal themselves was nice in the...

I may not be expressing myself well, here. There was, and this should be clear I mean 'in my experience', a perception that many DMs in the late 1970s and early 1980s saw D&D in a competitive light, with an adversarial relationship to their players. There was also, IMHO, a perception among...

Well, I'm talking in the sense that many people believed that to be the case and many novice DMs took it to heart. I played with plenty of DMs in the early 1980s who figured that translated into: 'I'll try to kill you with this module'. It was also one of those shared myths that everyone knew...

My default answer is always "Yes". As Mallus points out, there was a long-standing tradition, particularly the older the gamers get, that the DM can or is adversarial. However, I view the DM's job to be, first and foremost, to let the players have FUN. So in general I want to find ways to...

I think someone mentioned that. ;) I don't think we're disagreeing, here. Like you, no one in my gaming group discusses 'GNS' theory....but I've heard those conversations being had a local gaming conventions, where people sit down and talk for hours on end about games. I do know that people...

But it sounds to me like the core argument being put forth is, to carry that analogy forward clumsily, that the infrequent coffee shop customer is entirely different from the coffee shop customer who sits in the shop and that he complains about stuff that no one else does...i.e. the guy who only...

It's been said many times, but often bears repeating: "The plural of anecdote is not data." My experiences are my own and sometimes mirror wingandswords. And sometimes they don't. I've been playing since I started with Basic D&D in 1979. My experience matches SOME of what w&s describes...but...

Wow, these are both great ideas. The one NPC who is the player's acting sergeant is nicknamed 'Stoneheart', a term he hates. It's been established that he got a rune stone placed in his chest where his heart should be, but not why or how...other than it being tied to a mission that went...

So, here's the thing. On at least two occasions, my players have had an encounter with evil NPCs who had access to long and short range teleportation via summoned portals. The players have seen the process in action, but have no idea how it worked. Thing is...neither do I. :) I have...

There are several schools of thought, here. First off, we probably don't need new monsters. Even if you feel you need new ones, generally what you probably mean is 'these monsters no longer have the effect of being strange/scary/intimidating/unknown' to my players. This is a wholly different...

There was a time when I preferred Class-based. Then one day I discovered GURPS. That became our game system of choice. This was in 1986. :) It remained our system of choice until 3E came out and pulled my group back in to the fold. But one reason I liked 3E is that it appeared to take the...

Fair point. By that token, certain feats would become amazingly valuable. Anything that gives you bonus HP, temporary HP or makes you able to function while in the negative would make you into the equivalent of Conan. Generally I kind of ignore the distinction between dead and dying, because...

Sure. As I said, I can see this being made to work. It would be nothing like D&D, either. I didn't make those suggestions because the OP stated: "Everything else about the game is unchanged." And if you make additional changes, that might make sense. But in a world where you only have one...

No, not for me or anyone I play with. At least, not as a D&D game, as someone else mentioned. Entire classes would become pointless. When all classes are equally deadly, those who specialize in dealing damage or combat applications weaken appreciably. The notion that this would reduce...

Speaking only for myself? A lack of depth. Most of the 4E modules I've encountered so far are very shallow. That's not intended as a criticism, per se. It's meant that those modules are in service to a different goal than what I want. For example, one of the 4E modules in a recent dungeon...

Thanks for the recommendations. Several people point to 'Reavers', so that'll be one I definitely investigate. To be clear, this is not meant to be a criticism of 4E in any way shape or form. I don't believe my dissatisfaction stems from the edition even slightly. Instead I think the issue...

So, we've been playing 4E for...huh, I guess 2 years, now? Not heavily, mind you, but consistently. Mostly using my own material, but often (as in years and editions past) grabbing from various published sources. But I've been noticing something since the arrival of 4E and I'm trying to...

In context, he was pointing out that actually fighting Acererak was unfair...but that you didn't have to fight him...in fact, you could bypass him, get some treasure and escape. He's effectively a deadly trap, just like everything else. My take is this: Gary Gygax held this module up as an...