D&D 4E 10 Things I Like in 4e

[HyrumOWC]

I was going to post this in the Oakhurst thread but I didn't want it to get lost. So, here are some quick thoughts on what I like about 4e:

1. Healing Surges. Great idea, a little wonky in the fan made PHB, but the concept is very cool. I like healing being in the hands of the character. More healing during an encounter would make them even cooler, but I suspect the full rules will have something about that.

2. Minions and Mobs: I love, love, love mook rules. The minion rules are very cool, and I like how the waves come out without overpowering PC's.

3. New CR system: I don't know the real name, but I love how easy it is to throw an encounter together. PC's are worth Y experience points, monsters are equal to that number. Nice, simple, easy.

4. Hearty PCs: I like how sturdy 1st level PCs are.

5. Saving Throws: Not having to track durations is cool. I'm not 100% sold on the roll 10 or higher bit, (does a 1st level spell have the same save for both a 20th level and 1st level character? I have no idea but I hope not.) but I like how clean and simple it is.

6. A cool basic attack: Eldritch blast, Lance of Faith, Cleave, etc. are cool abilities. I'm not a fan of At Will/Encounter/Daily, but I like the underlying idea.

7. 1-1-1 Movement: It's Faaaabbuuulous!

8. Monster Recharge Powers: It's simple and it works. It's part of the less tracking is good bit.

9. Bloodied Abilities: It's a neat idea, especially with the black dragon breath weapon. It's flavorful and simple, two cool things.

10. Racial abilities: Not really part of the playtest, but I like the idea of ditching ECL and replacing it with a racial ability every X levels.

Now... None of this would be hard to port into 3.x, and probably help it significantly. Anyway, just some thoughts.

Hyrum.

 

[UltimaRatio]

I'd argue that the best thing is left out of your list - Game balance around the encounter as the primary metric, as opposed to the day.

NinjEdit: that said, I do like your list very much. It neatly encapsulates a lot of my favorite things about 4E.

 

[EricNoah]

Not a 4E switcher here, but I think even I can find 10 things I like about 4E...

1) Increased sturdiness of lower level characters, and more healing options that don't depend on the cleric.

2) More at will powers.

3) Monsters don't necessarily use the same rules as PCs.

4) Fighter-types seem to have a couple of more interesting things to do.

5) Undead not immune to crits or sneak attacks.

6) Turn undead (not necessarily the exact mechanic, but that it doesn't rely on a chart).

7) More base classes. I would prefer 3-4 really generic classes that have customizable features, but if not, then having a bunch of base classes to choose from is next best in my book.

8) No more iterative attacks

9) Reach and AoO lessened, occur much less frequently

10) Less reliance on magic items for character abilities/survivability

(Thanks to Trainz for the last three!)

 

[Psion]

7. 1-1-1 Movement: It's Faaaabbuuulous!

So YOU'RE the one.

 

[HyrumOWC]

So YOU'RE the one.

Maybe.

It definitely came up last year when I was managing the now never to be released Upper Deck RPG. We went with 1-1-1 and the only person who had a problem with it was the hardcore D&D minis playing UDE guy. Yes it's wonky, but it's worlds easier.

Hyrum.

 

[Will]

1) General mechanic of X + 1/2 level. Makes altering things a snap, makes balance a lot easier- I love it.

2) Healing surges.

3) Magic items being easily removed (assuming this pans out)

4) The whole at-will/encounter/daily thing... for everyone!

5) Race abilities that develop over time.

6) No LA.

7) NPCs designed differently than PCs.

8) No Arcane Spell Failure

9) PDF availability of all books (assuming this pans out as promised)

10) Pushing of certain high fantasy abilities until Paragon levels (fly, invisibility, possibly raise dead)

 

[Verys Arkon]

1. Healing Surges. Great idea, a little wonky in the fan made PHB, but the concept is very cool. I like healing being in the hands of the character. More healing during an encounter would make them even cooler, but I suspect the full rules will have something about that.

I compiled the PHB Lite, and I'd like to improve it with feedback from users. How could the Healing Surges entry be clarified for you? Let me know and I will make the changes in the next update.

Cheers,
Verys

 

[fnwc]

5. Saving Throws: Not having to track durations is cool. I'm not 100% sold on the roll 10 or higher bit, (does a 1st level spell have the same save for both a 20th level and 1st level character? I have no idea but I hope not.) but I like how clean and simple it is.

Well, the chance of a spell affecting a particular player has been moved from 3E Saving Throws to 4E Defenses.

In 3E a high level character saves more easily against a particular spell than a lower level character in the same way that a high level character is harder to hit with a particular spell than a lower level character in 4E.

The new save mechanic is pretty nice, I think.

 

[Surgoshan]

Tactics tactics tactics!
I love that they're consciously defining roles in combat and building abilities around that.
I also really like movement-heavy combat. Stock still fistfights are boring.

 

[Zelgadas]

Yeah, and those roles work pretty well. In a playtest that I ran last weekend, the paladin was easily soaking up most of the hits, while the ranger and warlock were dishing out most of the damage and the cleric was supporting everyone with buffs and healing. The best part was that, even though the cleric was buffing and healing everyone, he was still doing other stuff that was fun for him. All of his buffs (almost) were part of an attack. His healing word (which is a fantastic ability, by the way) only takes a minor action. Great, great stuff.

Now, this is all great on an individual level, but an even better effect of all this role-definition is that it makes it really easy for everyone to work together as a cohesive whole that is more than the sum of its parts. Teamwork really pays off in this game (for both PCs and monsters), and I love that.