Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
Spoken like a true Player.As a die hard 4e fan, I have considered it because of the group of friends and family that I play with. We have all played hundreds of game systems in our day, and while I like 4e best of all, ultimately it doesn't matter what I play. I like telling stories with my friends. Stories that we all enjoy. Stories told in blood and spells. Doesn't matter if i am making a full attack and a 5' step, or blowing a daily power and shifting 1. It's all the same in the end. Fun killing things and taking their stuff.
If we did go back to 3.x, pathfinder would definately be it. A vast improvement over the last gen. Better Melee, Spellcasters that get some at-wills and enough tricks to essentially make encounter powers out of domains and school powers. Yeah the balance of the classes is still ridiculously off, but so long as you know that going in who cares. Playing a knight style fighter is great fun. at 18th level, i will be murderous. Maybe not as murderous as the wizard dropping time stop and meteor swarm, but does it really matter. Having fun is what it is all about.
I mean that with no malice whatsoever. I am right there with you. I'll play anything, if the story's good, the other players are friends, and the DM's fair.
But that is the heart of it - the DM. That's why I can't go back to 3.x or on to PF. They haven't changed enough of the DM bits to make it work, or rather, less work. The last major D&D campaign I ran was a huge, epic arc that ran from 1st right on until it was done. That was about 18th or so. By the time I got into the low teens, the game required so much prep work, that even unemployed as I was, I didn't have the time to make it work every week, week after week. The game, and hence the story, suffered because of it.
We still had good games, and some good times, but I will never DM that system again*. Never.
Some will say, "but what about PF 2.0?!?!" and to that, I say, sure, I'll give it a look, but it won't be 3.x anymore by that point, and if it still is, then it isn't worth any more than its predecessor from where I sit: behind the screen.
I am not a 4e fanboy, though I like it. If my group said though, that they're abandoning it, I'd sooner go back to 2e, or previous, from a DM's perspective, or even perhaps a retro-clone. Maybe even a houseruled previous edition (perhaps throwing in some feats and Essentials-style boosts for the non-casters).
Or heck, another system entirely. There are lots, and I've played some. I like some more than others. Pretty much all of them more than 3.x, again, as a DM. I don't care what I play.
* E6 being a possible exception.