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4e rules will make some games much harder to run
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<blockquote data-quote="Revinor" data-source="post: 4112387" data-attributes="member: 25037"><p>This is very good question. There is a poll running in another thread which asks if people would buy 4e if it would be not named D&D (but still have exact same set of rules). At the moment, most people answered no.</p><p></p><p>For me, D&D 3e had following benefits over competition (in no particular order):</p><p></p><p>a) huge selection of well defined spells with interesting effects</p><p>b) huge selection of scalable monsters</p><p>c) large selection of magic items</p><p>d) high range of player advancement - from zero to hero</p><p>e) memories from earlier editions</p><p>f) very well defined campaign worlds with a lot of design history</p><p>g) large selection of books (including 3rd party) for pollinating with ideas/getting some extra content</p><p>h) generic fantasy feel, allowing to shape it in the way I want, instead of very specific color imposed by system</p><p></p><p>If I would have to chose single of those elements, it would be probably wizard spells. While magic system was far from perfect, spells were really nice. There are some systems with superior magic systems (Ars Magica or Mage comes to mind), but spells were underdefined, unbalanced or non interesting. My previous system was Rolemaster and while it had it's qualities, I was completly sick of Fire Bolt IV, Fire Bolt V, Fire Bolt VI, Cold Bolt III, Shadow Bolt X, Ice Bolt I, Vacuum A, Vacuum B, etc spell lists, with one-liner spell descriptions.</p><p></p><p>Will 4e have aspects I have listed here? I'm bit scared about a and d. Huge selection of spells turned into small selection of Diablo/WoW-like powers. Rituals MAY save the day, or might be house ruled into saving the day, but it remains to be seen. Range of advancement seems big from the numbers (30 levels !), but from what I can see so far, in 3e we got level 1 to 20+epics, in 4e we will get level 4 to level 11, just with many subdivisions. They have removed _on purpose_ one of the best elements of earlier editions - that after reaching certain threshold (5th level, 7th level, 11th level), your power was skyrocketing (not strictly combat power, I'm talking more about utility power). There was something to wait for. With 4e, it seems that powers are so 'balanced', that few levels here or there have just an effect of small modifier to hit and damage - there is no wow factor, again on purpose. I suppose that such wow factor is happening on 11 and 21 levels, when you cross the tier and get extra classes - but the distance between that is quite huge. In short, I'm afraid 4e will be too balanced for my taste.</p><p></p><p>So from 8 points, I got 6.5. I don't think I can find another system which will give me so many of them. For me, choice is staying with 3e, or moving to 4e - both with healthy amount of house rules obviously. I'll buy 4e anyway - I have skipped 3.5, so I owe Wizards some money <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Revinor, post: 4112387, member: 25037"] This is very good question. There is a poll running in another thread which asks if people would buy 4e if it would be not named D&D (but still have exact same set of rules). At the moment, most people answered no. For me, D&D 3e had following benefits over competition (in no particular order): a) huge selection of well defined spells with interesting effects b) huge selection of scalable monsters c) large selection of magic items d) high range of player advancement - from zero to hero e) memories from earlier editions f) very well defined campaign worlds with a lot of design history g) large selection of books (including 3rd party) for pollinating with ideas/getting some extra content h) generic fantasy feel, allowing to shape it in the way I want, instead of very specific color imposed by system If I would have to chose single of those elements, it would be probably wizard spells. While magic system was far from perfect, spells were really nice. There are some systems with superior magic systems (Ars Magica or Mage comes to mind), but spells were underdefined, unbalanced or non interesting. My previous system was Rolemaster and while it had it's qualities, I was completly sick of Fire Bolt IV, Fire Bolt V, Fire Bolt VI, Cold Bolt III, Shadow Bolt X, Ice Bolt I, Vacuum A, Vacuum B, etc spell lists, with one-liner spell descriptions. Will 4e have aspects I have listed here? I'm bit scared about a and d. Huge selection of spells turned into small selection of Diablo/WoW-like powers. Rituals MAY save the day, or might be house ruled into saving the day, but it remains to be seen. Range of advancement seems big from the numbers (30 levels !), but from what I can see so far, in 3e we got level 1 to 20+epics, in 4e we will get level 4 to level 11, just with many subdivisions. They have removed _on purpose_ one of the best elements of earlier editions - that after reaching certain threshold (5th level, 7th level, 11th level), your power was skyrocketing (not strictly combat power, I'm talking more about utility power). There was something to wait for. With 4e, it seems that powers are so 'balanced', that few levels here or there have just an effect of small modifier to hit and damage - there is no wow factor, again on purpose. I suppose that such wow factor is happening on 11 and 21 levels, when you cross the tier and get extra classes - but the distance between that is quite huge. In short, I'm afraid 4e will be too balanced for my taste. So from 8 points, I got 6.5. I don't think I can find another system which will give me so many of them. For me, choice is staying with 3e, or moving to 4e - both with healthy amount of house rules obviously. I'll buy 4e anyway - I have skipped 3.5, so I owe Wizards some money ;). [/QUOTE]
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