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<blockquote data-quote="tafkamhokie" data-source="post: 4191381" data-attributes="member: 62064">So far, my favorite &quot;fix&quot; has been the fact that the attacker is the one doing all the die rolling.&nbsp; No defender saving throws, no opposed grapple checks, no opposed trip/disarm/bull rush/overrun checks.&nbsp; When it is your turn, you decide what to do, roll a few dice, and see what happens.&nbsp; The absence of opposed checks and defender die rolling has really sped up the game, at least in my playtesting.My regular 3.5 campaign is usually lucky to get through 3 encounters in our regular 5 hour game session.&nbsp; A session with only 2 encounters is not uncommon.&nbsp; And each of those encounters is usually only 2-5 rounds long.&nbsp; In my 4e playtests (I've run three so far), an encounter is taking 30-50 minutes to resolve, and tends to last 7-12 rounds.&nbsp; Each player is getting a lot more turns and your turn comes back around much faster in 4e.My second favorite thing about 4e is the lack of pre-fight buffing.&nbsp; In 3e, how prepped you are has a HUGE effect on the outcome of a fight.&nbsp; The same encounter could be a TPK in 2 rounds, or it could be 2 round victory for the party without anyone losing more than 10% of their hit points depending on how well buffed they are beforehand.&nbsp; In 4e, most of the prebuffs seem to be gone.&nbsp; So the benefit of being fully prepared tends to wear off after the surprise round.&nbsp; Also the on-the-fly math required to deal with all those buffs goes back to my first point of the length of the encounters.&nbsp; Sure, there are still a bunch of random +1 and +2 bonuses you can phish for in 4e, but most of them are situational and end after your turn is over so you don't have to keep track of them round after round.&nbsp; Figuring out what happens to your character after you have the Heroe's Feast and Prayer and Bardic Music and Haste up, but then you get hit with a negative level, and some Con-damaging poison and a Ray of Enfeeblement, then an Enlarge Person spell, and finally a targeted dispel magic from the enemy spellcaster.&nbsp; Ugh.&nbsp; That mess seems to be gone in 4e.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tafkamhokie, post: 4191381, member: 62064"] So far, my favorite "fix" has been the fact that the attacker is the one doing all the die rolling. No defender saving throws, no opposed grapple checks, no opposed trip/disarm/bull rush/overrun checks. When it is your turn, you decide what to do, roll a few dice, and see what happens. The absence of opposed checks and defender die rolling has really sped up the game, at least in my playtesting. My regular 3.5 campaign is usually lucky to get through 3 encounters in our regular 5 hour game session. A session with only 2 encounters is not uncommon. And each of those encounters is usually only 2-5 rounds long. In my 4e playtests (I've run three so far), an encounter is taking 30-50 minutes to resolve, and tends to last 7-12 rounds. Each player is getting a lot more turns and your turn comes back around much faster in 4e. My second favorite thing about 4e is the lack of pre-fight buffing. In 3e, how prepped you are has a HUGE effect on the outcome of a fight. The same encounter could be a TPK in 2 rounds, or it could be 2 round victory for the party without anyone losing more than 10% of their hit points depending on how well buffed they are beforehand. In 4e, most of the prebuffs seem to be gone. So the benefit of being fully prepared tends to wear off after the surprise round. Also the on-the-fly math required to deal with all those buffs goes back to my first point of the length of the encounters. Sure, there are still a bunch of random +1 and +2 bonuses you can phish for in 4e, but most of them are situational and end after your turn is over so you don't have to keep track of them round after round. Figuring out what happens to your character after you have the Heroe's Feast and Prayer and Bardic Music and Haste up, but then you get hit with a negative level, and some Con-damaging poison and a Ray of Enfeeblement, then an Enlarge Person spell, and finally a targeted dispel magic from the enemy spellcaster. Ugh. That mess seems to be gone in 4e. [/QUOTE]

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