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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 7665576" data-attributes="member: 7635">I didn't. I saw columns of powers that read like math problems: "Ability A vs Defense B, Hit: do XdY + A damage and add condition Z" I saw fancy names, but I had no idea what a "steel serpent strike" was (or why I could do it only once in an encounter) nor did I get what exactly was happening when the wizard cast "darkening flame" (save for that strip of italic text). While there were some details you could suss out with practice (like attacks that hit reflex vs AC) unfortunately everything (swinging a sword, casting a spell, or summoning angels) all fell into that same format, which made them all look like similar actions. Come essentials, they put a little blurb above most powers that "described" the power in action (better than the often concise italics did). That was better, but it was a return to whole language (with a power-block summary below). 4e's greatest failing, imho, isn't powers or such, but the fact that they allowed stat blocks to stand in for description. Be it powers, monsters, or magic items, WotC produced dozens of books that read like catalogs of color-coded jargon that only showed numbers and forced the reader to make them fiction. Rather than balance the two, they let one stand in for the other, and it created an illusion that the numbers were the only important thing about them.</blockquote>