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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Number48" data-source="post: 5783539" data-attributes="member: 6688047">Let me add my story, which I feel is more middle-of-the-road.I am 41, and have been playing since age 10, the basic red box. There were long periods over the years where I didn't or couldn't play, but it was always in my heart.When 3rd edition was announced, and it wasn't TSR, I was thrilled. Enough so that I finally made the plunge and opened a game store. Yep, 3rd edition was the final push I needed to do that.I really couldn't have been more thrilled with what 3E accomplished. It all seemed so perfect. D&D had finally been designed by a team of dedicated professional game designers so I no longer had to feel I was playing "Gary's game," e.g. a game where halflings could be rogues or useless fighters.Eventually there were problems with the system, but it was never enough to really break it functionally. Multi-class worked great for fighter-types but was death for wizards. Wizards and clerics could overshadow the group later on, but only if that was how they were played. 3.5E fixed and clarified some things and didn't fix other things that were too deeply ingrained in the mechanics to BE fixable. I got tired of combats, like where the characters decimated a Fire Giant, a monster quite a bit above their level, in two rounds. In the limited time the Fire Giant could act, he was all but hog-tied by the simple 1st level spell Grease.When 4E came out, I was thrilled. Again. I wanted to like it. From a business perspective, I HAD to like it. So I tried. I really, really tried and ran several games from the shop and home. I talked down the naysayers who called it WOW and pointed out that WOW was taken more from D&D than D&D was from WOW. In the end, though, I had to finally admit it. 4E was not a game I could play. I am now running Pathfinder.What was wrong with 4E? Instead of asking me what game I wanted to play, it felt like it was telling me what game I was going play. Let's say I have a character concept, this is a elf who is a minor noble and on a long-term diplomatic mission within human lands. We manage to work it into the story with everyone else and we all have decent reasons to adventure together. Lo and behold, I become 2nd level and get to choose... a combat power. Okay, okay. D&D can have a bit of combat and everybody needs to get better at it. So then 3rd level comes around and I get to choose.... another combat power. I also get a feat, but I really feel like the game is leaning on me to choose a combat-oriented feat. What happened to my noble diplomat? Although the game never prohibited roleplay as you wanted to have it, my character on paper looked nothing like the character I wanted to play.So me and my groups went to Pathfinder. Along the way for unrelated reasons I lost the shop. So now it was just me and my group. Pathfinder was the tweak that 3.5 seemed to need. It still had problems with high-level spellcasters if your group included players like that, but mine didn't. It seemed that Pathfinder was the new D&D. Then a funny thing happened. I noticed that the combats were very difficult to keep interesting. Players and monsters had a tendency to advance, lock in combat and then not move much. I realized how great 4E was for making combat a dynamic, changing situation. I also realized how much greater the prep time for a game was with Pathfinder. I missed 4E's quick monsters that DIDN'T play the same as characters. I liked combats that could not possibly be decided in the first round or two. I liked minions. I liked using 3 recharging powers instead of generating an entire spell list, feat list and skills for a guy that was supposed to eventually wind up dead.Does this mean I changed my mind and switched back to 4E? Not on your life. 4E was great for running a GAME, but lousy for telling a STORY. Conversely, the flavors of 3E were pretty good at telling a STORY, but the GAME wasn't as satisfying as it could be.This, to my mind, is why we do need a new edition. 3E but a bit different or 4E but a bit different are both bad ideas.So, Wizards, give me the character feel of 3E and the combat dynamics of 4E and we have a deal. I have some great ideas about how to accomplish that, drop me a line.</blockquote>

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