D&D 5E Are you going to miss AEDU? (And did you feel a lack in the playtest because of it?)

[Lackhand]

The rogue gets the Cunning Action ability at Level 2 which is an amazingly open ability that replaces the movement secondary effects of so many 4E powers.

Want to move in, attack, and disenage? Sure, that replaces most powers that allowed the rogue to shift as part of the action. Want to attack with ranged, then move and hide? Go for it.

In 5E, Cunning action allows the Rogue to do the following things to get sneak attack:

Move to cover... then Hide (Cunning Action).... then make a ranged attack with Combat Advantage for sneak attack.

Move adjacent to an enemy that is adjacent to your ally, then make a melee attack that deals sneak attack damage... then Disengage if he's still alive, or Hustle if you killed him, to move to safety, or set up your next victim.


This is the kind of freedom that I want to replace "powers". To have abilities that can be combined in ways to fulfill a variety of combat needs.

... in my opinion.

I agree, this is an awesome rogue to me. I'd still like to see a way (without magic items) to give rogues a climb speed or equivalent.
But I firmly believe that's doable. Maybe it's a feat dip you end up taking later (rangers could benefit too! And fighters! And...); maybe it's a class feature that whatever replicates archetypes/feature swaps/whatever -- it's inevitable, it will be pushblished! -- will provide.
But it fits in genre to me.

And for all that the rogue does get this right IMO, the cleric doesn't. I want to see the Cleric who uses the turning mechanic for everything. I know it's not going to happen, though. Sigh.

 

[tuxgeo]

"We'll always have Paris." - [/Casablanca]

My 4E books and boxed sets aren't going to "evaporate into the ionosphere" as soon as 5E comes out, so I won't "miss" AEDU unless I choose to ignore 4E.

(I was alarmed by some posts in the EN World thread that mentioned 4E products' going "Temporarily out of stock" on Amazon, so I have ordered a few of the older 4E products that I didn't have yet: my copy of "Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms" arrived today, and I still have both "Monster Vault" and "Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale" coming via UPS or USPS.)

As far as 5E is concerned, I'm of mixed persuasions: I adore the profusion of powers (especially Wizard powers!) that 4E made available; but some of my 4E characters might well work better without them.

My 4E Elf Bard always felt awkward when she attacked using "Vicious Mockery" or "Cutting Words" (having retrained out of the former for the latter at Level 2), because she was never about sarcasm. She was more about Crazy Realism -- i.e. thinking "Thoughts Are Things," meaning that thoughts (or Platonic Ideals) can take Actions.
[Some of her more idiosyncratic lines: "May Mockery Save Us All"; "May Vitality Preserve Me"; "May Mastery Serve Thy Will"; "May Decency Shine Above"; "May Mercy Stay Thy Hand"; "May Light Guide Thy Way"; "May Brutality Pound Rocks"; "May Memory Serve Thee"; "May Frivolity Make It So"; "May Venery Hie After Shadows"; and the ever-popular "May Calumny Parse Rutabagas, Or Die Trying"]

 

[n00bdragon]

I don't actually care much about AEDU. I wouldn't venture that most people who prefer 4e do either. I'll miss the design mentality it encouraged immensely though. 5e does not offer me the nostalgia or the wacky unrefined zeitgeist of 2e nor do I expect it to give me the universal benchmark of character ability and adventure economy that 4e gave me. AEDU had problems. There's no denying that, but by design it refused to ghettoize non-magical characters and the things they are allowed to do and the methods by which they can do them and that's something I find sorely lacking in 5e. "Spells can do anything" is not a design philosophy I'm interested in.

 

[The Human Target]

Maybe I wouldn't miss AEDU specifically, but I would for sure miss powers and the design ideas behind them.

I think there is a lot of room to improve on the basic principle, and am sad to see 5e jettison it completely.

 

[The Human Target]

It's not a clone, but 13th Age builds on a lot of 4e concepts.

Not a knock on 13th Age at all, but I do think its similarity to 4e is often overstated.

Though not by you.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I never fell in love with AEDU, but I think it's a solid overall mechanic. I could easily see it's return as the core of a particular class or kind of class.

 

[Rhenny]

I will not miss highly structured powers at all. I agree with those who felt that they homogenized the experience.

 

[The Human Target]

It did homogenize the experience.

All the classes became fun.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Not a knock on 13th Age at all, but I do think its similarity to 4e is often overstated.

I agree, I can see it's 4e roots, but there is a lot of other things thrown in too...

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Not really:

- There are a lot of AEDU elements that have always been part of D&D, and will remain so in 5E (e.g. Vancian casting) or are being ported over (at-will cantrips).
- Losing "AEDU for everyone" will hopefully put some of the variety back into the classes that the universal mechanic lost.
- The piece of AEDU that I enjoy most about 4E really isn't AEDU, but the tactical options that are provided the way the various powers are constructed. Those can be resurrected in a rules module(s) that gives me the same fun but without the head-scratching accompanying the "why can my fighter only swing his sword that way once a day?"