Malacoda
First Post
Over many years of 3e, I really came to dislike the system as a GM. I like playing 3e, but find running it to be a chore. At low levels it’s not too bad, but as the levels pressed on, my fun decreased. Prep time was tedious.
I really like a lot of the philosophies behind 4e. I love how much easier prepping has become. I love the core concepts of character creation, monster creation, encounter building and so on. There are little things here and there I am not as fond of, but overall they are minor, except for one thing: the 4e power system.
I don’t have any issues with all character abilities having become powers. I don’t mind that all characters mostly work the same way when it comes to powers. I don’t mind that even wizards and other “versatile” spellcasters are now much more focused. None of that bothers me. What bothers me is that I made extensive use of the Book of Nine Swords in my previous games, and loved it, and when it comes down to it, liked it better.
Now, Bo9S had some funkiness to it. Some of the powers were kind of odd at times, sometimes for no good reason that I could see, other than to make them look different from each other. Still, though, something about it really spoke to me, more so than the 4e power system. I had actually started to design an arcane spellcasting class based on the Bo9S power structure before 4e was announced, and was considering wholly redesigned barbarians, rogues, rangers and paladins using the system.
I don’t like daily powers much. I liked that in Bo9S the most of the classes had more powers to start with. While 4e characters eventually equal or surpass most Bo9S classes in total number of powers usable in any one encounter, I liked the way Bo9S characters know a lot of powers from even low levels, and could mix them up on occasion. I like the idea of some resource management, but I don’t like any one power being that resource. I liked that you could refresh powers without waiting until 11th level and picking a few specific paragon paths.
Now that 4e is out, and so much of the back end stuff fixes the issues I had with 3e, I really can’t imagine going back. I know Bo9S was a testbed for 4e powers. Still, I glance back through my Bo9S and wish for a power system a bit more like it, for 4e.
Anyone else? Probably not.
I really like a lot of the philosophies behind 4e. I love how much easier prepping has become. I love the core concepts of character creation, monster creation, encounter building and so on. There are little things here and there I am not as fond of, but overall they are minor, except for one thing: the 4e power system.
I don’t have any issues with all character abilities having become powers. I don’t mind that all characters mostly work the same way when it comes to powers. I don’t mind that even wizards and other “versatile” spellcasters are now much more focused. None of that bothers me. What bothers me is that I made extensive use of the Book of Nine Swords in my previous games, and loved it, and when it comes down to it, liked it better.
Now, Bo9S had some funkiness to it. Some of the powers were kind of odd at times, sometimes for no good reason that I could see, other than to make them look different from each other. Still, though, something about it really spoke to me, more so than the 4e power system. I had actually started to design an arcane spellcasting class based on the Bo9S power structure before 4e was announced, and was considering wholly redesigned barbarians, rogues, rangers and paladins using the system.
I don’t like daily powers much. I liked that in Bo9S the most of the classes had more powers to start with. While 4e characters eventually equal or surpass most Bo9S classes in total number of powers usable in any one encounter, I liked the way Bo9S characters know a lot of powers from even low levels, and could mix them up on occasion. I like the idea of some resource management, but I don’t like any one power being that resource. I liked that you could refresh powers without waiting until 11th level and picking a few specific paragon paths.
Now that 4e is out, and so much of the back end stuff fixes the issues I had with 3e, I really can’t imagine going back. I know Bo9S was a testbed for 4e powers. Still, I glance back through my Bo9S and wish for a power system a bit more like it, for 4e.
Anyone else? Probably not.
