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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8493980" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Correct. In 4e, at least to start off,* all characters got powers at the same rate, and most powers were either specific to combat, or relatively-narrowly-defined utility powers (many utility powers were also combat-focused, but many others were for non-combat things too.) You know 5e's "ritual casting" stuff? That is a rather weaker version of what 4e did to ALL the old utility spells. Anyone who took the Ritual Caster feat could perform rituals, and TONS of pre-4e utility spells (e.g. phantom steed, comprehend languages, a ton of stuff) were turned into rituals. Many needed components, which could either be bought or acquired as loot; some just worked when you performed them, others required a check (usually Arcana, Nature, Religion, or Heal, depending on the nature of the ritual.) It was actually a very robust system that preserved an enormous variety of the old obscure utility spells. Sadly, the vocal pro-caster-power critics painted it as robbing Wizards and other casters of their identity and making magic weak and pointless.Oh yeah, it definitely happened. I'll have to see if I can dig up the Next podcast where Mearls used that phrase. As I said, he did say "I'm being ridiculous" immediately thereafter, but that was quite literally a phrase he used as part of justifying why the 4e Warlord, aka one of 4e fans' most beloved classes, wouldn't get included in 5e. Paraphrasing heavily, he more or less said "a Warlord is basically just a Bard mixed with a Fighter," which....well, it rather reflected how Mearls didn't know the first thing about what 4e fans loved about 4e.*The vast majority of classes in 4e had a common, fixed schedule of gaining new powers. You start with 2 At-wills, 1 Encounter, and 1 Daily; 2nd level gives you a Utility power (hence people call this stuff "AEDU"); 3rd level gives you a new Encounter power; etc. Two major variants appeared later in 4e's life. First, Psionic classes (other than Monk, which used standard AEDU) used the "Power Point" system, where ALL of their powers were At-will, but they could choose to "augment" those powers with Power Points--very roughly, augment 1 = Encounter power, augment 3 = Daily power. This didn't work very well because it meant most people just spammed the strongest effects all day long until they ran out of PP. The second variant, with the 4e Essentials line (an alternate on-ramp with overall simpler but 100% compatible classes), was classes that did not get any Daily powers at all, instead getting multiple-use Encounter powers (the Slayer Fighter, for example, got Power Strike, a multiple-use Encounter power that juices up successful hits with melee basic attacks.) The Essentials variant was fine, albeit usually slightly under-powered compared to standard AEDU.Edit:I have found a transcript (which jogs my memory, so I generally trust it) and it seems I was very slightly exaggerating, but not a lot, at least in my opinion. You may decide for yourself.So while he did not actually use the phrase "shouting hands back on," he did explicitly crack a joke about how a Warlord could not make a man's hand "grow back." Again, he specified he was being ridiculous in his next sentence, but like...the damage was done, my dude.</blockquote>

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