D&D 4E D&D 4E fans: what do you like about 4E?

[overgeeked]

First up: I'm a huge fan of 4E. This isn't a sell me on thread. I'm already right there with you.

I am curious what fans of 4E like about 4E. There's a lot to like and I know what I like about it, but I'm curious what the draw is for others.

 

[deganawida]

1. Nentir Vale. I've said elsewhere that I believe that it's the best official setting, and I meant it. I would happily play there until the end of my days, and I'm saying that as a huge DragonLance and Birthright fan.
2. Action economy was a huge improvement. As 2e showed, the attack action is an abstraction, including feints, parries, bad thrusts, and so forth. The hit that lands isn't the only attack, just the one that actually got through all the defenses. 4e's single attack action embraces this.
3. Weaving of narrative into the mechanics was really good in 4e.
4. Essentials was inspired. Love the thief, the hunter, the skald. Those books oozed flavor!
5. Multiclassing was both balanced and maintained the fiction that you were X but had Y training and experience.
6. Introduction of the Raven Queen and the Feywild. Still my preferred edition for the Feywild, and the Raven Queen was great.
7. The default mythology was awesome. Yes, it differed from the Great Wheel, but if it only applied to PoLand, I didn't mind. In fact, in my head canon, it's the original canon, and PoLand is the First World. It's only after a great cataclysm that the Great Wheel was fixed and the old lore as we know it.
8. Defenses were great!
9. Rituals were long overdue. Was a fantastic change that should have stuck IMO.
10. Skill Challenges showed a lot of promise.

Edit: I did love 4e. I actually quit posting here ten or so years ago for a long time because there was a lot of negativity towards it, though the mods did do a good job to squash anything that went too far. Still, it was hard to have conversations about it online, given the antipathy towards it at the time.

 

[Retreater]

Just a few from the top of my head. (I'm sure there are more)...

1. Straightforward encounter building.
2. Monster stat blocks were well organized, with all relevant information included.
3. Published adventures had well designed one-page spread encounter areas.
4. Everyone felt capable and heroic, even at 1st level.
5. Focus on teamwork.
6. Skill challenges improved throughout the publication history, but were the best framework we've had for non-combat encounters.
7. Encounter-based resource management made planning encounters easier.
8. Auras, recharge abilities, etc., made monsters feel unique.
9. Balance between spellcasters and martials.
10. Fewer "trap" options in character creation than in 3.x/PF1.
11. The online tools were pretty great - better than anything before or after.
12. Easily adjustable monsters, customizable through the online tools.
13. Liked the class roles (Striker, Defender, Leader, Controller) as well as the organization of monsters (Brute, Skirmisher, etc.)
14. Elite and Solo tags meant something.
15. No diagonal movement or measuring.
16. Fewer MAD classes.
17. Bloodied Condition was a great metric with game consequences.
18. Healing Surges meant Clerics and other leaders could do more than just heal.
19. Minions beefed up encounters and helped make fights more epic.
20. Bigger encounter areas encouraged dynamic battlefields.
21. D&D Encounters during 4E were (IMO) the best organized play option we've ever had.
22. Some excellent DM resources (better than anything we got in 3.x or 5e)

 

[aco175]

Wow, the other two summed everything up nicely.

I really liked how easy it was to DM and make monster variants and NPCs that were kind of a class, but could always be a bit something else. 3e had monster design hard when applying class abilities and you needed to figure out a 5th level mage abilities and add it to the ogre to figure out the CR and such, but 4e allowed me to just throw some mage powers onto the ogre statblock and go. I even had some DMNPCs that I could just throw a power onto if they went up a level or if I needed something.

I also liked the choice of powers at each level. This allowed a mix of abilities so every 10th level fighter is not the same in terms of mechanics and powers. Having choices allowed for a varied bunch of PCs.

 

[deganawida]

Also, I want to say how funny this is that this was posted today, as I've been chatting with my DM and another friend regarding opinions on 4e. My DM says it's the one for him, and my other friend like a lot about it, too.

 

[thullgrim]

Everything mentioned up thread with an emphasis on monsters being fun and cool. The monster stat blocks just worked with everything I needed right there.

 

[soviet]

My fighter had lots of cool stuff to do all of a sudden (played him from 2e to 5e).

Combat genuinely felt fun, like a team sport or a co-op video game where we are all cheering each other on but also slightly competing with each other and showing off (think Legolas and Gimli). The tactical choices we made seemed to matter a great deal, and there were definitely fights where we just 'outplayed' the opposition. Pure gamist enjoyment, basically.

 

[TwoSix]

Everything mentioned above I agree with.

I'd also mention some of the unique classes 4e added over its lifetime, especially avenger, warden, runepriest, seeker, and vampire. Novel concepts attached to some thematic mechanics made them stand out.

I also really liked the hybrid rules in the PHB3.

Oh, and 4e Dark Sun was the best Dark Sun, IMO. And the Neverwinter Campaign Setting book, with its character themes tied into the setting, was a stroke of genius.

 

[soviet]

Yes yes yes! Wish we'd played with a warlord. I greatly enjoyed playing a ranger too, and my swordmage was fantastic fun. Class seemed to matter a lot more in terms of flavour and overall strategy.

 

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

So much. Really wish we had seen an evolved version.

1. balacing caster and martial while retaining flavor (caster still got "permissions" martials didn't)

2. rituals as party resources

3. non combat resolution system

4. very little broken stuff -- could mostly just say use anything to build PCs

5. some embracing of narrative powers/effect primary that allowed for some cool stuff not easily done in other D&D editions

6. so easy to DM and encounter build

7. p.42 and improvising. I had every PC have a "do something cool" enounter power and the entire party have X= party members "do something awesome" dailies to remind them they could improvise and it would be at least as good as regular abilities

8. Warlord, Bard and other non cleric support. Monk. Warden. Too many cool classes to list.

9. great world books -- neverwinter, planes above, planes below, etc.

10. basically worked levels 1-30

11. tactial team based combat

12. monsters that felt different in action with so many great options -- movement, reactions, auras, etc to model different things. Some Fractal type stuff even where huge monsters would have tentacles that acted like independant monsters. Minions. Monsters were great.