WarlockLord
First Post
When Wizards first announced 4e, I was really excited. I thought it would be really cool. So, a few months before it came out, I went out and sold all my 3.x books to Half Price Books. When I finally got the books...they were OK. I have played a campaign for 4 months and we have agreed...3e is better.
Here are, at least, my reasons.
1) The extreme cookie-cutterness of the characters. Every character seems to be plotted out in advance. You get 4 powers a level, each one similar, and two builds. This leads to an extreme lack of flexibility. Wanna play a ranger with a greatsword? Wanna play a fighter (not a ranger, because that is inevitably nature-themed) who specializes in archery? Wanna play a character who can stand toe to toe with his enemies and fight with two weapons? Want to play a cleric whose deity doesn't shoot Holy Laserz of P3nage? Well, just wait for some more $30 books...
In our group, we found ourselves wanting a lot of stuff we had in 3e. Animal companions, spells other than fire blasts, etc. The common response I see from the 4e supporters is "Wait for the splatbooks! WoTC is a business, so they have to make money!" However, I feel compelled to wonder why I should reward a company who has come up with a product that I feel is bad with more money so they can continue making it.
2) The extreme tendency for 'balance' and 'fun'. The whole "economy of actions" is stupid and annoying. No summoners, necromancers, et al because it could slow the game down. Everyone gets the same amount and types of powers for balance. Some people might ask why magic and physical training work similarly, with the same usage restrictions. By attempting to balance this, they have created a world that feels fake. Then, of course, we have the "if anything bad happens to your PCs, it might not be fun," leading to the nerf of status effects. The fighter's "Paralyzing Strike" might sound like paralysis...until you read it. It immobilizes the opponent. This means the opponent can't move...any squares. They can still attack, cast spells, and stand despite being 'paralyzed'. Everything lasts for either 6 seconds, or requires a save, which is always a ~55% chance of escaping. If the most powerful wizard in the world casts sleep on a random peasant, they have a ~55% chance of escaping. Wow, studying magic sure is worthwhile!
3)The powers. I thought "Hey, everyone gets cool powers" was a good goal...until I read what our good friends at WoTC came up with. The ranger powers are all variants of the Rapid Shot and Two-Weapon fighting feats, except renamed and damage altered. The powers all have fixed damage, which results in redundancy for some classes (You replace your Holy P3nage Lazer with...ANOTHER HOLY P3NAGE LAZER! WOO-HOO! GO YOU!), and really don't feel like powers. When my friend and I were having a boss fight against a solo monster, I was getting bored because all of my powers did pretty much the same thing (damage) and it was going nowhere. Which leads us to...
4) The hit point spike. This is just great. HP has been inflated, damage reduced, so combats take forever. Add to this the whole "what is HP" argument, and then you begin wondering the difference between a miss and a hit.
"That wizard just shot a fireball at us! Despite the fact that we're in the center of the 10 foot radius - I mean, 2 square cube (because physics apparently dictates that everything manifests as cubes) he somehow completely missed us, leaving us alive! But...Bob, I feel really bad about myself."
5) The wizard nerf. Wizards are boring and uninteresting. While they may have been overpowered in the last edition, stripping all the creative options for "fireball, fireball, fireball," is a game design travesty. The spellbook sucks. 2 spells a level, and you can't add spells, unless you take a feat, which allows you to add one Xd6 damage attack spell per level.
6) Rituals. At first, I thought these were great. I had visions of rituals for animating the dead, binding otherworldly creatures to your service, curses, and calling down thunderstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Now? We have all the utility spells, except they cost money to cast, because apparently all one needs to know what to do with magic is to throw lightning at other people, as those are your powers. The illusions have been severely limited and moved into rituals, except for that Dragon article, which is "Damage...with ILLUSION!" Frankly, no thanks. I want to deceive with spontaneously crafted images, not just some psychic damage fest.
7) Lack of Verisimilitude. Some things, frankly, don't make sense. Such as, how do you make warlock pacts without the ability to summon creatures?
How do you craft figurines of wondrous power? WotC's answer? "Give us money!"
And those three words sum up 4th edition.
Here are, at least, my reasons.
1) The extreme cookie-cutterness of the characters. Every character seems to be plotted out in advance. You get 4 powers a level, each one similar, and two builds. This leads to an extreme lack of flexibility. Wanna play a ranger with a greatsword? Wanna play a fighter (not a ranger, because that is inevitably nature-themed) who specializes in archery? Wanna play a character who can stand toe to toe with his enemies and fight with two weapons? Want to play a cleric whose deity doesn't shoot Holy Laserz of P3nage? Well, just wait for some more $30 books...
In our group, we found ourselves wanting a lot of stuff we had in 3e. Animal companions, spells other than fire blasts, etc. The common response I see from the 4e supporters is "Wait for the splatbooks! WoTC is a business, so they have to make money!" However, I feel compelled to wonder why I should reward a company who has come up with a product that I feel is bad with more money so they can continue making it.
2) The extreme tendency for 'balance' and 'fun'. The whole "economy of actions" is stupid and annoying. No summoners, necromancers, et al because it could slow the game down. Everyone gets the same amount and types of powers for balance. Some people might ask why magic and physical training work similarly, with the same usage restrictions. By attempting to balance this, they have created a world that feels fake. Then, of course, we have the "if anything bad happens to your PCs, it might not be fun," leading to the nerf of status effects. The fighter's "Paralyzing Strike" might sound like paralysis...until you read it. It immobilizes the opponent. This means the opponent can't move...any squares. They can still attack, cast spells, and stand despite being 'paralyzed'. Everything lasts for either 6 seconds, or requires a save, which is always a ~55% chance of escaping. If the most powerful wizard in the world casts sleep on a random peasant, they have a ~55% chance of escaping. Wow, studying magic sure is worthwhile!
3)The powers. I thought "Hey, everyone gets cool powers" was a good goal...until I read what our good friends at WoTC came up with. The ranger powers are all variants of the Rapid Shot and Two-Weapon fighting feats, except renamed and damage altered. The powers all have fixed damage, which results in redundancy for some classes (You replace your Holy P3nage Lazer with...ANOTHER HOLY P3NAGE LAZER! WOO-HOO! GO YOU!), and really don't feel like powers. When my friend and I were having a boss fight against a solo monster, I was getting bored because all of my powers did pretty much the same thing (damage) and it was going nowhere. Which leads us to...
4) The hit point spike. This is just great. HP has been inflated, damage reduced, so combats take forever. Add to this the whole "what is HP" argument, and then you begin wondering the difference between a miss and a hit.
"That wizard just shot a fireball at us! Despite the fact that we're in the center of the 10 foot radius - I mean, 2 square cube (because physics apparently dictates that everything manifests as cubes) he somehow completely missed us, leaving us alive! But...Bob, I feel really bad about myself."
5) The wizard nerf. Wizards are boring and uninteresting. While they may have been overpowered in the last edition, stripping all the creative options for "fireball, fireball, fireball," is a game design travesty. The spellbook sucks. 2 spells a level, and you can't add spells, unless you take a feat, which allows you to add one Xd6 damage attack spell per level.
6) Rituals. At first, I thought these were great. I had visions of rituals for animating the dead, binding otherworldly creatures to your service, curses, and calling down thunderstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Now? We have all the utility spells, except they cost money to cast, because apparently all one needs to know what to do with magic is to throw lightning at other people, as those are your powers. The illusions have been severely limited and moved into rituals, except for that Dragon article, which is "Damage...with ILLUSION!" Frankly, no thanks. I want to deceive with spontaneously crafted images, not just some psychic damage fest.
7) Lack of Verisimilitude. Some things, frankly, don't make sense. Such as, how do you make warlock pacts without the ability to summon creatures?
How do you craft figurines of wondrous power? WotC's answer? "Give us money!"And those three words sum up 4th edition.
