[Folks that like 4e] What are some things from previous editions that you miss?

[avin]

Mostly I miss Monster Manuals that don't look like TV Set Manuals...

 

[Blizzardb]

What warlock? Which edition besides 4E has featured a core warlock?

"Core" is one think I definitely don't miss.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

I miss having wizards and other spellcasters that are able to do more than just blow things up in combat. D&D, for me, included wizards being magical swiss-army-knives, with multiple cool spells usable for many different purposes. Now, spellcasters are able to blow things up in combat and very little else. Rituals are a pale shadow of the D&D magic system, because they take too long to cast to be useful in most situations, and cost way too much gold to use very often.

Don't get me wrong. I like 4e, but I miss being able to use magic for creative problem solving.

I also miss magic items with multiple abilities, like pre-4e staves, and many pre-4e wondrous items and weapons.

 

[Mallus]

I miss having wizards and other spellcasters that are able to do more than just blow things up in combat. D&D, for me, included wizards being magical swiss-army-knives, with multiple cool spells usable for many different purposes.

It's both the thing I miss the most and the smartest major design change made.

... but I miss being able to use magic for creative problem solving.

Don't you mean 'creative problem creating'?

When I take over the reins of my 4e campaign, I'm hoping to make magic seem more magical, and more widely applicable outside of combat. At the same time keeping magic from dominating the problem-solving solutions.

(hey, I should run for office, I'm good at making promises)

 

[Dragonbait]

2ed - Box Sets, detailed settings with unique art styles and mood (see: Planescape, Dragonlance, and Ravenloft)
3ed - Classes felt very different from one another and played differently. This was a double edged sword - some people liked the feel of only one or two classes and would only play those few classes over and over and over and over.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I miss my languages/customs house rule. My campain tends to place more emphasis on the nationality of the character than the race and I enjoy the complexity of having a mechanic that emulates travelling to far off places and having the far off place be *different*.

I have a rule set for 3e that allowed me to insert that into the game.. haven't figured out how to do it in 4e yet.

I also miss the 2e Clerics and the 1e Bard....

 

[williamhm]

I miss nothing. I hated random treasure charts as 90% of the time the item is useless for the group. "Oh gee another longsword too bad no one uses those." Nothing irks me more than getting a powerful and cool magic item that no one in the party can use. Random monster tables were just a way for the dm to screw with players. Most of the time the wandering monsters did not make sense. To me 4e has the best mix of everything I could want. As for OGL 99% of third party products were either a rehahsing of what wotc had already done, or broken even worse than wotc had done. I never once had a dm who let us use 3rd party products (with good reason) With the death of ogl Im hoping we see more truly unique gaming systems. Anyway the past is gone 4e is the future. There is nothing in earlier editions that needs to be brought back.

 

[Malacoda]

For those who miss random treasure tables, I recommend this site:

Quartermaster - Asmor.com

 

[DEFCON 1]

I miss the feeling of being a new player and experiencing everything to do with the game with a fresh set of eyes the first few times through.

Game mechanics themselves mean little to me. I've played almost every edition of (A)D&D, as well as a dozen other RPG game systems... and thus I've experienced most types of play along with most of the best game rules designed to facilitate them. So changes here and there over the years to various games makes little difference in the grand scheme of things.

However, after playing RPGs for over 20 years, there's a shorthand, an ease of playing, and a metagame knowledge that I now have, regardless of the game I'm in and which I can't turn off... and that has taken some of the magic away. I occasionally wish I could go back to the time where "Statue in the hallway? Check it for traps." wasn't something we all did by rote. I know I can never get that feeling back, but it's definitely the thing I miss the most.

 

[Falstyr]

All previous editions - the ability to make a simple fight that took only 10 to 15 minutes to resolve and "get the blood flowing" without taking up a quarter of the game night.

I find this a non-reason. I can't belief what people are complaining about and how on earth their battles take so long. What the hell are such people doing that causes a battle to last that long? :S

You want simple combat that do so. Most relatively normal encounters last 4-5 rounds at most. 30sec per player per round. And that encounter can be done around 10minutes. 20minutes for a harder encounter and only boss battles last a long time. Heck in 3.x some boss battles lasted 6 hours as well. And even in that aspect 4e combat is a hell of a lot faster even though there is more environmental aspects during an encounter.

What is the difference between some wizard killing an opponent in 1 hit in 3.x or a barbarian killing an opponent in 1 round in 4e...nothing.