Vayden
First Post
Forked from: Some Thoughts on 4e
I've heard this around a lot; I'm not trying to denigrate those who propagate this view, as I certainly understand missing the bag of tricks that magic used to provide. The one quibble I would put forth, after playing my wizard character up to 10th, and running and playing in a couple other games, is that 4th actually makes magic feel more special from what I've seen. Before, any random group of adventurers around 4-5th level could quaff potions of invisibility and sneak through the town - it got to the point where you'd see people explicitly laying out the "anti-invisibility" theft measures that common stores would use. Now, my 10th level wizard can use invisibility once a day, on the days she prepared it, it only works for one person, and it takes a standard action to sustain. She has to think and plan for when the right time to prepare and use invisibility is, and then it takes some work to actually pull it off and use the thing. It feels a lot more "special" and less "mundane" to me when magic is hard to use, rare, and takes a little extra effort in addition to the magic to get what you want out of it.
But maybe that's just me.
KarinsDad said:The bottom line is that magic is now mostly about damaging foes and healing. There is very little in combat utility magic. There is very little in combat defensive magic.
And, most of the in combat magic lasts a round or so.
And, most magic is barely distinguishable from Martial powers.
Magic is no longer special and most of the fun magic is gone or nerfed to the point of limited utility.
There is very little long duration magic anymore either.
Most of the game is really about combat now.
Sure, one can find an exception here or there. But, PCs can no longer Fly over a mountain, PCs can no longer sneak through a town Invisible, magic is no longer special, unique, and with a reasonable duration. It's mundane and pedestrian.
Practically every foe now has one or more powers that are more or less indistinguisable from magic.
Magic used to be the factor that made PCs special and it itself was special. It's not anymore.
I've heard this around a lot; I'm not trying to denigrate those who propagate this view, as I certainly understand missing the bag of tricks that magic used to provide. The one quibble I would put forth, after playing my wizard character up to 10th, and running and playing in a couple other games, is that 4th actually makes magic feel more special from what I've seen. Before, any random group of adventurers around 4-5th level could quaff potions of invisibility and sneak through the town - it got to the point where you'd see people explicitly laying out the "anti-invisibility" theft measures that common stores would use. Now, my 10th level wizard can use invisibility once a day, on the days she prepared it, it only works for one person, and it takes a standard action to sustain. She has to think and plan for when the right time to prepare and use invisibility is, and then it takes some work to actually pull it off and use the thing. It feels a lot more "special" and less "mundane" to me when magic is hard to use, rare, and takes a little extra effort in addition to the magic to get what you want out of it.
But maybe that's just me.
