Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ProdigalTim" data-source="post: 4510064" data-attributes="member: 78269">I've only been playing dnd for a few years now, and only 3.5 at that, but one thing I've really enjoyed about the game was exactly that which many people are hyping as the best change in 4th edition: lack of balance.  For instance: what was the point of rolling for abilities in previous editions rather than simply allocating points a la 4.0?  In my opinion, to create a lack of balance between characters in the group and between characters and their environment that led to RP tension between those with awesome stats and those with mediocre stats as well as forcing those in the second camp to either find ways around their limitations - or suck up to those more gifted than they.  This to me brings an element of immersiveness that may be lacking in 4th edition: the characters in 3.5 don't all seem as if they've dropped from the heavens fully formed and ready to kill, but have flaws and vulnerabilities that they may never overcome even with optimal feat/skill placement - characters feel alive more, somehow, than mine did when we did a 4.0 playtest campaign.I see the same paradigm reflected in the homogenization of the classes.  One of my characters in 3.5 was an artificer - and I loved the fact that I couldn't directly cast any magic but instead had to deal damage, in the absence of constructs to attack, almost exclusively through my (at the time modest) magic items and my Spell Storing Item infusion.  In a given day, I knew going in that I would only be able to 'directly' cast literally 3 arcane/divine spells (through my spell-stored pseudo wands - and that only at the cost of XP) in addition to my bull's strength/armor enhancement type infusions - and so I had to scour the spellbooks and PH to find spells that would be particularly effective in a given scenario.  And if I wasted those spells on something only to end up in another fight later I didn't have any 'at-wills' to fall back on outside of my modest crossbow/morningstar skillz - and I loved it.  That feeling of panic/fear in such a situation - where one's machinations suddenly seem so small - is the essence of gaming to me.  I loved not always having an unlimited amount of energy to hurl at the enemy.Don't get me wrong - after our current 3.5 campaign ends, my groups going to do 4th for a while, and I think it's going to be fun as hell.  But that's because we've decided to embrace the encounter-oriented 'socialist' mentality of 4th and are planning on playing as a wholly evil group of bandit-types out for slaughter and pillage.  No stealth or illusion for us. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification