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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gothmog" data-source="post: 4260240" data-attributes="member: 317">We played our first 4E session last night, and I have to say that 4E is a vast improvement over 3.x in every way, shape, and form.  Character creation was a breeze, rather than the ordeal it was in 3.x, with agonizing over feats and skills.  Even the 1st level powers for characters were cool and interesting, and we quickly noticed that there are many more than the two possible "builds" listed in each character section.  One player made a paladin of the Raven Queen, who ended up being more of a force of fear and fate than a "normal" paladin (he took Fearsome Strike and On Pain of Death as his encounter and daily powers).  Very cool.  Powers for different classes were well balanced, and everybody had something fun or interesting to do.Combats were fast, dynamic, and fun- this really reminded me of Savage Worlds (which is an incredibly good thing).  I noticed the players trying lots of interesting things they never attempted in 3.x, and when I asked them later, they said it was BECAUSE eveything wasn't codified in the books that they thought "what the hell- I'll give it a shot".  I just improvised, let them make a skill or attribute check, and went on with the game.  Combats also were free-flowing and chaotic.  Combatants were constantly moving around, shifting, and jockeying for optimal position.  I'll say this too- kobolds and goblins are NASTY due to their ability to shift pretty freely.  A character who isn't careful can find himself surrounded quickly, or maneuvered into a bad position.  This is a huge improvement over the typical 3.x phenomena of stand in one place and hit things until they go down.I also really, REALLY like that magic can't solve everything in 4E like it could in previous editions.  Rituals now take the place of many of the previous spells that could pretty much break a game (Discen Lies for example is the bane of a mystery adventure).  Now even the spellcasting characters need to pay attention to their skills, and think of creative ways to use them.  This is great for me and my group, as we prefer a lower-magic setting by default, and 4e finally made it possible for us to play this way using D&D!  Finally, I have to say the books are gorgeous.  The art is evocative and well done, and characters are usually shown in an environment that really makes you think "wow, thats cool- I could use something like that in this adventure."  Some of my favorites are the white dragon battle on p 50-51 of the PHB, the trap painting on 176-177 of the PHB, the sprung trap on p270 of the PHB, the goblin ambush on p 4-5 of the DMG, the yeth hounds on p 63 of the DMG, the elf ritual on 118-199 of the DMG, the undead horde on p 130-131 of the DMG, and pretty much the entire MM- there are so many improvements in the art over 3.x that its not even funny.  And nowhere in there is there any bit of dungeonpunk crap!  Yay!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> I admit that before I had a chance to read 4E, I had some misgivings and trepidation about it, but after reading and playing it (and definitely more playing in the future), I can say I'm not reluctant about 4E anymore.  I'm an old-school gamer (started with 1E), and I can say without a doubt, 4E is the most fun and easiest to run D&D there has ever been!I noticed when I got the core books earlier this week that a LOT of things seemed to have been borrowed from Savage Worlds- which was a very good move on the designer's part.  SW is a game of pure genius, as is the Storyteller system.  Its about time D&D was updated with a smoother system and better narrative model.</blockquote>

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