D&D 4E How Do You Plan to Fix 4E?

[w_earle_wheeler]

Add gnomes and half-orcs.

 

[ZetaStriker]

I dont think it will be that hard honestly. same daily healing rate and before and shuffle the self healing under the rug. Or maybe give the characters one or two healing surges a day but not the ungodly number they have now. I'm sure it will take a little tweaking but thats half the fun of GM'ing to me so i dont mind the time tinkering.

Only thing that worries me about that option is that the only thing it might do is force the PCs to rest far more often. This could in turn cheapen the impact of Dailies, Action Points and other per-day resources. Of course, upping the power of a Leader's healing abilities may let that balance somewhat.

I have no doubt that it works mechanically and makes things easier on players. I just dont like it. Course i upped skill pts to where everyone gets a minimum of 4 per level instead of two so no one is quite as gimped as core 3x either.

Its more a style thing for me, i like having skill monkey characters an option and the idea that maybe u do need to get the rogue to pick a lock or the magic user to decypher the arcane script.

Have you thought of simply limiting those skills to those specific classes? It should be pretty easy to just say 'only these classes can do X'. At the very least it'll be easier than modding the 3.x skills to work with 4E's Skill Challenges without ruining the fun for certain characters.

 

[Duelpersonality]

I have no doubt that it works mechanically and makes things easier on players. I just dont like it. Course i upped skill pts to where everyone gets a minimum of 4 per level instead of two so no one is quite as gimped as core 3x either.

Its more a style thing for me, i like having skill monkey characters an option and the idea that maybe u do need to get the rogue to pick a lock or the magic user to decypher the arcane script.

Well, if 4e doesn't have the trained and untrained skill usage that SWSE had, that will be my first house-rule. Just having the ranks from 1/2 level does not a skillful character make. I think the easiest thing to do might be to allow for more trained skills at 1st level than 4 + the standard class skills (e.g. Thievery and Stealth for rogues) for those classes that you want to be more skillful, though if you go this route you may want to break up some of the condensed skills to give those characters more options. Also, restricting training in certain skills to certain classes might also achieve the same effect.

I should have pointed out in my last post that if a character in that scenario had been trained in the Ride skill, they would have far and away outshone the other characters, and not just because of a +5 bonus to the skill checks. To put it another way: a warlord character and a wizard character are both 10th level and have a 20 Int, giving them both a +10 bonus to the Arcana skill. The wizard, however, is also trained in Arcana, giving him a +15. This is not the only difference in their abilities with the Arcana skill, though. While they both may be able to tell you that the giant scaly fire-breathing monstrosity is a red dragon, the wizard can also tell you if it is vulnerable to cold or not, on top of being able to disable the magical runes around the entrance to its cave (as can the rogue, who's trained in Thievery) and know the specific ritual it's casting when the party breaks into it's inner lair.

Also, if you go with a skill point system, be sure to watch out for which aspects of the skills are built in (like what was once the trapfinding class feature being a part of Thievery training) that might fit better as class features under that type of system.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Add gnomes and half-orcs.

Isn't hong a gnome?

 

[Dice4Hire]

I will handle it the same way I will handle all the 5E, 6E and 7E problems

Wait till I get the books and learn the system.

BYW, I think this post should have been in humor. Or at least I hope the OP wanted it in humor.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I picked:
"Find others who have the same problem, and collaborate with them for a solution."
"House Rule it."
"Ask Hong."

I'm not sure is "ask hong" was included as a joke or not, but I often find it's a very productive and helpful thing to do. He's a statistician, you know.

My Iron Heroes campaign (which I play in, not DM) has liberally borrowed from his Hack.

I did, too. I think I only used the Murderous Assassin so far, but that alone was worth the price. (Yes, I know the site is free. Maybe I should have said it was cheap...)

 

[Domon]

other, as described in my post

i'll drift it a little with narrativistic and authority-sharing techniques. looks like it's well equipped to receive them, this time.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Its more a style thing for me, i like having skill monkey characters an option and the idea that maybe u do need to get the rogue to pick a lock or the magic user to decypher the arcane script.

Of course, having skill training, and one of your best stats part of that skill means the rogue's thievery skill is probably about 7 or 8 better than anyone else. Not to mention that some skills are still not usuable untrained. At higher levels, the 'untrained' skills do get up to considerable levels, but with the rate of improving your stats, people with "main stats" tied to their skills will be considerably better at the job than the people that dump stat. Perhaps not as good as the Rogue having +15 and the Fighter having about +2 ... but unless you get to a point where certain characters cannot possibly succeed and/or some characters cannot possibly fail ... a swing of 7 is still quite a considerable difference between being "good" at something, and being bad.

 

[hong]

Isn't hong a gnome?

Well, I work for a bank, so I guess that makes me a gnome of Zurich.

I'm a MONSTER! HA HA!

Although as it turns out, my bank (the 5th largest in Austria) is now about to be taken over by another (the 3rd largest in Austria), to form _the_ largest bank in Austria which will crush all other Austrian banks liek bug. While this is good for shareholders, it also means there's a distinct chance that in 6 months, I'll be out on my ear along with the other analytics guys and having to prostitute my body and/or my D&D knowledge for food. So enjoy it while it lasts!

 

[CleverNickName]

BYW, I think this post should have been in humor. Or at least I hope the OP wanted it in humor.

I wouldn't say that it was intended to be a big joke or anything, but I did want it to be fun. As silly as some of the options sound, they are extrapolations of posts that I have read on these boards at one time or another:

"Ask hong" = ask somone on ENWorld for advice.
"Demand an apology" = a callback to all those posts about 4E "killing" D&D
"Call my attorney" = prepare for legal turmoil (popular during the OGL/SRD debates)
"Buy every splatbook" = all those posts about PHB2, PHB3, PHB4...
and so on.

So the poll really is intended to be serious, but I dialed back some of the more controversial responses to keep the mood light and let everyone have fun with it. I think it worked: while there are both serious and farsical options to vote for, people have voted mostly for the serious ones.

It's a pretty good snapshot of how we gamers plan to resolve conflicts in an as-yet-unseen game system. "Houseruling" seems to be the reigning champ (51%), with "Nothing/I can cope" in second place (26%). And hong, I think you need to start an "ask hong" thread or advice column here.