Asmor
First Post
This is clearly one of the design goals of 4E. I know it's hard to step back and look at it from a blank slate point of view, but is that really necessarily a big factor in the way the game "seems" in the absolute, rather than just in contrast with 3.x? I mean, shouldn't it be that the feel of the game comes from the variety and choice you mention, and the increased special effects, rather than from arithmetic?
That said, it's probably good for DMs to mix in the occasional much-lower- and much-higher-level opponent so you can feel how the math changes too.
I was actually very happy about that fact. My biggest gripe with 3.x was how much of a pain higher level stuff was, primarily in the area of math being both blown out of proportion and lots of temporary, stacking numerical modifiers to keep track of. Both are issues 4e doesn't have, and I think that's fantastic.
I think that some things are deceptively similar. A slide 7 looks a lot like a slide 2 with a bigger number. But a little forced movement repositions someone within a fight, while the big one can throw people out of the fight entirely. When you can force a move greater than the target's speed and then move yourself, some interesting tactics open up.
Plus a group is a lot more likely to have some nasty wall or zone effects at that level. Higher level characters tend to have a lot more interlocking elements.
The thing is, it's really, really hard to get out of someone's range.
Take a fighter in heavy armor, movement of 5. He can run (7) and charge (5), meaning he can basically attack anyone within 12 squares. Granted, it's a basic attack, but it sucks to be next to a fighter and marked if you weren't intending on attacking him.