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How would you redo 4e?
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<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 8951228" data-attributes="member: 5889"><p>Like many others in this thread, I thought 4e was pretty good (I still think it was one of the best editions to DM). However, it did have its problems. Here is my short list.</p><p></p><p><strong>Flavor and Formatting</strong>: Ultimately 4e reads like a textbook instead of a tome, and that is the reason I think many didn't give it a chance. Its frankly boring to read. Yes its very functional, but at the end of the day, people want to enjoy reading the books.</p><p></p><p><strong>Magic Items: </strong>Magic items were one of the biggest fails in 4e. They are bland and boring. I would remove all of the +1 to +6 items (this covers the bounded accuracy often mentioned in this thread so far), and just redo the items from scratch.</p><p></p><p><strong>Fewer Conditions</strong>: Conditions in 4e can get unwieldy. There are many of them, and they all can stack. I used to have tiny little dice because I would often be putting 3-4 conditions on a given monster so I used that to track them. That's just too much.</p><p></p><p><strong>MM3 Monster Design: </strong>4e eventually got monster design right, many of its later monsters were interesting and cool. But the core monsters in MM1 left a lot to be desired, they need a revamp.</p><p></p><p><strong>Skill Challenges should exist as specific examples, not a generic template</strong>: I ultimately think that skill challenges as a general concept is a failure of an idea. It is so easy to make skill challenges into this weird video gamey super pigeonholded, boring mess of a mechanic. There are way more things that should NOT be skill challenges than should be. So I think the book should just focus on providing skill challenges for very specific situations where the concept works well, such as chase scenes. Dm are always welcome to tailor, but I don't think the generic model works that well.</p><p></p><p><strong>Call Saving Throws something else for god's sake</strong>: 4e's idea of rolling a d20 as a form of "duration tracker" is perfectly fine....but its not a saving throw. Its nothing like the saving throws that have existed since the beginning of the game, and there is no reason to use a name for something just because its a name that used to exist. Just call the mechanic something else, something more fitting of what it actually is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 8951228, member: 5889"] Like many others in this thread, I thought 4e was pretty good (I still think it was one of the best editions to DM). However, it did have its problems. Here is my short list. [B]Flavor and Formatting[/B]: Ultimately 4e reads like a textbook instead of a tome, and that is the reason I think many didn't give it a chance. Its frankly boring to read. Yes its very functional, but at the end of the day, people want to enjoy reading the books. [B]Magic Items: [/B]Magic items were one of the biggest fails in 4e. They are bland and boring. I would remove all of the +1 to +6 items (this covers the bounded accuracy often mentioned in this thread so far), and just redo the items from scratch. [B]Fewer Conditions[/B]: Conditions in 4e can get unwieldy. There are many of them, and they all can stack. I used to have tiny little dice because I would often be putting 3-4 conditions on a given monster so I used that to track them. That's just too much. [B]MM3 Monster Design: [/B]4e eventually got monster design right, many of its later monsters were interesting and cool. But the core monsters in MM1 left a lot to be desired, they need a revamp. [B]Skill Challenges should exist as specific examples, not a generic template[/B]: I ultimately think that skill challenges as a general concept is a failure of an idea. It is so easy to make skill challenges into this weird video gamey super pigeonholded, boring mess of a mechanic. There are way more things that should NOT be skill challenges than should be. So I think the book should just focus on providing skill challenges for very specific situations where the concept works well, such as chase scenes. Dm are always welcome to tailor, but I don't think the generic model works that well. [B]Call Saving Throws something else for god's sake[/B]: 4e's idea of rolling a d20 as a form of "duration tracker" is perfectly fine....but its not a saving throw. Its nothing like the saving throws that have existed since the beginning of the game, and there is no reason to use a name for something just because its a name that used to exist. Just call the mechanic something else, something more fitting of what it actually is. [/QUOTE]
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