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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 4371402" data-attributes="member: 29746">The Phane certainly could have, but the removal of most time-related effects from 4E (and the lack of inclusion of a 'chronal' damage type though one could certainly add it easily enough) makes for a difficult time converting any beast that's supposed to represent corrupted time. So I can see where they had problems there. It just doesn't feel at all time-related now; it's just another damage monkey. Of course, so are the psychic creatures like the Gibbering Orb and the Mind Flayer. Goodbye, Mind Blast!Given the removal of anything resembling energy drain from 4E, I think they did about the best they could with the Atropal- and actually the 4E version is in some ways even nastier than the original with its ability to induce ongoing damage with every attack. That's something I'd actually consider adapting into a variant 3.5 version, or a new monster based on it (perhaps a Blood Abomination since the 3.X version of ongoing damage was the Wounding weapon property). And of course, adding the "no-fly zone" to the Tarrasque to remove the easy way of defeating it was a genius move.Of things they added or changed, the forced class balance that means every single class has exactly the same number of powers usable exactly the same number of times per day- and furthermore that because they removed so many conditions and effects from the game, nearly all the powers are just ways to deal damage. This means that all the classes now feel the same; the variety is gone. This is a Bad Thing.Another symptom of the above problem is that magic items are now forced to have exactly one effect- there is no possibility of something like the old Wand of Wonder (or Rod of Wonder to those who started with 3.X). Likewise, it is no longer possible to have a sword that is both Flaming and Thundering, or Frost and Vorpal. Each item gets one property if it gets any, no ifs ands or buts. The logic of justifying why people who can make magic items somehow never think of multitasking by combining (gasp) multiple powers into a single object, is sacrificed in the name of Game Balance.More important to me is the removal of those conditions and effects, mentioned above; this makes the game and world a lot less interesting The loss of things like charms and dominates, the removal of creature summoning effects, and the end of energy drain or anything like an instant-death power mean that much of the fantastic nature of magic is gone too.And in their zeal to keep the so-called "sweet spot" active at all levels of play, they removed anything resembling the old "game breakers" that so many low-level DMs complained about- with the result that Epic, for example, no longer matches its name- it doesn't feel truly epic anymore. Gone are the characters like superheroes, at high or epic levels; everybody's limited to at most a few minutes of flight per day and you need absurd amounts of resources to even Teleport (to say nothing of not being able to even do it to a destination other than a permanent Teleport Circle until 29th level). I mean, even 28th level characters would be forced to walk to their destinations. Come on! That's not epic; it barely even qualifies as mid-level in any other version of the game.I know some people hated those things, but I was never one of them; I liked pulling out all the stops in high- and epic-level games and having characters who really did feel like near-gods. 4E feels like an effort to make the game all things to all people, which aside from being an impossible task in the first place, just plain went too far in its effects. It ended up just making the game one thing, which though it may appeal to some, does not appeal to me. I may one day play in a 4E game, perhaps a pickup or tournament at Gen Con- but I will never run one. It's not my kind of game.</blockquote>

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