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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 4582046" data-attributes="member: 93">Nice to see you around, SHARK!  It has been a while.I was just looking at your other thread, and thought "I wonder what he thinks of 4E..."  I suspect that it just might be to your tastes - it incorporates a lot of high level D&D concepts (and posits a more powerful starting position) than 3.5, and in that, it seems that it might well fit with your style.4E refines the core mechanic of the d20 system one step further than 3.X - you can attack using ANY stat, although which stat is used dependes on the particular power.  This is measured against a specific defense - AC, Reflex, Will, or Fortitude.  Attacks, Defenses, and Skills all scale up at the same rate, so that it's just as plausible to use a Bluff check versus Reflex as it is to roll a Dex attack versus AC (say if you wanted to cause someone to be off balance for some reason).All of these are based off the same formula.  Each defense can be modified by either of two stats - for example, either Strength or Constitution can modify your Fortitude Defense.There are a lot of little streamlining things like this in 4E; things like all light weapons using DEX as their attack stat, in effect giving everyone Weapon Finesse for free; or conversely, heavy thrown weapons like a hammer would use STR as their attack stat.Each class has a role, and a "power source."  Role defines what the class is intended to do in a rough sense - striker, defender, controller.  Strikers do more damage, defenders can take more hits, controllers affect other characters or change the battlefield.  Power Sources just codify how a character gets their power - arcane, divine, etc.The biggest difference is in the Powers.  Every class has access to a suite of Powers (each class calls them by a different name), and gets them at the same rate and at the same levels.  The powers are all fairly different, and all very self-contained - no referring around to things.  Each class has a while list of these from 1-20th level, and they take up a big part of the PHB.  Your characters, on the other hand, will not have a huge selection themselves - no more wizards with 50 spells at his disposal at high levels; spells are now powers, and are mostly limited to what is useful in battle, with all other "spells" being relegated to the status of rituals, which are used outside of combat.  That's where you'll find a lot of things like Raise Dead, for instance.Monsters have been simplified, and flavored up a bit.  Emphasis is more on multiple kinds of monsters, each filling a role (striker, defender, etc).  DM prep is simplified - encounters are built on a "XP Budget", and you just keep adding a certain XP amount of monsters until you get the total you want.I'll let others fill in the blanks, or add to this - or correct me, as I haven't actually played that much 4E to this point.  A lot of people like it, a lot of people think its just too different from 3.X for them to make the change.  It is unquestionably very different from any previous version of the game.</blockquote>

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