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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ProfessorCirno" data-source="post: 5083295" data-attributes="member: 65637">Am I typing in magical font that's impossible to read?  I didn't say 3.5 was this bastion of non-combat mechanics, did I?  No, I did not.  I in fact stated that every new release of D&D was more based on combat then the last, didn't I?  Let's see.Oh hey, there's the post itself, stating exactly what I just said now.  Look at my edition warring in claiming that 3.5 was slightly less combat focused then 4e!As for character sheets, let's look at 4e's first.  We have a small sliver at the top (With level, class, paragon, and destiny excluded), the senses box, skills, and languages known.  Everything else?  4e items are almost all purely for combat use.  Powers is a massive grey area as, other then utility powers, they are designed completely for combat, and usage outside of combat is complete DM fiat.  Statistics?  The issue in 4e is the heavy lead into optimiation and every class being brought to having two or, more and more lately, only one "strong" stat, with a very large push that you need to have either a 16 or an 18 in it, leading to a very large disjunction between what the stats mean and how they reflect on your character.  If you take 4E traits as a literal measure of anything other than combat ability you're going to find every last Druid to be a pillar of godly wisdom and Wizards to invariably be geniuses.  Feats?  Another grey area, with 90% of all feats being dedicated purely towards combat usage.So let's hit 3.5's.Same sliver along the top.  Right side is blotted out because it's all combat.  Stats, however, are more strongly linked to character out of combat ability.  After that, it's reversed - left side, with all it's attacks, is blotted out, while the big ol' skill list is left intact.  However, the next page is interesting - spells and special abilities is a grey area as powers are, although I'll contend they're much less of a grey area, as they're both are very much designed to have an effect outside of combat, some spells aren't combat spells at all, and in fact many classes get special abilities that have no effect on combat whatsoever.  Feats, too, are a grey area, with the same "not as grey" as spells, as there are more non-combat related feats.  Lastly, items, which, while a solid block for 4e, is grey here, once again due to the much bigger number of items designed for more then just combat usage.So the result?  Still pretty combat oriented, but not as much.  I'm not saying 4e is all combat all the time, I'm saying that 4e's character sheet is built with a heavier emphasis on combat then previous editions.  What a shocker.  4e, between the much mroe combat based character sheet and the horrendous Wizards adventures and the focus on maps, minis, and tactical combat solutionos, has the heavy implication that the game is built to have the primary focus (not only focus) on combat, which, FFS, you and so many others have repeated in the past.  Just because I'm saying it now doesn't mean it's suddenly wrong.To quote someone else, who is in fact a huge 4e fan, "I'm not saying that 2nd Ed or 3.5 were roleplaying tours-de-force, just that they were moreso than 4E"Funny enough, the sort of in between of 3.5 and 4e, SWSE, was much less combat focused then either of them, and I can't help but wish both editions were more like that.</blockquote>

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