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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vermonter" data-source="post: 4124113" data-attributes="member: 54647">First of all, awesome thread!  I appreciate that while folks have their own concerns there appears to be genuine debate and listening going on.  Given the amount of speculation involved in these discussions this isn't easy.I wanted to throw in my own perspective.  To be up front about it, I'm really looking forward to 4E, but there are some specific reasons why.I played the original red box and 1st ed D&D heavily.  Bought into second edition, but didn't play all that much and took a decade + hiatus from D&D.  I just came to 3.5 about two years ago and started running my own campaign about a year ago.  I would consider myself a very experienced game master.With all that said, I do find the 3.5 NPC rules tough to work with.  Not at all because I'm unwilling to just fudge stats.  I do that automatically by now.  The problem is figuring out what the right stat to fudge is!  I have six players/characters all mid level (8), some with LA, some with templates giving them odd abilities, (flight, DR, diminuitive size, invisibility).  Some are experienced, for one it is her first and only RP game.  Their builds range from optimized to thematic.My goal as a DM is to set challenging but surmountable encounters for them.  Quite simply I've found that the CR system doesn't work.  So, I end up fudging wildly.  But, say I have a creature I like thematically, but I know it isn't tough enough.  I want to add to it's AC, attack bonus and damage.  HP are probably ok.  But how much to add?  I end up flipping around looking at other creatures trying to get the numbers right.  Other times I just do the class level advancement.On the same token, I have found that they are now at the power point where fighting groups that don't have spell caster support gives my players a real advantage.  So now I'm into selecting spells for their opponents for every encounter.  Finding the right spells to address the parties abilities and make it "fun" isn't easy.  I finally used web to isolate the group in an encounter prompting the new player to ask how it could possibly be such a low level spell.What I'm expecting of 4E isn't the fact that I can DM fiat, it is that the rules will tell me how to do so in a balanced way so I can save a lot of time building numbers and instead focus on the story and cool abilities.  I know some of you understand the ins and outs of the system well, but for me, I still need to review half the second level wizard/sorceror spells in the PH and Spell Compendium just to fill out the likely actions of my lieutenant spell caster in each encounter I make.  Simply put, 3E is very DM unfriendly for all but the experienced or highly dedicated.  Any change to the system that puts more tools in the DMs hands will be a good thing.</blockquote>

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