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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Necrofumbler" data-source="post: 9071979" data-attributes="member: 6923702">4E IHMO is the most balanced game of the entire lot. I just had very a pair of bad experiences with it. Never going to play with strangers in a public venue anymore! Always a moron and/or a dick in every such group. In the interest of sanity, I'll skip those stories.Our personal feelings of me and my friend right afterwards:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Too tactical video gamey, too "soul-less".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It feels closer to a Board Game, a SLOWER more complicated version of D&D minatures, not an RPG.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">All classes feel the exact same.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Unless the casters go out of their way to expose themselves to TAKE some attacks, the frontline tank WILL go down, fast. The only way to "win" is to try to "distribute" the damage amongst the PCs as much as possible. While an effective tactic, it also goes 180 degrees directly against the very roleplaying trope concept of playing squishy casters.</li> </ul>The big lesson I learned from 4E: Multi-stages encounters are interesting!They drastically reduce caster power:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Casters can't target all enemies in one go, because the enemies come in waves.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Casters won't just directly cast their best spells mindlessly, in case there are reinforcements.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Casters will take more damage and get some disrupted spells, too, because reinforcements might come from anywhere, especially the sides and the REAR. That way the squishy casters end up WAY more exposed to attacks in the after-the-first stage, and thus get targeted way more, than in "normal" single-stage fights where the tanks simply move to the front where ALL the monsters are, and the caster jusst stay well back, at a safe distance.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reinforcements in waves typically means that the enemies get overall much more spread out on the battle map, so area spells become less effective.</li> </ul>While also upping the power of martials:- They can keep fighting for longer because only a few enemies at a time are attacking the PC in each wave, instead of the PC ending up being fully surrounded by the entire horde right away and being mostly the only one targeted by mosst attacks, while the casters get only a few scratches. Thus the martials end up losing less HP per round.In 4E, multi-stage encounters are a must to avoid fights quickly becoming too simple and repetitive because that would encourage 5 years old tactics level: Just blast your best encounter powers from best to worst, that's it.So overall that experience wasn't a total loss.Maybe I'll try it again sometime, if I find a competent group.</blockquote>

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