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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ulrick" data-source="post: 4715644" data-attributes="member: 775">I used to be a strong proponent of 4e. But as I've played/DMed the game weekly in the last 4 months, my enthusiasm has waned somewhat because of the following three reasons. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want this to turn into a "bash 4e thread." I would like some constructive advice to my concerns.1. All the Special PowersEven at lower levels, all the classes have special powers--which makes them not so-special, and a somewhat a pain to keep track of in combat. Many PC at-will powers (especially the Warlord) often affect other PCs until the end of a round. With six players, this can be difficult to keep track of--even for the players, who must remember if they get bonuses or not. Now, stack these powers with whatever conditions the monsters dish out, and things get complicated. (I one time had a group of NPCs with the "mark" engage the fighters of the PCs--everybody marked each other, it got confusing).How do people keep track of all these modifiers? With chits or other such markers? Also--and this is more rhetorical--if everybody has special powers, then they really aren't so special.  So why have them? What ever happened to "I attack and do X amount of damage?" 2. Combats aren't scary for the playersWith all the healing surges, cleric's minor actions to heal, and finally three saving throws when a PC drops, most combats just don't seem intense as they should be for the players. This sort of fits in with this thread:<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/247429-d-d-4th-edition-creatures-not-scary.html" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/247429-d-d-4th-edition-creatures-not-scary.html</a>Monsters just don't seem to do as much damage as they should.In 3.5e, players would think along the terms of CR--that was easily solved with tossing in higher CR monsters. But in 4e, there's just so many second chances that even more powerful monsters just don't scare the PCs like they should. What can be done?3. Combat GrindThis has been covered in other threads, so I won't belabor it here. One solution is to use more minions, but that makes combat even less scary. I'm sort of at an impasse with this, and haven't found a desirable solution.</blockquote>

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