New Iconic

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

At some point, a new edition of the game will occur. What new things introduced in 4th Edition should be around in 5th?

Personally, I'd love to see the Warlord survive. I think the invention of a Martial Healer was great for the game.

 

[possum]

The Warlord or some time of party-boosting class other than a bard is certainly one of the things that I'd like to see continued in future editions.

 

[Mercurius]

I prefer the new planar model and hope they stick with it.

I'm not sure if you're talking about actual rules, but healing surges.

But it seems like a lot of what seemed new to 4E actually came out in the latter years of 3.5; innovations for a new edition often seem to occur in the waning days of the previous edition (see my post about "Transition to 5E" - which relates to another thread by the OP).

 

[tuxgeo]

What new things introduced in 4th Edition should be around in 5th?

• At-Will powers for everybody (even if they're merely Move actions such as the Thief's "tricks").
• FORT, REF, and WILL as defenses, not saves.
• Power Sources formalized, allowing such phrases as "any arcane class" to be a Prerequisite for varieties of stuff (feats, paragon paths, epic destinies, etc.). (This still needs further development.*)
• Backgrounds. (PHB2)
• Hybrid Multiclassing. (PHB3)
• Skill Powers. (PHB3)
• Themes. (ongoing . . .)

*Re: further development of power sources: The simple way to reduce the clutter of powers is to put them into combined lists, one for each power source. Here's an example of what I mean:
Bard -- "Vicious Mockery": Charm, R-10, single target, CHAvWIL; 1d6 + CHA psychic, and takes -2 tohit UEOYNT.
Wizard -- "Illusory Ambush": Illusion, R-10, single target, INTvWIL; 1d6 + INT psychic, and takes -2 tohit UEOYNT.

Here, the only differences are (1) Charm vs. Illusion keyword, and (2) CHA vs. INT modifier for tohit and damage.
WotC could introduce a new keyword, such as "Primestat," to generalize powers, where the Primestat of a Bard would be CHA and the Primestat of a Wizard would be INT; then replace the specific wording in the class-specific versions of the power with the "Primestat" variable. (So: "Attack: primestat vs. Will.")
Also, WotC could introduce a new keyword, such as "Influence," to generalize power types, where the Influence of a Bard would be Charm and the Influence of a Wizard would be -- whatever that particular Wizard chose to take as his or her Influence.

That kind of thing would allow for a bit of consolidation of power lists by power source; but would still leave open the 3E-style option of having each listed power state which classes can take them.

 

[afroakuma]

WotC could introduce a new keyword, such as "Primestat," to generalize powers, where the Primestat of a Bard would be CHA and the Primestat of a Wizard would be INT; then replace the specific wording in the class-specific versions of the power with the "Primestat" variable.

The upcoming Legend system, which took some cues from D&D, has this in the form of "Key Offensive Modifier" and "Key Defensive Modifier" for each class/character. It's proven in playtesting to be helpful for the reasons you describe, and I think 5E could definitely do with a similar mechanic.

 

[arscott]

*World Axis cosmology
*Implements
*the Raven Queen, and most of the other gods introduced by 4e
*star pact warlocks
*Tiers of Play

 

[OnlineDM]

I know lots of people feel like it ruins the flavor of the game, but I hope things like wizard at-will spells stick around. I prefer the wizard and related classes to be able to use magic in a useful way all the time, rather than resorting to throwing darts.