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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gbonehead" data-source="post: 4935365" data-attributes="member: 59014">As someone who's been playing since I got my blue box set in 1979, I think I've given all editions of D&D a fair shake, including 3e, 3.5e and 4e.However, I'll be up front here, and say that I prefer 3.5e over 4e, just to get that out of the way right off.  I'm not a 4e hater, it's just not my thing.I've played many enjoyable games of 4e, but for me it's just missing something.  I'm not going to bother trying to figure out what, as it's irrelevant - the living campaign we run at local cons is 4e, and it's clearly here to stay, so my preference for 3.5e is trumped by popular demand, though my epic home campaign is 3.5e for the long haul.There are some things, however, that I having trouble dealing with, and that's the reason I'm posting here.  These are not criticisms per se, they're things I really truly need to deal with in order to effectively run games.1. How the heck do you make a character?  As the number of splat books for 4e grows at an amazing pace (and note that the 4e splat books are *mandatory* due to the incredible volume of feats and powers), I'm finding myself completely unable to keep up in any effective way with the hundreds and hundreds of new feats and powers added to the system.2. How do I differentiate skills?  I've always run games where non-combat stuff is as important as combat stuff, and in 4e once you reach moderate levels, the differences between characters as far as skills go are overshadowed by the + 1/2 level skill modifier and the lack of per-level skill advancement (other than the + 1/2 level).3. How do I introduce new players to the game?  Time was, I'd say "okay, here, play this human fighter, it's dirt simple."  Now, near as I can tell there's *no* dirt simple class for newbies - every class is equivalently complex, with a bevy of at-will/encounter/daily powers, racial abilities, and class features.  I really do miss that plain 'ol fighter for new players <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />These are the kind of things that give me trouble running a 4e game, and given that I'll be doing it for the forseeable future, any assistance would be grand <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />P.S. If the only answer to #1 is "Subscribe to D&D Insider and use the online tools" then that will make me sad.  Building characters shouldn't require (cash to WoTC) + (Online tools).</blockquote>

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