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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Intense_Interest" data-source="post: 4859643" data-attributes="member: 65904">Well, going off the assumption that you have a group interested in 4E going in from a 3E mindset:1- Combat is much more interesting and discrete.  The Minis-and-Grid based combat with the specific spacing and timing actions is a lot more challenging round-to-round than the "Full Attack, Flank, Fireball, Full Heal" system of 3E.2- The reduction of point-based system elements such as "level dips" and Prestige Classes means that characters are fairly "set" once you concept and create them.  Other than the release of new feats/powers through books and homebrews or selecting off-road traits such as non-classed skills or Multi-class feats, a Fighter plays and works like a Fighter 1-10 or 1-20, and the Wizard plays and works like a Wizard 1-10 or 1-20 as well.3- If you ever get to epic levels, you'll be reminded that by about level 25 or so you've really gone over the 3.5 "power cap" in a lot of ways.  Yet characters remain adventurers instead of Lords and Ladies when they reach those levels.4- The economy is not really "nonsense" per se, because you're dealing with an entirely arbitrary game-world wherein Dragons don't drop-kick players for their +1 swords they're trying to sell.  20% versus 50% trade-in value works in your favor when trying to encourage players to more "kill things" instead of "take their stuff", especially if you have the Bag-of-Holding-everything-not-nailed-down type of player(s).  5- As a GM, you're allowed to throw together nearly everything that matches your party's expected XP level, but when you start pushing it in odd ways (high level single enemies, some of the lamer solos) or in even odder ways (bunches of minions, weak encounter of under 4 creatures) you'll notice that there is the chance of falling into low-risk slow-result combats (aka Grind) or cakewalks.  Small enclosed rooms specifically are fairly odd by-nature and feel more like playing Final Fantasy than a role-playing game; I miss, He misses, Monster hits, Monster misses, I hit etc.6- You simply cannot jump into Paragon or Epic teir play with a character (much less make one on your own) and expect to understand the game-play and how the class works.  Intricate combat scenarios and party-class interplay along with power timing and resource management are necessary skills to pop off some of the more challenging aspects of the game.  Playing those Low level adventures really does teach you how to work in all the features of the higher-level ones.  For some people that like to hit Vecna on an 8 in their first session, this will be a major hurdle.7- The Combat-effecting Conditions are legion and there is a definate learning curve: probably half of your first combat is going to be about what "Marking" is and when it comes into effect.  The later ones (slowed, stunned, prone, shaken) will come around and throw you through a loop as well.  I'm of a mind to say that at least once you learn it and get the language down, your group's combats will run more smoothly than it did in 3E.  This isn't Turn Undead / Grapple / Dispel uber-buffed Cleric when it comes to fiddly bits of arbitary numbers- Stunned aproximates "stunned" and Slowed makes you move Slow.</blockquote>

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