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Message: <blockquote data-quote="B.T." data-source="post: 6072832" data-attributes="member: 84465">One of the things that I like about 4e is that it allows for variance among the various martial classes, which allows for a much lower-magic campaign (and thus makes it perfect for a LOTR-style game). The relative balancing of the classes works in this direction, as does the inclusion of non-magical healing. On the other hand, the prevalence of magical items and relatively inexpensive nature of such (worse than 3e) makes it harder to run a low-magic game using the starting rules (yes, I know there are low-magic variants elsewhere). In addition, the spellcasters that there are start off far more "epic" than their counterparts from 3e, which is a bit of a downer for me. (At-will spells, encounter spells, etc. My warpriest does radiant damage at-will and tosses out heals and saving throws like candy, while the hexblade in the party summons a magical necrotic flail and throws out eldrtich blasts at-will.)But, to return to the original point, 4e does a lot right with the martial classes. The fighter, warlord, ranger, and rogue all play very differently in combat, and I think that such makes them more satisfying to play than the traditional 3e classes. In 3e, there isn't much support for a captain character, and the barbarian itself is almost the same as the fighter. Even the ranger is mostly a fighter with his feats chosen in advance. (The skill points and spells help, of course.)D&D has never been Lord of the Rings, of course, but Gygax was influenced by the books. A lot of the "old guard" D&D players cite Lord of the Rings as being their "style" of game (anecdotal, so don't sperg out over this). 4e does a better job of supporting this than 3e, I think, and that's something that 5e should learn from. There are some obvious shortcomings with the 4e system, but making the martial characters more unique wasn't one of them. I think that 5e would do well to take this to heart, as having a LOTR-style game appeals to a number of gamers.</blockquote>

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