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D&D 4E Reply if you love 4e
- Thread starter Rechan
- Start date
the Jester
Legend
I love all editions of D&D, and 4e is awesome. I've had a ton of fun with it over the last few years and really enjoy running it. I hope we never leave exception-based monster design behind!
FireLance
Legend
In my view, 4E introduced several great concepts which really shook up the old paradigms. It might have had flaws (especially when it came to the execution of these concepts), and it can certainly be improved, but this is not the thread to dwell on that.
So, here's my list of the concepts that made 4E stand out to me:
1. Powers, Not Spells
Whether fighter or mage, rogue or cleric, paladin or ranger, everyone had options beyond "I make a basic attack." You no longer had to be a spellcaster to unleash a more powerful attack or trigger some beneficial effect when you needed it.
2. The Encounter Power
I think the encounter power really came into its own in 4E. Straddling the middle ground between vanilla at-will abilities and more significant daily powers, they come into play often enough that they could be considered the characters' signature moves, but (IMO) not so often that they became banal or routine.
3. Healing Surges
Some people have said that they have problems with healing surges, but it seems to me that the issues are usually more to do with non-magical recovery of hit points, the ease of hit point recovery, or the number of hit points possessed by the PCs and monsters than with healing surges per se. Healing surges essentially ensure that healing powers generally keep pace with character hit points as they go up in level, and that PCs have a reserve of endurance that usually goes beyond what they can bring to bear in any single encounter.
4. Skill Challenges
Skill challenges provide a structure to the normal free-form approach for resolving non-combat challenges that are more complex and require more than a single skill check. In a way, I think that most of the complaints about skill challenges can be resolved by making them more flexible - for example, the DM could award multiple successes and even automatic successes for good ideas.
5. Themes
I like the basic idea of a theme as a collection of powers tied to a specific concept or flavor. In fact, at the broadest level, even "character defining" concepts such as race or class can be considered themes. IMO, themes can be a great way to add complexity to a character without adding a great deal of power.
So, here's my list of the concepts that made 4E stand out to me:
1. Powers, Not Spells
Whether fighter or mage, rogue or cleric, paladin or ranger, everyone had options beyond "I make a basic attack." You no longer had to be a spellcaster to unleash a more powerful attack or trigger some beneficial effect when you needed it.
2. The Encounter Power
I think the encounter power really came into its own in 4E. Straddling the middle ground between vanilla at-will abilities and more significant daily powers, they come into play often enough that they could be considered the characters' signature moves, but (IMO) not so often that they became banal or routine.
3. Healing Surges
Some people have said that they have problems with healing surges, but it seems to me that the issues are usually more to do with non-magical recovery of hit points, the ease of hit point recovery, or the number of hit points possessed by the PCs and monsters than with healing surges per se. Healing surges essentially ensure that healing powers generally keep pace with character hit points as they go up in level, and that PCs have a reserve of endurance that usually goes beyond what they can bring to bear in any single encounter.
4. Skill Challenges
Skill challenges provide a structure to the normal free-form approach for resolving non-combat challenges that are more complex and require more than a single skill check. In a way, I think that most of the complaints about skill challenges can be resolved by making them more flexible - for example, the DM could award multiple successes and even automatic successes for good ideas.
5. Themes
I like the basic idea of a theme as a collection of powers tied to a specific concept or flavor. In fact, at the broadest level, even "character defining" concepts such as race or class can be considered themes. IMO, themes can be a great way to add complexity to a character without adding a great deal of power.
CasvalRemDeikun
Adventurer
Even though they haven't made 4E Dragonlance, the rest has been gold. Pre-Essentials, Essentials, Post-Essentials, it is all good.
ppaladin123
Adventurer
I love 4e despite its wrinkles. Now if they'd only iron out some of those wrinkles, I'd be euphoric about it.
Tallifer
Hero
I love Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. It brought me back to D&D after many years away from it. I used to play AD&D every weekend. I played 2nd edition for two sessions.
Fourth edition is clear, modular, clever and exciting. I love the combat. I love the transparency of the system, so that I can easily take up any class without having to learn all over again. I love the pre-essentials format. I love the Character Builder, Compendium and Monster Builder.
I pray to all the gods of the Realms, of Eberron and of Nerath, that the Wizards will keep this edition going for a long time. (I would however not mind some heavy revision and errata for the weaker classes, feats, items and powers.)
Fourth edition is clear, modular, clever and exciting. I love the combat. I love the transparency of the system, so that I can easily take up any class without having to learn all over again. I love the pre-essentials format. I love the Character Builder, Compendium and Monster Builder.
I pray to all the gods of the Realms, of Eberron and of Nerath, that the Wizards will keep this edition going for a long time. (I would however not mind some heavy revision and errata for the weaker classes, feats, items and powers.)
tuxgeo
Adventurer
(. . . and even cheer-following, right?)
"Rah, Rah, Ray! Kick 'em in the Fey!
"Rah, Rah, Roam! Kick 'em in the Gnome!"
Well, OK, maybe not exactly like that. . . .
Personally, I attended high school at South Eugene, so I'm an "Axeman" (mascot chosen because of the extensive forests around Eugene), and our specialty was:
"Give 'em the axe! Give em' the axe! Give 'em the axe! Where?
"Right-in-the-neck! Right-in-the-neck! Right-in-the-neck! THERE!"
Couldn't have been more D&D if it tried -- and that was the early 1960's (though it started wobbling after the JFK assassination), so that was more than a decade before D&D was even invented. . . .
--------------------
Oh, wait; you mean specifically about 4E, don't you?
My bad. Let me try again:
--------------------
Fourth Edition didn't kill my puppy. (I don't have a puppy.)
Fourth Edition made me forget about Tralfamador for a while. (That's a good thing.)
Fourth Edition de-iconized Regdar. (He died ingloriously the first-and-only time I tried to run him using the 3E yellow-box.)
Seriously: Fourth Edition created a game that could be expressed in DDI.
I think that's a great accomplishment. (Could 3E have been put into a database so easily?)
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R
RHGreen
Guest
I love D&D. I love a lot that is 4E. I love that D&D will (optimistically) contiue to get better and better, drawing from all that is good in every edition, over the years to come.
I hope that was good/close enough.
I hope that was good/close enough.
Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
Thanks for creating this thread @Rechan ! I could use a dose of positive feedback after the anti-4e poopstorm that is going on in the 'Nod' thread.
Now don't get me wrong - like it says in my sig, I like D&D (and pretty much any RPG), but 4e is, IMHO, the best one yet.
After running a 3-year-long campaign in 3.mess all the way up to 18, I was so very ready for the advances brought by 4th edition. Some of my fellow DMs in my group were getting sick of 3e as well - one wanted something simpler and with less rulebooks to consult just to make characters or NPCs, and another, my wife, nearly quit the hobby over 3.x. I'm eternally glad to WotC and 4e for that one thing alone. And to think that we were all set to hate it and join the PF crowd. Heh
I joined this forum because of 4e (Essentials, specifically, which for me and my wife was like a renaissance within a gaming revolution), and in so doing have met many friends.
Sure, this game has warts, but they all do. Besides, that's what houserules are for; I don't think I've ever used a system where I didn't houserule stuff.
Now don't get me wrong - like it says in my sig, I like D&D (and pretty much any RPG), but 4e is, IMHO, the best one yet.
After running a 3-year-long campaign in 3.mess all the way up to 18, I was so very ready for the advances brought by 4th edition. Some of my fellow DMs in my group were getting sick of 3e as well - one wanted something simpler and with less rulebooks to consult just to make characters or NPCs, and another, my wife, nearly quit the hobby over 3.x. I'm eternally glad to WotC and 4e for that one thing alone. And to think that we were all set to hate it and join the PF crowd. Heh
I joined this forum because of 4e (Essentials, specifically, which for me and my wife was like a renaissance within a gaming revolution), and in so doing have met many friends.
Sure, this game has warts, but they all do. Besides, that's what houserules are for; I don't think I've ever used a system where I didn't houserule stuff.
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