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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 5759458" data-attributes="member: 3424">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 SpellsWhether 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 PowerI 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 SurgesSome 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 ChallengesSkill 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. ThemesI 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.</blockquote>

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