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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6076327" data-attributes="member: 1165">As of MM3/DMG2, monster damage has been standardized. (A typical single-target at-will would deal 8 + level on average; minion damage has also been standardized.)I noticed a few creatures in the MM1 actually did the same damage prior to the changes. Often these were viewed as OP at the start. (In Keep on the Shadowfell, guard drakes killed half my party in one encounter. They were certainly doing much higher damage than what was "standard" in 2008.)Defenses have also been standardized (generally lower), and solo design is far better.While Reavers tends to have a good rep, skill challenges can be poorly-written. Fortunately DMs can come up some on the fly, provided they have the new skill DC rules (which have lower DCs).See, I knew there was a reason encounter social powers existed <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=":)" />Random encounters need to be handled differently in 4e. See, random encounters are a bad idea now, but pacing encounters aren't. (Therefore I'm more likely to use "random" encounters in a city or dungeon, where PCs might feel an urge to rest too early.) In the wilderness, a random encounter is a speed bump unless it's a level +4 or more encounter, since you're not likely to keep facing random encounters. Unless the PCs are wandering through a jungle filled with cannibalistic halflings, which is something I did once <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=":)" />4e has a lot of immediate reaction/interrupt powers, plus free action powers, which can slow the game down. (Option paralysis when making a creature is not a big deal, but it's a big deal if it's affecting you when you need to think quickly.)Ironically, Essentials uses lots of triggered powers and yet it goes fast. This is mainly because your only option might be "do I use Power Strike now? Yes/no?"I hate the Character Builder.For starters, players should learn to make a character with pen and paper before they start using the CB. Alas, I didn't insist on that with my group (not being aware of this issue), and now I have players who think inherent bonuses are "too complicate" to use without computerized assistance.Making a 1st-level character is not hard, and no new player should be presented with 5th-level PC or something like that (although sometimes that's unavoidable).The inability to implant house rules is just another mark against the Character Builder. One of my players played a thri-kreen battlemind in my Dark Sun campaign a while back, and the CB had trouble with some aspect of the rules (apparently it could handle the thri-kreen, but not the Dark Sun stuff, odd because I don't think the thri-kreen was available prior to Dark Sun's release).Another thing I hate about the Character Builder is how it interacts with optimization boards, and the vast amount of splat books. I think the CB cost WotC a lot of splat sales, especially those before they discontinued the free offline version in 2010. Why buy a book when the CB already has it? (Maybe the CB was never available for free legally, I don't know because I don't use the program.)In 3rd Edition, players were limited in the kind of splatbooks they could use. DMs could say they're not using so-and-so book, or the player has to own the book and show it to them, etc. It didn't matter if you found something on an op board or have a lot of PDFs, if it required too many sources, you couldn't use it.In my group, even the more responsible players keep finding they accidentally used a power from some banned source in their build. (The barbarian player is like this, and always points it out when he notices.) I know there's some filter, but either it doesn't work properly or it's too hard to use. I think only one player has ever actually figured this out. (Said thri-kreen PC player.)Since the glut of splats means inevitable broken combos when you use the Race from Book A with the power from Book B and the item from Book C plus this feat from Book D that was obviously meant to be used with Class E from Book F but they forgot to limit it... sigh. 4e is a lot more balanced than 3.x so it's not so bad, but crap gets through the cracks, like avengers with that stupid AC-boosting monk feat. (Why isn't that feat just a monk class ability? Or is that a feat tax for monks?) I use very few AC-targeting monsters these days.I doubt anyone from WotC is reading this post, but I don't think the problem with the CB was its functionality, but its basic purpose.</blockquote>

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