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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 5757615" data-attributes="member: 114">I would bet that they didn't have them when the released 4e - the initial pub had far too many Whaaa? Moments in their powers. Even now, I don't think they have any way of costing damage die vs stun vs push vs slide vs daze vs save ends vs one round vs etc. I'm not surprised to read about the way which they did play testing - which was severely flawed in my mind. Unlike the far more open playtesting which went on with 3e, they wanted to just ask specific questions for specific answers - which limited the play testers ability to let them know about problem areas beyond the questions asked. In software testing you want scripted tests to check they essential functionality for sure, but you also need exploratory testing, where experienced testers push the boundaries and attempt to break things. It seems to me that the 4e designers and developers missed out on that. Perhaps not entirely, but missed to a greater extent than before. I also find it telling that the designers appear to have concentrated on what they thought might be good for the game on a psychological basis, without considering strongly enough that thirty years of history suggested that people liked the traditional D&D way of running classes. Hubris might be too strong a word, but the combination of design and marketing decisions did no favours to the maintainance of their fan base!</blockquote>