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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6616885" data-attributes="member: 82106">Yeah, I thought about that too. I've considered that maybe there should be say 18 levels of regular play and then 3 levels of Epic, with level 21 being a 'capstone' where all the crazy gets to REALLY hang out. That would be cool too. I thought 10 levels of heroic was OK, 10 levels of paragon was fine too, though I'd be OK even with say 6,6,3, which would be 15 levels total. I just sort of thought 20 levels was a bit of a nice nod to classic D&D, since level 20 is usually thought of as the 'endpoint' of character progression in most versions of the game (yeah, I know, not all, and technically all classic D&D is 'open ended').I think you COULD in 4e have those sorts of rituals. They're not REALLY character resources though, they're more like plot devices. Though different from artifacts they serve a pretty similar purpose, something that shapes the narrative and may benefit the character, but is really ultimately its own thing. 4e to me always did a much better job of suggesting these things than other editions too. AD&D always seemed very 'guarded', like the advice on anything that wasn't in the book was "be suspicious, restrict it, don't give players an inch" but in 4e it was more like "well, here's all the really nailed-down stuff, now, when you want to open up a can of crazy, just go for it!"Well, I just think that 'tactics' in 4e was very much centered on timing power uses, combining things into combos, and finding ways to front-load your firepower with things like interrupt speed attacks and such. Surprising someone is decent, but its not a BIG advantage. Terrain CAN sometimes be pretty handy, but in reality lying prone and sniping with a crossbow from the cover of even a small elevation is stupid awesome, yet it gets you a 5 point AC bonus, at most, often nothing. Attacking someone from higher ground? Nothing. Setting a weapon against a charge? Doesn't even exist, you can do the Ready Action, but there's no such thing as setting a pike. There's no system for loyalty or morale either, which is too bad. I think these things should be central to tactics, that is REAL TACTICS like you'd practice in REALITY. I don't want to eschew the cool fantastic elements by any means, but I would like to SHOWCASE them. The coolest moves tend to get buried in a heap of trivia. I think the 4e devs saw this too, as over time they tried in places like Essentials to pare down powers both in number and to a standard of more simplicity and more effect. I think you see the same thing with 5e's various class features in a lot of cases. This would also help with certain problems that exist in 4e with combat. For instance, right now suppose a bunch of weaker enemies ambush the party. Its fun for a round or two, but pretty soon the PCs have got their actions and its just a fight against weaker enemies, somewhat time-consuming but trivial. Make surprise really mean something, more like it really does, BAD NEWS, and all of a sudden a group of weaker opponents isn't something to scoff at anymore if they get a jump on you. Sure, you'll win, and probably win pretty quickly, but it should be SCARY and make you blow some real resources to compensate for.</blockquote>

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