D&D 4E The reason 4E doesn't work well except for "Dungeon Delves" or "Encounters"

[Harlekin]

I can't believe how idiotic the original post is - no offence. Instead of asking the community about the ways to deal with the problems he is experiencing in his game, he basically says 4E is broken and works only as a hack&slash system. Come on, that's exactly why some people actually think 4E is a dumbed up "MMO" version of Dungeons&Dragons.

It is perfectly fine for roleplaying and "sandboxing" - deal with it.

Have you noticed that in the entire history of the human race, nobody was ever convinced of the error of their ways by having their argument called "idiotic"? I know nerves are a little raw because of the ongoing edition war, but it may make more sense to try and convince others you are right rather than insult their ideas.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Two feats. You need training in Arcana or Religion, which are not fighter class skills. (It's easier to multiclass with cleric or wizard or some other class whose multiclass feat gives that skill. But that still costs you that extra feat.)

Backgrounds can make a non-class skill a class skill. And Bards, Invokers, and Wizards all have a multiclass feat that grants one skill and Ritual Caster.

 

[S'mon]

We have "Domain Turns" of a month-duration each. We calculated it out to be just about a month long to do the whole town (as some have noted above).


And yes I agree.. as the DM I could easily have all those things happen.. I could also have a meteorite "randomly" fall from orbit and crush their town...

I prefer not to be a dick.

Applying the RAW to prevent the very abuses you're complaining of is not "being a dick".

IME the 4e Ritual system works fine if you use it as written, especially if you don't ignore the italicised text as 'just fluff'. It certainly doesn't make non-ritual-users worthless.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Applying the RAW to prevent the very abuses you're complaining of is not "being a dick".

IME the 4e Ritual system works fine if you use it as written, especially if you don't ignore the italicised text as 'just fluff'. It certainly doesn't make non-ritual-users worthless.

Seconded. If you are pedantic about the letter of the rules to stop some kind of nifty application that is well within the spirit of the rules--then you may or may be "being a dick" doing so. (It would depend on a lot of factors too numerous to mention.) If you are somewhat strict on the letter of the rules to enforce said spirit of the rules in the face of deliberate attempts to nullify that spirit, then that is definitely not "being a dick". That is called, "being a DM."

 

[aurance]

Applying the RAW to prevent the very abuses you're complaining of is not "being a dick".

IME the 4e Ritual system works fine if you use it as written, especially if you don't ignore the italicised text as 'just fluff'. It certainly doesn't make non-ritual-users worthless.

Thirded.

For what it's worth we rarely do dungeon crawls or encounter style sessions and 4e is working magnificently in any case.

 

[CroBob]

Thirded.

For what it's worth we rarely do dungeon crawls or encounter style sessions and 4e is working magnificently in any case.

Fourthed.

While 4th is designed around the encounter and dungeon crawl model, it is not necessary. I run only few campaigns where most encounters, if any, are in a dungeon crawl environment, the most recent being a notable exception, and my players have liked every one.

 

[Obryn]

Given that one of their major foes in the region is a lich-queen intent on destroying the cities and towns of the free people, this has essentially made their town immune to her armies.

Naah. Not even close.

There are countless ways for a big undead horde with intelligent leadership to completely obliterate a town without even crossing the border. Think outside the box - basically, you've turned the town into a big siege scenario without even the protection of a big stone wall. Hunger, siege weapons, fire, etc. All work just fine; you've just blocked off the "massive horde charge" part of it, which is probably the worst possible way to use an undead horde.

And that's also assuming a powerful Lich Queen has no way of counteracting said ritual - which is a heck of an assumption.

-O