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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreyICE" data-source="post: 6001854" data-attributes="member: 6684526">You do it in 4th edition the same way you do it in other editions - roleplay your characters, speed through combat, roleplay your characters more.  Neither is particularly suited to being a social/roleplay heavy system with minimal combat.  I think the biggest source of this complaint is that the tactical focus of 4E is different than 3E.  These are the elements of combat in 3E:1) Action Denial - Improved Trip, Bear Grapples, Save or Suck spells, pinning monsters down with summons, etc., Action Denial is a huge part of the tactical game in 3E.  2) Preparation - Many of the monsters in 3E had huge lethality reductions if you could prep.  It could be as easy as cold resist against a cryohydra, or as hard as finding specific potions to deal with blindness/darkness, but 3E combat often was won or lost based on how well the party prepared for a challenge.  3) Save minimization/maximization - basically, the more saving throws you rolled, the worse for you.  Conditions were usually long-lasting, extremely hard to remove, and frequently devastating.  Making sure you didn't suffer those conditions was a large part of the tactics in combat.4) Threat identification/nuking - Some threats need to be taken out.  IMMEDIATELY.  If there's a beholder in the room, it must die. MUST MUST MUST.  You do not have the option of leaving it alive for 3-4 rounds, because you will be steaming piles of dead stuff.  Either it has to be neutralized (see: Action Denial) or killed.\5) Long-term resource management: 3E focuses HEAVILY on managing long-term resources.  Hit Points are difficult to regain (until wands of CLW/LV become cheap), running out of spells is a huge issue, and many characters have limited resources that recharge on daily basis (rage, etc.).  Resting is frequently dangerous, meaning you want to careful conserve your resources.  Even minor combats run the risk of incurring long-term resource drain that can cost you, not now, but three, four, five encounters on.  Status conditions that are difficult to remove are often inflicted, and even when removal becomes easier (at higher levels) the variety of them ensures you almost certainly need an extended rest to get the specific cure spell you need to remove them.  In short, the focus is often less on winning, and more on winning "with style."  In contrast, 4E focuses a lot more heavily on positioning, temporary bonuses, setting up a nova round, and proper power use/role use.  Long-term resource management exists, but in a much less draining form than 4E, and even when you add in long-term conditions, they never reach the conditions that occurred in 3E (long-term poisions, negative levels, stoning, etc.).You could legitimately complain "I preferred trying to shut down dangerous monsters before they could do anything and researching and prepping for combat more than I enjoy focusing on positioning and incremental advantages in a longer combat with more swing."   But that's just preferring one style of tactical gameplay to another.</blockquote>

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