D&D 4E Things 4E Did Well & Should be Kept in Some Form

[Dragonblade]

Here is everything I like (not an exhaustive list because I love 4e) and some might be redundant:

Melee characters with cool abilities and maneuvers beyond just attacking
Virtually every class has some self-healing
Standard-Move-Minor action system (yes, even interrupts. Its a thing of beauty!)
4e combat system as a whole with one caveat (I like the movement powers but I wish there was a "no mini" option)
Rituals
Non-cleric Leaders
Tiers
Powers
Healing Surges
Crits are crits (no stupid confirmation roll)
The Saving Throw mechanic to end ongoing effects (LOVE IT! No more save or lose BS)
Healing from 0 instead of negatives
Bloodied condition and powers that key off it
Self-contained monster stat blocks!!!!!
Monster roles (Solos, brutes, skirmishers, lurkers, leaders, soldiers, love it!)
PC roles (Defenders, Controllers, Leaders, Strikers (though I think everyone should be more striker-y))
Artifacts
Class power levels scale uniformly across all levels and classes (no more caster domination)
DMG pg 42 (An absolute MUST for 5e)
1/2 level bonus and the math as a whole finally makes sense and is transparent
Saves as Defenses (Including the concept of take the higher of STR or CON for Fort and so on, and how light and heavy armor work with the Defenses. Brilliant!)
No level drain
Monster vulnerabilities and resistances
Monster design as a whole is AWESOME!
HP scaling and static HPs per level
The concept of one monster per PC
X ability vs. Y defense
At-will abilities for all classes especially casters (No casters with crossbows!)
Clerics that can do cool stuff like attack AND heal! In the same round!
Implements that make casters more effective (Not a fan of charged items)
Warlords and other non-cleric Leader classes!
You can play a capable hero at level 1!

 

[mach1.9pants]

DM prep a doddle.

 

[Rechan]

One last thing: The Bard.

I played three bards in 4e and each one kicked ass. They had a different focus than clerics, primarily moving people around and more a mixed bag of tricks, but it felt very competent.

That's what I loved about it: the bard was very competent, and could do something well, as opposed to doing nothing decently.

 

[TrippyHippy]

They reduced the number of skills.
The presentation and layout of the books was quite nice.
Some of the box set stuff in the Essentials line was appealing - and I liked the reintroduction of the Red Box.

 

[Hassassin]

Simpler skill list (though I might prefer PF's), more unified defenses and attacks.

 

[Kalontas]

I agree mostly about:
- Balance
- Non-divine healing
- The original and unusual races and classes. Shardminds? Wilden? Core PC Minotaur? Yes, please!

 

[Destil]

MATH.

The biggest thing 4E did was kill the horrid, horrid 3E method of making monsters by piling hit die together and working at numbers based on those like making a PC.

4E just gives you an expected HP/Defense/Attack/Damage vs. level chart. It is a thing of beauty. They should add standard skill DCs to this, too.

I'm also very fond of the minion/standard/elite/solo monster split and think more work can be done here. Give us clearer numeric rules for scaling a monster down from a elite level 6 to a standard level 8 or whatever.

PC healing and resource management (i.e. healing surges) in 4E is the other huge innovation that I really want to see continue. Healing being part of you and not the guy that dumps magic into you fixes a lot of problems.

 

[NewJeffCT]

1) Non-Divine healing is far less rare than it was in previous editions
2) The division of monsters between Minion/Standard/Elite/Solo was great for a DM
3) DDI made prep work for me as a DM far easier than it was in 3.5E.
4) Consolidating skills into a much smaller list (though, I do miss things like Craft, Perform, etc)
5) Faster combats than 3.5E (though, still not quick enough)
6) Powers that moved PCs or bad guys around the battlefield
7) Each PC's round was a Minor/Move/Standard combo, which made it easier than 3.5E
8) Second Wind was a nice feature to have as an Encounter Power - the PC drawing on their inner reserves to remain in the combat.
9) Skill challenges were a good idea, though I think it needs to be made easier to implement (I can never think of how to actually use them in game and how to devise them without it feeling forced.)
10) Each type of monster having their own special ability - Goblin Tactics for goblins, Phalanx Soldier for hobgoblins, etc. While a lot of DM's did similar in the past, it was nice to see it actually codified.

 

[Jack99]

4) Consolidating skills into a much smaller list (though, I do miss things like Craft, Perform, etc)

I agree with you completely, I never saw the point of it either. But, with seemingly a good deal of people wanting it, what would be the harm in including it?

Maybe what we need is some sort of siloing of skills as well, so that if you want to spend some stuff on craft or perform, you do not necessarily "gimp" your character, from a combat perspective.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I agree with you completely, I never saw the point of it either. But, with seemingly a good deal of people wanting it, what would be the harm in including it?

Maybe what we need is some sort of siloing of skills as well, so that if you want to spend some stuff on craft or perform, you do not necessarily "gimp" your character, from a combat perspective.

I actually did that in my 4E game - I came up with a list of non-combat skills from 3.5E (several types of perform and craft, plus professions as well) and allowed each PC to pick one or two that we'd track outside of DDI and allow them to increase similar to regular skills.