Things that you've heard that you especially like

[The_Fan]

Most everything I've heard so far I've liked.

Elemental Chaos: I can count on one hand the # of times I've actually been to the elemental planes.
Fighter Moves & Weapon Choice: Loved Bo9S so much I built a campaign world around it. Eagerly anticipate how this system works.
Warlock is Core: I love the Warlock! It's the only arcane class I liked in 3e.

There's more, but it's hard to sort out.

Edit: Don't think I'm just a cheerleader of 4e. I have some major wall-bangers. But overall, I still like what I see.

 

[Gloombunny]

Magic not reliant on fire-and-forget spells, of course.

Magic items not being necessary for a character to function competitively.

Tieflings and warlocks as core. (Though the tiefling art we've seen so far is super-unappealing. )

This one's not definite yet, but it looks like save-or-dies will be retooled to work similarly to disintegrate or power word: kill in 3e, and I like that a lot.

 

[Celebrim]

Attempting to be positive here about actual incorporate material and not just rumors:

Feywilde: Hate the name, but 'Faerie' as party of the basic setting mirrors my homebrew and so is a potential source of flavor and ideas that might influence it. It's the sort of thing that could prompt me to buy modules or sourcebooks even if I don't adopt the system.

Wizard Implements: Items are just wizardly. Even if I don't incorporate this, it is again a potential sources of ideas.

Warlord: I love the concept behind a non-magical 'spell caster', but Mearls 'Iron Heroes' made me feel that the concept wasn't broad enough to support multiple classes in an interesting way. Consolodating the best ideas from that work into a single class seems to me to be the best way to go. This is the sort of idea that I could port to 3rd edition almost intact or at the least is likely to influence how I view the game.

 

[Gundark]

So far I have been happy with everything. I'm not a f4nboy, just optimistic.

Specifically? I like the idea of encounters being quick (prep wise), I liked most of what I heard last podcast about monsters. I like how combats are suppost to be faster.

edit: Really, really nice to see a positive thread, too much negativity flying aorund here as of late.

 

[Sammael]

I like the streamlining of skills.

I like the reduction in prep time.

I like the removal of magic item dependency.

 

[Greg K]

What do I like so far?

1. Removal of the Christmas Tree Syndrome
2. Extending the sweet spot. However, I want to see the implementation
3. Ditching per day in spellcasting. However, I despise per encounter just as much as per day
4. Magical implements. This sounds cool.
5. Crits for magical damage spells
6. Defenses instead of saving throws
7. Points of light-well, I don't hate it.

I think that I might be missing one or two items, but the rest of what I have heard I do not care for.

 

[A'koss]

Quite a few things I've been hoping to see in D&D seem to have been incorporated...

1. Simplifying skills.
2. Emphasizing the character over the magic items.
3. Bringing the overall power of the wizards down at the higher levels, but giving them more magic to perform at lower levels.
4. Designing Epic rules alongside the core.
5. Removing Save or Die from the game.
6. More surviveable 1st level characters.
7. Redesigning the "stat abomination" monsters.
8. Introducing "per encounter" abilities and other goodness from Iron Heroes.
9. Differentiating similar monsters by tactics.
10. More fighter options, differentiating weapon styles.

But most importantly, it's WotC's attempt at broadening the "ideal" levels of play across all levels without creating stat abomination PCs when they reach Epic territory. But I agree that'll be some trick to pull off...

 

[Gloombunny]

Warlord: I love the concept behind a non-magical 'spell caster', but Mearls 'Iron Heroes' made me feel that the concept wasn't broad enough to support multiple classes in an interesting way. Consolodating the best ideas from that work into a single class seems to me to be the best way to go. This is the sort of idea that I could port to 3rd edition almost intact or at the least is likely to influence how I view the game.

I think maybe you and I have different ideas about what the warlord class is going to be, 'cuz I didn't understand this paragraph at all.

 

[ArmoredSaint]

I am thrilled that it appears as though at least some armour will add to both your Armour Class and your Fortitude defense, if the Star Wars Saga Edition rules are any indication. Dungeons and Dragons hasn't allowed non-magical armour to actually do you any good when you're damaged since 1st edition...

 

[Henrix]

Social combat!