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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 4946809" data-attributes="member: 2011">No, we are not memorizing the powers. But, it takes a while for player #1 to look through 4 sheets of player #2's powers and figure out which might be appropriate.Part of the issue is the fluidity of 4E.Every single round, we place tokens on the minatures to indicate bloodied, stunned, dazed, blinded, taking ongoing damage, etc. And every single round, we are also taking some of these tokens off.Nearly every single round, PCs and/or NPCs are being shifted or pushed.Because each round of combat is so much more fluid, I sometimes hear the phrase "Well, that screws up what I was going to do". This from a player playing his own PC. Now imagine how much more difficult it is to play some other player's PC and suddenly the plan you had is gone. Opps. You were prepared for that PC's next turn, but now you have to go back and look through the 4 sheets of powers and items and come up with a new plan.In 3E, a buff power worked for minutes or hours. There are some buff powers that almost do this in 4E like Bless (which works until the end of the encounter), but they tend to be few and far between. If my AC got buffed in 3E by 2 for an hour, I could write in on my character sheet and mostly forget about it and just use the new number.In 4E, my AC is typically buffed for a round. So, I could write it on my character sheet, just to erase it again 5 minutes later when initiative got back to me. If I forget to erase it, I might play the game for several rounds before I forget to correct it. Or, I could rely on group memory (or tokens or some other system) to remember that PC #4 is buffed. But, the bookkeeping is more intrusive regardless.So again, a part of the system, bookkeeping in this case, is more complex and intrusive than in 3E.People either read the rules and get familiar with them, or they do not. Either way, the game is complex enough that not doing so can result in an impression that DMs and players are not really learning the rules. As to the OPs question as to whether this is human nature or rules complexity, I think it is a little of both.</blockquote>

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