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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ZombieRoboNinja" data-source="post: 4080490" data-attributes="member: 54843">There's been a lot of negative focus on the way 4e seems to damage verisimilitude. Some of the complaints make a lot of sense to me - why should a naked wizard have better AC than a naked fighter, again? - and some of them seem to me like more minor quibbles. But regardless, I think people might be neglecting the ways 4e IMPROVES the "believability" of its gameworld. Here are a few examples I can think of offhand:HIT POINTS: This is a biggie. We all know that hit points are "abstract" in some way: when a level 1 wizard loses 5 hp, that's a much different kind of injury from when a level 20 fighter loses 5 hp. But weirdly, in every previous edition, healing magic ignores this. Cure Light Wounds will bring a level 1 wizard from bleeding-to-death to full health, while it'll barely cure that level 20 fighter's hangnail. This is a problem 4e at least starts to address: most of the magical healing abilities we've seen rely at least partially on Healing Surges, which scale with the player's max hp.VANCIAN SPELLCASTING: After about 30 years of trying, 3e almost sort of had a decent explanation for the way Vancian spellcasting "worked." But I still haven't heard an explanation of Vancian casting that didn't provoke half a dozen immediate counterpoints or weirdnesses. Well, the most egregious examples are gone now. No more paladins sitting down every morning to pre-order their god's help for the day.MIN-MAX WEIRDNESSES: Granted, this is more of a player-based than a system-based problem. But I'll be happy to play in a world where 50% of fighters don't graduate from the Helicopter Blade school of spiked-chain warfare, and none of the PCs grew up on the mean streets of Bigcity before spending a year on the plains with a remote barbarian tribe and then discovering latent psionic abilities, etc. etc. etc., all to justify a ridiculously min-maxed multiclass build. True, 4e will undoubtedly have min-maxing weirdnesses, but I'm expecting them to be less prevalent, since so many big ones from 3e will be addressed.GREATCLUB SNEAK-ATTACKING: Oh yeah, I went there. I've heard arguments for it, but I really can't see how a rogue smacks someone over the head more "sneakily" than any other character. "Sneak attack" is a pinpoint strike to an unguarded vital area, not just hitting a dude really hard.RESURRECTION, TELEPORTATION, WISH: With a lot of the more problematic high-end spells either moved to rituals or removed completely, it SHOULD be a lot easier to separate them out when your campaign world demands it. Not to mention that a lot of the more flashy 3e spells (fly, long-distance teleportation, resurrection, etc) seem to be moved to the Paragon tier at least.Feel free to add your own - how is 4e BETTER than 3e on the verisimilitude scale? Disclaimer: I realize that some of the things I list might not be an issue in YOUR 3e group, or might seem like minor points, etc., but I think the same argument can be made for a lot of the 4e complaints.EDIT: Forgot an obvious one. In 4e, when you fall in lava, you die without a saving throw - none of the rigmarole of lava-damage tables we all got sick of in 3e.</blockquote>

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