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What Did You Want Fourth Edition to be Like?
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<blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 4689825" data-attributes="member: 8158"><p>We had so many indicators of a fine system D&D was moving towards. The 3.5 PHB2, Magic Item Compendium, and Monster Manual V all gave us a glimpse of a wonderful system to come. I wasn't a fan of The Book of Nine Swords because the classes seemed very over-the-top at the time, but it also had some elements with promise.</p><p></p><p>And then we got 4e, which is ultimately just a total cop-out. The designers seem to take pride in saying over and over again "we were trying to devise these elegant, intricate systems, and then we finally decided screw it, let's go with the easiest thing we can do, and tell folks they just need to get over the wonky bits". </p><p></p><p>So now we have things like the crappy coin-toss saving throws that turn spells like sleep into a joke. We have characters arraying their ability scores in cookie-cutter formation, because we're told up front which ability scores matter and which don't. Almost every character that uses weapon-based powers has a superior weapon, so martial weapons may as well not exist. And anyone who doesn't have weapon-based powers just have to live with getting the short end of the stick on DPS. </p><p></p><p>Ultimately, we have a system that has just as many shortcomings as 3e, just as many exploitable areas as 3e, just as much junk to keep track of in combat, and to boot players have fewer options to build interesting characters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Felon, post: 4689825, member: 8158"] We had so many indicators of a fine system D&D was moving towards. The 3.5 PHB2, Magic Item Compendium, and Monster Manual V all gave us a glimpse of a wonderful system to come. I wasn't a fan of The Book of Nine Swords because the classes seemed very over-the-top at the time, but it also had some elements with promise. And then we got 4e, which is ultimately just a total cop-out. The designers seem to take pride in saying over and over again "we were trying to devise these elegant, intricate systems, and then we finally decided screw it, let's go with the easiest thing we can do, and tell folks they just need to get over the wonky bits". So now we have things like the crappy coin-toss saving throws that turn spells like sleep into a joke. We have characters arraying their ability scores in cookie-cutter formation, because we're told up front which ability scores matter and which don't. Almost every character that uses weapon-based powers has a superior weapon, so martial weapons may as well not exist. And anyone who doesn't have weapon-based powers just have to live with getting the short end of the stick on DPS. Ultimately, we have a system that has just as many shortcomings as 3e, just as many exploitable areas as 3e, just as much junk to keep track of in combat, and to boot players have fewer options to build interesting characters. [/QUOTE]
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