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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 5984890" data-attributes="member: 11821">Revised from a post I made ... crud, last year? on another board...(1) The action economy and the lack of full-round actions has a broad and wide-reaching impact that can't be ignored. It can make combat a lot more dynamic as a result. This is one of the things I would carry with me to SWSE or 3.5 variants if I were to pick them back up(2) There's a more equitable power distribution between casters and non-casters. Casters are less able to completely short-circuit adventures, and non-casters aren't left behind. (I was very soured on Arcana Evolved around 9th or 10th level because its power disparity was simply abysmal. Which is sad, because it's my favorite setting of all time.) This is hugely YMMV - for some people, that sort of spellcasting is the very point of D&D.(3) Simply put, I think 4e combat is a blast. It's improved dramatically from the first release - the fixed monster math and increased character accuracy we've seen lately has severely reduced the grind that was endemic to 4e early on in its run.(4) The Minion/Standard/Elite/Solo monster distinctions have been very, very handy from my side of the screen. One-shotting big bads isn't nearly as common, and both elites and solos have ways of improving their action economy so they're not useless against PCs. In the same vein, I appreciate that the standard combat involves multiple creatures; that a combat vs. one monster is rather rare; and that the XP budget system actually works, as opposed to the CR/EL system.(5) Free-form NPC and monster building, focused on the end product - "I want an NPC that does this" - rather than on the building process itself, or building them like a PC. It ensures the math at the end works out, and doesn't worry much about how you got there. This sort of mechanical work was one of the things that soured me on 3.x in general. By the same token, up-leveling and down-leveling monsters is infinitely easier.(6) F/R/W as defenses, instead of saving throws. I generally prefer for whoever's acting to be the one to roll dice. Also, although it's some bookkeeping, I enjoy being able to apply conditions to monsters or PCs that almost always work, but only work for a short time.(7) Tighter math on hit points, defenses, attack rolls, skill checks, and damage. It has some down-sides, too, but I think it helps keep more gonzo results away from play.(8) I really enjoy the way PCs are built. I like having Encounter powers and At-Will powers, not just Dailies, basic attacks, and special maneuvers. The Essentials line and PHB3 added a few variants of the power format, too, so there are some classes new that work very differently from those in the original PHB.  I like having that continuum of complexity.(9) A tighter condition list. 4e's list is a lot more concise than what's come before.(10) Finally and critically, reference time during play and self-contained stat blocks. This is another one of those game-changers for me. I don't need to keep the SRD open in a window on my laptop to look up spells and conditions during play, and I don't need to print out pages of spell descriptions for my monsters in advance. Monsters and NPCs have enough stuff to do that they don't get boring in a fight, without a wealth of unnecessary detail that will never be important in-play. Players of spellcasters don't need a dog-eared copy of the PHB with them at all times; their abilities are self-contained, too. I still don't care for power cards, specifically, but I love power sheets - it keeps everything easy and concise, and ready at the table when needed.(11) I think the Skill Challenge system can work pretty well if you completely ignore their DMG1 presentation, and I improv them all the time. I like it better than individual skill checks for a lot of things. I don't think it's as big a game-changer as a lot of other stuff, but it can be pretty awesome sometimes. I kind of hate it for stuff like social interactions - it makes them stilted and awkward - but I love it for stuff like disarming glyphs in the middle of a fight, multi-day travel across hazardous terrain, and hunting down information or people in a city. Stuff like that, it's great for.So yeah. It's basically a shift in focus from process to results, and from "Rules describe the world" to "Rules describe how the world interacts with the PCs." I feel like the rules are able to get out of my way more easily than they did with other editions, and my enjoyment of DMing has profited as a result.-O</blockquote>

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