Here is a list of things that worked and did not work from 4th Edition and specific reasons why. Sometimes I'm talking about Pathfinder but I want to leave that vague as to not draw criticism from both sets of fans. I only recently started working with Pathfinder in order to compare it with 4th edition so we could get a nice 5th edition. Pathfinder's packaging and art and story content is so nice. But I thought that 4th edition had some really sensible mechanics.
HitPoints - constitution score + a static number, worked because I could always scale any monster for a specific level party so that the monster does just enough damage to make it very challenging. No more, were many 1st level characters dying in the first few rounds of combat because of their low hit points. Those days are gone and will not return.
Retraining of Powers - didn't work. Players refused to believe they would forget a power they learned. I let them keep the power and add it to a long list of known powers but subjected them to encounter and daily restrictions.
Encounter Powers - worked - because burst attacks really do too much damage to too many opponents and they should be limited during the fight. I always thought the game would be more interesting if the character could never use the same encounter power twice during an encounter. They would have to use another encounter they knew. There was no rule, but I encouraged using a variety of encounter powers.
Daily Powers - did not work - because players would justify an extended rest after every combat and be able to gain their daily powers again. These powers were often too strong to be used every encounter. Furthermore, those powers were hard to track. Encounter powers reset after every fight and were easy to track.
Automatic Damage and Half Damage - didn't work because players always demanded to roll when their hit points became critically low. I scraped that within the first few weeks of playing 4th edition. If players didn't accept auto hit and auto damages, monsters didn't either.
Skills - worked fairly well once we used a static DC table that was tailored to the level of the party in order to keep things challenging.
Death Rules - I actually like 5th editions version here. 4th edition's worked.
ability modifiers to both attack rolls and damage rolls - worked. I scaled all the monsters so I could use any monster and challenge any party.
fortitude, reflex and will, worked. But that was redundant. I am entirely backing all rolls being based on abilities and armor class dex vs dex, str vs ac, cha vs will, int vs int. I don't know about this 5th edition Magic Attack Bonus thing though.
Feats, Spells, Prayers, Features and Traits
too many redundant powers, chaotic and disorganized, hard to choose from, needed cleaning up and needed more power and variety including scaling. That's why I want 5th edition.
Some of the races were not popular. I always thought cat-folk would have made a good player race.
HitPoints - constitution score + a static number, worked because I could always scale any monster for a specific level party so that the monster does just enough damage to make it very challenging. No more, were many 1st level characters dying in the first few rounds of combat because of their low hit points. Those days are gone and will not return.
Retraining of Powers - didn't work. Players refused to believe they would forget a power they learned. I let them keep the power and add it to a long list of known powers but subjected them to encounter and daily restrictions.
Encounter Powers - worked - because burst attacks really do too much damage to too many opponents and they should be limited during the fight. I always thought the game would be more interesting if the character could never use the same encounter power twice during an encounter. They would have to use another encounter they knew. There was no rule, but I encouraged using a variety of encounter powers.
Daily Powers - did not work - because players would justify an extended rest after every combat and be able to gain their daily powers again. These powers were often too strong to be used every encounter. Furthermore, those powers were hard to track. Encounter powers reset after every fight and were easy to track.
Automatic Damage and Half Damage - didn't work because players always demanded to roll when their hit points became critically low. I scraped that within the first few weeks of playing 4th edition. If players didn't accept auto hit and auto damages, monsters didn't either.
Skills - worked fairly well once we used a static DC table that was tailored to the level of the party in order to keep things challenging.
Death Rules - I actually like 5th editions version here. 4th edition's worked.
ability modifiers to both attack rolls and damage rolls - worked. I scaled all the monsters so I could use any monster and challenge any party.
fortitude, reflex and will, worked. But that was redundant. I am entirely backing all rolls being based on abilities and armor class dex vs dex, str vs ac, cha vs will, int vs int. I don't know about this 5th edition Magic Attack Bonus thing though.
Feats, Spells, Prayers, Features and Traits
too many redundant powers, chaotic and disorganized, hard to choose from, needed cleaning up and needed more power and variety including scaling. That's why I want 5th edition.
Some of the races were not popular. I always thought cat-folk would have made a good player race.
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