D&D 4E What has you excited about 4e?

[Mathew_Freeman]

* The idea that spellcasters can just do something useful, every round, in combat, without having to worry about whether they'll run out of magic. If they can use a xbow / bow every round, then mechanically there is no difference between that and having the 'Eldritch Blast' ability I've been hearing about - but it's tons cooler.

* More options for everyone that do cool stuff, meaning fighters having cool powers all to themselves rather than just feats that anyone could take if they wanted.

* The sheer excitement of all this new stuff, and the fun of new rules to putting characters together. I love building characters, and I love looking through rulebooks wondering how to build new characters.

* I'm actually looking forward to coming back to this place more often and discussing rules, talking about games, talking about characters and seeing what some of my favourite story hour authors are going to do with their groups (you hear me, Jester?)

* Pretty much everything, really. I'm just optimistic by nature!

 

[Wormwood]

Everything. New stuff. New rules. New classes and monsters, or new versions of old ones. New spell system.

And new art.

Sums it up quite nicely, he does.

 

[Eridanis]

Two things for me, so far:

- improved multiclassing
- improved monster/encounter usability (CR just didn't work the way it should)

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

• Ease of prep-work
• less dependence on magic items, both for PC's and as treasure for NPC's
• simpler stat blocks for monsters
• weapons differentiated by more than just damage dice
• standard encounter supports 5 vs 5 just as well as 5 vs 1

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

What has you excited for 4e?

I hope a dissenting opinion is welcome here, but my answer; Nothing, nothing at all.

 

[Bryntryst]

New elves.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Bring the positivity!

I hope a dissenting opinion is welcome here, but my answer; Nothing, nothing at all.

I am afraid that a dissenting opinion is not appropriate in this thread. Nothing might be technically valid, but it is not in spirit of the OP.

---

To the original topic:
A lot.
Some things
- "Balance per Encounter" - seems to faciliate a lot more flexible adventure design then before.
- "Two-Dimensional Monster Balancing" - not only CR, but Level + "Weight" (XP - Minion, Standard, Elite, Boss) can be used to determine how to build an encounter.
- "Tiers" of play - This might give stronger ideas on which type of adventure is appropriate for characters of a given level.

There is more, but these are the ones that come to my mind just now.
- Demon/Devil distinction stronger: Great idea. They just seemed to be the same monsters, but with opposed alignments, but the changes might make them more.

 

[Gargoyle]

Overhaul of spellcasting: When I look at 3e, the spells seem to be mostly copied and pasted from 2e, with new spells like true strike and relatively minor changes to spells like fireball being the most provocative changes. Things like metamagic feats just didn't turn out to have as much impact as I thought they would. 4e should be a lot different, and I think it will be for the better.

Powers for non-casters: Love Bot9S, and looking forward to seeing a more refined version of that stuff.

Per encounter abilities: It will be easier for DM's to create challenging encounters, and players won't feel like they need to either save their abilities all day or use them all then rest.

Low level characters with survivablity and high level characters that aren't too complex (bigger sweet spot)

edit: oh and multiclassing that works well for odd combinations, without encouraging dipping into a single level too much.
edit again: And monsters that don't take all afternoon to create and statblock.

 

[Baby Samurai]

That they finally found the marbles to ditch the antiquated, overpowered, cut & paste from previous editions Gygaxian magic/spell system.

 

[Raven Crowking]

If the hype is accurate:

* Faster Prep
* Faster Combat
* Weapons mattering to the fighter
* Faster Prep
* End of the Christmas Tree effect
* Faster Prep
* OGL & SRD, so that I can insert what I like into 3.X if I don't like everything, or insert what I like from 3.X into 4.0 if 4.0 is a vastly superior system.

RC