What is, by consensus opinion, obviously broken?

[Cyronax]

Condition Tracking can be extreme. But you can't remove them either, because then combat will quickly turn boring or repetitive as you reduce the tactical depth.

A stylistic thing - I love the teleportation powers in 4E, but maybe they are a little too many at heroic tier? (Not that I would want the Assassin without his teleport between Shadows ability from the start...)

Both good points. I find condition tracking easier if I encourage my players to describe their actions instead of just announcing their power names robotically. Better plot/battle immersion increases my ability to keep track of 'fiddly bits.'

For teleportation I agree, but its definitely a feature not a bug in 4e. I considered trying to scale back the amount of teleportation, but realized that I'd be judging the merits of scores of powers unless I just did a blanket keyword restriction.

 

[Starfox]

Well:

Orbwizards

Stacking damage modifiers. It is rapidly getting to the point where rolling damage dice is a waste of time, or at best a moderate increase in damage.

Stacking or not stacking feats, items, etc: I thought a 4E design goal was to stop this, well, it did not.

A few magic items (mostly those with damage increases

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

 

[Cyronax]

This is such a brilliant idea that I want to marry it and have its children. No, really.

I think money as a plot-based resource system works well in systems like d20 Modern. In games like D&D however, I generally enjoy tracking my resources down to the coin and encumbrance level.

D&D = Oregon Trail = dysentery in dungeon?

 

[Garthanos]

I dont like != is obviously broken-- sheesh.

 

[Garthanos]

Woo, a functional 4e criticism thread, yayy.

Sadrik must be on your ignore list.

 

[crash_beedo]

Nothing is "obviously broken" but there are opportunities for improving 4E... like Plane Sailing mentioned, just look at your own house rules.

Combat Speed:
We've gone with half hit point monsters (and a damage boost equal to the monster's level) and that's done the trick to speed up combat and keep the threat level.

Solos:
I don't have a good answer for stun-locking and the orbizard. I've given elites and solos extra saves, and may consider giving them a save bonus that accumulates round over round...

My players have an Orbizard Planeshifter that sticks someone in the elevator listening to the muzak (ie, the Sequester encounter power) once per fight... quite irritating.

Resources:
I've done two things to improve the 4E resource pinch. 1. The group has a contract to divide treasure by 6 instead of 5 to put money in the ritual fund. 2. I dole out monetary treasure for a 6-man group. Done and done. <Dusts off hands>.

The other thing, we jokingly refer to as 'Disney Dollars vs Dungeon Gold'. Gold you find in dungeons is hard money used for items and rituals. However, the character can have lots of money in the roleplaying side of the game they can use for everything else. I used to love the resource tracking system from Marvel Super Heroes (where you just rolled against a chart any time you wanted to fund something mundane).

For instance, Baron Flint, who is the PC ruler of Harkenwold, has a castle, a number of villages, a small troop of soldiers, etc. He has 'excellent' resources (the levels go poor, typical, good, excellent, remarkable, etc in MSH). When Flint wants to throw a feast at his castle, a 'good' difficulty level feat, it's an easy roll for him. It's loose and abstract and let's characters enjoy worldly success while leaving the economics of 4E characters in place.

I've found the players really focus on their 'non-adventuring' careers in between games to justify a resource level and explain why they're able to deck out their "cribs".

 

[Primal]

4e made a great move with conditions in that it cleaned up the 30+ conditions into a nice condensed list with very clean, clear mechanics. But I find conditions are too plentiful in the game. I have had the combats where literally I am adding and removing 6+ different conditions on a monster every round. I wish conditions were less frequent....or conditions were something that was easier to keep track of.

Forced movement is great. My power hits, I do the forced movement, I'm done don't have to think about it. If there were more of those kinds of effects, I would be a fan.

I wish conditions/status effects and forced movement will work in 5E like they now do in PF RPG, i.e. they're not automatic and require a successful combat maneuver (CMB vs. CMD). Some conditions (Stun, Daze et al.) could be 'save ends' (e.g. Fort Save DC 18 ends -- yes, I wish they divide Defenses and Saves, or rather you add your Fort modifier to 10 to get your Fort Defense).

I do admire the explicit format and clarity in wording, and hope they won't get rid of that.

 

[Primal]

This is such a brilliant idea that I want to marry it and have its children. No, really.

Can I be its mistress, then?

I, too, would really, REALLY love the idea of tying wealth to Tiers!

 

[Bluenose]

*Generally money should be revamped and put into a plot-based resource system. There should be tiers of weath, starting with coin in heroic, then adding on boons and hoards for paragon tier, and then some kind of pure magical power for epic. These tiers could convert to a degree, but would mainly be used for their own purposes- for instance, enough coin buys you a boat, a large enough boon gets you a castle, and the epic currency would enable you to cast permanent enchantments, create pocket dimensions, and the like.

Money as a skill? Or at least working vaguely that way? If you want to buy something, roll your Wealth skill against an items cost, and if you succeed you get it. Characters would gain wealth incidentally as they level up just as their skills improve, but there's also scope for feats ("Wealthy") to improve that. If you recover some particularly impressive treasure it provides a one-time bonus to one particular attempt to buy something. If you get something that gives you a steady income ir provides a permanent bonus, so being granted land by the king provides a permanent benefit for your ability to obtain things.

 

[AllisterH]

I strongly disagree with making magic items any stronger...

Notice James actually mentions that he thinks magic items in 4e are too strong/too much and I'm with him.

Either use the artifact system or have very low power/mundane items.

One simply could not have magical items with power that the PCs can craft/buy themselves.