Tony Vargas
Legend
I have to admit to getting pretty excited when I read through the Warlord powers. I'd be pleasantly surprised if they are as much fun to use in play, let alone moreso.
3E did have quite a few in-play options, though, and not just for the prepped casters (who, really, hadn't all that many 'build' options - single-class was about it). There were more options than just 'attack' for the melee types, and you could use feats to expand upon them. Fighters and Sorcerers, yes, you could build endlessly different builds, but each build had only it's own fixed options - still, those were more than a few options, and they retained them through an adventure. A sorcerer's options didn't diminish until he cast his last top-level spell, and a fighter's were there 24/7. The prepped casters, OTOH, had tremendous options every morning, but they began declining the moment they used any of them.
4e, I think, does do much of what the OP said, but I get the impression there's some attempt to get the best of both. 4e characters do get a lot of options at chargen and level-up, but those options are chanellilzed by class, sub-class and stats. The same was true to an extent in 3e, but it wasn't helpfully pointed out to you. 4e characters will use a greater variety of options in combat, too. But, part of that is because they see thier options decline when they use up a daily power, and, tactically, lose an option each time they expend an encounter power (and at-will powers are few). That forces them to do a greater variety of things, but, unless they're clever and lucky, they may find themselves doing something less than thrilling when they could have really rocked if they'd had a certain power that they'd already expended or used a power they were saving for later.
3E did have quite a few in-play options, though, and not just for the prepped casters (who, really, hadn't all that many 'build' options - single-class was about it). There were more options than just 'attack' for the melee types, and you could use feats to expand upon them. Fighters and Sorcerers, yes, you could build endlessly different builds, but each build had only it's own fixed options - still, those were more than a few options, and they retained them through an adventure. A sorcerer's options didn't diminish until he cast his last top-level spell, and a fighter's were there 24/7. The prepped casters, OTOH, had tremendous options every morning, but they began declining the moment they used any of them.
4e, I think, does do much of what the OP said, but I get the impression there's some attempt to get the best of both. 4e characters do get a lot of options at chargen and level-up, but those options are chanellilzed by class, sub-class and stats. The same was true to an extent in 3e, but it wasn't helpfully pointed out to you. 4e characters will use a greater variety of options in combat, too. But, part of that is because they see thier options decline when they use up a daily power, and, tactically, lose an option each time they expend an encounter power (and at-will powers are few). That forces them to do a greater variety of things, but, unless they're clever and lucky, they may find themselves doing something less than thrilling when they could have really rocked if they'd had a certain power that they'd already expended or used a power they were saving for later.
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