I'm not going to argue with the Wizard in 4e with the new game mechanics, since a lot of 3er's might not remember 1/2 edition version where you had a hp cap and you also would fail automatically if you took a single point of damage. Obviously, so many people think Wizards were "broken", even though we have 35 years without a reboot--I'm not gonna try to convince 4e fans who think that.
Where I do think WoTC dropped the ball is to make rituals an "afterthought". I only have the PHB to go on here--but I think 2 things should have happened.
1) Give Wizards exclusivity or Rituals, or at least "spell-casting" characters. (Arcana and Divine), and give them access to only certain things. Saying "everybody can do everything" is poor and I don't think every character should have the ability to do that.
2) Give Rituals more space. I mean, c'mon. I would say over half of the original spells in the PHB were "ritual" types. That was part of the fun. One of the things that inspired me to like the game was reading all the detailed descriptions of the old spells. To see rituals given only a few pages as opposed to the tactical stuff is just shameful to me. It also emphasizes D&D as primarily tactical combat instead of strategy and problem-solving.
Where I do think WoTC dropped the ball is to make rituals an "afterthought". I only have the PHB to go on here--but I think 2 things should have happened.
1) Give Wizards exclusivity or Rituals, or at least "spell-casting" characters. (Arcana and Divine), and give them access to only certain things. Saying "everybody can do everything" is poor and I don't think every character should have the ability to do that.
2) Give Rituals more space. I mean, c'mon. I would say over half of the original spells in the PHB were "ritual" types. That was part of the fun. One of the things that inspired me to like the game was reading all the detailed descriptions of the old spells. To see rituals given only a few pages as opposed to the tactical stuff is just shameful to me. It also emphasizes D&D as primarily tactical combat instead of strategy and problem-solving.