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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. NRG" data-source="post: 4979312" data-attributes="member: 7697">4E decreased variability between classes in several regards, presumably in the name of balance.  Of relevance here, it decreased the variability between the frequency with which different classes can use their abilities.  For example, a character of a given level in 4E can use the same number of dailies, encounters and at-wills as any other character, regardless of class.  Whether you're a fighter, a wizard, or (name a class), you have the same resource-management decisions to make.  Contrast this with any previous edition, where a fighter can make his most effective attack a limitless number or times, while a wizard can make his most effective attack a limited number of times.  The trade-off is that the fighter's best attack is (generally) less effective and/or flexible than a wizard's.  4E has removed that variation.  It has homogenized the classes in that regard.  This change has several effects.  First, it limits the options available to players in regards to the kind of character they want to play.  A player can no longer choose to play a class that has very limited (but fairly effective) options -- there is no such class.  A player cannot choose to play a class that has a multitude of options that are less effective, but maintain flexibility -- there is no such class (see bard 3/3.5 as an example).  Specifically to the OP, a wizard is no different than any other class in this regard.  It has been homogenized in the name of balance.  IMHO, this particular homogenization is part of what the OP's player is addressing.  Unless this player was somehow abusing the wizard class's abilities in previous editions, he undoubtedly sees 4E's treatment as an attempt to solve a problem that never existed for your group.  To expand, given the OP's facts, this player never played a high-level wizard, and thus never ran into the problems that are commonly cited.  Further, from what I understand, those problems occurred primarily among power-gamers or players who were just attention hogs.  I can honestly say that never once during extensive 2E and 3E play did I run into the problem(s) that 4E attempts to solve by radically altering wizards.  Essentially, the authors of 4E have told the OP's player that he must change the kind of character he plays because other people may have abused it the way it was.  I can fully understand why that kind of mandated change might stick in his craw.  My suggestion is that the OP's player play another class in 4E.  In essence, the problem is that he is going to be playing a different class with the same name as the old class (wizard).  Since he is going to be playing a new class, he might as well play one with a new name, thus helping to ease the cognitive dissonance.</blockquote>

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