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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Badwe" data-source="post: 5594121" data-attributes="member: 61762">I normally avoid these threads like the plague but I felt like chiming in on this one.First, the most recent mearls article about what the different editions of D&D focus on rightly points out that currently there exists an edition of D&D for you (yes YOU) for where you fall on the paired axis of tactics vs. story and immersive vs. abstract rules.Beyond that, I'm most happy with 4e.  Having DMd for some time, there are a few things I now wish were done which could not be done unless 4e had been built knowing then what we know now, and even then i'm not sure it could be done.1) Shrink the rate of progression of monsters and PCs from +30 in 30 levels to +15 or even + 10 in 30 levels.  Combine this with adjusting XP and HP so that it's possible to use a wider range of monster levels when building an encounter.2) reduce the number of options a class will pick from at a given level, possibly condensing certain types of choices into a fixed list or giving a player multiple uses of a power (ala power strike).  For example: what if encounter powers from levels 1-10 were picked from the same list? and what if you could pick the same power each time or up to X times?3) increase damage of powers across the board, and increase the "cost" of disabling effects, such that more raw damage is lost to take powers that stun, disable, slow, etc.  Make damage loss the highest for leaders and strikers, lowest for defenders (when applying it to their mark) and controllers.4)speaking of controllers, give them save ends damage and effects that last longer than a turn at the encounter level.  give them bigger or multi-stage save ends effect at daily. possibly tie this to class features to prevent easy access via multiclassing5) race should matter, but there should be a finite cap of how many race options can exist.  For example, 10 generic feats, 5 feats that align with classes or power sources, a paragon path, and possibly an epic destiny for subgroups (ie: one epic destiny for eladrin/drow/elves).6) remove 90% of immediate action powers, cap players at 1 immediate action power, and using your immediate action immediately pushes you to the initiative you used it at.7) somehow break up feats to be a more granular system, possibly granting 2 or 3 "feat points", such that multiclassing power swap, skill, and language feats can cost only 1 whereas the majority of existing feats would have the same cost they have today.8) reduce the total number of items, increase the allowed potency of encounter and daily powers.9) this probably should have come after 1, but make it easier to convert a monster of level X to a lower level elite or solo.  in 3e you can pit a party of level 5 players against 1 troll (in theory, anyway), in 4e your only choice out of the box is 5 level 11 players vs. 5 trolls.other than that, i'm pretty satisfied with 4e, i'll emphasize a few things I think are important1) continue to use exception based design, even though most of my stuff above talks about limiting the total number of exceptions2) continue to expand the way classes can advance in power3) continue to offer different levels of complexity in class selection4) continue to keep DM prep time low, easy to get things "close enough" and have them still work, and the consequences of fudging low.5) continue to offer multiple ways to multiclass, both with feats and hybrid options.so i'll obviously still be using 4e, but if i were to send the designers back to 2006 or whenever they started dreaming up 4e, i would offer them that advice.</blockquote>

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