Today, I'm going to offer some tips to help you improve your roleplaying skills.
1. Create a character that sounds fun.
When making your character, you should examine the options available to you, and see what most appeals to you. If you've been playing for a while, it may be time to try something new. I almost always play magical characters, but a friend recently announced he wants to try running a 4th edition D&D game, so I made a barbarian. Honestly, I just wanted to try out the class, because 4th edition did something different with barbarians, and it looked interesting. Another friend of mine called me last night to ask my opinion on a character concept he wanted to try: a half-orc paladin. For a little perspective, paladins in 3.5 benefit from a high charisma, and half-orcs take a penalty to charisma. Why would he choose a race so obviously ill-suited for his class? He presented me the concept of a half-orc who joined the church as a paladin to try to atone for the atrocities of his people.
2. Establish at least a minor connection between your character and the rest of the party.
In the current 3.5 game I'm playing, my wizard, and the party rogue, decided that we were partners, traveling together, and we hired the rest of the party. We constantly reference a contract in game that we asked each character to sign. The rest of the players went along with it, because it worked for our party's origins, and the entire party didn't start the game at the same time, so when a new character joined, the other characters were already "employed" so when I offered them a contract, they agreed, perpetuating the concept of employment.
During the character creation process, it can be helpful to talk to the other players and find out what they're playing. You could pick out one or two of them and ask them if they'd like a shared background, giving part of the party a preexisting camaraderie. You could offer your services to the party as a mercenary, establishing yourself as someone who just goes where the money is.
Alternatively, you could be the outsider trying to prove yourself to the party. That's how my 4th edition characters started. The party already had three characters who had completed one adventure together, then I joined them with my warlord. Almost immediately I proved my worth to them as a team leader, earning their respect.
3. Establish at least a minor connection between your character and the world.
The previous point is about your relationship with the other players. This point is about your relationship with your gamemaster. You'll have to work with the GM to figure out how your player fits into the world. Sometimes this is as simple as "I'm playing a fighter, I want to be a former soldier in the king's army." Sometimes this is as complicated as "I'm playing a fighter, I want to be orphaned and not know who my parents were." This complicated origin is that of our 4th edition fighter. He was raised by a paladin of Kord, a leader in the church, and has now discovered that he's the heir to the throne of the Nerathi Empire.
Sometimes you'll go into character creation with a clear story in mind for your character. Sometimes you may want to see what your GM can come up with. Either way, it's always a good idea to discuss things with your GM before the game begins. You'll want to know where the game will begin within the campaign world, if there have been any major events just before the beginning, and if your GM is changing anything important from the default setting, or if the GM is using an alternate setting.
4. Give your character a name.
This one should be obvious, but I don't mean name your fighter Bob, the Strong and Fair, because then you're just the Big Stupid Fighter. Put a little thought into your name and pick something appropriate to the setting. I've had a player who was terrible at picking names. He would reuse names from other media, use celebrity names, or just not name his characters at all. However, he did get creative at one point when he had a pair of brothers, one a barbarian and the other a rogue. He had no name listed on either character sheet. The idea was that these two were in a bit of trouble, so he would give a different name every so often. He told me he did know what their real names were, and he divulged them later so I could use them when writing that campaign as a narrative.
There is a plethora of random name generators floating around the internet. They can produce names for various races and periods. Here are some of my recommendations to get you started.
www.nine.frenchboys.net
www.seventhsanctum.com
D&D Name Generator
Star Wars Name Generator
http://www.namegenerator.biz/
5. Define your character's beliefs.
This one is more important in a polytheistic fantasy world. Even if you aren't playing a cleric, paladin, or similar character, it can still be useful for you to decide which religion or religions your character practices, if any are more important to your character than others, and how devoted are you. In most fantasy worlds, unlike reality, the gods are not silent. Their divine servants constantly display their power. The gods themselves may send messages to their followers. It would be inconceivable for a character in such a world to be an atheist or agnostic. However, there is interesting roleplaying potential for a character who believes such displays of divine power were performed through arcane magic and trickery, allowing for that one-in-a-million atheist.
6. Ask yourself "why?"
While playing your character, you will be presented with many choices: Quests or missions your GM has prepared for you to undertake, people to save, villains to kill, etc. If you want a better roleplaying experience, before you agree to undertake such a venture, ask yourself "why would this character want to?" If you have followed steps 1-5 above, you should have a decent idea of your character's background and beliefs.
7. Respond in character.
By now, you should have figured out your character's motivations, and their relationships between some of the other characters in the game. During conversations, think about these things and how such a character should speak. A character with higher mental abilities should speak more eloquently than one with lower mental abilities. Try to avoid using modern vernacular in character dialogue. A character in medieval Europe wouldn't say "cool" or "dude." Likewise, neither would a character in the far future. Languages change over time. If you aren't sure what sort of slang your character would use, avoid it altogether.
Hopefully these tips will help you. Nobody is expecting you to be a professional actor at the game table, or write an introductory chapter to Lord of the Rings when coming up with your character's history. If you find one or more of these tips too difficult for you, that's ok. Nobody masters anything on their first attempt. Just like a character grows in levels, so too does a roleplayer grow from BSF towards Aragorn.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
How 4th Edition Didn't Kill Roleplaying
When D&D 4th edition was released, many veteran 3.5 players responded on message boards with "you can't roleplay in 4th."
In our last 4th edition game, our level 12 party was ready to storm the Trollhaunt. When we arrived, we spotted a lookout behind an arrow slit. Two of our characters unleashed ranged attacks on the poor guy. As the smoke cleared, he saw my warlord and the fighter just strolling towards him. We win initiative, and with one attack each, kill the poor troglodyte.
At this point, our druid shifts into a snake, slithers through the slits, then shifts into a troglodyte. Our hexblade teleports through the slits. The druid runs into the dungeon and warns three trolls that they're under attack. The trolls open the door to investigate and see our fighter making an intimidate check. He hits all three of their wills, provoking them to give chase. At which point, he turns the corner, and I teleport us both through the arrow slits as the druid closes and bars the door. Three trolls bypassed.
We later reach a prison area, and knowing that Skalmad, the troll leader, has hired mercenaries, our fighter and (trogolodyte-form) druid enter the prison and before the trolls can say anything, the fighter busts out another intimidate and starts barking orders like a sergeant. He has the trolls confused, thinking he's their new commander, and he promptly takes three lovely female prisoners from the cells back to the party. We escort them out of the dungeon and our druid calls pegacorns to carry them back to town. We then march back through the prison like we own the place. Two more trolls bypassed.
In the next area, we find a troll taskmaster, several grimlocks working anvils, and a fire belcher. Our hexblade decides he wants to tame the fire belcher and gets the druid to help him. Together, they kill about half the grimlocks and spend the rest of the fight taming the fire belcher. The fighter and I take out the troll and a few of the grimlocks, then our fighter runs right past the last grimlock and leaps onto the fire belcher's back. The last grimlock stands there in confusion as I walk past him and casually lop his head off. We tamed the fire belcher, and it accompanied us into the next encounter.
Who says you can't roleplay in 4th? Roleplaying isn't about what rules system you play with. Roleplaying is about how you portray your character. In a simplified system like 4th, where we don't have an entire page dedicated to grapple rules, roleplaying isn't discouraged. In fact, I would say that roleplaying is more important than ever.
In our last 4th edition game, our level 12 party was ready to storm the Trollhaunt. When we arrived, we spotted a lookout behind an arrow slit. Two of our characters unleashed ranged attacks on the poor guy. As the smoke cleared, he saw my warlord and the fighter just strolling towards him. We win initiative, and with one attack each, kill the poor troglodyte.
At this point, our druid shifts into a snake, slithers through the slits, then shifts into a troglodyte. Our hexblade teleports through the slits. The druid runs into the dungeon and warns three trolls that they're under attack. The trolls open the door to investigate and see our fighter making an intimidate check. He hits all three of their wills, provoking them to give chase. At which point, he turns the corner, and I teleport us both through the arrow slits as the druid closes and bars the door. Three trolls bypassed.
We later reach a prison area, and knowing that Skalmad, the troll leader, has hired mercenaries, our fighter and (trogolodyte-form) druid enter the prison and before the trolls can say anything, the fighter busts out another intimidate and starts barking orders like a sergeant. He has the trolls confused, thinking he's their new commander, and he promptly takes three lovely female prisoners from the cells back to the party. We escort them out of the dungeon and our druid calls pegacorns to carry them back to town. We then march back through the prison like we own the place. Two more trolls bypassed.
In the next area, we find a troll taskmaster, several grimlocks working anvils, and a fire belcher. Our hexblade decides he wants to tame the fire belcher and gets the druid to help him. Together, they kill about half the grimlocks and spend the rest of the fight taming the fire belcher. The fighter and I take out the troll and a few of the grimlocks, then our fighter runs right past the last grimlock and leaps onto the fire belcher's back. The last grimlock stands there in confusion as I walk past him and casually lop his head off. We tamed the fire belcher, and it accompanied us into the next encounter.
Who says you can't roleplay in 4th? Roleplaying isn't about what rules system you play with. Roleplaying is about how you portray your character. In a simplified system like 4th, where we don't have an entire page dedicated to grapple rules, roleplaying isn't discouraged. In fact, I would say that roleplaying is more important than ever.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Introducing New Players
During my time as a gamemaster, I have had to teach new players on more than one occasion, and I'm about to do it again. I always like to introduce D&D to new players, however, on this occasion, I'll be working with a group that will consist of four new players. I've never attempted to work with four newbies at once before, and it's made me alter my way of thinking.
In the past, when running an introductory game, I suggested the new player play a fighter, because fighters are very straightforward, simple to make, and simple to play. I would run a typical dungeon crawl with a few combat encounters, a trap or two, low light conditions, and hidden things to search for. I had thought that since combat is one of the most complex things in D&D, I needed to expose the new player to combat so they could learn the rules. Even with the skill checks and dungeon crawl, the entire adventure was designed to expose the player to the rules.
However, I have recently realized that this isn't the best way to introduce a new player. D&D has come a long way since its beginnings. There is so much more to the game than dungeons. This time around, I have decided to write an adventure that has almost no combat, focusing instead on trying to immerse the new players in the story instead of throwing rules at them. I figured, this is the real test of whether they'd want to play or not, since, after all, D&D is a roleplaying game, it's about characters in a story, the rules can come later.
While working with one of the new players to create their character, I first asked him what experience he had with fantasy gaming on PC and console, then asked him what was his favorite type of character to play in those games. He responded with wizard. I warned him that playing a wizard in D&D was one of the most complicated classes to play, but he wanted to try it anyway. It was then that I realized that this wasn't going to be about just teaching people the rules. This player wasn't concerned with how difficult it would be to play a complex class in his first game ever. He was going to enjoy the experience by playing his favorite type of character, rather than play something simple. Really, that's what D&D is about, the experience, not the rules.
In the past, when running an introductory game, I suggested the new player play a fighter, because fighters are very straightforward, simple to make, and simple to play. I would run a typical dungeon crawl with a few combat encounters, a trap or two, low light conditions, and hidden things to search for. I had thought that since combat is one of the most complex things in D&D, I needed to expose the new player to combat so they could learn the rules. Even with the skill checks and dungeon crawl, the entire adventure was designed to expose the player to the rules.
However, I have recently realized that this isn't the best way to introduce a new player. D&D has come a long way since its beginnings. There is so much more to the game than dungeons. This time around, I have decided to write an adventure that has almost no combat, focusing instead on trying to immerse the new players in the story instead of throwing rules at them. I figured, this is the real test of whether they'd want to play or not, since, after all, D&D is a roleplaying game, it's about characters in a story, the rules can come later.
While working with one of the new players to create their character, I first asked him what experience he had with fantasy gaming on PC and console, then asked him what was his favorite type of character to play in those games. He responded with wizard. I warned him that playing a wizard in D&D was one of the most complicated classes to play, but he wanted to try it anyway. It was then that I realized that this wasn't going to be about just teaching people the rules. This player wasn't concerned with how difficult it would be to play a complex class in his first game ever. He was going to enjoy the experience by playing his favorite type of character, rather than play something simple. Really, that's what D&D is about, the experience, not the rules.
Friday, February 7, 2014
A Look at D&D 4th Edition
For a while after 4th edition was published, I kept hearing about how stupid it was compared to 3.5. When a friend of mine joined the D&D Next playtest, he decided that we should try 4th edition so we could compare Next to the most recently published system. We ended up playing 4th for about six months, and we're still playing. After six months of game play, I can say... it's stupid.
In today's post, I'll be discussing some of the good things Wizards did with 4th edition, and the stupidity a veteran 3.5 player will feel when transitioning to 4th.
First of all, 4th edition is newbie friendly. It uses much simpler rules than 3.5. For example, you don't have a half of page of rules describing how to grapple an opponent. In this respect, new players can pick up 4th edition and pretty much know what they're doing in a relatively short time.
Secondly, 4th edition balanced the player classes. No longer is the wizard a low-level weakling who has to be careful not to even get bitten by a dire rat. However, the wizard is also no longer a walking arsenal of arcane might that can end fights with a single spell at higher levels. Every class has a certain role to fill, but some classes can fill more than one roll. Each class has a variety of abilities to pick from as the character gains new levels, instead of just receiving a set ability at each level like they do in 3.5.
Third, fortitude, reflex, and will are no longer rolled by the player, but are instead set defenses like AC. This was, to me, the most obvious step forward. Now, any action made against the player or enemy puts the roll in the attacker's hand. No longer do you have to figure out how your character can ward off a death spell by rolling a natural 20 on his fortitude save, only to succumb to the common cold with that natural 1 the next day. Your character has a set fortitude, a set reflex, and a set will, and it's up to the attack to try to be strong enough to overcome you.
Fourth, in 3.5 a DM designing an encounter would have to reference a chart telling him how many monsters and traps of a certain challenge rating could be added together to achieve a certain encounter level, and if you wanted mixed CRs, with some higher and some lower in the same encounter, well, the chart in the Dungeon Master's Guide only covers multiple enemies of the same level and has a single entry for two enemies of different levels, so I hope you didn't want more than two monsters in the encounter. In 4th, a DM need only consult one chart telling him how many points a specific encounter level is worth, then consult a second chart telling him how many points a monster or trap of a specific level is worth, then spend the points for the encounter level he wants on the monsters he wants. For example, if you're building an encounter for four players of level 4, the 4th edition DMG says to spend 700 points. Now, you'd just consult the chart on the previous page which tells you how many points a monster of a given level is worth, so you could include two level 3 monsters worth 150 each, and two level 5 monsters worth 200 each. Good luck telling me what encounter level two level 3s and two level 5s would be in 3.5.
Alright, now let's turn around and talk about the bad, beginning by taking three of my points above and telling you where they messed up from a veteran's perspective.
First, the game encourages munchkin play. In fact, it's impossible not to. If you try to build a balanced character, you will end up sub-par. Your fortitude, reflex, and will defenses each use the higher of a pair of attributes, instead of just constitution, dexterity, and wisdom. This means there is no real decision on the player's part to try to balance their offense and defense. In 3.5 you may ask yourself: do I want a higher strength so I can hit harder, higher constitution for a better save and hit points, or try to make them even? In 4th, you can just say screw that and max out your strength because if it's higher than your constitution, then it applies to your fortitude. Each class lists one to three attributes that the class cares about. You should put your highest attributes into those and say screw the rest, because all of your class abilities will use one of the listed attributes, either to attack, deal damage, heal, or provide a buff.
Second, the classes are balanced. I said this when talking about the good points of 4th, but it's also a negative, in a way. Speaking as someone who used to love playing wizards and sorcerers in 3.5, when I saw the 4th edition version of the classes, I asked myself "why would I ever play this?" and played a warlord instead. I later made a wizard and tried it out, but I didn't feel like a wizard. My wizard in 3.5 has a limited number of spells, but when I use them, things get real. In 4th, my wizard can use his powers a lot more often, but at the same time, he has to. If he doesn't, things get real, and not in our favor. The wizard no longer felt like a wielder of incredible arcane power, instead he felt like just another character with a set of powers, just like everybody else. In 3.5, I can use my spells to help the party fight better, get them out of a tight spot, or hold back a group of enemies so we can focus on a few at a time. In 4th, I can control enemies to an extent, making it easier for the party to deal with them, but you know what? So can our fighter. Our fighter has an ability that can draw enemies in close to him, and punish them for not attacking him. So, why do we need a controller anymore? We don't, the fighter can force enemies to focus on him so our weaker party members can exploit that.
Third, your defenses only determine how hard it is for a certain effect to begin to affect you, once it has, you need only roll a 10 or higher to save against it (a certain few effects may impose a penalty, but I haven't encountered one yet). So, while a character of 18 constitution will be harder to poison than one with a 10, once both are poisoned, both have a 55% chance of overcoming it. (The same applies to mental effects too!) The save system doesn't take your attributes into account at all. While the system is okay, it just feels flawed.
Now that I've listed a counter-point to my first three original points, I'll briefly discuss what else is wrong with 4th edition from a veteran's viewpoint.
1. You can only heal a limited number of times per day. Each class has a certain number of healing surges, which are based on your constitution. The fighter has more surges than the wizard, for example. While this is okay, it applies to almost every form of healing. Want to take a second wind? Spend a surge. Want the cleric or warlord to heal you? Spend a surge. Want to drink a potion? Spend a surge. There are only a handful of abilities that the "healing" classes can get that allow healing without spending a surge. Also, why should your limited number of surges affect how often magic can heal you? It makes magic less magical. The magic is no longer healing you at this point, but is instead just triggering your body to tap into its reserves, which is alright, if that's what you're going for, but healing is the only thing that works this way. For example, a buff spell actually makes a character stronger, it doesn't require the character have extra reserves of strength for it to work.
2. You can trip anything. For the most part, if a power has a certain effect, it works. There are many powers that can knock a target prone, and the only rule I've found since I started playing 4th is that a flying creature isn't always rendered prone. It depends on how high they're flying, or something, I forgot the exact rule, but needless to say, you can't knock a beholder prone. Spiders, on the other hand, sure! Eight legs? No problem, it's prone. How about a dragon? Yeah, it's only three times your size, go ahead, you can knock it down.
3. Fights take forever. My 4th edition party is up to level 12 now. We started to notice a few levels ago, that if we aren't fighting minions, our enemies have a lot of HP. On average, one encounter takes us about 2-3 hours to complete. Dang. We're lucky if we can get through more than two encounters in one night.
4. Buffing is pointless. In 3.5, passing out the right buff spells before a fight usually meant that you didn't need to heal as much after. In 4th, the buffs don't provide big enough boosts to make them worth it. Pretty much every character in my 4th party has around a +18 to +20 attack bonus, and an AC of 26-29. We get hit pretty much every round, and only rarely do we miss. The buff powers we have available to us can provide a +2 to our defenses, and up to a +5 to our attacks. Half the time we don't even bother mentioning our attack buffs, because they hardly matter. Do you know how much it helps to improve an AC 26 to 28 when the enemies are hitting our AC 29 fighter pretty much every turn? Not at all. In 4th, you're going to take damage. It's just a fact. 4th isn't about buffing to prevent damage, it's a matter of how much can you heal, and can you take down the enemy before you run out of heals?
5. You have limited-use powers instead of static abilities. In 3.5, as you gained levels, you gained new class abilities and those abilities were always active, always available. Once you got it, you added it to your sheet, learned what it did, and it just was there. In 4th, you gain new powers that you have to decide when to use. This means every turn, you have a list of up to 12 different options or so to pick from. Have you ever been playing 3.5 and in the middle of combat had to wait for the caster to go through their list of spells, pick out one to use, then wait for them to read over what it does, only to decide it's not the most effective option, then go through their list again to repeat the process? Imagine every player doing that now.
6. Your powers get replaced. In 4th edition, you are allowed to build up a list of 3 encounter powers and 3 daily powers, in addition to your paragon powers. When you gain a new encounter or daily after that, you have to choose an existing power to give up in order to gain it. I recently looked through upcoming options for my warlord to see what new powers would become available. I was very disappointed to find out that my level 1 and level 3 encounter powers were a better fit for our group's tactics than the upcoming level 13 powers. However, the higher level powers do more damage. So, now I'm forced to decide between keeping a tactically useful power that deals little damage, or swapping for a power that's not nearly as useful just because it hits harder. Finally, I get a meaningful decision, but instead of a decision between balancing attributes or focusing on offense vs defense, my decision is whether or not I fall behind the damage curve of my team in order to keep the usefulness of my old powers.
I could continue to go on with this list, because at least once per game during our first three months of play, I found something that made me say "4th is stupid!", but I've probably forgotten half of those moments, and this list is already getting long, so let me just summarize this by saying that 4th edition is a fun, simplified system that tried to make everyone feel relevant, but when everyone's special, nobody is. It's great for newbies, but probably horrid for veterans. However, if you try not to compare it to 3.5, but just think of it as a different game, it can be enjoyable.
In today's post, I'll be discussing some of the good things Wizards did with 4th edition, and the stupidity a veteran 3.5 player will feel when transitioning to 4th.
First of all, 4th edition is newbie friendly. It uses much simpler rules than 3.5. For example, you don't have a half of page of rules describing how to grapple an opponent. In this respect, new players can pick up 4th edition and pretty much know what they're doing in a relatively short time.
Secondly, 4th edition balanced the player classes. No longer is the wizard a low-level weakling who has to be careful not to even get bitten by a dire rat. However, the wizard is also no longer a walking arsenal of arcane might that can end fights with a single spell at higher levels. Every class has a certain role to fill, but some classes can fill more than one roll. Each class has a variety of abilities to pick from as the character gains new levels, instead of just receiving a set ability at each level like they do in 3.5.
Third, fortitude, reflex, and will are no longer rolled by the player, but are instead set defenses like AC. This was, to me, the most obvious step forward. Now, any action made against the player or enemy puts the roll in the attacker's hand. No longer do you have to figure out how your character can ward off a death spell by rolling a natural 20 on his fortitude save, only to succumb to the common cold with that natural 1 the next day. Your character has a set fortitude, a set reflex, and a set will, and it's up to the attack to try to be strong enough to overcome you.
Fourth, in 3.5 a DM designing an encounter would have to reference a chart telling him how many monsters and traps of a certain challenge rating could be added together to achieve a certain encounter level, and if you wanted mixed CRs, with some higher and some lower in the same encounter, well, the chart in the Dungeon Master's Guide only covers multiple enemies of the same level and has a single entry for two enemies of different levels, so I hope you didn't want more than two monsters in the encounter. In 4th, a DM need only consult one chart telling him how many points a specific encounter level is worth, then consult a second chart telling him how many points a monster or trap of a specific level is worth, then spend the points for the encounter level he wants on the monsters he wants. For example, if you're building an encounter for four players of level 4, the 4th edition DMG says to spend 700 points. Now, you'd just consult the chart on the previous page which tells you how many points a monster of a given level is worth, so you could include two level 3 monsters worth 150 each, and two level 5 monsters worth 200 each. Good luck telling me what encounter level two level 3s and two level 5s would be in 3.5.
Alright, now let's turn around and talk about the bad, beginning by taking three of my points above and telling you where they messed up from a veteran's perspective.
First, the game encourages munchkin play. In fact, it's impossible not to. If you try to build a balanced character, you will end up sub-par. Your fortitude, reflex, and will defenses each use the higher of a pair of attributes, instead of just constitution, dexterity, and wisdom. This means there is no real decision on the player's part to try to balance their offense and defense. In 3.5 you may ask yourself: do I want a higher strength so I can hit harder, higher constitution for a better save and hit points, or try to make them even? In 4th, you can just say screw that and max out your strength because if it's higher than your constitution, then it applies to your fortitude. Each class lists one to three attributes that the class cares about. You should put your highest attributes into those and say screw the rest, because all of your class abilities will use one of the listed attributes, either to attack, deal damage, heal, or provide a buff.
Second, the classes are balanced. I said this when talking about the good points of 4th, but it's also a negative, in a way. Speaking as someone who used to love playing wizards and sorcerers in 3.5, when I saw the 4th edition version of the classes, I asked myself "why would I ever play this?" and played a warlord instead. I later made a wizard and tried it out, but I didn't feel like a wizard. My wizard in 3.5 has a limited number of spells, but when I use them, things get real. In 4th, my wizard can use his powers a lot more often, but at the same time, he has to. If he doesn't, things get real, and not in our favor. The wizard no longer felt like a wielder of incredible arcane power, instead he felt like just another character with a set of powers, just like everybody else. In 3.5, I can use my spells to help the party fight better, get them out of a tight spot, or hold back a group of enemies so we can focus on a few at a time. In 4th, I can control enemies to an extent, making it easier for the party to deal with them, but you know what? So can our fighter. Our fighter has an ability that can draw enemies in close to him, and punish them for not attacking him. So, why do we need a controller anymore? We don't, the fighter can force enemies to focus on him so our weaker party members can exploit that.
Third, your defenses only determine how hard it is for a certain effect to begin to affect you, once it has, you need only roll a 10 or higher to save against it (a certain few effects may impose a penalty, but I haven't encountered one yet). So, while a character of 18 constitution will be harder to poison than one with a 10, once both are poisoned, both have a 55% chance of overcoming it. (The same applies to mental effects too!) The save system doesn't take your attributes into account at all. While the system is okay, it just feels flawed.
Now that I've listed a counter-point to my first three original points, I'll briefly discuss what else is wrong with 4th edition from a veteran's viewpoint.
1. You can only heal a limited number of times per day. Each class has a certain number of healing surges, which are based on your constitution. The fighter has more surges than the wizard, for example. While this is okay, it applies to almost every form of healing. Want to take a second wind? Spend a surge. Want the cleric or warlord to heal you? Spend a surge. Want to drink a potion? Spend a surge. There are only a handful of abilities that the "healing" classes can get that allow healing without spending a surge. Also, why should your limited number of surges affect how often magic can heal you? It makes magic less magical. The magic is no longer healing you at this point, but is instead just triggering your body to tap into its reserves, which is alright, if that's what you're going for, but healing is the only thing that works this way. For example, a buff spell actually makes a character stronger, it doesn't require the character have extra reserves of strength for it to work.
2. You can trip anything. For the most part, if a power has a certain effect, it works. There are many powers that can knock a target prone, and the only rule I've found since I started playing 4th is that a flying creature isn't always rendered prone. It depends on how high they're flying, or something, I forgot the exact rule, but needless to say, you can't knock a beholder prone. Spiders, on the other hand, sure! Eight legs? No problem, it's prone. How about a dragon? Yeah, it's only three times your size, go ahead, you can knock it down.
3. Fights take forever. My 4th edition party is up to level 12 now. We started to notice a few levels ago, that if we aren't fighting minions, our enemies have a lot of HP. On average, one encounter takes us about 2-3 hours to complete. Dang. We're lucky if we can get through more than two encounters in one night.
4. Buffing is pointless. In 3.5, passing out the right buff spells before a fight usually meant that you didn't need to heal as much after. In 4th, the buffs don't provide big enough boosts to make them worth it. Pretty much every character in my 4th party has around a +18 to +20 attack bonus, and an AC of 26-29. We get hit pretty much every round, and only rarely do we miss. The buff powers we have available to us can provide a +2 to our defenses, and up to a +5 to our attacks. Half the time we don't even bother mentioning our attack buffs, because they hardly matter. Do you know how much it helps to improve an AC 26 to 28 when the enemies are hitting our AC 29 fighter pretty much every turn? Not at all. In 4th, you're going to take damage. It's just a fact. 4th isn't about buffing to prevent damage, it's a matter of how much can you heal, and can you take down the enemy before you run out of heals?
5. You have limited-use powers instead of static abilities. In 3.5, as you gained levels, you gained new class abilities and those abilities were always active, always available. Once you got it, you added it to your sheet, learned what it did, and it just was there. In 4th, you gain new powers that you have to decide when to use. This means every turn, you have a list of up to 12 different options or so to pick from. Have you ever been playing 3.5 and in the middle of combat had to wait for the caster to go through their list of spells, pick out one to use, then wait for them to read over what it does, only to decide it's not the most effective option, then go through their list again to repeat the process? Imagine every player doing that now.
6. Your powers get replaced. In 4th edition, you are allowed to build up a list of 3 encounter powers and 3 daily powers, in addition to your paragon powers. When you gain a new encounter or daily after that, you have to choose an existing power to give up in order to gain it. I recently looked through upcoming options for my warlord to see what new powers would become available. I was very disappointed to find out that my level 1 and level 3 encounter powers were a better fit for our group's tactics than the upcoming level 13 powers. However, the higher level powers do more damage. So, now I'm forced to decide between keeping a tactically useful power that deals little damage, or swapping for a power that's not nearly as useful just because it hits harder. Finally, I get a meaningful decision, but instead of a decision between balancing attributes or focusing on offense vs defense, my decision is whether or not I fall behind the damage curve of my team in order to keep the usefulness of my old powers.
I could continue to go on with this list, because at least once per game during our first three months of play, I found something that made me say "4th is stupid!", but I've probably forgotten half of those moments, and this list is already getting long, so let me just summarize this by saying that 4th edition is a fun, simplified system that tried to make everyone feel relevant, but when everyone's special, nobody is. It's great for newbies, but probably horrid for veterans. However, if you try not to compare it to 3.5, but just think of it as a different game, it can be enjoyable.
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