Thoughts so far on D&D 4E
OK, I have been reading pieces of D&D 4E for a few weeks, have run a few games with pre-gen characters and adventures, and, last night, actually got to play with a character I made (actually, I wrote out coffeebadass' character too).
The game was fun, forvrin runs a good game. We fought lizard men, had to escape cannibalistic halflings and their smokehouse trap, and fought a witch-doctor and his salt encrusted mummies on the edge of a cliff. Very pulp and much fun. But forvrin's games are always fun.
Things, I like:
Everybody having things to in combat, our party's wizard never was in a position where he could not use a spell. Now, it should be everyone gets to do cool things all the time in combat. For short combats, yes, it worked that way. In the longer combats, it had the standard, "I hit him" problem of D&D (except now it is, "I use power/ability/spell X") as you use up the limited use powers quickly. This might be less so for high level characters who have more ability choices but maybe not. The upper level enemies have absurd numbers of HPs.
Skill Challenges, in concept anyway, though the one we dealt with (escaping the halflings' smoke house) did not run as smoothly as it could have. I would put most of that down to us being new to the system.
Characters skills/abilities are more important than magic items, abilities scale up in power with character "tier" and they can work with a minimum of magic items. This seems like a good thing.
Things I am not sold on:
Charter Flexibility, I suspect (fear?) that most of the classes have a handful of effective playable builds, especially at low level, and you are going to see them all the time. The class roles and build are very defined. Now, yes, in theory, there are 2 x 8 x 4 x 4 (256) different ability combinations (before feats) for a starting Warlord, what I was playing. In actually, the choices are much fewer if you wish to actually be effective, as you have to play to the abilities that key off of your stats and a Warlord needs three good stats (Strength, Intelligence, Charisma) to get the best use (in some cases any use) out of their class abilities. In 3E building a well rounded character penalized your effectiveness, but usually only a little as every stat gave you a continuing useful bonus, if my Warlord is an example, trying to build a well rounded character in 4E will weaken them in play considerably.
All races being "equal" and the removal of Level Adjustments, while not a perfect system, the LA system worked. I could have a 1st level half-dragon accompany a 4th level party and still be effective and interesting. It just seems that some sorts of races will now be off-limits for play unless a similar mechanism is added.
And the one thing that are almost a deal breaker for me:
Game Balance Economics, this was sort of implict in 3E, but is entirely locked in in 4E. Everything is priced according to its game utility, plate armor cost twice (yes, twice) as much as leather armor for example. And the one that make me want to scream, the cost to buy a magic item is exactly equal to the cost to make it. Every time I think about this, it drives me crazy. It is impossible to rest a "realistic" world on this economy and a world cannot exist without economics.
All of these opinions are subject to revision as I learn the system better, but that last one is going to be hard to overcome.
The game was fun, forvrin runs a good game. We fought lizard men, had to escape cannibalistic halflings and their smokehouse trap, and fought a witch-doctor and his salt encrusted mummies on the edge of a cliff. Very pulp and much fun. But forvrin's games are always fun.
Things, I like:
Everybody having things to in combat, our party's wizard never was in a position where he could not use a spell. Now, it should be everyone gets to do cool things all the time in combat. For short combats, yes, it worked that way. In the longer combats, it had the standard, "I hit him" problem of D&D (except now it is, "I use power/ability/spell X") as you use up the limited use powers quickly. This might be less so for high level characters who have more ability choices but maybe not. The upper level enemies have absurd numbers of HPs.
Skill Challenges, in concept anyway, though the one we dealt with (escaping the halflings' smoke house) did not run as smoothly as it could have. I would put most of that down to us being new to the system.
Characters skills/abilities are more important than magic items, abilities scale up in power with character "tier" and they can work with a minimum of magic items. This seems like a good thing.
Things I am not sold on:
Charter Flexibility, I suspect (fear?) that most of the classes have a handful of effective playable builds, especially at low level, and you are going to see them all the time. The class roles and build are very defined. Now, yes, in theory, there are 2 x 8 x 4 x 4 (256) different ability combinations (before feats) for a starting Warlord, what I was playing. In actually, the choices are much fewer if you wish to actually be effective, as you have to play to the abilities that key off of your stats and a Warlord needs three good stats (Strength, Intelligence, Charisma) to get the best use (in some cases any use) out of their class abilities. In 3E building a well rounded character penalized your effectiveness, but usually only a little as every stat gave you a continuing useful bonus, if my Warlord is an example, trying to build a well rounded character in 4E will weaken them in play considerably.
All races being "equal" and the removal of Level Adjustments, while not a perfect system, the LA system worked. I could have a 1st level half-dragon accompany a 4th level party and still be effective and interesting. It just seems that some sorts of races will now be off-limits for play unless a similar mechanism is added.
And the one thing that are almost a deal breaker for me:
Game Balance Economics, this was sort of implict in 3E, but is entirely locked in in 4E. Everything is priced according to its game utility, plate armor cost twice (yes, twice) as much as leather armor for example. And the one that make me want to scream, the cost to buy a magic item is exactly equal to the cost to make it. Every time I think about this, it drives me crazy. It is impossible to rest a "realistic" world on this economy and a world cannot exist without economics.
All of these opinions are subject to revision as I learn the system better, but that last one is going to be hard to overcome.