D&D, 4th edition
As an avid board gamer and a well-known strategy fan, there's a siren's call that emanates from what little I know about D&D4e. I've never been a RPer, but I've always been quietly and mildly envious of those with friends geeky and dedicated enough to pull off campaigns. 4e takes it to a level with more personal appeal: I hear stories of game
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This is pretty integral to 4e's increased tactical nature. Let's take, for example, a fighter, because that's probably the simplest class there is in regards to this. When you choose to attack, you can, of course, choose to just take a melee swing at an enemy. But there is literally no reason to do just that anymore. I mentioned way above that "each class has stuff they can do at will (all day long, all the time)" and that's where this comes into play. At level 1 you get to choose two "at-will" powers from your class (though if you're Human, you get to choose three). Each class typically has 4 (wizard has 5) at-will powers to choose from in the core rules (though I got to read one of the supplements and that added another 1-2 at-will powers for half the classes, other half following later). To start, the Fighter has an at-will called Reaping Strike, where it's a typical melee attack that deals damage as if you had done a typical melee swing. The difference is that, when using Reaping Strike, if you miss, you still deal damage equal to a number derived from your Strength. You may say to yourself, "well, what's the downside?"
No downside. That's it. You can use Reaping Strike from now until forever. It's crazy. It's different. It's 4e.
Wizards get powers like this too, hell yeah. Scorching Burst has a range of ten squares, and it does a 3x3 burst of fire damage. And it's at-will for them, they can Scorching Burst every grassland in the world.
The only real downside is that you never get more 'real' at-will powers. I say 'real' because, well, the truth is you can get more powers that are at-will, but they typically won't be as directly damaging and they really fall more under the Utility category. Example: at level 2, rogues can choose an at-will power that allows them to move their full speed score in stealth without penalties. It's technically at-will, but it's probably better to think of it as a passive bonus. Rogues actually have access to the highest amount of non-direct-combat at-will powers, if I'm reading correctly. Anyway, that was a bit of a digression, but what I mean to say is that at level one, the fighter can choose 2 powers from either Reaping Strike, Cleave (hit an enemy with a melee strike, another enemy adjacent to you takes damage equal to your Strength modifier), Sure Strike (melee attack that has a bonus to hit, but only deals weapon damage not weapon+Strength modifier damage), and Tide of Iron (requires a shield, melee attack, deals damage, and then you can push your target 1 square and immediately shift into the square they left). No, you can't use two powers at the same time (no Reaping Sure Stikes).
I said I was going to talk about keywords, so...each power has a number of keywords associated with it, stated right in the ability itself. The Cleric's Cure Light Wounds ability has two keywords: Divine and Healing. Since it has the Healing keyword, it'll get the healing bonus mentioned in my last post. Theoretically, your character can gain new abilities that would say something like "all powers with the Divine keyword now do X" and so Cure Light Wounds would gain that effect, too. If the character got another ability that gave the Healing keyword some other effect, then the two abilities would both grant their benefits.
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Warlord gets a ranged at-will that allows one ally of yours to make a basic melee attack (no powers) against the Warlord's target.
Paladins have an at-will that all paladins get for free called Divine Challenge. Choose an enemy, it is now marked. This mark gives the enemy -2 to attack rolls for any attack made that isn't against the Paladin. In addition, they take damage if they make an attack that doesn't include the Paladin as a target (so an AoE hitting the Paladin and an ally would not suffer the damage). Even moreso, the mark can augment the Paladin's other at-will powers; Enfeebling Strike does a melee attack against and enemy and does damage, and if the target is marked by Divine Challenge, the target has -2 to all attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Rogues and Rangers have at-will powers that allow them to move before or after a basic attack.
Warlocks have a particularly nasty power in Dire Radiance, an at-will ranged attack that does damage and if the target moves nearer to the Warlock on its next turn, it takes extra damage.
All of these are at-wills!
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1 Minor Action - things that are really fast/easy; opening a door, drawing a weapon, picking up an item off the floor
1 Move Action - everything in Minor, plus moving (dur) or shifting (a safe form of moving with reduced range)
1 Standard Action - everything in Move, most powers (some powers will take minor or move actions so you could use one of those and then a power that uses a standard), using a second wind, most combat maneuvers (charging, grappling, etc.).
So you could draw a weapon, move, use Reaping Strike, or open a door and double move, or attack, shift back, close door, or etc. you get the idea.
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