We played 4Ed for a while. I enjoyed playing it, but had ZERO interest in running it as it existed. My take on it was:
1) it would have been better as a non-D&D FRPG or classless system as opposed to trying to shoehorn it in to D&D conceptual constraints.
2) I really liked the 4Ed take on the Warlock. IMHO, it was the best version of it.
3) Our overall playstyle didn’t really change for 4Ed- we never saw the 15 minute workday.
4) Biggest complaint for us was slow combat. The source of that in our experience was twofold:
4a) First, none of the PC abilities were as potentially inordinately powerful as some were in prior editions, so it was rare for a PC to be able to significantly shorten or simply end a combat encounter with 1-2 actions.
4b) Second, the vast majority of buff or debuff effects were VERY short-lived. In prior editions, something that gave you +N Att/Dam (for example) might last several rounds or even hours or more. Essentially, once a PC got a modifier, they rarely had to recalibrate their combat rolls for one or more combats. In contrast, modifiers granted by many similar 4Ed powers might last only 1-2 rounds, or for a single attack. You were constantly recalculating whether you hit or missed, or how much damage you did, etc.
1) it would have been better as a non-D&D FRPG or classless system as opposed to trying to shoehorn it in to D&D conceptual constraints.
2) I really liked the 4Ed take on the Warlock. IMHO, it was the best version of it.
3) Our overall playstyle didn’t really change for 4Ed- we never saw the 15 minute workday.
4) Biggest complaint for us was slow combat. The source of that in our experience was twofold:
4a) First, none of the PC abilities were as potentially inordinately powerful as some were in prior editions, so it was rare for a PC to be able to significantly shorten or simply end a combat encounter with 1-2 actions.
4b) Second, the vast majority of buff or debuff effects were VERY short-lived. In prior editions, something that gave you +N Att/Dam (for example) might last several rounds or even hours or more. Essentially, once a PC got a modifier, they rarely had to recalibrate their combat rolls for one or more combats. In contrast, modifiers granted by many similar 4Ed powers might last only 1-2 rounds, or for a single attack. You were constantly recalculating whether you hit or missed, or how much damage you did, etc.
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