Rate 4e!

[Darrin Drader]

I just got done playing KotS for the last five hours. We had four player characters and during that time we managed to squeeze in all of three combats, and two of those combats very nearly resulted in TPKs. It wasn't so much that our tactics were bad, but that the DM kept rolling criticals against us and our rolls were very crappy for most of the time. Regardless, with the increased hit points of the PCs and the increased hit points of the opponents, all that really accomplished was dragging the fight out longer. We still ended up with three 15 minute days.

Still, I do have to admit that the increased number of combat options were a bit more fun. Even though combat was still taking the same (or slightly longer) than what I'm used to with 3.x, the combat itself seemed more dynamic.

We're interested in continuing this, scheduling them in between our regular True20 Reign of Discordia sessions.

 

[BryonD]

Is that a chip on a shoulder I see before me?

No. Nothing like that at all.
Just pointing out that being predisposed to not like the game isn't very meaningful.

 

[Erithtotl]

I'm getting a little frustated with all the 4e defenders talking about how easy it is to mod and change and adapt so that it will fit whatever kind of play style you want it to be.

If you have looked at the books you will know this is absolultely not the case. The reason is simple. The game system was designed for 'balance', thus they must have had some rather detailed charts and spreadsheets on how different powers and abilities stack up against each other. But they didn't actually give you any of that info in the books. For example, monster templates are supposed to be a way to make cool variations on monsters. Except the DMG includes 16 templates, 14 of which are humanoid only or undead, and gives you NO rules on how to make your own templates.

I think they are basically intentionally holding back %90 of the information needed to 'mod' the game so that they can drive more sales of the yearly core book expansions. And they changed the system so much that basically all your earlier purchases are now so much garbage if you choose to switch over.

Even if I wanted to switch to 4e, I'd have to take such a step down in content to play it that I'd still be forced to wait another year or two.