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malkav666 wrote:

Which leads me to begin to wonder how bloodied will work with constructs or other opponents who dont actually have blood per say.

"Bloodied" is just an expression; it doesn't actually require blood. A skeleton can be bloodied. It simply means that the creature has suffered a significant amount of damage. When a player strikes a blow that bloodies a skeleton, I'm likely to describe it more dramatically; he shatters a half-dozen ribs, and a femur is starting to fracture. Same for a construct. An iron golem shouldn't be in perfect shape at 1 HP, and shattered at 0 HP; when he's "bloodied", you should be seeing fractures and dents, clear signs that you're wearing him down.

Should you have a character with a special ability that relates to this - +1 damage against bloodied targets, for example - I simply read it as either "You know how to take advantage of an opponent's wounded state" or "You're invigorated by the sight of an injured foe" - not literally that you need to taste their blood.

Hellcow wrote:

That's not a picture of 4E; it's a picture of a D&D game being run by a certain type of DM, and it could just as easily be 3E as 4E.

Heck, unless the source is from somewhere here on the WotC site, there's no guarantee that that's even a D&D game.

DoveArrow wrote:

My concern about these abilities isn't how easy they are to use when you actually remember to use them. My concern is how easy it is to forget that you have these abilities in the first place.

And all I can tell you is that having been playing for a few months now, I just haven't found it to be a problem. Forgetting to use a daily or encounter power isn't like forgetting to use dodge; it's like a 5th level wizard forgetting that he has a fireball. And in 4E, the 5th level wizard has far fewer spells to keep track of than his 3E counterpart.

With the fighter, the key point is that your daily power isn't something that adds to your attack; your daily power IS an attack. Again, it's like the wizard deciding whether or not to use a fireball: does this situation call for unleashing the big gun? One of the players in my game is a fighter, and he's never said "Man! I forgot about my encounter power!"

DoveArrow wrote:

Therefore, it's hard for me to imagine how adding more use activated abilities will do anything other than make this problem a more frequent occurrence.

One thing I'd raise is that a number of the powers you mention AREN'T activated abilities - they are PASSIVE abilities, which are in my opinion far easier to forget. "D'oh! The paladin has immunity to fear!" And I don't think passive bonuses are especially easy to track; I can't tell you how many times I've had players forget to add in the bonuses from bard song (this scene is one I've seen all too often). Sure, a paladin getting flat bonuses to HIS saves is easy. But once he extends passive bonuses to those around him, it's hard - and as you yourself noted, once those bonuses aren't numerical it gets easier to forget them.

Looking to active abilities that have been called out, you have the paladin's divine challenge. Could you forget to use this? Sure. But it's never happened in any game I've run, precisely because it's such an important and useful power. The paladin loves his challenge; it's one of his favorite things about the character.

DoveArrow wrote:

if I had to declare at the beginning of combat that my monk is going to add his Wisdom bonus to his AC...

And I don't see 4E as having lots of powers like this... if anything, less than 3E, given that bard song was a classic for this. Again, I can't use specific examples because I can't reveal anything that hasn't already been revealed - but I can say that I've found combat to be far easier to track than in 3E.

DoveArrow wrote:

Right now, though, I am concerned that the game is getting overloaded with these use activated abilities that only work on one character, or in one situation, and which require players to be almost hyperfocused on the game so that they don't miss an opportunity to use their character's abilities.

And there's not much I can do to convince you otherwise, DA. All I can say is that I love it, and I'm someone who by and large prefers story to combat - so having to be "hyperfocused" is not high on my list of goals for gamers. It really doesn't play that way, and it doesn't require the use of 52 beads and disks to make it work; again, I'll point out that Alea made those disks for 3E. CAN you use Alea disks? Sure, and they'll be just as useful in 4E as 3E. But I haven't found them to be any more necessary. I've found 4E to be faster that 3E combat, and more than that, more fun... and personally, I WAS very dubious when I first gave it a try.

So hey, see for yourself when it comes out. Perhaps you'll like it, perhaps not - I'm not going to say that it's perfect for everyone. But I've never found this particular issue to be a concern in actual play.