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13 months ago ::
Jun 01, 2012 - 3:55PM
#31
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- Slow down the treadmill of bonuses, possibly just flattening it entirely in places. +1/2 level probably doesn't needed to be added anywhere, much less everywhere. It doesn't really matter that a party will super-duper crush a low-level encounter instead of merely crushing it.
- Similarly, don't make system math dependant on having an up-to-date magic weapon.
- Get way, way more conservative with what gets to be a feat or magic item. The system is ludicrously bloated with bad feats and bad magic items, making it hard for someone to make a remotely principled decision about what they want to take at level-up if they're not already expert at the system.
- Get a dedicated templating person, like MTG has. Yeah, 4e is better at templating than some systems, but it could be better yet.
- Figure out some more appealing way to do rituals. For better or for worse, people have a strong aversion to spending money on one-shot effects.
- Do whatever possible to keep the default combat length down. Lower HP is a start, but maybe also additional conservatism when it comes to off-action attacks.
- Less tiny conditional bonus stacking. This was something they were supposedly designing to avoid in 4e, and then they sort of ended up doing it anyway.
- I don't like 4e Multiclassing, but I also haven't the slightest idea how to do it better. Multiclassing is something that no edition has done much of a job at, but I don't particularly love 4e's job of it.
- I'm not positive that this is actually a good idea, but perhaps shift more things to universal abilities; 4e has three defined ones: Bull Rush, Melee Basic, and Ranged Basic. Maybe things like tripping, etc., should be in there?
- Let's get a little gutsier with making same-role classes a little different. Having different sub-strengths is a great start, and I like that it's pretty easy to tell what class someone is and that playing different classes is a generally different experience, but I think we could go further in that regard. Mixing up the structure of how abilities work is neither necessary nor sufficient for this, but it's a good start. (Psion vs. Wizard demonstrates that it's not sufficient to mix up how stuff works to deliver a different experience; Warlord vs. Cleric demonstrates that it's not necessary.)
- In general, I want more choices and fewer options. Feats are where this is worst.
Dwarves invented beer so they could toast to their axes. Dwarves invented axes to kill people and take their beer.
"Feel free to claim I said anything you like. How's someone going to call you out on it? Are they going to be all like, 'I know all of the things that Gary said, and that's not one of them?'"
- Gary Gygax
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13 months ago ::
Jun 01, 2012 - 4:22PM
#32
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I like 4E. I consider it to be the most balanced and easiest to run (as the DM) of all editions. That said, there are a few things I would change.
1) Faster Combats- I would reduce monster HP and make both monsters and PCs hit more often. Our Defender can get his AC up to 31 already, so the monsters could stand to have better than a +12 to hit.
2) Rituals- Rituals were a great idea, they just are too expensive and take too much time for what they do. In the game I currently run as DM, I have houseruled all rituals to cost one half the printed gold price and take one half the time to complete. They work MUCH better this way. The players actually use them now.
3) Magic Items- They just aren't as awesome as they used to be. No, I don't want to make them too powerful, but they could stand to be more powerful and just plain more interesting than they are in 4E. I actually don't mind having them be assumed in the basic system math, though.
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13 months ago ::
Jun 01, 2012 - 4:27PM
#33
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Date Joined:
Jun 26, 2010
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I love 4th ed, but I would love to see a few things improved:
-Less of a treadmill/number bloat.
-The importance of magical items and how some builds become 'married' to certain items (Badge of the Beserker, Frost Weapon, I'm looking at you).
Actually, the whole charge package is too good and reduces diversity in play style.
-Skill challanges to be run more like newer LFR mods. I think they figured out how to do them right at the end.
-No feat taxes. Read my lips: no new taxes. Taxed Enough Already.
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13 months ago ::
Jun 01, 2012 - 4:54PM
#34
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Date Joined:
Jun 24, 2009
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Good question OP! While I love 4e, there are several ways in which it could have been improved.
--Monsters were given way too many hps and not enough damage. The dev's realized this, but a bit too late. Some of the early modules and Monster Manuals are a recipe for 3-hour long battles.
--Automatic damage. We hates it, precious, we hates it!
--The new, online character builder is STILL worse than the old, in many ways.
--Heavy Armor was still in many ways not much better than light.
--Bludgeoning/slashing and thrusting should have been damage types. Maces should be better against skeletons than spears.
--The Fighter defender mechanic was a little too strong. Combat challenge AND combat superiority were a bit much.
--Some classes got under-supported (Seeker, Runepriest, etc.)
Those are just a few of the major ones for me.
"What is the sort of thing that I do care about is a failure to seriously evaluate what does and doesn't work in favor of a sort of cargo cult posturing. And yes, it's painful to read design notes columns that are all just "So D&D 3.5 sort of had these problems. We know people have some issues with them. What a puzzler! But we think we have a solution in the form of X", where X is sort of a half-baked version of an idea that 4e executed perfectly well and which worked fine." - Lesp
"They are making it clear that when modern design and common sense come into conflict with tradition, tradition wins." - Thecasualoblivion
"When I DM Next I feel that I might as well be running a game based off of notes scribbled on a paper napkin." -Reinhart
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13 months ago ::
Jun 01, 2012 - 11:56PM
#35
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Date Joined:
Jan 28, 2004
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Rituals -- don't have a major problem with them, but my campaign is a little fast and loose, so they've had little impact.
Skill Challenges -- interesting idea, but they were terribly implemented.
Feats -- if you're going to "obsolete" some feats half-way through your edition, can you actually eliminate them, please? (Better yet, eliminate the lame feats and feat-taxes from the start).
Magic Items -- they should be *awesome* and completely unnecessary to the viability of the character, rather than vanilla and vital and boring as hell.
There's more, I'm sure, but I'm tired now...
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13 months ago ::
Jun 02, 2012 - 12:06AM
#36
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Date Joined:
Feb 15, 2008
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1) Make everyone better at what they're supposed to be good at, and worse at what they're supposed to be bad at. Controllers need harder control power, with less damage, and they need to be squishier. Defenders need to be tougher, and have much more ability to disrupt the enemy from within their ranks. Strikers need to be more mobile and hit for even more devastating damage, but at the cost of being much squishier.
2) Eliminate the leader role. What healing does is it negates the benefit of tactics. If the wrong person takes a lot of hits, then you can just slap a bunch of heals on him and its like it never happened. In-combat healing should be a rarity, not a core feature of an entire role. Out of combat healing should be handled with surges.
3) Reduce power bloat, in the system and on the character sheet. There should be far fewer powers, but the powers should be much more distinct. Also, characters need fewer things to do each combat. One or two encounters is plenty, one or two dailies is plenty. The basic power of a class should rest in its features, not its powers.
"So shall it be! Dear-bought those songs shall be be accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. For the price could be no other. Thus even as Eru spoke to us shall beauty not before conceived be brought into Eä, and evil yet be good to have been."
- Manwë, High King of the Valar
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13 months ago ::
Jun 02, 2012 - 12:43AM
#37
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Chris Perkins DM AI: Create an AI based on Chris Perkins brain and give us a copy with each purchase of the DMG so that he can run our games for us. I keep asking and WotC keeps failing to make it happen. I would finaly be able to play instead of having to DM all the time.
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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13 months ago ::
Jun 02, 2012 - 1:48AM
#38
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Date Joined:
Jan 29, 2005
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Eliminate feat taxes (expertise and defenses).
Clean up some redundant rules like immediate actions and OA's. Make it one mechanic and change abilities like combat challenge to be a 1/round OA.
Fix the classes that need fixing like the vampire (needs direction.. a design goal), the Binder (should just nix it completely, or make it not completely inferior to the phb1 Warlock in every way). Support classes that got left out (assassin, seeker, runepriest).
I don't have a problem with Essentials, per se. I mean, I loathe what they did to the martial classes, but that ship sailed. I think the whole thing should be redesigned so that the pre essentials classes don't have to be arbitrarily nerfed to come into parity with the post Essentials classes.
Feats should be seperated into multiple categories. Flavor feats (talents) like Linguist. Combat feats like Weapon Focus. Abilities like those should never come from the same pool.
There's some more nitpicky stuff. Can't think of anything major at 5am, though.
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13 months ago ::
Jun 02, 2012 - 2:46AM
#39
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A lot of what I'd want has already been said, but for the record:
1) Flatten the math. I want lower level monsters to be useful for longer (and I want to be able to spring higher level monsters earlier more often)
2) Eliminate Number Porn. Related to #1. Too many goddamn numbers that inflate to match other numbers that inflate, in an endless arbitrary cycle.
3) +X from magic items not assumed for character balance. Tied to #s 1 and 2. Magic items should be a bonus, not another step on the treadmill. 4e's Inherent Bonuses was a nice step. Just make it official.
4) No feat taxes. Again, pretty much tied to #1 and #2. Deflate the numbers, tighten the math, and avoid generic "+X to hit/defense" that would be utterly dominant (moreso than they already are) is a flatter math ruleset.
5) No patch feats. If a class needs something, patch the class. Don't make us waste feat slots on something you've decided we should have.
6) Less out-of-turn actions. This lesson seems learned, thankfully.
7) More At-wills known. 2 isn't enough.
8) No daily abilities. Replace with daily-like abilities that aren't set to in-game time, but adventure pacing time. At-wills aren't every 6 seconds; they're every Turn. Encounter powers aren't every 5 minutes; they're every Scene. Likewise, Daily powers shouldn't be every 24 hours; they should be every Adventure. Single-handedly negates the "5-minute Workday" problem. I've played around with the Milestone mechanic as a functional replacement for dailies.
9) Varying power amounts. I'm not personally in favor of it, but as a means to make the game more popular to others, I could stand seeing some classes with very few encounter powers in exchange of having more daily (or daily-ish; see above) powers. Or vice versa.
10) Shared power pools. Generic powers that anyone can take. Power source powers that anyone of the appropriate source can take.
11) Divorce skill checks from specifc stats. Go go Strength + Intimidate for flexed muscle-type threats. I'm sure you can think of more examples.
12) Better design direction for feats. Feats should tweak your style. No flat bonuses. No patches.
13) Scaling Rituals. Rituals should be able to be performed "on the cheap" (i.e. with pocket change or less) and relatively quickly for basic, minor effect (limited by caster level). If you're higher level AND invest in some high quality components, that same ritual becomes much better.
14) Avoid bloat. Partly tied to #s 10 and 12. Pretty self-explanatory.
15) Page 42 in the PHB.
16) Rethink Skill Challenges. Great idea, awkward execution.
17) Speed up combat. Aided by #6, but also potentially by #s 8 and 9. A lot of the slow down was actions out of turn, and too many actions to choose from. If you don't have to worry about "is this the time to pop my daily", you can eliminate a lot of internal deliberation. If you have almost everything daily, then that also eliminates internal deliberation. On top of that, increase damage and lower hit points.
18) Lower the amount of surges. Healing Surges are great. Just have less of them, across the board. Either that, or have more things cost surges as a mechanic (like rituals, or daily-ish powers).
19) Have a wound mechanic based on the disease mechanic. Triggers when brought below 0. Full night's rest heals all HP, but you have an injury penalty that gets better with time. Skill checks can decrease time, but if failed worsen the injury, prolonging recovery. MARK THIS AS OPTIONAL RULE, BUT HAVE IT IN A VERY OBVIOUS PLACE IN BOTH PHB AND DMG.
20) Uh...I'm struggling for a 20th idea, but I'm compelled to have a nice round number for my list. Hmmm. Ummm, maybe have better names for the Feywild and Shadowfell? Maybe?
Essentials zigged, when I wanted to continue zagging.
Roll dice, not cars.
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13 months ago ::
Jun 02, 2012 - 3:33AM
#40
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Date Joined:
Sep 21, 2007
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I like the At-Wills, Encounter and Daily options within 4E a great deal and think that it's a positive step, however I think it'd be improved by allowing them to be more improvised. Each character has a speciality within the class (fighters are martial, rogues are mobile, mages can conjure area effects and ranges and Clerics can aid\enhance and heal) so the improvisation should be within those areas.
A fighter could use an encounter to strike an opponent in the leg to knock them prone, slow or immmobalise them and do damage based on Encounter Attack Level, a rogue could use his encounter to move and attack during the attack plus slow without an attack of opportunity from the target.
A clerics Encounter could offer another player a Save if the attack were successful.
A Wizard could make a Blast 4 Fire based attack into a blast 3 target but taking a -2 to hit due to having to modify their spell. Or even -5 for a Blast 1,2. Other attacks could be modified within the elements that the character has 'Mastered', mastery is set by what elements the mage has learned so far so a mage who has spells that are Fire, Acid can change his spells to these elements without suffering any modifiers but if they try to change a Burning Hands to Cold then they would suffer a -2 for non mastery.
Not easy for innexperienced players & DM's however and could offer balance issues.
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