Been playing since...a week, but it doesn't takes 25 years to see that there is something off with some ruling.
personnaly of my "tiny D&D experience" but "huge Wargames experience" having to roll to decide for you HP, is just lame...
You will always have the case of the lucky guy who makes a rogue or ranger and make max roll for Hit Die, and the guy who wants to roll for a pally and get nothing but low results...
This kind of things was one of the reasons why i never played a D&D game before 4th ed, its way too random, specilly in a game where you can play for months/years with the same character.
Naturally something can be done, and Constitution should matter in this, just not the Roll die and crosse fingers thing.
For the HP/Wounds, at first i though that it would be bothersome to keep track of it, after all you allready need to keep track of a ton of things during combat, so tracking the difference between Hp's and Wounds could be more bothersome then anything else, in this kind of situation its better to keep it simple.
I don't have a particullar though on how crits must be handeled, it can be a double dmg, or add 1DX dmg or even +50% dmg.
For the spell casting, to me its seems just outright stupid that a mage or even any other class who can cast spells is limited and then ends up with just his basic attack, or nothing at all...
The guy do this for a living(or he lives for this, depends on how you see it), but off course there need to be some mechanic to prevents abuse and overpowering.
There is two ways i think you can look at it.
1) Aside for At-Wills, you can use an encounter power a total times of 1+ the half of your lvl, rounding to the inferior; exemple; a lvl 2 Wizard would be able to cast 2 times an encounter spell, same for a lvl3, but a lvl 4 gains one more use of it.
Like this you ensure that while at low lvl it stays balanced, the more you advance in a carreer, the better you get at casting your spells.
And all the 5 lvls, you gain an additional use of a daily during a combat, but once a daily's charge used, you can reuse it if you got an extended rest.
2) aside for daily's make everything else At-Will, just diminish some of the dmg output, one of the problems, is that the spells how they are can be pretty powerfull, and that why they are restricted, but if you tone them done a bit, just a tiny bit, then you can use them more often.
Lets say an encounter type or daily spell does 3D8 dmg, tone it down to 2D10 or 3D6 and allow for additional uses of it.
Nothing really particular to see about armors
As far as i'm okey with the CHA=Action points stuff, the Wise=Initiative is just...dumb.
You say Wise=perception...well no.
Some one can take wise decisions and still miss something happening or simply not noticing whats going on.
Someone with alot of Wisdom, is just that, Wise, he can take the right decisions and think through anaticaly, it doesn't mean that he Perceves stuffs around him better then someone else.
Someone good at Perception has good eyes/senses, simple as that.
But i agree that Initiative shouldn't be on DEX alone, a simple way is to add a CLass mechanic, depending on the class they get initiative bonus on some given Stats.
MY 4th ED char is a Revenant/Tieflin Infernal Blade, so i don't have much Dex, but i can take the Imperious Majesty wich allow me to take my CHarisma instead of my Dex for the Initiative rolls!
NOw give a similar feat for every kind of Stats, depending on the class, and you are good to go.
There a Cleric with high WIS, can use it for Init rolls, a Figther could use a mix of 13/ Dex and 2/3 Str, and vice versa for the rogue/ranger and so on.
For the AoO's i think someone engaged in melee with someone else as more difficulty's to go past him then someone who isn't.
Not necceserly let them locked in combat unable to move, and also not letting pass by without any kind of retribution.
A way of doing it, is when a melee engaged npc/pc want to get out of combat and run past his foe, by passing and adjacent tile, he gets an AoO OR the NPC/PC he his trying to get past can try to stop him and Tackle him, by making a Str VS REF or VIG check or something else.
SO it would be like this, if an Orc try to get past the Cleric/FIgther, 1) The Cleric Figther let him through but he gets a free attack, 2) The deny him the occasion to past them and stay engaged togheter.
Thats just some of my thougts and how i see the game, feel free to do what you want with it
