I must ask the opposite side of the 4e coin, what were your least favorite aspects of #DnD 4e? Please be specific if you can and don’t let this turn into a mock fest. Even if you enjoyed 4e, I’d love to know what you didn’t like. Let’s keep it civil. (Braces for impact.) The need for magic items to be given to make the math work. This was alleviated a bit after they put out Dark Sun, but players were already addicted. Giving extra powers to many magic items, even simple ones like magic weapons.
— Shawn Merwin, paxxing for PAX West (@shawnmerwin) August 2, 2019
Too many character options, even at 1st level, especially for Clerics. New players were often overwhelmed.
Players had cool powers, and wanted to use them. And so tended to skip over content that couldn’t be solved with their powers.
Magic Items basically worthless. Considering how bold and radical 4E's design was, that these are my only real problems is a huge endorsement of the system.
— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) August 2, 2019
Generally: combat went way too long. Monsters had too many hit points and PCs did far too little damage. A fireball that does 3d6 damage (later revised to a whopping 4d6) may have been mechanically balanced within the system but as a play experience it felt impotent.
— Six Hit Points (@sixhitpoints) August 2, 2019
4e should not have been released with epic tier. I don’t agree that the writing, even in the example, was dumbed down. But that MM issue was even worse—good story text was cut to make room for that garbage. 😭
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) August 2, 2019
I never played 4e, heard it was in many ways a response of sorts to MMORPGs or something. Is that true? No, it’s not true. It wasn’t made as a response to or to resemble MMOs. Neither claim has evidence or merit to underpin it.
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) August 2, 2019
I rather like the concept of the Spellplague, but then you have to support it. Make new legendary NPCs, sell the new stories. Lean into it! The Spellplague was fine. It’s making all that stuff canon that’s wrongheaded.
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) August 2, 2019
