DM Story Time: Why I don't like 4e

Stories from the years gone by that helped shape who I am as a player and dungeon master.

It was summer of 2008 when I began hearing about the new DnD version. I didn't have a computer or reliable internet access at this time so I couldn't look up the information myself, but what I heard intrigued me. A brand new edition that I can get into on the ground floor? I'll buy it.

And so when it launched I bought the box-set with all three core rulebooks and a DM screen. I poured over those books and itched to try out the new combat powers. I wouldn't get the chance for several months because I went to boot camp shortly after the launch.

Fast-forward to my days of being bored in the barracks during A-School. I talked with some friends of mine about how I used to play DnD on a weekly basis and stirred up some interest. I then had my mother ship me my 4e books and I began preparing an adventure. I walked the players through character creation and we decided to have a go at it.

Even though I had started things off as a roleplay heavy session we found ourselves bogged down in combat. The combat rules flowed easily enough but everything dragged at a snail's pace; I understand that this was because of the inexperience of the players but I didn't have much to go on to make it any faster.

I began to realize that I hadn't prepared enough for the game. 4e rules were so focused on combat that a play surface and miniatures (things I did not have access to) were practically a requirement. This blew my mind, I played 2e prior and we never used miniatures or even a grid. We operated purely on theater-of-the-mind, but this version would not easily let me facilitate that. I began to feel buyer's remorse.

After the session I began looking through the rulebooks again and realized that I only focused on the cool additions to the game. I never looked at what they changed for the worse.

• Alignments were practically non-existent.
• Skills were simplified to insulting levels.
• Wizards had no spells.

The alignment chart existed to abstract what the character should do if the player is unsure. This chart existed for years with two differing scales (lawful to chaotic; good to evil) to determine overall character standing. 4e reduced the nine options to five on a single sliding scale (lawful good, good, neutral, evil, chaotic evil). Looking at it with fresh eyes I realized that it was simplified because WotC didn't feel like new players would understand it. I started to feel insulted.

The skill list was reduced. I had no problem with this. What would previously require a thief to roll to Hide and then Move Silently was replaced with Stealth. That was a good change, but why would you get rid of skill points? Allocating skill points was that great moment when a player would say Do I want to maximize Diplomacy? Admittedly, this was a minor concern as I understand why they did it; however, when you couple it with the fact that I was already feeling insulted this did nothing to help.

I should rephrase this: Every class is a Wizard. Encounter powers, Daily powers, At-Will powers; everyone is practically a spellcaster in this game. This was done to level the playing field but it had the added effect of making it pointless to play a Wizard. Let me go into further depth here, Wizards did have spells but they were practically identical to each other and the only differences were elemental flavor text and properties. They were still used in the power line-up seen previously.

Years have passed since those days and I'm still not fond of 4e, but I would play it again. This time I wouldn't attempt to take it seriously. Combat worked in this game and I don't mind that but the unfortunate thing is that WotC may have destroyed any hope for this edition with the release of 5e.

5e performs combat just as well as 4e but with the added benefit of feeling faster. Everything flows faster and feels more urgent; also I do not feel that I need to map out every encounter on a grid. Wizards feel like Wizards again. Skill points still do not exist but I have moved beyond my initial reaction to that. I realized that I never needed skill points in an RPG; I just needed to feel progress.

5e is what 4e should have been.