NickD wrote:I haven't played tabletop since 2e. I still miss kits!
What are the main differences between 3.5e and 4e anyway?
The main difference is that 3.5e is horrible and 4e is awesome.
The same people that are grognarding about 4e being terrible and ruining everything that is D&D and turning the game into WoW are the same people that were complaining about 3rd edition ruining averything about AD&D and turning the game into Diablo 2. Except now 3rd edition has become the sacred cow that was perfect. If you really, really like 3.5e and think the system is perfect but needs a little updating there's Pathfinder, which is effectively 3.75e. Except it's still terrible and the 'balancing' they did didn't do anything to address many of the complaints people had with 3.5.
The differences are many. By all accounts 4e is a new game system that is D&D flavored and that's a valid reason to be iffy about it, it IS a different game system and represents a more 'heroic' type of setting where the player's characters are brimming with magic power and/or nearly superhuman martial skills. Most of the classes are very different. Sorcerer is no longer a wizard with limited spell choices. All the magic casting classes feel like they draw upon their magic in different ways and with different training which is something I like a lot. My Spirit Shaman played completely different from my Cleric even though they were both acting as the party's healer. It was very easy for me to envision that these two were from completely different backgrounds and that their magic was completely different. That's something that 3e never did for me, even with Shadow Magic it all felt like it was the same magic, same training.
Every class has different powers and abilities. There are at-will abilities which are your bread and butter attacks/spells. Most classes get at least 2 of these although some classes/races can get up to 4 or more. There are also encounter powers which you can use once per fight and you get them back after a 5 minute rest. And then there are daily powers which require a full rest (8 hours) before you can pull it off again. You gain newer encounter and daily powers as you level up, I think you only gain new at-will powers when you pick a Paragon Path and an Epic Destiny at levels 11 and 21 but I might be mistaken in this.
Every class has powers, from the fighter to the wizard. The fighter's powers are described as martial abilities, usually maneuvering the foe around, knocking them down, denying them attacks with your shield, etc. The wizard's will still be magic spells. This is a good thing, as now the wizard can actually use magic more than once per day at level 1 and the fighter isn't reduced to saying "I full attack the thing" at higher levels while the spell casters get to throw out dozens of battlefield altering spells. Every class has a multitude of powers and abilities at their disposal.
Non-combat spells have been moved into Rituals. Rituals don't take up any of your at-will/encounter/daily power choices so you are free to acquire as many of them as you want and can afford. Each ritual has a casting time, usually in the order of minutes to hours, a component cost and a DC with a skill to roll against which determines how successful the ritual is. You can still summon a Tensor's floating disc or prepare a teleportation circle, just now you don't have to give up one of your precious spell slots for it. You no longer need to memorize Raise Dead, effectively wasting a 5th level spell slot if someone
doesn't die. Most of these rituals aren't things you want to cast in combat anyways. Overall I really like this change. There are also non-magical rituals for other classes. I think some of the alchemy stuff is implemented as rituals but I'm not sure on this.
The skill selection was reduced a bit. Some skills were combined (hide and move silently were combined into a single skill, Stealth). There's no more skill points, you now select skills that your character is trained in when you create your char. Your number of trained skills isn't based on Intelligence, it's based on your race and class. Your skill ranks are now equal to 1/2 your level + the ability modifier and +5 if it's trained. There are a few feats, backgrounds and racial traits that add a couple more points to the skills but on a whole they tend to stay within a certain range which certainly helps the dm when planning challenges. No need to worry about some guy having a +40 skill modifier at level 2.
Defenses were also standardized. There are no more 'saving throws', there's now 4 different defences. AC, Reflex, Fortitude and Will. Like skills, these get 1/2 your level added to them in addition to the relevant item (armor) or ability modifier. Instead of 'rolling a saving throw' in previous editions a power specifies whether it attacks your AC, Reflex, Fort or Will and the attack roll is rolled and bonuses are added. If it beats your defense value then it hits. In this way the attacks are all standardized and it's easier to tell if your Will defense is high or low as it will use the exact same mechanics as your Armor Class defense.
Healing/Recovery is changed a bit as well. Every class gets a number of 'healing surges'. Most healing abilities let the target spend a healing surge to regain 1/4 of their hitpoints + a bonus. Each character also has a limited capability to 'self heal' - this is called Second Wind. When you get to half hitpoints or lower you can use this as a standard action and you regain 1/4 of your total hp and get a bonus to your defense for that turn.There's a few abilities that don't require a healing surge be spent but these are not the norm. After combat each character can use as many healing surges as they want to recover. So there's a limit to how much abuse a character can take in a day, even with multiple healers. I think this system best represents hitpoints as more than just bodily damage, that it is mostly stamina and fatigue that can be fairly easily recovered once you're no longer running around fighting orcs and drakes.
Magic items have veered a bit away from just providing static bonuses to abilities or damage. A lot of the magic items have special powers that you can use just like your own daily powers, with the limitation that you can only use so many item daily powers/day depending on your level. (I'm not sure about the reasoning behind this, I assume it's just for balancing purposes). Some examples of items are a crown that lets you make a History check as if you were trained in the skill, a magical poison dagger that can coat itself with a viscious poison that inflicts a recurring damage and weakness on the target. Overall I'm very happy with the magic items as they've gone back to being 'magical' rather than providing a number to add to another number and be forgotten.
Combat requires a battlemat, I don't think there's any way around it without heavy ad-hocing of the rules. Which is fine for me and my group, we enjoy the tactical combat. Roleplaying is the same as any version of D&D, it's all up to the DM and the group to make it happen.
Those are the major mechanical changes I can think of.
Lest this turn into a flamed thread about how crappy the new 4e is because it caters to the youngies that play WoW, (and by their own admission, Wizards did just that) Well, I play WoW and really enjoy it. It is its own separate genre. There was never a need to try to combine the two. I personally would have revamped the 3.5 to reach a broader market without changing the core rules to mirror something that is "more popular"
