This weekend I ran a session using the “Raiders of Oakhurst” adventure that I found linked around here somewhere and the pregen characters from wizards. I was the DM and I had 4 veteran D&D players. None of us had any prior 4th edition experience.
All of the players enjoyed the game. We all agreed that the transition from 3rd to 4th should be quite simple. Each of the individual mechanics seemed well thought out and quite straightforward. The players who where playing the fighter and ranger were very impressed at the number of meaningful options that they had with a such a simple set of abilities. Healing and buffing from the paladin and cleric were a joy instead of a drudgery. We all felt that the casters (warlock and wizard) were a little on the weak side. It always seemed that their basic ranged spell was the preferred course of action.
The combination of healing waves and per encounter resources is, in my opinion, a very exciting change. A character can be viewed as have many more hit points than what is listed on the sheet. In a way, each character has Total HP = Max HP + (Healing waves/day * Healing/Wave). However, it is only the Max HP (plus a wave or 2 I suppose) that matter for any given encounter. Because only a fraction of the Characters Total HP are available for any given encounter (Wizard = 20 of 50; Fighter = 33 of 137), as a DM you can challenge a group with a single encounter that is actually much easier than a challenging encounter from 3rd edition. This allows the DM to keep the level of intensity (potential for characters to loose) very high on each encounter without overtaxing the characters through the course of several encounters.
There are a couple of points that I am still a bit apprehensive about. The simple handling of effect duration with 1. A round, 2. Till save, or 3. end of encounter, while easy to track is a bit limiting. We were also a little concerned with the entire concept of a flat saving throw. Why is it not a check against one of the 4 established defenses vs a variable DC?
From a DM perspective, even the very first encounter, which had some complexity, was easier to run that many similar 3rd edition encounters. Minions are great, and the recharge of abilities based on a die roll is a wonderful idea. This gives monsters great feel and flexibility without over complication and also can keep players and DMs guessing about the monsters actions because what abilities are available can change from round to round. It seems odd that they did not tie this roll to a D20 and give themselves more room to adjust probabilities. It is also worth noting that the one “caster” monster present in this module sorely needed an at will “magic missile” type effect. After I had burnt all of its spells I actually ran the monster around for a few rounds waiting to roll 5 or 6 so that I could cast again.
The solo or elite monster at the end of the adventure was a huge letdown. It simply had many hit points and very high defenses but was not really interesting. I was under the impression that solo monsters would be doing more outside of their turns in initiative. It was getting quite late and this encounter was very long and boring. My players and I simply calculated that they would probably win and went to bed before the monster was even “bloodied” (which is also a very good mechanic). This monster still suffered from the fact that it got one action while the characters got 4. For a solo monster to work as I expected, it will need to take about the same number of actions as all of the characters combined, but all of these actions need to be spaced out throughout the round. Unfortunately, I do not have a simple answer for this gripe.
All in all we were pleased and we all plan on investing the money and switching to the new system as soon as it comes out.
