A Look At – 4th Edition D&D – Conclusion

It has been a year to the day since I posted my last “A Look At” for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Yikes. I’m thinking since the game has been out for a couple years already this topic is long in the tooth, and as such this will be my last article on the subject.

But it’s a big one – the addition of Powers to D&D.

A big thing 4E really looks at, after the disaster of 3rd, was game balance. Seriously, if you are defending Challenge Ratings as useful or balanced tools for encounter design OR you think allowing any race to be any mix of any set of classes allows for more story and less min-maxing, you and I have different fundamental understandings of the universe as a whole. But how do you balance what characters the players can build, especially if you want a lot of options in character design? (I’m not going anywhere near old school monster balancing – a concept that is as foreign to pre-4th Ed D&D as “continuity” is to Brian Michael Bendis and Joe Quesada.)

How did older editions try to balance classes and races?

Basic didn’t let you be a demi-human and have a class. You could be a Fighter, a Magic-User, a Thief, a Cleric, or you could be a Dwarf, an Elf or a Halfling – but all the classes listed first were always human. And classes required different amounts of experience points to level up. An Elf, for example, could use swords and cast spells plus had all the elf abilities like infravision and being immune to ghoul paralysis, so they needed 4000 XP for 2nd level but a Fighter needed only 2000. There were divisions on hit points, armor allowed, weapons allowed, spell-casting abilities – if you got more of one you got less of some of the rest. Oh, yeah, and whatever class or race you chose, that’s what you were until you made a new character.

1st Ed let different races be some different classes, but only humans could be all classes and only humans could reach max level (with a few exceptions, like Thief for everyone and Druid for Half-elves.) There were level limits on demi-humans, there were class limitations for demi-humans. Humans could dual-class but not multi-class, whereas demi-humans could do some multi-classing (but no dual-classing) yet multi-classing meant you made your elf a fighter/magic-user at the start and all xp you earned got divided between the two classes… so while another fighter in the party was 4th and another magic-user was 4th, your fighter/magic-user would be a 2nd level fighter/2nd level magic-user – oh, and he couldn’t cast spells in armor. A Fighter/Cleric still couldn’t use edged weapons (a clerical restriction) and a Fighter/Thief couldn’t do many Thief skills (and got penatlities on other thief skills) if in armor heavier than leather. And dual-class meant you gave up your old class for the new one (which you needed to have HIGH stats to get, usually 15 or higher in a prime ability, and remember this was a game where you rolled dice for your stats) until your new class level equalled your old class level, and even then you’d never advance again in your old class.

2nd Ed was more of the same. You still had different XP amounts for different classes, different races other than human were limited on what classes they could be, demi-humans had level limits… you just got tweaks here and there on all these accounts. You also saw the introduction of weapon proficiencies, a way to give Warrriors something that Mages, Rogues and Priests got on leveling up most levels – a choice of something to pick. It was also a way to give Warriors something Paladins and Rangers didn’t have – namely, the ability to further specialize weapon skills.

3rd Ed… 3rd Ed tossed all of these (convoluted, sure) attempts at balancing classes out the window. You had hard character levels – all characters at X amount of XP were level Y, regardless of class(es.) Any race could be any class with no level limits. Any race could multi-class between any number of other classes, effectively taking a new class each level if they wanted. And with the inclusion of Feats you suddenly could overcome the limitations of certain classes – take Feats in armor proficiency and any class can wear any armor, for example. And while on the subject of Feats Feats took away much of the leveling process of old D&D (where when you got the level X of Ranger, for example, you got Ranger ability Y) and instead let you choose Feats and you had to, therefore, decide between many menial and relatively weak options every other level (or however it broke down) but be careful to not choose too weak of options. You can applaud them offering many, many more options and choices in character design if you like, but the chaotic mess it unfolded… let’s not even talk about prestige classes. In a sense the game was simplified by having the same XP for every level regardless of class, but 3rd Ed didn’t introduce anything to balance the removal of that system which tried to keep more powerful classes on an equal footing with weaker classes.

Moreover than just power / effectiveness balance between classes, let’s look at fun in combat for the basic classes. Understand all the following ignores multi-classing for the time being.

If you played a fighter-type class (warrior or paladin or ranger) in any edition of D&D up to and including 3rd Edition, in combat you could swing a weapon, fire a ranged weapon, or use a magic item. You didn’t really have many options, and unless you and your DM were excellent at description in combat your main excitement was rolling a critical hit or having a high damage roll. Even your effectiveness as a meat shield, due to higher hit points and armor, is mitigated at higher levels of gameplay as every other class will outdo your AC with magic items and other abilties (hiding in shadows, magical spells of protection, etc.) leaving you feeling pretty useless.
If you played a rogue, you got your sneak attack damage and your lock picking / trap disarming and your ability to hide. Your ability to hit was pretty low, though, and picking locks or disarming traps are not things that help often in combat. You could pull off some amazing damage at times with the right set-up, but overall this was more of an aesthetic choice.

Now look at spell casters. You get awesome abilities that can do almost anything. Whether mage or priest, you could protect yourself and allies, you could damage enemies, you can summon light and creatures to fight for you… outside of being monster-fodder at lower levels, this is where character building and combat gets fun due to options and very different things you can do. Well, fun until your run out of spells. Or you have the wrong spells memorized for the obstacles you encounter. And the hours you have to spend memorizing spells / praying to your gods get more onerous the higher level you are. So while level one you get your measly one spell or so and then have to hide until it’s time to set up camp, you will soon be having the more colorful and interesting time in combat.

Now to be fair, you’ve always been able to grapple. But each edition made those rules more complicated until the 3rd Edition gave us the most ridiculous grappling rules I’ve personally ever read in an RPG. 3rd Ed also gave you the ability to charge, bull rush, and do things like disarm or sunder. So it was a bit more to it for fighters than just “I swing my weapon / I fire my bow.” But still, comparing that to what a druid could do… it’s clear why fighters were often so unpopular.

This all changes with 4th Ed. We get, yet again, what I’m calling the difference between “fun” and “boredum.” (yes, I know it’s spelled boredom – the “dum” is as dumb, in “why add elements to a GAME that are not fun – that’s DUMB.”) If a game wants there to be options for different kinds of character, and the game is built around combat encounters, then all options should be (relatively) equally fun in combat. Meaning one option shouldn’t give you many different kinds of things you can do and another let’s you basically do one thing over and over again.

Welcome Powers!

Powers, in 4th Ed, are the special actions that characters can take during combat. Spells are Powers, as are unique attacks with a fighter’s weapon or a ranger’s bow. All classes have powers, and (speaking generally) all classes get the same number of powers at equal levels.

See now, that letting each class need the same amount of XP to reach new levels is nowhere near as unbalancing when classes have the same abilities gained each level!

Powers come in four flavors – At-Will, Encounter, Daily and Utility. The first three are combat encounter oriented, while Utility can be either combat or (more often) non-combat in usage. Each class (with a few exceptions) gets, at 1st level, 2 At-Will, 1 Encounter and 1 Daily. You pick up your first Utility Power at 2nd level.

At-Will Powers are your bread and butter attacks. Wizards can have Magic Missile, Fighters can have Cleave, Clerics can have Lance of Faith… these are attacks that the character can use as often as they like (usually once per round, but this depends on the Power’s description (though most attack Powers are Standard Actions.)) So, yes, that means your Wizard can fire off a Magic Missile every turn! No more feeling useless at low levels after firing off your one Magic Missile. Fighters, on the other hand, have cool things they can do instead of “I swing my sword” they can pick attacks that have a better chance to hit but do less damage, or hit one enemy and deal some damage to an adjacent enemy, or an attack that does damage even on a miss! And since you can (in general) pick 2 out of a list of many, you get to give your character a certain feel even with his most basic of actions – a Wizard need not choose Magic Missile, and may opt instead for Cloud of Daggers or Ray of Frost instead.

Encounter Powers are powers you can pull off once per Encounter (hence the appropos name) and are usually either more powerful than At-Will’s or have special effects greater than those that At-Will powers provide. You get only one of these at 1st level, so what you choose really helps define your character. For story flavor, think of these as draining abilities that you character can only pull off once in awhile, a flourish or extra expenditure of energy in combat. Mechanically and strategically these add much to combat from previous Editions, especially for those classes that aren’t spell casters.

Daily Powers are the big guns, the exhausting actions, the abilities that you can only use once per day without rest. A Cleric can pull off Lances of Faith until the cows come home, but he can only do one Beacon of Hope until he gets a nap. The level of planning that goes into deciding when to use your Daily adds strategy and fun to combat – do you do it now, even though it’s the first fight of day, because the party is doing poorly. Should you try and save it for a tougher fight later? These Powers have much larger damage dealing capabilities, inflict greater penalities on your enemies, or aid your allies in a big way during the rest of the encounter – and, on top of all that, most of them either are not used up on a miss or still have some effect even if you miss. After all, how much fun is it to use your special one-a-day power only to see if completely fizzle? 4th Ed is all about bringing the fun!

Utility Powers, in many ways, replace the old spells that Wizards and Clerics had some difficulty in picking up. Sure, Shield or Feather Fall can be useful, but before if you chose them then you skipped out on Web or Chromatic Orb or some other attack spell and weakened your usefulness in a fight. Utility Powers can, themselves, be At-Will, Encounter or Daily in their frequency of how often you can use them, but they are almost universally not attacks. Utility Powers, along with Rituals, are a great way to allow Wizards and Clerics to still be able to do those cool story things like creating Magic Mouths, repairing broken items with Mend, Purifying Water, etc., without using up “memorization slots” (old system) or Attack Powers (new system.) And Utility Powers are also for those who aren’t spell casters as well – Fighters can give themselves temp hit points, Rogues can pull off Acrobatic stunts, Clerics can do extra healing, and so on.

In conclusion, I think that 4th Edition really solves many balance issues that the previous edition had – much of this is done by making most classes follow a similar template (the Powers system.) The Powers system also makes all classes have fun options to choose from both in character creation / leveling up as well as in combat. With the break-down of attacks into At-Will, Encounter and Daily the Powers system allows parties to explore longer (they will always have At-Wills) while also showing how the longer they fight the more exhausted their resources (stamina, spell power, etc.) become and resting is still necessary. Powers make the game more enjoyable, adding to the “fun” and taking away the “boredum.”

And thus ends my A Look At 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I hope it proved useful to you, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!