1-The elimination of the Alignment system.

Although some would see this a straight-jacket, I disagree. It was a crucial element to roleplaying. From nine, we have five, leaving mesh and overlay, which confuses and irks many, including those in my gaming group.

2-”Powers” and the elimination of Vancian Magic.

The implementation of powers in 4th edition is foolish and contrived. It marginalizes the distinct features of classes, and renders them all the same; just swap fighter with wizard, and your damage output will be the same! Spellcasters are now delegated to “DPS” machines, having to resort to rituals that an equivalent level 3.x spell caster could blow out of the water.

3-The elimination of traditional cosmologies, and gods.

Where is Limbo? Where is my Clock Work Nirvana? Gehnna? Hades? Nowhere to be found. 30+ years of development, eschewed in favor of a puerile system that makes the Planes less wondrous, and more “Cookie Cutter”.

Where is Heironeous? Where is Nerull? Obad-Hai? Hell, what about Garl Glittergold? Looks likes the Halflings don’t get a racial deity…..

Eliminating so many of the “Traditional gods” Seems pointless and unneeded.

3- The reintroduction of former Dungeons and Dragons Modules.

I ran a traditional Tomb of Horrors, using Mr.Gygax’s no saving throw rules for Acererak, and my party had a blast(Gold more then compensated), but with 4th edition turning it’s back on “Save or Die”, traditional adventures(and enemies for that matter), become boring and unengaging. I mean really, I want my Acererak to rip your soul out, and make my pcs watch their souls burn in his teeth. I want my Great Green Devil to be a ruthless black hole. These reintroductions marginalize the original visions of this games creator.

The author of this article presents several other valid reasons, which only strengthen my resolve.

Congratulations, Wizards. Your plan of buying out TSR, and destroying the game so people can buy your shitty card games is going swimmingly.

Looking to the area of 2e AD&D, specifically the Player’s Option era at the end, we see a balance between the outrageous explosion of options from 3e & 3.5e and the severe reduction of them in 4e. In fact, the more I look back, 2e AD&D had a decent set of checks and balances for players. You could modify your attributes/race/class/equipment and take a kit for a very unique character, or play it straight and still be entirely viable in battle. Iconic bands like the heroes of the original Dragonlance books, the Icewind Dale series or the Avatar trilogy aren’t possible in the 4e game mechanics (their class combos, skills, items and parties don’t “work”).

WOTC made no bones about the fact that many of the changes and ideas that went into 4e were based in the MMORPG phenomena, and were done to attract online gamers and those familiar with online games. It worked. With 4e they offered the familiar Talent Tree, a rigid system with several outcomes, supported by a series of calculations that masquerade as real choices. Followed up by reducing the number of and types of weapons, armour, and mundane items available and assigning (in some cases very arbitrarily) levels to every magic item then carefully ensuring their powers became 1/encounter or 1/day effects, mimicking the “cool down” of online items and powers.

The result is that players familiar only in passing with MMORPG’s (i.e.: me) find the system frustratingly limited in scope and depth, with personal creativity stifled by a system of game mechanics designed to focus players onto one of a handful of goals. Feelings of reward are shifted from the achievement of seeing your personal creation succeed, and in doing so, enables the group to succeed to a different reward. The new reward is building the ideal build for your role, and then succeeding a party of like built characters. In both instances, the goal is group success, but one does it with whatever is at hand without punishing the players while the other was engineered to be difficult if you’re not cooperating with the systems built in preferences to a standardized party.

And people complain about using minis while playing the game, when it’s basically going back to core.

It’s too WoW-like? In what regard? People keep saying this, but they never explain WHY. Because you have At-Wills, Encounter and Daily powers? Protip: you had those in previous editions, just less streamlined and worse.

Combat-oriented? Protip: D&D has ALWAYS been about giving you rules for combat while you were given liberty OUTSIDE of combat. Why do you think old editions lacked skills the way most people knew then? You didn’t need them. You didn’t need a Perform(Lute) when your character has been playing the lute all his life. The game is as combat or skill oriented as YOU or the DM want it to be. I’ve been playing in relatively RP-heavy campaigns based on 4th edition, and they’re as great as any RP I would’ve done in 3.x.

Less to work with regarding character customization? First, they removed negative scores from ALL races, so now a Half-Orc wizard is very viable and won’t just hurt you badly. Second, you gain Feats every TWO levels, which allow you to customize your character more efficiently and quicker. Third, no more PrCs. They were clunky, hard to work it, and had TOO many prerequisites to take a level in them, which meant that you were SHOEHORNED into taking ranks in skills you will most likely NOT use to take a measly level in that PrC. Now, you have Paragon Paths. And you can still Multiclass, so you can play that one Fighter/Wizard you so much love, but now it’s less of a hassle.

I’m glad they removed metamagic from combat and kept it where it should be: OUTSIDE of combat. Fly and Invisibility are great spells, but when your mage is Corellon knows how many feet in the air, while invisible, fumbling through his spellbook to cast a save-or-die spell to obliterate half of the enemy forces, you know something is not right here.

I’m glad the kinda removed the Vancian system. It’s too shitty in lower levels and makes playing lower levels a hassle. Oh, the party Wizard ran out of Magic Missile and Color Spray, what will he do? Run away, that’s what. In 4th edition, your character will NEVER be useless in that way.

Can’t roleplay? WHat are skills, Rituals, martial arts and Martial Practices for then? And god forbid, ACTUAL player interaction?

Most people complaining about 4th edition are just…nostalgic, or they just don’t want to spend money on new books. We’re OK with that, but don’t whine about a great system without trying it.