Oh my word.

My blog, I have ignored you for far too long. A mistake I do not intend to remake.

Today was the longest time that I've actually played 4th ed yet. It's a sad truth - I love the game so very much, but I don't often get a chance to PLAY the game. I want to play it all the time, so much that I don't think I really want to go back to any other game. Well, perhaps that's an overstatement, but the game's just so fresh and shiny and new that I don't want to play anything else. And it seemed as if all my players - despite having a few minor rules issues due mainly to lack of knowledge - had fun, too. Even if it was just a quick one-off game that I pulled out of my pants at the last moment.

I like making the characters, it's fun to take these pieces that WotC provides and fit them together carefully into a cohesive whole, like trying to put together a 3d puzzle without the box or directions. Making encounters is not only rediculously easy, but fun and almost stress relieving. The only complaint I have has nothing to do with the system and everything to do with myself and the group: I had trouble incouraging movement, mainly because I insisted, even after forcing myself to use larger spaces in my encounters, on jamming as much into one room as possible, just like you practically had to do with 3rd ed just to get everything to work. No, there's no reason! Give the characters reasons to run around. Heck, let your goblins have 4 squares in which to move so they can get their +1d6 damage with those javalins. Just do it, man! And..
Goblin warrior my butt! 'Warriors' stand in the front line, like Xena! Those aren't warriors, they're skirmishers, more adept in running away and throwing things than anything.

On a kinda seperate note, I'm so totally looking forward to the PHB2. One thing that I've loved thus far about 4th ed is that it's taken almost every character concept that I've had or seen in my games and made it not only playable but fun in combat and out. the PHB2 just expands on that and adds more core classes to fill out the other characters that I never got the chance to see to fruition, and still feel bad about.
Algor, son of Balgor, a human shaman. A primal leader, fitting completely, even with the option (according to popular blogs) to choose a stalker spirit in the shape of a wild cat; Kira, resurrected once more.
Not only would Melira have more useful abilities as a bard, but I highly doubt that I'd have to change the entire way that the class works just to get her magic to the point at which I thought she'd be useful. Totally a cunning bard.
Elrohir worked relatively well as a sorcerer and then a warlock, but he sounds like he'd be even better as a sorcerer in 4th ed, with the dragon path - exactly what he went down in the first place, what with Dragon Disciple and all - and a focus on ice powers, which I can't prove but would be willing to bet that you could pull off.
Lilly can already be done, and well at that: a trickster rogue, artful dodger, with emphasis on movement based powers and the whip weapon feats to go along with them.
Swordmage is such a better class for what Kass could do than Duskblade was. At least, it's far more useful and much less limited than Duskblade was, though Duskblade does have one thing that I would miss that Swordmage does not: the ability to cast spells through the sword, not just use your sword to cast magic. A subtle difference, but a big one for the character. Not a big deal, however, mainly just description.
I think I would have to, at this point, make Joseph an artificer. It would better fit what he used to do - rogue and wizard? Sounds like an artificer mix to me - and the powers that he used to use- almost all buff or debuff, only once did he use an offensive spell that I remember - fit better into what the artificer could do.

The only character of the old game that I'm unsure of what class and how to make it is Joseph, just because he was such an intentionally noncombat wizard. 4th ed doesn't suit itself well to that, with nearly every power of every character - at least, every power that isn't utility - dealing damage to someone. Mind you, not that I have a problem with that - I find I actually prefer it! - but it does make characters that are specifically non-damage-dealing difficult to play in this system.

I'm also looking forward to when they finally release psionic as a power source. After just hearing about what they do with primal and everything in the PHB2, I can hardly wait to see what they do with psionic. It's also nice to see some more controllers coming up, finally. Just the wizard makes a pattern hard to recognize.