Okay, I've held off judgments until I actually had the books in my hands to read. I haven't gone over them with a fine-tooth comb yet or played, but here are my judgments:
Ability Scores
Pro: Standard Array/Point Buy is finally standard! (Though the standard array doesn't make much sense given the +1 to two scores you get every four levels; PCs will still go eight levels before their best modifiers actually change.)
Con: Modifiers still only change at every even score. I was hoping this would be one of the sacred cows to be slaughtered, but I guess 'change happens slowly', as the adage goes.
Alignment
Meh: Five alignments is an improvement on nine, but I personally think three is enough. No biggie because...
Con: Alignment is completely superfluous! As far as I can see, not a single mechanic interacts directly with alignment, so why was page space even wasted on it? Certain classes deal 'radiant' or 'necrotic' damage, but these damage types are completely unmodified by alignment. Lame. The tangibility of Good and Evil has always been one of my biggest attractions to the fantasy genre, and making them not matter is just lame. I repeat, LAME. One of my first homebrew projects will be the creation of powers/feats that interact directly with alignment.
Races
Con: I don't have a problem with net racial bonuses, but I don't like the idea that a human can have just as much raw Str/Dex/whatever than a dragonborn/dwarf/whatever. I always imagined that humans are defined just as much by their comparative weakness to other races than by their versatility.
Pro: No more half-dorks! I would have been just as happy with the inclusion of both full- and half-blooded varieties as PC races, but it's the same difference as far as I'm concerned.
Con: Tieflings, but no aasimar? BAM! There's homebrew project #2.
Classes
Pro: Huzzah for fixed hit points! No more randomized vaguely defined mechanics excused with "realism."
Pro: I love tiers! Finally, we have clear guidelines for the general areas of play and mechanics to go with them.
Con: The game is designed to end at 30th level. Yeah I know most of you don't care but for those of us who like uncapped levels, this is a serious design flaw that has been repeated through every edition of D&D. And now, AGAIN.
Pro: Everything is AWESOMELY SIMPLE! I'm a huge fan of simplicity, and 4e delivers. Creating a character is pretty much the same quick and easy exercise no matter what class you are, which is especially great for new players. My only problem with all this simplicity is...
Con: Encounter and Daily powers may or may not create balanced classes, but they don't make much sense in-game. If my fighter can "spin beneath his enemy's guard" in order to knock him prone once in a fight (Spinning Sweep), why can't he do it twice? I can come up with all kinds of in-game, and ultimately repetitive excuses as to why he can't, but in the end it just rattles my suspension of disbelief. 3e had a few of these weird limitations too (stunning fist), and I think it's a shame that 4e had to multiply them rather than eliminate them.
Con: Dual wielding is still limited to an entirely too-narrow range of classes. Homebrew project #3: dual wielding class features and powers for other classes!
Skills
Pro: Awesomely consolidated and simple!
Con: Class skills still exist. *sigh* First house rule of 4e: no class skills!
Equipment
Pro: No more medium armor!
Pro: Item levels are so much more useful than that vague "minor, medium, major" BS.
Con: Stat boosters are gone, but 4e still has bread-and-butter attack/damage/AC/save boosters. Designers, if you promise to reduce item dependancy, don't half-@ss it!
Combat
Pro: Characters finally get better at avoiding damage BASED ON THEIR LEVEL rather than almost solely on items! Huzzah for 1/2 level bonus to AC!
Con: With their large number of healing surges and action points, PCs are blatantly and inherently better than everyone and everything else. It works great in over-the-top types of games, but if I want to play another style like accidental hero, it just doesn't fit. If I want to play an over-the-top style game, I'd rather play Exalted because it does that style better than 4e.
Pro: "1/2 level + ability mod + misc. mod" for everything! No more byzantine turn undead mechanics held over from previous editions!
Not Pro or Con: 4e's diagonal movement does strain my suspension of disbelief, but on the other hand I always did find it annoying to count every other diagonal as 2 spaces in 3e. I've never bought a battle grid before so I've decided to treat myself to a hex grid, as it offers the best of both worlds!
It seems I have a few more Cons than Pros, but that's only because they're more fun to complain about. Despite my harsh words for certain design decisions, I can't wait to play 4e with my newly formed group. I am keeping all my 3e books and mags though, because I'm sure I'll play 3e again once or twice and because fluff never goes bad!
TS
I think one of the Paladin Paragon Paths gets a power or two that is a little more effective when used against Evil opponents, but that's the only one I've seen so far.
As for the items, I believe there is a list somewhere that calls out what plus weapon/armor/neck-slot a character is assumed to have. Several devs have said you could just give a character those bonuses for free and cut out the items altogether.
Thanks for the review though! Pretty good summation of several things!
With at least six more power sources with attendant powers coming, and a divine source book on the way, it may be a bit premature to say that alignment has no in-game effects...
With at least six more power sources with attendant powers coming, and a divine source book on the way, it may be a bit premature to say that alignment has no in-game effects...
I'll grant you Divine power sources seem the most likely to have anything to do with alignment. The God's alignments kinda affect the alignment allowed of their followers, but since most are Unaligned, they just don't care about stuff like that.
Yeah... I'm pretty sure the only thing I've heard that has any effect on alignment is one or two paladin powers. To me, this is an incredibly good thing. I really don't think alignment should have any mechanical weight. I'm simplifying alignment in my games to Good, Evil, and Unaligned. I was tempted to throw away alignment all-together, but that might be pushing it too far.
[Added] Classes Pro: No more alignment restrictions to force PCs into arbitrary traditional archetypes!
As for the items, I believe there is a list somewhere that calls out what plus weapon/armor/neck-slot a character is assumed to have. Several devs have said you could just give a character those bonuses for free and cut out the items altogether.
Which is exactly what I'm going to do ;)
I found that one paragon paladin power that grants additional benefits if you kill a CE/E foe with it, but as an amateur game designer I'm not waiting for 20th level or some future splatbook to make alignment matter.
TS
Well it's glad to see some people be so enthused about playing 4e despite the differences. I know too many people who just look through the books and assume the game sucks without seeing the rules in play. Just remember: play for fun!