4E - Samey Battles from Dwarves to Dragons

Last week I mentioned that I was considering quitting 4E. I started soft with my gripes about skill challenges (and received some excellent advice in the process—watch for the précis on that soon, or visit those comments to benefit from the wisdom of others right now).

Today I’m writing about something much more serious and, I believe much less treatable (but I could be wrong).

4E Battles are Grindy and Boring

Whether your PCs are 1st level or 15th, I’ve found that combat generally rolls out the same way, and this becomes boring. I believe there are several reasons for the universal feel of 4E combat.

1. The Powers System and Blanket Balance

While most classes have a different role, the powers generally function in much the same way and have similar effects (damage, plus a secondary effect for encounter and dailies). You’re most effective when using your powers (not bad in itself, of course), but there’s little reason to explore interesting tactics or additional combat manoeuvres. Less variety means more boring battles.

2. The Marking Mechanic

As a DM you can count on one or more of your critters being marked every round, which forces you to “decide” between simply attacking the marker, or acting normally and being dealt automatic damage or provoking OAs that may halt you in your clawed tracks while dealing damage anyway.

It's a frustrating form of aggro “management” that used to be accomplished through positioning, teamwork, and skills. Marking takes what few options a creature or PC has and further reduces them, making round after round play out exactly the same, which is compounded by points 3 and 4. Worse, there’s no defence against PC marking as the marks occur whether you’re hit or missed, so they are as effective against a dwarf as they are against a dragon at every level.

The marking mechanic (or more accurately, my dragon's unwillingness to risk losing his movement and taking extra damage on his turn, every turn) ruined that particular solo encounter, and homogenized many of the rest of them. I would prefer that marking wasn’t a part of the game.

Unfortunately, I believe that its lack would break the defender role and have further consequences to the system as written, so there's no easy solution that I can see.

If this is 4E, that dragon is screwed...

3. Bloated Hit Points

Creatures have lots of hit points, which take time to work through. Limited options and samey powers can make the trip from full to bloodied to death a grind.

4. Monsters With No Bite

To balance out the mounds of HP that the DM commands, most monsters deal very little damage and cause few lasting effects (even grievous wounds from solo creatures are healed with minor actions and pockets filled with healing surges). This keeps the combat manageable for the PCs, but helps drag out the battle in both directions.

5. A System Fearful of Hurting its Players (in some situations)

This one’s a bit hazy, so I’ll use a recent example to illustrate. My gargoyle manoeuvred around the ranger and attempted to bull-rush him into a river of lava.

As I recall it took five rolls to carry this out (two from the gargoyle, two from the ranger as he attempted his OA and a power that may have saved him, and one from an allied PC well across the room trying to teleport his companion out of harm’s way). Any one of those rolls could have ended the whole event, and I wouldn’t have complained if any of them had.

However, none of them did, but the result-by-the-rules simply forced the ranger to fall prone in his square—what would have been the result of my gargoyle’s flyby attack anyway! In this instance I placed my gargoyle at greater risk by not using a flyby attack, traded in my normal damage to deal none, and I had to roll twice as much to do it! Hardly streamlined; certainly unsatisfying.

On later reflection, even the players thought it was a poor moment for the system, maybe preferring that their ally plunge into the hazard (which really only would have damaged him a round before he climbed out) rather than feel that 4E is toothless in any respect.

As a side note, our goal was simply to experience 4E at multiple levels, so we decided to avoid any house ruling during the session. This particular example is, therefore, an easy future fix with a houserule or two, but I believe there's a trend.

My Opinion for Now

Battles in 4E are fine, and can certainly entertain, but they don’t seem to offer the tactical player or DM much depth outside of using your powers when the opportunities present. Combat seems limited. In some cases at least, 4E discourages actual tactical play in favour of "tactical" positioning as a part of powers and often only hinted at in flavour text.

I’m eager to hear about your experiences, similar or otherwise, and whether you’ve had any of the same concerns in your game.

Thanks for reading.