What do you dislike about Dungeons & Dragons 4th ed?

The Mad Professor pretty much nailed all the major changes.

However, let me say a few things I like about it. For one, it's easier to pick up at the beginning. Your character has basically only a handful of things to do in the early stages, and that's it.

Yes, for us experienced players, this perhaps represents a regression in abilities we are used to. However, for new people, it is far less daunting. The game is trying to draw in NEW players, and NEW blood. A younger crowd who learned PC games, before table top games & board games. How else would you approach these kids with shorter atetntion spans? With 3 large books of rules with wrods they may not be familair with? Or a simple pamphlet style of quick-start rules, borrowing generic terminology they are already familar with?

Could we perhaps calls WotC, Wizard$ of the Coa$t? Probably. But a company not in business to make money, is not in business for long.

The 2nd thing I like about it, is the focus on the character themselves, and not the goodies you can collect and carry. In older versions, frequently I had characters carrying tons of magical gear. The plethora of choices sometimes pearlyzing players decisions. Now, you can use 1 item a day, or more as you reach certain points. I like the shift from "What do I have that can get the job done?" to "What can I do to get the job done?"

Lastly, I like the balancing of the characters. I loved playing wizards at high levels in the older versions. They were vastly overpowered compared to say melee character, like fighters, or rangers. In 3.5 this got a little better, with prestige classes, and abilies that got better for each class. Pure spellcasters still had a bit of an edge, but less so.

Now in 4e, each class seems to be at a closer balance. A 10th level fighter, and 10th level wizard are a lot closer in overall skill and power, than from before. The division of power source, and roles, has been around since the AD&D, but it was just never spoken of, in these terms before. Defender, Controller, Striker, Leader. You can't tell me that back in the old PHB, you could not see these roles easily for each class.

Let me sum up with one last thing:

I've been playing D&D for almost 30 years. I learned the Red Box first, then moved onto AD&D, then 2nd edition, 3.0, 3.5, and finally 4e.

I have nearly all my original items (except for the red box stuff) for each version.

This past summer, I started teaching D&D to my son, who is 10. The same age as I when I began to learn D&D.

I'm teaching him 4e.

The Wizards of the Coast sold out their loyal fan base of geeks, trying to get some of that World of Warcraft Money.

The problem here is every class is exactly the same; you have so many things you can do all the time, some you can do once per encounter, and some once per day; also utility functions. Wizards call them spells, Fighters call them manuevers, but its the same thing. I have even seen cards with the things on them, and the players, "Tap" them, like Magic the Gathering. *Sigh*.

You can't play without a map; you have to use markers to show positions; no role play and "air maps" with hand motions. It just won't work so you are chained to a table and a map.

It just has lost some of the colour and texture; its all number crunching now.

It has a kind of MMORPG-like feel to it that some find offputting. Many also are upset at having to buy whole new sets of books (plus the aggressive rate of release of new splatbooks.)

Almost the whole game's changed to some degree, but the major ones:

revamping of all the existing core classes and addition of many new ones

grouping of classes into one of 4 major roles (leader, striker, defender, controller)

changing how attacks work (Fort, Reflex and Will are now active defenses instead of saving throw types and all attacks now require to-hit rolls targeting one of the 4 defenses) Saving throws are now mainly a 50/50 chance but are only to halt ongoing damage or some condition (dazed, slowed, blinded, etc.)

all PCs have at least a limited form of self-healing called a second wind; all leaders have additional methods of healing others (some better than others.) some non-leader classes have a few powers available here and there which also can provide some form of healing. most types of healing use what is called a healing surge - each PC has a limited number available each day. Once exhausted, they can no longer benefit from any healing that requires them until they take an extended rest (which makes them all available again.)

every class has 3 types of powers: at-will (available anytime without limit - no more wizzies hauling out crossbows because they're out of spells!), encounter (available once per encounter and recovered after a short rest) and daily (once per day, recovered after an extended rest)

uses the 'action point' system first introduced in 3.5 Ebberon

many magic items also have encounter or daily powers associated with them. most magic weapons and implements (equiv of a focus in 3.5) also do additional damage in the case of a crit. crits no longer require confirm rolls, but crits usually only occur on a 20 (assuming the resulting to-hit total actually hits the defense...if not, it's only a normal hit)

change as to how multi-classing works (now-feat-based to gain some aspects of another class instead of actually taking levels in it)

all attacks, defenses, initiative and skills now linearly level-dependent

levels divided into 3 tiers: heroic (1-10), paragon (11-20) and epic (21-30). Some feats and powers ramp up in effectiveness by level.

elimination of prestige classes - instead, you choose a paragon class (tied to base class or race) when you hit 11th level and epic class (more general) at 21st - these grant some additional powers and may modify your base classes' powers in some way