I think maybe a revamping of the old system might be applicable – having a separate set of XP for each class. If the thief gets to 4th level and decides to start spellcasting, a new set of data would be generated.

Anything that would apply to both classes (HP or saving throws for instance) would result in using the better of the two classes. For instance, the thief/wizard shouldn’t have to make a lesser reflex check (due to level bonus differences) because he was doing something wizard-based at the time. Any skill bonuses due to class would be the better of the two. Any actions that could be done as either class that would result in XP gain, (basic weapon attacks, for example), would cause the XP to be split between classes.

Anything that doesn’t overlap classes would be added to the character at that class’ level. XP accrued from an action that could be only done by a single class (picking locks, casting spells, class-specific skills) would go to the total for that class.

Yes, it’s more work, but the work would mostly be done by the player, and they’re asking for it by wanting to multiclass, anyway. This is just a rough idea, so any input would be awesome.

One Addition: Add character level to all damage rolls. My friend ran an epic-level delve that we wrote up and it was downright tedious because the monster (a Tarrasque attacking a city Godzilla-style) had so many hit points. He ended up shaving lots of them off so the delve actually ended in a timely manner.

One Deletion: The necessity of using a battle map. I’m still working on house rules to do this, since its written into the system, but I just want the option of having some kind of fight that doesn’t require counting out squares for every action – say, for example, PCs fighting a Tarrasque as it lays down a swath of destruction in a city, toppling buildings onto them and eating bystanders. I don’t want to have to take four hours and have a 20 foot square battle mat to draw it out ahead of time…

And I haven’t seen a video or audio of a Skill Challenge, but there are a couple of examples here:
http://www.youmeetinatavern.com/index.php?topic=1640.msg19167#msg19167

The other was to reduce HP as well, but if you allow the power to be accessible until used, this might be less necessary. I’m not sure though. The excess HP seems to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to me. Almost feels like a throwback to “bruising your opponent to death” and I only see it getting worse as you go up in levels.

We didn’t do any skill challenges at all. Like some other posters said, it just never came up.

So far I haven’t really had to houserule anything. The only thing I can see possibly being warranted is orb of control abuse- given the right items and stats, you can inflict a -10 penalty to someone’s saving throw. If that’s not wicked broken, I’m not sure what is.

I like the encounter power idea, but how does it work for higher level encounter powers. Say a second level power at 4th level. you can use it twice?

The healing surge thing is cool, but it is hard to mitigate, the DM suddenly gets to tell you if you can or can not do what you want with a healing surge.

*** So I suggest eliminating and combining. How about you can choose to spend a healing surge to re-activate an encounter power.

*** Also I think every encounter you should get an action point, the way the rules are is that every other or every third encounter is a mile stone, and you get an action point back, so its like you get 1 AP every other battle. Why??? Just call the AP an encounter power and then you can blow a healing surge to restore your AP as well.

*** So now you could spend two healing surges to get a second “second wind.”

What do you think?

And I know you guys are going to hate me for this, but I love skill challenges. I have to adjust the DC’s a bit, but I love skill challenges. They provide a real, concrete, balanced XP reward for roleplaying. I think that’s a bonus to the game. It’s not even close to perfect, but it makes points in Insight and Diplomacy worth it. My other favorite part is the Treasure Parcels. I’ve always given my players rewards that they actually want, but this system keeps it balanced and makes it really easy to keep them on track. Screw “double treasure”. I don’t miss 3.5 treasure at all.

So, here’s my changes:

Add: Double Minions. I LOVE the minions system (I actually had similar house rule in 3.5 after reading 7th Sea). But it seems like 4 minions are not worth the XP of a full monster. So I put 6-8 minions in for the rewards. Works great, and the PC’s get to kill lots of stuff.

Change: Skills used in Combat. We noticed that the one guy trained in Thievery and the one guy trained in Arcana were spending most of their combat time making skill rolls as a standard action instead of enjoying the game. So, we made these skills in combat (to disable traps, for example) move actions. Now, they can either spend their whole round trying to disable the trap, or they can disable and still use a cool power. Maked the game much more fun.

Delete: Points of Light. I don’t know about everyone else, but a world full of darkness where every village keeps to itself sucks the fun out of roleplaying. My personal setting puts 4e into a late medieval period, almost ready for the renaissance. Much more trade, lots of cool local color, and the PC’s have the chance of meeting someone from another town they know. If it was points of light, every merchant gets eaten by roving packs of drakes and ogres. Way less fun.

Anyway, those are my changes.

However, with that said, I find it just AS easy to bring in other monsters of lower level, use their powers, track everything like normal monsters, and balance it out with the XP buy system. A group of 1st level kobolds can still do plenty of damage to a higher level 5th-7th level party.

Side note: I did see someone build a Improved Minion template that basically plays just like a normal minion, just that you have to hit them twice to knock them down. I think they did a Master Minion two that made it 3 times. Not sure if that really solves alot, but an interesting point of expansion.

I agree with you, Skill Challenges can be removed without much trouble. Do it Grognardia style, and that could be really fun.

The games is a miniature tactical battle game, and feats spent on skills to improve skills challenges mucks with the balance when the miniatures come out. 4e is just a great little tactical, mini-combat game, but weak at everything else.

And the Skill Challenges are okay; instead of killing them off entirely, I’d just ignore them in almost all cases. I could definitely see the party getting stumped by some challenge (social, skill, puzzle, etc) and allowing them to do a Skill Challenge to get past it.

Addition: Add a Belief and Goal for each character, significant steps towards which (or acting on, in terms of the Belief) give spend-on-any-check action points which aren’t lost after an extended rest. Or maybe I’d go with adding +1 attack bonus every level, +1 damage bonus every other level (a la Star Wars Saga).

Change: Skills. Break those damn things out a bit. I have a love-hate relationship with skills. I think there ought to be more, including craft, perform, etc. Also, alter how they advance as I find it way too static and… well… sucky.

Deletion: Not really sure about this one. Maybe toss out Dragonborn as I find they kinda clash with the other races. I might actually do away with experience completely and use a progress-as-appropriate model, or at least eliminate the current combat-only focus.