Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition: Thoughts

It's been now over a year since our gaming group started the ongoing D&D campaign. I think it's fair to finally place opinions on the current edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

So far, we've played through Keep on the Shadowfell and Thunderspire Labyrinth, and now we're in Pyramid of Shadows at level 8. Our party consists of a dragonborn fighter, a dwarf paladin, a human warlord, a human cleric, an eladrin wizard and an elf ranger (me). That makes two defenders, two leaders, one controller and one striker, and gives us plenty of healing and tanking, if maybe bit lacking on the damage department.

D&D 4th edition is quite different from the previous two editions I've played - luckily, only for the better. The rules have been simplified and gameplay has been improved. There is less to keep track of, and the new power system makes all classes much more interesting to play. The powers also add the feel of epic adventure even to low level gaming, and with the help of the new minion monster type - monsters that die to any one hit - there can be plenty of monsters in low level encounters without the players getting overwhelmed - at least if there's some AoE to throw around.

While the rules are great, I can't really say the same for the WotC's adventures, at least, not of these three. I personally have no idea why are we trapped in the pyramid. Well I know how we got there, but why were we there to get trapped anyway. I thought these adventures we s'posed to be linked. I don't see any connection to anything if we just try to get out for three levels worth of monster slaying. This feeling is not uncommon for me, though, so it could be just me.

However, I'm quite certain that it's not me why the encounters are taking so long to play currently. 2,5 hours for one encounter seems little bit too much. What happened to all those minions? They are nowhere to be seen now. Just ten 60+ hp mobs in every encounter. Takes a while to get rid off them all. And it gets quite tedious.

Also, where is all the loot? I feel rather poor for a level eight character with only +1 weapons and armor. In the 3rd edition, I would be wearing +2 stuff already. And I think we just looted our first gold pieces since entering the pyramid - and we've been in the pyramid quite a while already. If this stays the same in all the adventures, I doubt we will see many boots of teleportation (3 million gp) if none at all if/when we reach level 30.