The problem almost certainly comes down to how my feeling of being awesome had been completely stripped of me shortly beforehand. I wasn't seeing heroes doing battle, I was seeing bare game mechanics mocking me. If I am in a better mood, all is well. I think the game, and module designers, just need to be careful about how it presents obstacles to the adventurers.
As for the problems only occurring in combat, I quite agree. Unfortunately, many of the modules so far printed treat 4e as presented in the PHB, an excuse to jump from one encounter to another without any of the 'boring' bits in-between. If we want to elaborate on the role-playing, or try to overcome encounters in unanticipated ways, it relies on the GM doing a lot more work, and I don't think our group is ideally suited to creating full adventures or campaigns all the time. Relying on printed modules used to offer a choice, now we are finding it is 90% combat, if only because the system and module simply don't offer alternatives.
The group and I have had plenty of fun with 4e, and will continue to play and enjoy it, but we are looking at trying more alternative systems now than ever before.
]]>But that really only comes into play for combat.
Yes, some of the abilities and counters seem a little ridiculous or unreal, but most of the actions being performed are unreal already. 4e definitely has more 'success on miss' type abilities though and little other modifiers. Maybe your DM felt bad for you burning the encounter power and let the trip happen easier than it should have? (I'm not familiar with the druid class - assuming that is what you're playing)
Another way to look at it is maybe you grabbed several spider legs in your mouth and tored them off the bug causing it to stumble and fall.
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