Pathfinder doesn't really solve it, but it alleviates some of the symptoms. CoC is something entirely different, and I'll admit it's at least a fairly complete, contained setting.

As far as world-building goes, my only problem with D&D is that most D&D world have become the tripe stereotype, and are bogged down by the amount of lore that's effectively required. There's too many mainstays you can't abandon, so games that do interesting stuff often have to exclude dozen...

Taking Speed Boost negates the huge evasion boost of Fan Dance, and Speed Boost may or may not give you evasion bonuses even by itself, not too clear on that bit.

"Don't use speed boost with any form of Dancer"

You can totally hold small shields without using your hand. They just strap right onto your arm.

I don't think they really have a way to fix it. So, basically, "don't ever use Dancer's speed boost" and "Don't use N/D or D/N's speedboost"

On the topic of roleplaying systems, I've been dabbling around in Dungeon World of late. It's probably the loosest rule system I've seen in anything resembling D&D that doesn't automatically collapse when exposed to real people. On a related note, why do I keep seeing 2d6 systems around? Is it j...

Bind forges only apply to regular attacks. It does count if you attack multiple times, but not for chases.

CoC is still a d20 even isn't it?

The site formatting should really auto-wrap things.

Level cap goes up by 10 per dragon killed, same as in 3. Gain 1 + retirement level/10 skill points per retirement, not sure what the effect is on stats themselves though.

The biggest loss from 3 to 4 is probably not having the Princess or Yggdroid classes. And spears as a whole, I suppose.

Character roles are defined a bit better than in EOIII, actually. Also, there is a labyrinth, it's just split a bit more, with a much-improved version of the sea exploration thrown in between strata.

I'd say it's a massive improvement all around.

I haven't played enough WoD to evaluate it. It's d20 systems as a whole I dislike, though, after playing ~4 campaigns or so. Skills, the combat setup, to a lesser extent the entire magic system they have set up, and the size of the average character sheet. Those 4 are my major gripes.

By fighting the monsters you encounter during exploration and on the way to the boss. Also, by doing quests.