Author: Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook and Skkp Williams
Category: game
Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Line: D&D
Cost: $20.00
Page count: 285
ISBN: 0-7869-1550-1
SKU: TSR11550
Capsule Review by Daniel Harms on 08/13/00. Genre tags: Fantasy

First, let me include some caveats here. This is NOT a playtest review. This is NOT a review by someone who's read the book cover to cover. Rather, it's some thoughts put down by someone who's doing what many people are doing: getting slowly into the system, rolling up a few characters, and puzzling out this new, weird thing called 3rd edition D&D. I started with 1st edition, so this comes out of long-term familiarity with the game.

So, with that out of the way...

Style:

I hate style ratings - I'm more interested in the meat rather than the look - but this is quite excellent. The cover is eye-catching and yet subdued. The art isn't the most awe-inspiring out there, but most of it - especially the sketch art - captures the proper mood. The text is easy to read (save on the pages that look like parchment at the beginning of each chapter), and I don't ask for much more out of a game.

(And for those interested in how females are depicted in the art, from whatever perspective, there's a good bit of cleavage and leg, but more flesh is covered here than in 1st or 2nd edition.)

Abilities and Modifiers:

Character creation in 3rd edition begins with the roll of 4D6. That's right - no more 3D6, or any other methods. You roll 4D6 six times, drop the lowest die, then arrange the scores any way you want. This was less shocking to me than it might be to others - that's the way the groups I game with have been doing it for years.

Perhaps in response to criticism that too much of one's competency was based on ability scores, the developers of 3rd edition make use of modifiers. For example, if my character's Strength is 18, then my modifier for that is +4, and that applies to my attack bonus, damage, and skills that are Strength-based. Using this system, having a high Strength doesn't necessarily mean you can beat out the village blacksmith at his own game - though it helps. Other skills may affect my missile combat, my saving throws, etc. And all of these modifiers are the same for each characteristic, meaning that only one chart is needed for all of them.

Here's the trouble with this. With all this emphasis on modifiers, and the fact that classes no longer have any ability requirements or prime requisites, the actual ability scores don't make a lot of difference after the first stage of character creation. You roll them up, use them to determine the modifiers - and that's it. All right, so they do determine a spellcaster's maximum spell level, and determine whether a character qualifies for a few feats. You can also raise them by one point for every four levels. But everything else is based on the modifiers, not on the scores themselves. I think they were maintained more for us old-timers rather than any effect they have on game play.

Races: If you've played D&D in the past, you can probably name the races in your sleep. Racial ability minimums have been eliminated, which makes sense - most of them were so low that just about any character would qualify anyway. All in all, the races are much more equal in strength - dwarves and elves have been scaled down somewhat, while the others have been beefed up to comparable levels. Gnomes of average intelligence may be able to cast minor spells, which will probably make them more appetizing (the only gnome I ever saw in a game was one I played out of sympathy). The only loser seems to be the half-orc, who gets +2 Strength, -2 Intelligence and Charisma, and a few token abilities. If exceptional strength was still used in the game, it might be fair - going from 17 to 19 Strength in 1st and 2nd edition made a huge difference - but it looks unnecessary here.

(A minor oddity: halflings no longer receive a penalty to climbing. They have a bonus. Don't ask me why.)

Classes: Most of the old standbys are here again: the fighter, paladin, ranger, wizard, specialist wizard, cleric, druid, thief (er, rogue), and bard. We have two classes returning from 1st edition: the barbarian, a wilderness warrior who derives strength from his anger, and the monk, a holy martial artist. The new kid on the block is the sorcerer, a magician who does not forget spells and can cast larger numbers of them (in exchange for a smaller spell selection).

The classes still use different hit dice, and many have restrictions on armor and weaponry (though the range of possibilities is wider for most classes). There are no race requirements for classes, and no required ability scores or prime requisites. (This isn't entirely true - spellcasting is still determined by ability, but you could play a wizard who couldn't cast spells, if you wanted.) Some of the individual abilities of each class have changed, yet the packages seem balanced. For example, thieves have lost their backstab ability, yet have gained a "flank attack" which will do less damage, on average, but is easier to carry out. On the whole, spellcasters are more powerful - wizards and sorcerers get bonus spells for their Intelligence (and have no maximum for spells learned), while priests can receive extra spells based on their deity's spheres.

Everything here looks nice, with no particular class having any great advantages over the others. The monk isn't the combat monster it was in 1st edition, but does have plenty of powers that should make it an attractive option. Aside from its d12 hit dice, the barbarian is nothing like the one from Unearthed Arcana, being less of a magic-hater and more of a berserker. The only real loser here, in my opinion, is the sorcerer. Sorcerers do seem balanced at low levels, but I discovered while rolling up a 20th level sorcerer that the limited spell selection makes them less versatile, almost crippling them. This isn't to say a high-level sorcerer isn't a force to be reckoned with, but I'd take a wizard of the same level any day.

One item that I missed on the descriptions was any sort of obligations that a character should fulfill. If you're a cleric, a monk, a paladin, or a ranger, you have no restrictions on what you can own, and you don't have to make any contributions to your order. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it does give a DM freedom to explore different options for their game's place and time. On the other, the lack of any reference to possible obligations might inspire charges of unfairness from players if they are imposed. It might have been better to say, "Your DM may place restrictions on your character based on their setting, and this is their right."

The "starting packages" at the end of each class description are a nice touch. Once you choose your abilities, race, and class, you can plug in a list of skills, feats, equipment, and spells. Given the greater range of options in the new edition, this should help get new players going, and prevent veterans from getting too bogged down in minutiae.

As for multi-classing: Yes, the rumors are true. After first level, any race or class can multiclass. (Paladins and monks can't advance in their original class afterward, however.) However, you're still using the same experience chart for your total number of levels. In previous editions, your single-classed fighter would be 4th level when a multi-classed fighter/wizard reached 3/3. In this edition, by the time the second character got to third level in both classes, the fighter will be at 6th level. And, depending on race and class, there are experience penalties for those who advance more quickly in one class than another. So multi-classing isn't as big of an advantage as it used to be.

Skills: These work largely like non-weapon proficencies in the first edition, with a few twists. First, as stated previously, your skill is not based off your ability score, but the modifier. Thus,your skills may start low, and you may not be much better than someone with a high modifier, but you'll receive a good number of points per level that should bring it up to proper levels within a short time. In addition, if you've got enough time, you can "take 10" (add an automatic 10 to your skill and dispense with rolling) or "take 20" (take 20 times as long and assume you rolled a "20"), which can make simple tasks much easier.

The second change is that rogue skills are on the normal list of skills. This means that, in response to the common criticisms, you can have a fighter who can move silently, or climb walls with a decent skill. Rogues will still be much better than other classes, and have more freedom in allocating points. There are only a few points where this breaks down. For example, why are rogues (and only rogues) allowed to Read Lips? And wouldn't it make more sense to open up Decipher Script to wizards and sorcerers, the most likely class to be spending time at the library? Yet these are only minor points. All in all, this is a much better skill system than the proficiencies were.

Feats: On first look, feats seem like a nice idea. You get one (or more, depending on race and class) special ability at first level, and another one at every third level thereafter. Most of these are combat-related - an additional hit, or a bonus to dodging, or even an increase to a spell's power or range. It sounds twinkish at first, but it provides a broader range, and can give a more interesting range of abilities than, say, weapon specialization. (As an aside, specialization requires a fighter to be 4th level and expend TWO Feat slots, one for Weapon Focus (+1 to hit) and another to Specialize, but their bonus slots should help out with this.)

However, there are two areas where I think the feat system breaks down: proficencies and crafting magical items.

In 3rd edition, you no longer are proficient in particular weapons. Instead, proficencies exist for broad classes of weapons - simple and martial, for example - as well as for armor - light, medium, and heavy - and shields. Don't fear - your class does get to use certain classes of weapons and armor as part of its description. However, getting to wear heavy armor, or using a shield, often costs as a feat. This isn't so bad for, say, magicians who don't usually run around with such things, but it does become a problem with "exotic" weapons, or other weapons outside of one's class specialty. Becoming proficient in even one of these (if your class doesn't allow it) costs a feat. If you want to become focused in it (gaining a +1 to hit, and a requirement for specialization), that's two slots - and these characters will be at a disadvantage to others. There's no real advantage I can see to most exotic weapons, meaning that characters who want to take them for character will be penalized. A slight off-set to this might be to allow fighters of a particular race or background to automatically be proficient in exotic weapons identified with that race or background (i.e., dwarf fighters are automatically proficient in the dwarven urgosh, an Oriental setting character being allowed to take weapons from that setting, etc.)

This is even more troubling when it comes to magicians. Let's take Brew Potion as an example - it can be learned at 3rd level, and can create a potion of any creature-targeting spell of 3rd level or less. So far, so good. But remember, doing that costs one of the magician's feats, which are hard to come by. And you need a separate feat if you want to create a scroll, or a rod, or a wand, or a staff (yes, Craft Rod, Craft Staff, and Craft Wand are three different feats), or rings, or magic weapons and armor, or a miscellaneous item. To be able to create all of these, as a 2nd edition magician could just by being the proper level, you'll have to wait until 21st level, with one or two feats at first level you can spend on other things. Perhaps some lumping here would have been appropriate - wands, staffs, and rods in one category, and rings and miscellaneous magic in another.

Description: The only significant change I could find in the discussions of alignment, height, weight, and everything else here was the inclusion of a list of deities for characters. I find this more interesting for the philosophy underlying the game than any effect it will have on play.

Equipment: After spending five minutes ranting about the lack of ring mail and Lucern hammers and two-handed swords (maybe), I got down to business here. This is one of the chapters that makes me the least happy. This is largely due to the weapons chart.

First, we're missing some of the old standbys, but we'll get to that later. Next, the chart doesn't list the weapons in alphabetical order. It lists them by the proficency category into which they fall - simple, martial, and exotic - then into melee and ranged categories, then into size categories. Add onto this the fact that they've decided to change some weapon names ("Long sword" is under "Longsword") and not others ("Heavy flail" is under "Flail, heavy"), and you have a confused mess. This might make the game easier for starting players to find appropriate weapons, but it's damn near useless for them or anyone else who looks for weapons based on name. This is a shame, as there are some nice new weapons here, including the Oriental weapons and race-specific weapons (hint: they're on the "Exotic" weapons tables).

Weapons no longer do different damage based on opponent size. Instead, they have different effects when a critical is rolled. Most increase their damage by X2, though some go up to X3 and X4, and others increase the die roll (instead of a 20, you critical if you hit on a 19-20 or 18-20). My only beef against this, having not playtested this, is that it's going to make re-determining weapon damages for weapons discarded from this edition even more difficult.

As for the rest, it's fairly good. Armor is pretty much the same, save that a few types have been removed, and there's a Dexterity bonus cap for armors (which will probably affect only a few people). The miscellaneous equipment is all here, with a few extra niceties that seem useful without being game-breakers.

(Minor oddity: Full plate is what you used to call field plate, and what you used to call full plate doesn't exist. Got it?)

Chapters 8 and 9, which have more to do with game play, I didn't delve into as deeply. There are quite a number of changes, from what I've seen - pay special attention to the section on "attacks of opportunity", and note the changes to initiative, cover, and unconsciousness.

Then we arrive at the sections on magic and spells, both of which are nicely done. The only possible exception to this is the section on illusions, which includes a number of categories with few concrete examples to display how it works (I'm still not sure what the effect of illusionary damage is supposed to be). The masterpieces are the spell lists themselves. I especially liked the cantrips and orisons, 0-level spells. Those familiar with cantrips from Unearthed Arcana, or the cantrip spell from 2nd edition, will be pleasantly surprised - most 3rd edition cantrips and orisons are former 1st level spells, including detect magic, mending, and read magic, that you normally would trade off for something more "useful" on a dungeon crawl. I would, however, drop the few cantrips and orisons that cause damage, though these may be so harmless that they won't have much of an effect.

All the spells are listed alphabetically, with both divine (priest) and arcane (wizard) spells listed together. This isn't such a jumble as it seems - in front of this, there are lists of spells for each class, complete with capsule descriptions of effects for each. You can use these lists for character creation, then turn to the alphabetic listings for particulars.

(Minor oddity: You get a bonus to spot abjuration spells that have been in effect, close to each other, for at least twenty-four hours.)

Some extras have been included in the back, including experience, monsters, and a sample dungeon. Experience is now figured in terms of challenge ratings, instead of based strictly on HD - I'm not sure how this works, so I'll be keeping an eye on the new DMG. The monsters look intriguing, and slightly tougher than they used to be. The inclusion of their ability scores in the description makes matters easier, but I think just listing modifiers would have made things simpler on the GM. The sample dungeon didn't look that great, but perhaps a new player will get more out of it.

(Minor oddity: Why does a ghoul have a 16 Charisma? I'm not exactly political material, and I'm sure that I could beat a corpse-eating undead monstrosity in a contest of personal magnetism...)

Conclusion: I was pleasantly surprised by 3rd edition - a number of changes have made the system much more versatile. I'm not sure whether it will take off with new players, and it's still hardly my favorite RPG, but it does seem that the designers toed the line between the old and the new satisfactorily. I'm not sure whether I'll run it, but I may give it a shot if people get tired of FENG SHUI.

(To anyone from TSR who may be reading this: I'd like to see a character sheet on the website. And PLEASE, for the love of Pelor, give us a usable weapons chart!)

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)