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The Fluff The 4th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook (Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes; Roleplaying Game Core Rules) is a hardcover tome, 10.9 by 8.4 inches in size and clocking in at 317 pages. The $34.95 price tag is nothing to scoff at, but seems to me more than reasonable in an age of $50 core books (Dark Heresy, anyone?).
The cover artwork and the interior artwork are top-notch. As always, Wizards pays for the professionals, and it shows. The book is full color, and the art style is more consistent than in many books. The cover art is pretty cool, displaying a Dragonkin Fighter and a Human Wizard exploring a dungeon together; two other characters appear in a misty background. The suggestion of action is obvious, and the artwork throughout the book is pretty much focused on PCs kicking butt and taking names. The book earns a solid “5” for visual appearance.
At first read, the writing appears to be free from glaring typos, and seems to be competently written. The writing style assumes that the player is about high-school age and has never touched a role-playing game before. This stuck in my craw a bit; I know they need to draw in new players to keep the game alive, but I felt like the authors were “writing down” at times.
Gone are the long (sometimes tedious) descriptions of spells, classes, and races. This could be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about flavor text. Class and race descriptions are relegated to a few paragraphs, describing the most typical characteristics of the different roles. Descriptions of powers are limited to a few sentences. The idea here, I believe, is to leave more room for players to describe the effects of their powers and to define their characters. By only providing the most bare-bones descriptions, players are free to adapt to their hearts’ desires in a role-playing sense while still playing with the same sets of rules. By the same coin, crunch lovers don’t have to waste time reading through the fluff text looking for important rules details. Unfortunately for roleplayers interested in deep character development, this also means you won’t find intricate discussions about Dragonkin society or a detailed breakdown of the structure of Moradin’s faith. Details about the new “Points of Light” default campaign world are also pretty much absent, though campaign world descriptions have never been part of Player’s Handbooks, so I guess that was too much to hope for. Perhaps we will see these in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (mine is on the way).
I found the organization of chapters to be perfectly functional. It’s slightly different from previous editions, but not critically so. One major improvement is that important rules are highlighted in bulleted lists and clearly identified, rather than being buried three quarters of the way through a page-long block of text. This makes it wonderfully easy to flip to a page and quickly spot the rules for flanking or other mechanics that could be confusing for a new player.
The major complaint that pretty much everyone shares is that the book lacks an indexed or alphabetized list of powers. The 3.0 and 3.5 editions of the PHb contained both a list of spells by level and an alphabetized list of spells, making it quick and easy to locate the spell you were after. In the current edition, all powers are broken down by level and listed which each class description. This could make hunting for a power description during gameplay a tedious endeavor. To be fair, the designers have adapted a clever system of keywords that make it easy to annotate the effects of pretty much every power. Players should be able to quickly write up their powers on their character sheets or index cards. Still, how much trouble would it have been to include a single-page indexed list of powers? This lack of an alphabetized list was not as frustrating to me as it seems to be to many others, but due to the amount of discussion generated on the forums, I thought it worth identifying.
The Crunch The Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition rules are fundamentally based on the same core mechanic as 3.0/3.5, which is the d20 roll. I won’t go into it here, and instead assume that readers have some familiarity with the d20 system. I’ll instead look at how 4th edition differs from the d20 system. Ability scores can be selected from a default array, selected using a point-buy system, or rolled randomly. Feats are still around, and work in much the same way.
Skills are now less fiddly. Many of the individual skills have been rolled into one broad skill. Instead of having different skills for opening locks, finding traps, and disabling devices, your character has one skill for thievery. Tumbling, balancing, and escaping bonds are relegated to the acrobatics skill. Personally, I really like this. I think it allows for more diverse use of broad skills, and it makes the skill list much more manageable. Those who like the exhaustive skill list of 3.5 and enjoy trying to find interesting ways to use the more obscure skills may be disappointed. Your skill modifier is always ½ your level plus the relevant ability score. If you’re trained in the skill, you gain a +5 bonus. No more fiddling with skill points every level or worrying about cross-class skills.
Attacks, spells, and special powers now target one of four defenses: armor class (works much like d20), fortitude, reflex, or will. Instead of the defender rolling a saving throw when hit with a fireball, they have a pre-established “Reflex Defense.” The attacker rolls a d20, adds the relevant modifier (depends on the class and the power, but it is usually a key ability score modifier), and checks to see whether they meet or exceed the target’s defense. Saving throws are still in for ongoing effects (ongoing burning damage, for example), but instead of having modifiers to your roll and rolling against a DC, you simply roll an unmodified d20. You’ve got a 50/50 chance of recovering. You get to do this each round at the end of your turn.
All actions are divided into one of three types: standard actions (like attacks and powers), move actions, and minor actions (like drawing a weapon). A character can swap one for the other in descending order. So a character could swap a standard action for a move or minor action, and swap a move action for a minor action. The breakdown of powers into these three categories makes it easy to identify how each power works. The 3rd edition rules tried to do this, but with all of the expansion rules, things spiraled out of control (swift actions... wtf?). The new rules have reigned this back in. Action points are now an essential part of the system, and spending an action point lets the character take an extra standard action in combat. A character can do this once per encounter, and they regain the action point after a short rest. The use of the action point is critical and adds some tactical diversity into the battles.
Another unique per-encounter ability is the “Second Wind” that all characters have. When a character spends his or her Second Wind, they gain a healing surge (automatically recovering a chunk of hit points) and a temporary defense bonus. The healing surges make all characters a little more survivable, and give the cleric an opportunity to do something other than cast an endless string of healing spells. In terms of roleplaying, I think of the healing surge as being a mechanical interpretation of how the gutsy action hero who, after getting beat up pretty bad, comes back for more when the chips are down.
Certainly the biggest change in 4th edition is the power system. Each character begins with a number of combat and gameplay powers. When a character gains levels, he or she gains access to more powerful abilities. These powers are categorized as being “at-will,” meaning the character can use them as many times as they like, “encounter” meaning the power can be used once per encounter, and “daily,” meaning that the power can only be used once per day. What this means is that your wizard is never going to run out of magic missiles, because it’s an “at-will” power. It also makes combat decisions interestingly tactical. Do I blow that daily power now, or save it until later? The encounter-based powers are beefy, and they ensure that characters will no longer suffer from the problem of having to stop and rest for 8 hours after every significant fight. The powers themselves are incredibly diverse. Most of them deal some kind of damage, and many of them have secondary effects, from moving the target a number of squares on the battle grid, to letting an ally spend a healing surge for free, to gaining a combat advantage against the target (similar to flat-footed, from previous editions). Almost all powers are based off of an ability score versus defense mechanic. Magic missile, for example, requires the caster to roll a d20 and add his or her intelligence modifier and meet or exceed the target’s Reflex defense.
Races have undergone a major revamping. All races provide a bonus to an ability score or two, and none suffer penalties to ability scores (yay!). There are two new races, the fierce Dragonkin, draconic humanoids with a breath weapon, and the Eladrin, aasimar-like fey creatures that can teleport 5 squares as an encounter power. Tieflings are now in as a core race as well. Racial abilities, far from being minor benefits like in prior editions, now have a significant impact in gameplay beyond the first level. The dwarf, for example, can activate his “Second Wind” as a minor action, allowing him to heal himself during combat without having to stop hacking for a round. Humans no longer are the default “best” class, nor are they a choice to scoff at, however. Oh yeah, the gnome is out of the PHb, if you care.
All of the classes underwent major overhauls. Class progressions all work very similarly now, much like you might see in an online game such as World of Warcraft, so all characters gain abilities the same way and at the same pace, even if those abilities are substantially different. While some have said this turns the game into a table-top MMO, I don’t automatically agree. I think it just makes the character generation and development more standardized from one class to another.
Bard, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer are out. These will likely return in later sourcebooks, but for now they kept Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, Paladin, and Ranger, and added two new core classes: Warlord and Warlock. The Warlord is basically a mercenary captain with some aspects of a fighter and some aspects of a cleric. The Warlock is a powerhouse ranged damage dealer. Class roles have been better focused, another similarity to MMO design. The Ranger’s role, for example, is Striker – the party’s focused damage dealer. This doesn’t mean the Ranger has no other abilities, or can’t support another role, but the Ranger will never be as good at soaking damage as a Fighter (Defender role), for example. The idea of class roles existed in prior editions; it’s just more focused now.
Multi-classing took a major nerf in 4th edition. If you were the guy playing the barbarian 1/rogue 1/fighter 4/cleric 14, those days are over. (OK, I admit I did it some too...) You can multi-class into a second class, but not until 11th level, and this is done instead of taking a Paragon path (see below). You can never take a third class. Alternately, you can choose spend feats to pick up a few powers from a second class. Again, you can do this with one class but never a second. I like this system. Whether or not power gamers like it will depend on how well different abilities work together across class lines. Right now, with class roles mostly distinct, it doesn’t seem like a paladin/cleric/wizard/thief would provide much gameplay benefit anyway. And it’s silly. Of course, if you and your gaming group are really crazy about multi-classing, it seems like this would be easy enough to house-rule.
Character development is broken into three tiers: the Heroic Tier (levels 1-10), the Paragon Tier (11-20), and the Epic Tier (21-30). Heroic Tier characters are your basic adventurers, albeit more special than your average Joe in the tavern. They’re not the fragile wusses of earlier editions who might go down from a single hit by a kobold, but they’re not teleporting around the battlefield or gating in extraplanar creatures either. At Paragon Tier, characters gain a big power jump, and then again at Epic Tier. At level 11, you can choose to have your character follow a Paragon path, providing an additional array of abilities to choose from. These work something like the prestige classes of yore, but instead of taking an entirely new class, the Paragon status serves more as a supplement to your existing class. Each class in the core PHb has four Paragon paths associated with it (except the Warlock, who has only three). They add some greater definition to the class, and have some cool higher level powers. At level 21, you can choose to have your character follow an Epic Destiny. There are only four of these, and they only have a few abilities, but these are significant and inclined to appeal to a high-powered end-game. Again, you don’t give up your core Wizard class when you become an Archmage, you just have an additional set of powers to select from.
One of the coolest things about playing a wizard in earlier editions of D&D was the huge array of spells available to you. If your wizard had a loaded spellbook, you could count your character as being able to adapt to most any situation. While spellcasters may now be a little more focused, they still have a lot of non-combat spells available to them, in the form of Rituals. Rituals are things like “Discern Location” or “Cure Disease” which are not really combat spells, and they take time and money to cast (typically at least 10 minutes, plus resources). The upside is that there is no memorization. If you have the ritual in your ritual book, and you have the time and resources, you can cast it. Also, Rituals are available to any spellcaster; they are not divided between clerics and wizards, for example. I really like this system, though I would have appreciated seeing more ritual spells in the Player’s Handbook. As it is, we get almost 50 of them, spread out across 30 levels. More! I want more!
Equipment is much the same as in earlier editions, though it looks like exhaustive equipment lists have been pared down. One big change is how magic items are handled. From what I’ve read other places, part of DM-ing involves handing these out in a regular, ordered fashion. One great feature is that if you’re not getting the magic items you need, you can make them yourself. One feat and some gold, that’s all it takes. You can only make magic items equal to your level, which may be inferior to what you might find on adventures, but no more needing a multitude of feats, months of study, and thousands of experience points to create a +1 sword. Does this dumb down magic item creation? Maybe. Folks who like an elaborate crafting system will not care much for these mechanics, though I guess you could retain the crafting elements of d20 if you like them.
This is a playtest review, so I guess I’d better talk about actual gameplay. I played in the Worldwide D&D Game Day this past Saturday. I had one friend in my party, the GM and the other players were unknown to me. It only took the GM about 10 minutes to explain the rules changes to us (neither of us had seen any of the leaked PDF’s floating around on the internet), and then we were off to explore the ruins of the Shadowhaunt. I was running an Eladrin Wizard. We also had a Human Cleric, a Human Fighter, a Dwarf Fighter, and a Half-elf Rogue. The beginning of the adventure played a lot like classic D&D—we found a secret door, got some clues from an aloof ghost, and descended into a crypt where our fighters rushed headlong into a fight, and a couple of fire traps.
This was our first opportunity to flex our muscle, so we tried out our encounter powers and smacked down the hobgoblins in no time. Playing a wizard, I really appreciated that I didn’t have to rely on a crossbow after the first round of combat. Instead, I alternated between a barrage of magic missiles (2d4+4 damage!) and some area effect spells that knocked opponents back squares or stuck them in the middle of difficult (icy) terrain. Later in the adventure, my racial teleport came in handy when some living statues attacked from the rear. The fighters dished out decent damage and used their abilities to hinder the enemies from attacking anyone but them, leaving the rogue to sneak in and explode with massive sneak attacks. The cultist who was causing the problem met his fate when I used the knockback spell to blast him off of his perch ten feet above us and he fell to his doom below.
We ended a little bit early and had time for the follow-on adventure, an encounter with a young white dragon while guarding a caravan through a snowy pass. The dragon was hiding out in a ruined tower, sitting in a magic circle that provided it 2 hit points of regeneration per round. I teleported in and zapped the dragon with an acid arrow while the other PC’s distracted it from outside. The fighters came around and began to hack with all their might, marking the beast to hinder it if it attacked anyone else. Its breath weapon was nasty, inflincting not only 3d6 damage, but also causing weakness and slow effects that were difficult to shrug off. Also, because it was a solo creature, the dragon was packing two action points, meaning it could spend those points to take multiple actions in a round, just like us. It used these to keep our fighters in a world of hurt. The cleric was barely able to keep them from dying throughout most of the battle. Near the end, the dwarf fighter finally took a dirt nap, but only after dishing out massive quantities of damage and drawing the fire away from the rogue who dished out extra sneak attack damage left and right. By this time, we were all tapped out on our encounter powers, our daily powers, and our action points, and the dragon was gearing up for another round of the ol’ claw-claw-bite. Then our cleric pulled off a miraculous heal check on the unconscious human fighter. He’d been up and down the whole fight, never conscious long enough to actually fight back, but soaking blow after blow from the dragon, and now he finally had his chance to shine. He stood up, cursed the beast, and delivered the killing blow, a whopping 23 points of damage. Cheers and high-fives went up across the table.
Our adventure was a success. And so are the D&D 4th edition rules. I was highly skeptical when I first began hearing about fourth edition. The promises offered by the online D&D Insider have yet to materialize, but my fears about the game are allayed. The rules don’t require any special online presence—everything you need to play is here in these three core books, and D&D is alive and well. Whether the game continues to be action-packed, interesting, and fun throughout all thirty levels remains to be seen, but the promise is there. I’ve been playing since the red box days, and while in recent years I’ve greatly enjoyed many other RPGs, I’ve continued to play D&D as well, enjoying the game for what it is. And this version of D&D knows exactly what it is—action-packed fantasy with an emphasis on tactics—and it does it well.
(Apologies to C.W. Richeson for the use of his review format. I think it’s great!)
