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Please ignore the prior 30 years, thank you.
What is Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition? To answer this, what have to do it purge anything in your mind about previous versions of Dungeons and Dragons and hide them in a deep, dark, safe place. Preferably in a suck-proof box, buried on concentrated soil, and warded against the evils of catering to the lowest common denominator. This knowledge no longer pertains to what they now call Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition – at all. What Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition is, to be blunt, is a poorly made miniatures war-game that takes the worst elements of online MMO games and the applies a layer of ridiculous and arbitrary rules to actively stifle imagination, storytelling or immersion.
With this in mind, Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition is quite possibly the worst role-playing game ever printed. Not necessarily because the actual product is an unplayable mess – but rather because it is just playable enough to end a beloved franchise and start a new legacy that replaces classic D&D a soulless sack of garbage. Unfortunately neophyte gamers won’t know any better and will probably buy into it for a short while. It is very clear Wizards of the Coast published these books with only financial goals in mind, with no real thought of RPG fans or the long history of the classic game.
Artwork, Layout and Accessories
Mandatory miniatures not included, please see our vast line of poorly made minis.
If I had to pick a high point of the core Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition books it would be the art work. The individual pieces range from mediocre to truly beautiful and I do have to say they have access to some truly talented artists. Unfortunately the artwork is hodgepodge of different techniques and styles that do not mesh very well together. Even some CGI work makes its way in. Each piece looks like it is from a different setting or even different genera entirely, which leaves the reader with more of distraction than immersion into the book.
The layout of the core Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition books are much different than previous editions and are muddled enough to force players into constantly return too many sections of the book during play. The rules are generally unclear enough to guarantee that some player or DM at the table is rimming through the book for a power, feat, skill, or arbitrary rule that permeate the books. The pages use vibrant colors and the quality appears to be excellent but his is quickly lost when actually handled. The page text smears very easily and creases are likewise very easy to get as well. In the few months I have owned the book, I have several smear marks of unreadable text and other pages that otherwise look like they have seen years of use.
Miniatures are flat-out required to play game - and so we begin with the long list of design decisions that ultimately crucify the game. The player no longer have the option to use ‘imagination’ and are boxed into shuffling miniatures around a grid map to carefully position themselves for tactical placement. It is no surprise that Wizards of the Coast offers its own line of poorly made and highly profitable miniatures to supplement this. Players can attempt to go miniatures free, but be warned that the game is simply not made for this style of play and many mechanics would be lost in doing so.
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition offers a host of online components to augment players and DM house-keeping. Unfortunately most of these are either simply not available, completely non-functional, killed before forced onto customers, or offer a meager amount functionality that a high-school php scripter could program in a week. Eventually players are expected to pay a 15$ monthly fee to access these options (or 156$ per year for the discounted rate).
Writing
Virgin sheets of paper horribly abused and marred.
The writing for the most part is a muddled heap of ill-defined rules, pre-algebra equations, and MMO labels. There is no attempt to reconcile the rules with any form of reality or game setting. The immersion is simply not there and we are left with an emphasis on a combat piece rather than personality or traits. Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition more often that not treats PCs as gaming pieces with specific labels that tell the PCs what they should be doing most of the time; Striker, Controller, Leader, Protector (Tank) and so forth. This was derived from terms coined in MMO games, which does not translate well into pen and paper where it only adds another layer of abstract disassociation between a player and his character. What you end up with is not a persona or character, but rather one of the few offered ‘builds’ that your class can produce and voila, you now have a ‘range dps Ranger’ or ‘protection based Tank’ rather than a unique character.
The writing emphasizes a lack of persona in other ways as well. Even role-playing moments are given a layer of abstractness to kill the momentum. Skill challenges are a good example where you feel like you are battle against the math rather than enjoying the moment. Skill challenges are divvied up into many rolls instead of one and it more or less boils down to DM fiat and streaks of luck if the ‘challenge’ is succeeded or not. Skill challenges feel like a decree ‘you may role play now, and you better entertain the DM or you will get a negative modifier’. Even if the players do role-play they can (and probably will) fail the challenge due to how the system is simply sets the odds vastly against the players.
The fluff off the books feels incomplete with an assortment of small tidbits eluding to some kind of setting or personality, but is never to be realized. The result is the feeling of a sterile game where you are simple moving your battle-mat pieces who struggle to survive only to be placed on whichever battle-mat they stumble upon next. There is no default setting to speak of, which is somewhat odd since some of the new races seem to be setting specific. Tieflings and Eladrin obviously have a history but no world to be placed it. The gods listed are from a mish-mash of previous settings and do not blend together well at all. Dragonborn look like they can be thrown in just about anywhere that is mid to high fantasy. I suspect most of these will be shoe-horned into existing settings with little regard to previous lore canon.
Characters
Wizards of the Coast makes characters now, not you.
Upon first reading the Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition rules I admit the novelty of using ‘powers’ instead of generic attacks captured my attention. The idea of streamlining abilities of all types into powers at a very basic level seemed like decent place to go after the bloated feel of the 3.5 rules. Unfortunately it was implemented very poorly and led to androgyny among the classes where the player is essentially playing the few combat powers rather than playing a character persona. Powers quickly devolve into using the same at-will powers the majority of the time, and these have the same basic effects over most of the classes.
Character creation is fairly painless and honestly, you don’t even have to roll the dice or make many choices. You can choose predefined ability scores, a predefined build, with a predefined list of gear and you’re ready to go. I have no problem with this quick generation. What I do have a problem with is that if you want to go into the more detailed route there will not be much difference between this and the predefined character creation options. All classes essentially have two blatant directions they can take their character and that is pretty much it. An example is a Ranger who uses a bow or a Ranger who uses two weapons. After you make that choice everything else falls into its natural place and you are thus labeled a ‘striker’ with little flexibility beyond this role.
Delineation between characters is surprisingly slim. Many of the powers are practically identical and for the most part you are stuck as your clearly defined role of Striker, Controller, Leader, or Tank. The same-ness of the classes among these roles is so close that they could have easily done away with classes altogether and just stuck to the MMO labels instead. Races likewise are little more than to accentuate one of these labels rather than offer much in terms in flavor or options. Three of the races are Elves subsets. Dragonborn looked to cater to a cliché denominator. Old D&D assumptions are removed so had better read carefully before you decide on character. Druids, Monk, Bards, Sorcerers, Gnomes, Half-Orcs and so forth are no longer included.
All classes operate with the same streamlined powers system. A blessing since it is simple, and a curse, because every character plays the same. Wizards are a good example since they no longer have spells. So instead of choosing from a myriad of 40 spells to cast, you now have 3-5 power choices and thats it, and these choices are pretty damn similiar to what other class powers can do. To reiterate 'casters' have powers, just like everyone else, which essentially do the same sorts of things the other powers can do. In fact there is almost nothing to seperate caster classes from non-caster classes.
As characters advance they are thrust into different tiers: levels 1-10 as heroic, 11-20 as paragon and level 21-30 as epic. Characters can respec their powers to take on slightly different role or more likely to replace powers that simply suck. The two later tiers mostly replicate the play as levels 1-10 but with higher numbers and offer feats that likewise reflect the change in numbers rather than going into feat-bloat like 3.5 did. Oddly the general feel of the game is the same at level 11 as it is at level 1. Likewise with level 21. The names of the powers change of course, and the numbers are higher but it essentially is identical in how it plays. Some may laud this change, but it removes a lot of the incentive to reach the higher levels in my opinion.
Multi-classing is more or less neutered with a dysfunctional system to replace it. You spend feats to take the minimal powers of other classes which is an ad hoc solution at best. It surprised me how much removing multi-classing effects the options of the players and I think it is one of those things that 3rd edition got right. How much we shall miss it now that it is gone.
Combat
I guess death didn't poll well
Most of the details in the books are about combat, and miniatures combat at that. Don’t get me wrong, I do like miniatures skirmish games, but there is a distinct difference between a miniatures war-game and a RPG. Meshing the two, as Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition has done, is often awkward since it essentially has the feel of two games going on at once.
First and foremost is the combat miniatures game where the PCs struggle for battle-mat supremacy. The combat tactics are by no means deep since PCs generally have a short list of to-do options and it is fairly obvious what your PC should be doing – it says so in giant letters by your class: Striker, Controller, Leader, Tank and so forth. Battles are usually protracted into hit point exchanges since nothing but minions go down very quickly. It is not uncommon for the total amount of enemy hit points for one combat to reach over 200 in 1st level play. Even when you know how the combat is going to end it can usually take quite a while to get there. I timed one battle with our first-level adventure party in at well-over 90 minutes. Perhaps my group was more casual than I thought, but epic battle after epic battle felt long and drawn-out.
PCs are remarkably hearty since every PC can expend healing surges to regain hit points. Other PC classes can likewise use powers to allow healing surges when they are not normally available which adds to the possible hit point pool. Even when out of hit points PC are almost impossible to directly kill unless they take a single massive hit of damage while already severely injured. It is very easy to stabilize in the game and PC death should be fairly rare unless the entire party gets wiped out. Oddly from my experience it is much more likely for your entire party to get blown out of the water than it is for a single PC to die. I think this is because when the PCs are overwhelmed it feels difficult to recover due to the massive amount of hit points enemies have. In turn PCs are near indestructible until several of them start going unconscious, then it is simply too late and they all kick the bucket.
When combat is finished PCs can expend healing surges to fully heal, so even the most grievous injury is instantly healed and without magic. This is a pretty serious break from immersion. It was actually a common sight to have PCs go from dying to fully healed several times in one day with zero side effect. Sometimes in one combat without any magic what-so ever. PC only really have to avoid a total party kill, otherwise they can adventure fairly risk free. I guess death didn’t poll well among the Wizards of the Coast marketers.
There is no reason why a party should not take a short or 6 hours rest after each battle and it feels very artificial. A DM can thwart this by offering limited areas and times to rest but this very much has the feel of a likewise artificial and imposed barrier. 'Sorry, you can’t rest right now because..' will certainly become a common phrase among DMs who wish to control their group more tightly. If the DMs do not, essentially the party will always be at full-power and will crush most encounters only to rest again and repeat the process.
Role-Playing
So exactly how much insanity has leaked into the water supply?
The book says Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game but I find this to be somewhat difficult to take seriously. Non-combat feels like a minority phase since combat is very time intensive and it is often difficult to get ‘into character’ after your marathon tactical battle-mat skirmishes. Effects of combat outside of the battle-mat are almost non-existent unless a PC actually died. There is not any attrition beyond the daily powers that would otherwise carry over from encounter to encounter giving any sense of wear and tear at all.
It feels as if the game actively works against role-playing. Characters play uniformly, marathon combat, mandatory miniatures, and a general lack of immersion. The main exception is skill challenges where the PCs are encouraged to role-play to get modifiers towards skill tests, which feels scripted. As is the role-playing elements are purely on the initiative of the DM and players with little in the actually game to spark it forward. Perhaps when a setting is released and adventures are written specifically for it that will change. As it is I would call Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition a miniatures skirmish war-game far more naturally than I would call it a role-playing game.
Verdict
Gary would have hated it.
And so, most of game is a train wreck. There already is a Dungeons and Dragons MMO and several D&D miniatures games as well, all of which are abysmal. Why they had to take elements from the two and expect different results is beyond my comprehension but that is essentially what they have done. Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition is a skirmish miniatures war-game with some light role-playing elements. While I understand they had to do something to change up the game, it unfortunately was done with poor design decisions that did not pay off.
At this point we can only hope is that Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition serves as a warning to other companies on what not to do. At best it will rope in a few new gamers which will hopefully rotate to a different system before they get dragged down into mediocrity and wonder what the fuss about Dungeons and Dragons was for the past 30 years. At worst it will drag the rest of the RPG industry down the hole along with it.
Ultimately Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition will alienate many of its core players and the game is simply not good enough to replace them all with new ones. Those that enjoy 4th edition for one reason or another will be at the mercy of the setting books that will inevitably come. Unfortunately WotC will have to butcher their previous settings to even get 4th edition to work with them. I have no doubt WotC will gladly send their previous works to the slaughter house in order to promote their new baby however. I guess that is one way to make a buck in the industry. Luckily the RPG market is more diverse and more of a niche market than ever. Several other systems and games are quite popular and the recent rise in ‘open’ systems and settings has become commercially successful to further provide gamers more options.
Upsides
Honest attempt to reach new gamers.
Took some risks to further the game.
Downsides
The risks ultimately failed and created a downright horrible game.
Restrictive game-play devoid of heart and imagination.
Miniatures and online emphasis alienates some players.
Ultimately not enjoyable and a disgrace to the name ‘Dungeons and Dragons’.
