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The Player's Handbook (PHB) is the first of the three core books for Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition game (4e). This book contains all of the information necessary for players to create and advance their characters for the duration of an entire campaign. All of the fundamental classes are presented in this books with some interesting additions, namely the warlock and warlord. This review will primarily focus on the character creation elements and combat mechanics. Inevitably comparisons will be made with previous editions though this reviewer will try and keep them to a minimum.
Appearance
The book is a respectable size weighting in at 317 pages. It has very high production values with quality full color illustrations throughout. Following a trend in RPG covers the PHB has a matte cover with the two main characters depicted covered in a gloss finish, causing them to stand out significantly. The chapters begin with a one and one half page illustration usually depicting some kind of battle, though the one beginning the Skills chapter is thematically appropriate. The text in the each chapter is arranged in a double column format with a good density. The color coding and counter shading of the powers and tables greatly increased the readability of what would be otherwise visually difficult sections of the book.
Setting
The setting is never explicitly discussed within the book. Bits of it are sprinkled throughout the text, primarily in the descriptions of the gods, races and paragon paths. Though not explicit, the implicit setting is a world 100 years after the fall of a human empire. Many cities and towns exist as "points of light" surrounded by howling wilderness. This leaves the setting wide open for players, in consultation with the DM, to create their own setting elements and make a world that is compelling to them. A sample setting, the Nentir Vale, is included in the back of the Dungeon Master's Guide and forms the basis for the H-E series of modules published by Wizards of the Coast (WotC).
Characters
The characters in 4e are exceptional beings that have risen up over the normal ruck and run and have started down the path of becoming heroes. The process of character creation is fully detailed in the Making Characters chapter and consists of a nine step process. Each step is summarized in a list and then expanded upon within the main body of the chapter.
There are eight different races and eight different classes to choose from in this book. Most of the races are familiar to anyone familiar with fantasy role playing games or fiction: humans, elves, dwarves and halflings. A few races from the older editions have been removed, most notably the gnome, though the additional races more than make up for the loss. New races include the proud and martial dragonborn, a race of draconic humanoids; the otherworldly eladrin, cousins of the elves that retain their ties to arcane magic, while elves have become more nature oriented; and the demonic tieflings, descended from an older human empire that consorted with infernal powers. Each race has a two page description including a portrait, vital statistics, physical qualities, role playing notes and sample characters. Overall the authors have done an excellent job at making the races playable, both from a mechanical and role playing perspective.
The classes in the PHB are, for the most part, the tried and true staple of the game, including fighters, clerics, rogues and wizards. New classes include the warlock, a magic user that gains their power from a pact made with some otherworldly power; and the warlord, a military commander who aids their comrades in battle. WotC has successfully articulated a conceptual framework for the classes in establishing four distinct roles. These roles are especially useful for new players as each role is clearly described in the the book, though the descriptions are in the Making Characters chapter and not the Character Classes chapter. The four roles are defender, who "have abilities and powers that make it difficult for enemies to move past them or to ignore them in battle;" the controller, who "deal with large numbers of enemies at the same time;" the leader, whose "strength lies in powers that protect their companions and target specific foes for the party to concentrate on;" and the striker who, “specialize in dealing high amounts of damage to a single target at a time.” Classes also are now grouped into power sources as well. These power sources describe how each class derives its abilities; for example the martial power source draws on the character's willpower and physical training, while the divine power source grants powers from prayers to the pantheon of gods, and the arcane power source which grants spells based on a character’s manipulation of the underlying energies of the cosmos.
Most of the changes to the classes come from alterations made to the magic system, as spells from previous editions are now separated into two categories: spells with short casting times or durations have now become powers, and spells with longer casting times and effect have become rituals. Each class has two suggested "builds," with preselected powers and skills. This is an excellent idea in that it allows new players to create a mechanically well balanced character and start playing right away. Another fundamental change to the characters is the introduction of the healing surge. This is a method for characters to heal themselves without one of the party, typically the cleric, having to keep numerous healing spells on hand.
Alignments and religion are discussed in the Making Characters chapter as well. The old nine alignment grid has been pared down to five alignments: Lawful Good, Good (Chaotic Good from previous editions), Unaligned (True Neutral from previous editions), Evil (Lawful evil from previous editions) and Chaotic Evil. These alignments are clearly described so as to avoid ambiguity and in game arguments. This reviewer is pleased to see that Chaotic Neutral is gone, as that alignment seemed to be the cause of most of the alignment debates. A good addition is the inclusion of a sidebar discussing how alignment and personality interact.
The deities of 4e are drawn from the old Greyhawk setting, and they have undergone some alterations as to how they interact with the setting. The gods now dwell in the Astral Sea (the new version of the Astral Plane) and are much more remote from interacting with the world. Their primary agents in the material world are those characters who derive their powers from the divine.
Charcter advencement has remained fundementally the same. Characters earn experience points and advance in level based on a table, gaining powers as indicated. The changes come in the inculsion of paragon paths and epic destinies. Paragon paths as similar to prestiege classe of 3.5, where characters could focus their characters on certain concepts. For example, a cleric focusing on powers with the radiant keyword, can take the Radiant Servant paragon path and become more effective with those powers. Unlike prestiege classes, which added a whole new class and levels of complexity, a paragon path grants three or four new abilities and three powers to chose from at appropriate levels. Epic destinies, like paragon paths, grant additional abilities and powers and serve as a truly grand way to end a campaign. Each epic destiny has a path to immortality which affects the character when the epic quest is completed.
Additional races, classes and power sources are available in other game supplements and WotC's online subscription service, Dungeons and Dragons Insider (DDI).
System
The core system in 4e is the tried and true mechanic of rolling a d20 and adding various modifiers against a specific Difficulty Class (DC). This DC is typically a static defence value (Armor Class, Fortitude, Reflex or Willpower) or a target number discussed in a skill description. The modifiers applied to the die roll can come from a wide array of sources. The most common source will be powers use by characters, and each power fully describes the modifiers involved. Other sources are situational modifiers in combat, equipment modifiers and feat modifiers. Each modifier has a type associated with it, e.g. armor, feat, equipment, and these keywords (an important feature in all of 4e) are important in that two modifiers with the same keyword do not add together, the player uses the better modifier only. There is a strong emphasis on tactics in 4e and a good sense of spatial awareness is necessary. Most importantly is the imperative of teamwork in this edition. In previous editions, most of the characters could, and in fact were encouraged, to spread out and fight mostly as individuals. In 4e, there are numerous powers that work on adjacent, or nearby, allies. This requires a much more coordinated effort in combat, and the need for cooperation and tactical consideration will become readily apparent to a D&D 4e group.
Powers are the biggest innovation in all of 4e. They have greatly unified and standardized the system. There are two different types of powers available: attack and utility and all of these can be used with different frequencies: at-will, encounter, daily depending on the specific power. The general rule is that the more effective a power is the less often it can be used. Effectiveness is not only measured in damage output, many powers have a lower damage rating but include additional effects. These effects are very useful in the increased tactical environment of 4e combat.
Feats have remained relatively unchanged in 4e. These are benefits that improve extant abilities. The most significant change is the list has been trimmed extensively with many feats being dropped, combined or remade into class powers. This is a great improvement over the epic amount of feats of the previous edition, which numbered in the several thousands.
Skills have also undergone a much needed trimming in 4e. This simplification allows more flexibility when adjudicating skill challenges. Also it keeps skill lists from getting out of hand, previous editions had separate skills for hunting, tracking, fire building, orienteering and weather sense. Now it is all subsumed into the Survival skill. Additionally it keeps the point economy for skills in check. Other games when introducing new skills do not give the characters more skill points to spend thereby reducing the over all effectiveness of the character in the game. Skills have also been more thoroughly integrated into the game with the introduction of skill challenges.
There is a strong combat focus in this edition of D&D. It seems even more so as all of the powers have a combat orientations, with the exception of utility powers, and even then they are tactical if not damaging. This reviewer feels that every edition of D&D has been focused on combat and that the role playing elements can be added as per a group's wants and needs. That being said, 4e has included the skill challenge mechanic. This mechanic is used when a role playing encounter involves serious consequences for success or failure. These challenges involve characters making skill checks and trying to accumulate enough successes before accumulating too many failures. The rules for designing skill challenges are included in the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Though the powers in the character description are predominantly focuses on combat many non combat spells from older editions have been made over into rituals. Spells that had long casting times, durations and little direct combat effects have been removed from the power lists of spell casters. These now exist as rituals, "complex ceremonies that create magical effects." Rituals exist in two forms: written in books that can be cast by characters with the Ritual Caster feat, and ritual scrolls which can be used by any character. A major effect in removing spells and creating rituals is that the spell casters can now remain more effective in combat as they will not have non combat spells taking up space.
In Play
Character creation goes fairly quickly and a bare bones character, with just the basic scores and no role playing development, can be made in about 30 minutes. Creation time can get longer once a player starts building from the ground up, and possibly including some of the supplementary books available. That is not an entirely bad thing as many of the books, namely Martial Power and Arcane Power are excellent resources and can add significantly to certain classes.
The organization of the book is such that looking up rules during the session is quick and little time is lost digging around for rules and exceptions. This was a very important feature as both groups this reviewer plays in went from 3.5 to 4e and we were very vigilant against letting "3isms" creep in. That was not as much of a factor as we had feared though as the simplification of the system really worked in 4e's favor.
Summary
One of the overarching goals of 4e was to streamline the game system and make it more accessible to a wider audience. This edition had definitely succeeded in this design goal. This book has struck a fine balance between including introductory materials for new players and yet not driving away more experienced players. One critique of 4e is that in striving to allow as many options as possible for all characters some of the exclusivity has been lost. One example are the paragon paths, some of these paths represent membership in certain organizations of specialized training, and yet in each one there is a sentence that suggests that there are some characters that have picked this exclusive training on their own thereby acquiring the paragon path. The streamlining of the rules has led to much faster play, and a more engaging play experience for all groups this reviewer has participated in. Another important factor for this reviewer is the Chupp Test, which is a subjective measure of how much a player wishes to play a specific character. All of the classes and races passed this test which this reviewer found surprising in a good way.
