D& D Players Handbook Review
Overview
The emergence of a new edition of Dungeons & Dragons is always an emotive time. This remains the best known and most widely played roleplaying game on the market and people can become very sensitive to criticism of this beloved brand. At the same time some players can become overly attached to previous editions and they have an almost knee jerk reaction to a new set of rules. What I hope to do in this review is to give an objective look at the new 4th Edition Players Handbook (PHB ) from the point of view of someone who has been playing the game since First Edition.
To start with the new PHB is beautifully produced. I think there is more than one variety of cover but my own version, with a glossy picture of a dragonborn warrior and a gorgeous looking female wizard in knee high boots is one of the most attractive covers D&D has ever had. The paper is of the highest quality, the font large and well laid out, and there an index at the back for reference, although it is a bit short. The artwork throughout the book remains of a high standard similar to the front cover. Only a few different artists have been used so there is a uniformity to the artwork which is missing in earlier editions. Of course if you don't like the style this is obviously a negative point, if the artwork doesn't grab you its unlikely to inspire you to play the game.
The layout is similarly well done, with an obvious, almost traditional progression through character development. Early chapters explain the basic aims of the game, what the statistics all mean and how to start making up a character. Compared to earlier editions this is well done, although the complexity of the rules would still mean I would not reccomend the game to complete novices. A nice clear two page spread on each of the races is followed by a similar, longer description of each of the classes and their powers. There follows chapters on Skills and Feats which at first glance look very similar to Third Edition, although there are several differences I will discuss later. The equipment chapter is almost divided in two between normal equipment and magical equipment. This is one awkward development as magical items have only previously appeared as part of the Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) not the PHB. I couldn't help but feel that its inclusion here was very deliberate and the idea of shopping for magic items is encouraged. Following all this is a big section on combat, which, is a little random in its layout but explains all the choices players have during the combat round. Finally, almost crow barred in at the back is a section on Rituals. Before I can explain what these are though I need to go back to the begining.
Introduction
At a glance the basics of the game look quite familiar but it is apparent on further reading that the rules of the game have changed quite considerably from Third Edition. I don't blame the writers for this, after all what is the point of introducing a new edition if you are not going to change anything ( Chaosium please take note ! ). Although Wizards of the Coast ( WOTC ) are obviously only going to provide support for their new set of rules there is nothing to stop you using an older favoured edition of the game and adapting the new material. With this in mind I tried to look at all of the rules changes in as positive a light as possible and imagine how they might work in play.
There are a few minor changes in the rules which I will not go into, but the first major difference is a change in the alignment system which has existed right from the start. The new alignments are Good, Lawful Good, Evil, Chaotic Evil and Unaligned. While I can understand the wish to remove the idea of Neutrality as an ethos ( I'm thinking here of the Neutral Planet in Futurama ) it does invite a certain lazyness in roleplaying to simply declare your character "unaligned". As an unaligned character you have no strong views on any morality, which gives players pretty much free reign for their characters to behave any way they like. Later on in the rules you realise you can even have unaligned paladins ! These must be paragons of apathy and opportunism, as they are able to behave any way they wish as the situation dictates.
The rules then go on to describe the different tiers of character development from level one to level thirty. At level 11 you enter what is called the Paragon tier and at level 21 you start the Epic Destiny tier. These seem to replace the Prestige Classes from Third Edition ( which is no bad thing ) and replace them with a system similar to the old Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal set D&D. At each new tier you make decisions on how you want to specialise, and gain more advanced powers as a result. This seems quite a good system in terms of streamlining character development, but following straight on from the chapter on character generation are you really worrying about what decisions you need to make 20 levels on ? The whole emphasis from the start seems to be on fast development to a more powerful character. This is perhaps the first but by no means the last similarity the game has to MMORPG's like World of Warcraft.
Races New And Old
The basic races for the game are an interesting mix and one I was quite happy with. Dragonborn are very similar to the Draconians of Krynn, with a draconic heritage and a warrior tradition mixed in. Strangely the race description spends more time describing their culture than explaining how to play one. For example it tells you that dragonborn are proud, reliable and honour bound, but does this apply to the Chaotic Evil dragonborn as well ? With no alignment restrictions to races making broad statements about how they behave is meaningless.
Eladrin are erm...... elves I think. I've read their description several times and can come up with no logical reason for introducing this race. They copy all the traits of standard elves, only more so. The best way to think of them seems to be as High Elves. Their most noticeable trait involves being able to "shift" around the battlefield without provoking attacks of opportunity.
Next you have Tieflings ! An old favourite with many players of Forgotten Realms and Planescape campaigns these half demon half human characters are a welcome addition to the basic races. One sad development though is the standardisation of appearance - previously players could choose the physical characteristics of their demonic blood. Although there is nothing to stop players changing the look of their tiefling it is a poor reflection on the writers willingness to trust players to use their imaginations here.
As well as the three new races are the standard human, halfing, elf, half elf and dwarf of previous editions. The gnome has apparently been consigned to the Monster Manual ( as a recent video on You Tube pointed out - I can't wait to start designing a gnome lair ! ). This is no great loss I think as they were only ever really a cross between a dwarf and a halfling with little real identity of their own. Also gone though is the half orc. In some ways this too makes sense to me as half orc player characters were always ten times more powerful than any full orc you could ever hope to meet. Overall though I was happy with the changes to races and the powers they receive. Humans as before remain versatile, with more options to choose extra abilities than the other races.
Classes And Their Powers
The chapter on character classes is the real meat and potatoes of Fourth Edition and explains what the game is really all about. To try and explain it simply - all powers and abilities are now standardised. Gone are the memorised spells of the wizard, the skills of the rogue and the sheer toughness of the fighter. Instead all classes have their own list of similar abilities which they can either use At Will, Once Per Encounter or Once Per Day. As you can imagine At Will abilities are fairly minor and Once Per Day abilities are the most powerful. Players choose their abilities for each level and then each round of combat decide whether to use one of their At Will abilities, one of their Once Per Encounter abilities or one of their Once Per Day abilities. Each classes abilities reflect where their powers come from - a fighters skill at arms, a wizards magic or a clerics prayers but technically speaking every power is treated the same. This is a little hard to get your head around at first but when I thought it through some more I started to like it. After all how many times had I run or played in an adventure where the action ground to a halt because the mage had run out of spells or their was no healing magic left. So what if Magic Missile was now an At Will power, it still required a succesful magical attack roll the same as a fighters melee attack or the rogues missile attack. The emphasis seems to be on making all classes equal in ability.
So, I liked this revolutionary new idea. In principle.
But this change in the basic rules ties in with a couple more rules which didn't make quite so much sense. For a start HP are no longer rolled for but are based for each character on their CON score plus another number for their class. So at first level all characters will have a lot more HP than previously. After that characters gain a set amount of HP each level based on class which is not modified by CON. This means that the difference between a high CON character and a low CON character of the same class at high level might only be a few HP.
But then it got worse - all characters are gifted with a number of "Healing Surges" per day which they can use to heal 1/4 of their total HP automatically. Frantically I flipped through the rules hoping there was some limit to this ability. Unfortunately there isn't. Characters can use one during combat and any number of healing surges after combat to heal themselves back up to their maximum HP. Expect a fighter to have at least 10 of these healing surges per day, at tenth level lets say he has 40HP, that means he can heal a total of 100 HP damage free of charge during that day ( 10 healing surges of 10HP each ). Thats quite a lot of healing for a supposedly mortal human ! Never mind a ring of regeneration just watch as those wounds close up, the blood is sucked back in and the bones heal together once again.
Previously characters would have relied on their cleric for healing. What then has become of this class ? Flicking through I found Cure Light Wounds. It's a level two power they can use only Once Per Day no matter how powerful the character becomes, and it heals.... 1/4 of a characters total HP. The tenth level fighter in the above example must be laughing - "I can do that without your help ten times a day thank you very much !". So what else has the cleric got to help his friends ? Well, he has a Once Per Encounter power called Healing Word which allows the target to use an additional healing surge in combat with an extra 1D6 HP on top. But if you think about this its not much help outside of combat as you can only use it during an encounter. Besides which the other characters are all too busy healing themselves to worry about needing a cleric. Finally I thought maybe the cleric might be good at the Healing skill instead of using magic. Well, he is but it doesn't heal any HP. Maybe if the cleric deliberately starts a fight with his companions he can use his Healing Word ability again ?
Anyway, on with the other classes I thought, perhaps they will make more sense. The fighter has, as you might expect a great number of combat powers which allow him to do more damage, have more attacks, hit more enemies, etc. But his basic combat abilities remain the same as all the other classes ! Base attack bonus for all classes is based quite simply on 1/2 a characters level plus modifiers. So, if you take away all the powers the fighter has access to his chance to hit with a longsword is the same as a wizard if they should choose to pick one up.
Paladins, as in Third Edition remain the champions of a particular religion but again have no alignment limits. I have never agreed with this as it takes away an aspect of the class which has always made it unique and a challenge to play. As you may guess Lay On Hands is a low level At Will ability which uses up the paladin characters tally of Healing Surges but heals another character 1/4 HP instead. I can really see the evil alignment paladins using this ability !
The ranger survives into Fourth Edition and once again the writers can't decide whether the ranger is an archer or a two weapon specialist. This, I always felt came from the influence of two great fictional characters - Aragorn in Lord of the Rings and Drizzt from the Forgotten Realms. In previous editions the rangers lack of heavy armour always made them a better choice to play as an archer but there has been some effort made in Fourth Edition to improve the hit and run aspect of the rangers melee abilities. In addition to this remember characters still get to choose Feats. These remain pretty much the same as in Third Edition and unfortunately lead to the concept of character builds - trying to select the right choices to make the most powerful character possible. This is clearly encouraged in Fourth Edition with suggested builds such as the ideal selection of Powers and Feats for both archer and melee rangers.
The rogue remains a class to be reckoned with but once again the emphasis is on combat. All rogues are for some reason very good at using shuriken, an ability I never expected from Bilbo in The Hobbit but nevertheless WOTC felt it necessary to include. Sneak Attack still exists,and the conditions of its use are more lenient than ever before. For those of you who are wondering what happened to the rogues other, non combat abilities you have to turn to the skills section. Third Edition did the rogues proud by mixing their skills in with those other classes can use, but making them the hands down experts with many more points than the other classes. Unfortunately Fourth Edition has dumbed down the skill system considerably. There are much fewer skills than previously and some have been grouped together to encompass a range of previous skills ( Athletics includes climbing, jumping and swimming for example ). Calculating these skills is also simplified so you either know a skill and gain a +5 bonus or you don't. This is a big dissapointment after Third Edition as I always felt the skill system was one of the highlights of the D20 rules.
The warlock is another new class, and one they would never have got away with back in the 80's when D&D was accused of being connected to devil worship. Essentially the warlock is a magic user who has made a pact with a mysterious entity to gain their powers. Although this sounds kind of exciting once again the powers fall into the same At Will, Per Encounter and Per Day structure of every other class. Perhaps the powers do have cool names, but at the end of the day they do the same sort of thing as the wizards spells. One choice the warlock does have for variety is the origin of their powers which can be either Fey, Infernal or Star. However this does not limit a warlocks choice of abilities in any way as they can freely choose from all three sets of powers.
Along with the warlock the warlord class puts in a decidedly unnecessary appearance. Much like a fighter or a paladin the warlord is a warrior class but one that specialises in leading others. Speaking of a characters roles Fourth Edition for some reason finds it necessary to define each classes role during a fight. Here we see once again the influence of MMORPG's like World of Warcraft. No stranger to online gaming I used to hate players who used terms like tank and meat shield to describe classes when others were trying to roleplay. Despite this WOTC have defined all their classes in terms of controllers, defenders, leaders and strikers. Yes, suddenly I discover Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings was actually a striker, Adon in The Avatar Trilogy was actually a leader and Conan as a fighter type is technically a defender. Thank you for defining these roles for us WOTC but I think we are capable of roleplaying and deciding for ourselves how our characters will react in combat. This is thankfully one of those changes which while I don't like it I can easily ignore it and pretend it isn't there. The warlord meanwhile remains a class which doesn't really need to exist.
Finally we have the wizard which, as I have already mentioned doesn't need to memorise spells anymore. Instead they can be used, just like the other classes powers, or as I couldn't help imagining like the wizard in the old arcade game Gauntlet. Each round they casually shoot off magic like they were throwing snowballs. Perhaps its just me but somehow this all made it seem a little less magical. Instead of using Magic Missile each round the character may as well be using a flamethrower or an M14 for all the dramatic impact it had. Outside of the fight wizards have only a limited number of At Will powers to choose from and this leads me back to the Rituals chapter mentioned earlier. Perhaps I'm being cynical but it seemed to me that the fact that Rituals are at the back of the PHB is because they are an afterthought ? WOTC must have realised that not every ability is combat orientated and a few might even be useful outside of the dungeon. These odd little powers are thrown in at the end for wizards to spend money on buying the components for and casting while everybody else is sitting around wondering what happened to the bard.
In case you were wondering he doesn't exist anymore, replaced no doubt by the more combat orientated warlord. Gone too is the short lived sorcerer, the barbarian, the monk and the druid. Multi classing does exist but only as a cheap way of gaining some of the feats and abilities of another class rather than as an actual joining of the two. No doubt those classes removed from Players Handbook 1 will reappear in one of the many supplemental products WOTC are publishing for Fourth Edition. Which brings me to another niggling point. While the PHB, the DMG and the MM are all fairly priced at around £20 each, the Fourth Edition itself is quite obviously an exercise in strategic marketing. Along with the basic books you will need miniatures ( low quality plastic versions available from WOTC ), battle maps ( produced by WOTC ) and various rules books, campaign books and adventures ( all reprinted for Fourth Edition by WOTC ). In addition to this D&D is attempting to go on line with what they call D&D Insider, which will require a monthly subscription cost, to, you guessed it, WOTC. Although I realise that RPG's are a competitive market and many smaller companies have gone under, the ruthlessness of this marketing is quite shocking. WOTC's recent refusal to allow Paizo Publishing to provide low cost PDF's of their old products is a clear sign of this. I think back with some degree of fondness to the early days of RPG's where adventures for rival companies games would appear in magazines and gaming products were designed to be compatible with other companies rules.
In Conclusion
Which finally brings me to the end of this lengthy review and one final thought as to what WOTC were aiming for with this product. Obviously they are looking to keep the pen and paper RPG market alive by drawing in some of the MMORPG market. Unfortunately what they are doing is alienating their existing market. Reading the rules I could not help but think that they are trying to recreate the experience of an online game. Your powers are endless as long as you have time to rest between uses, and your health too will regenerate through healing surges. This reminds me of watching your blue or green energy bars slowly recover after a big fight in World of Warcraft. In a similar way the games emphasis on rapid level and power gains, on character builds, on its use of MMORPG terms for each classes role, and its complete disregard for non combat abilities, all suggest a simulation of a computer game. Unfortunately though I play D&D because it is a roleplaying game, not a computer game. If I play World of Warcraft it is a poor substitute for pen and paper roleplaying and I see no need to try and simulate this in a game which was previously superior.
I have tried to be as positive as possible in reviewing the new PHB but my final thoughts are that it is virtually unplayable for the sort of game I wish to play. There are some great new ideas here and I don't want to dismiss them just because they have not been tried before. However, the rules as they stand allow for only one type of game - a high powered, combat heavy campaign in a highly magical world. Removing one element of these new rules, such as the healing surges, leaves nothing to replace them ( one cure light wounds per day is not going to keep high level characters alive ). While the new system has made an attempt to streamline the game the result is the exact opposite. Running though a few simulations of combat you start to realise how much slower the game is, even compared to Third Edition, which could get pretty bogged down at high levels. A previous reviewer described the game as soulless and I can understand what he means. While I wanted to like this new edition I think I for one will be using my perogative and sticking with Third Edition, or maybe Paizo's new Pathfinder game. Perhaps D&D Fifth Edition will be better ?
Review Summary