After 14 years playing the same game, Dungeons & Dragons never fails to impress me with reinventing that old wheel. I survived the jump from 2nd to 3rd edition, even when I swore I would never change. No proficiencies or THAC0? Bah, it was garbage. Several years later, looking back at 2nd edition, it appeared prehistoric. The torch is passing again and I am prepared for this change, gathering the core books first week and diving head-first into new rules and ideas. What did I find there? I am still wondering a bit, but am excited by the potential.
“The World Needs Heroes” the back of the Player's Handbook strongly proclaims. While this book cannot make us heroes, it does provide the rules necessary to create an avatar to live out heroic fantasy. Yes, the Players Handbook begins as we always expect, with what is a role-playing game. I would love to meet someone who needs to read this portion, who picks this type of game up without the influence of a person who plays?
I can tell you who would put this book back down: anyone who plays gnomes or half-orcs, as they are the first thing I notice strangely missing from the standard races. With the new edition, Wizards of the Coast have made way for Dragonborn (humanoid dragons), Eladrin (High Elf Fairies), and Tieflings (think Hellboy). These races join all the other races we have come to know (Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Human). This is most likely an attempt to pull Dungeons and Dragons away from the generic fantasy that permeates so much of gaming. Also, new players are dying to play the “dragon dudes” as I gather from my new gaming group.
Next, we come to what really shapes a character, the class. Something seems off in the list here as well. No Druids, bards, monks, barbarians, or sorcerers grace the pages here, along with what classes you have come to expect we have the new Warlock and Warlord. Beginning with classes, you can begin to sense the effect World of Warcraft has had over the entire gaming world. The classes are described with roles that are only a few synonyms removed from Tank, DPS etc... The plan here is to quickly pull in MMO players that are looking for something new.
Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition has a key thing that will spin old D&D players on their heads and bring instant understanding to the MMO crowd. These things are called Powers. Powers are something every class has and really is what differentiates them. Powers are everything from tactical attacks to magical abilities. These powers are set up so that the more powerful the power, the less frequent its use. This gives magic users simple spells that can be thrown an almost unlimited amount of times in a single battle. Unheard of in Dungeons and Dragons, but a common understanding in MMORPGs. The power system makes playing each class only a matter of tactical change, and not one of additional rule learning.
For every bit of organization that the Player's Handbook handles well, it fails in other respects. The new powers use a color coding system that is simple and quickly grasped. It really makes looking at powers an easy experience. However, finding numbers, such as what is added to an attack or number of powers earned can be a little frustrating. Removing charts and numbers is obviously a goal with 4th edition since that can intimidate new players, however the difficulty I sometimes have had searching for bits of information has led to cursing and frustration.
Organizational qualms aside, Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition seems like a smart move and looks as though play will be pleasant and have more tactics than it has seen in a long time. Once a game has been ran you can expect more details and maybe an adventure from the crew here at LANgaming.net.
