Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition

Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition seems to be an attempt to both streamline and modularize the iconic game system. The problem is, the streamlining and modularization has turned the game into something that is definitely NOT Dungeons and Dragons. A few words and names remain the same, but the game no longer plays or feels like previous editions. As others have put it, the heart and soul of the experience has been ripped out and replaced with working - but artificial - mechanisms.

"Powers" represent the biggest change to the rules. Every class has the same number of base powers per level, but the powers must be chosen from their specific class's list. Powers also fit into different categories - At Will, Encounter, Daily, and Utility. Their name implies how often they can be used ("At Will" can be used over and over again, Daily can only be used once a day, etc..). Due to the extremely limited maximum number of powers a character can know (and the fact that the character gains access to new powers after a few levels), players will find their characters losing access to old powers in order to gain new ones - a mechanism that can destroy the "feel" of the character (especially in the case of Wizards, a class used to having a diverse selection of spells to memorize). There also isn't a solid in-game reason as to why certain powers work the way they do, other than the powers were shoe-horned into the current system in an attempt at modularization (EX: the rogue can only use a Knockout strike once a day; a wizard can cast magic missile constantly).

The Player's Handbook itself is not an easy book to read. Entries and explanations are scattered throughout the text, so those attempting to learn the game system will find themselves constantly skipping back and forth in order to figure out what is going on. What would pass for a glossary in most books is split up and inserted into multiple chapters, and the index is much too incomplete to be very useful. The style of the artwork has also changed again, and will leave those that loved the more realistic paintings of second edition screaming in agony and those that enjoyed the more fanciful creations of third edition with a bad taste in their mouth.

I can not recommend buying this book to anyone, nor can I recommend this edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game. If anyone is interested in learning D&D, I suggest buying a copy of the second or third edition rules and starting from there.

What a strange beast this new game is.

Hasbro has changed Dungeons and Dragons so radically as to make it unrecognizable from the D&D so many of us grew up with. Gone are the endless ways to customize a character- the proficiencies, the spell lists, the multitude of races and classes to draw on- that were the hallmark of the sometimes unwieldy AD&D of years past. Instead, Hasbro has scaled the races and classes back to an odd handful of old and new (dwarves, elves and... dragonborn?) that are primarily cosmetic, and replaced the proficiency lists and spellbooks with endless combat feats and combat powers, combat exploits and combat spells, combat, combat, combat. Yes, combat, always a major part of any D&D session, has now taken not just center stage but the whole damn opera, and once and for all overwhelmed all other aspects of the game.

This is simply too bad. Although the old system had many, many flaws, its heart was always in the right place. It was a *role-playing* system, designed to allow its players to create nearly any kind of character from their imaginations, and to lay out traits and abilities that made that character play unlike any other. In 4th Edition, players design characters that are all too similar to each other (the combat powers for each class, despite all the pages devoted to them, are actually quite limited and homogeneous), and put them through the paces of combat after combat that play out in far too similar a way. True, a bare handful of skills provide evidence that the designers at least considered the possibility of RP outside of battle, but it is clear that their inclusion was little more than an afterthought.

If the new rules were introduced as their own miniatures game without the baggage of the D&D name, this review would be more favorable. After all, the new combat system is solid, and battles play out in a generally dynamic, engaging fashion, at least for an encounter or two. But by using the Dungeons and Dragons brand, and worse, discontinuing 3.5, Hasbro forces the comparison to older incarnations. Simply put, there is far too much missing from 4th Edition for it to seem like anything other than a shadow of its former selves.

I realize this isn't a helpful review, but the word "pathetic" is so prevalent in my mind it's taking all of my effort not to just type that word over and over and over. This is a video game on paper. Unless you are aged 8-12, avoid this product.

D&D, oh what a nerdy mistress that sucked me in during College (which I'm still in...). I started with 3.5 and within 2 years, I was a min-maxing, multiclassing, boss one-shotting player of win. I loved 3.5, I own multiple supplements and splash books and loved readying and delving for tweaks and this and that to find awesome stuff to supplement my characters, my last being a Cleric of unstoppable force, almost, with a Will save nearing 40 at around level 13~ or so... if that's any scale of what I had going on.

Now this is when the reader should stop and ask, wait? Ken, did you miss click and give D&D 4eth Ed 5 stars by accident?

No. No I did not.

For all the whining and bellyaching going on by the "hardcore" [sic] group here and everywhere, 4th edition is amazing. Without being bogged down by endless rules, side books, and meaningless drudgery in combat, I finally feel confident in running a campaign of my own which started last week. I was not prepared in the least, but with reading the Master's Guide (another great book, even for 3.5 users, as a basis of how to DM for any role playing game!) I was able to make up saves, checks, and more and had my players, a mixture of seasoned 3.5ers and newbies all impressed with the first session.

The book is easy enough and presents itself well enough that even my girlfriend, daunted by the tower of books my 3.5 friends had stacked around the table, is ever so excited to get blasty with a warlock! Cry on my past looking brethren! I embraced the change and it's a BLAST to play. I hope you, the reader, take the whining with a grain of salt. They do not like it as "change", but if they were to base it off as a new game, I bet many would love it... kind of like the Windows Mojave experiment XD

4th Ed rocks. Plain and simple. Go and enjoy my friends!

I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since the first boxed set and I have looked forward to each new version and this is no exception. Each new version has tried to improve on the core Dungeon and Dragon experience until now. This new version is not really a new version but an entirely new game with very little of the flavor or magic feeling of the original. Now it feels more like a version of WOW or another of the online games. I am not knocking the online games they can be great if that is what you want to play but if you are looking for an intense good old fashioned role playing session with a group of your friends this new version is not for you unless you are under 12. If you are an experienced role player I would suggest that you save your money and stick to 3.5 there should be a lot of second hand material for that around and several other good companies are still supporting it like Necromancer Games. I wish those people bought Dungeons and Dragons as they know what D&D should feel like. Also look for the games put out by pazzio publishing the company that used to put out the Dragon and Dungeon. In short if you are a veteran of the Dungeons and Dragons and enjoyed the old game save your money or better yet spend it elsceware there are a lot of fine games out there unfortunately this company is no longer make such products.