DnD 4th Edition Rundown
By: John Baggett |
Thursday July 31, 2008 |
 |
Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition |
| So, the new Dungeon and Dragon books have been out for a while. It is slowly becoming more accepted, but there are still those of you out there that are not sure you want to give up that bookshelf of 3rd and 3.5 edition books. Well, let me first say that you don't have to. The books are there and you can always run a 3rd edition game whenever you want. If you are like me and many other players, you are willing to give a new system a chance. Many of the players out there had to get over the same hurdle when 3rd edition came out after a long run with AD&D. To put it succinctly, 4th edition is different enough a game to not feel like you wasted your money on the same stuff, but close enough to the basic principles of DnD where you can keep the same types of games running through the life of the system. Below is a break down of the more important chapters of the three core books as well as some Q&A. I say more important chapters, as some, like Chapter 1 of the Player's Handbook, just go over what an RPG is, what dice are and all the things that the gamer already knows. If you are still not sure about the new system, take a read below. PLAYERS HANDBOOK Chapter 2: Character Creation Alignment: Alignment has been changed to a choice of five, converting the Neutral Alignments into the Unaligned and getting rid of Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil. I can understand why they merged the Neutral Alignments, I disagree with the removal of Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil, as I think both were viable alignments deserving of classification. Doesn't keep you from playing along the old lines though, there is just rules that detail them. Progression Tables: I wholly agree with the use of a single progression table for all classes. Not only does this simplify the entire character creation process, but it makes it easier for players to keep track of their level dependent stats when the stats for each character are the same. All attack bonuses, skill check bonuses, and a part of your defenses are based on half your level rounded down. Level Caps: Welcome back 2nd edition! I have mixed feelings on this topic. On the one hand I think adding a level cap to the system forces players to be more aware of how they progress their character (when it comes to feats and power selections). On the other hand I liked the idea that your characters could progress as far as possible without limits, I think that forced DM’s to get more creative in their creature creation and their world building. The level progression takes less experience between levels so players reap the rewards of their play quicker than in the past. Chapter 3: Races No negatives to stats: I like the fact that there are no negative effects for choosing a character race. This will help bring more variety of characters to the games since there is no-longer a serious reason not to play a particular race. Racial powers: an interesting concept for the base races, and I can see where many of them lean towards the class specializations for each race. Will take more extensive game play to really see how these play out. As another note, small characters don't get bonuses to AC and attack, they are just limited to the weapons they can use. One curious race is the Eladrin: I have no clue as to why these are a base race. We already have Elves, and yet for some reason we needed an even more fairy type of elf. Personally, I would have much rather have seen one of the celestial races make it into the player’s handbook to better balance out the Tieflings. Chapter 4: Classes Powers: The heart of the new system, and a very interesting change in the game. I like how everyone now has access to Class Specific abilities that can dramatically change the outcome of the game. This makes the feel of battle much more cinematic in scope and lends strength to the feeling of being on an epic adventure. Paths: The addition of paths seems derivate of MMORPGS, which usually have different specializations for each available class. While I like the addition, as I feel it helps to create a wider variety of characters, as well as provided path specific bonuses for each class, it is obvious that even more time must now be invested in making sure that the party as a whole will be able to work together in the campaign. Spell Casters: I realize that everyone was brought into a balance for simplicity sake, but it seems to me that Spell Casters have gotten nerfed in 4th Edition. Spell Casters, specifically wizards, were always suppose to be the squishy powerhouses that could destroy armies from a distance, but now it seems that, when compared to the abilities provided to the other classes, they really don’t offer as much bang for the buck anymore. I do like that Fireball is a daily spell now, tired of getting hit in the face with those at every tavern. Multiclass: What happen here? Since when do heroes only have time to specialize in only 1 field of study? While I can understand the theory behind the decision, I think removing the multiclass ability from the game was a mistake. And while some of the features can be bought back with feats (5 to be exact) the cost is, in most cases, too high to ever be used. To put it simply, I find it ridiculous that a system has been created that purposely makes it impossible for characters that already exist in the D&D universe (Elminster) to ever exist in 4th edition legally. Looking at the feat list however, there is not a whole lot yet to work with. Once a player has their class and race bassed feat, some classes just can't benefit from the classes like Power Attack. The multiclass feats give you access to powers allowed by a different class. Essentially taking a feat lets you get another attack or support power. Chapter 5: Skills Approved! Not only do I find the simplicity in the system a vast improvement to 3rd edition, but I like that all skills are now leveled together evenly as your progress through the game. This will not only help keep the characters balanced, but will keep them from gaining access to Skill required abilities before they should be able to. Making sure that a rogues skills will be at a certain rank at a certain level lets DMs plan things ahead and not simply hope or suggest that the party rogue has high enough ranks in disable trap to get passed dungeon trickery. Chapter 6: Feats Again, simplicity has been the key to this design, and for the most part I would have to say it was a success. I approve in the use of level dependent system, which helps to make sure that the party stays more balance then in the past. I also like that some feats increase in power as your progress through the campaign and gain levels (Toughness and Power Attack). My only real complaint is the multiclass feats but that has already been discussed Chapter 7: Equipment This section hasn't changed all that much except that certain weapons now give a bonus to attack if you are proficient with them. There is no critical threat range anymore, you simply do max damamge if a 20 is rolled. There are a few weapons that will do more when criting and they are noted I like that magic items are now level dependent. Again, I think this helps keep parties more balanced while still making better equipment available to even low level characters. A +6 level max. Seems weird after so many years with a +5 as the max, but I guess it makes more sense than separating the progression every 6 levels. Chapter 9: Combat Combat/Defense: Nice, simple, easy to understand. I especially like that Fort, Ref, and Will now act as defenses rolls instead of saves. This makes more sense to me and plays out better than the previous rules. Combat goes by allot faster because of it. Saves: I especially like this decision. 50% chance every turn to get out of a lasting effect. To me, this goes much better with the idea of playing a Hero than a poor character forever stuck with a debilitating curse. Death Save: “If you roll 20 or higher but have no healing surges left expressed as a negative number, your condition doesn’t change.” How do you express Healing Surges as a Negative Number? I was pretty sure that 0 was the lowest you can go, and according to all the math books I ever read, Zero is not a negative number. Seems like poor wording to me. Chapter 10: Rituals Basically they took a selection of spells and made them available to anyone with the Ritual Magic ability, which can be taken with a feat if you don’t have a class with the ability built in. An interesting concept, I’ll need to explore it more fully in game before I can really comment on the practical applications. Any class that takes the feat needs to have a decent back story though, as I think a Fighter with the Ritual Magic feat would really need to explain how he came to know these Rituals. DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE The Dungeon Masters Guide was really hard to read at first, for one glaringly obvious reason. It’s 4th edition! I’ve already run campaigns from the original D&D rules all the way to 3.5, so on my first read through the book came off as preachy, pompous, and particularly useless. However, this book isn’t designed for seasoned veterans; it’s designed for new players interested in running their first campaign to get a feel for the system. With that in mind I have re-read the DMG and decided that, while the book has very little value to old pro’s there is much in the book that a new DM would find useful. Chapters 1 – 9 in particular break down all the key elements of running a campaign into simple, easy to understand. I specifically liked the breakdown of the player types (power gamer made me laugh), the various tables (Disease, Traps, Obstacles), and general good advice in storytelling. Chapter 10: DM’s Tool Box Functional Templates: Nice, easy to apply changes to staple monsters to make them more unique and challenging. I approve. Monster creation seems weird. Not the concepts mind you, but the way it was presented. The entire book is written as if to explain the game to a new player, and yet no grand explanation on monster creation is provided. Just a quick couple of pages and a few tables. Seems a little under developed compared to the rest of the book. Chapter 11: Fallcrest The staple built in low-level campaign. Ran this with a couple of different group dynamics and I honestly don’t think that 5 level 1 characters can make it through this mini-campaign alive. Still, it gives you a good taste of the system, which is all you really need it for. Complaints: Where’s my Magic Item Creation, Intelligent Items, or PC Templates? Again, while this book is useful to first time Storytellers, it is nearly useless for the seasoned gamer. Clearly we’re going to have to wait for the DMG 2 before we get anything we can use for our current campaigns. And speaking of which, where are the 3.5 conversion tables. We had conversion tables for 2nd edition to 3rd edition, but no 3.5 to 4th? The lack of a simple conversion system is going to result in most current DM’s sticking to 3.5 for quite a while, I promise you. MONSTER MANUAL It’s a manual of monsters. All the monsters presented are provided all the necessary information needed to add them to your campaign, either as encounters or as (in some cases) playable races. My only complaint is that it never feels that enough information on the monsters is provided. But then, I guess that’s what the Ecology Books will be for. Q AND A What are your opinions on the individual books? (See above) On a personal note, is it just me or were these books made really cheap. I hope it was limited to the initial release, because at the cost we paid for these books having the ink smear off the page while reading it is really disappointing. How big of a change is 4th edition? It's kind of a weird blending on 2nd Edition and 3.5. Things have been made much simpler as far as mechanics go, and the new powers system seems like it will help to bring more variety of characters to the game while maintaining balance. Is it good or bad? Overall, I would have to say I am happy with the direction the game is moving in. What is your favorite class and why? Rogue. Always has been, always will be. Could be because I have a 20 year old Rogue PC, but who knows:) In all honesty, Rogues look like their going to be a power-gamer class, allowing for creative gamers to take advantage of some broken abilities, and power-gaming is where I live. How solid are the rules? For the most part they them seem solid. I have issues with some of the skill checks, specifically how healing will only stabilize a character that is dying (seems wasteful to need to continuously roll the heals) but overall I have no complaints. Does it seem like they can be abused? There will always be ways to abuse rules in D&D. Off the top of my head, there are rules in the DMG that state for characters starting at levels higher than first, give them access to magic items 1 level lower than their current level, one at their level, and one above their level. So strictly speaking, as explained by the book, any character starting at level 2 can have 3 magic items. Thats where DM discretion comes into play. How clear are the rules? For the most part the rules are pretty straight forward. There were a few questionable word choices, such as the strange mention of “expressed as a negative number”, but careful re-reading of a rule will eventually work out the misunderstandings. Is combat better or worse? I'd say it's better. The simplicity of the new combat system allows for combat to flow faster with less confusion to the people involved. Always a good thing. What is your opinion on game balance? Surprisingly, Spell casters to me seem like they got shorted on the power scale. For a class limited to cloth, I thought the pay out in Booms would make up for it, but you really don't get anymore bang that the other classes. There was suppose to be an earth shattering kaboom. All classes are on the same level, more or less, but it will take some time delving into the higher levels of the game to know for sure. |
|
|
|
|