Customer Reviews
A radical departure - By: C. Sladdin, 01 Aug 2008 
Right let's get the obligatory credentials out of the way; I have been a DM for over 15 years, starting with AD&D 2nd ed. I have run a campaign that spanned 2nd ed, 3.0 & 3.5.
I have loved every one of the editions & I still remember the furore about the old 3.0 (what? No THAC0!?). My gut reaction to what I readin this book was "what on earth have they done!?" I have now had a chance to digest it & can summarise my findings below:
Negatives:
1) Certain iconic elements have disappeared such as the druid & barbarian classes & the gnome & half-orc races.
2) Limited opportunities for character development. There is little to distinguish one fighter from another. Furthermore spells have been rebranded as powers which can be used either at will, by encounter or daily. These powers are mainly of the combat variety. Other more utilitarian spells such as scrying or long range teleportation have become rituals, accessible to anyone with the correct feats. Begs the question how do you charm the guard to get him to smuggle youin to the villain's castle?
3) Skills are fixed by your class & you can't change them once you select them at creation.
Positives:
1)Gameplay is sped up considerably by the use of these powers. The myriad combinations of modifiers are gone (no more need for spreadsheets!).
2) Combat is fluid with lots of movement & use of terrain.
3) Interrupt actions allow you to respond immediately to your opponents.
4) The game is much, much simpler.
In summary, if you are a diehard 2nd or 3rd ed supporter, I would recommend having a thorough look at this new system before you part with your hard earned. If you are a new player & want to get into role playing this would be a quick easy way. I will use 3.5 for my main campaign which is with my university friends, who are all seasoned gamers. However I will use 4.0 for local play which will be once a week for 3-4 hours therefore needs to be fast & furious. I will however be designing a homecooked skills system & iconic characters such as the barbarian & bard.
D&D Vista - By: Mr. R. A. Bearman, 08 Jul 2008 
Yup, this is to D&D3.5 what Vista is to XP. In short 3.5 only needed a little tweeking here & there to make it perfect. So what do Wizards of the Coast do? They completely re-make the game & balls it right up.
It looks very pretty. :P (just like Vista)And at first glance looks to be well laid out & easy to use, but this is a lie. When you start lookingin depth you find numerous rules & annotations that are badly explained (if at all). Then theres the classes & races that have been replaced. WHY? There are some good ideasin here but I personaly am feeding this book to the recycle bin & going back to 3.5 It still works.
too old for 4th edition... but too young to stop rolling dice - By: Nathan Mimble, 02 Jul 2008 Now we know what killed Gary Gygax...... the final ripping out of D&D's quirky soul! Everything is perfectly balanced, no more supermen half-orcs wielding the hammer of thunderbolts with gauntlets of ogre power & a girdle of storm giant strength... no more gimped gnome illusionist/thieves
Pretty sad for an old timer, but I am sure the new players will enjoy their squad based adventures with floor plans & plastic figures.. after all the plastic figures are much cheaper than Warhammer figures!
Edit: Having taken time to play 4ed, something strange becomes apparent: hidden beneath a lot of MMORPG jargon are the seeds of D&D.
It would appear that 4ed was designed to be instantly understandable to any MMORPGer, even if they have never played a tabletop game before. To this extend the Players handbook & Dungeonmasters Guide are swamped with some of the most awful gaming jargon I have ever read. However, & this is the important part, the designers have managed to keep alive a glowing ember of what makes D&D special & once you have waded through the jargon you get to the heart of the game.
Playing the game was supposed to be streamlined & faster than 3/3.5 ed, this just isn't the case. Rolling characters is a bit quicker but the combat is longer... but fun.
Allin all, I would award another star & a half..... D&D is not quite dead yet!
First Impressions a Great Edition - By: D. Pillow, 27 Jun 2008 
Like many people here i have being playing DnD for many years now & ever since I heard about the realise of 4th Edition I've been waiting with great expectation, & after getting the core rultebook I have to admit it is well worth the upgrade from 3.5 for which I have been used to.
Whats good about this edition is that it does remove alot of problems provided by 3.5 with regard the sheer volume of skills, feats & complexaty of DMing out of the gamein the previsous editions & as a whole does seem a lot more balanced game. I haven't had chance to run my own game yetin 4th edition as my views have come from first impressions of this book, hence I i gave 4/5. In conclusion I would say it is great for new players to RPG & DM's alike although Previous DnD lovers out there may take some time to really enjoy it.
Hope this helps!
Interesting System, But It's Not D&D - By: J. Sivyer, 25 Jun 2008 
OUT:
Gnomes, Druids, Sorcerers, Barbarians, Bards, Skill Ranks, variety of spells, 9 fields of alignment, great weapon, equipment & armour selection.
IN:
Dragonborn, Tieflings, Warlord, Warlock, Eladrin, healing surges, at-will powers.
Throughout the years of D&D & its various editions we have come to assume certain things, but now much of them have gone.
I am not going to debate why this has been done by the designers, because so many people already have, but I will tell you what effect it has had on my love for the game.
It's not the game I know. Not anymore. It's a completely different system called D&D, that's it. I can't convert my 3.5 character to 4e. It's impossible. Don't have the same spells to choose from, skills, etc.
All characters can heal themselves. All characters can dish out some sort of magical damage every round. It feels like a computer game (I know this has been said a lot, but it's true.)
The intricacies of the game have been removed. The uniqueness of each character class have been blurred. Miniatures are pretty much 100% required. The flavour of classes, monsters, etc, has been replaced by stats & powers.
Of course, this is all my opinion (except for the INS & OUTS which are facts), but it just doesn't feel like D&D. It's something else.
I wanted to like it, I really did. I TRIED to like it, I truly tried. But I don't. I feel like it's written for a newcomer & not an rpg fan. I feel like they're insulting my intelligence by making things simple & saying "Look, you've got something you can do (bash or blast things) every round." What happened to tactics & trying to make something of nothing? What happened to using your brain when you've got no spells or you're down to a few hit points?
Just my opinion, of course. But that's how it comes across to me.
As an entirely new system it's interesting & got some potential. But it's not D&D. The staples have gone, sometimes for seemingly no apparent reason. I am confused as to why.
Oh, well...what can you do? Me? What I will do is keep playing 3/3.5 & lament that fact that I purchased the PHB. Luckily I didn't go with my first thought & buy the boxed set.
Not impressed. I understand a business has to make money, but...I can't help but feel like WOTC doesn't give a damn about what their fans actually want or think.
I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but...D&D (as it is now) holds no interest for me whatsoever.
