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Tinky Winky
Australia
Yungaburra
Queensland
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Back in the early 90's I got my first start role-playing with FASA's Mechwarrior RPG, then moved on to AD&D. My group spent a year or so with it before we became totally hooked on Star Wars D6- which is amazing. I loved the fantasy theme of AD&D, and I found it considerably more approachable than rolemaster and its derivative Middle Earth RPG, but it often felt like the combat just wasn't fun. I would find myself going through the motions of combat just waiting for the chance to start role playing again. It also became clear that that some of the classes didn't really go anywhere (fighter), while others become the stars of the show (wizard).
Having not played D&D for many years (15+), I was very interested to find out what had changed in 4th edition. Reading through the book rekindled my interest in role playing, so I got a group of players together to try out the new D&D! I have been DMing using the book for over a year now, so I thought it was time to post a review of my thoughts. As the PH is the main book I thought I'd start with a review of it, then I might review the Monster Manual and some of the other books I use.
In this review I'm going to talk about the production values of the book- the writing, artwork, layout, and design. I will then talk about the game- ease of use, rules changes, playability.
Production Values:
The writing present in PH is generally clear and functional. I had some problems with acronyms being used before they were explained, and the writers seemed to assume some familiarity with 3rd edition, but the writing is very good. Some books, for example the Vampire books by White Wolf or the Warhammer Fantasy books, have evocative fluff text to create a setting or mood, but PH does not. It's understandable because the book is already packed, but it does leave the game world seeming a little bland. Perhaps this is deliberate so the core rules don't conflict with the different campaign settings available for separate purchase. Perhaps they assume we know what a high fantasy world is like.
I found the PH's artwork to be exceptional from cover to cover. There is a wealth of full colour original artwork, and it is obvious that Wizards of the Coast has a team of very talented artists working on their products. The artwork has a bit of a cartoony style which may not appeal to everyone, but I think it is excellent. Often in role playing books you expect a few really dud images, but this is not the case with the PH. In the combat section there is also excellent use of photographs of miniatures which do a great job of demonstrating the rules. It is obvious that Wizards has gone all out on this production and they have done a fantastic job. It helps the book to feel like good value for money.
While I never owned a copy of the 3rd edition books, I did flip through some in the bookstore. One of the things that struck me about it was the terrible design. The covers were completely over the top, and the boarders were obtrusive and distracting. Fortunately for 4th edition Wizards has calmed down the design department. The layout is clean, neat, and easy to read. The addition of special boxes that contain monster and trap statistics is a great idea. As are the addition of the power cards. You can see in the one clear box everything you need to know. It also helps separate the games stats so it is not lost in the rests of the text. The new character sheet is a bit cluttered for my tastes, but this is a complicated game and there is a lot to keep track of so it is probably unavoidable. After a few sessions I got the hang of where everything was put. All in all the design of this PH has improved no end over my old AD&D PH.
As far as role playing game rule books go this is a very slick product in my opinion. My only complaint was a lack of flavour text.
9 out of 10
The Game:
As a DM returning to D&D after a 16 year absence, I really did feel like I was starting all over when I first read this book. I had no experience with 3rd edition, and could only dimly remember the conventions of D20 gaming. From this perspective I actually had some trouble with the PH- mainly during character creation. I found it a little hard to understand, and I think the character creation steps could have been better explained. Unfortunately during character creation you repeatedly find yourself being sent to different parts of the book that don't immediately tell you what you need to know. In the end I found it much easier to just use the demo character building software available from the Wizards web site (DDI). I think this is a shame, and while I have got the hang of it now it makes the book quite intimidating for new players. I have to say after using DDI for a while it did become more obvious how different stats were arrived at. In contrast to the character creation section, I found the combat section of the book to be very clear and easy to understand. The index and table of contents are also both very helpful.
As I mentioned earlier, I loved the idea of a fantasy RPG but just did not really enjoy AD&D as a game. In my opinion it was slow, tedious, confusing, and lacked interesting tactical choices in combat. It was just dull and slow to resolve compared to more dynamic systems like Star Wars D6. It is obvious that this is where they have put a lot of work into changing 4th edition. The different character classes have lots of combat options, and there are lots of opportunities for players to make tactically significant decisions. Combat can be thrilling, and I had no trouble keeping players on the edge of their seats with difficult and challenging combat encounters. As a DM I tend to prefer more decisive combat, so I did find myself increasing monster damage while decreasing the hit points- but this is a personal preference.
The most obvious rules change to me was this new thing called combat powers. Now all classes have special attacks, not just wizards. For fighters they are able to do interesting things with their turn rather than just hacking away. Thieves for example can attack their opponents eyes blinding them. Fighters can mark opponents forcing them to duel- which helps them to protect the weaker characters. The list of powers for each class is extensive and allows players a wide array of customisation options and makes combat a bit like an interesting tactical board game. Powers are divided into different types- some that can be used every turn and others that need to recharge. I think this system is much better than the old system of memorising spells. The idea of wizards needing to memorise their spells each day always seemed hokey to me.
Another major difference I noticed from AD&D is that 4th edition assumes you will use a battle grid and miniatures or tokens of some kind. This was a change for me, but once I tried it I quite liked the idea. Using a combat grid makes the combat easier to understand, and made me think I should have been doing this all along. I was worried that using a combat grid would be expensive and mean buying lots of miniatures (I have already been burned badly by warhammer 40K). In the end however it hardly cost me a cent. I found some tokens online that I printed out and I laminated a sheet of graph paper to draw maps on.
In my opinion the PH has most of what you need to run a campaign, with plenty of race and class options. I know some have expressed the opinion that important races and classes are missing. Half-orc, gnome, and barbarian, shaman, bard, etc. are in the second players handbook not this one. I don't think this is a huge problem, but if you want the extra choices you might want to pick up PH2 as well.
Once you get the hang of character creation, the rest of the book is easy to follow and easy to use. The 4th edition changes to combat make it more interesting and fun, and I think the game scales better for higher level characters.
8 out of 10
Conclusion:
I was surprised at how good the 4th edition PH is. Compared to the TSR days, things have come a long way. The books are better looking and easier to understand. The game is more fun. I would recommend it to any other former players like my self who are interested in getting back into role playing.
Overall score
8.5 out of 10
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John Lopez
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Get off my lawn!
The explanation: Impossible Triangle + TW (my company initials) = my logo.
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The "paper hyperlinked" nature of the book was off-putting to me as well at first. The good news is that it reduces duplication of rules (and therefore inconsistencies in the rules in different places). The bad news is that sometimes you end up jumping through more than one reference to get to what you really want to know.
The most memorable instance of this was reading about the different kinds of "actions" in the overview of classes. (Action Type, P56). It sends you "Action Types" on P267, but as most of the class skills are about combat, it sends you to P286 for more details. Going there you learn about Action Points, which sent me to P259 to learn about milestones.
And so my attempt to understand actions lead on quite the merry chase around the book, with additional detours on extended rest, opportunity attack and other stops before I really had a handle on the text in the class powers blocks.
I'm not sure there is a better way, but I guess I'm used to terms being introduced before they are used: realistically chapters 8 and 9 are required reading before tackling those data blocks in classes (and to a lesser extent races).
The good news: the rules are very easy to look up later and they don't take long to absorb, so such chases through the book are only necessary very early on.
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The Harnish
Germany
Duisburg
NRW
Cult of The Harnish Leader
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An excellent review. What I like most is that you're criticism of the book's assumption that the reader was a 3rd ed player - it's something that even WotC has realized (though they seem to indicate it was intentional) and is one of the reasons they're releasing the essential line in 2010/11: It's aimed at people not transitioning from 3E in to 4E.
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Brian Leet
United States
Montpelier
Vermont
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Great review. I'd love to see more "after one year" reviews to go with it!
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Randy Miller
United States
Westminster
California
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Quote: As a DM I tend to prefer more decisive combat, so I did find myself increasing monster damage while decreasing the hit points- but this is a personal preference.
This is far from just your personal preference. As you have probably noticed, if you compare monsters from the first through the third monster manual you'll see HP and/or defenses generally decrease, and damage generally increase. Likewise if you check out the errata of the DMG monster creation rules.
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Posted Wed Apr 7, 2010 9:27 am
