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Average Customer Rating:

Part innovation, part oversimplification, part scam.

Customer Rating:

The 4th edition of D&D isn't the game you've been waiting for--unless you've been waiting for a compromise between earlier D&D and the eighties arcade game GAUNTLET. 4E has admirably simplified a number of mechanics that ate up too much game time in editions past, but 4E works too hard to please an audience that that wants its wish fulfillment fantasies now, and can't be bothered to wait. Take the new edition's default treatment of magic items. The PLAYER'S HANDBOOK now contains detailed descriptions of magic items (so players can start pestering the DM with a "wish list"). When player characters find a magic item, they know what it does, regardless of their class, level, whatever--no longer do they need a wizard to Identify the magic loot to determine what it does. Only rarer stuff, like "cursed or nonstandard items" might prompt the DM to "ask for an Arcana check to determine their properties" (223). So telling a Staff of Storms from a Staff of Winter is as simple as reading the staff's implied label. However, the same character lost in the woods will still have to make Nature skill checks in order to identify edible plants. Yet 4E turbo-charges first-level characters, giving them hit point totals and combat powers that a 3E or 3.5E character wouldn't have until 5th level or so. Weak foes like hoodlums or skeletons ("minions") will have 3 hit points, yet your first level fighter could easily have 33, and have nine 8-hit-point "healing surges" to use that day. (And if that fighter is a dragonborn, he or she can also breathe fire.) Thus a huge gulf separates even beginning player characters from "normal" people in this world. These two features of the game betray its indebtedness not to the fantasy fiction that inspired the first two editions of D&D, but to video and computer games, where all the player has to do is choose what to stab, or which line of dialogue to click on. (4E is full of quoted cliches that players can use to "role-play" their characters: "Feel the might of Bahamut!" (24).) I could pardon Wizards of the Coast for playing to the peanut gallery if the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK were actually complete, but it leaves out the bard, druid, barbarian, and monk classes--you'll have to buy a forthcoming hardcover book for them. Despite what some defenders have said, the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK is not "everything you need to play the game"--even if you're willing to play this attention-deficit-superhero version of D&D.

Critical Miss = Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition

Customer Rating:

I've been playing D&D now for over 30 years now, grew-up in a time before the internet and video games, when you pretty much used a pen, some paper and your imagination to have fun. Well I was sad to see TSR go(the end of an era), I had hoped that Wizards Of The Coast would keep producing products along the same lines that TSR did, and for awhile it seemed like it, but then Hasbro swooped in and bought the company. Hasbro of course wanting to make $$ decided to total change the game, that way forcing players to go out and buy all new books, there first attempt 3.0 which didn't last that long. Then 3.5 and now 4.0. "video games on paper" their way of trying to get the kids to buy. Give it two or three years and there will be a 4.5 edition. Good going Hasbro! You took a game that generations grew up playing and TOTALLY SCREWED IT UP!!!

A great edition to suplement ver3.5

Customer Rating:

After reading customer reviews and all three 4th edition core books I've come to a great solution. Take everything from the 4th ed books and inject it into your old 3.5 game. I was surprised myself to find that some of my favorite classes and races where not carried over, but I did like the new races and classes, and just the thought of having a Dragonborn Barbarian sounds great. Also I like the fact that the level cap got moved to 30, that means more character development and customization. Just because times and versions change doesn't mean that the older versions that we are all used to have to be out on the back burner.

mediocre edition mediocre play	Customer Rating:
I am currently playing in a 4th edition game. This book is a boring read in comparison to older edition works. At least 50% of this volume is comprised of "powers" for the classes. Heavy emphasis on streamlining every single class to operate like the next one. While combat runs pretty slick the character of the game leaves me uninspired.

When you organize by committee...

Customer Rating:

When I pick up a book, there is an expectation that reading it cover to cover will result in some form of understanding concerning the system. This is not the case with D&D 4e. The index is pretty useless, when something that hasn't been explained yet is mentioned it isn't always in the glossary or index. There isn't anything 'wrong' with the system, but they introduced alot of unnecessary confusion when they let a committee instead of an individual organize the players handbook...