Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 22, 2008 13:30:17 GMT -5
I recently joined the RPGA Living Forgotten Realms campaign being hosted at our FLGS and run by WGR member FundinStrongarm. As this would be my first experience with the new 4e rules I picked myself up a Players Handbook and attempted to read and make a character with it in two days. While I did get a character made, I'm not sure how accurate I was and I definitely didn't finish the book. Since that time I have now played one game and gone back and pretty much finished the bulk of the PHB (I didn't read every power or every feat, or ever item for example). So here is my initial review of the book and my first play experience with the new rules:
Quickly: Not the same D&D, somewhat hard to read. The game works and plays great though.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]I doubt this needs much of an introduction. This is the first Core Rulebook for the latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons. This contains rules for Martial, Arcane and Divine Heroes as well as rules for Skills, Feats, Magic Items, Combat and Rituals. Interestingly there will be future Players Handbooks for other types of Heroes like Barbarians and Psionics. I do not know if these will repeat the skill, feat, combat and other non class/race rules.
The book is broken down into a new order from the old rules, with combat falling to the back of the book along with most of the other rules for interacting with players, mobs and the environment. In fact the rules for skills don't start until page 267. The book starts off with what is probably the best introductions to roleplaying I have ever read. It goes into detail about roleplaying, what this game is, why you would want to play it, and how you go about playing it. More time is spent in the first section on character concepts and gaming concepts then rules. This was a huge surprise to me based on all of the reviews talking about the new D&D Boardgame that is out now.
After explaining the key concepts, the game gets into details about stats, races and classes. Every race includes roleplaying tips and character traits and a 'why would I play this' section. The classes had the same. There is a pretty significant section on filling out your characters quirks, style and motivation as well. A good description of alignments and religion is also included in the first three chapters. Interestingly alignments have been simplified down to 5 key ones, Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil and Chaotic Evil. The gods were a mix from the last edition of D&D, old Campaign settings and what I think are new blood. The Races included are very different from previous editions, with a lot more flavor. There is your typical Elf, Human and Dwarf. Along with them are the still changing skinny halflings (last edition they reminded me of kender, now they just seem like half sized humans), the Dragonborn (Remind me of Draconians from Dragonlance, but much more powerful, with an old school Paladin like Honour system, The Eladrin (Elves that are more Fey then Elf) and the Tieflings (formerly of the Planescape setting). Each race includes the usual racial abilities (now called Powers), stat modifiers, starting languages, bonus feats, etc.
Chapter 3: Classes is the bulk of the book. It takes up 3/4 of the text. This is due to the complete change in the way characters are made. They aren't made now, they are built. This immediately makes me think of Guild Wars and the feeling still stands after playing the game. At each level a player selects from a group of powers. These come in 4 Flavors. At-Will powers that can be used any time. Encounter powers that can be used once per encounter. Daily Powers that can be used once a day, and Support Powers - which you get at level 2 and I haven't look at yet (sorry). What's intersting is you can only have 2 At-Will powers, 1 Encounter power and 1 daily power 'equipped'. At each level you have the option of changing out one of these equipped powers for another power (usually a more powerful one you got at your new level). Along with these class powers, your character may have additional powers from Race or Feats, or Background. These don't affect the 2 at use, 1 encounter and 1 daily power limit. So what you end up with when you finish "building" your charactrer is a set of stats, and a set of powers that you use during combat or skill challenges. So what are these powers:
In general powers are your 'standard actions' you take each round. In older versions of D&D these standard actions were usually Attack for the fighters and thieves and Cast for the spellcasters. This is all replaced by the new power system. For Example, as an At-Will standard Action my Paladin could do the following - he could do a Base Attack (a Str vs AC attack), he could do a Holy Strike (a Str vs AC attack that gets bonus wisdom damage) or he could do a Vengeful Strike (a Str cs AC attack that gets a bonus to hit for every foe around me), or he could do a Guardian Strike (a Cha vs AC attack that gives temporary hp). Those are all At-Will actions I would choose from every round. In addition I had a couple of Encounter Powers - the first was Lay On Hands (which let me heal someone by giving up some of my daily healing), the second was another Strike - this one doing double damage and giving some healing. My last option was to use my daily ability that did a whopping 3x damage and healed an ally whether or not I hit. Along with these power options, I could of course do any other standard action like Charge, or Bull Rush. Other examples of At Use Powers were our parties Warlock who used a Ray of Frost nearly every round, or our Rangers, Dual Strike which let him attack twice each round. Everything from Magic spells to Psionic powers have now been converted to this same power format. So no longer do you have Spell lists, Wizards just have a list of powers, same as the warriors do. Where the Warrior may have Cleave, the Wizard may have Fireball.
What these powers mean is that everyone has a lot more options in combat. What is also interesting is the way you can combo these. For example I could use a minor Power (you can do one minor action along with a move action and standard each round) to call upon my god, which meant that my next hit, if it hit automatically critted (no more threats, just max damage). This combined with my Daily ability meant that I was able to hit for 42 points of damage in one attack! If we had planned better, our Warlord could have given me a +3 to hit on that attack as well, and I'm sure one of the fighters could have gotten my target into a position where we had combat advantage that would have been another +2 to hit....
Another major change is the way attacking, damage and healing work. This is where saving throws disappear, or well change. Now every power shows how it attacks. It will list a Stat vs A Defense. The defenses are AC (modified by armour, or Dex or Int if light armour is worn), Fortitude Defense (modified by Str or Con), Reflex Defense (modified by Dex or Int) and Will Defense (modified by WIS or CHA). So what happens is an 'attacker' rolls D20 + whatever stat is specified by the power + other bonuses and they are trying to hit the appropriate defense. Most attacks are Str vs AC, but there can be any of the other combinations, for example the Charm Person Power is Cha vs Will and Fireball is Int vs Reflex. Damage can also be modified by any of the 6 stats as specified by the power being used. Damage is still removed from hit points, but the hit point totals are a lot higher, and there is a new level of hurt called Bloodied. This comes into play when you have lost half of your hit points and there are a wide variety of powers that are affected by this new status. Getting those hit points back is a lot easier now. Every character has a number of Healing Surges. These can be spent outside of combat and give 1/4 of your total HP back, and they reset daily. As a standard action, once per encounter you can do the Second Wind action, which lets you spend a healing surge (and also gives +2 on all defenses). Lastly is magical healing - this is done through a wide variety of powers, which usually cost either the caster or target a healing surge and usually give a few extra hp back. For example my Paladin Lay on Hands encounter power lets me spend a healing surge, but then my target gets hp back as if they just spent a healing surge, plus the get bonus HP based on my Wisdom.
Another big change is the tier system. Levels 1-10 are called the Heroic Tier. Here your character improves slowly generally just gaining new powers to replace their low level ones. They will spend their time fighting minor hordes, minions, and lesser beasts. At level 11 the characters hit the Paragon Tier. Here they choose a paragon path that grants them significant power. This reminds me of a Prestige class from 3.5. The characters begin taking part in adventures that save whole cities, whole continents and potentially whole worlds. At 21st level you enter the Epic Tier where you choose an Epic Destiny. Here again the characters power takes a significant jump and they begin battling to save all life, or potentially even an entire plane of existence. I'll admit very little experience with these concepts, but I did read through the changes and the concept and it seemed pretty interesting.
The rest of the system changes are minor. Things like, diagonals are always counted as once square, the fact that Dwarves now move slower, the actual combat stats of various weapons, etc.
Once last note on setting. They too D&D and turned it into Warhammer without Chaos. Well at least that's how I see it. They refer to the world style as "Points of Light" where cities and other bastions of society, or havens if you will are separated by vast areas of danger and darkness. Basically setting up the world as a bunch of home bases with adventure surrounding them. As noted, it reminds me alot of the set up for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay with the cities being the only havens and the wilderness outside being as frightful as any dungeon and ripe with adventure and danger.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow] Overall it reminds me quite a bit of Magic the Gathering or another CCG. Each level your build your deck of powers and abilities out of a growing pool. You can try to make combos with our powers, or with the powers of the other characters in your group. Reading this from the book as well as reading reviews online I didn't like the way this sounded at all. It made D&D sound like a glorified board or card game. Okay sure in some ways it is, but it's a good thing! I found combat in this system to be the most fun I have playing a tactical combat system. It was hands and feet above 3.5. The sheer variety of combat options just for my own character was amazing and you get to combine that with the possible combinations of 5 other characters.
I didn't note it above as it's not part of the PHB and I wasn't sure exactly how to describe it but the Skill Challenge rules are rather elegant. They actually really lead to a lot of roleplay with our group and made for an interesting break from the combat encounters. Basically it's a new resolution system for non-combat encounters where the DM presents a problem, and players come up with ways to use their skills to try to solve it. What the DM is looking for is for characters to come up with creative ways to apply their skills and then a set number of successful skill checks using the skills deemed appropriate. I've read a couple reviews on it and no one seems to be able to describe it well, the point is though, that it worked and it actually encouraged roleplaying.
About roleplaying in general. I found that there was still a lot of this going on. The removal or lack of roleplaying from 4e is a heated debate here online, but I definitely didn't see it in the game I played. Between people talking in character during combat, to non-combat encounters with NPCs and Patrons I found there was more roleplaying in this one session of D&D 4e then there was in the last 3 of my 3.5 sessions. In addition, as noted in the summary section, the PHB spends a lot of time discussing roleplaying, and how it can and should be a part of the game. We also seemed to spend very little time Metagaming, so much so that at one point the GM said, why don't you guys just let the person with the highest skill roll, which made more sense, but we were busy talking in charactrer, and actually not using numbers.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]A lot of bookkeeping. The first thing I had a hard time with is figuring out how to keep track of all my powers. I had to know which I had to start, then I had to know which I used, then know which once refreshed after combat, etc. Now every player present at the game had their own system. Some used Cards in card condoms, some just used the spaces on the character sheet (which has room for the names of powers but no rules) others like me had to have the phb open in front of me at all times, with notes all over my sheet keeping track of what I had and had not used. To add to the confusion, there is all this 'marking' in combat. Warriors can Mark their Targets, Paladins can Mark Their Targets, Archers can aim at a specific Target, you have to declare who your dodge is on, bloodied combatants have to be indicated etc. Thats a ton to keep track of. I have seen a few different solutions for this online and the one our GM used worked pretty well (1/4 inch thick coloured magnetic disks) but even our nicely colour coded system didn't work so great in close quarters with guys stacked on 5 or more disks.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]I can't put my finger on exactly what it was about it that made it so, but the PHB was hard to read. I've never had such a hard time trying to get through the basics of a system on short notice. I think with 3.5 I was rolling up my first character after about 2 hours reading. With this after 2 days (of on and off reading) I still felt like I must have missed something and didn't even get a chance to browse the combat rules before my first game. I think it's something to do with the fact that you have all these lists of cool things you can do, but you don't actually understand exactly what any of it means yet since you haven't read how the combat system works. Reading: (STR 2(W) + STR Bonus Damage and Shift Target 3) just doesn't make much sense until you have played or at least given the combat system a once over. It took me forever to figure out that W meant weapon damage (which was 2D6 for me). There are also over 200 pages of Powers to get through, even ignoring classes I didn't want to play and not looking past the first couple levels that was a lot to soak in.
[glow=orange,2,300]Unknown:[/glow]Okay I don't normally have an Unknown section of my reviews, but I can't decide if this next bit is good, bad or ugly. The biggest thing I felt while reading the rules, is that it's just not D&D. It's not the same game. They changed it so significantly with the power system that it's just not D&D anymore. If you threw another name on this book and had me read it, I can't be sure I would call it out as a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons (except for when I saw D&D copyrights like Drow and Underdark, or races like Teiflings and Displacer Beasts). Now I will admit playing it, felt more D&D like then reading it, but it still was unlike any game I had played before. It's not just the combat either, the whole skill challenge system is just foreign, unlike any other system I have played. So is this a good thing? Well it can be if you didn't like the old D&D system, or if you have no pre-conceived notions about what D&D should 'feel' like. Is it a bad thing? Well it could be if you want to play a Gnome Bard, or if you like changing classes every level. Is it an Ugly thing? No probably not, but if you are a AD&D 2nd edition purist I don't think you will find much familiar here. It's just different, it feels different and it plays different.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]I'll have to admit I had already developed a bias against the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Reading all the reviews online, the play session debates, the uproar on message boards, it all made 4e out to be a bad thing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that's not the case at all. It's definitely not the same D&D you know and love (whatever edition that may be), it's something totally new. The whole power system is the biggest change and it makes for the most engaging tactical combat I have ever played. With this new system though you loose a lot of character options and a lot of the other rules are streamlined, and it definitely won't be for everyone. Personally I hope to keep playing 4e, but I'm not going to end my 3.5 campaign and start selling off my old books.
Quickly: Not the same D&D, somewhat hard to read. The game works and plays great though.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]I doubt this needs much of an introduction. This is the first Core Rulebook for the latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons. This contains rules for Martial, Arcane and Divine Heroes as well as rules for Skills, Feats, Magic Items, Combat and Rituals. Interestingly there will be future Players Handbooks for other types of Heroes like Barbarians and Psionics. I do not know if these will repeat the skill, feat, combat and other non class/race rules.
The book is broken down into a new order from the old rules, with combat falling to the back of the book along with most of the other rules for interacting with players, mobs and the environment. In fact the rules for skills don't start until page 267. The book starts off with what is probably the best introductions to roleplaying I have ever read. It goes into detail about roleplaying, what this game is, why you would want to play it, and how you go about playing it. More time is spent in the first section on character concepts and gaming concepts then rules. This was a huge surprise to me based on all of the reviews talking about the new D&D Boardgame that is out now.
After explaining the key concepts, the game gets into details about stats, races and classes. Every race includes roleplaying tips and character traits and a 'why would I play this' section. The classes had the same. There is a pretty significant section on filling out your characters quirks, style and motivation as well. A good description of alignments and religion is also included in the first three chapters. Interestingly alignments have been simplified down to 5 key ones, Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil and Chaotic Evil. The gods were a mix from the last edition of D&D, old Campaign settings and what I think are new blood. The Races included are very different from previous editions, with a lot more flavor. There is your typical Elf, Human and Dwarf. Along with them are the still changing skinny halflings (last edition they reminded me of kender, now they just seem like half sized humans), the Dragonborn (Remind me of Draconians from Dragonlance, but much more powerful, with an old school Paladin like Honour system, The Eladrin (Elves that are more Fey then Elf) and the Tieflings (formerly of the Planescape setting). Each race includes the usual racial abilities (now called Powers), stat modifiers, starting languages, bonus feats, etc.
Chapter 3: Classes is the bulk of the book. It takes up 3/4 of the text. This is due to the complete change in the way characters are made. They aren't made now, they are built. This immediately makes me think of Guild Wars and the feeling still stands after playing the game. At each level a player selects from a group of powers. These come in 4 Flavors. At-Will powers that can be used any time. Encounter powers that can be used once per encounter. Daily Powers that can be used once a day, and Support Powers - which you get at level 2 and I haven't look at yet (sorry). What's intersting is you can only have 2 At-Will powers, 1 Encounter power and 1 daily power 'equipped'. At each level you have the option of changing out one of these equipped powers for another power (usually a more powerful one you got at your new level). Along with these class powers, your character may have additional powers from Race or Feats, or Background. These don't affect the 2 at use, 1 encounter and 1 daily power limit. So what you end up with when you finish "building" your charactrer is a set of stats, and a set of powers that you use during combat or skill challenges. So what are these powers:
In general powers are your 'standard actions' you take each round. In older versions of D&D these standard actions were usually Attack for the fighters and thieves and Cast for the spellcasters. This is all replaced by the new power system. For Example, as an At-Will standard Action my Paladin could do the following - he could do a Base Attack (a Str vs AC attack), he could do a Holy Strike (a Str vs AC attack that gets bonus wisdom damage) or he could do a Vengeful Strike (a Str cs AC attack that gets a bonus to hit for every foe around me), or he could do a Guardian Strike (a Cha vs AC attack that gives temporary hp). Those are all At-Will actions I would choose from every round. In addition I had a couple of Encounter Powers - the first was Lay On Hands (which let me heal someone by giving up some of my daily healing), the second was another Strike - this one doing double damage and giving some healing. My last option was to use my daily ability that did a whopping 3x damage and healed an ally whether or not I hit. Along with these power options, I could of course do any other standard action like Charge, or Bull Rush. Other examples of At Use Powers were our parties Warlock who used a Ray of Frost nearly every round, or our Rangers, Dual Strike which let him attack twice each round. Everything from Magic spells to Psionic powers have now been converted to this same power format. So no longer do you have Spell lists, Wizards just have a list of powers, same as the warriors do. Where the Warrior may have Cleave, the Wizard may have Fireball.
What these powers mean is that everyone has a lot more options in combat. What is also interesting is the way you can combo these. For example I could use a minor Power (you can do one minor action along with a move action and standard each round) to call upon my god, which meant that my next hit, if it hit automatically critted (no more threats, just max damage). This combined with my Daily ability meant that I was able to hit for 42 points of damage in one attack! If we had planned better, our Warlord could have given me a +3 to hit on that attack as well, and I'm sure one of the fighters could have gotten my target into a position where we had combat advantage that would have been another +2 to hit....
Another major change is the way attacking, damage and healing work. This is where saving throws disappear, or well change. Now every power shows how it attacks. It will list a Stat vs A Defense. The defenses are AC (modified by armour, or Dex or Int if light armour is worn), Fortitude Defense (modified by Str or Con), Reflex Defense (modified by Dex or Int) and Will Defense (modified by WIS or CHA). So what happens is an 'attacker' rolls D20 + whatever stat is specified by the power + other bonuses and they are trying to hit the appropriate defense. Most attacks are Str vs AC, but there can be any of the other combinations, for example the Charm Person Power is Cha vs Will and Fireball is Int vs Reflex. Damage can also be modified by any of the 6 stats as specified by the power being used. Damage is still removed from hit points, but the hit point totals are a lot higher, and there is a new level of hurt called Bloodied. This comes into play when you have lost half of your hit points and there are a wide variety of powers that are affected by this new status. Getting those hit points back is a lot easier now. Every character has a number of Healing Surges. These can be spent outside of combat and give 1/4 of your total HP back, and they reset daily. As a standard action, once per encounter you can do the Second Wind action, which lets you spend a healing surge (and also gives +2 on all defenses). Lastly is magical healing - this is done through a wide variety of powers, which usually cost either the caster or target a healing surge and usually give a few extra hp back. For example my Paladin Lay on Hands encounter power lets me spend a healing surge, but then my target gets hp back as if they just spent a healing surge, plus the get bonus HP based on my Wisdom.
Another big change is the tier system. Levels 1-10 are called the Heroic Tier. Here your character improves slowly generally just gaining new powers to replace their low level ones. They will spend their time fighting minor hordes, minions, and lesser beasts. At level 11 the characters hit the Paragon Tier. Here they choose a paragon path that grants them significant power. This reminds me of a Prestige class from 3.5. The characters begin taking part in adventures that save whole cities, whole continents and potentially whole worlds. At 21st level you enter the Epic Tier where you choose an Epic Destiny. Here again the characters power takes a significant jump and they begin battling to save all life, or potentially even an entire plane of existence. I'll admit very little experience with these concepts, but I did read through the changes and the concept and it seemed pretty interesting.
The rest of the system changes are minor. Things like, diagonals are always counted as once square, the fact that Dwarves now move slower, the actual combat stats of various weapons, etc.
Once last note on setting. They too D&D and turned it into Warhammer without Chaos. Well at least that's how I see it. They refer to the world style as "Points of Light" where cities and other bastions of society, or havens if you will are separated by vast areas of danger and darkness. Basically setting up the world as a bunch of home bases with adventure surrounding them. As noted, it reminds me alot of the set up for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay with the cities being the only havens and the wilderness outside being as frightful as any dungeon and ripe with adventure and danger.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow] Overall it reminds me quite a bit of Magic the Gathering or another CCG. Each level your build your deck of powers and abilities out of a growing pool. You can try to make combos with our powers, or with the powers of the other characters in your group. Reading this from the book as well as reading reviews online I didn't like the way this sounded at all. It made D&D sound like a glorified board or card game. Okay sure in some ways it is, but it's a good thing! I found combat in this system to be the most fun I have playing a tactical combat system. It was hands and feet above 3.5. The sheer variety of combat options just for my own character was amazing and you get to combine that with the possible combinations of 5 other characters.
I didn't note it above as it's not part of the PHB and I wasn't sure exactly how to describe it but the Skill Challenge rules are rather elegant. They actually really lead to a lot of roleplay with our group and made for an interesting break from the combat encounters. Basically it's a new resolution system for non-combat encounters where the DM presents a problem, and players come up with ways to use their skills to try to solve it. What the DM is looking for is for characters to come up with creative ways to apply their skills and then a set number of successful skill checks using the skills deemed appropriate. I've read a couple reviews on it and no one seems to be able to describe it well, the point is though, that it worked and it actually encouraged roleplaying.
About roleplaying in general. I found that there was still a lot of this going on. The removal or lack of roleplaying from 4e is a heated debate here online, but I definitely didn't see it in the game I played. Between people talking in character during combat, to non-combat encounters with NPCs and Patrons I found there was more roleplaying in this one session of D&D 4e then there was in the last 3 of my 3.5 sessions. In addition, as noted in the summary section, the PHB spends a lot of time discussing roleplaying, and how it can and should be a part of the game. We also seemed to spend very little time Metagaming, so much so that at one point the GM said, why don't you guys just let the person with the highest skill roll, which made more sense, but we were busy talking in charactrer, and actually not using numbers.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]A lot of bookkeeping. The first thing I had a hard time with is figuring out how to keep track of all my powers. I had to know which I had to start, then I had to know which I used, then know which once refreshed after combat, etc. Now every player present at the game had their own system. Some used Cards in card condoms, some just used the spaces on the character sheet (which has room for the names of powers but no rules) others like me had to have the phb open in front of me at all times, with notes all over my sheet keeping track of what I had and had not used. To add to the confusion, there is all this 'marking' in combat. Warriors can Mark their Targets, Paladins can Mark Their Targets, Archers can aim at a specific Target, you have to declare who your dodge is on, bloodied combatants have to be indicated etc. Thats a ton to keep track of. I have seen a few different solutions for this online and the one our GM used worked pretty well (1/4 inch thick coloured magnetic disks) but even our nicely colour coded system didn't work so great in close quarters with guys stacked on 5 or more disks.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]I can't put my finger on exactly what it was about it that made it so, but the PHB was hard to read. I've never had such a hard time trying to get through the basics of a system on short notice. I think with 3.5 I was rolling up my first character after about 2 hours reading. With this after 2 days (of on and off reading) I still felt like I must have missed something and didn't even get a chance to browse the combat rules before my first game. I think it's something to do with the fact that you have all these lists of cool things you can do, but you don't actually understand exactly what any of it means yet since you haven't read how the combat system works. Reading: (STR 2(W) + STR Bonus Damage and Shift Target 3) just doesn't make much sense until you have played or at least given the combat system a once over. It took me forever to figure out that W meant weapon damage (which was 2D6 for me). There are also over 200 pages of Powers to get through, even ignoring classes I didn't want to play and not looking past the first couple levels that was a lot to soak in.
[glow=orange,2,300]Unknown:[/glow]Okay I don't normally have an Unknown section of my reviews, but I can't decide if this next bit is good, bad or ugly. The biggest thing I felt while reading the rules, is that it's just not D&D. It's not the same game. They changed it so significantly with the power system that it's just not D&D anymore. If you threw another name on this book and had me read it, I can't be sure I would call it out as a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons (except for when I saw D&D copyrights like Drow and Underdark, or races like Teiflings and Displacer Beasts). Now I will admit playing it, felt more D&D like then reading it, but it still was unlike any game I had played before. It's not just the combat either, the whole skill challenge system is just foreign, unlike any other system I have played. So is this a good thing? Well it can be if you didn't like the old D&D system, or if you have no pre-conceived notions about what D&D should 'feel' like. Is it a bad thing? Well it could be if you want to play a Gnome Bard, or if you like changing classes every level. Is it an Ugly thing? No probably not, but if you are a AD&D 2nd edition purist I don't think you will find much familiar here. It's just different, it feels different and it plays different.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]I'll have to admit I had already developed a bias against the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Reading all the reviews online, the play session debates, the uproar on message boards, it all made 4e out to be a bad thing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that's not the case at all. It's definitely not the same D&D you know and love (whatever edition that may be), it's something totally new. The whole power system is the biggest change and it makes for the most engaging tactical combat I have ever played. With this new system though you loose a lot of character options and a lot of the other rules are streamlined, and it definitely won't be for everyone. Personally I hope to keep playing 4e, but I'm not going to end my 3.5 campaign and start selling off my old books.