The Fourth Coming: A New D&D
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I took a detailed, meticulous, scrutinizing, ultra anal look at the 4th edtion Players Handbook of the Dungeon and Dragons roleplaying game. This much vaunted title is the gateway game of our hobby and flagship product of the entire industry. As such, it demands attention to dispell the rumors and prejudices of nay sayers -pissed about having to upgrade their addiction.
I am - sadly - receiving no money from Hasbro, free review copies, or even a full painted Digg mini for this. Neutral Objectivity is in full efffect. D&D isnt even my preferred game system of the moment, but does have some interesting innovations worth discussion.
Chapter 1 is the obligatory newb chapter. You can do this in RPGs. You have a character you can operate without a control pad, you need not serve Satan to play D&D - though your Faustian pact may vary.Chapter 2 is about making characters, their abilities scores racial and class generalities. However they actually define ROLE for a first . Some thought roll, but role is the tactical function of your fictional representative in the group effort. Controllers are the mass murders that are protected by defenders (much nicer than the traditional term meat shield, but the same idea) and assisted by strikers that pinpoint assassinate singular targets with powerful hits while staying on the move. Oh, yeah, and leaders that support by giving bonuses and healing theses three killing types.
They even give lip service to role in an acting sense by discussing motivations, moral/ethical alignment, mannerisms and personality - all that shit which most players gloss right over. I favor the humble honor of the defender meat shield myself for being the most relatable and actual boot-to-ass kicking over mystical magical mayhemAnother feature of the chapter is a universal advancement chart that makes things so much simpler than skipping between pages. You get more power options as you level and they made sure every level gives you something. You also swap out can weaker powers for more powerful as you level, so less level baggage of old abilities you’ll never use again. They’ve given a name to the power scheme by calling them tiers. Level 1-10 heroic - which I like cause there’s a chance of dying easily. 11-20 the paragon tier where you handle global issues, killing nations and taking their treasury. 21-30 the epic tier for god-icide and other cosmic feats of awesomeness. I prefer the heroic levels, for being the most understand to us real life mortals - even Jack Bauer is in this tier, but I’m no longer intimidated by the bookkeeping that has been an issue of the higher level. Level 10’s have 11 powers compared to level 30’s 17 maximum. Not much more powers for them, but more potent powers.
The Races chapter is the third and it shows some interesting design. Instead of balancing with strengths and weakness it seems we have balance with varied points of awesomeness. All aren’t equal in all areas but the strengths they get compared to others are highlighted. FINALLY, gnomes are gone! I hated them for not being in Tolkein. Neither were the new Dragonborn race option, a klingony warrior race, but they do guarantee the presence of the second D in D&D.
Eladrin are the Tolkein elves, tall, smart, and ethereal in their snobbiness; a contrast to the tree hugging, flighty, wild elves that are called just elves. They arent the ones that spawn half elves, since their idea of foreplay takes a week with a day per arousal level, something no human man can endure, and women only think they want. Yes, Half elves made it to this edition and are actually a viable player choice now with versatility of power and feat selection. Their Constitution and Charisma bonus show actual hybrid vigor - kinda scientific for fantasy, but they’ve needed a break.
Tieflings, the spawn of humans and demons whom maintain that secret desire for darkness we role-players deny to outsiders, are a nice replacement for half orcs. It’s classier for your ancestors to have made pacts for great powers rather than having been raped by canon fodder monsters - or simply sluts. I don’t like their look though artistically. They look descended from the same type of horned red-hued demons and I favor varied traits of hellish ancestry. I would’ve liked Aasimars (descendants of angels) to be included for symmetry, but as Dogma shows us: angels are junkless.Being a creative intellectual elitist with a tendency for long hair, the Eladrin appeal the most. I’m off to try on some blonde wigs and frilly silk shirts to … get into character … yeah, that’s it. Next we dig into the meat and taters.
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