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Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition
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by: Wizards RPG Team
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Sales Rank: 2602
Wizards of the Coast
Released: 2008-06-06 |
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Media: Hardcover (1)
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Product Description
The first of three core rulebooks for the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game. The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. In the D&D game, players create characters that band together to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and find treasure. The 4th Edition D&D rules offer the best possible play experience by presenting exciting character options, an elegant and robust rules system, and handy storytelling tools for the Dungeon Master. The Players Handbook presents the official Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game rules as well as everything a player needs to create D&D characters worthy of song and legend: new character races, base classes, paragon paths, epic destinies, powers, magic items, weapons, armor, and much more.
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Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition
- Hardcover: 320 pages (2008-06-06)
- Publisher: Wizards of the Coast; 2008-06-06
- Label: Wizards of the Coast
- Studio: Wizards of the Coast
- ISBN: 0786948671
- Average Customer Review: based on 186 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #2602
Avg. Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Critical Miss = Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition 2008-10-09
Comment: 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!!!
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A great edition to suplement ver3.5 2008-10-07
Comment: 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.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: mediocre edition mediocre play 2008-10-01
Comment: 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.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: When you organize by committee... 2008-09-29
Comment: 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...
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Convert? Maybe. 2008-09-20
Comment: I think it's important for any game reviewer to do the following:
1) Get the game on the table and play
2) Remember that any game, no matter what the system is, is only as good as its players and DM
3) If you've only played v3.*, remember that 1st and 2nd edition players felt the same way about "your game", so keep an open mind.
I'm an old school, Fighting Man, white box gamer from 1978 and have seen the cornerstone roleplaying game go through many developments. In many ways I felt the same way about v3.0 as I did about my first look at 4th. "This isn't AD&D! What are they doing?" Until I got v3.0 on the table and tested it. Then I was hooked. So many problems fixed and so much fuel for imagination. After a while I realized 3.0 was broken too, in its own ways; Rangers, Bards, Monks, Paladins all had their issues and Clerics are outrageous powerhouses, so house rules abounded, most of which showed up in v3.5.
I blustered at 4th edition for a lot of reasons, some really good reasons, even many of the reasons people in these reviews point out. Yet after reading through the core 4th rules several times and finally getting the game on the table, I'm finding myself in a similar position. I'm coming to love it. My opinion about the observation that now it's a Mini's game is, D&D was born a mini's game, and what made it into a roleplaying game was imagination.
What at first appears as limited combat options is clearly not. Where a fighter's options were limited to "swing your weapon (read: Longsword cause it was always the best choice) or come up with something unusual and have the DM make a rule", they now make incredibly balanced and effective combatants and protectors. Combats are clearly more dramatic and suspenseful, with teamwork being the main focus of any encounter.
Non-combat in any game is about roleplaying. Put the dice aside for a while and focus on the interactions. Non-combat is about heavy RP'ing punctuated by the occasional die roll. Combat is about tactics and dice rolling punctuated by the occasional flavor-text description of how you did what you did. Balancing deep, meaningful roleplaying with fast-paced dramatic teamwork-filled combats is what DnD (or I should say D&D) has always been about. 4th does that very well.
There are some broken rules (multiclassing needs some tweeking, but my light armor wearing, two weapon wielding, Fighter/Rogue is so much more effective in his role than he ever would have been in v3.*, and no one was more surprised than me to find that out), but they will be fixed over time, mostly and most immediately by house rules. And don't you tell me you don't love House Rules. That's what sets RPG's apart; making the game, the setting, the experience your own.
Clearly and unarguably, 4th and 3rd are as different as 3rd and 2nd. (Though at the time people believed 1st and 2nd were worlds apart, with hindsight we can see 2nd is more like v1.5 than not.) What 3rd did was fix the problems that couldn't be fixed by revamping the game from the ground up. 4th has done the same.
Of course there are a lot of things I wish they had done differently like add more flavor text and history to monsters, races, classes, etc. Putting in a real Index is also a must. I also wish they had put more emphasis on the idea that just because a power is described a certain way doesn't mean that's how YOUR character does it.
I encourage anyone to playtest the game with someone who has read the rules well. Not so that the rules are followed to the letter, but so that everyone knows how the rules play so you know what really works and what needs your imaginative flair and kit-bashing skills to make yours.
What I do have to say for 4th is this: get druids and monks back in the game quick. I miss them.
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