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heregrim's review
5.0
My first RPG, Loved it as a place to start. I have since expanded and run a group at my school.
lunchlander's review
4.0
Like most relatively satisfied 3.5 players, I was somewhat skeptical of 4th edition. But the more I heard about it, the more I liked, and now that I've started GMing the game, I would never go back. Running a 4th Edition game is *so* much more fun and tons easier as a GM.
The adaptation of every class to an identical "power" system of at-will, daily and encounter is a good way to standardize learning the rules and applying them in play, but at the same time, there's a ton of variety in how the classes work. A party is now really integrated, with each character playing a different and important role. It's a little more structured than the multiclass-at-will 3.5 or even the chaotic nature of 1st and 2nd edition D&D, but it's also user-friendly and cinematic.
The skills, updated from a big list to a focused list and now with a "You either know how to do it a little bit or you're really good at it" mechanic, are not terribly realistic, but they work for adventurers that should have a bit of jack-of-all-trades about them, and using them is a snap compared to the point-based system of 3.5.
Feats, the key improvement of D&D 3rd edition, take a bit of a backseat to all the nifty powers, but they are a nice way to flesh out your character a bit and individualize them so that not every fighter looks alike, for example.
The rituals are a good idea made overly complicated, and unfortunately the focus on combat has left wizards a bit bleh, in some ways. No more clever uses of silence or illusion magic, it's all blast and fire now, and silence, mage lock and other spells are relegated to long-winded, out-of-combat rituals. It's a nice idea, but it probably could have used more time in the workshop to really let the wizards shine, instead of just making them secondary blasters ala the new warlocks.
As with all of WOTC's books, the organization is pretty terrible. The book looks beautiful, and it's actually a fairly readable book, which is not the standard for game manuals, but at the same time, it has a barely-functional one-page index (when it could have used something much more exhaustive) and the rules are not cross-referenced as heavily as they should be. A little more "see page XX" throughout would have been handy, especially given the uselessness of the index.
That said, the organization and some minor rules issues are just that... minor problems. Overall, this is a slick, very playable upgrade of the system.
The adaptation of every class to an identical "power" system of at-will, daily and encounter is a good way to standardize learning the rules and applying them in play, but at the same time, there's a ton of variety in how the classes work. A party is now really integrated, with each character playing a different and important role. It's a little more structured than the multiclass-at-will 3.5 or even the chaotic nature of 1st and 2nd edition D&D, but it's also user-friendly and cinematic.
The skills, updated from a big list to a focused list and now with a "You either know how to do it a little bit or you're really good at it" mechanic, are not terribly realistic, but they work for adventurers that should have a bit of jack-of-all-trades about them, and using them is a snap compared to the point-based system of 3.5.
Feats, the key improvement of D&D 3rd edition, take a bit of a backseat to all the nifty powers, but they are a nice way to flesh out your character a bit and individualize them so that not every fighter looks alike, for example.
The rituals are a good idea made overly complicated, and unfortunately the focus on combat has left wizards a bit bleh, in some ways. No more clever uses of silence or illusion magic, it's all blast and fire now, and silence, mage lock and other spells are relegated to long-winded, out-of-combat rituals. It's a nice idea, but it probably could have used more time in the workshop to really let the wizards shine, instead of just making them secondary blasters ala the new warlocks.
As with all of WOTC's books, the organization is pretty terrible. The book looks beautiful, and it's actually a fairly readable book, which is not the standard for game manuals, but at the same time, it has a barely-functional one-page index (when it could have used something much more exhaustive) and the rules are not cross-referenced as heavily as they should be. A little more "see page XX" throughout would have been handy, especially given the uselessness of the index.
That said, the organization and some minor rules issues are just that... minor problems. Overall, this is a slick, very playable upgrade of the system.
nichole_of_numenor's review
5.0
It's been a long time since I've played. I really like that they gave more cool actions to a fighter and somewhat limited the wizards. Now we don't have to wait 20 min for the wizard to decide what s/he wants to do!
nacirema's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
A lot of interesting ideas here, definitely a sort of evolutionary link of a changing game.
Also very well organized. Looking forward to reading the DMG for this edition, which I've always heard great things about.
Also very well organized. Looking forward to reading the DMG for this edition, which I've always heard great things about.
heregrim's review against another edition
5.0
My first RPG, Loved it as a place to start. I have since expanded and run a group at my school.
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