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Player's Handbook: A 4th Edition Core Rulebook: 1 (D&d Core Rulebook): 1 (Dungeons & Dragons)

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Author: Wizards Rpg Team
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł19.99~~
Buy New: Ł11.29
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Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

19 reviews
Sales Rank: 429

Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.9

ISBN: 0786948671
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9780786948673
ASIN: 0786948671

Publication Date: June 6, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

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Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

too old for 4th edition... but too young to stop rolling dice July 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Now we know what killed Gary Gygax...... the final ripping out of D&D's quirky soul! Everything is perfectly balanced, no more supermen half-orcs wielding the hammer of thunderbolts with gauntlets of ogre power and a girdle of storm giant strength... no more gimped gnome illusionist/thieves

Pretty sad for an old timer, but I am sure the new players will enjoy their squad based adventures with floor plans and plastic figures.. after all the plastic figures are much cheaper than Warhammer figures!

4 out of 5 stars

First Impressions a Great Edition June 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Like many people here i have being playing DnD for many years now and ever since I heard about the realise of 4th Edition I've been waiting with great expectation, and after getting the core rultebook I have to admit it is well worth the upgrade from 3.5 for which I have been used to.
Whats good about this edition is that it does remove alot of problems provided by 3.5 with regard the sheer volume of skills, feats and complexaty of DMing out of the game in the previsous editions and as a whole does seem a lot more balanced game. I haven't had chance to run my own game yet in 4th edition as my views have come from first impressions of this book, hence I i gave 4/5. In conclusion I would say it is great for new players to RPG and DM's alike although Previous DnD lovers out there may take some time to really enjoy it.
Hope this helps!

2 out of 5 stars

Interesting System, But It's Not D&D June 25, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

OUT:
Gnomes, Druids, Sorcerers, Barbarians, Bards, Skill Ranks, variety of spells, 9 fields of alignment, great weapon, equipment and armour selection.

IN:
Dragonborn, Tieflings, Warlord, Warlock, Eladrin, healing surges, at-will powers.

Throughout the years of D&D and its various editions we have come to assume certain things, but now much of them have gone.

I am not going to debate why this has been done by the designers, because so many people already have, but I will tell you what effect it has had on my love for the game.

It's not the game I know. Not anymore. It's a completely different system called D&D, that's it. I can't convert my 3.5 character to 4e. It's impossible. Don't have the same spells to choose from, skills, etc.

All characters can heal themselves. All characters can dish out some sort of magical damage every round. It feels like a computer game (I know this has been said a lot, but it's true.)

The intricacies of the game have been removed. The uniqueness of each character class have been blurred. Miniatures are pretty much 100% required. The flavour of classes, monsters, etc, has been replaced by stats and powers.

Of course, this is all my opinion (except for the INS and OUTS which are facts), but it just doesn't feel like D&D. It's something else.

I wanted to like it, I really did. I TRIED to like it, I truly tried. But I don't. I feel like it's written for a newcomer and not an rpg fan. I feel like they're insulting my intelligence by making things simple and saying "Look, you've got something you can do (bash or blast things) every round." What happened to tactics and trying to make something of nothing? What happened to using your brain when you've got no spells or you're down to a few hit points?

Just my opinion, of course. But that's how it comes across to me.

As an entirely new system it's interesting and got some potential. But it's not D&D. The staples have gone, sometimes for seemingly no apparent reason. I am confused as to why.

Oh, well...what can you do? Me? What I will do is keep playing 3/3.5 and lament that fact that I purchased the PHB. Luckily I didn't go with my first thought and buy the boxed set.

Not impressed. I understand a business has to make money, but...I can't help but feel like WOTC doesn't give a damn about what their fans actually want or think.

I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but...D&D (as it is now) holds no interest for me whatsoever.

2 out of 5 stars

Midlife crisis June 24, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a totaly new game, not D&D as we know it. Wizards have fixed some rules that needed fixing, and "fixed" a lot that worked fine.

I think that Wizards clearly is targeting the MMORPG marked. And in doing so they turned D&D into something of a hybrid. Elements like slots, minion, elite and solo monsters and powers per encounter seems off in a rpg game.

The game is like having a dad going throug midlife crisis. He is trying to be cool and is dying his hair, wearing a leather jacket and driving a Harley. And of course it is not working. He is trying to be something he is not, and it it a bit embarrassing. He should instead try to still be the same person, but freshen up his style.

D&D has lot of devoted players, and they had deserved a better treatment than this.

3 out of 5 stars

Good Or Evil? June 23, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

*****This is an additional comment having now read the DM's guide, which might make the Player's Handbook a more desirable purchase. You can start playing immediately even if you only buy this book; the DM's guide has virtually no additional rules. If you are an experienced player, just purchase the Player's Handbook, its all you'll need.'*****

Well there is no doubt about it Version 4 will certainly cause some controversy. The new edition of Dungeons and Dragons is significantly different from its previous incarnations. This is certainly going to annoy a lot of people; we roleplayers don't like change. We've been using the same dice and pencil for the last twenty years, so we're not going to like our rules changed to any great degree, are we?

Looking at things objectively though, is this a change for the better? Well of course the answer is yes and no. Starting with the book's physical attributes; they are gorgeous. Nicely set out, bold use of colour and in the main, excellent illustrations.

What I like most about the new system, is the strength of newly generated characters; gone are the days, where your party has to rest every twenty minutes because the Wizard has caught a chill. Now everybody starts with plenty of hit points and with the game's new 'Healing Surges', plenty of opportunities to replenish them. All the races in the new system have some excellent new powers, (with the Dragonborn's, Breath Attack likely to be a firm favourite) as do all the classes. Indeed all classes, now have 'Powers', which are almost spell like in design. This gives every proud owner of a newly generated character the feeling that they can really do some damage.

The drawback to this is that character generation is no longer simple. You have all your stats as usual but then adding in Skills, Feats and Powers, with a number of compound stats to work out and the mind starts to boggle. To add to the confusion, there is no definitive checklist or decent indexing in the book, so you're forever flipping backwards and forwards, trying to find what you are after. This will obviously become easier as the books become more familiar but it's not very enticing for the new player. It's the same story with combat; I admit that I have yet to play the game in anger but it would appear that in attempting to add some realism and additional excitement, the designers have sacrificed simplicity. This is a big worry; a game that becomes bogged down in the myriad permutations combat is fun for almost nobody.

This brings me to my main gripe about the books; who are they for? I appreciate that Wizard's of the Coast need to keep attracting younger fans, since the first adherents to Dungeons and Dragons are now approaching their mid-life crises but the whole feel and complexity of character generation and combat, screams out 'Computer Generation'. The subtle variations of class or combat choices will be easy to calculate for the D&D MMORPG and computer adventure titles, not so much for the pencil and paper equipped GM. My biggest complaint though is the suggestion in the combat rules that we all use models and floorplans to make things simpler. We'll maybe so, but to be honest, that's all about add on sales. The whole point of D&D, was always that there wasn't a board. Gary Gygax will come back to haunt them.

The bottom line though is that nowadays, most players play both on the computer and around the table; a system that works well for both is desirable but difficult to achieve and this seems a pretty good attempt. A number of 'experienced roleplayers' complain here that the books don't let them do want they want, are too simple, or don't focus enough on the roleplaying. Well frankly, it's early days yet and there are sure to be many more rulebooks to fill in the details. Plus, if you are as experienced as you say you are, stop griping and leave out want you don't like and make up the bits that are missing; that's the whole point of the game anyway!

There is much to like in D&D 4th Edition and a sizeable amount to dislike; Ignore the bad bits and embrace the rest. Its the only way forward.