On Saturday, June 7th 2008 Nem, myself and my neighbor went to the local comic store to check out the release of the highly anticipated/controversial Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition from Wizards of the Coast. Since Wizards of the Coast bought TSR and revamped the D&D system in edition 3.0 they have constantly sought to simplify and streamline the system to make it more enjoyable to actually play and overall less time consuming. It is this very change that D&D purists are against, yet it proves to be some of the best changes to the system in years.
Purists to the D&D world enjoy the complexity of the game, or in their eyes the lack thereof as they are the elite of D&D and know the rulebooks inside and out. They have been playing D&D since it's inception and enjoy the hours of tedious work it takes to create a character from scratch. Now I've been playing D&D off and on since Advanced D&D and although there is a certain amount of pride that goes into creating a character, there's also that sense of "What the fuck did I just do with the last 4 hours?" Purists believe that the system isn't broken and as such does not need to be fixed. I can understand this to a point, but just because the Model-T worked didn't mean that Ford stuck with the same design/model. They improved on it, made it better, and gave us the Mustang.
My friends and I got to play a preset adventure that involved us going down into an ancient tomb to rescue two children from an evil elf. I played a Dwarven Fighter, Nem played a Human Cleric, my neighbor played a Human Wizard, and a customer at the store played a Human Rogue. Not much diversity, but the characters were premakes from Wizards of the Coast. While it doesn't highlight all the changes in the game, we did get to see many of the mechanics in action.
The Character System
The character creation system definitely underwent some changes, and all for the better. What once was a complex system of modifiers and racial abilities has now become a simple system of overall character development. Both Class and Race now actually count for something and add to the overall depth of your character throughout the entire campaign. For example, a human fighter will be completely different than a dwarven fighter as both will have specific racial abilities tied to their class that they can take to make them different as they level. The normal race differences still apply such as low light vision, but now what race you play directly affects the development of your character beyond the first level. Another benefit of this new system is that races that once required a level modifier to be played, such as the Drow, can now start as level 1 characters and learn their abilities as they progress. This was something that I believe has been needed for a long time and adds many new options to party creation. Another big change is the alignment system, what once consisted Lawful, Chaotic, and Neutral Good and Evil has been condensed into just Good, Evil, and Unaligned (Neutral). This opens the door for a greater variety of styles to play your character as it removes the shackles of specific alignments. Good is Good and Evil is Evil, plain and simple.
The Combat System
The Combat system has several changes that appear in D&D 4th edition, I think they lessen the complexity of the game overall and make it a more enjoyable experience. Attack bonuses remain the same however Throwing Saves have completely changed, and abilities have been overhauled to the extreme. No more are the days of Willpower, Fortitude, and Reflex saves. You now have Willpower, Fortitude, and Reflex Defenses, the DM makes a roll vs your Defense score and it either beats it or not. They are now treated exactly the same as Armor Class. Less dice rolls = more play time. Abilities have undergone a wonderful overhaul, you now have At Will, Encounter, and Daily abilities. At will abilities can be used over and over, such as Magic Missile for Wizards. Encounter abilities can be used once per encounter or battle and are usually stronger than At Will abilities, one such ability is the ability to have your enemies focus their attacks on you while your ally gets to escape from combat. Daily abilities are the strongest, however you can only use them once per in-game day. Due to their limited availability you must use good judgment in deciding when to use them. An example is an ability that allows a fighter to deal triple damage for that turn. Some abilities now make more sense overall, Cleave is now an At Will ability that when it hits does weapon damage to the target and then 3 damage to 1 adjacent enemy.
Healing Surge and Second Wind
Two new abilities thrown into the mix are Healing Surge and Second Wind. While having someone around to heal is always good, Healing Surge allows players to regain HP in-between or even in fights. Each character has a certain number of healing surges they can use in a day that heal for a specific amount of HP. All characters now have the ability to heal themselves in combat by using Second Wind once per encounter. Second Wind uses up one Healing Surge and heals you for the amount your surge allows. When I played on Saturday my fighter could heal for seven HP, this ability could mean the difference between death and one more turn. Again since you can only use Second Wind once per encounter it's up to you to decide the best time to use it.
Monsters and XP
Gone are the days of looking through endless pages trying to decide what level encounter you just put together and how much XP it was worth. The new 4.0 Monster Manual now specifically tells you what level each monster is and how much XP that monster is worth. While I didn't have a chance to really look through it, it appears to be a much needed break for the DM and allows players to spend more time playing and less time searching through books to find out how much XP they just got.
Final Thoughts
Over the years I’ve played in many a D&D game and it’s always been enjoyable, my first impression of 4th edition is no different. We played for about four hours total on Saturday and got a really good idea of how 4th edition is going to play out. I believe that the changes put into place were not only necessary but are all good and well thought out. Whether you want to believe it or not, the complexity behind the old system made many portions of the game down right tedious, the new system cures much of that. Sure I'm slightly annoyed that I have to buy all new books to play the game, but after seeing the changes I can't be mad, infact I'm excited. Wizards of the Coast did not lose focus when they redesigned D&D; at it's core it still feels like D&D should feel, it's just less work to play and at the end of the day that's what D&D is all about.
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