Welcome back to our continuing review of 4th Edition D&D. The Dominion Council – no, I’m not a dictator, it just feels that way -  has decided a review of just the players handbook (PHB) would be a geek tease: like a cock tease, but resulting in blue brains. The other core books of the new version will be reviewed as well and in our standard senior-friendly font.

At it’s core, D&D is still about brave heroes barging into the dank dungeon homes of creatures driven from society, killing them, taking the few nice things they had to brighten such a dreary existence, and planting ripped and dirtied girls clothing at the site to validate said heroics.  What kind of things compensate such selfless crusaders with priceless wealth?

MAGIC ITEMS

32 pages, 70%, of the equipment chapter covers them, and at the very outset they explicit advise they’ve got to be sought out. Third edition’s inferred possibility of Walmart stores of arcane goodness was a story bane.

“Do you have elven chainmail in a size 10?”

“Sorry ma’am, we dont. We can you give a discount on magic helms, 10% off. The Army of Light was defeated by the Dark Wyrm of Kalipus. A hundred more years of dread, but atleast you can get an accesory to match our dwarven plate, which we do have in sizes 10 to 20!” 

Only a ritual can make them, simply by paying the normal item price for materials instead, and you cant make items higher than your level. Disenchanting a find xan be done via another ritual to harvest residuum, a poorly named magical rust that’s worth only a fifth of the item’s prices – coincidentally the standard re-sell price of said item. Simplified economics I’ll call a plus, this is D&D not Sanford & Son the RPG.

Rituals are essentially a category of spell you cant do in combat and requires a book or scroll to cast and requires a feat. These are pretty powerful spells in some cases, but they leave much to DM discretion. So, although a magic weapon can be made after level 4, in 9 hours, for 175 gold, without a skill check; deal with a Beholder to get the single use scroll version. 

The goodies are written up in comprehensible capsules similar to the class powers, including prices and level equivalents stating when they’d be available to the average party. These aren’t restrictive though. Inevitables won’t come to gank your level 12 item because your character is only level 10 … unless it makes a good story or you’re being a douchebag using it but this is DM discretion. Identifying them is as easy as a Arcana skill check or just playing with them during a short rest. Many items are also organized by where you wear them, a nice time saving compared to pouring over paragraphs by item type.

Magic implements may give new powers At-Will, Per Encounter, and Daily as well although daily powers of multiple items are limited by tier. Levels 1-10 heroes can only use the Rod of Ass-Saving daily power once a day, but Level 11-20 paragons can use the Rod’s daily power and the daily power of a Belt of Anti-Rape . How do you get such wonders?

ADVENTURING

Chapter 8 explains many of the old basics we gamers know: if someone offers you an ancient map, take it. You walk this fast; horses go this fast. Terrain and lighting vary. A new addition to the encounter/rest polarity of character life is a milestone. A point in the storyline when certain unknowns become clear to the protagonists and the central conflict is dramatically heightened by these revelation – HELLS NO, none of that hippy storyteller shyte. Milestones are simply going through two encounters without resting, and this gains you an Action point (which gives you an extra action once an encounter) in addtion to allowing an extra daily usage of a magic item’s daily power … wow.

Resting has been changed a bit. They come in two flavors: Short and Extended. The first is a five minute span that lets ya regain spent encounter powers and do a healing surge – shaking out the kinks and catching your breath that restores a fourth of your hit points. Extended rests last 6 hours, which must be spaced by 12 hours in-between, and heal all lost hit points plus regain spent powers and get back your single action point.

The healing surge idea I like for enabling that action flick feel. Kill 25 orcs, fall off a keep wall when a bomb goes off, get up and walk it off by killing three dozen orcs. You get X amount of surges per day depending your class and Constitution modifer, with the defender types getting the most. This further illustrates that hit points are not necessarily bodily hits but cinemetic weariness of a hero suffered through arduous …

COMBAT 

Besides the cleric no longer being reduced to a box of Band Aids, combat has several changes. You’ve got 4 main actions: standard (attack), move (change location), minor (self explanatory), and free (automatic or little stuff). Minor actions are small acts that are worth half a move action, which can still replace a standard. There are also reactionionary trigger actions letting you act just before some forseeable situation that are granted by an opponent’s moves and your ownpowers. The [sarcasm]much loved[/sarcasm] Attack of Opportunity made it into 4E: “Leggo my Eggo! And, take … 32 slashing damage.”   Laid out with easily explained bullet points, it’s simple to learn what you can do … to kill something. Further, melee and ranged attacks are put on even footing by ranged adding your Dex mod to damage.

The defenses those targets, and you, have are changed. Basically the saves of 3e have been made to fit the armor class form, a static target number to affect equal to 10 + half your level plus something, with a versatile something. Fortitude is Strength OR Constitution modified. Reflexes, Dexterity or Intelligence – so you can see thing coming. Willpower can include the Wisdom or Charisma mod – cause some are too handsome to go crazy?

Attack rolls only, no more rolls to not die – save one (puns are NOT cheap humor!). Saves are a simple d20 roll that succeeds on 10 or higher, some sources can modify the roll but mostly it’s bare. If you go below zero hit points, three failed saves are like strikes — YOU’RE OUT! This added chaos yields more drama than the negative hp countdown. Crits are normalized too. You roll a natural 20, and if you can hit with the total you do maximum damage – if not you’re screwed in general but still hit automatically.

Any situational advantage you have in battle is given a flat +2 for Combat Advantage, which covers a list of certain conditions you may suffer. Grapple is much simplied as a Grab standard action that mostly gives others this advantage and keeps the target from moving. Even Attacks of Opportunity are much simplified, though my awesome intellect never had much trouble with them. Including the revamping of other now defunct options, like Shifting being the new 5ft step and Running two more squares as a move action but taking -5 to attacks, combat is much simplified and should move pretty fast even at higher levels once you get the hang of things in a few sessions.

Next time we’ll tackle the Guide of the Dungeon Master and I’ll tell ya why you shouldn’t just be a player instead.

The fourth chapter on classes shows the most innovation. 120 PAGES, makes it four TIMES as large as the Combat chapter. Here’s why: each of the eight classes is detailed with powers over all 30 levels. Whenever someone says 4E is more character focused over combat than older versions, this is what they must mean. You get class features as before but they’re mostly scalable bonuses you carry without needing to refer to charts when you level.

The star class features are the diverse role-themed powers you’re capable of executing at will, per battle, and per day — the more awesome the less often you can do them. Each is like a spell in description but from class relevant sources like divine connection or martial expertise with lots of jargon to learn but not too complicated. Attacks are resolved with ability checks adding half your level plus bonuses (the standard way to make checks on everything now) versus various defenses: Intelligence attacks vs. Reflexes or Charisma vs. Willpower for example. These guarantee that you‘ll get to do something cool all the time – at lower levels. The at-will stuff isn’t very diverse, you never get new ones past level 1 and aren’t scalable although they do tend to get a little more powerful … once you hit epic tier. The class flavoring and overall variety of powers is quite good though.

It’s notable that the authors are making a clear effort to attract newbies. The classes outline several conceptual paths a player can take and even suggest feats and powers for them to select to serve the ideal pursued. Paragon paths at level 11 and higher add more focus to the concept and take the place of prestige classes in terms of reflecting high specialization in an aspect of your profession.

Warlocks are brought back as a basic, in many ways filling the old role of sorcerers but with a more distinct flavor than simply freestyle wizards. No longer are they strictly demonic in nature. You have the option to gain power through pacts with fairies (detailed in the Adam & Steve article) or mystical ties to the stars that gives them a quasi-astrologer/soothsayer feel. Warlords are a new class that fulfills the leadership role as buffers replacing the Bard and giving you an option besides the traditional cleric, not that impressive.

Monks are gone, but not badly missed – a fighter using fists has similar feel. Fighter class is calling to me most. They now have the ability to force enemies to attack them, tricks to deflect or absorb the punishment, and know how to deal insanely high-level damage. Even their choice of weapon reflects their character with different types of arms keying off different ability scores.

Skills are vastly simplified in chapter 5. No more points. Roll d20 plus one half your level plus ability mod, and if you’re trained in a skill get a +5. Done and done. Another nice feature is massive skill consolidation. Tumble AND balance? No, Acrobatics. Hiding and Move silently; no, Stealth. I’ve got to train in climbing rocks, jumping over pits, and do some laps in the pool – WITHOUT steroids! Nah, just training Athletics makes you a tri-athlete, with emphasis on the L33T. I use similar design into my Jovian Chronicles campaign after first seeing them used when running Saga Star Wars.

New are the skill challenges, a fancy term for non-combat problems – as though such a thing exists in D&D. They’re various linked skill checks that serve a common goal and also encourage the whole team to collaborate more than before. You got to get x amount of wins before getting Y amount losses to pull them off, new to D&D but a standard in other systems. The knowledge checks for monsters are much better. Most folks can name creature by sight but only a real smarty knows that old red dragons tend to develop sciatica, so jumping on its back to fight is a good idea.

I’m not loosing steam here. Classes are where they shot their wad for design changes. Feats are still feats, although you need less of them given how the new powers overlap their function of customizable ability. Weapons and armor are organized a bit differently but mostly unchanged. Armor is divided by style: cloth, chain mail, hide, leather with several examples of each.

Style group and military issue organize weapons proficiency. New is the fact some weapons are easier to use than others. They include properties that give them versatility – an actual property saying two handed use does more damage - say if they can be used off hand, or are small enough for halflings to use. No more child versions of all weapons, halflings just suck it up having a smaller selection of weapons, most traditionally really only care about knife and fork anyway. Magic items are detailed in the player’s handbook this time, but if you’re covering 30 levels you must do this.

Reading this far has delayed my regular-like-prune juice posting to keep you fiends happy, but we‘ll pick it up later to cover the remaining chapters in the detail they deserve. All in all so far I’m mostly impressed, especially by the classes for being representations of the many types of hero you can be and variety in how you … be them. Time to make a mental healing surge.

You’ll get it next article.