All about Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons

Fourth Edition D&D is on it's way, and it should be here by summer of 2008. The Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual are all set to be released in June, with the Forgotten Realms campaign material being released in August.

While 4E will incorporate many of the strengths of 3E and 3.5 D&D, it will also offer gamers a variety of new and exciting possibilities, in terms of game mechanics. In many ways, 4E will borrow from the recent Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords, as well as Star Wars: Saga edition. These products were, to some extent, proving grounds for new mechanics and changes to be used in 4E.

Beyond this, the changes that Wizards of the Coast has made to the flavor of the game should prove interesting. For example, getting rid of elven subraces, and creating the new Eladrin race to replace the "higher" elves. In addition, Tieflings are now a core race, as are Dragonborn. Gnomes, however, are gone from the Player's Handbook.

There are, obviously, going to be other changes to flavor, as well. For example, the cosmology of the D&D world is changing. Civilization is now like a "point of light" surrounded by darkness. Even the Forgotten Realms will experience great changes as the Spellplague works itself out.

Be sure to take the surveys below, sound off on what you think 4E will be like, and leave me a note in the guestbook!

So, there are some relatively serious arguments going on among friends, gaming groups, message boards, and blogs about whether or not one should update to 4th edition or not. Here is a summary of some of those arguments, both for and against:

Against

• It is way too soon for a new edition. It has only been 5 years since 3.5 was released.


• The new flavor of the game is unappealing, because they are changing too many standard D&D ideas.


• 4E is going to make changes to my favorite campaign setting that I won't like.


• I've got too much money invested in 3rd edition to have to buy all new books.


• 3rd edition was nearly the best RPG system ever; 3.5 took it the rest of the way. Why try to improve on perfection?


• Wizards of the Coast is just being a greedy, evil corporation, and aren't concerned with their fans.


• All of the best game developers, like Monte Cook, have all jumped ship or been thrown overboard. 4E can't be good.


• They're just trying to make D&D more like Everquest or World of Warcraft, which it isn't, can't, and shouldn't be made to be.


• I don't like it, I don't want to like it, I'm not tryin' it, and you can't make me!

For

• 3.0/3.5 was getting stagnate; a new edition and the necessary changes that come with it will make it exciting again.


• Game play, especially at high levels, has become painfully slow; 4E can fix that.


• The online tools, if they work, could prove to be invaluable to the DM.


• There are some rules in 3E that just don't work very well. 4E can fix them.


• With the glut of supplements available, there are too many rules in 3E to keep track of. A rules reset will alleviate this problem.


• My particular favorite designer (insert name here) is still with WotC.


• It is only 2 fewer years between the release of 3.0 and 4.0, than it was between 2nd edition and 3rd edition. It's not too soon.


• I like what 3rd edition did to the game; I think WotC can do it again.


• I didn't like what 3rd edition did to the game; I'm skipping from 2nd to 4th.

Then there is another camp (probably the vast majority of D&D players) that will wait until they've seen the product to make a decision. So, where do YOU fall?

4E has taken a whole new approach to the non-human races. In Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons, there are no sub-races.

This is, obviously, a problem for the elves. Wood, Wild, Grey, High, Gold, Sun, Moon, Dark, you name it, there's probably an elf for it. So, how to fix the problem?

Well, WotC designers for Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons have taken the approach that most differences between elves are cultural, rather than racial. So, Wild and Wood Elves are, essentially, the same race.

But, in Fourth Edition, WotC wanted to provide a variety of options for PCs. So, they made elves one race, very woodsy. This race comprised the wood elves and wild elves. They then took some of the old elvish subraces (gold elves, high elves, grey elves, etc) and made them into Eladrin - magically-adept elf-like beings. The dark elves, already called Drow, now become a separate race called "Drow."

Semantics? Maybe. But, the mechanical differences between them will, I think in the long run, prove to be the most interesting part of the change.

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The Fourth Edition Rogue has been released on the Wizards of the Coast site.

On my blog, I offer my initial reaction on a variety of aspects, including:

• Healing Surges


• Weapon Proficiencies


• Simplified Skill System


• Powers


• Brawny and Trickster Builds


• Sneak Attack Damage