Or at least about $110 or so...
I wanted to like it, after reading Keep on the Shadowfell, but even then I realized that the rules as presented in that particular module were not even half of what WoTC would be offering. Now that I've read through it completely, I can honestly say that my own opinion of D&D 4E is not one that is ultimately weighing in on the "good" side of the scale.
Here's how it was weighed by me, and found incredibly wanting...
COOLNESS SIDE
The encounter planning section of the DMG. I absolutely loved it. Very cool. Wish that was in 3e, would have eliminated all the crunching of CRs and ELs and made things much better.
And, unfortunately, that was the only section I found myself truly liking a great deal out of the new rules set.
FOUND LACKING
Lots of little things added up to way too much for me to like the game, a few of which I will delineate below...
The main thing that bugs me is the feel of the game. It's just way too videogamey for my tastes. There are those whom I have heard arguing that the game design of D&D 4E is not that videogamey. Please. The design is so incredibly obviously catering to the luring of the MMO crowd that it just rubs me the wrong way right off the bat.
The special abilities of every class being called "Powers", with special sub-monikers for each class' abilities. If the R&D crew needed to make a new “name” for special abilities, just calling them "Exploits" and having done with it at that would have sounded more heroic and, ultimately, more fantasy and gone much farther with me. "Powers" detracts greatly from the feel I get of the game, leaving me not thinking of a wizard's mighty spells or a warrior's deadly blade or a holy man's faith or a rogue's clever wit, but of guys in tights and videogame characters. It's just a word, you say? Well, every word has connotations. "Powers" = either a superhero game, a videogame or a gaming style I prefer to stay away from commonly called "powergaming".
At-Will/Encounter/Daily/Utility powers, if they weren't termed exactly what they are, might be okay. But I don't like them replacing the spells or the spellcasting system of previous versions. And rituals replacing most of the spell list that isn't directly offensive or defensive in nature, and which take forever to cast don't do anything for me at all. Sure, they aren't normally cast outside of a combat round. So what? Why should every non offensive or defensive “spell” take at minimum ten rounds to cast and require reading from a book or scroll for the most part? Poor game design decisions would be the reason, I say. And, oh yeah, anybody who just spends one feat slot on the Ritual Casting feat can use them, no other spellcasting experience necessary.
I really don't like the cleric and paladin powers that let your character smack a foe in combat and heal one of your allies at the same time. This goes with the feel of the game being overall way too videogamey for my tastes.
I don't like the skill rules. Some skills are “trained” if the character is in a class they can “train” that skill with. Feats can add to a list of skills a character is “trained” in. But every skill is available to every adventurer, justified by the seeming fact that almost every skill in the skill section is there by virtue of its application to combat matters or monster identification.
The alignment structure. I've never been a big fan of alignment to begin with, but the way it's been restructured is just being different to be different. Nothing innovative or inspired, just different than 3.X.
Don't care for the retraining rules where your character can just erase mastered abilities and just as soon as they do so learn a new and possibly completely unrelated ability at an equal level of mastery.
Don't like the fact that none of the races presented have any particular disadvantages, it makes them all seem like one-sided stat booster choices with kewl powerz and nothing more to me.
At first glance, the Heroic/Paragon Path/Epic Destinies thing sounded cool. Then I read it. Heroic is blah, your regular player character. Paragon Paths are just prestige classes, more or less; some of them sound moderately cool, and all of them add kewl powerz to your character. And Epic Destinies? Basically just ideas taken from the Immortals box set for OD&D... I always hated that one boxed set. A player character who can kill gods and take their place? Not particularly interesting to me.
More attention being devoted to the magical items a character can gain through adventuring than any mundane items they might have need of in the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK no less, and making these magical items a dime a dozen “officially”, per the treasure parcel rules and a section of the DMG speaking (paraphrased here but in a context which is painfully obviously implied by the text as written) of wandering merchants carrying everything an adventurer could possibly need (including magic items) being commonplace, is very unappealing to me. ELEVEN pages for mundane, nonmagical equipment, the majority of that being weapons and armor, whereas magic items are given THIRTY TWO pages (the majority of that being weapons and armor as well).
The assumed setting ingrained into most aspects of the new game is highly irritating to me. It's not so much a lack on my part of the ability to strip away those parts of the backstory for the majority of the races (hell, ALL of the races really... even Humans have “official” backstory to the race in their description) and then RENAME every language from its assumed name in the “official” rules, as well as a hefty section of the class and racial powers, feats, and some of the weapons and armor and many, many of the magical items to fit my individual campaign setting as it is the NEED to do so to individualize my campaign setting in the first place.
I absolutely, flat out DESPISE the racial name for the (ugh) Eladrin. As if there weren't enough gamers out there with the impression that Elves are gay, or something only girls would play, that name alone is almost certain to cement a few more members to that contingent. Man, you WoTC guys should have called them something way cool, like Night Elves maybe. Ooops! Already done...
Classifying character roles is not something that needed to be expounded upon so fully as it was other than to pander to the MMO crowd and lure their attentions to D&D 4E, and the terminology used is just different enough to be different for difference's sake alone. A waste of space that could have been better used for oh, I don't know, some of the innovative and new game design that the writers had been spouting off about that makes D&D 4E so much bettar than anything ever produced with the name of Dungeons & Dragons on it.
Don't care for the Warlock class at all. It should be fairly obvious to anyone who breathes where the inspiration came from. That doesn't impress me.
The MM is nothing more than a list of stats, and for a description some (but not all) monsters have a picture. That's pretty much it. Oh, and their combat tactics, let's not forget those.
There's more, but I don't feel any real need to go on any further.
I did register some amusement when I noticed the character sheet DIDN'T include a rating for each character's DPS. Can't wait to see the homebrewed sheets that come out, I'll be expecting one with it included.
In closing, I give D&D 4E a massive thumbs down.
My biggest regret? I only netted 60% of what I spent upon reselling the books.
Tags: D&D 4E Review
