Customer Reviews
D&D Vista - By: Mr. R. A. Bearman, 08 Jul 2008 
Yup, this is to D&D3.5 what Vista is to XP. In short 3.5 only needed a little tweeking here & there to make it perfect. So what do Wizards of the Coast do? They completely re-make the game & ballls it right up.
It looks very pretty. :P (just like Vista)And at first glance looks to be well laid out & easy to use, but this is a lie. When you start looking in depth you find numerous rules & annotations that are badly explained (if at alll). Then theres the classes & races that have been replaced. WHY? There are some good ideas in here but I personaly am feeding this book to the recycle bin & going back to 3.5 It still works.
too old for 4th edition... but too young to stop rolling dice - By: Nathan Mimble, 02 Jul 2008 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 & 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 & plastic figures.. after alll the plastic figures are much cheaper than Warhammer figures!
First Impressions a Great Edition - By: D. Pillow, 27 Jun 2008 
Like many people here i have being playing DnD for many years now & ever since I heard about the realise of 4th Edition I've been waiting with great expectation, & 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 & complexaty of DMing out of the game in the previsous editions & 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 & DM's alike although Previous DnD lovers out there may take some time to reallly enjoy it.
Hope this helps!
Interesting System, But It's Not D&D - By: J. Sivyer, 25 Jun 2008 
OUT:
Gnomes, Druids, Sorcerers, Barbarians, Bards, Skill Ranks, variety of spells, 9 fields of alignment, great weapon, equipment & armour selection.
IN:
Dragonborn, Tieflings, Warlord, Warlock, Eladrin, healing surges, at-will powers.
Throughout the years of D&D & 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 callled 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 & powers.
Of course, this is alll my opinion (except for the INS & OUTS which are facts), but it just doesn't feel like D&D. It's something else.
I wanted to like it, I reallly did. I TRIED to like it, I truly tried. But I don't. I feel like it's written for a newcomer & not an rpg fan. I feel like they're insulting my intelligence by making things simple & saying "Look, you've got something you can do (bash or blast things) every round." What happened to tactics & 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 & 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 & lament that fact that I purchased the PHB. Luckily I didn't go with my first thought & 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 actuallly 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.
Midlife crisis - By: Lars Jacob Hiim, 24 Jun 2008 This is a totaly new game, not D&D as we know it. Wizards have fixed some rules that needed fixing, & "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 & solo monsters & 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 & is dying his hair, wearing a leather jacket & driving a Harley. And of course it is not working. He is trying to be something he is not, & 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, & they had deserved a better treatment than this.
