by Matt Lau

Created on: December 17, 2008   Last Updated: August 09, 2009

There has been a great deal of pre-launch buzz regarding the release of the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Now that it has finally hit the shelves and I have had the time to both read through the rulebooks and play through a few sessions, I feel I can write a knowledgeable review.

My overall opinion of the 4th edition is that I find it just as entertaining as 3rd edition, but the newer edition is faster and easier to play. The new rule books are well-formatted and much easier for beginners to make sense of. The basic mechanic of D&D 4E follows the same basic d20 mechanic introduced with the 3rd edition. Attacks and skill resolution are handled by a single roll of a twenty-sided die, adding one or more bonuses attempting to get a target number over a certain difficulty to determine success. This basic mechanic remains the same although much of the number crunching has been streamlined and simplified to speed up game play.

One of the "Behind the curtain" differences in the new game design is that the underlying math is much more balanced. Attack bonuses and defenses scale up at the same rate for all character types which serves several purposes. First that a third-level fighter is roughly equal in power to a third-level wizard (or cleric, or rogue, or warlock, or ranger, etc..). This has never been the case in any previous incarnation of the D&D rules. Even in the most recent editions, at the lower levels the fighter-type classes were all-important and the wizards were little more than annoying siblings that needed to be protected from the lowliest kobold. Then, right around 5th-level, the fighters were pretty much the same and the wizards just start to be able to hold their own. Then around 10th-level, the fighters were pretty much the same and the wizards are deciding whether or not they want to end the battle before anyone else gets a chance to act. By 15th level and beyond, the wizards don't really need the fighters around. Now, in the 4th edition, all the classes advance in power at the same rate, so each player can spend an equal amount of time in the spotlight.

One of the new game concepts highlighted in 4th edition is "tiers" of play. Levels 1-10 are the "heroic" tier; Basically the time when the characters are exploring dungeons and earning their stripes as adventurers. Levels 11-20 are the "paragon" tier, when the character is a shining example and her actions have repercussions affecting not just small towns but entire countries.

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