by Michael Strauss

Created on: June 21, 2009

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), originally published by TSR, and currently published by Wizards of the Coast, has had five printed editions since first published in 1974, counting the original, unnumbered rules set as an edition. In 2008, Wizards of the Coast released 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons (technically the 5th edition). As is common with any new rules edition of a role playing game, 4th edition introduced fundamental changes to both the mechanics and story elements of Dungeons & Dragons.

For anyone familiar with previous editions, some elements of the newest edition will feel familiar and some elements will seem very unusual. Which elements of the game have changed depend primarily on which edition a person is familiar with. Of the previous editions, original D&D, 1st edition, and 2nd edition were rather similar to each other. 3rd edition D&D was a rather sharp departure from previous editions. The best way to examine the changes is to consider those changes in relation to either 2nd or 3rd edition.

2nd edition to 4th edition

For those who have not played D&D since 2nd edition, the mechanics are the biggest changes. The basic idea of six attributes ranging from 3-18 still exists as does the idea of rolling a d20 to determine the outcome of an attack. Most of the base classes and races still exist, though many new ones have been added. The game still uses a level based class system that mixes magic and swordplay to fight mythical creatures. And, the background story for these two editions is mostly the same, with the largest change showing up in the cosmology of the D&D plane structure.

But, while similarities are apparent, so are many differences. Difference in characters would be the most apparent to most players. Character creation has moved away from random dice rolling. A point allocation system is now the primary system of generating attribute values. Also character subsystems have been normalized. No longer is the magic system entirely different than the weapon combat system. Each character uses the same system of action resolution regardless of whether using might or magic. Also, in order to simplify the math involved in the game, higher numbers are always better than lower numbers, including for armor class (AC). Finally, saving throws as a defense mechanic have been removed and replaced with scaling defenses similar to AC.

Combat is where 2nd edition players will observe the most changes. The

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