4th edition DnD – Review

Well I picked up the 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons book and have done a first read on it:

Major changes that I saw:

Races
Eliminated Gnomes, Half-orcs

Added:
Tiefling -1/2 daemons (Hellboy) – children/offspring of humans who sold their souls/birthrights for power from daemonhood.  In exchange they had a great civilization, and they and their offspring were the Aristocracy.  When the civilization fell (like they all do) their poor offspring were left with the half daemon legacy, but none of the benifits.

Dragonborn – Dragonspawn, Sauron, lizardmen, you get the idea, except each one gets his own personal breath weapon.

Modified:  Elfs are now split between what we use to call high (or grey) elfs and wood elf.  The High Elfs are now Eladrin (sylvan) and have a connection to another plane of existence (faeryland) and the Elfs (wood elfs) forsook faeryland and are more grounded to nature.  (Think WHFB wood elves here).

Remains current:
Human, dwarf, 1/2 elf, halfling

Alignments:
Yes, the good versus Evil and Chaos versus law still exists, but the book suggest that the only Player character alignments are Good, Lawfull Good, Neutral, Evil and Chaotic Evil (and the Evil one only with GM prior approval).  Bye-bye LE, CG, CN, LN, these are considered party killers by the players guide.

Divine magic changed, in that all characters have the ability to heal themselves a number of times a day, the cleric just has the ability to speed up this process.  The higher level of cleric, the faster the push.

Character levels:

Heroic levels 1st through 10th (general adventurer, captain of the guard, beginning priest or wizard)
Paragon levels 11th through 20th (Local Bishop, Gandolf the Grey, leaders of cities and armies, Robin Hood)
Epic levels 21+ (Emperor of a kingdom, Gandolf the White, Head of wizard orders, Head of a church – arch-druid, arch-bishop, Pope)

Classes:
Greatly simplified from 3.5:
Rangers, Rogues, Wizard, Warlock, Cleric, Paladin, Warlord (new)

gone:
Illusionist, Thief, Assassin, Druid,

So, this is a major change and revision.  This will definitely entice (possibly) Video gamers into RPGs, but it will irk the more hard core old school RPG gamers.

General review – Heh!  2.5 out of 5 stars.  Its playable, is it the be all to end all – no, but Role play gaming is suppose to be about the companions and the party, this book is a good push in that direction, but in the end, it will not make a bad party good or better, it still up to the players to build a good gaming group.