D&D 4th is here

So gaming as we know it has changed. TSR --> Wizards of the Coast --> Hasbro has graced us with Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition.

I've taken a long look at it. Not a crappy preview look but a good hard look.

And I'm a bit torn.

I like a LOT of what I see. I really do. I will certainly enjoy the fights and the encounters in D&D 4th edition more than any other D&D. What they do, they do tremendously well. This will likely be the closest thing to playing a scripted video game fight scene. I'll give you an example: There are creatures and classes that have very cool 'interrupts' that occur and certain times in the fight. Typically when they are Bloodied, which has at 1/2 their HP's. For example, a high level wizard might explode with crackling lightning that blasts all nearby foes or a dragon might be able to immediately interrupt the action to breath fire. Stuff like that.

So what part am I torn on? Equality.

I remember a long time ago, I believe a much earlier edition of D&D had different stats for the different sexes. Male characters got an increase in Strength, while women often got an increase in Constitution and likely Charisma, if memory serves. That division didn't last long as newer games told the bold concept of making men and women equal and there were no changes in the stats. I'm not saying focusing on the difference between men and women is a good or bad thing but it's a realistic thing. I mean, I am not a big fella, but I know very few female friends who can outwrestle me. It's just how the human body was made. Things are not equal.

Well...D&D 4th edition is. Wow did they ever work tremendously hard to ensure that everybody is equal.

Let's look at D&D 3. This was not a game built on equality. And I've flip-flopped many times to thinking that was wrong to that was good. The obvious negative of a lack of equality is that somebody is getting the shaft. I remember one of my favorite games had me as a Fighter and another player playing a Halfling Bard. I seem to recall that the player specifically went out of his way to try playing the weakest character he could. He succeeded. In case you wondered, a Halfling Bard is the weakest thing you can play in D&D. From 1st level to 14th level he did 1d8 damage. And he sang giving us all that 'precious' +1 bonus to hit. Woot...

Some classes in D&D 3 sucked. Some sucked at the start and didn't come into their own until much later. Nobody is going to claim that their 1st level Wizard is going to be able to beat the 1st level party fighter. It just doesn't happen. You don't play a Wizard because he's awesome. You play him because one day...he will be. It matters not whether your character is going to reach the coveted 20th level, just the promise that you could have been the overpowered time-stopping 'nuke that no good bully fighter from orbit' (meteor swarm) ubercharacter is good enough. You start as a wimp. One day you could be a tiny god.

Oh and druids suck. That's for you DD.

There is another type of inequality that existed in D&D 3. The fact that it was very possible to make a character who did not use that awesome-sauce feat or spell and thus be entirely inferior to another character who built their character around it. Did you know about that Feat? Did you buy the Spell Compendium to discover that totally 'broken' spell? I remember flipping through the player's guide and giving our party cleric her two best spells. She would have survived without them but with them, she was so much better and more efficient.

So the fine people at Wizards looked at these disparaging differences and wiped them out of their game. Now...everybody is equal. Not the same, but equal. There is a difference.

The way that they've done it is through Powers. Everybody gets Powers now. Fighters, Rogues, Rangers & Warlords get martial powers (called Exploits) that are basically tricks in combat. Clerics and Paladins get divine powers (called Prayers) that are basically tricks in combat/magic. Wizards and Warlocks get arcane powers (called Spells) and I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. Everybody now has stacks of phat powers.

And, to make sure that everybody is equal....everybody gets the exact same number of powers. (That is not 100% true but it's like 90% true). Every class earns the same number of powers. It's possible to get an 1 extra power here or there from races or a class or a feat but generally, you're going to have roughly the same number.

The benefit of this may or may not be obvious. NOBODY sucks in 4th edition. While there aren't anymore bards, even a Halfling fighter is going to be a terror in combat now. As much of a terror as that Half-Elf Rogue. And exactly as powerful as that Dragonborn Wizard. Yep...you're all equally awesome.

And I guess that's where I'm torn. Gone are the days where Wizards would one day become tiny gods. You now start as powerful as a Fighter and/or Paladin and/or and you will remain just as powerful as they will. Spells are now just 'powers'. Just like the fighter's exploits. I'm afraid to report that fireball does 3d6 damage. That's it. If you want ti inflict more damage, you get a more powerful spell (one that is sufficiently in tune with the power of the fighters more powerful exploit).

Now this is not to say that all classes inflict the exact same amount of damage. You have to read the finer powers of powers for it to all make sense. Suffice to say that fighters will inflict some really good damage. Clerics will inflict decent damage but they give buffs and heals to their party WHILE fighting. Wizards inflict moderate damage but to a lot of opponents. Rangers and rogues get lots of movement in addition to their smashing. So I'm not trying to say that at the end of the game, everybody does Xd6 damage. But the powers all scale with each other so that no one class has becomes the Wizard of 3.5. Nobody surges ahead in the 'end game'.

And the impressive nature of spells is now relegated to being 'just a power'.

You see, back in the day, when a monster designer wanted to jack the power of a monster up...you would add the final, brutal, evil component: the ability to cast spells. Your dragon...sure...he's tough. Great AC. Lots of HP's. Lots of attacks. Tough fight. But oh god, you add spells and a DM who know their stuff...and you are on the verge of an epic fight.

But now...adding 'spell casting' to a monster is irrelevant. It's irrelevant because saying that a monster can cast spells as a 10th level Wizard is now comparable as saying it can use Exploits as a 10th level Ranger. The result is kinda the same.

All is not entirely lost. Wizards lost a lot in spells being cool and gain Rituals. Rituals are where your long term magic comes from. Anything that lasts for moments is a spell. Anything that lasts for a long time is a Ritual. The only fault is that they could only fit so many rituals in the first book. So the rituals do not really have the same flair as spells did before.

D&D 3.5 had 123 pages (of 317 page book) dedicated to spells. 4th edition has about 10 pages in each class dedicated to their powers (so that's about 10 pages of Wizard Spells and 10 pages of Cleric spells, sorry, Prayers). They have 15 pages of Rituals for players (both Wizards and Clerics) to use. Rituals, while very cool as a concept, really have yet to come into their own. They aid the adventurers in many ways but I can't see any of them turning the tide of any encounter.

I don't think D&D 4th is bad. It's just a different beast. I think most players had gotten used to some things sucking and some things being more powerful. Spell casters were a mixed bag. On some adventures, with the wrong spells...they weren't very helpful. In other adventures, when they had the right spell for the right situation, they defused the fight without too many problems. Maybe that was a sticking point for Wizards of the Coast? Maybe they couldn't stand the idea that some encounters to too hard while others were too easy. While I understand their concerns, this does end up allowing encounters to not get boring because you never quite knew how something would turn out. Would the flying Drow hidden in darkness fuck the party hard because the Wizard used up all their Dispel Magic?

Now, based on my impression (because I haven't had time to play it) the Wizard will provide the exact benefit that having the Warlord and the Fighter and the Rogue (etc, etc) will to the party. Each members provides their powers. No more, no less.

Conformity and equality. Will this make for a better game overall? Yeah, I guess, probably. Had we not played with the inequalities of the past, the push to make everybody equal wouldn't be so transparent.

So welcome to D&D 4th edition. The system is cleaner and smoother. It is simple but has depth. Everybody is awesome in their own way, and there are no classes that are wildly unbalanced. And I for one can't wait for the new books to come out and throw in a TON of new powers to unbalance things and shake things up. =)