Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

System

• 

  Player's Handbook

• 

  Dungeon Master's Guide

• 

  Player's Handbook 2

• 

  Monster Manual

• 

  Should have been the Player's Handbook, ended up being the cover art for Dungeon Delve

The fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the newest and the most controversial edition of the system.

Basics

Nearly every roll consists of making a single D20 roll, plus a modifier, against a target number. Saving throws have been replaced with Defenses that work like AC; the term 'Saving Throw' is now used to refer to a 50/50 roll every turn to recover from a durational effect.

Character Generation

Chargen is simplified compared to 3rd Edition (although still time consuming). Skills are all-or-nothing, you either have training in them or you don't. Each character gains a selection of Powers which can be used at will, once per encounter, or once per day, in ascending order of power. These abilities often consist of an attack plus some special effect, such as knocking someone prone, setting them on fire, or moving yourself or your opponent. There are also five possible alignments, none of which have much effect on gameplay any more: Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil and Chaotic Evil.

Races

The character races in the PHB are:

• Dragonborn
• Dwarf
• Eladrin (High Elf)
• Elf (Wood Elf)
• Half-Elf
• Halfling
• Human
• Tiefling

In addition to the races in the PHB, the following player races are in the MM and other sourcebooks: (all of them are "LA +0", to put things in 3.5 parlance):

• Bladeling
• Bugbear
• Bullywug
• Doppelganger
• Drow
• Duergar
• Genasi (comes in 9 varieties: Causticsoul, Cindersoul, Earthsoul, Firesoul, Plaguesoul, Stormsoul, Voidsoul, Watersoul, and Windsoul)
• Githyanki
• Githzerai
• Goblin
• Gnolls
• Gnome
• Hobgoblin
• Kenku
• Kobold
• Minotaur
• Orc
• Shadar-Kai
• Shifter, Longtooth
• Shifter, Razorclaw
• Warforged (updated and in this article of Dragon Magazine #364)

Character races in the PHB 2 are:

• Deva
• Gnome
• Goliath
• Half-Orc
• Shifter

Character races in the PHB 3 are:

• Githzerai
• Minotaur
• Shardmind
• Wilden

Classes

Character classes in the first PHB consist of:

4e Classes table   Leader Defender Striker Controller Martial Warlord Fighter Ranger Rogue Divine Cleric Runepriest Paladin Avenger Invoker Arcane Bard Artificer Swordmage Warlock Sorcerer Wizard Primal Shaman Warden Barbarian Druid Seeker Psionic Ardent Battlemind Monk Psion Shadow Assassin

• Cleric (Role: Leader, Power Source: Divine)
• Fighter (Role: Defender, Power Source: Martial)
• Paladin (Role: Defender, Power Source: Divine)
• Ranger (Role: Striker, Power Source: Martial)
• Rogue (Role: Striker, Power Source: Martial)
• Warlock (Role: Striker, Power Source: Arcane)
• Warlord (Role: Leader, Power Source: Martial)
• Wizard (Role: Controller, Power Source: Arcane)

Classes from the second PHB are:

• Avenger (Role: Striker, Power Source: Divine)
• Barbarian (Role: Striker, Power Source: Primal)
• Bard (Role: Leader, Power Source: Arcane)
• Druid (Role: Controller, Power Source: Primal)
• Invoker (Role: Controller, Power Source: Divine)
• Shaman (Role: Leader, Power Source: Primal)
• Sorcerer (Role: Striker, Power Source: Arcane)
• Warden (Role: Defender, Power Source: Primal)

Classes added in the third PHB are:

• Ardent (Role: Leader, ower Source: Psionic)
• Battlemind (Role: Defender, Power Source: Psionic)
• Monk (Role: Striker, Power Source: Psionic)
• Psion (Role: Controller, Power Source: Psionic)
• Runepriest (Role: Leader, Power Source: Divine)
• Seeker (Role: Controller, Power Source: Primal)

Classes in other books include:

• Artificer (Role: Leader, Power Source: Arcane) from the Eberron campaign guide
• Swordmage (Role: Defender, Power Source: Arcane) from the Forgotten Realms campaign guide
• Assassin (Role: Striker, Power Source: Shadow) available only to D&D Insider subscribers

Gameplay

Gameplay is divided into encounters. The GM selects monsters and traps up to a total experience value as recommended for the size of the party, and the encounter plays out as a tactical miniatures game. Non-combat encounters consist of "skill challenges", where skill checks (sometimes of multiple types) are made in sequence. XP is awarded for non-combat challenges and quests, as well as for combat encounters.

Each character can take one standard action (such as an attack), one move action, one minor action, and any number of free actions per turn. Each character also gets one immediate interrupt or immediate reaction per round, which may be used outside of the regular turn order. Generally each character will use their standard action to make use of an attack power. Characters are highly specialized as noted above, and fit into combat roles of controller (status effect and mass-attack focused), defender (durability and counter-attack focused), leader (buffing and healing focused), and striker (single target damage focused).

Characters level up from level 1 to 30; with the scope of the game changing every ten levels. At level 30 characters are expected to undergo some form of apotheosis.

Setting

The setting of 4e is highly generic and designed to give the DM a relatively blank canvas to paint on. This default setting consists of a wild medieval landscape in which isolated human and demihuman communities ('Points of Light') struggle to survive after the fall of a greater empire. This provides an explanation for the large areas of wilderness and many ruins for monsters to hide in, and the need for adventurers as opposed to more regulated militias. Which doesn't make any Goddamn sense, but okay.

The Planescape cosmology, present in 2e and 3e, has been removed, and a much vaguer "Astral Sea" cosmology has been put in its place.

The DMG contains an extensive section explaining the tropes of the setting and how they might be used, and also suggesting ways in which the DM can deviate from them to make the setting his own.

D&D 4e on /tg/

The reaction of some fans.

Since its announcement 4e has been a source of controversy and trolling on /tg/. Its supporters consider it to have made D&D simple and fun. Its critics have numerous objections to the system and setting, often referring to it as 'shit twinkie' (with the implication that they had been expecting a certain type of D&D goodness and sorely disappointed by what was actually delivered.)

It is virtually guaranteed that any 4e thread will descend into trolling within the first dozen replies.

Criticism or troll?

A criticism is one or more factual statements that, when combined, suggest that there is a shortcoming. What separates a criticism from a troll is that a criticism merely lays out facts and allows the reader to decide if the facts strongly communicate a flaw. A troll statement is one that includes possibly inflammatory statements that do not allow the reader to come to their own conclusion. For example, a criticism may be "Light blue type is difficult to read on a white background". A troll statement might be "The light blue type is stupid" or "Light blue is a shit twinkie".

Benefit or Schill?

A benefit is one or more factual statements that suggests some advantage. What separates a benefit from a schill is a benefit lays out facts and allows the reader to decide if the facts strongly communicate an advantage. A shill statement is one that includes puffery or exaggeration or unsupported claims of goodness from which a reasonable reader cannot come to a conclusion; the things you might see or hear during a sales pitch, for example. For example, "classes are designed to complement each other" or "paragon grants a sense of prestige and accomplishment" are examples of schilling, as they are unsupported or include extremely optimistic claims that cannot be verified.

Fandom

It is said that in the darkest corners of /tg/ and behind the very stars themselves, there exist fans of 4e. There are many rumors of these "fans", but most reports say that they are mostly nice folk who recognize the game's flaws but still want to play and share it with people for fun, making them either a very tragic folk or just... folk. The fanatic, ferocious 4efag or "4rry" may be a rare breed, but one to be wary of! It is said that logic and previous editions bounce off its hide, and the best way to escape alive is to wave a D&D Insider subscription to their nose, huck it in the other direction, and run, praying to the gods.

The most dedicated unpaid fanwork based on 4e would be the Touhou Power Cards, although it's difficult to say whether these weaboo fags are using Touhou to be 4e fans, or 4e to be Touhou fans, or perhaps using Touhou as an overly-elaborate satire of the 4e concept of class powers.

See also

• Dungeons & Dragons
• Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
• Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition
• Touhou Power Cards
• Drama Cards
• Rage
• Troll
• Skub
• Butthurt

External Links

• Official Site
• March 2010 Errata, 88 pages, for the 15 official rulebooks and setting books so far.
• Latest Errata, May 2010, 36 pages.