D&D 4th Edition Player's Handbook Now In PDF

The Player's Handbook for D&D 4th Edition can now be found in PDF format over on DnDClassics.com. The entry also includes an extensive summary of the history of the game, its goals and design philosophy, the controversy (which is colloquially known as The Edition Wars and is a particularly unpleasant side of our hobby), and more. The PDF is just $9.99. Released in 2008, the 4E PHB was written by Rob Heinsoo (who later took a lot of his approach over to Pelgrane Press' 13th Age), Andy Collins, and James Wyatt.

Find it here.

"The first of three core rulebooks for the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game.

The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. In the D&D game, players create characters that band together to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and find treasure. The 4th Edition D&D rules offer the best possible play experience by presenting exciting character options, an elegant and robust rules system, and handy storytelling tools for the Dungeon Master.

The Player's Handbook presents the official Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game rules as well as everything a player needs to create D&D characters worthy of song and legend: new character races, base classes, paragon paths, epic destinies, powers, more magic items, weapons, armor, and much more."

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[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Ah... I still happily play D&D 4 and dread the day they turn off the DDI tools. PDF versions of the rulebooks would be nice if they contained the errata, otherwise it's not so great.

 

[DaveMage]

I'm surprised they didn't simply release the 4E Special Edition PHB since (IIRC) it had some errata corrected in it.

 

[delericho]

I'm surprised they didn't simply release the 4E Special Edition PHB since (IIRC) it had some errata corrected in it.

That might turn out to be next month's release.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I really liked 4E, even though I had issues with its very tight focus on one style of play (map/minis). Hopefully some day it will be possible to go back and enjoy this game on its own merits without having it be judged against other, different editions that also exist and can be played by people who like them.

(I love 5E because it gets back to supporting a wider range of of play styles; however 4E was cool because it scratched a different itch, but it suffered because it only scratched one kind of itch)

 

[moldyderp]

I have no experience with D&D past 2E other than reading bits and pieces from the odd manual now and then (and then none of 4E). "A tactical miniatures game" sounds great to me. Can anyone recommend to me the latest versions of what I should look in to concerning rulebooks for 4E?

 

[skraig1]

With this new PDF we are getting closer to having a searchable edition independent D&D. That could be helpful for DMs. If you want to see everything about a subject and how it was handled, just fire up the search.
My players are asking about magic item creation these days, an easy way to review how it has been handled before is nice.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I have no experience with D&D past 2E other than reading bits and pieces from the odd manual now and then (and then none of 4E). "A tactical miniatures game" sounds great to me. Can anyone recommend to me the latest versions of what I should look in to concerning rulebooks for 4E?

Get the PHB1 or the two Player's Handbooks for Essentials, plus the DMG1, and Monster vault plus MM3. You can use MM2 and MM1 but be ready to mod them a bit to conform better to the numbers used in MM3 and MV. Then, find a bunch of minis or tokens and some cool maps (I used and continue to use the Pathfinder Gamemastery maps, but the D&D Essentials boxed sets with "buildable map pieces" or whatever they called them were fun too) and you're set to go.

I'd comment only that despite assertions to the contrary 4E is actually a full RPG, it just happens to be far, far too good at tactical minis combat, leading to a problem I ran into frequently in which players did less RP/exploration than combat because the combat was so damned fun.

 

[Dire Bare]

Although 4e is my (and my group's) favorite edition, it was a hard sell initially; in particular one the female players was repulsed by the covers. I hadn't really paid much attention to the covers before that, but soon started really disliking Wayne Reynold's style, as well.

Reynolds is a talented artist, but his work is very "distinct", or rather, he has a very strong visual style. At first, I loved his D&D pieces, but then he seemed to get the cover of every D&D 4E book and every Pathfinder book (plus a lot of interior pieces as well) and I quickly got tired of his work.

Same thing happened with Jeff Easley for me back in the day. I loved his covers for the MM2 and other 1st edition hardcovers, but overall, I now cannot stand his artwork.

Still love most of Elmore's work though . . . .

 

[Evenglare]

PHB 3's dual class system was one of the coolest things to ever hit D&D IMO. I freaking loved that hybrid system...

 

[froth]

Shannon Appelcline does a great job with these.