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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ron" data-source="post: 2008519" data-attributes="member: 1020">The Player's Handbook is the first core rulebook of the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons. There is no information to new gamers; this book is strictly to those already acquainted to roleplaying games. Wizards of the Coast's production values are usually high and this book is not an exception. However, I don't think that the design is particularly good. The cover tries to portrait a photographic rendering of an old magic book. It fails. It is better described as photographic rendering of a toy, although the new logo and the titles font are good. Internal art is also gorgeous, but I think that the layout is rather poor. The margins design try to evocate the margins of an old book, but they are only ugly. The chapter name is now in the margins but in a fixed height. If they could vary the position of the chapter name, it would be easier to quickly find it by examining the lateral of the book. Finally, there are some horizontal lines following the text alignment. I found this a little bit bothering during reading.Regarding the rules, there are lots of improvements from previous editions. Character creation is particularly enhanced as abilities and races are much more balanced now. Although the current classes are better than previous editions, a few problem remains. A quite obvious is that some, such as the ranger, receives a hefty package of abilities at first level, which may prompt some players to take a single level of it just to create a powerful character. Unlike previous editions, the skills rules are now serviceable. Although improved, the new rules are still short to provide a good skill system to D&D. Because of the disparity of levels, some difficulty classes are just to high to low level characters. It take a 20 to open a very single lock, while good locks may need a 30, and it is possible to have non magical locks requiring a 40 to be picked. Considering how easy is to pick a modern lock and how crude are the medieval ones (at least I suppose that they were very simple), this does not make much sense. Feats are a welcome addition to the rules. They are special abilities available to all PCs in some levels, provided that they have the necessary prerequisites. They allow a better customisation of the characters. Now it is possible to have wizards employing swords, fighters specialized in different styles of combat (ranged, mounted, dexterous, etc.), and so on. Sadly, feats are too much oriented to combat. There are few non-combat related feats and the magic related ones are actually weak. Equipment now includes some fantastic weapons, some really ridiculous, such as the two-bladed sword. Armour now restricts dexterity bonuses, opening new tactical choices to players.Combat is also greatly improved from previous editions. Round duration, initiative, action types, subdual damage, unarmed attack, and turn are much better handled. Some new rules, such as opportunity attacks and flanking, especially when combining with some feats such as mobility, may introduce some problems to players not playing with miniatures. The new rules for critical attacks are also better, although they are still timid to introduce a really random component to combat.Magic was also improved from previous editions, presenting more tactical options to spell casters. Also, divine inspired spells are now classified in nine levels, and, as much as possible, are equivalents to their arcane counterparts. Spell lists are provided to each of the spell caster classes, followed by an integrated spell descriptions list, organised in alphabetical order.The Player's Handbook is the main book of the better D&D edition so far. It is well written, with generally good art, albeit the poor design. Despite the great improvements, some persistent problems remain. The main problem is D&D level improvement design that allows a linear advance of skills and combat abilities. In real life, skill improvement is harder as someone is more skilled, as such, the difference between a master and a skilled person is not as great as the difference between a skilled and a not skilled person. In D&D, high-level characters are disproportional better than lower level ones, unlike other class/level games, such as Rolemaster. I think that this is a main flaw of the rules system that reflects heavily in the score I am giving to this book. Those who actually like the D&D power inflation at high levels should add a star to my score.</blockquote>

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