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The 4E Players Handbook: good...bad...ugly..
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<blockquote data-quote="Herremann the Wise" data-source="post: 4451014" data-attributes="member: 11300"><p>I have several issues with the 4E PHB.</p><p></p><p>1) The quality of material seems a little down on some of the stuff that was coming out at the back end of the 3.x era. The waviness of the paper and smudgability are quite severe production quality issues, especially when you think more PHBs will be sold than any other. It is a disservice to the D&D brand.</p><p></p><p>2) The "Wall of Spells" at the rear of the 3.x PHB has become the "Wall of Classes" in 4E. Some may not mind this but when I first got the book, it acted like one huge road block to the rest of the book. While I can appreciate why they did this (in terms of referencing information), it does reduce the overall readability of the book.</p><p></p><p>3) There is a certain sterility to the book. It's like reading the old SRD compared to the 3.x PHB. Good for information and referencing but overall, it is not a document that particularly enthuses me and "captures my imagination". Not that it's particularly bad, but just that I think they could have done better with a D&D book.</p><p></p><p>4) From a <strong><em>personal </em></strong>perspective (YMMV), I did not like magical items going into the PHB. Aside from taking away from the mystery of magic, it has also enforced two things I really don't like. Firstly an absolute surfeit of +<em>x</em> buff items as well as an exponential scale of economy that seems completely false. Others may like this but I don't.</p><p></p><p>5) Skills. It seems like they forgot to do the mathematics on this which is disappointing given the attention to other details.</p><p></p><p>6) Alignment. This has been a basket case which I think the "unaligned" alignment had the potential to solve. Instead, alignment and D&D remain "weird".</p><p></p><p>Having said all that, I think the game plays very well or at least it has with our group... and in the end, maybe that is how the PHB should be judged. While the document itself is a little lacklustre, the experience it provides is a different story.</p><p></p><p>Best Regards</p><p>Herremann the Wise</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Herremann the Wise, post: 4451014, member: 11300"] I have several issues with the 4E PHB. 1) The quality of material seems a little down on some of the stuff that was coming out at the back end of the 3.x era. The waviness of the paper and smudgability are quite severe production quality issues, especially when you think more PHBs will be sold than any other. It is a disservice to the D&D brand. 2) The "Wall of Spells" at the rear of the 3.x PHB has become the "Wall of Classes" in 4E. Some may not mind this but when I first got the book, it acted like one huge road block to the rest of the book. While I can appreciate why they did this (in terms of referencing information), it does reduce the overall readability of the book. 3) There is a certain sterility to the book. It's like reading the old SRD compared to the 3.x PHB. Good for information and referencing but overall, it is not a document that particularly enthuses me and "captures my imagination". Not that it's particularly bad, but just that I think they could have done better with a D&D book. 4) From a [B][I]personal [/I][/B]perspective (YMMV), I did not like magical items going into the PHB. Aside from taking away from the mystery of magic, it has also enforced two things I really don't like. Firstly an absolute surfeit of +[I]x[/I] buff items as well as an exponential scale of economy that seems completely false. Others may like this but I don't. 5) Skills. It seems like they forgot to do the mathematics on this which is disappointing given the attention to other details. 6) Alignment. This has been a basket case which I think the "unaligned" alignment had the potential to solve. Instead, alignment and D&D remain "weird". Having said all that, I think the game plays very well or at least it has with our group... and in the end, maybe that is how the PHB should be judged. While the document itself is a little lacklustre, the experience it provides is a different story. Best Regards Herremann the Wise [/QUOTE]
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