I've got to give Canadian Amazon some props. My books arrived on Friday at 4:00. They were waiting for me when I got home. You can't do any better then shipping and arriving on the day of release.
I've browsed through all three books, eager to look at the artwork and gather first impressions. Overall they are outstanding.
Players Handbook
- The overall layout is very good. Things appear where they should be. The ruleset has been simplied and yet still retains strong style.
- The artwork is even better than previous books. William O'Connor does a lot of work here.
- The thirty level progression is the same for all classes. What makes classes unique from each other is the powers they have. Ability scores go up much quicker. Some levels give you a +1 on ALL abilities, others give +1 to two abilities. Characters end up with way more feats than in 3e (18 by level 30 as opposed to 11 by 30 in 3e.)
- Mulitclassing seems to be handled with feat options and class power swapping rather than taking levels in a separate class.
- Only 17 skills. They do more. Feats divided into Heroic, Paragon, and Epic.
- Class powers are interesting and serve a wide variety of roles. Certain powers activate healing surges; you strike an enemy for damage AND can then use a healing surge if you wish. Some powers allow nearby allies to use a healing surge too.
- Melee fighter types have powers that allow you to hit multiple targets at once, a melee burst attack, if you will.
- Combat seems defined by success being determined by the aggressor. If my spell beats your Will/Ref/Fort then you are blinded/paralyzed/slowed ect. There is no immediate save given to resist the effect. You are affected until you take the time to make a save and remove the effect. Certain powers allow afflicted characters to make saves, much like getting free uses of healing surge.
- The equipment section is AWESOME. The Players Handbook has all the magic items so players have easy access to all the good stuff they want. Magic items simplified as well. Level 1 magic items cost X gold pieces, regardless if its armour, weapon, ring, item ect. Level 30 items cost over 3 million gold pieces each!
- Implements are neat. Holy symbols, staves, wands all have pluses like swords and they add to attack and damage when using them to turn undead/cast a spell ect.
- Magic weapons and armour go up to +6 enhancement and they are no longer modular. Building a +5 Holy, Ghost Touch, Keen sword is out. Now weapons and armour do just what they do and that is it. Again it's a simple system that prevents a character having a weapon that is great for every fight.
- Scrolls are used for rituals now; powerful one-time effects like teleportation circles back to civilization or raising dead. They are expensive and valued items.
Dungeon Masters Guide
- Encounter building made simplier. DMs have XP to 'spend' based on party level and numbers. Ten encounters of equal XP to the party = gain a level. Quest XP rewards by level are now spelt out too.
- Treasure packets make doling out riches easier too.
- Traps have level and XP costs now. Surviving them is like defeating a monster.
- There is a small section on snacks - as if gamers need to be told to eat (lol!)
- A full section for non-combat encounters. More guidelines for roleplaying through social situations (Diplomacy, Bluff, ect.)
- Comes with a sample city to start playing out of right off the bat.
Monster Manual
- ORCUS!!! There is a good selection of monsters from Level 1 to Level 30 and then right out of no where - BAM! - Orcus, a Level 33 monster. Bascially they give you a big, bad final fight/end of campaign villain all stated up and ready to go. Nice touch that.
- Minion monsters all have 1 Hit Point regardless of their level. Bascially any successful attack kills a minion but all minions survive failed attacks. I guess it allows players to mow down hordes of creatures who can still be a threat to them. Minions can dish it out but they can't take it. Weird concept but will have to play to see how it works.
- 1 solo monster (like a dragon) is the same as fighting 5 regular monsters. Solo monster hit points and extra attacks reflect this.
- There are four dragon age catagories. Bascially they are young, adult, old, ancient.
- Most monsters have multiple stat blocks. There are weak and powerful versions of many monsters.
Definately want my friends to make some characters and have some arena fights.