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Review: Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, 3rd Edition
Being my first review ever, I've approached this with some hesitation. I've seen some horrible reviewing done here and elsewhere, and am trying to avoid the same pitfalls. So--I'm going to write this review with a few questions in mind: does the D&D3E PHB meet its intended goals? In my opinion, it does. Is it a great system for fast and furious heroic fantasy action? Definitely. Is it a great roleplaying game? Almost.
The first thing you'll notice about the book is the production quality. It is amazing in comparison to anything in the role-playing industry, or the publishing industry in general. The hardbound book is sturdy in your hands, and the cover is beautiful. It is apparently a photograph of an actual wood, leather and metal cover handcrafted by an artist for Wizards of the Coast.
The interior is no different in terms of quality. The illustrations are wonderful and evocative. In addition to pictures of characters and equipment, the chapter on magic is littered with pictures of spell effects--the example diagram of a fireball going off in a dungeon is invaluable for new DM's trying to determine who and what will be affected by such an occurance.
The pages are outlined in reddish-brown metal-looking borders, with gems at the bottom containing page numbers. These are actually rather reminiscent of Planescape, with their sweeping metal curves and points. Behind the two-column text, there are very faint blue lines under each line of text. This manages to not be distracting and are useful for keeping your eyes focused on the more illustration-intensive pages.
Art in no way makes a game, but the best thing I think I can say about the production quality is that it adds a lot to the game's feel. This book without the attention to the overall feel would still be a set of great mechanics, but would lose much of the personality it has--the art alone makes me want to play the game.
The system is what shines in this game, though. Long-time players of Dungeons and Dragons will find a lot of familiar terms here, but it's not the same game. While 2nd Edition was a revision and clarification (and in many cases, a hack-job) of 1st Edition AD&D, 3rd Edition is a complete rewrite; it would probably be better titled "the new Dungeons and Dragons" or something awkward like that. It's much to the credit of the designers (Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams) that it still feels like D&D, but better. Games in 3rd Edition will be, for the most part, more fantastic, yet seem to run much smoother.
Character creation is streamlined, with the player picking from 7 races and 11 classes, to include old favorites like the Half-orc, Barbarian, and Monk, and a new addition, the Sorcerer. While the Sorcerer, an arcane spellcaster whose powers work more like innate abilities than spell, is one of the most touted and most interesting additions to 3rd Edition, it also may be one of the most problematic to add to an existing campaign. Where did these guys come from all of a sudden? Where did they learn to use their power? These questions are not answered in the Player's Handbook. This isn't a real detriment, though--the Player's Handbook contains the basic rules to run D&D, but does not attempt to explain, or even give, a setting.
Character creation continues with ability scores, which are the same as all versions of D&D, although derived bonuses have been simplified into one chart for all the scores, as opposed to the chart for each ability score in 1st and 2nd Edition. Characters choose Feats, a new type of ability that gives your character access to special abilities that go above and beyond normal class abilities. I found it especially interesting that these Feats not only make your character unique, but aren't limited to certain classes (with the exception of all Feats that have to do with spellcasting or making magic items--they can only be used by spellcasters. However, they can be used by any spellcaster, to include priests, rangers and paladins.) This can allow for interesting character combinations, such as a human wizard with "Point Blank Shot"--he may not be able to wade into melee, but can crack off crossbow shots as well as any fighter at 1st level. (The "Point Blank Shot" Feat will! come in useful with ray-type spells that the caster has to roll to hit on, as well, I believe.)
Non-weapon proficiencies have been replaced by skills, which are open to any class. Each class has its "class skills," which it can improve easier, and take to higher levels. But, with time, any class can learn almost any skill, allowing for sneaky priests, and highly educated fighters.
Basically, character creation will feel familiar to old-time players, but allows for characters with a great deal more versatility, even at low levels. The one thing players will note is missing is multi-classing at character creation. Multi-classing is now not handled at this point, but as the character grows, he or she can take a level in any class each time he or she advances a level. For example, Eldred the human fighter (4th level) gains a level. He's been studying for the priesthood under Brother Rike for a while, so he advances to level 4 fighter/level 1 priest. He is now considered a 5th level character, though, and all bonuses to hit, bonuses to saving throws, and new hit points stack upon one another. Once again, versatility shines through as the focus of this system, allowing for a very multi-faceted character.
The ability for any race to multi-class (and the lack of class restrictions and level caps for demi-humans) is balanced by extra Feats and skills for humans, keeping them in their traditional role as the most versatile of the races.
The task resolution system is perhaps the best feature of D&D 3rd Edition, and forms the core of what is known as the "d20 System." All tasks, whether skill use, saving throws, or chance to hit, are resolved by adding up the requisite skill, saving throw, or to hit bonus, with any applicable bonuses, and rolling a d20. The d20 added to the total bonuses is compared with a difficulty class (DC). If equal to or higher than the DC, the task succeeds. THAC0 has been thrown out in favor of a bonus to hit, and Armor Class has been changed from a 'lower equals better' to a 'higher equals better' system in order for it to be the difficulty class for any attempt to hit the character.
For example, Frig the thief has 4 ranks in Hide, and a 17 Dexterity (giving a +3). The GM has already made a roll for Kiljore the guard's Spot skill, and the result was 16. Frig rolls a d20 and adds the +4 for Hide and +3 Dex to the roll of 12. His total is 19 vs. a DC of 16--success!
Later, if Kiljore noticed Frig and tried to attack him--Kiljore is a 3rd level fighter, so he has a +3 to hit. He also has a 15 Strength (+2), and the Feat Weapon Focus (giving him a +1 with one weapon of his choice). His total bonuses are 3 + 2 + 1 = 6, and he rolls a 5 on the d20 for a total of 11. Frig's Armor Class, which is the DC when trying to hit is 13, so Kiljore misses.
This cannot be emphasized enough--all tasks, no matter what, are resolved with the same method in 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons. This is vastly different than the myriad of die rolls in earlier editions--high on a d20 for combat, low on percentile dice for thief skills, as two examples--and streamlines combat and other situations. It seems too simple to be called ingenius, but for Dungeons and Dragons, it is a huge step forward.
The magic system, like much of 3rd Edition, is familiar, but overhauled. The first thing you'll notice is that all the spells--divine (priest) and arcane (wizard and sorcerer)--are combined in one list, all in alphabetical order. At first glance, this seems very unwieldy, but came a godsend as players scrambled to look up spell effects during play. I found it a bit annoying while choosing spells during character creation, but beyond that, it's a good example of the little details added to this edition that are not apparent at first but end up enhancing game play greatly.
Spells are listed with appropriate casting classes and the level of spell after them. This allows for multiple classes to be able to cast the same spell, including wizards and priests. No longer does Detect Magic or Animate Dead have two entries--both priests and wizards cast these with the exact same effect. In addition, all classes that cast spells, including Rangers and Paladins, have a few unique spells only for that class. I thought this was a very nice touch.
Included in the back of this first printing of the Player's Handbook is a 14 page insert with excerpts from the Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual, allowing play before those books are published. It includes rules for experience points, some magic items, and 17 monsters. While this greatly helps new DM's that don't have the ability to draw on past resources and convert them, it seems a bit lacking. Without a setting of note (besides the Greyhawk gods listed for priests) in the Handbook, new DM's might find themselves at a loss as to how to start a campaign.
This is actually more serious of a drawback than it seems at first. While the setting will be explored in later sourcebooks from WotC, their marketing machine is targeting new gamers. Experienced roleplayers probably already have a setting, or at least know how to make one up, for D&D. These new gamers may find themselves a bit confused with just the PHB, and may not know of the excellent resources WotC's providing, such as the new adventures in Dungeon.
Still--this does not make Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition a bad game, or even a not good game. For a game to come from a line that has not always (or even often) been thought of as high-quality with as few flaws as it has is, frankly, amazing. This is merely a small step away from greatness.
Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition is definitely a brand new game, made to be familiar to old-timers, and made to be easy to learn for new gamers. It succeeds in both these tasks marvelously, and does it with style and panache, blowing away its predecessors. I recommend it to anyone, even if you've hated D&D in the past (hey--I did). And as a system that can be used for any game you want to write using the D20 license (more on this later in the week), it excels.