Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook |  | Authors: Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, James Wyatt
Brand: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy Used: $12.53
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Rating:  239 reviews
Sales Rank: 10098
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4th
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.8
MPN: WOC2173672
ISBN: 0786948671
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.93
EAN: 9780786948673
ASIN: 0786948671
Publication Date: June 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780786948673 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
The Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. In the D and D game players create characters that band together to explore dungeons slay monsters and find treasure. The 4th Edition D and 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 320-page Player's Handbook presents the official Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying Game rules as well as everything a player needs to create D and D characters worthy of song and legend: new character races base classes paragon paths epic destinies powers magic items weapons armor and much more. The Player's Handbook is the first of three core rulebooks required to play the 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying Game. The improved page layout and presentation enables new and established players to understand and learn the 4th Edition D and D rules quickly.
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| Customer Reviews:
 I'm hesitant to post this because of the rabid fanboys... July 28, 2010
Nenorc
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I purchased the Dungeons and Dragons 4E Player's Handbook a little over a year ago and have played as part of an on-going campaign for some time before I decided to create a review for it. At first, I was somewhat excited when I heard about the changes that they were making, and being that 3/3.5 was a pretty good system, I was sure that they were only fixing weaknesses on the older system and shoring up strengths. Being that this is pretty much an entirely new game and experience, I decided to postpone any judgement until I had a good while to digest the changes and see how I truly felt about.
As far as the book itself goes, I must say that I am somewhat disappointed with the quality, especially the artwork. The artwork does not stir the imagination, or fill you with curiosity and wonder, as good fantasy art should. Here's a little story to better illustrate my point: I am a fan of Magic: the Gathering as well, since 1995, and the artwork in that game has done nothing but get better and better as time has went on. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the artwork in the DND 4E PHB. The prints themselves are full-color and frequently placed, but the quality of the artwork itself is terrible. I think they cut back on artist's commissions to attempt to scale back the cost, and it definitely shows. Look at any print in this book, and then look at just about Magic: the Gathering card from any of the recent sets since 2008. Heck, compare this to the last PHB, 3.5E. You will likely notice a huge difference in the quality of art. Moving on. The binding for this book is somewhat shoddy as well. I am a devout bibliophile and go out of my way to protect my books, but after less than a monthly of weekly 4 hour gaming sessions, the spine was cracked and pages were falling out. I have never had to worry about book spines with any previous PHB, and I was shocked at how early the damage showed, and how increasingly worse the spine has become. The typefont is quite large, and there is a lot of white space, and it seems like they could have definitely cut down on the PHB by about 15-20% of pages, by using a smaller typefont and better utilization of white space.
As far as what the current edition has gotten right, I will say that older editions of Dungeons and Dragons employed a whole lot of needless symmetry (alignments come to mind, and most definitely the Inner and Outer Planes). I like the fact that they streamlined the alignments somewhat, and actually reinforces something that I've put into practice in my games for some time: that the vast majority of adventurers are simply Neutral, as in they don't particularly care for morals. And in most games of mine, I totally scrapped the planar system that was considered canonical, and substituted something of my own creation. I can honestly say that I enjoy the new planar system employed by the 4E PHB, and it is a fresh start. I like the inclusion of Warlocks as well. The very idea of the Warlock class is interesting and I'm glad to see them included.
For the rule system: the World of Warcraft references and analogies are everywhere, so I will do my best to avoid them. One thing I would like to stress is that the races watered down. There is little to nothing written about the various races and their culture, fashions, traditions, values, nothing. I find the character suggestions on each race page to be vaguely insulting, as a matter of fact. "Play a dwarf if you want to play someone who is tough." I'm paraphrasing here but you get the gist. Some of the most iconic characters in fantasy are the ones who completely break the mold. This book seems to want to only reinforce the stereotypes pushed on each fantasy race, and that is simply boring. I especially didn't like the idea of the Dragonborn. I find them to be too fantastical and their breath weapon ability seems to be too out of the norm from what the rest of the humans and demihumans can do. One thing I will give WOTC: At least they didn't try to implement a Vampire PC race in order to capitalize on the Twilight Saga's current success, and for that, I thank them.
I find the mix of classes to be odd as well, with the inclusion of the warlord especially, finding that class especially out of place. I have a hard time imagining some tactical leader leading a band of only 3 or 4 adventurers. In the iconic fantasy RPG party (warrior, wizard, priest and rogue), I think it's funny to imagine some guy in the back barking out orders to such a small group. Also, they took a lot away by assigning types and roles to each class. Yes, while a fighter is Martial and a Defender, a fighter is so much more than that. I think that the concept of roles (defenders, strikers, controllers and leaders) is something that has been present in the game (unnoticed) going back through all it's various iterations, and therefore really doesn't need to be specified and expanded upon. Fleshing it out in the manner that they did really takes away a lot of the mystique with FRPGs in general. Overall, I would have to say that there is little or no distinction between the classes themselves, whereas before there was tons to distinguish the different classes. I played a fighter, while my two buddies played a wizard and a rogue. More often than not, it was myself who took out the big critters with one stroke of the sword, when that is apparently supposed to be the rogue's new job. The wizard could take brutal hits with no problem, and that doesn't seem very wizard-like to me. So I don't know, it just all kind of seemed the same to me.
The last point I would like to make. I feel that WOTC did myself and a lot of other fans a huge disservice by not releasing just ONE core PHB, and ONE core DMG, and ONE core MM. The part I loved about older editions was that I was able to show up at any gaming table, with just one book, the PHB, and make almost any kind of character I wanted, no problem. But with this book, I can only choose from 8 classes, and 8 races, while supposedly there are 22 core classes and 17 core races that are available in the second and third installments of the core PHB. I think it's ridiculous that they expect us to shell out so much money just to play the core version of the game. I know that it's a business, and it's their company, but it's my money as a customer. If they want to keep customers, they need to do what they did in the past and release just one core set, not what is essentially three core sets.
Overall, I must say I was a little disappointed, in both the presentation, the quality, and the execution of the game system therein. If this is supposed to be an improvement over previous editions, I would say that it has obviously failed, even though it does have some good points.
 BORING July 19, 2010
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was quite happy to see a new version of a game i liked so much, and thought they would make EVEN BETTER rules then last time,(which I know think is impossible.) Well I think I should skip some embellishment, and say that the worst thing about this book is not that it IS BORING, but the reason that makes it boring. I am convinced that they came out with this book in two weeks, it is completely artificial. It must have been churned out for the masses, and even then how I forced myself to buy so many of these books, I do not know. I feel so bad that I wasted so much money on such an artificial, boring, stupid game. I think that the more complicated technology gets, the less we have to do. Which,(sadly,) makes us less smart. Do not take me wrong, anyone could play 3.5, but it seems that they just annihilated some rules just to make people do less. No one should like this book, and whoever thinks this book is 5, 4, or 3 stars, has something else going on, or never played 3.5. But this is just my opinion. DO NOT buy this book, buy 3.5 instead,(which is 3, but reworked to be better.)
4e Gamer Review June 5, 2010
Daniel J. Caulder
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
The newest edition of the Dungeons and Dragons saga is simple. Convenient and expensive to attracted new players with new cash. But mechanically, the system is a step back in gamer evolution. It does cater to amine' fans and the WOW crowd. But doesn't offer the depth or insight experienced gamers crave. If you're new to Role-playing, start here. If you're an experienced gamers, this product is a flaccid, stinky bomb.
Synopsis - if you don't know what's good in RPG, this is a learning experience. If you're already experienced, pass on this product.
No longer a roleplaying game June 2, 2010
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (Cincinnati, OH United States)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The first time I sat down to play DnD 4e, I was really excited. This seemed like an interesting new direction for DnD. My excitement quickly gave way to disillusionment, and that quickly crumbled to indignation.
This has few qualities of a roleplaying game when compared to systems like the fantasy flight Warhammer games, Crafty Games Fantasy Craft, Pathfinder, GURPS, and many other systems. A few classes have non-combat "utility" abilities, but skills feel more tacked on than ever, they are barely even an afterthought. So how is combat, you might be asking? Clunky, unnatural, arbitrary, and unsatisfying. They have tried so hard to make a totally balanced system, but honestly, they haven't really succeeded. There are specific class "roles" that each class fills, but honestly it's pretty easy to make some pretty broken combos right off the bat, so any claims of "balance" are flimsy at best. Case in point, I had a friend make a dragon-born str built paladin who consistently outdamaged most striker classes. I've also made a few clerics who were ridiculously overpowered in melee combat.
Wizard's has stripped away almost all roleplaying components from DnD and turned it into a pretty mediocre miniatures game(there are far better wargames and miniatures games out there).
Basically some of my friends still enjoy the game, but after 2-3 short campaigns I have given up on this unenjoyable waste of paper. I have, however, found that the books make great work surfaces for painting and prepping my warhammer and battletech miniatures, so if you want an expensive workmat, this book is great. As a roleplaying game, this is attrocious - try fantasy craft or Gurps which actually allow for creative character design and customization(instead of some cheap generic minor "tweaks")
If you want an exciting miniatures game with interesting and tactical combat, try battletech or warhammer, but DnD fails on both fronts.
Not worth it April 28, 2010
Stephen J. Walker
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having played D&D since '81, I've always looked forward to the new materials. While not always agreeing with or implementing them, they were always worth the read, and worth the expense.
That ends with this. This book was the worst gaming book I've ever seen. The organization was awful, the descriptions were inadequate, and while I realize this is merely a tast perspective, I don't care for any of the art work.
This seems to me to be simply a money making venture. It's as if they didn't really have anything to put out, but felt that something needed to be published, so they put this together with the hopes that people would buy it. I have no idea how the sales have been, but with the number of volumes (3 players handbooks?) there ploy seems to have worked.
After this experience, I feel violated. I'll never buy another product without first having checked it out at the library or looking through somebody else's. This book was that bad for me.
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