D&D 2014 Player's Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook)

I am going to divide this review into two sections. The first section will be about the content/rules/mechanics of the new 5th Edition Player's Handbook and how they play out. The second section will be about the physical book itself (construction, art, layout, etc). If you are new to pen and paper role-playing games, I would say that hands down this is the edition of Dungeons & Dragons you will want to pick up. To give a little background I have been playing pen & paper RPGs off-and-on since I was a teenager, which is now a solid 15 years or so. I started with an old D6 Star Wars RPG system, migrated to D&D 3.0/3.5 and until recently have been playing Pathfinder. I skipped D&D 4th edition. That gives some background, so now on to the review!Rules & Mechanics (5/5)In my opinion, Wizards did a fantastic job of "trimming the fat" from the previous editions and bringing back the "three pillars of adventure" into the game. You can see a majority of these changes via the free Basic Rules that Wizards provides on their website. There are quite a few changes, so I will do my best to sum up the major ones I have seen thus far:* Advantage/Disadvantage: Roll twice, take the higher/lower result.It is simple and doesn't require multitudes of +/- modifier bloat. This is something I hated about 3rd edition because it turned combat specifically into a elementary math exam. "Oh I forgot that I got the +2 from the Bardic inspiration, so does that mean I hit? I rolled 10...+2+1+3+1+4...so...21?" Some people like this, because it numerically showed that their characters were growing stronger and that each person/item provided a measurable contribution to the growth. For players, that may be fine, but for DMs this tends to slow things down. Now there is a mechanic that can be utilized on a wider variety of skills/abilities/attacks/conditions, or even used impromptu by the DM when applicable. It isn't perfect, but it is elegant and simple and makes most things "make sense" and move along.* Individual Saves for AttributesThis just makes sense. No more Reflex/Will/Fort, instead each attribute is important and carries its own save. This opens up new possibilities for DMs, while makes it easier for players since there is no arbitrary saves per class system.* Spell casters and primary ability score attacks improved.There are now useful cantrips (level 0 spells), including at least one combat cantrip per spell casting class. This means that casters are still dangerous even after having exhausted higher level spells. It gives options, something that made combat excruciatingly boring for casters after their spells per day were exhausted.The other issue is that caster's magical attacks still usually leveraged Strength and Dexterity-based stats. This has been changed. Now for most spells, the primary casting attribute is added instead.The finesse feat has been included with some weapons, meaning weapons like rapiers, daggers and darts can use the Dexterity ability score modifier instead of Strength. Ranged attacks such as bows also add their Dexterity to damage instead of Strength as well, something that may be a bit controversial, but I feel is an improvement.* "Bounded accuracy", Skills, Feats and ProficiencyI hated in 3rd edition/Pathfinder that at achieving a level, you "suddenly" could pick up skills that a character had little to no experience in previously, and then suddenly be astonishing at. There is no longer the "+21 to Diplomacy" skill bonuses. The emphasis on skills and feats has been "nerfed to the ground" with many skills and feats removed. In fact, feats are completely optional and up to DM discretion. Instead the focus is on "Backgrounds" and "Proficiency" instead. Essentially, what used to be a "Base Attack Bonus" is now called "Proficiency" and is applied to anything that you are "Proficient" at. This can be skills, saves and attacks. Minimum is +2, Maximum is +6.This means that the difference between between a 1st level hero and a 20th level hero is a measly +4 (in terms of raw proficiency). This does mean that a bit of "high fantasy" is removed, but it also removes the arbitrary Difficulty Check (DC) increase as well. Because, let's face it, the DM is rarely going to let players run roughshod over any and every situation. I.e. the PC that can Bluff past Deities because they are a one-trick pony with an insane Bluff score.Furthermore, how many DMs ran a party of high level characters through a dungeon filled with low level creatures and traps? I personally never did, because a trivial adventure is a boring one. In 3rd edition/Pathfinder, at higher levels it becomes necessary to increase the DC to continually challenge the party. I.e. Picking a lock that used to be a DC 20 at 5th level now is a DC of 30 at 10th. So why artificially raise the difficulty? Bounded accuracy understands and fixes that problem and keeps an army of orcs potentially dangerous, even at higher levels.* Inspiration: DM discretion awards.Does someone take a rather unconventional path to find a solution to a problem? You can award an Inspiration point - basically a free "you gain advantage" card to use at a critical moment in time. Similar bonuses have been house-ruled before by DMs, but I am glad they have actually put it in the rules.Book Content (4/5)This edition puts more emphasis on the DM and less on the "rules lawyers" or "Rules As Written" (RAW) addicts. It would appear that the goal of 5th edition is "less is more" when it comes to a majority of things. In many ways, this is a good thing. However, there are some aspects that I appreciated the clearly defined rules of 3rd edition. For example, manacles are an item that can bind hands and feet. There is a description about them and how to escape them, but it does not state what the impact applying them has. For example, does an attack against a manacled creature/person grant Advantage? Is a status condition imposed, such as immobilized?Update: The Player's Handbook lists 'Restrained' as a condition and does grant advantage against it, which I would assume would apply - but again, they should state that applying manacles applies this condition, if indeed that is the case.While I appreciate the removal of the Combat Maneuver system and streamlining of spells, I do miss some of the myriad of equipment and armors, and the artwork that 3rd edition provided each item.Book Construction, Layout & Artwork (4/5)The binding of the book is good, but not great. As others have mentioned, some of the pages in certain locations look suspect. While I haven't lost any yet, I can tell that there are some weak spots where the glue was not securing the pages as well. Since there hasn't been any damage yet, I won't harp on it too much at this time.The layout is good, but not great as well. The information and character creation is a bit out of order, in my opinion. There was some back-and-forth hunting on sub-races and other elements during character creation, such as backgrounds and starting gear. It is laid out well enough for it to be figured out, but it may be a bit out of order for newer players. Veterans I am sure will shrug and move on.The artwork in this book, as many others have mentioned, has been my personal favorite. Not too serious, not too cartoon-like. It is what I picture when I think of adventure. The pictures showing the spells are among my favorites as it shows some previously plain spells ("I cast...Magic Missile at the darkness!") in a fantastic new light.SummaryNo system is going to be perfect, but I can see this edition going for a while - assuming that Wizards doesn't try to over-complicate it and sticks with the concepts of storytelling over power-gaming. If you enjoy your current RPG system, by all means stick with it. However, if you are looking for what I consider a "Six Sigma" version of D&D, this is it. It is classic D&D with flexible mechanics, smooth combat and is very intuitive for the most part.

tl;dr: This is a great new edition, and I recommend it to almost anyone.I've spent at least some time with every edition of D&D since 1e and Red Box Basic, which I played as a kid. I missed most of the 2e era and I left 4e relatively early in its cycle, but I spent a ton of time playing 1e and 3e. I also have a little bit of exposure to old school revival (OSR) rules that harken back to earlier Original D&D rules. 5e captures a lot of what I like about all of the above.5e continues the trend dating back to 2e (with THACO) of simplifying the math underlying the game. Almost everything in the game is an ability check -- pick the relevant ability score, add the bonus from that score to the result of a d20, and try to beat some number that represents the difficulty of the check. Proficiencies provide bonuses, having the advantage or disadvantage in a situation changes the odds, there's a few stray bonuses here and there, and that's pretty much it. The whole core of the game works on that mechanic -- attacks, saving throws, attempting to perform actions (with or without a relevant skill), pretty much everything. It's fantastic.4e marked a major philosophical change to make D&D more like a *game*, as traditionally understood. Balance in gameplay became one of the most important aspects, there was a relentless focus on combat tactics, character capabilities became systematized into (mostly combat) "powers", many rules revolved heavily around "squares" and board position, and aspects that undermined that kind of gameplay were intentionally weakened -- e.g. magic items, the ability to fly, completely open-ended spells, etc. It was as easy to role play the game as ever, but things like the Encounters series of play sessions in gaming shops and the reuse of the rules in the D&D board games like Castle Ravenloft made it clear that role playing wasn't as integral to the rules, and the portion of the rules devoted to campaign play outside of specific encounters was scant at best. People who loved the tactical aspect of the game generally love 4e.For those people, 5e is going to be a step back, at least for now. The open-ended aspects of the game get a ton of love and none of the minis/squares/board position-based tactics make it into the PHB. If that's your thing, you won't like 5e at this point. My guess is that there will be further books that add back the same tactical depth, so you may yet end up really liking 5e, but for now, there's not that much for you here.Instead we get a return to "theater of the mind" (TOTM) gaming as the default assumption, where you imagine what's going on where your characters are and probably have a small map of the layout, but you don't move little minis around on a board or dungeon tiles or whatever. You could still play that way if you like it, but the game doesn't give you special rule support the way it did in 4e. Instead, the focus of the game rules is shifted to starting with players trying whatever actions they feel like (which need not be specific things the game designers have thought of in advance), and using the ability check mechanic to resolve it. Specific types of actions you may get you better bonuses because you're using a weapon you're good with or you have a relevant skill that means you're trained in that kind of action, but if what you want to do is swing a monkey by his tail and throw him into the mouth of the angry dragon, all the DM has to do is establish a difficulty and have you roll a (Dexterity, presumably) check to try it -- no power cards required. As far as I'm concerned, this is a huge win for imagination, and the fact that the game really tries to lay out that you can do whatever you can think of is fantastic, and shows they've learned key lessons from the OSR movement.We also get a return of focus to the campaign as a whole, as we see from the wonderful chapter on equipment. There's plenty of typical dungeon equipment and some obvious extras like artisan's tools for various trades, but it continues by telling you how much it costs to live in town (depending on the style in which you live, with details on what the different kinds mean), the price of various vehicles and riding and draft animals, the going rates for various trade goods, the cost of hiring different kinds of servants, and more. There have certainly been game supplements that have gone into even more detail in the past, but to put this much detail into the PHB itself really emphasizes how much focus there is on making the game world feel like a real place that your character is a part of -- this is by far the best this has ever been handled in a core rulebook in any edition.The other really fanstastic thing is the focus on making your character more that just a set of stats. There's a whole chapter on personality and character background that's a quantum leap over anything they've done in a PHB in the past. There are a variety of different kinds of background -- some examples are noble, soldier, guild artisan, hermit, criminal, sailor, folk hero, outlander. There's also variations on many of them (e.g. guild merchant for guild artisan), and specific encouragement to work with the DM on a custom background if you have a different idea. Every background gets two skills, one or more tool proficiency, and a special feature, such as guild membership or the ability for sailors to secure free working passage on a ship. The traditional pre-4e alignment wheel is back, but every character also gets two personality traits, a goal, a bond that ties them to something in the world (their clan, an enemy, etc.), and a weakness. There are tables for all of those things tied to each background that you can select or roll from, but there's plenty of latitude to come up with your own. Good role players already did a lot of work like this on their characters before any rules showed up in the rulebook like this, but this is a fantastic tool for new players, less character-focused players, or anyone trying to think of ideas for their latest character.The rules section of the book also does a good job building rules for social encounters and for general exploration of dungeons and the world at large, without resorting to gimmicks like 4e's skill challenges, which meant well, but turned something open-ended into something a little too mechanical. Combat will always be an important part of the rule system, but in 5e, it's just a part of a larger whole.Lest you think this is completely anti-4e, one strong thing 5e preserves is having different character tracks within each class, a real innovation over 3e. In 3e, you could build a really nice custom character, but you had to do it with complicated multiclassing approaches, careful study of skill levels and feat trees, etc. A lot of people like that kind of work, but it was *definitely* work. 4e had different class builds, paragon paths, and power selection such that you could make a character your own by making simpler decisions that didn't require a ton of upfront planning to nab the right prerequisites or take things in the order you wanted. 5e retains this. Different wizard schools and cleric domains are folded in as paths within the class that give you interestingly different gameplay, e.g. depending on whether you want to play a cleric that attacks mainly with spells or with weapons. There's a simple build of fighter designed for "I hit it with my sword" beginner players, but also a build that offers a choice of various combat maneuvers, and an Eldritch Kinght that can cast spells. Rogue comes with paths for standard thief, assassin, and arcane trickster -- no prestige class required. Wizards also get a simpler version of Vancian magic, and high-level wizards lose the unbalanced ability to lob 20 devastating area of effect spells in a row at their enemies (sorry, Wizard enthusiasts). There's a stealth path for monks for players who want to build ninjas.Interestingly, feats are an optional rule, and even if you play with them you don't have to select them. At various times depending on class, your character can add two points to ability scores (to a max of 20 on any given score). If you prefer, you can take a feat instead. You can do this once, or do it every time. This not only makes for an interesting tradeoff, it means feats can be incredibly powerful. You can learn to cast ritual magic like a member of a different class as a feat. You can pick up two of the fighter maneuvers for a non-fighter character with a feat. You can use a single feat to pick up 2 cantrips, 3 skills, or 3 languages plus cyphering. You can really customize the feel of your character by spending a single feat, but beginners don't have to worry about them, and nobody has to worry about keeping track of complicated feat trees and prerequisites.Multiclassing is an optional rule, and it's more flexible that the original (fake) multiclassing options in 4e but not as crazy as it was in 3e, because there are rules on what you get if you just dip into a second class for a level or two. I'm sure there are specific character concepts people will want to make with multiclassing, but overall, it feels a lot less necessary than it did in 3e, and a lot less unbalancing.There's definitely a focus on the core 4 races and core 4 classes, but other races from Gnome to Tiefling to Dragonborn (who are listed as not existing in every game world) are represented, and classes from Barbarian to Paladin to Warlock are here as well. I think they've captured the essence of each of these races and classes well, and this feels like a really polished product that people who like virtually any edition can come to and find a way to capture what they liked about the characters and gameplay of that edition (again, tactical 4e players notwithstanding, for now).There's a great ability to adapt this from pretty simple, streamlined games to much more in-depth ones. If you prefer using the general action-resolution system over keeping track of a ton of character abilities, you could download the free version of the rules and maybe buy a monster manual and play a streamlined, OSR-influenced game happily for years. If you like lots of options for building out your character, there's a ton here for you, and I'm sure there will be plenty more to come in forthcoming splat books. Houserule different healing rules and such (options the forthcoming DMG is likely to lay out for you), and you could play anything from a gritty, inches-from-death style game remininscent of OD&D or 1e to a game that makes you feel invincible as long as you play intelligently like 4e can. When you consider all the ways the rules have improved, 5e could easily fulfill WotC's hopes and become a lingua franca for D&D fans of all the various editions to migrate to and find common ground. Considering the quality of the materials they're releasing, I hope they succeed.