Guest Review – Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook: Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes (Roleplaying Game Core Rules)
Guest Review – Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook
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| Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook: Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes (Roleplaying Game Core Rules)By: Rob Heinsoo Published by: Wizards of the Coast ISBN: 0786948671 Website: www.wizards.com/dnd Format of Review Copy: Hardback Recommendable for people who enjoy: gaming, rpg, role playing, table top |
Synopsis (from Amazon):
The first of three core rulebooks for the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game.The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. In the D&D game, players create characters that band together to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and find treasure. The 4th Edition D&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 Player’s Handbook presents the official Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game rules as well as everything a player needs to create D&D characters worthy of song and legend: new character races, base classes, paragon paths, epic destinies, powers, more magic items, weapons, armor, and much more.
Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook: Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes (Roleplaying Game Core Rules)
My Thoughts:
Contrary to my normal book reviews, this is a handbook, and as such, it will be reviewed based on utility.The Player’s Handbook for Fourth Edition includes most of what a player would need to start playing, besides dice and a filled-out character sheet of course.
Here’s a list of the Handbook’s Contents:
– How to Play
– Character Creation
– Character Races
– Character Classes
– Weapons, Armors, and Items
– Skills
– Feats
The Handbook does a decent job explaining on how to play. Most of everything in D&D is decided by dice rolls (d4. d6, d8, d10, d12, d20). That is made very clear, though there are parts that can be unclear or false, depending on your DM ( Dungeon Master – The Storyteller). They can easily modify some parts of the game to create a unique experience. Some groups don’t even use miniatures or the dungeon tiles (maps). Regardless of that, the handbook is full of useful information.
To be honest, I didn’t read the entire handbook. Don’t take that the wrong way, I just didn’t read every item, skill, and feat listed in the handbook, seeing how I may never even use some of them. As to the rest of the walls of text, those were read.
The handbook lists 8 races (Dragonborn, Eladrin, Half-elf, Halfling [That’s a hobbit.], Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Tiefling) and 8 classes (Wizard, Warlord, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Paladin, Cleric, and Warlock). It also lists a myriad of skills, feats, and equipment. There is a lot of stuff in here, great for players and dm’s.
However, I should note that I ended up having to look up a guide on how to use the guide in my handbook to create a character. I know, quite puzzling indeed. Though, after the first time making a character, it’s quite easy just to use the book.
I purchased my copy of the handbook from Knight’s Comic & Hobby Store, and it was around $30. Personally speaking, it may or may not be viable to order it online, as I have seen it in the $20-$25 range. I always recommend buying your books and other gaming supplies from local stores, though in the case of the D&D materials, I’d probably rather get them online from Amazon.
I would recommend this to any player interested in Dungeons and Dragons, or to players who want to play 4th Edition, of course. This recommendation will stand until 5th edition actually gets its player manual, instead of a lousy box kit. However, I do not suggest reading this entire handbook in one sitting, I’d just make a character, and look through as the need arises.
Overall Rating: 4 gp/ 5 gp