So, 4th Ed.
So I've had the 4th edition PHB for a week now, and I've had all three main books on PDF for a little longer than that. I still haven't played the game, nor have I even had the chance to make a character. But as I've read the PHB twice over, and since I've got the itch, I'm gonna talk about it.
From a design perspective, I think that 4th edition can best be described with the following phrase: "Replacing Penalties with Bonuses." The best example of this is how they've changed proficiency. Now, instead of suffering a penalty if you are NOT proficient with a weapon, you gain a bonus if you ARE proficient with it. All weapons now have a proficiency bonus associated with them. Generally, this is either +2 or +3 from what I can see. Another good example is Stat Bonuses. None of the races in the PHB (Dragonborn, Dwarves, Eladrin, Elves, Half-Elves, Humans, and Tieflings) have any stat penalties associated with them. For instance, Dwarves are no longer +2 Con, -2 Cha. They're now +2 Con, +2 Wis. Similarly, Elves are +2 Dex, +2 Wis. Humans only get +2, but it can be applied to any stat you choose.
Now, in my opinion, the changes that this philosophy has brought about are just plain awesome. I no longer have to balance penalties and bonuses to build an optimized character. Instead, I have to juggle bonuses. Min-maxing isn't really possible any more, because there's no Min. I have to figure out what flavor of awesome I'd like to have today. It means my choices are not only interesting and meaningful, but I don't have to feel like I'm losing anything by being any race other than human.
Of course, these changes are, individually speaking, fairly minor. None of them really change the way the game works or plays significantly. Of more major significance is the shift away from feats, and towards powers. If you haven't heard, everyone now gets abilities as they level up. These abilities are sorted into three categories of use that denote how frequently you can use them: At-will powers, Encounter powers, and Daily powers. For instance, Cleave is no longer a feat, nor does it let you do what it used to. Now, Cleave is a Fighter at-will power. When you use cleave, you make two attacks as a standard action against creatures adjacent to the Fighter. So in addition to giving every class these sorts of powers, they also rolled spells into powers as well. Magic Missile is an at-will Wizard power. Preparation of spells isn't REALLY part of the game any more, and spells that are powers generally don't have components. Particularly powerful spells, or spells with effects that last long durations, have become a new type of ability called Rituals. Rituals require components (expressed as a monetary value instead of items), have extended casting times (the shortest I've seen is 10 minutes), and serious effects. For instance, Raise Dead is a Ritual that, when cast on a character below level 11, costs 5000 GP in components, and takes 8 hours to cast.
The consequence of this is that non-spell classes gained a shitload of utility, with spell classes losing only a small amount of flexibility. Sure, wizards don't have the GIANT library of spells to choose from, but they still have a ton of options, and now fighters can do something other than power attack and trip. It also makes combat more interesting. I think using powers that grant you new abilities, rather than using feats which change standard abilities, makes you feel more "heroic." You're doing something special. So I think this change is very positive.
Magic items make SO much more sense now. They've streamlined it, so that you basically construct a magic item by assembling a list of powers you want the item to have. Each of these powers (such as a +2 enhancement bonus, extra fire damage on a critical hit, or even daily/encounter powers associated with the item itself) have an associated cost that adds linearly to create the value of the item, as well as an associated level. If you add the levels of all the powers on an item together, you get that items level, which correlates directly to character levels. A character is supposed to have one or two items higher level than they are, one or two at their level, and a few that are lower level.
Instead of having a BAB that varies between classes, everyone now, effectively, has what would have been a 1/2 BAB, because everyone gets to add half their class level, rounding down of course, to attack rolls. They've also increased the rate of gaining feats, because everyone now gains feats every other level, with an additional feat at 1st, 11th, and 21st levels. So it kind of seems like fighters get a bit hosed in this regard, but fighters get alot of really nifty powers to compensate.
Also, there's no such thing as an attack that you don't have to roll for. For instance, Magic missile doesn't automatically hit; it is now an Int vs. Reflex attack. What that means is you roll 1d20, add your int bonus, half your level, and any other modifiers you have, and compare that to your opponents reflex defense, which is calculated by adding 10, half his level, your Dex bonus OR your Int bonus (whichever is higher), and your shield bonus, if any. Note that you can choose whether to add Dex or Int to your reflex defense. You can also choose the better of Str or Con for Fortitude, and Wisdom or Charisma for Will. AC is still pretty standard; 10 + half level + armor + shield. If you're wearing light armor or no armor, you can add your Dex or Int bonus to AC, too. One intriguing consequence of this is that there is no such thing as SR that I have found yet. The function SR used to serve is now subsumed by the fact that you have to roll to hit with all attacks.
One last thing that I find awesome about 4th edition is that they have included epic levels in the base game, and in doing so have divided the game into three "Tiers." The Heroic tier, which runs from 1 to 10, the Paragon tier, which goes from 11 to 20, and the Epic tier, which goes from 21 to 30. When you hit the Paragon tier, you can pick a "Paragon Path," which is kind of like specializing in a certain segment of your class. Alternatively, you could elect to multiclass in a single other class, instead of taking a paragon path. When you hit 21st level, you pick an "Epic Destiny," which basically becomes your character's broad goal in the epic tier. There's only 4 right now, and so I hope they'll add more, because they're really cool.
As for multiclassing, in order to do it, you have to take 4 feats before 11th level: a class-specific feat for the class you want to enter (it gives you a new trained skill, and usually a power or two), along with three other feats (one for at-will, one for encounter, and one for daily) that let you switch one of your main class powers out for a power of the same kind from your secondary class. So there is a strong incentive to pick a single class, and stick with it for all of your levels. I think that, if this was still 3.5, that would be an unfortunately limiting feature, but in 4.0, I think it's not really very limiting at all, and it avoids the min-max sort of mentality, where you'd pick up a level in fighter just to get the extra feat.
So, I've rambled enough I think. In general, I think that 4th edition is really, really great. I think it's a big step forward for D&D. I'd encourage anyone who has ever played D&D before to give 4th edition a shot, and if you've never played D&D before, well, now is as good a time as any to start. You'll be learning the new game right along with the rest of us, heh.
From a design perspective, I think that 4th edition can best be described with the following phrase: "Replacing Penalties with Bonuses." The best example of this is how they've changed proficiency. Now, instead of suffering a penalty if you are NOT proficient with a weapon, you gain a bonus if you ARE proficient with it. All weapons now have a proficiency bonus associated with them. Generally, this is either +2 or +3 from what I can see. Another good example is Stat Bonuses. None of the races in the PHB (Dragonborn, Dwarves, Eladrin, Elves, Half-Elves, Humans, and Tieflings) have any stat penalties associated with them. For instance, Dwarves are no longer +2 Con, -2 Cha. They're now +2 Con, +2 Wis. Similarly, Elves are +2 Dex, +2 Wis. Humans only get +2, but it can be applied to any stat you choose.
Now, in my opinion, the changes that this philosophy has brought about are just plain awesome. I no longer have to balance penalties and bonuses to build an optimized character. Instead, I have to juggle bonuses. Min-maxing isn't really possible any more, because there's no Min. I have to figure out what flavor of awesome I'd like to have today. It means my choices are not only interesting and meaningful, but I don't have to feel like I'm losing anything by being any race other than human.
Of course, these changes are, individually speaking, fairly minor. None of them really change the way the game works or plays significantly. Of more major significance is the shift away from feats, and towards powers. If you haven't heard, everyone now gets abilities as they level up. These abilities are sorted into three categories of use that denote how frequently you can use them: At-will powers, Encounter powers, and Daily powers. For instance, Cleave is no longer a feat, nor does it let you do what it used to. Now, Cleave is a Fighter at-will power. When you use cleave, you make two attacks as a standard action against creatures adjacent to the Fighter. So in addition to giving every class these sorts of powers, they also rolled spells into powers as well. Magic Missile is an at-will Wizard power. Preparation of spells isn't REALLY part of the game any more, and spells that are powers generally don't have components. Particularly powerful spells, or spells with effects that last long durations, have become a new type of ability called Rituals. Rituals require components (expressed as a monetary value instead of items), have extended casting times (the shortest I've seen is 10 minutes), and serious effects. For instance, Raise Dead is a Ritual that, when cast on a character below level 11, costs 5000 GP in components, and takes 8 hours to cast.
The consequence of this is that non-spell classes gained a shitload of utility, with spell classes losing only a small amount of flexibility. Sure, wizards don't have the GIANT library of spells to choose from, but they still have a ton of options, and now fighters can do something other than power attack and trip. It also makes combat more interesting. I think using powers that grant you new abilities, rather than using feats which change standard abilities, makes you feel more "heroic." You're doing something special. So I think this change is very positive.
Magic items make SO much more sense now. They've streamlined it, so that you basically construct a magic item by assembling a list of powers you want the item to have. Each of these powers (such as a +2 enhancement bonus, extra fire damage on a critical hit, or even daily/encounter powers associated with the item itself) have an associated cost that adds linearly to create the value of the item, as well as an associated level. If you add the levels of all the powers on an item together, you get that items level, which correlates directly to character levels. A character is supposed to have one or two items higher level than they are, one or two at their level, and a few that are lower level.
Instead of having a BAB that varies between classes, everyone now, effectively, has what would have been a 1/2 BAB, because everyone gets to add half their class level, rounding down of course, to attack rolls. They've also increased the rate of gaining feats, because everyone now gains feats every other level, with an additional feat at 1st, 11th, and 21st levels. So it kind of seems like fighters get a bit hosed in this regard, but fighters get alot of really nifty powers to compensate.
Also, there's no such thing as an attack that you don't have to roll for. For instance, Magic missile doesn't automatically hit; it is now an Int vs. Reflex attack. What that means is you roll 1d20, add your int bonus, half your level, and any other modifiers you have, and compare that to your opponents reflex defense, which is calculated by adding 10, half his level, your Dex bonus OR your Int bonus (whichever is higher), and your shield bonus, if any. Note that you can choose whether to add Dex or Int to your reflex defense. You can also choose the better of Str or Con for Fortitude, and Wisdom or Charisma for Will. AC is still pretty standard; 10 + half level + armor + shield. If you're wearing light armor or no armor, you can add your Dex or Int bonus to AC, too. One intriguing consequence of this is that there is no such thing as SR that I have found yet. The function SR used to serve is now subsumed by the fact that you have to roll to hit with all attacks.
One last thing that I find awesome about 4th edition is that they have included epic levels in the base game, and in doing so have divided the game into three "Tiers." The Heroic tier, which runs from 1 to 10, the Paragon tier, which goes from 11 to 20, and the Epic tier, which goes from 21 to 30. When you hit the Paragon tier, you can pick a "Paragon Path," which is kind of like specializing in a certain segment of your class. Alternatively, you could elect to multiclass in a single other class, instead of taking a paragon path. When you hit 21st level, you pick an "Epic Destiny," which basically becomes your character's broad goal in the epic tier. There's only 4 right now, and so I hope they'll add more, because they're really cool.
As for multiclassing, in order to do it, you have to take 4 feats before 11th level: a class-specific feat for the class you want to enter (it gives you a new trained skill, and usually a power or two), along with three other feats (one for at-will, one for encounter, and one for daily) that let you switch one of your main class powers out for a power of the same kind from your secondary class. So there is a strong incentive to pick a single class, and stick with it for all of your levels. I think that, if this was still 3.5, that would be an unfortunately limiting feature, but in 4.0, I think it's not really very limiting at all, and it avoids the min-max sort of mentality, where you'd pick up a level in fighter just to get the extra feat.
So, I've rambled enough I think. In general, I think that 4th edition is really, really great. I think it's a big step forward for D&D. I'd encourage anyone who has ever played D&D before to give 4th edition a shot, and if you've never played D&D before, well, now is as good a time as any to start. You'll be learning the new game right along with the rest of us, heh.