Two spells were not in fact killed in the update to the Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. I found the spells Knock and Passwall in the rituals section of the Player's Handbook.

Rituals are a cheap way of adding any spell the GM feels is missing from his game, but at considerable cost to the player (as they cost time and materials). You've got two forms of rituals: scrolls and books.

Scrolls turn to dust when the spell they contain is cast - but anyone can use them. Ritual Books are found in spellbooks and can only be cast by a true spellcaster. 

Rituals cost money in the form of components to cast and require time and effort, but can be cast pretty much at will. I've honestly no idea why they were added to the game as it just seems like a pointless add-on when those spells should really be in the compliment of spells available to all spellcasters (for example: why can't a wizard just learn knock or why can't a cleric know raise dead)? It seems a little bizarre to me.

The more I read through Fourth Edition the more it seems like it's supposed to be very simple, but there are actually lots of rules that detract from its simplicity (I'll talk about Action Points tomorrow). 

I can see there's a decent enough system here, but it's not realised sufficiently well enough to make the game appealing - at least to me. Why not keep all the other spells together and leave the rituals for really powerful effects that take time and effort to cast? Wizards could have gone so much further with Rituals, making them a combined effort to create amazing effects. Instead, you've got a watered-down system that allows them to add all the spells their battle-oriented system has failed to capture.

It seems a missed opportunity to me.

One can argue that a wizard in Third Edition was defined by their spell choices. Half of the Player's Handbook was filled with meaty spells that took a lifetime to learn, and which were a great source of interest for wizarding players the world over. This isn't the case in Fourth Edition as a spellcaster's allotment is now mostly made up of the same generic combat spells based on fire, ice, and thunder. Long gone is the hundred pages of spells in the core rulebook.

Here's where we say a prayer for the fallen dead - the spells that have been lost in battle (from Third Edition to Fourth):

Iconic Spells We Will Miss: Animate Dead, Barkskin, Blink, Cause Blindness, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Clone, Color Spray, Confusion, Consecrate, Contingency, Creeping Doom, Delayed Blast Fireball, Energy Drain, Enervation, Faerie Fire, Feeblemind, Finger of Death, Flesh to Stone, Gaseous Form, Globe of Invulnerability, Haste, Hold Person, Hypnotism, Knock, Magic Jar, Passwall, Reverse Gravity, Rope Trick, Sepia Snake Sigil, Shillelagh, Shocking Grasp, Spell Turning, Summon Monster, Sunburst, Symbol of Death, Telekinesis, Transmute Rock to Mud, Trap the Soul, Unseen Servant, Wall of Force.

But it's not all doom and gloom (only mostly), because here's a list of the spells that survived the transition:

Spells Making The Core Rules: Acid Arrow, Black Tentacles, Blade Barrier, Bless (whoohoo a holy spell), Burning Hands, Cloudkill, Feather Fall, Floating Disk, Fire Storm, Flame Strike, Magic Mouth, Meteor Swarm, Mirror Image, Mordenkainen’s Sword, Sleep, Spider Climb, Stinking Cloud, Stoneskin, Time Stop (but it’s so very yawny, +2 non combat actionzzzzzzzz), Water Breathing, Web.

What Fourth Edition does is hugely simplify spellcasters by giving them far fewer spell choices, but more actions they can perform per day. They can now cast their "Encounter" and "At Will" spells endlessly, meaning they never run out of spells - but at what cost? The once-wide choice of spells a wizard could cast defined his character. That old-school philosophy is long gone. In its place is cookie-cutter wizards who will almost certainly cast the same spells in every combat throughout their careers.

No longer can you change your spells on a whim, or learn Knock to help out the party (following a short rest). In fact, you're almost certainly consigned to role of battle wizard, because gone are all the spells that could make you a divination wizard or an all-purpose support/combat caster.

In summary, the new system is streamlined and simple, but it's a pale imitation of the previous systems that have come before it. Yes, some of the spells look interesting, but it's certainly not sufficient to compel me to shift over to the Fourth Edition. 

I like my wizards to be able to charbroil, open locks, detect magic, deliver wholesale slaughter on my enemies, AND be able to do it all again tomorrow, only with an entirely new contingent of spells.

It's hee-eeeeer! Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition sees its release today. And all across the world, no one breathes a silent sigh of joy.

Because it's just not very good.

Or is it? Like Big Brother (which just started again over here in the UK) - you decide!

With vastly differing opinions on the quality of the actual content, comments about the lack of spells and classes, and general griping about how much has been 'stolen' from other popular online games, Dungeons & Dragons 4e is a game you'll love or hate (or in my case, feel total indifference toward). With its streamlined one-rule-fits-all philosophy and its generic all-classes-are-exactly-the-same class system, it feels like a pale imitation of games that have gone before it.

So, how will the newbies / those gamers who've never seen previous editions feel? Time will tell whether 4e can reach new markets. I'd say it might just do the trick. It's got enough mass appeal and has shrugged off most of its geekier elements in favour of a more aproachable action-adventure style of game (plus, what's good for Warcraft is more than good enough for D&D, it seems). And it's a lot more like World of Warcraft or a board game than it was before (gone are pretty much ALL of the complex tables that once littered the pages of the Player's Handbook). But it was those tables that gave the game its style. And much of that is gone. 

So, with a hacked down version of the game in shops today, I can only wonder if the fourth iteration of the game we've loved for thirty years will be the one to break down those barriers and hit the mainstream.

Whatever happens, one thing is clear: with such high production values, Wizards of the Coast, and Dungeons and Dragons, is here to stay... 

There are many tests on the web, most of them pointless. And there's no test more pointless than the Gaming Purity Test. To celebrate the release of Fourth Edition, try out this long and somewhat amusing test to see just how much of a tragic gamer you are!

I'll post my personal scores later in the week, but I scored so shamefully highly in certain areas, I'm not sure I want the world to know just how geeky I really am.

Check it out by going here: http://www.theferrett.com/rpg/

I've been hearing a lot about Fourth Edition this past week and the one thing that really stood out is how many gamers are going to buy the books even though they no longer play the game.

For many, Dungeons & Dragons is a life-changing experience allowing gamers to experience fantasy worlds in ways they never could alone. I'm sure many people are still very curious about the new edition of the intensely personal game that shaped their childhoods (or, for many, their adult lives, too).

So, are you going to buy the books, even if you have no intention of playing the game? Are we secretly all slaves to Wizards of the Coast? Perhaps we're under a spell? How neat would that be? I can just see the headline: Wizards Employ Black Arts to Boost Book Sales.

Now that wouldn't get any negative press whatsoever, would it?

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS FOURTH EDITION is finally here. The grand-daddy of role playing sees its first revision in almost ten years and the developers have done away with the geeky and confusing in favour of a stylishly made revision that has one massive selling point: mass appeal. The game has done an about face from previous editions in making the game organised, intuitive, and easy to follow.

Fourth Edition (4e) has suffered a lot of criticism for being too radically different to previous editions. Critics claim that it’s too much like World of Warcraft or that it’s trying to copy other games (like Warhammer Fantasy Battles), but despite the changes, it’s quite clearly recognisable as D&D. The game has quite naturally gone through a number of changes over the past thirty years, yet it has not lost its core identity. It’s still the same game with the same basic premise: go on quests to achieve fame and power, gain levels, and retire to a magic flying castle in the clouds (OK, so that might have been my goal as a twelve year old, but it's perhaps best not to dwell too much on that). A game must evolve to survive, and regardless of the controversy surrounding the new edition, Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition is great addition to the gaming world and a fantastic entry into the hobby for new or younger gamers.

The Player’s Handbook: The new edition of the PHB looks fantastic. It’s bright and colourful and well-organised and is without a doubt the best looking book the game has ever seen. Powers and abilities are colour coded for easy reference and gone are many of the geeky and confusing tables that once saturated the tome in favour of a few easy to learn mechanics which apply to every aspect of the game.

Presto Chango: My first question on leafing through the book was: where are the spells? The majority of the book is now (quite rightly) taken up with the character classes that are now substantial, to say the least. Gone is the whopping list of spells that once dominated the latter half of the tome (which always made for interesting reading but if you weren't a wizard, it was simply wasted space in the core book). The new classes are incredibly detailed and the new revision benefits the classes once light on abilities (such as the fighter), but to the detriment of the spellcasters (like the cleric and wizard).

Core Mechanics: The core game remains the same: six statistics, hit points, amour class, classes, divine and arcane magic, but while things look the same on the surface, much has changed underneath. Wizard’s ethos for the game’s creation was clearly “less is more”, for everyone has fewer abilities and powers that they can use, which waters down the mystery of the game but levels the playing field at the same time. Now everyone is more or less the same with the same ability to dish out damage and use a wider variety of abilities. No longer is the hapless Fighter consigned to a few attacks while the Wizard bursts out a dizzying arsenal of spells; both classes have exactly the same number of powers that they can use.  

Race / Class: There are a standard eight races and eight classes in the PHB. The races are: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Eladrin, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Human and Tiefling. As you might know, Wizard of the Coast has gone for the more action / visual races, with the dragonborn (no guesses for what kind of creature they are), and the planar creatures Eladrin (part angel) and Tieflings (part demons). The eight races are Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Warlord, and Wizard (oh look, a Dungeons &  Dragons Ride – sorry, couldn’t help myself). The Warlock is a kind of sorcerer that gains power by making pacts with otherworldly entities, while the Warlord is the leader of battles.

The Lofty Heights: In addition to the 30 character levels, there are two subsets: paragon and epic paths. Paragon levels range from 11th to 20th, while Epic paths range from 21st to 30th. They allow a player to pick up a subset of their main class (such as Blood Mage for wizard) and to further focus their powers. It’s just like prestige classes, only with niftier names.

All About the Battles: Combat remains exactly the same, only with the emphasis on a character’s location, as much of the combat is now based on the tile system (clearly Wizards wants a piece of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles pie) and everything is geared up to a more visual play style in which your location in the battle is as important as what you do every round). Attacks of Opportunities are still in game, as are all the rules you loved (or loathed) in Third Edition.

A new addition to the game is the standardised character system. Characters are no longer consigned to just a few paragraphs in the PHB; each now takes up a good many pages, beginning with a half page about the class and followed by pages of details of their level-based powers.

The reason the classes take up so much space is that every class now has a number of actions they can perform. These actions are divided up into three categories:

• At Will: Meaning a character can use that ability whenever they like.
• Per Encounter: Meaning the character can use that ability once per encounter, or after a few minutes’ rest.
• Daily: Means a character can use that ability just once per day (like a fireball spell or performing a complex attack)

There are also Utility powers, but they fall into one of the above categories. This system means that all classes have ‘spells’, which balances the game, but it does again water down the wizard, bringing the class in line with the others.

Second Wind: A new mechanic is that all characters have the ability to take an action to heal themselves – a “second wind”. You can use this to heal your wounds or to defend yourself and it’s an interesting mechanic which adds a lot more survivability to the weaker classes.

It’s all Tougher (except the magic): Everyone starts at first level with hit points equal to 10+ their Con Bonus and the hit point totals at later levels skyrockets quickly into triple figures. Even wizards of 20th level and above can easily have 200+ hit points, which jars somewhat with previous games where wizards were glass cannons. Now they’re beefed up somewhat, but its their spelsl that have failed their saving throw. With so many ways to heal, it’s very difficult to die. Even when a PC falls to 0 or lower hit points, the Stabilising Roll is now a saving throw and is much easier to succeed (especially at higher levels). Removal of the threat of death takes away yet another edge of the game.

Shopping For Loot: Most items in the game are more than just armour or jewellery. They each have a varying degree of abilities that can be used a varying number of times per day (for example a Horned Helm gives you a major bonus to your charge attacks, while a mystical shield confers a healing bonus upon you). This adds a whole new element to the suit of armour you choose, or which wand you decide to wield. It’s a great new system that adds a whole new layer of customisation to your character.

Spellcasting: Spellcasting in 4th Edition deserves the majority of this review as it has been completely revised. There are no longer any key levels where you get your first truly meaty spells, nor as there any awesomely destructive fireballs or earth-shattering cone of colds. Gone is Power Word Kill in favour of a set of more generic offensive spells. They’ve also removed many of the spells that make or break a battle on the roll of a die (like paralysis). So, what’s left is a bunch of low-power offensive spells, and the best of the bunch of the old spells (like fly and dimension door). A fairly weak selection, to be honest. In fact, most of the old spells have now been removed entirely, to be replaced with lots of similar elemental spells and effects that pretty much all do the same thing, but with a variety of side effects (like slowing an opponent) and a slightly increased damage.

Spells have been divided up into levels, from 1st to 30th, and choosing new spells isn’t easy, and forces you at many levels to simply choose a more powerful spell to replace an existing one (losing magic missile (a staple of wizards in D&D for over 30 years) to Prismatic Burst was painful).

One think you’ll never do now is assault your enemies with a vast barrage of damage that sends you scuttling into the bottom of your bag for yet another d6. You might manage to do 10d4 or 6d6 with some of the higher level spells, but most spells do a modest amount of damage. Combined with the fact that you have to hit with your spells now and you have a positively lacklustre affair. To compensate, most spells have sub-effects (example, if you miss with your ice spell, you do half damage but the opponent is slowed).

Spells are MUCH weaker and they don’t scale. A fireball at 5th level is the same as one cast by a 30th level wizard. Gone are the old days of knowing a bunch of different spells and being utterly versatile in favour of the Warcraft school of melee. Now you have a scattering of spells which you can cast at will, per encounter, or daily. It’s far more restricting and loses much of the flavour of the original game. It’s fine that you’ve got a bunch of attack spells you can spit out per encounter, but it all feels somewhat bland and empty, with players creating a bunch of cookie-cutter identikit wizards with all the best powers (and none of the useful utility spells).

Fireball is now a “Daily” spell, while Lightning Bolt is per “Encounter”. That seems strange to me, as they were both such key staples of D&D. Now you can only cast ONE fireball per day, and you cannot learn the same spell twice. You can of course cast the ‘awesome’ lightning bolt (with a whopping 2d6+ Int mod damage) per encounter now. Doesn’t that more than make up for everything!

In Closing: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition is a polished piece of work. It’s absolutely been designed for mass appeal and is simple, great to look at, and cleverly put together, but that all feels at a loss of the flavour that once went into the game. Right now it’s more like a generic RPG than the beloved grandparent we’ve loved for so long. With wizards being watered down and hit points so numerous, it’s hard to say whether a campaign in 4E will have the same impact it once did. Some of the rules are poorly defined (and the PHB is badly in need of a FAQ), but the game more than makes up for the issues with its playability. It’s so easy to pick up, visualise the class you want to play, and get gaming. Never before has DMing been so easy with the stat blocks easily recognisable and abilities clearly defined. I actually think this version of the game could shatter those geeky stereotypes and give the game more credibility.

And talking of credibility, it seems developer Wizards of the Coast has taken a leaf out of popular Massively Multiplayer Game World of Warcraft, for the game seems more akin to the offline version of that than it has to its roots of previous versions. Perhaps it should be called Dungeons & Warcraft, because it’s clear the game draws much of its inspiration from the online action adventure.

Now all we need is the 4.5 Edition to come along to fix all the things wrong with this version.

Coming Soon: Revelations on the cleric, the fighter's abilities, sample items, and more...

There's a copy of the core Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition books doing the rounds on the internet at the moment. If you download these PDFs and DON'T buy the books, Wizards of the Coast is potentially losing countless dollars in revenue.

These books cost millions of dollars to create. If you've downloaded them, please make sure you buy them. Over ALL game books in the industry, these are the ones that matter. If Wizards goes under (due to poor sales 'cos everyone's downloading them), we could condemn our industry to small presses only. Which would be a very bad thing. 

So, if you've downloaded the books, saying "I'd never buy them anyway" is NOT an excuse if you're going to keep the files and play the game with them. Nor is "they're too expensive".

I've said it a hundred times: piracy is theft. And (regardless of quality of the new edition) you're stealing the world of hundreds of people.

So, this once, if you've downloaded them, go out and buy the books. The PHB will only cost £16 ($30). Of course, if you've checked them out and decide that they're not for you (after all, some people rely on mail order and this is as good as browsing in a store), then delete them.

I'm off now to try and work out why Wizards in the new edition seem so utterly pants.

Well, it's here. I finally got my mitts on Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, and this is my early, quick glance, preview.

It's very glossy, the big and bold artwork is exceptional and the pressentation is gorgeous. Everything is intuitively laid out, and the several pages for each class and race feel substantial and are a major change from previous books (where the classes were given precious little space).

I can't say I was overly impressed with the content, though. While there are some great ideas here - they've added a lot, but it feels something of a mish-mash of styles, flavours, and ideas.

It also feels like a gaming primer, with the first portion of the book given over to how to play a role playing game. These books are clearly aimed at newbies to the game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but gone is the style of previous books. The Player's Handbook is no longer filled with endless pages of spells, and it's quite different in feel. It's more like a glossy coffee table book than an actual sourcebook for the world's most beloved role playing game.

In fact, on first impressions, this feels a lot more like World of Warcraft meets Dungeons & Dragons - the action adventure, and not the game we've known and loved for thirty years. It's all very powerful and bright and brash, but I couldn't help but think: "is that it?" for it seems to have lost all sense of identity to become a game that appeals to the widest audience.

I'll read on and see what treats (if any) this new game has to offer. It's certainly a lot more impressive than previous books, but let's see if there's any substance with that style.