I’ll be the first to admit that I am a cynical bastard. I’m a miserable old fool who thinks the silver lining looks like rain and for whom hope is a delusion for others to indulge in. That being said I am trying to go against type and look for things to be positive about in the new D&D. It aint easy but there are a few places where 4E definitely looks like an improvement.

Layout & Color

They did a fine job of displaying information this time around. This is most true in the Combat section which is the section most likely to be referenced. The way they highlighted the rules with colorful boxes really makes them jump off the page. I imagine this will help when things need to be looked up. Also in the combat section they put a nice grouping of the states and their meanings. I always found this a pain in 3.x so I am glad they are so readily available now.

The way they use color to differentiate between the various types of powers in the class section is a nice touch.

The inclusion of Magic Items in the Player’s Handbook is a step in the right direction. Sure it will spoil the mystery to a certain extent but ever since they added creation feats back in 3.0 the players require some info on what they can do, And now that creation is a Ritual that any character can pick up it is even more important to make this information available.

They’ve been improving the layout of the Monster Manuel gradually over the last 5 volumes. They took the opportunity of a new system to revise it a huge step and it works well. The stat blocks are great. They are well laid out with all the necessary information for running the monsters. Since we DMs spend a lot of time running directly from the book it’s nice to have it that way. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve missed a monster’s ability because it was tucked down in the text of their entry.

What else?

In Character Creation they have found a way to implement party balance. The point buy system now seems to be the default choice for char gen. They even made it so that you can only have one dump stat. However for those who like rolling dice they did include a ham-fisted way to have a random system return almost the same results.

The DMG while being the least useful of the core books has some very good advice for novice DMs. It spends a large amount of time giving advice that was overlooked in the pervious editions, advice that is crucial to those unfamiliar with life behind the screen.

Simplicity. The rules are not complex. True, they lack a certain elegance that the 3.5 rules had, but they should be easier to pick up and run with. I’ve always thought that there were two types of D&D players: Those who are willing too put the time and effort into knowing the rules and those who just want to show up and play and not worry about anything. In my experience the latter is much more common than the former. Therefore the simplicity should facilitate their style of play. Being the first type myself I will have to content my self with the potential of the regular parade of splat books to liven things up. (Martial Power drops in October!)

I’d say that the artwork is top notch but come on. It’s WotC. They’ve had the some of the best artists around on their payroll for a decade. Of course the art is super sweet.

I like the ‘magical accessories.’ It’s kind of cool that they now have +2 Wands which just aid your attack roll with your spells (or is that spell-like abilities now?)  like a +2 sword would do for a fighter.

I love that they finally came around on the subject of Feats. I’ve always supported a More Feats stance and they definitely improved in that area. I wouldn’t mind seeing a system where PCs get a feat every level. 18 over 30 levels is hardly that but it is a damn sight better than 7 over 20.

That’s all I’ve got out of it so far. I am still cautiously optimistic about playing. I am also hoping that more good things come out of actual play.