So, anyone had the chance to play 4.0 now that its out?

Just got my 4.0 PHB last week. I wasn't really looking forward to it... my friends got a good price on a bunch of them and ... well... I'm just too curious to pass it.

It took me a while to get used to 3.0 - I was very annoyed at all the changes from my beloved AD&D.
3.5 irritated me to no end... but I finally purchased a new PHB as I was trying to introduce my wife to DnD and felt that having a 3.0 manual and playing 3.5 with friends would just end up confusing her.

So 4.0 wasn't something I was looking forward to.

We haven't played it yet - we got to get used to the new rules and flavors and figure out how (and if) we convert our current campaign.

I must say, though, that I really like the changes they made in there. I think its the first update that I really understand. Letting aside the frustrations due to change, I really love how everything is simplified and easier to understand - even though the PHB doesn't do a good job at showing how elegant the rules are; I think a "For Dummies" guide will still be valuable :)

I like how everything is clear cut and I really love the "flavor" they put into each classes' powers. Really nice. It has a nice balanced feeling.

Of course, I won't know if I really like it until we've played a few times with it.

And I still haven't figured out how my current bard character will fit into this new, music-less world.

I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome to the site! Thanks for the post. It is cool that you dig 4.0 thus far. Many of us here are 3.X followers. So it is refreshing to see 4.0 getting some love here.

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet (), but I do know I like the look of the crunch. I just bought my book today, and I'm going to go canvass my FLGS for a game as soon as tomorrow and as late as this weekend. Thus far though, I prefer it to 3.x. We'll see how it works out in-game though (which may take me buying the MM and DMG and teaching a group of folks).

We're converting our campaign to 4.0 - we just played our last 3.5 game last weekend.

We're probably going to wait for the Forgotten Realms book to come out first.

Heya's:

Got all 3 books, and even got H1: Keep on the Shadowfell the week before the books were released. Have played every Friday Night since the release.

LOVE IT! Both from a DM's PoV and my players PoV as well. The strategy available in the game (fights) now is unbelievable. RP'ing is let down a little, but there are simple ways to make it 'just as important' to the players as the battles. (Assigning XP to RP'ing for instance).

Our group is up to level 3 already, and have suffered a few deaths along the way, and so far - every friday night - "I" am getting called and asked if D&D is definitely on (a complete change to when we were playing 3.x).

Rules = streamlined? Yes. But combats can still bog down - quite easily. The DM's job is (I think) much more involved now - what with all the effects (bloodied, marked, quarried, etc etc) that players can do, the DM really needs to be on his toes.

Feedback from the players is nothing but praise, so far. 'Boss monsters' and their 'minions' is very much liked by the players. Now at a glance, they have a fairly good idea of who are the nasties and who are the 'annoying monsters'. The party has designated 'minion hunters' (controller - Wizard atm), and those who will take care of (read: keep busy) the boss's (until the others clear the minions). So far the players have gotten the idea of their characters, and the party unison is working great.

4E gets a HUGE thumbs up from me and my group.

DF

Thanks for the insight to 4.0 DF. I am still playing 3.5, call me stuck with the old ways but it is something I am comfortible with lol

Glad you like it!

I played 4.0 with my regular group and I can say that I like it as much as I like 3.x.

Combat is NOT streamlined, but it is still fast once you get used to it. Having 4 different defenses and 4 different at-will attacks makes combat more interesting and tactical.

So, I finally managed to find a couple people to play a game. We rolled up our characters last night, and we're playing tonight. I've got a rough recycle adventure (partially because I want to see how the new system compares with 3.5, partially because I'm a bit unfamiliar, and partially because I'm lazy, heh) I'm going to be running them through if things go well. I'll post up a thread comparing editions after we get a chance to play, but I thought I'd post comparative character creation between editions really quick with some comments on such.

So, thus far we have a Human Fighter, a Human Necromancer (Wizard, but he's focusing his efforts on cold and necrotic damage), a Tiefling Rogue, and a potential fourth to come today.

First, a bit of background. One guy hasn't played D&D since 2.5 (he still has his books on his shelf). Another guy has RP'ed before, with different game systems. The last two have never gotten anywhere near anything D&D-like.

I've taught people how to play before in every edition, and it's gotten easier and easier. With this edition though, I have to say it was so ridiculously easy we were done in about an hour (tops, and we had been drinking a bit), and I've barely flipped through the books.

The Human Fighter got some pretty damned good rolls, after racial adjustments his stats were: str19, Int11, dex15, wis11, con16, cha12. He figured out his own hit points immediately, and his own healing surges pretty quickly (he had to ask what his modifier was though). He had which powers he wanted and what equipment he planned on getting right after that. Feats took a second or two, it was all really really quick. With the leveling giving you +1 to all stats occasionally, he felt no need to even out his numbers or re-roll or anything like that (I usually get tons of questions about re-rolling stats, etc., even if they're all decent rolls). Powers picking was a bit tricky, but once he was able to ask me "can I do this with my fighter" and I was able to simply tell him "yes, here's probably what you want to take to get those results", that was that.

So, what I got from it was a quick character creation that will only get quicker with practice, players happy with what they got (though, that is contributed to by the fact that I'm not playing with powergamers), interesting characters, and a system that works with what players want to do, rather than allows players to jump into an archetype of something they would probably want to do.

I don't recall a greatsword-wielding human fighter to be as interesting looking as the one we came up with last night. And, it was pretty much a given what kind of feats one would want in the old edition. Now I could see lots of different types of greatsword-wielding human fighters run completely differently.

So that's my take on character generation. I'll have a small report of the game up either late tonight or early tomorrow, along with my comments of running a game from a DM's perspective. Thus far it looks *much* easier. I may even track initiative myself this game, heheh.

Thanks for the input guys - keep it coming!

Still haven't played it yet, but I'm getting pretty comfy with the rules (theoretically).

I like what I'm hearing - all the positive I'm reading are exactly what I expected... and most of the negative come from people who didn't try it out

I did manage to rebuild my wife's character with her. It took me a good hour - from explaining the core rules (trying not to get her to choke on the details, that's the DM's job :)) to making all the choices she needed to make to setup a level 1 ranger.