D&D 4th Edition Player's Handbook Now In PDF

The Player's Handbook for D&D 4th Edition can now be found in PDF format over on DnDClassics.com. The entry also includes an extensive summary of the history of the game, its goals and design philosophy, the controversy (which is colloquially known as The Edition Wars and is a particularly unpleasant side of our hobby), and more. The PDF is just $9.99. Released in 2008, the 4E PHB was written by Rob Heinsoo (who later took a lot of his approach over to Pelgrane Press' 13th Age), Andy Collins, and James Wyatt.

Find it here.

"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."

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[Morrus]

Well, didn't this turn into the predictable edition war? Even the phrases are unoriginal. Knock it the hell off, please.

 

[Staccat0]

I like 4e as a tactical miniature RPG hybrid, but at this point I would want the errata.

 

[timbannock]

I like 4e as a tactical miniature RPG hybrid, but at this point I would want the errata.

Some of the errata would be here, no?

But definitely, the individual Power errata is *huge*, and it's kinda surprising not to see it worked in.

 

[Evenglare]

Not worth the time to download if it doesn't have errata. The final eratta all said and done morphed this game into almost a completely new one. I love 4e, the concept and the design, but I absolutely HATE the way they handled this edition. People keep saying it's like a miniature board game... like that's a bad thing. I did an experiment where I ran the original DL module with 4th and 3.5 using 2 different groups know what went differently? Absolutely nothing other than slight changes in powers.

Everything in the story ran extremely similar regardless of edition. The "I HATE THIS LOL WOW EDITION" BS is completely invalid, and I suspect most are parroting stuff they heard from others. If you want to make a comparison to any game it would be Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and those games, and those games are some of the most beloved in the history of RPGs and I'm OK with that.

 

[Uder]

Can we please just get digital 5e books SOON? I know they don't have the technology that allows pages to fall out of your screen yet, but they can add that in later!


Edit to add: The Edition War was great for D&D. We got a better D&D because a stink was raised. Sorry if your website is where most of the stink happened.

 

[Raith5]

Everything in the story ran extremely similar regardless of edition. The "I HATE THIS LOL WOW EDITION" BS is completely invalid, and I suspect most are parroting stuff they heard from others. If you want to make a comparison to any game it would be Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and those games, and those games are some of the most beloved in the history of RPGs and I'm OK with that.

Yeah that narrative of 4e as a computer game/tactical only game absolutely stuck despite the game still having the same latitude for roleplaying as previous editions (once you played it). It is not perfect and I wish they would have phrased some game elements differently, but the game worked really well at my table.

 

[Goemoe]

Can we please just get digital 5e books SOON? I know they don't have the technology that allows pages to fall out of your screen yet, but they can add that in later!

Same here. Two copies of the players handbook, both broken and the shop is not eager to help.

With digital copies even translated pdf would sell well. Come on Wizards, go for it SOON(TM). Don't wait 8 years for it.

 

[Evenglare]

The one thing I absolutely hate is that we never got a DM guide 3 for 4e. We will never get one and it really scratches that OCD nerve and gamer in me. The epic levels in the game were so good from the little I played.. man now I made myself sad again thinking about how awesome a 3rd DM guide would have been focusing on epic level stuff.... sorry for going off topic. I really do love 4e and feel strongly about it. I wish it would have never been associated with the D&D name, it might still be alive with current development....

 

[Mecheon]

World of Warcraft - The Tabletop RPG

Actually that would be for 3E

 

[Jhaelen]

I gotta say PHB 4e had the worst cover illustration of all PHBs.

Although 4e is my (and my group's) favorite edition, it was a hard sell initially; in particular one the female players was repulsed by the covers. I hadn't really paid much attention to the covers before that, but soon started really disliking Wayne Reynold's style, as well.