Quickly:
Interesting new builds, quite a few changes, still wondering how this will be compatible/integrated with 'core 4e'
Summary:
Heroes of the Fallen Lands is part of the new Dungeons and Dragons Essentials Line. Essentials is a type of re-boot for 4th edition D&D and is based on classic D&D themes and feel. These books have been streamlined and somewhat simplified in order to ease the learning curve for new players. That being said there are plenty of new options for existing players and new Essentials rules are designed to work along side existing characters and game. This particular book is the first 'player book' in the series and contains the rules a player requires to make a Cleric, Fighter, Rogue or Wizard.
The first things you will notice about this book is the size, type and price. Essentials books are produced in Digest format, meaning they are approximately 5˝ x 8Ľ inches and soft cover. In addition they have a cover price of only $23.95CAN. This is quite a change from the large hardcover books produced so far.
Heroes of the Fallen Land is 365 page (367 if you count the character sheet). Like the players handbooks before it most of this is taken up by the sections on the individual classes. Other sections include an introduction, Game Overview, Character Generation summary, How to read a power, Races, Skills, Feats and Equipment. A great glossary and index finish off the book.
The introduction has a really quick intro to RPGs and notes the three rules of D&D; roll a D20 add modifiers and try to beat a target number, Specific beats general and always round down.
The Game Overview describes exactly what Dungeons and Dragons is. In introduces the DM, the players, characters, the game world, etc. Tiers of play are mentions and the first of many suggestions to subscribe to Insider can be found there. The chapter goes through how to play the game including a very short example of play. The playing the game section gives a good overview of pretty much everything that will come up in a game but instead of going into detail it refers you to later parts of the book or to the Rules Compendium (released at the same time as this book).
Making Characters gives an overview on what you need to do to make a Heroes of the Fallen Lands Character. Most of the generic parts of character creation are detailed here, the stuff that applies to every character regardless of race or class. Things like Stats, Alignment, Background, Religious beliefs etc. Like the last chapter this section is has quite a bit of summary without details and references later chapters and/or the Rules Compendium.
Understanding Powers explains exactly what you think it would. How to read an understand powers. Full details of each line that could be in a power are given. Again this is just a summary and the full rules for powers can be found in the Rules Compendium.
Character Classes is the meat of this book. It provides rules for 4 classes; Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard. There are different builds for many of these classes. All of these follow a different format from what was previously released in the Player's Handbooks. Each class now has a level chart (reminiscent of previous editions of D&D) which let you know what you gain at each level in each build of a class. One paragon path for each build is given and one epic destiny is given. I'm sure people are interested in knowing a bit more about the classes, especially existing players wondering if this book is worth picking up so I will talk a bit about each.
The Cleric - the new build given is the Warpriest. This is a melee leader who is nearly as good in combat as they are at healing. There are two varieties of Warpriest achieved by the reintroduction of Domains to D&D. Each Warpriest picks which domain they have access two based on what God they Worship. This determines some of the powers they get access to. Heroes of the Fallen Lands contains rules for the Domains of Sun (Pelor) and Storm (Kord). The Sun Warpriest is built around healing and buffing their allies defensively whereas the Storm Warpriest is built around dealing damage and buffing their allies' attacks.
The Fighter - there are two new builds for Fighter. The first is the Slayer a Striker and the second is the Knight which is a Defender. Fighters are the class that has changed the most for Essentials. They no longer have At-Will or Daily attacks. Instead they have At-Will stances that modify their basic attacks and encounter powers that also modify their basic attacks. The Slayers is built around wielding a two handed weapon and doing the most damage possible while still being resilient enough to stand on the front lines. The Knights is build around battlefield control pinning opponents down while soaking the most damage. It is worth noting that the Slayer and Knight actually each have their own progression table and paragon paths and actually seem more like totally separate classes rather then builds of the same class.
The Rogue - the new rogue build is the Thief. This one is a call back to the traditional D&D Thief and re-introduces Backstab to Dungeons and Dragons. Similar to the new fighter builds the Thief is based around Basic Attacks. Instead of At-Will stances they get At-Will movement abilities called Tricks. These are interesting powers that gives the thief battlefield mobility and help to set up situations where they can gain combat advantage.
The Wizard - the Mage is the new Wizard build. Similar to the Cleric Domains the Wizard class sees the return of Schools of Magic. Enchantment, Illusion and Evocation are detailed in this book. Unlike the Cleric's Domain school specialization (which grows as the character levels) mainly offer modifiers for existing powers rather then new powers for the character. Another significant change is the new spellbook. Now Wizards can change out their Encounter powers as well as their Daily and Utility powers after a rest.
The next chapter contains The Races. This gives updated rules for Dwarves, Humans, Elves, Eladrin and Halflings. The two major changes here are: Humans have a new encounter power that replaces their bonus At-Will at first level and the non-human races now get to choose one of two secondary stats to increase during character creation. This greatly opens up the viable race/class options and is a welcome change. In addition each race has a lot more fluff then released in previous books. Attitudes and beliefs are discussed along with society and community info and roleplaying tips.
Skills talks about how the various skills your character can learn are used in the game. Each skill is looked at in turn. Again some of the info is left out and references to the Rules Compendium are noted. An updated skill DC chart is given long with new rules on using it. This new chart scales differently then in the past and the suggestions for using it include group skills and talk about the actual chances of a trained vs. untrained character in making a skill check. Another new introduction are improvisation suggestions for each skill showing how players are not limited to 'the rules' and that skills are meant to be open ended.
Next is Feats. This section has completely changed from previous books. Feats are no longer organized by Tier and all feats are available to all characters at all levels (though some do have prerequisites. Feats are now organized in groupings called Categories. Categories include Armour Training, Divine Devotion, Enduring Stamina, Implement Training, Learning and Lore, Quick Reaction, Steadfast Willpower, Two-Weapon Training, Vigilant Reflexes and Weapon Training. Most of the feats in this book are new to 4e and are actually better then existing feats published in earlier books. It will be interesting to see how these integrate with the existing feats.
The last chapter is Gear and Weapons. Here you can find all of the stuff a character may want to buy; armour, weapons, travel gear, mounts and food and lodging. Most of this matches previous equipment lists but oddly doesn't have any of the items from the two previous Adventurers Vaults. The weapon list is actually shorter then the PHB and some items have changed (for example Rapier is no longer a specialist weapon). Gear and Weapons finish with the rules for Magic items. Here we see the new rarity system in effect. Instead of 1/4 of the book being magic items like the Player's Handbook, instead we have about 6 pages of common magic items that our newly created heroes can consider buying, when they have enough money.
The last few pages contain a glossary, index and a newly designed character sheet.
The Good:
I found myself liking the smaller size, just for portability sake. I much prefer my large hardcover collection as it looks great on my shelves and will last but toting this book around to game and to read it I grew to like the format. That surprised me.
I actually like the new builds. I've made a couple of characters now and played a couple of sessions using only the Essentials rules, races and classes and so far I like what I have seen. They definitely give that old school feel. The Thief and Slayer especially have seemed to 'return to their roots'. Now these new classes won't be for everyone but I like what they have brought to the table and I really like the idea of some less complex classes for players who aren't as interested in some of the complex combinations and tactics of some of the later released classes (I'm looking at you Monk).
I really like the changes and enhancements to the skill section and rules. I love the way opened ended skills are encouraged and the improvisation suggestions are awesome.
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