Dungeon Master's GuideIn this review of 4th Edition's Dungeon Master Guide (DMG), I'll focus on pointing out the differences between the 4e and 3e DMGs. The most obvious distinction is that 4e devotes more pages to advice, whereas 3e devotes more pages to rules. A quick perusal of either book makes this obvious: the 4e DMG tends to have pages and pages of text, whereas the 3e DMG tends to have pages and pages of tables. |  |
Introductory Content
The first couple chapters of the DMG begin with content suitable for new DMs. This is probably the first core rulebook to really harness the power of the digital world and make D&D current to our modern times by providing examples of ways in which technology can aid your gaming. I would have liked to see the authors go a step further and devote more than a short paragraph to this topic of digital aids; then again, that's at the bottom of the list of extra content I wanted. But we'll get to that later...Poison & Disease
Poison and disease in 4e are handled in a much more interesting manner than their 3e counterparts. Gone is ability damage, which was a hassle to track and heal. Instead, diseases have effects that suit their names and descriptions: victims of Blinding Sickness suffer from increasingly worse vision, granting distant enemies concealment. The Shakes cause tremors and twitches that slow its victim's movement. My only complaint is that the lowest-level disease is level 9 -- why are there no diseases suitable for low-level characters? A common peasant catching any of the diseases listed in the book would have no chance of survival, yet there surely must exist some sicknesses that plague low-level folk without decimating the population.Poison comes in interesting flavors that generally deal ongoing damage (the type of poison we've grown accustomed to in video games), and have some secondary effect such as slowly or immobilizing the target, rendering him unconscious, etc. This is a definite improvement over the expensive 3e poisons that were generally incapable of killing people.
Encounters
Building encounters in 4e is much easier. Gone is the complex 3e table of encounter-level versus party level versus challenge rating. 4e harkens to the simpler days of D&D, where every monster has a fixed XP reward. Furthermore, monsters are grouped into different categories, depending on what style of fighting their abilities are geared towards: Artillery, Brute, Controller, Lurker, Minion, Skirmisher, Soldier, Solo. This aids DMs in building interesting and dynamic encounters against a varied group of enemies.Greater focus has also been placed on making the encounter setting more than just a backdrop to a fight, but rather an integral part of it, by adding different "terrain" types that block or hinders movement, grant cover or concealment, or require skill checks to navigate.
 | Skill ChallengesSkill challenges are one of 4e's best features: non-combat encounters that require skill checks to successfully overcome, with XP rewards. Unfortunately, this is also the part of the DMG that has been most heavily errata'd, and I daresay the authors still haven't gotten it right. |
Skill Challenges started off as
being too difficult, but with the errata'd rules, they are now too
easy. I use a houserule'd variant that finds a happy middle ground.
The objective of a Skill Challenge
is to succeed at a given number of skill checks before failing three
checks. The more difficult the challenge, the greater the number of
successful checks required. Failure results in no XP reward, and
generally some form of setback to the party.
Treasure
Instead of having the recommended wealth-by-level table of 3e, 4th Edition has a "treasure parcel" system, in which a given amount of treasure should be given out at every level, based on the number of PCs in the party. So for every level, the party should receive a set number of magic items of set levels, along with coin, gems, and potions. Although this results in less freedom of choice for a DM, this system is geared towards better game balance.Final Chapters
The final chapters are filled with
templates to spice up monsters and NPCs, guides on how to design new
monsters, NPC design steps, house rule creation advice, random dungeon
and encounter generation, as well as a sample, fleshed-out town and
short adventure. Closing Remarks
The 4e Dungeon Master's Guide is padded with basic advice for beginner DMs, and skimps out on a lot of rules and tables that helped with world-building in 3e. Although the 4e DMG introduces fresh, innovative concepts that make 4th Edition shine, I still keep my old 3e DMG around as an occasional world-building reference.Recommended for: gamers intent on DMing 4th Edition D&D.
Not recommended for: gamers who have no intention on being a Dungeon Master.
