I preferred 3e cover design -- I liked the fact that the book cover was designed to look like an ancient tome. That being said, the artwork on the covers of the 4e rulebooks is beautiful, and the artwork within is also top-notch: a step above the sometimes amateurish artwork that managed to slip into 3e books.

Introductory Content

Overall, 4e is all about streamlining and simplifying, and is more welcoming to new players than the rules-heavy 3e. It is also about making characters feel powerful: increased hit points, higher AC, greater racial and class abilities, more damage dealing ability... However, the monsters are equally buffed, which begs the question: what's the point? In 3e, 10hp characters went up against 20hp monsters; in 4e, 30hp characters go up against 60hp monsters.

The PHB starts off with simple and concise information intended for players new to roleplaying games, and eventually begins to establish the basic differences between 3e and 4e.

The alignment system has been reduced to Good, Lawful Good, Evil, Chaotic Evil, and Unaligned. Although I was initially put off by this reduction of alignment choice, this new system is simpler, and eliminates the confusion and endless debate sparked by alignments such as Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral.

Dwarves have had their darkvision replaced with low-light vision, in a move towards removing darkvision from all player races. Although I'm sure many players were loathe to find this out, I think it was a good decision. Playing on a player's fear of the dark just isn't the same when a character has darkvision.

3e elves have been divided into two subspecies: "Eladrin," who are more akin to Tolkien's elves, received the magic and majesty (staple wizard). "Elves" received the martial aspects of their 3e predecessors -- they are now archers and masters of the woodlands (staple ranger).

Half-elves are no longer outcasts amongst humans and elves; they're welcomed by everyone. I see a distinct movement towards lessening the racism in D&D, and it feels like the developers are trying to be politically correct. Unfortunately, this makes for fewer interesting roleplaying opportunities, as conflict lies at the heart of drama.

Halflings have taken a step further away from Tolkien's lovable (but uncool) hobbits, towards taller, fiercer, more dignified people -- a wise move.

Classes

Classes have received a complete makeover, and this is where 4e really shines. Gone is Vancian spellcasting, wherein spellcasters had to waste time selecting which spells to prepare every day. Gone is the dull hack-and-slash of martial combat. Every class now has powers or spells that can be used either at-will, once per encounter, or once per day. Combat is more interesting for non-spellcasting types, as a wide range of options are available other than just basic melee or ranged attacks.

With the advent of the "second wind" ability that all characters received -- a once-per-encounter self-heal -- the cleric is no longer bound to the onerous duty of constantly healing teammates, and has received powers that give him interesting combat options.

The fighter now has the ability to coerce enemies into attacking him instead of his other teammates, making him a much more effective tank (MMORPG players would call this "aggro"), and can now specialize in distinct weapon types, opening up different combat powers, allowing for greater variance in build options.

The Paladin is the class that has changed the most. A Paladin no longer has to be Lawful Good -- this essentially destroys the image of Paladins that has been built up in fantasy and gaming culture over the years. I would have went a different way with this: call the class Holy Knight, and have a different name for each alignment. Paladin for Lawful Good, Death Knight for Chaotic Evil, etc.

The 4e ranger takes the dual-wielding/archery option of 3e a step further, making the choice of path more meaningful by focusing its class powers on either bow use or two-weapon fighting.

The rogue has been weakened: tumble is no longer a skill, but a class power only available for selection after a few level-ups. Sneak attack damage increases at a slower rate than 3e, but a feat allows the sneak attack damage dice to be increased from a d6 to a d8.

4e introduces the warlock as a core class, a spellcaster that specializes in targeting single foes, complementing the wizard, who specializes in crowd control. This offers more variety than the sorcerer/wizard combination of 3e.

The warlord is the second core class new to D&D, and is essentially the bard in disguise: his main goal is to buff his allies. However, whereas the bard was scorned and laughed at by many players, no one is laughing at the warlord, who makes a fine addition to the game.

The wizard has also been weakened: her extensive 3e spell list has been cut short, and staple spells such as Fireball have been turned into once-per-day powers. But as a consequence, the wizard is easier to play, and doesn't strike new players as the daunting task that 3e wizards were.