Player's Strategy Guide – Will It Help You?

Caution – this is a very long review – hopefully you won’t fall asleep when reading :)

This is a review of the Player’s Strategy Guide, by Andy Collins and Eytan Bernstein, released by Wizards of the Coast in May 2010.

First Impressions:
Art: Sorry to all the penny arcade fans out there, but I do NOT like the cover art on this book.  It is drawn by Mike Krahulik (“Gabe” of Penny Arcade Fame), who is a talented artist, so no offense, but his cartoony looking work doesn’t belong on a 4e D&D guidebook.  The interior art is okay, but most of it is also in a cartoony style, which I appreciate in my comic books, but not in my 4e books.
Layout (initial perusal): Based on table of contents, it looks functional.  Starts with basics, moves on to streamlining the PC, continues with party cohesion, throws in some strategy, and ends with story-telling and rewards.
Content Quality: Not sure yet.  Of course it is well written and edited; read the rest of the review to get more info on this topic.
Crunch vs Fluff: In this case, crunch isn’t in the form of stat blocks and related information, but there is a fair bit of crunch here, as was intended.
Cost: Typical price point for this size supplement from WotC, $29.95 USD for 159 pages, so slightly more than 18 ½ cents per page plus nice hard bound cover
Ease of Use in Alternative System: Not applicable for the most part.  It is possible that some of the party cohesion advice and the story-telling advice could be useful to a general RPG audience, but I wouldn’t recommend someone who doesn’t play 4e to spend the money on this tome.

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What’s in the Book?

Chapter 0: Introduction

This part of the book introduces the reader to the main goal of the book, which is to help you play effectively at the table.  Playing effectively, in the words of the authors, includes “building an interesting and powerful character, using your powers efficiently and wisely, creating compelling storylines, and working well as part of a team.” [page 4]  The introduction goes on to encourage the reader to get into character, explains the old maxim “Show, Don’t Tell” and points out that role-playing is action, choice, and other people.  You can’t do it alone, so it’s better to cooperate and ensure that everyone is having fun.  The authors also tell the reader that there is no one correct way to role-play, and advise players to not listen to anyone outside the group who tells them they aren’t playing correctly.

Notes on Content of Chapter 0:

The intro is decent.  It’s short and to the point – emphasizes character maximization and party cohesion as equally important aspects of the game.

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Chapter 1: Building Your Character

The first part of the chapter, Know the Campaign, is short (~6 pages) and gives advice to a (new) player in a (new) group.  It starts by telling the reader to talk to the DM and get information about the world they will be adventuring in.  The basic advice to the player is thus: Understand the world in which you will be playing by doing the following: Accept the limits to character creation that the DM puts on the campaign, Solicit recommendations from the DM about backgrounds, classes, and concepts for your character, Immerse your character into the campaign world by providing hooks to your DM for use in the game, and talk to the other players about their characters, forming connections where they make an interesting story.  This section also gives warning signs to watch out for; hints about these areas that may help you realize that you don’t mesh well with the group.

The next couple of pages talk a great deal about character concepts and how to make them work in the game.  This chapter ends with a two page quiz (magazine style) for you to answer that may give you insight into your motivation (your character’s and your own). It shows you how to score your answers and give you a primary and secondary motivation out of the following 8 basic motivations: Actor, Explorer, Instigator, Power Gamer, Slayer, Storyteller, Thinker, and Watcher.  These are the same 8 basic motivations found in the DMG, so there is a nice bit of cross-reference there.

Chapter 1 then switches to the crunchy part of building a PC.  There is a quiz, similar in style to the motivation quiz, to help the reader choose a class.  There is a good description of roles to help a new player get a better feel for what the roles actually do/mean.  It also has a section devoted to describing the hidden talents in each class – i.e. the thing that makes that class different from other classes with the same role.  Choosing a race is given the same treatment as choosing a class was given; a quiz and some extra information.  The two stand-out things in this part of the book are tables.  One is a table that shows matching races based on chosen class and primary ability.  The other is a companion table that shows matching races by Class + Build + Racial Ability Scores.  These two tables give a quick view of all the options and allows a new player to pick something that makes sense.  This is followed by a half page sidebar about playing against expectations, telling the reader that it’s okay to pick a race/class combination that is not maxed out, and often the most interesting/memorable PCs are ones that go against type.

One page is devoted to assigning ability scores, and the following 5 pages are devoted to generating a cool and appropriate background for the PC.  That is followed by another quiz (see a pattern here?) about which alignment may drawn your interest.

The next main part of the chapter is the one that the power gamers probably flocked to first:  Choosing Powers.  The 6 pages of this section contain information on how to build the best character.  There is a disclaimer in the second paragraph of the section which I feel is important to quote here:

“Best doesn’t mean only “mathematically strongest”; consider factors other than just the amount of damage dealt.  You can choose the most devastating powers in the game, but if they don’t contribute to a fun character, you’ll quickly lose interest in playing your unstoppable engine of destruction.” [page 31]

The authors then go on to point out things that you may find more fun than just maxing out the damage you can do: make lots of attack rolls on your turn, stay active when it isn’t your turn (AOs and immediates), being mobile on the battlefield, and choosing dramatic powers that lend to the tales that “Bard tell the common folk long after the campaign is over.” [page 31]

The powers section, rather than being a catalog of the best powers, organized by class and level, is an advice column that gives players things to think about when they are picking their At-Will, Encounter, and Daily powers.  For example, the daily attack powers section talks about Reliability as a factor in power choice (and how to use a reliable power; if you miss, you have still used that action, so “saving your reliable power until the exact moment you desperately need it probably is not a good idea” [page 33]).  Duration and specialization are also discussed.  There is a large section on Utility Powers and how best to use them, including out-of-combat uses.

The next two sections are about Choosing Skills and Choosing Feats.  The skills section splits the skills up into 5 categories: Skills of Avoidance, Skills of Knowledge, Skills of Observation, Skills of Persuasion, and Miscellaneous Skills.  The authors then go on to describe the functionality, benefits, and strategies for use for each of the categories of skills.   The Feats section is divided into subsections based on role.  In each subsection, the costs and benefits of focusing on specific functionality is discussed.  For example, for Controllers, they discuss the advantage of picking feats that add to your damage output, feats that extend the duration of control, and feats that let you target more opponents.  Some feats are mentioned by name, but they aren’t spelled out and they don’t give the minutiae that often accompanies a stat block or example of use.  In fact, there are no stat blocks in this section, or even in this chapter.  When specific feats, skills, and powers are mentioned, they are stated in name only.

The next section, Level Up!, gives short and sweet advice about how to improve your character.  This includes reviewing what skills, powers, and feats have been working for you and what hasn’t been working.  Also included are guidelines for analyzing the options in front of you with respect to your role in the party and weaknesses that you may perceive in your PC.  For example, Are you versatile enough? Do you have too many or too few targets?  Do you have a glass jaw (i.e. not enough defense for the amount of damage that you are expected to take in your role)? Do your non-combat options help the party solve problems in the campaign?  Are your powers too specialized?  This section is meant to help you decide if you need to retrain as well.

The next three sections of chapter 1 are Paragon Paths, Epic Destinies, and Advanced Options sections.  The Paragon and Epic sections are meant to help a PC narrow down the list of choices to one or two that really appeal to the player, then choose the one that will make the most sense for the player, party, and campaign.  They also have helpful little sections on Paragon Multiclassing, Paragon Hybrids, and How to Make Your Mark on the world during the Epic portion of the campaign.  The Advanced Options section gives tips on building an effective multi-class or hybrid PC, including constructing good combinations (and explanations of what makes them good).  There is a page on utilizing power-swap feats (feats that allow you to give away a power you already have in exchange for one you don’t), and a little quarter page write-up about skill powers.

The last section of chapter 1 is called the How To section.  This section is 20 pages and should be a whole new chapter in its own right. There are 10 how to advices columns in this section: make the best healer, fastest character, get the best initiative, make the best talker, get the best armor class, never miss, never fail saving throws, have the most hit points, deal damage forever, and teleport instead of walk.  Each of these is a two page spread which the writers included with the intention of NOT providing a “list of optimization opportunities,” instead, it is a “range of examples that demonstrate how far you can go beyond the obvious choices of class and build.” [page 62] The techniques described in this section allow the player to build their own specialized characters.   This is not a group of pages with character record sheets on them showing you the choices made, rather, each 2 page spread describes how to pick the best class/race/feat/power combinations, along with discussion of primary and secondary ability scores, and also what types of magic items work well with the character being built.  That rounds out the chapter.

Notes on Content of Chapter 1:

Layout issues: This chapter is way too long (~76pages!!).  They should have split it up into three (or maybe 2 and a half) chapters.  They could have written 4 more pages about character concepts and fleshing out your PC in the beginning, including more about working with the DM and other players before making the characters.  If they had done that, they could have ended chapter 1 there and made the Building a Foundation part an official chapter 2.  Chapter 3 could have been the how to section, or they could have given the paragon and epic information its own chapter and made the how to chapter 4.

The motivation quiz is a solid “meh” to me, but it may be helpful for a newbie player that just doesn’t have a lot of experience playing in a group.  In actuality, pretty much all of the quizzes make me yawn or roll my eyes at some of the stereotyped questions.   In fairness, some of them were good, I just think the quiz thing felt too magazine-y and it isn’t to my taste (add in the cartoony art and you really have a style distortion for me).  The fact that the quizzes aren’t helpful to me probably has a lot to do with my feelings.

The hidden talents section is very good.  It points out what makes classes different and, frankly, with three PHBs it’s easy to lose sight of what makes each class special.  I was pleased with the variety of advice given in the skill, feat, and power sections – glad that it wasn’t all stereotypical min/max advice (though there is some of that too).  The How To section was entirely min/maxing advice – how could it not be with subheadings entitled “How to Get the Best Armor Class,” and “How to Never Miss”?  That section aside, there is a lot of solid advice in this chapter.

Value of the Chapter:

Lots of the advice in the early part of the chapter is definitely geared toward new players, and therefore not very enticing to me (though as a DM I appreciate that I could hand it to a new player and maybe help them be effective).  I have been playing for a long time, though, and it is possible that this information may bring new, helpful insight to a beginning player, which makes it valuable.  Also, for some people, reading something that they already know helps them remember it better at the table.  Sometimes even us old guys (and gals) need a refresher of basic things we have known so long we take them for granted.  This chapter may also be very helpful to a player that isn’t new to the game, but has never played a particular type of PC.  Lastly, this could be helpful to a player that thinks they’ve done it all and done it well – perhaps new insights to a class/race/role combination may spark the interest of an experienced player.

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Chapter 2: Building Your Party

This chapter comes in at 19 pages, much shorter than chapter 1 (~76 pages), and is divided into three sections.  The first section, Character Roles, gives advice about how to build a party that works together effectively on and off the battlefield.  The authors talk about how to build a small party, how to build a large party, how to cover a tactical gap (e.g. no ranged attackers), what to do if you have too many PCs in one role (e.g strikers), and also gives advice about working with the DM to ensure he/she builds encounters that take the party composition into account.

The second section, Group Characterization, takes a page to talk about the importance of having characters with linked stories, which makes it easier to answer the “Why are we adventuring together?” question.  There are also a few words about personality clashes among the PCs, but the advice on this front is nothing earth-shattering.  The next section gives advice regarding Party Optimization.  That means it answers questions like “How does the party work with two defenders?” and “How do we choose the right leader?”  In these answers, it talks about the benefits and drawbacks of each class’s ability to fulfill the role in question.  For example, for the leader question the authors talk about the benefits of using an ardent in the leader role because they boost the accuracy and damage of the party members versus having a cleric with truly powerful healing spells.  There is also some discussion of character redundancy, skill training, and tactical combinations.   The final section of chapter 2 consists of 4 sample optimized parties.  Each of the sample parties has a different focus/party concept.  One of them, for example, is a party made to “gain maximum benefit from positioning during battle.”   Another is formed of PCs that all have the arcane power source, in which “even with this shared power source, subtle differences and rivalries exist.”

Notes on Content of Chapter 2:

As with any hobby that has as it’s practitioners a wide variety of people, form varying backgrounds and with varying styles, there is a lot of contention about what roles are needed to make the game “work” best.  It is difficult to say how this chapter will be received by the masses.  It gives advice that some will not agree with, an example from a conversation I had here on RPGG involves the statement that Strikers are the expendable role in 4e D&D [statement from pages 85 and 86].

The authors say that the striker is the best role to add to a large party because they deal the most damage.  They add that if you are in doubt about what role to add, make it a striker because it’s hard to go wrong with a PC that does more damage. They say that assuming the party is a large one and already has all the other roles filled. They then talk about small party optimization. In this section they say that “many of the arguments about which roles to double up on also apply to small-group situations, but in reverse.” They conclude that the striker is the most expendable because the other roles add more to a small party than a striker can. Strikers add damage dealt, but they don’t heal as well as a leader, don’t have high defenses like a defender, and aren’t as effective against multiple enemies as a controller. So, if you are in a small party and have to choose between a striker and another class, the striker is the expendable role.

That premise and the argument the authors make is controversial.  In fact, any comment the authors make about a role being the “best” or “worst” and any comments about what roles are “necessary” and which are “expendable” are going to be the subject of much controversy.  I understand it.  Different groups have different tactics that work for them.  In some groups the striker may indeed be the expendable one, but in others it may not.

So why bring this up? Well, because I’m not sure the chapter does a good job of saying “here are options based on what we think works, but feel free to experiment.”  And the real reason that is a problem is because it only works on new players. New players need to be lead and taught about the roles and rules and how to choose powers that compliment the team.  On the other hand, an experienced player doesn’t need that, and may have found a way that works with his/her group better than what the authors of this book state as fact.

Value of the Chapter:

This chapter suffers from the same difficulties as chapter 1 – it is meant to give basic beginner’s advice to new players.  It may also be helpful to someone who finds themselves in a group that isn’t working out or in a new group that plays differently than how that player was formerly used to playing.  This whole chapter may act as a troubleshooting chapter for a group that just can’t seem to make PCs that compliment each other.

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Chapter 3: Strategy and Tactics

This chapter is split into 8 sections, in a total of 32 pages.  It starts with a section called Tactics 101, which describes the basic actions that are expected of characters based on the role of the PC.  It describes the difference, in a visual example, between a focused fire approach and a spread-out fire approach.  The authors also discuss movement and positioning in terms of things like flanking, pinning the enemy, and using terrain.  Timing and initiative are given ample words, and managing resources is discussed.  When you should use limited resources is a matter of much discussion, and they talk about the pros and cons of using action points, daily powers, magic items, and consumables early in the battle versus late in the encounter.  This section also has a page where they discuss common tactical mistakes made by new players or players unfamiliar with their PC’s role.

The rest of the chapter consists of the following sections… Healing, in which they spend most of the time advising players on how to manage healing surges as a resource.  Know Your Enemies, in which they explain the monster roles in more detail, as well as how to fight monsters in that role most effectively.  Using Your Powers, which is mostly the authors telling the players that they should know their powers very well, have them organized, and be able to track them with little effort for the rest of the party or the DM and so as to not slow the game down.  The Tracking effects section talks about just that, tracking effects and how to do it effectively (hint: use tokens).  The Troubleshooting section gives players advice about how to deal with not having enough healing surges, not hitting as often as possible, boring combat, long combat, and teammates unwilling to use the intelligent tactics.  The chapter ends with two examples of tactics in action

Notes on Content of Chapter 3:

I have mixed feelings about this chapter.  Once again it will be helpful for new players.  And once again it sort of falls flat for us more experienced players.  I appreciate the fact that the authors went out of their way to describe mathematically and visually why the focused fire technique is more efficient than other tactics, but it isn’t always the case that focusing fire is the single “best” way to do things.  How about playing to the party’s strengths?  How about talking about occasions when focusing fire could get the party in trouble?  They didn’t offer any other techniques or ways to counter focused fire, other than unorganized distributed fire.  What about the two strikers going after the main artillery in the back while everyone else attacks the close foes?  Is that invalid?  Maybe, but what if the fiery arrows the artillery was using were doing a ton of damage each round while everyone was focused on the two orcs flanking the fighter?  Everybody attacks the same creature is not always the way to go.  This section explains tactics as though it was a very simple thing, and it is not always so simple.  No in depth tactics discussed here.

The tracking effects section should be something that all DMs read and teach their players how to do.  In fact, if your DM isn’t having players help with tracking, they are squandering a resource.  So some of that advice might be helpful even to an established group, and will definitely help new groups.  The troubleshooting section gives generally sound advice, but the advice basically goes back to the optimization techniques and not much new.

Value of the Chapter:

May be valuable – it sort of depends on how much of these things a player already does and how much of it fits the group they game with.  This rings true for all sections, but especially this one.

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Chapter 4: Playing the Game

“There’s more to playing D&D than combat tactics and rolling dice” is the way this chapter begins. [page 134]  This chapter is split into 7 sections, including Storytelling, Being Part of the Party, Rising to the (Skill) Challenge, Knowing When to Rest, The Campaign Journal, Treasures and Rewards, and Don’t Be a Jerk.  Most of these sections are self explanatory, and they do a good job of staying on topic.  The Storytelling chapter speaks especially well to the critics of 4e that say there is no role-playing in the game.  The authors discuss how to add value to your PC by helping create hooks in the campaign, how to help drive the story so that the DM doesn’t have to do all the work, and also how to spice up the gaming session by narrating powers in game.  The section after the storytelling section (Being Part of the Party) should probably just be a part of the storytelling section since it is advice on how to be a good teammate and be interested in the other PC’s story as much as your own.

There has been a lot of misunderstanding about skill challenges in 4e.  Some of the misunderstanding is due to the horrible way the mechanic was presented in the DMG, and part of it was due to the horrible way that us DMs tried to run skill challenges, and part of it was due to the way the players responded to skill challenges.  This section of the chapter is meant to alleviate some of the player-driven unhappiness regarding skill challenges by giving tips and tricks on how to make skill challenges run more smoothly, easily, and in more of a storytelling vein than dice-rolling mechanic vein.  Among the other good advice in this section is the wonderful bit here:

“Some players get caught up in scanning their characters’ skill lists for the right option, losing sight of the fact that a skill challenge represents characters interacting with the world.  Don’t limit yourself to the seventeen skills on your character sheet.  Instead, ask what actions a character in the world might take to overcome the difficulty of the skill challenge.” [page 142]

The next section of this chapter, Knowing When to Rest, is a ho-hum section with common sense advice about making sure your characters rest.  I haven’t had this be a problem in 4e, so to me, it is almost an unnecessary section.  The Campaign Journal section is a decent look at the advantages of having players keep a journal, with some guidelines as to what is important enough to go into it.  The Treasures and Rewards section gives some okay advice about how to divvy up the loot after an encounter and how to track the value of loot given (to retain fairness in treasure handling).  This section talks in detail about dividing treasure, including the pros and cons of these methods: an even split (every PC gets the same $ down to the copper piece), a random draft (roll a die, highest or lowest roll picks item first, then go in order), a fixed draft (fixed or of who chooses), get what you need (players cooperate to determine who gets what), and DM assignment (yeah, more work for the DM, yay!).  This section also talks about how to establish a party fund to take care of mutual expenses and also how to customize your PC’s gear by defining the look and story behind it.

The final section, Don’t Be a Jerk, is a couple of pages of advice about how to deal with a Jerk player, and how not to be one yourself.  It addresses things like: Hogging the Spotlight, Lack of Preparation, Ignoring Your Team, and Arguments.

Notes on Content of Chapter 4:

This is a mish-mash chapter full of interesting and sometime non-interesting information.  A lot of the stuff in this chapter is probably already being done by established groups, but the chapter does offer some new options should any of the players become dissatisfied with the current way things are being done in their group.  Once again, maybe more useful for new players.

Value of the Chapter:

Same as chapter 3 (and the whole book really) – it may be valuable, but it depends on how much of these things a player already does and how much of it fits the group they game with.  Some of the skill challenge advice I found a welcome change, and the treasure division section offered up valuable options.

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Special Feature: Tell Us About Your Character

There is a group of sidebars that runs throughout the book.  These sidebars range from a quarter page to a full page in length and they are in the words of a special guest author describing a memorable PC that person played in the past or is actively playing now. Most of these are at least relatively entertaining.

These sidebars are written by: (in order or appearance in the book)

Reid Schmadeka, John Rogers, Matt Sernett, Shelly Mazzanoble, Chris Tulach, Michele Carter, Dan Milano, Daniel Helmick, James Wyatt, Peter Schaeffer, Craig Krohn, Greg Collins, Didier Monin, Greg Bilsland, Chris Champagne, Andy Collins, Don Frazier, Wil Wheaton, Brady Dommermuth, Douglas Goldstein

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My personal overall thoughts on the book:

This book gives a pretty simple depiction of how to maximize the use of your PC and build it to be effective in the first place.  I don’t think the target audience includes me, a DM that has been playing and DMing for more than 20 years, so I may be taking a harsher view of the book than a newer player.  This tome is written in simplistic terms for a new player.  The tactics are not laid out in a great deal of depth and most of the advice amounts to things that a long-time RPGer would consider basic.  To a newer player these things may not be common sense, so I’m not sure that this is a bad thing, actually.  But I think they should target their audience better – this book was written for the newer player, or maybe for the younger player.  Perhaps they are planning on writing an Advanced Player’s Strategy Guide for us non-new RPGers? On the other hand, if you are a player that doesn’t peruse character optimization boards and has very little experience trying out new class/race/feat/skill combination, this book may have the right tone for you.

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Final Impressions:
Art: Still feel the same about this – not a fan of the cartoony/comic book style art.  It doesn’t match the feel of the book for me.  The art isn’t bad, it just doesn’t fit with what I think this book should have in it (and it doesn’t match the other 4e offerings so far).  As I think of it, though, if the target audience is younger players, not just newer ones, perhaps this artwork will be appealing to them.
Layout: Chapter 1 is way too long.  This should have been split up into 3 chapters (or maybe 2 and a half).  The way they have the subheadings laid out is supposed to make it easier to find things, but I think it chunks up the text too much.  Fewer headings, more chapters = smoother design.
Crunch vs Fluff: Well, there are no stat blocks, but most of this book would be considered crunch because it directly relates to the rules.  Even the non-combat discussions deal with rules and DM-Player interactions.
Cost: The ~30$ USD price point will probably keep this non-essential book out of range for many RPGers, and that is probably just as well.  You still get WotC’s typical high production value hardbound book with color art throughout, since this is non-essential, probably not worth the money (depending on your needs, of course).
Ease of Use in an Alternative System: Not really usable in an alternative system.  This is very 4e specific, all the talk about PC roles and monster roles, types of rest, treasure parcels, magic item use, daily power resource management – this is a very 4e specific book.

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Who is this book for?

This book is for you if:

1) You are a new player that hasn’t been involved in RPGs before

2) You are a younger player that really needs help wrapping your head around different strategies and you want to make an optimized party

3) You are a completist and have a horrible compulsion to buy every book released

4) You don’t have a lot of experience playing a variety of class/race/feat/skill combinations and want to get some down-to-earth simple advice on how to best handle your PC and party

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This book is NOT for you if:

1) You have been playing 4e since it came out and you are happy with your PC and your party

2) You have played RPGs for many years and you understand how basic tactics and character building mechanics work, and you already know how to optimize your PC

3) If you read the WotC character optimization boards and have a good handle on how to min/max your PC to best effect

4) You are a DM looking for good information about your players (don’t buy this book, ask your players!)

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Overall I would give this book 2.5 stars out of 5, but if you are a young player or new to RPGs, you may find it much more valuable.

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I hope that you have found this review useful.  Do you agree with me?  Disagree with me?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Until next time, I wish you good gaming!

~DM Samuel