Why Is the Feywild so MAGICAL? The Secret Is in This D&D 4e Book!

[@marcusaurelius5149]

10:44 - I became a fan of Bards in 3.5 and I've played Bards ever since. The 4e Bard is one of the best versions of Bards for any high fantasy RPG. Bards in 4e were masters of the Skill Challenge, able to boost the team and make those DCs less daunting. Even before the better supplements there was plenty of Utilities to choose from.

[@LadySapling]

This is my favourite out of all the 4e books!

[@dr3dg352]

Thanks for covering this book! I bought the PDF back in college, and absolutely love it. The Witch class is my favorite portrayal of witches in all RPGs so far, and the Haemadryads are so cool! Also really love having access to more powers, and have used some of the new druid powers for a goliath guardian druid I created. I've clearly not used all this book has to offer yet, but it's one of my favorite supplements!

[@HoosierJedi]

This would be a great book to research for my character with the Faylost background. They spent 12 years in the Fayewilde before returning to the Material Plane. Thanks for turning me onto this resource.

[@mattdahm4289]

Thank you Greybeard! Totally fun and relevant to any edition of the game

[@Eothr]

This is probably one of the best books to come out post-Essentials. Sadly, the Essentials pretty much split the 4E fanbase, with one smaller side embracing the simplified and optimized design, and the other side rejecting it outright. Despite the assurances of WotC that Essentials was interchangeable with base 4E, mixing it up didn't happen too often. Heroes of the Feywild was rich in lore, options, artwork, and campaign hooks.

[@Eemi_Seppala]

I belong to the rejecting side, in my eyes they tried to change the recipe for 4e mid baking. You don't start with cake batter and then decide you'll be making pizzas. I feel like the New 5e(or OneE or 6e or 5.24e) is going to get the same treatment as both essentials and 4e got. They say it's just an update and still compatible ,which makes people just see it in the same light as the essentials, but it changes enough to be qualified as a new edition and even play-test shows how it won't gel with 2014 books, causing many to declare that they'll just stick with the ones they already.

[@oldegreybeard]

I agree with your comment about them changing it mid-baking. I think 4e was great to begin with. Some small changes along the way would have been fine just like we get with any edition. The Essentials rules are fine, but I think its introduction confused everyone. Those that didn't like 4e were not going to be happy with Essentials anyway. Those that liked 4e wondered why they were making changes to the game and if this was a 3.0e vs 3.5e all over again. I think D&D 2024 will start out as (mostly) compatible with 2014, but within the first couple years, there will be new rules that make it increasingly more difficult to play the two versions together.

[@tigriscallidus4477]

I for one like a lot of the essentials things. I dont like the "simple martial, complex caster" idea which waw beought back, but I think having some simplified classes or just some classes with differenr class structures is good. This book is in my oppinion one of the best 4e books and part of it was that they were more experimental. (Striker/defender mix, new controller druid with actual controller feature etc.

[@Trenell83]

Ok this is one of the best books from 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. The mix of fluff and crunch or Lore and mechanics was evenly balanced throughout. The bards tales sprinkled in gave you the whimsical nature of the Feywild while providing thoughts and ideas for dungeon masters and players to think in terms of backstories. The essential line of books are where you started seeing a lot of fluff or lore attached to the mechanics of the game. Keep in mind, they 4th edition started out with backgrounds in player's handbook 2 then introduced themes in Dark Sun Campaign Guide. These sow the seeds for backgrounds in 5th edition. Bards and half elves are where they started not to suck in 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. The class bard may not heal as much as the cleric or allow as many bonuses to hit or strike again as the Warlord however Bards liked moving allies around (College of Lore) or granting temporary HP to toughened allies (College of Valor). For products/books to introduce as a video suggestion you could continue with the essential line of books with: Heroes of the Fallen Lands, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, Heroes of the Elemental Chaos. If you can get your hands on it Monster's Vault, Dungeon's Master's Kit, Dungeon's and Dragons Red Box 4e. If you combine the adventures from the Red Box to the Dungeon's Master's kit to the Monster's Vault you actually have a nice campaign going on there. The back of the book Heroes of the Feywild build your story is very fun and tried it out on my players for funsies.

[@oldegreybeard]

I have all those books. I loved punching out all the tokens from the box sets. The Twisting Halls adventure was my first full D&D experience and it covered everything nicely. Reavers of Harkenwold is one of my favorites. I made some notes on my list that you upvoted those books. Thank you for the feedback.

[@jamesonstalanthasyu]

the game mechanics for 4e was weird for me after playing 1-3.5, but the lore was always good.

[@henrikcollin4727]

I would love that you do an overview for heroes of shadow.

[@oldegreybeard]

Just picked up a near mint condition used copy of it from Noble Knight Games and I have it on my list to do right around the anniversary of its release date. Thank you

[@captaindudeman3613]

Upvote! Also Gloomwrought and Beyond the Shadowfell physical book is a hard one to find!

[@dylanhyatt5705]

4e wasn't just a great RPG system, but the lore and guidance (such as in the DMG) are par excellence. It really is shocking WotC have no love for their own child. It would be great if with the 50th anniversary they announced 'support' for those wishing to play 4e with a few new products.

[@oldegreybeard]

I would love to see them offer up an OGL of some sort for 4e. I know people balk at the rules, which I think are excellent, but, to your point, the material 4e provided to help players and DMs is amazing and transcends versions.

[@MisterCynic18]

They love money and the fanbase recoils at any mention of 4e, so we must suffer in the dark, watching them (badly) port 4e themes and mechanics into 5e while the actual 4e is shoved deeper into obscurity 😔

[@igwilly6592]

Ok, about the race books... The problem with them was very... physical. According to information I had at the time, the plan was to make one of "Player's Handbook Races" for each race of the PHB. There was a Human book almost ready. However, the market, in WotC eyes, was pretty much focused on physical books. Those books were small, so they almost hid themselves on the bookshelves, and they were not that important to put them at the forefront of bookstores. They had difficulty in making people see these books at bookstores, so to speak. So the series just got flat out canceled (in the original meaning, lol).

[@oldegreybeard]

Thank you for that background. I can definitely see that. At only 30 pages, they would easily get lost amongst other books at the game stores.

[@clarkside4493]

I loved this version of a fairy race. The 5e version is so disappointing.

[@Parker8752]

Just so you know, sidhe is an Irish word that’s pronounced “she”.