Dark Sun 4th edition review

There’s no denying that Dark Sun’s biggest draw is the unique setting. On a grim, godless, desert world, nine city states cling to life against the threat of mutated, telekinetic beasts, and life-devouring sorcerer kings. Everything that was old is new again as the conventions of D&D have been put up to the mirror and the reflection cast is gloomy and sinister. Everything about the setting is like the cover of a death metal album but the setting alone may not be quite enough to justify the $40 price tag for the core book, much less the additional $20 for the creature catalog.

If Dark Sun is going to be your first foray into the fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons world, then it’s going to be absolutely necessary to purchase the previous players handbooks for the Dark Sun experience. While you could survive with the first Players Handbook alone, it’s best to have at least one other handbook to go along with it. PHB 2 has the druid and shaman classes that fit well with the Dark Sun setting while the PHB 3 has monk and psionic classes that probably fit the best.

For a setting that prides itself as being antithetical to standard D&D, the Dark Sun book is sorely lacking in a differentiation between what classes from the standard books work within the context of Dark Sun best. The reimagining of the races is relatively detailed out, but if a player wishes to know how his or her favorite class has been reinterpreted (other than magic users) then he or she is out of luck.

Instead of detailing the different available classes for Dark Sun, the book offers “character themes” and “character options.” With a character theme, players can modify already existing classes with a Dark Sun specific theme. These themes can be applied across the board to any class with some combinations making more sense than others. Players can choose to be an ordinary shaman or they can choose a theme and become an “Elemental Priest Shaman.” Then, with “character options”, players can further the customization so that same shaman can become an “Elemental Priest Animist Shaman.”

Each theme also has two paragon paths to choose from, so at level 11, the character could become a “Smoking Crown Initiate Elemental Priest Animist Shaman” and in epic tier, he could become a “Mind Lord of the Order Smoking Crown Initiate Elemental Priest Animist Shaman.” So, essentially, this game of adjectives is being used in lieu of creating new character classes. The differences between “themes” and “options” are so minute that they are essentially unnoticeable.

The goal is to offer replacement powers to better acclimate players into the new setting, but these options are ultimately hollow, however. Gamers who have been dreaming of building their dream templar will be sorely disappointed to find that the Templar is just a theme; merely clothing to wrap around another character class from the original Player’s Handbook. The Templar theme offers one power per level for players to choose intead of one of the powers from their own class. While some may argue that specific stats for a templar would be unnecessary, some may feel that the lack of detail was a cheap way out.

Further disappointment lies with the equipment chapter where instead of armor stats, the player is given equivalency guides to the standard PHB. A few exotic Dark Sun weapons adds little flavor to the equipment, but it isn’t enough to make much of a difference.

On the other hand, there is a healthy section of brand new feats, but the Rituals section of the book is an embarrassing two pages of dreck that could have been omitted and no one would have noticed.

Where the book really shines though is in the “Atlas of Athas” section. With detailed maps, social structures, trade, and history for each individual city, Athas really comes alive in the last hundred pages of the book. It’s just a damn shame that the first 130 pages feature so few details to make the setting really feel different and alive. As it stands, the Dark Sun options for players don’t really feel unique so much as they feel like skins to place over your pre-existing characters.

Making a Dark Sun character can take up to three or four books (unless you have character builder, of course, but my feelings toward this program have been relatively well publicized by this point). Don’t go into the game thinking that it will all be laid out for you because you’ll be sorely disappointed. The coordination and effort involved in making a character specific to the Dark Sun setting are almost not worth the effort.

As for the creature catalog, there are 20 pages of NPC stats for GMs to use. Each sorcerer king has been statted out and while this makes the Creature Catalog necessary, it would have been an excellent addition to the main source book instead. Sure, this would make the creature catalog nearly obsolete, but it would also make the $40 price tag of the source book sting just a little less.

So, is Dark Sun’s setting unique and frighteningly cool? Of course it is! Is it worth the $40 (or $60) price tag? That’s debatable.

The fact is that information about the setting is readily accessible in other (free and legal) places and if you’re hard-pressed for cash, print off the Wiki article or better yet, go to athas.org and print off the 3.5 edition pdf files. Considering the depth that athas.org goes into on their site, it might even be a superior option to the 4^th edition books.