Player's Handbook - Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

On June 6, 2008, the Fourth Edition Player's Handbook, subtitled Arcane, Divine and Martial Heroes, was released. It was originally announced that the 4th edition's three core rulebooks would be released over a three month period, but the date changed after customer feedback revealed a majority preference among D&D customers to have all three core rulebooks released in the same month. The Fourth Edition Player's Handbook was designed by Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt. The front cover illustration was by Wayne Reynolds and the back cover illustration was by Dan Scott, with interior illustrations by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai, Matt Cavotta, Eric Deschamps, Wayne England, David Griffith, Ralph Horsley, Howard Lyon, Raven Mimura, Lee Moyer, William O'Connor, Steve Prescott, Dan Scott, Anne Stokes, Franz Vohwinkel, and Eva Widermann.

The first Player's Handbook includes eight classes: cleric, fighter, paladin, ranger, rogue, warlock, warlord, and wizard, and eight races: dragonborn, dwarf, eladrin, elf, human, half-elf, halfling, and tiefling. The warlock and warlord classes, and the dragonborn and tiefling races, represented new additions to the core rules, while the book left out previous core elements such as the monk and bard classes and the gnome and half-orc races. Wizards of the Coast emphasized that those elements would be coming in subsequent Player's Handbooks and would be considered to be as central to the game as those in the first book.

The 4th edition Player's Handbook 2, subtitled Arcane, Divine and Primal Heroes, was released on March 17, 2009. The book was designed by Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, and James Wyatt, and featured cover art by Daniel Scott and interior art by Steve Argyle, Eric Belisle, Michael Bierek, Devon Caddy-Lee, Mitch Cotie, Thomas Denmark, Eric Deschamps, Brian Despain, Vincent Dutrait, Steve Ellis, Wayne England, Howard Lyon, Mike May, Raven Mimura, William O'Connor, Hector Ortiz, Wayne Reynolds, Chris Seaman, John Stanko, Matias Tapia, Franz Vohwinkel, Eva Widermann, and James Zhang. The Player's Handbook 2 includes eight classes: the avenger, barbarian, bard, druid, invoker, shaman, sorcerer, and warden, and five races: the deva, gnome, goliath, half-orc, and shifter.

A third book in the series, Player's Handbook 3, subtitled Psionic, Divine and Primal Heroes, was released on March 16, 2010. The book was designed by Mike Mearls, Bruce R. Cordell, and Robert J. Schwalb, and featured cover art by Michael Komarck and interior art by Ralph Beisner, Eric Belisle, Kerem Beyit, Wayne England, Jason A. Engle, Carl Frank, Randy Gallegos, Adam Gillespie, Ralph Horsley, Roberto Marchesi, Jake Masbruch, Jim Nelson, William O'Connor, Hector Ortiz, Shane Nitzche, Wayne Reynolds, Chris Seaman, John Stanko, Matias Tapia, Beth Trott, Francis Tsai, Eva Widermann, Sam Wood, Ben Wootten, and Kieran Yanner. It includes six classes: ardent, battlemind, monk, psion, runepriest, and seeker, along with four races: wilden, the minotaur, githzerai, and shardminds. The PHB3 also includes new multi-classing rules for hybrid characters.