I figure rather than waiting about four months before piping up about this book I’d go ahead and make an effort to get something out now. I actually managed to get my hands on the book in a rather timely fashion over other WotC releases. So let’s jump right into talking a bit about the new Player’s Handbook…

Races – 4 new races are listed in the PHB3. I find it interesting that they’ve really pulled the stops out and had some very unique creatures listed, including a brand new primal creation, the wilden. Some like the minotaurs and githzerai are more standard 4E races while others, like the shardmind and wilden, are really pretty far out fantasy-types. I think it’ll depend a lot on the flavor of the campaign, but most might find the incorporation of a lot of these races a bit tough.

One thing that does bug me a bit is the power creep seeping in with these races. One failing I’ll admit with 4E is the rigidity and importance of ability scores. Once you select your ability scores, it is few and far between in ways to advance them. Unlike older editions with various magic items and the rapid scaling of abilities, you are pretty locked in with your stats in 4E from the start. What else adds to this problem is how monsters scale in difficulty. If you flub an key ability score, 4E is pretty unforgiving as you level up, since much of the monsters are built around players maximizing their character abilities and feats.

The races in PBH3 get around this a bit by having a +2 bonus to stat A, and a +2 bonus to either ability stat B or C. I think it is a little bit advantageous having new races that can really bolster select abilities compared to the older races that were a little regimented. It’s a light form of power creep, and with some players I am shuddering on how these guys will munchkin campaigns.

Classes – There are two classes, the runepriest (a melee heavy leader) and seeker (a primal controller via ranged weapons) that I think could easily slip into just about any campaign. For the most part, I think the seeker is the most basic class introduced in this book. The monk, despite, being a psionic power source, could also fit into an existing campaign world fairly well, as how the use of this power source is not too far away from the flavor of primal/divine/arcane.

The last three definitely embrace the psionic power source using augmented powers. The battlemind, ardent, and psion (respectively, defender, leader, and controller) are the new entries that fit the theme fairly well. I actually think the augmented powers are a little more restrictive in practice once I got to read the rules a bit more. Players start with at will powers, with 2 extra points that can bolster the effects of these powers. There is some versatility in the use of their powers, but the choice of powers themselves is a little restrictive. It seems like a pretty interesting mechanic for 4E.

The monk and runepriest however really get a lot more out of their power use. A runepriest effectively gets a choice of adding one of two small bonuses to each of its powers. The monk gets both a move and attack ability with most of his powers, and can choose to take either one, or both, when a single power is used. As much of 4E tactics are structured around limited choices during a turn, having more choices/abilities adds a lot more tactical options. I see this as some power creep rolling into the game.

Hybrids – For the really unique multiclass characters, PHB3 also introduces rules for hybrid classes. Where the old multiclass character dipped a little into another class while firmly set in another, the hybrid continually double dips into each. They are forced to split HP and armor bonuses, only garnering a little combined advantage with defense scores and weapon proficiencies. As they level up, they have to ensure they get an even split of powers from each class (so a fighter wizard with 2 encounter powers must have one from each class). It’s interesting, and again I am wary of the power gamers out there, but it looks like a decent framework for that person that absolutely has to have an invoker bard. I think it is nice that PHB3 also provides options for swordmages and artificers from the campaign books also.

Skill Powers – Another neat idea. Essentially another pool of power option for players trained in a particular skill. Some of them are quite handy and I think are a good way for a player to pick up an ability or power without having to go the multiclass feat route. I liked the options provided and think this is something that could be added to just about any game.

Feats and Magic Items – A final wrap up of feats and magic items. Most are keyed towards the new races and classes, but there are a smattering of items and feats listed that will work with just about any character. Again, nice to have some new additions and for the most part will fit into just about any campaign (if not aligned with the new races/classes).

The Good – It’s always nice to see some additions to the game that give players some new options. I particularly like the hybrid and skill power rules. I think with these two additions, you can finally really get a character that fits just about any particular idea.

I think that the new races can also accommodate some really heavy fantasy worlds. I also like that having another power source along with a variety of class roles that use this source, as it can lay the foundation for an interesting campaign world. Having more tools and choices will help DMs in the long run, and there are plenty here to make for some fun D&D.

The Bad – Some of the stuff might not fit well within restrictive campaigns. Having a player race of living crystals or primal shifting elementals may not sit well in some worlds. The psionic power source might be a bit too far ‘out there’ also for some games. One thing I don’t quite like is the power creep. I can see players getting a lot of options with these characters that are lacking with the older edition counterparts. This might start surge of campaigns churning over so that players can get a chance to try out all the cool new stuff available. I think long established campaigns might get a little rumbling around the game table over PHB3 being introduced.

I’m also wondering if it is too much, too soon. PBH2 I consider a must buy. It really addressed having the limited races and classes in the first book. This is layering on even more, and it is less than 2 years with 4E being announced. Most of the stuff is pretty far out fantasy. Is this book really needed so soon? I can see some players feeling a little overwhelmed with choices before. PHB3 really ramps up the indecision even more. I’m just wondering are there that many groups that play so frequently, that they are completely bored with the current choices in PHB 1 and 2? I guess so, but less than 2 years into 4E with 3 books for players to roll up characters seems to be a little rapid expansion of the rules.

The Verdict – I don’t see PHB3 as a must buy. I can see many gamers easily passing on the entire book. I see everything in the book optional and none of it really necessary to have. Additionally, I think some of the races and powers might not fit too well with a standard medieval elf-dwarf-human type of campaign. Shardminds and wilden are fantasy, but they are stepping into the realm of some pretty wild stuff. It might not fit everyone’s world very neatly. Because of that I see PHB3 as a niche book for certain campaigns.

I do think you have a group of folks that have explored just about all the race and class combinations out there. They are bored with the current material and are looking for something different. In that light I think PHB3 delivers. So if you are wanting a different character, or getting a more unique flavor in your campaign world, the new player’s handbook is a good fit.

For the sake of completeness I thought I’d chime in on the Eberron Campaign Guide. I held off picking up the book for a long while as I was currently deep within my current campaign. So I did not want to jump over to Eberron just yet. Additionally I wanted to hold off on shipping overseas, so I waited until I was on holiday to pick it up.

A long while back I posted my thoughts on the player’s guide for the Eberron setting. Overall I liked it and thought it a good buy for people wanting to get into the campaign setting. I’ve currently ported the artificer class over into my home brew campaign as something the players can choose if they so desire. I’ve gotten a lot of milage out of that book. So what about the campaign guide?

If this is your first exposure to the Eberron campaign setting and you wanted to jump into this for your group, buy this book. It has a ton of information and ideas for running this campaign setting. I think the introduction succinctly describes the setting and can allow a DM to easily grasp the overall themes. Additionally, there are a lot of suggestions on the opening campaign theme for your game. Whether you want the intrigue of the dragonmarked houses of delving into the secret war between the nations, to a more epic theme of the dragon prophecy as a high fantasy campaign, to a dungeon crawling jaunt of exploration to fill the player’s coffers with coin and treasure, just about every theme is covered. Enough ideas and information are given to give the DM some means to sketch out a campaign and run the game they want.

Further details are provided on the typical city settings, interaction of the various houses, implementation of magical technology and travel. Sharn is given a bit more detail on typical city life to allow a DM to take pieces and incorporate them into other cities within Eberron. Not to mention finally having some stat blocks on the various wondrous mounts a player can pick up.

This is followed up by more detailed information on different geo-political regions of the world. Each region is given a thumbnail sketch of the people and notable places within. Also a little detail of the other continents beyond Khorvaire is provided.

The book further goes into the various dragonmarked houses, and their role within Khorvaire. It goes over some of the politics and purposes of each house which was nice. The book also covers some more fiendish organizations and global threats. Again, nice to have if the DM does not want to get the players embroiled into the political bickering between dragonmarked houses. The book wraps up with a beginning adventure and some encounter examples.

I’ll pipe in here and say this last section was a disappointment. It always is tricky to put something like this in these books, especially with Eberron as a setting (since your campaign can take on so many different themes). I like the idea of a ‘flashback’ adventure with the initial fall of Cyre and having the players embroiled in it all. Additionally, the follow up encounter is okay, but I love the idea. It follows up on the group, 4 years later in Sharn. All of them are gathered at a ceremony commemorating the day of mourning (each there for some reason or another).

I really wish at this point the adventure stopped, and they just gave lots of suggestions on what the DM could do next. Having a lot of options and player hooks would have served the book well. I much rather they spent the following pages expanding another section covered, example encounters.

This is something I really enjoyed out of the book. A few example scenarios and locales were provided. Each detailing some interesting terrain of the encounter, with different suggestions of creatures to fight. Best of all, different levels of encounter groups were provided. I really wished they ported this idea over to most of the follow up encounters for the initial adventure.

Note to WotC, I think this would be a great stand alone product. Having a book of encounters, with suggested groups of monsters covering different levels would be a solid buy. Don’t worry about stringing it together as a series of dungeon delves, just give us example encounters in interesting locations.

The Good – A lot of solid information here. I think there is a lot of material to get a DM up and running an Eberron campaign. Lots of background on political, economic, and racial factions. There is also a bit more information on the ‘typical life’ of people in different geographical regions. This book goes a long way towards filling in details that the player’s book skimmed over.

The Bad – Plenty of material here, but I still wish there was more. I think committing more on the geographic locations would have been nice. Plus it is very centric to one continent, a bit more on the others within Eberron would have been helpful.

Also it’s an interesting idea of kicking off an Eberron campaign by having a flashback adventure, but I think overall the whole adventure falls flat. I wish they spent more pages with material like the last two encounter locations in the book. For me, I would think that type of material would be more applicable and easier for a DM to use over having a complete initial adventure.

The Verdict – If you are new to D&D and want to run an Eberron campaign, this is a great DM buy. It has plenty of information and a enough details on the movers and the shakers of the world. As a big plus it also covers a lot of ground on giving the DM ideas for running a variety of campaign themes.

If, however, you have run an Eberron campaign in the past and (more importantly) have many of the old campaign books, I think you could pass on this. Much of the material is simply background material on the world and its people and places. Much of that would all ready be at your fingertips with the original 3.5 release. I think with that book you could skip much of the material in this new book, and armed with the 4E player’s book be able to run an effective campaign.

While some of the factions, villains, and groups are interesting, I also expect this is a book strictly for DMs that want to run a game in this setting. Not a whole lot of meat in the way of rules here. If you are running a homebrew setting, likely much of this material is more background information rather than stuff you could port directly into your game.

That is my impression of this book in a nutshell. If you’ve run an Eberron campaign before, just be sure to pick up the 4E player’s book. Nothing in this is an absolutely must have, and you can likely make up what you need to fill in any gaps by yourself. If you are a new DM to 4E Eberron though, I’d say this is a must buy.

Toodles for now!

I’ve managed to get a copy and plow through the Adventurer’s Vault 2. In the first book WoTC added a little more to the book by including alchemical items, mounts, and additional mastercrafted weapons and armor. This was nice as it became more than just a list of new magic items. AV2 is just magic loot. Nothing additional other than more items your players can drool over. But what they added fills a few holes in the previous lists, and for the most part I think are worthy additions.

I think one of the strongest points of the book are the variety of new items provided. Even if a folks might think game effects of magic items are tepid at best (I really think for the most part magic items are the new feats from 3.5), having some concrete examples can act as a springboard for new homebrew items. As I noted before making custom magic items can be pretty easy, especially adding spell effects to items. So armed with some official examples, I think DMs could whip up something of their own making and not worry about creating some overblown powerful artifact. So on to some specific points…

Ammunition – Finally some one shot ranged items. I can see some DMs feeling a little hesitant about handing out powerful magical ranged weapons. As an alternate, these items are great for those players that typically snipe away from afar by offering something small to add to their attacks. A few choice, one-shot arrows is something I’ll be giving out in my regular group frequently. It’s a step down from a solid powerful magical weapon, but having that one arcane bolt, made for that one special attack, just oozes with exciting RP potential. I can’t wait for one of my players to drop the next main bad guy with such an item.

Tattoos – For those primal heroes, I can totally see this fitting in with their theme. It is an interesting concept to have a permanent fixture on a character’s body that empowers some magical force. Have your shaman find a magical etching on a piece of leather. A local medicine man can transcribe the etching using special inks. After the tattoo is inscribed the etching fades away. A suitable mini-quest with lots of RP, much better than the same shaman just looting something out of a treasure horde.

I’d add DMs should take the tattoo idea and run with it. With the appearance of tattoos as a magical item, I’m seriously considering taking a look at tweaking Eberron’s dragon marks for a home brew campaign. Tattoos are a neat idea and I’m glad WoTC jumped at providing some ‘official’ examples.

Wondrous Lair Items – I can see as players approach the paragon tier, they are going to begin attracting followers and needing a more stable home base of operations. Having a few of these items can provide a cool home lair for your players. Also having these items can serve as inspiration having your player’s attacked on their home turf. Nothing like seeing their secluded keep as a target for marauders.

These items (and sets which I’ll talk about shortly) taps into a problem I see a bit with larger parties. By level 7 or 8, likely you will have players that managed to pick up a good set of armor and/or weapons. An upgrade I’m sure is welcomed, but some players might find their needs for loot sated with the stuff they already picked up. Handing out these wondrous lair items makes for a nice alternative, where the players get a chance to get something cool to add to their possessions (rather than just replacements for stuff they have)

Item Sets – I feel these are a great way to add small items to a player, slowly increasing his abilities, rather than completely overhauling gear he has. The sets also might work as a good hook. A rumor of gaining another item to round out a set likely would be tempting, despite what dangers await. I especially like the idea of group sets. Another way to cement the party with something that binds them together and makes them more powerful

I think a key way to introduce sets is to ignore the potential of combined abilities and treat them as regular magic items initially. Just use them to fill out treasure parcels. As the players move along the campaign, gradually reveal the items have some manner of synergy. I think this way the items evolve in power, hinting to the player that there is some larger story behind the artifacts.

Speaking of story, I enjoyed the item lore sidebars in AV2. A little more detail of lore for specific items, and especially the adventure ideas, were a worthy addition to the book. I’m a sucker for little tidbits and adventuring ideas for one-shot sessions.

The Good – Lots of magic items, and some new types too. I was happy to see just about all the bases covered, even the addition of totems and tomes. I was also happy to see they included some items that dipped into the other campaign settings (Eberrron and FR), but were nice enough to include the rules for those abilities. The lore and adventure ideas related to certain items were a nice touch. One thing I absolutely love was the index. All items were not only broken up by level, but by type and slot too. Hopefully WoTC will look into providing an errata of the first book to have a similar index.

The Bad – Not all items are hits out of the park. I especially am befuddled with the inclusion of immurments. These special terrain enchantments seem better in DM hands as hazards. I guess for the ultimate ambush, something like this could be used by a group (or for the ultimate hunt luring a monster). Still it seems a little out of place. Also, where are the bard items? I guess they are still stuck with the items from PHB2.

The Verdict – Is this absolutely needed? No. I think with the first AV, a DM will have plenty of neat magic items at their fingertips. If you have the money though, I would recommend picking it up. The types of items covered makes for a good addition, and the types alone can spark a lot of homebrew creativity. Not to mention, the item sets and lore sidebars can offer a few adventure ideas themselves.

Being in Asia I typically end up getting many of the new releases months after they hit the US market. Of course between traveling and being generally a little lazy with reviewing new WTOC material, I typically have an even longer lag time. After all the Eberron campaign guide was released last month. Hee… I’ll post my thoughts anyway.

I like the Eberron campaign setting. I like the swashbuckler adventuring feel, with plenty of noir plopped on. Plus the concept of magic as a trade is interesting. The more ‘modern’ influences resulting from this magic concept on the campaign world makes it stand apart a bit from other traditional fantasy settings.

One thing that makes this book a little different from the Forgotten Realms setting, is how much has remained the same from the previous edition after being revamped for 4E. Forgotten Realms made a lot of drastic changes to the world landscape. So much so, you could consider 4E Forgotten Realms almost a reboot of that setting. Eberron has taken a simpler approach and just refined a lot of the mechanics to reflect 4E changes. As such, the world has not changed much from 3.5 which I consider to be a good thing as it makes it tons easier to port an existing campaign over to 4E.

Because of this similarity to the previous edition, I want to just sketch out a few things I got from the Player’s Guide:

Races – Changelings, Warforged, and Kalshtar all are detailed. For the most part I feel changelings and warforged have interesting abilities. I think both of them will offer some dynamic character possibilities. The kalashtar however are a little lacking. They have a means of mental telepathy which is neat, but their racial power is a little lackluster. It is clear the race screams psion class, but I think without that rule set in concrete (aside from Dragon play test rules) the race is a little limited in potential.

Artificers – I’m liking this class. It is nice to see another arcane leader option provided. Particularly I like the extended semi-daily powers of healing infusions. Artificers get a dynamic heal/buff that can be recharged through using healing surges after a short rest (making them effectively encounter powers). What is particularly neat is that any player can donate these surges. So the entire burden is not on the artificer to keep healing infusions going, it can be spread around a bit (especially that one guy that always seems to get though fights without a scratch).

Feats and Dragonmarks – Lots of new options and dragonmarks provide some interesting abilities. Another neat point about dragonmark feats is access to specific rituals, without needing the ritual caster feat. Dragonmarks are also not tied down to racial prerequisites. For maintaining the feel of the campaign, being a racial outsider having such a feat should have a lot of repercussions in game. I suspect it will impact campaigns differently, depending on the DM, but I’m fine with that.

The Good – There is a lot a basic information and background to flesh out a campaign. I think they provide a lot of ideas for the player to whip up a personality and bio that fits the setting. They also give a lot of thoughts on the theme of the campaign, and I think it helps both the DM and players ease into the setting, providing some solid guidance on what makes Eberron different from traditional fantasy worlds.

I think enough detail on the political and social structure of the world is provided, so that both DMs and players can get a hold of the fantasy-noir aspect of the game. It is great that enough detail is given to run a game and get people excited about Eberron without requiring the campaign guide.

The Bad – However some things are a little skimmed over. I find a lack of a proper player map disappointing. The provided map is okay, but printed so small much of the detailed settlements are illegible. Having a larger, simplified map with clear regional borders would have been a good addition. I can see keeping a super detailed map for the campaign book, but a larger player-oriented map would have been nice.

Adding to this point is the player regional backgrounds. Over all I think the section is good, as it gives players a good snapshot of each region, with plenty of ideas to fit their character into it. But having a small mapped portion like the Forgotten Realms player guide would have been pleasant.

I’m also disappointed artwork was not provided for some of the player equipment, especially the weapons. Some of the descriptions are rather lacking. If they can provide a full page spread of example player travel documents, a simple black and white sketch of the weapons would have been a plus.

It is also too bad other details like lizard mounts of the Talenta Plains are totally missing. Okay, keep the stats for the campaign guide, but some simple fluff text with artwork would have been fine. Right now there are hints eluded to dinosaur-like mounts, but no concrete details. Bleah…

The Verdict – A good purchase with enough meat to allow players to run a 4E Eberron campaign. Even if a DM had no interest in running the setting I would consider picking up the book. The new races and especially the artificer allow for some interesting options that would be a good edition to an existing campaign. Plus the concept of the dragonmark feats might add a little spice to a homebrew setting without too much alteration.

Content for the new Dragon magazine is now up detailing the Psion class. Personally I was never a fan of the psionics character, but in some campaigns I could see them working. I just never quite liked the fluff of having players manipulate things with their minds. I guess I am just an old-timer with my magic and spells (‘You dagnabbit psionic kids. Get off my lawn!’)

Still it looks like an interesting class. What I particularly like is how the implementation of power abilities are slightly tweaked. Players slowly expand primarily with their at will powers and get daily and utility powers as normal. They gain no encounter powers. Rather they obtain power points (starting with 2) that they spend to augment their at will powers. Most at will powers can be augmented twice, effectively having 3 ‘levels’ of effects. After a short rest, they regain those points back. They’ll end up with the same number encounter powers as other players, just some differences in the game mechanics for using them.

I foresee this becoming popular in a lot of knock off systems (and likely has already been implemented elsewhere). You have a few key signature powers or moves, with a pool of points to tap additional effects to them. You end up having a few options, deciding how much to buff up a certain attack. I like it, and it screams for being used in certain genres (pulp-action or superheroes).

As for 4ED though, I can see more bookkeeping for the player. It’s a neat idea, and I expect for many veterans they will like the free-wheeling power use of this character class. I’d be hesitant dumping it on a new player. Yet, the play style of being able to selectively bump up abilities, rather than picking from a predefined set is intriguing. An alternate magic system in the works maybe?