Player's Handbook 2 in play

On the day I bought the PHB2, I was using things from it in the session that night. There are few books that I could say that about. (Spell Compendium would be another).

So, I'm interested on gathering together people's experiences in using the book. What has worked, what hasn't - that sort of thing.

To start things off, here's what I've been using:

The Shifter Druid
Much as the druids in my groups have effectively used their wildshape and animal companions, there have often been sessions where the animal companion has just been a pain. ("We're going down this mine shaft now, Rex. You be a good Tyrannosaurus and wait for us!") Or forgotten altogether. ("Rex? Oh yes... err... he's behind me!") And the pain of trying to work out what animal forms are legal ("And you would have seen a crocodile when, exactly?") and what they do ("So you keep your feats, but your damage...") has often been more trouble than the abilities are worth.

So, within minutes of the PHB2 becoming available, both Craig and Sarah were asking to change their PCs to use the new rules. Sure thing. Suddenly, Sarah has an effective role in combat, and Craig is just having fun, stomping things into the ground.

This is one of the best class variants in the book. It's just cool. Of course, I didn't just allow them to take it immediately...

Retraining
"Remind me why I took Weapon Focus (whip) again?" There are times when you make mistakes because you're new. Or there are times a new book comes out, and there's something in it you really want. Or you mistakenly chose something incorrectly and you're lacking that prerequisite for a prestige class you really want...

Retraining is great. A fighter specialised in Greatsword who finds a powerful Greataxe can adjust his feat chain (albeit over a few levels). We used it immediately to get the Shifter Druid abilities, and there are other little changes that just eliminate those small mistakes in character generation.

Seeking Spell
It ignores cover, concealment, and being in melee. Then it makes Scorching Ray better. I'm not sure if my PCs are entirely convinced, as I used this in a trap against them, but for those ray-focused wizards and sorcerers, it's a lot of fun.

Quick PC/NPC Generation
Primarily the treasure tables, but even the feat chains have been useful in guiding my NPC creation (and helping the newer players create their PCs). Very happy to see them here.

Shield Specialisation
Probably the biggest mistake in the book - I didn't need Adam's dwarf to get his AC any higher. When he has a 27 Touch AC and a 33 regular AC at 7th level, my evil minions are beginning to get the hint: take down someone other than the dwarf first!

More seriously, love seeing new love for shields.

Cheers!

Feat, Feats, Feats.

PHB2 is probably the only book, in over 2 years, that I immediately bought after one of my players brought it to the game and left it there for a week. I can usually go months without purchasing any new books. Personally I consider it to be that good.

The sad part is that I'm the DM and the player's are getting hit left and right with things straight from this book. The funniest to date was the 9th level NPC rogue using "Telling Blow" with his Keen Elven Thinblade. The confirmed critical was bad enough for the fighter, who usually avoids most critical hits. The look on the Fighter player's face when he got hit with 2d8 + 5d6 +6 damage was priceless.

I like this book a lot.

Yeah, I agree its the only book in a long time that I felt like it was worth the money.

I love the PHBII.

Shield specialization wasn't a mistake, it's fricking awesome. The whole shield "chain" is rather interesting, actually. A ranged trip attack with a shield as a thrown weapon. Hmmmm... Neat.

I've found that player ACs just can't keep up with the BABs of monsters anyways. And Dodge is a pain in the butt to keep track of who you're dodging.

The campaign I've just started has a Dragon Shaman and a Duskblade. We've found the duskblade's biggest problem so far to be the lower DCs on spells than a typical mage. For example, Color Spray is cool. Color Spray with a DC 12 save... is somewhat less cool.
We've also got a cleric in the group, and I have to say, the Dragon Shaman really makes his job a piece of cake. After every encounter, the party is back up to half-strength almost immediately.

The wizard in the group is an evoker, and he's using the immediate magic option. Which compared to a familiar... Well, there's really no comparison. Immediate magic is just plain better. I've never understood the feat chains for familiars. They're targets in combat, and any wizard who isn't insane would keep his familiar securely wrapped up in a blanket in his backpack at all times.

MerricB said:

Shield Specialisation
Probably the biggest mistake in the book - I didn't need Adam's dwarf to get his AC any higher. When he has a 27 Touch AC and a 33 regular AC at 7th level, my evil minions are beginning to get the hint: take down someone other than the dwarf first!

Click to expand...

How in the world does a dwarf get a 27 touch AC at 7th level?

Kunimatyu said:

How in the world does a dwarf get a 27 touch AC at 7th level?

Click to expand...

Dwarf Soulknife. He's using a psionic feat from Races of Stone or XPH, IIRC. I might be mistaken about the actual value, and I have to check his working again... but it's high.

Cheers!

I'm designing a new campign setting with my players, and I'm going to convince them to have kobolds (well not the same abiltities, but hear me out here) with the Dragon Shaman as favoured class. I really could see a bunch of those buggers living in a paranoid little tribal society worshipping dragons and sacrificing a damsel ro three I'm also trying to use other nonstandard classes for some of the new races (a cat race with swashbuckler, a LA+1 Thri-Kreen with scut and a monkey race with spirit shaman)

Merric - agreed! Teh new Druid alt. class is amazing, and I am going to suggest that over the standard druid to my players every chance I get

The feats are the heaviest-hitter and I got to say that I am in love with some many of them. Of course, the Dragon Ball Z fanboi in my grou wants a monk with the Ki-powered Fireball now, but at least I know that WotC meant well. I just want to know who's the loser anime fan

Other than that, I can't think of anythign ATM. The high level fighter feats are just dandy though

The first "must buy" book that WOTC has put out in AGES. Fantastic feats, very cool variants, relearning and retraining is awesome and 4 solid flavorful 1-20 classes. Nice artwork, too. I love this book, it oughtta be core.

My friend and I just started alternating who runs on Tuesday.

On his Tuesday game, we've got a duskblade and a knight. So far so good.

We started using the PHB II immediately as well in our new campaign and are using one knight and two beguilers in our group. The beguiler players like the class better than the rogue, a nice thief/wizard type class. My knight has been fun to play with a load of RPing opportunities. We are all first level so no chance yet to try out much in the way of feats, but my knight is looking forward to a few shield feats.

-KenSeg
gaming since 1978