JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Well, at the EN World Gameday, I had the chance to look through the books.
1. Not all art is new. Layout is pretty similiar too.
2. Monster Manual is still piss poor in terms of layout and making the book readable. Very much the same book in terms of layout and style.
3. Full utilization of racial trats not made. The aranea has a level adjustment of +4 but no racial stats listed. Combat tactics are practically nonexsistant.
4. Templates aren't in a seperate section but in the main body of the text.
5.For the MM, Feats and one skill are at the back of the book. Some are simple like IMproved Natural Armor where you get a +1 bonus to AC while others like Empower Spell Like Ability will quickly even the meta-magic odds.
6. When listing monsters by CR, where is the page #? Not there.
7. There is some great new art. The giants, demons, and devils all have some new illustrations in there.
8. The Level Equivilence is not the same as the CR and every time I saw it, it was higher. i.e. a CR of +2 from a template wasn't a +2 to Level but maybe a +3 or +4.
9. Humanoids when listed, all have a class, usually warrior one.
10. Some creatures, instead of a level adjustment, have a note like Improved Familiar (quasit/imp) or cohert (mephits).
11. Lot of specialty creatures, usually a more powerful version of the mosnters in question. Take the Nessian Warhound, one of the devil prince's own hell hounds or the harpy archer, a 7th level harpy fighter.
12. Lot of beasts from Manual of the Planes updated here like the Inevitable and the Gith races.
13. Tons of examples for the templates. Skeleton has human warrior, wolf, owlbear, ettin, and others.
14.Racial Traits (I consider racial traits only valid if they have stat modifiers and may have missed some): Azer, bugbears, centaurs, doppelgangers, dwarves, elf, gargoyles, janni, hill giants, stone giants, githyanki, githzerai, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, grimlock, halfling, hobgoblin, kobold,s kuo-toa, lizard folk, mind flayers, minotaurs, ogre, ogre magi, orc, rakshasas, satyrs, troglodyte, and Yuan Ti Purebloods.
15. Tactics: Balor, Pit Fiend, Mind Flayer, Titan. I must've missed some but there weren't many listings.
Players Handbook replaced the old coins and illustrations for combat with miniatures.
For feats, the greater ones, like weapon focus and weapon specialization and spell focus (all greater), do the same thing as the original feat but stack with it.
DMG has material on Epic level gaming. I think the planes were larger too.
DIdn't take a lot of notes but have some fresh memories and I was more focused on the MM then the other books but overall, I like then ew look and feel and can't imagine that these books will stay $29.95 for long with their increased size so I'll be buying mine soon.
1. Not all art is new. Layout is pretty similiar too.
2. Monster Manual is still piss poor in terms of layout and making the book readable. Very much the same book in terms of layout and style.
3. Full utilization of racial trats not made. The aranea has a level adjustment of +4 but no racial stats listed. Combat tactics are practically nonexsistant.
4. Templates aren't in a seperate section but in the main body of the text.
5.For the MM, Feats and one skill are at the back of the book. Some are simple like IMproved Natural Armor where you get a +1 bonus to AC while others like Empower Spell Like Ability will quickly even the meta-magic odds.
6. When listing monsters by CR, where is the page #? Not there.
7. There is some great new art. The giants, demons, and devils all have some new illustrations in there.
8. The Level Equivilence is not the same as the CR and every time I saw it, it was higher. i.e. a CR of +2 from a template wasn't a +2 to Level but maybe a +3 or +4.
9. Humanoids when listed, all have a class, usually warrior one.
10. Some creatures, instead of a level adjustment, have a note like Improved Familiar (quasit/imp) or cohert (mephits).
11. Lot of specialty creatures, usually a more powerful version of the mosnters in question. Take the Nessian Warhound, one of the devil prince's own hell hounds or the harpy archer, a 7th level harpy fighter.
12. Lot of beasts from Manual of the Planes updated here like the Inevitable and the Gith races.
13. Tons of examples for the templates. Skeleton has human warrior, wolf, owlbear, ettin, and others.
14.Racial Traits (I consider racial traits only valid if they have stat modifiers and may have missed some): Azer, bugbears, centaurs, doppelgangers, dwarves, elf, gargoyles, janni, hill giants, stone giants, githyanki, githzerai, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, grimlock, halfling, hobgoblin, kobold,s kuo-toa, lizard folk, mind flayers, minotaurs, ogre, ogre magi, orc, rakshasas, satyrs, troglodyte, and Yuan Ti Purebloods.
15. Tactics: Balor, Pit Fiend, Mind Flayer, Titan. I must've missed some but there weren't many listings.
Players Handbook replaced the old coins and illustrations for combat with miniatures.
For feats, the greater ones, like weapon focus and weapon specialization and spell focus (all greater), do the same thing as the original feat but stack with it.
DMG has material on Epic level gaming. I think the planes were larger too.
DIdn't take a lot of notes but have some fresh memories and I was more focused on the MM then the other books but overall, I like then ew look and feel and can't imagine that these books will stay $29.95 for long with their increased size so I'll be buying mine soon.
