JoeGKushner said:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110706
Thread with table of contents and some initial discussions.
If you like books like the Player's Guide to Faerun and Races of Stone, you'll like this.
Lots of crunch but there seems to be more fluff, especially for the PrCs and the new race.
I must disagree. I picked one up yesterday and I wasn't that impressed. Races of Stone was MUCH better. I didn't find it to be as bad as the Planar Handbook but it wasn't awe-inspiring either. I don't have by book with me at work but I will recap as much as I can remember.
Feats: Humans and half-elves seem to come out the best here. There is a real cool feat for humans and dopplegangers that allows you to pay 1 skill point per rank for cross-class skills (you still have the cross class limit on max ranks though).
The feats were pretty interesting and quite useful, little else in the book was. I was hoping for more options for humans, half-elves, and half-orcs. What I got was a collection of obscure new races that will likely never see use.
Races:
Human: Pretty much what you expect except no class-level substitution benefits. I had really hoped for more options.
Half-elf: Useful bits on why half-elves tend to act as they do.
Half-orc: Similar to half-elves except the book dances around how the mating that tends to produce half-orcs tend to come about.
Aasimar: Reprinted AGAIN! Nothing new here unfortunately, no new options that I saw. At least the entry is short.
Tiefling: Same as aasimar.
Half-Ogre: Thankfully they corrected the LA problem. They are +2 now. Very good combat stats. They are still worth it even at +2 LA if you are playing some sort of physical combat character. No explanation on exactly how a size L ogre mates with a size M human though or how this relationship produces viable offspring. Personally I think half-ogres make more sense as half-ogre, half-orc.
Doppleganger: Comes with full monster-class progression. Nice.
Mongrelmen: You know, I could have lived a full life never again having seen mongremen in any product, yet here they are again.
Skulks: This is a blast from the past. I don't know why they are in the book though. Does anyone ever play these things?
Seafok: Kind of a crappy version of a sea elf. They can't breathe water but they have to return to water once a week or they dry out. The kind of have the worst of both worlds and are ugly to boot (they seem to have reptilian/fishy traits).
Skarakim (sp?): Basically a smart orc. I don't feel I need another type of orc. Someone may find these interesting; I don't.
????: There is a race of underground-dwelling, human offshoots in the book. They are a bit interesting and useful for Underdark play. I can't remember the race's name.
Illumians (sp?): Either the author or the editor or someone involved with producing this book has a serious fetish for these things because they devote so much space to them and their silly cabals. They have more space devoted to them than nearly anything in the book. I don't know why so much space is devoted to the race and its silly cabals yet half-elves, half-orcs and humans, races that are actually played often, don't get enough. Conceptially they are an interesting idea, I am just annoyed with how much attention they got compared to races that are more commonly played.
Class-level substitutions:
I only remember seeing these for half-elves and half-orcs. I can understand humans not having any of these because humans are the standard. The substitutions struck me as far less impressive than those in Races of Stone. Still, I like the substitution idea and am happy WoTC is continuing their use.
That is all I remember about the book right now. I will have to look at it again when I get home.
Tzarevitch
