City of Splendors: Waterdeep
JoeGKushner
First Post
Truly the City of Splendors?
City of Splendors: Waterdeep
Written by Eric L. Boyd
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/forgottenrealms
ISBN: 0-7869-3693-2
160 full color pages
$29.95
City of Splendors: Waterdeep, is the latest sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It tackles one of the oldest Forgotten Realm cities in print, Waterdeep, which first saw print in FR1, Waterdeep and the North, a book well over ten, maybe even fifteen years old. It’s a city that has had a lot of characters, magic items, and monsters associated with it over the years.
The book is a work of art. To me, the Forgotten Realms books still eclipse the other books in the WoTC library, including the Eberron ones. The faded scroll background look is classic and adds color. The interior artists, including Wayne England, William O’Connor, and Lucio Parrillo, do a great job of bringing the inhabitants of the city to life. What is missing though, are maps that you can remove, and as a long time player and reader of Forgotten Realms books, this is a solid blow as you now either have to copy the maps on the inside of the book for fast play, or have the book at hand at all times. This is truly one of the worst things about modern printing conditions that accessories like maps have gone by the wayside in many products.
Waterdeep is broken up into seven chapters. Those looking to immerse themselves in the background of the city will find much of that information in chapter one, City of Splendors. It covers the history not only of Waterdeep, but that area that surrounded the city before it was a city. It includes most of the major world shaking events such as the Avatar trilogy, and gives a look at potential issues in the future.
It also covers a quick look at some of the other bits associated with a city. What are the laws and punishments? What type of trade goes on in the city? Where is the best research to be done? What type of defenses does the city have? What are the festival days? All are handled well.
A city is not just its history though. It’s the people that make it live. Chapter two focuses on the people of the city and includes several arcane organizations, like Blackstaff Tower and Halaster’s Heirs, as well as the various armed forces of the city and a brief look at the churches of the city. It’s here where I start to notice some issues with the coverage. For example, my players in the past have generally been of a warrior base and favored Tempus as their patron deity. In the quick list of gods covered, he’s one of those missing. Alias old Bloodhelm, I knew him well.
Those looking for ideas on what to do with the characters in the city though, have many options. For example, if the players are on the shady side of the law, there are details on the fenches and smugglers, as well as the thieves’ guilds. For those more interested in honest work, there are several factions that could act as patrons, including the mysterous Lords of Waterdeep, masked individuals who are unknown, as well as different noble families. Those more interested in straight monster hunting through the sewers, will find details on several organizations that still plague the city and are mostly made up of monsters.
Another area where the book is lacking, is when looking at Waterdeep Locales. The city is broken up into different wards with a full page showing the full city, and then individual pages showing up close images of the various wards. This allows you to see the street names and the various locations called out on the map, but the follow up details are well, a sham. Take N25, you’ll find out its “A Maiden’s Tears, a tavern. The great majority of locations are marked thus making the entries on the map little more than names on a sheet of paper.
On the other hand, a few surprises were present. While Skullport, a hidden city in Undermountain, isn’t fully detailed, the fact that they managed to get it in here at all is great. Those less interested in a city of mind flayers and drow traders might want to look over the brief information on the hamlet of T’Quession, a sea elf community brought about by the Deepwater War, probably part of the sea invasion trilogy some years ago. Another location covered, Tharqualnaar, is also aquatic, but this time it’s merfolk who’ve been in the location longer than Waterdeep has been a city.
For GMs who want to get started right away, Adventures in Waterdeep provides several adventure seeds and encounters to add to your campaign right away. Each one comes with a location, EL of the encounter, and occasionally game stats. For example, while looking at the Prowl, a short alley, they suggest a Dread, a creature from the Lost Empires of Faerun. On the other hand, Brindul Alley has the stats for the Hand That Sings, a living spell that is a combination of handfang and magic mouth.
Seeing as how one of the things that almost all adventurers do in cities is battle in the sewers, the author has wisely included a full page map of Waterdeep with the sewers in full view and numerous location keys and random encounters, both common and rare.
Undermountain, one of the most famous and well known dungeons of the FR setting, is mentioned in passing and some ways in and out are provided as well as a few details, but it’s suggested that if the GM doesn’t have access to the original material, that they make up what they need to challenge their group. They’re encouraged to use odd and rare bits as this is a home of several mad wizards and anything from transmuted monsters to unique constructs and summoned planar horrors can be encountered.
Overall, for getting the characters into the game and the city, this is one of the stronger chapters.
But what about game mechanics? Are they covered at all? Strangely enough, the mechanics start in chapter three with some prestige classes. The PrCs here include background details, ideas on how to play the PrC, how the class fits into the setting, and a section of Lore with various DC checks for local knowledge checks. Ideas on how to use the PrC for encounters, sample NPC, and how the class fits into the game, as opposed to the world, are provided along with ideas on how to adapt it to other settings.
PrCs include the following:
Gray Hand Enforcer: Whom do you call when special dangers threaten the city? The Gray Hands. This is almost a template class in that it can be taken by spellcasters or men at arms with a variable entrance requirement. It’s a five level PrC that has good bab, d10 hit dice, good Fort Save, damage reduction, and other abilities, including spell casting at every level but the first. Like the Legacy Champion from Weapons of Legacy, for primary spellcasters, it seems too powerful with its high hit dice and full bab.
Knight of the Blue Moon: Soldiers of Selune who fight against Shar. Another five level PrC with medium bab, medium hit dice (d8), spellcasting at every level, good Fort and Will Saves, and special abilities.
Moonstar Agent: If you can’t get Harpers to do the dirty work, you form your own organization as Khelben Blackstaff did. Low hit dice (d6), good Ref and Will saves, spellcasting at every level and special abilities at every level.
Sun Soul Monk: A monk based PrC that gains abilities relating to fire and the sun as they advance in level. This is a full ten level PrC that can eventually use a sunbeam spell once per day, in addition to things like fire shield and low light vision.
Perhaps it’s just me but what is the point of having a standard spellcaster when so many PrCs offer full spellcasting or slightly reduced spellcasting? Is it that some classes, like the Knight of the Blue Moon work best for multi-classed characters and thus the character has already suffered some loss of spellcasting progression or is it something I’m just not seeing outside of that? It’s like saying that at any other time, a mutli-class spellcaster is worthless without the appropriate PrC to enter, and well, since mutli-classing has been encouraged since 3.0 came out, I don’t see it that way.
The game mechanics then continue in chapter six, Monsters of Waterdeep. This includes some unique constructs made either to protect the city, like the Walking Statues of Waterdeep, or those made by mad men like the Scaladar, large scorpion shaped constructs. One old edition creature, the Leucrotta also makes its return, along with a variant gargoyle, the guardgoyle, and some other beasties.
Chapter seven, Heroes and Magic, continues with mechanics, but this time more goods for the player, includes new feats. Want to show your devotion to Tyr? Take Hand of Try, in exchange for binding your right hand, you gain a sacred bonus to attack, damage, and save. For those rogues with high Wisdom, Dungeoneer’s Intuition gives you your Wisdom bonus to trap sense and gives you’re your trap sense bonuses to Armor Class during a surprise round. A few other feats here focus on the gods and even include an Initiate Feat, this time of Shar.
Magic items include some new special abilities for weapons, as well as specific weapons. Corrosive weapons inflict extra acid damage while the Ettin Axe of Uruth is a double orc axe, one side with fire burst, the other with ice burst and it’s own intelligence on both sides of the axe, Ur and Krypt.
Being a city with several archmages, it should come as no surprise that there are several staffs here, including the Staff of Banishment with spells including banishment, dismissal, repulsion, and slow, or that there are several rings, including the ring of armor, equal to a ring of protection but with the fortification armor special ability.
The magic item section shows some originality and includes a wide range of material including several minor artifacts as well as ‘hand waving’ items used to explain certain situations in the city like the Lord’s Apparel that keeps their identities secret.
I was a little surprised at the spells though. For a city with so many mages, the spell selection is weak, not even including a breakdown by class and level. That doesn’t mean that the spells themselves are weak though. No, several of them are high level, like Binding Chain of Fate, a 9th level arcane spell that inflicts minor force damage, keeps the prisoner in one spot, acts as dimensional anchor upon the target, prevents magic from functioning within the chain, and prevents the target from changing form. Powerful stuff but a simple Will saving throw prevents the chain from capturing the target.
The spells offer a good array of attack power to casters, even though not all of them are obvious attack spells. For example, Trobriand’s Crystalbrittle, a 3rd level arcane spell, reduces the hardness and hit points of a targeted item to that of glass, 1 hardness and 1 hit point per inch of thickness. A permanent effect too.
The problem with Waterdeep is that its coverage is shallow. At some level, WoTC must realize this. Dragon 335 has a series of articles on the city. A new fiction hardcover is coming out on the city. Dungeon126 and 127 both feature adventurers for Waterdeep.
That’s just looking at the book in and of itself. It you start comparing it against other city books, it looks even worse. Let’s take a third party book, City State of the Invincible Overlord. This book weighs in at something like 290 pages and has a removable map by Ed Bourelle from Skeleton KeyGames. It details some odd three hundred and fifty locations. I’m not saying every location is a masterpiece of intrigue and detail, but it sure beats a one-line entry. It has a massive index of locations to help the GM navigate it. Sure, it’s not up to the graphic standards set in Waterdeep, it’s not in full color, and it’s not official. It’s still the superior book.
How about other WoTC products? Let’s look at Sharn, the City of Towers. This is the same price, but weighs in at 192 pages and comes with a music CD to act as background music. It’s also lacking the three pages of advertisements, so it’s in effect 35 pages longer.
How about getting into the time machine and moving back to say, 1994 and the old boxed set, City of Splendors. Now I’m not saying that this $25.00 book should be compared in terms of price, as that was over ten years ago, but in terms of content. That boxed set has a 128 page book, a 96 page book, a 64 page book, a 16 page booklet, 6 poster maps, and 16 appendix pages for monsters. The level of detail in that boxed set, for the same city, is not matched here, not even close.
Sure, the new book looks better. It’s not relying on old art for the interior covers. It’s full color. It’s better laid out. But the lack of removable maps is a huge sore spot for me, and the fact that so many great locations and characters are left out, makes this half a book. This doesn’t count the many great full page illustrations in the old boxed set, like the Field of Triumph’s Lion Gate carved entrance or the maps of common shops.
To me, WoTC dropped the ball. It’s not that this is a bad book. If you’re new to Waterdeep, this is a great starting point. The article in Dragon 335 where Eric, the author of the book, points out all the other resources is a good place to get more details. It’s just that this book should’ve been the crown of FR books. As WoTC is doing two book sizes these days, they should’ve went with the 224-page size book and added some removable maps. Waterdeep should be the standard to which all other cities compare, not the city that compares unfavorably to other cities.
I’m an old player of the Forgotten Realms. This book didn’t hit enough points for me. For new fans of the Forgotten Realms or those who’ve never owned the various books that make up the Waterdeep legacy, City of Splendors is a solid city book.
City of Splendors: Waterdeep
Written by Eric L. Boyd
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/forgottenrealms
ISBN: 0-7869-3693-2
160 full color pages
$29.95
City of Splendors: Waterdeep, is the latest sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It tackles one of the oldest Forgotten Realm cities in print, Waterdeep, which first saw print in FR1, Waterdeep and the North, a book well over ten, maybe even fifteen years old. It’s a city that has had a lot of characters, magic items, and monsters associated with it over the years.
The book is a work of art. To me, the Forgotten Realms books still eclipse the other books in the WoTC library, including the Eberron ones. The faded scroll background look is classic and adds color. The interior artists, including Wayne England, William O’Connor, and Lucio Parrillo, do a great job of bringing the inhabitants of the city to life. What is missing though, are maps that you can remove, and as a long time player and reader of Forgotten Realms books, this is a solid blow as you now either have to copy the maps on the inside of the book for fast play, or have the book at hand at all times. This is truly one of the worst things about modern printing conditions that accessories like maps have gone by the wayside in many products.
Waterdeep is broken up into seven chapters. Those looking to immerse themselves in the background of the city will find much of that information in chapter one, City of Splendors. It covers the history not only of Waterdeep, but that area that surrounded the city before it was a city. It includes most of the major world shaking events such as the Avatar trilogy, and gives a look at potential issues in the future.
It also covers a quick look at some of the other bits associated with a city. What are the laws and punishments? What type of trade goes on in the city? Where is the best research to be done? What type of defenses does the city have? What are the festival days? All are handled well.
A city is not just its history though. It’s the people that make it live. Chapter two focuses on the people of the city and includes several arcane organizations, like Blackstaff Tower and Halaster’s Heirs, as well as the various armed forces of the city and a brief look at the churches of the city. It’s here where I start to notice some issues with the coverage. For example, my players in the past have generally been of a warrior base and favored Tempus as their patron deity. In the quick list of gods covered, he’s one of those missing. Alias old Bloodhelm, I knew him well.
Those looking for ideas on what to do with the characters in the city though, have many options. For example, if the players are on the shady side of the law, there are details on the fenches and smugglers, as well as the thieves’ guilds. For those more interested in honest work, there are several factions that could act as patrons, including the mysterous Lords of Waterdeep, masked individuals who are unknown, as well as different noble families. Those more interested in straight monster hunting through the sewers, will find details on several organizations that still plague the city and are mostly made up of monsters.
Another area where the book is lacking, is when looking at Waterdeep Locales. The city is broken up into different wards with a full page showing the full city, and then individual pages showing up close images of the various wards. This allows you to see the street names and the various locations called out on the map, but the follow up details are well, a sham. Take N25, you’ll find out its “A Maiden’s Tears, a tavern. The great majority of locations are marked thus making the entries on the map little more than names on a sheet of paper.
On the other hand, a few surprises were present. While Skullport, a hidden city in Undermountain, isn’t fully detailed, the fact that they managed to get it in here at all is great. Those less interested in a city of mind flayers and drow traders might want to look over the brief information on the hamlet of T’Quession, a sea elf community brought about by the Deepwater War, probably part of the sea invasion trilogy some years ago. Another location covered, Tharqualnaar, is also aquatic, but this time it’s merfolk who’ve been in the location longer than Waterdeep has been a city.
For GMs who want to get started right away, Adventures in Waterdeep provides several adventure seeds and encounters to add to your campaign right away. Each one comes with a location, EL of the encounter, and occasionally game stats. For example, while looking at the Prowl, a short alley, they suggest a Dread, a creature from the Lost Empires of Faerun. On the other hand, Brindul Alley has the stats for the Hand That Sings, a living spell that is a combination of handfang and magic mouth.
Seeing as how one of the things that almost all adventurers do in cities is battle in the sewers, the author has wisely included a full page map of Waterdeep with the sewers in full view and numerous location keys and random encounters, both common and rare.
Undermountain, one of the most famous and well known dungeons of the FR setting, is mentioned in passing and some ways in and out are provided as well as a few details, but it’s suggested that if the GM doesn’t have access to the original material, that they make up what they need to challenge their group. They’re encouraged to use odd and rare bits as this is a home of several mad wizards and anything from transmuted monsters to unique constructs and summoned planar horrors can be encountered.
Overall, for getting the characters into the game and the city, this is one of the stronger chapters.
But what about game mechanics? Are they covered at all? Strangely enough, the mechanics start in chapter three with some prestige classes. The PrCs here include background details, ideas on how to play the PrC, how the class fits into the setting, and a section of Lore with various DC checks for local knowledge checks. Ideas on how to use the PrC for encounters, sample NPC, and how the class fits into the game, as opposed to the world, are provided along with ideas on how to adapt it to other settings.
PrCs include the following:
Gray Hand Enforcer: Whom do you call when special dangers threaten the city? The Gray Hands. This is almost a template class in that it can be taken by spellcasters or men at arms with a variable entrance requirement. It’s a five level PrC that has good bab, d10 hit dice, good Fort Save, damage reduction, and other abilities, including spell casting at every level but the first. Like the Legacy Champion from Weapons of Legacy, for primary spellcasters, it seems too powerful with its high hit dice and full bab.
Knight of the Blue Moon: Soldiers of Selune who fight against Shar. Another five level PrC with medium bab, medium hit dice (d8), spellcasting at every level, good Fort and Will Saves, and special abilities.
Moonstar Agent: If you can’t get Harpers to do the dirty work, you form your own organization as Khelben Blackstaff did. Low hit dice (d6), good Ref and Will saves, spellcasting at every level and special abilities at every level.
Sun Soul Monk: A monk based PrC that gains abilities relating to fire and the sun as they advance in level. This is a full ten level PrC that can eventually use a sunbeam spell once per day, in addition to things like fire shield and low light vision.
Perhaps it’s just me but what is the point of having a standard spellcaster when so many PrCs offer full spellcasting or slightly reduced spellcasting? Is it that some classes, like the Knight of the Blue Moon work best for multi-classed characters and thus the character has already suffered some loss of spellcasting progression or is it something I’m just not seeing outside of that? It’s like saying that at any other time, a mutli-class spellcaster is worthless without the appropriate PrC to enter, and well, since mutli-classing has been encouraged since 3.0 came out, I don’t see it that way.
The game mechanics then continue in chapter six, Monsters of Waterdeep. This includes some unique constructs made either to protect the city, like the Walking Statues of Waterdeep, or those made by mad men like the Scaladar, large scorpion shaped constructs. One old edition creature, the Leucrotta also makes its return, along with a variant gargoyle, the guardgoyle, and some other beasties.
Chapter seven, Heroes and Magic, continues with mechanics, but this time more goods for the player, includes new feats. Want to show your devotion to Tyr? Take Hand of Try, in exchange for binding your right hand, you gain a sacred bonus to attack, damage, and save. For those rogues with high Wisdom, Dungeoneer’s Intuition gives you your Wisdom bonus to trap sense and gives you’re your trap sense bonuses to Armor Class during a surprise round. A few other feats here focus on the gods and even include an Initiate Feat, this time of Shar.
Magic items include some new special abilities for weapons, as well as specific weapons. Corrosive weapons inflict extra acid damage while the Ettin Axe of Uruth is a double orc axe, one side with fire burst, the other with ice burst and it’s own intelligence on both sides of the axe, Ur and Krypt.
Being a city with several archmages, it should come as no surprise that there are several staffs here, including the Staff of Banishment with spells including banishment, dismissal, repulsion, and slow, or that there are several rings, including the ring of armor, equal to a ring of protection but with the fortification armor special ability.
The magic item section shows some originality and includes a wide range of material including several minor artifacts as well as ‘hand waving’ items used to explain certain situations in the city like the Lord’s Apparel that keeps their identities secret.
I was a little surprised at the spells though. For a city with so many mages, the spell selection is weak, not even including a breakdown by class and level. That doesn’t mean that the spells themselves are weak though. No, several of them are high level, like Binding Chain of Fate, a 9th level arcane spell that inflicts minor force damage, keeps the prisoner in one spot, acts as dimensional anchor upon the target, prevents magic from functioning within the chain, and prevents the target from changing form. Powerful stuff but a simple Will saving throw prevents the chain from capturing the target.
The spells offer a good array of attack power to casters, even though not all of them are obvious attack spells. For example, Trobriand’s Crystalbrittle, a 3rd level arcane spell, reduces the hardness and hit points of a targeted item to that of glass, 1 hardness and 1 hit point per inch of thickness. A permanent effect too.
The problem with Waterdeep is that its coverage is shallow. At some level, WoTC must realize this. Dragon 335 has a series of articles on the city. A new fiction hardcover is coming out on the city. Dungeon126 and 127 both feature adventurers for Waterdeep.
That’s just looking at the book in and of itself. It you start comparing it against other city books, it looks even worse. Let’s take a third party book, City State of the Invincible Overlord. This book weighs in at something like 290 pages and has a removable map by Ed Bourelle from Skeleton KeyGames. It details some odd three hundred and fifty locations. I’m not saying every location is a masterpiece of intrigue and detail, but it sure beats a one-line entry. It has a massive index of locations to help the GM navigate it. Sure, it’s not up to the graphic standards set in Waterdeep, it’s not in full color, and it’s not official. It’s still the superior book.
How about other WoTC products? Let’s look at Sharn, the City of Towers. This is the same price, but weighs in at 192 pages and comes with a music CD to act as background music. It’s also lacking the three pages of advertisements, so it’s in effect 35 pages longer.
How about getting into the time machine and moving back to say, 1994 and the old boxed set, City of Splendors. Now I’m not saying that this $25.00 book should be compared in terms of price, as that was over ten years ago, but in terms of content. That boxed set has a 128 page book, a 96 page book, a 64 page book, a 16 page booklet, 6 poster maps, and 16 appendix pages for monsters. The level of detail in that boxed set, for the same city, is not matched here, not even close.
Sure, the new book looks better. It’s not relying on old art for the interior covers. It’s full color. It’s better laid out. But the lack of removable maps is a huge sore spot for me, and the fact that so many great locations and characters are left out, makes this half a book. This doesn’t count the many great full page illustrations in the old boxed set, like the Field of Triumph’s Lion Gate carved entrance or the maps of common shops.
To me, WoTC dropped the ball. It’s not that this is a bad book. If you’re new to Waterdeep, this is a great starting point. The article in Dragon 335 where Eric, the author of the book, points out all the other resources is a good place to get more details. It’s just that this book should’ve been the crown of FR books. As WoTC is doing two book sizes these days, they should’ve went with the 224-page size book and added some removable maps. Waterdeep should be the standard to which all other cities compare, not the city that compares unfavorably to other cities.
I’m an old player of the Forgotten Realms. This book didn’t hit enough points for me. For new fans of the Forgotten Realms or those who’ve never owned the various books that make up the Waterdeep legacy, City of Splendors is a solid city book.
RichGreen
Adventurer
Hi,
Great review. Why they chose to cover Waterdeep in the smaller 160 page format beggars belief! This could and should have been THE definitive Waterdeep book. Fortunately, I still have FR 1 and the Volo's Guide to refer to, but it would have been nice to have had the locations updated.
IMO, Sharn is a better city book because of the amount of detail, but this book was a much more enjoyable read. Shame there wasn't more of it!
Cheers
Richard
Great review. Why they chose to cover Waterdeep in the smaller 160 page format beggars belief! This could and should have been THE definitive Waterdeep book. Fortunately, I still have FR 1 and the Volo's Guide to refer to, but it would have been nice to have had the locations updated.
IMO, Sharn is a better city book because of the amount of detail, but this book was a much more enjoyable read. Shame there wasn't more of it!
Cheers
Richard
Qwillion
First Post
City of Splendors
I would like to point out one small thing
I got a chance to talk to stephen schend a long time ago about city of splendors, he told me that tsr lost money on every sale of that boxed set.
I do however agree this should have been a 224 page book period.
I am glad we got some new info, but WoTC idea that people don't buy the other products for a setting is flawed.
just my two coopers
I would like to point out one small thing
I got a chance to talk to stephen schend a long time ago about city of splendors, he told me that tsr lost money on every sale of that boxed set.
I do however agree this should have been a 224 page book period.
I am glad we got some new info, but WoTC idea that people don't buy the other products for a setting is flawed.
just my two coopers
evildmguy
Explorer
Torn between two . . . editions
I am torn on this book. On the one hand, you are correct in what you say. The book does cover things in a very shallow way. The lack of a pull out map is terrible. Further, there are only certain aspects covered in the book and from a new player's perspective, it would be very weird as to why the things they emphasized were the things emphasized. For example, why was so much spent on religion and temples? Does Waterdeep emphasize religion? How much of an influence are the academies on daily life? It also reads as if there are a dozen groups at every corner, ready to pull Waterdeep down. So, it is certainly a skewed perspective on the City of Splendors.
However, I read a post from Eric Boyd somewhere that when he wrote this, he tried to keep in mind new players to the game and old players who might have a previous source on Waterdeep. From *that* perspective, which is mine, he did a great job. I don't feel cheated that the history was repeated, because it was a good read and had the "current" version of history there. The people and places covered mesh well with what I have and are good for references. There are a ton of new ideas and ideas for adventures within the city, which are always good.
I know that not everyone has the previous items on Waterdeep. I would have loved it if the book had been bigger, had more updated (not with game mechanics, though, as I don't need those) information on many areas and had a map. However, as someone who has the Volo guide, the boxed set and FR1, it is nice to see WotC give me something that compliments everything I have already bought, instead of re-hashing old material in 3E. I felt like I was rewarded!
Still, a good review and probably fair given the choice they made.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Have a good one! Take care!
edg
I am torn on this book. On the one hand, you are correct in what you say. The book does cover things in a very shallow way. The lack of a pull out map is terrible. Further, there are only certain aspects covered in the book and from a new player's perspective, it would be very weird as to why the things they emphasized were the things emphasized. For example, why was so much spent on religion and temples? Does Waterdeep emphasize religion? How much of an influence are the academies on daily life? It also reads as if there are a dozen groups at every corner, ready to pull Waterdeep down. So, it is certainly a skewed perspective on the City of Splendors.
However, I read a post from Eric Boyd somewhere that when he wrote this, he tried to keep in mind new players to the game and old players who might have a previous source on Waterdeep. From *that* perspective, which is mine, he did a great job. I don't feel cheated that the history was repeated, because it was a good read and had the "current" version of history there. The people and places covered mesh well with what I have and are good for references. There are a ton of new ideas and ideas for adventures within the city, which are always good.
I know that not everyone has the previous items on Waterdeep. I would have loved it if the book had been bigger, had more updated (not with game mechanics, though, as I don't need those) information on many areas and had a map. However, as someone who has the Volo guide, the boxed set and FR1, it is nice to see WotC give me something that compliments everything I have already bought, instead of re-hashing old material in 3E. I felt like I was rewarded!
Still, a good review and probably fair given the choice they made.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Have a good one! Take care!
edg
JoeGKushner
First Post
Thanks for the feedback guys. It's hard to tell when I'm wandering into the realms of the old gamer and when I'm still talking about how relevant things are today. It's one of the reasons I mentioned Sharn and CSIO as two cities done "right" so to speak. I figure pointing out a third party book as well as a official book could give readers more of a grasp of where I'm coming from.
And yeah, the temple information was good, but even that felt a little halved. As mentioned, why not update more stuff like say Tempus and put some more initiate feats in there, or why have any initiate feats in here and not save them all for another book.
Parts of the mechanics feel very gotta catch 'em all and I'm positive that any mage I play will be trying to get the GH enforcer PrC with it's good hit dice and bab and spellcasting progression. Why bother with Eldritch Knight?
On another note, for those with your own opinions on the book, please take a few moments to collect your thoughts and add some more reviews of this book to the database. The more opinions and ideas out there, the more well rounded and well informed a reader can be before deciding to pick it up.
And yeah, the temple information was good, but even that felt a little halved. As mentioned, why not update more stuff like say Tempus and put some more initiate feats in there, or why have any initiate feats in here and not save them all for another book.
Parts of the mechanics feel very gotta catch 'em all and I'm positive that any mage I play will be trying to get the GH enforcer PrC with it's good hit dice and bab and spellcasting progression. Why bother with Eldritch Knight?
On another note, for those with your own opinions on the book, please take a few moments to collect your thoughts and add some more reviews of this book to the database. The more opinions and ideas out there, the more well rounded and well informed a reader can be before deciding to pick it up.
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