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[COMPLETE] Looking back at the leatherette series: PHBR, DMGR, HR and more!
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8174291" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>Looking back now, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16889/PHBR4-The-Complete-Wizards-Handbook-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>PHBR4 The Complete Wizard's Handbook</em></a> was a supplement that I didn't fully appreciate when I picked it up.</p><p></p><p>That was largely because I treated it as being little more than a cut-rate version of the 2E <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17391/Tome-of-Magic-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Tome of Magic</em></a>, i.e. a source of new spells and magic items. That meant, of course, that I basically ignored a lot of what else was here. In hindsight, I suspect this was because the new spells were the part that were most notable when looking at this book's wider impact; I remember seeing spells such as <em>chromatic orb</em> and <em>ice knife</em> on the spell lists for various other classes over the life of Second Edition, to say nothing of classics like <em>Mordenkainen's private sanctum</em> or <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em>.</p><p></p><p>Which wasn't to say I didn't read the rest of the book; it just didn't make nearly as much of an impression on me. I <em>do</em> recall the listings for the bonuses that specialists got at they leveled up, though I can't remember now if there was an abbreviated version of school specialists in the PHB. Likewise, even back then the section on "creating new schools of magic" struck me as disappointing for just walking through the process without actually providing a sample new school. That would have been much cooler if it had.</p><p></p><p>Interestingly, it's only now, upon rereading these books, that I've come to notice how kits that cover the same thematic area appear in several of them. For instance, three of these first four books feature amazon kits (those being the <em>Complete Fighter's Handbook</em>, <em>Complete Priest's Handbook</em>, and <em>Complete Wizard's Handbook</em>). Do amazon societies just not have crime, and that's why there's no amazon thief? Or is an amazon thief just the same as your baseline, kit-less thief?</p><p></p><p>Of course, more notable are the kits that make some larger alterations to how the wizard functions. Given that we've got a <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/so-where-my-witches-at.677669/" target="_blank">lively thread about witches</a> in D&D going on at the moment, the witch kit here jumps out at me, particularly since it comes with several special powers but also some serious drawbacks. The wu jen is also here, and like the witch demonstrates a substantive difference in ability from most other kits, such as how the patrician kit's changes can be summarized as "you can demand shelter from the fellow nobles, but pay more for the cost of goods."</p><p></p><p>There were also a lot of situational modifiers for casting spells that I suspect I overlooked simply because I didn't get much use out of them. Casting spells on the planes, for instance, was quickly superseded by the material in the <em><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17267/Planescape-Campaign-Setting-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Planescape Campaign Setting</em></a></em>, and I think it was <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16933/DMGR9-Of-Ships-and-the-Sea-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>DMGR9 Of Ships and the Sea</em></a> (a book I'll talk more about later) that went into greater detail about casting spells underwater (though I could be misremembering, there). Of course, there was also a section explaining some various details about how spells worked normally anyway ("<em>hold</em> person makes a target go rigid; it does not freeze them in mid-air").</p><p></p><p>Also, while this isn't really a spoiler for the latest Dresden Files books, I love that [spoiler]"conjuritis" is a disease here.[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>Overall, this was a useful supplement, but I could have gotten more out of it if I'd looked past the obvious draws of new magic. Ah, the follies of youth.</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8174291, member: 8461"] Looking back now, [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16889/PHBR4-The-Complete-Wizards-Handbook-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]PHBR4 The Complete Wizard's Handbook[/I][/URL] was a supplement that I didn't fully appreciate when I picked it up. That was largely because I treated it as being little more than a cut-rate version of the 2E [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17391/Tome-of-Magic-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Tome of Magic[/I][/URL], i.e. a source of new spells and magic items. That meant, of course, that I basically ignored a lot of what else was here. In hindsight, I suspect this was because the new spells were the part that were most notable when looking at this book's wider impact; I remember seeing spells such as [I]chromatic orb[/I] and [I]ice knife[/I] on the spell lists for various other classes over the life of Second Edition, to say nothing of classics like [I]Mordenkainen's private sanctum[/I] or [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I]. Which wasn't to say I didn't read the rest of the book; it just didn't make nearly as much of an impression on me. I [I]do[/I] recall the listings for the bonuses that specialists got at they leveled up, though I can't remember now if there was an abbreviated version of school specialists in the PHB. Likewise, even back then the section on "creating new schools of magic" struck me as disappointing for just walking through the process without actually providing a sample new school. That would have been much cooler if it had. Interestingly, it's only now, upon rereading these books, that I've come to notice how kits that cover the same thematic area appear in several of them. For instance, three of these first four books feature amazon kits (those being the [I]Complete Fighter's Handbook[/I], [I]Complete Priest's Handbook[/I], and [I]Complete Wizard's Handbook[/I]). Do amazon societies just not have crime, and that's why there's no amazon thief? Or is an amazon thief just the same as your baseline, kit-less thief? Of course, more notable are the kits that make some larger alterations to how the wizard functions. Given that we've got a [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/so-where-my-witches-at.677669/']lively thread about witches[/URL] in D&D going on at the moment, the witch kit here jumps out at me, particularly since it comes with several special powers but also some serious drawbacks. The wu jen is also here, and like the witch demonstrates a substantive difference in ability from most other kits, such as how the patrician kit's changes can be summarized as "you can demand shelter from the fellow nobles, but pay more for the cost of goods." There were also a lot of situational modifiers for casting spells that I suspect I overlooked simply because I didn't get much use out of them. Casting spells on the planes, for instance, was quickly superseded by the material in the [I][URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17267/Planescape-Campaign-Setting-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Planescape Campaign Setting[/I][/URL][/I], and I think it was [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16933/DMGR9-Of-Ships-and-the-Sea-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]DMGR9 Of Ships and the Sea[/I][/URL] (a book I'll talk more about later) that went into greater detail about casting spells underwater (though I could be misremembering, there). Of course, there was also a section explaining some various details about how spells worked normally anyway ("[I]hold[/I] person makes a target go rigid; it does not freeze them in mid-air"). Also, while this isn't really a spoiler for the latest Dresden Files books, I love that [spoiler]"conjuritis" is a disease here.[/spoiler] Overall, this was a useful supplement, but I could have gotten more out of it if I'd looked past the obvious draws of new magic. Ah, the follies of youth. [I]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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