Drow of the Underdark?

[Arnwyn]

At least the head-explode-worthy "gish" referring to generic caster-warriors hasn't made it into a book.

What? People out there are actually trying to refer to non-githyanki as "gish"? Really?

That's... confusing.

 

[Pants]

It's mediocre. The first chapter is fantastic IMO, giving very good details on drow society and culture that is reasonably consistent with everything that has come before (including why drow dress the way they do). The only disappointment is the lack of detail (pretty much not even mentioning in any noticeable degree) on all the other drow deities. (Though this only slightly disappointed me, as I own all the FR drow-related material - and the FR drow are the superior versions. Yeah, that's right, I went there.)

The feats were okay to poor, with only a couple worth giving to drow antagonists, and the rest being woefully weak and worth only ignoring, IMO. The prestige classes were all underpowered (again, totally IMO) and I'll likely never look at them again. The feats worth taking were cool, though. The spells and magic items are also decent.

The maps were universally terrible - except, luckily, for the map of Erelhei-Cinlu itself (whew!). The rest are just the FL series maps, which are simply blotches of color and some random lines. Ugly, boring, and useless. Christopher West's Maps of Mystery from Dungeon (hell, anything from Dungeon) are vastly superior in every single way imagineable. Wow, DotU had terrible maps.

Final note: Use of the idiotic internet-speak "buff" word was used in this published hardcover. Hey, whichever author vomited that out: improve your vocabulary, sparky.

[Sessler]A 3 ... out of 5.[/Sessler]

This is pretty much my review, though the lame maps don't bug me that much as the rest of the book is pretty damn good. The feats are pretty flavorful, though some are weak, the monsters are all pretty good, chapter 1 is super-awesome, the spells and magic items are nice, and the write-up of the Vault just oozes plot-hooks.

Only the maps and the PrC's really made me complain (and the lack of other drow gods), but overall, a high 3 out of 5 or a low 4 would be my score.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

What? People out there are actually trying to refer to non-githyanki as "gish"? Really?

That's... confusing.

Tell me about it. Check out charcter optimization boards, or character build boards. Gish seems to be the generic term for warriors who rely on self-casted spells. I cringe everytime I hear it. But it seems the term is far too embedded.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

I don't have the book , but errata this quick is a big improvement for Wizards. Well done!

Ken

That was a last-minute error in layout. And yep, WotC issued errata almost before the book came out.

I don't know the link off the top of my head, but the vril stats are available on the WotC site.