ELEMENTAL EVIL Player's Companion - FREE!

The Elemental Evil Player's Companion is available for free download over at DTRPG (and RPGNow). It includes new races (aarakocra, deep gnome, genasi, and goliath) and ove 40 new spells. The PDF is a full-colour 25-page PDF; according to the first page, the genasi in chapter 1 and all of the spells in chapter 2 also appear in the appendices of Princes of the Apocalypse, the adventure due to hit store shelves very soon.

"Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Player’s Companion provides everything players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil storyline.

New race options include the aarakocra, deep gnome, genasi, and goliath. Additionally, a plethora of new spells put the elements directly at your command.

The Elemental Evil Player’s Companion, was original designed by Richard Baker, Robert J. Schwalb and Stephen Schubert, with additional design and development by Wizards D&D R&D.

This accessory is specifically meant to support the Elemental Evil–Princes of the Apocalypse adventure product."

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[PinkRose]

Anyone from WotC reading this thread?
Would be nice to get a printer-friendly version of this supplement like the ones from HotDQ and RoT.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

Anyone from WotC reading this thread?
Would be nice to get a printer-friendly version of this supplement like the ones from HotDQ and RoT.

WoTC-people appearently almost never read ENWorld anymore. And if they do, they tend not to comment, answer questions or participate in discussions.

 

[Li Shenron]

This is a great free web enhancement, I really hope they will continue to do them in the future. 30 pages of player characters stuff every 3-4 months would be enough for me.

I definitely would also like to see subclasses in these web enhancements, because IMO there are too few in the PHB, particularly cleric domains and rogue schemes are seriously lacking (but also a non-draconic, non-wildmage sorcerer is needed). But I guess subclasses are significantly more complex to design and especially need more playtesting, compared to races.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Aarakocra have been connected to the Plane of Air at least since a late-80s Dragon article (number 124, August 1987). This seems like a reasonable enough development from that.

It's a reasonable development. It doesn't line up with what I personally find interesting about the aarakocra (which is their capacity to be antagonists that are not necessarily evil but still in conflict with other good creatures), but it's not totally out of left field. I'm not really sold on it being an interesting development for my tables. WotC presumably thinks this links them more closely with some iconic adventures, and fair enough, but those adventures were never iconic to my personal D&D experience, so linking them more closely is pretty irrelevant to how I'd usually use 'em.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Um, an information leak is intentional. From merriam-webster: to give (secret information) to someone so that it becomes known to the public. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leak

At least that is how I used it and how people use it colloquially.

Intentional by the leaker, of course, but not intentional by the people who have the secret (in this case, WotC). Those people presumably are not happy about secrets being revealed.

Nah, it is a marketing strategy. It is done to create hype. There are a lot of leaks around movies, if an example is needed. Some real, some fake. Gets people talking. Apple did it with its Apple Watch. Let's not be naive here.

It's not naive to imagine that this is exactly what WotC claims it is, and just because leaks have been used for marketing in the past does not mean that this leak was used that way. All you have is a hypothesis without evidence that it is otherwise.

Depends. In politics you have a lot of leaks. It is the basis of journalism to report what anonymous sources leaked to them. We base expectations of that. Nothing wrong with it or are you saying there it something wrong with people having expectations?

There's something wrong with people presuming that a leak represents reliable marketing information. Because those things are not the same thing.

Of course. At some point the product is delivered and expectations are confronted to reality. Sometimes for positive results (Avengers), sometimes not so much (Adventurer's Hanbook). That is life. If people would live without expectations, I believe suicide rates would be much higher. Yes, that is an opinion.

The idea that this is a "negative" result is counter-intuitive, since basing your expectations on a leak is basing them on the thinnest of bits of hints. You're setting yourself up for disappointment if you treat leaks as always reliable.

 

[Sacrosanct]

This kind of material seems like a fair replacement for Dragon Magazine, though perhaps not for the kind of sourcebooks WotC used to publish.

Not until they bring back Dragonmirth damnnit!

 

[Reynard]

This kind of material seems like a fair replacement for Dragon Magazine, though perhaps not for the kind of sourcebooks WotC used to publish.

Dragon provided a lot more material that was a lot more diverse in content. I understand that the economics of a $6 magazine do not work in today's market but -- like many folks do with the PF AP -- I would subscribe to Dragon for $15/month, easy, if it was the same perfect bound, high production quality.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It's good to see the Svirfneblin back, I remember when they were overpowered cheese in 2e, and probably would have banned them before the Aarakocra if they were anything like they were before. This version of the Svirfneblin is at least playable in most campaigns, and no longer have something like 16 abilities to remember.

The Air and Earth Genasi do seem to be slightly less appealing than the Fire and Water Genasi. I would have given Air and Earth those new cantrips Gust and Mold Earth in the spell section of the book. Though indefinitely holding your breath as an Air Genasi could make you ignore the effects of some spells.

I'm glad that Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting (which I feel should be made available to Warlock's Mystic Arcanum), Ice Knife and Vitriolic Sphere are back, they were some of favourite spells.

Thunderclap seems like a good cantrip to use for Valour Bards and Eldritch Knights, for their cast a spell and make an attack abilities.

 

[evilbob]

Does anyone know if these free updates will be added to the "Basic" rules? Seems like they might as well, since they're all available freely - and that would just make it easier to get to them.

I certainly hope not! The point of the basic game is to offer a simple starter game. ALL of this stuff is decidedly optional/add-on.

I don't think the Basic Rules is primarily defined by 'free'. It is defined by 'basic' - 4 races, 4 classes - one subclass each.

Adding fringe races, especially ones that will be widely insta-banned (Aarakocra) goes against that.

Good points, I agree.

In that light, I hope they continue to put together all the optional rules into one place to make them easy to access. And "they're all somewhere on the WotC website" does not qualify for this.

 

[Mistwell]

Why are a few people hung up on Mearls statement?

It makes absolutely no sense what so ever.

He claims that you can't cancel something that was never announced. How long have you been in the biz Mike?

Things get cancelled all the time without them ever being "announced". He was trying awful hard to hide something but in a way that tried to make the audience seem a bit thick. Kind of like the "do you take us for idiots with that excuse" kind of moment.

Your flippant comments notwithstanding, how DO you cancel something not announced? No, not with snark, think it through. If it's not announced, then how do you know it was a planned thing to begin with. If it is not a planned thing yet, it literally cannot be cancelled. And I don't mean literally in the messed up "figuratively" sense that such a word has come to mean, I mean literally in the more common sense - as in it really and truly cannot be cancelled if it was never the plan to begin with.

So show me evidence it was the actual plan. Mike says they do lots of speculative stuff which isn't necessarily planned for release, it's just R&D experimentation in-house. If I say to my art guy "mock up a cover for this, I want to see what it would look like in case we decide to do something like that" and then I don't release the book with that mocked-up cover, the book with that cover was not cancelled - it never was a planned release to begin with. It was just an experiment - a part of the whole development process.

If you're going to accuse Mike of lying, or being ignorant of his own business (and you seem to be saying one or both of those things), then the burden is on you to prove it was actually a planned thing to begin with. So far, you have not proven that. Which probably means you shouldn't be accusing him of lying or being ignorant until you can provide that evidence. To me, it looks like you're ignorant (as in lacking information) but just bullying ahead and drawing harsh conclusions anyway despite that ignorance. Hardly a position of strength or persuasion.