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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[Moorcrys]

Fire genasi get Produce Flame, not a new cantrip.

Compare these genasi with a variant human taking the Magic Initiate feat:

Human: +1, +1, extra skill, 2 cantrips, 1 1st-level spell 1/day.
Air Genasi: +2, +1, hold breath, 1 2nd-level spell 1/day.
Earth Genasi: +2, +1, ignore difficult terrain, 1 2nd-level spell 1/day.
Fire Genasi: +2, +1, darkvision, resist fire, 1 cantrip, 1 1st-level spell 1/day at 3rd level.
Water Genasi: +2, +1, swim speed, amphibious, resist acid, 1 cantrip, 1 1st-level spell 1/day at 3rd level.

Seems Air and Earth got less stuff because they're using higher-level spells (like the DMG eladrin using Misty Step).

Thanks for the breakdown.

Though it seems to be 'balanced' mechanically, I think I'll add the earth and air-focused cantrips to the earth and air genasi. I just feel like they should be there flavor-wise and I don't think they're game-breaking enough to deny them.

I really like the material they added in this little packet - I could have done with some Cleric domains and Elemental Monk stuff and maybe an elemental warlock patron but truthfully between this and the necromancer games stuff I purchased I'm pretty inspired to make up my own stuff.

That whirlwind pic is truly awesome though - one of my favorites. Cheers!

 

[Klaus]

My personal preferences, which I'll be house ruling into the races:

Air and Earth Genasi: gain the new air and earth cantrips from EEPC.
Goliath: Mighty: When a goliath wields a Versatile weapon, they deal the increased damage even if wielding the weapon one-handed.

 

[Kramodlog]

Are you calling me a liar?

No. Just someone who was mistaken. It is obvious you were not fully informed of the situation. That there were online retailers who had the ad copys and cover art and made them public back in August (the ad copys were from August).

If not, what was inaccurate, and why would you not say what is inaccurate at the time instead of cutting it out of your response?

Because it side tracks from the main conversation which is Mearls being pedantic and disingenuous about us knowing that a splatbook was being worked on and that it got cancelled. Seriously, you've made this about me now.

Please stop doing that.

Please, do not tell me to not do things you do yourself. This sort of double standard is insulting. I can quote and respond to the parts I want of a post. If you do not like it that is your issue, not mine.

It's become a habit, and it's impolite (and I've already asked once before politely that you not do it). You don't have to respond to everything of course, but don't lift sentences from paragraphs when those sentences are clearly modified by the rest of the paragraph. When you remove context and pretend like there was none, you misrepresent what was said.

I disagree. Sometimes people just repeat the same idea over and over in different sentences and paragraph. Sometimes they just get off track. I like to target the main idea of someone's reasoning. Sometime I have more time and can indulge in the side tracking.

You took a single sentence out of context from what Mearls said (similar to what you did to me as well).

I disagree. That was his main thesis. I confronted his statement. You can indeed cancel a product that hasn't been announced.

He didn't say that in isolation, he explained what he meant by it, and what he meant by it is not what you're responding to right now.

I disagree. The whole thing was PR, spin. Nothing wrong with that. Unless you become condescending, which he did.

Which is why I repeated it back to you, to make sure you say what I saw and what he said. He didn't say "nothing in the world can be cancelled if it was never announced" (which is what you're responding to), he said that in the context of an unfinished experimental R&D thing it cannot be cancelled before it's been announced. Now maybe you disagree with his view, but it's not as certain a thing as you're making it out to be in that context.There are in fact some things which cannot be cancelled until they've first been announced, and this may be one of those sorts of things, and maybe not.

I disagree that this is the case. Designers and artists were paid to work on it. Ad copys and cover art made their way to a publisher and retailers. A price was fixed. Then it got cancelled. I happens. Nothing dramatic. What people are talking about is Mearls' attitude. You know, the one Morrus finds pedantic and obnoxious.

Ah, that may be the source of the confusion here. No, it was not made public on an online retailer's website - at least not by WOTC. They were showing a distributor (in this case, Random House) what their unfinished plans were. No retailers were given that information. If some retailer posted it, they took it from the Random House information, which is not intended for release.

Whoa there, cowboy. That is your interpretation of events. Your opinion. WotC never confirmed any of this. All that we know for a fact is that retailers made ad copys and the cover art public. We do not know if this is just routine operations. WotC certainly did not deny anything back in August. And WotC certainly did not warn the retailer to not do this again. Cause they did it again in January.

On a side note, if they were making plans... Well, I discussed this already.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Holy crap. Just wanted to comment on the ACTUAL ARTICLE up for discussion, and then my head imploded around page 8. Wow, that really got off track there. (And still is...)

Moderators. Any chance of moving all the 'unofficial/leaked/WoTC' stuff to another thread. Seriously.

Anyway, I liked the article. Always fond of new races. I will be making goliaths a subrace of an overall giant-kin race myself (which could also include half-giants/psionic giants and the giants of Diamond Throne).

Love the genasi, but I feel they need a little more (which they will get in our games b/c we have drawbacks too).

The elemental spells are great. There will be people modifying their archetypes on the House RUles section right now. As I will have to do with the sha'ir there.

As to clerics having too many spells. We have always limited this list to a selected number, but I will talk about that in another thread...hopefully with some answers before it devolves into a rant/argument/debate/threadjack about a totally different thing.

 

[Morrus]

Which begs the question, how did they get it? That's really what this is all about. How did an outside source (call them Kettie/Above the Treeline/Random House/Whatever) get something which the division head says he didn't release?

Either an extensive industrial espionage campaign to obtain the name of a roleplaying game book, or a third party wrote their own ad copy and designed their own cover in a Machiavellian plan to rule.... something.... .... or the information was in fact released. Just not... errr... "announced". I guess we're left to guess which of the three is most likely!

Are you sure he's the division head? Was it announced?

 

[gyor]

I think one should compare Genasi to aasimar and atieflings, not elves or humans.

Tieflings get Infernal, Dark Vision, Infernal resistance (fire resistance), and Infernal Legacy (which gives them a stylish Cantrip, and 2 once per day spells).

Fire Genasi also has fire resistance, Darkvision, Primordial, a cantrip (which is usually more useful), and a 1 1st level spell instead of 2 higher level spells, but its front loaded, unlike the Tiefling spells.

Air Genasi, no cantrip, no resistance, no darkvision, it should have all three, but it doesn't. It does have a 2nd level spell, front loaded, and you can hold your breath forever, but that will be very situtational at best.

Aasimar is like Tieflings, but you get radiant/necrotic resistance, spells like Tiefling, but friendlier, and Celestial which the common folks will be very impressed by. Spells are useful, but require you to level up.

Water Genasi- Like Fire Genasi, but more specialized for aquatic, shape water requires more creativity to be useful then produce flame, acid is a more rare damage type, and but water breathing can have its uses.

Earth Genasi- like Air Genasi, but more grounded hahaha, might be good ranger or rogue with pass without a trace and the hole ignoring difficult terrian, but too situational, its only earth caused difficult terrian. pass with out a trace will be rarely if ever used by none scouts and its stats don't support a scout build much. I honestly see leviate as more useful.

As for deep Gnome, your going to want the feat, that's the real meat of the race.

the birdmen, well Adventurer's legue has already banned it, so enough said.

Goliaths, Good Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins, and Strength rangers and you get to be the parties pack mule!

Of these the mostly the only ones I'd likely use are the deep gnome, the Goliath, the Fire Genasi, and for the right campaign Water Genasi, and with the right build Air Genasi (ranged only likely).



§

 

[JEB]

Anyone else find the deep gnome magic presented as a feat to be...interesting? I don't know if I like it or not. It was certainly unexpected to be put in that way...and, of course, has implications as to the "optional" expectations of Feats in general...or opens up the whole can of worms o individual tables "ok'ing this feat but not that one".

But, like I said, unexpected...not entirely unwelcome...but intriguing why they would chose to do innate racial magic for this race this way...

I share your misgivings. While quite interesting, even elegant... this approach changes feats from a neat addition to something the rules assume are around. Sure, they're still optional, but it's a slightly different flavor of optional.

Also, I don't understand why they didn't take a page from the drow, and just space the abilities out as the character levels up. (In fact, think I may try asking about that on Twitter.)

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Earth Genasi- like Air Genasi, but more grounded hahaha, might be good ranger or rogue with pass without a trace and the hole ignoring difficult terrian, but too situational, its only earth caused difficult terrian. pass with out a trace will be rarely if ever used by none scouts and its stats don't support a scout build much. I honestly see leviate as more useful.

In this context, what's a "scout build"? It seems to me that access to Pass Without Trace is sufficient to convert any build to a decent scout build. Then just add in proficiency in Stealth from a background and Bob's your uncle. You could have a DX 8 Earth Genasi Battlemaster in clanking plate mail, and between low DX, Stealth proficiency, disadvantage on Stealth, and Pass Without Trace he'd still be averaging 12 on his Stealth checks at level 5, which is good enough to beat lots of creatures' passive Perception. That's how good Pass Without Trace is--it turns anyone stealthy, and it makes stealthy guys super-stealthy. In fact, it turns your whole party super-stealthy. And it's not like Battlemasters have anything better to do with their concentration anyway.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Fair enough. But as someone recently posted,

This applies to flavour as much as mechanics, doesn't it?

Totally. Not saying they shouldn't have done it, just saying it doesn't resonate with me, so it's not something I'm personally that interested in.

 

[Mistwell]

No. Just someone who was mistaken. It is obvious you were not fully informed of the situation. That there were online retailers who had the ad copys and cover art and made them public back in August (the ad copys were from August).

Because it side tracks from the main conversation which is Mearls being pedantic and disingenuous about us knowing that a splatbook was being worked on and that it got cancelled. Seriously, you've made this about me now.

Please, do not tell me to not do things you do yourself. This sort of double standard is insulting. I can quote and respond to the parts I want of a post. If you do not like it that is your issue, not mine.

I disagree. Sometimes people just repeat the same idea over and over in different sentences and paragraph. Sometimes they just get off track. I like to target the main idea of someone's reasoning. Sometime I have more time and can indulge in the side tracking.

I disagree. That was his main thesis. I confronted his statement. You can indeed cancel a product that hasn't been announced.

I disagree. The whole thing was PR, spin. Nothing wrong with that. Unless you become condescending, which he did.

I disagree that this is the case. Designers and artists were paid to work on it. Ad copys and cover art made their way to a publisher and retailers. A price was fixed. Then it got cancelled. I happens. Nothing dramatic. What people are talking about is Mearls' attitude. You know, the one Morrus finds pedantic and obnoxious.

Whoa there, cowboy. That is your interpretation of events. Your opinion. WotC never confirmed any of this. All that we know for a fact is that retailers made ad copys and the cover art public. We do not know if this is just routine operations. WotC certainly did not deny anything back in August. And WotC certainly did not warn the retailer to not do this again. Cause they did it again in January.

On a side note, if they were making plans... Well, I discussed this already.

You should read the stuff I posted from Twitter today where Mearls responded to my request for information about this. He explains it was not an intentional leak, that they don't do intentional leaks, and it was stuff they showed a distributor, and they often show distributors stuff that isn't a finished plan and even entire lines that are never made. I thought you had read that earlier when you were responding. I guess you missed it.

More importantly, I don't think our discussion is going anywhere good. I asked you politely repeatedly to not cut context from posts, you are refusing which is your right, but I feel it's resulting in misrepresentations of what I've said. Given that, I don't think I should continue this discussion with you. But feel free to have the last word.