JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Pregenerated locations an idea for your Eberron campaign.
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Explorer's Handbook
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
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JoeGKushner
Adventurer
An exploring we will go.
Explorer’s Handbook
Written by David Noonan, Frank Brunner, Rich Burlew
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/eberron
ISBN: 0-7869-3691-6
160 full color pages
$29.95
The Explorer’s Handbook is the latest supplement for the Eberron campaign setting. It’s a strange beast as it’s not focused on any one particular thing and is useful for both players and GMs, aimed a little more squarely at the GM. It includes new crunch and ideas, but also comes with various devices to get the game running right away.
Let me get my mini-rant out of the way first. At 160 full color pages for $29.95, the book is reasonably priced compared to the opposition. The book uses good layout, the standard Eberon, which I feel is generally second only to the Forgotten Realms series. It uses a wide variety of artists like Mark Tedin, Francis Tsai, Eric Deschamps and Steve Prescott among others. The work varies but overall, is good. The scene with the drow on page 129 is brimming with atmosphere while the Lighting Rail Station illustration on page 83, gives me a good idea about what a typical station might look like to match the map on the opposing side. The maps in the book are standard and I’m surprised, as many third party publishers tend to have maps equal if not better with some companies being devoted to making maps and selling them online.
The editing is fair. I’m not getting in the stat blocks. I’ll let mastermind John Cooper hit that nail as he’s got a much better eye for it than I do and I generally don’t notice such things unless it’s way off base or I’m using the creature/NPC in combat and come to the conclusion that “hey, that’s off a point.” While there is no index, the table of contents does a good job of breaking the chapters up with subsections for each chapter and highlights in red for different maps.
No, my problem is waste. We’ve got three pages of ads here. Not a biggie as many companies have ads and I’ve seen some White Wolf products with five or more pages of ads. We also have a reproduction of the cover on the inside in green with the authors name on it. It’s been done before and I don’t get it. It’s not that the authors shouldn’t have their names recognized, but it’s on the cover and also on the credits page. The cover is reproduced again in a two-page spread. Great art piece by Wayne Reynolds and also standard procedure for Eberron products, but I can’t help but wonder if they just started making the covers more friendly to begin with, that it wouldn’t be necessary.
Those things are fairly standard though. No, my big pet peeve here is the near two pages wasted on telling me how to read a stat block. That’s because the stat block is using the new format. When I opened up Weapons of Legacy, that book also uses the new stat block, as does Stormwrack. Neither of them wastes time explain to me what armor class is. Perhaps Eberron is becoming the default starting line and this hand holding is necessary, but at the same time, something else that wastes space could be cut. Counting this with the ads and the green page reproduction, you’re out six pages and if you count the two-page reproduction, eight pages. When you look at the new statistic blocks, that makes this one of the thinnest Eberron books ever.
Some of you may be asking, how is the book? It’s surprisingly useful. It starts off by providing the reader, either a GM or player, with some ideas on why you’d want to travel and how do to such. Topics like exploration and assault are covered, and methods ranging from teleportation to walking are handled. Good advice for a magic rich setting that’s relatively low powered compared to Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms.
Chapter two gets into the mechanics of the tools of the trade. Things like using ships in the game as well as details on how to control a bound elemental, as well as how vessels work in the game, using a short hand version from Stormrack, that works with Stormrack.
In some ways, it’s almost a trip down the Spelljammer memory lane as the airship map, along with the lightning rail, stormship, and wind galleon maps, all have that classic grid look to their layout. Each transport device comes with information on appearance, operation, suppression, history, and game stats.
The second chapter also covers the different organizations that can help you move about more freely, like the Wayfinder Foundation and The Twelve. Each one comes with details on how to join, benefits, role playing notes, how the organization fits into the setting, and NPC reaction. In many ways, they’re laid out like the organizations in other recent books and include lore with different checks, how the organization works in the game in terms of use, and some sample NPCs to let the GM run the material right away.
In that spirit, they’ve also included new prestige classes including the Cataclysm Mage, Thunder Guide, and Windright Captain. The first two are ten level PrCs while the latter is a five level PrC. Each includes background, information on becoming that PrC, game stats, and other familiar traits, including many of those I just mentioned for the organizations. This is a lot of fluff per each PrC so those who enjoy a class bound into the setting should enjoy it. There are even brief notes on changing the role of the PrC in the campaign for those players who want something a little different than the standard.
Chapter three gets into the GM’s toolbox with points of origin. There are four different locations mapped out for the GM to get the party started including Stormhome, a docking town for airship travel, a lighting rail station, the Crimson Ship, a galleon for hire, and probably a soon to be famous local, the Glitterdust Nightclub. Each one comes with map, notes on mapped locations, typical NPCs, and adventure ideas. It’s a great tool for the GM to have if he just wants to get the group going and needs a quick place to have the party meet, or in the case of the Glitterdust Nightclub, have new encounters that might let to other adventurers.
Not satisfied with stopping there, the aid continues with chapter four, Midpoints. These are “places of mystery: lonely obelisks on blasted heaths, stone vaults overgrown with jungle creepers, and abandoned mines filled with shrieks and howls.” With four locations, the section acts as a tool in not only providing the GM with a quick hour or three of entertainment for his group, but also as examples of what can be found in the setting.
The four locations here are Katal Hazath, Msek, the Aal’drash Seals, and Shae Mordai. Each section includes background details, as well as how to get there, what the area looks like, the typical layout, at a glance information. For example, Katal Hazath has details on the town including authority figures, important characters and others, as well as details on typical encounters and adventure ideas. Encounter tables are provided for lazy people like me who might want to roll the dice and see what happens, and the tables include encounter, and average EL so the GM can determine if it’s appropriate or not for his group.
So you’ve got some places for the characters to meet and move through, but where are they doing? Chapter five, destinations, answers that question with ten destinations. Due to the number of locations, the information provided is brief and will require lots of fleshing out by the GM. Some of these locations are templates that the GM can modify for his own use, like a typical Khyber Dragonshard Cavern. Others like Madwood Citadel, are specific locations. The layout of information is similar to the Midpoints, including a map, background, details on getting there, appearance, features, and adventure ideas.
As if all those tools weren’t enough, the book closes with an appendix covering various types of treasures. Ideas on what might be found based on various factors. For example, “giants…claim credit for discovering arcane magic…they’re likely to have magic items in what treasure troves remain.” We have a listing of some standard items that might be found, as well as some new items. The new items are described with use, lore, description, prerequisite, activation, effect, construction, variants, weight, and price. For example, the Drake-Helm is a “receptacle for the attuned Siberys draognshards set into its crest. Each attuned Siberys dragonshard gives you an extra arcane spell known; the spell within the dragonshark is on your spell list just as if you had chosen it normally. You must still provide the spell slot, so you can’t cast a high-level spell within the dragonshard if you couldn’t cast it normally.”
One of the things I enjoyed about the book, were the little extra things scattered throughout it. Some of them are there for the feel of the setting, others adding details to it. For example, if you want to know how the gith races fit into this setting with it’s different cosmology than the standard D&D settings, this is the book to get. If you want to know how characters play the boardgame Conquror or Zilargo Darts, little elements to engage your characters in, this book has those elements.
Despite my annoyance at having hit points explained to me because of a format change, the book has a lot of potential for anyone whose wanted to run an Eberron campaign but didn’t know where to start or what to do. Having a place for the characters to meet, having places for them to explore, and having reasons for doing so, makes the Explorer’s Handbook a useful tool.
Explorer’s Handbook
Written by David Noonan, Frank Brunner, Rich Burlew
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/eberron
ISBN: 0-7869-3691-6
160 full color pages
$29.95
The Explorer’s Handbook is the latest supplement for the Eberron campaign setting. It’s a strange beast as it’s not focused on any one particular thing and is useful for both players and GMs, aimed a little more squarely at the GM. It includes new crunch and ideas, but also comes with various devices to get the game running right away.
Let me get my mini-rant out of the way first. At 160 full color pages for $29.95, the book is reasonably priced compared to the opposition. The book uses good layout, the standard Eberon, which I feel is generally second only to the Forgotten Realms series. It uses a wide variety of artists like Mark Tedin, Francis Tsai, Eric Deschamps and Steve Prescott among others. The work varies but overall, is good. The scene with the drow on page 129 is brimming with atmosphere while the Lighting Rail Station illustration on page 83, gives me a good idea about what a typical station might look like to match the map on the opposing side. The maps in the book are standard and I’m surprised, as many third party publishers tend to have maps equal if not better with some companies being devoted to making maps and selling them online.
The editing is fair. I’m not getting in the stat blocks. I’ll let mastermind John Cooper hit that nail as he’s got a much better eye for it than I do and I generally don’t notice such things unless it’s way off base or I’m using the creature/NPC in combat and come to the conclusion that “hey, that’s off a point.” While there is no index, the table of contents does a good job of breaking the chapters up with subsections for each chapter and highlights in red for different maps.
No, my problem is waste. We’ve got three pages of ads here. Not a biggie as many companies have ads and I’ve seen some White Wolf products with five or more pages of ads. We also have a reproduction of the cover on the inside in green with the authors name on it. It’s been done before and I don’t get it. It’s not that the authors shouldn’t have their names recognized, but it’s on the cover and also on the credits page. The cover is reproduced again in a two-page spread. Great art piece by Wayne Reynolds and also standard procedure for Eberron products, but I can’t help but wonder if they just started making the covers more friendly to begin with, that it wouldn’t be necessary.
Those things are fairly standard though. No, my big pet peeve here is the near two pages wasted on telling me how to read a stat block. That’s because the stat block is using the new format. When I opened up Weapons of Legacy, that book also uses the new stat block, as does Stormwrack. Neither of them wastes time explain to me what armor class is. Perhaps Eberron is becoming the default starting line and this hand holding is necessary, but at the same time, something else that wastes space could be cut. Counting this with the ads and the green page reproduction, you’re out six pages and if you count the two-page reproduction, eight pages. When you look at the new statistic blocks, that makes this one of the thinnest Eberron books ever.
Some of you may be asking, how is the book? It’s surprisingly useful. It starts off by providing the reader, either a GM or player, with some ideas on why you’d want to travel and how do to such. Topics like exploration and assault are covered, and methods ranging from teleportation to walking are handled. Good advice for a magic rich setting that’s relatively low powered compared to Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms.
Chapter two gets into the mechanics of the tools of the trade. Things like using ships in the game as well as details on how to control a bound elemental, as well as how vessels work in the game, using a short hand version from Stormrack, that works with Stormrack.
In some ways, it’s almost a trip down the Spelljammer memory lane as the airship map, along with the lightning rail, stormship, and wind galleon maps, all have that classic grid look to their layout. Each transport device comes with information on appearance, operation, suppression, history, and game stats.
The second chapter also covers the different organizations that can help you move about more freely, like the Wayfinder Foundation and The Twelve. Each one comes with details on how to join, benefits, role playing notes, how the organization fits into the setting, and NPC reaction. In many ways, they’re laid out like the organizations in other recent books and include lore with different checks, how the organization works in the game in terms of use, and some sample NPCs to let the GM run the material right away.
In that spirit, they’ve also included new prestige classes including the Cataclysm Mage, Thunder Guide, and Windright Captain. The first two are ten level PrCs while the latter is a five level PrC. Each includes background, information on becoming that PrC, game stats, and other familiar traits, including many of those I just mentioned for the organizations. This is a lot of fluff per each PrC so those who enjoy a class bound into the setting should enjoy it. There are even brief notes on changing the role of the PrC in the campaign for those players who want something a little different than the standard.
Chapter three gets into the GM’s toolbox with points of origin. There are four different locations mapped out for the GM to get the party started including Stormhome, a docking town for airship travel, a lighting rail station, the Crimson Ship, a galleon for hire, and probably a soon to be famous local, the Glitterdust Nightclub. Each one comes with map, notes on mapped locations, typical NPCs, and adventure ideas. It’s a great tool for the GM to have if he just wants to get the group going and needs a quick place to have the party meet, or in the case of the Glitterdust Nightclub, have new encounters that might let to other adventurers.
Not satisfied with stopping there, the aid continues with chapter four, Midpoints. These are “places of mystery: lonely obelisks on blasted heaths, stone vaults overgrown with jungle creepers, and abandoned mines filled with shrieks and howls.” With four locations, the section acts as a tool in not only providing the GM with a quick hour or three of entertainment for his group, but also as examples of what can be found in the setting.
The four locations here are Katal Hazath, Msek, the Aal’drash Seals, and Shae Mordai. Each section includes background details, as well as how to get there, what the area looks like, the typical layout, at a glance information. For example, Katal Hazath has details on the town including authority figures, important characters and others, as well as details on typical encounters and adventure ideas. Encounter tables are provided for lazy people like me who might want to roll the dice and see what happens, and the tables include encounter, and average EL so the GM can determine if it’s appropriate or not for his group.
So you’ve got some places for the characters to meet and move through, but where are they doing? Chapter five, destinations, answers that question with ten destinations. Due to the number of locations, the information provided is brief and will require lots of fleshing out by the GM. Some of these locations are templates that the GM can modify for his own use, like a typical Khyber Dragonshard Cavern. Others like Madwood Citadel, are specific locations. The layout of information is similar to the Midpoints, including a map, background, details on getting there, appearance, features, and adventure ideas.
As if all those tools weren’t enough, the book closes with an appendix covering various types of treasures. Ideas on what might be found based on various factors. For example, “giants…claim credit for discovering arcane magic…they’re likely to have magic items in what treasure troves remain.” We have a listing of some standard items that might be found, as well as some new items. The new items are described with use, lore, description, prerequisite, activation, effect, construction, variants, weight, and price. For example, the Drake-Helm is a “receptacle for the attuned Siberys draognshards set into its crest. Each attuned Siberys dragonshard gives you an extra arcane spell known; the spell within the dragonshark is on your spell list just as if you had chosen it normally. You must still provide the spell slot, so you can’t cast a high-level spell within the dragonshard if you couldn’t cast it normally.”
One of the things I enjoyed about the book, were the little extra things scattered throughout it. Some of them are there for the feel of the setting, others adding details to it. For example, if you want to know how the gith races fit into this setting with it’s different cosmology than the standard D&D settings, this is the book to get. If you want to know how characters play the boardgame Conquror or Zilargo Darts, little elements to engage your characters in, this book has those elements.
Despite my annoyance at having hit points explained to me because of a format change, the book has a lot of potential for anyone whose wanted to run an Eberron campaign but didn’t know where to start or what to do. Having a place for the characters to meet, having places for them to explore, and having reasons for doing so, makes the Explorer’s Handbook a useful tool.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Good catch. I didn't even notice it. Have they posted the correct numbers?
John Cooper
Explorer
EXPLORER'S HANDBOOK
By David Noonan, Frank Brunner, and Rich Burlew
Wizards of the Coast product number 178690000
160 pages, $29.95
Wizards of the Coast has been kind enough to add me to the list of reviewers to whom they send out recently-released material (and I'd like to publicly thank Joe G. Kushner here for passing on my name to them in the first place). As a result, I was recently sent a bunch of Eberron material, the first of which I'll tackle being the Explorer's Handbook. This is a book devoted (naturally) to exploring the continents of the Eberron campaign setting, with rules for some of the special transportation modes featured in the game world (specifically, the lightning rail and the elemental vessels that travel across the sea and sky alike), as well as a great variety of adventure locations spanning the globe.
The cover art of the Explorer's Handbook is a piece by Wayne Reynolds - actually, in true Eberron-book style, it's several pieces of a piece of artwork chopped up into chunks and patchworked back together. I can't say that I'm particularly fond of the approach, but it does make it distinctive on the shelf and gives Eberron its own special "look" - fortunately, the full artwork is reproduced on pages 2-3 of the book itself. I say "fortunately" because it's a really nice illustration of a landing party of adventurers being attacked by sahuagin (one of whom is a four-armed mutant). I really like this piece: it's got some really nice details, especially on the warforged and the armor worn by the male archer and the female rogue. It's a very action-oriented scene, which is always a good thing. I'm also very pleased by the body proportions; while I've enjoyed many of Wayne's paintings in the past, I've often mentally associated much his work with too-thick arms and goofy-shaped feet (check out his werebear and mummy in the Monster Manual as examples), and I'm glad to see that he's gotten off that kick. This is one of my favorite Wayne Reynolds pieces to date.
The interior artwork is provided by 8 different artists this time, with a total of 30 full-color illustrations and 18 full-color maps/diagrams gracing the book. The quality is pretty high, although I admit that the "full page of comic book panels" artwork - while again, a cool idea and one that gives an Eberron book a distinctive "feel" - were my least favorites. I like the concept, but it looks like the stronger artists were assigned the standard pieces, like the smirking windwright captain on page 72 (by Steve Prescott, if I've correctly deciphered the rune he uses for his initials), Francis Tsai's drow quartet on page 129 and kalashtar quartet on page 138, and the icebound North Seeker on page 144 (another of Francis'). The maps and diagrams were also very well done; kudos to cartographer Dennis Kauth for those. I especially like the fact that the world map on the table of contents page is keyed with entries from the table of contents itself - a very cool idea, and a great use of space.
Explorer's Handbook is laid out as follows:
The "Midpoints" and "Destinations" chapters are very similar and somewhat interchangeable, but both provide some really nice adventure locations. In many ways, Explorer's Handbook is a mix-and-match book capable of spawning many adventures solely from its own pages: for this one, the PCs will meet a contact at a nightclub, take an airship to a barbarian village to find the whereabouts of a dragonshard cavern; next time, I'll have them take a wind galleon to the city of the dead, where they can learn the location of a giant city's ruins. And so on.
Of the three prestige classes, I rather liked the thunder guide and the windwright captain, but the cataclysm mage struck me as only so-so. (Maybe the first two just seemed more "explorer-focused" to me.) I did like the frequent sidebars sprinkled throughout the book, providing details on a wide variety of subjects, from a chesslike game called Conqueror, a darts game, and various Wayfinder Foundation tips on how to survive everything from volcanic eruptions to being taken as a slave. There are even a couple of new creatures, like the undying wizard and the dust-stuffed template (creating a living construct that can pass itself off as a humanoid).
Proofreading and editing could have been a bit stronger, though; with only 160 pages (well, 157 in any case - the last three pages are ads), I was surprised that I caught as many errors as I did. These ran the gamut from missing words in a sentence ("...as lucrative as it dangerous"), extra words in a sentence ("who was started life" doesn't need that "was"), missing letters in a word ("expnse"), misspelled words ("sahugin" instead of "sahuagin"), formatting gaffes (several spells and magic items weren't italicized, as per the norm, plus the dreaded "page xx" was actually printed that way once - for shame!), a few instances of misalphabetization, failure to capitalize a proper name (Melf), oddball spacing ("howev er" and "theymanifest"), and various punctuation foibles (you don't need a comma before a parenthetical clause if there's a period immediately after the parentheses, for one). There's no proofreader listed on the credits page, so I'll have to point to editors Michelle Lyons and Scott Fitzgerald Gray (and editing manager Kim Mohan) for these problems.
However, while I was slightly disappointed with the proofreading errors that made it into the book, I'm appalled at the quality of the creature stats in Explorer's Handbook. All I can do is shake my head in wonder at developers Jesse Decker and Bill Slavicsek - how is it possible for two talented people such as these to have done such a shoddy job on the stats? Was Explorer's Handbook rushed into production before it was ready? Were there last-minute changes that didn't get looked over? Do they just think that nobody cares about the accuracy of creature stats? Your guess is as good as mine. In the meantime, here's my list of "unofficial errata" that I recommend you apply to the following creature stats:
Besides stat block errors, there were a couple of other problems that crept up. The map of the Standard Passenger Cart (one of the cars of the lightning rail) on page 37 has symbols for beds instead of benches in area 7, and the Sleeper Cart (area 8) doesn't show the bathrooms as described in the text. Table 2-2: Border Guard Squads is missing a tab on the second line of the column titles; as a result, the footnotes don't line up. The cataclysm mage table only shows personal prophecies at 1st, 4th, and 7th levels, although the description says a cataclysm mage gains one at 1st level and every 3 levels thereafter, which would include at 10th level. The Quori Monolith Encounters table on page 135 has no 95; a d% roll of 90-94 results in 1d3 dire lions, and the next entry is 1d3 temporal filchers on a roll of 96-98. There are (accurate) stats for storm giant skeletons on pages 142-143, although the description refers to them as stone giant skeletons. All in all, the level of polishing on Explorer's Handbook leaves much to be desired.
The last chapter, devoted to magic items and art objects from the giant and goblinoid empires of old, makes for a nice finish to what up to that point had been an increasingly frustrating book for me to read. New magic items are always appreciated (both by players and DMs alike), and these help make the ancient locations unearthed by the exploring PCs feel like they're giving up valuable and forgotten-until-now magical lore, much more so than if they explore ancient ruins and end up with a bunch of the same old stuff from the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Taken as a whole, Explorer's Handbook does accomplish what it attempts to do: provide the reader with the rules needed for exploring the various uncharted continents of the Eberron campaign world, with some very handy maps for vehicles and their support buildings, as well as some useful prestige classes, organizations, and a generous smattering of pretty-much-ready-to-use adventure locales. However, the stat work and general sloppiness of the proofreading and editing force me to drop my overall score down from a "4 (Good)" to a "3 (Average)." (If this had been solely a monster book, I'd have to have gone with an even lower rating, but even though there is plenty of non-stat-related material in Explorer's Handbook, the fact that of the 49 stat blocks in the book, 31 of them are messed up - that's a full 63% of them - has to play a significant factor in my overall rating.) The fact that so many of the stat errors made were such boneheaded errors probably factored in fairly heavily, as well. And given that so much of the book is devoted to adventure locales (of which creature stats play a significant role), I really can't call Explorer's Handbook "good" as published. Hopefully future Wizards of the Coast books will have a bit more attention given to them. (And can we get a final word yet from somebody at Wizards: has the "stat block cavalry" actually arrived yet, or are we still waiting?)
Despite my complaints with the book, I still recommend picking it up if you're planning on running an Eberron campaign, as the vehicle stuff is really of great value, and should see plenty of use in your games.
By David Noonan, Frank Brunner, and Rich Burlew
Wizards of the Coast product number 178690000
160 pages, $29.95
Wizards of the Coast has been kind enough to add me to the list of reviewers to whom they send out recently-released material (and I'd like to publicly thank Joe G. Kushner here for passing on my name to them in the first place). As a result, I was recently sent a bunch of Eberron material, the first of which I'll tackle being the Explorer's Handbook. This is a book devoted (naturally) to exploring the continents of the Eberron campaign setting, with rules for some of the special transportation modes featured in the game world (specifically, the lightning rail and the elemental vessels that travel across the sea and sky alike), as well as a great variety of adventure locations spanning the globe.
The cover art of the Explorer's Handbook is a piece by Wayne Reynolds - actually, in true Eberron-book style, it's several pieces of a piece of artwork chopped up into chunks and patchworked back together. I can't say that I'm particularly fond of the approach, but it does make it distinctive on the shelf and gives Eberron its own special "look" - fortunately, the full artwork is reproduced on pages 2-3 of the book itself. I say "fortunately" because it's a really nice illustration of a landing party of adventurers being attacked by sahuagin (one of whom is a four-armed mutant). I really like this piece: it's got some really nice details, especially on the warforged and the armor worn by the male archer and the female rogue. It's a very action-oriented scene, which is always a good thing. I'm also very pleased by the body proportions; while I've enjoyed many of Wayne's paintings in the past, I've often mentally associated much his work with too-thick arms and goofy-shaped feet (check out his werebear and mummy in the Monster Manual as examples), and I'm glad to see that he's gotten off that kick. This is one of my favorite Wayne Reynolds pieces to date.
The interior artwork is provided by 8 different artists this time, with a total of 30 full-color illustrations and 18 full-color maps/diagrams gracing the book. The quality is pretty high, although I admit that the "full page of comic book panels" artwork - while again, a cool idea and one that gives an Eberron book a distinctive "feel" - were my least favorites. I like the concept, but it looks like the stronger artists were assigned the standard pieces, like the smirking windwright captain on page 72 (by Steve Prescott, if I've correctly deciphered the rune he uses for his initials), Francis Tsai's drow quartet on page 129 and kalashtar quartet on page 138, and the icebound North Seeker on page 144 (another of Francis'). The maps and diagrams were also very well done; kudos to cartographer Dennis Kauth for those. I especially like the fact that the world map on the table of contents page is keyed with entries from the table of contents itself - a very cool idea, and a great use of space.
Explorer's Handbook is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: A page of introduction (written as if by a half-orc bard), followed by a detailed breakdown of the new stat block format originally presented in Dungeon Master's Guide II
- Chapter 1 - Travel: Several reasons why the PCs might need to travel, followed by details on various modes of transportation and timetables for the lightning rail
- Chapter 2 - Tools of the Trade: Elemental vessels, the lightning rail, stormships, undersea ships, wind galleons (plus a few more mundane vehicles), details about traveling papers and explorer marks, a couple of exploration-related organizations (the Wayfinder Foundation and the Acquisition Directorate of the Twelve), plus 3 new prestige classes (cataclysm mage, thunder guide, and windwright captain)
- Chapter 3 - Points of Origin: 4 locations from which a band of PCs can embark on an adventure (the Stormholme docking tower, a typical lightning rail station, the Crimson Ship, and the Glitterdust Nightclub)
- Chapter 4 - Midpoints: 4 stop-over points during an adventure (a githyanki-patrolled entrance to Khyber (Eberron's Underdark), a barbarian village, an obelisk, and a city of the dead)
- Chapter 5 - Destinations: 10 final destinations (a city of demons, a draconic observatory, a cavern of dragonshards, a haunted tower, a ruined giant city, a psionic quori monolith, a kalashtar monastery, a giant fortress, a frozen ship buried in ice, and a fallen demonic city)
- Appendix - Ancient Treasures: Antique art objects and magic items from the giant and goblinoid empires
The "Midpoints" and "Destinations" chapters are very similar and somewhat interchangeable, but both provide some really nice adventure locations. In many ways, Explorer's Handbook is a mix-and-match book capable of spawning many adventures solely from its own pages: for this one, the PCs will meet a contact at a nightclub, take an airship to a barbarian village to find the whereabouts of a dragonshard cavern; next time, I'll have them take a wind galleon to the city of the dead, where they can learn the location of a giant city's ruins. And so on.
Of the three prestige classes, I rather liked the thunder guide and the windwright captain, but the cataclysm mage struck me as only so-so. (Maybe the first two just seemed more "explorer-focused" to me.) I did like the frequent sidebars sprinkled throughout the book, providing details on a wide variety of subjects, from a chesslike game called Conqueror, a darts game, and various Wayfinder Foundation tips on how to survive everything from volcanic eruptions to being taken as a slave. There are even a couple of new creatures, like the undying wizard and the dust-stuffed template (creating a living construct that can pass itself off as a humanoid).
Proofreading and editing could have been a bit stronger, though; with only 160 pages (well, 157 in any case - the last three pages are ads), I was surprised that I caught as many errors as I did. These ran the gamut from missing words in a sentence ("...as lucrative as it dangerous"), extra words in a sentence ("who was started life" doesn't need that "was"), missing letters in a word ("expnse"), misspelled words ("sahugin" instead of "sahuagin"), formatting gaffes (several spells and magic items weren't italicized, as per the norm, plus the dreaded "page xx" was actually printed that way once - for shame!), a few instances of misalphabetization, failure to capitalize a proper name (Melf), oddball spacing ("howev er" and "theymanifest"), and various punctuation foibles (you don't need a comma before a parenthetical clause if there's a period immediately after the parentheses, for one). There's no proofreader listed on the credits page, so I'll have to point to editors Michelle Lyons and Scott Fitzgerald Gray (and editing manager Kim Mohan) for these problems.
However, while I was slightly disappointed with the proofreading errors that made it into the book, I'm appalled at the quality of the creature stats in Explorer's Handbook. All I can do is shake my head in wonder at developers Jesse Decker and Bill Slavicsek - how is it possible for two talented people such as these to have done such a shoddy job on the stats? Was Explorer's Handbook rushed into production before it was ready? Were there last-minute changes that didn't get looked over? Do they just think that nobody cares about the accuracy of creature stats? Your guess is as good as mine. In the meantime, here's my list of "unofficial errata" that I recommend you apply to the following creature stats:
- pp. 44-45, Longstrider Border Guard, shifter ranger 4/wizard 1: Fort should be +7, not +6 (+4 as a Rgr4, +0 as a Wiz1, +3 Con). Silvered short sword damage should be 1d6-1/19-20, not 1d6/19-20 (-1 to damage from the silvered property). When not shifted, Fort should be +6 (as incorrectly listed in the Shifted stats; the "unshifted" stats only mention the change to Con).
- p. 45, Hawk familiar: AC should be 18, not 17 (+2 size, +3 Dex, +3 natural). Flat-footed AC should be 15, not 14. Hit points should be 24, not 21 (its master has 48 hp). Int should be 6 (as a familiar), not 2. Talon attacks should be at +9 melee, not +5 (+4 BAB, +2 size, +3 Dex due to Weapon Finesse).
- p. 51, Imre Levalle, male dwarf rogue 6: Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 14, due to uncanny dodge. (This one really torques me, as "uncanny dodge" is now listed immediately after the AC values in the stat block! How could it have possibly been missed?)
- p. 52, Arek Islecarn, male half-elf ranger 4/extreme explorer 1: Flat-footed AC should be 15, not 14 (+5 +1 chain shirt).
- p. 52, Mina Islecarn, female half-elf rogue 4: Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 14, due to the uncanny dodge feature printed right there in plain sight after the AC values.
- p. 57, Shellek, female changeling rogue 6/extreme explorer 2: Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 15. Yep, because of uncanny dodge. Sigh. While we're at it, her known languages should be alphabetized and the line between "Combat Gear" and "Abilities" (another feature of the new stat block format) is missing.
- pp. 63-64, Vaalissek, female human wizard 5/cataclysm mage 3: Flat-footed AC should be 20, not 19 (+4 mage armor, +4 shield, +1 ring of protection, +1 amulet of natural armor). Dagger damage should be 1d4-1/19-20, not 1d4/19-20 (-1 Str). Note also that since bear's endurance has already been cast, her Fort is temporarily at +7, not +5. Also, since false life and bear's endurance have already been cast, her 59 hp are only temporary - normally, she'd have an average of 29 hp.
- p. 64, Pseudodragon familiar: Will should be +8, not +9 (+7 as a Wiz5/CaM3 [the same as its mistress], +1 Wis).
- pp. 69-70, Thrush Xivdrad, male human fighter 4/thunder guide 3: Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 18 (+7 from +2 bronzewood breastplate, +1 light steel shield, +1 ring of protection). BAB should be +6, not +7 (+4 as a Ftr4, +2 as ThG3). Grapple should be +9, not +10 (+6 BAB, +3 Str). +1 bastard sword attacks should be at +11/+6 melee, not +12/+7 (+6 BAB, +3 Str, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 magic weapon). Bronzewood javelin attacks should be at +7/+2 ranged, not +8/+3 (+6 BAB, +1 Dex).
- p. 74, Syrina d'Lyrandar, female half-elf bard 4/dragonmark heir 3/windwright captain 1: With Cha 16, she should be able to cast 4 1st-level spells/day, not 3, and 2 2nd-level spells/day, not 1 (3/3/1 as a 5th-level bard - windwright captain 1 adds +1 spellcasting level - and 0/1/1 bonus spells due to having Cha 16). Likewise, spells known should be 6/4/3, not 6/3/2 - that is, as a 5th-level bard, not a 4th-level bard. Finally, this isn't a stat problem, but "his Dex" should obviously be "her Dex" in the character's description.
- p. 75, Deerian Black, male half-elf artificer 8/windwright captain 5: Flat-footed AC should be 26, not 24, due to uncanny dodge. Will should be +12 (+14), not +11 (+13) (+6 as an Art8, +4 as a WwC5, +2 Wis). +2 shock rapier attacks should be at +13/+8 melee, not +12/+7 (+9 BAB, +1 Str, +2 magic weapon bonus, +1 Attune Magic Weapon feat), and damage should be 1d6+4/18-20 plus 1d6 electricity, not 1d6+3/18-20 plus 1d6 electricity (+1 Str, +2 magic weapon bonus, +1 Attune Magic Weapon feat). Infusions per day should be 4/4/4/3/1, not 3/3/3/1 - he gets bonus infusions for having an 18 Int, plus is the equivalent of an 11th-level artificer (+3 to spellcasting as a 5th-level windwright captain). He has 13 feats, but should only have 12 (5 as a 13th-level character, +7 as an 8th-level artificer) - it looks like he has Leadership as a bonus feat for no particular reason.
- pp. 84-85, Ivor d'Throthenhome, Station Master, male human magewright 2: With a 14 Int, he should have 2 1st-level spells/day, not just the 1.
- p. 85, Hazel d'Orien, House Courier, female human expert 6: AC should be 13, not 11 (+3 studded leather). Touch AC should be 10, not 8. Flat-footed AC should be 13, not 11. Thrown dagger attacks should be at +4 ranged, not +2 (+4 BAB, +0 Dex).
- p. 95, Katal Hazath Patrol Psion, githyanki psion (telepath) 4: AC should be 16, not 17 (+2 Dex, +4 inertial armor). Touch AC should be 12, not 13. Fort should be +5, not +2 (+1 as a Psi4, +3 Con, +1 cloak of resistance). Ref should be +4, not +2 (+1 as a Psi4, +2 Dex, +1 cloak). Will should be +4, not +5 (+4 as a Psi4, -1 Wis, +1 cloak).
- p. 96, Owl companion: Flat-footed AC should be 16, not 12 (+2 size, +4 natural). Fort should be +3, not +4 (+3 as a 3-HD animal, +0 Con). Ref should be +7, not +8 (+3 as a 3-HD animal, +4 Dex). Talon attacks should be at +8 melee, not +6 (+2 BAB, +2 size, +4 Dex with Weapon Finesse). Now that it has 3 HD, it should gain a 2nd feat.
- p. 98, Typical Seren Brave (raging), male human barbarian 2: Flat-footed AC should be 13, not 11, due to...wait for it...uncanny dodge. Throwing axe damage should be 1d6+5, not 1d6+6 (+5 Str). When not raging, flat-footed AC should be 15, not 13, and throwing axe damage should be 1d6+3, not 1d6 (+3 Str).
- p. 98, Typical Shroud of Scales, female human sorcerer 6: Dagger damage should be 1d4-1, not 1d4 (-1 Str). As a Sor6, she should know 7 0-level spells (not 6), 4 1st-level spells (not 5), 2 2nd-level spells (not 3), and 1 3rd-level spell (not 2). With a 17 Cha, spells/day should be 6/7/6/4, not 6/6/5/3. (It looks like they mistook where the bonus spells go.)
- p. 98, Viper familiar: AC should be 20, not 17 (+2 size, +3 Dex, +5 natural) - he gets +3 to natural armor for being the familiar of a 6th-level sorcerer (normal Tiny vipers have +2 natural armor). Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 14. Fort should be +2, not +4 (+2 as a Sor6, +0 Con). Ref should be +5, not +7 (+2 as a Sor6, +3 Dex).
- pp. 101-102, Tilbor the Divine, male goblin cleric 5: Touch AC should be 12, not 11 (+1 size, +1 Dex). Flat-footed AC should be 22, not 23 (+1 size, +9 +1 full plate, +2 heavy steel shield). Fort should be +5, not +6 (+4 as a Clr5, +1 Con). Ref should be +2, not +3 (+1 as a Clr5, +1 Dex). Will should be +7, not +8 (+4 as a Clr5, +3 Will). BAB should be +3 (as a Clr5), not +5. Grapple should be -2, not +4 (+3 BAB, -4 size, -1 Str). As a Clr5 with a +3 Wisdom bonus, spells/day should be 5/4+1/3+1/2+1, not 6/6+1/4+1/2+1/+1, and caster level should be 5th or 6th, not 7th or 8th. +1 heavy pick attacks should be at +4 melee, not +6 (+3 BAB, +1 size, -1 Str, +1 magic weapon bonus). Should only have 2 feats (besides the bonus Augmented Summoning feat), not 3.
- p. 103, Cultists of the Dragon Below, male human ranger 4: Initiative should be +4, not just "4." Feats should include track as a bonus feat as a result of his ranger levels.
- p. 103, Viper companion: Initiative should be +3, not +4 (+3 Dex). AC should be 17, not 18 (+2 size, +3 Dex, +2 natural). Touch AC should be 15, not 14. With 1/4 HD (d8), he can't have 6 hp - it's got to be either 1 or 2 hp (+0 Con).
- pp. 106-107, Typical Priest of Transition, female elf cleric 9: Initiative should be +2, not +0 (+2 Dex). AC should be 24, not 23 (+2 Dex, +9 +1 full plate, +3 +1 heavy steel shield). Touch AC should be 12, not 11. Flat-footed AC should be 22, not 23. Ref should be +5, not +3 (+3 as a Clr9, +2 Dex). Will should be +8, not +10 (+6 as a Clr9, +2 Wis). Grapple should be +6, not +8 (+6 BAB, +0 Str). Masterwork scimitar attacks should be at +8/+3 melee, not +7/+2 (+6 BAB, +0 Str, +1 masterwork, +1 Weapon Focus). Spells/day should be 6/5+1/5+1/3+1/2+1/1+1, not 6/5+1/5+1/4+1/3+1/1+1. The sanctuary spell should have a DC 13 save, not DC 12.
- p. 106, Undying Wizard: AC should be 16, not 15 (+2 Dex, +4 mage armor). Touch AC should be 12, not 11. Flat-footed AC should be 14, not 10. Reflex should be +3, not +1 (+1 as a 3-HD deathless, +2 Dex). Will should be +4, not +3 (+3 as a 3-HD deathless, +1 Will). No Level Adjustment given; presumably, it's "-."
- p. 111, Carrion Tribe Rot Lord (raging), male human barbarian 7: Flat-footed AC should be 16, not 14, due to uncanny dodge. Fort should be +8, not +10 (+5 as a Bbn7, +3 Con). Grapple should be +12, not +12/+7. (You don't get to grapple twice a round.) +1 spiked greatclub damage should be 1d10+8, not 1d10 +7 (1.5 times +5 Str = +7, +1 magic weapon bonus). When not raging, Fort should be +6, not +8 (+5 as a Bbn7, +1 Con), and greatclub damage should be 1d10+5, not 1d10+4 (1.5 times +3 Str = +4, +1 magic weapon bonus), and BAB remains at +7 (as opposed to dropping to +5, as listed).
- p. 113, Ethon Panjilcuttra, male rakshasa artificer 8: Ref should be +10, not +9 (+5 as a 7-HD outsider, +2 as an Art8, +3 Dex). Falchion damage should be 2d4+3/16-20 plus 2d6 against good, not 2d4+6/16-20 plus 2d6 against good (+1 Str, +2 magic weapon bonus). He should only have 4/3/3/1 infusions per day, not 4/4/4/2 (3/3/3/1 as an 8th-level artificer, plus 1/0/0/0 for having 13 Int - it looks like the developer got this concept confused with the 18 Cha). He should only know 3 2nd-level sorcerer spells, not 4. Touch of fatigue spell should be a +14 melee touch attack, not +13 (+13 BAB, +1 Str).
- p. 114, Arthan d'Bentalle, male dust-stuffed human aristocrat 3/rogue 3: This stat block is missing a "Resist: evasion" line, and "trap sense +1, trapfinding" should be listed under Special Qualities as well.
- p. 118, Iron Golem: Grapple should be at +27, not +28 (+12 BAB, +4 size, +11 Str). Note that this is also wrong in the Monster Manual, which is as good a lesson as any to demonstrate that you should always double-check a stat block yourself before publication.
- pp. 118-119, Tyrass, male very old gold dragon loremaster 6: Will should be +33, not +34 (+18 as a 32-HD dragon, +5 as a LrM6, +10 Wis). Spells/day should be 6/8/8/8/8/7/7/7/7/4, not 6/10/10/9/9/9/8/8/8/6 (6/6/6/6/6/6/6/6/6/4 as a Sor19, plus 0/2/2/2/2/1/1/1/1/ for Cha 26; looks like the developer got confused by the 38 Int). Also, since the three loremaster secrets aren't specified, it's possible that the 1st-/2nd-level spells/day could be bumped up by one each. (By the way, we can deduce that one of the loremaster secrets is the dodge secret, as that's the only way his AC values add up correctly.) It would have been nice to have the loremaster secrets spelled out for us, though.
- p. 146, Megaraptor:
This one is just weird. The Monster Manual says that the megaraptor is a Huge animal, yet the stat block here calls it a Large animal. The AC values, grapple bonus, and attack bonuses have been changed (correctly, even!) from the MM values to reflect the size change, yet the creature has the same number of Hit Dice and the same ability scores as if he were Huge. You'd think they'd have decreased the values if they were "shrinking" it down a size category. In any case,Fort should be +11, not +10 (+6 as an 8-HD animal, +5 Con) - and this is also incorrect in the Monster Manual. [edit: see comments below] - p. 146, Marauders of Haka'torvhak, male half-black dragon human fighter 4: With 4 HD and 43 hp, it looks like they bumped the fighter class Hit Dice to d12s - something the half-dragon template expressly forbids. 4d10+12 would mean that average hit points should be 38, not 43. Fort should be +7, not +8 (+4 as a Ftr4, +3 Con). Masterwork two-bladed sword attacks should be at +10 melee, not +12 (+4 BAB, +6 Str, +1 masterwork, +1 Weapon Focus, -2 for two-weapon fighting with "off-hand weapon" being light).
- pp. 147-148, Rhashaak, male half-fiend wyrm black dragon: This last one may well be a new record-breaker for "worst stat block in a Wizards of the Coast product." The main problem is that they forgot to add the ability score increases from the half-fiend template; Rhashaak's ability cores are the exact same as a normal black dragon wyrm! Naturally, this messes up quite a lot. Str should be 39, not 35; Dex should be 14, not 10; Con should be 27, not 25; Int should be 22, not 18; Cha should be 20, not 18. As a result...Initiative should be +6, not +4 (+2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative). Frightful presence save should be DC 32, not DC 31 (10+17+5). He should speak an additional 2 languages. AC should be 42, not 40 (-4 size, +2 Dex, +34 natural). Touch AC should be 8, not 6. Flat-footed AC should be 40, not 39. Average hit points should be 493, not 459. Fort should be +27, not +26 (+19 as a 34-HD dragon, +8 Con). Ref should be +21, not +19 (+19 as a 34-HD dragon, +2 Dex). Grapple should be at +60, not +58 (+34 BAB, +12 size, +14 Str). Bite attacks should be at +44 melee, not +42 (+34 BAB, -4 size, +14 Str). Claw, wing, and tail slap attacks should be at +39 melee, not +37 (+34 BAB, -4 size, +14 Str, -5 for secondary attack). Bite damage should be 4d6+14, not 4d6+12. Claw damage should be 2d8+7, not 2d8+6. Wing damage should be 2d6+7, not 2d6+6. Tail slap damage should be 2d8+21, not 2d8+18. Sorcerer spells/day should be 6/8/7/7/7/7/4, not 6/7/7/7/7/6/4 (6/6/6/6/6/6/4 as a Sor13, plus 0/2/1/1/1/1/0 for having Cha 20). All DCs for spell-like abilities should be increased by 1 point. With 34 HD, he should have 12 feats, not 13. I didn't bother breaking down the skill points, but these will all have to be recalculated since not only does his 22 Int grant him another 68 skill points to spend, but all but the Wisdom-based skills have different ability modifiers than as currently printed. Breath weapon Reflex save should be DC 35, not DC 34 (10+17+8). Will save for corrupt water should be DC 32, not DC 31 (the same as for his frightful presence). Crush damage should be 4d6+21, not 4d6+18, with a Reflex save of DC 35, not DC 34.
Besides stat block errors, there were a couple of other problems that crept up. The map of the Standard Passenger Cart (one of the cars of the lightning rail) on page 37 has symbols for beds instead of benches in area 7, and the Sleeper Cart (area 8) doesn't show the bathrooms as described in the text. Table 2-2: Border Guard Squads is missing a tab on the second line of the column titles; as a result, the footnotes don't line up. The cataclysm mage table only shows personal prophecies at 1st, 4th, and 7th levels, although the description says a cataclysm mage gains one at 1st level and every 3 levels thereafter, which would include at 10th level. The Quori Monolith Encounters table on page 135 has no 95; a d% roll of 90-94 results in 1d3 dire lions, and the next entry is 1d3 temporal filchers on a roll of 96-98. There are (accurate) stats for storm giant skeletons on pages 142-143, although the description refers to them as stone giant skeletons. All in all, the level of polishing on Explorer's Handbook leaves much to be desired.
The last chapter, devoted to magic items and art objects from the giant and goblinoid empires of old, makes for a nice finish to what up to that point had been an increasingly frustrating book for me to read. New magic items are always appreciated (both by players and DMs alike), and these help make the ancient locations unearthed by the exploring PCs feel like they're giving up valuable and forgotten-until-now magical lore, much more so than if they explore ancient ruins and end up with a bunch of the same old stuff from the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Taken as a whole, Explorer's Handbook does accomplish what it attempts to do: provide the reader with the rules needed for exploring the various uncharted continents of the Eberron campaign world, with some very handy maps for vehicles and their support buildings, as well as some useful prestige classes, organizations, and a generous smattering of pretty-much-ready-to-use adventure locales. However, the stat work and general sloppiness of the proofreading and editing force me to drop my overall score down from a "4 (Good)" to a "3 (Average)." (If this had been solely a monster book, I'd have to have gone with an even lower rating, but even though there is plenty of non-stat-related material in Explorer's Handbook, the fact that of the 49 stat blocks in the book, 31 of them are messed up - that's a full 63% of them - has to play a significant factor in my overall rating.) The fact that so many of the stat errors made were such boneheaded errors probably factored in fairly heavily, as well. And given that so much of the book is devoted to adventure locales (of which creature stats play a significant role), I really can't call Explorer's Handbook "good" as published. Hopefully future Wizards of the Coast books will have a bit more attention given to them. (And can we get a final word yet from somebody at Wizards: has the "stat block cavalry" actually arrived yet, or are we still waiting?)
Despite my complaints with the book, I still recommend picking it up if you're planning on running an Eberron campaign, as the vehicle stuff is really of great value, and should see plenty of use in your games.
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nobodez
Explorer
Megaraptors and Other Errata
Overall, a nice review, both mechanically and otherwise, but one of the larger sections of the stat-block problems is not theirs, but yours. It seems you forgot to take a peek at the MM errata, which, makes the megaraptor a Large Animal, rather then it's printed Huge, as well as making the Deinonychus a Medium Animal, rather then it's previous Large.
Overall, a nice review, both mechanically and otherwise, but one of the larger sections of the stat-block problems is not theirs, but yours. It seems you forgot to take a peek at the MM errata, which, makes the megaraptor a Large Animal, rather then it's printed Huge, as well as making the Deinonychus a Medium Animal, rather then it's previous Large.
lior_shapira
Explorer
Just wanted to thank you John for providing another very(!) useful review. I have the explorer's handbook but haven't used it yet and so didn't notice many of the problems.
Keep up with the excellent(!!!) review work!
lior s.
Keep up with the excellent(!!!) review work!
lior s.
John Cooper
Explorer
nobodez - You're absolutely correct about the megaraptor; I hadn't been looking at the most current version of the Monster Manual errata when I wrote up my review. Having just downloaded it from the Wizards site, though, it looks like the megaraptor's size category is the only thing that will change in my own "unofficial errata" section - and if you look at the MM errata, they've still got the megaraptor's Fortitude save wrong.
In any case, I edited my review using the handy new "strikeout" feature so everyone can see my original error. It's just a shame that I couldn't delete the whole entry, as that might have brought the overall "stat error percentage" down a notch.
In any case, thanks again, nobodez! This is the reason I "show my work" in my reviews in the first place!
In any case, I edited my review using the handy new "strikeout" feature so everyone can see my original error. It's just a shame that I couldn't delete the whole entry, as that might have brought the overall "stat error percentage" down a notch.
In any case, thanks again, nobodez! This is the reason I "show my work" in my reviews in the first place!
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