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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011298" data-attributes="member: 1129">Let me start with where I’m coming from. I’m a GM of the Forgotten Realms. Right now my group is in the Unapproachable East. I’m a longtime fan of the setting. I enjoy revisions that do more that just update skill lists and put in minimal work like changing spells names. I think that the regional feats, despite lacking perfect game balance, are an interesting idea and will become standard in new settings. Lastly, as I’ve noted before, I like hard covers that are in full color.Now that I’ve gotten some basic information out of the way, what do I have to say about the Player’s Guide to Faerun? Put simply, if you’re a player in the Forgotten Realms, especially a new player, this great resource can generate ideas for dozens of characters. If you’re a GM, it updates a lot of the game mechanics in previous 3.0 products and adds a few new touches, not all of which everyone will agree with.The book is broken into seven chapters with a lot of extras in the appendix. Chapter one covers races and feats. It reintroduces the idea of character regional feats and provides an excellent breakdown of race and location so that almost any type of character can be covered. In this version, regional feats are intended to be more powerful than standard ones. In addition, you can only ever have one regional feat. Something that goes against the grain but if every player has access to them, what’s the harm I figure. It can make evaluating opponents a little more tricky for the GM and does provide new Gming challenges but not overly so.For example, in my campaign, almost all of the characters are from the Moonsea region with a few from nearby areas. Not a single player took a regional feat. Now I’m not blind. They just didn’t feel that any of their existing character meshed with the feats presented for their region and I’m sure that when the next batch of characters role out, as a GM I’ll have to veto regions left and right to avoid the dread min-maxing and of course, keep it in the campaign. “Well Tom, as we’re currently playing in the Great Glacier, what makes you think that a character from the Lake of Steam is a viable choice?”Some of the feats are standard with a little extra thrown on top. For example, Thunder Twin is meant for Dwarves and allows the user to sense the general direction of his twin with a Wisdom check versus a DC of 12. It also gives the user a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate. In a similar vein, Silver Palm provides a +2 bonus to Appraise, Bluff and Sense Motive. A little better than a standard feat but overwhelmingly so? Not really. This isn’t to say that everything is so simple. What about Daylight Adaptation, meant for kuo-toa and the good old drow, where you don’t suffer from bright light or sunlight?In terms of prestige class, we’ve got over two dozen to select from. Some of these are updates from previous material and some I’ve never seen before. Some are similar to other PrCs I’ve seen. For example, the Divine Champion is very much in the spirit of a Paladin, something that Librum Equitis Two covered well. Others I’ve seen from games like the Monk of the Long Death, a monk who studies the process of dying. It’s a good selection of material and GMs should have plenty of options when making villains ranging from the Maiden of Pain to the Shadow Thief of Amn.Players also have options. One of my players decided to try out the Morninglord of Lathander. I’ve got to note that while some of the material seems overpowered, in the game it didn’t really matter. The fighters still held the high ground.Spellcasters of all types should be well pleased. Domains and Spells introduces deity specific spells that require the cleric to have an initiate feat. The only bad thing is that some very obvious candidates for such feats were left out. For example, where is Tempus? Where’s Azuth? The ‘good’ or proper ones are covered, as are the ‘evil’ or main enemy ones. For example, we’ve got Bane, Cyric, and Malar on one side, and Helm, Ilmater, Lathander, Mystra, Selune and Tyr on the other, along with a few whose presence I question like Nature and Gond.So what are the spells like? How about Sword and Hammer, a 4th level Tyr spell that crates two weapons of force? How about Strength of the Beast where you gain the benefits of your lycanthropic animal form while still in human form? Good stuff right?Now one thing that WoTC have usually done well is a proper breakdown in their spell lists. This book is no different. It starts off with classes, including prestige classes from the DMG, and then by level, and then by alphabetical order. Wizard spells are further broken up by school. This doesn’t include just the spells though, but also the domains. Where domain changes have occurred from the Forgotten Realms Campaign setting, they’re noted. Domains include balance and charm, as well as cavern and cold among others. Each one includes deities, granted power and 1st through 9th level spells appropriate for the character. The only bad thing is that there is only one prestige domain, that of Watery Death, for Blibdoolpoolp and Umberlee worshipers. My own favorite is probably the Metal Domain. With spells like Magic Weapon, Wall of Iron, Blade Barrier and Iron Body, what’s not to like? The bonus weapon proficiency and weapon focus with your choice of hammer is icing on the cake.Since one of my players is a mage, I’ve already started using the material here. For example, Improved Mage Armor (the guy’s a Conjurer), granting the user a +3 armor bonus with an extra +1 every two levels. The nice thing about this book is that the spells fall under a wide range of classes and levels. Playing a paladin? Try Forceward and create an unmoving sphere of force about yourself. Playing an evil cleric? Try General of Undeath and control five times your caster level in undead.Beyond spells, there are magic items. This includes new abilities for items in addition to new specific items. I hate to say it, but my favorite section is the Baneblades of Demron, a set of swords that are highly powerful but full of personality. Of these blades, my personal favorite is Morvian, a greatsword that requires the user to be lawful good and is an axiomatic weapon with the daylight ability, in addition to the standard abilities of all the blades of Demron like +4 holy, evil outside and undead bane. Nice stuff there.Some of the other material isn’t appropriate for all campaigns. For example, there is a large amount of information on Epic levels in Faerun. This includes making all the 10 level PrCs introduced here into the epic range in addition to two new classes, the Netherese Arcanist and the Spellfire Hierophhant. Both are exceptionally powerful and I’d have to playtest more to comment on the viability of these classes, but at these levels, minimum of 22nd   to even start, what really is overpowered? In addition to the PrCs, there are also new Epic Feats.Now the section about the Cosmology of Toril is similar in scope. Unlike the standard Great Wheel, the planes are described as following a tree shape with some planes making up the trunk, roots and branches. The full-page illustration makes understanding the concept easier than reading alone. The descriptions of the landscapes are often a paragraph or two with specifics on how the gods or other powerful entities fit here in addition to planar traits. For example, Arvandor supports the Crescent Grove where Corellon Larethian and Sehanine Moonbow reside even as you can read about game mechanics like how the Abyss has normal gravity and mixed energy traits. There’s so much information on so many planes that sometimes you could skip over something without even realizing it. For example, Lolth is famous for her Demonweb Pits, a separate plane, and no longer part of the Abyss here.Now one chapter that I pretty much skipped over is Campaign Journal. I know that some may find it hard to believe that I didn’t give it a solid reading but to be honest, it’s my Forgotten Realms when I GM. I hardly need WoTC to tell me what’s going on, especially since my fiction reading has fallen way behind. While I’m sure that there are many who want to know about the Return of the Archwizards and the War of the Spider Queen, I don’t. It’s great information for fans of the fiction and for those who want to incorporate it, but from what friends have told me, these series haven’t concluded yet despite going on for over a year in some cases. To me, this is one of the biggest weaknesses of the Realms.Now the appendix is a great tool for the complete collector of all things Wizards of the Coast. It includes information on how to incorporate material ranging from psionics, to Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness. It does this by including NPC’s, organizations, prestige classes, feats, and general ideas on how it all fits into the Forgotten Realms.I regret that I haven’t read the Expanded Psionics Handbook yet so I can’t tell you if the information here is new or old, but as much of it is role playing, it should be useful with either. I myself found the charts and details on how Vile and Exalted Deities fit into the Forgotten Realms, for example, which deity gets which domain, as well as how the archfiends and paragons fit into the Forgotten Realms, useful. One of my players is a paladin-fighter who follows or works from one of the paragons. An odd situation as those beings do not want worship but help those of pure heart slay evil.The book closes out with some variants on how to deal with level adjustment races. The first is using powerful races at first level. In essence, you are heavily penalized with a –1 per ECL on almost everything until you gain enough experience to go past your ECL. The examples used in the book include a tielfling, who is +1 so gets a –1 to most things and a drow, whose +2 so gets a –2.The second option is for lesser versions. They provide stats for gray dwarves, drow, planetouched and deep gnomes.  These are pared down versions of the standard and the book recommends going all the way with such a change. If the players are lesser drow, the NPCs should be too. In some ways I can see that logic but in others, well, variety is the spice of life.The book does an excellent job of updating many things but doesn’t go far enough in some aspects. For example, the initiate feat. Great start but its got to be filled out more. If there are going to be no more specialty priests of tempus as battleguards running around, at least give us some unique spells. In addition, because the fiction line hasn’t really changed that much (for example, finished the storylines), leave it out.The book has the standard layout of a Forgotten Realms book which looks like faded parchment. It uses full color illustrations that don’t stand out in harsh contrast to the rest of the book. It makes good use of tables and illustrations to help flesh out the book. Editing looks like it could’ve been a touch better with some of the material looking suspicious compared to other bits. For example, why don’t the hit dice of the epic versions always match their standard PrCs?This book is not for everyone. If you don’t like 3.5, then this isn’t your book. If you don’t want to compare the changes in this book with those in your old 3.0 books, this isn’t your book. Believe me, there are a lot of changes, far too many to list in feats and PrCs. If you believe that everything should be balanced, this book probably isn’t for you. The regional feats and some of the other material tends to be on the high powered side.For players of any campaign that want more options, this is a great book. For GMs who want to keep up to date with the happenings of the Realm, this is a great book. I’ve already been using it and will continue to do so.</blockquote>

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