Frostburn looking good

[Olive]

Just to get this back on track...

If I'm planning on sending the PCs on a trip to the great white north, but with a fairly tight focus, how good will this book be for me?

I don't need much in the way of new PC options, or even new monsters. I'd liek fancy environment stuff and the like (environmental dangers etc).

 

[BastionPress_Creech]

How does it compaire with Frost and Fur? Because by the sound of it its not as good.

I think it complements Frost & Fur quite well. There is some overlap but not all that much. I'm thinking about plunging one of my campaign worlds into an ice age so both will get a workout.

 

[DragonLancer]

Still waiting for my copy that I ordered last week to show up. Hopefully tomorrow.

We're hoping that its going to be good, so we can see if WotC let us use it for the IceHaven chat game.

 

[Felon]

I was actually quite disappointed by Frostburn. I run a campaign in FR's Silver Marches, and hopes ran high for a virtual avalanche of new material. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its potential.

The monster chapter is particularly disappointing (at 53 pages, it's the largest section). The snowcloak, branta, and giant raven from the Silver Marches sourcebook are presented for 3.5e (though they really aren't altered from their 3e versions). Most of the other critters are just uninspired variants of common monsters. Dire polar bears and snow spiders, for instance, don't seem to warrant their specific entries. Just use the Monster Manual. And it's almost criminal to give us the "white pudding" that is just a black pudding with some cold resistance slapped on. Likewise, we're treated to things like winter hags, which has their potential as an interesting new foe wasted by simply co-opting the sea hag's evil eye and the annis's rend. Then there's an entry for an orc snow shaman, which is not even an actual variant, but rather a standard orc with 6 levels of the adept NPC class. Oh, and we get stat blocks for penguins (sorry, no dire penguins).

But worse than all that, there's a real sense that this book was heavily padded. For instance, some races are presented twice--once in the "races of the frostfell" section and then again with their bestiary entries. And in the section on prestige classes, we get the ever-wasteful "sample" characters, similar to the format adopted by the "Complete" series. Sample characters aren't a bad idea at all, but like lots of folks have pointed out before me, it is not necessary to provide a description of how a character's abilities function when they're already described on the preceding page.

I'm going to try to articulate all of this in a more polished manner when I post a review, but straight-up I can't imagine more than 3 stars for Frostburn.

 

[jester47]

This is going to be the basis of my review for this product.

I'm giving debaing on a 5 star rating. But this might be because I was surprised by it.

Straight out, its a proody croonchy book,

25 pages of encounter tables
31 pages of adventure locations
53 pages of monsters
3.5 pages of magic items
1.5 pages of psionics
25 pages devoted to spells
7 pages devoted to equipment (includes vehicles, materials, and actual equip.)
23 pages of Prestige Classes* (more about these in a bit)
5 pages of feats
5 pages of slight tweaks to classes to make characters fit thier surroundings if they come from a frostfell area
8 pages on new races
30 pages on running a campaign in places where it can get below freezing.

Is there any information about running entire campaigns in frigid regions, such as Iceland Dale in the FR, or winter-themed spells or class variants?

The silver marches count as a frostfell area. So this book would be very useful for a campaign in Icewind Dale and similar locales. Just to give you an idea of the depth of the first 30 pages: "Iceberg" is listed as both a terrain feature and an ocean vehicle. This is great information if your characters get out in the Sea of Moving Ice. The monsters will be useful. The PrCs I would deem less so. As for the spells: If you got the Swords, this book's got the Ice Magic. The spells are very cool elemental spells. The locations are cool and useful also. Encounter tables, if they are your thing, are great. If not its a waste of space.

If I'm planning on sending the PCs on a trip to the great white north, but with a fairly tight focus, how good will this book be for me?

I don't need much in the way of new PC options, or even new monsters. I'd liek fancy environment stuff and the like (environmental dangers etc).

The first 30 pages would be of great use to you. They cover light in polar regions, frostbite, terrain etc. Equipment is a section I think you could also use. Everything else is character options. However, you will need to put together some NPCs in the region right? All the character options are good if you want to really flesh em out for the area.

The prestige classes in this book are hit and miss. There are 10 of them. However they are set up to be picked and chosen from rather than all dumped into a campaign. I really like the Frost Mage. This class gets a lot of goodies and might be overpowered a bit. However, to qualify for the class the character has to spend 24 hours in a blizzard with no protection, and survive. One class eventually becomes immortal. They will not naturally die. There is a Psionic Cryokineticist class (think BLIZZARDstarter), A class for a Norse setting, and a five level class primarily for barbarians. The rest seem kind of lackluster to me. I think Prstige classes should come in 7s and 3s. If you have more than 7, cull lit down to 7. If you have more than three you can probably cull it down to 3. If you have less than 3 you are probably ok.

I find Frostfell is an excellent campaign resource for anyone running a campaign in an area where the winters are described as harsh.

Aaron.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

23 pages of Prestige Classes
5 pages of feats

Personally, as a DM I am getting quite sick of the amount of prestige classes out there, in WotC books and D20 books. I love feats though. Can't get enough of them, I always seem to becoming up with an idea for a new feat. I'll have to look over frostburn, and really evaluate how much of a value it is, considering that I do not need rules for my players characters surviving in arctic areas, as they never adventure in such places.

 

[jester47]

I'll have to look over frostburn, and really evaluate how much of a value it is, considering that I do not need rules for my players characters surviving in arctic areas, as they never adventure in such places.

Unless you can justify your characters encountering jungle wandering polar bears, I would say that this book is not for you!

Aaron.

 

[Shade]

I was actually quite disappointed by Frostburn. I run a campaign in FR's Silver Marches, and hopes ran high for a virtual avalanche of new material. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its potential.

The monster chapter is particularly disappointing (at 53 pages, it's the largest section). The snowcloak, branta, and giant raven from the Silver Marches sourcebook are presented for 3.5e (though they really aren't altered from their 3e versions). Most of the other critters are just uninspired variants of common monsters. Dire polar bears and snow spiders, for instance, don't seem to warrant their specific entries. Just use the Monster Manual. And it's almost criminal to give us the "white pudding" that is just a black pudding with some cold resistance slapped on. Likewise, we're treated to things like winter hags, which has their potential as an interesting new foe wasted by simply co-opting the sea hag's evil eye and the annis's rend. Then there's an entry for an orc snow shaman, which is not even an actual variant, but rather a standard orc with 6 levels of the adept NPC class. Oh, and we get stat blocks for penguins (sorry, no dire penguins).

But worse than all that, there's a real sense that this book was heavily padded. For instance, some races are presented twice--once in the "races of the frostfell" section and then again with their bestiary entries. And in the section on prestige classes, we get the ever-wasteful "sample" characters, similar to the format adopted by the "Complete" series. Sample characters aren't a bad idea at all, but like lots of folks have pointed out before me, it is not necessary to provide a description of how a character's abilities function when they're already described on the preceding page.

I'm going to try to articulate all of this in a more polished manner when I post a review, but straight-up I can't imagine more than 3 stars for Frostburn.

Wow, are we reading the same book? I thought the monsters chapter was fanstastic. We not only get the yeti in a non-OA supplement, but we get an abominable yeti. The entombed is an incredibly original undead. And unlike most of WOTC's recent books, we actually get some truly high-level challenges. The white pudding is a conversion from previous editions of the game, where it was essentially a black pudding for arctic climes, as it is presented here.

I'm thankful for the races getting a writeup in the Monsters section. It's not like this is new, anyway. All the Player's Handbook races (except the human) have writeups in the Monster Manual. Most of the Eberron races have writeups in the MM3. Frostburn just saves you the trouble of buying two books.

I agree that sample characters for prestige classes are unnecessary, but as you pointed out that seems to be WOTC's new way of doing things; it certainly isn't a flaw unique to Frostburn.

Frostburn is the definitive resource for arctic adventures. They gathered all the information from just about every previous supplement into one nice package, and truly did add an avalanche of new material. Ice as building materials, ice dungeons, expanded terrains (like icebergs and taiga), good tie-ins with other products (epic spells! psionic powers!) make it a truly great book.

I'm really looking forward to Sandstorm now.

 

[Nightfall]

Saw the book. Just scanned it. Not bad...but I didn't buy it yet. Might...but might not.

Probably get both Frost and Fur and this when I deposit my next paycheck.

 

[Felon]

I'm thankful for the races getting a writeup in the Monsters section. It's not like this is new, anyway. All the Player's Handbook races (except the human) have writeups in the Monster Manual. Most of the Eberron races have writeups in the MM3. Frostburn just saves you the trouble of buying two books.

Come on now. I'm having trouble buying the arguement that repeating content within the same book is beneficial because it's like having two books in one That's kind of specious reasoning. Heck, it's downright infomercial material

Frostburn is the definitive resource for arctic adventures. They gathered all the information from just about every previous supplement into one nice package, and truly did add an avalanche of new material. Ice as building materials, ice dungeons, expanded terrains (like icebergs and taiga), good tie-ins with other products (epic spells! psionic powers!) make it a truly great book.

See, nothing you mentioned there is really all that innovative or definitive in the way it's presented IMO. For instance, what does a gamer really know about handling iicebergs after reading FB that he didn't know before? What do I get from FB's snow goblins that I couldn't have made up on my own?

Just perusing this post and others, I sense a lot of people giving kudos to FB just for being 244 pages. I was impressed by the size too initially. But it's the same big-bun tactic that fast food companies use.