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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011705" data-attributes="member: 1129">Frostburn is a new direction for WoTC as it’s an all-purpose environmental sourcebook. This makes it different than a Forgotten Realms of Eberron campaign setting book and even different than the Complete series. Weighing in at 224 full color pages, Frostburn is priced very fairly at $34.95, where most d20 companies don’t have the weight to publish at full color for that price. Like many WoTC sourcebooks, there is material here for DMs and players. Material focused for player use includes new races, feats, spells, psionic powers, and prestige classes. Some of these races aren’t brand new, but rather, variants on standards like snow elves and glacier dwarves. Others however, like the Neanderthal and uldra, are built from the ground up. One nice feature is that the book notes that there is some overlap between some of the ideas presented here and in other books and notes that when such overlap occurs, such as with the Forgotten Realms and its artic dwarf, to use the setting specific version.For the Neanderthal, while strong and hardy, they are clumsy and less intelligent than others. They master primitive weapons and have skill bonuses to several skills essential to survival as well as environmental tolerance and while considered human for all effects related to race, are illiterate unless they start off as wizards. Surprisingly, they are a zero level race. Not powerful enough really to be modifier, but easily abused for those looking for a power hitter.The uldra on the other hand, are small fey creatures who are physically weak, but hardy with great wisdom. They have both darkvision and low-.ight vision, in addition to knowledge (nature) as a class skill with innate Cold Resistance. This cold core of theirs allows them to add frost to their weapons to inflict a little extra damage, in addition to several spell like abilities related to cold. They are a level adjustment +1 though.For those wondering how their characters will survive or how native core classes are adapted, they’ve included new options. For example, barbarians add their trap sense bonus against the natural hazards of the environment while clerics have several new deities they can follow while sorcerers and wizards get new familiar choices like artic foxes and ravens.For those looking for new feats, some of these are meant to help characters survive the environment like altitude adaptation, a feat providing a bonus to saving throws against the effects of altitude while others are meant to augment a spellcaster’s cold based spells like Cold Focus, providing a +1 to the DC of all saving throws against spells cast with the cold descriptor and it stacks with Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus. I found that there were enough feats here to add variety to characters but some may feel that some are too powerful like Piercing Cold, a Metamagic Feat that allows cold spells to damage creatures resistant or to a lesser extend, immune to cold.In terms of PrCs, I was surprised to see the Cryokineticist, a psionic based PrC. It’s a pleasant surprise to see the Expanded Psionics Handbook supported here.They are similar to the Soul Blade in that they don’t gain psionic power points, but rather, special abilities focused on a particular field, in this case, cold based powers like Glacial Ray or Bolt of Cold. Those looking to really max out an arcane spellcaster with the whole going native thing, have the Frost Mage, a spellcaster who continues to gain spells per day in addition to numerous special abilities. Perhaps a tad too powerful in that it gains spell abilities every level.Prestige classes include brief background notes, full game mechanics, including requirements, class skills and class features, and sample characters. As always, I’m on the fence about sample characters are I find them useful in a time crunch, but at the same time, think they take up too much space.The material offers a nice spread. Those interested in the new races may want to build them up using specific PrCs. For example, a Neanderthal fits perfectly into the Primeval class, a fighter-barbarian based PrC with good BAB and Fort Save and special powers relating to it’s feral state. For the Uldra, the Rimefire Witch fits into their background as this is a divine spellcaster that continues to advance and gains certain ice based abilities like Ice Skate, where the Witch can conjure ice skates or Iceberg, a powerful spell introduced in the book.With new races, feats and PrCs out of the way, we still have outfitting options. This includes new weapons, spells, and psionic powers. Some of the weapons are based on the primitive state of weapons in such a cold climate like the Goad, a pole with a heavy stone mounted at the end or the Iuak, a machete style blade made of bone or stone. I enjoyed the new exotic materials. The different types of ice, Blue, Rimefire and Stygian, add new depth in terms of options that the GM can add to his game without just adding new magic items. For example, Rimefire Ice can be made into any weapon that could be made out of wood and deals extra cold damage even as it glows in a 20-foot radius.Spells include new cleric domains cold and winter. Spells are broken up by class then level while arcane spells also have a further breakdown by school. Spells have a nice range of levels, but most of them are lower level. For example, there are eight 3rd level cleric spells and only two 9th level cleric spells or how there are ten 2nd level spells for arcane spellcasters and only three 9th level spells. Some of these are old variants like Wall of Coldfire, where instead of taking fire damage you take cold damage or others like Flesh to Ice, where you turn the target into ice instead of stone. Others are utility spells like Ease of Breath, providing a bonus to resist altitude sickness or Snow Walk, where you can walk across snow without leaving tracks or scent. In terms of psionics, we have a few new toys for both psionics and psychic warriors as well as one for the kineticist. These include abilities like Energy Flash where a touch deals 7d6 points of chosen energy damage to Mind Over Energy, where a psychic warrior uses a 6th level power to gain immunity to a chosen element type.While the section on magic items doesn’t take up a lot of space, there are some nice options like Figurines of Wondrous Power like the Basalt Glyptodon or the Diamond Ice Toad, that add new options. Others are like toys that you’ll want to equip important NPCs with like the Minor Iceheart, a small chunk of ice infused with power that can produce a few ice based effects like Ray of Frost. Unfortunately, while they list the gold piece cost, they don’t include caster cost in terms of gold or experience points, which is sloppy for WoTC as they should be setting the standards in ease of use.Now while GMs can use all of that information, there are details not focused on augmenting players. The start of the book for instance, deals with all of the hazards that can be inflicted on players. These range from mundane matters of survival to magical hazards. Several locals that are considered Frostfell, any area dominated by ice, snow, and cold, are noted. For example, the 113th and 23rd layers of the Abyss are considered Frostfeel, are  certain parts of the Elemental Planes of Air and Water. It’s a nice section that expands upon the tricks a GM has to foil his characters.For me, my favorite section is the Monsters of the Frostfell. There are numerous challenges here for characters of various levels. These range from new Dire Animals like the Dire Polar Bear, to other ‘old’ animals like the Megaloceros (think really big dear with huge horns), Smilodon (good old Saber-Toothed Tiger), and Woolly Mammoth. Of course no frozen land could be complete without some new undead like the Entombed, a medium sized undead encased in a giant sized suit of ice, almost like a mecha of ice. Another undead, the Yuki-On-Na, looks to be from Eastern lore as it’s a spirit of with a mercurial nature. Another oddity is that the Vodyanoi is no longer a relative of the Umber Hulk but rather, a fey creature.Another set of tools are the locations, Delzomens Iceforge (EL 5) and Icerazer, an Icebert City. The first is a set of locations including overland map and up close map that the GM can use as a quick adventure, while the latter is a city with overview map and several areas detailed, but most not mapped. These include the Icerazer Palace, a place only for the powerful, as numerous giants and other dangerous creatures make their home there, to the Town Hall with its watchers.Illustrations in this book are a step in the right direction. Artists like Dan Scott and David Griffith, the latter a long time artist in the d20 field, having work in a Wizards of the Coast book. David Griffith lends the book a nice look as he does several PrCs and handles the weapons and other areas. His Tigerskull Club shows why a Neanderthal with such a weapon would look so vicious. The bad news is that others who are not quite so loved like Dennis Crabapple are also present.One of the unexpected benefits of this package are the perforated sheets for ice hazards.  We have sheets for Razor Drifts, Ice Palace, Crevasse, and Ebony Lake. These are heavy cardstock pages meant to be cut in two as each page has two ice hazards. Full game details are on the back of the card with solid illustrations on the front page.On the other hand, they overdid it on the encounter tables. We have over twenty pages of encounter tables. Sure, the tables have a lot of utility as they include creatures from the official books like the Monster Manual II, Monster Manual III and Fiend Folio, and a substitution list for those who don’t own those books, but still, over twenty pages?Overall I enjoyed Frostburn. It’s given me more options to add onto my arsenal. It adds options for players and provides locations for GMs to get into the game as soon as possible. The wide berth of material and support for psionics is a nice touch. I would’ve like to seen the encounter tables cut down and perhaps more locations added, like a castle for the Knights of the Iron Glacier, or perhaps a few racial substitution levels for the new races since it’s unlikely they’ll get their own sourcebooks latter but I’m enjoying using the book and trying to figure out all the places in the Forgotten Realms I can add the material.</blockquote>

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