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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009834" data-attributes="member: 18387">Heroes of High Favor: Elves is the latest offerings from Bad Axe Games.  The series features each race and the possibilites of multiclassing that each combination with the race's favored class brings.  The books are smaller than standard RPG books at 6x9, but this is part of their charm.  Bad Axe books tend to pack a lot of crunch in their pages.  This book is longer than the others in the series at 78 pages, but the price point is still $9.95.The cover is quite striking, with a wreath of brown leaves covering a blue design, which I soon learned was the Elven Arcane Circle, part of the rules concerning specialist wizards.  The interior was on par with the rest of the series, with demonstrative and original artwork along with cleanly formatted text.Chapter 1 is a brief introduction, describing the contents of the book.  It discusses the perspective that elves' near immortality brings them, the nature of being a wizard, and the structure of the prestige classes each relating to a wizard multiclass.Next we come to feats and skills.  There are several interesting items here.  Many of them relate to the Favored Terrain feat, which can allow the elf to change his free weapon proficiencies (such as trading Long Sword or Rapier for Scimitar for desert elves) and opening up other terrain feats.  The only one that gives me pause is Improved Expertise, allowing for damage bonus on finessed weapons, but with the relatively high BAB requirement I don't think it will be too much of an issue.  Arcane feats allow additional flavor for specialist wizards, giving each small perks that no other wizard can access.  This is something I feel was needed by the 3e rules, the specialists aren't as distinct as they used to be.  The Spell Wards are another useful and interesting addition, allowing a wizard to prepare a spell defensively and have it automatically counter, turn on the caster, or even be absorbed when that spell is cast upon the elf.  It is reasonably balanced in my opinion, as these are done in a chain and have a caster level requirement.The skills expand on what was done in Heros of High Favor: Dwarves.  These craft skill uses will allow an elf to make special arrows and bows, as well as armor and weapons that elves might use quite a bit, such as armor that reduces spell failure chances.Chapter 3 is Lost Arcana, detailing some new magic rules.  The first is a section on specialist wizards.  This is centered on the arcane circle, used as the cover for the book.  It assigns each school a point value, and the specialist must give up a school or schools worth as many points as their preferred school.  If they give up more, they can buy special abilities, such as an extra spell slot per level (in addition to the one they already get) or a bonus to saves against their chosen school.The other section in Lost Arcana deals with Power Nexuses and Ley Lines.  Essentially, a Power Nexus is a center of magical energy.  It could be anything from ruins of an elven city, a circle of standing stones, or a crossroads.  Ley lines are lines of energy that connect the power nexuses.  I personally can't wait to incorporate this into a game.  In addition to putting a lot more emphasis on the history and geography of the campaign world, it gives wizards a good use for their Knowledge (arcana) scores.  It could have large implications for the campaign world, as the author points out and cautions the player to go over these rules with the DM before building a character around them.Next comes the prestige classes.  Each class is based on the combination of wizard along with another class.  These are well done, and tend to avoid the trap of giving full spellcasting levels.  While almost all of them do advance somewhat, most are at half the normal rate.  Others may grant +1 spellcaster level, but this is for classes such as the Grand Theurgist, who must split them between his cleric and wizard classes.  Another interesting one is the take on the elven fighter/wizard, the Veteran Wizard.  He only gains wizard levels at half normal rate, and his BAB increase is not as good as a warrior, but he gains the ability to cast buff spells only on himself at a level lower and to ignore some arcane spell failure.Chapter 5 is the two pages of role-playing information we are used to in the series.  It very neatly describes the elven archetypes and discusses near-immortality.  If you want pages and pages on what color elven underwear is or what the elves do on their holy days, you won't find it here.  The author leaves these details to the DMs to determine to make his book useful to the largest number of players.  I think its a good decision.The book closes with an appendix on spell design.  The rules are a guideline to help DMs and players iron out the level and effects of a new spell.  They look very flexible and simple.  You simply apply various templates to the spell to determine the proper level.  For instance, say I go to my DM and I want a Fire Bolt spell.  It shoot a ray of fire at a single target in close range and deals 1d8 damage per level.  This gives me a third level spell.  You can play with the numbers as well.  If I give the spell a save for half damage I can boost the range to Medium for instance.  It is emphasized that these are only guidelines and the DM will of course go over any spell before it enters play.Overall, I'm very happy with the book.  Not only does it leave me with several characters I'd love to play, but lots of information that I'll use as a DM.  Even if you aren't a big elf fan, the rules on ley lines and specialist wizards are well worth the price.  I consider this to be the best book in the series this far, and can't wait to see more.</blockquote>

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