Simplicity
Explorer
... because I just walked into a Wizards store and picked a copy up. Rapid first impressions (some good, some bad):
1) They sure like their Desmodu. Tons of Desmodu equipment and a reprint of their stats. Did we really need this info AGAIN? I don't really see why they keep trying to push the bat people on us. I think the whole race is rather lame, but whatever.
2) Nice equipment section (other than Desmodu silliness). Lots of magic items that look interesting.
3) One annoying bit of equipment that will never get seen in my campaign... 20 gp for aboleth mucus. Will DC 19 or you can't breathe air for 3 hours. Can you say "WAY overpowered"?
Good to know that an aboleth can "huck loogies" though, I guess.
3.2) Good equipment idea... Tail blade. A blade you attach to your tail and swing around like a sword.
3.5) Bad equipment idea... Medusa snake chains. Chains medusas manipulate with their snake hair. And it gives them 10 ft reach... a really silly idea if I've ever heard one.
4) The feats are REALLY cool. Tons of things in here that monsters would love to get their sharp claws on. Say for instance you want to pick up a table and use it as a weapon... There's a feat for that. Say you got a constricting attack, and you'd much rather tear the grappled schmoe apart than constrict... That's a feat (a nasty one too...). Okay. Maybe you'd rather just swallow your opponent whole, but they happen to be the same size as you.... Well, if you can normally swallow whole, then there's this feat that'll let you do that.... I know where your dirty mind is going with this... Don't go there.
5) Nice prestige class section. Though some of the classes seem a bit narrowly focused, and some are REALLY poorly named.
Illithid Savant... Great... I really wanted the term idiot savant associated with my brain-eating character. The class that I thought was supposed to be called Swarmlord (which would have been totally appropriate) is now Master of Flies.... Which is not at all appropriate. Especially since the picture shows a drider commanding a spider swarm. That's not a Master of Flies, WotC, that's a Taster of Flies.
Looking back at the review, it looks kind of negative, but I'm really not negative about this book. It contains tons of interesting ideas and information. I look forward to using some of it in a campaign.
I love some of the art in this book as well. There's a slaad picture in there that SHOULD have been in the Monster manual. It gives me such a better idea of what a slaad should look like than the cartoony reptiles in the MM ever did. There's a funny picture of what looks like a velociraptor trying to hold a sword... Kind of cute.
1) They sure like their Desmodu. Tons of Desmodu equipment and a reprint of their stats. Did we really need this info AGAIN? I don't really see why they keep trying to push the bat people on us. I think the whole race is rather lame, but whatever.
2) Nice equipment section (other than Desmodu silliness). Lots of magic items that look interesting.
3) One annoying bit of equipment that will never get seen in my campaign... 20 gp for aboleth mucus. Will DC 19 or you can't breathe air for 3 hours. Can you say "WAY overpowered"?
Good to know that an aboleth can "huck loogies" though, I guess.
3.2) Good equipment idea... Tail blade. A blade you attach to your tail and swing around like a sword.
3.5) Bad equipment idea... Medusa snake chains. Chains medusas manipulate with their snake hair. And it gives them 10 ft reach... a really silly idea if I've ever heard one.
4) The feats are REALLY cool. Tons of things in here that monsters would love to get their sharp claws on. Say for instance you want to pick up a table and use it as a weapon... There's a feat for that. Say you got a constricting attack, and you'd much rather tear the grappled schmoe apart than constrict... That's a feat (a nasty one too...). Okay. Maybe you'd rather just swallow your opponent whole, but they happen to be the same size as you.... Well, if you can normally swallow whole, then there's this feat that'll let you do that.... I know where your dirty mind is going with this... Don't go there.
5) Nice prestige class section. Though some of the classes seem a bit narrowly focused, and some are REALLY poorly named.
Illithid Savant... Great... I really wanted the term idiot savant associated with my brain-eating character. The class that I thought was supposed to be called Swarmlord (which would have been totally appropriate) is now Master of Flies.... Which is not at all appropriate. Especially since the picture shows a drider commanding a spider swarm. That's not a Master of Flies, WotC, that's a Taster of Flies.
Looking back at the review, it looks kind of negative, but I'm really not negative about this book. It contains tons of interesting ideas and information. I look forward to using some of it in a campaign.
I love some of the art in this book as well. There's a slaad picture in there that SHOULD have been in the Monster manual. It gives me such a better idea of what a slaad should look like than the cartoony reptiles in the MM ever did. There's a funny picture of what looks like a velociraptor trying to hold a sword... Kind of cute.
