I have Demon Queen's Enclave (P2) and Manual of the Planes

[M.L. Martin]

I have to say that I rather like this explanation for the Blood War, more so than the Chaos vs. Law conflict (but then, I never liked the Chaos vs. Law conflict all that much).

What it reminds me of is the initial explanation from what I recall reading in MC8 Outer Planes Appendix, about how the 'block of evil' was split at the dawn of time between the baatezu and the tanar'ri, and they were locked in perpetual struggle to achieve dominion over Evil itself.

 

[Shemeska]

Having finally seen the book myself, a few first impressions:

1) The massive white space in the layout of the book is annoying to no end.

2) The ravaasta picture is just damn cool. And so is its writeup as a reimagined monster. It's not the same arcanaloth, but then again it's not the same cosmology, so outside of any preconceptions carried over from the original, it's a spiffy monster.

3) The planes vary from decent to very well written. I could tell which sections Rob Schwalb worked on, because I liked them best as far as themes and general elements I like that he has a tendency to include.

4) It's not a bad book. But it's very clear that my idea of and favored design approach to the planes is often antithetical to the design stance the 4e writing team used in working on the book, and in making their favored changes upon concepts that they converted over from the Great Wheel cosmology.

5) The artwork is a very mixed bag for me. Some pictures are just spectacular (the ravaasta, Dispater, etc) and others look amateurish (grazzt and the maralith). And then there's the fact that they continued the 4e trend of recycling 3.5 artwork. In just the first look, I found artwork that originally appeared in the 3.x books Sandstorm and Lost Empires of Faerun. It's jarring and tacky, and I have to wonder why WotC has been continually doing this, especially since they're putting books out in a more selective manner at the moment. It's their time to showcase their best work and emphasize a style for 4e, and I find myself going, "Nice art. I rather liked it the first time I saw it, several years ago when it was illustrating something else entirely. Now it's just jarring to see it crop up again with the serial numbers filed off."

 

[Fifth Element]

Now I have this horrible mental image of an intelligent rod that talks like Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element, and Asmodeus being as unenthusiastic about it as Korben Dallas was in the movie.

Ruby Rhod from the what now?

 

[Shemeska]

Ruby Rhod from the what now?

This:

 

[tsadkiel]

I think Tiandra and Oran are Titania and Oberon renamed.

And now that I have the book, I really think Tiandra and Oran are Titania and Oberon renamed.

 

[kenmarable]

Now I have this horrible mental image of an intelligent rod that talks like Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element, and Asmodeus being as unenthusiastic about it as Korben Dallas was in the movie.

That's it - I'm getting this book now!

 

[Shroomy]

I got both P2 and the MotP this week. I've read most of P2 and I have to say it is full of awesome; I agree with Jack that is probably the best of the 4e WoTC modules released so far. A couple of things that I've noticed that I don't believe have been mentioned:

*In addition to all the new monsters, many of which are conversions, the phycomid makes a return to 4e, but as a hazard.
*The shunned make a nice counterpart to the reconceptualized drider; it also makes a lot more sense IMO.
*This has to be the first adventure where the NPCs make extensive use of magic items.
*I believe this is the first adventure outside of Dungeon that used monsters from outside sources (the

Spoiler

draegloth from the FRCS

and the

Spoiler

Purplespawn Nightmare from the Draconomicon

).
*Nightbringer is another really, really awesome 4e artifact. I look forward to how they use it in the future adventures.

 

[Jack99]

Yeah, didn't want to spoil everything.

Which is also why I said nothing of the Blood War still being in effect - figured that would be a surprise to most. It was to me at least.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I took a look into P2 now finally, and I must say, I am pleased. I think it might be a challenge to run, keeping the different NPCs and their motivation. There are lot of interesting story elements in the adventure. The skill challenges are interesting, especially with the variations on how to resolve such a challenge.
There are a few interesting monsters, too, plus an interesting artifact.

The adventure definitely creates a "Paragony" feel.

--

I have the Manual of the Planes for some time now, and it is a very enjoyable read. I must say I really like the Feywild, and if I decide to run something homebrew, i want to utilize more of it. The H/P/E series so far has been spare on the Feywild, unfortunately.

I liked most of the fluff and the plot hooks presented in the book. There isn't actually much crunch in the book, a big difference to something like Adventurers Vault or Martial Power. I like books that manage to keep their focus straight on crunch or on fluff.

 

[Fifth Element]

This:

Oh yeah, what's the name of that movie?