I just bought Frostburn

[FireLance]

Balance-wise, I would also watch out for Shivering Touch.

 

[Felonius]

Frostburn & Broken Spells

Balance-wise, I'd ban Ice Assassin straight away.

Two examples of abusing this spell from WotC-boards:

Buy yourself a Scroll Of Ice Assassin for 48,825 gp and duplicate yourself some 20th level wizard. If he has a spare 10,000 xp, 2 Wishes will give you 50,000 gp: a small profit, and a powerful minion. But say you want more cash. 100 gp will give a familiar, which you can then kill for the level drop. You can even polymorph your minion into something with a high Con to make sure he makes the save. He loses 2,000 xp, drops to 19th level, and you get 3 more Wishes. Raise dead and repeat. A Wiz 20 without a single experience point above the minimum can net you 9 Wishes (AKA 225,000 gp) with this method, and you still have a useful 17th level helper.

In Eberron:

Take one Artificer with a large craft bonus and loads of gold.

Craft one Staff of Ice Assassin.

Metamagic Item: Rapid Spell
Metamagic Item: Twin Spell
Metamagic Item: Repeat Spell

Power Surge, Power Surge, Power Surge.

(And, since the assassin doesn't go away when his target is slain, the best way to get rid of that "all consuming urge" is to make sure the original's dead. That also, of course, gives you plenty of body parts with which to craft more Assassins.)

There's more I'm sure...

- F

 

[Gez]

About Frostburn...

Is it just me or are those "Urskans" taken straight from the His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, were there are a race of sentient polar bears? The "Panzerbjorn" or "armoured bears", who are expert smiths making their armors from meteoritic iron, were a kinda cool concept.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

This is one sourcebook I will not be purchasing. I have absolutely no use for it. The are no true polar ice caps in my homebrew.

 

[johnsemlak]

Frost and Fur is still better. Frostburn has some nice ideas in it but I really don't think it is really that creative.

Sorry Crothy, but I gotta say this is an oversimplification and seems to be a 'd20 products are better' knee-jerk reaction IMHO. Both products are very good for what they try to do, but I honestly find it hard to rate Frost and Fur as 'better' even for the purpose of using it as a sourcebook for a Russian campaign. A lot of F&F's cultural crunch has to be vetted, edited, or chosen very carefully. The illustrations are (aside from the Color/B&W issue) simply imcomparible to Frostburn, and far less numerous. Many of hte monsters weren't illustrated at all. The monsters don't have nearly enough background information either. The crunch in Frostburn is generally more balanced and fits with the core rules better.

I personally would prefer to avoid rating one book over the other as they try to do different things, and both do them well, but if I were forced to rate one as 'better', I'd have to go with Frostburn, particularly considering the fact that they are at a similar price but the production values of Frostburn are much better. That said, if you want the cultural background that Frost and Fur presents, it's a good buy.

If:

• Illustrations are not important to you
• You prefer flavor to balance (not that Frost and Fur is particularly unbalanced).
• You don't mind picking and choosing what you will use

..,then Frost and Fur is a book for you and you might prefer it to Frostburn. But I reckon a lot of gamers will prefer Frostburn's design approach.

 

[Buttercup]

As someone else who has both Frost and Fur (love that book) and Frostburn, I can honestly say having both books is worthwhile. Heck, the real world cultural stuff in FnF makes that book worth its weight in gold.

I'll likely use the official D&D weather and environmental rules from Frostburn, however.

This sums up my opinion exactly. Both books are worthy purchases--they complement each other. Sadly, I don't think I'll be using either soon, we're in the middle of a Freeport campaign.

 

[JoeGKushner]

As someone else who has both Frost and Fur (love that book) and Frostburn, I can honestly say having both books is worthwhile. Heck, the real world cultural stuff in FnF makes that book worth its weight in gold.

Anyway, just my take.

KF72

Maybe I'm missing it, but there isn't a lot of real world cutural stuff in Frost and Fur. I point this out becuase I'd hate for someone to buy it thinking they were getting I.C.E. Vikings Supplement or a HR supplement (Green covered book) when it's really just a bunch of crunch centered around different cultures. The 'fluff' of each culuture isn't that long and certainly not capable of supporting detailed campaigns. Or am I misremembering this book?

 

[johnsemlak]

Maybe I'm missing it, but there isn't a lot of real world cutural stuff in Frost and Fur. I point this out becuase I'd hate for someone to buy it thinking they were getting I.C.E. Vikings Supplement or a HR supplement (Green covered book) when it's really just a bunch of crunch centered around different cultures. The 'fluff' of each culuture isn't that long and certainly not capable of supporting detailed campaigns. Or am I misremembering this book?

I think it's full of real world information but the emphasis is on the crunch side of it and not the fluff. Take the monster section. It has loads of monsters inspired by myths from the cultures presented, but the background text is very minimal.

That said, it has a lot of feats, spells, PrCs, classes, monsters, spells, etc that are inspired by real world history and myths. It's just that the text of the book focues on the mechanics rather than fluffy background.

I think Joe is correct that some people may buy this book and not be pleased at an apparent lack of background. If you're unfamiliar with the cultures presented, it may be difficult to use and you may have to do your own research.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I think it's full of real world information but the emphasis is on the crunch side of it and not the fluff. Take the monster section. It has loads of monsters inspired by myths from the cultures presented, but the background text is very minimal.

That said, it has a lot of feats, spells, PrCs, classes, monsters, spells, etc that are inspired by real world history and myths. It's just that the text of the book focues on the mechanics rather than fluffy backgroun.

Just making sure I wasn't halicinating. I keept hearing about the culuture this and the details that and they are just not there.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

This is one sourcebook I will not be purchasing. I have absolutely no use for it. The are no true polar ice caps in my homebrew.

Ah, but do you have high mountains with frozen peaks? Access to the colder regions of a plane similar to the elemental plane of air or water? Are there seasons, particularly winter? Are there cold regions at all? Do you have any spellcasters?

If you answered yes to any of these, then you can get at least SOME use out of Frostburn. The more you answer yes to, the more use you can get out of it.