Zardnaar
Legend
Around 109 days ago I recieved the Midgard Heroes Handbook (MHH), Midgard World Book and the Tome of Beasts in the mail from Kobold Press. I had bought the Midgard/Southlands/Unlikely Heroes PDFs and the ToB PDF and a real copy of the ToB for one of my players.
Previously I did not know that much about Midgard having not played the Pathfinder versions of this world but I found some Midgard material in some humble bundles I bought for Pathfinder because they were basically dirt cheap.
Functionally the MHH is a PHB 2 for 5E, there are around 17 new races/variants in the book, 50 archetypes, new feats, spells and new spellcasting rules as there are things like Leylines on Midgard.
Midgard is kind of a kitchen sink setting in some ways similar to Eberron, Golarion and elements of FR and Mystara in it. Various areas offer different themed games such as Zobeckj being a bit magitech with other parts of the world have vampire lands, fantasy steppes, fantasy Egypt , fantasy Venice/Italy etc and the Dragon empire is basically the Ottomans. Western Midgard is a ruin but the world has a whiff of Europe and the near east IRL to it including some place names that are very similar if not identical to real life names. Some areas are also heavily based on RL areas of earth with a fantasy Crete, Venice, Muscovy existing.
Overall the book is almost as good as the actual PHB if I rated the PHB as an A+ the MHH would be an A, if you think the PHB is an A I would give the MHH an A- etc. The slightly lower grade is due to various minor things and production qualities as the PHB for example has glossy paper, and generally slightly better art. If you have HotDQ you will be familiar with the paper the Kobolds use. Some people might prefer the art of the MHH over the PHB but they Kobolds are very very close/equal to the WoTC production with some jaw dropping art in the MHH and Midgard World Book in particular. I likie their art style better than Paizo for example whic I generally like except for the WAR cover art and his art in particular. Its better than some previous editions of D&D including things such as the 3.0 FRCS and the 3.5 Eberron book so the standards have been raised over the years by Paizo, WoTC and the Kobolds.
Would recommend this book for anyone looking for a high quality kitchen sink type setting and you don't want to wair for FR, Eberron etc to officailly get released. Also if you like your anthropomorphic races or are a fury they have you covered. Midgard also has some unique magical variations such as leylines which make your spells more powerful (potential drawback) so depending on where you are you can make your spells better. There are also wild magic options for Bards and Wizards.
This is the introduction due to the amount of material in the book I'll break this thread into chapters. Each archetype, race etc will be compared to the PHB ones in terms of power and I'll use the "would I play it" at least from a mechanical point of view. I'll list the names of the stuff in the MHH and take requests to review stuff so there this is an interactive thread where I take suggestions, otherwise I'll do things roughly in order presented in the book.
Previously I did not know that much about Midgard having not played the Pathfinder versions of this world but I found some Midgard material in some humble bundles I bought for Pathfinder because they were basically dirt cheap.
Functionally the MHH is a PHB 2 for 5E, there are around 17 new races/variants in the book, 50 archetypes, new feats, spells and new spellcasting rules as there are things like Leylines on Midgard.
Midgard is kind of a kitchen sink setting in some ways similar to Eberron, Golarion and elements of FR and Mystara in it. Various areas offer different themed games such as Zobeckj being a bit magitech with other parts of the world have vampire lands, fantasy steppes, fantasy Egypt , fantasy Venice/Italy etc and the Dragon empire is basically the Ottomans. Western Midgard is a ruin but the world has a whiff of Europe and the near east IRL to it including some place names that are very similar if not identical to real life names. Some areas are also heavily based on RL areas of earth with a fantasy Crete, Venice, Muscovy existing.
Overall the book is almost as good as the actual PHB if I rated the PHB as an A+ the MHH would be an A, if you think the PHB is an A I would give the MHH an A- etc. The slightly lower grade is due to various minor things and production qualities as the PHB for example has glossy paper, and generally slightly better art. If you have HotDQ you will be familiar with the paper the Kobolds use. Some people might prefer the art of the MHH over the PHB but they Kobolds are very very close/equal to the WoTC production with some jaw dropping art in the MHH and Midgard World Book in particular. I likie their art style better than Paizo for example whic I generally like except for the WAR cover art and his art in particular. Its better than some previous editions of D&D including things such as the 3.0 FRCS and the 3.5 Eberron book so the standards have been raised over the years by Paizo, WoTC and the Kobolds.
Would recommend this book for anyone looking for a high quality kitchen sink type setting and you don't want to wair for FR, Eberron etc to officailly get released. Also if you like your anthropomorphic races or are a fury they have you covered. Midgard also has some unique magical variations such as leylines which make your spells more powerful (potential drawback) so depending on where you are you can make your spells better. There are also wild magic options for Bards and Wizards.
This is the introduction due to the amount of material in the book I'll break this thread into chapters. Each archetype, race etc will be compared to the PHB ones in terms of power and I'll use the "would I play it" at least from a mechanical point of view. I'll list the names of the stuff in the MHH and take requests to review stuff so there this is an interactive thread where I take suggestions, otherwise I'll do things roughly in order presented in the book.
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