Miniatures Handbook: Any good?

[the Jester]

Hm, iffy, but if they have to choose spells known like a sorc then I can see it... maybe... I'd have to read it in detail and mull it heavily.

 

[Shazman]

That does seem pretty powerful, but cool for cleric lovers.

What about the War Mage?

The warmage is basically a sorcerer with d6 hit dice that can eventually cast spells in medium armor with no chance of arcane spell failure. The class also adds int bonus to damage on direct damage dealing spells and gets bonus "sudden" metamagic feats. Spellcasting ability is based on CHA. The only downside is a more limited selection of spells than a wizard or sorcerer. Seems a bit over powered to me, but limited spell selection may make it more balanced over time.

 

[Thaumaturge]

The War Mage has a very limited selection. They only get spells that blow things up, so there is a good deal of debate about the balance of the class. With such a limited spell selection, War Mages are good at one thing and one thing only. They are just really good at that one thing.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

The War Mage has a very limited selection. They only get spells that blow things up, so there is a good deal of debate about the balance of the class. With such a limited spell selection, War Mages are good at one thing and one thing only. They are just really good at that one thing.

Aren't a LOT of characters one-trick ponies? D&D's d20 system lends to being great at one time, usually at anothers expense. Is this so different? It's not like they're all named Tim,...or are they?

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Just saw this briefly at the store and it looked substantially more interesting than I was expecting. How useful is this book going to be to the average D&D gamer? How do the mass battle rules stack up vs. those in other sources such as Testament, Cry Havoc, Quintessential Fighter, War, etc. (and when the heck is Fields of Blood coming out, btw?).

Anybody have a chance to review the Miniatures Handbook yet? No reviews up on the ENWorld reviews section.

Even though I'm not really big on miniatures, I'd give this book a 3.5 out of 5 (I swear, there's no pun intended). The only things it loses points for is because I probably won't use the skirmish rules often, and I'll probably never use the rules for full-blown warfare.

Otherwise, it has some VERY nifty stuff in it, useful for just about any D&D game. I'm not disappointed at having purchased it at all.