Planar Hanbook excerpt and art gallery

[Gez]

I will have to give this one a look when it comes out? Does anyone know if it will support cosmologies besides the traditional Great Wheel?

I kinda expect it to be very light on the cosmology. Sure, there default is the Great Wheel and it will be the assumption -- just like the Complete Warrior assumes the world is Greyhawk, and proceed to introduce things that are not really meant to fit with Greyhawk anyway. Like the Warrior's Pantheon...

Anyway, it's a brown book, not a blue book, so it will be mostly "crunch" with relatively little background.

 

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

The Doomguard are simply cool. For all of the Faction based PrCs in the book I'll honestly be looking more at the flavor versus the numbers. Numbers take a backseat to the flavor in my mind.

Flavor is great, but you shouldn't be penalized for it, which is likley the case if you're taking this PrC. But maybe I'm nuts in thinking that a character's mechanical power shouldn't be penalized for trying to add flavor to that character.

 

[coyote6]

I'm thinking the Doomguard gets that healing hit because it otherwise gets full BAB, d12 HD, 3 bonus feats, 1/2 spellcasting progression, 2 ability score increases, a smite ability usable against anything (but really helpful against constructs or objects -- note the Improved Sunder, and watch the adamantine weapons break), free adaptation to the negative energy planar trait, and 2 spell-like abilities.

That's quite a bit.

If you don't like the healing problem, be a warforged doomguard, get Leadership, an artificier cohort, and forget cure spells entirely.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

If anyone remembers back in 2e PS the Doomguard had for their disadvantage, the fact that they had to fail a save vs. magic to be healed from healing spells...

So healing only half hit points is an improvement over that...

 

[Krug]

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/planar_gallery/82504.jpg

"You do the hokey pokey /And you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about.."

 

[I'm A Banana]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the half healing thing ain't that bad (one wand man! shell out the gil!).

 

[Knight Otu]

KM, I think you hit the wrong thread.

As for the art, we've seen better (Draconomicon, even Dennis Cramer had good moments there), but we also saw worse (Races of Faerûn).

 

[francisca]

I'm pretty underwhelmed by the art. There is nothing I outright hate, but I'm not impressed. The only pieces I like are the frost dwarf and firegnome.

What I think is bugging me the most are the color choices. And I don't mean somebody should have had blue pants instead of green. I mean the palette of colors used on all of the art, regardless of artist, really bugs me. I can't put a finger on why, however. I really don't like the poses, either, and don't care for the bigger-than-normal eyeballs on some of them.

Matter of taste, I 'spose.

 

[reanjr]

That you can now have a legit roleplaying reason to go around quoting Tyler Durden from 'Fight Club' because you'll be a Doomguard member. *chuckle*

"Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart." - Tyler Durden

The Doomguard are simply cool. For all of the Faction based PrCs in the book I'll honestly be looking more at the flavor versus the numbers. Numbers take a backseat to the flavor in my mind.

I agree. Which is why I wish they had made these 3-level prestige classes. Nothing else was really necessary. Could have even wittled it down to a feat. Oh, well. Not like I ever use WotC's rules in D20 anyway. They're just wrong.

 

[reanjr]

I'm pretty underwhelmed by the art. There is nothing I outright hate, but I'm not impressed. The only pieces I like are the frost dwarf and firegnome.

What I think is bugging me the most are the color choices. And I don't mean somebody should have had blue pants instead of green. I mean the palette of colors used on all of the art, regardless of artist, really bugs me. I can't put a finger on why, however. I really don't like the poses, either, and don't care for the bigger-than-normal eyeballs on some of them.

Matter of taste, I 'spose.

I think they told the artists to try to emulate Tony DiTerlizzi (the guy who painted like 95% of the Planescape art, almost all in watercolor). Unfortunately they did so poorly. DiTerlizzi was awesome though.