The Planar Handbook is written by Bruce R. Cordell and Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel. At 192 full color pages, it seems inexpensive at $29.95 compared to other books on the market. In contrast, most of Atlas’ books are 160 b&w pages for $30.00 or Expeditious Retreat Press’ latest book, A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture, a 160 page b&w softcover book for $27.00.
In terms of art, there’s some good news and some bad. There are several great illustrations in terms of characters, monsters, and maps. For example, the illustrations in full color of the new types of armor, are a nice touch. The various monsters illustrations help bring to life the new beasts. However, something that Wizards of the Coast seems to be doing a little too much lately, is highly noticeable here. Clip art. Well, I don’t know if it’s actually clip art, but how many more times do we need to see the smoking pair of boots by Wayne Reynolds the other illustrations by him like the fat toad demon or the cracked helmet in the sand? This isn’t some third party publisher’s fifth product, this is Wizard’s of the Coast and clip art of any sort, is highly inappropriate for them.
In terms of utility, I’m also a little at a loss as to what the companies overall plan is. Right on the front, it notes that this is “A Player’s Guide to the Planes.” Okay, then why do we have so many monsters? While I can see the potential use for some of the locations, I’m at a loss as to why we need new monsters in a player’s guide. It confuses the purpose of the book. Player’s want material for playing, not to have their material stepped on by goods that only a GM is going to use. On the same pole, I’ve already heard the rumblings on our boards about how little else there is here for GMs to use. (I disagree with that, but I’ll get to that in a minute.)
In terms of player utility, we have what I call the standards here. New races, feats, prestige classes, and spells. For new races, we have some old favorites like the divine blooded aasimars and the infernally tainted tieflings, as well as a new subset of races, the mephlings. These are broken down into the traditional elements, air, earth, fire and water. My personal favorite though is probably the shadowswyft, a race with ties to the plane of shadow, as well as the spiker, a creature who shares some ancestry with the bladelings. One of the best thing about this section is that most of these new races are a level adjustment of zero or plus one, meaning that most are good for low level play.
For those more interested in more powerful races, the authors provide a Savage Species style breakdown for Avoral, Chain Devils, Hound Arhcons, Janni, and Lillend. With this breakdown, you se the special abilities each one gets per level, as well as how their back attack bonus and other features rise as they gain their racial levels. The only thing that doesn’t really pan out is it really shows the discrepancy between a character class and a monster. For example, an outsider gets a +1 to her base attack bonus per hit die. If you’re a fighter, you gain a hit die every level and a +1 to your base attack. A 13th level lillend only have 7 hit dice and so, only have a +7/+2 to their base attack bonus. Sure, they have numerous other abilities but it makes you wonder what the system would be like if classes didn’t have hit dice and had to use their race as a hit die and if special abilities and other innate abilities, like a wizard’s spellcasting abilities, were all customizable. (Might have to break out BESM d20 again and play around with it.)
In terms of character augmentation, we have a few options. One of the new ones is planar substitution levels. At certain levels, you can take a planar level instead of a standard level. These levels give you different abilities than your standard level. To take such a level, you have to meet one of several requirements like visited a plane other than the Material, have the extraplanar subtype, heritage feat or at least 1 rank in Knowledge of the Planes.
Each of the core classes is covered and written up per the player’s handbook, in alphabetical order. So for example, the first class is the barbarian, who can take one of these substitution levels when he’s 3rd, 7th or 11th. Normally you get your standard progression in terms of bab, saving throws and class skills, but you lose your standard special abilities and gain a specific one. In this instance, the barbarian can sense portals for his first substitution level, gains planar damage reduction (2/-) against outsider’s attacks at his second level, and gets a menacing rage, that demoralizes outsiders within twenty feet of the barbarian unless they make a Will save.
It’s an interesting mechanic and has a lot of potential to allow the players and Game Master to truly customize those characters in his campaign. It reminds me a bit of some of the monk variants in the Unearthed Arcana and from what I understand, is also in the new Races of Stone book.
In terms of feats, we have a new type, the Heritage feat, as well as many general feats. Some of the feats have great potential in the right circumstances. For example, if you’re fighting a high level monk whose wailing on your with his flurry of blows, Acheron Flurry is a great counter. You spend a standard action and distract your foe and on his next turn, he can only take a single standard action or move action.
For the Heritage feats, some seem overpowered but they have limits in their overall utility. For example, Anarchic Heritage gives you a +4 bonus to saves against polymorph or petrification effects as well as a +1 bonus on saving throws created by lawful creatures but looking at in whole, it’s a higher save than say Lighting Reflexes, but doesn’t apply against anything. The wording could be a little clearer though. For example, do you gain a +5 on your saving throw if a lawful creature is trying to polymorph you? I’d say no but without it being spelled out. In addition, it makes no note of this stacking with other saving throw bonuses as it doesn’t indicate what type of bonus this is.
One of the most interesting feats though, has got to be Planar Touchstone. This allows you to “Forge a link between you and power-rich planar locations.” Several locations are described latter in the book. Characters can attune themselves to different touchstones but can only attune themselves to as many touchstones as they have taken in feats. So if you’ve only taken the feat once, you can only retain the abilities of the last place your attuned yourself to. Even more impressive is that if you go to the place, you can gain a more powerful ability with a limited number of uses. Some great campaign seed adventurers right here and some potential to really up the ante in a higher level campaign. Imagine the surprise on the party’s face when a fighter casts a fireball spell eh?
For prestige classes, the authors have done something different. Instead of just a brief introduction to them and the game stats, the authors have provided various organizations. Now it’s been a long time since I was in a Planescape campaign, but for the most part, I’m sure that’s where many of these PrCs come from.
Take the Athar for example. The group’s background and goals are detailed for about a page and a half before the new PrC, the Defiant is detailed. How about the Doomguard with their PrC, the Doomlord or the Fated with their PrC, the Featemaker. It’s a nice selection of old ideas updated to a new edition. I fear that it won’t be enough for die-hard fans of the old setting but I find it better than nothing and hopefully a good indication that we may see some more such material in the future.
Not every PrC belongs to an old Faction though. Take the astral dancer for example. They are masters of fighting in zero gravity environments and I’m actually looking them over for inclusion in a d20 Future campaign as many of their abilities, such as relative attack, considering the astral dancer on higher ground, or astral dodge, where they have a +2 dodge bonus in no-gravity environments, make sense for a d20 Future campaign as well.
On the opposite end, the elemental warrior selects an affinity with one of the elemental planes and can then call on abilities of it. For example, elemental weapon inflicts an extra 2d6 points of energy damage while their master attack, elemental strike, inflicts massive amounts of damage and has a secondary effect that ranges depending on the element selected. For example, the water strike deals 10d6 points of damage and draws the moisture from the enemy, causing them to become nauseated for 1 round unless they make a Fort saving throw.
Players are always looking for an advantage in combat. New equipment is often one way to gain such an element. Some of the weapons just seem a little over the top like the Jovar, which is in essence a greatsword with a better critical range while others are for visual appeal like the annulat, which resembles a chakram, an edged throwing disk. Three new armors help round off the give and take of combat with mechanus gear, hooked armor and sectioned armor providing new options. My favorite is the sectioned armor as it can be worn in various stages, providing different AC bonuses depending on how its assembled. For those looking for maximum protection though, the mechanus gear , while reducing its wearers movement greatly, grants a +10 armor bonus.
Numerous other bits help round out the section. Looking for new vehicles or even new materials to have your weapons and armor forged of? The book has you covered.
Now in terms of GM’s toys, this section, Equipment and Magic Items, is where your options start. While the characters are the ones who often benefit the most from magic items, it’s the GM’s decision as to which items they gain. In that spirit, we have new armor and weapon special abilities, as well as specific weapons. My favorite in this section is probably Afterlife, a +2 consumptive burst unholy greatsword that can cast death knell as a standard action once per day. Got to love those evil items. Others will be looking at some of the other toys like the Rod of Envervating Strike, which functions as a +1 heavy mace and also inflicts an inflict light wound spell on the victim.
The book then swings back to the player side with new spells. One of the things I enjoy about most WoTC products is the excellent spell break down. It’s much easier to see a listing of spells broken down by class, then in the case of wizards and sorcerers by school, and then level, then just a massive listing of spells. A new concept here are the planar domains where each domain has it’s own spell list and granted powers. The deities listed are the basic ones from the PHB with those from other sources named. For example, Kurtulmak has kobolds listed next to him.
In terms of spell lists, while the assassin doesn’t get any new toys, the blackguard gains a few, and all of the core classes gain several new ones. The druid doesn’t get quite as many as the other classes and actually gains no new 8th level spells, but otherwise, has at least one new spell for each level. Many of the spells focus on either avoiding the perils of the planes, like the 3rd level spell, Avoid Planar Effects, or summoning planar themed creatures. Those spells tend to be of a higher level and all come from the conjuration school.
The book then gives reign over to the GM with new monsters. A listing of creatures by challenge rating shows a listing of creatures from ¼, the elysian thrust, to 16 at the astral kraken. Several new templates are also included like anarchic (chaotic), to axiomatic (lawful). It’s a good selection overall, but I wish that there had been more inhabitants of the Far Realm as opposed to just the dharculus, which isn’t even stated as coming directly from the Far Realm, just “is a creature from an alternative reality far from the Material Plane…” Interestingly enough, two new races, the forst dwarf, and the fire gnome, have listings as a monster and traits so players have another option and at a level adjustment of 1, it’s another one playable at lower levels.
While I can see why Planar Sites were included, to give players a base of operations, it’s still in the GMs realm and another thing I wonder why it’s in a player’s manual. Nonetheless, I’m glad to see some old favorites updated, even briefly, to the new edition. We have a nod to the old Infinite Staircase as a way to move around planes, and brief descriptions of the City of Brass, Sigil, and Tu’narath. Once again, I’m of the opinion that a slight nod to the first two, truly classic places in my mind is better than nothing at all but I was a little surprised at Tu’narath. See, this is the “greatest githyanki city in any dimension” and apparently, it doesn’t take into account anything from the recent Incursion event from both Dragon and Dungeon magazine as the Lich Queen is still top dog here.
The last meaty section details the Planar Touchstones. The touchstones are broken down by level and listed in order from lowest level, level 4, to highest level, 14. Information on making your own touchstone abilities is provided, but you’re probably better off reading each section and making something similar. Each touchstone has name, descriptor, location, initial encounter, subsequent encounter, base ability, recharge condition, higher-order ability and higher-order uses.
These are short sections for the most part and don’t even cover a full page in most instances. Some of them are mapped out and a few NPC’s have game statistics but for the most part, they are listings of areas with their powers a character with the Touchstone feat can gain.
In looking at the abilities, it depends on the feel of the place. The Spire of Thorns for example, grants a base ability of +2 bonus on saves against poison, while the higher order ability allows you to cast neutralize poison on yourself once per day as a 15th level ranger with 5 uses. The more powerful a higher order ability, the less times you gain it. For example, at Pilgrim’s Rest, you can ethereal jaunt for a number of rounds equal to your character level once per day, but can only do it twice before needing to recharge.
The book ends with a massive listing of encounter tables. These tables include almost all of WoTC books including oddities like the Epic Level Handbook and the Miniatures Handbook, as well as more obvious sources like the first two Monster Manuals, but no reference to upcoming books like the Monster Manual III. Sections are broken up by planes and include sections for any plane and templates. At nearly six full pages, it’s a nice section that doesn’t rely on a die roll, but rather, listing by challenge rating and alphabetical order. A page reference would’ve been nice, but seeing as how there are three columns and they use alternating tan lines to make it easier to read, I’m not complaining.
Overall, I can see a lot of utility in this book. It’s more heavily weighted towards players, but any GM who can’t find use in the touchstone section or use the updated material on the various planar cities, isn’t trying hard enough. The new monsters especially lend themselves to easy use, and the new races have all sorts of potential. Planar invasions don’t always have to be on an epic scale and I can easily see using the shadowswyft as infiltrators, especially with their favored class being rogue.
If you’re a player looking for new options or a GM looking to see what WoTC has done with certain elements of the old Planescape setting, the Planar Handbook has something for you.
