Planar Handbook - Any news?

[Jolly Giant]

Has anybody seen the new Planar Handbook? Is it out anywhere? If not, then when is it due? No revies yet, I suppose?

I saw the preview, art gallery and design-team intervju on wizards.com, but I was hoping somebody would have more info to share?

 

[Hand of Evil]

I saw it at my local store Saturday.

 

[Piratecat]

Yup, I picked it up yesterday. They had the new FR book about scaled folk there, too. The Planar Handbook is pretty good.

 

[Knight Otu]

Ohh, may we ask questions, PC?

 

[Piratecat]

If you don't want them answered today; I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me, and I'm not home this evening. Someone else will probably answer them, though! And I'll address what I can if I have time.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Well, I have the book with me right now and some free time if people want questions answered. I have yet to read through the whole thing, but I've skimmed and got a general impression.

Majoru Oakheart

 

[Knight Otu]

No problem, I'm patient.

Does the book say how the additional class skill(s) for planar substitution levels exactly work? I'd think logically they should remain class skills after taking the first psl...

The preview for the spiker contained an error in its description of its Damage Reduction, claiming that slashing and piercing weapons bypass it. Is that in the book?

Are there sidebars or other notes in the line of "If you have access to book XYZ, you can do ZYX?"

Are the energons in the book all new, or do they reprint the ones from the MotP?

 

[reanjr]

No problem, I'm patient.

Does the book say how the additional class skill(s) for planar substitution levels exactly work? I'd think logically they should remain class skills after taking the first psl...

The preview for the spiker contained an error in its description of its Damage Reduction, claiming that slashing and piercing weapons bypass it. Is that in the book?

Are there sidebars or other notes in the line of "If you have access to book XYZ, you can do ZYX?"

Are the energons in the book all new, or do they reprint the ones from the MotP?

I don't have it in front of me, but I can answer the last one. They're all new. They're based on fire, acid, sonic, ..., and two other energies. I think they were entirely unnecessary. But that's me.

I also felt 10 level prestige classes for the factions was kind of excessive as well, I would have liked to see 3 level. The new races are cool, especially the mephlings (though I don't know why they didn't just use genasi... probably FR's fault) and the neraphim. Planar touchstones are pretty good. *shrug* overall a decent buy if you want to run a planar campaign, but I don't thing it's enough on its own to spark that interest if you don't already have it.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Does the book say how the additional class skill(s) for planar substitution levels exactly work? I'd think logically they should remain class skills after taking the first psl...

The book makes it sound like these levels work almost exactly like multiclassing into another class for that one level.

The description of the planar substituted Barbarian's class skills says:
"Barbarian planar substitution class levels have class skills of the standard barbarian plus Knowledge (the planes)"

I'd assume that they'd work the same way as if you had taken one level of rogue and got its class skills.

The preview for the spiker contained an error in its description of its Damage Reduction, claiming that slashing and piercing weapons bypass it. Is that in the book?

Hmm, looks like a misprint. It says:
"Damage Reduction 2/bludgeoning:...grants resistance to bludgeoning attacks though piercing and slasing attacks slip through normally."

Are there sidebars or other notes in the line of "If you have access to book XYZ, you can do ZYX?"

Not that I've seen, but there is a forward near the beginning that mentions that the book makes reference to other books (it gives a list of about 7 or 8 of them), saying they are mostly references to monster descriptions, but that owning the other books are not necessary.

There is also a note just before the new monster races sections that mention that they use the format in Savage Species and you can either use that system or the one in the DMG for creating monster PCs.

Are the energons in the book all new, or do they reprint the ones from the MotP?

Sorry, don't have the MOTP handy or remember the old ones.

Majoru Oakheart

 

[Knight Otu]

Thanks for the answers!
The old energons were the xag-ya (positive energy) and the xeg-yi (negative energy). So the new energons indeed use the energy types as a basis (acid, cold, electricity, fire and sonic).
What monster classes does the book introduce?