John Cooper
Explorer
Player's Handbook II
By David Noonan
Wizards of the Coast product number 953747200
224 pages, $34.95
Player's Handbook II is the most recent of the "return to the concept of the core rulebook and slap a Roman numeral on the end of it" books from Wizards of the Coast, following on the success of Dungeon Master's Guide II (to which I must confess not having read) and, before that, Monster Manuals II and III (and, next month, we'll get Monster Manual IV). This book, intended mostly for the players, contains a slew of material helpful in creating new characters and tweaking existing ones.
The cover art, by Dan Scott, is a clever reworking of a scene that dates back to the AD&D first edition days: a rogue (of course, they were called "thieves" back in those days) stealing the gemstone-eyes from a demonic statue. Dan does a great job with this, especially considering that he only had 3.5" by 4.5" to work with; the rest of the book is the standard "fake tome" look of the core rulebooks (although on the back cover there's also a reprint of the drawing of a female elven archer that appears on page 31).
The interior artwork consists of 72 full-color paintings (3 of which are full-page) and 8 monochromatic drawings (on the chapter beginnings) by 17 different artists, plus 2 maps by cartographer Mike Schley. The artwork is surprisingly good; my favorites include Steve Prescott's beguilers on page 8 (I especially like Anastria's armor, and I like the way he demonstrates how well beguilers can emulate both sorcerers and rogues); Steve Belledin's human and halfling males on page 81 (one of the best examples of the size differences between these two races that I've ever seen); Howard Lyon's Greco-Romanesque "noble born" on page 134 (great job on the architecture and statuary); Michael Komarck's evocative painting of Regdar, Mialee, and Lidda in a valley of ruins on page 152 (very nice details, and my favorite by far of the full-page pieces in the book); and Mike May's painting of Fauldwyck the satyr piper and his two blink dogs on page 201 (absolutely the best-looking satyr I've seen in any Third Edition book!). Of course, there were a few sub-par works as well, like Franz Vohrwinkel's horribly-out-of-proportion version of Hennet on page 112 (his legs seem to be springing out from the bottom of his ribcage!); Lucio Parillo's full-page "black dragon vs. adventurers" piece on page 17 (considering that the black dragon's already pouncing into the fray, the adventurers look pretty stupid standing there in "ready" poses - by now, they'd best be doing more than just standing there posing for the camera and trying to look "cool" and all!); Erik Polak's version of Lady Sorra on page 27 (it's a fairly nice rendering of a female elven knight - too bad Lady Sorra's a human!); despite Eva Widerman's painting on page 77, I doubt that displacer beast skeletons retain their tentacles, as tentacles traditionally don't contain bones. Also, there were a few problems not with the artwork itself, but with their captions or placement: Emily Fiegenschuh's depiction of a halfling (it looks to be Lidda, as a matter of fact) fighting an orc is labeled as an elf fighting a giant, and several of the illustrations of the feats in action aren't even on the same page as the feat in question. (It would be one thing if it was on the facing page, but often it's on one of the two previous pages, so you have to flip back to read about the feat.) Still and all, the artwork taken as a whole is definitely above average.
Player's Handbook II is laid out as follows:
This also includes the stat block jobs, where improvements could be made. The good news: with only 8 stat blocks in the whole book, there weren't very many opportunities for errors. The bad news: they still managed to goof up 6 of them. I recommend making the following changes:
Oh, and while we're somewhat still on the subject of stat block errors, I found an error in one of the new Starting Packages, which are pretty close to being "chunks" of eventual stat blocks (or character sheets, most likely). In any case:
The four new classes are all somewhat interesting. The beguiler falls somewhere between a sorcerer and a rogue, and in fact can be used to emulate either. It focuses on enchantment and illusion to get what it wants from life. It's a pretty cool looking class, and one I wouldn't mind giving a go as a PC if I wasn't pretty much the full-time DM in my campaign. The dragon shaman draws on the power of dragons and focuses on not only improving its own combat abilities, but also healing damage and removing negative conditions from its allies, making it somewhat of a cross between a front-line fighter and a cleric. The duskblade is a kind of fighter/sorcerer, channeling touch spells through its blade as it fights in the front lines. Finally, the knight is definitely a fighter-type, but one with a bewildering (to me at least) array of nonmagical-yet-pretty-much-magical-in-everything-but-name abilities that forces opponents to do things they probably wouldn't otherwise (like focus on attacking the knight above all others). The knight was my least favorite of the four new classes; I tend to dislike "magic in everything but name" abilities, but it was an interesting attempt nonetheless.
The Expanded Classes chapter is a bit hit and miss; there are things I really, really like and other that just come across as page-eating filler. The most egregious of the latter was in the barbarian write-up, where almost a full page is devoted to a description of tribal tattoos you might find on a barbarian character, and what he thinks they do for him. That's right, this isn't a section on magical tattoos and the powers they provide; it's just a partial list of some tattoos you can plunk on your barbarian and the reasons he might have gotten them. Still, as lame as this part was (and coming up with evocative battlecries isn't David's strong point, either), he makes up for it when creating alternate class features, as some of these are nothing short of brilliant. I particularly love the druid's new "shapeshift" class ability, which he gains by "trading in" his animal companion and wild shape. These grow in power, just as wild shape does, providing the druid with predator, aerial, forest avenger, and elemental fury forms. Best of all, you get to pick what you actually look like in your shapeshifted forms (in other words, there's no mechanical difference between a druid looking like a wolf or a cheetah in his "predator" form), so you can go wild (no pun intended) with creativity without having to figure out what the game stats for a "velociraptor predator form" if that's what you feel like playing.
The feats and spells chapters are also very well done, and I was particularly impressed that David managed to keep the quality up while providing so many of each. I was very pleased to see that many of the feats are intended for higher-level characters, giving players something to look forward to when their PCs get up into the higher teens. And some of the spells brought a smile to my face; Bigby's striking fist, for instance, which creates "a large glowing fist the size of a human torso," reminds me of Glove from the animated "Yellow Submarine" Beatles movie. (I'm halfway tempted to change the spell to Chief Blue Meanie's striking Glove - nah, maybe not.) I was also excited by the healing spirit spell - ranged healing! A couple of the spells might need some further clarification, though. For instance, energy vulnerability causes the targets to take +50% damage from one type of energy (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic), but it doesn't address whether creatures that are already vulnerable to one type of energy are susceptible to this spell. For example, can I cast it on a frost giant (who already takes +50% of fire damage) and make him even more vulnerable to fire? I would tend to guess probably not (you're either vulnerable or you're not; you can't be "double vulnerable"), but it doesn't say.
Building Your Identity was a good chapter for people who have never played D&D before, but I fear it's kind of a waste of 18 pages for most people who'll be buying the book. It's very basic stuff, like "maybe your character was a farm hand before becoming an adventurer" and "if you want your PC to be boastful, here's what you need to do when roleplaying him."
The chapter on party composition was a somewhat interesting read (if nothing else, it was informative to see what David thinks makes the best "replacements" for various party roles if you're missing, say, a cleric), but I doubt that most players would take that kind of stuff to heart. (Mine haven't, in any case; they're more interested in playing fun PCs than ensuring that their party has the fighter-type, wizard-type, cleric-type, and rogue-type roles covered.) Later in that chapter, though, are the teamwork benefits, and I found those to be interesting and a valuable addition to the game. (Actually, apparently that section builds off of a similar section in Dungeon Master's Guide II. Note to self: that might be worth checking out.) These are special actions that require everyone in the group to play their part, and fostering teamwork is a laudable goal in any campaign.
The Affiliations concept is also a great one, where you get limited benefits from joining an affiliation and performing tasks for them, rising up in the ranks as you do so. I could see it getting out of hand, though, so it was nice to see that so many of the benefits are limited to specific locations and whatnot.
Rebuilding Your Character was well done, but I have to agree with something that David himself mentions early in the chapter: this is a set of rules that many players simply don't need. As long as the DM is cool with swapping out the occasional feat for a new one that just came out in a new sourcebook and wasn't available when the player chose the feat he now wants to swap out, you aren't going to need a whole formal rules-set to do so. Still, for those who do need the "official" rules to do so, here they are, and they seem like they'd work well. The two adventure locations were pretty good examples of places (and justifications for the rules) to completely overhaul your PC, and I was especially pleased to see a pipe-wielding satyr guarding the Gates of Dawn - judging from the fact that Player's Handbook II has a "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," I'd say it's probable that David is a Pink Floyd fan. Still, it was kind of odd seeing a "DMs only" section in a Player's Handbook.
The tables in the Appendix make for some dry reading, but it's perfect for those times when you need to whip up a quick NPC (or PC!) in minimal time, and I'm reasonably sure that they'll see plenty of use.
All in all, Player's Handbook II does a good job of providing new material for PCs. I think the feats, spells, substitute class abilities, and affiliations were definitely the high points of the book (at least for me), and might make the book worthwhile all by themselves. Add in some interesting new classes (although I didn't like all of them) and a slew of useful tables in the appendix, and you end up with a decent book for your money. While some of the material seemed of very limited use, altogether I give Player's Handbook II a high "4 (Good)" rating, and congratulate author David Noonan on a job well done.
By David Noonan
Wizards of the Coast product number 953747200
224 pages, $34.95
Player's Handbook II is the most recent of the "return to the concept of the core rulebook and slap a Roman numeral on the end of it" books from Wizards of the Coast, following on the success of Dungeon Master's Guide II (to which I must confess not having read) and, before that, Monster Manuals II and III (and, next month, we'll get Monster Manual IV). This book, intended mostly for the players, contains a slew of material helpful in creating new characters and tweaking existing ones.
The cover art, by Dan Scott, is a clever reworking of a scene that dates back to the AD&D first edition days: a rogue (of course, they were called "thieves" back in those days) stealing the gemstone-eyes from a demonic statue. Dan does a great job with this, especially considering that he only had 3.5" by 4.5" to work with; the rest of the book is the standard "fake tome" look of the core rulebooks (although on the back cover there's also a reprint of the drawing of a female elven archer that appears on page 31).
The interior artwork consists of 72 full-color paintings (3 of which are full-page) and 8 monochromatic drawings (on the chapter beginnings) by 17 different artists, plus 2 maps by cartographer Mike Schley. The artwork is surprisingly good; my favorites include Steve Prescott's beguilers on page 8 (I especially like Anastria's armor, and I like the way he demonstrates how well beguilers can emulate both sorcerers and rogues); Steve Belledin's human and halfling males on page 81 (one of the best examples of the size differences between these two races that I've ever seen); Howard Lyon's Greco-Romanesque "noble born" on page 134 (great job on the architecture and statuary); Michael Komarck's evocative painting of Regdar, Mialee, and Lidda in a valley of ruins on page 152 (very nice details, and my favorite by far of the full-page pieces in the book); and Mike May's painting of Fauldwyck the satyr piper and his two blink dogs on page 201 (absolutely the best-looking satyr I've seen in any Third Edition book!). Of course, there were a few sub-par works as well, like Franz Vohrwinkel's horribly-out-of-proportion version of Hennet on page 112 (his legs seem to be springing out from the bottom of his ribcage!); Lucio Parillo's full-page "black dragon vs. adventurers" piece on page 17 (considering that the black dragon's already pouncing into the fray, the adventurers look pretty stupid standing there in "ready" poses - by now, they'd best be doing more than just standing there posing for the camera and trying to look "cool" and all!); Erik Polak's version of Lady Sorra on page 27 (it's a fairly nice rendering of a female elven knight - too bad Lady Sorra's a human!); despite Eva Widerman's painting on page 77, I doubt that displacer beast skeletons retain their tentacles, as tentacles traditionally don't contain bones. Also, there were a few problems not with the artwork itself, but with their captions or placement: Emily Fiegenschuh's depiction of a halfling (it looks to be Lidda, as a matter of fact) fighting an orc is labeled as an elf fighting a giant, and several of the illustrations of the feats in action aren't even on the same page as the feat in question. (It would be one thing if it was on the facing page, but often it's on one of the two previous pages, so you have to flip back to read about the feat.) Still and all, the artwork taken as a whole is definitely above average.
Player's Handbook II is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: A chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what's in the book, and what Wizards of the Coast book today would be complete without a sidebar about swift and immediate actions?
- Chapter 1 - New Classes: Four new 20-level classes: the beguiler, dragon shaman, duskblade, and knight.
- Chapter 2 - Expanded Classes: The 11 standard classes from the Player's Handbook (plus the favored soul, hexblade, marshal, scout, swashbuckler, warlock, and warmage from other books since) each get some sample character themes, at least one alternate class feature, and some alternate starting packages.
- Chapter 3 - New Feats: 7 different kinds of feat (general, ceremony, combat form, divine, heritage, metamagic, and tactical), for a total of 105 new feats altogether.
- Chapter 4 - New Spells: A new subschool (Polymorph), dual-school spells (spells that fall under more than one of the traditional schools of magic), and then 124 new spells.
- Chapter 5 - Building Your Identity: 10 different character backgrounds, 23 personality archetypes, 30 personality traits, and a section on how to be a good player at the gaming table.
- Chapter 6 - The Adventuring Group: Party backgrounds, optimal classes for parties of different sizes, and the benefits of teamwork (as in, specific, in-game rules as to how working together can gain specific benefits).
- Chapter 7 - Affiliations: Different "organizations" (using the term loosely) a character can belong to that gains him benefits as he increases in experience with the affiliation, and 18 specific examples of affiliations.
- Chapter 8 - Rebuilding Your Character: Retraining (swapping class features, feat choices, languages known, skill ranks, spells and powers, and substitution levels) and rebuilding (swapping ability scores, class levels, race, and templates), with two examples of rebuild quests (locations you can go to that will allow you to rebuild your PC).
- Appendix - Quick PC and NPC Creation: A step-by-step series of tables and instructions that will allow you to more quickly generate a new PC or NPC, including all the way to equipment and spell selection.
This also includes the stat block jobs, where improvements could be made. The good news: with only 8 stat blocks in the whole book, there weren't very many opportunities for errors. The bad news: they still managed to goof up 6 of them. I recommend making the following changes:
- pp. 18-19, Thane, male human blue dragon shaman 7: AC is correct at 21, but they forgot to include "+1 natural" in the AC breakdown.
- p. 30, Lady Sorra, female human knight 7: Special Qualities is missing her "Bulwark of Defense." Of course, it also includes "wall of steel," which doesn't appear anywhere in the knight's class description, so it's possible that the one was renamed the other and nobody went back and fixed it in the stat block.
- p. 111, Mature Adult Red Dragon: First of all, for those of you wondering what this stat block is even doing here, it's the result of the dragonshape spell. Reflex save for the breath weapon should be DC 28, not DC 30 (10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus, or 10 + 12 + 6 for a mature adult red dragon). "Frightening presence" isn't listed anywhere in the new stat block. The fact that the dragon is Huge isn't spelled out anywhere in the stats, either. Jump should be +43, not +39 (28 ranks, +11 Str, +4 speed). Skills should also include "Survival +4 (+6 following tracks)" due to a +2 synergy bonus from Search.
- p. 117, Luminous Assassin, male human rogue 3: Masterwork shortbow damage should be 1d6/×3, not 1d6+1/×3 (it's not a composite shortbow, so the +1 Str bonus doesn't come into play). Skills should include "Use Rope +2 (+4 bindings)" due to a +2 synergy bonus from Escape Artist, "Survival +0 (+2 following tracks)" due to a +2 synergy bonus from Search, and "Jump +3" (0 ranks, +1 Str, +2 synergy bonus from Tumble). Also, "Balance +8" should be "Balance +10" (6 ranks, +2 Dex, +2 synergy bonus from Tumble). There is no SQ line provided; it should be there and include "trap sense +1" and "trapfinding."
- p. 117, (Greater) Luminous Assassin, male human rogue 5: Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 14 (due to uncanny dodge). SQ should include "trapfinding." Skills should include "Use Rope +3 (+5 bindings)" due to a +2 synergy bonus from Escape Artist, "Survival +0 (+2 following tracks)" due to a +2 synergy bonus from Search, and "Jump +3" (0 ranks, +1 Str, +2 synergy bonus from Tumble). Also, "Balance +11" should be "Balance +13" (8 ranks, +3 Dex, +2 synergy bonus from Tumble).
- p. 118, (Lesser) Luminous Assassin, male human rogue 1: Masterwork shortbow attacks should be at +3 ranged, not +4 (+0 BAB, +2 Dex, +1 masterwork). There is no SQ line provided; it should be there and include "trapfinding."
Oh, and while we're somewhat still on the subject of stat block errors, I found an error in one of the new Starting Packages, which are pretty close to being "chunks" of eventual stat blocks (or character sheets, most likely). In any case:
- p. 35, Human Bard (Vanguard): As a human with a +1 Int bonus, he should have 8 skills, not 7 (6 as a bard, 1 as a human, 1 for high Intelligence).
The four new classes are all somewhat interesting. The beguiler falls somewhere between a sorcerer and a rogue, and in fact can be used to emulate either. It focuses on enchantment and illusion to get what it wants from life. It's a pretty cool looking class, and one I wouldn't mind giving a go as a PC if I wasn't pretty much the full-time DM in my campaign. The dragon shaman draws on the power of dragons and focuses on not only improving its own combat abilities, but also healing damage and removing negative conditions from its allies, making it somewhat of a cross between a front-line fighter and a cleric. The duskblade is a kind of fighter/sorcerer, channeling touch spells through its blade as it fights in the front lines. Finally, the knight is definitely a fighter-type, but one with a bewildering (to me at least) array of nonmagical-yet-pretty-much-magical-in-everything-but-name abilities that forces opponents to do things they probably wouldn't otherwise (like focus on attacking the knight above all others). The knight was my least favorite of the four new classes; I tend to dislike "magic in everything but name" abilities, but it was an interesting attempt nonetheless.
The Expanded Classes chapter is a bit hit and miss; there are things I really, really like and other that just come across as page-eating filler. The most egregious of the latter was in the barbarian write-up, where almost a full page is devoted to a description of tribal tattoos you might find on a barbarian character, and what he thinks they do for him. That's right, this isn't a section on magical tattoos and the powers they provide; it's just a partial list of some tattoos you can plunk on your barbarian and the reasons he might have gotten them. Still, as lame as this part was (and coming up with evocative battlecries isn't David's strong point, either), he makes up for it when creating alternate class features, as some of these are nothing short of brilliant. I particularly love the druid's new "shapeshift" class ability, which he gains by "trading in" his animal companion and wild shape. These grow in power, just as wild shape does, providing the druid with predator, aerial, forest avenger, and elemental fury forms. Best of all, you get to pick what you actually look like in your shapeshifted forms (in other words, there's no mechanical difference between a druid looking like a wolf or a cheetah in his "predator" form), so you can go wild (no pun intended) with creativity without having to figure out what the game stats for a "velociraptor predator form" if that's what you feel like playing.
The feats and spells chapters are also very well done, and I was particularly impressed that David managed to keep the quality up while providing so many of each. I was very pleased to see that many of the feats are intended for higher-level characters, giving players something to look forward to when their PCs get up into the higher teens. And some of the spells brought a smile to my face; Bigby's striking fist, for instance, which creates "a large glowing fist the size of a human torso," reminds me of Glove from the animated "Yellow Submarine" Beatles movie. (I'm halfway tempted to change the spell to Chief Blue Meanie's striking Glove - nah, maybe not.) I was also excited by the healing spirit spell - ranged healing! A couple of the spells might need some further clarification, though. For instance, energy vulnerability causes the targets to take +50% damage from one type of energy (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic), but it doesn't address whether creatures that are already vulnerable to one type of energy are susceptible to this spell. For example, can I cast it on a frost giant (who already takes +50% of fire damage) and make him even more vulnerable to fire? I would tend to guess probably not (you're either vulnerable or you're not; you can't be "double vulnerable"), but it doesn't say.
Building Your Identity was a good chapter for people who have never played D&D before, but I fear it's kind of a waste of 18 pages for most people who'll be buying the book. It's very basic stuff, like "maybe your character was a farm hand before becoming an adventurer" and "if you want your PC to be boastful, here's what you need to do when roleplaying him."
The chapter on party composition was a somewhat interesting read (if nothing else, it was informative to see what David thinks makes the best "replacements" for various party roles if you're missing, say, a cleric), but I doubt that most players would take that kind of stuff to heart. (Mine haven't, in any case; they're more interested in playing fun PCs than ensuring that their party has the fighter-type, wizard-type, cleric-type, and rogue-type roles covered.) Later in that chapter, though, are the teamwork benefits, and I found those to be interesting and a valuable addition to the game. (Actually, apparently that section builds off of a similar section in Dungeon Master's Guide II. Note to self: that might be worth checking out.) These are special actions that require everyone in the group to play their part, and fostering teamwork is a laudable goal in any campaign.
The Affiliations concept is also a great one, where you get limited benefits from joining an affiliation and performing tasks for them, rising up in the ranks as you do so. I could see it getting out of hand, though, so it was nice to see that so many of the benefits are limited to specific locations and whatnot.
Rebuilding Your Character was well done, but I have to agree with something that David himself mentions early in the chapter: this is a set of rules that many players simply don't need. As long as the DM is cool with swapping out the occasional feat for a new one that just came out in a new sourcebook and wasn't available when the player chose the feat he now wants to swap out, you aren't going to need a whole formal rules-set to do so. Still, for those who do need the "official" rules to do so, here they are, and they seem like they'd work well. The two adventure locations were pretty good examples of places (and justifications for the rules) to completely overhaul your PC, and I was especially pleased to see a pipe-wielding satyr guarding the Gates of Dawn - judging from the fact that Player's Handbook II has a "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," I'd say it's probable that David is a Pink Floyd fan. Still, it was kind of odd seeing a "DMs only" section in a Player's Handbook.
The tables in the Appendix make for some dry reading, but it's perfect for those times when you need to whip up a quick NPC (or PC!) in minimal time, and I'm reasonably sure that they'll see plenty of use.
All in all, Player's Handbook II does a good job of providing new material for PCs. I think the feats, spells, substitute class abilities, and affiliations were definitely the high points of the book (at least for me), and might make the book worthwhile all by themselves. Add in some interesting new classes (although I didn't like all of them) and a slew of useful tables in the appendix, and you end up with a decent book for your money. While some of the material seemed of very limited use, altogether I give Player's Handbook II a high "4 (Good)" rating, and congratulate author David Noonan on a job well done.
