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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 6554832" data-attributes="member: 6716779">This thread will be comparing the Elemental Evil Players Companion material to the PHB and making a comparison. First impressions are mostly positive as the PDF is well laid out with decent art work and hey its free. Several AD&D spells missing from the game since 2E have also returned and under their oringal names as 3E did have some of them with a new name. This thread however will be looking at the relative power level of the new options from a min/max or power gaming PoV. This is not so much to try and break the game but to see how the material stacks up with existing material. The class that gained the most with this PDF seems to be the Dragon Sorcerer due to the new elemental spells.  A little disappointed that the air, earth, fire, water cleric domains did not make it in. Not much in there for non spell casting classes but in 5E that is only a handful of classes now. RacesAarakocraShort and sweet really. Aarakocra get +2 dex and +1 wisdom and they get to fly and are proficient with 1d4 unarmed strikes. That is more or less all they get. While bland they get to fly and not just in a limited why but in effect they have a permanent 3rd level spell going all of the time and it can’t be interrupted. Traditionally flying PC races have levelled up slower in D&D in 2E/3E and in 4E I do not recall any race that could fly right out of the gate. They can’t wear heavy or medium armour while doing it but Rogues, spell casters, archers etc won’t care. Probably the most power race in this document and maybe the most powerful race in the game depending on the class. Flying monks hmmnnn….Deep Gnomes.This was one of the 1st D&D races I ever saw due to having a 1E copy of UA and no 1E PHB. Back then they were the most powerful PC race in the game making Drow look weak and PC Drow were the next most powerful race. IN 5E their racial package is nothing really exciting however although they get 120’ dark vision with no draw back unlike the Drow. They get advantage on some (int, wis, cha) saving throws vs magic and advantage to hide in rocky terrain along with +2 int, +1 dex. Over all a somewhat meh race mechanically. GenasiThe elemental humans with a genie bloodline races have been semi popular in my home games over the years probably because they have human blood. In terms of popularity outside core races they are trailing Aasimar but they would be the next most popular races with my players beating things like Drow so it is good to see 5E version of them. In effect each Geneasi get some languages and +2 con while each type of Genasi is a subrace so no surprise there.Air Genasi.You can hold your breath and you get +1 dexterity and can levitate once per long rest. Aarakocra can fly at will, Eladrin can teleport that recharges on a short rest. The air genasi doesn’t even compare that well to PHB races. Seems to be a weak race if not out right bad.Earth+1 strength, you are not slowed down by difficult terrain made of earth or stone, and you can pass without trace 1 per long rest. Yay. At least its better than the Air Genasi and it still seems weak. Play a Dwarf instead its better IMHO.Fire Genasi+1 intelligence, dark vision, Fire resistance, Produce flame cantrip burning hands 1/long rest once you hit level 3. At last a Genasi that doesn’t suck. Darkvision is nice to have, resistance to the most common elemental power source is good, and you get a cantrip and a spell at 3rd level. This actually looks all right except +2 con and +1 int is not that useful for most classes. If it had +1 wisdom it would be a great cleric class due to the produce flame cantrip if nothing else. The best of the bunch of the Genasi IMHOWater Genasi+1 wisom (doh), resistance to acid damage, a swim spead and you can breathe underwater, and you get a cantrip and a create/destroy water spell 1/long rest. IN the right campaign or environment this race looks quite nice but it is a bit to situational IMHO. Acid is not a overly common elemental attack either so in some cases none of your racial abilities are going to matter. This makes the race probably a weak to out right bad option as its spells are nothing to get excited about either. And Aarakocra’s can fly.GoliathSeemed to be a popular race AFAIK in 4E and they were one of the few races worth the LA in 3.5 so I have expectations this race should be half decent. It gets +2 strength and +1 con which is slightly worse than a mountain dwarf I hope the rest of its abilities are decent. You get athletics as a bonus skill which is nice for some builds (shield master), and you get stones resistance as well which is a variable amount of damage reduction and it recharges on a short rest. That’s quite good and at level 1 probably doubles your hit points in effect. Powerful build and mountain born are mostly fluff IMHO. This race looks good but stones resistance doesn’t scale with level and you only get it once per short rest. Still looks fun and somewhat useful. Both PHB Dwarf subraces are likely better though but it is interesting and looks powerful at least at low levels. Overasll an average race I suppose on the plus side you are not a Genasi.SpellsAs I said earlier the Sorcerer won the jackpot in terms of options here. Frostbite, Ice Knife and Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm make an Dragon sorcerer focusing on cold magic viable IMHO. Several spells also make a return here from AD&D as well. There are a lot of spells here so I will just highlight a few of the interesting ones.Abi Dalzims Horrid WiltingThis spell came from 2E Tome of Magic Book and it was a decent spell back in the day as it was not fire and it dealt a lot of damage as Fireball in 2E topped out at 10d6 damage. In 5E it deals 10d8 necrotic damage. That is kind of garbage to be honest and you have better things to cast with your only 8th level spell slot. This spell is interesting in a bad way just avoid it. Aganazzar’s ScorcherBack in 2E this was the spell you wanted your DM to let into the game as wizards lacked a decent level 2 spell that dealt damage as flaming sphere and melfs acid arrow were a bit meh. The spell came from the Forgotten Realm Adventures book and Scorching Ray in 3.5 kind of stole the spells thunder. 3d8 fire damage is nothing special for a level 2 spell in 5E but a 30’ line of it is not to bad and since it is 5’ wide it is easy to use. For a Dragon (fire) Sorcerer Scorching Ray is still better most of the time and you have other options for AoE effects. I think I would use this spell as a wizard though. Flame ArrowsJust what 5E needed more fire spells!!! The problem with 3rd level fire based spells is they always get compared with and come up short against fireball. That was the problem this spell had in 2E. Now it is a buff spell and you can get 12d6 damage out of it instead of 8d6. But the 12d6 is split over several attacks as you cast the spell on ammunition. Could be fun on a Ranger I suppose but it looks like the tradition of this spell not being fireball continues.Frostbite and Thunderclap. Two new cantrips that deal direct damage are always going to be interesting. Thunderclap seems a bit meh but if you are getting swarmed by Kobold it could be great. Frostbite looks good though as it is similar to vicious mockery and adds another cold cantrip for a Sorcerer to add extra damage to.  Ice Knife. AFAIK this spell originated in the 2E Complete Wizards Handbook. Potentially a lot of damage for a level 1 spell 1d10+2d6 in a 5’ radius save for half. A  Dragon (silver/white) Sorcerer can add there charisma bonus to that as well. Decent level 1 spell, no brainer for a sorcerer.Maximilian’s Earthen GraspAnother 2E spell from the Tome of Magic which introduced Elemental Wizards to AD&D. Back then it grabbed hold of you and held you there with the strength of an Ogre and it dealt 1d4 or 1d6 damage IIRC. In 5E it more or less does the same thing as you are restrained and damage is 2d6. Situationally useful but a lot of creatures hve decent strength scores so this spell might be better as a DM spell to use on PCs as opposed to a spell you want to use a lot as a PC. Melfs Minute MeteorsAnother AD&D spell last seen in the 2E PHB. Back then the main problem with this spell was the same problem Flame Arrows had- it was not fireball. This time around you get 6 meteors each dealing 2d6 damage to a 5’ radius and you can throw 2 of them per round. This spell I think could be insane for a fire sorcerer who can add charisma bonus to each meteor and the spell scales very well with an extra 2 meteors per spell level used which is an extra 4d6 damage not d6 like fireball. It looks like Melfs Minute Meteors has finally taken level 3 fire spells out of the shadow of big brother fireball. This spell looks useable over fireball and it may even be better. PyrotechnicsThis spell more or less does what it has always done. How useful that is varies. Snillocs Snowball SwarmOne of those elemental spells that had its origins IIRC in Forgotten Realms Adventures. 3d6dmage 5’ radius dex save for half. Used to be good it seems to deal burning hands damage as a level 2 spell although it has range. I would prefer Flaming Sphere myself for a damage dealing spell but if you want to play a Dragon Sorcerer using cold spells well its more or less your only level 2 option. Vitrolic SphereThis is another AD&D spell updated to 5E. It appeared in Players Option: Spells and Magic and was a water wizard spell although other types of wizard could cast it of course. In 2E you could play a water based blaster wizard believe it or not due to spells like this and spells like Scalding Spout which boiled you alive (1d6/level). 10d4 acid damage followed up with 5d4 damage at the end of its next turn and it is acid damage as well. The initial damage gets an extra 2d4 damage per level the spell is “kicked” using a Magic the Gathering term. This spell is going to hurt and its acid based as well.</blockquote>

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