Race Series Collection

[JoeGKushner]

All three race books in one collection.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Three for the price, of well, three!

Race Series Collection
Written by David Noonan, Jesse Decker, Michelle Lyons, Erig Cagle, Aaron Rosenberg and Skip WIlliams
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/dnd
ISBN: 0-7869-3941-9
576 full color pages w/slipcase
$89.95

So what do you get when you combine three full color hardbacks centered on a theme of races? In this case, you get Races of Stone, Races of Destiny, and Races of the Wild in one nice slipcase edition with artwork by Chuck Lukacs and a package design by Dee Barnett. I like the package design. The logo is easy to read, the format is familiar and it look nice on the bookshelf. Chuck’s art on the other hand is too detailed for me to be able to tell what’s actually on the cover. Is that a human casting a spell at a half orc on the front? On the back, are those supposed to be the new races? I can’t tell.

I’ve already reviewed these three books and haven’t changed my mind about them. I still find that overall; Races of Stone is my favorite book. In terms of new main races, my first choice is still goliath and second illumians. My least favorite, the winged raptorans, still remain least favorite because the avariel, winged elves, and aarakocra, winged humanoids, still fill that role and have for a long time and could’ve used the update more than some new race. Many disagree with me, but that’s the great thing about a game as wide as D&D, we can all have our opinions and still have fun at the game table.

In addition to the three books, we get a four-page character sheet. This includes all the standard goods we’ve come to expect from a character sheet. Lots of places to write out descriptive things like height and weight, mechanical areas to fill out for class and level. Places to calculate base attack bonus and saving throws. Different slots for the various types of armor class that a character can have and a miscellaneous sheet for magic that includes domains for clerics, specialty school for wizards, spells known, spell save DC, spells day, bonus spells, power points for psionics, number of times you can rage, place for animal companion, which is misspelled as animal companioin, and a breakdown of skills, racial traits, feats, languages, and skill synergies.

It’s a good character sheet as far as it goes, but it’s certainly not going to be what you should buy this for.

In terms of motivation, if you already have all three books, outside of the ease of having the slipcase and how nice it looks on the bookshelf, WoTC haven’t really done a lot to encourage buying it. First, it’s like ten cents more expensive than buying the individual books. Second, the books are still first printing. Any errors that were there the first time you read them are still there.

Having said that, if you’ve never bought any of the race books, this is a nice companion piece to have with the introduction of racial substitution levels, numerous feats, PrCs, spells, magic items, and even some psionics. The minor races, like the whisper gnome and half-ogre, can also expand options in a standard fantasy game.

For those who are interested in options, the Race Series Collection provides it in spades.

My individual reviews as follows:
Races of the Wild
Races of Desinty
Races of Stone