Races of Destiny: First Look

[Dark Psion]

I got my copy today and it is both good and bad.

On the good side is the descriptions of Humans, Half Elves & Half Orcs. The Other Races section is very nice, adding Dopplegangers, Half Ogre, Mongrelfolk, Sea Kin, Sharakim, Skulks and Underfolk to Aasimar & Tieflings.

Spells are very good and there are 4 psionic powers. Prestige classes are done differently in this book. Much more detail is given to how they exist. They each get 3 to 5 pages and there are only six total. Also there are Racial Substitution levels for Half Elves and Half Orcs for certain classes.

There are some very noticeable errors here too, Tieflings do not have their Energy Resistance listed in their Racial Traits. The Chameleon PrC requires Spellcraft skill but does not include it as a class skill.

The one big problem with this book is the Illumians.

Like them, hate them or just indifferent, of this 192 page book, over 50 pages are just for them. Two Prestige classes (10 pages) and 9 feats are exclusively theirs and 40 pages are for their race and culture. But those "Ilumian sigils" that are over at WotC's web site? They are not in the book??

Humans get about 28 pages, Half Elves & Half Orcs about 18 between them and the Other races above just 20 pages all together.

For a race that is just lame to me, this is too much.

Especially when you consider what other "Human-kin" races could have been included.
Jann as Half Genies, Gensai (elemental, paramental, and quasimental), Tallfellow Halflings as those with Human blood, as well as a Half Dwarf or Half Gnome, the Vampyres from Ravenloft as predatory humans and even the Vistani, Quevari and Aber Nomads could have been used. Also, the races included could have had better detail. In Races of Faerun, Aasimar & Tieflings got a much better description.

There is also a lot of wasted space in this book where NPCs are stated and they give the full definition of every class ability, full stats of every familiar and repeat the exact information for a Prestige class ability that is on the previous page.

This book is kind of like the Miniature Handbook, Half of it is great and half of it is not. Since I enjoy playing the half-races, I bought this book as soon as it was available.

I will not do that with any future "Race" books.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

That's really a very strange distribution of pages, if so much is given over to Illumians, and so little to half-elves and half-orcs.

In fact, it's a crying shame, and a hell of a missed opportunity.

Of all the core races, the half-elf and the half-orc are the two least compellingly developed. This book would have been a golden opportunity to expand on the half-orc's niche - which currently amounts to "+2 Strength bonus with green skin" - and to actually give the half-elf a compelling niche.

I like the idea of the Illumians well enough, but I doubt they'll see nearly enough use in most campaigns to justify dedicating so much space to them.

As to the sigils. Are you sure you aren't just overlooking a sidebar, or something? Seems a very bizarre omission, otherwise.

Patrick Y.

 

[Acid_crash]

I was wondering...could anybody who has this book, could you describe the Illumians to me..their culture, look, racial abilities, etc... I can't get to looking at what they are all about, but 50 pages on one race is a lot to talk about.

 

[Psion]

Mine's got the sigils. It's in the chapter on the race. Not sure what you are missing. ppg 54-55.

 

[Dark Psion]

I mean the actual Sigils like these Here

Basically Illumians are Humans with glowing sigils orbiting their heads. Each Sigil grants a special ability, the basic sigil grants a basic bonus (+1 to Strength check), combining two Sigils creats a new special ability that is based on a class ability (Gain a +2 dodge bonus against a creature you just used a Sneak Attack on or got a Critical Hit against).

This race was designed to multi-class and the different Illuminan Words affect a variity of class abilities.

Oh and when an Illuminan Dies, the Words made Flesh cause a final utterance of gibberish to be heard.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The Chameleon PrC requires Spellcraft skill but does not include it as a class skill.

Since the chameleon requires 'able learner', and, I believe, able learner lets you pay non-cross-class skill costs for cross-class skills, this is hardly a problem. If you really wanted to get into the chameleon without ever having gotten spellcraft on your class list, then you can. It costs you (with your feat) 4 skill points, and can be achieved at the same level as the 8 skill ranks prereqs of the class.

 

[coyote6]

There is also a lot of wasted space in this book where NPCs are stated and they give the full definition of every class ability, full stats of every familiar and repeat the exact information for a Prestige class ability that is on the previous page.

Yeah, they've been doing that for a while now. Really dumb, IMO. In some cases, a note ("save DC 20") would be appropriate, but almost never does it make sense to reprint the whole damn thing. The only way that makes sense is if they intend for people to photocopy/scan the NPC entries, and print them off by themselves.

It wastes sooo much space.

(The worst offender is probably the Races of Stone web enhancement -- the full stat blocks, racial abilities & all, of feral garguns get repeated, in their entirety, some 8 or 10 times. And about 7 of those times, the stats are identical. Meanwhile, other critters get a "Blahblah -- see Monster Manual, p. XYZ. Those repeated stats must take up a full third of the adventure.)

 

[Emirikol]

I like sample NPC stat blocks. They're handy to me as a DM...but repeating them is asinine and lazy. Credit that to anyone involved with the book.

..uhm, authors..we need to fill up a 128 page book and we only have 78 pages..what can we do? I've got an idea! Let's just do 8-10 duplicate and wasteful stat blocks. We know people loved the first set..so let's duplicate it 10 more times! Viola! 128 pages!

jh

 

[coyote6]

I love the sample NPCs, too. It's just that "repeat every word of every special ability they have, even when it was all said not two pages ago" thing that annoys me.

(And in Races of Destiny, it's also the Radiant Fire feat, which adds four summon monster spells to the cleric's spell list. Except, of course, that clerics already have all the summon monster spells on their spell list.)

 

[Truth Seeker]

Uhm, this hasn't been mentioned, but look at pages 19 to 20. Doesn't the description of this diety sounds like a certain World War II persona?

I am...seriously disturb by this outline.