Remind me again why I should like the PHB II?

[Odhanan]

My reason number one to like the book is Feats that do not suck.

The second reason is the Knight, Beguiler and Duskblade classes which rock.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Here's what I got out of it:

Knight -- excellent Armored tank who can offer challenges and stand ground almost as good as a dwarven defender -- but without having to be a dwarf.

The Knight is my single favorite thing from the book. It fills a niche I felt was already covered by fighters and/or paladins, which is remarkable.

Feats -- Fighters have VERY VERY VERY badly needed feats geared for above 10th level play, and they are the only ones with the sheer number of feat choices who can seriously take advantage of the feats in the PHB2. If you have lower-level games, this won't be as big for you.

I agree with this. Fighters have needed some love for a while. It was good to see them finally given some cool stuff.

The affiliations -- if you have trouble getting your players to get more involved in game-world organizations, behind-the scenes RPG'ing, and campaigning for more authority in your world, affiliations is the "carrot and stick" to help this along.

Yeah, I was slow to warm up to these, but they've grown on me. It nicely complements similar material in the DMG II.

The rebuild quests I didn't get much out of, because it's a little too far-fetched for my tastes, but the retraining options are very well balanced and offer a player a chance to swap something out without breaking continuity too much. If you have your own system that's working for that, it's not as useful.

I've yet to warm up to the "PC rebuild" material. It doesn't do anything for me. I don't really see the use for it, but if others like it, OK.

It has some nice stuff in it, but I wasn't that blown away like other people.

I was vaguely disappointed in it at first. I loved the DMG II, and I felt the PHB II didn't live up to its precedent. But after I saw several online posts pointing out the strengths of the book, I took another look. I've liked it more and more as time has gone along.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

I like most of the new classes. Both Dragon Shaman and Knight seem to have the Love/Hate thing going where very few players think they are just "meh"; but at least the classes make themselves known which is better than some of the base classes out there.

I love most of the new feats. Espeically the Fighter feats. The Fighters needed a boost and they got it in this book.

But my favotite is probobly the Alternate Class Abilities. The options to set apart your PC from the PC that was in the last campaign that had the same class. The role-playing aspect of the role-playing game will do this but the PHB2 makes so the two characters can be functionally different on a mechanical level.

 

[Mercule]

The Knight looks to be a good class. I'd be in favor of Warmage, Dread Necromancer, Beguiler and similar classes replacing both the Sorcerer and Specialist Wizards. The Duskblade looks broken to me, but I'm holding judgement because I like the idea behind the mechanics. The Dragon Shaman is pretty lame in both concept and mechanics, IMO.

The second chapter gets love/hate from me. I do kinda like the different archetypes, but I generally don't like the alternate class features (probably related to my loathing of substitution levels as a mechanic).

The feats are generally good. I love the fact that the fighter no longer taps out on their themes by 10th level. I also like tactical feats. I could live without the heritage feats, but they don't take much room.

Spells, I have no opinion on. I just haven't read them all and I'm pretty poor at guaging spell/caster power, anyway. I'm more a fan of the mundane classes.

Affiliations are a neat new mechanic, and one I plan on using. I'm indifferent to the swap-a-feat rules, but the rebuild quests are just silly. The "be a better player" section is something I'd love to make required reading, especially a couple of specific points.

Overall, it felt odd to type the above (it was all train of thought), because I openned up this thread feeling pretty similar to you. I (obviously) like the book, but I still don't see the "wow" factor.

 

[Ghendar]

About the only thing that I find useful is the appendix simplifying character creation, even though it is mostly for use with NPC's. I love rolling up new characters but must admit it can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes.

So they put advice for rolling up NPCs in the PH2? Sounds like it should have been in the DMG2.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I would say that everything other than the 60 pages about playing your character and making up backgrounds is excellent. Affiliations rule.

Buzz, please get out of my brain. (And why you'd put basic role playing information in a supplemental book and not the core book, I'll never know.)

 

[der_kluge]

I looked through it at the FLGS, and put it back on the shelf with a big fat "meh"

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

I think it's the best book WoTC has put out in a long time. I've elevated it to 'Core' status in my game, too.

The Knight and Beguiler are really great; the Duskblade looks good too. I'm not a fan of the Dragon Shaman, but 3 out of 4 isn't bad.

The whole book seems like it got way more playtesting and attention than any of the Races...of books. In my opinion, whatever team and model they used for development of PHB2 should be the default for all D&D 3.5 books.

Ken

 

[Scribble]

I think I'd like it more if it was in PDF form. (as I'm not buying too many non pdfs anymore...)

Hrmm... PHBII = Unearthed Arcana (the original one from 1e).... kinda sorta...

 

[Banshee16]

Ditto everything Henry said.

The feats are deliberately "holy sh*t!" in some places -- the designers said they were tired of making safe, boring feats.

Affiliations are the most exciting thing to happen to the game in years. I adore them.

The part about affiliations that confuses me is how they differ from the guilds/organizations in the DMG. Would you have an organization that is both a guild, so you know how much money they have, how many members, levels of the members etc., *and* is an affiliation, for what membership benefits it gives, at the same time?

If so, then I would think that using that combo would be perfect for Factions in Sigil, and secret societies in worlds like Theah/Swashbuckling Adventures, Forgotten Realms, and Scarred Lands.

Or are these two sets of mechanics mutually exclusive of each other?

Banshee