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Review of Heroes of the Feywild by Wizards of the Coast
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<blockquote data-quote="Neuroglyph" data-source="post: 7647655" data-attributes="member: 85633"><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I have always thought that one of the more interesting changes wrought to D&D when 4E came out was the massive alteration to the cosmology of the multiverse. For the most part, the core D&D multiverse remained generally unchanged for years, since its conception in AD&D. Sure, there were additions and minor alterations, certainly, due to supplemental material created for specialized settings such as Spelljammer and Planescape, but for the most part the cosmology existed with an Astral Plane, an Ethereal Plane, a selection of elemental-typed Inner Planes, and alignment-typed Outer Planes.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">But with the advent of D&D 4E, the cosmology changed rather drastically to include a Dawn War with gods pitted against primordials, as well as an Astral Sea, and an Elemental Chaos maelstrom spiraling down into the Abyss. We also saw the addition of two parallel dimensions, hinted at in some modules and sourcebooks in previous editions, but now given full planar status - of course, I am speaking of the Shadowfell and the Feywild here.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span><span style="font-size: 12px">[align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/hotfeywild-cover.jpg[/align]</span><span style="font-size: 12px">Last spring, 4E gamers were offered a new sort of setting-driven Player’s Option book, <strong><em>Heroes of Shadow</em></strong>, which allowed them to create characters touched by the darkness of the Shadowfell and incorporate those themes into their gaming experiences. Now, WotC has released a similar Player’s Option book, to offer players a chance to take their character creation into a realm of where eladrin, fairies, hags, and other creatures of folklore and fable dwell in <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong>.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><u>Player’s Option: Heroes of the Feywild</u></strong></span></p><p> </p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Design</strong>: Rodney Thompson (lead), Claudio Pozas, Steve Townsend</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Cover Illustrators</strong>: Emrah Elmasli (front), Eric Belisle (back)</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Interior Illustrators</strong>: Ryan Barger, Eric Belisle , Wayne England , Tyler Jacobson, Jim Nelson, William O’Connor, Andrew Silver, Matias Tapia, Eva Widermann, Mark Winters</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Publisher</strong>: Wizards of the Coast</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Year</strong>: 2011</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Media</strong>: Hardbound (160 pages) </span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Retail Price</strong>: $29.95 ($19.77 from [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Players-Option-Feywild-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958367/ref=as_li_wdgt_fl_ex?&linkCode=waf&tag=neurogames-20"]<strong>Amazon</strong>[/ame]) </span> </li> </ul><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">Heroes of the Feywild is a new D&D 4E Player’s Option book which provides additional material for players to create characters with story and power elements drawn from the Feywild. The book contains detailed information regarding the Feywild, both in a small gazetteer and map section, as well as in the story elements present in the various character options material. The book introduces three new Races and four new Essentials Classes which been designed to have strong thematic ties to the Feywild. In addition, there are four new Character Themes, four new Paragon Paths, three new Epic Destinies, and more than thirty new Feats to assist in allowing any character class to have significant ties to the world of the fey. There are also new “mundane” items of fey origin, new Feywild magic items, new boons called Fey Magic Gifts, and even a new character generation method for adding Feywild story elements to a hero.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><u>Production Quality</u></strong></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Not surprisingly, the production quality of <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> is excellent, with a useful and logical layout and some incredible writing from the authors. The material presented in this Player’s Option book is in a format that is both enjoyable to read, and informative for the player as well as the Dungeon Master, with considerable information about the Feywild mixed into the various options as story elements. There are plenty of sidebars, including fairy tale style ones called “Bard’s Tales”, which have been inserted throughout the book to give additional thematic material for the Feywild, its inhabitants, and rules clarifications.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The artwork for the <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> is also excellent, with the notable exception of the front cover of the actual book itself. It is a dark, dreary, and frankly, uninspiring depiction of a couple of eladrin screaming their way into battle, but is not exactly what I would have expected for a cover of a book about a realm that is sometimes known as “The Bright”. In fact, I found it ironic that the cover for the <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> is actually darker in shades and tones than the cover of <strong><em>Heroes of Shadow</em></strong> which preceded it. But the interior artwork within this Player’s Option book is actually really enjoyable to look at, and definitely enhances the reading experience of the supplement. And the use of the heroic characters – Keldar, Rowena, Nistynicia, Lyrindel, Andronus, and Viltham – in many of the illustrations spaced throughout the book really helps to weave in a sense of dramatic continuity into the <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong>.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><u>The Player’s Options</u></strong></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> is divided into five broad chapters, providing the player with a variety of Feywild based material to use in their character creation process. The three middle chapters contain the most “crunch” in the book, while the first and last chapters detail more “fluff” based background and story information for fleshing out a character.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The first chapter, entitled “Into the Bright” offers expanded information about the Feywild geography, presented in sort of a gazetteer format, and includes more detailed information of locales discussed in brief summaries in the <strong><em>Manual of the Planes</em></strong> supplement. There are entries here for major eladrin cities, the demesnes of several archfey, and the strange wilderness locations like the Murkendraw, the Isle of Dread, and the Goblin Kingdom of Nachtur. There is also a map provided for the Feywild, but it appears to be closely tied to the 4E Core World of the Nentir Veil map. But as the Feywild exists for all worlds, DMs using other settings might need to make some geographic adjustments. The authors provide a sidebar with recommendations on this facet of the Feywild.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">I think that one of the more fascinating elements to the way the authors handled the Feywild was in their use of imagery that was evocative of popular movies and novels. The Feywild has really become a sort of collage of settings, with the authors drawing upon imagery from Celtic mythology, and from movies such as “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, “Harry Potter… et al”, “The Lord of the Rings”, and “Alice in Wonderland” (which, coincidentally, also draw their various imagery from Celtic mythology). There seems to be a mix here of both the whimsical and the deadly here that feels much more accessible to me than the ever-dreary ever-deathly realm of the Shadowfell, and I think many DMs will find it more appealing as a parallel reality to their campaign settings.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">Chapter 2 is entitled “Races of the Fey”, and offers players the options of creating hamadryad, pixie, or satyr characters, all of which have strong ties to the Feywild. Like the <em>shade</em> and the <em>vryloka</em> from the <strong><em>Heroes of Shadow</em></strong>, these new races in <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> are equipped with not only decent racial powers, but a complete set of racial specific utility powers which can be substituted in to replace class utility powers at the appropriate levels. In addition, each of the new races is fully detailed, with racial background information, naming schemes, racial attitudes and beliefs, and recommended classes which might be a good fit for them.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The hamadryad is another plant-based entity, but has much more mythic powers than the wilden did. With capabilities to move through forest-based difficult terrain, assume a defensive wooden body, or to reveal a beauty capable of spellbinding opponents, the hamadryad offers some interesting options for a character.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The pixie, of course, is somewhat is a show-stealer here, and was discussed in great and humorous detail in Jared Von Hindmann’s <em>D&D Outsider</em> spoof, <a href="http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4dnd/20111128" target="_blank"><strong><em>Heroes of the Fey: Gone Wild</em></strong></a>! </span><span style="font-size: 12px">I can easily imagine this becoming a very popular racial selection for gamers that want to enjoy something with a bit of whimsy, but also still be effective as a member of an adventuring party. The authors balanced the pixie’s flight ability fairly well by keeping them generally earthbound at an altitude of 1, although there might still be some exploits available to a character that can always fly as part of their movement. There is a sidebar for handling the rules which allow pixies to occupy the same space as larger allies and opponents, and for dealing with weapon sizes. And yes, pixies can use pixie dust to make other characters fly, once per encounter. I’m assuming there will be all sorts of “Tinkerbell Maneuvers” created to annoy DMs worldwide once they let a player start up their pixie character.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The satyr also has some decent options for racial powers, although none quite as impressive as the hamadryad or pixie. Admittedly, the ability to stack an additional d8 of healing onto each healing surge used during a short rest will make them capable of really pushing on during long adventures. There optional racial utility powers, dealing with music and charming, just beg them to consider becoming Bards of some type, although these powers are all dailies which some players might consider to be a drawback.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The third chapter of <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> details four new class options, based upon the Essentials design paradigm, for the Barbarian (Berserker), Bard (Skald), Druid (Protector), and Wizard (Witch) classes. These new classes generally conform to their origin class roles, with the exception of the Berserker, which is a defender rather than a striker (well, sort of – read on!). While I state that these classes are basically Essentials versions, in that they conform to limited options and some preset abilities, with all but one exception (again, see below), these classes show some decent refinements and push the paradigm a bit further than the previous classes.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Berserker is a surprisingly solid class, and one that offers interesting role-playing options to the player. While the main focus of the class is a defender, and uses a <em>defender aura</em> much like the knight uses, a berserker has the option of dropping the aura in favor of entering a berserker fury to deal more damage as a striker would. In addition, there is a Heartland Option to select the prevailing terrain your barbarian hailed from, and the Arid Desert option actually grants substantial AC and Reflex bonuses if wearing no armor or cloth armor, and using no shield. A very good alternative for Dark Sun Campaigns. (For those players longing to portray the shirtless barbarian berserker rushing headlong into combat, here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for!)</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">Next up in this chapter is the Skald (Bard), and sadly it was a disappointing follow up to the coolness that the Berserker brought into the game. In many respects, the Skald is like the old 3.5 bard, with songs that could affect combat by inspiring allies within range of hearing the bardic tunes. The Skald has a similar mechanic, a Skald aura (aura 5) that is augmented by the character’s choice of songs (at will powers). While the song effects are fairly decent, they are completely dependent on the Skald’s ability to hit their foe. No hit means no cool song effect. And the attacks are all basic attacks, to boot, without any real bonuses to speak off, making the class not terribly effective at doing much besides healing - as a leader, it does get to grant two healing surges with a 1d6 bonus. Honestly, I can’t imagine this version of the bard getting a lot of play, as it is simply a snooze right out of the gates and never gets any better.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Following the Skald, we have the Protector is a new form of Druid which is still a controller as the parent class, but it shares a main feature with the Summoner Wizard – it can summon allies to fight for it. In this case, those allies are nature allies, ranging from giant cobras and grizzly bears, on up to blue dragon wyrmling and raptor behemoths. The Protector forgoes their daily power option, and simply gains uses of summon nature ally instead. The Protector also loses the wild shape option, but it is replaced by a selection of at-will utility powers which are fairly useful in a variety of situations. Overall, I rather liked this class variant on the Druid, as it offers a decent alternative to assuming an animal form and wading into combat.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">The final new class option is the Witch, and yes, we are once again presented with yet another pile of Wizard powers for this class. If ever there was a class that was approaching critical mass and nearing implosion into a black hole, it has to be the Wizard. That said, the thematic power options of the Witch are pretty darned neat, and the class gains the Arcane Familiar Feat as a free bonus. The Witch chooses a coven (Full or Dark Moon) which determines their first level encounter powers and offers skill bonuses, and gains a bonus daily power called Augury which can be used during an extended rest to sort of ask for a clue. Aside from my complaint about Wizard class-bloat, the Witch seems like a fairly fun option, but I think the authors really missed a trick making it a Wizard. Personally, I would have gone the “Mists of Avalon” direction, and made the Witch as an Invoker style controller, pulling in powers from a Mother Nature/Goddess entity.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">“Character Options” is the title of Chapter 4, and this chapter covers everything from new themes, to new Paragon Paths, Epic Destinies, feats, and Feywild items and magic items. As such, it’s a pretty hefty chapter, taking up more than one-quarter of the book with all the topics it covers.</span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The new themes include the Fey Beast Tamer, the Sidhe Lord, the Tuathan, and the Unseelie Agent. As mentioned previously, the authors clearly drew from Celtic lore to create the content for this book, and the Sidhe Lord, Tuathan, and Unseelie Agent certainly show heavy influences from that mythology. </span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Fey Beast Tamer theme offers any class the chance to utilize a beast companion like Beastmaster Ranger, except that the options include such creatures as blink dogs, displacer beasts, fey panthers, and young owlbears. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Sidhe Lord is similar to the Noble theme, but has more substantial ties to the Feywild and to the powerful entities that dwell there, such as archfey. These characters belong to powerful fey houses, and provide some decent role-playing options in this theme.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Tuathan theme is based, presumably, on the Celtic mythic cycle contained in the Tuatha De Danann. Characters adopting this theme become mythic heroes, able to draw upon strange fey powers and magicks to overcome obstacles in their quests, and even death, in order to see that their story goes on.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The final theme, the Unseelie Agent, offers players a chance to be a bit of a dark fey assassin, and has a potent selection of powers as well as an interesting role-playing theme. </span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Paragon Paths in the <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> are mainly designed to complement the new character class builds provided earlier. There is the Deadly Berserker, the Master Skald, the Legendary Witch, and the Inner Circle Initiate covering the four new classes, and of those three look like very strong options to advance characters along through the Paragon Tier. Sadly, the Master Skald has some fair abilities, but simply cannot overcome the overall blandness of the base class.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Epic Destinies offered are again deeply tied to the Feywild, and offer some interesting end-game options for characters. The Shiradi Champion elevates a character to become the personal hero of the Court of Stars, while the Wild Hunter allows a character to become a force of nature and a master of the famed Wild Hunt itself. The Witch Queen (or King) catapults a Wizard character to become a terrifying legend, the stuff of nightmares. </span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Feats section has a number of new feats devoted to bringing the new classes and races up to par with older more established ones, as well as offering a few interesting new options that any class could take, including a multiclass option for the new classes introduced in <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong>.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The Feywild based mundane gear is really fun, and much of it useful for adding features to a story or quest line. These items are technically non-magical, but being a creation of the fey realm, many of them seem to have some rather spectacular effects. There are also some magic items that follow the Feywild theme, but the really interesting new rewards are the boons that have been added. These boons are usually granted by powerful fey creatures, and can allow a character to perform some very “fairy tale” like actions, such as carry a flame in one’s bare hand from one place to another, speak to animals or plants, or to be able to smell precious metals like gold. Again, the thematic nature of these boons allow DMs to create interesting adventures where the heroes might be given a boon gift that seems useless at the time, but will assist in driving the story later on and make it a more memorable experience.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px">The final chapter of the <strong><em>Heroes of the Feywild</em></strong> is entitled “Build Your Story”, and the authors have created an alternative way to gain background benefits while creating a tale of how your character became an adventurer. It is sort of a pick-a-path story framework, but with certain tangible benefits depending on your decisions and skill checks. I rather like it as a way to create a more folklore style background for a character, and definitely fits well with a book of this type.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Overall Score</strong>: 3.9 <strong>out of</strong> 5.0</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><u>Conclusions</u></strong></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I would have to say that I would be surprised if many don’t consider Heroes of the Feywild the crown in the Essentials line of books, because it really offers classes and class options that show more refinement and crafting than some of the previous Essentials classes. That said, the Skald is simply a mess, and I have to wonder if we needed yet another Wizard sub-class to satisfy the 4E gamer population. But the rest of the options are pretty solid, and there are some good things in this book for even the traditional 4E classes to take advantage of, particularly with regard to the themes and some of the new powers and boons.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"> Overall, I think it’s a good buy, and contains content that is more accessible to a mainstream D&D player than was the Heroes of Shadow book. Fairy tales, Celtic myths, and all the legends of the fey are the building blocks of many a good D&D game, and this book definitely adds a lot more fun blocks to play with for players and DMs alike.</span></p><p></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><em>So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!</em></span></p><p> <span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><u></u></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><u>Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)</u></strong></span></p><p> </p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Presentation</strong>: 4.0</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px">- Design: 4.5 (Great layout, sharp writing, very user friendly) </span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px">- Illustrations: 3.5 (Decent inner illustrations, but terrible cover)</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Content</strong>: 3.75</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px">- Crunch: 3.5 (Great new material, except for the Skald, and the wizard-bloat)</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px">- Fluff: 4.0 (Lots of thematic material, flavor, and material for role-playing)</span> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Value</strong>: 4.0 (Decent price, and a lot of material for the cost)</span> </li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neuroglyph, post: 7647655, member: 85633"] [SIZE=3]I have always thought that one of the more interesting changes wrought to D&D when 4E came out was the massive alteration to the cosmology of the multiverse. For the most part, the core D&D multiverse remained generally unchanged for years, since its conception in AD&D. Sure, there were additions and minor alterations, certainly, due to supplemental material created for specialized settings such as Spelljammer and Planescape, but for the most part the cosmology existed with an Astral Plane, an Ethereal Plane, a selection of elemental-typed Inner Planes, and alignment-typed Outer Planes.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]But with the advent of D&D 4E, the cosmology changed rather drastically to include a Dawn War with gods pitted against primordials, as well as an Astral Sea, and an Elemental Chaos maelstrom spiraling down into the Abyss. We also saw the addition of two parallel dimensions, hinted at in some modules and sourcebooks in previous editions, but now given full planar status - of course, I am speaking of the Shadowfell and the Feywild here.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3] [/SIZE][SIZE=3][align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/hotfeywild-cover.jpg[/align][/SIZE][SIZE=3]Last spring, 4E gamers were offered a new sort of setting-driven Player’s Option book, [B][I]Heroes of Shadow[/I][/B], which allowed them to create characters touched by the darkness of the Shadowfell and incorporate those themes into their gaming experiences. Now, WotC has released a similar Player’s Option book, to offer players a chance to take their character creation into a realm of where eladrin, fairies, hags, and other creatures of folklore and fable dwell in [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B].[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][U]Player’s Option: Heroes of the Feywild[/U][/B][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][SIZE=3][B]Design[/B]: Rodney Thompson (lead), Claudio Pozas, Steve Townsend[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Cover Illustrators[/B]: Emrah Elmasli (front), Eric Belisle (back)[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Interior Illustrators[/B]: Ryan Barger, Eric Belisle , Wayne England , Tyler Jacobson, Jim Nelson, William O’Connor, Andrew Silver, Matias Tapia, Eva Widermann, Mark Winters[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Publisher[/B]: Wizards of the Coast[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Year[/B]: 2011[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Media[/B]: Hardbound (160 pages) [/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Retail Price[/B]: $29.95 ($19.77 from [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Players-Option-Feywild-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958367/ref=as_li_wdgt_fl_ex?&linkCode=waf&tag=neurogames-20"][B]Amazon[/B][/ame]) [/SIZE] [/LIST] [SIZE=3]Heroes of the Feywild is a new D&D 4E Player’s Option book which provides additional material for players to create characters with story and power elements drawn from the Feywild. The book contains detailed information regarding the Feywild, both in a small gazetteer and map section, as well as in the story elements present in the various character options material. The book introduces three new Races and four new Essentials Classes which been designed to have strong thematic ties to the Feywild. In addition, there are four new Character Themes, four new Paragon Paths, three new Epic Destinies, and more than thirty new Feats to assist in allowing any character class to have significant ties to the world of the fey. There are also new “mundane” items of fey origin, new Feywild magic items, new boons called Fey Magic Gifts, and even a new character generation method for adding Feywild story elements to a hero.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][U]Production Quality[/U][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3] Not surprisingly, the production quality of [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] is excellent, with a useful and logical layout and some incredible writing from the authors. The material presented in this Player’s Option book is in a format that is both enjoyable to read, and informative for the player as well as the Dungeon Master, with considerable information about the Feywild mixed into the various options as story elements. There are plenty of sidebars, including fairy tale style ones called “Bard’s Tales”, which have been inserted throughout the book to give additional thematic material for the Feywild, its inhabitants, and rules clarifications.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The artwork for the [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] is also excellent, with the notable exception of the front cover of the actual book itself. It is a dark, dreary, and frankly, uninspiring depiction of a couple of eladrin screaming their way into battle, but is not exactly what I would have expected for a cover of a book about a realm that is sometimes known as “The Bright”. In fact, I found it ironic that the cover for the [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] is actually darker in shades and tones than the cover of [B][I]Heroes of Shadow[/I][/B] which preceded it. But the interior artwork within this Player’s Option book is actually really enjoyable to look at, and definitely enhances the reading experience of the supplement. And the use of the heroic characters – Keldar, Rowena, Nistynicia, Lyrindel, Andronus, and Viltham – in many of the illustrations spaced throughout the book really helps to weave in a sense of dramatic continuity into the [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B].[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][U]The Player’s Options[/U][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3] The [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] is divided into five broad chapters, providing the player with a variety of Feywild based material to use in their character creation process. The three middle chapters contain the most “crunch” in the book, while the first and last chapters detail more “fluff” based background and story information for fleshing out a character.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The first chapter, entitled “Into the Bright” offers expanded information about the Feywild geography, presented in sort of a gazetteer format, and includes more detailed information of locales discussed in brief summaries in the [B][I]Manual of the Planes[/I][/B] supplement. There are entries here for major eladrin cities, the demesnes of several archfey, and the strange wilderness locations like the Murkendraw, the Isle of Dread, and the Goblin Kingdom of Nachtur. There is also a map provided for the Feywild, but it appears to be closely tied to the 4E Core World of the Nentir Veil map. But as the Feywild exists for all worlds, DMs using other settings might need to make some geographic adjustments. The authors provide a sidebar with recommendations on this facet of the Feywild.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]I think that one of the more fascinating elements to the way the authors handled the Feywild was in their use of imagery that was evocative of popular movies and novels. The Feywild has really become a sort of collage of settings, with the authors drawing upon imagery from Celtic mythology, and from movies such as “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, “Harry Potter… et al”, “The Lord of the Rings”, and “Alice in Wonderland” (which, coincidentally, also draw their various imagery from Celtic mythology). There seems to be a mix here of both the whimsical and the deadly here that feels much more accessible to me than the ever-dreary ever-deathly realm of the Shadowfell, and I think many DMs will find it more appealing as a parallel reality to their campaign settings.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Chapter 2 is entitled “Races of the Fey”, and offers players the options of creating hamadryad, pixie, or satyr characters, all of which have strong ties to the Feywild. Like the [I]shade[/I] and the [I]vryloka[/I] from the [B][I]Heroes of Shadow[/I][/B], these new races in [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] are equipped with not only decent racial powers, but a complete set of racial specific utility powers which can be substituted in to replace class utility powers at the appropriate levels. In addition, each of the new races is fully detailed, with racial background information, naming schemes, racial attitudes and beliefs, and recommended classes which might be a good fit for them.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The hamadryad is another plant-based entity, but has much more mythic powers than the wilden did. With capabilities to move through forest-based difficult terrain, assume a defensive wooden body, or to reveal a beauty capable of spellbinding opponents, the hamadryad offers some interesting options for a character.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The pixie, of course, is somewhat is a show-stealer here, and was discussed in great and humorous detail in Jared Von Hindmann’s [I]D&D Outsider[/I] spoof, [URL="http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4dnd/20111128"][B][I]Heroes of the Fey: Gone Wild[/I][/B][/URL]! [/SIZE][SIZE=3]I can easily imagine this becoming a very popular racial selection for gamers that want to enjoy something with a bit of whimsy, but also still be effective as a member of an adventuring party. The authors balanced the pixie’s flight ability fairly well by keeping them generally earthbound at an altitude of 1, although there might still be some exploits available to a character that can always fly as part of their movement. There is a sidebar for handling the rules which allow pixies to occupy the same space as larger allies and opponents, and for dealing with weapon sizes. And yes, pixies can use pixie dust to make other characters fly, once per encounter. I’m assuming there will be all sorts of “Tinkerbell Maneuvers” created to annoy DMs worldwide once they let a player start up their pixie character.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The satyr also has some decent options for racial powers, although none quite as impressive as the hamadryad or pixie. Admittedly, the ability to stack an additional d8 of healing onto each healing surge used during a short rest will make them capable of really pushing on during long adventures. There optional racial utility powers, dealing with music and charming, just beg them to consider becoming Bards of some type, although these powers are all dailies which some players might consider to be a drawback.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The third chapter of [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] details four new class options, based upon the Essentials design paradigm, for the Barbarian (Berserker), Bard (Skald), Druid (Protector), and Wizard (Witch) classes. These new classes generally conform to their origin class roles, with the exception of the Berserker, which is a defender rather than a striker (well, sort of – read on!). While I state that these classes are basically Essentials versions, in that they conform to limited options and some preset abilities, with all but one exception (again, see below), these classes show some decent refinements and push the paradigm a bit further than the previous classes.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Berserker is a surprisingly solid class, and one that offers interesting role-playing options to the player. While the main focus of the class is a defender, and uses a [I]defender aura[/I] much like the knight uses, a berserker has the option of dropping the aura in favor of entering a berserker fury to deal more damage as a striker would. In addition, there is a Heartland Option to select the prevailing terrain your barbarian hailed from, and the Arid Desert option actually grants substantial AC and Reflex bonuses if wearing no armor or cloth armor, and using no shield. A very good alternative for Dark Sun Campaigns. (For those players longing to portray the shirtless barbarian berserker rushing headlong into combat, here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for!)[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Next up in this chapter is the Skald (Bard), and sadly it was a disappointing follow up to the coolness that the Berserker brought into the game. In many respects, the Skald is like the old 3.5 bard, with songs that could affect combat by inspiring allies within range of hearing the bardic tunes. The Skald has a similar mechanic, a Skald aura (aura 5) that is augmented by the character’s choice of songs (at will powers). While the song effects are fairly decent, they are completely dependent on the Skald’s ability to hit their foe. No hit means no cool song effect. And the attacks are all basic attacks, to boot, without any real bonuses to speak off, making the class not terribly effective at doing much besides healing - as a leader, it does get to grant two healing surges with a 1d6 bonus. Honestly, I can’t imagine this version of the bard getting a lot of play, as it is simply a snooze right out of the gates and never gets any better.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3] Following the Skald, we have the Protector is a new form of Druid which is still a controller as the parent class, but it shares a main feature with the Summoner Wizard – it can summon allies to fight for it. In this case, those allies are nature allies, ranging from giant cobras and grizzly bears, on up to blue dragon wyrmling and raptor behemoths. The Protector forgoes their daily power option, and simply gains uses of summon nature ally instead. The Protector also loses the wild shape option, but it is replaced by a selection of at-will utility powers which are fairly useful in a variety of situations. Overall, I rather liked this class variant on the Druid, as it offers a decent alternative to assuming an animal form and wading into combat.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3] The final new class option is the Witch, and yes, we are once again presented with yet another pile of Wizard powers for this class. If ever there was a class that was approaching critical mass and nearing implosion into a black hole, it has to be the Wizard. That said, the thematic power options of the Witch are pretty darned neat, and the class gains the Arcane Familiar Feat as a free bonus. The Witch chooses a coven (Full or Dark Moon) which determines their first level encounter powers and offers skill bonuses, and gains a bonus daily power called Augury which can be used during an extended rest to sort of ask for a clue. Aside from my complaint about Wizard class-bloat, the Witch seems like a fairly fun option, but I think the authors really missed a trick making it a Wizard. Personally, I would have gone the “Mists of Avalon” direction, and made the Witch as an Invoker style controller, pulling in powers from a Mother Nature/Goddess entity.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]“Character Options” is the title of Chapter 4, and this chapter covers everything from new themes, to new Paragon Paths, Epic Destinies, feats, and Feywild items and magic items. As such, it’s a pretty hefty chapter, taking up more than one-quarter of the book with all the topics it covers.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The new themes include the Fey Beast Tamer, the Sidhe Lord, the Tuathan, and the Unseelie Agent. As mentioned previously, the authors clearly drew from Celtic lore to create the content for this book, and the Sidhe Lord, Tuathan, and Unseelie Agent certainly show heavy influences from that mythology. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Fey Beast Tamer theme offers any class the chance to utilize a beast companion like Beastmaster Ranger, except that the options include such creatures as blink dogs, displacer beasts, fey panthers, and young owlbears. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Sidhe Lord is similar to the Noble theme, but has more substantial ties to the Feywild and to the powerful entities that dwell there, such as archfey. These characters belong to powerful fey houses, and provide some decent role-playing options in this theme.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Tuathan theme is based, presumably, on the Celtic mythic cycle contained in the Tuatha De Danann. Characters adopting this theme become mythic heroes, able to draw upon strange fey powers and magicks to overcome obstacles in their quests, and even death, in order to see that their story goes on.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The final theme, the Unseelie Agent, offers players a chance to be a bit of a dark fey assassin, and has a potent selection of powers as well as an interesting role-playing theme. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Paragon Paths in the [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] are mainly designed to complement the new character class builds provided earlier. There is the Deadly Berserker, the Master Skald, the Legendary Witch, and the Inner Circle Initiate covering the four new classes, and of those three look like very strong options to advance characters along through the Paragon Tier. Sadly, the Master Skald has some fair abilities, but simply cannot overcome the overall blandness of the base class.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Epic Destinies offered are again deeply tied to the Feywild, and offer some interesting end-game options for characters. The Shiradi Champion elevates a character to become the personal hero of the Court of Stars, while the Wild Hunter allows a character to become a force of nature and a master of the famed Wild Hunt itself. The Witch Queen (or King) catapults a Wizard character to become a terrifying legend, the stuff of nightmares. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Feats section has a number of new feats devoted to bringing the new classes and races up to par with older more established ones, as well as offering a few interesting new options that any class could take, including a multiclass option for the new classes introduced in [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B].[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The Feywild based mundane gear is really fun, and much of it useful for adding features to a story or quest line. These items are technically non-magical, but being a creation of the fey realm, many of them seem to have some rather spectacular effects. There are also some magic items that follow the Feywild theme, but the really interesting new rewards are the boons that have been added. These boons are usually granted by powerful fey creatures, and can allow a character to perform some very “fairy tale” like actions, such as carry a flame in one’s bare hand from one place to another, speak to animals or plants, or to be able to smell precious metals like gold. Again, the thematic nature of these boons allow DMs to create interesting adventures where the heroes might be given a boon gift that seems useless at the time, but will assist in driving the story later on and make it a more memorable experience.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]The final chapter of the [B][I]Heroes of the Feywild[/I][/B] is entitled “Build Your Story”, and the authors have created an alternative way to gain background benefits while creating a tale of how your character became an adventurer. It is sort of a pick-a-path story framework, but with certain tangible benefits depending on your decisions and skill checks. I rather like it as a way to create a more folklore style background for a character, and definitely fits well with a book of this type.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B]Overall Score[/B]: 3.9 [B]out of[/B] 5.0[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][U]Conclusions[/U][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3] I would have to say that I would be surprised if many don’t consider Heroes of the Feywild the crown in the Essentials line of books, because it really offers classes and class options that show more refinement and crafting than some of the previous Essentials classes. That said, the Skald is simply a mess, and I have to wonder if we needed yet another Wizard sub-class to satisfy the 4E gamer population. But the rest of the options are pretty solid, and there are some good things in this book for even the traditional 4E classes to take advantage of, particularly with regard to the themes and some of the new powers and boons.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3] Overall, I think it’s a good buy, and contains content that is more accessible to a mainstream D&D player than was the Heroes of Shadow book. Fairy tales, Celtic myths, and all the legends of the fey are the building blocks of many a good D&D game, and this book definitely adds a lot more fun blocks to play with for players and DMs alike.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][I]So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming![/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][U] Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)[/U][/B][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][SIZE=3][B]Presentation[/B]: 4.0[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3]- Design: 4.5 (Great layout, sharp writing, very user friendly) [/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3]- Illustrations: 3.5 (Decent inner illustrations, but terrible cover)[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Content[/B]: 3.75[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3]- Crunch: 3.5 (Great new material, except for the Skald, and the wizard-bloat)[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3]- Fluff: 4.0 (Lots of thematic material, flavor, and material for role-playing)[/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][B]Value[/B]: 4.0 (Decent price, and a lot of material for the cost)[/SIZE] [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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