I bought the Planar Handbook yesterday. I've spent some time reading through it.
Hmm.
Initial reaction: I like it.
One of the things that turned me off D&D during the mid-1990s was the profusion of Large Expensive Boxed Sets. So, I basically missed Planescape. I've caught up on a few details here and there about it, but I don't regret missing it at all.
For me, the planes are about Q1. Gygax's Gord the Rogue books. Oh, and a bunch of other writers - especially Roger Zelazny's Amber.
So, I'm not worried about anything like the Lady of Pain suddenly being described as "LN". (Oooh, scary!)
My concerns are twofold (or fourfold, depending on how you look at it):
* Does it give me, as a DM, good ideas and tools for adventures?
* Does it give my players good ideas for characters and tools for playing them?
Incidentally, if I were a Planescape devotee (as I am a Greyhawk devotee), I would add a third question: Does it give me the tools to update my old Planescape books to 3.5E? But I'm not, so I'll let others decide what the answer to that question is.
I love the idea of Planar Touchstones. Having an area of power that you can attune yourself to is something I like. What makes this section for me, however, is that which some people deride as "fluff" - a horrible, horrible term.
Opening the book yesterday, I found myself at the "Library of Ignorance", a place whose only inhabitant spends his time filling a book with the knowledge he has accumulated. He writes a page in the book every day.
However, he's cold and he has no fuel... so every day he tears a page out of the book and burns it.
Oh...
This hearkens back to our mythology. Sisyphus and Tantalus come to mind. I like things like this very much, and I'm so happy to find it here.
Then I turned a couple of pages and came up across the Shrine of Acererak. Hmm. I see Bruce is (one again) returning to D&D history for inspiration - of couse, he also wrote the Return to the Tomb of Horrors. I like.
One of the oddities about myself is this: I like playing Wizards and Bards over any other classes - but I don't get excited about new spells and magic items. Funny, huh? I rarely get excited about new monsters either. So that's a fair whack of the book which I just look at and say "looks competent", and then move on to something that interests me.
Unfortunately, I came across the light of Venya spell. Great spell. Very evocative. Deals 1d6 damage, or 3d6 damage to evil creatures, or heals 3d6 damage taken by a non-evil creature. Fine. No problem.
Then I looked at the spell level: Cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 3.
Huh? No! No! No! No! Don't give Wizards healing powers! Dear gods, no!
(Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!)
After I calmed down from that, I took in some of the pretty pictures. I particularly like the Prestige Classes frontispiece, illustrated by D. Roach. Great artwork. Very pretty.
Oh, and did you notice the border around the title of the book on the first page? That's new - and extremely effective. I rather like how this book looks.
I seem to have calmed down... on to Prestige Classes.
Prestige Classes, to me, are tools for my players rather than myself. Mostly, I'm happy with core classes and monsters. This book is different, though, as it gives highly entertaining descriptions of the organisations which the various prestige classes are for.
Such as the Athar, a group that believe that the "gods" are fake - they're just extremely powerful mortals trying to deceive us. Why don't they take this up directly with the "gods"? Because they are extremely powerful! Heh. That's funny. I like that.
Then there are two pieces of Lore for each group. Interesting - I find these inspiring, as I did the descriptions of the planar touchstones.
What's that you say? These organisations are based on material in Planescape? Cool. Doesn't matter to me - even out of the context where they originally appeared, I find these interesting and useful.
Oh, the mechanics of the prestige classes? Might be fine. A couple look a little weak, but given that the descriptions (fluff!) are so good, it doesn't really matter to me: I've got ideas for adventures from here.
I realise I haven't talked about chapter one (races). It looks solid. Pity about the blunder with the Damage Reduction for the spikers, but it's not game-breaking. Easily fixed.
Planar Substitution levels? What a cool idea! I'm a sucker for new variations on the existing rules, and I like the idea of these. Some of them are rather scary - the Enhanced Magic ability for 14th level wizards is extremely good... take the Astral Plane! Quicken your spells 3/day! (Though I notice that it takes a standard action to activate... not as broken as it could be).
That's in chapter 2, Classes and Feats, btw. I love feats. Even if I'm not going to use every single one of them, I find them far easier to appreciate than spells and prestige classes. Heritage feats? Hmm - another way of doing bloodlines. All I need is a heritage of the catlord feat (see Gord the Rogue...)
And there's a bunch of other material I haven't covered in this ramble through the text. Sigil is the main place in Planescape? Oh, right. Is there enough information for me to use it in my game? Absolutely - though I'll have to add quite a bit of my own design. No matter. That's why I'm the DM. Too much detail is quite often distracting... and inhibits the freedom of what I do.
So, how do I find it as a DM, and how do I think my players will react?
Well, as a DM, I love it. Despite a couple of blunders, I think there's a lot of really evocative material in this book. It also gives me some good starting points to later expand and enhance material for my own game, so that's good.
For my players... I think the book won't be initially of much interest. However, if I start moving the campaign to deal more with planar material, I think they'll rather like it. Not great for where my campaign is at the moment - but if I wanted more planar material, I believe this would be wonderful.
Cheers!
Hmm.
Initial reaction: I like it.
One of the things that turned me off D&D during the mid-1990s was the profusion of Large Expensive Boxed Sets. So, I basically missed Planescape. I've caught up on a few details here and there about it, but I don't regret missing it at all.
For me, the planes are about Q1. Gygax's Gord the Rogue books. Oh, and a bunch of other writers - especially Roger Zelazny's Amber.
So, I'm not worried about anything like the Lady of Pain suddenly being described as "LN". (Oooh, scary!)
My concerns are twofold (or fourfold, depending on how you look at it):
* Does it give me, as a DM, good ideas and tools for adventures?
* Does it give my players good ideas for characters and tools for playing them?
Incidentally, if I were a Planescape devotee (as I am a Greyhawk devotee), I would add a third question: Does it give me the tools to update my old Planescape books to 3.5E? But I'm not, so I'll let others decide what the answer to that question is.
I love the idea of Planar Touchstones. Having an area of power that you can attune yourself to is something I like. What makes this section for me, however, is that which some people deride as "fluff" - a horrible, horrible term.
Opening the book yesterday, I found myself at the "Library of Ignorance", a place whose only inhabitant spends his time filling a book with the knowledge he has accumulated. He writes a page in the book every day.
However, he's cold and he has no fuel... so every day he tears a page out of the book and burns it.
Oh...
This hearkens back to our mythology. Sisyphus and Tantalus come to mind. I like things like this very much, and I'm so happy to find it here.
Then I turned a couple of pages and came up across the Shrine of Acererak. Hmm. I see Bruce is (one again) returning to D&D history for inspiration - of couse, he also wrote the Return to the Tomb of Horrors. I like.
One of the oddities about myself is this: I like playing Wizards and Bards over any other classes - but I don't get excited about new spells and magic items. Funny, huh? I rarely get excited about new monsters either. So that's a fair whack of the book which I just look at and say "looks competent", and then move on to something that interests me.
Unfortunately, I came across the light of Venya spell. Great spell. Very evocative. Deals 1d6 damage, or 3d6 damage to evil creatures, or heals 3d6 damage taken by a non-evil creature. Fine. No problem.
Then I looked at the spell level: Cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 3.
Huh? No! No! No! No! Don't give Wizards healing powers! Dear gods, no!
(Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!)
After I calmed down from that, I took in some of the pretty pictures. I particularly like the Prestige Classes frontispiece, illustrated by D. Roach. Great artwork. Very pretty.
Oh, and did you notice the border around the title of the book on the first page? That's new - and extremely effective. I rather like how this book looks.
I seem to have calmed down... on to Prestige Classes.
Prestige Classes, to me, are tools for my players rather than myself. Mostly, I'm happy with core classes and monsters. This book is different, though, as it gives highly entertaining descriptions of the organisations which the various prestige classes are for.
Such as the Athar, a group that believe that the "gods" are fake - they're just extremely powerful mortals trying to deceive us. Why don't they take this up directly with the "gods"? Because they are extremely powerful! Heh. That's funny. I like that.
Then there are two pieces of Lore for each group. Interesting - I find these inspiring, as I did the descriptions of the planar touchstones.
What's that you say? These organisations are based on material in Planescape? Cool. Doesn't matter to me - even out of the context where they originally appeared, I find these interesting and useful.
Oh, the mechanics of the prestige classes? Might be fine. A couple look a little weak, but given that the descriptions (fluff!) are so good, it doesn't really matter to me: I've got ideas for adventures from here.
I realise I haven't talked about chapter one (races). It looks solid. Pity about the blunder with the Damage Reduction for the spikers, but it's not game-breaking. Easily fixed.
Planar Substitution levels? What a cool idea! I'm a sucker for new variations on the existing rules, and I like the idea of these. Some of them are rather scary - the Enhanced Magic ability for 14th level wizards is extremely good... take the Astral Plane! Quicken your spells 3/day! (Though I notice that it takes a standard action to activate... not as broken as it could be).
That's in chapter 2, Classes and Feats, btw. I love feats. Even if I'm not going to use every single one of them, I find them far easier to appreciate than spells and prestige classes. Heritage feats? Hmm - another way of doing bloodlines. All I need is a heritage of the catlord feat (see Gord the Rogue...)
And there's a bunch of other material I haven't covered in this ramble through the text. Sigil is the main place in Planescape? Oh, right. Is there enough information for me to use it in my game? Absolutely - though I'll have to add quite a bit of my own design. No matter. That's why I'm the DM. Too much detail is quite often distracting... and inhibits the freedom of what I do.
So, how do I find it as a DM, and how do I think my players will react?
Well, as a DM, I love it. Despite a couple of blunders, I think there's a lot of really evocative material in this book. It also gives me some good starting points to later expand and enhance material for my own game, so that's good.
For my players... I think the book won't be initially of much interest. However, if I start moving the campaign to deal more with planar material, I think they'll rather like it. Not great for where my campaign is at the moment - but if I wanted more planar material, I believe this would be wonderful.
Cheers!
