Too Few Reviews to Peruse: Draconomicon

[wocky]

Great book. I'd give it 4 of 5 stars.
It took me from a "Why would I have dragons in my campaign?" attitude to scheming a campaign that will have almost nothing but dragons

What I didn't like about the book: Considerable spans of the text fail to give interesting information. Some subchapters seem to be written out of need to cover a given subject, regardless of not having any interesting to say. In fact, I think the book could have been quite slimmer (75% at least) with a more discriminating editing job.

The same thing with the strategies for fighting "as" or "against" dragons. They give lots of data (counting words, that is), but almost all of it is descriptive (like ennumerating average damage for different sizes of dragons). It could have been given in table format, or not at all. I expected some insightful bits that simply aren't there.

Finally, this is too much to ask, but it would have been wonderful to reprint, adapt, or re-do, something like the aerial combat rules in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting (which I've seen, but don't have).

 

[John Crichton]

I'll join the crowd here in saying that it is a really good book. So much so that in my new campaign, dragons will have a heavy presence. Haven't done that before. I typically stay away from them.

 

[Ghostwind]

If your campaign makes use of dragons as a more active participant in the big scheme, then I would certainly recommend it. You can read a reaview of it here.

 

[Pseudonym]

Does anyone have the book and what do you think?

I was quite impressed with it. It was generic in focus, but I immediatly found ways of use for both my FR and Kalamar games. The bit on dragon graveyards will become relevant if my players follow a particular red herring in my FR game.

The lexicon for Draconic was nice, but I wish they would have devoted more to it.

There were a few spells that sorcerers cast at a +1 caster level I though were nice. It played up the blood of dragons angle, and could really flavor the spell selection of a sorcerer playing up that angle.

The introduction of the draconic template was nice, as at a +1 ECL it provides for the half-dragon equivalent to the half-celestial's aasimar or the half-fiend's tiefling.

The bit on dragoncraft items is nice to have, should your PCs find themselves with a newly dead dragon.

I'd definately give it a 5 for 5.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Yes. The draconic micro-dictionary was either draconic-english or english-draconic, and I wish it had been both. You really ought to get it.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I'll be a voice of quasi-dissent, just to act as a counterpoint.

If your campaign hovers around the level 1-5 mark, you're not going to get much use out of this book. If your campaign doesn't have a lot of dragons, you're not going to get much use out of this book. If you aren't willing to spend a lot of time creating powerful dragon foes, you aren't going to get much use out of this book.

This book is to add depth to draconic encounters. It performs this function well, but that is pretty much its only function.

I don't plan on using it much, but I got it for super-cheap so I don't really mind. I'll flip through it from time to time and dream of throwing a red great wyrm with 10 levels of some unholy dragon prestige class at my poor, sniveling players.

 

[Woas]

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I'll say this: it really put the DRAGONS back into my Dungeons and Dragons campaign... where as before it was more of a Dungeons and Miscellanious Monsters campaign.

Lots of great info on dragons that can be used in the game. The new monsters are great as well as the huge section that details a typical lair of each dragon, plus a psychological discription of how a dragon would act for each age category.

 

[the Jester]

I love it, and dragons almost never appear imc. I think in the last year we've had three, and iirc (not counting the infamous 'hatching caves' adventure) a total of five otherwise since I started my campaign about ten years ago.

 

[Stalker0]

Its awesome, the draconic word dictionary alone has made it worth it for me

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Best. 3.5 book. EVAR.