EricNoah
Adventurer
WotC was kind enough to send their two newest D&D books my way. Here's a peek inside:
Races of Faerun: As you've no doubt read elsewhere, it's basically a big book of races, with some other stuff.
The races (this takes up pp. 8-153 of 191 pages):
Dwarves: arctic, gold, gray, shield, Urdunnir, wild
Elves: aquatic, avariel (winged), drow, moon, sun, wild, wood
Gnomes: deep, forest, rock
Half-Elves: common, half-aquatic, half-drow
Half-Orcs & Orcs: gray orc, half-orc, mountain orc, orog
Halflings: ghostwise, lightfoot, strongheart
Humans: Cali
e, Chondathan, Damaran, Illuskan, Mulan, Rashemi, Tehyrian, other ethnic groups
Planetouched: aasimar, air genasi, earth genasi, fey'ri, fire genasi, tanarukk, tiefling, water genasi
Minor races: aarakocra, centaur, goblinoids (including goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and Dekanter goblins), kir-lanan, lizardfolk, lycanthropes (with new 3.5 lycanthrope template), shade, wemic, yuan-ti.
The appendix includes:
Equipment (about 20 new weapons, including bolas, halfling skiprock, and jambiya; 5 new armor types including mud armor and Dendritic crystal armor; new gear like armor lubricant and snowshoes; and special items like drow poison and flash grenades)
Feats (over 80 feats, most of them with racial or regional requirements, things like Batrider, duergar mindshaper, Hin Wandermage, Primitive Caster, and Stone Colossus)
Magic Items (new armor special abilities like Warming; new weapon abilities like Berserker or Sure Striking; specific weapons; a potion; wondrous items including new Figurines of Wondrous Power)
Monsters (animals like mastiff hound and lynx; cavvekan; deathfang; osquip; flying snake; steeder)
Prestige classes (dwarven battlerager; elven bladesinger; breachgnome; elven high mage -- this is an epic PrC; Great Rift skyguard; orc warlord; Spellsinger; Warrior Skald; halfling warsling sniper)
Spells (13 spells such as handfang, spore cloak, Verraketh's shadow crown, and detect metal and minerals)
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Of potential interest to those seeking 3.5 info is the new lycanthrope template. Basically, "Becoming a lycanthrope is very much like multiclassing as an animal and gaining the appropriate hit dice."
Character gains the new "shapechanger" subtype. In hybrid form, the character's size is the larger of the character's size or the animal's size. There's a chart showing wolf, dire bat, brown bear, boar, crocodile, dire rat, large shark, and tiger as potential lycanthrope material.
Character adds to his own the hit dice, base attack, saves, skills and feats of the animal. So a werebear character adds +6d8 hit dice, +4 BAB, +5 on Fort and Refl, +2 on Will, (2+Int mod) x6 skill points, and the feats Endurance, Run, and Track. Also gains Ability stat increases when in animal or hybrid form (the bear, for instance, grants +16 Str, +2 Dex, +8 Con).
There are more details but you basically get the picture. ECL is the character's class levels + the character's animal hit dice granted by the template + 1 or 2 (depending on if the lycanthrope is afflicted or natural).
Races of Faerun: As you've no doubt read elsewhere, it's basically a big book of races, with some other stuff.
The races (this takes up pp. 8-153 of 191 pages):
Dwarves: arctic, gold, gray, shield, Urdunnir, wild
Elves: aquatic, avariel (winged), drow, moon, sun, wild, wood
Gnomes: deep, forest, rock
Half-Elves: common, half-aquatic, half-drow
Half-Orcs & Orcs: gray orc, half-orc, mountain orc, orog
Halflings: ghostwise, lightfoot, strongheart
Humans: Cali
e, Chondathan, Damaran, Illuskan, Mulan, Rashemi, Tehyrian, other ethnic groupsPlanetouched: aasimar, air genasi, earth genasi, fey'ri, fire genasi, tanarukk, tiefling, water genasi
Minor races: aarakocra, centaur, goblinoids (including goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and Dekanter goblins), kir-lanan, lizardfolk, lycanthropes (with new 3.5 lycanthrope template), shade, wemic, yuan-ti.
The appendix includes:
Equipment (about 20 new weapons, including bolas, halfling skiprock, and jambiya; 5 new armor types including mud armor and Dendritic crystal armor; new gear like armor lubricant and snowshoes; and special items like drow poison and flash grenades)
Feats (over 80 feats, most of them with racial or regional requirements, things like Batrider, duergar mindshaper, Hin Wandermage, Primitive Caster, and Stone Colossus)
Magic Items (new armor special abilities like Warming; new weapon abilities like Berserker or Sure Striking; specific weapons; a potion; wondrous items including new Figurines of Wondrous Power)
Monsters (animals like mastiff hound and lynx; cavvekan; deathfang; osquip; flying snake; steeder)
Prestige classes (dwarven battlerager; elven bladesinger; breachgnome; elven high mage -- this is an epic PrC; Great Rift skyguard; orc warlord; Spellsinger; Warrior Skald; halfling warsling sniper)
Spells (13 spells such as handfang, spore cloak, Verraketh's shadow crown, and detect metal and minerals)
--------------
Of potential interest to those seeking 3.5 info is the new lycanthrope template. Basically, "Becoming a lycanthrope is very much like multiclassing as an animal and gaining the appropriate hit dice."
Character gains the new "shapechanger" subtype. In hybrid form, the character's size is the larger of the character's size or the animal's size. There's a chart showing wolf, dire bat, brown bear, boar, crocodile, dire rat, large shark, and tiger as potential lycanthrope material.
Character adds to his own the hit dice, base attack, saves, skills and feats of the animal. So a werebear character adds +6d8 hit dice, +4 BAB, +5 on Fort and Refl, +2 on Will, (2+Int mod) x6 skill points, and the feats Endurance, Run, and Track. Also gains Ability stat increases when in animal or hybrid form (the bear, for instance, grants +16 Str, +2 Dex, +8 Con).
There are more details but you basically get the picture. ECL is the character's class levels + the character's animal hit dice granted by the template + 1 or 2 (depending on if the lycanthrope is afflicted or natural).
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