Unapproachable East
- Thread starter IronWolf
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SurgicalSteel
First Post
Blacksway Note: This review was added by SurgicalSteel with no scrore (actually he added it as a new product!)
NOTE: This product was recieved as a complimentary copy from WotC.
The Unapproachable East is the new Forgotten Realms world expansion from WotC. The hardcover clocks in at a solid 192 pages, with a $30 price tag. The expansion covers the domains of Algarond, Thay, Rashemen, Thesk, the Great Dale, and border regions, including prestige classes, monsters, and more.
Dreams of the Red Wizards (FR6) provided the first detail of this area. Its focus was chiefly on Thay. Thesk, Rashemen, and the rest were all described, but only in passing, in an expanded encyclopedic format like that found in the original Forgotten Realms boxed set.
Spellbound, the 2nd Ed. boxed set again detailed Thay, and added Aglarond and Rashemen. This campaign guide was detailed chiefly as background and accompaniment to the two included adventures: The Runes of Chaos, and the Throne of Deceit. These adventures focused on the plot of the Lich-Zulkir Szass Tam to establish his absolute power in Thay. While the description of Thay was shortened in this expansion, Aglarond and Rashemen recieved a geometric increase in level of detail.
With Unapproachable East, the enhanced treatment that was given to Aglarond and Rashemen in Spellbound is further extended to Thesk, the region known as the Great Dale, and the border regions.
Here is a breakdown of the chapters:
Credits and TOC...................3 pages
Introduction......................4 pages
Races of the East.................10 pages
Prestige Classes..................22 pages
Character Regions and Feats.......6 pages
Magic and Spells..................8 pages
Magic Items.......................5 pages
Monsters..........................23 pages
Adventuring in the East...........13 pages
Aglarond..........................18 pages
Great Dale........................15 pages
Rashemen..........................20 pages
Thay..............................23 pages
Thesk.............................16 pages
Border Areas......................5 pages
Races of the East details as playable races Star Elves, Gnolls, Hagspawn, Spiritfolk, Taer and Volodni.
Star Elves are basically moon elves (with preferred class bard), from another world. Hagspawn are the most interesting of new playable races, though the distinctly "good drow"-like feel is awfully familiar. The hagspawn are the male offspring of hags (the female offspring becomes hags themselves), and are born with abilities perfect for war (spell resistance, heightened strength and constitution, natural armor).
The spirit folk are fairly mundane, with either exceptional climbing ability, or swimming ability, essentially. The taer are gorillas as a playable race. The volodni are the other interesting new race. They are a kind of forest-people created by transforming human refugees with woodland sorcery. Their preferred class is druid, and the prime advantage they offer is a host of immunities.
The section is rounded off with an orc variant: Orcs of the East (or grey orcs).
The Prestige Classes are quite interesting and good. Several are localized variations of versions we have seen before. For example, the Talontar Blightlord is derived from the Blighter from Masters of the Wild, the Raumathari battlemage is loosely based on the Spellsword from Tome and Blood, and the Black Flame Zealot is derived from the Assassin. Though these examples are somewhat unoriginal, this presentation answers a complaint I have had against the typical prestige class: total absence of context, which is supposed to be crucial. There is now location and/or knowledge: location requirements. And seeing this for the Raumathari Battlemage truly warmed my heart:
"The character must find a mentor who already has levels in Raumathari battlemage and spend at least 10 days studying in the mentor's company. During this time of study, both the mentor and the student must spend at least 8 hours a day in training." (page 29)
These are prestige classes as they were meant to be.
The new prestige classes I liked include the Nar Demonbinder, a class which has the ability forge Iron, Bronze and Silver Signs of potent use against demons and devils. The abilities of the class can as easily be used to battle demons as force them into service. These acolytes are derived from the now-dead Empire of Narfell, which frequently trafficked with demons. Another one I like is the Runescarred Berserker, a barbarian whose scars confer natural armor and damage reduction. They also store and activate spells in their scars.
The Feats section follow the pattern established in FRCS; new character regions are: Altumbel, Gnoll, Shou Expatriate, Star Elf, Taer, Volodni, and Wizard's Reach. New feats are included for prestige classes from the FRCS, such as the Ethran. Other new feats are for Berserker Lodges described in the chapter about Rashemen (chapter 10). Most feats found here are useful for customizing Rashemi characters. New metamagic includes Explosive Spell and Fortify spell (which increases the odds of punching through spell resistance).
The spell list contains a couple revisions from FRCS, but is to a large extent a 3E update of a few key spells from the preceding 2E AD&D Spellbound (a Beltyn's spell, a couple Nybor's spells, etc). There are some new spells as well, the catchiest being Improved Blink, and Sphere of Ultimate Destruction, which is essentially a temporary Sphere of Annihilation. The writers also continue the 3E practice of making spells widely available which were once extremely rare and were to be found in only a single tome. Case in point: Decastave. This force-stave creating spell was once restricted to Detho's Libram; it is now on the standard spell list.
Truth be told, I was caught off-gaurd by the shortness of this section, the two predecessors to this volume had a far wider variety of spells, with an emphasis on the Red Wizards' schools, and fire. The distinctly different spells of the Red Wizards were a critical part of their mystique and danger. In this tome at least, this has been all but forgotten. I hope Lords of Darkness adds a great deal of depth to the Red Wizards, otherwise this important group has been neglected.
The magic items are cheifly for the witches and the wizards, with masks for witches, and bombards and a few weapons for the wizards. There are also a couple items for Aglarond and Yuirwood (a lance for the griffonrider prestige class, a circlet for rangers, and a sword for elves of use against extraplanar invaders).
The monsters section is tied with the area description of Thay for heftiest of the book. The emphasis on undead minions for the Red wizards is made through Blooded one template, Dread Warrior template, and Juju zombie template. Shadow-walker template applied to disciples of Mask who have undergone a ritual, these are to be found chiefly in Thesk. The blighter theme from MotW is given form in the Blightspawn template, the example given being a blight-spawned treant.
A lot of space is expended on the mythological/spiritual nature of Rashemen, with the Orglash, which is an icy template attached to air elemental creatures, the Thomil template which (attached to earth elemental creatures), and the Telthor template (a fey-type). Hags and Trolls both recieve customization here, with the Bheur and Shrieking hags, and Ice, Fell, and Mur Zhagal trolls. Bheur hags are basically frost hags capabale of increasing their size, and the fell troll is a giant 2-headed troll. The Mur-Zhagal are demon-trolls sporting spell-like abilities.
Rounding out the lot is the Taer, the spirit folk (another Rashemi group), the volodni, and the Nilshai, a tentacled Aberrant race that now threatens the elves of Yuirwood. Finally there is the Uthraki, an apelike shapechanger afflicting the Rashemites.
Adventuring in the East is a critical chapter for DMs, covering the major organizations of the area (the Blightlords, the Church of Kossuth, etc), detailing the major dungeons of the region, and pages of encounter tables. This would be a prime source of major seeds.
The Region Descriptions
Despite my tagline the manual is evenly divided between "fluff" and "crunch", with a slight edge to the fluff. The description of each region is excellent, beginning with a geographical overview, then moving to specific geographic features. It moves then to the people and society of the area, then powers and enemies, and finally to cities. As a rule, the Heroes and Monsters section is very short for each nation, and is chiefly a quick overview with references to other sections or FR manuals.
The area discriptions are quite good as such. Hooks, ruins, and mysterious goings on abound. The discriptions of geography are detailed and useful, as are the cities and the general power structure and inhabitants.
Thay is a land of slavery and tyranny ruled by the infamous Red Wizards, an agressive and evil organization that has pursued a relentlessly aggressive policy to little real effect since its formation. Rashemen and Aglarond are both lands ruled by magic using females, both frequently in hostile contact with Thay, though this has shifted to some trading of late. Thesk is a mercantile land which hosts a Shou refugee group (a quasi-Chinese group from the far east/Kara-tur), with assassins guilds operating as a tool of the merchants, a power bloc to themsleves. The Great Dale is basically an unorganized collection of towns, its main feature is a great road that connects the coast to the inland.
The excellent cover features Szass Tam under attack by a group of Rashemi berserkers and a coven of witches, but there is little to be learned about ol' Szass in this book. In fact you will find little about the doings of any major personalities, stat blocks, descriptions, or ambitions for them.
There is some cursory coverage of "standard activities" for the most significant of figures, and many references to figures of regional importance of a few lines in length. On the whole, detail of important personalities is completely neglected. This includes the witches of Rashemen, merchant-lords of Thesk, not to mention the Red Wizards. This is rather an odd decision. It is not a mortal flaw by any means, but it is a significant exclusion. How this will be rectified is unclear, the natural place to put this information was here. Perhaps the setting will be expanded, but I see no indication of that. WotC seems entirely focused on core books, not modules, not country by country Gazeteers, or any other work that this information would be expected to appear in.
It looks as though the DM is expected to custom-generate this information for the home campaign. This isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't make the GM's job any easier, and the lack of an index makes it difficult to tie together all pertinent info on a particular figure.
This sort of approach is emblematic of the whole. The first half of the book provides many bits. The regions provide a useful and effective backgroud. The rest up to you. Whether thats good or bad is a different question. The truth is I haven't formed an opinion on this. This is not a playtest review, so I am not sure how well it would actually work out. The lack of an index become more ominous the more I think about it though.
CONCLUSION
I continue to enjoy the excellent presentation of Forgotten Realms manuals, this one being no exception. The font use and full color pages are seamlessly pleasant, and the art found here is at least decent when not at its evocative and beautifully stylized norm.
A sorta-complaint is the lack of an overall pull-out map. The description of each area begins with the high quality full page map we have come to expect. And given the present availability of the all-Realms overview map, this simply doesn't strike me as a very valid criticism.
More problematic is a lack of an Index. For a book like this, an index is very important, especially since an additional burden of development is laid upon the DM.
Not having access to Lords of Darkness hampered my ability to do a complete review; a great deal of previous material was omitted, and I am unsure if this was included in the section on the Red Wizards in 3E LoD, or omitted entirely.
Of the things in the book, I liked best the distinctive styles of Rashemi Berserker lodges, and the Blightlords and their domains. When I first saw the Blighter in MotW, its potential was immediately obvious. In UE, the Blightlords are a growing force in the Rawlinswood of Thesk, and they are beginning to grow near Aglarond as well. I do have to say that the blightspawn remind me of the Toxics from Shadowrun, though.
There isn't a whole lot on the Red Wizards, thats probably intentionally located in LoD instead.
All told, this tome focuses more on Rashemen than anywhere else. I am sure Minsc would approve of the treament, but Edwin (and DMs) might feel otherwise. This is not to say short shrift is given to any other region, the expansion of Thesk and the Great Dale remains the best to date, and material on Thay and Aglarond is plentiful.
As a resource on the East FR in general, it is the best ever. It contains plenty of cruchy bits to make the fluff come alive. For a FR DM, it is indispensable. FR 6 remains the best resource on Thay specifically, though it would require updating. The new cruch is good stuff and can be modified and transferred to any custom setting.
But no matter what world you run, in play use of this book will require some work.
NOTE: This product was recieved as a complimentary copy from WotC.
The Unapproachable East is the new Forgotten Realms world expansion from WotC. The hardcover clocks in at a solid 192 pages, with a $30 price tag. The expansion covers the domains of Algarond, Thay, Rashemen, Thesk, the Great Dale, and border regions, including prestige classes, monsters, and more.
Dreams of the Red Wizards (FR6) provided the first detail of this area. Its focus was chiefly on Thay. Thesk, Rashemen, and the rest were all described, but only in passing, in an expanded encyclopedic format like that found in the original Forgotten Realms boxed set.
Spellbound, the 2nd Ed. boxed set again detailed Thay, and added Aglarond and Rashemen. This campaign guide was detailed chiefly as background and accompaniment to the two included adventures: The Runes of Chaos, and the Throne of Deceit. These adventures focused on the plot of the Lich-Zulkir Szass Tam to establish his absolute power in Thay. While the description of Thay was shortened in this expansion, Aglarond and Rashemen recieved a geometric increase in level of detail.
With Unapproachable East, the enhanced treatment that was given to Aglarond and Rashemen in Spellbound is further extended to Thesk, the region known as the Great Dale, and the border regions.
Here is a breakdown of the chapters:
Credits and TOC...................3 pages
Introduction......................4 pages
Races of the East.................10 pages
Prestige Classes..................22 pages
Character Regions and Feats.......6 pages
Magic and Spells..................8 pages
Magic Items.......................5 pages
Monsters..........................23 pages
Adventuring in the East...........13 pages
Aglarond..........................18 pages
Great Dale........................15 pages
Rashemen..........................20 pages
Thay..............................23 pages
Thesk.............................16 pages
Border Areas......................5 pages
Races of the East details as playable races Star Elves, Gnolls, Hagspawn, Spiritfolk, Taer and Volodni.
Star Elves are basically moon elves (with preferred class bard), from another world. Hagspawn are the most interesting of new playable races, though the distinctly "good drow"-like feel is awfully familiar. The hagspawn are the male offspring of hags (the female offspring becomes hags themselves), and are born with abilities perfect for war (spell resistance, heightened strength and constitution, natural armor).
The spirit folk are fairly mundane, with either exceptional climbing ability, or swimming ability, essentially. The taer are gorillas as a playable race. The volodni are the other interesting new race. They are a kind of forest-people created by transforming human refugees with woodland sorcery. Their preferred class is druid, and the prime advantage they offer is a host of immunities.
The section is rounded off with an orc variant: Orcs of the East (or grey orcs).
The Prestige Classes are quite interesting and good. Several are localized variations of versions we have seen before. For example, the Talontar Blightlord is derived from the Blighter from Masters of the Wild, the Raumathari battlemage is loosely based on the Spellsword from Tome and Blood, and the Black Flame Zealot is derived from the Assassin. Though these examples are somewhat unoriginal, this presentation answers a complaint I have had against the typical prestige class: total absence of context, which is supposed to be crucial. There is now location and/or knowledge: location requirements. And seeing this for the Raumathari Battlemage truly warmed my heart:
"The character must find a mentor who already has levels in Raumathari battlemage and spend at least 10 days studying in the mentor's company. During this time of study, both the mentor and the student must spend at least 8 hours a day in training." (page 29)
These are prestige classes as they were meant to be.
The new prestige classes I liked include the Nar Demonbinder, a class which has the ability forge Iron, Bronze and Silver Signs of potent use against demons and devils. The abilities of the class can as easily be used to battle demons as force them into service. These acolytes are derived from the now-dead Empire of Narfell, which frequently trafficked with demons. Another one I like is the Runescarred Berserker, a barbarian whose scars confer natural armor and damage reduction. They also store and activate spells in their scars.
The Feats section follow the pattern established in FRCS; new character regions are: Altumbel, Gnoll, Shou Expatriate, Star Elf, Taer, Volodni, and Wizard's Reach. New feats are included for prestige classes from the FRCS, such as the Ethran. Other new feats are for Berserker Lodges described in the chapter about Rashemen (chapter 10). Most feats found here are useful for customizing Rashemi characters. New metamagic includes Explosive Spell and Fortify spell (which increases the odds of punching through spell resistance).
The spell list contains a couple revisions from FRCS, but is to a large extent a 3E update of a few key spells from the preceding 2E AD&D Spellbound (a Beltyn's spell, a couple Nybor's spells, etc). There are some new spells as well, the catchiest being Improved Blink, and Sphere of Ultimate Destruction, which is essentially a temporary Sphere of Annihilation. The writers also continue the 3E practice of making spells widely available which were once extremely rare and were to be found in only a single tome. Case in point: Decastave. This force-stave creating spell was once restricted to Detho's Libram; it is now on the standard spell list.
Truth be told, I was caught off-gaurd by the shortness of this section, the two predecessors to this volume had a far wider variety of spells, with an emphasis on the Red Wizards' schools, and fire. The distinctly different spells of the Red Wizards were a critical part of their mystique and danger. In this tome at least, this has been all but forgotten. I hope Lords of Darkness adds a great deal of depth to the Red Wizards, otherwise this important group has been neglected.
The magic items are cheifly for the witches and the wizards, with masks for witches, and bombards and a few weapons for the wizards. There are also a couple items for Aglarond and Yuirwood (a lance for the griffonrider prestige class, a circlet for rangers, and a sword for elves of use against extraplanar invaders).
The monsters section is tied with the area description of Thay for heftiest of the book. The emphasis on undead minions for the Red wizards is made through Blooded one template, Dread Warrior template, and Juju zombie template. Shadow-walker template applied to disciples of Mask who have undergone a ritual, these are to be found chiefly in Thesk. The blighter theme from MotW is given form in the Blightspawn template, the example given being a blight-spawned treant.
A lot of space is expended on the mythological/spiritual nature of Rashemen, with the Orglash, which is an icy template attached to air elemental creatures, the Thomil template which (attached to earth elemental creatures), and the Telthor template (a fey-type). Hags and Trolls both recieve customization here, with the Bheur and Shrieking hags, and Ice, Fell, and Mur Zhagal trolls. Bheur hags are basically frost hags capabale of increasing their size, and the fell troll is a giant 2-headed troll. The Mur-Zhagal are demon-trolls sporting spell-like abilities.
Rounding out the lot is the Taer, the spirit folk (another Rashemi group), the volodni, and the Nilshai, a tentacled Aberrant race that now threatens the elves of Yuirwood. Finally there is the Uthraki, an apelike shapechanger afflicting the Rashemites.
Adventuring in the East is a critical chapter for DMs, covering the major organizations of the area (the Blightlords, the Church of Kossuth, etc), detailing the major dungeons of the region, and pages of encounter tables. This would be a prime source of major seeds.
The Region Descriptions
Despite my tagline the manual is evenly divided between "fluff" and "crunch", with a slight edge to the fluff. The description of each region is excellent, beginning with a geographical overview, then moving to specific geographic features. It moves then to the people and society of the area, then powers and enemies, and finally to cities. As a rule, the Heroes and Monsters section is very short for each nation, and is chiefly a quick overview with references to other sections or FR manuals.
The area discriptions are quite good as such. Hooks, ruins, and mysterious goings on abound. The discriptions of geography are detailed and useful, as are the cities and the general power structure and inhabitants.
Thay is a land of slavery and tyranny ruled by the infamous Red Wizards, an agressive and evil organization that has pursued a relentlessly aggressive policy to little real effect since its formation. Rashemen and Aglarond are both lands ruled by magic using females, both frequently in hostile contact with Thay, though this has shifted to some trading of late. Thesk is a mercantile land which hosts a Shou refugee group (a quasi-Chinese group from the far east/Kara-tur), with assassins guilds operating as a tool of the merchants, a power bloc to themsleves. The Great Dale is basically an unorganized collection of towns, its main feature is a great road that connects the coast to the inland.
The excellent cover features Szass Tam under attack by a group of Rashemi berserkers and a coven of witches, but there is little to be learned about ol' Szass in this book. In fact you will find little about the doings of any major personalities, stat blocks, descriptions, or ambitions for them.
There is some cursory coverage of "standard activities" for the most significant of figures, and many references to figures of regional importance of a few lines in length. On the whole, detail of important personalities is completely neglected. This includes the witches of Rashemen, merchant-lords of Thesk, not to mention the Red Wizards. This is rather an odd decision. It is not a mortal flaw by any means, but it is a significant exclusion. How this will be rectified is unclear, the natural place to put this information was here. Perhaps the setting will be expanded, but I see no indication of that. WotC seems entirely focused on core books, not modules, not country by country Gazeteers, or any other work that this information would be expected to appear in.
It looks as though the DM is expected to custom-generate this information for the home campaign. This isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't make the GM's job any easier, and the lack of an index makes it difficult to tie together all pertinent info on a particular figure.
This sort of approach is emblematic of the whole. The first half of the book provides many bits. The regions provide a useful and effective backgroud. The rest up to you. Whether thats good or bad is a different question. The truth is I haven't formed an opinion on this. This is not a playtest review, so I am not sure how well it would actually work out. The lack of an index become more ominous the more I think about it though.
CONCLUSION
I continue to enjoy the excellent presentation of Forgotten Realms manuals, this one being no exception. The font use and full color pages are seamlessly pleasant, and the art found here is at least decent when not at its evocative and beautifully stylized norm.
A sorta-complaint is the lack of an overall pull-out map. The description of each area begins with the high quality full page map we have come to expect. And given the present availability of the all-Realms overview map, this simply doesn't strike me as a very valid criticism.
More problematic is a lack of an Index. For a book like this, an index is very important, especially since an additional burden of development is laid upon the DM.
Not having access to Lords of Darkness hampered my ability to do a complete review; a great deal of previous material was omitted, and I am unsure if this was included in the section on the Red Wizards in 3E LoD, or omitted entirely.
Of the things in the book, I liked best the distinctive styles of Rashemi Berserker lodges, and the Blightlords and their domains. When I first saw the Blighter in MotW, its potential was immediately obvious. In UE, the Blightlords are a growing force in the Rawlinswood of Thesk, and they are beginning to grow near Aglarond as well. I do have to say that the blightspawn remind me of the Toxics from Shadowrun, though.
There isn't a whole lot on the Red Wizards, thats probably intentionally located in LoD instead.
All told, this tome focuses more on Rashemen than anywhere else. I am sure Minsc would approve of the treament, but Edwin (and DMs) might feel otherwise. This is not to say short shrift is given to any other region, the expansion of Thesk and the Great Dale remains the best to date, and material on Thay and Aglarond is plentiful.
As a resource on the East FR in general, it is the best ever. It contains plenty of cruchy bits to make the fluff come alive. For a FR DM, it is indispensable. FR 6 remains the best resource on Thay specifically, though it would require updating. The new cruch is good stuff and can be modified and transferred to any custom setting.
But no matter what world you run, in play use of this book will require some work.
SurgicalSteel
First Post
City maps are included for the following:
Aglarond: Relkath's Foot (largest permanent settlement of half-elves in the Yuirwood)
The Great Dale: Uthmere (largest settlement of the Great Dale, costal terminus of the Great Road)
Rashemen: Immilmar (Rashemi capital, home to the Citadel of the Iron Lord)
Thay: Bezantur (coastal city and commercial center of Thay)
Thesk: Telflamm (capital city of Thesk, host of "Shou-town" AKA Chinatown) The Shou referenced elsewhere refer to this community. Also home to the Shadowmasters of Telflamm.
This is clearly significantly more city maps than you can find in the FRCS. I didn't really pick up on the 1 city map per nation description until you asked, thanks for doing so.
Aglarond: Relkath's Foot (largest permanent settlement of half-elves in the Yuirwood)
The Great Dale: Uthmere (largest settlement of the Great Dale, costal terminus of the Great Road)
Rashemen: Immilmar (Rashemi capital, home to the Citadel of the Iron Lord)
Thay: Bezantur (coastal city and commercial center of Thay)
Thesk: Telflamm (capital city of Thesk, host of "Shou-town" AKA Chinatown) The Shou referenced elsewhere refer to this community. Also home to the Shadowmasters of Telflamm.
This is clearly significantly more city maps than you can find in the FRCS. I didn't really pick up on the 1 city map per nation description until you asked, thanks for doing so.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer
Sizing Up the Target
The Unapproachable East is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS supplement for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting from Wizards of the Coast. This is a 192-page full-color hardcover by Richard Baker, Matt Forbeck, ad Sean K. Reynolds. The wrap-around cover art by Matt Wilson depicts a band of Rashemen battling a Red Wizard (looks a lot like Szass Tam) and several fine talents contribute to the interior artwork, including Sam Wood and Glen Angus. The Unapproachable East retails for $29.95.
First Blood
For those familiar with the Forgotten Realms, the Unapproachable East hardly needs introduction. Anyone knowledgeable in Faerûnian geography can tell you that it is the area between the Easting River and the Sunrise Mountains, from the southern coast of Aglarond, to the Great Glacier. It encompasses the lands of Aglarond, the Great Dale, Rashemen, Thay, and Thesk. Likewise, it is well-known among Faerûnians that Aglarond is the land ruled by the Simbul, Thesk is the war-ravaged land where the Tuigan horde was stopped by the mighty western alliance, and that Rasemen is a land hostile to strangers and the mortal enemy of Thay, the home of the Red Wizards, who plot military and mercantile domination of Faerûn, perhaps even the entirety of Toril. In other words, most people know very little about the Unapproachable East.
Unapproachable East is written to work with the revised D&D rules (now known formally as D&D 3.5). As such, the introduction provides a brief primer on how the rules essential to this volume have changed. Also included is a list of creatures referred to in this volume from Monstrous Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn, along with a list of suggested substitutes from Core Rulebook III for those who lack the Monsters of Faerûn supplement.
Unapproachable East introduces six new races for use as player characters; star elves, gnolls, hagspawn, spirit folk, taer, and volodni. Spirit folk will be immediately recognizable by anyone familiar with the original Oriental Adventures from 1st edition D&D. They are descendents of humans and nature spirits and are found here in two ethnicities; mountain and river. Star elves are an elven subrace that retreated from Faerûn to an extraplanar refuge some two thousand years ago. They have only recently emerged from their self-imposed isolation. Gnolls are exactly as described in Core Rulebook III, adapted here for use as player characters. Hagspawn are the result of the union between hags and human males. No female hagspawn are known to exist (females become hags, like their mothers). Taer are a race of savage, primitive hunters that dwell in remote mountains and passes. Though severely lacking in intelligence, these creatures are amazingly strong. Finally, the volodni are a humanlike race of treefolk who defend their forest homes with iron resolve. Both genders of each race are illustrated in full color and to scale with one another. As an added bonus, the grey orcs from Races of Faerûn are also included (for those who lack that resource).
A dozen new prestige classes are described in Unapproachable East. The Aglarondan griffonrider is part of an elite force of aerial knights who serve the Simbul and defend Aglarond. Black Flame Zealots are a secret society of holy slayers devoted to the worship of Kossuth. Durthan are an order of evil spellcasters who tap into the darker spirits of the Rashemen, while the masters of the Yuirwood are an elite group of foresters who work to keep the ancient Yuirwood forest free of evil influence. Nar demonbinders are masters of the black art of demon summoning, while the Nentyar hunters, servants of the druidic ruler of the Circle of Leth, roam the wildlands, uprooting foul and evil things. Raumathari battlemages employ both sword and spell with decisive precision, as runescarred berserkers, with magical runes carved into their very flesh, stand ready to leap to battle at the word from a Witch. The Shou disciples are martial artists who seek to emulate the styles of the monks of Kara-Tur, the Talontar blightlords spread plague and disease throughout the East, and the Telflammar shadowlords serve as the undisputed rulers of the mighty thieves’ guilds of Telflamm. Finally, Thayan Slavers use their awful abilities to abduct creatures and then break their wills. All of the prestige classes seem to be well-designed and serve to enhance the setting, rather than act as filler material.
As might be expected, data on new regions is provided, including preferred classes, languages, feats, and starting equipment. The new regions described are Altumbel, gnolls from Thay, Shou expatriates (refugees) from Thesk, star elves, taer, volodni, and the Wizard’s Reach. Accompanying these new regions are some 18 new feats that are available both to characters who call these lands home, and those from other parts of the Realms. Most of these feats greatly expand the capabilities of the Rashemen, but a few are generic enough to be chosen by almost any character.
A total of 21 new spells are described in Unapproachable East, most of them arcane in nature. In addition, the secrets of circle magic, contingent spells, place magic, rune magic, and the shadow weave are all examined in terms of characters from the East. Circle magic, rune magic, and shadow weave are all described in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, but contingent spells and place magic are new to this book. In short, place magic permits characters to cast spells without having prepared them, but only in certain circumstance. Contingent spells are single-use, one-spell magical items that remain inactive until triggered.
There are some new magical items, as well as some new monsters for the characters to run afoul of. Two new types of hag are detailed; the bheur (bringers of wintry death and misery) and the shrieking hag (frightful creatures that voice terrible shrieks). In addition, there are seven new templates, including the juju zombie (a 1st edition favorite) and the telthor, spirit animals or people native to Rashemen. Three new species of troll are also described; the ice troll, the fell troll (a two-headed monstrosity), and the demon troll. In all, 19 new monsters are enough to insure that players, no matter how jaded they may have become, will stay on their toes when visiting the East.
Adventuring locales and dungeons of the East are outlined, along with a few adventuring hooks. As a bonus, what should have been included in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, wilderness encounter tables, are included here. Finally, each of the five major geographic areas is described in great detail, as was done in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, outlining major cities, sites of interests, beliefs, and histories.
Overall, there is a lot of information to digest here and it strikes a good balance between fluff and crunch. Though it is, naturally, Realms-specific, much of the material herein is easily adapted to other settings, making it invaluable to both Realms DMs and those who develop their own campaigns. The atlas material takes up fully 50% of the book, but even this may be of use to non-Realms players, as some of the cities, sites, and perhaps even a little of the history can be lifted and placed into a customized setting with little or no difficulty.
Critical Hits
As a general rule of thumb, I dislike “dating” myself. That is, I hesitate to talk about how it was in the “old days” when we had to chip our dice out of stone or carve them from potatoes and when orcs only came in one flavor, but we’ve come a long way since that time. I can remember with vivid clarity the first Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. The production values, even then, were quite high, but they’re nothing compared to what we have now. Full-color portraits of races and monsters, beautifully-illustrated maps, and rich illustrations throughout the book. I guess the point of this little ramble is that besides all of the offerings within the text, the beauty of the book itself should not be overlooked.
As a rule, I like crunch. Most of you who read my reviews regularly already know that. I believe that every supplement should offer me new feats, spells, classes, or what have you. What you may not know is that I also like a good bit of chewy every once in a while, particularly when it pertains to a setting that is so rich in history as the Forgotten Realms. I can’t help but think that if Wizards were to produce some Greyhawk materials with the same quality and emphasis on setting as the Forgotten Realms materials they have been putting out, they’d recoup about half the people they lost when they introduced D&D3E. It’s great that you give me some cool new spells, prestige classes, and monsters, but it’s even better when you give me a setting to use them in, and that’s what Unapproachable East does. In a way, it’s funny. I have owned the Spellbound campaign set since it was released back in 1993, but the setting never intrigued me the way that Unapproachable East has.
Critical Misses
There’s really nothing in Unapproachable East that comes off as bad, though I did feel that the magical items section was a little lacking. It just seems to me that, as a land dominated by wizards, there could have been a lot more unique magical goodies than there were. Likewise, the text mentions that the vaults of the Red Wizards hold a “number” of magical artifacts, yet only two are described. It almost seems as though the magical items were tossed in as last-minute filler to help sate the thirsts of those who seek only crunchy material.
Coup de Grace
This is an official Wizards of the Coast release, and you know what that means; no Open Game Content. On the other hand, a good portion of the material herein is not only new to 3rd edition, but new to the game as a whole. As I said, it’s also pretty easy for DMs to pluck what they desire from the setting and place it in their own worlds, a trait I value highly (as someone who has created his own campaign). At $30 (USD), the book is a little pricey (especially when you consider that the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting was only $40), but if you’ve got the cash to shell out, this is an excellent purchase, providing a good blend of crunch and chewy bits that is sure to enhance your campaign, whether it is set in Faerûn, or a world of your own devising.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
*Edit: Score was changed to a 4 to be a more accurate reflection of the review itself.
Sizing Up the Target
The Unapproachable East is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS supplement for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting from Wizards of the Coast. This is a 192-page full-color hardcover by Richard Baker, Matt Forbeck, ad Sean K. Reynolds. The wrap-around cover art by Matt Wilson depicts a band of Rashemen battling a Red Wizard (looks a lot like Szass Tam) and several fine talents contribute to the interior artwork, including Sam Wood and Glen Angus. The Unapproachable East retails for $29.95.
First Blood
For those familiar with the Forgotten Realms, the Unapproachable East hardly needs introduction. Anyone knowledgeable in Faerûnian geography can tell you that it is the area between the Easting River and the Sunrise Mountains, from the southern coast of Aglarond, to the Great Glacier. It encompasses the lands of Aglarond, the Great Dale, Rashemen, Thay, and Thesk. Likewise, it is well-known among Faerûnians that Aglarond is the land ruled by the Simbul, Thesk is the war-ravaged land where the Tuigan horde was stopped by the mighty western alliance, and that Rasemen is a land hostile to strangers and the mortal enemy of Thay, the home of the Red Wizards, who plot military and mercantile domination of Faerûn, perhaps even the entirety of Toril. In other words, most people know very little about the Unapproachable East.
Unapproachable East is written to work with the revised D&D rules (now known formally as D&D 3.5). As such, the introduction provides a brief primer on how the rules essential to this volume have changed. Also included is a list of creatures referred to in this volume from Monstrous Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn, along with a list of suggested substitutes from Core Rulebook III for those who lack the Monsters of Faerûn supplement.
Unapproachable East introduces six new races for use as player characters; star elves, gnolls, hagspawn, spirit folk, taer, and volodni. Spirit folk will be immediately recognizable by anyone familiar with the original Oriental Adventures from 1st edition D&D. They are descendents of humans and nature spirits and are found here in two ethnicities; mountain and river. Star elves are an elven subrace that retreated from Faerûn to an extraplanar refuge some two thousand years ago. They have only recently emerged from their self-imposed isolation. Gnolls are exactly as described in Core Rulebook III, adapted here for use as player characters. Hagspawn are the result of the union between hags and human males. No female hagspawn are known to exist (females become hags, like their mothers). Taer are a race of savage, primitive hunters that dwell in remote mountains and passes. Though severely lacking in intelligence, these creatures are amazingly strong. Finally, the volodni are a humanlike race of treefolk who defend their forest homes with iron resolve. Both genders of each race are illustrated in full color and to scale with one another. As an added bonus, the grey orcs from Races of Faerûn are also included (for those who lack that resource).
A dozen new prestige classes are described in Unapproachable East. The Aglarondan griffonrider is part of an elite force of aerial knights who serve the Simbul and defend Aglarond. Black Flame Zealots are a secret society of holy slayers devoted to the worship of Kossuth. Durthan are an order of evil spellcasters who tap into the darker spirits of the Rashemen, while the masters of the Yuirwood are an elite group of foresters who work to keep the ancient Yuirwood forest free of evil influence. Nar demonbinders are masters of the black art of demon summoning, while the Nentyar hunters, servants of the druidic ruler of the Circle of Leth, roam the wildlands, uprooting foul and evil things. Raumathari battlemages employ both sword and spell with decisive precision, as runescarred berserkers, with magical runes carved into their very flesh, stand ready to leap to battle at the word from a Witch. The Shou disciples are martial artists who seek to emulate the styles of the monks of Kara-Tur, the Talontar blightlords spread plague and disease throughout the East, and the Telflammar shadowlords serve as the undisputed rulers of the mighty thieves’ guilds of Telflamm. Finally, Thayan Slavers use their awful abilities to abduct creatures and then break their wills. All of the prestige classes seem to be well-designed and serve to enhance the setting, rather than act as filler material.
As might be expected, data on new regions is provided, including preferred classes, languages, feats, and starting equipment. The new regions described are Altumbel, gnolls from Thay, Shou expatriates (refugees) from Thesk, star elves, taer, volodni, and the Wizard’s Reach. Accompanying these new regions are some 18 new feats that are available both to characters who call these lands home, and those from other parts of the Realms. Most of these feats greatly expand the capabilities of the Rashemen, but a few are generic enough to be chosen by almost any character.
A total of 21 new spells are described in Unapproachable East, most of them arcane in nature. In addition, the secrets of circle magic, contingent spells, place magic, rune magic, and the shadow weave are all examined in terms of characters from the East. Circle magic, rune magic, and shadow weave are all described in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, but contingent spells and place magic are new to this book. In short, place magic permits characters to cast spells without having prepared them, but only in certain circumstance. Contingent spells are single-use, one-spell magical items that remain inactive until triggered.
There are some new magical items, as well as some new monsters for the characters to run afoul of. Two new types of hag are detailed; the bheur (bringers of wintry death and misery) and the shrieking hag (frightful creatures that voice terrible shrieks). In addition, there are seven new templates, including the juju zombie (a 1st edition favorite) and the telthor, spirit animals or people native to Rashemen. Three new species of troll are also described; the ice troll, the fell troll (a two-headed monstrosity), and the demon troll. In all, 19 new monsters are enough to insure that players, no matter how jaded they may have become, will stay on their toes when visiting the East.
Adventuring locales and dungeons of the East are outlined, along with a few adventuring hooks. As a bonus, what should have been included in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, wilderness encounter tables, are included here. Finally, each of the five major geographic areas is described in great detail, as was done in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, outlining major cities, sites of interests, beliefs, and histories.
Overall, there is a lot of information to digest here and it strikes a good balance between fluff and crunch. Though it is, naturally, Realms-specific, much of the material herein is easily adapted to other settings, making it invaluable to both Realms DMs and those who develop their own campaigns. The atlas material takes up fully 50% of the book, but even this may be of use to non-Realms players, as some of the cities, sites, and perhaps even a little of the history can be lifted and placed into a customized setting with little or no difficulty.
Critical Hits
As a general rule of thumb, I dislike “dating” myself. That is, I hesitate to talk about how it was in the “old days” when we had to chip our dice out of stone or carve them from potatoes and when orcs only came in one flavor, but we’ve come a long way since that time. I can remember with vivid clarity the first Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. The production values, even then, were quite high, but they’re nothing compared to what we have now. Full-color portraits of races and monsters, beautifully-illustrated maps, and rich illustrations throughout the book. I guess the point of this little ramble is that besides all of the offerings within the text, the beauty of the book itself should not be overlooked.
As a rule, I like crunch. Most of you who read my reviews regularly already know that. I believe that every supplement should offer me new feats, spells, classes, or what have you. What you may not know is that I also like a good bit of chewy every once in a while, particularly when it pertains to a setting that is so rich in history as the Forgotten Realms. I can’t help but think that if Wizards were to produce some Greyhawk materials with the same quality and emphasis on setting as the Forgotten Realms materials they have been putting out, they’d recoup about half the people they lost when they introduced D&D3E. It’s great that you give me some cool new spells, prestige classes, and monsters, but it’s even better when you give me a setting to use them in, and that’s what Unapproachable East does. In a way, it’s funny. I have owned the Spellbound campaign set since it was released back in 1993, but the setting never intrigued me the way that Unapproachable East has.
Critical Misses
There’s really nothing in Unapproachable East that comes off as bad, though I did feel that the magical items section was a little lacking. It just seems to me that, as a land dominated by wizards, there could have been a lot more unique magical goodies than there were. Likewise, the text mentions that the vaults of the Red Wizards hold a “number” of magical artifacts, yet only two are described. It almost seems as though the magical items were tossed in as last-minute filler to help sate the thirsts of those who seek only crunchy material.
Coup de Grace
This is an official Wizards of the Coast release, and you know what that means; no Open Game Content. On the other hand, a good portion of the material herein is not only new to 3rd edition, but new to the game as a whole. As I said, it’s also pretty easy for DMs to pluck what they desire from the setting and place it in their own worlds, a trait I value highly (as someone who has created his own campaign). At $30 (USD), the book is a little pricey (especially when you consider that the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting was only $40), but if you’ve got the cash to shell out, this is an excellent purchase, providing a good blend of crunch and chewy bits that is sure to enhance your campaign, whether it is set in Faerûn, or a world of your own devising.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
*Edit: Score was changed to a 4 to be a more accurate reflection of the review itself.
negativtoo
First Post
Hmm, excellent production value, "good blend of crunch and chewy bits", little if any points of criticism.... yet only a 3/5 star rating ? Did the "star-counter" get stuck or something ?
Personally ( without being an FR-user, Scarred Lands for myself, pls ) I found this book exceedingly useful and plan to use wide bits of it myself to flesh out my own campaign (Berzerker lodges and other rashemi cults will fit Albadia rather nicely... Also the "blighted" and "plaguelords" are fun stuff... so is the magic spells section - few in number, but meaty ! ). Hehe, it actually made me consider playing/mastering a FR-campaign for the first time in a dozen years ! Guess I will have to do a review of it myself... would rate it higher by at least one star...
Personally ( without being an FR-user, Scarred Lands for myself, pls ) I found this book exceedingly useful and plan to use wide bits of it myself to flesh out my own campaign (Berzerker lodges and other rashemi cults will fit Albadia rather nicely... Also the "blighted" and "plaguelords" are fun stuff... so is the magic spells section - few in number, but meaty ! ). Hehe, it actually made me consider playing/mastering a FR-campaign for the first time in a dozen years ! Guess I will have to do a review of it myself... would rate it higher by at least one star...
negativtoo
First Post
Hmm, excellent production value, "good blend of crunch and chewy bits", little if any points of criticism.... yet only a 3/5 star rating ? Did the "star-counter" get stuck or something ?
Personally ( without being an FR-user, Scarred Lands for myself, pls ) I found this book exceedingly useful and plan to use wide bits of it myself to flesh out my own campaign (Berzerker lodges and other rashemi cults will fit Albadia rather nicely... Also the "blighted" and "plaguelords" are fun stuff... so is the magic spells section - few in number, but meaty ! ). Hehe, it actually made me consider playing/mastering a FR-campaign for the first time in a dozen years ! Guess I will have to do a review of it myself... would rate it higher by at least one star...
Personally ( without being an FR-user, Scarred Lands for myself, pls ) I found this book exceedingly useful and plan to use wide bits of it myself to flesh out my own campaign (Berzerker lodges and other rashemi cults will fit Albadia rather nicely... Also the "blighted" and "plaguelords" are fun stuff... so is the magic spells section - few in number, but meaty ! ). Hehe, it actually made me consider playing/mastering a FR-campaign for the first time in a dozen years ! Guess I will have to do a review of it myself... would rate it higher by at least one star...
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