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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010981" data-attributes="member: 1129">Wizard's of the Coast latest Forgotten Realms book, Underdark, provides a lot of crunch for any campaign while providing information on the setting at the same time. Unfortunately, it's also tied up into the commercial machine of Forgotten Realms so events in the novels which aren't resolved yet are still taking place in this book.Looking at the back, it notes that there are 16 character races here. Well, depending on how you define that, the statement may not be true. For racial traits, there are only nine races detailed and of those nine, some of them have racial traits in the 3.5 Monster Manual. Why do I need for example, drow stats? “To use this accessory, you also need the... Monster Manual.”Okay, so now I have the Monster Manual and a bunch of stats listed out twice.And what's worse about these stats is that they provide no information on Challenge Rating. It's okay to aim material at the players, but don't forget the GM. What is the challenge rating for a Mind Flayer with levels? Not listed here so I have to flip back to my Monster Manual to get a base CR. What's with the inconsistencies of using one thing for levels? Level Adjustment is nice but really, worthless. Get rid of it and use the Effective Character Level. Why do I have to look in two places, Hit Dice and Level Adjustment, for something that Wizards of the Coast should standardize and make simple for me?  I also wonder at the wisdom of having a level adjustment and a hit die adjustment for a final adjustment. The Kuo-Toa, even at 2 hit die with some useful abilities, does not look like an ECL 5 to me.Well, outside of my rant on how races should be standardized, the racial material is good. The Chitine, Deep Imaskari, Drow, Duergar, Gloaming, Grimlock, Kuo-toa, Slyth and Svirfneblin are all fully provided details in background, culture, and racial terms . This includes starting ages, aging effects, height, weight. Now the Derro, Mind Flayers, Minotaurs, Orog, Quaggoth, Tanarukk and Troglodytes on the other hand, get a brief table with Race, Starting Hit Dice, Level Adjustment and Favored Class, followed by a paragraph or so on each race. No information on the stats like age, height and weight. I guess that white paragraph or two or space at the bottom of page 21 would've been too crowded with those details.Now the back also notes 24 new feats. These range from some that are useful for anyone,but limited, like the racial Axeshield for the Grimlock where they gain a bonus to Armor Class while using a full attack action with a battle axe, to Bowslinger, a general feat that provides a bonus to attacking flat-footed opponents when throwing or firing a ranged weapon.Others are more Underdark based ranging from Highborn Drow to regain some of the lost abilities in 3rd edition like detect good, detect magic and levitate, as well as Caver, with the dreaded +2 bonus to two skills (Heal and Survival). The bad thing about Caver though is that it's use is limited to the Underdark so most player should just find another +2 to two skills feat without the location limit, or the GM should increase the bonus. Overall these feats provide a nice range of options for characters native to the Underdark and even some useful material that can be used by any character like Extra Wild Shape.Now no WotC book would be complete without Prestige Classes, and here they really customize an Underdark Campaign. These range from the spellcasting arachnomancer and their spider based abilities to the vermin keeper, a master of insects that gains a vermin companion as well as numerous abilities relating to vermin. One thing I liked was that some of the PrCs can be taken by surface dwellers to get to the Underdark like the Cavelord and the Prime Underdark Guide. This provides the link a GM can use to get parties from the surface to the Underdark in the first place.Now the Underdark in the Forgotten Realms has always had a high dose of magic to it. That's supposed to be why the drow are so much more inherently powerful than surface elves.  Node Magic is detailed and it actually includes information on using them not only with spells, but with psionics. Portals also get a quick detailing.The real meat of this section is in the domains and spells. Balance, Portal (alternative version), and Watery Death, a Prestige Domain, join new spells for all of the core classes, and even core prestige classes like the assassin and blackguard. Several spells are concerned with nodes either finding them, prevent others from finding them, or teleporting between them. Other spells  are old favorites like Viscid Glob, a ranged glue attack. Many other spells provide options not used before like Walls of Dispel Magic where anyone who walks through a transparent wall you summon, are subject to a greater dispel magic. Okay, so we've gone through races, feats, prestige classes, the Realms specific stuff has to be next right? Nope. In an effort to perhaps make this the only Underdark book you'll ever need, there are also chapters on equipment and magic items, monsters, and exploring the Underdark. Now that last one is important as it sounds like it's FR specific, but instead, it covers ideas about what you could find in such an environment. The equipment details weapons and armor, as well as poisons and other equipment. This includes new methods of firing darts via the dart thruster as well as the pincer staff used by the Kuo-toa. The magic items on the other hand, provide both GM and players with lots of toys. Mind Flayers can now use the Cepalometer to dominate their opponents while drow can call upon their Spider Staffs even as players seek out such tomes as the Book of Perfect Balance (perhaps another mature title next year) or the Gauntlet of Disintegration.The monsters include a nice little tribute to Dagon in the form of the Kuo-Toa Leviathan, as well as creatures strong enough to battle those near epic heroes like the annihilators, creatures that look like rust monsters but instead of rust, disintegrate. One of the nice things about the monster section is that it includes a ranking by CR, although with no page listing.So after all of the advice on going into the Underdark, after the encounter tables, after the breakdown of the different levels of the Underdark, we're on page 122, and we finally get to the Forgotten Realms locations. It provides a quick breakdown of the different types of regions, ranging from the Buried Realms and the Glimmersea, to the Deep Wastes and the Northdark. Now one of the cool things here is a two page spread of the Forgotten Realms, but seen from the Underdark perspective. This is a great map and allows a GM currently playing, see how he could get his players involved with the Underdark, and what region they'd be in when they do so.After that, the sites of interest start. Most of these are short with location and important notes with a few maps through in. For example, while Araumycos, in the Upper Northdark has no map, perhaps because it's a single fungal creature. The Blessed Seahaven, a small town however, does. Others, like the Boneyard, have information on location and history, even a section on denizens, but no map. That's too bad as one of my fondest memorizes of the old 2nd edition hardcover, Forgotten Realms Adventures, was the city maps that accompanies a page or so of text.  The well known places get more than a few paragraphs though, as Menzoberranzan gets almost four pages of information.To close things off, Adventures in the Underdark, provides some ideas on what to actually do in these locals.  The nice thing about this section is the adventure sites, small maps with full stats for encounters. These can be put into almost any setting with a little tweaking. These include the Drowned Multum, Gduar's Garden, and Shape of Water, Part of my problem with the book's setting is that it takes place during a major novel event. I know I'm not the only person who wishes that the Forgotten Realms wasn't so tied into the marketing machine and that things could occasionally go without such problem issues. While the book notes you can ignore the material, there are several references to the novels. For instance, Menzoberranzan is under siege. Okay, so now I'm ignoring the novels, the notes, and the siege? It snowballs a little but with some careful reading to remove all such references, isn't too much of a problem.Art and layout are standard Forgotten Realms mode. This means that the pages have a faded yellow look to them with orange background objects, and great art from some of the industries finest. Layout is solid with no pictures cropping into the text. Editing is fair with clarification rarely needed. Column use ranges from two to three, such as when dealing with spells.The book presents a very strong entry for the Underdark as an adventuring local for 3rd edition. The introduction of the races here left a bad taste in my mouth and the tie ins to the novels helped make that taste go from bad to worse but those are issues others may not have. Players without access to the Monster Manual will get a lot out of the book, and GM's who are interested in starting an all Underdark campaign will find this an invaluable aid.</blockquote>

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