What's Good and Bad About Serpent Kingdoms?

[SHARK]

Greetings!

I was just reading through Serpent Kingdoms, the book for Forgotten Realms snake people, Yaun-Ti, Nagas, and stuff like that. I liked it to a point. Where are all the maps though? The book was put together well, but seemed, oh, I don't know--I guess it seemed a bit *thin*. It seemed like they could have done a better job if they had devoted say, an additional 40-80 pages to it. More spells, more creatures, more npc's, more places and sites of interest detailed. Aside from these observations on a somewhat brief read-through, I think that the book is ok. Worth having for a few cool ideas, neccessary of course for completists, but at the same time it seems a little disappointing. What do you think? Am I right here, or should I read deeper into the work? Maybe I have overlooked particular jewels within its pages?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Turanil]

For me the book is okay. Although I have no use for specific FR stuff, since I don't play in FR.

 

[GlassJaw]

I think it's a decent book, obviously moreso if you want a lot of info on all things reptilian. While I'm usually neutral on more PrC's, I really like the monstrous PrC's in this book. You can some pretty nasty naga baddies with this book.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I prefer Paradigm Concepts' Ssethregore: In the Coils of the Serpent Empire. Obviously, no yuan-ti, since they're WotC Product Identity, but the Ssanu snakemen are, IMO, cooler. There's also a lot of information on lizardmen, with a ton of reptilian PrCs. The coolest thing about the book is that the author is a herpetologist, which means his races actually -feel- more reptilian and different. Plus, more items/PrCs/races/spells than SK.

Highly recommended, if your campaign has a snakemen/lizardmen conponent.

 

[Shemeska]

I adore this book. This is my favorite 3e FR book and perhaps a model for how a book should balance flavor and crunch. It drips with flavor text and thats the way that I like it.

Honestly I have little to find at fault in this book, and it vastly improved my hopes for FR in 3rd edition after I made the mistake of actually paying money for PGtF.

This book drips for ideas, inspiration, and potential plot hooks, even if you're not using it within FR. I ended up using ideas from it when I built up an extraplanar mausoleum for a dead Sarrukh sorcerer-king (who wasn't exactly entirely dead), and a second time when I had occasion to use some Yuan-Ti.

This book rocks and I have to give credit to its authors and designers for a job well done.