Races of Faerun
- Thread starter IronWolf
- Start date
Messageboard Golem
First Post
*Note: We have two staff reviews of this product.
By Bruce Boughner, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack and Co-host of Mortality Radio
Sizing Up the Target
Races of Faerun is a 191-page hardcover accessory published by Wizards of the Coast. Written by Eric Boyd, Matt Forbeck and James Jacobs, the cover is by Greg Staples and is done in the standard Forgotten Realms format and features a couple of adventurers facing off against a hoard of fell beasts, and the interior art is by a about a dozen of regular WotC’s artists. Races of Faerun retails for $29.95.
First Blood
Races of Faerun is the better of the two products from WotC this month (the other being the Arms and Equipment Guide). This book has a host of good ideas to flesh out your player character from the Forgotten Realms. Each of the main character races has their own chapter, where they are broken down into the sub-races and given a good amount of detail. There are a few new feats (80) a few new magic items (26) and a host of new spells and prestige classes.
The introduction opens with a how to read the book section and how to use the racial entries. Each race is given Major Race information; Racial Data (Region, Feats, Prestige Classes, Level Adjustment), History, Outlook (Characters, Favored Class and Prestige Classes), their Society, Language and Literacy, Abilities and Racial Features, Magic and Lore (Spells and Spellcasting, Magic Items), Racial Deities, Relationships towards other races, Equipment (Arms and Armor, Animals and Pets) and Region. Charts discussing the Effective Character Level (ECL) and Racial Hit Dice, Skill Ranks and Feat Acquisition close out the chapter.
Dwarves are the focus of the second chapter, starting with the Arctic Dwarves of Vaasa and the North. Then come the Gold Dwarves of the Dragon Coast and Unther, the Grey Dwarves of the Underdark, Vaasa and the Vilhon Reach, the Shield Dwarves of Vaasa, Silverymoon, Impiltur, the Western Heartlands and the North, before coming to the Urdunnir Dwarves. These are an offshoot of the Shield Dwarves also known as Orecutter Dwarves, these blessed of Dumathoin can pass through solid as if it were air and shape ore and metal with their bare hands. The chapter ends with the Wild Dwarves of Chult entry.
Not native to Faerun, the Second Chapter deals with the Tel-quessir, the Elves. Aquatic Elves of the Dragon Coast and the Vilhon Reach and Avariael (Winged Folk) of Silverymoon, the North, and the Vast are the first discussed, unique and rare in nature. Moving onto better-known varieties like the Drow, the Moon (Silver) Elves, Sun (Gold) Elves, Wild (Green) Elves and Wood (Copper) Elves.
Chapter three’s subject is Gnomes. Deep Gnomes (Svirfneblin), Forest Gnomes and Rock Gnomes are the three varieties of Little Folk. If one was to go by the illustrations here as opposed to the Players Handbook, the Gnomes have rightly been returned to being smaller than Halflings. While an interesting race, it is far from my favorite.
But Half Elves are and Chapter four deals in them. But like the Gnomes, there are only three sub-races, the Common Half-Elf, the Half-Aquatic Elf and the Half-Drow, they are listed as the most prominent of the mixed breeds. When referring to the common half-elf one is usually referring to one from the Moon, Sun, Wild or Wood elf heritage. Half Drow being the rarest of all, existing only in the far south in Dambrath and the North, revering Loviatar and Eilistraee rather than Lolth.
Everyone’s favorite cannon fodder, the Orc, is the feature of chapter five. Grey Orcs (nomads of the East), Half-Orcs, Mountain Orcs (most like the Monster Manual) and Orogs (forgotten on the surface world) are fleshed out. Savage, warlike and patriarchal the Orcs live for violence enslaving the lesser Goblinoid races. Like the Elves, Orcs are not native to Toril. They warred amongst themselves for over 15 millennia before unifying into the first great horde.
Unlike Bilbo and Frodo, the Halflings of Chapter Six are far from the pastoral image Tolkien gave them and like the Orcs and Elves are not native to Toril but are the most recent émigrés. The barbaric, eagle-riding Ghostwise Halfling of Chondalwood is given first with a sidebar on the Nightgliders. The more familiar Lightfoot and Strongheart Halflings fill the rest of the chapter.
Now the book veers into Humanity, dividing them into ethnic groups. Northwestern Faerunians are of Illuskan stock with the Southwestern being Tethyrian. North Central Faerunians are Chondathan with South Central being Shaaran. The Northeastern Faeruns are Damaran with the southeast being Durpari. Those from Calimsham are Calishites and those from the Old Empire are Mulan with the Rashemi of Rasheman. Each of the nine races of Faerun are illustrated, showing the difference between them. These nine are only the most common of ethnic groupings, Bedines, Chultans, fFolk, Gur, Halruaan, Imaskari, Lantanna, Maztican, Nar, Netherese and others are given lesser description. Much like our own reality, the variety is infinite and when broken down to the bare bones, you are still only speaking of humans. A large chart shows their ethnic group by region and nation.
Chapter eight deals with the planetouched. Celestial Aasimar, Elemental Genasi, the demonic half-elf, half-demon Fey’ri, the half-orc, half-demon Tanarukk and the fiendish Tieflings are all given. Oddly enough, only the Tanarukk half a real society, acting more like orcs with supernatural ability. The rest of the touched are more individual in nature as opposed to being any cohesive group.
More unique races such as Aarakocra, Centaurs, Goblinoids, the diety-slaying Kir-Lanan, Lizardfolk, Lycanthropes, Shades, Wemics and Yuan-ti are defined here, giving a number of unique races for the players to choose from. Imagine having a centaur in the p[arty like from the Forgotten Realms comic or a wemic from the Counselors and Kings trilogy.
Several appendixes complete this book. The first deals with equipment. Given that the Arms and Equipment Guide came out the same month, this is a short list. This is followed by feats; these various descriptions refer back to points in the various chapters dealing with the various races.
Appendix three is Magic Items from around the Realms. They are specific to the various realms and they are the more commonly found items one could pick up in average adventuring but nothing horribly outstanding. Six new monsters appear here, including the rat-like osquip and the new Cavvekan, a bat-faced dog from the Underdark. Followed by Prestige Classes like the Bladesinger, Battlerager and Warrior Skald. The book wraps with spells.
Critical Hits
This book is better than some of the supplements Wizards has released this year. The artwork is some of the best I’ve seen. The material here covers a host of the supplements from 2nd edition and adds some very good new ones for 3rd Ed and the upcoming 3.5 Edition. The best thing is the restoration of the sizes of Gnomes and Halflings.
Critical Misses
Some of the races got the short shift, but this is true of most books dealing with large numbers of topics, someone’s favorite is going to be left out.
Coup de Grace
After the Arms and Equipment Guide, this is a true gem, while I enjoyed the Arms and Equipment Guide, I felt this book was more true to the quality Wizards is capable of. There are enough crunchy bits here to make it worthwhile and enough new and interesting ideas to make any adventurous DM drool over the possibilities.
-------------------------------------
By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
Races of Faerûn is the latest Forgotten Realms expansion from Wizards of the Coast. This full-color hardcover tips the scales at 192 pages and retails for $29.95. It is written by Eric L. Boyd, Matt Forbeck, and James Jacobs, and offers artwork from numerous talented contributors.
First Blood
Races of Faerûn is one of those books that needed to be written. As could be gleaned from the title, this work is all about the various races that call the Forgotten Realms home. Each race is described in excruciating detail, giving a history of the race in the Realms, racial outlook, a brief essay on roleplaying characters of the race in question, notes on society and culture, languages most often known and spoken, racial traits and abilities, magic and lore, deities, relations with other races, and any other vital information (such as equipment, region, etc). The amount of information packed into each entry is staggering and is sure to enhance the role-playing experience of any campaign which uses this expansion.
Eric L. Boyd is no stranger to the Realms, having written several reviews of FR products and penned a number of 2nd edition Realms-specific works, including the well-received Faiths & Avatars, Powers & Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities. He also contributed to the 3rd edition work Faiths & Pantheons, with Erik Mona. Matt Forbeck is new to the Realms, but not to RPGs, having previously contributed to more products than I care to count. He is also one of the co-authors and developers of the award-nominated Lord of the RingsRPG from Decipher. James Jacobs, also a newcomer to the Realms, was the lead designer on Bastion Press’ Villains, and has also contributed to the Monster Manual II (for 3rd edition), Pocket Magica (from Green Ronin Press), and numerous articles for Dragon magazine.
The races (and subraces) examined by the book are: dwarves (arctic, gold, grey, shield, urdunnir, and wild); elves (aquatic, avariel, drow, moon, sun, wild, and wood); gnomes (deep, forest, and rock); half-elves (including aquatic and drow); orcs and half-orcs (gray, half-orc, mountain, and orog); halflings (ghostwise, lightfoot, and strongheart); humans (Calishite, Chondathan, Damaran, Illuskan, Mulan, Rashemi, Thethyrian, and several minor ethnic groups); plantouched (aasimar, air gensai, earth gensai, fey’ri, fire gensai, tanarukk, tiefling, and water gensai); and the minor races (aarakocra, centaur, goblinoid (including goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and decanter goblins), kir-lanan, lizardfolk, lycanthrope, shade, wemic, and yuan-ti). Each race or subrace is given an ECL (effective character level), so that the GM can easily determine if such a character will be appropriate to his or her game (and to help balance out the more powerful races’ abilities). In some ways, Races of Faerûn is like a Realmsian version of Savage Species.
In fact, there are also other goodies to be found herein. Some races have unique weapons or armor and these are laid out in detail, along with some new pieces of adventuring equipment. And there are new feats, 80 of them, most of which are regional in nature. Twenty-six new magical items are described, along with seven new monsters and nine new prestige classes (the battlerager, the bladesinger (a different, more interesting version from the nonsense presented in Tome & Blood), the breachgnome, the elven high mage, the great rift skyguard, the orc warlord, the spellsinger, the warrior skald, and the warsling sniper). Finally, there are 13 new spells introduced, making this well-rounded book well-worth the purchase price.
In its efforts to be a complete (more or less) guide to the numerous races of beings that inhabit Faerûn, this book more than accomplishes that goal. So rich is the detail herein that after perusing it a few times, I almost get the feeling that the Realms is a real place and that this is more of a travelogue than a game book. For a work of this nature, that’s they way it should be. The game mechanics are balanced against the flavor text and that’s an important topic. As a member of the Forgotten Realms discussion list, I find that a lot of FR players are more interested in fluff than crunch and for a book to provide equal amounts of each is invaluable.
But what if you already own the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting? Does this book have any merit? Yes! There is a wealth of new material contained herein and very little is reprinted from the FRCS. You should have the FRCS to make full use of this product, but this is an essential addition to a Forgotten Realms gamer’s library. Whether you are a player or a DM, the information contained herein can make a good character into a truly memorable one.
Critical Hits
I think that the nicest thing about Races of Faerûn is that it doesn’t have to be about the races of Faerûn. That is, much of the information in here is generic enough that if you wanted to apply it to halflings (or dwarves, or orcs) in your own campaign, it can be accomplished with very little effort. In fact, in Jenneria (which sees more action than the Realms at my table), I have done just that. Much of what was produced in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Magic of Faerûn, and now, Races of Faerûn has made its way into my homebrewed world. This is something I like to see in a product. It should be specific enough that it fits the campaign world for which it is written, but also flexible enough that it can be easily adapted to another setting.
The level of detail provided to each race is greatly welcomed. I always like to know more about the customs and society of fantasy races, particularly the non-human ones, and Races of Faerûn provides plenty of information on that topic. Preferred and favored classes and prestige classes and even iconic magical items of the race are outlined. This goes a long way in establishing the “feel” of the race.
Critical Misses
If I have a major complaint, it is that I think this work could have been done as a generic D&D accessory and not strictly a Forgotten Realms product. Granted, it’s easy enough to take out what you like and ignore the Realms-specific material, but the fact that it is FR is going to cause some people to shy away from what could well be one of the best releases Wizards has offered since the release of the 3rd edition core rules. This is a great book, but slapping a Forgotten Realms label on it is going to drive away as many fans as it is going to pull in.
I’m not normally one to ding artwork too much because I was brought up with the mandate, “if you can’t do better, don’t criticize,” and I couldn’t draw non-Euclidian designs. However, some of the pictures in Races of Faerûn, particularly the gnomes, grate on the mental image I have of that race. They just come out looking, well, ugly. I must say that the grinning tiefling is appropriately unnerving, however.
Coup de Grace
This is an excellent work that no Forgotten Realms gamer or DM should be without! Even those who despise the Realms would do well to take a look at this product, much of which is easily lifted into other campaigns with a minimum of effort. To ignore the potential this work has for expanding character options just because it bears the FR label is to cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
I think the “Wizards of the Coast and Open Game Content” topic has been beaten to a bloody pulp by now, so I’ll skip over that. The work isn’t wholly original, but there are some brand new races described herein and I found very little in the way of repeated content. Even if you don’t play in the Realms, both players and DMs will benefit immeasurably from this work.
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.
By Bruce Boughner, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack and Co-host of Mortality Radio
Sizing Up the Target
Races of Faerun is a 191-page hardcover accessory published by Wizards of the Coast. Written by Eric Boyd, Matt Forbeck and James Jacobs, the cover is by Greg Staples and is done in the standard Forgotten Realms format and features a couple of adventurers facing off against a hoard of fell beasts, and the interior art is by a about a dozen of regular WotC’s artists. Races of Faerun retails for $29.95.
First Blood
Races of Faerun is the better of the two products from WotC this month (the other being the Arms and Equipment Guide). This book has a host of good ideas to flesh out your player character from the Forgotten Realms. Each of the main character races has their own chapter, where they are broken down into the sub-races and given a good amount of detail. There are a few new feats (80) a few new magic items (26) and a host of new spells and prestige classes.
The introduction opens with a how to read the book section and how to use the racial entries. Each race is given Major Race information; Racial Data (Region, Feats, Prestige Classes, Level Adjustment), History, Outlook (Characters, Favored Class and Prestige Classes), their Society, Language and Literacy, Abilities and Racial Features, Magic and Lore (Spells and Spellcasting, Magic Items), Racial Deities, Relationships towards other races, Equipment (Arms and Armor, Animals and Pets) and Region. Charts discussing the Effective Character Level (ECL) and Racial Hit Dice, Skill Ranks and Feat Acquisition close out the chapter.
Dwarves are the focus of the second chapter, starting with the Arctic Dwarves of Vaasa and the North. Then come the Gold Dwarves of the Dragon Coast and Unther, the Grey Dwarves of the Underdark, Vaasa and the Vilhon Reach, the Shield Dwarves of Vaasa, Silverymoon, Impiltur, the Western Heartlands and the North, before coming to the Urdunnir Dwarves. These are an offshoot of the Shield Dwarves also known as Orecutter Dwarves, these blessed of Dumathoin can pass through solid as if it were air and shape ore and metal with their bare hands. The chapter ends with the Wild Dwarves of Chult entry.
Not native to Faerun, the Second Chapter deals with the Tel-quessir, the Elves. Aquatic Elves of the Dragon Coast and the Vilhon Reach and Avariael (Winged Folk) of Silverymoon, the North, and the Vast are the first discussed, unique and rare in nature. Moving onto better-known varieties like the Drow, the Moon (Silver) Elves, Sun (Gold) Elves, Wild (Green) Elves and Wood (Copper) Elves.
Chapter three’s subject is Gnomes. Deep Gnomes (Svirfneblin), Forest Gnomes and Rock Gnomes are the three varieties of Little Folk. If one was to go by the illustrations here as opposed to the Players Handbook, the Gnomes have rightly been returned to being smaller than Halflings. While an interesting race, it is far from my favorite.
But Half Elves are and Chapter four deals in them. But like the Gnomes, there are only three sub-races, the Common Half-Elf, the Half-Aquatic Elf and the Half-Drow, they are listed as the most prominent of the mixed breeds. When referring to the common half-elf one is usually referring to one from the Moon, Sun, Wild or Wood elf heritage. Half Drow being the rarest of all, existing only in the far south in Dambrath and the North, revering Loviatar and Eilistraee rather than Lolth.
Everyone’s favorite cannon fodder, the Orc, is the feature of chapter five. Grey Orcs (nomads of the East), Half-Orcs, Mountain Orcs (most like the Monster Manual) and Orogs (forgotten on the surface world) are fleshed out. Savage, warlike and patriarchal the Orcs live for violence enslaving the lesser Goblinoid races. Like the Elves, Orcs are not native to Toril. They warred amongst themselves for over 15 millennia before unifying into the first great horde.
Unlike Bilbo and Frodo, the Halflings of Chapter Six are far from the pastoral image Tolkien gave them and like the Orcs and Elves are not native to Toril but are the most recent émigrés. The barbaric, eagle-riding Ghostwise Halfling of Chondalwood is given first with a sidebar on the Nightgliders. The more familiar Lightfoot and Strongheart Halflings fill the rest of the chapter.
Now the book veers into Humanity, dividing them into ethnic groups. Northwestern Faerunians are of Illuskan stock with the Southwestern being Tethyrian. North Central Faerunians are Chondathan with South Central being Shaaran. The Northeastern Faeruns are Damaran with the southeast being Durpari. Those from Calimsham are Calishites and those from the Old Empire are Mulan with the Rashemi of Rasheman. Each of the nine races of Faerun are illustrated, showing the difference between them. These nine are only the most common of ethnic groupings, Bedines, Chultans, fFolk, Gur, Halruaan, Imaskari, Lantanna, Maztican, Nar, Netherese and others are given lesser description. Much like our own reality, the variety is infinite and when broken down to the bare bones, you are still only speaking of humans. A large chart shows their ethnic group by region and nation.
Chapter eight deals with the planetouched. Celestial Aasimar, Elemental Genasi, the demonic half-elf, half-demon Fey’ri, the half-orc, half-demon Tanarukk and the fiendish Tieflings are all given. Oddly enough, only the Tanarukk half a real society, acting more like orcs with supernatural ability. The rest of the touched are more individual in nature as opposed to being any cohesive group.
More unique races such as Aarakocra, Centaurs, Goblinoids, the diety-slaying Kir-Lanan, Lizardfolk, Lycanthropes, Shades, Wemics and Yuan-ti are defined here, giving a number of unique races for the players to choose from. Imagine having a centaur in the p[arty like from the Forgotten Realms comic or a wemic from the Counselors and Kings trilogy.
Several appendixes complete this book. The first deals with equipment. Given that the Arms and Equipment Guide came out the same month, this is a short list. This is followed by feats; these various descriptions refer back to points in the various chapters dealing with the various races.
Appendix three is Magic Items from around the Realms. They are specific to the various realms and they are the more commonly found items one could pick up in average adventuring but nothing horribly outstanding. Six new monsters appear here, including the rat-like osquip and the new Cavvekan, a bat-faced dog from the Underdark. Followed by Prestige Classes like the Bladesinger, Battlerager and Warrior Skald. The book wraps with spells.
Critical Hits
This book is better than some of the supplements Wizards has released this year. The artwork is some of the best I’ve seen. The material here covers a host of the supplements from 2nd edition and adds some very good new ones for 3rd Ed and the upcoming 3.5 Edition. The best thing is the restoration of the sizes of Gnomes and Halflings.
Critical Misses
Some of the races got the short shift, but this is true of most books dealing with large numbers of topics, someone’s favorite is going to be left out.
Coup de Grace
After the Arms and Equipment Guide, this is a true gem, while I enjoyed the Arms and Equipment Guide, I felt this book was more true to the quality Wizards is capable of. There are enough crunchy bits here to make it worthwhile and enough new and interesting ideas to make any adventurous DM drool over the possibilities.
-------------------------------------
By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
Races of Faerûn is the latest Forgotten Realms expansion from Wizards of the Coast. This full-color hardcover tips the scales at 192 pages and retails for $29.95. It is written by Eric L. Boyd, Matt Forbeck, and James Jacobs, and offers artwork from numerous talented contributors.
First Blood
Races of Faerûn is one of those books that needed to be written. As could be gleaned from the title, this work is all about the various races that call the Forgotten Realms home. Each race is described in excruciating detail, giving a history of the race in the Realms, racial outlook, a brief essay on roleplaying characters of the race in question, notes on society and culture, languages most often known and spoken, racial traits and abilities, magic and lore, deities, relations with other races, and any other vital information (such as equipment, region, etc). The amount of information packed into each entry is staggering and is sure to enhance the role-playing experience of any campaign which uses this expansion.
Eric L. Boyd is no stranger to the Realms, having written several reviews of FR products and penned a number of 2nd edition Realms-specific works, including the well-received Faiths & Avatars, Powers & Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities. He also contributed to the 3rd edition work Faiths & Pantheons, with Erik Mona. Matt Forbeck is new to the Realms, but not to RPGs, having previously contributed to more products than I care to count. He is also one of the co-authors and developers of the award-nominated Lord of the RingsRPG from Decipher. James Jacobs, also a newcomer to the Realms, was the lead designer on Bastion Press’ Villains, and has also contributed to the Monster Manual II (for 3rd edition), Pocket Magica (from Green Ronin Press), and numerous articles for Dragon magazine.
The races (and subraces) examined by the book are: dwarves (arctic, gold, grey, shield, urdunnir, and wild); elves (aquatic, avariel, drow, moon, sun, wild, and wood); gnomes (deep, forest, and rock); half-elves (including aquatic and drow); orcs and half-orcs (gray, half-orc, mountain, and orog); halflings (ghostwise, lightfoot, and strongheart); humans (Calishite, Chondathan, Damaran, Illuskan, Mulan, Rashemi, Thethyrian, and several minor ethnic groups); plantouched (aasimar, air gensai, earth gensai, fey’ri, fire gensai, tanarukk, tiefling, and water gensai); and the minor races (aarakocra, centaur, goblinoid (including goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and decanter goblins), kir-lanan, lizardfolk, lycanthrope, shade, wemic, and yuan-ti). Each race or subrace is given an ECL (effective character level), so that the GM can easily determine if such a character will be appropriate to his or her game (and to help balance out the more powerful races’ abilities). In some ways, Races of Faerûn is like a Realmsian version of Savage Species.
In fact, there are also other goodies to be found herein. Some races have unique weapons or armor and these are laid out in detail, along with some new pieces of adventuring equipment. And there are new feats, 80 of them, most of which are regional in nature. Twenty-six new magical items are described, along with seven new monsters and nine new prestige classes (the battlerager, the bladesinger (a different, more interesting version from the nonsense presented in Tome & Blood), the breachgnome, the elven high mage, the great rift skyguard, the orc warlord, the spellsinger, the warrior skald, and the warsling sniper). Finally, there are 13 new spells introduced, making this well-rounded book well-worth the purchase price.
In its efforts to be a complete (more or less) guide to the numerous races of beings that inhabit Faerûn, this book more than accomplishes that goal. So rich is the detail herein that after perusing it a few times, I almost get the feeling that the Realms is a real place and that this is more of a travelogue than a game book. For a work of this nature, that’s they way it should be. The game mechanics are balanced against the flavor text and that’s an important topic. As a member of the Forgotten Realms discussion list, I find that a lot of FR players are more interested in fluff than crunch and for a book to provide equal amounts of each is invaluable.
But what if you already own the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting? Does this book have any merit? Yes! There is a wealth of new material contained herein and very little is reprinted from the FRCS. You should have the FRCS to make full use of this product, but this is an essential addition to a Forgotten Realms gamer’s library. Whether you are a player or a DM, the information contained herein can make a good character into a truly memorable one.
Critical Hits
I think that the nicest thing about Races of Faerûn is that it doesn’t have to be about the races of Faerûn. That is, much of the information in here is generic enough that if you wanted to apply it to halflings (or dwarves, or orcs) in your own campaign, it can be accomplished with very little effort. In fact, in Jenneria (which sees more action than the Realms at my table), I have done just that. Much of what was produced in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Magic of Faerûn, and now, Races of Faerûn has made its way into my homebrewed world. This is something I like to see in a product. It should be specific enough that it fits the campaign world for which it is written, but also flexible enough that it can be easily adapted to another setting.
The level of detail provided to each race is greatly welcomed. I always like to know more about the customs and society of fantasy races, particularly the non-human ones, and Races of Faerûn provides plenty of information on that topic. Preferred and favored classes and prestige classes and even iconic magical items of the race are outlined. This goes a long way in establishing the “feel” of the race.
Critical Misses
If I have a major complaint, it is that I think this work could have been done as a generic D&D accessory and not strictly a Forgotten Realms product. Granted, it’s easy enough to take out what you like and ignore the Realms-specific material, but the fact that it is FR is going to cause some people to shy away from what could well be one of the best releases Wizards has offered since the release of the 3rd edition core rules. This is a great book, but slapping a Forgotten Realms label on it is going to drive away as many fans as it is going to pull in.
I’m not normally one to ding artwork too much because I was brought up with the mandate, “if you can’t do better, don’t criticize,” and I couldn’t draw non-Euclidian designs. However, some of the pictures in Races of Faerûn, particularly the gnomes, grate on the mental image I have of that race. They just come out looking, well, ugly. I must say that the grinning tiefling is appropriately unnerving, however.
Coup de Grace
This is an excellent work that no Forgotten Realms gamer or DM should be without! Even those who despise the Realms would do well to take a look at this product, much of which is easily lifted into other campaigns with a minimum of effort. To ignore the potential this work has for expanding character options just because it bears the FR label is to cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
I think the “Wizards of the Coast and Open Game Content” topic has been beaten to a bloody pulp by now, so I’ll skip over that. The work isn’t wholly original, but there are some brand new races described herein and I found very little in the way of repeated content. Even if you don’t play in the Realms, both players and DMs will benefit immeasurably from this work.
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.
Similar Threads
