Races of Stone

[IronWolf]

A new D&D sourcebook detailing various mountain-dwelling races.

Races of Stone provides D&D players with an in-depth look at races that live on, under, or around mountains in the D&D world. There is extensive information on the classic races of gnomes and dwarves, including new rules, information for interaction, new spells, and new magic items attuned to each race. In addition, there are new races, over 20 new prestige classes, over 40 new feats, new equipment, and new magic items.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Sometimes d20 saturation is a bad thing not in that it produces a lot of bad products, but that it covers ground already walked upon, sometimes numerous times. I own Hammer and Helm, Heroes of High Favor, and the Quintessential Dwarf. Do I then really need a book like Races of Stone, that covers dwarves, gnomes, and introduces the goliath?

At first, no-one in my group thought so. What more could be said about dwarves? Gnomes, well, to be honest, my group doesn’t like them. To us, they, like Halflings, are a lost race, rarely used and only encountered when using some type of pregenerated adventure or town. The goliaths? Did we really need another new race? Didn’t we just get the half-giant in the Expanded Psionics Handbook?

Well, after looking over Races of Stone, I can say that yes, there are many things in this book I’m going to be using. Now I’m not going to be using everything from this book as that would require some extensive rework on my entire campaign but I’ll get to that in a second.

The first three chapters cover the three races, dwarf, gnome, and goliath. It provides various subchapters to handle different aspects of life among the races. Each one starts off with ‘A Day in the Life’, and ends with information on using the race as a character. In between, it includes numerous things to help insure that the race is more than a set of statistics. These aids include things for GMs to help them incorporate the race into the game.

For example, each race has an example settlement. This allows the GM to give a player a home local and allow the GM to get use out of the book as well. Sections on religion though, confuse me. I’m an older player, running on thirty-three this year, and I don’t recognize many of these gods. Flipping to my Forgotten Realms Demihuman Deities book, I see why, most of them are new. Why they did this I have no idea. For example, Moradin is still here and is still the main deity, but one of my personal favorites and an old time favorite of many players, Clangeddin Silverbear, the Father of Battle and Lord of the Twin Axes, has been, well, axed and not really replaced by a dwarven wargod. Now I could be mistaken as I don’t have Roger Moore’s article about the Dwarven Gods around but most of these aren’t the standard ones and will see zero inclusion in my game.

In defense of them though, perhaps they feel that not everyone is going to run one of their settings and can now have a handful of generic dwarven gods with brief details on them. If so, more power to them but to me, the classics are classics for a reason. This works well with the new race, the Goliaths, as they have no previous history to disrupt.

Now that new race, the Goliath, well, to me, they fill a niche kind of empty. They’re a nomadic mountain people who treasure personal strength and community. They are a primitive people of hunter-gatherers who enjoy physical activities. Some great role playing potential is included in their very appearance. See, they have gray skin that’s mottled with dark and light patches, the pattern of which can be used to handle any number of prophecies. “Only the one with the light patches in the appearance of an elk may kill the great dragon.” They do have bone-and-skin growths that make them stand out from regular humanoids though.

In looking at them mechanically, they remind me a little of the half-giant in that they’re stronger than most starting races, with a +4 bonus to Strength, and that they have the Powerful Build ability, which treats them as a size larger for most purposes like wielding weapons and opposed checks. They have some other abilities that relate to their mountain origin like Mountain Movement and Acclimated where they don’t’ take penalties for altitude but to make up for those abilities, they have a level adjustment +1. Not bad overall. Very powerful physical race.

One of the most interesting things about the Goliaths and their respect of strength, is that those who are too old or infirm to contribute to the tribe, are exiled to die. A harsh reminder that strength is only good as long as you have it. Exile is the worst form of punishment for Goliaths but at the same time, makes for a great way to introduce such a character to a party. Nothing like having to adventure in the wide world to prove your worth to your people again.

For those interested only in new races, Chapter Four, other Races, includes some new races that can be incorporated into the game; Chaos Gnome, Dream Dwarf, Feral Gargun, Stonechild, and Whisper Gnome. For me, the chaos gnome and whisper gnome both added a lot to the race as potential PCs. The chaos gnome is a trouble making individual whose a little weaker (-2 Strength), but has it all over in other abilities including agility, endurance and charm. They gain numerous special abilities including spell like abilities but like the Goliath, have a +1 level adjustment.

The Whisper Gnome, is perhaps a little too good not to have a level adjustment, but perhaps just a little. See, the yare masters of stealth. They’ve got the small size thing going on, so they have that bonus to Hide checks, and they have a bonus to Dexterity and Constitution, while suffering penalties to Strength and Charisma. They have both Low-Light and Darkvision, and a racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently Checks in addition to a few spell like abilities in addition to having a favored class of rogue. Suffice it to say that I immediately made them a race that specializes in assassination in my campaign.

The majority of the book after that is concerned with crunch. Chapter Five covers PrCs for example. Here we have several racial specific ones like Battlesmiths for Dwarves or Blade Bravo (think variant Duelist) for Gnomes. Each PrC includes background and game mechanics, as well as a sample character. I’m of mixed opinions as to the utility of a sample character as on one hand it saves me a ton of trouble in making such a character but on the other, takes up space. What’s worse, on a few of them that I’ve gone over, there are often mistakes in the mechanics. So, like me, take it for what it’s worth.

One of the things I was greatly pleased to see was a psionic based PrC, the Iron Mind. They gain powers at almost every level, in addition to damage reduction and the armored mind, where they expend their psionic focus to add a morale bonus equal to the armor bonus from the armor, to a will save. Good stuff.
For feats, turn to Chapter Six which covers character options. While it starts off with new uses for skills, it quickly turns into a feat listing. This includes new Bardic Music, Divine, Item Creation, Psionic, Racial, and Weapon Style. I personally like the wide diversity in feats and the fact that Psionic and Weapon Style feats are included here is a good thing.

Some of the Psionic Feats are good for any Psychic Warrior like Invest Armor and it’s advanced feat, Energize Armor. The former allows you to expend your focus to get a +3 AC bonus while the latter gives your resistance 10 against the next energy attack. Others like the Shielded Axe allow you to use two weapons and retain your buckler’s shield bonus without penalty. Good stuff overall.

Another option I really like is the substitution levels. In this case, we have racial substitution levels. There are certain levels that for certain classes that you can swap out for a more ‘racial’ version of your character. For me, when I saw the dwarf fighter levels, I instantly thought of an NPC who has those and the Paragon Racial levels from Unearthed Arcana, a ‘true’ dwarf of the old ages. Here, the dwarf fighter gets 1d12 hit dice and can be taken at 1st, 2nd, and 8th level. The first level gives the character axe focus, basically weapon focus with almost all axes, while at 2nd, it gives bonus damage against several racial enemies, and at 8thl, armor expertise where the character gets a +1 bonus to AC when wearing heavy armor. Not every class has every race and not every class has the same number of possible substitutions. For example, the gnome bard has four levels they can substitute.

Now to equip your character with the latest and greatest, Chapter Seven includes new weapons, armor, and good old fashioned adventuring gear. Some of the weapons are truly devastating like the Goliath Greathammer as the large version inflicts 3d6 with a x4 critical multiplier. Good thing it’s an exotic weapon. To help counter that, we have new armors, including various Exotic Armors. One of the strongest, the Mountain Plate Heavy armor, provides a +10 AC bonus but has a –9 AC penalty with some other pretty stiff issues like a 60% chance of arcane failure.

While there aren’t a lot of new spells or psionic powers, the fact that there are psionic powers at all was a nice surprise. Psychic Warriors can look forward to Blackstone Hammer, a formidable ability that can turn enemies into statutes or for those looking for a lower level power, Power Weapon surrounds your blade in a telekinetic field that deals force damage instead of normal damage. Good for attacking those incorporeal monsters.

Now that you have all of this information, what do you do with it? Well, I did say that most of the book was focused with crunch after the races, not all of it. Chapter Eight, Campaigns of Stone, provides ideas on how to bring characters together, random community generators, numerous sample NPCs, holidays, and a few new monsters, closing off with an appendix that has one hundred adventure ideas. Note that these are merely a sentence or two that help you get thinking, nothing beyond something like, “A dwarf paladin plans to lead a great army into the mountains.”

Now me? I enjoyed many parts of this book. The art was better than several other books WoTC has been putting out lately. W. O’Connor doe a great job on the Whisper Gnome, the whole inspiration of them as a race of assassins, even as Ron Spencer lends his abilities in several fields. I’m sorry, but the work by S. Roller has become like some of that by Wayne Reynolds, great, but regulated to Clip-Art. Black and white illustrations that have been in other books should be wiped from all future books. While I won’t say it’s errata free, I didn’t see a lot of the dreaded page xx or statements that were references to another book that weren’t written out like in the Complete Divine.

The reworking on the pantheons makes no sense to me, and I’m not crazy about all the material that’s being slowly but surely yanked from the Miniatures Handbook, like the Stonechild, into other books. Having three races, well, more than three if you count those in Chapter Four, insures that the book doesn’t crush you with details on one race, and insures that your other books still offer a lot of value. After reading this, I pulled out Hammer and Helm and Heroes of High Favor to see how I could combine them.

I like the support of psionics. I wish that the Complete series of books had support for them. I like the support for various types of feats like Divine and Bardic. I like the integration of Substitution Levels. The background material and campaign ideas help you to integrate the work quickly.

Not for everybody by any means. If you hate crunch for example, this book isn’t going to be for you despite the ‘fluff’ material. If you’re an old standard of the old pantheons like me, you’ll have to ignore that section. For me, I’ll be using a lot of this in my FR campaign even as one of my friends playing a Psychic Warrior keeps looking over the Deflective Armor feat.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Steven Creech, Executive Chairman d20 Magazine Rack

Initiative Round
Races of Stone is a 192-page hardcover that focuses on dwarves, gnomes and goliaths (a new race). Written by David Noonan, Jesse Decker and Michelle Lyons and published by Wizards of the Coast, this book carries a retail price of $29.95.

The book itself is broken down into eight distinct chapters. Chapter one addresses dwarves. Mind you, it’s not the detailed level you get from a book like Hammer & Helm (Green Ronin), but rather a detailed overview that sheds more light about appearance, psychology, society, and religion than what you find on dwarves society and familial bonds as they relate to playing a dwarf more than anything. Chapter two follows the same formula and addresses gnomes. Again, no great drawn out detailed treatise but a good overall sample of flavor.

Goliaths are a new race to D&D. These mountain-dwelling nomads are large (around 8 ft.) and have good relations with dwarves. In a sense, they are a tribal version of a mountain barbarian. Much of their society is based around their competitive nature. Again, the chapter follows the same formula as the first two, giving the reader a good overview with the exception of the presentation of an example goliath tribe.

Chapter four is a summation of the “other” races or sub-races. The detail of previous chapters is dropped in favor of the outline approach used in the PHB. Chaos gnomes, dream dwarves, feral garguns, stonechilds, and whisper gnomes are all covered as new playable character races (provided the GM is willing to allow it).

Prestige classes make up chapter five. Battlesmith is a 5-level dwarven PrC that requires ranks in Craft (armorsmithing) or Craft (weaponsmithing) as the character use this skill to not only repair weapons of war but become more of a threat in combat. The Blade Bravo is a gnome who lives to duel and enjoy the adrenaline rush of combat. Cragtop Archer is a long distance sniper. He can shoot from hundreds of yards away and rain down a flurry of arrows upon his target. Downcallers are essentially goliath bards while Deepwardens are the dwarven version of an early warning system again attack. The Divine Prankster is a gnome that takes humor to a new height, ultimately killing his opponents (talk about a killing joke). An Earth Dreamer is a spellcaster that has a deep affinity for the earth itself. Goliath Liberators are goliaths who rescue other members of their race that have been captured or enslaved. Iron Minds are members of a psionic prestige class and usually come from dwarven psychic warriors. A Peregrine Runner is a goliath who specializes running long distances quickly, essentially a marathon runner and sprinter rolled into one. A Runesmith is a dwarf that combines runes with casting arcane spells for a powerful combination. A gnome may become a Shadowcraft Mage and use illusion more effectively. Stoneblessed characters come from “outside” a mountain race culture and live with that race, adopting that culture as their own (this is only a 3-level prestige class). Stonedeath Assassins are goblinoids who specialize in waging war on dwarves. Finally, a Stonespeaker Guardian uses the divine power of the earth to protect friendly races from giants, orcs and other evil races.

Chapter six focuses on character options. New rules for existing skills and feats presented along with a significant amount of new feats. Many of these new feats are either divine, racial or wild in type. Fling Ally allows you to throw a smaller companion a certain distance. Yes, you can finally officially toss a dwarf. One complaint here is that some of the feats would have been better as a spell than a feat. An example of this is the feat Pierce the Darkness, where a character can spend one of his turn undead attempts to double the range of his darkvision for a number of minutes. In my opinion, the is one of those instances where the costs outweigh the benefit, especially because it is a divine feat.

Chapter seven is a collection of new racial equipment, magic items, spells and so forth. Rules for mounts for the earth races are presented along with the acquisition of companions and/or cohorts with ties to the earth. Ancestral weapons and magic forges each have a brief section but lack creation rules and rules for use. A new concept that do have rules, however, is rune circle. A rune circle is a stationary place of power that has been infused with magical power.

The final chapter is meant for GMs and provides ideas for making good use of this book. Tips for adventuring in earth communities, sample NPCs, making use of racial holidays, a few new creatures, and a one hundred adventure idea table are all included.

Critical Hit
The best strengths of Races of Stone lie in the first three chapters and their expansion on the dwarf and gnome cultures along with the introduction of the goliath race. It helps add more flavor to these races and presents some interesting ideas for use by the GM. Many of the prestige classes also excel in this regard.

Critical Fumble
While the book does go into more racial information about dwarves, gnomes and goliaths, it only scratches the surface and glosses over far too much. Much more flavor and detail could have been presented. Dwarven appearance, grooming and personality traits only take up about 2-1/2 pages. There was ample opportunity to do so much more. This is where books like Hammer & Helm (Green Ronin) and Dweomercraft: Gnomes (Dark Quest Games) can complement Races of Stone by filling in the large gaps and pieces.

Another problem is that new concepts such as ancestor weapons and magic forges have no solid rule mechanics and explanations on how to effectively use them. Ancestor weapons are simply explained as being an intelligent magic item that contains a link to a deceased spirit of some importance. Magic forges are given even less of an explanation yet both are clearly tools of great importance in a GM’s campaign. Again, the ball was dropped. Rules for creation and suggestions on proper campaign use would have made these so much more useable.

Coup de Grace
Don’t get me wrong, Races of Stone is a decent book and offers some good ideas and options to enhance characters that have a strong connection to the earth, but it should have gone farther and been better. If you are looking for a resource that provides more general flavor and ideas for the “earth” races, the book is worth considering, especially if you like the goliath race. But if you want more meat on gnomes and dwarves, there are better sources to consider. Pick it up, give it a thorough look and decide for yourself if it is worth your dollars.

Final Grade: B-

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.

 

[johnsemlak]

[No message]

 

[johnsemlak]

Just wondering--if your grade is a B-, shouldn't it be 4/5 rather than 3/5 stars?

 

[Messageboard Golem]

It's right on that bubble. I had a 4 to begin with, but given the criticism we've received in the past for being too generous with 4's, I decided to go with a 3. It's not a solid 4 in my mind. More like a 3.85... Like I said, it could have gone either way depending on perspective.

 

[MerricB]

Races of Stone represents a departure by Wizards of the Coast from the style of their recent books. This is not to say that it is entirely dissimilar to books like the Complete Warrior and Complete Divine, for it does contain new prestige classes, feats and magic.

What makes it different are the cultural and demographic notes for the dwarf, gnome and goliath races, all of which serve to enrich their role-playing possibilities in D&D. Hints of this new approach could be seen in the treatment of the organizations in the Planar Handbook and the campaigning chapters in the Complete series, but Races of Stone uses it far more comprehensively.

The races of dwarves and gnomes should be familiar to you already. The goliath is a new nomadic, mountain-dwelling race. They are barbaric and competitive in nature, and provide a distinct contrast to the other races.

Each of the first three chapters is devoted to one of these races, describing their culture in quite some detail. This takes the first 84 pages of the book, and there are very few game notes in this section. Instead, there are frequent sections marked that give additional guidance on using the information presented here to enhance your game, either for role-playing or to use in designing adventures.

The cultural chapters each begin with "A Day in the Life". This section, no longer than a page, explains what a typical day is like for a member of the race in question. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the style that these sections were written in. However, I found the rest of the book to be very readable and interesting.

Following "A Day in the Life", the authors move to describing the culture and traits of each of the races. Here are the major headings from the chapter on dwarves: Description; Psychology; Dwarven Life; Society and Culture; Dwarves and Other Races; Religion; History and Folklore; Language; Cities and Settlements; and Creating Dwarven Characters. Each of these topics is then divided into subtopics. For example, Religion deals with the Dwarven Pantheon, Mythic Origins, and Legends.

Often, I was able to see correspondences between aspects of these cultural descriptions and parts of the real world. For example, the section on gnome legends has a story called "Jack the Giant Killer", a re-telling of "Jack and the Beanstalk". The dwarves have a version of Atlantis. These stories are not, however, straight re-tellings. They adapt elements and go in surprising directions. The result is something that, due to its real origins, has a resonance with the readers, but nonetheless creates a description of a race that is not human. The resonance allows us to effectively role-play characters of these races, as it is near impossible to role-play something that has almost nothing in common with ourselves, but the differences make them distinctive and interesting.

There are assumptions made here about the role and culture of each race that may not apply in your game. Indeed, although it builds on the information in the Player's Handbook, it does not entirely build on what has gone before in previous editions of D&D. The pantheons are new, as are many aspects of the races' cultures.

In the case of the gnomes, this is a great relief: the depiction of this race is serious and interesting - although they might remain practical jokers, there is now a much deeper side to their personalities. A dichotomy between a search for truth by masters of illusion makes for an interesting combination.

They are depicted as a race that embrace innovation and change: "Rebellion, exploration and innovations - these concepts as much embody the traditional gnome way of life as their innate skill with illusions and love of art". Also: "Gnomes are both blessed and cursed with a philosophical bent and an insatiable curiosity. They express these feelings through art, invention and magic - specifically illusions." Their main classes are Bard, Illusionist and Ranger.

Dwarves remain, as one might expect, a clannish, stouthearted folk that are fond of stonework and mining. The main departure from their depiction in earlier editions is that arcane magic is now integrated into their culture. Dwarven sorcerers are the prime exponents of dwarven magic, a decision I agree with, despite the Charisma penalty that dwarves incur.

The results of living underground in close proximity to other dwarves is also examined: privacy, for a dwarf, is more turned towards their feelings and emotions than what is standard for us, as physical privacy is so hard to come by. The main dwarf classes (for which racial substitution levels are given in a later chapter) are Cleric, Fighter and Sorcerer.

Goliaths, the new race, are reclusive and nomadic, although they are also highly competitive and daring, and fond of sports and fighting. The competitive side gives for interesting role-playing: it can be a definite disadvantage. A goliaths can become quite foolhardy, trying to outdo their previous best. "Last time I defeated a young dragon, next time it must be an adult!"

They have a Level Adjustment of +1, mainly due to their high Strengths (+4) and Powerful Builds (they are treated as Large for many purposes, though they do keep a Medium creature's space and reach). Not surprisingly, their favored class is Barbarian, although Druids and Rogues also are important classes to them.

The fourth chapter describes five new mountain races, in about as much detail as you'll find in the Player's Handbook. Chaos Gnomes, Dream Dwarves, Feral Garguns (a type of even more barbaric Goliath), Stonechildren and Whisper Gnomes are those covered here. Most of them look fairly well balanced and interesting, but I find the Whisper Gnome to be problematical: they seem superior to the halfling in almost every way. Surely they should be a LA +1 race?

With the fifth chapter, we really get to the rules information in the book. This chapter details fifteen new prestige classes. Most of them are either mountain-based or limited to a mountain-dwelling race, i.e. dwarves, gnomes and goliaths. I rather like the Battlesmith, a five-level dwarven prestige class that is extremely effective at crafting magical weapons and armor: each level of Battlesmith gives a bonus of +3 caster levels for that purpose. Thus a Fighter 7/Battlesmith 5 can create +5 magic weapons. It is also a fair warrior, and has other interesting abilities.

Each of the prestige classes also has adaptation notes, for using them in contexts that are not those for what it was designed. Thus, the Dawncaller, a goliath bardic prestige class, gives ideas as to using it for non-goliath characters. This feature, also seen in Complete Divine, is extremely welcome. A sample character of each prestige class is also given, in the style of Complete Warrior.

The list of prestige classes is as follows:

Battlesmith - a skilled dwarven armorer, weaponsmith and warrior
Blade Bravo - a gnome duelist, skilled with the rapier
Cragtop Archer - a mountain archer, skilled at ambushing people from above
Dawncaller - a goliath bard responsible for guarding their people through the night
Deepwarden - a dwarven guard who patrols the underdark and deals with foes of the dwarven people
Divine Prankster - a gnome cleric/bard prestige class
Earth Dreamer - a spellcaster with affinity for the earth and mountains
Goliath Liberator - a goliath ranger-type who rescues his kin from giants
Iron Mind - a psionic prestige class focussed on defense
Peregrine Runner - a goliath diplomat and scout, skilled at quickly moving from one tribe to another.
Runesmith - a dwarven arcanist, skilled with runic magic
Shadowcraft Mage - a gnome illusionist type who can manipulate shadows
Stoneblessed - a character that bonds with a mountain race not their own, and gains benefits similar to that race
Stonedeath Assassin - a goblinoid assassin
Stonespeaker Guardian - a goliath divine spellcaster with special connection to the earth
The sixth chapter, Character Options, is divided into three parts.

The first deals with new uses for skills. Appraise, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Handle Animal, Listen, Ride, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Survival and Use Rope are all expanded upon, primarily with a thought for using them as a member of a mountain race. For instance, Use Rope and Climb may be used together to rappel down a rope.

The second part gives a great number of new feats: over 60 of them. These feats are divided into the following types: General, Racial (that can be taken only by a particular race), Bardic Music, Divine, Item Creation, Psionic, Weapon Style and Wild.

For the most part, they seem well balanced and of the sort to add quite a bit of flavor to your characters. I was particularly happy to see the Bardic Music feats: for instance, Enchanting Song allows you to expend a daily use of your bardic music to increase the caster level and DC of one of your enchantment spells. Conversely, Inspire Spellpower gives you the ability to sing a new song to improve your allies' spellcasting abilities!

Any character may take most of these feats, so this section has the most application outside of a mountain campaign.

The third part of this chapter details the Racial Substitution Levels, an idea introduced in the Planar Handbook. The idea is that you make your character's class more appropriate to your race by substituting certain abilities at various levels. For instance, a 1st level dwarven fighter may forego the bonus feat normally gained, in exchange for taking a d12 hit die (at that level only), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) as a class skill (again, only at that level), and Axe Focus - a version of Weapon Focus that applies to all axes.

For the most part, these Racial Substitution Levels seem to be slightly more powerful than taking the normal level of that class. However, I do not believe it is in any game-breaking way. I feel that the added flavor makes up for any minor gain in power. In the case of the Dwarven Sorcerer, it is a good way of making up for the flaws that choosing what would normally be an inferior race/class combination.

The seventh chapter, Equipment and Magic, is mainly concerned with new magic. A few new exotic armors and weapons are presented, followed by a few new spells, psionic powers and magic items.

Of most interest to me in this chapter were the dwarven Ancestor Weapons, the Magic Forges and the Rune Circles. All of these are not described in great length, but what is detailed is enough to allow DMs and players to use them effectively and develop them more in their own campaigns.

The final chapter, Campaigns of Stone, is mainly concerned with giving guidelines for creating communities of dwarves, gnomes and goliaths. Here you may find details on holidays, sample NPCs, demographics and how these communities treat outsiders.

I am most interested in the idea of holidays described here, for they have a game effect. For instance, gnomes get an additional +1 DC to their illusion spells during an annual celebration of illusions, the Feast of Lights. Suggestions for holidays for other races or purposes are also given, beyond those of dwarves, gnomes and goliaths.

The book concludes with an appendix listing one hundred adventure ideas designed for use with the information in this book. I was extremely happy to see this here.

Content: 4
With a mix of information aimed at role-playing, adventure building and character building, Races of Stone displays a approach that we haven't seen enough of in recent D&D books. I hope this trend continues.

One possible weakness of this book is that it doesn't deal with the traditional subraces of the dwarves and gnomes: no mention at all is made of the difference between hill and mountain dwarves, nor of the other dwarven subraces and svirfneblin.

Clarity: 4.5
As with most D&D books by Wizards, the rules are written in a clear and standard format that makes them easy to read. Unfortunately, there is a repeating of information in the NPC stat blocks that doesn't need to be there. Do we really need to waste 10 lines each time a Goliath's traits are listed? This happens over a dozen times in the book, and this practice, begun in Complete Warrior, really should be stopped. A page reference would be far more useful in this context.

Layout/Artwork: 3.5
The standard layout of the D&D supplement book is employed here, and it is both familiar and attractive. The artwork is by a variety of artists, and is good in quality. However, I do feel that truly inspired artwork is not present. I would like to see more dynamic pictures, as too often only static poses are given. Where is the excitement of a D&D adventure? Not to be found in the artwork, it seems.

Another gripe I have about the layout concerns the pages that start each chapter: the background color is far too dark, making the text very hard to read. Surely it would not be that hard to lighten the background and significantly improve the readability of these pages?

Originality: 4.5
One of the most impressive things about Races of Stone is its willingness to abandon a strict rehashing of the past and go in new directions. The Goliaths are an impressive new race, significantly different from the other PC races of D&D, and the new take on the Gnome culture brings a long-needed seriousness and diversity to the race.

Development/Editing: 4
The 3.5E series of D&D supplements have had a superior development process, with a fairly strong grasp of the implications posed by the mechanics of the game. The editing, however, has been weak, especially in the Player's Handbook and Complete Divine, both of which have a mass of errors that should have been caught. I am glad to say that Races of Stone has very few editing errors, and maintains the strong development seen in other books. It is still not perfect, however.

The main flaws include the power of the Whisper Gnome (which probably should have a Level Adjustment of +1) and the lack of tables for determining the height, weight and age of goliath characters. What makes this second lapse quite unusual is that such tables are given for the minor races given in this book. This would be a simple enough error to make, but it is frustrating to see.

Value: 4
A 192-page colour hardcover for $29.95 is the standard price you expect to pay from Wizards these days. It's somewhat expensive, but Races of Stone is a well-presented book and worth it in my opinion.

Overall: 4
Races of Stone is a strong book, providing a good selection of information on two established D&D races, and providing a strong introduction to the new race of Goliaths. It is aimed primarily at the player, although a DM should be able to find many things in it to enhance their campaign, from adventure hooks to unusual cultural settings.

In the end, I am very glad to possess Races of Stone; it was worth buying. Even though dwarves and gnomes are not common in my campaigns, this book has a good possibility of changing that, and I am really looking forward to Races of Destiny and Races of the Wild; if they are handled in as professional manner as this book, I feel that things are looking good for the future of D&D.

This review first appeared on the 3rdedition.org site.