John Cooper
Explorer
RACES OF THE DRAGON
By Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, and Kolja Raven Liquette
Wizards of the Coast product number 953697200
160-page hardback, $29.95
Races of the Dragon is the latest in the "Races of" series of hardback books by Wizards of the Coast. As it's the first book in the series that I've ever seen, I really can't comment on how it stacks up to the others, so I'll be reviewing this solely on its own merits. As this is a typical John Cooper review, I'm sure many of you are wondering: "How were the stat blocks?" For those who really can't wait to find out: They were pretty sad, but we'll get into those details a bit later in the review.
The cover artwork is by Steve Prescott, and it depicts a red dragon, a kobold, a spellscale, and a dragonborn - the last two being new races presented in this book for the first time ever. (From what I understand, that in and of itself is a departure from previous entries in the "Races of" series.) The piece is nicely done, although it's quite possibly a "composite" piece, given that the spellscale appears in full on the back cover, whereas on the front cover part of her right leg is obscured by the dragonborn's shield. (Either that, or Steve opted to copy her and then "finish" the rest of her body as a standalone piece of art for the back cover.) In any case, Steve does a nice job of staying within the 3E parameters as to what kobolds and red dragons look like, although he gives the dragon a bit more of a "finger" than I'm used to at the upper tip of its wing, and the kobold is wearing a somewhat strange hat. The level of detail is good, with some intricate carvings on the dragonborn's armor, weapon, and shield, and a rather elaborate underground room in the background. Also, (and this is going to make me sound like some weird sort of reptilian-foot fetishist), I really like the way Steve did the kobold's feet: two central toes with another toe on each side and webbing between. I like this kobold toe configuration even better than the one in the Sam Wood piece in the Monster Manual, and was pleased to see that particular toe configuration appear in several of the kobold art pieces in the book. (I admit it, sometimes it's the little things that please me the most.)
Speaking of which, the interior artwork consists of 9 monochromatic (at the chapter beginnings) and 52 full-color illustrations by 12 different artists, plus 10 full-color maps by cartographer Mike Schley. Mike's maps aren't quite at the level of Christopher West's (but then, not many are), but they are functional and get the job done. It's worth pointing out that three of the pieces of interior art are full-page: Steven Belledin's dragonborn and human adventuring duo fighting a wyvern on page 6; Ed Cox's despondent ranger outside a ruined village with a dragon soaring by overhead on page 17; and Ed Cox's spellscale city district on page 35. Neither of these three was among my favorites (although Steven does do a very nice-looking wyvern!); I preferred Emily Fiegenschuh's draconic centaur on page 72 (very original design!), Steven Belledin's depiction of a kobold casting a spell on a gnome on pages 116-117 (I especially liked the kobold), and Ralph Horsley's drawing of a human and a young gold dragon poring over maps on page 75 (that's a very nice looking gold dragon). While there are a bunch of illustrations scattered throughout the book that seemed kind of sub-par to me, all in all I'd say the artwork in Races of the Dragon is above average.
The book is laid out as follows:
As far as they go, this was another pretty shoddy job, as has become the recent norm for Wizards of the Coast products, a fact that simultaneously amazes and appalls me. I count 27 distinct stat blocks in Races of the Dragon, 20 of which had errors in them, for an overall stat-block error rate of 74%! After having admitted that I didn't bother breaking down most of the skill points (unless something really jumped out at me), I recommend making the following changes (and as usual, I hope anyone reading through this "unofficial errata" will point out any mistakes I might have made):
Okay, now that the stat block problems have been taken care of, allow me to devote several paragraphs to my impressions of Races of the Dragon as a whole. I'm of several minds of the two new races. I rather like the dragonborn: the fact that they're the result of a willing transformation from a standard race into a humanoid dragon means that you can have dragonborn humans, dragonborn dwarves, dragonborn elves, and so on. This gives the race a great deal of flexibility, and the fact that there are three main dragon areas of focus to choose from when you become a dragonborn (wings, senses, or breath weapon) makes it even more likely that any two given dragonborn PCs are liable to be very different from each other. Also, I like the fact that this race only creates new members via the willing transformation of other beings; it helps to make it stand out as different from all other character races.
The spellscales are a different matter altogether. They're the result of having two sorcerers for parents; apparently it's now practically a given that all sorcerers derive their power from having draconic blood in their lineage (although this wasn't always the case in 3E). I don't like that assumption, but it's easy enough to tweak the given concept into "a spellscale is a child born of two sorcerers, each with draconic blood" - that way, you can still have sorcerers who gain their powers via different methods. However, spellscales as written seem to be patterned after all of the negative stereotypes of a flamboyantly homosexual male. [Disclaimer: That statement in no way construes that I believe those stereotypes to be true, that I believe all homosexual men behave flamboyantly, that homosexuality has any negative connotations whatsoever, or that I have any specific opinions on the matter at all. I'm merely stating an observation I made while reading through that chapter.] To back up my statement, consider the following: The fiction piece has a male spellscale, in a "typical" day, going through his extensive wardrobe deciding what to wear, and finally choosing a velvet doublet, silver leggings studded with moonstones (that he got from a succubus, no less!), and a cape made of fluffy, white pegasus feathers. He's pleased when everyone looks at his outfit upon making his dramatic entrance at the local pub. He considers the cards of a Three-Dragon Ante deck "pretty." A full page is devoted to the importance of spellscales' unconventional and eye-catching clothing and the various lotions and creams they apply to their scales, as well as the different things they do with their hair (curling it, straightening it, braiding it, putting it in dreadlocks, shaving it). Some spellscales dye their hair (often in garish colors). Some only dye the tips of their hair, or use streaks or highlights - seriously, after awhile, I was starting to wonder if the author of this particular chapter really would have been happier as a writer for a women's fashion magazine. If all spellscales were merely effeminate, that would be one thing; the fact that the author seems to go out of his or her way to include nearly all of the negative stereotypes about flamboyantly homosexual men makes me wonder more than a little whether this wasn't done deliberately. Reading through the spellscale chapter, I was actually surprised that spellscales don't talk with an affected lisp - it seems to be the only negative stereotype that wasn't included.
The thing I liked most about the spellscale race is that every day they can meditate upon a specific dragon god and gain a different set of racial bonuses for that day; again, this is more versatility, which I tend to see as a positive feature when it comes to designing PCs. However, I'm confused as to why spellscales are automatically Medium creatures. Sure, two human sorcerers get married and have a child, and the dragon blood coursing through their veins causes that child to be a spellscale instead of a human. I get that. But why would the union of a pair of Small gnome or halfling sorcerers be a Medium spellscale? Likewise, since the only requirement for a "natural-born" spellscale is that both his parents are humanoid sorcerers, why wouldn't a spellscale born of two merfolk sorcerers have the lower body of a fish, like his parents? (Merfolk, despite their strange build, are classified as humanoid creatures. And if by "humanoid" the authors really meant "humanoid build" rather than "the humanoid creature type," the problem just gets bigger, because then two Huge cloud giant sorcerers could give birth to a Medium spellscale.) And why wouldn't a spellscale born of kobold sorcerers have a tail? None of this makes any sense to me. I also dislike the fact that the authors (or probably author; I suspect each chapter was only written by one of the three authors) created a Rite of Spellscale Assumption that allows a member of any other race to become a spellscale. For one thing, it's "trespassing" onto one of the things that make dragonborn unique; for another, I don't see any reason for it. Why has there never been a need for a Rite of Elf Assumption in D&D before, allowing a gnome to become an elf? Or a Rite of Dwarf Assumption, allowing a half-orc to become a dwarf? The whole thing just seems to me to be a case of an over-excited author so positive that he or she has created such a fantastic new race that everyone is going to want to play one, so there ought to be a way for those poor schmucks with non-spellscale characters to be able to convert their PCs that were created before the marvelous, wonderful spellscales were even an option. Needless to say, if I even allow spellscales into my campaign, there's going to be a whole lot of rewriting going on beforehand; as it is, I see the spellscales as second in irritation factor only to the kender. (It's their general flightiness and "everybody look at me!" attitude that makes me doubt they'd be a useful addition to a PC party.)
I enjoyed the kobold chapter, but then I generally enjoy kobolds anyway. I was pleased to see there's now an option (via draconic feats) for a kobold to gain dragon wings that will eventually allow him to fly; welcome back to D&D 3.5, urds! We missed you!
Some of the spells seemed somewhat problematic. While I was pleased to see several new additions to the "power word" grouping, power word nauseate affects "one living creature," but somehow I doubt that oozes or plants (both "living") could ever be caused to retch uncontrollably (or at all, for that matter). Power word pain does up to 16d6 points of damage to a target with 50 hp or less, no save, and it's a 1st-level spell. How many other 1st-level spells can you think of where a 1st-level caster can do 96 points of damage to a single target? (I know magic missile can do quite a bit of damage once the caster reaches high level, but there are no such caster level restrictions on power word pain.) Create trap is a nicely kobold-flavored spell, but I worry that the fusillade of darts trap it can produce, which can potentially deal up to 20 points of damage to each creature in two 5-ft. squares, and that lasts up to 12 hours, might also be just a tad bit overpowered. Still, I rather liked the mighty wallop spells (treating bludgeoning weapons as if they were larger than they really were when it comes to damage), and steal size is pretty cool - you shrink an enemy and you yourself grow bigger! (I'll bet that's a favorite spell of kobold sorcerers!)
On the other hand, I really liked most of the feats. The draconic heritage feats add even more versatility to those characters with dragon blood, and the breath weapon feats are sure to add a few surprises to the bag of tricks of any combatant with a breath weapon. It was also nice to see the full range of draconic heritage available to characters; not just the dragons from the Monster Manual are potential ancestors, but also dragons from Monster Manual II, Draconomicon, Epic Level Handbook, Monsters of Faerûn, Oriental Adventures, and Sandstorm. The same is true of the half-dragon chapter, expanding the utility of the half-dragon template.
As for the prestige classes, I wasn't particularly impressed with most of them, although the dragon devotee, at just 5 levels, made a nice "bridge" prestige class for those characters wanting to eventually take levels in the dragon disciple prestige class (from the Dungeon Master's Guide) without having to take a couple levels in sorcerer first. Of the five prestige classes, I think the Singer of the Concordance was just about the silliest I've seen in a while.
I was glad to see the Draconic language appendix, but I really wish it was a bit longer. As it stands, I seem to recall an article in Dragon a few years back that had that much information; I would have hoped that Races of the Dragon would have advanced our understanding of the language a bit further than what it did. Also, the naming conventions of the dragonborn can possibly lead to some "dangerous" names. As an example pulled from a stat block, "Vythjhank ux Maekrix tibur Gunnloda" means "Vythjhank [the name itself means "steel hammer"], platinum leader born as Gunnloda" - in other words, she was a dwarf named Gunnloda who took the name "Vythjhank" after transforming into a dragonborn. It's the "ux" that you have to watch out for: you probably wouldn't want to give yourself a dragonborn name ending in "f" (like "karif," Draconic for "far") or "s" (like "arcaniss," Draconic for "magic"), for fear of not being able to prevent the other players from giggling every time they try saying your character's name.
There were a couple of final things that struck me as being kind of odd while reading through Races of the Dragon. First of all, this is the first book of its type (and again, since I haven't seen any other books in the "Races of" series, I'm thinking more along the lines of the environmental books (Frostburn, Sandstorm, and Stormwrack), the "creature type" books (Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness), and recent PC-option books like Heroes of Horror) that contained full pages of fiction at a time. Each of the first four chapters had at least a full page of fiction; several had more than one. I found that to be jarring (mainly because it's not something I'm used to in a Wizards of the Coast book), and not really any of the authors' strong points. Personally, I think those pages could have been put to much better use. I also noted while reading through the book that the "default" pronouns were almost always set to the feminine; maybe it's the fact that two out of the three authors are women, but the examples are all drowning in "she" and "her." Again, there's nothing wrong with that (now I sound like an episode of "Seinfeld"), but it was still a bit jarring, as it isn't what I'm used to.
Races of the Dragon was kind of a mixed bag for me. Some of the stuff I really liked (the dragonborn, the kobolds, the feats), some was merely okay (the Draconic primer, the dragon-descended stuff, the prestige classes), and some I actively disliked (the spellscales, a good chuck of the spells, but especially the stat blocks). I'm going to round it all together to a relatively high "3 (Average)" and hope that the WotC development team starts to get their collective act together real soon. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting tired of waiting for the alleged improvements we were supposed to have been seeing already.
[Incidentally, I'd like to thank MerricB for his valuable input on several stat blocks in my "unofficial errata," especially for pointing out that in D&D Miniatures, an avatar and a herald are not the same thing! Thanks, MerricB! And for those of you wondering how MerricB managed to correct my "unofficial errata" so quickly, this is a repost of a review that was lost when the EN World site "hiccuped" recently; he corrected several mistakes I made the first time I posted this.]
By Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, and Kolja Raven Liquette
Wizards of the Coast product number 953697200
160-page hardback, $29.95
Races of the Dragon is the latest in the "Races of" series of hardback books by Wizards of the Coast. As it's the first book in the series that I've ever seen, I really can't comment on how it stacks up to the others, so I'll be reviewing this solely on its own merits. As this is a typical John Cooper review, I'm sure many of you are wondering: "How were the stat blocks?" For those who really can't wait to find out: They were pretty sad, but we'll get into those details a bit later in the review.
The cover artwork is by Steve Prescott, and it depicts a red dragon, a kobold, a spellscale, and a dragonborn - the last two being new races presented in this book for the first time ever. (From what I understand, that in and of itself is a departure from previous entries in the "Races of" series.) The piece is nicely done, although it's quite possibly a "composite" piece, given that the spellscale appears in full on the back cover, whereas on the front cover part of her right leg is obscured by the dragonborn's shield. (Either that, or Steve opted to copy her and then "finish" the rest of her body as a standalone piece of art for the back cover.) In any case, Steve does a nice job of staying within the 3E parameters as to what kobolds and red dragons look like, although he gives the dragon a bit more of a "finger" than I'm used to at the upper tip of its wing, and the kobold is wearing a somewhat strange hat. The level of detail is good, with some intricate carvings on the dragonborn's armor, weapon, and shield, and a rather elaborate underground room in the background. Also, (and this is going to make me sound like some weird sort of reptilian-foot fetishist), I really like the way Steve did the kobold's feet: two central toes with another toe on each side and webbing between. I like this kobold toe configuration even better than the one in the Sam Wood piece in the Monster Manual, and was pleased to see that particular toe configuration appear in several of the kobold art pieces in the book. (I admit it, sometimes it's the little things that please me the most.)
Speaking of which, the interior artwork consists of 9 monochromatic (at the chapter beginnings) and 52 full-color illustrations by 12 different artists, plus 10 full-color maps by cartographer Mike Schley. Mike's maps aren't quite at the level of Christopher West's (but then, not many are), but they are functional and get the job done. It's worth pointing out that three of the pieces of interior art are full-page: Steven Belledin's dragonborn and human adventuring duo fighting a wyvern on page 6; Ed Cox's despondent ranger outside a ruined village with a dragon soaring by overhead on page 17; and Ed Cox's spellscale city district on page 35. Neither of these three was among my favorites (although Steven does do a very nice-looking wyvern!); I preferred Emily Fiegenschuh's draconic centaur on page 72 (very original design!), Steven Belledin's depiction of a kobold casting a spell on a gnome on pages 116-117 (I especially liked the kobold), and Ralph Horsley's drawing of a human and a young gold dragon poring over maps on page 75 (that's a very nice looking gold dragon). While there are a bunch of illustrations scattered throughout the book that seemed kind of sub-par to me, all in all I'd say the artwork in Races of the Dragon is above average.
The book is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: A description of the book, what you need to use the book, a listing of the dragonkind races, and brief definitions of the "dragonblood" subtype and the term "dragon-descended"
- Chapter 1 - Dragonborn of Bahamut: A new character race, created via the transformation of a willing member of a different character race into a humanoid dragon
- Chapter 2 - Spellscales: Another new character race, this one the offspring of two sorcerers, which has physical properties of dragons (and there's also a way to transform yourself into a spellscale if you're of a different race)
- Chapter 3 - Kobolds: Details on the lives of these staple D&D monsters, which were all "dragonized up" since the start of 3E
- Chapter 4 - Dragon-Descended: Half-dragons and those of the "draconic" template (said template reprinted here from the pages of Draconomicon for ease of reference)
- Chapter 5 - Prestige Classes: Disciple of the Eye, Dracolexi, Dragon Devotee, Dragonheart Mage, and Singer of the Concordance
- Chapter 6 - Character Options: Some further details on the Craft, Handle Animal, and Profession skills as they relate to the draconic races, plus 34 new feats and 7 racial substitution levels for draconic characters to "tweak" some of the existing classes somewhat
- Chapter 7 - Magic and Psionics: 35 new spells and 4 new psionic powers, all pretty much dragon-related in one way or another
- Chapter 8 - Equipment: 2 new types of armor materials, 4 special substances and items, 20 wondrous items, 10 draconic grafts, and a CR 17 adventure site featuring a kuo-toan dragongrafter
- Chapter 9 - Campaigns of the Dragon: NPC stats for various dragonborn, spellscale, kobold, and dragon-descended characters, plus 50 adventure ideas
- Appendix 1 - The Draconic Language: A 3-page primer on the Draconic language, including a page each of Draconic-to-English and English-to-Draconic words (enough to form pidgin sentences, several of which are provided as examples)
- Appendix 2 - Dragon Deities: A brief rundown of the 11 primary dragon gods
As far as they go, this was another pretty shoddy job, as has become the recent norm for Wizards of the Coast products, a fact that simultaneously amazes and appalls me. I count 27 distinct stat blocks in Races of the Dragon, 20 of which had errors in them, for an overall stat-block error rate of 74%! After having admitted that I didn't bother breaking down most of the skill points (unless something really jumped out at me), I recommend making the following changes (and as usual, I hope anyone reading through this "unofficial errata" will point out any mistakes I might have made):
- pp. 78-79, Molik, female kobold monk 8/disciple of the eye 5: Touch AC should be 19, not 25 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, +1 monk, +3 bracers of protection). Unarmed strikes should be at +13/+8 melee, not +12/+7 (+9 BAB, +1 size, +3 Str). With flurry of blows, unarmed strikes should be at +13/+13/+13/+8 melee, not +12/+12/+12/+7. +2 distance gnome bane light crossbow attacks should be at +14/+9 ranged, not +13/+8 (+9 BAB, +1 size, +2 Dex, +2 magic weapon). Has 8 feats, but should have 9 (and it should be either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip, gained as a Mnk6) - 5 feats as a 13th-level character, plus 4 bonus monk feats.
- p. 84, Litrix, male kobold sorcerer 5/dracolexi 6: AC should be 18, not 19 (+1 size, +1 Dex, +1 natural, +4 mage armor, +1 ring of protection). Touch AC should be 13, not 14. Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 18. Spells known should be 9/5/4/3/2/1 (as a Sor10), not 9/4/4/3/2/1 - and on top of that, he should have 2 more spells known (of any level) as a result of having attained 5th level as a dracolexi. Climb should be +2, not +1 [0 ranks, -1 Str, +3 lizard familiar]. Skills should include Profession (miner) +4 [0 ranks, +2 Int, +2 kobold racial bonus].
- p. 84, Lizard familiar: Ref should be +5, not +3 (+3 as a Sor5/DLx6, +2 Dex). Will should be +10, not +9 (+9 as a Sor5/DLx6, +1 Wis). Base Attack Bonus should be +5 (as his master), not +0. Grapple should be -7, not -12 (+5 BAB, -8 size, -4 Str). Bite attacks should be at +9 melee, not +4 (+5 BAB, +2 size, +2 Dex due to Weapon Finesse).
- p. 88, Braxon, male human fighter 5/dragon devotee 1: Fort should be +8, not +9 (+4 as a Ftr5, +2 as a DDv1, +2 Con). Ref should be +2, not +3 (+1 as a Ftr5, +0 as a DDv1, +1 Dex). Will should be +4, not +5 (+1 as a Ftr5, +0 as a DDv1, +1 Wis, +2 Iron Will). AC should be 21, not 20 (+1 Dex, +9 +1 full plate, +1 natural). Flat-footed AC should be 20, not 19. Masterwork composite longbow attacks should be at +8 ranged, not +7 (+5 BAB, +1 Dex, +1 masterwork, +1 Weapon Focus), and damage should be 1d8+5, not 1d8+6 (+3 Str, +2 Weapon Specialization). Has 6 feats, but should have 7 (3 as a 6th-level character, 1 human bonus feat, and 3 bonus fighter feats).
- pp. 90-91, Wedlen Mooncaller, female draconic gnome sorcerer 6/dragonheart mage 5: HD should be 11, not 12. Electricity resistance should be 12, not 30 (3 times the number of draconic feats, of which she has 4). Fort should be +9, not +7 (+2 as a Sor6, +4 as a DHM5, +1 Con, +2 Great Fortitude). Ref should be +6, not +7 (+2 as a Sor6, +1 as a DHM5, +3 Dex). +1 shock dagger attacks should be at +7 melee, not +6 (+5 BAB, +1 size, +0 Str, +1 magic weapon). Claw attacks should be at +6 melee, not +5 (+5 BAB, +1 size, +0 Str). Skills should include Craft (alchemy) +4 [0 ranks, +2 Int, +2 gnome racial bonus].
- p. 95, Adetherin Forzenda, male half-gold dragon human cleric 5/Singer of the Concordance 7: AC should be 24, not 26 (+10 +2 glamered full plate, +4 natural). Flat-footed AC should be 24, not 26. Under "Spell-Like Abilities," "sphere of exclusion" should be "aspect of exclusion."
- p. 125, Draconic Myrmidon, draconic human warrior 4: I'm not sure why it's immune to normal disease, as that's not a class feature of the warrior class, nor is it a part of the draconic template. Spent 18 of 21 skill points (6 on Intimidate, 8 on Listen (cross-class), 4 on Spot).
- pp. 131-132, Booldipdop, male kuo-toa cleric 15: As a kuo-toa, he should have the "(aquatic)" subtype. AC should be 18, not 17 (-1 Dex, +6 natural, +3 ring of protection). Touch AC should be 12, not 11. Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 17. Fort should be +13, not +16 (+0 as a 2-HD monstrous humanoid, +9 as a Clr15, +2 Con, +2 Great Fortitude). Will should be +17, not +19 (+3 as a 2-HD monstrous humanoid, +9 as a Clr15, +5 Wis). Bite attacks should be at +9 melee, not +8 (+13 BAB, +1 Str, -5 as a secondary attack). With 17 HD, he should have 6 feats (plus Alertness as a kuo-toa bonus feat), not 7 plus Alertness.
- p. 132, Sventvutha, male very young black dragon: BAB should be +7, not +9 (as a 7-HD dragon).
- p. 134, Grug ux Bahamuti tibur Grug (raging), male dragonborn barbarian 4: AC should be 14, not 16 (+1 Dex, +5 +1 mithril chain shirt, -2 rage). Touch AC should be 9, not 11. Flat-footed AC should be 14, not 16. When not raging, AC should be 16, not 18; flat-footed AC should be 16, not 18; Grapple should be +5, not +7 (+4 BAB, +1 Str).
- p. 134, Vythjhank ux Maekrix tibur Gunnloda, female dragonborn fighter 6: Stats should have immunity to paralysis and sleep (she doesn't have a breath weapon or wings, so she must have taken the "mind" option upon rebirth as a dragonborn). Fort should be +10 (+12 against poison), not +9 (+11 against poison) (+5 as a Ftr6, +4 Con, +1 cloak of resistance, plus a +2 dwarven poison resistance). Will shouldn't have "(+4 against sleep and paralysis)" - she should be immune to both.
- p. 135, Dominique Wilhemina, female spellscale sorcerer5: Touch AC should be 12, not 16 (+2 Dex; the +4 armor bonus from mage armor doesn't apply towards touch attacks).
- pp. 135-136, Aiden Spellmaster, male spellscale cleric 3/sorcerer 4/mystic theurge 2: Touch AC should be 11, not 15 (+1 Dex; mage armor doesn't count).
- p. 136, Stefan the Bold, male spellscale bard 6: AC should be 16, not 17 (+1 Dex, +5 +1 mithril chain shirt). Flat-footed AC should be 15, not 16. Melee attacks shouldn't include "claw" as an option; spellscales don't get racial claw attacks.
- pp. 139-140, Elthora Galadula, female half-deep dragon drow ranger 4: Speed should be 20 ft. (4 squares), not 30 ft. (6 squares) - she has a base speed of 30 ft., but she's wearing a breastplate. As a Rgr4, she should have only one 1st-level ranger spell prepared, not 2 (and even then only because she has a +1 Wis bonus).
- pp. 140-141, Angriz Ulhargix, male half-blue dragon half-orc wizard 7: Claw attacks should be at +2 melee, not +1 (+3 BAB, +4 Str, -5 as a secondary attack). Breath weapon Reflex save should be DC 12, not DC 15 (10 + half the racial HD + Con bonus, or 10 + 0 + 2).
- p. 141, Cat familiar: Initiative should be +2, not +3 (+2 Dex). Not sure what "[rule]" is doing in the lines between some of the entries in the stat block, where the horizontal line usually goes. Ref should be +4, not +2 (+2 as a Wiz7, +2 Dex). Will should be +6, not +5 (+5 as a Wiz7, +1 Wis). Base Attack Bonus should be +3 (as a Wiz7), not +0. Grapple should be -9, not -12 (+3 BAB, -8 size, -4 Str). Claw attacks should be at +7 melee, not +5 (+3 BAB, +2 size, +2 Dex due to Weapon Finesse). Bite attacks should be at +2 melee, not +0 (+3 BAB, +2 size, +2 Dex, -5 as a secondary attack).
- p. 141, Molligrew Treebonnet, female draconic halfling expert 3: Claw attacks should be at +0 melee, not +5 (+2 BAB, +1 size, +2 Dex with Weapon Finesse, -5 as a secondary attack).
- p. 142, Inala Axeblood, female draconic dwarf cleric 9: Spells/day should be 6/5+1/5+1/4+1/3+1, not 6/4+1/4+1/3+1/3+1. (They apparently forgot about her bonus spells due to high Wisdom, and the 5th-level spell slot was replaced with energy sustenance as a racial substitution level.) Spell save DCs are all off by one: hold person should be DC 16, not DC 15 (10 + 4 Wis + 2nd-level spell); sanctuary should be DC 15, not DC 14 (10 + 4 Wis + 1st-level spell).
- p. 152, Aspect of Bahamut, mature adult celestial gold dragon: Initiative should be +3, not +4 (-1 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative). Touch AC should be 7, not 8 (-2 size, -1 Dex). Space/Reach should be 15 ft./10 ft. (15 ft. with bite), not 10 ft./10 ft. With 12 HD and a +8 Con bonus, average hit points should be 174, not 179.
Okay, now that the stat block problems have been taken care of, allow me to devote several paragraphs to my impressions of Races of the Dragon as a whole. I'm of several minds of the two new races. I rather like the dragonborn: the fact that they're the result of a willing transformation from a standard race into a humanoid dragon means that you can have dragonborn humans, dragonborn dwarves, dragonborn elves, and so on. This gives the race a great deal of flexibility, and the fact that there are three main dragon areas of focus to choose from when you become a dragonborn (wings, senses, or breath weapon) makes it even more likely that any two given dragonborn PCs are liable to be very different from each other. Also, I like the fact that this race only creates new members via the willing transformation of other beings; it helps to make it stand out as different from all other character races.
The spellscales are a different matter altogether. They're the result of having two sorcerers for parents; apparently it's now practically a given that all sorcerers derive their power from having draconic blood in their lineage (although this wasn't always the case in 3E). I don't like that assumption, but it's easy enough to tweak the given concept into "a spellscale is a child born of two sorcerers, each with draconic blood" - that way, you can still have sorcerers who gain their powers via different methods. However, spellscales as written seem to be patterned after all of the negative stereotypes of a flamboyantly homosexual male. [Disclaimer: That statement in no way construes that I believe those stereotypes to be true, that I believe all homosexual men behave flamboyantly, that homosexuality has any negative connotations whatsoever, or that I have any specific opinions on the matter at all. I'm merely stating an observation I made while reading through that chapter.] To back up my statement, consider the following: The fiction piece has a male spellscale, in a "typical" day, going through his extensive wardrobe deciding what to wear, and finally choosing a velvet doublet, silver leggings studded with moonstones (that he got from a succubus, no less!), and a cape made of fluffy, white pegasus feathers. He's pleased when everyone looks at his outfit upon making his dramatic entrance at the local pub. He considers the cards of a Three-Dragon Ante deck "pretty." A full page is devoted to the importance of spellscales' unconventional and eye-catching clothing and the various lotions and creams they apply to their scales, as well as the different things they do with their hair (curling it, straightening it, braiding it, putting it in dreadlocks, shaving it). Some spellscales dye their hair (often in garish colors). Some only dye the tips of their hair, or use streaks or highlights - seriously, after awhile, I was starting to wonder if the author of this particular chapter really would have been happier as a writer for a women's fashion magazine. If all spellscales were merely effeminate, that would be one thing; the fact that the author seems to go out of his or her way to include nearly all of the negative stereotypes about flamboyantly homosexual men makes me wonder more than a little whether this wasn't done deliberately. Reading through the spellscale chapter, I was actually surprised that spellscales don't talk with an affected lisp - it seems to be the only negative stereotype that wasn't included.
The thing I liked most about the spellscale race is that every day they can meditate upon a specific dragon god and gain a different set of racial bonuses for that day; again, this is more versatility, which I tend to see as a positive feature when it comes to designing PCs. However, I'm confused as to why spellscales are automatically Medium creatures. Sure, two human sorcerers get married and have a child, and the dragon blood coursing through their veins causes that child to be a spellscale instead of a human. I get that. But why would the union of a pair of Small gnome or halfling sorcerers be a Medium spellscale? Likewise, since the only requirement for a "natural-born" spellscale is that both his parents are humanoid sorcerers, why wouldn't a spellscale born of two merfolk sorcerers have the lower body of a fish, like his parents? (Merfolk, despite their strange build, are classified as humanoid creatures. And if by "humanoid" the authors really meant "humanoid build" rather than "the humanoid creature type," the problem just gets bigger, because then two Huge cloud giant sorcerers could give birth to a Medium spellscale.) And why wouldn't a spellscale born of kobold sorcerers have a tail? None of this makes any sense to me. I also dislike the fact that the authors (or probably author; I suspect each chapter was only written by one of the three authors) created a Rite of Spellscale Assumption that allows a member of any other race to become a spellscale. For one thing, it's "trespassing" onto one of the things that make dragonborn unique; for another, I don't see any reason for it. Why has there never been a need for a Rite of Elf Assumption in D&D before, allowing a gnome to become an elf? Or a Rite of Dwarf Assumption, allowing a half-orc to become a dwarf? The whole thing just seems to me to be a case of an over-excited author so positive that he or she has created such a fantastic new race that everyone is going to want to play one, so there ought to be a way for those poor schmucks with non-spellscale characters to be able to convert their PCs that were created before the marvelous, wonderful spellscales were even an option. Needless to say, if I even allow spellscales into my campaign, there's going to be a whole lot of rewriting going on beforehand; as it is, I see the spellscales as second in irritation factor only to the kender. (It's their general flightiness and "everybody look at me!" attitude that makes me doubt they'd be a useful addition to a PC party.)
I enjoyed the kobold chapter, but then I generally enjoy kobolds anyway. I was pleased to see there's now an option (via draconic feats) for a kobold to gain dragon wings that will eventually allow him to fly; welcome back to D&D 3.5, urds! We missed you!
Some of the spells seemed somewhat problematic. While I was pleased to see several new additions to the "power word" grouping, power word nauseate affects "one living creature," but somehow I doubt that oozes or plants (both "living") could ever be caused to retch uncontrollably (or at all, for that matter). Power word pain does up to 16d6 points of damage to a target with 50 hp or less, no save, and it's a 1st-level spell. How many other 1st-level spells can you think of where a 1st-level caster can do 96 points of damage to a single target? (I know magic missile can do quite a bit of damage once the caster reaches high level, but there are no such caster level restrictions on power word pain.) Create trap is a nicely kobold-flavored spell, but I worry that the fusillade of darts trap it can produce, which can potentially deal up to 20 points of damage to each creature in two 5-ft. squares, and that lasts up to 12 hours, might also be just a tad bit overpowered. Still, I rather liked the mighty wallop spells (treating bludgeoning weapons as if they were larger than they really were when it comes to damage), and steal size is pretty cool - you shrink an enemy and you yourself grow bigger! (I'll bet that's a favorite spell of kobold sorcerers!)
On the other hand, I really liked most of the feats. The draconic heritage feats add even more versatility to those characters with dragon blood, and the breath weapon feats are sure to add a few surprises to the bag of tricks of any combatant with a breath weapon. It was also nice to see the full range of draconic heritage available to characters; not just the dragons from the Monster Manual are potential ancestors, but also dragons from Monster Manual II, Draconomicon, Epic Level Handbook, Monsters of Faerûn, Oriental Adventures, and Sandstorm. The same is true of the half-dragon chapter, expanding the utility of the half-dragon template.
As for the prestige classes, I wasn't particularly impressed with most of them, although the dragon devotee, at just 5 levels, made a nice "bridge" prestige class for those characters wanting to eventually take levels in the dragon disciple prestige class (from the Dungeon Master's Guide) without having to take a couple levels in sorcerer first. Of the five prestige classes, I think the Singer of the Concordance was just about the silliest I've seen in a while.
I was glad to see the Draconic language appendix, but I really wish it was a bit longer. As it stands, I seem to recall an article in Dragon a few years back that had that much information; I would have hoped that Races of the Dragon would have advanced our understanding of the language a bit further than what it did. Also, the naming conventions of the dragonborn can possibly lead to some "dangerous" names. As an example pulled from a stat block, "Vythjhank ux Maekrix tibur Gunnloda" means "Vythjhank [the name itself means "steel hammer"], platinum leader born as Gunnloda" - in other words, she was a dwarf named Gunnloda who took the name "Vythjhank" after transforming into a dragonborn. It's the "ux" that you have to watch out for: you probably wouldn't want to give yourself a dragonborn name ending in "f" (like "karif," Draconic for "far") or "s" (like "arcaniss," Draconic for "magic"), for fear of not being able to prevent the other players from giggling every time they try saying your character's name.
There were a couple of final things that struck me as being kind of odd while reading through Races of the Dragon. First of all, this is the first book of its type (and again, since I haven't seen any other books in the "Races of" series, I'm thinking more along the lines of the environmental books (Frostburn, Sandstorm, and Stormwrack), the "creature type" books (Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness), and recent PC-option books like Heroes of Horror) that contained full pages of fiction at a time. Each of the first four chapters had at least a full page of fiction; several had more than one. I found that to be jarring (mainly because it's not something I'm used to in a Wizards of the Coast book), and not really any of the authors' strong points. Personally, I think those pages could have been put to much better use. I also noted while reading through the book that the "default" pronouns were almost always set to the feminine; maybe it's the fact that two out of the three authors are women, but the examples are all drowning in "she" and "her." Again, there's nothing wrong with that (now I sound like an episode of "Seinfeld"), but it was still a bit jarring, as it isn't what I'm used to.
Races of the Dragon was kind of a mixed bag for me. Some of the stuff I really liked (the dragonborn, the kobolds, the feats), some was merely okay (the Draconic primer, the dragon-descended stuff, the prestige classes), and some I actively disliked (the spellscales, a good chuck of the spells, but especially the stat blocks). I'm going to round it all together to a relatively high "3 (Average)" and hope that the WotC development team starts to get their collective act together real soon. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting tired of waiting for the alleged improvements we were supposed to have been seeing already.
[Incidentally, I'd like to thank MerricB for his valuable input on several stat blocks in my "unofficial errata," especially for pointing out that in D&D Miniatures, an avatar and a herald are not the same thing! Thanks, MerricB! And for those of you wondering how MerricB managed to correct my "unofficial errata" so quickly, this is a repost of a review that was lost when the EN World site "hiccuped" recently; he corrected several mistakes I made the first time I posted this.]
