This review was original posted on the 3rdedition.org site.
Races of the Wild is the third in the series of D&D 3.5e books that seek to expand upon the core races. Although I found Races of Destiny somewhat flawed, I thought the first book in the series, Races of Stone, was rather good. My impression of Races of the Wild is very similar. I like this book a great deal, although I'm unsure of the implications of some of the material.
The first chapter of the book deals with the culture of the elves. No mention is given of the elven subraces, so all of this material is pertinent primarily to the core race of High Elves. This is an impressive chapter. The implications of an individualistic, long-lived race is considered, and the conclusions make a lot of sense to me. Skip Williams describes a culture where the elves prefer to perform tasks for themselves, and thus pick up a lot of different talents. Thus, a single elf will learn the basics of house building, basket weaving, leather working and all the other things needed in life rather than go to a specialist in the community to have it done for him.
Discussed in this chapter are elven communities, dress, society and culture. As one might expect, the elves prefer the use of magic to technology, and Skip Williams also gives attention to their religion, language, history and folklore. Occasional "Role-playing Application" notes focus the description for players who are defining their characters. However, I didn't find these notes to be as effective as in Races of Stone.
It was also somewhat disconcerting to have a lot of descriptive text that really read like, "the elves are better". There isn't too much of this, but it goes against my "Humans are superior" prejudices. This is an ongoing problem with how elves are depicted in fantasy, and due largely to Tolkien's version in The Lord of the Rings. When you have a race that is older than all the others and that lives for so long, they do tend to get very good at the things they like - regardless of their generalist tendencies.
The second chapter of the book deals with the culture of the halflings. With this chapter, Skip Williams moves the halflings fully away from the original hobbit inspiration and turns them into a race that is definitely inspired by the gypsies of our own world. There are elements of the kender in there as well - the halflings' fearlessness and curiosity - but, thankfully, they've been toned down so that we don't have the immensely irritating topknots of Krynn running around the standard D&D worlds.
The new halflings are nomadic, travelling around the world in caravans. There are very few permanent halfling settlements, and those that are permanent have a continual turnover of population. The chapter actually does a very good job of describing a viable culture. Of particular note are the descriptions of the positions of authority in a halfling caravan: head teamster, scout, trailer, chief herder, old one, blacksmith, wheelwright, cook, herald and cleric. This material gives me a lot to work with when using a halfling community.
One of the more interesting facets of this treatment on halflings is that of their religion: Yondalla has a "sister", a dark aspect of herself that promotes the more larcenous aspects of halfling behavior. This all ties into the halfling creation mythology that is presented in this chapter, and I must say that it works for me. I was wondering whether Skip Williams could do a good job of presenting the halfling culture. Overall, I think he did a very good job.
My one big disappointment in this chapter is that save for Yondalla and her "sister", all the other halfling deities are skipped over, with text pointing us to the Forgotten Realms book, Faith and Pantheons. I detest this. I don't mind references to core D&D books, but Faith and Pantheons is extremely non-core.
The third chapter of the book introduces a new race, the Raptorans. I liked very much the new race in Races of Stone, the Goliaths. I'm less enthused about the Raptorans. This might have something to do with their artwork, which I did not enjoy. In essence, they're an attempt to create a race for D&D that can fly, but doesn't unbalance the game. In this, they are successful. The race does work, mechanically.
In fact, the creation mythology of the Raptorans makes me more inclined to like them: in ages past, they received the gift of flight in exchange for a promise to help the air elementals in their battles. The promise hasn't been taken up in generations by the air elementals, but it remains there as a useful plot hook.
The Raptorans are a race of avian warriors that live in small tribes. Skip Williams gives sufficient information to help us integrate the Raptorans into our campaigns, but I doubt I'll be using them in my ongoing Greyhawk campaign.
In recent days - since I first wrote this review - I've had some of my players very interested in the race. The lack of balance problems that other flying races suffer from has made me look again at the race. It's still not as appealing to me as the goliath, but it is definitely capturing my attention.
The fourth chapter of Races of the Wild briefly deals with four other races: Catfolk, Centaurs, Gnolls and Killoren. Catfolk were introduced in the Miniatures Handbook, and it's very nice to see their description and role expanded. Centaurs and Gnolls should be familiar to you, and the Killoren are a newly risen race of powerful fey - aggressive, ambitious manifestations of nature's presence and power.
Each race gets about four pages or so, and the descriptions are evocative and useful. For all their brevity, I like this treatment immensely. I've now seen the Centaur in play, and it's a great race. The Catfolk likewise - a race that is also getting support through D&D Miniatures.
Chapter Five introduces eight new Prestige Classes. This book is the first in which I've seen the new Prestige Class format that debuted with Races of Destiny. Each prestige class now has about five pages devoted to it. These cover its powers, its position in the campaign world, some notes on adapting it to your campaign, a sample NPC and encounter using the prestige class, how characters gain the class and advance in it, and how other NPCs react to members of the Prestige Class.
This is a much-improved format. Although you give up the plethora of prestige classes presented in other books, the additional information is something that I find very useful. The job of integrating new Prestige Classes into my campaign has been much simplified by the new format, and I hope to see it continue in newer books.
The eight prestige classes are as follows:
Arcane Hierophant - a multiclass druid/wizard of the Mystic Theurge type. Of particular note is that the druid's Wildshaping abilities continue to advance and that the animal companion of the druid also gains familiar abilities. This is an interesting a possible powerful combination.
Champion of Corellon Larethian - basically an elven knight, the Champion wears heavy armor and become especially skilled in using their dexterity. Their key abilities relate to this: they get to add their Dexterity modifier to their Strength modifier for damage when using Finessable weapons (including an elven version of the greatsword), their maximum Dexterity modifier for armor is increased, and they are not slowed by wearing heavy armor. I like this class a lot, but I feel that it may go over the top with its abilities. I have concerns for the balance of this class, although the prerequisites are harsh: you need Combat Expertise, Dodge and Mounted Combat!
Luckstealer - similar in many ways to the Fatespinner from Complete Arcane, the Luckstealer is a 10 level Halfling prestige class that offers 7 levels of spellcasting progression and the ability to steal the luck of opponents for himself. It can be entered by both divine and arcane casters, and is quite an amusing class.
Ruathar - the elf-friend class, this 3-level prestige class offers some of the bonuses of elves to the character that takes it. It is evocative and interestingly presented.
Skypledged - a Raptoran prestige class that is used by divine Raptoran spellcasters to enhance their air magic at the expense of fire, water and earth spells. Interestingly, it uses the Spellpool ability that the Mages of the Arcane Order have in Complete Arcane. Its capstone ability is the ability to create a personal cyclone to protect you and destroy your enemies.
Stormtalon - another Raptoran prestige class, this one designed to enhance combat abilities whilst flying. The Stormtalons improve their flying speed and get many bonus aerial feats.
Whisperknife - the second Halfling prestige class, the Whisperknife is something of an assassin, with the ability to gain Poison Use at the fifth level. The Whisperknife has many abilities related to throwing daggers very quickly, and gains, at ninth level, the ability to flank a foe with a dagger. An interesting class and one that a player in my game will wish to take!
Wildrunner - the second Elf prestige class, the Wildrunner is designed for rangers. Fast movement, trackless step, a primal scream, the scent ability and other movement-related abilities give a class that is very close to nature. At ninth level, the character actually becomes a fey.
Chapter Six is devoted to character options. Expanded uses for the skills Balance, Climb, Handle Animal and Survival are given, and then we get to the new feats.
There aren't as many new feats as in Races of Stone, but there are some very impressive ones. I'm unhappy to see that the designation of "Racial" has not been used, because it was a very useful tool for separating out the prerequisite for the feats. There are several "racial" feats described here, but they're not called out as such.
Of particular note is the elf feat of Elf Dilettante. It is very similar to Jack of All Trades (from Complete Adventurer). The elf that takes Elf Dilettante gains a +1 bonus on all untrained uses of skills, and can attempt skills that he has no ranks in. This fits the elven culture that Skip Williams described in the first chapter extremely well, and it is great to see the description and the mechanics fitting together so well.
In addition to the 28 general feats, there are three new Tactical Feats. The most impressive is Woodland Archer. The three sub-abilities are: "Adjust for Range", which gives a bonus on iterative attacks if the first attack misses; "Pierce the Foliage", which allows ranged attacks to ignore concealment if you missed due to concealment in the previous round, and "Moving Sniper", which gives bonuses to the sniping maneuver.
One area of pure frustration for me is the feat Magic of the Land: if you have Concentration, Knowledge (Nature) and can cast spells, you can imbue your spells with healing energy. If you make a DC 15 Knowledge (Nature) check when casting a spell in a natural setting, each target of your spell heals 2 points of damage per spell level. I dislike Wizards and Sorcerers gaining healing powers, and this feat seems absurdly good to me. I will restrict it in my campaign to divine spells only.
The chapter ends with a discussion of Racial Substitution levels. For the elf, the Paladin, Ranger and Wizard are presented; the halfling has the Druid, Monk and Rogue; and the raptoran has the Cleric, Fighter, and Sorcerer. For the most part, the balance seems right: the abilities gained are balanced by abilities lost.
The one exception is for the first level of the Elf Wizard. This ability, the Elf Generalist, gives the character an additional spell known at every new level, and an additional slot at the highest level that can be cast. The drawback is that this wizard can't specialize. Already, it has cause some debate on the message boards I frequent.
Personally, I think this fixes a hole in the description of the elf: gnomes and humans have made better wizards than elves! This substitution level balances that inequity. However, I'm not so sure of its application to a Gray Elf, for instance. This is one area where I'm very unsure of the game balance implications.
The seventh chapter, Equipment and Magic, gives a handful of new spells and psionic powers, few of which are particularly noteworthy, although they'd probably be useful. Summon Devoted Roc, the ninth level spell of the new Sky domain, is very nice, however.
Of greater interest are the new items of equipment. The elves gain a new range of arrows with special abilities, but very interesting are the elven "finesse" weapons. For instance, the Elven Courtblade - d10 damage, 18-20 crit range, 2 handed, exotic weapon, and you can use Weapon Finesse with it.
Another interesting feature is the list of armor types: unlike Races of Stone, there aren't many new types of armor. Instead, the elves use new materials: the mithral armors are listed, as well as armor made from the new materials of leafweave, thistledown and wildwood. The most expensive suit of armor is the mithral full plate - 10,500 gp for +8 armor bonus, +3 max Dex, and a -4 armor check. It only weights 25 pounds! In combination with the Champion of Corellon Larethian, this is another area of concern for game balance. I shall have to see how it plays.
The final chapter, Campaigns in the Wild, gives a few notes on running campaigns based around one of the three races described in this book. Notes for elven, halfling and raptoran demographics are given, along with a set of sample NPCs. The idea of Holidays with game effects, first presented in Races of Stone is given more expansion here.
A few new monsters are also presented, including the long awaited return of the Cooshee (the Elven Hound).
Finally, the book ends with 100 adventure ideas for games based around a Race of the Wild.
Content: 4
In 192 pages, Skip Williams gives a good description of the elf, halfling and raptoran races. The new format for the prestige classes works very well, and the new game material is of good value. For those who have been worried about the balance of rules material to descriptive text, Races of the Wild is the best indication so far that this issue is being addressed.
Clarity: 5
All is clear and easy to read.
Layout/Artwork: 3
I'm actually quite disappointed with the artwork in this book. The text on the starting pages of each chapter (which uses a different background) is also difficult to read. Otherwise the layout is clear.
Originality: 4.5
Writing any "Races of" book involves a degree of rehashing what has come before. However, because of the changes to Halflings, and the new race of the Raptorans, there were many original ideas that Skip Williams could use in this book. The adaptation of the old to the new system, and the introduction of the new causes me to rate this book highly for its originality.
Development/Editing: 3
I've seen very few editing/typographical errors in this book. However, there do seem to be a few errors in the Prestige Class NPC stat blocks, in addition to the balance concerns I pointed out above.
Value: 4.5
Again, a standard Wizards book, with plenty of information, high production values, and a reasonable cost of $29.95.
Overall: 4
Races of the Wild continues the move by Wizards away from books full of game mechanics and nothing else. The result is a pleasing book that is primarily beneficial for the discussions of the culture of elves and halflings. The actual game mechanics are solid, with a couple of minor exceptions. These do not impinge on my overall appreciation of the book.
Halfling and Elves have been very popular over the years in my D&D campaigns, this is unlikely to change with the release of Races of the Wild, which should give me more material to distinguish those races from regular humans.
