Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of Elves (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Player's Handbook Rules Supplement #2131

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To start this off I will tell you...This book is a total must have for all elf players. Even as a DM I LOVED this book....It is full of neat info about everything that has to do with elves. I loved the new equipment, and the kits were really neat. Also the book is very accurate about the personalitys and different elf subraces. I think this is the best book in the "Complete Book of ________" series and I took that "Tree huggin' daisy munchers" review as a personal insult. This book sheds new light on the elves, and totally enlightens the wimpy description in the PHB! I loved the illistrations and thouroghly enjoyed reading the myths and rituals. Without this book my party's game sessions would never of been the same. I would recomend this book to any AD&D player, (even those who play Dwarves) and especially all those elven,or who are considering becomeing a elf. It has vital info about how to role-play and elf to its fullest potential. I LOVE THIS BOOK! IT IS WORTH ALL THE MONEY YOU INVEST IN IT!

The book gives a good overview to Elven life in general, altough
some of the information is not realy necessary for an accomplished DM.
Beware: If You realy plan to let Your players have their way with all the extra rules given (Str:19 for Sylvan Elves, Bladesinger Kit and Bladesong rules are the most notable),
You'll end up with a threshing machine that can easyly outdo
the rest of the group as a whole and won't be able to find a suitable challenge only too soon.
From level 7/8 onwards, a Fighter/Mage with the abilities mentioned above and equiped with a Stoneskin/Fireshield/Haste/
Mirror Image spell-combo becomes nigh-invulnerable in close combat and will deal out amazing amounts of damage.
So I recomend to be very carefull with these abilities.
In the hands of a strong-willed PC this book endangers the ballance of any campaign.
In the hands of an accomplished DM, it can give a lot more depth to Elven life and culture.

What keeps me form giving it five stars are the lack of proficiencies (see the complete book of dwarves) and there are to few kits for priests. Otherwise a great book!

That was what i and a fellow DM/player thought. Many things suggested really tip the balance in the favor of the elves.

From the basic meditation sleep, to the incredible elven archer. The author also suggests removing the level cap for elves(!) and doubling the xp needed.

Now as we all know, elven archers have mastery, dex, strength, magic arrow, magic bow and elven bonuses. This comes up to +4 to +19. The penalties to hit suggested by the book to balance the increased number of attacks are pretty useless in light of this. With a haste spell (1 year to an elf, so?). Attacks go up to 8. Try with an Articus Melee Manager. Contrast with a human fighter in terms of damage.

The bladesinger is another poor balanced class. Less so than the elven archer but...

All in all, you can get this book for information about elven lives(long and winding discourse) but think long and hard about any of the special abilities suggested.

Everyone who is a friend of Elves should buy this book, it contains everything you should or even must know about them. Everyone who has a problem with Elves - mostly players who have Dwarfen charakters - should forget the existence of this book, it would only upset him. Sure, this book can change the balance between the races, giving Elven charakters more advantages. But most rules are optional, no DM has to acept them. But in my oppinion, there would be nothing wrong in making the Elven race stronger, if you have 100 years time to learn something a Human has to learn in 20 years, guess who will be better! And, many Elves faces big problems everywhere: Many Humans, Dwarfes and evil Humanoids hate Elves and many DM don't forget this fact and let you pay for being a Elf. So there is nothing wrong if the Elves have some other advantages, given by this fine handbook, to compensate there weaknesses.

I have Most of the "complete" books, and out of all of the race books I fell that this is the best put together. It includes time lines and specific references of how the elves differ frow world to world. I also goes into detial on how elven daily life is, including marrage, myths, customs, holydays family life. It also has many unique skills, spells, kits and other equipment. This book truly opens the gateway to elven life!!!

This is a cohesive well-thought-out book. It is organized such that information is easy to find for future reference. It was written in an easy-to-read, interesting style.

It has many new ideas for running an elven campaign, however they tend to unbalance elves. Several new kits are introduced that tend to power-up elves rather than promote role-playing. Probably the best example of this is the blade-singer kit. This is a kit designed for Fighter/Mages which offers a variety of improved abilities for both the Mage and Fighter sides of the class. The major penalty for this kit is a roleplaying penalty, which matters little to powergamers. There is an optional penalty to this kit as well, which is that training a new level takes several years. Using this rule means that the other PC's are going to get pretty old by the time the bladesinger goes up a few levels. This makes them basically useless as a PC kit. According to these rules, the bladesinger is either horribly overpowered, or greviously inconvenient to the other PC's.

This book rated three stars because it did have some useful information and offered some role-playing tips. However, a DM must be careful to weed out the good elements from the ugly.

This is the greatest book you will ever buy. Well, the greatest AD&D book, anyway. This book clarified the personality traits, heritage, creation, powers, rituals, holidays, and compatibility with other races of the elves. (I'm not sure how that is grammatically, but who cares...) This is the greatest resource I have, although the Herbalist is a bit weaker than I had hoped. My favorite kit is an undead slayer in Ravenloft. That makes it a bit too easy, but anyway, back to the book. This book covers everything, soup to nuts. From the creation of the elves, to the Death rituals. It even has an NPC Generator. A must have, even for Dwarf players, although they won't like what's inside...

The kits and details on the separate races are great. The problems lie in trying to lend a Forgotten Realms flavor to all AD&D Elves, at least it strikes me that way. I find the artwork somewhat weak, detracting from the mood.

This book changed the way I played AD&D by showing me the wonders of characters beyond humans. Works great with Skills and Powers to make an elf even better. This book explains every aspect of the elf. From birth to death and beyond. A must read for any true AD&D player!