The Complete Priest's Handbook, Second Edition (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement #2113 [Paperback]

Aaron Allston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1990

A new reference supplement to the smash bestseller, Player's Handbook. Includes fresh, useful informstion with magic and rules that make the priest a more interesting character class. SRP: $15.00S. Min.: 1.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast; 2 edition (June 30, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880388188
• ISBN-13: 978-0880388184
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #734,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars hey it helps some, not much but some, September 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Priest's Handbook, Second Edition (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement #2113 (Paperback)

the book lacked most of what has made the other additions to this series great. As stated before you can probably find all the info included therein as well as some more useful stuff in the Faiths and Avatars as well as the Spells and Magic supplement. IT's ok if you just want to play a boring cleric( but then again wouldn't you just be better off taking the example from the players handbook). Take my word for it, save yourself the money to spend on something that would be really worth your while, but if you have to look at it just flip through it, you can get the important stuff outta there fairly quick.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Whoever wrote this hated priests, January 10, 2000

By 

Christopher Dudley (Laurel, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Priest's Handbook, Second Edition (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement #2113 (Paperback)

Where 2nd Edition AD&D endows fighters with the ability to (at first level) swing a longsword in each hand, potentially doing 28 points of damagae in a single round without counting Strength bonuses, the 2nd Edition Priests handbook cuts a Priest's power in half. I didn't find a single Priesthood that allowed it's followers to cast spells from all spheres, and many were reduced in combat ability. The special abilities added often come at the cost of the Priest's ability to Turn Undead creatures.

In short, ignore the sample priesthoods, or at least give them more spheres and/or abilities, if you want your players to still be your friends.

The rest of the book is good. It provides mythos creation guidelines, so if you don't wish to play in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, you can create your own pantheon and mythology using the guidelines in this book.

The kits are not all that great, one of them even relying on the heavily flawed Martial Arts system from the Player's Handbook. But with a little tinkering, you can use them. Just about everything in here needs a little work, but it's not unusable.

It's a good reference for DMs who are creating their game world. For players, they will probably get little use out of it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not half bad - or, for that matter, half good..., July 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Priest's Handbook, Second Edition (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Player's Handbook Rules Supplement #2113 (Paperback)

Discounting the uninteresting or unusable parts (which still take up about half the book), The Complete Priest's Handbook is a pretty useful source. The main problem is in the half the book that's taken up by flotsam and fluff.

The reader from Detroit was very right in saying that "the... specialty priests are vastly underpowered compared to the priests in any other AD&D work"; hence why it's necessary to tweak and add to them extensively. The powers are also so restricting that they're worth ignoring entirely; the only thing they'll do is make dozens of AD&D pantheons clones of each other.

The main purpose of this book is to give some ideas on what gods may exist and what their priesthoods are like. If you do buy this and use it in your campaign, however, DON'T USE ANY OF THE SPECIALTY PRIESTHOODS AS IS... It would be an insult to priests everywhere!