Customer Reviews

Races of the Wild (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)

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

 

 

Races of the Wild is the latest from WOC for their races line. It includes information and stuff about elves, halflings, raptorians and other races.

The book opens with the elves. It has the standard format of the other race books. It deals with lifestyle, philosophy, elves at war, culture and assorted other things. We get a section on the elvish dieties, some familiar some new. One of the new ones is named Vandra Gilmadrith, who is the daughter of Corellon Larethian. She is the wargodess for the elves.

The book has a section of elvish language and a naming chart which is nice. The elvish section seems to be a rewrite of the old elves handbook from the 2nd edition with a significant amount of new information.

The halfling section is organized in the same manner as the elves. The previous reviewer is correct in saying gypsy halflings which seems odd for most of the race. The pc halflings are the adventurer types while the race is a at home body.

There is one new diety for the halflings. Her name is Dallah thaun and is the diety of mystery. There is also a section of halfling phrases and a chart for creating names and places.

The raptorians are the new race introduced. My impression is that of quasi cat/elf with wings. The raptorians cant fly initally but can glide or have an assist in jumping. They have a nest culture. Every thing is from the nest but they spend significant amount of time away from it.

This race seemed to me kind of ho-hum. Earlier editions of D&D had a race called the winged folk who where elves with wings. This race seems very similar.

Next is a section on other races the catfolk(from the miniatures hand book I believe), as well as centaurs, gnolls, and another race the killoren, a race of fey. There is information to play these races as pcs also.

The prestige classes are next. Most of them are race related like the champion of Corellon, you need to be a elf. The one
I liked was the luckstealer, its for halflings but I will allow this for humans(I have a deity of luck in my campaign).

There are new feats, again mostly race related. There are tactical feats also. Tactical feats were introduced in the complete warrior. Again these feats are mostly race related.

A new list of gear for these races to use like the wildwood armor for the elves which has modifiers for max dex, armor check penalties and ac depending on the type of armor bought. There are new magic items like the swordbow which can be used as a bow or sword and if magical retains the same enchancement either way.

New spells and psionics are next with a new cleric domain for the raptorians.

The last part of the book covers campaigns and some beasts for the wild. There is an elvish hound (cooshee)rewritten from older editions.

In all this book was ok. I did like it a little better than the other two race books, but agree with the previous reviewer that it is primarily for completists and not necessary.

In a strange coincidence two days after I received this tome, I wound up in a panel where Skip Williams explained that one reason none of the Player's Handbook races were +1 ECL was that they had to be familiar to the fans.

I'm not sure if that was the same Skip Williams who wrote about the gypsy halflings in this book or not. I do know I wasn't as happy with this one as I was with Races of Stone. The new race, the Raptorans, seems unimaginative and oddly named. They're flying elves, not hawkmen or dinosaurs as "raptor" might have led you to believe. Well, actually, most of them are gliding elves, with flight more like chickens than hawks except for their most powerful members.

If you are a completist/collector, like I am, then you'll buy this book. If you aren't, you should borrow it from the me in your group and use some of the interesting stuff while ignoring the rest (which, in my opinion, is most of it).

Races of the wild is the third book in the series which started with races of stone and continued with races of destiny.

It offers the readers the description of 3 races, the elves, the halflings and the raptorans. Most old gamers will not find too much interesting things in the description of elves and halflings, as most of these things were already covered in other books, but players and DMs new to the game will like it. Also, the presentation of halflings as a race always on the move is somehow too one dimensional.

Raptorans is a new race, but I think that it misses the enchantment of goliaths and illumians, and one can just feel that the ability to fly was downgraded into such a complicated set of rules just to eliminate the ECL for the race. This simply kills the feeling of reality (if one can talk about such things in a fantasy RPG).

The other parts of the book, like the prestige classes and feats are OK, but I hardly think the book is worth buying "just for the stats".

I found the first chapter regarding elves to be pretty much what was expected, good but not great. The next chapter on halflings was a disappointment. Maybe I am too old and set in my ways, I grew up with the lord of the rings and AD&D in the 80's and 90's. I like my hobbits... sorry, halflings tolkien -ified. This version of the halfling as a nomadic constantly traveling wanderer was not to my liking. The rest of the book was quite good and impressed me over earlier entries in the race sourcebooks.

Overall I would give the first section on elves 3 stars, the halfling section 1 star, and the last chapters on the miscellaneous 'odds and ends' 5 stars ...overall, book as a whole 3 stars.

I've used the weapons and culture discriptions in both a game I'm DMing and a game I'm playing, though I have yet to use the new bird-race yet. The flying thing is a little complicated, and their culture makes it harder to use them accordingly as a PC. I may put them in a game some day though.

I did enjoy reading this book about elves, catfolk and halfings. You can of course keep the raptorians. Fluff there. I also enjoyed the listing of the various deities and the indepth culture of halfings and elves. Very intersting stuff that can be used even beyond the rpg setting, say for a fantasy writer or whatever. The writing was thoughtful and detailed and the artwork was well supporting the text. If you play elves and halfings and are intregued by the 'thundercat's as a a race then this book is highly suggested.

I'm a recent Halfling convert, so I didn't like what they did to Halflings by basiclly turning them into Kender Gypsies. Whatever! What it does do is help to explain how the wild races live freely and differently than those city bound folk. Good selection of prestige classes and new feats.

I agree that this book is good for beginners and just another book for veterans, but you can find some interesting things inside that you can certanly use for your character.
Particularly a feat called Woodland Archer.

Read J.R.R. Tolkiens The Simillarion if you want a way cooler history of the Elves & other fantasy races. This book is kinda wimpy. The editor must of had the day off because the writing goes on and on and is a rehash from previous sections of the book. The basic design/typeography/illustrations are below meager for a rich fantasy book.The illustrations are not that good. WOTC got a sweet deal by hiring cheap illustrators to push this book out the print shop.

When I can't play the one canine humanoid race, the lupin which I am disapointed did not make it into this book, I'm usually playing elves and half-elves. Granted I play Wood Elves for their favored class of ranger but still, I rather liked a lot of this book. Many new arrows and a new treatment of bows I fully intend to expand beyond the elves. In fact tweak a lot of things in here and they can be useful to anyone. The swords are mostly refitted weapons from previous editions. More racial substitutions given provide new options for those that want to play up stereotypes even more than previous. I was also entirely less than enthused with the raptorans but then again, I rarely see the need for avian races in any capacity and this did not change my mind. Although I will say that while reading it I became very tempted to make up a gnoll character, something I have never been inspired to do.