Customer Reviews

Planar Handbook (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

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

 

 

So, we have a book intended primarily for players to experience the planes. What do we get?

One of the cruddiest books that WotC has ever put out, that's what.

Allow me to explain...it's not ALL bad. The new weapons and magic items are nice. There are new monsters, many of which are intended to transport players through the planes. Some of the prestige classes are interesting...the Ardent Dilettante itself is VERY creative, and makes sense for what it's supposed to do. Also, the substitution levels are neat; the idea is that you can trade out a certain level of a class for an alternate version with different benefits. It's a very nice idea, and will probably be used again. After all, what rogue wouldn't want to switch out a +1 bonus to Reflex saves vs. traps to be able to sense gates and teleports within 30 feet?

However, there are things that are unpleasant to downright stupid. For example...we see the aasimar and tiefling, AGAIN. This is their third appearance (in Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and the 3.5 Monster Manual), and this really doesn't add anything. At least the Bariaur has been altered, and is different...but still, reprints get annoying. Also, the feats, in general, are horrendously boring. I can't see any reason to take any of the feats presented.

And, last but not least, you have the Planar Touchstones. I'll admit, it was a nice idea to give people a reason to go plane-hopping. Personally, I'd think being able to fight new and different monsters and get different sorts of treasure would be reason enough, but hey. However...the idea that going to a place gives you a nifty power is kind of, um, silly. Not only that, but they waste 33 pages on this. They make more sense as web enhancements than as a list of stuff that will most likely not get used. Those 33 pages could have been used for more prestige classes, more feats, more monsters, more items, or, heck, even more description on planar cities, and would be more all-around useful. This is the what absolutely kills this book for me.

I'm not...quite...sorry I bought this, but if I could clip out the 33 pages of the touchstones and get my money back, I would. 2.5 stars, rounding up out of misplaced generosity.

192 pages with to many pictures (didn't bother counting this time but expect at least 10% of the book from flipping throught it) and no rear index.

12 pages of reprinted 3e material on aisimar, tieflings and other planar beings from savage species and the monster manual which should have been devoted to developing new planar beings (maybe a movanic deva, a pitfiend, a balor, a planetar or solar (for an epic progression) and a marid or dao instead of the janni reprint).

34 pages of more or less worthless material IMO devoted to planar touchstones and the planar touchstone feat. Personally I thought these pages should have been devoted to fleshing out the 3E planes with a few blurbs about highlights of visiting the planes. Pages which could have been more usefully utilized to update and expand on existing 2E planar material if nothing else.

Personally liked the City of Brass particularly since it was mostly new material. Also liked a few of the classes but trading out a level of sense trap for portal sense didn't seem balanced at all.

I wouldn't recommend purchasing it for $29.95 unless you have money to burn as it just isn't that useful even in a planar campaign.

This is the sort of book that isn't as useful if you have a whole shelf of 3.0 books or if you've already got an extensive collection of 2.0 books. I really think it's more of a player's book than some of the other books.
One annoying thing about this (and many other books) is the inclusion of new spells, feats, and prestige classes. Every book that comes out can be guaranteed to have these sections in an attempt (one assumes) to make everyone buy it to get the cool new crunchy bits.
Apart from that marketing gripe the book's content is good. Some of it is new material, some is rehash from Manual of the Planes (technically a 3.0 release). It will definitely move your campaign in new directions, particularly once your players get it in their heads they need to be a "divine somethingorother" and being trying to attract the notice of the divine.

Of all the books wizards of the coast has produced for D&D, this is the only one where i could not find any useful or neat information. THis is basically the same as the manual of the planes but without anything useful to the DM

This was a rather good book considering that is expands the planes for about 30 pages from the DM's Guide to a whole book. The planar sites such as Sigil and The City of Brass are very well done in this book. The touchstones and some of the new items, spells, and monsters are worthwhile. There are new prestige classes and some pretty cool new races. Overall, the book had hight points and it had some bad points. Normally I would give a product like this a neutral 3 sars, but , considering the planar sites, I will be nice and give it 4 stars...

With the comming out of The Manual of the Planes, I was very disappointed in WOTC reconstruction of the planes. The whole point of the planescape system was the flavor, the roleplaying. MotP completely destoyed that flavor, making the wohle of the planes rules and whatnot. At last, they came out with the Planar Handbook, and while it doesn't completely redeem WOTC for destroying the planes to begin with, it does take a huge step in the right direction, bringing back the Lady of Pain, Sigil, and several of the factions. Heck, the factions, and the whole idea that philosophy is waht controled existance in the planes it what made the system! Hopefully WTOC will continue this path of redemption and come out with more material on planar philosophies, factions, and adventures for one of the best systems designs created by TSR.

If there is one good thing about the 3.5 DMG, it is that it gave more room for other stuff in this book about planar travel.

The old Lady of Pain and her town of Sigil is back in a big way. However, Sigil itself is only a few pages in this tome. Included are new prestige class, some of which were already in Dragon (Athar and Fated) but the Sensates is a total rewrite. I also liked how they did the City of Brass. The typical "crunchy bits" are all there as well.

Trust me, you want this one.

Manual of the Planes being in 3.0 system is not outdated like many of the 2e books (I got one of those by accident and the rules are quite hard to implement into a 3e game, don't listen to people whining about how good they were), and it is easy to find. The planar abilities are easy to understand, and quite clever. Plus, they even have decent prestige classes. The only thing different is the Planar Touchstones, which from the judgements elsewhere, the 33 pages could be put in by 3.0 rules in 10 pages or less more effectively.

It's newer and 3.5 i guess. A "player's handbook to the planes". Lame. If WOTC are going to rape the collectors and completests, why not give 'em more bang, more quality and more quantity. Merge the MOTP with this book, give us 450 pages and charge the same price. The 2004 "Expanded Psionics" book gave you +64 pages (224 total) over the 2001 "Psionics Handbook". It's rape, but at least they gave you more. In April 2006 they're coming out with yet another Psionics book with only 160 pages (with the most poorly named title ever) called "Complete Psionic" -- which is meant to "complement" the Psionics Handbook. Well, if it's meant to "COMPLEMENT" the other friggin' book it's harldy "COMPLETE" now is it!!!

basically, all the cool stuff from Planescape gets trashed when they make the Lady of Pain lawful neutral, showing how off the mark the new folks at WoTC are in terms of pleasing PS fans.

planar touchstones are cool, most stuff of mediocre quality...