Shining South (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Supplement) [Hardcover]

Thomas M. Reid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

Provides a detailed look at the southern regions of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
This accessory provides a wealth of highly detailed information about a little-explored region of the Forgotten Realms map. In addition to new spells, magic items, feats, prestige classes, and monsters, this title includes descriptions of races, regions, and unique cultural elements from across the southern lands. There is a detailed geographical overview of every part of the region, and three short adventures are included to facilitate gameplay.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas M. Reid held numerous positions with TSR and Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and is now a full-time novelist and game designer. His most recent novel titles in the Forgotten Realms are The Ruby Guardian, The Sapphire Crescent, and Insurrection, the latter from the New York Times best-selling R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen series.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786934921
• ISBN-13: 978-0786934928
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming > Dungeons & Dragons

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fairly well written, but of very limited utility, August 29, 2005

By 

Jeremy Scott (Arlington VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shining South (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Supplement) (Hardcover)

I have to wonder why Wizards keeps publishing books about areas that almost no one has any interest in playing in. Shining South continues this trend. Wouldn't a book about the Old Empires, the Vilhon Reach, Chondath or the Tethyr/Amn/Calimsham region be far more interesting?

Shining South is fairly well done for what it is, but unless you plan on using Halruaa, Dambrath, or Luiren in a campaign, its not terribly useful. Dambrath is an interesting nation, run by half-drow priestesses of Loviatar, but it is so remote from the rest of Faerun, you'd have to set your campaign here to use this information.

I will also say that Wizards now provides far less detail on these new nations than the FRCS provides. There is no over-all national population breakdown and not every city receives a write-up, making the usefulness of the book even more questionable.

In summary, the book reads well, but its of almost no utility to the general FR player or DM.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shining South worth buying, January 30, 2005

By 

Todd A. Vanevenhoven "leo54304" (green bay WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shining South (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Supplement) (Hardcover)

Beautifully drawn, mapped and written this is a fine addition to the sourcebooks on Faerun. The lands and peoples are a mix of mages, 1/2 drow, corsairs, halflings, thri keen, dwarves, elves (both civliized and wild) and a new race:the Loxo (basically bi-pedal elephants). The lands range from mtns, african savannahs, heavy woods, swamps, waste lands and a warm ocean. Their are ancient civilizations and sites that hide secrets and threats from the past, beast chieftains who control towns and cities along trade routes, hordes of gnollish tribes, yuan ti in neighboring jungles and a lizard king in a huge swamp kingdom to test PCs. Want to go chaotic? Play a 1/2 drow shadow marauder, loooking new type mage to play? how about Haluraan elder or magehound? New warriors include the Maquar Crusader, Drift Defender and the halfling Marchwarden. Pirate towns, mage cities, elven and halfling communites are mapped out nicely in the book. Their are plenty of new spells and monsters as well. This is a very nice looking and written book worth picking up and I highly recommend it

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, April 30, 2007

By 

Simon Withers (Upstate NY , NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shining South (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Supplement) (Hardcover)

This book is excellent. It gives you all the information you need to flesh out a campaign set in the Shining South.
There is the usual classes, feats, spells, adventures etc. All at least to a reasonable standard.
I found the magic item chapter very good.
There's a chapter on organisation of the south. And included encounter tables. All good.
Six Chapters on the people and lands. All terrific information . Although The Shaar and the Great Rift gets one chapter together . And the Gold Dwarves get a bit short changes. The Half drow get more coverage than the Gold dwarves! Todd Gambles maps are great, one for each chapter as well.
Wayne Englands and Carl Franks, illustrations are also terific.
If your looking for information about the Shining South, this book is full of it. And well worth the price. And certainly on of the better region books, wizards have brought out.