Customer Reviews

Underdark: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement

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I have to say that this is one of the better DM-only fluff books to come out of 4e. It concentrates heavily on the movers and shakers of the Underdark, including kuo-toa, aboleths, beholders, mind flayers and drow. It delves into the monster and societies of the Shadowdark and Feydark and offers enough strong plot hooks to fill several campaigns. The writing is clear and crisp and the new monsters are fun (and the stats can be found on the DDI). I was wondering at first how this book would differ from all the other 3rd edition books on the same subject, but it treads quite a bit of new ground and is just fun to read. Thumbs up.

Underdark, like most D&D 4th Edition books, is well-crafted and tightly written, with excellent production values and superb graphic design. The contents of the book include chapters on the general features of underground exploration, the Shallows (the upper parts of the underdark), the Deeps, the Shadowdark and the Feydark, plus an appendix of new monsters.

The Underdark has been detailed in many previous D&D supplements before, of course, but here we see the classic underground themes being forcefully shoe-horned into the rather odd cosmology of 4th Edition, with a heretofore unknown god called Torog becoming the centre of the whole demesne, for some unknown reason. Lolth is still present, but the entire metaphysical and physical structure of the Underdark now revolves around a new god of imprisonment and torture. Even the terrain features, such as godsblood, the King's Highway and godstone, are from Torog. The writers tie the Far Realm ever more strongly to the Mind Flayers, Aboleths and deeps of the Underdark, which works well but runs the risk of repetition.

The sections on the Shadowdark (a name so ridiculous is should have been laughed out of the design stage) and the Feydark are rather thin and make the superficial separation of these realms rather pointless. Still, DMs are free to construct the geography of the Underdark on their own, as there are no maps of the whole place as there were in the excellent 3.5E version of the Underdark.

Large chunks of the book are devoted to mini-adventures (dungeon delves) which are finely-tuned and well constructed...if you like tactical miniatures skirmishes. Which I don't, but I won't fault the game here because that's an intentional design choice in 4E. Details about the locations in the underdark are fairly thin, and won't satisfy DMs who like a lot of NPC and location details. The city of Erelhei-Cinlu is given a decent amount of space, but most other locations are very thin gruel indeed, though evocative thanks to the good use of nice artwork.

The monsters section has some good details on dark stalkers and the Incunabula (Vecna-worshipping hunters of secrets), but most other monsters are fairly bland.

Overall, this is a poor cousin to the fantastic 3.5E version, but a good intro for beginners. If you want much more meat for your campaign design, the 3.5E version is a much better choice.

Many people have taken issue with the 4th edition of D and D; however, I am having a fantastic time with it. This supplement is a wonderful complement to the edition as far as I'm concerned. Those that take issue with the current incarantion of the game should simply keep playing their favorite edition. A fine supplement for those who like this edition!