Manual of the Planes (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Bruce R. Cordell (Author), (Author) "This book is about elsewhere..." (more)
Key Phrases: Material Plane, Plane of Shadow, Astral Plane (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Visit New Dimensions

The most powerful adventurers know that great rewards--and great perils--await them beyond the world they call home. From the depths of Hell to the heights of Mount Celestia, from the clockwork world of Mechanus to the swirling chaos of Limbo, these strange and terrifying dimensions provide new challenges to adventurers who travel there. Manual of the Planes is your guidebook on a tour of the multiverse.

This supplement for the D&D game provides everything you need to know before you visit other planes of existence. Included are new prestige classes, spells, monsters, and magic items. Along with descriptions of dozens of new dimensions, Manual of the Planes includes rules for creating your own planes.

To use this supplement, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual. A player needs only the Player's Handbook.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786918500
• ISBN-13: 978-0786918508
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond your wildest (plane of) Dreams, September 7, 2001

By	Brian K. Eason (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Excepting the reasonably priced three core books (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual), I have been rather critical of WOTC's high prices for medium level product.
No more.
The Manual of the Planes is everything promised and more.
This hardback contains:
*Detailed descriptions of the Planes of the traditional D&D cosmology
*Rules for constructing your own Cosmology
*Denizens of the Planes
*Rules for creating Outsider PCs
*Templates for creating Planer creatures (beyond celestial and Fiends)
*Four EXCELLENT Prestige classes
And a LOT more.
Gone on the insultingly vapid Modrons... now we have Axiomatic (read: Perfect) creatures and the Inevitables (Robotic Creatures of law seeking justic)...
Slaad Mutations are fully deatiled...
The book just keeps getting better
And the artwork is amazing.
If you were a fan of Planescape, here is your 3rd edition jumping off point...
And for those of you that we Spelljammer fans... check out the Mercane... and grin.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Best!, September 13, 2001

By	"kurst" (Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo Brazil) - See all my reviews

The new Manual of the Planes really kicks butt. With a enormous amount of cool stuff both new and old (updated for 3E), this is the best D&D book since the 3rd edition's arrival.

First of all, WotC has not thrown the old cosmology in the trash bin. Quite the contrary, the updated core cosmology makes much more sense than the older versions, is crammed with nice new ideas, and is presented in such way that even Planescape old fans like me get a refreshing new look at the planes.

Second, the planes now are manageable. Before this MotP incarnation, the magic rules were really impossible to use. Now the planes are defined in easy, rational terms, with physical, spacial and magical traits that quickly and efortlessly sum up the main characteristics of any given plane. You can better convey the otherworldly nature of the planes to your players, but with much less effort and less book-keeping. Better yet, the planar traits mechanics is intuitive, allowing you to wing it easily if needed, with little or no preparation time.

The Prestige Classes and spells are good too, but I think the best touch of all are the tools for building new cosmologies. Total freedom at least, without throwing away the good old Great Wheel! A dream come true, really!

Overall, I was absolutely impressed by the new Manual of the Planes. All DMs should purchase it, even those who do not use the planes, because the amount of goodness in this book can bring new blood to any campaign.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the DM's best books to have..., December 13, 2001

By	Brad Smith (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Really.

I borrowed my Birthright DM's copy, since, well, I'm not DMing, don't plan on doing so anytime soon, and had no need to purchase it...but it'd still be interesting, I figured.

I found a detailed guide to the default D&D cosmology, suggestions on alternate cosmologies, decent prestige classes, new monsters and monster types, new spells, and...a write-up of every single plane in the standard cosmology...even alternate material planes!

Note that this book is really only of use to DMs, not players. There's not enough there for you to justify the expense. But for DMs...oh, yes.

You have three basic types of non-material planes: Transitive, Inner, and Outer. Transitive planes are those whose main purpose is to get you from one plane to another...such as the Astral, Ethereal, and (new to this book) Shadow. Inner planes are the elemental planes...fire, water, earth, air, plus the paraelemental planes (where the infinite planes meet), as well as the positive and negative energy planes. And, finally, there are the outer planes...where the celestials and fiends and other outsiders live.

Each plane has a standard format, discussing specific characteristics of that plane and any special effects (like the 3d10 points of fire damage/round an unprotected person receives on the Elemental Plane of Fire). There are also non-standard planes included as options, such as Faerie, the Elemental Plane of Wood, and the Far Realms (where multi-tentacled insanity-causing monstrosities dwell).

Creatures range from new celestials to new fiends, including a new (to 3e, anyway) category, the yugoloths. There are also new templates...half-elementals, axiomatic and anarchic creatures, etc. There are also non-psionic versions of the githyanki and githzerai...some people might not like buying two versions, but not everybody uses psionics.

The book is of uniformly high quality...the art is great, the writing is great, and it all just *works*. I can't think of anything bad about this book. If you're planning on running a D&D 3e game and it might involve the planes, you owe it to yourself to get this book.