Here it is! Want to hear Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford give an exclusive pre-release interview about Player's Handbook 2?
Wizards invited Rone (my co-host on Atomic Array) and I up to WotC HQ last week. We grabbed a couple copies of PHB2 and sat down with the designers to riff about what's inside.
Have a Listen: Player's Handbook 2 (Atomic Array 018)
Wizards also gave me a dozen copies of the book to share with some of my favorite bloggers. I asked each one to write an article about one of the new character classes:
* Critical Hits: The Avenger
* Campaign Mastery: The Barbarian
* Uncle Bear: The Bard
* Critical Ankle Bites: The Druid
* The Core Mechanic: The Invoker
* Flames Rising: The Shaman
* Stupid Ranger: The Sorcerer
* Musings of the Chatty DM: The Warden
Oh, and you can read a full-on review of Player's Handbook 2 on Game Cryer: LINK
Two more... and I'm done. I promise...
Gnome Stew: A Veteran GM’s Take on GMing and the PHB2
Kobold Quarterly: Review: Player’s Handbook 2
I'm really enjoying reading through these - although it looks to me like the guy who was assigned the Barbarian didn't even bother to read his assignment.
Seriously.
I'm really enjoying reading through these - although it looks to me like the guy who was assigned the Barbarian didn't even bother to read his assignment.
Seriously.
If I may, conversely, which blog did you find most helpful, entertaining, or compelling? Just curious. :)
Hmm, do I want a PHB2? I just can't decide.
If you like 4e, I think you'll find a lot of interesting stuff in PHB2. My favorite is the Deva - my favorite Planescape adventure heavily featured them and I've always wanted to run a deva-centric campaign.
... and a bladeling one, too, but that's another story for another time.
I'm really enjoying reading through these...
Cool. If Wizards asks us to do another preview for MM2, I'm sure we'll say yes. Who doesn't like more monsters?
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Hmm, do I want a PHB2? I just can't decide.If you like 4e, I think you'll find a lot of interesting stuff in PHB2.
The hardest part for me is that so far, I've only DM'd it (twice so far, but I've liked what I've seen, at least from a single-session point of view - I'm not sure if I'd want to run a campaign with it). And DMs don't really need it unless they plan to introduce a critter that uses the abilities.
But I'm still curious what's in there.
DMs don't really need it unless they plan to introduce a critter that uses the abilities.
Yep. That's one of the things I like about it. If you don't want a shaman or a deva or... you don't need the book. Kind-of refreshing.
If I may, conversely, which blog did you find most helpful, entertaining, or compelling? Just curious. :)
Sorry, I just ran across this thread again...
And you've asked a hard question, actually. I don't know that I can pick out any favorites.
The for-GMs article was quite interesting, and I appreciated his comments about power creep (i.e. that there isn't any) and the useful, not-cringeworthy Rules Appendix.
(Wolfgang Baur's "review" was not so useful, actually. Frankly, a lot of his reactions seemed much more heavily flavored by his emotional reaction to word choice rather than by anything that might be called an objective standard. He gave me the strong impression that he hasn't actually played 4E much - this is based on his mistaken impression that half-orcs should make better barbarians just because they have an "offensive racial power" and also on his gnome/invisibility comments, and I emphasize it's just the impression I was left with.)
I was looking for, and excited to find, crunchy bits in several of the posts (e.g. Druid, Invoker, Warden), but I also really enjoyed the fact that all seven of them did a good job of presenting the feel of the class (still excluding the Barbarian post, here). Even those that didn't provide specific crunch (Avenger, Bard, Shaman, Sorcerer) did an excellent job of providing a good cross-section of information - concept and flavor of the class, hints of some specific powers, a quick run-down of the paragon paths, and how the flavor text adds to the experience (Shaman article, I'm looking at you).
The Invoker write-up did the best job of creating enthusiasm - that is, our gaming group had shown no real interest in the Invoker prior to reading these articles, and now several of them are particularly interested in it. (No comment regarding whether that's more because of the class itself, the described Tomb of Magrym power, or just the repeated use of the term "Bad-Ass.")
And based on the number of times I heard people repeat it as our gaming group read the printouts of these, the Avenger had the best tag-line: "Batman is a Divine Striker!"
The hardest part for me is that so far, I've only DM'd it (twice so far, but I've liked what I've seen, at least from a single-session point of view - I'm not sure if I'd want to run a campaign with it). And DMs don't really need it unless they plan to introduce a critter that uses the abilities.
Actually, I frequently find myself flipping through pages of class powers looking for inspiration when I'm designing new creatures, plus I tend to make a fair number of NPCs for my campaign. So I find the player-based books to be fairly essential as a DM.
Sorry, I just ran across this thread again...And you've asked a hard question, actually. I don't know that I can pick out any favorites....
Thank you for taking the time to craft such an enormously informative reply, CB. Much appreciated!