Player's Handbook 2: A 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook (Bk.2)
by Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt
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Book Summary Information
Author: James Wyatt, Jeremy Crawford, Mike MearlsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03-17
ISBN: 0786950161
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780786950164
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Player's Handbook 2: A 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook (Bk.2)
Book Review: Good for the system, still bad for D&D
Summary: 3 Stars
This book is a hard one to review. On the one hand, all of the bits are technically pretty well-balanced and add a lot of options to D&D 4th edition. On the other hand, most everything presented here still ruins the flavor of D&D as most have known it.
The bits: Presented are 5 new races that blend fairly well with the basic onces- keep in mind the basic book includes Dragonborn and feytouched Eladrin and demonic Tieflings, so there's a lot of far-out flexibility there. There's several new Classes presented that are all mostly solid. Of special note is the Sorceror which has both proven popular with power gamers for being very friendly to "min-maxing" (or using the rules to the utmost to create the most powerful character), while not completely breaking the game. There's also a smattering of feats and items, although most of what's presented is locked to the new races and classes. If you made your character in the first handbook and you're just looking for options, you'll really only find a handful per section that you can use. the book is Wizards' usual quality, complete with a host of errors that already have a free PDF online to help you correct.
The mechanics: Big portions of this book sadly fall into the category of making certain classes almost entirely locked to certain races, and vice versa. Half-Orcs and the Barbarian class are obviously made for each other. The Sorceror class, with heaps of mentions of "Dragon" and "Draconic" per page, obviously lends itself to the Dragonborn. The Avenger and the Devas were obviously developed together as well (you can use Intelligence to swing a Greatsword?). There's some flexibility there, but you're left with a strong impression that you can't really break the mold in this game, especially with multiclassic essentially gone.
The flavor: 4th edition chose to focus on a more "wild" and "chaotic" feel, moving away from the musty old tomes and cloistered cities that once defined the series. This book takes that to the extreme, with all of the races but one being of a wild and wandering nature. Half-Orcs live in tribes and may blend into cities. Gnomes are a slave race with no home. Goliaths are mountain-men. Shifters are partial were-animals. And then you have celestial Devas, who are incredibly civilized heavenly beings? The art and the flavor for devas is very cool, but things just don't come together on that one. You wind up getting the impression that the flavor followed behind the form on this one. The book needed a race that could min-max for magical Classes (and swing a sword with their IQ), just as well as Goliaths match fighting, and hence the Devas came about. The only thing missing is a class that can cast magic using their physical Strength, right? Well hold on, because Sorcerors can actually do that. No longer does your muscle-bound, melee-loving brute of a character need to be burdened by a lack of spellcasting. See the comment about min-maxing.
The money: PHB2 is also an exercise in getting you to pay a lot of money for something you shouldn't have had to. Half-Orcs made it into the basic book for 3.X Edition, and they should still be in now. Bards should also be in the basic book, having been staples of the game since its very early days. Virtually every gaming group I know has had to get PHBII to recover these missing options, which is great for Wizards' pocketbooks, but causes players to spend more money and have to and look across two books where there should be one.
If you haven't gotten into this 4th Edition yet, or if you're on the fence about whether or not you like the base system, I can say this probably won't do much to help your fears. Despite the new options, this book actually makes your lack of options (in terms of character growth and power builds) under the new system much more evident. The book also strongly enforces the change in flavor of the game- which very frankly is a modified Eberron (from the recent Last War to the more wild flavor, and so forth).
So overall, the question of whether or not you're going to like this book is largely based on whether you really like the changes in 4th edition as a whole, and whether you're already invested in the system. There's plenty of good options here if you're already playing the 4e game, and in fact it's pretty much necessary considering core Races and Classes are contained herein.
Summary of Player's Handbook 2: A 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook (Bk.2)
New classes, races, and other options for your D&D(R) game.This book builds on the array of classes and races presented in the first Player's Handbook(R), adding both old favorites and new, never-before-seen options to the game.
The book adds a new power source for 4th Edition D&D; classes using the new primal power source include the barbarian and the druid.
Player's Handbook 2 expands the range of options available to D&D players with new classes, races, powers, and other material.
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