Review: Player’s Handbook 2

The Player’s Handbook 2 has been out for a week or so now, with sneak previews running about a week before that in several roleplaying blogs, but I’ve got some musings about where it takes the game.  Before that, though, I offer my brief review:  It’s partly silly and mostly good.  Here’s a more specific rundown:

It’s got 5 new races, 8 new classes, and a bunch of new feats, magic items, rituals, and epic destinies.  (It’s also got a couple pages of errata, notably the new Stealth rules, but that’s not really the focus here.)  The classes include two divine, two arcane, and four primal, and, at least at first read, seem to compare reasonably to those in the first PHB, being neither too much stronger nor too much weaker in general.  The races are a mixed bag.  The content as a whole is a mix of new material and updated versions of old favorites.

The Good

• Gnomes. They’re very different now, having been redesigned to better fit the “fey trickster” archetype.  They’re not traditional, but I like the change.  For the first time, the race doesn’t feel like an afterthought to me.  That said, I still don’t think I’d care to play one.
• Half-orcs. Still strong, but no longer (necessarily) stupid — in fact, the book suggests that half-orcs often become leaders among orc tribes because of their cunning.  This is the half-orc I always wanted to see:  no longer a subpar option, but still retaining all of the possibilities of the older versions.
• Devas. A new race of former immortals who have taken on fleshly bodies and are now subject to a cycle of reincarnation.  While they’re not a race that will fit in every setting, their concept is very cool.  Also, they fit the bill for a “mental”-focused race, with bonuses to Intelligence and Wisdom.
• Avengers. They’re the divine strikers, and they’re an order of religious assassins who smite in the name of their god.  They feel different than any of the previous strikers, and they’re also made of 100% pure awesome.  I was in the process of developing a “bright pact” for Warlocks based on a pact with celestial beings; I think I can simply use Avengers instead.  I love this class.
• Bards. They’re useful now!  And deadly too.  The music thing is still a bit daft, but with the right character concept, it will work.  I can now build the skald-influenced character I always wanted my bards to be in previous editions, which the mechanics never quite managed to support:  the battle-hardened warrior who strides fearlessly into battle, singing a war-chant in time to the falling blows of his battleaxe, heartening his allies even as he hacks apart his foes.  Okay, it still won’t do a whole lot of direct damage on its own, but its versatility means that I can pick up a heavy-hitting encounter or daily power from a more martial class… or several more martial classes.
• Invokers. Divine controllers.  It’s hard to put into words the appeal here, since it sounds a lot like a rehash of the wizard, but that’s not at all the case.  Invokers feel different, and they’ve got the whole “wrath of the gods” thing going for them, what with the calling down of sacred flame and all.  The Divine power source really came off well in this book.
• Druids. An old favorite returns, and they manage to be both ranged spellcasters and melee animal-form shapeshifters.  It’s a pretty elegant take, and the wild shape power makes them feel qutie unique.

The Bad

• Shamans. This new leader class seems lackluster to me.  I think it’s because I don’t care for the summoned spirit mechanic.  They do seem capable of fulfilling the role of a leader, but the class just strikes me as equal parts bland and fiddly.  Fortunately, I find Clerics can cover the shaman concept well.  I suppose if one of my players really wanted to play a Shaman, I’d allow it; they just don’t inspire me.
• Some of the feats seem like they really should have been in Martial Power.  Like Speed Loader, which allows you to reload a crossbow as a free action.  There’s also the Implement/Weapon Expertise controversy, but I have nothing new to add there.
• The index. It at least exists, which is an improvement over some of the 4e books.  But it’s not even half a page long, and it seems like half of that is categories of backgrounds.  C’mon, Wizards, is a real index too much to ask?
• The page count. Shorter than the PHB1, but the same price.  Not a trend I like, though I do think the book was still worth it, on the whole.

The Ugly

• Goliaths. They’re a lot like half-orcs, but their flavor seems awfully limited.  While they do serve the “big bruiser” concepts, the race itself is pretty uninspiring, in my opinion.  I would have preferred to see the minotaur, or perhaps an update on the 1e half-ogre.  They’re not really bad, per se, but was anyone really clamoring for them?
• Shifters. I actually like this race; my main issue with them is that they’re basically identical to their presentation in the Monster Manual.  I can’t help feeling they’re a little weaker and less developed than the other races.  This might simply be bias on my part, though.  Also, I don’t like the race’s name.  Shifters?  Meh.  The concept of a lycanthropy-touched race is quite a good one, though, and I’ll be using Shifters or something very like them in my game.
• Character backgrounds. Little mechanical bonuses that can be given out according to a character’s background, like a minor bonus to a skill or the addition of a skill to a character’s class skill list.  This isn’t completely new — Forgotten Realms offered regional bonuses of a similar, but more powerful, nature.  And I don’t even object to the idea in theory; I’ve often awarded this sort of bonus for a good background.  What I don’t like is encoding those bonuses in official form, such that a player might hunt through backgrounds to find a particular benefit that he’d like to have… or, for that matter, that a player might expect to be given such a benefit in exchange for developing his character.  I think this section is good if it’s used as an example and a guideline for the gamemaster… but I think maybe it would be better placed in the DMG2, rather than the PHB2.  Still, it won’t be an issue for an experienced GM.
• No rules reprint. The character generation, equipment, and combat rules from the PHB are absent here.  On one hand, this means no redundant sections to wade through if you have the PHB.  On the other hand, it means you can’t just use the PHB2 alone — it doesn’t have some of the rules you’ll need in order to make a character.  Taking the shorter page count into consideration… I’m left with the feeling that Wizards could have reprinted those rules and made this a stand-alone book like (and of about the same length as) the PHB, but they chose not to do so.  Now, I’m not saying this was a profitmongering decision — there’s still plenty of other stuff in the PHB that a group might still want, and furthermore, I can think of a few good reasons not to reprint large blocks of rules.  (Among them, there would no doubt be complaints from some about “paying twice for the same rules” or the like.)  However, I’m still somewhat disappointed.

The Verdict

I was really looking forward to the PHB2.  I don’t think my hopes entirely came to fruition, but I’m still pretty happy with the book.  There are a couple of things that blew me away that are, to me, worth the price of admission; aside from those, there’s a good variety of solid work here, things I wouldn’t mind using and that add options to my game.  There are a couple of things I’m not happy with, and that I’d probably not use, but, while my ideal is of course a product containing no such material, I can hardly expect everything to be perfect for my tastes.  I have to give a lot of leeway to any product that contains things as awesome as the Avenger or the new half-orc.

If you play fourth edition, there’s a lot to like here.  I don’t think this book is as strong as the first PHB, but some of that is admittedly a taste issue.  There are a few things that the designers really nailed, though, and a lot of things that, while not knock-me-off-my-feet outstanding, are adequate and useful additions to the game.  (The Barbarian class is one of these, for me — it’s not a must-have, but it’s a pleasing and basically-positive take on what has historically been a somewhat troublesome class.)

On first readthrough, I’d give it an 8/10, putting it on-par with Martial Power.  While I think that book contained more consistently-good material than the PHB2, it’s also true that the PHB2 offers a greater number and variety of new options, so a direct comparison is not necessarily helpful.  I think the PHB2 contains more hits than misses, and the general quality level of the book is pretty high even given those misses.

The PHB2 is 224 pages and priced at $34.95 list.  Amazon is offering it for $20.97, which I think is reasonable.

Related posts:

1. Review: Arcane Power
2. Player’s Handbook: Chapter 2
3. Review: Martial Power
4. Review: Divine Power
5. Review: Manual of the Planes