Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook 2 Previews

Several hands-on previews of Wizards of the Coast’s soon-to-be-released Player’s Handbook 2 for Dungeons & Dragons hit the web over this past week. While this news isn’t video game-related, the new content and classes introduced in the book could certainly affect the next D&D-licensed PC or console game we play.

The first is at Musings of the Chatty DM:

Some of the class features of the Warden will call out to players who want to be on the front lines and dislike D&D’s status effects like Ongoing damage and Immobilization. As such with Font of Life, the Warden is allowed to roll saving throws both at the start AND at the end of the turn. That means that if you would be stunned for your turn, you get to roll a save and if it’s successful you brush off the effect and play your turn normally.

I know my friend Yan, who plays a Fighter in our current game would love that!

Each Warden must choose among two types of connection to the natural world. As with many other classes, this gives you some mechanical power or advantage and will modify certain powers. In the case of the character I created, I chose Earthstrength. This allows me to use Constitution instead of Dex to determine bonus to AC and gives me a short boost to AC whenever I use Second Wind.

The second is at Kobold Quarterly:

First order of business is the races and their Paragon paths. These are a mixed bag.

It’s hard to say with complete confidence until they hit the table, but the first impression is that these races were put in Player’s Handbook #2 for a reason. Half of these races are on the fringe of fantasy. Races of Stone might be fine as an optional splatbook, but goliaths are sort of the D&D equivalent of the wookie. That is, they are great in small doses, but boring on prolonged exposure.

In fact, the goliaths are a dud compared to, say, the 1E and 2E half-ogre, which had an identical role without the constricting stone/mountain background. To top it off, the art doesn’t match the description, and making them big and dumb and stony doesn’t seem to improve on (I’m a big, dumb half-ogre). The wookie role was a pretty narrow specialty even in the 1E and 2E days. It hasn’t changed.

The third is at Gnome Stew:

The PHB 2 demonstrates the strength of the role system. Before I dive into the classes themselves, let’s talk roles for a moment. I was originally pretty neutral on the role concept. I could see the value for building a balanced party, but I didn’t think it was a system I’d give much thought to down the road. Enter the PHB 2 with this book, the role system really shines.

For one thing, there are now 16 core classes, plus some variations (the ones found in Martial Power, and soon more in Arcane Power and beyond) and campaign-specific classes (from the Forgotten Realms). By flagging each class with a role, it’s easy to break them down in terms of what you want to play.

And the fourth is at UncleBear:

Creating a Bard offers two options. The Cunning Bard is more of a trickster, relying on stealth and deception and ranged attacks. The Valorous Bard is an inspirational, sword-wielding close combat specialist, almost Paladin-like, literally leading others into battle with rousing speeches. They’re both neat twists on the class, showing the versatility of how a Bard could be played. To further demonstrate this, there are four Paragon Paths. The Student of the Seven path follows mythic muses and revels in all forms of knowledge, going back to that jack-of-all-trades shtick again. The Summer Rhymer follows Tiandra, Summer Queen of the Fey, and focus on beauty and fey-touched abilities. The Voice of Thunder path uses the Bard’s voice as a force of nature, booming, intimidating, fearsome and destructive. The War Chanter path is almost priest-like in its role to inspire the troops with music and oratory.

Overall, I like the new Bard. It captures the potential the class has always had in previous editions but never quite lived up to. I look forward to the opportunity to play one in the future.