3.5E Dmg Manual Of The

The Magmin no longer looks like a constipated, immolated baby, and the vampires dont look like.

Its caused more flame wars in the forums than anything in recent RPGnet history, earned the undying hatred of some, and the keen anticipation of others.

Ive divided this review into three sections, one for each book.

Ive assumed you know your basics about DD3E - if you dont, its worthwhile reading a review of the original first.

Sure, minor stuff has been tinkered with elsewhere (half-elves have been mildly improved, and theyve got rid of partial actions), but its very much not the emphasis.

One of the little changes does make life slightly harder for those trying to run without miniaturescounters (diagonal movement is rather complicated), but the DMG does provide a generic dungeon map for you to use in such situations (more on that later).

Their front-heaviness has been scaled right back, and they get the option of an archery combat style rather than two-weapon fighting.

Their tracking abilities have been emphasised, as have their sneakier side.

Animal companions for druids and rangers have been completely reworked (a 20th level druid can no longer be accompanied by 80 cats) - they now only receive one companion who improves in ability like a wizards familiar (although they can trade them in every so often for a better model).

Rogues and Barbarians have become slightly better at avoiding traps, and Bards and Sorcerers can lose a spell every time they get a new level of spells in favour of a new one of the same level (so sleep and summon monster are a lot more realistic choices).

Monks unarmed attacks have also been reworked, making them much more streamlined.

A lot of new feats have been added, although most of them are 2 to two skills.

A few new skills have been added, and a couple of old ones have been dropped - nothing earth-shattering.

A lot of the old unbalanced spells have been altered (harm does 10 damagelevel and allows a save, for example), and all the stat boost spells give you a straight 4 bonus.

All of the lesser and greater spells have been listed underneath their normal counterpart, and mass spells have been introduced.

There really isnt any new artwork for the PHB (although the diagrams are done with top-down photos of the new DD miniatures), which some will find disappointing.

3.5E Dmg Manual Of The

If you have the Manual of the Planes or the Epic Level Handbook, expect to feel dj vu in a serious way.

Mostly, the new material consists of stuff culled from supplements and a new picture of ioun stones (which in no way makes up for the dozens of other magic item pictures they dropped).

Unless you have money to burn, are out for a sake of completeness or are really desperate to play a Mystic Theurge (one of the rare new Prestige Classes in the book), I really wouldnt bother with it (assuming youve got a copy of the 3.0 version, of course).

And, of course, theyve shuffled the contents page, so dont expect to find anything where it was before.

Even if you dont plan on fully converting to 3.5, I heartily endorse buying this book.

It trumps the old Monster Manual in about every way possible.

My only problem with it is a desire to call it Monster Manual I II.