So, I got my hands on the new book, and I'm slowly reading through it, and I just thought I'd write down my impressions as I go along in a kind of review of the book just to talk about it.
I Preface and Cover
One of the most interesting things about any new gaming book are the cover, the obligatory opening fiction, and an overview of everything that's in the book. For the cover, we get a giant picture of a wizard messing around with giant clockwork machinery and symbols of the Outer Planes - very Mechanius of him. A bit odd for someone supposed to be about Balance, and what turns out to be a book with only the tiniest bit of info about the planes and balance and mostly about PC races and monsters, but you can't deny that the regular cover is still a very well done piece and beautifully executed.
Immediately inside, we see the Contents - the book is divided into two parts and six chapters. The first five chapters look like they take up only one third the book, and, at first glance, seem to be all about the core PC races. The Blood War is all about fiends and tieflings - its hard to talk about the latter without the former, while then we just go right into elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes and then the new gith. Conspicuous in its absence are dragons and the dragonborn - the metalic versus chromatic dragon struggle is an iconic battle. Perhaps that will be in a different book, much like orcs got details in Volo's. Maybe we'll get Ashardalon's Book of Kaiju at some point, with dragons in it. After that? The rest of the book is dominated by a giant list of monsters, giving the feeling of a Monster Manual III. A brief glance makes me feel like we're just getting a grab bag here, save for some obvious ones like more Drow and Draugr enemies.
Unlike, say, the World of Darkness books, which start with several pages of story, we just have a very quick blurb about a yugoloth talking about war in the planes, and questioning if the eternal war is actually good for anyone instead of peace. A curious insight from an evil mercenary, followed by a rebuttal from a wizard. Its actually something I found quite amusing and thought provoking. Be sure to not skip it!
Ah, now we get into the first and foremost of conflicts, the most famous of them all, the Blood War. In here, we're given an overview of the Nine Hells and the Abyss, the big players, and the overall flow of the war. Now, this chapter surprised me for two reasons. One, after my impression of the first five chapters being so PC race heavy, there's a lack of tiefling talk outside of introducing new subraces. Just a mistaken impression on my part, I suppose. Secondly? Well, another mistaken impression on my part, I suppose - I'm a huge tiefling fan, and I've played tieflings from early Planescape days, through 3e and 4e, and I've done the tiefling warlock thing in 5e as well. I'm familiar with the different fiends for quite a bit now, and there's a surprising number of details that are different from what I remember. Oh, the broad strokes are still there, but changes here and there still caught me off guard. They're good changes, mind you. I loved this chapter, but for those with previous experience of the Hells and Abyss?
So, the chapter opens up talking about the War, and how it happens. The battle fields and the basic techniques each use. There was definitely a lot of playing up of stylistic differences between the lawful devils being highly regimented, and the demons just being chaotic hoards barely leashed together by their lords. The majority of battles seem to happen in the Abyss and Hells themselves, with the Hells actually seeming to favor defensive formations and fighting in Hell, rather than offensive. Even though they risk dying permanently in the Hells, the defensive formations, logistical support and access to magical items makes it superior, whereas you might survive dying in a different plane but lose all your advantages as well as shiny magic items. I actually found it to be rather enlightening in a way, giving insight into how to use devils to fight in my game. A lot of the early chapter talks in brief about how both use cults and spies, with only a pair of sidebars mentioning yugoloths (usually as guides to get devils and demons to the opposite planes). For the most part, there's definitely the impression that devils rely more on allies and mortals more than the abyss - the demons just kind of spew forth in numbers and don't need souls or followers, whereas devils do. They're there, but almost as an afterthought to the demons.
There's a bit here about Balance, and needing to keep the two forces in check, which is understandable if we just consider the Blood War. No real mention of why Good v. Evil needs to be kept in check for Balance, just that they keep the Good out of the war. The implication here is that Balance (the True Neutral perspective) just works to keep the Blood War churning for the good of all. Kind of like how the USA justifies sending money to support foreign wars, I suppose. Now, based on previous edition information, that's probably because the Abyss is basically the embodiment of entropy and constantly creates more legions to fight and devour everything - it literally wants to eat everything. So, going by this, the entire balance of the nine alignments is centered around the stopping the Abyss. Or not, since it'd be odd to talk about other things in a chapter about Blood War.
Next, we start jumping into primers about how the devils think and act. If you wanted a primer for what the Hells are, some brief history, what the mindset is, and what everything does, this is it. There's not a lot of information about the different layers in details, but the who's who? Story hooks? That's around in plenty. One thing that I actually found rather refreshing compared to previous editions? Each layer now has an official job as well as specialist in different societies. Glyssa is now not only Queen of Erinyes, but basically a prison warden as well as patroness of criminals. Mephistopheles has his layer focused on arcane research/development, and specialize in deals with wizards. Mammon is the treasurer and deals with inheritances and fallen noble types. And so on. Another change is that devils no longer have families as they did in the past. Asmodeus and his wife didn't give birth to Glyssa. Belial and Fierna aren't blood related - mortal souls and fallen Outsiders are the only way to make more devils. Adoption happens, but hints that these adopted daughters and sons are actually fallen gods, demi-gods, angels. Which hints to some rather interesting stories there. We also get a look at the brand new Zariel, the newest big name in Hells. Curiously, no mention of the Pact Primordial here, though the trial that resulted from said Pact is talked about, and we get the new origins of the Ruby Rod.
The infernal cults and tiefling subraces haven't changed that much since the UA, it seems. There's also some cambion suggestions which basically just suggests giving them the cult favorite spells. All in all, tieflings don't get a lot of mention or work here. The cults give lots of ideas for putting into a campaign - I can just imagine an underground series of cults that all do their thing together. I really wish there was more on cambions and tieflings here in the infernal section, but it is what it is. Quick table for some personality ideas for devils, always handy on the fly for ideas. On the last page of the chapter, there's also a random table for cult organization as well, which is just as handy. Kind of wish it was after the devil cults instead of demon ones, but that's just because I get the impression that devil cults are more common and widespread.
Next, we talk about the Abyss. We start off with a bit about how each of the demon lords literally reshapes the Abyss to their whims, and plans on doing the same to the rest of reality... if not for those pesky devils! And their dog too! And they can do it, too. Each demon is basically a reality warper, twisting and corrupting by their very presence, an entire page devoted to exactly how that happens. If left unchecked, a single demon could lead the entire world to be swallowed into the Abyss as a new layer. Pretty freaky stuff.
From here, we get into the cults and individual demon lords. Lots of benefits from having yourself warped around, but I don't quite get the draw here. Some are insane, some are deceived, but those who fall to the Abyss tend to be destroyed. I have trouble getting into why someone would go to a demon. All I can figure is ignorance and brainwashing here; the sterotypical cartoon-evil type of villains. As a result, I don't quite grok these the same way I did the infernal ones. Either way, I don't really have much to say, other than lots of information about the various demon lords and their followers, a lot that seems heavily inspired by what happened in Out of the Abyss. Lolth only gets a small sidebar as a demon lord herself, but she's probably going to get more depth in the elf chapter.
The pictures in this chapter are quite beautiful, if disturbing; really gets you in the mood. I love the image of the one summoner with her imp in fine clothing, looking like a tiny lawyer.
Ah, now this is what I was thinking I'd see in the last chapter. A book about the lives of elves. One thing that I really appreciated here was how the chapter touched on more than just Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. Eberron and Dragonlance are both mentioned here by name, and hints of others.
The chapter opens up with a new creation mythos for Corellon and the elven pantheon. I admit that I wasn't expecting that all the elf gods besides the big C zirself to be born from the blood spilled in that early battle with the orc god, and how the realm of Avarandor was made. Its interesting new look at things beyond the old jilted wife story of Lolth's fall. Much like the description of the Hells and Abyss being so different in 5e, this outlook of elves is different from anything I've seen in previous editions. I'm not sure how much of it is just old lore that never got much spotlight, or new, but it certainly is refreshing to read. After, we're treated to a bit of information about the life cycle of an elf, how their reverie shapes their lives. I especially like the description of the elven cycle of reincarnation and old memories. All elves are just continually reincarnated members of those original blood drops - elven population throughout the entire multiverse is static. Actually, its dropping, since elf souls can still be destroyed or taken by another god.
After a bit, we start talking about the standard elf races - not just high elves, but presumably wood, sea and possibly averial. There's no direct mention of differences between the subraces; in fact, there's a half-page that talks about why elves have so many wizards, why the love of arcane magics, and the reality shaping mithrils. I felt the curious lack of discussion of wood elves tendacies towards nature magic (either as a druid or ranger) to be a bit striking - surely that has an imprint on elven society as well! Perhaps the writers felt the next section, several pages of discussion of gods which include some nature-y types, to be enough? There's a lot of talk about how the gods here relate to aspects of elf life, which is a bit mind twist, because elf gods aren't like humans think of gods - they're revered ancestors and elders of the elven race. Imagine a ancestor totem bararian having echoes of the primal elf-gods show up. The duality of wanting to be rejoined with their god warring with the love of a mortal form is quite curious to me.
All in all, I'm quite happy with this chapter so far. There's a lot more on how to think and act like an elf, and how their culture differs from humanity's, that its kind of interesting to think of them now. Very good guide for getting into the mindset of your character, I think. I actually really like how they handled Corellon here - I used to hate that god, but now zie's actually really, really interesting. I especially love the idea the book seeded about the true nature of Corellon. Its [spoilers].
After we discuss the regular surface elves, we start touching on the drow, shadar-kai and eladrin. Mostly, these three deviants are defined primarily how they differ from the usual. I really think the eladrin could really have been fleshed out some more, I felt like it wasn't nearly enough. I don't know, maybe its because I just see these as being better high elves than actual high elves, and I'm really into them being a thing? These feel more like elven nobility, flushed with the innate wild magic that high elves only wish they had (see that aforementioned wizardry section), an ancient culture that's still around, and fully of whimsy that regular elves are (according to the chapter) refraining from showing. Meanwhile, the Shadar-kai section mostly gets a giant block to talk about the myth behind the Raven Queen, and what she is up to. Much like the drow, the shadar-kai are defined by their closely present goddess, and go out primarily to serve the will of said goddess. If the eladrin embody the passion and magic of the elves, then the shadar-kai represent the long memories of the elven race. Their very lives are defined by the need to collect memories - not just their past memories, but any and all memories in service of their Queen. If you need the wisdom of a long view of history, the shadar-kai are the ones best suited for it.
A bit out of order, perhaps, but now its time to talk about the drow. We hear the normal discussion about how Lolth dominates the society, they're cruel and predatory, and twisted by the Underdark. On a quick side note, I also have to wonder if all those specialized Lolth-only yochlol demons infect the mind of the drow as well (see blood war chapter), but its not mentioned here. Of course, who needs to, when you're raised that way from childhood? One thing here that I find stands out compared to any previous drow write up I've seen. First? There's the discussion of lower ranked drow. Almost any depiction of the dark elves almost invariably focuses on the stronger houses, and their priestesses. What life is like at the top. Sure, that's mentioned here, but there's just as much talk about how lower ranks are little better than slaves themselves. That's a detail that most don't consider, I find, and provides a different look. Everything here is touched on in brief before we dive into the Dark Seldarine. And that's where we get quite a bit of difference - all these other gods exist, who often do their best to sneak around Lolth's webs of control, representing an underbelly of anti-spider resistance. Eilistraee also finally gets a small soundbite, though more on how she lures drow away from Lolth than discussion on her enclaves. Only about seven pages of material, but it hits a lot of areas for that amount. Vulkoor of Eberron also gets a shout out here in the list of drow deities, and a side bar talks a bit about dark elf exiles on Krynn.
Another interesting bit about the drow that comes up is how they're severed from the usual cycle of reincarnation and memories. No one really knows what's up with their souls - are they new? Old ones devoured of memories and power, like devils supposedly do? Does that make them a different species from elves? Or are they the only actual species of elf, given that others are just the same people over and over instead of any true reproduction? Well, that's the same question everyone has about half-elves.
Once again, we open with an origin story. Curiously, this isn't the origins of the race - that gets nothing more than an offhand mention of Moradin forging them. No, this is the origin of the Duergar. Two things I walked away from this story with. Apparently, the Duergar god Laduguer was the dwarf that led the anti-mindflayer rebellion, rather than an existing god, and that's pretty awesome of him. Also? Dwarves are kind of jerks. Really, dwarves? The duergar slavery lasted generations and you're going to blame the great-grandchildren for the mind-controlled sins of people that had their brains eaten? Talk about victim blaming here. Right off the bat, with discussions about how much dwarves love stability and things not changing, I kind of get the impression that dwarves kicked the duergar to the curb because they were altered. They came back different, no longer the perfection that Moradin made them as. All the blaming of abandoned temples and supposed signs from long ago were just excuses. Or maybe I'm projecting racism in a race war. Go figure. The opening myth ends with a note that both groups are usually too busy to do more than send the occasional raiding party at each other, mostly just killing and stealing from each other, before we move on to talking about dwarves.
So, regular dwarves are talked about here to start with, though a brief section highlights some dwarves in Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and Dragonlance; unlike the elves, we get to hear about some differences between subraces, depending on the world. Mainly, one is more open-minded and explores more than the other. There's a lot of talk about the focus on clan, crafting, and the stronghold being central to everything a dwarf is, along with greed. Overall, dwarves come off as very insular and untrusting of the world around them, probably because of what we find out in the next section. Gods. Now, they have a chart with a crap ton of dwarf gods, but only talk about four - Moradin, the all-father who patronizes art, Truesilver the Matron of Home and Hearth, Silverbeard the Father of Battle, and Abbathor the Master of Greed. These four really tell you everything about dwarf culture - they're craftsmen who focus on the home above all, worry about defenses and battle, and are driven strongly by greed. A half-page is all about how dwarf greed plays into their world. Stealing is considered a darker part of dwarven heritage, as is cheating at trade, but its not only expected, but encouraged and applauded.
Lastly, we get into the enemies of dwarves - basically, dragons, orcs, and giants all want to steal their stuffs, because its so awesome. And then internal dwarf frictions, because dwarves are greedy for each other's stuff too. I get the feeling that if dwarves didn't consider everyone else's goods inferior? They'd be waging war to take everything from the other races.
Now, we get into the Duergar. Right off the bat, they're called "A Dark Reflection," but I find it odd to call it a "reflection." They're just dwarves that are fully driven by greed, rather than driven by a desire to create things. If it wasn't for that whole "don't feel emotions or happiness!" or keeping slaves bit? These guys would actually be kind of cool. Instead of being created by gods, the duergar created their own gods That's right, they made Deep Duerra and Laduguer divine instead of the other way around with regular dwarves. That's pretty cool. And they're psions. Also cool.
On a closing note, I can't help but admit that this chapter has kind of soured me on dwarves. They're not my cup of tea, and it probably came across a bit in my writing. That said, it was still well written and a great read.
Ah, now the its time for the two newest races of 5e, the githyanki and the githzerai. Once again, we start off with an origin myth of the differences between the two races - enslaved by the mind flayers (that's two!), they rebelled and broke away, then couldn't agree on what to do next. Half wanted to end up becoming tyranical beings like their rulers (happens a lot with rebellions that don't have a game plan), half thought that becoming like the mind flayers was bad. So, they fought and split up. From what I remember of the Gith during my Planescape days, this doesn't seem to have changed much. Same when the book starts talking about the githyanki cities in the Astral, their raids, and more.
Now, I made note of where I thought that elves and fiends differ from before, and dwarves... as far as I can tell, the dwarves are pretty much the same, save for a stronger emphasis on dwarven greed that I don't remember emphasized much. The Githyanki? I seem to remember most of these details. I don't think there is anything really new in this edition compared to before, so if you're familiar with the Gith from before, they seem to be the same now. That said, its not like there wasn't parts of the book that made me sit up, wide eyed with delight.
Now, what caught my eye here, more than anything? We're given descriptions of the giant airships the githyanki in pretty good detail, along with amount of passengers, as well as mapping out the districts of their main city. All the details we could possibly want for either fighting these gith directly during an attack or sneaking into their astral home and doing some damage that way. The Githyanki section is basically a template for running them as antagonists in a story, which I admit is a pretty nice set up. That's really not something we see with the drow or duergar, or even the fiends, and I much appreciate it. I overall like I can just sit down after reading this and run a quick story of just about anything Gith now. And that's awesome - there's nothing better than to sit down with a new supplement and just feel the pages oozing with story ideas you can run. I love it. I'm not sure if these particular details are new or not, but they are very sexy.
In comparison, the githzerai actually get very little details compared to their evil cousins. Three pages isn't a lot, and they hit the bare bones highlights - the githzerai live in giant floating monasteries inside Limbo, presumably navel gazing when not out for revenge or shaping more of Limbo, but we don't really get to see what their lifestyle or culture is other than the monk-ness or hints of a pseudo-religion based on the Second Coming of their anti-Gith jesus figure.
Lastly, we get to see the updated Gith race for 5e, as well as some tables for names, ideas, bonds, flaws, enounter sizes, and more. Have I mentioned I really love the amount of detail it puts in for making gith encounters easy on the DM? The races are pretty decent, though I admit to being a little tired of just adding spells once a day to a race. At least this time, they're not spells that rely on having a high spellcasting trait - if you want to dump INT as a Githyanki, its not going to hurt the spells you get from your race. Of course, they're called psionics, but they're still just racial spells.
Overally, I must say that I'm very happy with the approach taken here, in case you couldn't tell. The decadent life of the 'yanki and the austere nature of the 'zerai really ooze from the pages, and the pages just drip with story ideas. I do like the addition of the Sha'sal Khou, which makes it possible to play a non-evil githyanki, and a new dimension to the races with a bit of potential Romeo-Juliet star crossed politics going on.
For a book that's supposed to be about Foes and opposing forces, we end the first third of the game talking about two races that aren't divided into good and evil, fighting each other. Much like other chapters, we have two parts per race, and we start off with Halflings. Unlike other chapters, we don't start with an epic tale, just dive right into the nature of the races.
One of the first things that struck me reading this is the idea that halfling luck - the ability to avoid the worst of dangers - is the result of being "naturally innocent" and carefree, and Yondala watching out for them, like they were all children, to the point that Yondala is even compared to a parent. This innocent and carefree is such a part of the race that the book hints that halflings that become evil lose Yondala's blessing. We're then told that halflings are friendly to a fault, due to a guileless nature.This seems very much at odds with a race of beings that specialize in being rogues. They apparently also view the world with childlike wonder instead of fear. Now, its early on, but I'm brought to mind that old rant against the kender race description. Click at your own risks. Not saying anything but that the first page reminds me of this a bit. Moving on.
So, halfling lives seem to revolve around collecting bric a brac and telling stories as their way of keeping history alive with each item, and they love keeping hidden in plain sight while living a life of leisure. Very much going back to our roots as Bilbo, I think. Honestly, I can't help but feel we've gone back to being hobbits here. Except, instead of a group of elite Rangers killing all the monsters, we have Yondala doing the protection. It makes sense, I suppose. Halflings are inspired from hobbits, but the LotR series is a journey about growing up, something that halflings won't do as a race. The other gods also seem to take their cue from LotR a bit - Arvoreen's writeup pretty much screams "battle against Saruman." The story of Sheela Peryroyl's story mimics Samwise and using the elven gifts to regrow the Shire. Halfling adventurers tend to be like Merry and Pippin, struck by the romance of adventuring more than anything.
And that basically sums up my impression of the Halfling chapter. One part (wo)man-child, one part hobbit. Not that its bad - you can easily adapt the LotR storyline here. The halfling homes have aquired a McGuffin necessary to the plot, and its a race to get to it before people suffer. A community invaded and needs training - very Seven Samurai. I just don't feel like anything new was offered here. Though, I do have to laugh at the sidebar for "Halflings in the Multiverse." Forgotten Realms, default. Greyhawk, yep, similar. Dragonlance have Kender as Halflings. Its official. And then? Dark Sun has vicious, cynical cannibals. Eggs, bread, milk and squick.
Now, for gnomes. We start off with a small introduction that focused on gnomes being curious inventors and arcane investigators as their central racial feature. A deep fascination with learning. As expected of a wizard race, I suppose. Then, we split the remainder of the chapter into Rock, Forest and Deep Gnome parts, followed by a brief discussion of Gods. Rock Gnomes come off as curious yet inventive dwarves. Descriptions of mining for materials, spending lots of time perfecting each piece making it a work of art, blocking out the rest of the world. Forest gnomes ... apparently like hiding like halflings living in a forest instead of the hills and valleys, blending homes into trees instead of blending into the grassy tunnels, but like illusions when being playful instead of slight of hand. Deep Gnomes are go back to feeling like dwarves, because they're apparently obsessed enough with mining for gems and metals that they willingly live in the Underdark and risk their lives for them, focusing on building heavily defended and trap ridden strongholds. None of the three subraces seem to really have anything to do with each other beyond that initial introduction about curiosity and their gods.
Curiously, despite Rock gnomes getting about the same word count as the other two subraces combined, Garl Glittergold and three of the other gods seem to focus more on the Forest Gnome archetypes, being tricksters, illusionists, all foresty and hide-y. Rock Gnomes and Deep Gnomes seem to get one god of the eight each that resonates with them. For a while there, I was also afraid that the writers had forgotten about the kobold rivalry going on, but fortunately there's a sidebar recounting the origin story of the feud. No more details then that, sadly. I would have thought a book entitled Tome of Foes would have more on the gnome's foes, but c'est la vie.
Well, that's it for the PC races! Its been a bit of a ride, and I can say that, for the most part, its quite enjoyable. As a player, I'd definitely want this book for my table, its got plenty of juicy details other than the DM-only monsters, and I like getting into the head and culture of my characters.
Before the monsters, one more thing about the first five chapters. When we talk about racial handbook type things? I like to see new things, something that will go out and inspire me to make a member of that race. Not as an Illusionist that happens to be a gnome, or an elf that happens to be a wizard, but playing the gnome, or elf, or whatever for the sake of that race, irregardless of class. Or come out with some kind of story idea to DM with.
I think that, overall, this book did that wonderfully. The Blood War chapter had lots of great story seeds, and I practically raved about the Gith. Elves didn't quite fill me with the same DMing glee, but I do like the idea of playing an elf of any kind and trying out the ideas within. Dwarves, well, I'm really not a fan of them, but that's a good thing . The most important thing when writing is to evoke emotion, and they did a wonderful job with that. I'm certain others will love it. The ideas can still be used.
I'm hoping to see the same kind of inspiration when I read up on the monsters. "Does this guy speak to me? Do I want to put her in a game? Will it be fun for my players?" That's my main criteria.
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So, I got my hands on the new book, and I'm slowly reading through it, and I just thought I'd write down my impressions as I go along in a kind of review of the book just to talk about it.
I Preface and Cover
One of the most interesting things about any new gaming book are the cover, the obligatory opening fiction, and an overview of everything that's in the book. For the cover, we get a giant picture of a wizard messing around with giant clockwork machinery and symbols of the Outer Planes - very Mechanius of him. A bit odd for someone supposed to be about Balance, and what turns out to be a book with only the tiniest bit of info about the planes and balance and mostly about PC races and monsters, but you can't deny that the regular cover is still a very well done piece and beautifully executed.
Immediately inside, we see the Contents - the book is divided into two parts and six chapters. The first five chapters look like they take up only one third the book, and, at first glance, seem to be all about the core PC races. The Blood War is all about fiends and tieflings - its hard to talk about the latter without the former, while then we just go right into elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes and then the new gith. Conspicuous in its absence are dragons and the dragonborn - the metalic versus chromatic dragon struggle is an iconic battle. Perhaps that will be in a different book, much like orcs got details in Volo's. Maybe we'll get Ashardalon's Book of Kaiju at some point, with dragons in it. After that? The rest of the book is dominated by a giant list of monsters, giving the feeling of a Monster Manual III. A brief glance makes me feel like we're just getting a grab bag here, save for some obvious ones like more Drow and Draugr enemies.
Unlike, say, the World of Darkness books, which start with several pages of story, we just have a very quick blurb about a yugoloth talking about war in the planes, and questioning if the eternal war is actually good for anyone instead of peace. A curious insight from an evil mercenary, followed by a rebuttal from a wizard. Its actually something I found quite amusing and thought provoking. Be sure to not skip it!
II. The Blood War
Ah, now we get into the first and foremost of conflicts, the most famous of them all, the Blood War. In here, we're given an overview of the Nine Hells and the Abyss, the big players, and the overall flow of the war. Now, this chapter surprised me for two reasons. One, after my impression of the first five chapters being so PC race heavy, there's a lack of tiefling talk outside of introducing new subraces. Just a mistaken impression on my part, I suppose. Secondly? Well, another mistaken impression on my part, I suppose - I'm a huge tiefling fan, and I've played tieflings from early Planescape days, through 3e and 4e, and I've done the tiefling warlock thing in 5e as well. I'm familiar with the different fiends for quite a bit now, and there's a surprising number of details that are different from what I remember. Oh, the broad strokes are still there, but changes here and there still caught me off guard. They're good changes, mind you. I loved this chapter, but for those with previous experience of the Hells and Abyss?
So, the chapter opens up talking about the War, and how it happens. The battle fields and the basic techniques each use. There was definitely a lot of playing up of stylistic differences between the lawful devils being highly regimented, and the demons just being chaotic hoards barely leashed together by their lords. The majority of battles seem to happen in the Abyss and Hells themselves, with the Hells actually seeming to favor defensive formations and fighting in Hell, rather than offensive. Even though they risk dying permanently in the Hells, the defensive formations, logistical support and access to magical items makes it superior, whereas you might survive dying in a different plane but lose all your advantages as well as shiny magic items. I actually found it to be rather enlightening in a way, giving insight into how to use devils to fight in my game. A lot of the early chapter talks in brief about how both use cults and spies, with only a pair of sidebars mentioning yugoloths (usually as guides to get devils and demons to the opposite planes). For the most part, there's definitely the impression that devils rely more on allies and mortals more than the abyss - the demons just kind of spew forth in numbers and don't need souls or followers, whereas devils do. They're there, but almost as an afterthought to the demons.
There's a bit here about Balance, and needing to keep the two forces in check, which is understandable if we just consider the Blood War. No real mention of why Good v. Evil needs to be kept in check for Balance, just that they keep the Good out of the war. The implication here is that Balance (the True Neutral perspective) just works to keep the Blood War churning for the good of all. Kind of like how the USA justifies sending money to support foreign wars, I suppose. Now, based on previous edition information, that's probably because the Abyss is basically the embodiment of entropy and constantly creates more legions to fight and devour everything - it literally wants to eat everything. So, going by this, the entire balance of the nine alignments is centered around the stopping the Abyss. Or not, since it'd be odd to talk about other things in a chapter about Blood War.
Next, we start jumping into primers about how the devils think and act. If you wanted a primer for what the Hells are, some brief history, what the mindset is, and what everything does, this is it. There's not a lot of information about the different layers in details, but the who's who? Story hooks? That's around in plenty. One thing that I actually found rather refreshing compared to previous editions? Each layer now has an official job as well as specialist in different societies. Glyssa is now not only Queen of Erinyes, but basically a prison warden as well as patroness of criminals. Mephistopheles has his layer focused on arcane research/development, and specialize in deals with wizards. Mammon is the treasurer and deals with inheritances and fallen noble types. And so on. Another change is that devils no longer have families as they did in the past. Asmodeus and his wife didn't give birth to Glyssa. Belial and Fierna aren't blood related - mortal souls and fallen Outsiders are the only way to make more devils. Adoption happens, but hints that these adopted daughters and sons are actually fallen gods, demi-gods, angels. Which hints to some rather interesting stories there. We also get a look at the brand new Zariel, the newest big name in Hells. Curiously, no mention of the Pact Primordial here, though the trial that resulted from said Pact is talked about, and we get the new origins of the Ruby Rod.
The infernal cults and tiefling subraces haven't changed that much since the UA, it seems. There's also some cambion suggestions which basically just suggests giving them the cult favorite spells. All in all, tieflings don't get a lot of mention or work here. The cults give lots of ideas for putting into a campaign - I can just imagine an underground series of cults that all do their thing together. I really wish there was more on cambions and tieflings here in the infernal section, but it is what it is. Quick table for some personality ideas for devils, always handy on the fly for ideas. On the last page of the chapter, there's also a random table for cult organization as well, which is just as handy. Kind of wish it was after the devil cults instead of demon ones, but that's just because I get the impression that devil cults are more common and widespread.
Next, we talk about the Abyss. We start off with a bit about how each of the demon lords literally reshapes the Abyss to their whims, and plans on doing the same to the rest of reality... if not for those pesky devils! And their dog too! And they can do it, too. Each demon is basically a reality warper, twisting and corrupting by their very presence, an entire page devoted to exactly how that happens. If left unchecked, a single demon could lead the entire world to be swallowed into the Abyss as a new layer. Pretty freaky stuff.
From here, we get into the cults and individual demon lords. Lots of benefits from having yourself warped around, but I don't quite get the draw here. Some are insane, some are deceived, but those who fall to the Abyss tend to be destroyed. I have trouble getting into why someone would go to a demon. All I can figure is ignorance and brainwashing here; the sterotypical cartoon-evil type of villains. As a result, I don't quite grok these the same way I did the infernal ones. Either way, I don't really have much to say, other than lots of information about the various demon lords and their followers, a lot that seems heavily inspired by what happened in Out of the Abyss. Lolth only gets a small sidebar as a demon lord herself, but she's probably going to get more depth in the elf chapter.
The pictures in this chapter are quite beautiful, if disturbing; really gets you in the mood. I love the image of the one summoner with her imp in fine clothing, looking like a tiny lawyer.
III. Elves
Ah, now this is what I was thinking I'd see in the last chapter. A book about the lives of elves. One thing that I really appreciated here was how the chapter touched on more than just Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. Eberron and Dragonlance are both mentioned here by name, and hints of others.
The chapter opens up with a new creation mythos for Corellon and the elven pantheon. I admit that I wasn't expecting that all the elf gods besides the big C zirself to be born from the blood spilled in that early battle with the orc god, and how the realm of Avarandor was made. Its interesting new look at things beyond the old jilted wife story of Lolth's fall. Much like the description of the Hells and Abyss being so different in 5e, this outlook of elves is different from anything I've seen in previous editions. I'm not sure how much of it is just old lore that never got much spotlight, or new, but it certainly is refreshing to read. After, we're treated to a bit of information about the life cycle of an elf, how their reverie shapes their lives. I especially like the description of the elven cycle of reincarnation and old memories. All elves are just continually reincarnated members of those original blood drops - elven population throughout the entire multiverse is static. Actually, its dropping, since elf souls can still be destroyed or taken by another god.
After a bit, we start talking about the standard elf races - not just high elves, but presumably wood, sea and possibly averial. There's no direct mention of differences between the subraces; in fact, there's a half-page that talks about why elves have so many wizards, why the love of arcane magics, and the reality shaping mithrils. I felt the curious lack of discussion of wood elves tendacies towards nature magic (either as a druid or ranger) to be a bit striking - surely that has an imprint on elven society as well! Perhaps the writers felt the next section, several pages of discussion of gods which include some nature-y types, to be enough? There's a lot of talk about how the gods here relate to aspects of elf life, which is a bit mind twist, because elf gods aren't like humans think of gods - they're revered ancestors and elders of the elven race. Imagine a ancestor totem bararian having echoes of the primal elf-gods show up. The duality of wanting to be rejoined with their god warring with the love of a mortal form is quite curious to me.
All in all, I'm quite happy with this chapter so far. There's a lot more on how to think and act like an elf, and how their culture differs from humanity's, that its kind of interesting to think of them now. Very good guide for getting into the mindset of your character, I think. I actually really like how they handled Corellon here - I used to hate that god, but now zie's actually really, really interesting. I especially love the idea the book seeded about the true nature of Corellon. Its [spoilers].
After we discuss the regular surface elves, we start touching on the drow, shadar-kai and eladrin. Mostly, these three deviants are defined primarily how they differ from the usual. I really think the eladrin could really have been fleshed out some more, I felt like it wasn't nearly enough. I don't know, maybe its because I just see these as being better high elves than actual high elves, and I'm really into them being a thing? These feel more like elven nobility, flushed with the innate wild magic that high elves only wish they had (see that aforementioned wizardry section), an ancient culture that's still around, and fully of whimsy that regular elves are (according to the chapter) refraining from showing. Meanwhile, the Shadar-kai section mostly gets a giant block to talk about the myth behind the Raven Queen, and what she is up to. Much like the drow, the shadar-kai are defined by their closely present goddess, and go out primarily to serve the will of said goddess. If the eladrin embody the passion and magic of the elves, then the shadar-kai represent the long memories of the elven race. Their very lives are defined by the need to collect memories - not just their past memories, but any and all memories in service of their Queen. If you need the wisdom of a long view of history, the shadar-kai are the ones best suited for it.
A bit out of order, perhaps, but now its time to talk about the drow. We hear the normal discussion about how Lolth dominates the society, they're cruel and predatory, and twisted by the Underdark. On a quick side note, I also have to wonder if all those specialized Lolth-only yochlol demons infect the mind of the drow as well (see blood war chapter), but its not mentioned here. Of course, who needs to, when you're raised that way from childhood? One thing here that I find stands out compared to any previous drow write up I've seen. First? There's the discussion of lower ranked drow. Almost any depiction of the dark elves almost invariably focuses on the stronger houses, and their priestesses. What life is like at the top. Sure, that's mentioned here, but there's just as much talk about how lower ranks are little better than slaves themselves. That's a detail that most don't consider, I find, and provides a different look. Everything here is touched on in brief before we dive into the Dark Seldarine. And that's where we get quite a bit of difference - all these other gods exist, who often do their best to sneak around Lolth's webs of control, representing an underbelly of anti-spider resistance. Eilistraee also finally gets a small soundbite, though more on how she lures drow away from Lolth than discussion on her enclaves. Only about seven pages of material, but it hits a lot of areas for that amount. Vulkoor of Eberron also gets a shout out here in the list of drow deities, and a side bar talks a bit about dark elf exiles on Krynn.
Another interesting bit about the drow that comes up is how they're severed from the usual cycle of reincarnation and memories. No one really knows what's up with their souls - are they new? Old ones devoured of memories and power, like devils supposedly do? Does that make them a different species from elves? Or are they the only actual species of elf, given that others are just the same people over and over instead of any true reproduction? Well, that's the same question everyone has about half-elves.
IV. Dwarves
Once again, we open with an origin story. Curiously, this isn't the origins of the race - that gets nothing more than an offhand mention of Moradin forging them. No, this is the origin of the Duergar. Two things I walked away from this story with. Apparently, the Duergar god Laduguer was the dwarf that led the anti-mindflayer rebellion, rather than an existing god, and that's pretty awesome of him. Also? Dwarves are kind of jerks. Really, dwarves? The duergar slavery lasted generations and you're going to blame the great-grandchildren for the mind-controlled sins of people that had their brains eaten? Talk about victim blaming here. Right off the bat, with discussions about how much dwarves love stability and things not changing, I kind of get the impression that dwarves kicked the duergar to the curb because they were altered. They came back different, no longer the perfection that Moradin made them as. All the blaming of abandoned temples and supposed signs from long ago were just excuses. Or maybe I'm projecting racism in a race war. Go figure. The opening myth ends with a note that both groups are usually too busy to do more than send the occasional raiding party at each other, mostly just killing and stealing from each other, before we move on to talking about dwarves.
So, regular dwarves are talked about here to start with, though a brief section highlights some dwarves in Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and Dragonlance; unlike the elves, we get to hear about some differences between subraces, depending on the world. Mainly, one is more open-minded and explores more than the other. There's a lot of talk about the focus on clan, crafting, and the stronghold being central to everything a dwarf is, along with greed. Overall, dwarves come off as very insular and untrusting of the world around them, probably because of what we find out in the next section. Gods. Now, they have a chart with a crap ton of dwarf gods, but only talk about four - Moradin, the all-father who patronizes art, Truesilver the Matron of Home and Hearth, Silverbeard the Father of Battle, and Abbathor the Master of Greed. These four really tell you everything about dwarf culture - they're craftsmen who focus on the home above all, worry about defenses and battle, and are driven strongly by greed. A half-page is all about how dwarf greed plays into their world. Stealing is considered a darker part of dwarven heritage, as is cheating at trade, but its not only expected, but encouraged and applauded.
Lastly, we get into the enemies of dwarves - basically, dragons, orcs, and giants all want to steal their stuffs, because its so awesome. And then internal dwarf frictions, because dwarves are greedy for each other's stuff too. I get the feeling that if dwarves didn't consider everyone else's goods inferior? They'd be waging war to take everything from the other races.
Now, we get into the Duergar. Right off the bat, they're called "A Dark Reflection," but I find it odd to call it a "reflection." They're just dwarves that are fully driven by greed, rather than driven by a desire to create things. If it wasn't for that whole "don't feel emotions or happiness!" or keeping slaves bit? These guys would actually be kind of cool. Instead of being created by gods, the duergar created their own gods That's right, they made Deep Duerra and Laduguer divine instead of the other way around with regular dwarves. That's pretty cool. And they're psions. Also cool.
On a closing note, I can't help but admit that this chapter has kind of soured me on dwarves. They're not my cup of tea, and it probably came across a bit in my writing. That said, it was still well written and a great read.
V. Gith
Ah, now the its time for the two newest races of 5e, the githyanki and the githzerai. Once again, we start off with an origin myth of the differences between the two races - enslaved by the mind flayers (that's two!), they rebelled and broke away, then couldn't agree on what to do next. Half wanted to end up becoming tyranical beings like their rulers (happens a lot with rebellions that don't have a game plan), half thought that becoming like the mind flayers was bad. So, they fought and split up. From what I remember of the Gith during my Planescape days, this doesn't seem to have changed much. Same when the book starts talking about the githyanki cities in the Astral, their raids, and more.
Now, I made note of where I thought that elves and fiends differ from before, and dwarves... as far as I can tell, the dwarves are pretty much the same, save for a stronger emphasis on dwarven greed that I don't remember emphasized much. The Githyanki? I seem to remember most of these details. I don't think there is anything really new in this edition compared to before, so if you're familiar with the Gith from before, they seem to be the same now. That said, its not like there wasn't parts of the book that made me sit up, wide eyed with delight.
Now, what caught my eye here, more than anything? We're given descriptions of the giant airships the githyanki in pretty good detail, along with amount of passengers, as well as mapping out the districts of their main city. All the details we could possibly want for either fighting these gith directly during an attack or sneaking into their astral home and doing some damage that way. The Githyanki section is basically a template for running them as antagonists in a story, which I admit is a pretty nice set up. That's really not something we see with the drow or duergar, or even the fiends, and I much appreciate it. I overall like I can just sit down after reading this and run a quick story of just about anything Gith now. And that's awesome - there's nothing better than to sit down with a new supplement and just feel the pages oozing with story ideas you can run. I love it. I'm not sure if these particular details are new or not, but they are very sexy.
In comparison, the githzerai actually get very little details compared to their evil cousins. Three pages isn't a lot, and they hit the bare bones highlights - the githzerai live in giant floating monasteries inside Limbo, presumably navel gazing when not out for revenge or shaping more of Limbo, but we don't really get to see what their lifestyle or culture is other than the monk-ness or hints of a pseudo-religion based on the Second Coming of their anti-Gith jesus figure.
Lastly, we get to see the updated Gith race for 5e, as well as some tables for names, ideas, bonds, flaws, enounter sizes, and more. Have I mentioned I really love the amount of detail it puts in for making gith encounters easy on the DM? The races are pretty decent, though I admit to being a little tired of just adding spells once a day to a race. At least this time, they're not spells that rely on having a high spellcasting trait - if you want to dump INT as a Githyanki, its not going to hurt the spells you get from your race. Of course, they're called psionics, but they're still just racial spells.
Overally, I must say that I'm very happy with the approach taken here, in case you couldn't tell. The decadent life of the 'yanki and the austere nature of the 'zerai really ooze from the pages, and the pages just drip with story ideas. I do like the addition of the Sha'sal Khou, which makes it possible to play a non-evil githyanki, and a new dimension to the races with a bit of potential Romeo-Juliet star crossed politics going on.
V. Halflings and Gnomes
For a book that's supposed to be about Foes and opposing forces, we end the first third of the game talking about two races that aren't divided into good and evil, fighting each other. Much like other chapters, we have two parts per race, and we start off with Halflings. Unlike other chapters, we don't start with an epic tale, just dive right into the nature of the races.
One of the first things that struck me reading this is the idea that halfling luck - the ability to avoid the worst of dangers - is the result of being "naturally innocent" and carefree, and Yondala watching out for them, like they were all children, to the point that Yondala is even compared to a parent. This innocent and carefree is such a part of the race that the book hints that halflings that become evil lose Yondala's blessing. We're then told that halflings are friendly to a fault, due to a guileless nature.This seems very much at odds with a race of beings that specialize in being rogues. They apparently also view the world with childlike wonder instead of fear. Now, its early on, but I'm brought to mind that old rant against the kender race description. Click at your own risks. Not saying anything but that the first page reminds me of this a bit. Moving on.
So, halfling lives seem to revolve around collecting bric a brac and telling stories as their way of keeping history alive with each item, and they love keeping hidden in plain sight while living a life of leisure. Very much going back to our roots as Bilbo, I think. Honestly, I can't help but feel we've gone back to being hobbits here. Except, instead of a group of elite Rangers killing all the monsters, we have Yondala doing the protection. It makes sense, I suppose. Halflings are inspired from hobbits, but the LotR series is a journey about growing up, something that halflings won't do as a race. The other gods also seem to take their cue from LotR a bit - Arvoreen's writeup pretty much screams "battle against Saruman." The story of Sheela Peryroyl's story mimics Samwise and using the elven gifts to regrow the Shire. Halfling adventurers tend to be like Merry and Pippin, struck by the romance of adventuring more than anything.
And that basically sums up my impression of the Halfling chapter. One part (wo)man-child, one part hobbit. Not that its bad - you can easily adapt the LotR storyline here. The halfling homes have aquired a McGuffin necessary to the plot, and its a race to get to it before people suffer. A community invaded and needs training - very Seven Samurai. I just don't feel like anything new was offered here. Though, I do have to laugh at the sidebar for "Halflings in the Multiverse." Forgotten Realms, default. Greyhawk, yep, similar. Dragonlance have Kender as Halflings. Its official. And then? Dark Sun has vicious, cynical cannibals. Eggs, bread, milk and squick.
Now, for gnomes. We start off with a small introduction that focused on gnomes being curious inventors and arcane investigators as their central racial feature. A deep fascination with learning. As expected of a wizard race, I suppose. Then, we split the remainder of the chapter into Rock, Forest and Deep Gnome parts, followed by a brief discussion of Gods. Rock Gnomes come off as curious yet inventive dwarves. Descriptions of mining for materials, spending lots of time perfecting each piece making it a work of art, blocking out the rest of the world. Forest gnomes ... apparently like hiding like halflings living in a forest instead of the hills and valleys, blending homes into trees instead of blending into the grassy tunnels, but like illusions when being playful instead of slight of hand. Deep Gnomes are go back to feeling like dwarves, because they're apparently obsessed enough with mining for gems and metals that they willingly live in the Underdark and risk their lives for them, focusing on building heavily defended and trap ridden strongholds. None of the three subraces seem to really have anything to do with each other beyond that initial introduction about curiosity and their gods.
Curiously, despite Rock gnomes getting about the same word count as the other two subraces combined, Garl Glittergold and three of the other gods seem to focus more on the Forest Gnome archetypes, being tricksters, illusionists, all foresty and hide-y. Rock Gnomes and Deep Gnomes seem to get one god of the eight each that resonates with them. For a while there, I was also afraid that the writers had forgotten about the kobold rivalry going on, but fortunately there's a sidebar recounting the origin story of the feud. No more details then that, sadly. I would have thought a book entitled Tome of Foes would have more on the gnome's foes, but c'est la vie.
Well, that's it for the PC races! Its been a bit of a ride, and I can say that, for the most part, its quite enjoyable. As a player, I'd definitely want this book for my table, its got plenty of juicy details other than the DM-only monsters, and I like getting into the head and culture of my characters.
Coming up soon! Beastiary!
Before the monsters, one more thing about the first five chapters. When we talk about racial handbook type things? I like to see new things, something that will go out and inspire me to make a member of that race. Not as an Illusionist that happens to be a gnome, or an elf that happens to be a wizard, but playing the gnome, or elf, or whatever for the sake of that race, irregardless of class. Or come out with some kind of story idea to DM with.
I think that, overall, this book did that wonderfully. The Blood War chapter had lots of great story seeds, and I practically raved about the Gith. Elves didn't quite fill me with the same DMing glee, but I do like the idea of playing an elf of any kind and trying out the ideas within. Dwarves, well, I'm really not a fan of them, but that's a good thing . The most important thing when writing is to evoke emotion, and they did a wonderful job with that. I'm certain others will love it. The ideas can still be used.
I'm hoping to see the same kind of inspiration when I read up on the monsters. "Does this guy speak to me? Do I want to put her in a game? Will it be fun for my players?" That's my main criteria.