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In Short

The Good: Many of the new features are interesting enough and mechanically compelling enough to be something a player may want to take, but still manage to avoid being overwhelming. As a general introduction to the setting the book does a good job of hitting some of the more interesting setting locations and pushing players towards creating heroes in search of adventure.

The Bad: The nature of the product means that those who aren’t interested in specifically playing in the Realms won’t find nearly as much useful content here. The regional bonuses are neat but seem unnecessary while providing some incentives strong enough to really make players think twice about creating a character from any other region.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

I’ve had the opportunity to get in a moderate amount of play with the Drow Race, Swordmage Class, regional benefits, and miscellaneous mechanical options while running a 4E game set in the new Forgotten Realms. On the whole I’ve found this options to be well done and enjoyable, and I’m glad I have this resource at hand for future games. As an aside, I’m not discussing the new setting in too much detail here. For that please see my review of the Campaign Setting book. With that bit of explanation out of the way, let’s take a look at the new race options presented here.

Races - 16 pages.

Either two or six new races are included here, depending on your perspective. The classic Drow are reintroduced as are the part-elemental Genasi. Since the Genasi come in Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Storm varieties there’s a bit more here than might initially be thought. To round it all out, discussion of existing Races in the Forgotten Realms setting is also provided.

The Drow are quite nice, and in play the Drow racial abilities were quite welcome. With a bonus to Dex, Cha, Intimidate, and Stealth, Darkvision, and the Elven Trance they have a strong start. Per encounter they can either drop a cloud of darkness or outline a target in darkfire. In play both of these abilities were useful, especially Darkfire which forced the creature to grant combat advantage and could be a nice setup for the party Rogue at times. Cloud of darkness didn’t have a real chance to shine, but since it obscures line of sight in a burst 1 area it could have some very nice tactical potential in the right situation.

Meanwhile, the Genasi are really more like five different races. While they each feature a bonus to Strength, Intelligence, Endurance, and Nature their elemental manifestations can give them each different strengths. Watersoul Genasi can shift their speed over ground or liquid, ignore squeezing and enemy squares, and avoid damage from terrain while they do it. That’s a solid encounter power, on a level with the Eladrin teleport. For a more aggressive power pick an Earthsoul Genasi. Earthshock allows them to, once an encounter, allows them to knock all nearby enemies (close burst 1) to the ground. Not a bad power at all for a defender role character to bring to bear in a fight. Firesoul, Stormsoul, and Windsoul Genasi receive equally useful abilities for specific roles.

In addition to the new races the existing PHB races receive some setting attention. Eladrin reentered the Realms from the Feywild and have also been retconned as the Sun and Moon elves of the setting. Dragonborn hail from an otherworldly island that has appeared far off the Savage Coast. Each other race receives some attention, but none are integrated in as surprising a manner as these.

In play we found the Drow to be nicely done. Their encounter powers were useful to the group and provided the Swordmage player with additional options. In particular when he was immobilized well away from his allies he had another ranged option to fall back on. More importantly, the Encounter options along with the racial modifiers really make the Drow feel like Drow which is exactly what I hoped for.

Character Classes - 52 pages.

Three new options are introduced here: the Dark Pact Warlock, the Swordmage, and the Spellscarred. Let’s take a look at each in turn!

Dark Pact is a new Warlock option flavored more towards Drow Warlocks. Their cursing system involves a Darkspiral Aura which increases every time a cursed enemy is dropped to zero hit points. They can use this aura to deal psychic damage to anyone who makes a melee attack, viciously punishing the enemy for attempting to harm them. Their At-Will, Spiteful Glamor, does extra damage to targets at maximum health thereby encouraging them to switch up attacks on different enemies.

Necrotic, psychic, and poison damage are prominently featured along with the occasional use of a mechanic that involves harming allies in order to hit enemies even harder. Area of effect ongoing damage spells are regularly presented and the build offers a good mix of single target damage, ae (area effect) damage, and general utility effects. The build offers a lot of synergy with the Drow race and provides a nice alternative for those that don’t find the default Warlock builds to be quite edgy enough for their tastes.

While Dark Pact builds on an existing class the Swordmage is entirely new. An arcane powered defender with a good mix of ranged and ae attacks, the Swordmage has more options for attacking foes on the field regardless of position but lacks some of the nicer control features found with other Defenders. As with all Defenders, the Swordmage has quite a few hit points but this Defender lacks heavy armor instead preferring cloth or leather armor. Class abilities make up for much of this Armor Class difference enabling the character to stick to a specific concept without losing the ability to be an effective barrier between friends and foes.

Two main builds are offered for the Swordmage, focusing a little more on offense or defense. The Aegis of Assault build allows the Swordmage to mark a target and then to teleport and basic attack that target if it’s within 10 and attacks someone other than the Swordmage. The Aegis of Shielding instead allows the Swordmage to reduce the damage the marked target deals to an entity other than the Swordmage by a good amount based on Constitution.

The Swordmage has close burst and short ranged attack At-Will options, with the exception being Booming Blade that deals damage to targets that try to move away from the Swordmage. These, combined with more blast and burst powers, make the Swordmage an excellent choice for wading into large groups of adversaries. In play the class really shined in tight corridors and against large numbers of minions.

The mix of elemental attacks and melee damage work very well thematically and offer the character some options, especially when faced with harsh enemy control. The Swordmage will often outperform other Defenders when it’s being locked down with Immobilizations and Slows because the character likely has several ranged attack powers left that can be relied on until a save clears up any controlling conditions. The tradeoff is that the class can have a harder time getting the enemy’s attention. Certainly a Fighter or Warden can just say no to enemy movement a great deal of the time. The Swordmage is more adept at moving with the foe or just negating whatever they’re trying to do if they refuse to engage the Swordmage.

While the Swordmage will draw the attention of many readers, an interesting new option is Spellscarring. Spellscars feature prominently in the new Forgotten Realms (see my Campaign Setting review) since they offer spellcasters more power at the cost of risk and health. The way this works in play is that the Spellscarred power list is treated as another Class and players may use Multiclass Feat progression to buy these powers as substitutes for class powers.

Thematically the powers tend to be aberrant in nature, with vile transmutations, disease, and corrupted magic all being encompassed as part of spellscarring’s theme. It’s a little bit harder to say whether it’s really worth it to burn a Feat to gain access to the powers here. For some roles I can see them being very worthwhile. Take the level 10 Encounter power Scar of Blue Wings for example. It enables the character to fly twice their movement rate as a move action. That’s incredibly useful in a variety of tactical situations, and for builds that don’t already have an escape power it’s a potent choice.

While each of these new options is accessible from level one onward, the new Paragon Paths are well worth waiting for. Let’s take a quick look at each one in turn:

Anarch of Shyr offers damage oriented Swordmages that offers even more unleashed elemental damage along with a boost to Aegis of Assault.

Coronal Guard offers defense oriented Swordmages more control abilities along with a boost to Aegis of Shielding and AC.

Darkwalker provides Dark Pact Warlocks with several abilities focused on becoming insubstantial.

Doomguide gives worshippers of Kelemvor with a mixture of radiant damage powers and general defensive abilities. This is a great choice for an undead slayer type of character.

Drow Wanderer enables Drow to be a little more badass when hiding and striking from darkness. Works best with a Drow Rogue.

Eartheart Defender provides Dwarven Fighters or Paladins with a host of strong defensive and defensive/control powers that soak up more damage and keep enemies from getting away.

Elemental Tempest allows Genasi to incorporate multiple elemental types into their being and to do damage based on the chosen elemental types.

Evermeet Warlock offers Warlocks the power of light and nature with a mix of control, evasion, and support powers.

Ghost of Eventide enables Rogues to gain more benefit from fighting in darkness and to more easily fade from sight.

Heartwarder provides worshippers of Sune with an increase to healing, a linked form of damage absorption, and a few control powers.

High Forest Scout enables archer Rangers to unleash a variety of heavy control abilities, an interesting addition to a build that typically does very high ranged damage.

Impilturan Demonslayer allows melee Rangers to deal quite a bit more damage to demons while also taking hits from demons better. The Path does a nice job of providing demon focus while still implementing abilities that have general application.

Morninglord provides worshippers of Amaunator with additional radiant damage and some party support. A fine choice for the more damage oriented Clerics.

Purple Dragon Knight enables certain melee classes to bring a mix of group-oriented abilities to the battle, such as giving all allies a bonus to speed and saving throws.

Silverstar offers worshippers of Selune a variety of moon-oriented abilities including several direct damage attacks.

Simbarch of Aglarond allows for significant self healing and some group healing, which is an interesting mix considering that it’s only available to the Wizard.

Spellguard Wizard focuses on allowing the Wizard to deal more damage through close blast and close burst spells, making them far more potent against many foes in close quarters.

Spellscarred Savant allows for the selection of several Spellscarred powers along with the ability to heal from fire damage.

Steelsky Liberator is a dragonslaying Path that focuses on avoiding the mind influence powers of dragons.

Sword Coast Corsair enables a martial class to kick more butt aboard ship while also exercising additional melee control in the form of pushes and pulls.

Umbriri enables a Swordmage to master shadows, providing concealment bonuses of various sorts.

Wandering Swordmage allows the Swordmage to teleport further and more often.

War Wizard of Cormyr provides a variety of different effects with little connecting theme, though they altogether provide a nice tactical boost to the Wizard.

Whirlwind Genasi gain a host of movement and control powers centered on wind (of course).

Wildfire Genasi gain a variety of fire damage powers along with a really neat ability called Embers of Life which (Daily) allows them to spend a healing surge when reduced to zero or fewer HP.

Of final note, the Chosen is the ultimate champion of a god. This Epic Destiny, the only one included, offers a variety of different divine power options based on the nature of the worshipped god.

Backgrounds - 56 pages.

Taking up a huge chunk of the book, Backgrounds do two things. First, they provide additional mechanical benefits to a character. Second, they offer the reader a good overview of a certain area of the Realms to encourage players to engage the setting from the start. Let’s take a look at each of these benefits.

The mechanical advantages range in power. A weaker example is the benefit for coming from Baldur’s Gate, which grants another language, a +2 bonus to Streetwise, and adds the Streetwise Skill to the Class list. A stronger example is six points of resistances or a one point bonus to Initiative coupled with always being able to reroll Dungeoneering checks once per check. For a character focused heavily on defense or a dungeon delving Rogue either of these last two bonuses are quite nice and offer strong reason to choose to be from one locale over another.

The setting benefits include a two page spread focusing on Regional Features, People, Adventurers, and Character Motivations. These entries are definitely written with character creation in mind and do a good job of hitting on the sorts of exciting topics that make the reader want to make a character from the presented region. This is perfect for players who are completely unfamiliar with the setting and want to get some grounding and especially for players who have a hard time getting inspired to create a new character.

I like the setting details quite a bit. I think they’re well presented and do a wonderful job of focusing on what’s important to the player. The regional bonuses, however, strike me as being a little unnecessary and showcase a bit of unnecessary mechanical bloat. That said, for DMs who want a bit of a mechanical kick to encourage regional diversity among characters they’ll do the job well.

Feats - 10 pages.

The new Feats introduced here are a large mix. The biggest single new addition are Channel Divinity Feats for the major Forgotten Realms deities. Following that are Feats for the Swordmage and the two new races. The remaining mix covers just about everything, with special attention to Feats that take existing PHB races and give them a Forgotten Realms twist. Moon Elf Resilience, for example, allows an Eladrin to spend a healing surge when they fey step under certain conditions.

In terms of power I find the Feats to be on level with those presented in the PHB. Many have very narrow application, especially those that slightly modify an encounter racial ability. Those that do pack more of a punch are, at best, competitive with the likes of Weapon Focus. With that in mind, I really love the flavor of some of these Feats. Shield the Fallen, a Dwarf Feat, gives anyone bloodied, unconscious, or helpless next to the Dwarf a +2 to all defenses and saves. Power of Amaunator allows a Cleric’s damage spell to hit for an extra 1d10 damage, a perfectly appropriate power for a worshipper of a sun god.

For those that aren’t going to play in the Forgotten Realms there’s still a lot to play with here, and many of the Channel Divinities can be easily converted to other deities.

Rituals - 8 pages.

Much like the Feats, the new Rituals offer a nice mix of appropriately powered effects. Classic abilities like Arcane Mark return, enabling the caster to put a personal stamp on their possessions. On the high end of the power scale we have Rituals like Shift Mote, which allows the caster to move one of the floating islands that dot the setting. No doubt this Ritual is essential to piloting ones that have settlements, and I can imagine how useful it might be to a high powered group of adventurers based off of a mote.

Alamanac - 12 pages.

The final chapter simply provides general setting detail not found elsewhere. A full list of all the current deities of the Realms – Amaunator, Asmodeus, Bane, Chauntea, Corellon, Cyric, Ghaunadaur, Gruumsh, Kelemvor, Lolth, Moradin, Oghma, Selune, Shar, Silvanus, Sune, Tempus, and Torm. Calendar, languages of the Realms, and similar miscellaneous but useful information are all included here as well.

My Take

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