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The Player's Handbook 2 (PHB2) is the second book in the series introducing new races and classes for Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition game (4e). This book contains all of the rules for creating and playing characters for the duration of a campaign. There are five new races and eight new classes introduced, including one new power source.
Appearance
The book weighs in at 233 pages. Like all Wizards products it retains a very high production value with full color illustrations of a consistently high quality. Like the previous Player's Handbook (PHB) this cover has the matte/glossy combination highlighting the two characters. Like the PHB, the cover features races and classes included in the book. The books follows the same graphical and organizational layout as the PHB, making information easier to find in the PHB2. The main reason this book is smaller than the PHB is that the PHB2 builds on information already contained in the PHB.
Setting
The setting is, once again, implied in this book with more detail added in the introduction of the Primal power source. For the most part though it is still scattered throughout the book, chiefly in descriptions of paragon paths.
Characters
There are five new races introduced in the PHB2: deva, gnome, goliath, half orc, and shifter. Each race has a two page description discussing the physical appearance and role playing notes. The deva are immortal servitors of good deities who have shed their powers to interact directly in the world. Gnomes are small tricksters from the Feywild, a magical otherworld, who are talented at disappearing and trickery. Goliaths are the descendants of giants, are fiercely competitive and attuned to the natural world. Half orcs have no unified creation story, though several are suggested, allowing players to use an explanation other than the original, less politic one. Shifters are descendants of lycanthropes, namely werewolves and weretigers, and live in the wild mostly as nomads. Overall the authors have done an excellent job at making the races playable, both from a mechanical and role playing perspective. Interesting hooks are presented for each race and are further expanded upon in the Backgrounds section of the Character Options chapter.
The eight new classes introduced fill in some of the "missing" classes from the PH of older editions, namely the barbarian, bard, druid and sorcerer, and includes some new classes as well, namely the avenger, invoker, shaman and warden. The major addition in this book is that of the primal power source. The classes drawing from it are the barbarian, druid, shaman and warden. This power source draws from the spirits of the world as distinct from the gods and the cthonic primordials, who were defeated by the gods. Primal characters are most from wilderness settings, but unlike many other RPGs where the wilderness is directly opposed to civilization, in this game primal powers are more oriented towards protecting the world from outside forces. Avengers and invokers are divine classes, with the avenger a holy champion of a specific deity and the invoker is granted a shard of a deity's power. Barbarians draw their power from raging, channeling the power of various spirits. Druids call upon the spirits of nature to aid them and can take the form of various animals. Shamans use manifested spirits to aid them and call upon ancestor spirits. Wardens harness the powers of spirits to change themselves into embodiments of nature. Bards use the power of the speech and song to harness arcane power, and sorcerers manipulate arcane forces through natural talent rather than arduous study.
All of these classes are presented well and have passed the Chupp test for this reviewer although the avenger has the potential to be abused if the religious zealotry is emphasised too much. The Chupp test is a subjective test where success is measured by the interest generated in playing a specific character type.
A whole new set of paragon paths are introduced in this book, including a new category, racial paragon paths. Previously paragon paths were based on specific classes and now there are one emphasising various aspects of each race. The placement of the racial paragon paths was a bit jarring at first, but after realizing that all paragon paths will fall at the end of the appropriate chapter, the mental dissonance cleared up. Several epic destinies are also included most, not surprisingly, tailored to fit with the classes introduced.
System
As is expected a number of new powers, feats and rituals are introduced in this book. The powers are obviously tied to each specific class, and most of the feats enhance the new classes, though there are new feats for each race as well. In addition, new magic items are detailed, once again, to support the new classes.
The only new mechanic introduced is an optional set of backgrounds. These are role playing elements to help define a character and are divided into different sections: geography, society, birth, occupation and race. Each background can grant a character one of four benefits: a bonus to an associated skill (listed in each background), a skill added to your class skill list, an additional language or a regional benefit (if the group is using a specific setting). Players are not restricted as to how many backgrounds they can chose but they may only pick one benefit from each background.
In the appendix are rules clarifications and expansions, mainly new keywords.
In Play
The races and classes presented here seem to be well balanced in play. Each class within each role remains distinct in flavor and tactical play, so multiple characters occupying a single role do not become redundant. The backgrounds can add a nice little incentive to get players to think, even in general terms, about their characters' backgrounds.
Conclusion
Overall, an excellent addition to the Dungeons and Dragons line of products. The options introduced can lead to new adventure venues as many of the classes and some races have a heavy wilderness influence. All of the new classes are compelling to play with just enough setting and role play information for them to be adapted into nearly any campaign setting.
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