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In Short

The Good: Lots of fantastic environments backed by beautiful artwork create exactly the sort of magical, high adventure setting that I want to explore.

The Bad: More detail on the Shadowfell and Feywild would have been nice, especially considering the amount of detail given for Hell.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

The reason I'm now willing to switch is that Manual of the Planes really does do a great job of selling the reader on this cosmology. The realms of the gods, potentially infinite in scope, dwell as worlds in the great Astral Sea. The Material World is bordered by the Feywild and Shadowfell, effectively a fey and horror version of the existing world, and each of those areas alone offers incredible adventure opportunities. Finally, the Elemental Chaos offers the Nine Hells, the Abyss, and endless possibilities when it comes time to add more volatile domains to a campaign. I find this setup to work very well in play, and to offer at least as many options as the Great Wheel. Let's dive in!

Each realm receives a small stat block mentioning the realm's Type, Size and Shape, Gravity, and Mutability. Discussion of each of these qualities is offered, but they're pretty intuitive. Individual areas within a plane also receive a block focusing on their population and demographics, which is useful for gaining a quick idea of what to expect at that location.

A variety of general planar options are presented. In addition to the character options discussed at the end of this review several hazards are also included. Vacuum Rifts, Time Wrinkles, and similarly wondrous hazards are a part of planar adventure. I love the imagination behind these options, and a few have seen worthwhile play in my games. What's more, the great city of Sigil is also included. Originally introduced in the AD&D 2E Planescape boxed set, the City of Doors is a self-contained torus that features gateways to all the rest of the multiverse. Filled with strange denizens, the city is an incredible place for adventure and has several pages of discussion that really helps to bring it alive. The only downside, and this is a purely subjective view, is that the city takes into account the Faction War supplement from the old Planescape line and lacks the iconic Factions that originally made the city so memorable. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful setting location and I'm happy to see it included.

The Feywild continues to occupy the role of a highly magical faerie realm, sporting both incredibly beauty and darkness at the same time. The denizens include the Eladrin, of course, but also all sorts of elves, goblins, gnomes, fomorians, and anything else that would reasonably be connected to the faerie realm. Most of the Feywild section is dedicated to interesting locations in the Feywild, each of which is interesting enough that I would happily set a few sessions of play there. Of particular note for me is that the Isle of Dread (an AD&D module location) can be found in the Feywild. I really like the frequent nods to older editions of the game I've found here and in other D&D products, especially since it makes it even easier to revisit the classics.

For those interested in horror the Shadowfell delivers. The dark alternate world opposite the Feywild, the Shadowfell reflects the Prime Material world in darker fashion. Shadows deepen, the sun never quite penetrates the clouds, and places of horror and darkness linger on long after they've been destroyed in the Prime Material. Of particular interest, many aspects of the Ravenloft setting introduced for AD&D can be found here including the domains of dread and the idea of powerful domain lords that rule over them. Undead are a staple to the Shadowfell, but plenty of other residents can be found here as well.

Of particular note for the Shadowfell are the many interesting locations. Gloomwrought, complete with a map, is an interesting city in that its description paints a picture of an extremely hostile environment where the streets are only as safe as a person's blade can make them be. It's exactly the sort of place where I would love to have a meeting with some sort of dark power. The other locations are similarly flavorful, and I'm growing more interested in setting an entire campaign in the Shadowfell.

While the Shadowfell offers horror, the Elemental Chaos offers variety. The whole area is a confused mix of elements, with floating rocks and disconnected streams racing alongside beds of fire and lightning. The Chaos has a variety of native creatures, mostly Demons, Chaos-entities, and Elementals, but it's the specific areas of the Chaos that are of particular interest. The City of Brass, home to a variety of fiery beings including efreet, comes complete with a detailed map which makes it a particularly nice location to base a campaign that moves into the Elemental Chaos for a time.

The Abyss shows a huge variety of levels, each their own unique environment. The Demonweb Pits, controlled by the Drow goddess Lloth, constitutes just one level while others are the domains of various demon princes, evil gods, and other undesirable entities. While the Abyss is navigable, doing is is perilous and it's not at all clear what the geography of the Abyss is at any given point in time.

The final area of note, the Astral Sea, is in many respects the largest of all the various realms. The domains of the various gods may be found here, floating like stars in a sea of ether. Great ships sail the sea and a few nods are given to the Spelljammer setting where adventurers used Spelljamming helms to power ships that sailed through the ether between various Prime Material worlds. Of particular note, the Nine Hells are located here as part of a great spherical world. Each level of Hell receives detail, and an epic campaign could certainly be based around traversing the various layers of Hell.

New planar adversaries are also included, ranging from level 6 to 32 with a nice mix of normal, elite, and solo monsters. The majority are demons and devils, which I've found to be quite useful in my current planar campaign. Bladelings, a Planar race covered in razor sharp spikes, are provided both as adversaries and as PC options with 2 Dex, 2 Wis, 2 Intimidate, Resist Acid, and a Burst 1 Encounter attack power.

Several character options are also introduced. Paragon Paths include the Blade of Cendriane (mobile Eladrin Ranger), Doomguard Marauder (damage oriented fighter option), Gatecrasher (Rogue specialized in using magical portals), Knight of Celestia (Paladin with more light/radiant options), Malec-Keth Janissary (Swordmage with elemental powers), Planeshifter (War/Wiz focused on moving between planes), Shadow Captain (Warlord with shadow/necrotic powers), and Soul Guide (Anti-undead controller powers for Cleric). A few options stand out and are worth mentioning. I like the nod to the Doomguard, a Faction of Sigil, and hope to continue to see such references in future products. The Gatecrasher is very weak even if the campaign is making aggressive use of portals, as it's far too hyper specialized. It would have been more at home in 3.X, but the 4E design philosophy tends to push for more combat oriented builds and the Gatecrasher simply falls behind. The Planeshifter can be unbalanced for Orb Wizard builds as the level 11 Encounter power can remove a creature from play until it successfully saves. Otherwise this is a fun mix of options.

A smattering of magical items and rituals wrap up Manual of the Planes. The Rituals serve as the key to planar locations and some amount of Ritual use is key for any group that wants Planar mobility.

My Take

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