Elemental Evil Players Companion Races Elemental Evil Players Companion Races Review

A few days agone, Wizards of the Declension released their Elemental Evil Player'southward Companion, a 5th edition D&D supplement intended to expand thespian capabilities and possibilities for the upcoming Elemental Evil –  Princes of the Apocalypse story arc. It is a free download, and is available either from the WotC website or through DriveThruRPG.

The whole thing is 25 pages long, and consists essentially of 2 sections; races and spells.

The races include aarakocra (bird-men who showtime appeared in the 1E Fiend Folio), Deep Gnomes (aka Svirfneblin, underdark-dwelling gnomes who showtime appeared in the 1E adventure D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa), Genasi (descendants of trysts between mortals and genies, with attendant magical powers, commencement constitute in the 2E Planewalker's Handbook), and goliaths (stone-like beings related to giants, who starting time appeared in the 3.v Races of Stone).

The aarakocra are now native to the elemental plane of air, and aside from the powers you'd look based on their concrete form (they're able to fly, and tin can utilise their talons in gainsay), they don't seem to be particularly over-powered.

Deep gnomes were originally quite over-powered, simply in this version they seem to be quite well aligned with other player races (there is an optional feat that allows a deep gnome grapheme some innate magical ability, but fifty-fifty then information technology's nothing compared to the 1E ability to summon world elementals).

Genasi come in four types (air, earth, fire, water) and each has some magical powers and damage resistance appropriate to their respective genie heritage. I'd be hard pressed to run into why a histrion might choose non to play i, given that some of them are quite handy.

Finally, goliaths are physical powerhouses, getting bonuses of two to STR and 1 to CON, and another size and toughness induced skills as well. While mayhap not quite so overpowering every bit a half-giant from Dark Sunday or a half-ogre from Greyhawk, I tin can encounter some players making this their default race when creating a "tank".

The second role of the Companion gives details on some 45 or so new spells, of varying levels and types (with the glaring exception of cleric spells), but all with some sort of elemental theme. Most are new, but I did notice Melf's Minute Meteors (originally from the 1E Unearthed Arcana) makes an appearance, and all seem well enough balanced on a outset reading (I haven't had time to play with any of these new spells, obviously, and then that assessment might modify after some chances to break the game with the new spells).

While I like the fact that the 5E squad is manifestly self-consciously plucking fabric from across the history of D&D, and it's nice to encounter more than free material, I found myself disappointed that there was cypher class-based herein. No backgrounds, no new clerical domains (indeed, nothing new for clerics at all!), no new arcane traditions, no new druid circles, no new sorcerous origins, and no new warlock patrons. The only new feat is associated with the deep gnome race. It's entirely possible that the Companion will be updated to include this sort of material, and I do feel somewhat guilty complaining that a free supplement doesn't take more than stuff in it, only it does seem that something billed as a Role player'southward Companion would take some more than of those basic building-blocks of character construction.

As for my own purposes, I will certainly be able to use some of the new spells in my Temple of Elemental Evil project. The deep gnome race will naturally come in handy if I always do anything underdark-related. Just I don't really meet assuasive the other graphic symbol races as PC choices, except peradventure for a very specific brusk-term game. Nevertheless, it's worth getting, equally the cost is right and whatsoever DM running a 5E game will certainly find the spells at least useful.

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Source: https://www.greyhawkgrognard.com/2015/03/11/review-elemental-evil-players-companion/

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