Manual of the Planes: Amazon.ca: Jeff Grubb: Books

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37 Reviews

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4.2 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Great resource for NeverWinter Nights as well!, Jun 21 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Manual of the Planes: Dungeons & Dragons Rulebook (Hardcover)

Most D&D books I purchase are for my NeverWinter Nights modules, and this one surprised me. Excellent read, very imaginative. Makes me want to travel to some of these (and avoid others!)

The photographic and/or 3D circle illustrations are getting tired, but they are still unique enough to give the book a nice feel.

A great addition to your D&D library (or NWN!)

Bragg Madaxe

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5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the Supreme WotC Release, April 28 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Manual of the Planes: Dungeons & Dragons Rulebook (Hardcover)

I must admit that it was with profound disappointment and nostalgia for 2E's Planescape setting that I finished reading this text. That said, I can now (with the benefit of distanced reflection) recommend this text as the single best offering of the general D&D supplements.

Sure, it sacrifices the cool lexicon of Planescape and pays scant attention to the personalities, factions, and locales of Sigil--but, as numerous folk have mentioned already, this is quite simply not Planescape 3E (one must go to planewalker.com for that). Until WotC gets its act together enough to produce a new Planescape, this will have to suffice.

And, boy, does it ever suffice. One might complain that it is a bit thin on specific data regarding each individual plane (though favorites such as the Abyss and the Hells receive a decent amount of coverage), it delivers where it says it will.

1) it presents a standard cosmology that is consistent with other rulebooks (such as *Deities and Demigods*, the *Book of Vile Darkness*, and the monster tomes). This cosmology has the virtue of being familiar to anyone who liked Planescape.

2) it introduces a cosmology generation system, complete with notes on how each potential plane might look in terms of elements, energy, gravity, magic, alignment, and so on.

3) it offers cosmological variant ideas, such as planes devoted to mirrors and wood, say, and alternate organization systems (as opposed to the beloved Great Ring).

4) it packs in a number of favorite monsters (the "goristro"--yes! "astral dreadnaught"--yes! the "yugoloths"--yes! and many others).

5) some useful prestige classes and cool spells.

6) and of course the aforementioned descriptions of the basic planes of the Great Wheel.

Overall, the art is great and the editing is fair. Games that have any sophistication and nuance at all will eventually come to rely on some kind of planewalking and/or Blood War narrative--and this is the basic tool with which to accomplish such things.

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5.0 out of 5 stars you don't have to be a dungeon master to enjoy it, Nov 21 2003

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Black Cat de La Bear "see that dark shape o'r... (those dark halls) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manual of the Planes: Dungeons & Dragons Rulebook (Hardcover)

I bought this book simply as a reference, not to start a game. To tell you the truth, I am only interested in the Forgotten Realms PC games anyway.(Planescape being unplayable on XP) It is nice to know where you are in the Universe(oh, sorry all you obsessive D&D freaks, I meant the multi-verse <rolls eyes>. No it is not about Sigil and the Doors it is about that and everything else that makes up everything. Aber-Toril ("Aberation of reality" for people who are just playing for fun and have something of a life, "Cradle of Life" for DM freaks) is a planet that sits in the Natural Planes(where most dungeons are) Sigil is the Center of the Universe(oh sorry MULTI-verse)-starting to get annoyed-; Demi's and Gods live on the outer planes and so do a lot of deamons(not demons). Anyway(not anyways) you can get a lot out of this just by reading some of it and get a sense of reference of where your character(s) actually is.(much like Earth being in the western edge of the Milky Way and all that).

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pay attention much?
This is the 1987 publication guys... or are the reviews for same titles, but different versions/prints combined?

Published on Nov 13 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the better 3rd edition hardovers
I like this book, in terms of quality and artwork I'd place it right after the three core rulebooks. Read more

Published on Sep 9 2003 by Richard A. Graves