Rating: Summary: Very wonderful book. Must have for serious DMs. Review: This is a wonderful addition to Dungeons and Dragons 3E. The artwork is superb, the introductory chapters are well written, links to the Epic Level Handbook are established, and it contains full stats on four pantheons to boot. I just have a few beefs with it: 1. What are they thinking, making Corellon Larethian androgynous? That puts disturbing pictures into my mind... 2. The alignments and power levels for certain deities in the historical pantheons are not accurate. Example: Ares is presented as being chaotic evil. To the layman, that seems fine and dandy. But, to an (amateur) scholar of mythology, that does not tally with the historical Greek gods. Zeus does not tolerate evil. Ares is not evil per se; he simply loves to fight. Thus, he is CN. There are other, similar errors in mostly the Greek and Egyptian pantheons, but rather than bash WotC, I'll just let DMs rule 0 them. 3. Set is a hippo, not a jackass.
Rating: Summary: Good Book, Buy With Caution Review: This is an excellent book to gain ideas for including your own mythos and pantheon into an D&D game. It examines types of faiths (monothesism, polytheism, duality, forces & philosophies), reasons for faith (love, fear), and includes four pantheons. Also included are a monotheistic faith, duality, and a mystery faith.This book serves as good "brain food"; I recommend it. If you want complete advise on everything divine, this is not it. The stats distracted the main focus of the book but I give it four stars; excellent job.
Rating: Summary: Not really useful Review: This was the 8th manual in my library I have for running my NWN module and it is the worst one so far. I really didn't find it as useful as I though it would be. I needed it for the 3rd edition gods and really, it doesn't give me any more info then the 3 primary books (DM, Players, Monster). In fact, It seems to contradict them a bit. I shouldn't of purchased this book, it really will just rot a bit. For a module designer who's trying to add deities in to their NWN module, its really not worth it.
Rating: Summary: Cool, but Superfluous, really Review: Well, to start with the good news, I did enjoy the book. The artwork was good, but some of the pictures could have been much better. For example: The picture of Corellon Larethian was to famine looking. I know he is supposed to be god of the elves, and the fieriest looking of them, but thats no reason to make him look like a bloody girl! I did enjoy the descriptions of the gods, but most of them were either lacking some stuff or had too much. I mean it's pretty much the same stuff as was in the Players Hand book. Really the only new stuff is the pictures and stats. Finally my last complaint is that they show Set to be a jackass, when he is really a hippo, and NOWERE in Greek mythology is it mentioned that Ares is evil. He just likes to kill a lot. Paladins can like to kill a lot, but there not considered evil. To rap it up I just want to say: Think about it before you buy this book. Do you really need it?
Rating: Summary: Divinity and More! Review: While I haven't time for an in-depth review of Deities and Demigods, I would say that I think it's one of the finest products produced for the system yet. The two major arguments I've heard against the product here are: 1) Who needs stats for gods? Fair enough, but it isn't as if this book is new to the D&D system. The idea goes back a very long way indeed and has been done more than once. I think once the Epic-Level Campaigns book is released this volume will seem more accessible as well as a more natural progression from the Player's Handbook. Indeed, it seems almost as if the third part of a trilogy was released before the second, but that in no way makes this any less of a fun, useful, and enjoyable romp. For those of you that see this as only a glorified Monster Manual, I say free up your imaginations! 2) It only details four pantheons. True, but it covers them very well. I think this is preferable to having a mixed bag of gods that you can only really use if you play a truly worldly sort of campaign. My only real disappointment with the D&D/Greyhawk Pantheon was that I wanted much, much more of it than was offered. And I think if the biggest problem you have with a book is that you wanted it to be bigger, then you just have to do like I do...and pray for a Deities & Demigods II. The book is simply excellent. It begins by describing topics such as the nature of divinity (how a deity became a deity, where their power stems from, etc.), how to create your own gods, your own pantheons and so forth. There is a list of divine abilities and divine feats for fleshing out deities you create...as well as explaining the powers of those listed within. But, enough of about the nuts and bolts, because we know what everyone's waiting for...the gods! The D&D/Greyhawk Pantheon is a real plus for those of you who want a look at and description of the deities mentioned in the Player's Handbook. It also includes Tiamat and Bahamut (dragon deities), Lolth (Drow), and for some reason Kurtulmak (Kobold). The artwork is Fantastic and the stats given make perfect sense for truly far-reaching epic campaigns. As I said before...the only thing I want from this section of the book is MORE! The remaining three pantheons are Olympian (Greek), Pharonic (Egyptian), and Asgardian (Norse) and each are detailed comprehensibly. There are of course a few players missing from the deck (such as Fenrir from the Asgardian section) but with an average of 20 gods per pantheon you'll have plenty of stuff to keep you occupied and drool over. There are also original examples of monotheistic and dualistic faiths and a mystery cult. These are interesting to compare to the pantheons, especially as you're given details on creating your own, but I prefer the pantheon system as it adds more diversity. The book also includes several monsters spread throughout (cyclops, faun, greater mummy, minions of set, valkyrie, etc.), a few prestige classes and a list of "new" Domains and spells. My only hope is that this book will be followed up, much like the Monster Manual, with a sequel that will detail other pantheons (Celtic? Babylonian?) and include more D&D/Greyhawk gods such as those found in the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer. Until then (assuming it ever happens) enjoy what is here. The seeds for a great deal of high-level fun, and low-level awe when Fharlanghn meets you on the crossroads at the beginning of your next adventure. Oh, yes...and don't let anyone tell you otherwise: The artwork is far beyond "okay"...it is superb!
Rating: Summary: Not bad, but a little dense and dry Review: You think your characters won't ever face a god? Think again! This, of course, is the long-awaited sourcebook on creating and playing D&D divine beings, from quasi-deity einherjar all the way up to supreme nameless deities. It has gobs of information in it; each deity's entry takes up almost two double-columned pages. You'll find out how to build your own deities, and to find out what they can do and how they can do it, and what the DM can do with them. Make no bones about it, this is a book purely meant for the DM (as one can tell by the blue cover). It does give option for PC deities, but those are kind of sparse, like they were really reaching for them. What's good? It has mass quantities of data, and that's always a good thing. It's got great artwork, and it provides some good adventuring material; if nothing else, it gives the PCs something to shoot for. It also serves as sort of a preview for the Epic-Level Handbook; the divine salient abilities are often just several epic-level feats rolled up into one. What's bad? Not really much. After a certain point, mass quantities of data lose their usefulness. I would've liked a bit more information on the default D&D pantheon's temples and clergy, but for the other pantheons one can find out more information at one's library. All in all, it's a pretty good book for the DM. I'd like something like the Book of Priestcraft for more detail on the pantheons, but that's a campaign-specific issue.
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