Rating: Summary: Practically indespensable Review: After having picked up the Forgotten Realms Boxed Set and finding that it had next to no information on the various pantheons and less on their priests I was fairly disappointed. As such I wasn't able to use priests with the setting because of the annoyingly vague rules about the gods and their accompanying faiths, had I not found this book I'd still be in the same predicament and though I haven't had a chance to use most of it (there's a massive amount of information) what I have used has worked out well and I look forward to more extensive usage of the information. If only it had been included (or maybe an abridged version) in the boxed set.
Rating: Summary: Priests of all Colors Review: Definitely an excellent guide to every major religion in the Realms. There do happen to be a few missing, but it's neither here nor there when you take in all of the information for use in your Forgotten Realms campaign. From specialty priests and their specifics to god-specific spells, you've got enough information to answer any strange question your players throw at you, or at least enough information to squeek your way out of it. This is a must-have item for anybody who uses religion as a role-playing tool in their campaign.
Rating: Summary: Priests of all Colors Review: Definitely an excellent guide to every major religion in the Realms. There do happen to be a few missing, but it's neither here nor there when you take in all of the information for use in your Forgotten Realms campaign. From specialty priests and their specifics to god-specific spells, you've got enough information to answer any strange question your players throw at you, or at least enough information to squeek your way out of it. This is a must-have item for anybody who uses religion as a role-playing tool in their campaign.
Rating: Summary: BEWARE OF THE GODS! Review: Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities make up for one of the BEST Forgotten Realms accessories (they are in trilogy form) ever made. The Trilogy sheds light on exactly what the title says: Gods-and there sure is lots of them! The books, which are very well written and very well presented, also focus on other areas such as each church's distinct culture, tradition, and history. As a result, they will win you over for sure!
Eric Boyd does a FANTASTIC job of presenting the different pantheons, ranging from background history, to rank descriptions, to their respective magic, thus allowing for the creation of important people and characters, to adventure hooks and encounter tables, to magical items and artifacts, to new spells and treasures. This accessory has it all and more!
Each god has his own supplementary text information, clerics' and worshippers' alignments, Specialty Priest class and their alignments, church symbols, specific spells, special abilities, dress garb, even information relating to actual temples.
For other FR references/adventures, I STRONGLY recommend: the Old Empires accessory on Chessenta, Mulhorand, and Unther, Dreams of Red Wizards on Thay, Dwarves Deep, Draconomicon, the Jungles of Chult and Moonsea accessories, the Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep adventures, the Ruins of Myth Drannor (Elven pantheon) and the Ruins of Zhentil Keep Box Sets for Bane vs Cyric material (they are Second Edition AD&D, out of print and it will take a bit of searching, but it's well worth it). For updated editions of events in the Realms, see the Third Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, which even though is quite expensive, is still very useful to all FR fans.
Moreover, for those interested in the gods, the Forgotten Realms novels to read are: The Avatar Trilogy- Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep, the Prince of Lies, and Crucible: the Trial of Cyric the Mad. In addition, the Ring of Winter is relevant to the Chultan pantheon and specifically to Ubtao, as it is the only novel set in the Jungles of Chult.
Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities along with the Forgotten Realms Adventures accessory, and the three Forgotten Realms Campaign Settings (one for each edition) are a "must!" They all compliment each other.
Whether you are playing in the Forgotten Realms or in the Planes, this trilogy of books will be of tremendous help in collecting all the information you'll ever need.
Rating: Summary: The ultimate book for running priests in Forgotten Realms! Review: Finally, TSR made a book focusing the role-play! The Faiths & Avatar series gives to the priests of the Forgotten Realms details of church organization, specialty priests powers, and more! Some information was retrieved from older books (i.e. Forgotten Adventures and the first Boxed Set), but that's revised, and a lot of new information was added (including the Avatar statistics and powers). One of the best Forgotten Realms accessories ever published.
Rating: Summary: The ultimate book for running priests in Forgotten Realms! Review: Finally, TSR made a book focusing the role-play! The Faiths & Avatar series gives to the priests of the Forgotten Realms details of church organization, specialty priests powers, and more! Some information was retrieved from older books (i.e. Forgotten Adventures and the first Boxed Set), but that's revised, and a lot of new information was added (including the Avatar statistics and powers). One of the best Forgotten Realms accessories ever published.
Rating: Summary: Finally the priest class is given praise Review: First I would like to comment the section in the book where the powers of the gods are described. It says that after the time of trouble each god's power are defined by the number of followers.Why then isn't Tempus the most powerful god? After all warriors outnumber mages by 1 to 1000 even in the realms.I know Ed Greenwood created the realms and that Mystra is his favourite god and all,but still. The many variations from speciality priest to speciality priest has made them the most popular choice of character in my campaign. In my opinion one of the best accessories so far.
Rating: Summary: Mostly reprinted materials Review: I bought this book and was pretty dissapointed. Mostly because almost all of the gods are reprinted from the Forgotten Realms Adventures hardcover book. If you don't have that book well this would probably be a good one.
Rating: Summary: Don't hesitate! Review: I felt like I was taking a chance bying this book, hard to understand what is really in it by these reviews. The content is as follows: An introduction to the Powers of the realms. (How worship works, how spheres work, Births & Deaths of Powers, Divine abilities and Members of the Clergy). The Fearûnian Pantheon (Listing all the Deities, naming their aliases, allies, foes, symbols etc etc. Then describing its avatar, church and special priest.) At the end there is listed a number of priest classes: Clerics, Crusaders, Druids, Monks, Mystics and Shamans. Then it describes these classes.So why should you buy this book? Maybe you need some in-depth information for a number of priests in your realm, or you need a circle of believers, maybe you need a divine opposing power, a cult worshipping a power they are trying to restore. This book provides the perfect solution and information for you. Maybe you just need new priest spells, then there are a handfull listed for every Speciality Priest in this book. 196 pages total with colour drawings of all the deities' separate priests. B/W pictures of groups of deities within the pages aswell. An enjoyable and very useful book.
Rating: Summary: This book is great! Review: I have had this book for a while now and am finally getting around to reviewing it. Granted, some material is repetitive but anything that is repeated is then expanded on. I use the book for all differant campains, it is a good guide for a DM that needs to create a god, and also a good guide for a PC interested in what the godsreally do. Since I got the book it has rarely been in my hands, all my friends want to borrow it and get some ideas for their characters. I think this book gets more use than my Players Handbook, and if you are looking for a new book to add to your collection deffinantly try this one.
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