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Player's Handbook 2: A 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook (Bk.2) |  | Go Tell a Friend | |
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| Authors: Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $18.74
as of 3/10/2010 17:18 CST details
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Seller: bookoutlet1
Rating:  66 reviews
Sales Rank: 2887
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0786950161
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.93
EAN: 9780786950164
ASIN: 0786950161
Publication Date: March 17, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780786950164 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Players Handbook II
Information
Release Date - March 2009
Game Type - Role Playing Game (RPG)
Page Count - 224
Hard Cover
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 66
Review February 11, 2010
Dan W. Feldner (Minot, ND)
A must have for all D&D players in 4th addition. Though if you have insider this book can be almost pointless. Though there is always somethig to be said about having the information you need in physical form. Will most likely be purchasing a second copy sooner rather than later to help with growing demands for D&D in our house hold.
 Good for the system, still bad for D&D November 4, 2009
Michigoon (Mid-MI)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is a hard one to review. On the one hand, all of the bits are technically pretty well-balanced and add a lot of options to D&D 4th edition. On the other hand, most everything presented here still ruins the flavor of D&D as most have known it.
The bits: Presented are 5 new races that blend fairly well with the basic onces- keep in mind the basic book includes Dragonborn and feytouched Eladrin and demonic Tieflings, so there's a lot of far-out flexibility there. There's several new Classes presented that are all mostly solid. Of special note is the Sorceror which has both proven popular with power gamers for being very friendly to "min-maxing" (or using the rules to the utmost to create the most powerful character), while not completely breaking the game. There's also a smattering of feats and items, although most of what's presented is locked to the new races and classes. If you made your character in the first handbook and you're just looking for options, you'll really only find a handful per section that you can use. the book is Wizards' usual quality, complete with a host of errors that already have a free PDF online to help you correct.
The mechanics: Big portions of this book sadly fall into the category of making certain classes almost entirely locked to certain races, and vice versa. Half-Orcs and the Barbarian class are obviously made for each other. The Sorceror class, with heaps of mentions of "Dragon" and "Draconic" per page, obviously lends itself to the Dragonborn. The Avenger and the Devas were obviously developed together as well (you can use Intelligence to swing a Greatsword?). There's some flexibility there, but you're left with a strong impression that you can't really break the mold in this game, especially with multiclassic essentially gone.
The flavor: 4th edition chose to focus on a more "wild" and "chaotic" feel, moving away from the musty old tomes and cloistered cities that once defined the series. This book takes that to the extreme, with all of the races but one being of a wild and wandering nature. Half-Orcs live in tribes and may blend into cities. Gnomes are a slave race with no home. Goliaths are mountain-men. Shifters are partial were-animals. And then you have celestial Devas, who are incredibly civilized heavenly beings? The art and the flavor for devas is very cool, but things just don't come together on that one. You wind up getting the impression that the flavor followed behind the form on this one. The book needed a race that could min-max for magical Classes (and swing a sword with their IQ), just as well as Goliaths match fighting, and hence the Devas came about. The only thing missing is a class that can cast magic using their physical Strength, right? Well hold on, because Sorcerors can actually do that. No longer does your muscle-bound, melee-loving brute of a character need to be burdened by a lack of spellcasting. See the comment about min-maxing.
The money: PHB2 is also an exercise in getting you to pay a lot of money for something you shouldn't have had to. Half-Orcs made it into the basic book for 3.X Edition, and they should still be in now. Bards should also be in the basic book, having been staples of the game since its very early days. Virtually every gaming group I know has had to get PHBII to recover these missing options, which is great for Wizards' pocketbooks, but causes players to spend more money and have to and look across two books where there should be one.
If you haven't gotten into this 4th Edition yet, or if you're on the fence about whether or not you like the base system, I can say this probably won't do much to help your fears. Despite the new options, this book actually makes your lack of options (in terms of character growth and power builds) under the new system much more evident. The book also strongly enforces the change in flavor of the game- which very frankly is a modified Eberron (from the recent Last War to the more wild flavor, and so forth).
So overall, the question of whether or not you're going to like this book is largely based on whether you really like the changes in 4th edition as a whole, and whether you're already invested in the system. There's plenty of good options here if you're already playing the 4e game, and in fact it's pretty much necessary considering core Races and Classes are contained herein.
4ed Players Handbook 2 October 16, 2009
Ben W. Ellis
A good useful book containing som eof the more interesting classes and races. Not many new magical items unfortunitly, but all in all a very useful book.
 Options, Options, Options... October 5, 2009
Rion Wetzel (Sheboygan, WI)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Players Handbook 2 is a great product for anyone playing 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. With new classes, and tons of player options, I would find it hard to play D&D without this valuable resource. Buy it now!
Avengers, and Druids, and Shamans, oh my! September 14, 2009
Matthew Bible (Salem, OR USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a surprisingly solid release. When I first got it and looked through it, it seemed that the class concepts were a little flimsy and I was concerned that my players would shy away from trying them out. However, a couple of them jumped at the chance, and proved that the classes in this release are quite as solid as those from the first handbook, and a lot of fun to play. The Warden is my particular favorite, and seems to have the ability to be the most successful tank in the game, despite his inability to wear heavy armor.
This book makes no pretense of doing anything other than providing some new classes and races and things that go along with them (paragon paths and backgrounds for char creation). There are one or two rule changes included, but very minor. Consequently, it does its job well and thoroughly and makes for an excellent, fun, and clean-cut resource. Though why anyone would ever play a bard still boggles the mind.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 66
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