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Title: The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition, Phbr9. Player's Handbook Rules suPplement) by Douglas Niles ISBN: 1-56076-573-9 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: March, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (6 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Complete perhaps, but uninspired
Comment: Third edition Dungeons & Dragons changes the veteran races of gnome and halfling, but those resistant to such change shouldn't pick up this volume to see what it is they preferred about the older versions, nor should enthusiasts of the races, of any version, think they're getting something that will be of much use to them, either for ideas or actually crunchy rules stuff.
Part of the problem is that both races had (and perhaps still have) something of an identity issue. Second edition AD&D (and previous) halflings are hobbits, and all the protestations in the world can't make that go away. There have been successful AD&D and D&D supplements about halflings, but they chose to ignore this fact and give richly detailed backgrounds that would fill in why halflings are how they are, without the looming presence of the Tolkein estate hovering in the background. Ed Greenwood did an especially nice job with the D&D "Five Shires" Gazetteer, for instance.
Here, though, we get few new details, other than a reiteration of what we already know (halflings like community, food and comfort ... all of which we picked up in the first 10 pages of "The Hobbit"). Instead, there's a comprehensive gathering of halfling information from previous AD&D sources. While there may well be campaigns that would like to import the kender from the Dragonlance world, some of the other inclusions are baffling: Wouldn't anyone who wants the cannibalistic halflings of Athas have bought "Dark Sun," and not this book? Who needs the polar halflings?
What makes this more frustrating is that space is at a premium in this supplement, as the two least-popular races are forced to share the same space. So the pages wasted on polar halflings, Athas halflings and (arguably) the kender, could and should have been used for something, anything to round out the standard races that the consumer presumably purchased the book for.
If the halflings are too identified with their source, gnomes suffer the opposite problem. Most D&D players asked to describe gnomes draw a blank, mumble something about illusions or Dragonlance tinker gnomes, and then change the subject. The simple fact is that most gamers (and D&D authors) don't have the cultural grounding to use mythic gnomes in D&D and gnomes were something of a blank slate until the Dragonlance novels were published, filling that blank slate with something new of Weis' and Hickman's invention.
For better or worse, the tinker gnome idea caught on, with even TSR allowing the idea to spread to other game worlds: A far better supplement than this is "Top Ballista," for the OD&D game, detailing the flying city of Serraine, built by the tinker gnomes' more successful cousins in the world of Mystara, the skygnomes. Today, hundreds of thousands of EverQuest players are familiar with the tinkering gnomes of Norrath, and the idea has appeared in other versions elsewhere.
Now, if there wasn't a desire to use the tinker gnome template more widely in this book -- although we already got Spelljammer, Dark Sun and planes-hopping references in this book, and sometimes in the mouths of the characters used in the game fiction -- surely the all but untapped origins of the gnome could have been explored. We would have also gotten a breath of fresh air in a D&D cosmos that often smelled like Tolkein's musty old study, where little fresh air had entered in decades.
This isn't a horrible product -- and there were those in this line of Complete Books -- but it's also not very good. This is really only worth purchasing if you're a D&D completist. If you're a fan of either of these races, you'll most likely be disappointed. Go hunt down "The Five Shires" or "Top Ballista" instead.
Rating: 4
Summary: A great addition to any collection
Comment: This book was very well written and interesting, however it was not without its flaws. On the whole, this is a very useful supplement for DM's and players. Its real use lies in role-playing and gaining understanding of the attitudes and ideas of the various subraces of gnomes and halflings. This book does contain an exceptional collection of subraces and kits, but very few other 'rules.' Sadly, the extra equipment, proficiencies, and spells of the other Complete Handbooks have been left out to save space. The book is divided completely in half, each section for a different race.
The sections of this book devoted to the attitudes and ways of life of the two races were top notch. They detail these 'little people' very well, painting a different picture than just the 'prankster gnome' or the 'lazy halfling.' The kits also are exceptional. Most people seem to believe that almost all adventuring gnomes will be illusionists and adventuring halflings will be thieves, but this book dispels that notion. The brave gnomish Goblinsticker and the dutiful halfling Constable are both interesting warriors, and can be a potent surprise for anyone who believes that something smaller than a dwarf can not be a great fighter. There are also kits for multi-classed characters that replicate classes barred to these races. The Stalker kit is for a gnome fighter/thief, and very closely resembles a ranger. The halfling Constable is similar to a paladin, and both races have pseudo-druids as well. There is even a gnomish thief/illusionist filling the role of a bard.
The subraces in this book are interesting, well developed, and fun to play. The tinker gnomes and kender will be a lot of fun for anyone unfamiliar with DragonLance, and the clear division of hairfeet, stout, and tallfellow halflings was useful. I thought the addition of Athasian Halflings to this book was a waste of space, as the DarkSun statistics are radically different from more conventional AD&D, and difficult to convert. Anyone who can use these characters probably already has the DarkSun books detailing them, and there was nothing new about them presented here. The svirfneblin (deep gnomes) have a number of special abilities, but they were no more powerful than any other Underdark race. Also the addition of forest gnomes and arctic halflings was particularly entertaining.
One of the biggest strengths of this work lies in the maps. The last chapter of each section was devoted to maps of typical racial settlements. Included are a completely fleshed out gnomish city and a halfling shire. These are invaluable to a DM either seeking to run an exclusively gnome or halfling campaign, or just add depth to a location that would probably otherwise be just 'Halfling Village 1.'
This book contains overviews of the pantheon of each race, but this information will be of little use to players who own either Monster Mythology or Demihuman Deities. Because this information is printed in a much more complete form in two other works, I feel this space would have been much better used to describe additional illusionist spells, magical items, or even racial equipment. The inclusion of things like Gnomish Workman's Armor from the Arms and Equipment Guide, or rules governing the creation of tinker gnome devices would have been much more useful.
The lack of new proficiencies is disappointing, but many of the proficiencies from the Complete Book of Dwarves are appropriate for gnomes, and both races can make good use of the proficiencies from many of the other handbooks, especially the Complete Thief's Handbook. Also, something tinker gnomes fans might look for is an original D&D supplement called Top Ballista. The proficiencies included there, especially Fantasy Physics, greatly increase the role-playing possibilities for the Minol.
This book is a valuable resource to anyone wishing to play a well developed gnome or halfling character, and also to a DM wishing to detail single NPCs or entire communities of gnomes and halflings. Additional information would have been useful, but even without it, this book is well worth the price.
Rating: 4
Summary: Something is missing
Comment: I liked the book and some of the kits were useful in my campaign, but why are there no proficiencies listed like the complete book of dwarves? Good book but it doesn`t beat the complete book of elves and dwarves.
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