Books: Forgotten Realms Player's Guide

Supplements for pen-and-paper role-playing games are colloquially known as "splatbooks." These splatbooks provide new rules, new options, and new flavor for both the DM and the players, although most supplements are targeted at one or the other. There haven't been many official splatbooks for 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons, so I picked up the new Forgotten Realms Player's Guide and thumbed through.

The book starts off with a couple of new player races, the Drow and the Genasi. The Drow might as well have a "hey, you can finally play as Drizzt in 4E" tag, since that's clearly where all the Drow flavor is directed towards. The Genasi are neat elemental humanoids (water, fire, earth, etc.) that have several abilities that you can pick and choose from - customization galore.

The part of the FRPG that'll hold the most interest for most people, though, is the new Swordmage class, a defender that uses magic to augment his or her skill at swordplay. There are two main builds - either an assault-type that can use an instant teleport power to take the fight to a monster, or a shielding-type that prevents damage from marked creatures from reaching your allies. The Swordmage is intelligence-based, and most of the powers can hit multiple enemies (giving it some of the ability of a controller). The Fighter is still best at delivering straightforward damage, so there doesn't seem to be too much power creep here.

There are also quite a few new paragon paths. While most are ostensibly tied to the Realms, they can easily be deflavored and added to any game. The final interesting bit is the new Spellscarred character mechanic - essentially a multiclass path with a voluminous powers list to choose from - again, easily reflavored to most campaigns.

The FRPG also includes a brief gazetteer of Toril, the fictional planet where the Forgotten Realms is set. I appreciate that they don't give you too much information - it helps DMs keep a sense of mystery for their games - but it's a pretty flavorless read, especially if you aren't interested in the Realms. Rounding out the book are some new feats and rituals.

So is this worth a purchase? For the steep MSRP of $30, I'd have to say no, but if you can find it on sale, it's probably worth it for the new character options.