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Underdark
Underdark provides a wealth of highly detailed information about one of the most popular regions in the Forgotten Realms world, the world beneath the ground.
Underdark includes details on the most popular Underdark race, the drow, plus 16 other below-ground character races. In addition to 25 new regional feats as well as new prestige classes, spells, monsters, and magic items, there is also background content on 60 cities and sites of interest, including extensive story content gathered from a multitude of Forgotten Realms products and articles.
To help both players and dungeon masters use the book without players stumbling onto things they shouldn't, additional material for running a campaign is isolated in a single section of the book and includes adventure hooks.
To use this accessory, you also need the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual.
Underdark includes details on the most popular Underdark race, the drow, plus 16 other below-ground character races. In addition to 25 new regional feats as well as new prestige classes, spells, monsters, and magic items, there is also background content on 60 cities and sites of interest, including extensive story content gathered from a multitude of Forgotten Realms products and articles.
To help both players and dungeon masters use the book without players stumbling onto things they shouldn't, additional material for running a campaign is isolated in a single section of the book and includes adventure hooks.
To use this accessory, you also need the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Bruce R. Cordell
165 books123 followersBruce R. Cordell authored books for Dungeons & Dragons over the course of 4 editions (2nd Edition through 5th Edition D&D). These days, he’s a senior designer for Monte Cook Games, LLC designing Numenera , Gods of the Fall, and The Strange. Also a novel author, his credits include several titles set in the Forgotten Realms. Bruce’s tenth novel, Myth of the Maker, is just out from Angry Robot Books:
http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/2017...
http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/2017...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 21, 2017
I both liked and disliked this sourcebook. There's a disconnect between the meaty parts and the flavour parts, so it's value depends on what you're looking for.
The flavour and lore parts are really great. It provides varied details that come together to paint a vivid world beneath the surface of Faerûn. There's a little bit of everything - the aberrations, the high societies of drow and duergar, invaders from another setting, even outer planar visitors. It's a great resource for world-building and underground adventures.
Too bad the meaty parts don't gel nicely. The new races presented are all uninteresting to me - I can't get a "feel" of what they're like (aside from the already well-established drow, duergar, and svirfneblin). They're also mostly high ECL races, which aren't really that nice to play. The prestige classes are boring - they wouldn't be enticing to players, both in terms of mechanics and in terms of role-playing. Some of them have odd nonsensical entry requirements. The items are adequate, with a few new materials and special attributes. The spells felt a bit unimaginative - with a large number of them being greater/lesser/mass variants and a whole bunch of node spells (magic-buffing earth nodes, a feature of the Underdark).
All in all, if you like the Forgotten Realms, and want to get a better picture of the Underdark, then this will be an awesome sourcebook. But if you're looking for more underground adventuring options and how to run more realistic subterranean explorations, then this would be a poor sourcebook.
The flavour and lore parts are really great. It provides varied details that come together to paint a vivid world beneath the surface of Faerûn. There's a little bit of everything - the aberrations, the high societies of drow and duergar, invaders from another setting, even outer planar visitors. It's a great resource for world-building and underground adventures.
Too bad the meaty parts don't gel nicely. The new races presented are all uninteresting to me - I can't get a "feel" of what they're like (aside from the already well-established drow, duergar, and svirfneblin). They're also mostly high ECL races, which aren't really that nice to play. The prestige classes are boring - they wouldn't be enticing to players, both in terms of mechanics and in terms of role-playing. Some of them have odd nonsensical entry requirements. The items are adequate, with a few new materials and special attributes. The spells felt a bit unimaginative - with a large number of them being greater/lesser/mass variants and a whole bunch of node spells (magic-buffing earth nodes, a feature of the Underdark).
All in all, if you like the Forgotten Realms, and want to get a better picture of the Underdark, then this will be an awesome sourcebook. But if you're looking for more underground adventuring options and how to run more realistic subterranean explorations, then this would be a poor sourcebook.
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May 5, 2016I'm not personally a big fan of Forgotten Realms-- it's subgenre is a little too high magic for my tastes-- but this is barely a FR book. The Underdark has always been it's own little mini-setting. I know the Underdarks of Greyhawk & Faerun are supposed to be different but...Erelhei-Cinlu & Menzoberranzan are totally trading partners in my headcanon. Since I'm running Out of the Abyss, I've been flipping through this a lot. As a 3e sourcebook it's utility is limited-- high ECL player races never work right & the prestige classes aren't that seductive-- but as a source of worldbuilding, it is great. --MK
April 11, 2020
Jeżeli uzupełnimy ten dodatek o ,,Menzoberanzan'' z czwartej edycji to uzyskamy pełny obraz podziemia i istot które zamieszkują ta dziure
February 5, 2015
My bedtime reading for the past few weeks. There's something really soothing--even soporific--about game books. At the same time, there's that element of unexamined social assumptions . . . What has been seen cannot be unseen, at least for me.
October 9, 2007
This is a really great supplement that's actually worth owning. I think it does a better job than the 2ed book.
January 25, 2008
It's like the FR Campaign Setting for the Underdark.
March 2, 2014
A very nice book about everything of Faerün's Underdark: races, prestige classes, magic, monsters, and a nice brief about the main cities and special places. Updates nicely all 2nd ed. Material.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews