Heroes of the Fallen Lands: An Essential Dungeons & Dragons Supplement

by Mike Mearls, Bill Slavicsek, Rodney Thompson

Exciting new builds and character options for the cleric, fighter, ranger, rogue, and wizard classes.

This essential player product for the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons® Fantasy Roleplaying Game presents exciting new builds for the most iconic the cleric, the fighter, the ranger, the rogue, and the wizard. Each class comes with a set of new powers, class features, paragon paths, epic destinies, and more that beginning players can use to build the characters they want to play and experienced players can plunder for existing 4th Edition characters.
 
In addition to new builds, this book presents expanded information and racial traits for some of the game’s most popular races, including dwarves, eladrin, elves, halflings, and humans.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming, Reference

365 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2010

About the author

Mike Mearls is the dark hope of chaotic evil: young, handsome, well endowed in abilities and aptitudes, thoroughly wicked, depraved, and capricious. Whomever harms Mearls had better not brag of it in the presence of one who will inform the Demoness Lolth! Has been sent into this area to rebuild a force of men and humanoid fighters to gather loot and restore the Temple of Elemental Evil to its former glory. Of course, Mearls is but one of many so charged, but he is looked upon with special favor and expectation. He and his minions have been careful to raid far from this area, never nearer than three or four leagues, traveling on foot or being carried in wagons of the traders from Hommlet. None of the victims are ever left alive to tell the tale, and mysterious disappearances are all that can be remarked upon, for no trace of men, mounts, goods, wagons, or draft animals is ever found.

Evil to the core, Mearls is cunning, and if the situation appears in doubt, he will use bribery and honeyed words to sway the balance in his favor. He is not at all adverse to gaining new recruits of any sort, and will gladly accept adventurers into the ranks, but he will test and try them continually. Those who arouse suspicion will be quietly murdered in their sleep; those with too much promise will be likewise dealt with, for Mearls wants no potential usurpers or threats to his domination.

(Major points to anyone who gets the above reference)

When not cribbing the bios of well known AD&D 1st edition villains, I'm a game developer at Wizards of the Coast. I work on the Dungeons & Dragons paper and pencil RPG and the Dungeons & Dragons miniatures game.

Reviews

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the two core player books for D&D Essentials, Heroes of the Fallen Lands covers the more traditional, basic options for the game. Much of the material here is a streamlined version of the Rules Compendium, so this review will only cover material unique to this book. As with the Rules Compendium, it's worth complimenting the clear and accessible presentation of the 4E rules, and they're clearly making an major effort to emphasize flavor throughout - although that flavor still can't hide the system's intense focus on tactical combat over other priorities.

Classes: Chapter 4 of HOTFL covers four basic classes, most with a few variations for theme or flavor. Each class writeup includes advice on customization and role-playing, which is pretty well-done overall (although I wish they covered more than a few specific race-class combos for each). Each class covers its Heroic (1-10), Paragon (11-20), and Epic (21-30) tiers. The Heroic tier typically covers the core expected options for the class; the Paragon tier focuses on a thematic Paragon Path and general improvements; and the Epic tier defaults to a dull and generic (if effective) "lndomitable Champion" Epic Destiny, alongside several stronger class-specific powers. Pretty much every level gives you something, which is a noble idea, but many of the improvements are just minor stat bumps or upgrades of lower-tier features and powers, which can get dull.

The classes are:
- Cleric: This comes with a default "Warpriest" build, and two domains you can choose from (Storm and Sun). The Paragon Path is the "Devout Warpriest". This class was honestly kind of a disappointment - while it functions in its "leader" role, it's less interesting than the Fighter (in martial terms) or the Wizard (in magical terms). (Maybe they had no choice but to do that, for niche protection, but other editions somehow managed to make the cleric more exciting.) They try their best to tie the cleric's powers to their faith, and make them sound cool, but unfortunately it doesn't quite work. It also doesn't help that the Cleric's range of power choices is noticeably limited compared to other editions of D&D; one suspects that the Cleric (and the Wizard, later) had versatility removed for balance reasons. The two domains improve things a little, adding some much-needed flavor, with the Storm Domain essentially turning you into Thor and the Sun Domain making you even better at boosting allies and hindering foes; but the result is still the least exciting of the four classes.
- Fighter: This comes with two builds, the "Knight" (defense-focused) and the "Slayer" (offense-focused). The "Knight" (which expects you to use longsword or warhammer) is the less interesting of the two, though it fills an important niche with its focus on attracting, blocking, and resisting enemy attacks. The Knight's Paragon Path is the "Stalwart Knight". The "Slayer" (which expects you to use greataxe or greatsword) has features reminiscent of D&D's classic Barbarian class, and is the choice for players who want to get into the fray and kill things. Their Paragon Path is the "Mythic Slayer". Both builds seem a little light on powers, but they get lots of other upgrades as they level. The Knight works in 4E's tactical focus, but comes off a little bland otherwise; however, the Slayer works in a more general sense.
- Rogue: The default build here is the iconic "Thief". This class focuses heavily on mobility and striking vulnerable targets, just as you'd expect of the archetype. Of the writeups in the book, this is the one that does the best job of selling 4E's tactical movement, with its fun descriptions of their various "trick" options. Their Paragon Path is the "Master Thief", and both their Paragon and Epic
tiers emphasize stealth. No serious complaints here.
- Wizard: The Wizard's default build is the "Mage", which initially specializes in one of three schools of magic (Evocation, Illusion, or Enchantment). This section is notable for having more detail about 4E's default setting; in fact, the class overall has the most flavorful writeup, including history for a number of spells. The result is that even when the powers are bland, the flavor makes up for it. As with the Cleric, the Wizard has notably fewer spell choices than in other editions, split between spellbook and at-will options. Their Paragon Path is the "Enigmatic Mage", which gives them a little more flexibility. The schools give you some minor bonuses at Heroic tier and a few neat school-exclusive spells (associated with specific legendary wizards) at Paragon tier.

Races: Chapter 5 contains five character races - Dwarves, Eladrin (which fill the niche of other editions' high elves), Elves (essentially wood elves), Halflings, and Humans. Each section is mostly about background and role-playing suggestions, with less than a page of game stats. It's very welcome, and also gives the writers the opportunity to talk about the default 4E setting. Probably the most interesting chapter of the book to read.

Feats: Chapter 7 covers feats, which are closer to 3E's approach than 5E's, focused on specific situational bonuses and additional combat options (though less complex than in 3E). The "Divine Devotion" category is the most flavorful, with each representing dedication to a specific deity.

Equipment: Chapter 8 covers gear and magic items. The lists are much slimmer than in other editions, and the magic items are honestly pretty dull overall, even if the level system is promising from a balance standpoint.

Heroes of the Fallen Lands actually disappoints a little compared to the Rules Compendium, because unlike the Rules Compendium, you wouid expect a player-centric book to really sell you on the role-playing side of the game. This is likely one of the best possible versions of 4E... but as someone who passed over that edition, this book doesn't make me feel any regrets. Still, I can respect this for what it is. (B+)

[Chris Borror · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book one of two and it’s the weaker of the two to be honest. Still great character options and well organized information.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are reading this book, you are almost certainly a dedicated table top gamer [1] looking to imagine the path of a fairly standard track character throughout the entire progress of one's campaign, all the way to the end of the epic level at hundreds of thousands of experience points and likely months or years of playing. It is hard to imagine anyone else getting much out of this book if one was not a role playing gamer, unless it was for someone who was writing about such people or about fantasy characters, and was looking for help in what kind of questions to ask themselves when it came to constructing such characters. Still, it is far more likely they are avid gamers, and there is nothing wrong with that. Although about 350 pages in length, this is not a book that is a daunting read, nor is likely to be read straight through by most people, but rather something kept by an avid gamer as a resource for making certain decisions about their characters or reflecting on their general party balance.

The contents of this book are well-organized, and this is clearly a book that has benefited from a certain polish and expertise on the part of its graphic design and publishing team. It is divided into eight chapters, introducing Dungeons & Dragons, giving a game overview, and giving advice on how to make characters and understand powers. After this the book provides four classes, each with at least one path: Cleric (Warpriest), Fighter (Knight, Slayer), Rogue (Thief), and Wizard (Mage), with various skills to choose from on the heroic, paragon, and epic level. After this the author briefly discusses the races of dwarfs, eladrins, elfs, halflings, and humans. The book then discusses skills, feats, gears and weapons before having a glossary and index. In many ways, this book sacrifices the breath of looking at a wide variety of options for a character in exchange for a great deal of depth in terms of examining how a character moves from humble beginnings to epic power, something gamers may need to be reminded of.

In terms of what a reader gets out of this book, it is the sort of power trip that one can imagine was felt by those who fancied themselves alchemists in days of old. This sort of character creation and shepherding for long periods of time amounts to an extended power fantasy, where humans gain power to the level where their behavior affects the fate of entire planets and planes of existence. This sort of fantasy is certainly a popular one, and it is hard to criticize it without criticizing my own love of role playing games and their epic scope. It is intriguing to see how the designers of a game seek to make it worthwhile to go the extra effort to play a character and to make it stronger and stronger over time, while providing sufficient challenges to test that character and make it of the utmost importance to value the luck of a good role. With great imaginary power comes great imaginary responsibility, after all.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

[Garrett Henke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man, a review of a 4e Essentials product - the “alternate” players handbook no less (one of two anyway). It’s been enough years now that the old controversy that this book (and its companion, Heroes of Forgotten Kingdoms) generated in the D&D community, while not forgotten, is no longer really relevant. After all, pretty much the whole world has moved on to 5e and couldn’t care less about 4e. But it’s because of that lack of emotion over it that it can now be reviewed in a more objective manner.

Overall, I’m not entirely sure who the target audience of this “reboot” really was. Officially, it was for new and returning players to the 4th edition of the D&D game. But Essentials came out at the end of 4e’s lifespan so it couldn’t really achieve this goal. Further, new players would likely be confused as to what books to buy and would likely just go for the traditional Player’s Handbook. As for returning players, WotC was probably talking about Pathfinder players and that ship had already sailed. In the end, Heroes of the Fallen Lands completely failed in its goals. But does that actually mean it’s a bad book?

Well, once you take away its marketing failures, what you’re left with for 4e players and DMs is 5 new classes based on a very different structure than had been utilized at that point, lots of new (and better organized) feats, and a few magic items.

The core of the entire thing is really the five new classes: Two versions of the fighter (knight and slayer), Wizard, Cleric, and Rogue. None of these follow the AEDU structure of the previous PHBs - they resemble more of their historical roots. It’s also clear that a lot of 5e class design came from the Essentials classes. Despite the fact that they are so different structurally, these are good classes. Easier to pick up and play without any level of system mastery, the essentials classes don’t rise to the peaks of power of their PHB counterparts, but they are consistently good with few lows. Most of them probably are not quite as fun to play for 4e veterans, but still interesting enough. The lack of paragon path selection is unfortunate for these classes though and there is only one epic destiny included in the book.

Outside of the classes, the feats in this book are excellent - many of them are almost required for characters (PHB or Essentials) as they are quite powerful. There are not very many of them though meaning that if you are playing a character beyond the heroic tier, you’re going to need at least the PHB to continue.

Overall, despite its failure at all of its marketing goals, D&D Essentials is actually still pretty cool. Humorously, if 4e would have began with the structure as set forth in Essentials, it probably would have been more successful, if not quite as interesting. As a single book, Heroes of the Fallen Lands has lots of cool stuff, but is frustratingly light in places preventing it from reaching greatness.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

The classes are pretty cool especially because they're kinda old-school in feel. It's also nice to have a lot of information about each race. However, this book does lack more than one Epic Destiny, any details on rituals, has only a handful of magic items, and weirdest of all doesn't detail superior weapons. I'm probably going to introduce some of that material back in when I run my campaign. However, it's still weird to have those things missing, especially magic items, which this version of the game seems to have a dearth of in general.

[Pinkorca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This provides a good intro to the universe of DnD, and a great intro to the game. It is a little annoying that this book provides only half the character class and race information and that you are directed towards a different book for the remainder, but I found that it explained the game very clearly and definitely spurred on my excitement to create my own character through its colorful explanations of the world.

[Ryan Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit underwhelming. I wish it had more details on the classes, and better advice about character creation. It was well laid out, but felt a bit sterile.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great intro to D&D 4th ed. Somewhere between a reference book and instructional. The first 3 chapters are instructional the 4th and 5th are mostly reference.