Power of Faerun (Forgotten Realms) [Hardcover]

When the discussion turns to high-level PCs and what to do with them, ultimately the challenge to the DM becomes finding something to challenge the players. A Demon Lord? Demi-God? A Horde of Dragons? The Power of Faerun takes a different approach to high level characters, offering different avenues of challenges to players. The book provides background and rules on how players can rise in ranks and stature as more than just adventurers. Maybe you want to gain fame and power in the court of a ruling kingdom, as a priest in a religion or cult, or as a military commander. Perhaps you seek to become the Donald Trump of the Forgotten Realms by amassing great wealth without having to risk your life, or maybe you want to rule your own kingdom. The Power of Faerun explains how to do all of this and more.

The opening chapter, "Order in the Court" covers how to play a member of a royal court as perhaps a Steward, Chancellor, or Ambassador. The player will learn how to deal with court intrigues and plots, draft laws and royal decrees, and the fine art of diplomacy. Rules are also provided on how players can gain nobility status, even if they were not born of noble blood.

"Win the Battlefield" discusses how a player can rise to power as a military commander, earning ranks, commendations, learning how to command and lead armies and how to deal with subordinates. A couple of short, sample military campaigns are included to get both the player and DM started. Maybe you want to rise to the top in the priesthood in a religion or cult; "Keep the Faith" explains how to do so. Rise to the titles of bishop or archbishop, deal with rival faiths or cults, and build a religious stronghold.

One of the most intriguing chapters is "Play the Market" which explains the Merchant prince class and how a player can achieve power by amassing great wealth. Deal in trade both legal or illegal, control shipping routes on both land and sea, and learn to create a monopoly. You'll also learn how to form a trade consortium and establish and run guilds. Other chapters will cover how to become a frontier leader, where you will establish new domains for your subjects and how to rule them and deal with problems as diverse as marauding bandits to feeding your people. Ready to rule right away? Then The Power of Faerun lists numerous tiny border kingdoms that are ready for the picking.

But less you think the book is all cerebral, some serious, high level challenges are presented in chapter seven. This chapter explains how to introduce powerful beings like Gods, ancient dragons, and other, powerful NPC adventurers, into the game to both oppose and influence the players. These are provided as "adventure seeds" to help jumpstart a campaign. A smattering of new spells and magic items are included.

The Power of Faerun isn't about hacking and slashing and it probably won't appeal to all players or DMs. The book's goal is to give players a different kind of power. Rather than just the personal power of their sword arms or spells, the book provides the power of influence and command which can be even more potent. In these positions of power the players can have legions of underlings to do their bidding and can even influence great rulers. While the appeal may be a bit narrow, for those players wishing to move their high level characters in a bold, new direction, The Power of Faerun certainly is an interesting way to go.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Power of Faerun

Written by Ed Greenwood and Eric L. Boyd

Published by Wizards of the Coast

www.wizards.com/forgottenrealms

160 full color pages

Hardback

ISBN 10: 0-7869-3910-9

$29.95

Power of Faerun is devoted to bringing the game outside the dungeon and to the courts, churches and wilderness by focusing on areas of character growth that while involving power, often involve power of a sort not traditionally associated with Dungeons and Dragons characters.

Ed Greenwood and Eric L. Boyd are two of the best scribes of Forgotten Realms material and while the game mechanics fall flat more often than not, thankfully the majority of the book is in the form of non-game mechanics with background details.

Interior artists include Lucio Parrillo, who also handles the cover, as well as fan favorite William O'Connon along with others like Eric Deschamps, Francis Tsai and others. Kyle Hunter handles the cartography this time around and provides maps that are generally easy to read and easy to use.

The graphic design, like most of the Forgotten Realms books, is top notch. The yellowed parchment pages still look great even years latter. Use of sidebars with darker yellow easily catch the eyes. Chapter titles are at the top of the page centered while on the bottom are page numbers. Layout is standard two-column format and makes good use of white space despite the page within a page design of the book.

In terms of coverage, the book provides little bites on numerous areas. It starts off with wielding power in the courts and moves to the battlefield. From the battlefield to the churches. From the churches to the market. From the market to the wild frontier. From the frontier to patrolling the roads.

Each section provides use of the Leadership feat as well as how to `play' that type of game. For example, when looking at Keep the Faith, information on what religious leaders do, as well as methods of daily worship, are provided. One nice resource is the listing of Faith Specific Prestige Classes in one spot.

Notes on moving up the different ranks are included. Looking at the frontier section for example, provides information on being a vassal state or a fiefdom, how to hold a territory and how to fight off the various threats ranging from bandits and brigands to diseases and monsters.

Each section has it's own maps and NPCs to help the GM use the material right away. If you wanted some sample frontier strongholds, you have Wolfwatch Manor and Stormhawk Keep, each mapped out with an overview and numbered with details. Stormhawk for example has fifteen different locations from the Foreyard to the Feasting Hall.

The section on Play the Market provides Dabron Sashenstar, a high powered merchant prince and his unique mount as well as details on his challenge to the Iron Throne's hold on weapons trade in the Heartlands. A place where clever players can start with Dabron as a patron and perhaps move into their own efforts.

My favorite part is probably the section on the market. When reading one of Raymond Feist's books, there was a whole section with the characters working the market and effecting change on the setting not through swords, but through trade. It's an area that despite six years of an open game license, has rarely, if ever, been detailed. The only weakness is that the section relies on the user have the Dungeon Master's Guide II as it uses the rules for running a business.

From there it moves on to discussing challenges for high level characters. Some of these are obvious like working for or against deities. Regardless of character level, deities are often able to provide challenges. After deities the older dragons are another great adversary. The most interesting option for high level characters though, are other high level characters.

This involves the most work on the GM's part while providing the most dangerous options. For some GM's, it's almost too easy to customize a villain to counter a player, especially a player whose ultra-specialized in one field. Have a fantastic ability to deal death with a greatsword but a terrible fortitude save? Have awesome abilities with fire magic but no enchantment? Still, the advice on using rivals is a good place to get ideas.

Sometimes though, it's not the strength of an individual enemy, but rather, that enemy's horde that you have to worry about. Wizards of the Coast recently put their money where their mouth was with this idea and their adventure, The Red Hand of Doom, deals with adventurers fighting against humanoids and their masters, the dragons.

In addition to details on different character options, details on the Border Kingdoms are included. The Border kingdoms fill a useful role in being a place that the GM can manipulate for his own use, much in the way a similar named kingdom in the Warhammer setting can be used. A place where characters should be able to make long term changes.

Details are included for numerous parts of the land including Bedron, The Land of Two Princes, Owlhold and the Realm of the Ready Sword. Each section gets it's own brief details but is more or less there to provide the GM a place to put his own marker, much like say the Wilderlands of the old Judges Guild.

The book closes off a bit weak with a section on how to rule. This includes expanded Leadership scores and rules for bringing in, and losing cohorts and followers. It's a solid chapter but could be used for any campaign as opposed to just a Forgotten Realms game. Included with the expanded chart for Epic Leadership, are feats to augment leadership such as, yes, Epic Leadership and Born Leaders, a feat that provides a bonus to your leadership score and a bonus to your Influence modifier.

Power of Faerun is a solid book for any D&D campaign. While the specifics are Forgotten Realms, they can serve as examples for someone running a Greyhawk or Eberron game. The rules and methods of working for the church or fighting in the courts are often overlooked in the game and this book provides background information on ideas of what type of conflicts and rewards await those whose dungeon is a castle or cathedral.

I'm a freak for the Realms, and honestly, I have to have every new book that comes out for the campaign setting, but this is the first release that really had me wondering if I should have made the purchase. Granted, I love the fact that you are given the options herein to start your own merchant empire or head the church of your chosen faith, but many of these options require the purchase of other books to take full advantage of them, which I find deceptive. It shouldn't take much for a resourceful DM to get around these problems, but still, it would be nice to have all of the rules in one spot so that we wouldn't have to constantly flip between books, or worse yet, fork out another $40 for the one rule we need. WoTC, I understand that you're trying to make a profit, but most of us aren't independently wealthy. Go easy on us!

As always, the artwork is topnotch and the entries are well-arranged and informative. I would have liked some more non-dragon epic challenges and perhaps a section on Faerun-specific epic magic items and NPCs, but I guess you can't cram everything into one book. In all, an interesting book with some good ideas, but with more flaws than I would have liked. Buy it if you're a completist, but be prepared for a subpar entry in the series.