ENWorld is reporting, via the WotC 2009 catalog sent to retailers, that you’ll see the return of some familiar faces in PHB2:
the Players Handbook 2 will include Druid, Barbarian, Sorcerer, Bard, and Swordmage classes (eight in all). New races will include the gnome, the half-orc, and the goliath.
Cynics can now engage their “only delayed those things to make money” while others of us will continue to claim that it was a good move to delay things until they had them ready.
And here’s some background on the Goliath (assuming they keep to the 3.5 fluff.)
(Edit: Swordmage was, in fact, an error, and will just be out in the FR Campaign Setting in September. Thanks to Rob Heinsoo for the correction!)
Unsurprising really.
I mean what did people think? That WotC would release a giant volume like the old Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – with the players rules, game masters rules, monsters, and setting all in one book?
Their goal – as far as I can tell – was to release a _core_ set of rules that functioned well, and formed a reliable framework on which to build.
It’ll be interesting to see if with the PHB2 whether or not the classes continue to conform with the 4 core combat roles: Controller, Defender, Leader, Striker – or whether they’ll add a couple more to round things out. I’m thinking that Druids will likely end up as Controllers, Barbarians as Defenders (with more mobility), Sorcerers as Strikers, Bards as Leaders, and Swordmages as Strikers.
Unless (and this is a big unless) they decide to expand the roles to match the ones found in the monster manual. In Which case I can easily see Barbarians as Brutes, and Sorcerers as Artillery, and Swordmages as Skirmishers.
I think however, the PHB could have been around 50% to 100% bigger with the base classes alone having more than the 3 – 4 powers at each level to choose from. That’s just me though.
I think the best thing about this model is it allows the to build out rather than up. No one wants a supplement arms race and there are still plenty of classes/power sources to cover.
It is also interesting that the Swordmage is included. No need to buy the Forgotten Realms Players guide for only that now.
Russ: Yea but August 2008 vs. Spring 2009 will probably sell a bunch of people on the FR book anyway. Like my player (Joshx0rfz) who will most likely hit level 3 before the Spring! 😀
Despite the fact that I reported this, I’m dubious as to the Swordmage being in there. The others are pretty well confirmed, but I think there may be some mix-up there. Will followup on this.
As The Game began to suspect, there’s no Swordmage in PH2.
I bet I know where the mix-up came from: the Swordmage *is* supported in the Arcane Power book, also announced in this Spring 2009 catalog.
Thanks for the update, Rob!
Feel free to let us know what all is actually in the PHB2… 🙂