Reviews

Frostburn: Mastering the Perils of Ice and Snow by George Strayton, Dennis Crabapple McClain, Ed Cox, Steve Ellis, Mitch Cotie, Wolfgang Baur, James Jacobs, David Griffith, Dan Scott, Doug Kovacs, David Hudnut, Steve Belledin, Dana Knutson

apostrophen's review

4.0

Akin to “Stormwrack,” and “Sandstorm,” “Frostburn” takes your Dungeons and Dragons game to areas of extreme cold, be they frozen abyssal layers, high altitude glaciers, or just Canada in winter (I kid). Coining a new term for these places of extreme cold – Frostfell – the frostfell environments are described in detail, given a list of hazards (everything from frostbite to snow blindness to hypothermia and to magical terrors such as snowflake lichen). Each of the core races gets a quick re-hash from a Frostfell point of view (Glacier Dwarves, Tundra Halflings, for example), and two new core races are introduced: the high-climate Neanderthals, and the mystic Uldras, who have a strong connection to a broken goddess who survives frozen in the frostfell regions. The gods and goddesses of the Frostfell are also discussed, some from the various worlds of Dungeons and Dragons (including Greyhawk!) New feats are listed (including mundane ones such as ‘Altitude Adaption’ and magical feats such as ‘Snowcasting’), as are ten prestige classes, including a psionic cryokineticist, the stormsinger, and – my favourite – the Frost Mage. Equipment and gear gains a brief chapter, and then magic has a chapter of its own, all, of course, with a frosty flair. Monsters round out the book, many of them interesting and well put together, and two adventure sites, including the demon-inhabited floating iceberg city of Icerazor, give an easy in for Dungeon Master’s wanting to add the book’s information to their campaign. This book gets a lot of use in my group – definitely worth it.