top of page

Midgard Heroes Handbook -- Game Review

New to our RPG review format? Check out our review guidelines.

Kobold Press has brought their popular Midgard setting to D&D 5th edition with this rich and highly-adaptable book. Even if you've never played a Midgard game, this book is a tremendous resource, offering amazing options that easily fit into any setting. It is best described as being something like another Player's Handbook. The book features 10 new playable races such as Centaurs, Minotaurs, Dhampirs, and Gearforged, and variants of standard D&D races, such as Winterfolk Halflings and Southlands Dwarves. Though it offers no new base classes, the book does offer some variants on existing classes that can bring a lot of flavor to your game. There are 16 archetypes for the various standard classes that offer options like vampire-slayer rangers, griffon-riding fighters, and some diverse variants on rogue such as the combat-oriented duelist and the street-smart fixer archetype. There is a fantastic section that adds a ton of new feats and more than a dozen new backgrounds. Many of the backgrounds are tied to the Midgard setting, but can be adapted to other settings. Some of the backgrounds, such as miner, and prophet feel like they belong in the standard rules. One of the best parts of the book is the section dedicated to weapon options--types of actions that anyone proficient with a given weapon can perform when weilding it. This actually has rules for tripping an enemy with your glaive, using your shortsword when grappled, and vaulting over an obstacle with your quarterstaff. This book is well worth reading for these options alone--since there's a player in every game who wants to pull off some sort of maneuver with their weapon. One of the things that Midgard is known for is its expanded magic rules. The Heroes Handbook continues the tradition of their 'deep magic' series of supplements for Pathfinder and now D&D 5e by bringing some excellent optional rules. The book contains dozens of new spells, but on top of that, it also has a bunch of great options for casters. For clerics, there are more than a dozen new domains, such as mountain, travel, and beer! There are a handful of warlock pacts, such as shadow and genie lord. Wizards have another 8 options for arcane traditions that involve things like angelic magic, ritualistic high-elven magic, and elementalisim--a long-time favorite of players. Overall, this is a solid book that can add to any 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons game. It's largely on-par with the quality of the standard D&D guidebooks in terms of art and writing. It brings new depth to any game with its rich assortment of races and class options that can keep the game fresh and new for veteran players.

And have a look at some of our other RPG-related articles:

bottom of page