The Unapproachable East is a great place to set a Forgotten Realms adventure which is different than your typical "Medieval Western Europe" type fantasy world. Admittedly, the book is not as good as the Silver Marches supplement, but it's pretty close. One reviewer mentioned that the artwork was as good as some home-printing jobbie. I disagree. There is some artwork that is stylisticly different than that we have seen in other WotC FR supplements. Some pieces are outstanding such as the Simbul's Palace and some are quite memorable such as the Ring of Grey Flames. Overall, I liked the art.

Content is also good. Here is a list of the chapters:

1. Introduction
2. Prestige Classes
3. Regions and Feats
4. Magic and Spells
5. Magic Items
6. Monsters
7. Adventuring in the East
8. Aglarond
9. The Great Dale
10. Rashemen
11. Thay
12. Thesk
13. Border Areas

As you can see, the content is pretty well balanced between background campaign information and "guidebook" overviews of the various areas. There is a good amount of plot hooks and plenty of places for a DM to set up a FR adventure that is different from the norm. I paid full price for this book when I bought it at a brick and mortar, and feel that it is well worth the value. There is plenty of material to read and enjoy even if you never use a bit of it for gameplay. It is much better than the 1st edition D&D compilation "Dreams of the Red Wizards". I don't give it five stars because it is not as much value for the money as the FR campaign setting (more pages +map) or the Silver Marches supplement (lower price +map) which I consider the best two FR products so far.


Not as good as Silver Marches.   August 30, 2003
 12 out of 14 found this review helpful

This book is not as detailed as the Siver Marches sourcebook, but it is still a good addition to FR line.

This book covers the regions of Aglrond, The Great Dale, Rashemen, Thay, and Thesk. With some information on surrounding areas too. All of them are detailed farely well. It is enough to get started with adventuring in the East. Although I will probably stay away from Thay.

It has seven new races that populate the east. They are Star elfs, Gnoll, Hagspawn, Spirit Folk, Taer, and Volondi. None of them in my opinion would make a good PC race. With the exception of the Spirit Folk.

The book also contains twelve new prestige classes. The only one I got excited over was the Black Flame Zealot. They are fanatical assassines for the church of Kossuth.

The spells and magical items have a big chunk of rehashed material from other books. I like the monster section though. It contains a a redone dread warrior, JuJu zombies, and some new trolls.

Al in all I thought it was a good book. I give it a 3.5 (rounded up). I think you get the most use out of the material covering the regions. I just wish WOTC would focus more on coming up with new stuff instead of copying material from old sources.


Only for the diehards   August 5, 2003
 10 out of 16 found this review helpful

If you are a hardcore Forgotten Realms fan, you will probably enjoy this book. Others would be well advised to spend their dollars elsewhere. The supposed new spells advertised on the cover are not entirely new at all; one has been around for fifteen years. Plus, the new feats and prestige classes cater only for the FR afficionado, not for anyone else.


Yet another derivative rehashing   July 23, 2003
 9 out of 17 found this review helpful

There is little to be found in this setting that the average gamer couldn't put together on his day-off. That said, most of the classes, locales, and legend echo previously released work by other writers. Reynolds doesn't even attempt to hide this fact, and the enitre work comes off as yet another lukewarm offereing for the Forgotten Realms.


Best place to adventure in Faerun   June 10, 2003
 5 out of 11 found this review helpful

For a more thorough review of this book, check out the review I posted on my Yahoo groups site: "sanantoniodandd." My one complaint about this book is that it does not quite have enough crammed between its pages. The artwork and design are spectacular and, as the title of this review indicates, The Unapproachable East contains enough intriguing campaign information to make most DMs and players agree that it is a far superior adventuring locale than, say, the overplayed and ultimately boring Dalelands and Cormyr. The bad guys are tough: just the way I like them, and, unlike the remainder of Faerun, in this isolated portion of the Realms, you are not likely to have one of the Chosen pop up at the last moment to save the day.

Overall, this is an essential component of any Forgotten Realms library.