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As a primary game master, Hero’s Handbook, Eladrin, pleasantly surprised me. The book includes a wide range of information that will be useful to gamers of different stripes.
For fans of the Goodman Games setting Aereth, it includes background information on how the elves came to split into the eladrin, elves, and dark elves.
For those just wanting ‘general’ or ‘generic’ all purpose background material, it’s provided. While it does suffer a little from ‘elves is best’ writing, “Eladrin clothing is beautiful and of superb craftsmanship’ that isn’t back up in any game mechanics terms (what’s that awesome clothing worth for example), it does include a lot of ideas on their ‘court’ system following a seasonal theme with role playing notes not just for Eladrin in general, but how they are per court. This includes providing numerous NPCs for the game master’s use.
Players looking for more than just flavor though also have the standard new toys ranging from new rituals and magic items, to feats and paragon paths.
For me as a game master though, I was most intrigued by the ideas on the Fey Realm and the monsters included. For example, the bonegrinder, a giant that, yes, grinds bones to, and a follow up monster, the dough golem, crafted from the flour made from the bonegrinder’s mills. More standard creatures like centaur’s and various types of hags, including an old favorite, Baba Yaga, are also included.
The details on the Fey Realm include Eladrin cities as well as methods of going to and returning from the Fey Realm. To me, this was almost more useful than the information on the Eladrin because while 4e has used the Fey Realm for many a thing, it’s not explicitly detailed and it can use the fleshing out that’s provided here.
By making the book GM focused as well as player focused, I find Eladrin to be immediately useful not only in providing my players with possible options, but in detailing the world the players adventure in.
| Classement: | | [4 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Forgotten Heroes Scythe and Shroud introduces the new power source Death and with it, four new classes. To me, a power source is merely an ‘effect’. Much like the Hero game system where you can have an energy blast that does 1d6 per rank, you get to choose what the effect is. In D&D 4e, they went the opposite route in that they tell you what the effect is, but most of the game mechanics are of a similar level in terms of power.
The book is lightly illustrated and my only complaint would be that the illustrations all don’t follow a ‘type’ if you will. For example, while I enjoy Marcio Fiorito’s art and his known for many of his d20 illustrations in the past, his style is crisp and clean, almost comic book like, and it fails to mesh with some of the others like Doug Kovacs or Brad McDevitt.
Like the previous Forgotten Heroes book, this one does a little more than just throw the classes at you. It provides some other details as to how the classes might get along. What sort of conflicts they may come into. Because it’s also a power source on death, it includes details on some planar destinations for you when a character dies, and some adventure hooks. For example, Sheol is the Final Destination. A group of planar travelers is building a sphere to travel there and deities do not wish this to happen. Or a renegade angel claims that Sheol holds a secret the gods to not wish to learn. These are far from fully fleshed out ideas but the seeds should be enough to get any creative juices flowing.
Each class includes all standard class traits; Role, Power Source, Key Abilities, Armor Training, Weapon Proficiencies, Bonus to Defense, Hit Points, Haling Surges, Trained Skills, Class Skills, 2 build options, class features, and the full allotment of standard powers. After each standard listing of powers comes the paragon paths. Epic destinies are included after all classes.
Assassins are the strikes of the book. A pretty standard fantasy archtype, this isn’t the assassin who merely brews poisons and pricts someone as they walk by and gloats in their death, but rather someone who has abilities called Harrowings and such lovely options as the 23rd level encounter harrowing, Kidney Slice that weakens the target and provides the character with a study point. These study points are part of the class feature and the assassin can accumulate them and then trade them in for bonuses to hit and damage with the bonus changing depending on what tier the assassin currently is.
Deathwardens are the leaders. While the other classes are fairly well represented in the fantasy genre, or at least the d20 genre, the deathwarden strikes me as fairly unique in that they use the connection to death to ‘shield your allies and dispatch your enemies.” Their abilities are also called harrowing and include those abilities which let allies spend healing surges as well as those that inflict damage.
Necromancers the controllers and like assassins, a fairly common archetype in fantasy, especially d20 which had numerous variants of them. My favorite ability of the necromancer, perhaps due to the full page illustration accompanying it, is Necromancer Attack level 29, Summon Dead God, where the necromancer summons the corpse of a god. This daily action conjures forth a dead god with defenses equal to 10 + ½ level + intelligence modifier + implement. If it takes damage, it’s destroyed (which makes me wonder why it has hit points equal to three times your healing surge value), but it inflicts 4d10 + intelligence modifier and as a sustain minor, the dead god can make another attack. Moving the dead god is a move action. To me, that’s a power that showcases a lot of creative thinking.
Spiritsworn the defenders. While perhaps not as typical as the assassin and necromancer, their association with spirits tends to make them like shaman or spirit talkers and are a traditional fantasy role going back to at least 2nd edition’s Shaman sourcebook.
There are two epic destinies included here, angel of death and demilich. Other ‘standards’ of player favored books includes feats for each tier, as well as multiclass tier feats and magical items. Magic items include new or hardly used types such as death masks and poisons.
For those without a DDI subscription and no access to the ‘official’ assassin, or those who are tired of waiting for WoTC to come out with a necromancer class, Forgotten Heroes Scythe and Shroud is worth reviewing.
| Classement: | | [4 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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I won't bother singing this product's praises, you only have to google it to find almost universal praise. It is simply an excellent book. I do however want to give Goodman Games some feedback on the pdf version. Every interior page has a grey background. While this may look good hot off the professional print press, it's not so good for the home desk top printer, which doesn't have the same level of quality. Not only is it an unnecessary waste of ink, but the small font of the charts can be a bit difficult to read against the grey background.
| Classement: | | [5 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Here's all you need to know about Level UP #2 okay?
Call of Cthulhu monsters. That's right, BlackDirge's Bestiary brings up several varieties of Deep One, including Dagon, and shoggoths. Now it's not a complete bestiary or anything but it's well illustrated and on the net, it's going to get a follow up. All good news.
Now if that was not enough for you, there's an adventure featuring the old monsters of the mythos as well. This 12th level Cthulhu Crawl Classic, starts with the players hired to avenge a captain's crew against a village whose inhabitants are just not right and to discover the secrets of the monolith! It's good fun and a good way to introduce some of the more 'sword and sorcery' elements of the mythos to the D&D game.
While I didn't like everything about the book, races with details to allow players to play 'good' versions of evil character, the adventure and monsters are enough to make up for that with ease. Throw in some other columns that I enjoy like Dear Archmage Abby, an advice column, and Azgar's Advice for Adventurers, and it's a solid sell.
| Classement: | | [4 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Another excellent book on eladrin culture. The first and last chapters of this book describe the eladrin history and culture, and are really interesting. The second chapter desribes new feats and paragon path. These one are quite interesting, but there was nothing for PHB2 classes, which is a bit disappointing. Then there are new items, and new rituals, including 6 curses. Curses affect a target until someone removes the curse, or until a certain condition is met. Finally, there are some new monsters in relation to the eladrin history, but I think that this chapter should not belong to a "hero" handbook...
| Classement: | | [4 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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An excellent book for tieflings. In there are introduced Legacies, which represents affiliation with a specific devil. There are a dozen of legacies (all are common sins, like lust, gluttony, etc), with a full description, feats and paragon path. It reminds me the good old Book of Vile Darkness. All the crunch is really good and innovative (like a gluttony power which allows to eat material like stone or metal, and gain benefit from it), and seems well balanced. The fluff is really good too.
It is a must have for tiefling character, as well as for any player which wants an "evil" feeling.
| Classement: | | [5 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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I was sceptical at first, but reading this fun sourcebook convinced me within minutes, that I've made a good decision in buying this. Assassins and Necromancers have always been my favorite fantasy archetypes and I'm happy to see them transferred to 4th edition without any annoying 3rd-edition-fallbacks or uninspired and lackluster mechanics design.
Although the Deathwarden and Spiritsworn seem a little redundant against the shaman or avenger to me, they're still nicely done and have a unique flavour to them.
Assassin and Necromancer are my favorite parts of the book and I can't find anything bad to say about them. Their powers are fun to read and seem to be balanced enough (let's see if WotC can keep that balancing up). Even better, they feel unique. The assassin is not just a rogue with more poison and deadlier backstab, and the necromancer cannot be mistaken for a dark wizard character of some sort. All four classes are really unique in style and mechanic. I like it. A lot.
If you long to play an Assassin or Necromancer in 4th edition, this is IMHO the only viable solution so far.
| Classement: | | [5 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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This module is something of a mixed bag. As an adventure set within the inventive world of Amethyst, it's decent (if hardly an original idea, though the parallels to Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now are called out pretty clearly in the title). As an introduction to said world, however, it's a bit lacking. Someone already familiar with the setting (through the OGL release) will have no trouble getting into the swing of events, but someone who isn't aware of the basic conceits of the world may have issues.
The adventure itself is very straightforward, following a highly linear path towards a defined goal and with only two real possible outcomes. Due to the establishment of the party as a mercenary group on a mission, it's OK to railroad, although some of the 'scripted' encounters may have problems depending on the personalities assigned to the pregenerated characters.
The pregens are actually one of the weakest parts of the module. First, their equipment loadouts are not always the best choices (if nothing else, everyone should have a backup melee weapon for those fights where the GM rolls critical equipment failure three rounds in a row, and the players of supposedly 'heavy weapons' characters chafed at not having more impressive guns). Additionally, since the group dynamic of the characters is left vague, the interactions at the table become somewhat messy as players try to figure out their place in the group and the surrounding world (the adventure's outcome is strongly predicated on the entire group being inclined to either obey or disobey their orders, and in a mixed group could easily turn into PvP without strong GM control). Since this issue will be entirely resolved once the Amethyst corebook is released, I don't count it against the module too much.
The other weak point, which I have to fault it for, are the maps. The default battlemaps for the module are appallingly dull, lacking anything in the way of interesting terrain. For characters who are, by default, inclined to find some cover and hunker down, this is a crippling weakness. When I ran the module, I completely disregarded the included maps in favor of my own, to the adventure's greater benefit (especially during the final battle).
While the encounters in this module provide for some good variety (particularly if the optional encounters from the web enhancement are used), there are some niggling issues with each of them that prevent them from being excellent. First and most problematic, the players automatically assume that because their vehicle breaks down right before an enormous monster appears on the horizon, that they are supposed to fight the monster. This is a problem when the encounter is scripted as a skill challenge and the monster is 25th level. Second, in the final battle, the dragon is too small - a Large just doesn't cut it for really emphasizing the 'oh crap' moment. Third, the talky scenes are both too vaguely defined (my group asked none of the questions that had scripted responses) and too long, with the result that tic-tac-toe and dice jenga might take over those scenes if they fail to keep everyone's interest. In general, the module is too wordy and occasionally suffers from dodgy grammar (though having read the OGL version of the setting, I am aware that this is a stylistic concern of the writer). Lastly, because the adventure is so spread out over time, there is plenty of time to take extended rests between encounters, so there is very little resource attrition (beyond the expenditure of ammunition).
With all that out of the way, the overall pacing is quite good, and the adventure itself was entertaining for the group. In spite of having minimal knowledge of the setting, they did their best to get into it, and will hopefully be amenable to a full campaign in the future (and given how hard to please my group is, this is a heady accomplishment). I would have personally preferred a longer module which makes full use of the psychological impact of the source material, but understandably this offering had to be short to be able to be run at an event. In conclusion - while I would not recommend this module as a person's first introduction to the Amethyst setting, as a one-shot for already familiar players or as the prelude to a larger campaign I would definitely do so.
I would also endorse the lively and exciting sport of pugg-punting, invented by my group during the first encounter when their vehicle was swarmed by a small legion of goblinoids.
| Classement: | | [4 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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This little publication has become a staple in my gaming. I agree completely with all the positive comments by the other three reviewers, so I will not repeat them.
I will say that, beyond the core rule books, few items I have purchased have had such a significant impact on our game table experience with our gaming group. After character class and race, nothing shapes a player's actual perception of their adventuring world as much as the creatures they encounter.
Not only is it incredibly useful in creating creatures, the advice given at the end is worth the price of the book. But, wait, there's more: Not only is this book practical, it is highly entertaining.
You really can't go wrong with this one.
| Classement: | | [5 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Amethyst has intrigued me for some time as I've followed its development via various gaming forums, and this 'preview' module of the setting is fantastic. The writing is very high quality, the encounter design is excellent, and the opportunities for roleplaying within the party are fantastic. I haven't had a module go over so well with my group as this one in years. While there were a few bumps in the preparation (there were one or two powers I didnt understand, and you have to go to DiasExMachina's website to download the characters), I *highly* recommend picking this up to anyone who is interested in testing out the waters of Amethyst. Its a fantastic buy at just $5.
| Classement: | | [5 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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The Introduction states the purposes of this book: to introduce the concept of cataclysmic change in a game world and to present 4e versions of the barbarian, bard, druid and monk... which are linked to the apocalypic theme by being either manifestations of the new and changed world, or lingering remnants of an old order; although it is not of course necessary to have a world-shaking event just so that they may appear, you can just make the classes available if you prefer. Note that since this book was published, Wizards of the Coast produced the Player's Handbook 2 in which their versions of the barbarian, bard and druid appear. So, for those classes you have a choice of two variants.
Chapter 1 looks at The Apocalypse, and why you might want to have one in your campaign setting. There's an established history of the use of cataclysmic events in both fantasy fiction and within role-playing itself, whether it is just that things from the past are lost in the mists of time so odd and inexplicable ancient stuff can turn up and nobody knows how it works, or more directly a massive world-shaking war or natural disaster has wreaked such havoc that the established order is no more. There is clearly a lot of potential there for adventure... but first you have to decide how long ago the apocalyptic event took place - or even if it is still in progress. Another decision is what caused it to happen, which will determine both the state of affairs now and influence the sort of adventures that might occur as a direct result of the cataclysm and its aftermath. Some examples from fiction and film are included, with reasons for why that particular event might work well in your campaign.
Next, Chapter 2 discusses Conflicts. Now, there's always a lot of combat within a role-playing game, but the discussion here concentrates on why what has happened might be a reason for friction - almost inevitably leading to violence - between different groups of people. Even if you are not planning a major catastrophe in your campaign world, this might give you some ideas for why different groups can be working towards different ends, ones so different that the result is conflict, often spilling out beyond the original groups to involve other people. In keeping with the parallel purpose of this book to bring in new character classes, most of the conflict points involve different organisations or groupings such as bardic colleges and barbarian tribes. Having a background overarching conflict or quarrel can be a powerful tool for introducing an external influence on the characters: the barbarian, for example, might feel obliged to act because of what is or has happened to his tribe even if he isn't being threatened right now, or a druid might be attacked because of what other druids did in the past. Each class also holds potential for conflict between members of that class, particularly when there are limited leadership positions to contend for or a difference of opinion about how a certain situation should be dealt with.
This completes the coverage of the use of apocalypse in a campaign and is quite thought-provoking, although there is evidence of rather hasty work particularly in layout. The book then moves on to discuss the four classes in question, following a similar presentation style to the Player's Handbook. First up, the barbarian. He's pretty much what you'd expect, with a nice system of animal totems which confer appropriate benefits and powers depending on the totem chosen. The bard comes next, with 2 builds based on leadership either by flamboyant fighting or inspiration through word and music. Interestingly, your choice of instrument confers benefits according to what you play; and your choice of instrument can affect some of your powers (called 'performances') as well. Druids concentrate on the environmental or elemental aspects of the natural world and naturally they have animal companions. Of course, now the 'official' versions of these classes have been published, some people will want to discard these, but of course you may prefer these versions (to my mind this bard is closer to what I imagine than the Wizards one!). Alternatively, you can raid these for powers which you wish to make available to members of the class in question. You might also choose to use these classes to create NPCs, representing followers of different traditions to the 'mainstream' and so generate an area of conflict!
At the time of writing this review, no 'official' monk character class has been published. Monks are strikers, masters of melee especially without weapons, and can base their combat moves on either 'kick-boxing' or 'grappling' - striking or wrestling with opponents as preferred. Within this each monk also will have a particular fighting style which further characterises the way in which he fights.
The book winds up with a selection of feats, some mainly appropriate to members of the classes discussed here and others available to any character. There are also some class-appropriate magical items, especially musical instruments for bards, also druidic fetishes.
Overall this is a quite interesting work, although some may find it has been rendered redundant while others will mine it for additional powers and abilities for their characters. The discussion of the role of apocalypse is interesting and well worth a read, although it would probably be worth developing into a whole book of its own.
| Classement: | | [4 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Nicholas Bergquist's review does an excellent job giving an overview of what the product contains. I wholeheartedly recommend reading it if you haven't already. What I will focus on is the improvements this book has over the previous Forgotten Heroes installment.
Tavis and company most definitely improved greatly in producing this book. It both looks and feels better than Fang, Fist, and Song.
* BETTER CENTRAL PREMISE: This is the foundation upon which the success of the entire book rests. In Fang, Fist, and Song, the central premise was a post-apocalyptic setting... the Ancients (bards and monks) and the Primals (barbarians and druids) were lost sects of society who emerged as major players because they were better equipped to handle the post-apocalyptic environment than the classes in the PHB. This weakened the connection between the four classes. This time around, however, the book focuses on a single power source, Death, and all the things associated with it (like final destinations, undeath and the combating of such, and whatnot). This single, stronger central premise strengthened the connection between the classes and allowed the design team to focus their energies on that single premise.
* SINGLE, NEW POWER SOURCE: Admit it, Fang, Fist, and Song was really an exercise of getting the barbarian, bard, druid, and monk on the floor quickly since WotC wasn't going to do it for almost a year. Sadly, the Advanced Player's Guide and a multitude of fan works already had that covered. Tavis' team's efforts were viciously wasted. Plus, I didn't like the (woefully incomplete) exploration of the primal power source before WotC was ready to release details on it. If the team had made all four classes from the same power source and named that power source something else other than primal, I would have been happier. This time around, however, the team created a whole new power source and explored it deeply and religiously, free of the constraints of stepping on WotC's toes. The result is a gorgeous selection of classes that fills all four role niches. This makes the book a lot more useful to me.
* CLEANER FORMATTING: While Fang, Fist, and Song was readable enough, the formatting of the power headers killed it for me. The team fixed this in Scythe and Shroud by right-aligning the Class/Level designator to the right margin rather than left-aligning it to the center of the header. The power headers look a lot, LOT less crowded because of this. A minor adjustment, but one that I wholeheartedly appreciate.
Overall, the team did an excellent job on this book and I'm happy to have bought it. It makes an excellent addition to my "player's options" library.
| Classement: | | [5 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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A very useful tool and not just for those playing 4e, however, maybe a little pricy for what you get.
| Classement: | | [3 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Outstanding book, and I've been messing around with it all day, building characters and enjoying the unusual class combinations and power sets that can be found within. So far I've rolled up some 1st level characters, 16th level characters, and experimented a bit with one of the epic paths, and found them all to have some well-thought out design principles.
This book is definitely better and more evolved than the first Forgotten Heroes book, benefitting from a year of insight and evolution for 4E. It has the following bits, for those looking for a run-down:
4 Classes:
Necromancer - a variant on the classic, with emphasis on summoning powers (plays a bit like the summoner features introduced in Arcane Power). The summonings are of classic undead, and the class models the archetypal D&D necromancer fairly well, I think.
Spiritsworn - Anyone who's played too much Guild Wars will notice more than a passing thematic resemblance to GW's ritualist class (this is meant as a positive correlation with an MMO, I love GW!). The Spiritsworn is easily my favorite new class in this book, with the theme being a sort of necromantic fighter who calls upon the spirits for aid in battle. They like scythes, too. Very creative class, and I easily figured out some interesting power combos with the characters I built on it. I'll be using these builds as NPC allies and foes in my pending weekly game, as well.
Assassin - this is an interesting combat class, which I might call a "necromancer rogue" in how it appears to function. Not quite as exotic as the other classes, but it might give fans of the swordmage and avenger a new class to drool over. It uses a Study Point mechanic to give the assassin an edge over time, something I'd like to see in action, to see how well it works.
Deathwarden- this class surprised me, because I was expecting it to be some variant on the death knight, anti-paladin or whatnot, but it turned out to be a strange and interesting idea: a sort of defender-themed warlord type who has an uncanny ability to sense impending doom and uses this to his advantage to protect those around him. Probably my next most favorite of the classes after the spiritsworn, and a genuinely interesting concept with excellent implementation.
New Stuff: the book introduces a few new rituals of appropriate theme, some interesting and thematically appropriate feats, a selection of magic items (no new armor items though, a pity!) and I was especially happy to see details on setting up NPC versions of the classes in the last section of the book, along with precalculated charts of NPC stats for ease of reference. This is something, I will point out, that not even WotC can do right, forcing DMs to invent their own approach to NPCs in the PHB2 while waiting for a DMG2 release in September.
Presentation: 5/5 Clean and well edited; I've only caught one power so far that felt like it was missing something or needed clarification so far (spiritsworn Vortex of Souls Levevl 5 Daily -- the effect should be until the end of the encounter, I am pretty sure, although it does not state such).
Production Quality: 5/5 Nice graphics and layout, readable and (important) easy to print. I'll be picking up the actual print edition as well when I see it, but it's nice to have the PDF on file as well.
Overall Value: 5/5 I'm using this in my game tonight, and encouraging my players to mine it for new characters. Well worth the money invested, and these classes are interesting and different enough to have legs of their own. As an aside, aspiring developers for 4E who want to get a sampling of new class design done right from a 3rd party source should take a look at this! They did an fantastic job.
| Classement: | | [5 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Just to clarify that the comment attributed to "Yog-Sothoth.com" refers to a review by a general site member and not the editorial team of YSDC.
| Classement: | | [3 sur 5 étoiles!] |
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Connexion 
