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Octavirate Expansions: Trick Arrows $1.50
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Octavirate Expansions: Trick Arrows
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Octavirate Expansions: Trick Arrows
Publisher: Octavirate Games
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 03/30/2007 00:00:00

Octavirate Expansions: Trick Arrows is a short d20 equipment supplement from Octavirate Games. The zipped file isn't quite five megabytes, and contains two PDFs: the book itself, and the printer-friendly version thereof. Both are eight pages in length, counting a page for the cover, and another for the OGL. Both files have bookmarks, though they're only for the cover and the OGL.

The front cover is the only full color artwork in the book, though oddly it's retained in the printer-friendly version with its color intact. The tables and sidebars use a soft blue, and all of the pages also have a purplish border along the top and bottom. A few black and white illustrations round things out. As noted, the color cover is in the printer-friendly version, as is all of the interior artwork. The blue used for sidebars and tables has been changed to grey though, and the page borders are removed.

Trick Arrows is largely self-explanatory in what it offers: new arrows to use against your enemies. The book opens with the huge table displaying all of the new arrows it offers, listing their adjusted range, Craft type and DC, and cost adjustment for fantasy, modern, and future settings. It then briefly covers arrows made of adamantine, silver, and cold iron, before introducing a new type to make them from: stone.

A few sidebars notwithstanding, the rest of the book covers fifteen actual modifications to arrows, ranging from arrows that shoot a net at enemies, to ones that inject a liquid into them, to explosive arrows, and more. These new types cover most of the standard tricks you'd expect from a versatile archer, and make such a character useful even in modern settings, to say nothing of fantasy ones.

A page at the end briefly covers the application of magic weapon qualities to these arrows, as well as how some of them require you to aim for a specific square, rather than a creature. Finally, a new feat is given, Bowfighter, which lets you use your bow as a melee weapon without penalty.

One minor problem here is the sidebar on using these tricks with crossbow bolts instead of arrows. The sidebar on this refers to the large table at the beginning of the product to note which tricks can and cannot be applied to bolts, but the table is silent on that issue. It's perhaps the only place where the product falls down. Regardless of that, Trick Arrows does very well in presenting new equipment options for arrows. Everyone who seriously wants to play an archer should buy this.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The new arrow modifications, combined with the new feat here, make an archer character much more versatile and fun to play.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The printer-friendly version shouldn't have kept the cover, and should also have removed the interior art. Also, the table at the beginning didn't note what modifications could and could not be applied to crossbow bolts.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Octavirate Expansions: Trick Arrows
Publisher: Octavirate Games
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 03/17/2007 00:00:00

Octavirate Expansions, Volume 3: Trick Arrows by Octavirate Entertainment is a product detailing variation on arrows (and bolts) for D20 system games (primarily D&D/D20 Modern). It is 8-pages long (6 after cover and OGL) with a clean layout (and a single ?Table XX? error) and minimal art.

This product is very focused on variations of the arrow, as one would expect from the title, all of which can also be applied to crossbow bolts. Full rules for cost, time and the difficulty of crafting each of the different arrow types are included.

It starts with the different sorts materials that the arrowheads can be constructed from ranging from stone to adamantine. This part is good but could have been expanded a little further.

Next are variations on the arrow itself. From actual types, such as blunt arrows for bludgeoning damage or fire arrows, to the possible, explosive and syringe arrows, to the exotic, such as taser-like stun arrows. A few more ?standard? arrow types, such as armor piercing or barbed could have been included as well. However, the rules here look solid and how useful they will be depends on how much ?near magic? technology one wishes to incorporate into a campaign.

The product concludes with a discussion on further enhancing (by magic for example) trick arrows and a new feat for archers who fear they may end up in melee.

If strange variations on arrows (or bolts) have a place in your campaign, this product is a good starting place.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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