While "None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness I - The Ravenous of Agramogg" is presented in a way that any player of Dungeons & Dragons could use its material for character development, a Dungeon Master should be leery to allow a PC to access this prestige class. However, for a hideous and frightening non-player character, a DM can find quite a bit of inspiration and guidance in this product.

The ravenous of Agramogg is a 10-level prestige class designed for particularly nasty and villainous characters. The supplement begins with a gorgeous (if ink-heavy) cover, and then writer Aeryn Rudel takes charge with a gloriously deviant piece of game fiction to introduced the class. The prose is a bit clunky in places, but the imagery is solid, but can be a bit difficult to get through. That's not to say there's fault with the text itself; rather, the ravenous of Agramogg is a class built around the eating and consuming of other living, sentient creatures, and the story of a drow negotiator meeting with the only living character to have advanced through all ten levels of this prestige class pulls no punches.

It's inspiring.

After reading this supplement, as a DM, I now have a ready-to-use deviant and cannibalistic cult to insert into my ongoing D&D campaign. The amount of details and effort that writer Rudel has obviously put into this product is to be commended; one does not simply become a ravenous of Agramogg by making sure he or she has the right number of feats or can cast the correct number of certain-leveled spells. Instead, to enter into this prestige class, a character must partake in the Ceremony of Devouring, which just happens to involve the aspiring ravenous eating a living creature . . . over three days' time . . . that is, the victim must be kept alive through the entire process.

Inspiring.

Normally, I don't gush as much in my reviews, but this supplement has left me not just speechless, but also has left me eager to insert this material into my own game.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This is an incredible product, and the idea is quite unique. Very well-developed.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: A few comments are made throughout the text referencing the "Citadel of Consumption," a great temple devoted to the vile god Agramogg; some maps of this temple would have been appreciated.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

None so Vile: Disciples of Darkness III: Tortured Savant is a 17 page pdf product. This product is the third product in the Disciples of Darkness series, a series that is part of the None so Vile line of products. Each product in the Disciples of Darkness series presents a devotee to a dark and evil deity. In this instance, the Tortured Savant prestige class is a servant of Ixeth, a minor deity of pain, and as such a master inflictor of pain and agony. Due to the horror/grotesque nature of the material, it's largely intended for more mature audiences.

The product comes a single pdf file. There are no bookmarks, nor a printer-friendly version of the product, but that's about as far as the negatives go on the presentation front. The product looks very good and professional, with good art, good layout and good writing and editing. The fiction parts of the text are vivid and imaginative, drawing you quickly into a world of pain and suffering. Overall, a good presentation with some imaginative writing and detailing of the tortured savant prestige class.

This product extensively details a new prestige class, the tortured savant. The tortured savant is a master of pain and agony, inflicting it both on his enemies and foes, as well as himself. Over the course of the ten levels of the prestige class, the tortured savant's spellcasting improves, as well as his ability to inflict pain on those around him using a number of supernatural abilities. The Backlash ability, for example, allows the tortured savant to share the pain of a wound inflicted on him with the creature that has inflicted the wound. Like other prestige classes in the series, this is probably one more suitable to NPCs than PC characters.

The prestige class provides plenty of background details and information on how to run, create and use a tortured savant. It offers good opportunities for creating memorable encounters, and matches the other products in the series quite well. Together the Disciples of Darkness can form quite an interesting campaign idea, with the four deities involved used in some world-shattering event. An example NPC is given as well to show how the tortured savant fits together into a complete entity, and a full and rich background for this NPC is detailed, which makes for an enjoyable (well, not entirely given the subject matter but from an RPG perspective!) read.

Full details of the deity Ixeth are included, as well as a new domain for clerics, Agony, which includes a few new and interesting spells that are also presented in the pdf. This provides a solid ending to a good product that's bound to creep your players out, and provide for some challenging and atmospheric encounters if played right. The material is extensive and useful, and the tortured savant can fill a number of different roles in a campaign, whether a long term villain or an one off beast plaguing a small village. This is a good pdf that's worth a look, and I'm looking forward to seeing the last product in the series, and further products in the None so Vile line.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This is a good pdf with good flavor and very detailed description of an interesting prestige class. The tortured savant should make for a vile villain, and certainly provide the PCs with a memorable encounter. Good presentation, good material.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The pdf contains no bookmarks, but that's about it really.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness III ? Tortured Savant, is a sourcebook detailing a new prestige class, and some related materials, from SkeletonKey Games. The zipped file is just under four megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF file slightly larger than that. The PDF is seventeen pages long, including two pages for the front and back covers, a page for the credits/legal, and a page for the OGL. The product has no table of contents, bookmarks, or printer-friendly version.

The book?s covers are in full-color, with the back color actually being a single-page e-adventure tile (that is, a map). Several pieces of black-and-white art dot the interior, and most of them are quite hideous, making them perfectly match the gruesome content of this book. Each page has a red border along the top in the pattern of a bloody smear, and the page number at the bottom is within a similarly-colored drop of blood. As such, not having a printer-friendly version might be an issue for some people.

The book opens with almost two pages of framing fiction regarding a member of this prestige class performing their gruesome trade on a pair of captured heroes, and it sets the pace for the rest of the book. After this, it immediately launches into who becomes a tortured savant, and then lists the class table and features.

Fluff information for GMs using tortured savants follows, discussing things such as how well they stand up in combat, likely minions and lairs, and similar information. Several pages are then given for a sample NPC, the same one from the framing fiction.

A new lesser deity of pain, Ixeth, is then given. The deity is given full information needed to include it in your campaign, listing its symbol, home plane, alignment, portfolio, worshippers, cleric alignments, domains, and favored weapon, before moving into its history, relationships, and dogma. Interestingly, this deity has a fairly complex backstory, one that ties in rather closely with the sample NPC given above. While it?s still easy enough to change the name (or the NPC), it?s an odd but refreshing change of pace to have a generic deity be given so much detail.

The book is then rounded out by presenting the new Agony clerical domain, along with three new clerical spells, all of which cause fairly severe pain (and usually death) to their victims.

Altogether, None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness III ? Tortured Savant, lives up to its name. While the prestige class itself is fairly vile (roughly equal to what you?d find in the Book of Vile Darkness), it?s the remainder of the product that makes it shine. The gruesome fiction, the esoteric nature of the new deity of pain, and the gory new spells nicely round out the new prestige class given here. GMs looking to cause their PCs pain would be well served to get the Disciples of Darkness III; the tortured savant is someone they?ll love to hate. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The framing fiction was quite well-written. Also, the new deity, Ixeth, had an interesting history given. Likewise, the artwork was quite gruesome, perfectly matching the nature of this book.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: A printer-friendly version would have been helpful, given the artwork here. Also, despite its brevity, a table of contents and/or bookmarks would have been somewhat useful.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

None So Vile - Disciplines of Darkness III: Tortured Savant by Black Dirge Publishing / Skeleton Key Games presents a new D20 Prestige Class for dark campaigns, the Tortured Savant. The product is 17 pages long (14 after covers and OGL), clearly laid out with good and thematic black and white artwork.

Like the other products in this series, The Tortured Savant is introduced with just over a page and a half of fiction, showing the work Tortured Savant first hand. The Tortured Savant is a creature of pain, suffering it and inflicting it, the class requires divine spellcasting as part of its requirement so it is best suited for a cleric or a very unusual druid (or, perhaps, a blackguard). The Tortured Savant must permanently mar themselves is a hideous and painful way to gain access to this class and its abilities which are focuses on the infliction of pain. As the Tortured Savant gains levels they gain new way to share pain with others (aura of pain, inflicting pain by touch, sharing pain inflicted upon the Tortured Savant) and resisting the effects of pain (Damage Reduction). The class looks balanced and frightening to encounter.

Advice of the role of the Tortured Savant in a world and how they can best be played is provided for a DM. Along with an example Tortured Savant, Yushalka, an Annis (hag) Rogue/ Cleric/ Tortured Savant is presented complete with full background and personality. As is the dark god Ixeth, the World Flayer, the First God of Pain, the Agony Domain and three new spells.

A well put together product, but vile torture is a major component of the role of these villain which may not be suiting to all campaigns or styles of play. However, if you like your villains dark and twisted, the Tortured Savant should find a place in your campaign.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Blackdyrge?s Bestiary: About the Author is a PDF supplement from SkeletonKey Games. The zipped file is three-quarters of a megabyte in size, and contains a single PDF which is marginally larger. The PDF itself is eight pages long, including a single page for the cover, one for the credits/legal, and one for the OGL. There is no table of contents or bookmarks.

The product has a full-color cover, and several pieces of black-and-white interior artwork, including pictures of Blackdyrge himself. Each page has borders along the top and bottom, with each corner of the borders having information about the book itself; this is explained in greater detail in a sidebar on the credits/legal page. There is no printer-friendly version of the book.

The book opens with Blackdyrge?s statistics, which take up roughly one-and-a-half pages in length. This is followed by his personal history, and then diverges into his appearance, personality, combat abilities, and finally lair. A sidebar also discusses the treasure he has, including a new wondrous magic item.

Because part of the allure of this product is in learning the history of this rather infamous character, I won?t go into any specifics about Blackdyrge himself, but suffice it to say, this product paints a thorough portrait of him, revealing the reasons for his bestiary line of tomes, and what he hopes to accomplish with them. If the PCs are being killed by monsters detailed in his books, then this is an excellent supplement to pick up should they seek out the mysterious writer himself. There is a lot GM?s could do with the character of Blackdyrge when they learn About the Author.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The character of Blackdyrge is very well done.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Blackdyrge's stat block notwithstanding, the only new crunch here is a single magic item. Because of that, GMs not planning on using Blackdyrge in their game may not get much use out of this book.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

None so Vile: Disciples of Darkness I: The Ravenous of Agramogg is a 16 page pdf product providing an extensive write-up of the Ravenous of Agramogg prestige class. This product is the first in the None so Vile line of products, of which Disciples of Darkness is the first series in the line. The Disciples of Darkness series present four devotees of dark and evil deities, the first being the Ravenous of Agramogg, the faithful of the deity Agramogg. This pdf is intended for mature audiences, mainly due to the horror/grotesque nature of the material.

This product comes as a single pdf file containing a limited set of bookmarks (essentially the first and last page are bookmarked). The product comes without a printer friendly version, although given the black-and-white pencil art and the short length of the pdf, this shouldn't really be a problem. Art is very good, particularly the image of the vile ravenous of Agramogg, Isked Doomtongue, by artist Erik Nowak. Editing and layout are very good, although there were one or two minor errors. For example, the stat block for Isked Doomtongue lists as one of its items gauntlets of ogre power which won't stack with the enhancement bonuses gained from the prestige class. Overall, a very good presentation with some good writing.

As mentioned earlier, this pdf contains a detailed write-up of the ravenous of Agramogg prestige class. The concept is that a devotee to the dark god Agramogg gradually transform into a bloated, flesh-eating giant living off the flesh of intelligent creatures. Over the course of the ten levels of the prestige class, the servant of Agramogg grows more disgusting and more powerful. The write-up is detailed and vivid, providing a clear picture of what the prestige class entails, how to play it, how it fits into the world and loads of other information on how the ravenous of Agramogg work together in their 'cult'.

This is a very useful and entertaining concept, and certainly one that will create memorable encounters. The ravenous of Agramogg will be fun to run, give players a few surprises and make for challenging and rewarding encounters. The detail presented allows DMs to know exactly how to interpret and run the class, and it offers a lot of versatility in designing and building encounters that use this prestige class. The class itself looks good, with some solid mechanics and interesting abilities as the ravenous of Agramogg grows in size and hunger.

I enjoyed reading the pdf, although some of the content is not for the squeamish. It's a rich and detailed prestige class that presents a flavorful cult, deity, and prestige class. The pdf provides a sample NPC based off the prestige class, as well as a complete write-up of the deity Agramogg. This is a very useful pdf, and can make for some interesting NPCs that both players and DMs will enjoy. Worth a look at.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The pdf provides rich and detailed information on an interesting prestige class for evil creatures. The writing is vivid and imaginative, the prestige class flavorful and interesting, and the pdf gives many ideas for using this material in game. A good pdf containing a prestige class most DMs will want to try.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: One or two editing errors or stat block errors, and the bookmarks aren't great.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Disciples of Darkness II presents a new prestige class called the Soul Harvester. These villainous characters are clerics that use the souls of their slain enemies to enhance their unholy power. The book details the prestige class, gives advice on using it in play, stats an example Soul Harvester, and offers a new deity.

The Soul Harvester collects souls by sacrificing or otherwise murdering good-aligned creatures. In game terms, he gets a number of ?essence points? for each creature killed. These essence points can in turn be spent to boost the Soul Harvester's combat abilities, add temporary enhancements to his weapon, and alter his spells. In addition, the Soul Harvester wields a custom weapon (generally a dagger) that grows in power with his advancement in the prestige class.

There is a kind of morbid style to the writing. The authors are clearly trying to evoke the grim and evil nature of the Soul Harvester. For the most part, the writing succeeds. The opening bit of fiction, which describes a Soul Harvester sacrificing a paladin, is pretty gory, and it certainly shows the dark nature of the class.

While the game mechanics in this book are sound, I don't really care for the Soul Harvester as written. This is a prestige class that will most likely be used by GMs rather than players, and I don't think its very well designed from that perspective.

The primary problem is the essence point mechanic. The points are gained by killing good-aligned creatures, which creates a fun roleplaying opportunity if the Soul Harvester is a PC. As an NPC, however, these scenes will seldom be played out (except when the PCs are battling the Soul Harvester, of course), which means that the GM will just be arbitrarily assigning numbers. Most of the abilities are fairly transparent, meaning that the players won't really appreciate the fact that their adversary is gaining strength by battling them.

Even the Soul Reaver's scariest ability, which allows him to consume the very soul of a slain opponent, works better on paper than in actual play. This ability requires the Soul Reaver to place an invisible mark on his enemy. If the enemy is then killed within a certain number of rounds, his soul goes to the Reaver. The problem is that the mark is difficult to detect. It is likely that the target player will have no idea that his character is now marked for soul-death, which removes any fear this may have otherwise created.

The new god is something of an extra feature. He's an evil hobgoblin deity, and he fits his role well. I wouldn't purchase this product specifically for the new god, but its a nice touch that makes sense within the scope of this book.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The idea behind the Soul Reaver is a good one. An evil cleric that uses the souls of his enemies as fuel for his powers is a neat concept. The class is balanced, the writing is fairly good, and the art and presentation are well done.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The Soul Reaver isn't poorly designed from a mechanics standpoint, I just don't think it works at the table as well as it could. The rules should better reflect the class's flavor, and his dark abilities should be more outwardly obvious to the players. As a villain, the Soul Reaver is very capable of killing the good guys...he just doesn't pack the horror he should.

This isn't a bad product by any means, just an average one. Three stars overall, three and a half if you're running a campaign with evil PCs.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

None So Vile - Disciplines of Darkness I: The Ravenous of Agramogg by Black Dirge Publishing / Skeleton Key Games presents a new D20 Prestige Class, the Ravenous of Agramogg.

The Ravenous of Agramogg are introduced with a page and a half of fiction, showing one of the Ravenous at his worst (or best). Not the greatest piece of game fiction but it gets the point across. The Ravenous of Agramogg is a cleric or cleric/fighter-based prestige class, a servant of a dark power, Agramogg, who draws power from the sacrifice and consumption of victims. The Ravenous of Agramogg must eat sentient being to maintain their strength and as a symbol of their devotion.

The Ravenous of Agramogg gains power from its consumption of flesh, sentient and otherwise, becoming ever more bloated with dark power. They gain additional spell casting at every other level, and their body becomes progressively larger, stronger and protected by layers of fat (providing natural armor), lastly their teeth and jaws become huge and dangerous weapons. A few other minor power round out the class. Although this is a clerical PrC, a jump to d10 HD from d8 might have been justified as well.

Advice of the role of Ravenous of Agramogg in a game world and how they can best be played is provided for a DM. Along with an example Ravenous of Agramogg, Isked Doomtongue, a duregar Cleric/Ravenous of Agramogg is present along with full background and personality. As is the dark power, Agramogg the Devourer, himself.

A well-constructed product, though the Ravenous of Agramogg seem a little two-dimension, there are certainly horrific. The product should be avoided by any who do not wish to incorporate cannibalism (even for villains) into their campaign.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Writer Aeryn Rudel has created a truly dark prestige class in ?None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness II ? Soul Harvester.? As a class for which PCs to aspire, it?s downright creepy; as a class for NPCs, the soul harvester is definitely a character concept to be feared.

Normally, I?m not particularly moved by role-playing material introduced by lengthy fiction. However, the prose that made up the first page-and-a-half of this supplement is quite well written and leaves no question as to what kind of character a soul harvester might be. Be warned: this is a piece of writing that pulls no punches. This brief story of hobgoblin-cleric-turned-soul-harvester Jukko Ironscourge is harsh, but fits perfectly the flavor of this prestige class.

There are two main attractive features of the soul harvester class. First, the soul harvester?s weapon becomes his or her sacrificial blade, and becomes the tool of the actual soul harvesting. As the soul harvester slays more enemies with the sacrificial blade, certain benefits become available to the character in the form of ?virtual feats,? like Power Attack, Improved Critical and Greater Weapon Focus. Additionally, the sacrificial blade can, for a short time, function as a magical weapon with various weapon enhancements (an example of how the sacrificial blade can be used as a flaming weapon is given). Certain metamagic feats can also be earned through use of the sacrificial blade.

The other feature that truly sets this prestige class terrifyingly apart from the others is its dread mark class ability. The soul harvester can ?taint the essence? of a foe, ?marking the victim?s soul as the property of the soul harvester?s dark god.? This invisible mark lasts for a short time (one minute per soul harvester level), but if the target is slain during the time the dread mark is upon him or her, the victim must make a Will save or have his or her soul consumed by the soul harvester?s deity.

(The soul harvester also has the sacrificial strike class ability which allows him or her to perform a coup de grace attack as a standard action instead of a full round action.)

This is an information-packed supplement. After breaking down the specifics of this prestige class, writer Rudel presents material describing how a soul harvester might be played, how the character would interact with other characters and their place in the world. The supplement concludes with a sample soul harvester (Jukko Ironscourge?s statblock and historical information is here) as well as information about the dark god Nurrog Bahl, the Crimson Harvester and Elfreaper.

The writing is tight, and the artwork and graphic design supports the material nicely. This is a slick product; graphic designer Erik Nowak should be commended.

As a DM, I would be a bit hesitant to allow a player to bring this character to the table, and as a player, I would be both thrilled and terrified to face an NPC soul harvester. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Enough material is packed into this supplement's few pages to make this a fully-realized NPC. The idea of a soul harvester should be scary, and writer Rudel has done a fine job of crafting such an effective NPC. As a DM, I'm looking forward to incorporating this class into an upcoming game!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There is nothing I didn't like about this product!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

None So Vile - Disciplines of Darkness II: Soul Harvester by Black Dirge Publishing / Skeleton Key Games presents a new D20 Prestige Class, the Soul Harvester.

The Soul Harvester is introduced with a page and a half of fiction, showing one in action. The Soul Harvester is a clerical-based prestige class, a servant of a dark god (or power) who draws power from the sacrifice of victims. The ability to draw power from sacrifices is called Soul Harvesting (naturally) and is gathered in essence points, the maximum amount of which is limited by the Soul Harvester?s level. These essence points may be spent to gain bonuses, additional weapon abilities and spell casting boosts. The only problem is that they can be spent to add metamagic effects to a spell at a flat essence cost, so adding maximize costs as much as silent, this is easily abusable (and easily fixed by making the cost per level added by the metamagic effect, which simply makes it powerful but not overwhelming).

The Soul Harvester?s sacrificial weapon gains abilities and gives the Harvester virtual feats when it is used, this is limited by restricting it to a light slashing or piercing weapon. Overall the HD, Base Attack, Saves and Spell Casting seem well balanced with a limited number of special ability (including Dread Mark which can consign a marked soul to the Soul Harvester?s dark master).

Advice of the role of Soul Harvesters in a world and how they can best be played is provided for a DM. Along with an example Soul Harvester, Jukko Ironscourge, a hobgoblin Cleric/Soul Harvester is present along with full background and personality. As is the dark god worshiped by Jukko, Nurrog Bahl, the Crimson Harvester, Elfreaper.

A well put together product, if you wish for a villain that consumes the souls of his enemies. But it does have a dark tone that may be blacker then some DM?s wish for their campaign.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A pretty good book with lots of information and creatures.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Very details pictures of the monters. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

As is to be expected of Blackdyrge, this is a very impressive bestiary. My only complaint is that it's too short. The monsters are very detailed with a strong and yet fairly generic backstory. If you want samples of Blackdyrge's beasties, check this thread at ENWorld http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=44315. I can't wait for further volumes in this series to come out.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Monster backgrounds are detailed, but they're easy to adapt to even fairly nonconventional settings.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The artwork didn't impress me.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

As a fan of the ENWorld Article by the same author I salivated with anticipation at the announcement of this product. I wasn't let down.

The art is cool, and the creations are very fresh and innovative. I can hardly stand the wait for the next in the series.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Excellent product for a very good price. Will definitely keep on buying the following chapters! <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Excellent debut from this ENWorld artist! Blackdirge creates very detailed Monster characters.... with exceptional backgrounds. I look forward to more from him! Definitely interesting for any D&D game!<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Details, details, details!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>