Darkwalkers: The Evil Within is a sourcebook from DragonWing Games. It serves as a supplement to The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting from Mystic Eye Games, though it?s not too hard to use most of the material in any fantasy setting. The zipped file is just over thirty megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF file that is roughly 34 meg. The PDF is one hundred twenty-three pages long. It contains full bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents.
The book has a fair amount of artwork throughout. The front cover is done in full-color, depicting an evil warrior. The interior art ranges from relatively simple black-and-white pieces to spectacular full-color pieces that take up an entire page and put the cover image (which is itself very well-done) to shame with their quality. Minor borders are also present in at each page?s corners. The only problem with so much artwork is that it makes the lack of a printer-friendly version so very noticeable.
After an introduction explaining how the book almost didn?t see print, the book launches into its material. Darkwalkers is a book that focuses on letting you play evil characters, specifically on the world of Gothos (the campaign world from The Hunt). The book?s first chapter is a discussion of playing evil characters, noting why evil characters would work together, what evil things they?d do, and how they can gain advantages over their opponents.
Chapter two is about a specific new mechanic: piety. Piety is a specific mechanic used to track a character?s actions in accordance with the faith of their deity, which of course makes it most useful for divine spellcasters. While this chapter notes that these rules were introduced in a previous sourcebook, they are revised here to note how evil clerics (and other such characters) can use the piety rules. While the rules here seem to be enough to use piety for any kind of character, they seem slanted towards what evil characters can do, which may make players want to have the aforementioned sourcebook where these rules were introduced if they want to use the material here.
Classes are the subject of chapter three. It opens with fluff (non-mechanical) text describing how core and prestige classes can be best played with an evil slant. Several classes are mentioned here that I assume are from The Hunt campaign setting, such as centurions, shamans, and furies of destruction. It then offers four new evil base classes and thirteen new prestige classes. Interestingly, one of the PrCs is described as being a ?legendary class,? but exactly what that is, and how it?s different from a prestige class, is never explained.
Chapter four is dedicated to giving new options to evil characters. It opens with several new combat options, such as using a hostage as a shield, or throwing dirt in your opponent?s eyes. It then briefly offers several fluff-only paragraphs on evil ethics that your characters can have, before offering several tables of disadvantages your character can take, with suggestions for what compensatory bonuses are gained for taking them. It then closes with ?personality templates? based on the seven deadly sins. Characters who are defined by such a sin gain various (relatively minor) powers and drawbacks related to it.
Evil pacts are the subject of chapter five. You need a feat (presented in the next chapter) to make these pacts, but this chapter describes how to summon a fiend that can make such a pact, along with the various pacts possible. Such pacts can only be made in place of a feat slot, however. Each is more powerful than a feat would be, but also carries a drawback to balance out the cost of taking them.
Chapter six presents thirty new feats. Many of these feats have the Evil descriptor, which requires the character taking them to be evil, though there are also often other prerequisites as well.
Chapter seven covers skills. It opens with new uses for existing skills, before presenting several new ones. Most of these are new subsets of the Knowledge skill, such as Knowledge (arson), or Knowledge (sabotage). The one given the most coverage, however is Knowledge (torture). Rules for torture checks (both physical and psychological) are given, along with a listing of several torture items.
The last chapter is a large one, covering new magic items and spells. It lists several new miscellaneous magic items and magic weapons, before presenting new clerical domains (many of which are sacred domains, which require a feat, not given here, to take) and spells. Oddly, while a large number of new spells are presented, several from the PHB, such as trap the soul, are reprinted here. Why exactly this is done isn?t explained, though they?re still in the minority, compared to the new spells here.
Altogether, Darkwalkers: The Evil Within is a good book for evil characters, but one not without flaws. The parts of it that are specific to The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign are relatively minor, but crop up enough that GMs looking to use the material here in another campaign might be mildly vexed. Likewise, although instances of this are small, this is noticeably a 3.0, not 3.5, book. There are places where this comes up, such as in the Martial Master PrC?s ki strike ability. Between all of this, and the lack of a printer-friendly version, Darkwalkers is a good book that is somewhat undone by its own flaws.
Ultimately, Darkwalkers is a good resource for evil characters, be they PCs or NPCs, in your game. Just be prepared to do some work to conquer this book?s own evil within before you use it.
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<b>LIKED</b>: The book had many great new evil spells, feats, PrCs, and more for evil characters.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Several Gothos-specific aspects of the book are hard to remove for GMs who want to use these materials in another campaign. Also, the material here seemed to be 3.0 and not 3.5. Finally, the book had quite a bit of artwork with no printer-friendly version offered.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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