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Just having a collection of leveled encounters ready at all times is super useful but the encounters presented here are varied enough that I've started looking for places to put them when running other adventures.
5/5, great stuff.
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I was looking forward to writing about how basic this whole thing was, and questioning why anyone would need it. And then I opened the PDF and combed over it and even as an experienced roleplayer, this is a well put together product for new players.
Introducing new players to D&D was always difficult, and often the DM would say "let's just dive into it, and you'll understand it over time" but this supplement is a great way to teach new players in a structured way.
5/5 for showing this old dog new tricks!
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A solid selection of Elemental themed spells that aren't just in the school of evocation. The thing I appreciate most is that this isn't just a collection of old spells updated, as far as I can tell these are all unique spells!
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Judging it entirely based on what it IS and not what it ISN'T, I'd give this a 5/5 as it is literally 150 shops, stalls, and stores. Basically, this gives you 150 business names and the names of their owners.
It's... fine. I don't think it's really gonna see much play at many tables. Most DMs likely already have names for all these things so I guess it's good for those times when players go way way way off script but overall, it's just kind of a limited product.
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As you'd expect, content from Kobold Press is top notch. The genies here fit already into existing Forgotten Realms lore, it has wonderful artwork, and is fantastically produced.
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So the class itself is well crafted, and as far as my eye can tell quite balanced. If you're looking for a new class, this might be worth giving a whirl. Because it seems mechanically sound, is well designed, laid out, and has excellent artwork, I'm rating the product 5/5 with a caveat:
I don't like "full" classes. I feel 5e did a wonderful thing in creating classes that can be extended via archetypes. When I read this, I just ask myself why it's not a warlock pact and patron. The class is a bit mechanically full, so at least it isn't questionable as to why it's a class and not an archetype (like some classes on the guild) but I think the class fails narratively. The idea is you're cursed, and you're using that curse to your advantage. Being cursed to me isn't something you train for: you aren't spending centuries of study over books, learning the nuances of your faith, or practicing combat for days upon end. You're just... cursed.
So while I think this class is well made, and lots of people would have fun with it, it's not really MY thing.
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Creator Reply: |
Hi, Bryan!
Thank you for your review! I understand your view that "full" classes are unnecessary; it's a relatively common one in the DMsGuild and TTRPG community. As a person who has designed 8 of these full classes with my team, none of which feel or play more similarly to each other or classes that already exist than the official classes, I believe that there is a great deal of design space, both narrative and mechanical, that cannot be explored by the official classes through archetypes. I feel that archetypes/subclasses, more often than not, don't have enough abilities or power budget allotted to them (especially in classes like bard or paladin) to sell the flavors of a wide variety of themes in a satisfying way, whereas full classes can be designed from the outset around those ideas, allowing them to be developed and explored in a much richer way. This is merely a difference in philosophy between you and I, and I very much respect your viewpoint, but I hope that you can see mine, as well.
I also just wanted to clarify some of our narrative design: this class can be about studying books, learning the nuances of faith, and practicing combat days on end. In fact, that's the entire point of choosing your own curse ability, since every person would conquer their curse in their own unique way, and we wanted to give people the freedom for their narrative choice to have an impact on their mechanics in a way few other classes allow. This class's metanarrative is about learning the nature of your curse, discovering the exact effects it has on your body and learning to use those abilities against your foes. You are correct; being cursed ISN'T something you train for, but it's something you may have spent years or even decades learning to overcome or harness, and that's exactly what this class is about. We don't always get to choose what happens to us in life, but we DO get to choose how we overcome or move past it and the people we become as a result.
I hope I was able to give you a bit of insight into our design approach with this class. Please let us know if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, and thank you again for taking the time to write this review; we greatly appreciate it! |
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Firstly, I want to state that I VERY rarely think a "full" class is ever needed. That's what archetypes are for. There's no reason this couldn't have been a very well crafted archetype for Warlock (mirror patron) or Wizard (a specialized illusionist) or even Bard or Sorcerer (using Inspiration or Sorcererous points for reflection points). It would, of course, be a smaller set of abilities but I think a small focused archetype is better than even the most well intentioned full class. I also think the Wisdom AND Constitution saving throw proficiencies were a bad choice, with both of those being the most useful of the saving throws where every other class gets a "good" and "bad" save. I also think summoning the reflection at the first level and front-loaded nature of the class makes it way too easy to take as a dip.
That being said, the class isn't bad in the Wizards of the Coast definition of "Over Powered". To WOTC, a class is OP if it takes fun away from any other player at the table (DM included) and I don't think this qualifies for that definition. If you were allowing this at your table, it would probably be a very interesting character to have playing. A half-caster that also is a decent combatant, the Reflectionist allows the player to summon a mirror duplicate which will be used with a variety of the abilities possesed by the reflectionist. The archetypes are all unique, with no overlap so if you're not worried about optimizers in your group, give the class a whirl. It will very very likely end up being fun!
I'll judge the class and award it stars based on what it is, not what it isn't. I'm going to give it a 4/5, taking one point away because of the front-loaded nature combined with the two awesome saving throws. If it was one or the other, it wouldn't be a big deal but both together is just a little too far against WOTC design for my tastes.
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Quest spells were one of those things from 2e that just never seemed to make it futher, but if someone had one you knew there was a story behind it. That sort of narrative driven implication is the focus of 5e and so it makes sense to bring these truely epic spells back from yesteryear.
The spells presented are all updated representations of the 2nd edition ones from Tome of Magic, minus three spells that already basically exist in 5e.
I can't wait to hand one of these puppies out as a reward to my table's cleric (once they've earned it, of course).
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A collection of 21 oddball magic items. To say useless, I'd disagree, but they certainly aren't items any power gamer will be striving for. However players that like a good unique thing they've never seen before? Oh, they'll love these.
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Much like the Tavern from Dragon Heist, the Tower Golem is a expandable "home" for your players. However, this is a much more fantastic and mystical structure, and as such is probably suited for higher level play. Thoughtfully, the author has included a number of adventure hooks and events that help turn this from just a location, into a fixture for your campaign.
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As someone who loves the heady froth of immersion, this book was super interesting to me. First and foremost, let me say I love the influences & references credits. It helps me go see where this information all came from.
The layout is wonderful, with a decent balance of art, tables, and text. Lists of existing things you can buy with each type of coin is great, and the alternative coins are equally great. Steel and Iron coins are something we see often in fantasy fiction and so having a good basis for exchange rate is nice and the non-coin currencies are great for immersion (seriously, hand your players Shaar rings or Bond Bells and watch them turn into covetous little dragons).
I can go on and on and on but for 2 bucks, I just say throw down and grab it IF you're the sort of DM that wants a more "real" feeling Forgotten Realms OR you want inspiration for how to do coinage in your non-FR games.
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A deep dive into the Paladin, this supplement investigates the narrative reinforcement behind the class instead of simply providing new mechanical advantages. That's super interesting to me both as a DM or a player because there are a tonne of supplements devoted to new archetypes but this just helps me think about my character. It illustrates the differences between your alignment, your deity, and your oath responsibilities, and how those decisions affect your character independantly of each other.
Overall, a great little supplement.
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The material is fine and written in such a way that it doesn't break anything. The 4e style wording ("adjacent" instead of "within 5 feet") was a throwback but the actual mechanics don't flow nicely. Things like "-2 penalty to AC" aren't hard to follow, but is still very 4e.
That being said, without having broken my game so far and being a fan of blessings/boons, I like the product overall. I think I would have preferred it if the author tried harder to adapt these to fifth edition wording but even with that caveat, it's not a bad supplement.
I do not suggest allowing bleeding to stack however. No other conditions stack and that makes book keeping awkward.
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Creator Reply: |
Thank you, the wording of "adjacent" is generally supposed to be changed to "within 5 feet". Things like that are what I'm mostly trying to clean up. If you found other wordings that feel awkward or don't flow with 5e, feel free to let me know and I'll look at it. |
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Great supplement for lots of Trek lore and inspiration. As with all the division books, a good section of creatures and characters to interact with. However, I'm taking one star away for giving very very little player content. There are talents and suggested focuses, but no new races or ships. Where are the science oriented iterations of both?!
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I'm going to judge this first on the book as a whole, then each archetype. These opinions are garnered from years of playtesting homebrew but not specifically this supplement:
The Book: While not written using the WOTC writing standards, all text is easily read and understood. The author has a few spelling mistakes. Formatting wise, everything looks good, if a little plain. I really wish the author would have included narrative reasons why these archetypes exist, but the DM is always free to fill that in anyway. Mechanical issues do hold back a few of these archetypes, so I've marked the product down one star.
Abyssal Servant: Excellent flavor. Mechanically sound, adding additional dice to an already damaging class and granting necromatic damage. The archetype doesn't seem to be overpowered.
Arsonist: Finally, for that fire loving freak in your party, they can play something other than sorcerer. I like tying the maximum number of bombs to your proficency bonus. However, the first ability should list how OFTEN you can create these bombs. Short rest? Long rest? Overall the archetype gives you bombs and makes you a sorcerer. It's... ok but I'm not sure it adds much to the rogue.
Blood Seeker: I like the narrative of the class, with you becoming an undead shadow. What I don't like is the adding arbitrary dice to skill checks. Adding a d6, d10, or d12 to stealth based on light level is unintuitive (in the 5e ecosystem). But I think the mechanics here compliment a rogue well.
Death Dealer: This is an overpowered archetype. Allowing sneak attack damage to lower the maximum hit points for a creature dramatically affects encounter balance when healing is taken into account. Based on the first ability of this archetype, I would not allow it at my table. Execution is also an ability which likely doesn't matter, most monsters are exempt from death saving throws.
Heartless Killer: A cold, fearless archetype is great. It's straightforward and while it might lack the complexity of other archetypes, it's 100% in line with the other archetypes except for the final ability. It should have a limit on how often it can trigger (2x per day, or a number of times equal to your Wis mod, or something).
Infernal Ally: Feels more like a sorcerer, warlock, or even wizard archetype but aside from that the class looks ok. I'd change "You can use your bonus action to command your ally to take action", given how the action economy works but this won't break too many tables I'd expect.
Phantom: Aside from Dance of the Mist giving an arbitrary die (instead of advantage or some other existing mechanic) I like this archetype a lot. And even then, the archetype is totally balanced.
Poisoner: I'd have to playtest this, trying out ALL the poisons, but I think everything presented here falls in line with other classes. It also seems like a fun archetype.
Sabatour: Much like the earlier explosives, there is no note to how often you can craft bombs. Countering Constructs is so limited in D&D, I'm not sure this is a good class, but due to that limit I don't think this is overpowered.
Shadow Walker: Not a great archetype. The first ability lets you maximize dice against targets in total darkness, which you later can apply at will to targets.
Smiling Liar: Pretty good. I'm not sure how the final ability would work in play, if you acquired a large number of followers. Also the saving throw equal to your rogue level being tied to a 17th level ability means a good chunk of attempts to resist you will fail. Tenatively I say this is good, but that last ability worries me.
Stinger: This is a pretty awesome archetype right here. Great flavor, solid abilities. I wish there was some fluff to tell us WHY you wanted to become a giant bug, but it's cool.
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