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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain $2.48
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Chris G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/24/2007 00:00:00

The PDF industry has gone to smaller releases and tighter areas. They cover something very specific in a few pages and charge a buck or so for it. This is the trend and while I prefer books with a little more depth, I can understand why it is going this way. EN Publishing is one of the leaders in PDF publishing and their books are usually top notch. So, it did not surprise me to see them do a book focused tightly on a single weapon. Yet, instead of just giving us a few pages they go into great depth and offer up twenty pages all focused around a weapon that has no historical basis. I cannot wait to see what we get for a weapon that really exists.

EN Publishing is the RPG company associated with EN World. EN World of course is the place you are reading this review and of whom I am a Staff Reviewer for. I also happen to be friends with most of the people involved in the company. So, there may be a perception of bias there. That is up to the reader to determine bt looking at this and other reviews I have done of their books. Now that that is out the way?..

EN Arsenal Spiked Chain is a PDF. It is small under two megs as a PDF file and a zip file. The layout, art, and overall look of this book is excellent. The PDF has a great set of book marks, making flipping through the book and finding things a breeze. EN Publishing has always had great production values in their books.

The book focuses on the Spiked Chain and that worried me. The spiked chain has a reputation of being an abused weapon. It is flexible in its uses and for that reason a lot of players that take it do so for the power it gives them. While there is nothing wrong with that I feared that this book would only give the weapon more power and more options. And that is exactly what the book does.

The book starts with stating out the spiked chains of different sizes. Have a Storm Giant and need the stats for the spiked chain he carries? It is in the book. Have a sprite that welds a spiked chain and need stats for her? It is in here to. I will not be going into the reason why the sprite needs a spike. Different races prefer the spiked chain and some are even better then others in using it. The book does not give racial bonuses for some races, but does give the optional rule of having dwarves receive a penalty since they are shorter and do not have the leverage to use the weapon. The book also discusses the option of allowing the spiked chain to become a double weapon and loosing its ability to be a reach weapon when used that way.

The Spiked Chain is really a simple weapon to design. It is a length of chain with spikes designed to hurt people. So, why not have some variants of that idea? The book agrees with me and that is the next area. There is the balled chain, the bladed chain, and the Chain-axe. These three are easy to understand by their name. However others like the Chigiriki, the Chigiriki-Spear, and the Kurari Gama are not. These are oriental style weapons and while they are nicely described I think a picture of them would have been helpful to allow some people to grasp better what the weapons are. There are a total of nine variant Spiked Chains described here allowing for a nice distinction between characters that want to use this weapon. One side bar of particular interest is on the difficulties of stowing the weapons. It adds a nice small penalty and realism to characters using these large and cumbersome items.

One section that I was not e3xpecting but was very happy to see was on the craftsmanship of a Spiked Chain. It has three crafting options one to increase hit points, one to increase the hardness, and one to decrease the weight. I think this was a great section but could have been expanded on and even offer ways to make crafting the item faster and cheaper but giving it flaws.

Onto the section of the book I imagine most people will be buying it for: Fighting and Feats. This section has new feats and fighting options. For instance there are rules for making it a short grappling hook and for swing by the spiked Chain. The feats are of course combat oriented ones. There are feats for sundering, tripping, climbing, and welding the weapon in one hand. While the feats have obvious use for the Spiked the Chain they are defiantly not limited to just that weapon.

The class section starts out with something that is not often seen. That is the suggestion of combing core classes and existing prestige class to form a character that fits a particular archetype as they define it. Here they have a monk with a few levels of rogue and assassin. It maps it out from level one to twenty giving the class abilities and combined saves and base attack. There are two new prestige classes here: the Scorpion Warrior and the Raveller. The Scorpion Warrior gets some very good abilities like the ability to knockdown any opponent on a successful hit. And the final ability of the calls is basically a whirlwind attack of everyone with in reach of the character. While these abilities are strong the class is not easy to get into. It requires at least five feats with either another feat needed or ranks in knowledge religion, a skill few fighters want to take. The Raveller is a magic using spike chain fighter person. I will admit if I ever have a Spiked Chain welding opponent fireball my group, they will be shocked by that. The best part of this class is a pure fluff idea that I really like. They renamed spells in the PHB. Animate rope is animate chain, Prison of Chains is Imprison. It is a simple yet very effective way of getting more out of the player?s handbook. There are also spells, magical properties and items, and a new God.

Okay, the book was better then I thought it would be. It covered more ground and was very well put together. There are great and balanced options in here and even though it is rules heavy I found a lot of ideas that can easily be transported to the gaming table. Of course this means that the rest of the books have the bar raised for them, even if just a little.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Derek K. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/01/2006 00:00:00

?E. N. Arsenal ? Spiked Chain? was the first release in E. N. Publishing?s Arsenal series. Written by M. Jason Parent, this ?Complete Weapon Sourcebook? installment takes a look at the titular weapon by presenting a bit of potential real-world history of the weapon, weapon variants, feats, prestige classes, spells and magic items.

The first chapter presents the spiked chain with more detail than the weapon has received in the core sourcebooks. Different-sized spiked chains ? from Tiny to Colossal ? are detailed here with their costs, damage, weights and hardness. Information on stowing this potentially-awkward weapon is also given.

There are a number of variant spiked chains here. The balled chain is essentially a spiked chain with a morning star head attached to either end. The chain-axe, designed by dwarves, is topped with a double axe-head. The spiked ribbon actually appears to be a sash or belt that reveals barbs along its length when used. Some of the variants are also Asian in flavor, like the chigiriki and kusari-gama.

Rules for using a spiked chain as a sort of grappling hook are given before several new feats are introduced. Several of these feats stand out. Blood Lust and Blood Frenzy (neither of which are spiked-chain-wielding-specific) increase the character?s Constitution, Strength and even armor class, but at the cost of their Dexterity modifier or maybe even a little bit of damage. Firm Grip and Firm Stance give the wielder a +4 bonus versus being disarmed or a +4 bonus versus trips, bull rush or overrun attempts, respectively. Greater Sunder and Greater Disarm give the character an extra immediate melee attack when successfully making a sunder or disarm attack against an opponent. Strike Around allows a spiked chain wielder to reduce his or her opponent?s shield bonus by half.

Two prestige classes are introduced ? the scorpion warrior, whose Ripping Blow forces his or her opponent to make a Fortitude save or suffer a bleeding wound that deals one point of damage per round until Healed, and the raveller, who combines spiked chain use with magic. The sinuous cobra school is also introduced, but this isn?t a prestige class. Instead, it?s a full 20-level playable class multiclassing the monk, rogue and, eventually, the assassin.

The raveller?s spell list contains over 30 spells, but only five of them ? ?weeping wounds?, ?steel shrapnel?, ?iron web?, vertebrate chain? and ?wall of chains? ? are new. The other spells on the list, however, are all given slight variants. For example, a raveller doesn?t cast ?barkskin?, ?hold portal? or ?blade barrier.? Instead, a raveller would cast ?iron skin?, ?chain portal? or ?chain barrier.?

Of the new spells, ?vertebrate chain? caught my attention the most. When using this spell, the caster transforms the spinal column of a slain creature into an unholy spiked chain. If nothing else, an NPC could use this spell to dastardly effect.

Six weapon enhancements and seven specific magic spiked chains round out this supplement. They are all well-designed and well-balanced.

This is a great supplement. While mostly spiked chain-specific, the material in this weapon sourcebook is quite varied, and can be used by almost any character class (a deity of chains ? Darreal, the Binder ? is even included for players interested in playing a chain-based cleric).

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This entire sourcebook is well-balanced and quite playable. Both players and DMs can find something of use in ?E. N. Arsenal ? Spiked Chain.? The artwork supplements the material nicely as well. The new spells, and the way the existing spells from the existing sourcebooks are modified, give this supplement a great deal of flavor. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I'm not a fan of breaking down a multiclassed character into a 20-level progression like the sinuous cobra school. This may be a personal bias, but it isn't enough to detract from the product. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by james k. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/21/2006 00:00:00

Really liked the layout of the Spiked Chain, nice approach to the spiked chain. I liked how it had a lil bit of this and a lil bit of that in it. Downside, I found it to be so good that I wanted more!<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Layout Art Information <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Too small Could've used some npc's Could've used some training outlines for how a character becomes proficient with the spiked chain.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Richard H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/18/2005 00:00:00

I bought this book because one of my characters has been nagging me for access to a spiked chain for a while. I thought that I would give him one with a nasty little warrior attached to the end. With this book that "nasty little warrior" just became an absolutely lethal Scorpion-schooled juggernaut of death--even though I am leaving the CR untouched. Just with the feats and the classes you can get out of this book a normal encounter with a spiked chain wielding foe becomes somewhat epic in nature.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Just the feats and scorpion school make this book worth the nominal amount of money they are charging for it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The "Raveller" is a neat concept but the chain spells that go with it are rather lackluster.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Jonathan J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/12/2005 00:00:00

I highly recommend this accessory for those running a game with a PC wanting to use a chain weapon. Useful information for variations and how to better use this weapon.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The detailed information and the variations of a little known and used weapon.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing at this time. Keep up the good work guys.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Josh Q. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/01/2005 00:00:00

My first purchase here at EN World and it's got me coming back for more, now that I've money for it. This publication is an absolute MUST-HAVE for anyone even concieving of running a character who weild a spiked chain and for the DM who wants to throw a NPC at his party that very easily could kill them all without breaking a sweat, if the party is foolish - or who wants to perhaps give drawbacks to the PC in his campaign who recogized the unparalled options for devastation that such a weapon gives him or her in combat. Thank you, Mr. Parent and E.N. World for publishing this source book<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I loved the absolute TON of optional rules and variants for the spiked chain. My favorite examples: the product contains rules for the various sized characters and subsequent reach of the items; rules for stowing your spiked chain - a rather large issue with such a powerful item, after all, who ever often really thinks about where thier weapons are stored when not in combat? In the sheath, of course, or in the weapon frog, but a spiked chain can hardly be stowed in such an apparatus. After all, there has to he SOME downside to using such an abominally powerful weapon; The feats centered around the spiked chain, such as "Greater Disarm", were a very nice addition - compiling them all in one spot for ease of access ( I hate having to carry a ton of books to each session).<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked to know which specific book each of the feats were originally from to show my DM their original publisher, the level of credibility of that publisher (as some publishers are notorious for staggeringly unbalanced products), and the precedent and thought path that went into each feat. Perhaps one or two more actual prestige classes would have been nice, instead of mostly being class level progression outlines to use (albeit with a VERY nice set of RP aspects and possibilities to go with each).<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Robert V. A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/23/2004 00:00:00

I like this product very much, and while I have yet to really use anything in it in my campaign, it is more because the product is so specialized. But, I know it will prove useful later in my homebrew, as I used the much of the information within to design martial artist spiked chain wielders. Like with everything created by Hellhound, it looks to be very game balanced. If you ever wanted to utilize chain weapons of most any sort in your campaign, especially specilized martials artists or magic, then this is the book for you.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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E.N.Arsenal - Spiked Chain
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Ben S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/26/2004 00:00:00

This I liked. It wasn't some epoch-shattering marvel of games engineering, but it was nice.

The positives: Lottsa crunchy bits, nothing too unbalancing, and some thought put into making the weapon more fun to use. Fun being the most important part in any entertainment product, this got high marks.

Also, on a highly personal "Oh no! He's talking about his campaign!" note: The most-feared villain I ever used had a spiked chain. This gives me an excellent opportunity, and nifty toys, for bringing a new such villain back into play.

The negatives: A little bit more discussion on the historical use of chains as weapons would have been lovely... although it's probably hard to come by any Western treatment of the weapons that aren't tainted by 80's ninja mania.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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