Loved the print 3.0 version; love the expanded 3.5 electronic version. The be-all end-all for lists of magical alchemical/herbalist items (though the extra class and crafting rules in the book should probably be dumped).<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The herbal/alchemical items.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The extra crafting rules (multiple feats, prestige classes, etc.) that they require in this book to create the alchemical items.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

(ORIGINALLY POSTED TO ENWORLD.ORG ON SEP. 4, 2004)

Heroes of High Favor: Elves Bad Axe Games

Executive Summary: The typical "Bad Axe" treatment - a cross-section of new feats and skills and uses for the Craft skill, some interesting new campaign options (especially ley lines and nexuses), the "favored class - every other core class" combo prestige classes (in this case wizard - core class), and as a bonus, a section on creating spells slapped on the end. If you've seen other Heroes of High Favor books, you know exactly what you're in for.

Adaptability 10 This little beauty has something in it for everyone, even those who DON'T like elves (and believe me, I'm as big an "elf-hater" as I can think of). The feats, while having considerable focus on "arcane magic" can be useful for nearly all characters, not just elves (I particularly liked the fact that there's at least one Feat dedicated to each school of magic that lets you do interesting things; for instance, there is a feat that allows a wizard to store positive or negative energy in a spell slot rather than a spell, allowing him a very limited ability to heal or activate things that would normally take a cleric's turn attempt). The new uses for the Craft skill - things like exceptionally flexible armor that doesn't inhibit spellcasting - are also welcome additions to the game, I think... I love little touches that can make a character's equipment just a little more "personal." And of course, no matter which core class you like, there's a prestige class in here for it.

Balance 10 Bad Axe once again does a good job with balancing things; nothing is overpowered, and in fact, some things might be slightly underpowered. The biggest thing to look at for balance is the appendix that gives parameters for creating new spells, and even this looks to have erred slightly on the side of "weaker, not stronger" than the Core. I didn't find any egregious rules problems, unless you consider allowing an arcane caster EXTREMELY limited access to positive negative energy a problem as mentioned above (and at the cost of a Feat, I don't think it's a problem).

Clarity 10 As usual, all the rules presented are easy to follow, and most fit within two or three sentences, or a paragraph at worst. Perhaps the "crown jewel" in the book is its treatment of ley lines and ley line nexuses - a truly inspired idea that lets wizards tap into natural areas of exceptional magical power - the rules are at once simple and flexible and still allow for a ton of new options to play out.

Focus 10 Everything here is devoted to elves and/or their "favored class" of wizard. Nothing in the book cannot be traced back to either an "elvish feel" or "helpful for making wizardly stuff." As usual, Bad Axe does a commendable job of staying on task.

Granularity 9 Almost every item in this book can be pulled out alone and plopped into a campaign, with the exception of the "creating new spells" rules, which require you to take the whole of the "extra" 16 pages at one large swallow, and some of the "Ley Line"-related Feats, which require incorporation of the Ley Line and Nexus rules. Because of this slight interweaving, it's not perfectly granular, but even these "interwoven" pieces are generally sharply focused, so I can't ding them too much.

OGC 10 Bad Axe continues to be one of my favorite publishers when it comes to OGC. They put "Open Content" on every page that contains open content - and all the text on the page is open. All their "crunch" is always OGC, and it easily passes my "six-year-old with a highlighter" test. A great resource for those wishing to incorporate things into their own works.

Originality 9 This was the third entry in the Bad Axe line, so I can't say the "favored class-core class" prestige classes are too original any more, but with ley lines, spell creation, arcane feats, and elvish craft items all thrown into the mix, there's a ton of stuff that will open your eyes and expand your campaign. Great stuff here.

Presentation 10 It's the standard Bad Axe fare; the layout is nice and clean, the text and pictures work together well, and whitespace is kept to a minimum. The easy marking of OGC is a plus, too.

Price To Content 10 The "extra" 16 pages dedicated to creating your own spells make this even bigger than most HoHF releases - and they weren't a bad bargain to begin with. The pages are not full size, maybe 5 x 8-ish, but there's little to no wasted information here; all of this stuff is great. $9.95 is more than fair for this puppy.

Wow 10 I have a high expectation from Bad Axe, but this wowed me even for them. I wanted to pretty much drop everything from this book into my campaign world as soon as I read it. The most embarassing part was going, "wow, this is even cooler than the last section" over and over as I read. I was bowled over by this product, even for Bad Axe!

THE FINAL WORD: If you can only get one "elf race book," this should be it. In fact, with all the other options included in here, I really recommend this book for ANY campaign that has magic of any stripe in it. Simply put, HoHF: Elves is on my "must have" list for d20 gaming and I'd recommend it heartily to anyone. In my opinion, it's quite simply one of the best products on the market, if not THE best, period.

TOTAL GRADE: 98, A+ (B) -- Five stars (I think this is the first "A+" I've given with my 1-100 scoring system. It's that good.)

(Edited to remove information specific to print version)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

(ORIGINAL REVIEW POSTED TO ENWORLD.ORG OCTOBER 16, 2002 AND MAY CONTAIN OUT-OF-DATE INFORMATION)

Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs (hereafter simply HALF-ORCS) is the second in Bad Axe Games' Heroes of High Favor line. Each of these books is dedicated to a single race and explores the options and implications of that race's favored class, mostly in the form of rules-crunchy Prestige Classes that are designed to work for multiclass combos of Favored Class/Other Class.

Percent of OGC: Roughly 50%. As with HoHF:Dwarves, HALF-ORCS puts the designator "all text on this page is Open Game Content" to make the OGC easy to find.

First Impressions: Well, I now know what to expect from Bad Axe, so unlike HOHF:Dwarves, the format and the material here were anything but a surprise. HALF-ORCS sticks to the Bad Axe formula established in HoHF:Dwarves... give your reader a little background, then get right to the crunchy stuff by throwing Feats, Skills, and (mostly) Prestige Classes at 'em.

Initial Annoyances: There was nothing "new" and "fresh" about the layout. While Bad Axe is still a relatively young company, and their layout is excellent, I will be very interested to see what happens to the layout when they release something that is not in the HoHF series... I worry that they might fall into a rut. Furthermore, there seemed to be a little excessive "graphicness" to some of the illustrations. I suppose this could be explained by the focus on a race that is usually depicted as brutish and crude, but hopefully it is not the start of a trend. Further releases will tell us, I suppose.

Chapter Breakdown:

Chapter one is the introduction. All of two pages, it essentially gives a quick "background history" on half-orcs and discusses the implications of the Favored Class (Barbarian) on their culture. As with HoHF:Dwarves, this plays a little away from the "chicken and egg" question - are half-orcs barbaric because of their culture or is their culture barbaric because that's their favored class? As with HoHF:Dwarves, the answer tends to be, "it doesn't really matter." In other words, HALF-ORCS is not about changing stereotypes or the role of the half-orc in society; rather, it is about reinforcing them (not necessarily bad, BTW). There is also a little information about the company, the product, an the OGC demarcation.

Chapter two introduces us to Feats and Totem/Tribal Foci. The Feats are generally solid, and (notably) include a couple of neat new uses for the Barbarian Rage ability (appropriate, based on the focus being on Half-Orcs and their favored class, Barbarian). Bull's Health, for instance, allows a barbarian to expend one of his daily rages in order get a "second chance" at a saving throw vs. poison. Focused Rage can only be used while (already) raging, and grants the character the use of the Improved Critical Feat with any weapon he uses (proficient or not) for the duration of the (initial) rage. Of course, with all the new things to "spend" rages on, the Extra Orcish Rage Feat, analagous to the Extra Turning Feat from the PHB, provides the half-orc with three extra uses of rage per day - but can only be taken once. Totem/Tribal Foci are concepts that introduce extra synergy between Feats and Skills and are somewhat analagous in placement and function to the Runes introduced in HoHF:Dwarves in that they provide a unique (if understated) way for Half-Orcs to leverage their abilities. It "costs" a Feat to start (Tribal Focus or Totem Focus), but the Feat provides a character with an immediate +1 bonus to a skill (character's choice of skills from a limited list - the tribal focus has one list and the totem focus has another). If that seems a little underwhelming, consider that each time a character selects a Feat approriate to the tribe/token (a list of Feats is given for sample tribes/tokens), the character receives, free of charge, another +1 bonus to assign to a skill from the list (he may assign the bonus to the same skill as before). For example, a character who takes Totem Focus and chooses the Wolf token might take a +1 bonus to his Wilderness Lore skill. If the character later takes Dodge, he gains another "free" +1 bonus, that he can apply to Wilderness Lore or perhaps Move Silently or Handle Animal (the character must make the choice at the time he gains the bonus and cannot change it later) for a total of +2 in bonuses. When the character takes Track, he gains yet another +1 bonus (total of +3). When he takes Spring Attack, he gains another +1 bonus (for a total of +4), and so on (most "chains" top out at +6). Because the bonus is unnamed, it stacks with other bonuses and with itself (a quote from HALF-ORCS, but a worthy reminder of how bonuses work). It's an idea for Feats that makes them a little underpowered compared to Skill Focus when first taken, but that "cost" is offset by a long-term advantage over Skill Focus (assuming of course, you are interested in taking the proscribed Feat Chain). A wonderful little concept here.

Chapter three handles Skills. The most notable uses of skills come in the Craft (Weapon) skills in which a character can make weapons more quickly, more cheaply, or at with a lower DC. The "cost" is that these weapons are substandard and break more easily, breaking on a natural roll of 1 (or 2 or 3, should more than one of the above factors be used). A nice little touch that explains why nobody likes to loot orcish corpses - the weapons break too easily. Also included is a short section that could be titled "Animal Husbandry 101" - rules are given for cross-breeding creatures using the Handle Animal skill. Another great use of a neglected skill, and much better than trying to build a new mechanic into the system to handle it. Brownie points there.

Chapter four is the meat of the book - Prestige Classes. And yes, there is a Paladin/Barbarian multiclass combo (the Fervent Antagonist) and a Monk/Barbarian combo. These are explained as rare, but possible (due to alignment changes). It is possible - but difficult - but not impossible - to qualify for a couple of these without the associated "second class" (to go with Barbarian) but for the most part, the requirements include certain class abilities only accessible to those with 3-5 levels in the "second class." A few notes on the "quickest path" to each class are provided, with some advice on which stats are and aren't important to a character seeking to fill this niche. Obviously, this is not "set in stone" but provides good guidelines to those seeking to use the classes. None of the classes struck me as particularly overpowering on first blush. Since the Fervent Antagonist is probably the most unusual combo, I will mention that most of the Fervent Antagonist abilities seem to center around allowing the character to gain access to both his paladin abilities (such as spells, smites, divine aura, and so forth) and his barbarian abilities (espeically rage). The cost to combining these two fields (which a normal multiclass character cannot simultaneously possess) is that the character is not quite as good a paladin as a "lawful" paladin and not quite as good a barbarian as a "chaotic" barbarian. Not too badly done - this was probably the toughest to execute and seems to have been done in a decent fashion. The other classes are a bit of a mixed bag - again, the focus seems to be on leveraging the abilities of the two classes into a few unusual special abilities at the cost of a little bit of the raw power that a "normal" multiclass character could achieve.

Chapter five (mislabelled as chapter four on the page headers) is a short summary with some tips on how to role-play a "classic" half-orc (or classic barbarian). There are a few tips given on how to separate Barbarian 1 from Barbarian 2 without straying too far afield from the classic stereotype. This kind of advice is a nice help for newbies and good reminder for veterans. In that it's only a couple of pages, it doesn't take up too much space, either, so the veteran shouldn't feel cheated by being told what he already knows.

Presentation: Similar to HoHF:Dwarves, HALF-ORCS is tightly focused and the illustrations are slightly cartoonish but clean and clear. The "violence level" was definitely upped for HALF-ORCS, but that may be a consequence of the barbarian theme. The artwork is not always inspiring, but it is relevant and nicely done. The placement of "the text on this page is Open Game Content" is excellent and also garners points for presentation by making OGC hideously easy to find.

Conclusion: Another strong showing for Bad Axe games. The further expansion of the Craft Skill is nice, but the real gems are the Totem Focus and (especially) Handle Animal/Animal Husbandry sections. If you already have HoHF:Dwarves, this is more of the same and you know what to expect (if you liked Dwarves, I guess that's good and maybe it's bad if you didn't) - there will be no surprises in here for Bad Axe return customers. If you haven't read Dwarves, you might well consider picking this up for your half-orc. It's a nice resource, gives a lot of "crunchy" options to your character, and will probably see quite a bit of use. Nothing in here that will knock your socks off because of originality, but technically sound and with several new ideas that do an excellent job expanding the d20 ruleset just a touch. This is a solid book with solid artwork and solid writing on some really good ideas that sticks to a solid and proven formula. It is the ideas more than anything else that push it up from "averge" into "good." The target all along was a book about the stereotypical half-orc and/or barbarian, and it is achieves those goals, making it a worthy purchase that earns a Good rating. It's not for everyone - if you're not excited by stereotypical half-orcs and/or barbarians, however, you'll want to steer clear of this one unless Animal Husbandry rules particularly excite you - but it does what it promises, and that's all you can ask of a book.

EDIT: Noted the reveiw date and possibly out-of-date info<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

(REVIEW ORIGINALLY POSTED TO ENWORLD.ORG JULY 10, 2002 AND MAY CONTAIN OUT-OF-DATE INFORMATION)

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves (hereafter simply DWARVES) is Bad Axe Games' first foray into the d20 marketplace.

Percent of OGC: Roughly 50% (see below)

First Impressions: DWARVES is another niche book - tightly focused; though I must admit it was not what I expected. 40 pages are given over to prestige classes - 4 pages per class. By my count, that means fully 2/3 of the book is prestige classes. I didn't expect the book to be so prestige-class heavy. But on going back and reading the "foreword" it is clear that this is in fact what DWARVES is meant to do - spend most of its time dealing with archetypical dwarven roles as reflected in the "favored class" of dwarves - fighter. Okay, fair enough... I need to change my expectations a bit - this book is meant to explore "dwarves through fighter since their favored class is fighter." A refreshing look at the almost forgotten concept of favored classes and what implications that will have on dwarven society (or is that the other way round?).

Initial Annoyances: The book wasn't what I expected. While that isn't necessarily bad, it WAS annoying. The rules for Runes were a bit hard to grasp on first read - it's easy to miss "how to activate runes" (though the second time around I got them). I also felt a little disappointed at the new Craft rules - mostly because I didn't feel there were enough options presented... I got to the end of the section and thought, "aw, is that it? I want more..."

Chapter Breakdown:

Chapter 1 deals with the "generic" aspects of dwarves. Gives a quick (really quick) overview of society, attitudes, and culture. Nothing new and exciting for RPG veterans here, but does help you get your "dwarf mindset" in gear before diving in to the meatier stuff. It's only two pages long and although much of it is fluff, it doesn't detract from the rest of the book in either tone or quantity. I was rather indifferent about this chapter, but hey, I've been playing dwarves for 20-odd years now, so I guess anything that gives me "basics of dwarven society" will be boring to me. Chapter 1 is closed content.

Chapter 2 can be handled in four parts: Feats, Fighting Styles, Runes, and Old Uses for New Skills (read: "new stuff to do with the Craft skill"). Most of the Feats are are fighter-oriented and usable for combat. Nothing too new and exciting here, except for the Style Specialization options (nice segue into Fighting Styles, eh?). Reminiscent of the old Complete Book of Fighters, this gives game mechanic backup to the player who wants to specialize in "weapon and shield" or "single weapon" or "two-handed weapon" or "two-weapon style." Nothing truly overpowering here - spend a Feat for a +1 bonus or mitigate a penalty by -2. This does a good job of giving "mechanical backup" to role-playing choices without creating uber-munchkins. Excellent job there. Runic Feats, to the complaint of some, seem a bit underpowered - runes can't even be used without a Feat, and with dwarves' Charisma penalty, odds are that you won't get a ton of utility from, say, a rune that lets you use Cleave for a number of rounds per day equal to your Charisma bonus. Runes, however, have one saving grace - they don't have other prereqs. That means that a 10 Str dwarf can be Cleaving opponents. Also, you can channel turning uses into Runes - also makes sense, since one presumes that dwarves usually are busy fighting goblins and not zombies. A nice touch. I still think Runes are slightly underpowered, but that's fine with me... I don't need "escalation" where every new book gives PCs bigger and badder and better powers. Finally, the Craft section details a few new mundane options for armor and shields. Loved everything about this but the length - I could have used another four pages or so of this kind of thing. This was, for me, the highlight of DWARVES. Chapter 2 is all Open Game Content. :)

Chapter 3 is the "Chapter of the Prestige Classes." These are set up with 2 pages of "flavor text" and illustrations (not OGC) and 2 pages detailing the class and its abilities (OGC). A nice way to split the OGC and non-OGC bits 50/50. I felt that most of the PrCs are mechanically sound, if not always inspiring. The idea of a PrC for each multiclass archetype is refreshing, though - and they follow the idea that a PrC should not be categorically better than a standard class - just more specialized (better in some certain situations, worse in others). The PrCs are solid additions to a dwarven culture without too much ridiculousness. Highlights are the Tunnel Fighter (who gets flanking benefits when his opponent is near a wall) and the Battle Rager (whose "Against the Odds" ability worries me as possibly overpowered but I haven't playtested it yet). Chapter 3 is 50% OGC, as noted above - the "flavor text" is not, but all the "crunchy bits" are.

Chapter 4 is a 2-page wrap-up of dwarven roleplaying. It presents seven (IIRC) dwarven "virtues" - which, when taken to extremes, provide the quintessential stereotype of stoic, greedy, grumpy dwarves. Nothing too exciting here for anyone but a first-time dwarf. Chatper 4 is closed content.

PRESENTATION: The interior artwork didn't blow me away, but struck me as better than most of the artwork I've seen of late. Nice and clean, slightly Elmore-esque. Style points here for not trying too hard, but giving us quality material. The cover, by contrast, is BEAUTIFUL in its simplicity. Extra bonus points for the OGC delineation method - there is a "bar" at the bottom of each page that either does or does not contain the phrase "this page is Open Content" - all text (not pictures) on a page are OGC when this appears and they did a great job of layout so that things never felt "forced" and I didn't get "spillover" of fluff into the OGC crunchy bits. Definitely worthy of emulation for other publishers.

Conclusion: Not quite what I expected, but a pleasant surprise. Most of the book was "solid but not overwhelming." When I consider that the pages are half the size of the Quintessential X series, that tells me that this book is actually only 1/4 the size of the Quintessential X series. I felt that, on the whole, I got almost as much from DWARVES as I do from the Quintessential X series - because DWARVES seems more tightly focused (this is usually a GOOD thing when doing splatbooks). I can't justify calling it "great," since only the Craft rules struck me as really neat, though - very very solid, but little in the way of "WOW" factor. That I didn't get much of a "wow" keeps it from a "Superb" rating and instead earns it a "Good" rating (4/5); while its technical merits (layout, artwork, and rules adherence) are easily worthy of a 5/5, I felt the "idea" merits and "wow" factor were only in the 3/5 range - YMMV. The book certainly has no glaring weaknesses unless you hate Prestige Classes (and even if you do hate them, I urge you to look at the way they handled Prestige Classes - it's definitely a nice spin to see "archetypes" as PrC's instead of "neat bundles of powers"), and I am looking forward to Bad Axe Games' next release. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

(REVIEW OF LIBRUM EQUITIS VOLUME 1 ONLY ORIGINALLY POSTED TO ENWORLD.ORG MAY 6, 2002 AND CONTAINS OUT OF DATE INFORMATION - FOR EXAMPLE IT DOES NOT ACCOUNT FOR THE ADDITION OF VOLUME 2 TO THIS COLLECTION)

Librum Equitis is a "niche book" - meaning it is tightly focused and addresses only a very limited portion of the game. It is a book of prestige classes for the D&D game. It is 34 pages, in PDF format, with 22 prestige classes. The book is very sparse as far as artwork goes - the cover is the only piece of artwork in the book. This is just fine with me, as I am not nearly as concerned with presentation as I am with content. In my mind, if the presentation doesn't get in the way of the content, it is adequate.

With each class having its own page (or pages), there is some wasted space here. However, I prefer to see thing such as classes and monsters - which clearly require a bit of work to explain - broken up on a per-page basis. The cluttered format of the Monster Manual, for example, suited me less than the less-cluttered Legions of Hell, despite the extra white space, so I'm not going to knock the book for whitespace inasmuch as the white space is the cost of easy usability. One thing I did have a problem with, however, as far as the layout goes, is that sometimes you almost wind up with "orphan tables" - pages with just a table on them and little else. I would have preferred to see the tables moved back a page (to be with the main body of the class) and have a paragraph or two of text thusly "orphaned."

Favorite things: The "best use of game mechanics" in Librum Equitis definitely goes to the archery classes, specifically the Longbowman, Military Archer, and Sniper. In order to make them better with ranged weapons than a fighter of equivalent level, they are given a special ranged weapon attack bonus; however, the price is a cleric's BAB advancement. IOW, if a 10th-level fighter (BAB +10) takes a level of Military Archer, his BAB remains at +10, though his ranged attack bonus rises to +12. By adjusting this ranged bonus upwards every fourth level (the level when the BAB isn't rising), you get a class that is obviously geared towards ranged weapons with only a very slight mechanical twist. Good show on that one. As mentioned by Psion, there are slight mechanical issues if a character takes multiple prestige classes with this ability, but they are easily House Ruled with the insertion of the phrase "all levels stack on this ability."

The other thing that struck me about LE was the Feral Ravager - a prestige class for Large and bigger characters only (read: NPCs). The prerequisites are such that a Hill Giant "right out of the box" can take it as his first class level - an interesting touch and one that sparks ideas off for me that perhaps some monsters whose advancement is "by character class" just might have a different set of "core classes" than the typical PH races.

Finally, I loved the Dark Minstrel. Perhaps this is kind of obvious since I included it (with slight modifications) in my own work, the Enchiridion of Mystic Music, but it is the first third-party prestige class I have seen with the bard obviously in mind. I loved the feel, though I thought the mechanics were somewhat poorly done - a bard who takes this misses out on high-level spells; I would have liked to see something to the effect of "bard and dark minstrel levels stack for the purposes of determining spells - use the bard list."

My unfavorites: The Dirty Monk, was I felt, a cop-out to those players who want to play a monk but don't want to be lawful. This is a matter of taste - the mechanics aren't bad, it's just the flavor that rubs me the wrong way - to learn martial arts takes discipline.

The tainted warlock, who I feel is a bit underpowered. As a spellcaster, I fret about taking a class that grants me +1 spellcaster level every 2 levels... the meat of spellcasting is the ability to use high-level spells at high levels. This one grants me +1 spellcaster every 3 levels without giving me enough benefits to make it worth my while.

The psycho pyretic is a psionic class - since I am not big on psionics at all, I have no opinion here... I don't use psionics in my campaigns, so I can't tell you if this is good or bad.

Open Game Content: The "flavor text" for the classes is the only thing not OGC. I like this because it means that you may see these classes cropping up in other works. This makes LE a good buy for publishers as well, since they don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Conclusion: All in all, I liked Librum Equitis. While most prestige class books (such as the WotC "splatbooks" are heavy on magical and supernatural abilities, the majority of the prestige classes here seem to be less magic-oriented and more skill-oriented - which I REALLY like. The use of (and bending of) game mechanics was done quite well, I thought. If you like Presige Classes, this is almost a must-buy. If not, you obviously have no need for the book. I would have liked to see some Feats and/or Spells, but that wasn't the point of this book, and I won't dock it because it tells you upfront that this is 100% Prestige Classes, pure and simple. It's not for everyone, and the lack of art and somewhat sparse flavor text may make some of the prestige classes seem a little droll. On the other hand, the focus on mechanics makes it easy for a DM to drop these babies anywhere in his world without having to fit them into pre-conceived notions. The mechanics are probably the most important thing about a prestige class, and Librum Equitis does well here. Since there are obvious ways to make improvements to the product (stacking - or lack thereof - was a big problem, and of course, the presentation could be improved), I can't give this 5 stars, but it is solid and a worthy addition to my collection. 4 stars.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

A solid product that does a good job of balancing religious themes, historicity, and - well - fantasy. Nothing leaps out as spectacular or earth-shatteringly fantastic (except the fact that it's a solid conversion of a text rich not only in historical tradition but religious tradition as well - which is certainly no small feat!), but there are no egregious flaws here. Just a solid, well-put-together, all around excellent entry. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Possibly the best Arcane Publisher's Edition collection to date; V_Shane's expected high quality shines through here, and this collection is quite versatile, with images of a wide variety of people, animals, and places (as you can tell from the demo) - this means odds are there is something in this collection that can be used no matter what kind of product you are creating. The addition of borders and "separator" graphics - as well as a bonus Font only increases the utility of this product.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The variety of human/humanoid figures. Special "hooray" for the Centaur and Kobold!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The building illustrations were a little sparse on detail; a little more detail work on those might have added to them.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

A nice selection of full-color images; poses are sometimes a bit awkward and some of the skin tones are a bit dark in some cases, but on the whole, not a bad product at all.

Classic Ronin Arts stuff... landscape pages, Elmore art, 5 pages (well, 4, since one page is OGL) of high-quality material for a reasonably inexpensive price. It's exactly what it says it is... statistics and information for 12 new "materials" to make items out of "think 'cold iron' etc." - I happen to love exotic materials, so this is my cup of tea.

Still, IMO, the best 3e supplement for magic out there. Has about 10 different "magic sub-systems" that are easily implemented and add lots of flavor to a game such as "Mirror Magic, Gem Magic, Rune Magic" and more. Also has lots of spells for all classes, not just Wizards or Clerics. Since the text is Open Game Content, a valuable resource for publishers. Thumbs up to Bastion! :-)

Exactly what you expect from this series... high-contrast black and white line art with plenty of white space for easy "cut and paste." This one does seem to have more "science fiction" than "fantasy" to its feel, though (the one drawback to it). Overall, though, the quality and type of art is exactly what is expected from this series, so no disappointements with the art itself apart from the "a little too much sci-fi" look.

The other problem (at least in my mind) is the excessive space devoted to advertising... the final 7 pages (a quarter of the book) are advertising for other products from the company. While one or two pages may be expected (I don't like advertising in general, but I suppose I can tolerate a page or two), having a quarter of the product devoted to advertising seems a bit much - especially when the ads are higher-quality photos and some are in color - and therefore the ads contribute appreciably to the file size.

A 3/5... a good product with one point "deducted" for losing focus and mixing sci-fi with fantasy and a second point "deducted" for too many ads. If you can stomach the ads - or just ignore them - it's a 4/5 - and if you don't mind some sci-fi in there, it's a 5/5. You can't beat the price:content ratio for art if you're a publisher in any case.

One word: disappointing. This product is, essentially, a collection of head-portraits done in a very spartan and anime-esque style.

It's not terribly useful for casual gamers as the portraits all look remarkably similar - and not terrifically specific to any specific genre.

It's not terribly useful for publishers as there are no provisions for re-use of these figures.

If you like the anime style reflected on the cover of this product, it's possibly for you... but you only get neck-up, not even the clothes/body shots shown on the cover.

Score: 2/5 (There may be some use, and the image quality is not bad, but there is too little variation among the pictures and the "shots" are cut too tightly around head-only to be of much use even on a character sheet).

QUICK HIT: Spellbooks and "other special ability tomes" for $3.

This book is nicely laid out, making use of the recent Elmore Publishing Studio release to drop pictures into the book. The background can get a little annoying but does not really detract from the book as a whole. However, it will suck your ink cartridge dry pretty quickly.

It is quite spartan, and jumps right into the first section, the "spellbooks." These are more than just spellbooks, though - some of them are more like "wondrous items." Stuff here runs the gamut of weird to near-useless to possibly-broken. However, there is a lot of nice variety in here. The second section is a group of spells collected from other sources and reprinted here for convenience. A very nice touch if you don't have the other works and even if you do, it's still nice as it keeps everything together in one tome.

One of the big failings, though, is that the spellbooks - particularly the "wondrous item" ones that don't just contain spells - are not priced. Price is, for better or for worse - a gauge of an item's power in 3rd edition, and these spellbooks need to be priced so as to allow a GM a quick and easy way of determining their relative power.

Useful, reasonably priced, and in a more or less attractive layout make this a good supplement. Adding in spells from other sources doesn't get points for creativity but does get points for organization by keeping all the spells together. A little more attention to game balance in some cases would be nice, though I suppose that could be taken care of in the "pricing of items." If the spellbooks had been priced and there was a backgroundless version available, this would merit 5 stars at the meager price of $3. The lack of a "backgroundless" version and lack of item pricing are fairly substantial flaws, however, and for this reason caused me to knock my rating down to 4 stars.

--The Sigil

QUICK HIT: Model of fantastic - if spartan - sourcebook for paladins. In the top three "classbooks" I've seen from any d20 Publisher, print or PDF. No, not "paladin classbooks", "Classbooks" - for ANY class.

Excellent book... one of the better ones I've seen to date. Don't let the plain text look fool you - the writing is superb. It lacks some of the artistic polish of other offerings here, but the content is A+ stuff.

This book contains several variant paladin core classes (20 levels' worth) to start you off - paladins who focus in healing or smiting evil or defending the innocent. Each is a slight tweak on the basic paladin class.

The prestige class selection is good - well-detailed and 5 levels apiece. Nearly every one is well thought-out in terms of both abilities and how it fits into a campaign. There are even a couple of classes for campaigns with firearms (not that I use firearms, but nice touch).

In addition you have sections detailing further Feats for your paladin - well thought-out, flavorful Feats, and new paladin spells are included as well.

The "Tests of Faith" section is also excellent - it provides a means for a paladin to "prove himself" to himself - or fail to do so - with appropriate bonuses (or penalties) if his faith is found to be true (or lacking). Also included is a section on expanding the paladin's Smite Evil ability - a wonderfully flavorful section. Abilities for armor and shields round out the selection of goodies with a few other extras thrown in.

All in all, a wonderfully comprehensive book on paladins - easily the best one I've seen to date (not that there are many). I was VERY pleased to find this little gem. If you are considering playing a paladin - or a DM looking for a way to differentiate Paladin Joe from Paladin Bob, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Best of all, I saw no glaring balance problems (granted, I haven't had time to playtest everything) in any of the material presented - a huge plus.

Even if you're not inclined to play a paladin, pick this up - you just might want to play one when you're done.

--Spencer "The Sigil" Cooley