A selection of tactically minded abilities to add to D&D 5th Edition monsters. The system for adjusting the CRs for the new abilities is well thought out, and they definitely provide some useful new options for tactically heavy games. Not so much for other types of games, admittedly, but that's not the target audience; a number would also be rather gory in play. Note there are wording issues with several abilities: for example, they say a target "can" make a save at times when they clearly mean "must". And there's only two pages of actual new rules provided, with the rest of the page count going to explanations and cover material.

Disclaimer: I got a review copy of this product.

Advantageous Abilities: Savage Abilities [5e] is an excellent product that does one thing and does it well. It presents a group of alternate NPC and monster abilities that can make the enemies in your game fearsome, dangerous, and even interesting to fight.

The presentation is wonderful, with the content consisting of about 3 pages, which is great for the price! The first page explains the methodology for using these abilities, including how to calculate the CR adjustments for potent abilities. I am especially happy that they made note that even potent abilities are not substitutes for hp and ac adjustments; you should try to have your monster's hp and ac increase to match their CR AS WELL as give them neat abilities.

From there we go straight into the abilities themselves. Many of them offer neat permutations to combat, such as being able to prevent players from removing negative status effects, or gaining temporary hit points from bite attacks (which is a brilliant way to use that ability rather than to muck about with healing hit points). Some might need minor tweaking (One called "Deep Wound" could be very unfair if placed on a creature with lots of hit dice) but most abilities are fine where they are. Some, like Vorpal Swipe, are brilliantly crafted to be lethal, but also have an option for a DM that might not want to outright kill players with a lucky roll.

Overall, the abilities are great, though may require a close read to understand. This is not a judgement on the abilities, as some of their effects are interesitng and unique, and require careful writing (and reading).

What struck me the most about these abilities is that they are very thematic heavy. They aren't just bonuses to give to monsters and NPCs, but they seem to alter the mood and behavior of the creatures that they are attached to. A creature with the "Heartfeaster" ability isn't just a monster, it is a heart eating monster, and that is how the players will remember the encounter.

This product is, in my opinion, a slam dunk. It provides some clever and very effective abilities that could add a lot of excitement to a game if used correctly. For $1 this is a bargain. What can you buy for a dollar now a days?

5 stars!

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf of NPC-abilities clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This pdf was move up in my review-queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreons.

So, this pdf begins with a handy and easy to comprehend "How to Use" - basically, these abilities may increase the CR of the respective adversary to which they are added and creatures with CRs of less than 1/2 similarly halve their impact on the respective critter's modification. If in doubt, a save is based on DC = 8 + proficiency bonus + relevant Ability modifier. The abilities themselves are categorized in 3 groups - passive abilities, active abilities and reactions. Easy, right?

Well, let's look at the passive abilities, shall we? These range from CR +0 to CR +2 and a total of 10 are included. At CR 0, we have, for example, the temper tantrum, which imposes disadvantage on all Charisma checks made to reason with the creature while it's under the effects of rage. Gaining temporary hit points equal to the damage dealt with bites would be a CR +1 example. There is also an option to crit in particularly bloody manner; on a failed Con-save, allies of the victim nearby must save or be poisoned and take minor psychic damage. The combo of psychic + poisoned is slightly odd to me, but honestly, I'm nitpicking here. The CR +2 modification allows for vorpal slashes - and actually has two different mechanics: One old-school and unforgiving, one that is kinder on the players. Kudos for featuring both!

A total of 8 active abilities are included; these range in CR modification from CR +1/2 to CR +2, with some having fitting refresh conditions - e.g. the temporary hit points granting and disadvantage imposing battle cry. Minor complaint here: The battle cry should have a proper range. An ability to rip out and eat the heart of recently deceased foes is similarly nice and is prevented from being cheesed by the opponents (so why didn't he carry a bag of kittens around?) by actually having a nice caveat to prevent such a logic book. Big kudos! Somewhat weird due to its nomenclature: The legbreaker-ability allows the creature using it to force a saving throw when hitting foes with a bludgeoning weapon, reducing movement to 0 on a failed save...but this handicap can be overcome on subsequent rounds...which does not sound like breaking to me. Similarly, I think that having flying or swimming speeds should probably still allow for movement. Yes, I am nitpicking here, though these are a bit more serious. Bonus damage in exchange for suffering attacks with advantage on subsequent rounds can be an interesting boss-fight engine tweak.

The pdf also features two reactions at CR +1/2 and CR +1, with a frightened-inducing reactive stare and the option to add proficiency bonus to a non-proficient save if below 1/2 maximum hit points.

Big plus: The pdf is considerate and reproduces the Proficiency bonus by CR and XP by Cr tables on its last page. Nice one.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level, good, bordering on very good on a rules-language level. Layout adheres to a two-column standard and is pretty printer-friendly, with a nice stock image in full color thrown in for good measure. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Kelly & Ken Pawlik's latest collection of advantageous abilities is a welcome, inexpensive little customization toolkit for GMs looking to add some unique tricks to their adversaries. The abilities generally are solid and can make for some nasty surprises. What more can you ask of such a little pdf? Well, there are a few hiccups in the intricate details here, but none are truly glaring. Hence, I feel completely justified in rounding up from my final verdict of 4.5 stars. For the more than fair price, this is definitely worth getting.

Endzeitgeist out.