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Three new archetypes for rangers:
- Beast Master: A replacement for the core Beast Master, treating the beast companion more like an upgraded familiar. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything ultimately handled this sort of revision better.
- City Slicker: A ranger designed to operate in urban environments. Good general idea with some neat features, but they didn't seem quite sure if this archetype is supposed to be a super-cop or something broader. (Also not sold on that name.)
- Marksman: A sniper ranger. Basically this steals features from the assassin rogue, but permits them at range, which is both a niche and balance problem.
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Three new archetypes for wizards:
- Arcane Healer: A wizard with access to healing magic. Completely steps on the niche of the Life Cleric (to include copying some of its features), which is a major turnoff.
- Familiar Adept: A wizard with a more powerful bond to their familiar. I like the concept, and this is definitely the best of the three, but it still steps a bit on the Pact of the Chain warlock's niche.
- Generalist: A wizard that gets access to some non-wizard spells and gradually sheds the class's restrictions. Too powerful compared to the other wizard subclasses, especially as they get to higher levels.
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An adaptation of Magic: The Gathering's Amonkhet setting for D&D 5th Edition. The setting itself combines Egyptian mythology with a mix of zombie apocalypse and the Hunger Games: a single bastion of life and civilization, surrounded by a desert full of undead, where the inhabitants compete for the favor of their God-Pharaoh (who has a dark, secret agenda). This product provides an overview of the setting, and guidelines for creating characters and customizing monsters for the setting.
The setting-specific character options include two new backgrounds (initiate and vizier) and one variant background (dissenter); four new races (aven, khenra, minotaur, and naga); and four new cleric domains (solidarity, strength, ambition, and zeal). The backgrounds are specific to this setting, and can't easily be ported over to others. The aven somewhat resemble the aarakocra, but with two distinguishing subraces; the khenra have an interesting concept (a twin-centric race) but only OK mechanics; the minotaur is basically a half-orc with a horn attack; and the naga's snake-like abilities are interesting, but maybe a little strong for a starting character. The new cleric domains are fine, but largely just mashups of features from core cleric domains; however, the zeal domain stands out as somewhat more distinctive.
The monster listing is mainly just guidelines for reskinning or modifying Monster Manual creatures, although a number of the new twists are neat enough. The few completely new monsters (criosphinxes, heart-piercer manticores, and serpopards) are only OK. The product concludes with an appendix on running planeswalker characters, which is largely limited to advice with only a minimum of mechanics.
All in all, this product has some interesting ideas and a cool aesthetic, but the setting feels limited (if you're not interested in the God-Pharaoh's schemes or random fights with monsters in the desert, you're on your own) and much of the material here is specialized for that setting (so that it could take work to make it fit into other campaigns, even those with Egyptian theming). Still, this is an interesting enough read, and you certainly can't beat the price! (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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A third-party sourcebook on derro for D&D 3rd Edition. This includes details on biology and culture, combat tactics, roleplaying tips, customization options (including feats for improving derro senses, unique equipment, prestige classes, and custom spells), adventure hooks, and a location for a derro-based adventure. The customization options are OK at best, with a few (such as the bonding whip and the custom spells) being particular disappointments.
The presentation of the derro in this book spins out of the description in the D&D 3E core rules... but rather than the more common emphasis on derro madness, they give them a culture focused on personal glory and power over others. The result feels like a hybrid of duergar and drow, but is somewhat less compelling than either. This makes the book hard to recommend for DMs planning to use the derro, unless they're very specifically looking for a non-standard take - the opposite problem from other books in the Slayer's Guide series, which tend to be too conservative. (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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A module for OSRIC, and therefore compatible with the 1st Edition of the world's most famous role-playing game. The adventure has a neat concept - magic has been thrown out of balance, and the players must make things right. There's a fun table of magical malfunctions in the back that supports this. Unfortunately, the module itself doesn't make the most of this premise - instead, we get a line of events and NPCs that carries the players from plot point to plot point with minimal player agency. (It doesn't help that this feels at times like an upgrade of someone's home game, rather than something originally intended for publication.) The general outline is decent, but the execution is disappointing and merely adequate. (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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A collection of alternate background traits based around the core D&D 5th Edition player races, as well as aasimar, goblins, and kobolds. There's some repetition between and within the lists for the various races, and some minor formatting issues here and there (plus a surprise profanity in the goblin section that stands out like a sore thumb)... but overall this is a useful resource for players and DMs who want their character backgrounds to reflect racial and cultural origins. The product also encourages alternate ways to view each character race, which is a nice bonus.
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A third-party collection of monsters for the Pathfinder RPG, clearly inspired by the AD&D 1st Edition Fiend Folio - its title is even taken from the Fiend Folio's subtitle. This is actually a conversion of another third-party product, designed for AD&D 1E, and that origin is reflected in the distinctly old-school writing style. Like the Fiend Folio, this book is full of strange and unusual monsters. There aren't any truly bad monsters in this book, although some feel less inspired (mainly the subtle variations on existing monsters) while others feel like a few random traits smashed together. (Also, for some reason, they included the wood giant from the Wizards-approved third-party Tome of Horrors.) One disappointing aspect of the book is that only half or so of the creatures are illustrated, but fortunately they all include the Pathfinder-standard text descriptions.
Some highlights from the book include:
- Arcanoplasm: An amorphous creature that absorbs and replicates spells.
- Blessed Ring: A ring of mushrooms that protects the good and devours the evil.
- Bone Sovereign: A skeletal creature that absorbs other skeletons to increase its power, and can command other undead.
- Brine Crust: An ooze-like creature composed of animated salt that can drain moisture from victims.
- Dark Woodsman: A wood-based humanoid that animates trees to fight in its other-planar wars.
- Goldencrest: An ooze infused with positive energy that targets undead.
- Ioun Golem: A construct that can compel others to gather ioun stones to reactivate it, after which it's basically a gem beholder.
- Haemovorid: A self-hating, bloodthirsty fusion of pixie and stirge.
- Inscriber: An undead creature that craves written knowledge and pulls it from writing around them; they can also steal or impart knowledge to others.
- Lostling: A spirit that died lost and alone in the wilderness, and tries to make others share its fate by getting them lost as well.
- Molt Naga: A naga that can teleport out of its shed skin, which fights on while the naga escapes.
- Rope Horror: Basically a rope golem, which can unwind itself to pass through small gaps.
- Skyshark: Part shark, part bat, all murder.
- Time Spider: A spider that builds its webs in four dimensions; adventurers may suddenly find themselves surrounded by its webs.
- Tulgorth: Plant-mold creatures that drain the life force from nearby plants, and can infect humanoids with spores to create more tulgorths.
- Vorpa: A giant wasp-scorpion hybrid. 'Nuff said. (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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A fun and often funny collection of extremely minor magic items. Only a handful actually have practical uses, and the few modern references could be a turn-off, but this is an entertaining read - and well worth picking up for that alone. (Especially at this price!)
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A product centered around the titular fey-related location, with associated quests, NPCs, and magic items. They also include two PC races, dryads and selkies, which only seem loosely related to the other material; that's not really a problem, though. Overall, the product is fine and a fair deal for the price, although the formatting is a little odd at times. The main issue is its tendency to lean more towards inspiration than concrete information; in particular, what made me knock this down from four stars to three were the NPCs, which you're largely left to build on your own based on their descriptions. I don't buy game products like this to do the work myself...
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A third-party sourcebook on trolls for D&D 3rd Edition. This includes details on biology and culture, combat tactics, roleplaying tips, troll variants, rules for troll characters (including unique feats and spells), adventure hooks, and a sample troll settlement. The book is well-written overall, and does have some neat ideas here and there, such as creative uses for troll regenerative abilities. However, much of the book doesn't stretch far beyond the core troll, and this is especially noticeable in the tactics and roleplaying sections. The section on variants was also disappointing, as the variations were pretty limited. (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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I suspect this one wins on nostalgia, as I originally read scattered back issues of this series back when I first got into D&D in the 1990s. But I still enjoyed this a lot. One of my favorite groupings of D&D characters, and a simple but effective basis for taking the characters from place to place... (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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Not just another run-of-the-mill D&D adaptation! Set in the 4th Edition continuity, this features a well-characterized and entertaining adventuring party (with nice banter) becoming embroiled in a planes-spanning adventure. Probably the best D&D comic so far, next to DC's old Forgotten Realms comic. Looking forward to later volumes!
Oh, and as a neat bonus, it includes an adaptation of the first few issues as a 4th Edition adventure module. (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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Adequately entertaining fantasy adventure, though the ideas (like the magical revenge of a jester's guild) are better than the execution (which could use a dash more energy and fun). The inclusion of AD&D stats for stuff introduced in the comic is neat, though. And at least this helped launch the superior Forgotten Realms DC comics... (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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A neat enough adventure, but this PDF version of the product is missing all the handouts.
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An interesting enough overview of dwarves, gnomes, and a new race, goliaths, with lots of new character options and ideas and such. Goliaths were by far the most interesting species and culture in the book, for my money. (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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