Drawing on the mystique of blood, this supplement presents another alternate pact for D&D 4e warlords. The power structure follows the typical template for a warlock: one at-will power that distinctively exhibits the pact, a special effect when an enemy under your Warlock’s Curse is reduced to 0 hp, and a bunch of thematic powers. Unlike the pacts in the original PH, the pact of the vermin lords provides an extra encounter power as a boon; however, author Stefen Styrsky has tried to balance this by turning off the character’s Warlock’s Curse while the bonus encounter power, The Chosen Victim, is in effect. To evoke the feel of bloodletting, many of the powers feature effects that either require blood pact warlocks to injure themselves or grant bonuses if they choose to do so when using those powers. The supplement includes one paragon path for blood pact warlocks, along with four new feats limited to blood pact warlocks and four new magic items intended especially for blood pact warlocks. As a reader, I cringed occasionally at grammatical mistakes and proofreading oversights (for example, using the noun “knick” where the context calls for the verb “nick”), as well as departures from established D&D 4e stylistic standards. As a player, I don’t have any greater desire to play a blood pact warlock than other pacts; options are always nice, and the various elements capture the blood pact’s flavor well, but nothing here excites me with its character-building possibilities. As a DM, I would probably try to talk a player out of using the blood pact, though I wouldn’t absolutely forbid it; the whole flavor of the thing seems unheroic to me. Overall, I’d say the product accomplishes its goal, but not with excellence, and not in a way that gets me behind the goal in the first place.

As I play in the Scarred Lands, I was eager to see this blood pact. It is an interesting product, but once more time, I didn't like the layout, and the kind of "better warlock curse" class feature.

There are interesting powers which draw on the warlock hp (or adjacent allies). However, some are overpowered or badly designed (for example, no (save ends) effects on encounter powers). Once more time, some "blood pact augmentations" are ... overpowered ... (The Delicacy of Flesh... Storm of Blades... [non-exhaustive list]). Otherwise, this is a good product with good ideas.