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Rangers of Ghelspad
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Alain G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/31/2018 07:19:04

This presents three ranger subclasses. They all fit perfectly in the Scarred Lands settings, even though I would have preferred them to have generic names instead of being named after some of Ghelspad's rangers traditions (there is a disclaimer in the introduction stating that one doesn't need to be of one of these organization to follow these path, but still, I would have preferred it the other way around). That is a very minor detail and just a question of personal preference I guess.

These are very solid subclasses from a mechanical perspective, and most abilities seem very well balanced and fit the themes very nicely. Among some of the things I have noticed:

  • Paralytic Strike seems quite overpowered since it doesn't seem to be limited other than by the fact that it "consumes" one attack. I would probably make it so each creature can only be affected once every 24 hours.
  • The bonus/malus tradeoff in Whirling Defense seems weird, as 5E generally uses disadvantage/advantage for this type of mechanics (similar to the barbarian reckless attack feature) Also, it is useless if the player doesn't fight with two weapons, which seems somewhat limiting (especially given that the Unarmored Defense feature leaves it open for the player to choose its weapon combination)
  • Dehydrating Retaliation also seems pretty overpowered, for the same reason as Paralytic Strike (no apparent limit)


Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rangers of Ghelspad
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Creator Reply:
Alain, Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a thoughtful review on Rangers of Ghelspad! I appreciate the feedback and insight. With regard to the subclasses being named after the ranger traditions of Ghelspad, I felt that it was a nice, shorthand way to evoke the setting and feel of the Scarred Lands when selecting these subclasses. In terms of mechanical concerns. Paralytic Strike consumes an action, not an attack. It cannot be used with the extra attack feature, and requires the ranger to sacrifice a significant portion of action economy in order to potentially paralyze a target. Though it is infinitely repeatable, it is also easily defeated by saves each turn to escape, which grant advantage if the target is damaged. I feel these limitations, combined with the advanced level required to activate the feature don't bring things too far out of balance, considering the sacrifice made in terms of action economy and tactical follow up to use the feature. The whirling defense mechanics are based off of the parry feature seen in creatures such as the Knight and are definitely designed to encourage two weapon fighting but the exclusion of a shield as an option for the offhand was an unintentional oversight and has been rectified in the V1.1 update. Regarding the Dehydrating Retaliation feature, this too relies on action economy and a comparatively easy to beat saving throw (for the user's level) in order to make it manageable in terms of balance. It can only be used as a reaction which means the ranger must exercise relative caution in choosing actions. This feature becomes particularly nasty if aimed at low Constitution creatures or used on targets who have not been minding their hydration, but considering the prevalence of immunity to exhaustion among titanspawn, I feel that this is a feature that looks far more potent than it is. In a fight against other humanoids it is one hell of an advantage to be sure, but most humanoids of comparable CR will be able to resist that exhaustion at least 40% of the time. As always, I am open to feedback from the field. If anyone sees these features playing out in a different way at your table, particularly if they prove to be extremely dominant choices in your players' tactics, I would love to discuss it further in the comments section on this product. I am certainly open to making further tweaks should they prove necessary. Thanks, Travis
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Blood & Ink: Tattoo Magic
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Alain G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/31/2018 06:10:16

A very nice addition to magic tattoos in the Scarred Lands. The new bardic college is nicely done and seems to work very well mechanically, even though more description about who uses this tradition in the Scarred Lands would have been welcomed.

The new tattoos are straight-up conversions from tattoos from the old Relics & Rituals. Most of them work pretty well, even though the Belsameth's Servant could provide more details on how the transformation works from a practical perspective (hit points, ability scores, etc). A couple of them seem to be duplicate of tattoos found in the Scarred Lands Player's Guide (albeit with a different names and slightly different mechanics). A very interesting addition was the use of titan's blood as ink for magical tattoos.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Blood & Ink: Tattoo Magic
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Creator Reply:
Alain, Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time out to review Blood & Ink. I would love to expand the lore regarding the College of Needles, and may look to doing so in a future update. I have been in the process of a deep dive into the setting's lore in preparation for the Scarred Lands: Myths and Matchmakers stream and have some exciting ideas. With regard to Belsameth's Servant, I have added some clarifying language to the tattoo's description directing users to the SRD to find the appropriate lycanthrope's stats and effects. The variants of those tattoos found in the Scarred Lands Players guide (such as the Tar Dragon Tattoo) are designed to reflect gaps in the lore left by the space limitations of the Player's Guide as well as give a few options to players who wish to customize their characters with tattoo magic. I'm glad to hear you liked the idea of titan's blood tattoo ink. It felt like a natural (if dangerous) extension of tattoo magic. Thanks, Travis
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Tyna's Tattoos
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Alain G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/31/2018 05:58:16

This provides some very nice ideas for magic tattoos. The comments from Tyna are a nice touch, though the font used is a little bit too small.

My biggest concern (and the reason why I didn't give a 5 stars rating), is that the description of the effects themselves, while generally understandable, don't always follow the 5E format and jargon. This causes confusion in some cases, such as for the Aegis Tattoo (where it is not described which condition can trigger the reaction). Tattoos that have prerequisites should probably necessitate attunement, as this is the way 5E deals with prerequisites for magic items. In other cases, the tone is very direct and abrupt, and doesn't give a 5E feeling (such as the Mark of Protection, in which there is a sentence without subject, or most of the cursed tattoos, that use "the wearer" instead of "you", or the use of the abbreviation "mins" instead of "minutes"). This gives the feeling of a draft rather than a finished product.

Mechanically, most of the effects herein are interesting and balanced, and fit very well within the Scarred Lands mythos. A few seem to be overpowered (effects that grant advantage on attack rolls should probably last for 1 minute) but these are rather rare.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Tyna's Tattoos
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Racial Varients Volume II
Publisher: Fearless Goblin Games
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/12/2011 13:56:23

I rated 1 star out of 5 because this product does not respect the Game System License. The goliath, the deva and the shifter ARE NOT part of the SRD.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Racial Varients Volume II
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Soldiers of Fortune
Publisher: Kobold Press
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/11/2011 15:29:58

Soliers of Fortune is all about war and mercenaries.

It begins with a very good part on warfare : how to include war in a campaign, with a few examples of story lines, skill challenges, strategies and so on. This part can be adapted to almost any fantasy role-playing game, and is very informative.

Then comes the weak part of the book : the game mechanics. To have a player theme as in the Dark Sun campaign setting is a good idea. But on all powers given thereafter, some of them are badly to horribly designed. For reminder, (save ends) effects are very rare (and I think should be avoided) for encounter powers, and should NEVER happen for at-will powers. The "siege engine" keyword is however a good idea. Then there are 4 paragon path, yet I think there were place for more. The fluff for these paragon path are quite good though.

Then there is a short adventure, monsters and NPCs, and finally some siege engines. I was disappointed to see only 3 of them, I think there could have been more.

The layout is clear, the book is well organized and easy to read.

On overall, it is a very good book except that the crunch could have been slightly better.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Soldiers of Fortune
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Arcane Flavor
Publisher: Chaotic Shiny Productions
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/11/2011 15:16:29

A great product for all arcane classes. 5 highly flavored cultures, which can integrate all arcane classes from the PHB 1 and 2. The fluff is really good, the book is very well organized and it is easy to read, even on screen.

My only concerns are on the mechanics side. I didn't see any major balance issue, yet I feel there is something missing. I expected more powers, and a few paragon path as well. On the alternative class features, some of them were quite interesting, but others are less attracting (not from a lack of balance, though).



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Arcane Flavor
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Bookwork: Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Frostbrand Art Studio
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/10/2011 15:01:17

Beautiful and high quality cover and interior pages, along with capital letters to write your title. The only concern I have is the size of the file (more than 100 MB), which makes it difficult to download on slow or unstable connections. Maybe break it into different zip files (without modifying the resolution) could improve it.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Bookwork: Dark Fantasy
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Creator Reply:
Alain: I had my concerns about the file size as well, thanks for the note, I will definetly break down the ZIP archives with this release and my future Bookwork publisher resources. Enjoy!
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Racial Varients Volume I
Publisher: Fearless Goblin Games
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/10/2011 13:16:42

The Racial Variants starts with what looks like a good idea: bring back the "sub races" to D&D 4. It's a short product (12 pages). There are 6 of these subraces (here called "bloodlines"), one for each race of the PHB 1 (except for the half-elf and the human). Each bloodline has a few description paragraphs, and variant racial abilities and power.

So we have the city elf, which lives in cities as it name implies. The city elf can run on wall (which is a quite fun ability), and a power to reroll Acrobatics and Athletics checks. It seemed to me quite useless at first, but in fact, when running on the wall, you may need to make a lot of Athletics checks, so it is quite useful in the end.

Then the couatl dragonborn, which descends from couatl instead from dragons. Again a beautiful and interresting idea. The couatl dragonborn can escape grasps better (certainly because of its snake-like body), and has a new racial power.

Concerning this racial power, a lot of things to say... a) The flavor text is "flavor text", which made me laugh. In fact, it happens with all further powers, please do something about it ;) b) Melee bite is not defined in the SRD. Melee contact is more appropriate c) the bonus to the attack roll should scale with the level (+4 at level 11, +6 at level 21), otherwise, the character has no chance to hit at higher level with this racial power d) ongoing damage on a Encounter power is, I think, a bad balance idea. Encounter powers which have a (save ends) effect are pretty rare, and I think it is done for balance issues. I would remove it and change it for a minor condition

Then we have the feral eladrin, which is a more savage version of this feyish race. They fight with their bare hands and they are quite powerful at it. Concerning the War step racial power, the term "towards an ennemy" is ambiguous. Does it mean that you have to finish your move adjacent to an ennemy, or simply closer?

Then we have the sinner tiefling, which is a tiefeling that embrace its "dark side". Nothing much to say except that there are some discrepencies in how the power is written. The "Aura" range does not exists. Official racial powers are all encounter powers. The target line seems to me completly useless given the fact that the text explains the power well.

Then we have the stone-kin dwarf, which is simply the most unbalanced race I have ever seen. +3 to all defenses and resist all equal to half your level? no, please, change that. Maybe do it as a power, but not as a permanent racial ability. A racial bonus to defense should not exceed +2, and should improve only one defense. The resist all is a killer at high level.

Finally we have the timid halfling, which does not have the bravery of the other halfelings. I like the power, which is fun.

Then some talents. All make sense, but I still have a few comments and concerns = Potent Dawn Venom = I already said that the ongoing damage was a little too much in my opinion, and increasing it by 5 just makes it blow... I would rather increase the base damage, or inflict a somewhat more advanced condition = Surefooted = I would rather write "+2 to Athletics checks to climb". Climb is not a skill, Athletics is. = Hellfire infreno and Blood and Fire = given the fact that the hellfire wreath is a daily power, I find that these talents make it quite broken. I would rewrite the Hellfire wreath power to make it as an encounter power, and adjust these talents accordingly.

On overall, here are my advice : = "Flavor text" has no flavor (it is an easy star to gain) = Not enough fluff =_ Some powers and abilities poorly balanced



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Racial Varients Volume I
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Venture 4th: Pact of the Vermin Lords
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/02/2009 09:06:27

The first pact from Adamant Entertainment. Interesting idea, but there is something striking...

The pact boon allows to deal ongoing damage on the next warlock power, and I don't think it is a good idea for balance. The insect pact has a special class feature that allows to control insects instead of the warlock curse, which is interesting.

Still, there are a few balance concerns in the powers:

  • sustainable encounter powers
  • (save ends) effects with encounter powers
  • for Your are my Host, I don't understand why the (weakened) condition ends at the end of the next turn whereas there is ongoing damage (save ends). It seems illogical.
  • a stun (save ends) on a miss.... (even if it is for a 29 power)... no, that's overpowered...

Otherwise, it is a good product with interesting ideas.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Venture 4th: Pact of the Vermin Lords
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Venture 4th: Pact of Ghosts
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/02/2009 08:57:14

The last pact (at this time) from Adament Entertainment. Finally, there is no "I have a better warlock curse" class features! yes! (and the first picture is really beautiful).

Well, it would be great to have no balance concerns... here are a short list:

  • a power that has a miss effect with a (save ends)...
  • "ghost pact augmentations" that are badly designed (Cold Ghosts of Limbo... Death Shadowy Pickets...)
  • rahhhh, a (save ends) effect on an encounter...
  • Window of the Other World looks like a 29 level.

Otherwise, this is perhaps the most balanced Pact from Adamant Entretainment.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Venture 4th: Pact of Ghosts
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Venture 4th: Pact of the Dragon Lords
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/02/2009 08:43:02

The fourth pact from Adamant Entertainment, and guess what, I still don't like the layout, and the "I have a better warlock curse" class feature. But, well...

The dragon pact warlock is almost a melee combattant, which is fun. It reminds me the Dragon Disciple 3.5 prestige class. You choose at 1st level an energy, and many of your spells deal damage from this energy. By the way, it would have been better to create a special keyword instead of repeating the same paragraph over and over. Of course (sic), there are a few balance concerns:

  • low-light vision for 5 minutes as an encounter level 2 utility ????? (it is not the only encounter power which lasts for 5 minutes, it is bad design).
  • there are some allusions to a "breath weapon attack" in Bloodied Breath (I am sure you mean "secondary attack" ?)
  • "dragon pact augmentation" are sometimes overpowered (Dominating Stare...)
  • Cloud of Acid (level 22 utility) is an attack power!!! (Armor of the Patron Lord too)
  • the 2 paragon path have no prerequisites...


Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Venture 4th: Pact of the Dragon Lords
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Venture 4th: Pact of Blood
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/02/2009 08:26:38

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.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Venture 4th: Pact of Blood
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Venture 4th: Pact of the Angelic Choirs
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/02/2009 08:10:05

This pact is really interresting, because it makes a "good-alignment" equivalent with the infernal pact. It is really easy to include this pact in any ongoing campaign.

Overall, it is a good product, but I have a few concerns:

  • I didn't like at all the layout of the product. I read it on screen, and I find it is too heavy to read.
  • The "true name" class feature is just better than the warlock curse, and I don't understand why it is there. i mean, the warlock can know the truename of a creature just by looking at it? no Arcana, History or Religion check?
  • The "angelic pact augmentation" on some powers are just overpowered (Burning Bright, I am looking at you!) or badly designed
  • Some encounter spells ave (save ends) effects, which is bad (Words of Power is really overpowered)
  • Apocalypse is a controler spell, not a striker spell!!!


Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Venture 4th: Pact of the Angelic Choirs
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Hero's Handbook: Eladrin
Publisher: Goodman Games
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/02/2009 07:50:45

Another excellent book on eladrin culture. The first and last chapters of this book describe the eladrin history and culture, and are really interesting. The second chapter desribes new feats and paragon path. These one are quite interesting, but there was nothing for PHB2 classes, which is a bit disappointing. Then there are new items, and new rituals, including 6 curses. Curses affect a target until someone removes the curse, or until a certain condition is met. Finally, there are some new monsters in relation to the eladrin history, but I think that this chapter should not belong to a "hero" handbook...



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Hero's Handbook: Eladrin
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Hero's Handbook: Tiefling
Publisher: Goodman Games
by alain g. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/02/2009 07:41:49

An excellent book for tieflings. In there are introduced Legacies, which represents affiliation with a specific devil. There are a dozen of legacies (all are common sins, like lust, gluttony, etc), with a full description, feats and paragon path. It reminds me the good old Book of Vile Darkness. All the crunch is really good and innovative (like a gluttony power which allows to eat material like stone or metal, and gain benefit from it), and seems well balanced. The fluff is really good too.

It is a must have for tiefling character, as well as for any player which wants an "evil" feeling.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Hero's Handbook: Tiefling
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