Sometime last fall, I decided to write some small reviews about the 4e products that I bought. I am not even sure why I got that idea, but as it turns out, it had some very interesting consequences.

Now, I have always been a honest (some would say blunt) person, so that was naturally reflected in my reviews. I am sure a lot of people do not like it, whereas others like it. One of those was Angellis_ater from Dreamscarred Press. I gave his first 4e product a fairly poor (read abysmal) review, but instead of taking it personally, he reached out and asked for advice (fool! ). 4e was very new for him, and he wanted someone to give him feedback on the crunch he was going write for a reskinning of the cleric class that he was going to write.

I must admit, that at this point, I had never seen myself as being anything else than a DM, let alone as someone helping creating a product that would see the light of the day. I did however initially take his question a bit as a dare (Sure, it's easy to review and tell other people what they make it crap, but can you actually do better?). Maybe it was. I still do not know. I haven't gotten around asking him yet.

Anyway, soon after (this was around January), I found myself knees deep in what would become the Ardent. I am actually credited as editor in the release, but that's exaggerating a lot. I merely looked and helped some on the crunch, the balance of the powers. I had no say in how things were done or how the powers were written. I simply told him if I thought things got way too wacky and non-balanced. Needless to say, I found myself having lots of fun, but I felt the same as I feel when I play D&D - I hated not being in control, which is probably why I always end up DM'ing Well, it's not exactly true that I only "fixed" crunch, I did contribute with more, namely some defining mechanics which also are used for the Mentalist, but that's another matter altogether.

Some weeks passed, and I was beginning to get more and more emails from various publishers who wanted help or more detailed info on the crunch issues I had picked up while reading their products; so that they could incorporate it in the errata. I figured I was on to something at least, and (I must admit) my ego got slightly inflated because of it. It's always nice when people you "look up to" ask your advice on matters that interest you.

A some point around March 2009, I convinced myself that I was actually some sort of an expert on 4e - and I promptly pitched the mentalist to Dreamscarred Press. I knew that the Psion wouldn't see the light of day until the PHB 3 at the very least, which was slated to the summer of 2010. So I figured I would make my own class, and maybe there would be some interest from the psionic fans so that at least we would have something until the official version came out. Now, as it turns out, I was right about the PHB3 - but not about the release date, but that is a different matter.

Dreamscarred Press liked my pitch and soon enough, I had a contract in hand. My deadline was May 1st. And so I started. At first, it was called the psionicist . Not really original, but it was a start. I was making good progress, and was happy with what I had. This is so simple I remember thinking, why on earth aren't more people doing it. Then again, that was just me ignoring I had absolutely no fluff for neither the class, nor the powers. Merely a collection of 1d6+ int, push 3 squares. 1d10 close burst 5, immobilize and daze all targets, etc. I was merely deluding myself into thinking I was almost done. After all, the crunch is the important part, right?

When I sent in the first draft, Angellis_ater replied: Hey Chris, this look good, but you know how you made a class that is really two classes (I had around half the powers being mindblade/soulknife powers). That won't work! Then he went on about thematic issues and lot of other things I had never thought about, and I found myself nodding like a preschooler. The man had some good points. And he understood the class and the history of the class. Much better than I. Back to the drawing board.

The next version was all psychic or force based. I was very happy with that too, but when we went over it, we noticed that one fire power. Seemed a little out of place. Also, there were a lot of powers that just looked alike. The focus of the class was just too narrow. Again, back to the drawing board. More fire! Meanwhile, May 1st was getting closer.

This is when I ran into my biggest problem - time and feedback. I had written a draft and sent to Dreamscarred Press so that we could talk about things and see where we would go from here. But two weeks later, not a word. Time was ticking (or so I felt) and I was getting impatient (yeah, I am not a patient man). At first, I was worried that they hated it and just couldn't decide how they would tell me. Then I thought that maybe it was so awesome that they were in the process of copying it and releasing it without my name on it (I still hadn't signed and sent the contract). Then I realized I was being silly and figured they really hated it. As it turns out, it was neither. my editor had simply been busy and besides, two weeks is not an unusual amount of time to wait for some good feedback, at least not when you are dealing with small companies. Also he had tried to catch a hold of me via google chat, but since I had never used it before, and always have the sound turned off, I never noticed anything... Phew, I was happy and positive once again.

I got some awesome feedback and a lot of great suggestions on how to improve the Mentalist (who was still called something else at this point) and immediately went to work. Two days later (around April 1st), I had in hand what I thought was a really nice draft. I sent it in and waited. And waited. And waited. 3 weeks later and not a word. I had roughly one week left on my deadline, and all the paranoia came back. Maybe there was something in the contract that I had misunderstood. Maybe this was payback for the lousy review. They were going to drag things along so that I wouldn't be able to meet the deadline, and then using some ridiculous US law from 1824, they would sue my ass for a gazillion dollar. Yeah, I never claimed to be a 100% sane

As it turns out, my editor had been sick as a dog for weeks, which explained the delay. Once again, I got some great feedback that really improved the class. However, just as I thought I was pretty much done, my editor said something like: "The powers are great, and so are the two builds, but I feel they should be even more different. We need to link the builds to the type of area of the powers to a greater extend..." Which almost made me cry. And I never cry. I mean, I had spent a lot of time carefully balancing every single power (at least I thought so). Having to change the area of effect of about half of them would mean countless rounds of re-balancing. And I had 8 days left until the deadline.

Luckily for me, it wasn't that bad. I was pretty happy with the result after only 4 days, which left me plenty of time for me to make feats, paragon paths and magic versions of our brand new implement, the psicrystal.

I turned in the final draft of the Mentalist on April 29th. Or so I thought. It was still not ready. Back and forth it went between my editor and I, and finally, on May 17th, we were both satisfied. It was sent for proof-reading and layout. And then nothing.

Now, many of my frustrations come from lack of knowledge of the business and wrong expectations. I also tend to forget that other people also have a life besides RPGs and they also need sleep. In my mind, it couldn't take long to proofread my stuff, and then slap it together with some pictures and make it into a PDF. Yeah right. I got wiser.

Writing the Mentalist has taught me a good deal of things. First of all, it has taught me that crunch isn't everything, and that fluff and thematic consistency is just as important when making a complete class. This process also taught me to be patient, and that while I might want people to stay up all night in order to give me feedback so that I can get back to work when I have the time just isn't realistic. But most of all, it has taught me that it is much easier criticising others people work. Creating yourself can be quite a bitch, especially when it's not only "for your eyes only". I also learned that I will never ever be a freelancer for anything but the fun and joy of making stuff that others will use, because the pay is horrendous, no matter how sweet a deal you cut. I also learned that while I have a solid grasp on 4e rules, it takes a lot more to make a balanced, interesting class, along with the 80 odd powers, paragon paths, feats and whatever else follows.

But now, finally, after several rounds of sickness, crashing hard-drives, layout problems and a lot more, the Mentalist is just about ready. There is a preview (attached below) exclusive to ENworld, and I can't wait to hear what people think about it.

I hope you like it

Cheers

Jack99

Yeah, or rather, just a little part of it. I have definitely been slacking on this conversion, but to be honest, there has been very little time lately. It's not that my schedule is clearing up or anything, but I will try to make an effort to speed things up, should anyone be using the stuff I post.

Also, if you are reading this, you are more than welcome to give some feedback, in terms of both good and bad things. I would love to improve what I do.

Anyway, for starters...

Edit: added skill challenge "exposing the spy" to be used with the-not-so-sick-spy encounter.







EXPOSING THE SPY
Skill challenge level 9 (800 xp)
Complexity 2 (requires 6 successes before 3 failures)
Primary skills: Insight (DC 22), Diplomacy (DC 18), Perception (DC 18)
Other skills: Heal (DC 17) and Streetwise (DC 19)
Victory: They expose Miha and her friends, resulting in a fight
Defeat: They fail to expose Miha. She either joins the party, plotting an ambush, or trails them, ambushing them at a very opportune (for her) moment.





The Greater Barghest (as well as the barghests in the earlier encounter) are heavily inspired by the ones from Dungeon Denizens. The Ogre is oh so very slightly beefed up, just for a little more punch. The Blackspawn Raiders were fairly basic straight-forward creatures originally, so I made them brutes. Overall an encounter that didn't have to be changed much.








The players should hit level 10 about now

















The level of the dragon is still very much debated in my head.

I think it's pretty much safe to say that by now, this conversion is dead. The interest is just not there, I would much rather do my own stuff or work on 4e material.

Jack99

RHoD was by far the best WotC adventure to be made during the 3.x era and definitely one of the best adventures released during those years.

Now 4e is here, and even though a few of my players are somewhat familiar with the module, I am sure that I one day will run it for them.

I had been thinking about a conversion for a bit, but one of the things that I couldn't decide upon, was which level range it should be. Then Draconomicon came out, and the answer was obvious.

So, even though it will probably be years before I get to run this for 4e, I plan to convert it here. If you disagree with the choices I make, feel free to chime in. The only thing I won't budge on is the level range. The conversion will be balanced against a 5 man party that start out at level 8.

Edits:
8th Feb: added treasure and quest info.
8th Feb: changed the name of one of Zarr's powers.




RIDING INTO TOWN
Skill challenge level 7 (300 xp)
Complexity 1 (requires 4 successes before 3 failures)
Primary skills: Diplomacy (DC 16), Bluff (DC 18), Intimidate (DC 24)
Other skills: Insight (DC 16) and Streetwise (DC 17)
Victory: They impress Sergeant Hersk and you can gain access to several pieces of information (see page 20)
Defeat: Hersk lets the players pass, but offers no additional info. He is one cranky guard

THE TOWN SPEAKER
Skill challenge level 8 (700 xp)
Complexity: 2 (requires 6 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Diplomacy (DC 15), bluff (DC 17), insight (DC 16)
Victory: The players are offered 3000 gold pieces and 2 healing potions each (total worth 3500 gp) for solving the hobgoblin problem for the town.
Defeat: They are only offered 2000 gold pieces

Major Quest: Figure out what is behind the hobgoblin attacks on Drellin's Ferry (1750 xp)

Treasure: 2000 gp or 3000 gp and 10 healing potions.

GETTING LOST (if they cut across the Witchwood)
Skill challenge level 8 (700 xp)
Complexity: 2 (requires 6 successes before 3 failures)
Primary skills: Endurance (DC 13), perception (DC 14), Nature (DC 16), History (DC 20)
Victory: You arrive unharmed at Jorr’s cabin
Defeat: Each player loses 1 healing surge and they run into a level 8 encounter

JORR'S CABIN
Skill challenge level 8 (700 xp)
Complexity: 2 (requires 6 successes before 3 failures)
Primary skills: Bluff (DC 19), diplomacy (DC 15), intimidate (DC 21), history (DC 17), insight (DC 14)
Victory: Get Jorr to be their guide
Defeat: Jorr refuses to help the players









OLD WARKLEGNAW
Skill challenge level 8 (1050 xp)
Complexity: 3 (requires 8 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Diplomacy (DC 15), bluff (DC 17), insight (DC 16), nature (DC 18) (handing OG the gauntlet from Vraath Keep gives 2 automatic successes).
Victory: Calm down Old Warklegnaw (partial) and enlist him in the war (full). A partial victory is achieved after 3 successes.
Defeat: (Complete) Old Warklegnaw attacks! (partial) OG invites them to share his dire boar diner, but he refuses to aid them in the war.



As the players return to Derrin's Ferry and tell the council what have happened, they complete their quest. Between the fight at the bridge and the xp from completing the quest, they should now be level 9







DESPERATE COUNSEL
Skill challenge level 9 (1200 xp)
Complexity: 3 (requires 8 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Diplomacy (DC 15), bluff (DC 17), insight (DC 16), history
Victory: The players convince the council of following their suggestion
Defeat: Indecision fills the council. Move to slaughtering the town in “Massacre at Drellin’s Ferry”

I will update this blog as I get things converted

Jack99

My players are currently in the Feywild, running my very warped version of the otherwise great adventure, King of the Trollhaunt.

Last time we played, they met this bad boy, who is my own version of the Troll Witch, and we had an awesome battle. My players loved the monster, so I figured it would put it up for sharing. I also included a nasty Fey Goblin that they will run into the next time. So far all the goblins they have met have been minions, so they are starting to view them as wizard-fodder. Oh boy are they in for a surprise.

The Fey Goblin was modelled after the drow lurker of the same level.

Troll Ice Shaman Level 12 Controller
Large natural humanoid XP 700
Initiative +8 Senses Perception +10
HP 124; Bloodied 62
Regeneration 10 (if the troll witch takes acid or fire damage, regeneration does not function until the end of its next turn)
Vulnerable 5 fire
AC 25; Fortitude 25, Reflex 22, Will 24
Speed 7
m Claw (Standard, at-will) Reach 2; +16 vs Armor Class; 1d10+6 damage.
R Freeze the Flesh (Minor, at-will) * Cold
Ranged 10; +16 vs Reflex; the target takes 1d6 point of cold damage, and any time an ally deals damage from a melee attack against the target for the remainder of the encounter, the target takes an additional 1d6 cold damage. Also see Statue of Ice.
R Statue of Ice (Standard, recharge 5, 6) Polymorph, Cold
Ranged 10; If target is an enemy affected by Freeze the Flesh, it takes -2 to saves; +16 vs Fortitude; Target is slowed and takes ongoing 10 cold (save ends). First Failed Save; Target is frozen* and takes ongoing 10 cold damage (save ends). Aftereffect: Target is slowed and ongoing 5 damage.
C Cold Spikes (Standard, encounter)
Close blast 5; targets enemies only; +16 vs Fortitude; 2d8+5 damage, and the target is dazed and slowed (save ends).
Troll Healing Healing
If the troll witch is reduced to 0 hit points by an attack that does not deal acid or fire damage, it rises on its next turn (as a move action) with 10 hit points.
Alignment Chaotic evil Languages Common, Giant
Skills Endurance +16, Insight +10
Str 18 (+10) Dex 15 (+8) Wis 9 (+5)
Con 20 (+11) Int 12 (+7) Cha 18 (+10)
Equipment: Hide, Staff

Fey Goblin Opportunist Level 11 Lurker
Small fey humanoid XP 600
Initiative +13 Senses Perception +11; lowlight vision
HP 83; Bloodied 41
AC 24; Fortitude 20, Reflex 22, Will 19
Speed 6
m Shortsword (standard; at-will) ✦ Weapon
+14 vs. AC; 2d8 + 5 damage
R Hand Crossbow (standard; at-will) ✦Weapon
Ranged 10/20; +14 vs. AC; 3d6 + 5 damage
M Opportune Bastard (immediate reaction when an enemy gets bloodied; recharge 6) * Weapon
+14 vs. AC; 4d8+5 damage. The Fey Goblin Opportunist shifts up to 6 and makes an attack with combat advantage against a enemy who was just bloodied.
M Finish the Weak (standard; encounter, only against bloodied)
+14 vs. AC; 4d10+5 damage
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Goblin
Skills Dungeoneering +11, Intimidate +8, Stealth +15
Str 14 (+7) Dex 19 (+9) Wis 13 (+6)
Con 11 (+5) Int 13 (+6) Cha 12 (+6)
Equipment chainmail, shortsword, hand crossbow, 20 bolts

Jack99

Attention: Jack99's Ultrashort Reviews has moved to http://4eultrashortreviews.blogspot.com/ - All reviews are now indexed by company and rating.
This blog will no longer be updated.

Short reviews explaining what I think about a product. If you think it is a stupid concept, let me know. Well, if you like the concept, feel free to let me know as well.

All products are graded with stars, from * to ******.
*: For the love of God and all that is holy (and I do not even believe in God), do not buy this product.
**: I wasn’t impressed, but maybe other people could find it interesting.
***: It has some decent things, but overall there is room for a lot of improvement.
****: Good solid product.
*****: Great product, a must buy. You shouldn’t be playing 4e without.
******: If you haven’t bought it yet, you are a fool

One thing worth noting about my system is that the numbers of stars given is relative to the type of product. For example, if you make an awesome class, with great fluff and interesting mechanics and release it on PDF, you might get 5 or 6 stars. On the other hand, if the same class is released within a 240 page product which is really bad, the class will probably be mentioned but the final rating will still be much lower. On the other hand, I also realize that it is far harder to make a 240 page product than making a 10 page PDF that is useful. In short, the smaller a product is, the higher are the expectations of a "flawless" product.

I am in no way involved in the making with any of the products reviewed, and should it ever happen, it will be clearly stated in the individual review.


Wrath of the River King (Wolfgang Baur, Open Design) – If you read this and wonder why the review has changed, it's because I lost this review to the evil overlords of the interweb. With no backup. Anyway, WotRK is a tale of greed, love and revenge, where the heroes start off trying to find the miller's wife, but quickly find themselves embroiled in a game of thrones amongst 3 factions of Fey. They end up making their way towards the castle of the River King in order to prevent a Fey attack on the mortal realm. The adventure is very flexible (sandbox style) and stuffed full of interesting skill challenges, combat and more than anything else, roleplaying encounters and opportunities. The Queen's Birch Fair especially shines in this regard and is so full of adventure hooks that you can probably use it basis for half a campaign. For the more combat-minded, there is plenty as well. Several of the encounters even look positively deadly. All in all, this is by far the best 3PP adventure written for 4e. And not only is it a great adventure, but it is also an awesome inspiration and a must have for any DM who ever plans to bring his players to the Feywild. You can still purchase this if you sign up for Halls of the Mountain King, else you are probably SOL.
Rating:*****

In Search of Adventure (Goodman Games) - ISoA is a collection of 6 1st-2nd level adventures. Overall I am not too impressed. Adventures 2-4 are all three set in a desert, which is an almost automatic turnoff for me (and the ones presented did nothing to change my mind). The 1st, 5th and 6th adventure have some great background and interesting ideas for encounters, but the execution is just boring. Too often they use 4-5 of the same monster and nothing else in a combat. Variety is the spice of life, and of 4e. Lots of new monsters, but I am a bit (okay, a lot) concerned about the balance of these monsters. It seems quite a bit off, at times. In general, they seem way too happy about solo monsters as well – I mean; two solos in a 10-page level 1 adventure? That’s not how 4e works at its best, IMO.
Rating:**

Hard Boiled Cultures (One Bad Egg) – Apparently, Mr. Hicks and co. can do no wrong. Hard Boiled Cultures is a DM’s guide to making the standard races of your campaign more diverse. They deconstruct the basics of the races (stats, feats, abilities) and show us how to twist that into distinct sub-races ready to populate and enrich your campaign world. While they use the PHB races as examples, there is no reason that their theories can not be applied to any and all 4e races. I think it is a brilliant (trying not to use awesome here) idea that every DM should embrace. Doing so offers true flexibility and choice for your player characters. No longer will every rogue be halfling, every fighter be dragonborn, or every cleric be elf. By creating sub-races using HBC, your players will no longer have to choose between making the character they want and making an “optimized character”. The only thing missing (IMO) are tables of alternate abilities. OBE tells us how to evaluate each ability and power, but all examples are based on already existing abilities. Which works great, mind you. I just wish there had been a few tables with lists of cool ideas for abilities for each race. It’s still an awesome product though.
Rating:*****

Poisoncraft : Venomous Villains - The Syrallax (One Bad Egg): The Syrallax, a distant cousin of the male medusa, is an evil subterranean race using nasty-looking weapons fashioned from the bones of their victims. They excel at tactics and mind-control, and they are in general just plain nasty. I find them a good and refreshing alternative to the evil overlord race from below to add to my campaign. And the art by Kev Crossley is just perfect. Like really awesome. Aside from two examples of the Syrallax (1 or 2 more wouldn’t have hurt), we are treated with a fully fleshed out encounter with a Syrallax Overlord (level 20 elite controller) and his multiple minions, taking place around a defective poison refinery. The refinery can blow up (treated as a hazard) and so can many of the barrels of poison (obstacles) that have been placed around the encounter area. Definitely a great encounter that shows just how interesting and dynamic 4e combats can be, if done by the right people. We are also treated with a little preview of the upcoming Codex Venenorum IV in the form of the Evershroud, a very nasty level 22 poison. Watch out for the aftereffect – it’s not a typo, the poison deals the same damage after the first made save. I think that’s a great way to increase potency of poisons without merely pilling on the base damage. All and all it is a great product, its biggest problem being that it leaves me wanting to know and read more about the Syrallax.
Rating:*****

BlackDirge’s Dungeon Denizens (Goodman Games) – Overall, I have to say that DD holds a horde of very flavorful monsters, most of which look solid (crunch-wise) and definitely interesting enough to use in my campaign. The art is very 1e’ish, and in general, the monsters are a (good) bit more lethal than monsters of the same level from the 4e MM. He really pushes the envelope on how much a damage a monster of a given level should deal. As a DM who likes to kill his players (according to them), this is cool by me (Yum, yum, Greater Barghest drains two healing surges!). Although the book is far from flawless - there is notably a few issues with a few of the solos. They are either too weak, or they are way over the top; Grave Swarm I am looking at you! The editing or crunch mistakes are kept to a minimum, just like we should expect from Goodman Games. The spread of monster by level is good, although it is a pity that there are no regular monsters over level 19; only elites and solos. On the other hand, they are so many cool things (all monsters are indexed by level, by type and by keyword – just awesome for a DM) in this book that you quickly forget and forgive mistakes. Blackdirge reintroduces stuff like magic resistance and damage reduction in 4e format. Some will love this, some will hate it. He also introduces resistances based on the alignment of the attacker – I can’t say that I am huge fan of this, but it will please some people, that is for sure. As a bonus, we also get one of the sweetest curses (disease) that I have yet to see. I can’t wait for my players having to eat the flesh from the corpses of sentient beings in order to be able to heal. Cannibal Curse FTW!
Rating:*****

Critter Cache – Animals and Beasts (BlackDirge Publishing & Goodman Games) - I have got to admit one thing. It’s probably the first 4e product that made me laugh out loud. In one of the encounter suggestions, the following line is found: "1 orc eye of the orcish god (level 5 controller)" – We all know why it says that, but that line just sounds so silly and made me laugh. Anyway, there is little doubt that a lot of people think that the MM could have used some more regular animals. Let me say up front that I am not one of those. Animals and Beasts should definitely fill out the hole left by the MM. As far as I can tell, most if not all animals that were weren’t included have now been covered. We even get a new poison and a nasty disease as a bonus. There are however some issues here and there with the crunch, such as the Dire Ape that can stunlock you to death (Only the ape missing can prevent this, there is nothing you can do), the Tyrant Ape (hello mr. Kong) who seems very weak for a solo (if the crunch followed the fluff, it would be passable, but definitely still on the weak side) and a stomp attack that makes very little sense (I can buy the elephant having 3 reach, but how does it keep a character pinned at 3 squares range. I just don’t see it). Last but not least, BlackDirge continues to explore 3e’isms in 4e. Most notably resist damage with weapon keyword and fighting below zero. I must admit that especially the fighting below zero is not my cup of tea, and I wish it had been done more smoothly, more 4e-like, instead of (sort of) copying the 3e way. Overall, it’s not a bad product, but definitely the weakest of the Critter Cache line, and the one I will use the least.
Rating:***

Open Grave (WotC) – Open Grave is not just a book about undead, no, it’s the undead equivalent of the Draconomicon. It’s a DM’s book. From start to finish of its 223 pages, this book is stuffed with ideas and hooks for your campaigns involving the almost-but-not-quite-dead. It contains 3 different campaign arcs, each broken up for the various tiers (I love the Vampire Kingdom idea - it doesn’t get much darker than that), 9 different lairs each with several encounters (The mausoleum of Ssra-Tauroch looks like an awesome encounter to build an adventure over, with a nasty level 17 solo yuan-ti mummy at the end), 11 templates , 7 famous undead (OMG, Vecna has an aura that deals 50 necrotic damage – this will really suck if you aren’t properly prepared), 8 artifacts, 7 rituals (quite a few must haves for when you explore ancient crypts) and monsters. In fact, there are more than 160 monsters in there (the Death Tyrant looks nasty, but it’s really only one of many that I can’t wait to use), most of which look fairly balanced, although there are definitely some (the Rotvine Defiler) where you wonder if it was just meant to be extremely nasty (minor close burst 5, grabbed, ongoing 15 necrotic and lose 1 healing surge per round until you escape grab) or if you are missing something. Either way, while I love dragons much more than I love undeads, I must admit that undeads do tend to show up a lot more often than dragons. With this in mind, it’s definitely a must-have for me.
Rating:******

The Forgotten Portal (Goodman Games) – The latest from Goodman Games is as far as I know, the first adventure written for 4e. The previous DCC’s were all written for 3.5, and then converted. Let me start by saying, it shows. They still like using high level elites and solos a lot, but now, they are placed in an interesting environment or added a twist that will make the encounters so much better. For example there is a solo croc that looks quite boring and slightly underpowered, but due to its tactics of dragging victims underwater, it should prove for a very interesting fight. There is also a fight with a T-rex on a huge pile of ever-moving bones that looks like it will be tremendous fun (as in, dangerous for the heroes). The areas are also much bigger, giving the players room to move around and do stuff. No more 10X10 rooms and encounters in 5 foot wide passages. The adventure goes as follows: Almost by accident, the heroes are drawn to a cursed village located on an 1800’ tall plateau in the middle of the jungle. They set out to find the high priest of the village in order to stop his reign of terror and bloody sacrifices, but instead find themselves having to complete 9 ancient trials, mirroring those a local hero had to endure in ancient times. The endgame (pun intended, you will get it when you read the adventure) is a twist, where the heroes will most likely upset an already fragile balance in place in the area, setting things up for a sequel. The Aztecan theme permeates the adventure and there is a lot of lore to assimilate and use both as background info, but also as key parts of the adventure. This is by far the best 4e adventure by Goodman Games so far, and while it could use a bit of work in certain areas (1- Some combats could still use some tweaking. 2- Skill challenges are rare and bare-boned. 3 -It would have been nice with a few more opportunities for roleplaying), it’s a great adventure and has inspired me to add another continent to my homebrew world.
Rating:*****

Old Rock Tower (Unicorn Rampant Publishing) – If you have read my other reviews, you will know that I was not a big fan of UPR’s first foray into 4e. But I figured they had had 6 months more to learn and understand the system, so I decided anyway to check out their new adventure. I cannot emphasize enough what a stupid decision that was. Once again I feel ripped off. Old Rock Tower is a very straight forward adventure, where the heroes head to an ancient wizard tower, now overrun by undead and other assorted monsters. Oh, and dire chickens… Wait. What? Yep, I said dire chickens. The Adventure is full of editing errors and poor (yeah, I know, who am I to talk) English. Monsters are only listed by their page number in the MM, and even that is often forgotten. This is a GSL thing I guess (and thus not URP’s fault), but insanely annoying. The maps are at best described as a strain on the eyes to look at. Out of the few monsters created for the adventure, they manage to screw up the most important one. Also, in the final battle room, there is this gem: “The altar is enchanted with an unhallow spell, with a bane effect for any who do not worship evil powers (DC 14 Will save or -1 to attack rolls and -1 to fear saves for 5 minutes)”. Needless to say, stuff like that doesn’t improve help the general impression, which is a extremely straightforward adventure with boring combats and encounters, boring traps, no skill challenges and no role-playing opportunities.
Rating:*

Beyond the Black Door (Black Death Publishing) - Editing, layout and organization are hopeless. It was written for 3e, and barely edited to fit 4e. Not to mention that whole 3e stat-blocks were left in there. This is really a poor excuse of a 4e adventure, and if I was American, I would sue to get my $5 back, not to mention compensation for the time I spent reading it. Actually, you can barely call BtBD an adventure. More like a railroad where the DM reads for 10 minutes, describing what happens and what the players decide to do (without asking, of course) then tells players to roll initiative. After the fight, the railroad continues. Seriously, this is the worst piece of crap I have ever seen. It makes adventures like Old Rock Tower look like masterpieces of ingenuity and quality.
Rating: [This product is not even good enough to get one star]

Quick Kill (Emerald Press) – Basically the quick kill rule allows players to do a skill challenge enabling them to get close to the enemy, without being detected. Following the skill challenge they make an attack which is an improved coup de grace. If the attack hits, it does damage equal to the bloodied value of the creature and it dies. Now, I have to admit that before buying this, I already knew what my review would be like, but I bought it anyway, just to see what they had done. While it probably sounded like a great idea at the time, it’s totally unnecessary to make up a new rule for this kind of situation. If you as DM want the guard to be able to be taken out with a hit, make it a minion. If you do not want him to be taken out, make it a normal monster. Much easier and you just saved $1.50. Now, the product isn’t completely useless, as it gives some pointers and ideas for the skill challenge you could run that enables the character to get close to the guard.
Rating:**

The Mahrog (Alluria Publishing) – The Mahrog is an ancient race of primitive humans, who have been secluded away by their even more ancient goddess. Basically, they are civilized cavemen. The Mahrog gains a +2 modifier to strength, and can choose between two other stats for their other modifier. Likewise, they gain a +2 to their endurance skill and can choose between three other skills for their other bonus modifier. I like this approach, it creates some diversity within the race, much like Hard Boiled Cultures by OBE encourages us to make. It gives some flexibility, but hardly breaks the race. The racial feats also seem solid without impressing, although the Mahrog can end up being quite nasty with simple weapons. The PDF gives us a (aside from the race, obviously) a new language (Ancient) and a new goddess (Mahra, a sort of primal god of preservation). It is a useful and balanced product, which could find use in many campaigns. I know I will.
Rating:****

The Purifiers (One Bad Egg): The Purifiers tells the tragic tale of Wilhelm ark-Trasser, 4 times winner of the Contest of Ark, a paladin who has fallen a long way. His quest against an evil necromancer and the undead has warped his mind, sending his quest on collision course with madness. The former paladin now captures anyone he and his forces encounter and uses some corrupted plants of the Shroud to turn them into mindless servants – The Reborn – in order to build are horde matching the undead while depriving their enemy of their source of soldiers. With the Purifiers we get an organization, ready to fit into our campaign world with a minimum of work. But really, it’s so much more. The PDF is just full of great lore, ideas and fluff worthy of any campaign and it leaves me wishing that the good people of OBE would release a 450 page hardcover detailing their world. There are some great ideas within, from the Contest of Ark (great melee finale on hot coals!) to the Shroudrot mask, a ritual created mask that helps force the corruption of the Shroud upon a person. All in all, it’s a great PDF. There are some issues, most notably with the crunch of the main antagonists (overall, they are on the weak side) although they do partially redeem themselves with the second version of ark-Trasser, which you can find on the last page. It is just too bad that they didn’t give his two lieutenants the same treatment. Their fluff is just 10 times cooler than their stats, and the players might be disappointed once they finally meet them.
Rating:*****

Pact of Blood (Adamant Entertainment) – They really like warlock pacts over at AE. And I bet the idea of a blood pact will be well received around the tables. But while the idea (although not revolutionizing) is good, the implement fails to a certain degree. The quality of a new warlock pact is determined by two things. The feel of the powers (do they fit with the concept of the pact) and the crunch behind those powers. AE definitely manage to hit within the thematic range of the pact. The crunch is just not there yet. It’s still better than the last one I read from them (Pact of the Angelic Choirs), but there are some definite issues still. Unfortunately, one of the big issues with it is in the at-will. A first level will be able to (assuming hit and curse, obviously) to deal 3d6+10 (assuming 20 CON) per round after the first round, costing him nothing more than 1 hp per round in damage. At 21st level, it will be 7d6+30 (assuming maxed CON and implement). This is quite nasty for a measly 4 damage per round and an at-will. Anyway, this is obviously not the only problem, one of the other highlights is a close blast 3 power that, on top of decent damage, stuns and gives ongoing 15 damage (save ends both) unless you have around 25-30+ con. But the true winner is a daily that causes the target to be unconscious as the effect, i.e. the warlock does not need to hit the target. Sorry, but that was quite funny. Quite a few of their encounter attack powers also have an effect, a perk which is supposed to be reserved for daily powers. All in all, you are better off waiting for something else.
Rating:**

Mists of Madness (Goodman Games) – Mists of Madness is a short, straight-forward Indiana Jones-esque adventure where the heroes penetrate the ancient tomb of an archlich in order to stop a cult from reviving the arch-lich. Most of the encounters and traps are very good (and positively lethal, as usual) and have interesting features. My favorite is the secret chute behind the easily noticeable trap, so that when the players jump the pit, they fall down the chute, get hit by an Ochre Jelly as they fall by where it is, after which it proceeds to follow them down the chute to kill them. Mists of Madness does have a few editing errors (Swamp crocodile war mother – should have 68 hit points, not 40 – a simple copy paste error, when they leveled up the lower level croc, they forgot to up the hit points. Also, there is an X to mark the activation of a trap that I can’t find) but these are small issues. The biggest problems with the adventure (calling it the biggest doesn’t necessarily means it’s big) is that it does require some suspension of belief to believe that the traps (although they are lethal to 1st level characters) are supposed to “defend” the last resting place of an almighty archlich. The other is the encounter against the shades (which concept-wise is great), which sadly will TPK just about any party if run as written. These are however minor and easily tweakable problems. MoM is still a good, solid and fun adventure I definitely will be using for a campaign.
Rating:****

The Quintessential Fighter (Mongoose) – The QF has some decent fluff and inspiration for roleplaying/building your character, although the language does show (in places) that it was written by non-native English speakers. It also holds some good ideas for different fighter organizations, but let’s face it. This is not why most people will buy the book. They will buy it for the new origins (backgrounds, a definite power creep, although not game breaking on its own, except in the hands of an optimizer), the new build ideas (everything from horseback fighter to pugilist is covered), the new powers (at-wills who do ongoing damage; dexterity, charisma, wisdom and intelligence attacks for the fighter; sustainable encounter powers etc), the new martial rituals (all high-level fighters will have the following benefits, every day: +5 perception and + 5 insight to avoid surprise, force reroll on the first attack that hits you, +1/+2 to all defenses, +10 to hit to one attack against a specific creature, regain 5-10 extra hit points when you second wind, gain 1d6 more hitpoints every time you spend a surge, +2 to certain checks and immunity to weaken effects), the new feats (yay, finally I can spend a feat and get +2 AC – vs. some weapons) and last but not least, the new combat styles (which boil down to having X specific feats, Y specific powers and get a bonus). In short, the QF is a flawed book with a lot of either subpar or borderline broken crunch. There are some useful stuff in there, but to be honest, I can’t see myself every using this book. But to each his own.
Rating:**

Dungeon Delve (WotC) – DD was (when announced) the only WotC 4e book not to make it on my to-buy list. I thought the concept was dumb. But, half-starved from a lack of decent 4e releases lately (it’s been a least a week since Mists was released) I drove and picked it up as soon as it got to my FLGS. And as it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised. Each delve (there are 30, one for each level) is started by a ½ page of introductory fluff, a small map and tips for expanding the delve into a full-blown adventure. You are then presented with 3 increasingly harder encounters (for each level, so 90 encounters in total), tied together in the small dungeon (a few seem way too small for the numbers and size of monsters) which is buildable with the Dungeon Tiles sold by WotC (for each delve it is stated which tile sets are needed). At the beginning of the book, there is also some guidelines on reskinning the monsters and tweaking the dungeon delves. You get 42 brand new monsters and 7 "fairly new" monsters (reprinted from Open Grave, Draconomicon and Manual of the Planes), although a few are just leveled versions of monsters we have seen before. Anyway, as I read the book, it struck me that it’s good helper for those times in campaigns where you need the players to get a bit more xp before starting on something else – sort of like an expanded version of a book of random encounters. It’s a book of random dungeons! It’s hardly going to revolutionize the industry, but overall, it’s a useful book that a lot of DM’s ought to at least consider.
Rating:****

Curse of the Kingspire (Goodman Games) – From what I read, the Master Dungeon series is aimed at challenging expert players and DM’s; in order words, noobs need not apply. What starts out as a seemingly routine inspection of a cult in a village propels the players through space and time, trapping them in the middle of an eternal battle suffering a bad case of Groundhog Day. Sounds intriguing? Let me assure you that it is. Players used to straight forward dungeons with one way to go and a big bad boss to kill at the end might find themselves doomed (to repeat their mistakes, haha), with little chance of finishing the adventure. Reading this adventure, I thought it was kind of odd. The first part is a very normal linear story, but with some extremely interesting combats with cool features. The second part has an awesome story, but the combats are not as interesting. Although the windows that shatter and reform as a dragon was fun. Sadly, the end doesn’t quite live up to the rest of the module and there are still the odd, weird editing errors, like a 3.x rule (You do not lose Dex to AC underwater in 4e) or like a skill challenge which aims at bluffing someone, except bluff isn’t one of the skills usable in the challenge! But overall it is a very cool module – Not your average dungeon romp. I will most definitely run it at some point, just as soon as I have come up with an ending that suits me more. I can’t wait to turn a player into a frog (nice witch!) and put on a white wig and go nuts as the Mad Gaoler.
Rating:****

The Witch Doctor (One Bad Egg) - It’s with mixed feelings that I am writing this review. As everyone who reads these reviews knows, I am a huge fan of everything OBE have made, and I had thus very high expectations for the Witch Doctor. Anyway, On one hand, the Witch Doctor is a brilliant concept, full of gems (Class abilities like the Masks, Evil Eye which is just perfect for a controller, close wall attacks) and an all-around awesome “feel” to the powers (not to mention some really cool powers, like the Mojo-line, where you draw power from the enemy making a save, or the “Poison Pill” power, which just made me laugh). On the other hand, the implementation is just not good enough. The initial description of the two type of Witch Doctors (Resolute and Tempest) make it sound like you either go CHA primary and CON secondary, or the opposite. But woe to the one who does that, since all powers are based on CHA and there are a whooping 2 powers that key off CON. In fact, you are much better off grabbing WIS or INT, the other two stats which have powers that key off them (around 5 each). Now, this is not game-breaking, merely an annoyance. The powercreep comes in the shape of at-wills dealing ongoing damage, encounter powers which are sustainable, encounter utility powers that last the whole encounter, encounter powers which cost you a surge to cast. Each on its own, these breaks from the core concepts might or might not work, but all together, it becomes too much. Towards the higher level powers, we get dominate as an encounter power, we get big AE that turns people to stone after two failed saves (no save after that) and a few other things that seem broken at first glance at least. Overall, I have to say that the Witch Doctor doesn’t feel like a controller (way too few powers that control well), but I am not quite sure what it is. Perhaps it is pseudo striker-leader-controller. It however look like a fun class with a great feel, and I (despite all the issues) still want to play it. It will just take some work to balance it.
Rating:***

Phrenic Power: Ardent (Dreamscarred Press) – The Ardent is the first of several re-skins aimed at giving characters a more Phrenic feel. It turns your garden-variety cleric into an Ardent, master of the mind. Sadly I cannot review it, as I was asked to look at the crunch and am thus credited in the product. It wouldn’t be ethical if I reviewed it. But since I mention every 4e product that I own, it gets a mention here

Players Handbook 2 (WotC) – Mike Mearls called the PHB2 his best work to date, and since that comment did draw its share of flames from skeptics and the like, I feel that I need to say this: The man was right. There is no longer any getting around that. It was not empty marketing or hollow words without backup. While you shouldn’t exactly expect high literary prose (the writing gets a tad corny at times but that will have little influence on my verdict) this doesn’t matter. PHB2 is a rules book with a focus on classes. I want rules and classes that work before anything else. And Mearls, Wyatt and Crawford have pulled off what I thought would be impossible. They have managed to create 8 new classes or rather, 4 remakes (bard, druid, barbarian and sorcerer) and 4 totally new ones (shaman, invoker, avenger and warden) that are fairly balanced and at the same time look incredibly interesting to play (I <3 the druid already, after playing him for some levels, and the barbarian is also a lot of fun too, although it is probably the closest thing to a powercreep in there). Regarding this powercreep that normally is so common in everything that follows the original core, it really seems that WotC have managed to make classes about equal in power to the eight original ones. No mean feat considering just how hard it seems to be to create balanced, interesting classes with varied powers. I for one am really glad they decided to wait with some of these classes, until their grasp of the system had improved. It was definitely worth the wait. Sure, we all know that the CO-boards will find new ways to break the game, but in any game with many options, that will always be possible. What I mean when I say balanced and equal, is that on their own the classes look and feel right. The PHB2 also has 5 new races (gnome, deva, goliath, shifter and half-orc). Crunch-wise they are fine, and some, like the deva also hold some interesting aspects that should translate into some fun roleplaying. Personally, I am not sure I will use them all in my campaigns, as I was never a huge fan of goliaths and shifters. But to each his own, I am pretty sure there are plenty of people out there who wanted these races, just as some people actually play gnomes . All in all, this is simply a book that you have to have. Not only does it double the amount of classes at your disposal, but it gives some sweet options for the classes and races in the first PHB1. I know I have given other books this rating, but the problem with a rating system is that at one point, something better, something more necessary always comes along, and how do you reward that, rating-wise? In short, “If you haven’t bought it yet, you are a fool™”.
Rating:******

Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress (WotC) – AoNF is the last adventure in the P-series, stretching from level 17-20. Naturally, I expected that the Paragon-feel would be even more present in the third installment. The idea is very promising. Urishtar, a crafty shadow dragon, has found an ancient fortress in the Shadowfell, filled with ancient knowledge about the passage of the dead from the mortal world: knowledge that enables her to divert life energy from its proper fate – or in simpler terms, she is stealing souls from right under the nose of the Raven Queen. Sounds like an awesome concept with great potential. Unfortunately, the potential is squandered and the adventure is just another railroad from A to Z with a bunch of monsters in between to defeat. The players start out by being hired when it becomes clear that something is interfering with how the souls usually pass into the afterlife. Luckily for the players, they bump into a shadar-kai who knows the way into the Shadowfell, through a series of caverns nearby. They go through the caverns, access the tomb, defeat its guardians and go through the portal to the Shadowfell, which happens to be within a few hundred feet of the ancient fortress recently discovered by the shadow dragon. From there, they head into the fortress, one chamber at the time, ending with the dragon. Now, I feel it’s important to stress here that the combats are for the most part really good. There is a decent variation in monsters, with some really great combat situations in AoNF (my favorite being a chamber with no floor, so the fight will take place while players jump between small 5’ square islands trying to avoid a drop 60’ down into a very chilly fog) and the encounters are spaced out in a way that gives realistic openings for the players to rest. There are some opportunities for roleplaying that could be fun (negotiating with a Dracolich, striking a deal with two ghost sages and of course the Shadar-Kai that accompanies the players a good bit of the way) and the final battle should be very memorable. For those who played WoW, think Vael! So, in closing, I guess that’s my problem with this module. It’s just too straight-forward an adventure for my taste, at least at that level. But it has too many first-rate ideas to ignore.
Rating:****

Advanced Class: Druid (Silent7Seven Games) – This little PDF gives us 7 heroic and 4 paragon feats (and powers) for our druids for almost no money. Each feat gives you a +3 feat bonus to a different skill and a once per encounter special attack when adopting a particular form. You can take multiple feats, but can never use more than one special form within the same encounter. Overall, the crunch looks solid and the ideas are respectable, giving more flavor and panache to your druid. The paragon feats gives you another special attack (or improves an at-will) and even more importantly, access to a new level 13 encounter power. While the heroic tier feats felt well-balanced against each other, there is a bigger variation amongst the paragon tier feats, but none of them are better than the feats found elsewhere. They are just different. The paragon feats also allow for wild-shaping into Dragon and Umber Hulk forms, both of which are magical beasts. I see no reason why this should be a huge problem though. Overall it’s a good little add-on for a druid, and I could easily see myself using a couple of the feats for the druid I play in SoW atm.
Rating:****

Hard Boiled Armies (One Bad Egg) – I must admit that I have never paid much attention to whatever mass combat rules there was for D&D, so I can’t really compare or evaluate if OBE simply ripped off ideas from previous editions. What I can tell you is that with Hard Boiled Armies, they have created an elegant and smooth rules-set to guide us through mass-combat in our campaigns. At the core, it’s extremely simple. Units in combat are created and treated like characters. Then we are given some tools to figure out, depending on how big a battle and how big a battlefield we are aiming for, how long rounds, encounters and days are. We get a bunch of ideas to translate the 4e-isms such as encounter and daily powers into military happenings, how to adjust speed relative to the battlefield and last but not least how to figure out how long short and long rests are. They touch on the translation of special moves like grab, conditions, ranged attacks (if a square on the battlemat is 10 miles, maybe that range 10 on a power does not quite work as it should . Actually, while I could go on and on, because they do touch on quite a few relevant and diverse things on the 24 pages (the last 11 are devoted to the map used with the mini-battle-adventure included), but I think I have said enough already. I mean (and this is totally made up on the spot, it’s not from Hard Boiled Armies), with a few changes, that 1st level rogue with deft strike becomes a 1st level army of 10000 men with perhaps a light cavalry that strikes out quickly, surprising its enemies. Kill the fluff; use the crunch (with a few modifications). It’s very 4e and I am definitely going to try it.
Rating:*****

Races of Violet Dawn: The Skarren (Inner Circle) – Fluff-wise, I must admit that I am not “groking” it. A (very) primitive race which barely even uses clothes, but suffer no penalties from wearing plate armor if need be. It’s not that the fluff is bad per say, but it just failed to entice me. The Skarren is described as a warlike race that despises other races and it has (IMO) that slightly chaotic neutral feel. All in all, it struck me as a poster-child race for anti-social and rude behavior. Crunch-wise munchkins will love it; a +2 unnamed bonus to AC and a racial attack that only takes up a minor action – at epic, with a couple of feats, your Skarren will be doing 3d10 + modifier + daze with a minor action. Yeah, that is a bit too much, for me at least. The rest of the crunch is solid, without being ground-breaking, although there are a few oddities, such as a feat that gives a bonus to second wind if you have less than 9 hit points. Okay, maybe I am missing a point there, but I just feel that’s a very convoluted way of doing things. Overall, this is not a race I will be using; others have done the primitive race in a (much) more interesting way.
Rating:***

Critter Cache: Fey Folk (BlackDirge Publishing and Goodman Games) – Three words for you. I want a Pooka! Okay, that was four words, but it’s still true. Critter Cache 4 is full of great (and small) fey monsters, that you can use to terrify your players when they visit the Fey Realm, or as WotC calls it: the Feywild (sigh). Highest on every adventurer’s kill-list is the Boggart. This otherwise fairly harmless creature suffers from having an aura that makes everyone nearby roll twice on attack and damage and use the worst result. Luckily for the poor bugger, it can turn invisible at-will so it might be hard to kill it, especially if you have your hands full with its allies. Seriously, every arch-fiend/demon-lord/über-lich should recruit one of these Boggarts. Another great monsters is the Spriggan Titan Guard. I can’t wait to use this and spring it on my players. From small to huge in the blink of an eye – that might surprise them. All is not perfect of course; there is a glaring and horrible mistake: The nymphs (there are 5 of them) are all covered way too much up! Seriously, what is that about? I know the GSL has a grand-ma clause, but I do not think you have to go that far . Also, I believe that “Prime Material Plane is a 3e-ism. Nowadays we live in the natural or mortal world. Anyway, joking aside. The crunch seems pretty darn solid this time around. There are a few monsters which are a tad low on damage (most notably the Bolg and Beanne Sidhe) due to their elite status, and also the power of the Red Cap Warrior is a tad odd, considering name and effect. On the other hand, I really like how marking is used by monsters other than soldiers, and it works well. Overall, CC4 is a great product, with great flavor, that complements my (relatively) extensive 4e library well, and many of the monsters therein will definitely be used.
Rating:*****

The Arak (SuperGeniusGames) - I will make this short. The crunch is absolutely out of this world horrible. I must admit that I have to question if the guys who wrote this play 4e much. The races gets too many skill bonuses (small thing, I could live with that) but also gets an at-will power that enables him to deal 1[w] or 1d8 extra damage 1/round against a target he has CA against. Yeah baby, at-will.. /boggle. Some of the feats are pretty sick too, and will make it the de facto race for a lot of classes (deal one die higher with axes, bows and spears? yes please - I can already see the rangers dealing 5D8 on a twin strike at first level). Also, the Arak can get feats that grant him bonuses against primal effects and other feats that grant resist 5 primal. What the hell is that? Anyway, as bad as the crunch is, the fluff is just the opposite. Quite awesome. So buying this is definitely not a complete waste of money, but if you want to use it, it needs a little work.
Rating:***

Book of Vicious Damnation 2 (Inspired Device) - Yeah. No thank you. I left alignment based spells back in 3.x, I do not what that back in my 4e. As for the rest of the powers, because, that is basically what we get, I do not see much that impresses me. I see missing keywords, clunky at-wills, encounter powers that requires healing surges to be spent (thus leading to the 15 min. adventuring day), encounter powers that give bonuses for the rest of the encounter, a power that can make a weapon daze on every hit for the rest of the encounter, etc, etc. Considering that the PDF is a god and 15 new powers, those 15 powers could have been balanced a lot better. Also, why are they CHA-based, if for a cleric? Seriously, the cleric is already screwed enough, with only ½ the powers to choose from, unless he wants to suffer from MAD.
Rating:*

Lunar Scrolls (Silent7Seven Games) - Lunar Scrolls presents us with a wealth of options for introducing a new power source into our campaigns: The Lunar power source. The fluff is decent, but to me, the core of thePDF are the lunar multiclasses , infusing your characters with lunar powers. The idea is intriguing, but sadly they suffer from various issues. First of all, they seem to "break" several of the normalmulticlass rules. Instead of taking an initial feat and then 3 separate multiclass feats, you take a multiclass feat, and then only take two feats to swap powers. The first gives you access to swap both an encounter and a utility power. Also, there are constraints as to which level of powers you can swap, seemsunnecessary to me. You also need to take all lunar multiclass feats in order to take a lunar paragon path. Again, why change what everyone else does? Another thing that "breaks" the usual rules, is the weird scaling of themulticlass encounter and daily powers that you can pick, if you have taken the appropriate feats. Instead, they should have made more powers, to swap in at higher level.Powerwise, there are a lot of things that are just too good. The first crescent striker multiclass feat enables you to remove 1[w] from an attack and daze instead daze the target until the start of your next turn. Even with the target getting an immediate save, it's quite powerful for a rogue using a dagger, since he only loses 1d4 damage. Also, there are a lot of possibilities for inflicting penalties to that save. The PP that grants -3 penalty to saves (at level 16) on all conditions that you inflict becomes a new must have PP for a lot of classes. Overall, a lot of powers seem fairly unbalanced, most of them leaning to the "overpowered" side, rather than the "underpowered" side. There are also a lot of clunky rules in there, for example the power that does X on a hit, unless it misses by more than 5, in which case it does nothing. Or regen that is granted that only heals up to Y times the target's healing surge value. Overall, the idea of a lunar power source was a good idea and could probably be great flavor for a campaign, but sadly, Lunar Scrolls would need a good amount of work before I could use it in my campaign.
Rating:**

Thrones of Punjar (Goodman Games) - People are disappearing from the Devil's Thumb: When the daughter of a foreign ambassador disappears, things get even messier and the players are brought in the fix the international incident that is brewing. And it is all because an albino aboleth has made the severs of Punjar it's new home and made an unlikely alliance with a small noble house in a growing desperate situation. Thrones of Punjar is a good urban adventure. The module is filled with small goodies regarding Punjar (like the Whirling Death and the Stirgeskull games), and there are a lot of RP opportunities in it. In fact, I can't remember the last time a DCC had that many fleshed out NPC's - I think that part of the adventure is awesome. The story is solid without blowing me away, and while the fights do not seem as lethal as the normal DCC standard, the fact that players are on a deadline and can't just rest whenever they want might make it quite a bit harder than it looks at first glance. There are of course a couple of extremely lethal traps (3d10+6 + stunned (save ends) in close burst 3 which goes off every round a character starts on the trigger - well, you better hope that you make that save quickly and that the trap misses you) that should be fun for any DM to use against his players. The biggest problem (IMO) comes from several of the key fights, all involving solo creatures (and a couple of non-key solo fight - aura that weakens is a bad combi with solos). The two BBEG's both seem underwhelming as solos. Sure, they have guards and traps, but once those have been dealt with, you will be left with what looks like a big sack of hit points and no real danger. Luckily, this is a problem that is fairly easy to fix.
Rating:****

Creature Collection (Fiery Dragon Productions) - The newest monster book available, Creature Collections brings us the horrors that infest the Scarred Lands setting. The art varies from awesome (the breasts on that dryad are just perfection) to dreadful (some of the golems look like something out of a 80'ies Marvel Comic), but definitely more hits than misses, unless you hate old school black and white stuff. Then you will hate them all. Except the Dryad. Innovations are few and far in between, but there are some (disclaimer, while I have read everything published for 4e, I might have forgotten stuff, after all, there are already a lot of monsters and powers out there), although not all are for the better (just IMO). Endurance checks to resist auras, no thank you, the immediate save mechanics is there and works just fine already. Auras that give a bonus against attacks with a certain keyword; no thank you even more. Just give some resistance instead, and be done with it. I also do not need to see ritual magic in a stat-block. I can decide just fine when my monsters need to have access to ritual magic, without it cluttering up my stat-blocks. However, the Bloodmist Naga is a nice take on how to have elites do more damage without just upping the damage or giving it double attacks. Luckily, it is not a big part of the monsters who "suffer" from the things mentioned. A lot of monsters are actually cool enough, although a bit low on the power curve (especially their elites), much like those from the original MM. This is one place where I would not mind a little power creep. The lore/fluff seems more ample (sorry, can't get that Dryad out of my head) than what is in the MM, and there are quite a lot of flavor about the setting everywhere. Of course, not all monsters are equal, and some have awesome fluff, while others have some very sparse fluff. Some of my favorites include the Asaatthi (lizard-race), the Overghast (okay, sounds like WotC does not have a monopoly on bad names), the Legion of One (sheds of swarms during the encounter), Doom-mite Swarm (go home locusts), hags, rat-men (they are the new kobolds, just ... you know, more hip!) and lets not forget the Blood Moth Swarm - I mean, cute butterflies that drink your blood? That's like a cake of coolness with awesome-sauce on top (just a pity they didn't make a higher level version). Overall it's not the second coming of monster books, but it's a good book. I know I will be using quite a few monsters and some of the lore from it.
Rating:****

Scarrport (Reality Deviant Publishing) - In the first of their Campaign Cutouts - locations to fit in any campaign - we are introduced to Scarrport, a seedy tradeport on the banks of where two rivers converge, and its inhabitants. The PDF is divided into 5 chapters and some appendixes. We have City-fluff and NPC's (38 pages), 3 new races (10 pages), 1 new class (the elementalist, 34 pages), New magical items (10 pages), new monsters and hazards (17 pages) and last but not least, the appendixes (12 pages), which include a short level 1 adventure, random encounters in Scarrport and same sample game of chance. For $11 (discount at the time of writing, won't last forever I presume), I think that's a steal - or almost. I am going to risk my online neck and say that Scarrport suffers from the same illness as many other 3PP products. Cool fluff, awesome ideas, but not that well implemented crunch-wise.The races are either overpowered (if not broken) or just plain weird (ie no real connection between fluff and crunch). The elementalist is (IMO) clunky, with all sorts of weird conditions that must be met in order get the most of the class. On the other hand, it definitely doesn't feel overpowered (why does it have to take a feat to gain implement on summons?). It has a good AC, but with a lot of short range powers, I think the elementalist will be in for a world of hurt.In short, it didn't appeal to me, but might to others. The decisions regarding level/type of the NPC's makes me shake my head (like guildleaders who are level 9, but every guard is apparently a level 12 soldier, with common thieves being level 8 minions? The monsters/NPC's have a good deal of errors (like weird tohits and wrong number of hit points - for example, the first 20 NPC's and quite a few of the monsters have incorrect hit points - Stone dog cultist on page 35 is the first one they get right unless I am mistaken). Now, I hope you are still reading, because despite the fact that the crunch needs a lot of work, I have got to admit that they sold me on Scarrport. Because when I read the first chapter, I really felt the city come alive, especially through the NPC's described. Lots of good ideas and potential there, and despite the rating, I would buy more about the city in a heartbeat - because I like the feel of the city. But I am going to have to "fix" all the crunch parts.
Rating:***

Dark Assassin (Dark Emerald) - When I read the class abilities, I thought: Damn, this assassin is going to have to do a lot of [W] damage or ongoing damage (or something else) to keep up with the rogue. Basically, it's damage-based class ability is just a weak form of Sneak Attack. But, this doesn't happen, and overall, the Dark Assassin just comes off as a significantly weaker rogue with really bad powers. Except a few of course, because level 1 dailies that render the target helpless (save ends) is just broken of course. Is there any melee based character who wouldn't multi-class into DA and pick that? Anyway, the class is a series of bad design choices, from random ongoing damage to attacks based on strength, dexterity, wisdom, charisma and intelligence (can you spell M.A.D.?), passing by utilities that are really attack powers and ending with secondary attacks that are based on other stats the the primary attack and/or damage keyed to a stat different from the one that governs the attack.I know it's hard to write balanced and fun 4e classes, trust me, I know - I am writing one myself, which will (hopefully) soon be published, but this doesn't seem like the Dark Assassin has been thought through at all. Also, the editing is sloppy, with 2 of the 4 at-wills being the same. Do yourself a favor and play a rogue instead of spending your hard-earned money on the Dark Assassin.
Rating:*

Citadel of the Corruptor (Goodman Games) - The heroes arrive at an old remote fort in the mountains. There they find a lot of hostile (surprise!) orcs. The orcs however have nothing to do with the inhabitants of the fort being dead. After clearing the fort, they follow the clues to the BBEG, a psychopath evil dwarf who uses a demonic semi-sentient (props for coming up with that one) and poisonous gas to kill people, and thwart his nefarious plans. There are a few very nasty traps, and some of the encounter are really interesting - I especially like the one with the ghosts and wraiths, although I suspect some will be turned off by the whole subject of killing children - I think it's a great scene to show the horrific effects of the demonic gas. There is one (good) skill challenge in there, and in general, it seems as if skills are more frequent in this DCC. Overall, the crunch in DCC61 seems more polished, with very few errors (although a couple of the insubstantial monsters seem to have too many hit points - insubstantial monsters get around 2 hit points less per die than normal creatures). It also marks a change from the other DCC's. No abundance of elites many level higher than the party. No abundance of solos. In general just more polished, as I have mentioned before. But, somehow, it feels less nasty than the average DCC (although using the semi-optional tearing storm and the winter hags should remedy that). Except for the final encounter (of course), which can potentially be devastating, with players hacking away at each other - that should be good fun. Overall it's a good adventure, but it's lacking a certain je ne sais quoi in order to blow me away. Definitely usable though.
Rating:****

Advanced Class: Sorcerer (Silent7Seven Games) - This new PDF brings us a variant spellsource for the sorcerer - a Far Realm (Sorry, farthest realm, but really, shouldn't it be furthest realm? ) infected sorcerer that spontaneously (well almost) bursts tentacles or mouths amongst several things. The Big C flavor is good and strong (iirc at least, its been 20 years since I played CoC and read the books), and we are presented with several new interesting options. From the switching of racial stats to CON (making more races better for this kind of sorcerer) to the aberrant growths (I mean, who wouldn't want to be sprouting mouths or tentacles), passing by the upgradable powers (that means you might be able to keep your favorite power, without it ever becoming outdated). The powers are complex (lots of circumstances) and powerful, but this is balanced by the fact that they are fairly circumstancial. Some are really cool (I <3 distortion field, pushing people away from you before you teleport and again when you arrive), while at least one is quite broken (yes, Sorcerous Rays, I am looking at you - auto effects like blind, immobilize or fear is just too good, even for a level 9 daily). Overall, it's solid, with some great ideas. Had a few more things been properly balanced, I would definitely have upped the rating.
Rating:****

Adventurer's Guide to Chtonia (Alea Publishing Group) - I must admit, I have been waiting for this one for a while. A setting based on earth during the Dark Ages, but with magic. Not a ground-breaking idea (/wave TerraDave), but none the less a very interesting one. And if it is a campaign setting that you want, Chtonia delivers in spades. It's quite simply amazing how much great fluff they get crammed in there, despite all the crunch there is as well. They manage making abelievable setting, while keeping all the classic races and classes. I know I need to buy a thesaurus, but the tone and feel is just awesome/cool. There are also plenty of small gems in the mechanics (how druids become weaker the more urbanized the area they are in is, how arcane casters are hunted if they use powers in urban areas, some new keywords for weapons, a lot of flavorful and classic backgrounds, how to handle commands and last but not least, a very interesting pantheon and how nobility is handled as a magic item). Sadly, a lot of the crunch is quite broken. The noble multi-class is still good, but the possessed , while a cool idea, is quite useless if you strive for some sort of balance. Of all it's powers, only 7 have the appropriate implement/weapon keyword, or a scaling bonus to the attack. In short, they will be pretty darn useless. The PP's also suffer from a wide spectrum of issues, like missing keywords and one also breaks the economics of 4e. But then again, WotC managed to screw that up several times as well, so why shouldn't the 3PP's . Some powers are also quite broken (Weapon of the Inquisition for example), but it's perhaps among feats that you will find the worst of the offenders (Armor of the faithful: completely broken. every cloth-caster will multi into paladin (1 feat) and get armor of the faithful (1 feat) in order to get + 2 initiative, +2 all defenses and +2 speed). Buy this book (PDF), but beware of the bad crunch. I still think it is more than worth it.
Rating:*****

Arcane Power (WotC) - Yeah baby, Grease and Glitterdust are back! When WotC remade D&D and published 4e, there were howls of outrage and nerdrage galore about the "new" wizard. He was no longer a god! I was one of those who really liked the new wizard, but still felt he could have been done better. More control, less damage would have been preferable. And some more varied magic. And now he is (finally) complete. Not only are some of the old-school spells brought back to life (although in more balanced versions) but he can finally summon and cast illusions (yeah yeah, I know about the Dragon Magazine article). The completeness is furthered by the inclusion of several interesting feats (I especially dig those that let a wizard improve his chosen implement), some cool paragon paths (I really want to play a summoner now) and some new builds. A very few things stand out as very unbalanced, most notably the new tome implement (Tome of Readiness + Improved Tome of Readiness) which allows a wizard to cast Sleep every combat. Might be really annoying with Second Implement (Orb). In general, I would say that this book is worth buying alone for the goodies for the wizard. This however does not mean that the rest of the book is bad. No sir.! While it seems that the Swordmage gets the short(est) end of the stick, the rest of the classes in AP (Warlock, Sorcerer, Bard) all get some great things. Aside from a plethora of cool powers and feats, an honorable mention goes to the new bard build (Prescient Bard, a ranged bard), the cosmic sorcerer (a good example of the increased complexity and flexibility of 4e classes) and the new warlock vestige pact (welcome back to the binder, just in a non-broken, non-silly form). Overall a great book that already is very popular with my arcane casters.
Rating:*****

Death's Reach (WotC) - In the latest installment of the H-P-E-series, The heroes are headed to the Shadowfell to pay a visit to the Raven Queen, but when they arrive near her abode, they find it overrun by Orcus' minions. After liberating the place, they heroes meet up with RQ herself and are pointed towards Death's Reach, an ancient place in the Shadowfell, where gods can not go, where a horror from ancient times, the primordial Timesus is kept captive; Someone has penetrated Death Reach and is trying to unleash Timesus and his armies on the world. Yeah, guess who? I like that they tied the hooks to the adventure in with the epic destinies form the PHB - although the deadly trickster hook is mindblowingly silly - "Hey there Neighbour! I just heard that some guys are planning to attack the Raven Queen and I thought you could make something of that information" Another thing that annoys me to no end, is the seemingly random monsters that have been used to populate the dungeon in the adventure. I mean, we are deep in the Shadowfell, a place that has been locked up by the gods and the key thrown away. What are aboleths, githyanki, chuuls, rakshasas doing there? Sure, it's somewhat explained, but still. DR definitely feels epic. I mean, 2 liches and 1 dracolich in the same adventure, and none of them are even remotely near being the BBEG? This epic tier stuff might need some getting used to. That's not to say that it's a bad adventure. There is some very interesting opportunities for a lot of roleplaying and several pages dedicated to those encounters (also a lot of information to be gathered). First and foremost with the Raven Queen, and also with the angel who is not all what she claims to be. There is a couple of interesting skill challenges, and some very cool encounters (The one with a room and 4 traps and a SC to solve a riddle could be a classic I think) - and not to forget, probably the coolest monster designed for D&D yet - The Worm of Ages. Overall though, it's going to need a hand to satisfy my players and their DM.
Rating:***

3 Days Until Dawn (Alea Publishing) - The premise is simple. A vampire is trying to take over a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere, so that he can claim his new lair and gain access to the Feywild . The heroes arrive at the village and are embroiled in the plot. There are some decent ideas in this short adventure (decent use of skill challenges and a cute little plot with decent possibilities for role-playing and a fun cool set-up with a couple of doppelgangers), but the little crunch in it shows some holes in 4e knowledge. Now, this can be fixed by a DM familiar with 4e, so it's not a deal-breaker for me. The lack of any statted out monsters or traps is much worse. In fact, it's downright annoying. I know it's a GSL thing, but there are ways to deal with the GSL , and this is definitely the worst possible way of doing things. The other big turn-off to me was the ending. When the heroes finally get to confront theBBEG, it turns out he is a 11th elite vampire lord. Sure, he is bloodied and weakened until he has spent 3 nights in his new lair, but still - with regen 10 and defenses around 25-30, he will annihilate a 4th level party.The solution is to have an NPC appear and grant players +5 to hit against the vampire. Yeah, I can already hear the howls of rage from my players. Overall, I do not see myself using much if anything at all from this adventure.
Rating:**

By Skill Alone (Adamant Entertainment) - By Skill Alone definitely has some sound advice, although a lot of it feels like I have read it before. I also feel the author is very limiting in his view of skill challenges - they are not only good for "crossroads" in the adventure, there are many other uses. The various (and quite detailed) examples of use of skill challenges are decent enough, but the DC's are very hard. Harder than the original WotC numbers. For example, a level 6 skill challenges with DC's at 20 and 28 will necessitate that players roll extremely high to make the skill challenge. At the end, we get some alternate uses of skills (some feel more alternate than others) and some new rituals, and one of them is definitely to be avoided. Rituals that give clear combat advantages/bonuses is a bad idea, since at higher level, they can be cast easily and without ever feeling the cost of the ritual. Overall, I think that if you have big trouble getting ideas on how to make skill challenges, this is a pretty useful product. If you do not "get" skill challenges, this won't do a big difference for you. If you are comfortable with skill challenges and use them already, there might only be a few good things to take from this product. On a completely unrelated note (and IANAL), I think that 3PP's should avoid using WotC IP (like Bane), just to be safe.
Rating:***

Monster Manual 2 (WotC) - Arguably one of the most anticipated books of 2009 (for DM's anyway), MM2 has arrived in style and does not disappoint. In fact, it delivers in buckets. First of all, WotC "completes" the 4e monster list by bringing us all (or at least most of) the classic monsters who were lacking in the MM1. The barghest, Behir, good dragons, golems, cockatrice, couatl, djinns, firebolg, frost giants, nasty hydras (cause the ones in the original MM sucked), maruts., neogis, phasespider, remorhaz, rust monster, stone giants, will o wisp, duergar and the xorn. A few have been published in various adventures, but honestly, those classic monsters belong in a MM and I am happy they were included. Second of all, we get some nifty new guidelines for our combats. Solo monsters now definitely only get *4 hit points and 8 hit points per level, no matter which role it has. Some of the solos published between MM1 and MM2 left us wondering about the hit points per level. We also see solos (especially dragons) have had their damage upped considerably. At the other end of the power scales, minions have also received a boost, dealing more damage and many of them now create an effect when killed. That's just awesome. Third of all, the monsters in MM2 have a lot of new cool abilities. From the feeding powers of the barghest, to the 3 standard actions of the Behir (great way to handle solos if you ask me. You keep the damage per round high while toning down the spikes), passing by the Maw of Acamar who is just made of pure win, to the minion-spawning pod demon, going past the Couatl's radiance which allows it to pass through allies and foes, healing the former and damaging the later, to the bebilith's destruction of armor (-1 culmultative AC for the encounter, on each hit), to the neldrazu's teleport-hit-teleport-with-enemy power of abduction to the djinn's ability to get AP's when critted, to the total-sum hit point system of the ghost legionnaires and finally ending with the eldritch giant's consume magic. Those and many others should provide great moments at your table as well as great inspiration for creating your own monster powers. Nothing is ever perfect (Ankheg has the wrong hit points; there is a reference to a power that doesn't exist; the use of skill checks to tackle aura effects; a few too many pages devoted to monster versions of PHB1/PHB2 races) but honestly, those are very small issues. I love 4e and I love cool monsters, but any 4e DM would be better off buying this book. Heck, the awesomeness of Demogorgon should be enough.
Rating:******


Critter Cache: Daemons (Blackdirge Publishing) - Just as I thought things couldn't be better, both on the monster front and on the critter cache front (MM2 is just out and Fey folk was awesome), we get us some daemon-love. And let me say this immediately. Daemons we need. Don't get me wrong, I love my demons and devils, but it's not always enough. The daemons are perfect to create a more dynamic relationship amongst the evil immortals. After all, a ménage-à-trois is just more fun. The lore sections getting longer and longer, and we are also treated with 5-6 pages of pure unadulterated fluff, explaining the origins of the newest arrivals on the immortal scene, as well as describing where they live. The crunch is the best I have seen from Blackdirge, with very few errors and those are quite negligible.There are some truly sick monsters and powers in there as well, especially Typhon, a 34 level solo, has some powers that will make your players cry. But I could also mention the cacodaemon has a breath that transform people it kills into larva, the chirodaemon that is immune to falling damage and thus attacks by literally kamikaze-crashing into players, the ferrodaemons that get your own sword to attack you, and the minions that explode and daze in a close 5 burst when they die, etc etc. If you like monsters, go buy this now.
Rating:******

Pact of the Dragon Lords (Adamant Entertainment) - Once again, a warlock pact that sounds interesting but fails bigtime to deliver. The fluff is uninspiring and the editing and layout is sloppy (what kind of keyword are "area" and ranges of "close touch" and "close blast 1", powers that last until the end of your next turn (save ends)). The crunch starts as being a bit underpowered and bland (just straight damage with weak or no riders) but as usual, they get quite overpowered as we progress through the levels. My short reviews are too short to list all the shortcomings, but here are the "highlights": Utility power gives +2 to hit and +4 damage all to hit and damage rolls until the end of the encounter - I think we have a new must-have multiclass utility to buy for all classes that have AE attacks or multiple attacks in general. A breath weapon power that is a ranged attack, an encounter utility that gives you flight as a move action and *drumroll* can be sustained throughout the encounter. A daily that gives (around) +7 AC, +2 to hit and +4 damage for the encounter (and a few other things as well), encounter attack power that deals damage, then ongoing damage (a no no for encounter powers) and (hang on tight now) 4 aftereffects, one after the other. Long story short, play a dragon sorcerer instead. Making a balanced and cool class (or part thereof) is really hard in 4e, but at this stage of the game, anything released should be better than this IMO.
Rating:**

Alluria Campaign Setting Guide (Alluria Publishing) - The chronomancers messed with the time-space continuum and reality came crashing in on the world, in the form of the greymists, threatening to swallow up the world. The chronomancers managed to contain the mists, but they are still there, random portals in and out of reality. The setting is basically a framework to an idea on how to create a world that accommodates all the weird races that are accessible in 4e. There is a few decent ideas in there, although nothing stellar; less than you would probably get from a thread on ENworld. One thing that really stands out is the names of the countries and places - Necroria, Draconia, Malice, Tempest, Faehaven, Undinia, Zelorkia, Procket and Paradise are but some of the enormously imaginative names - seriously, I think even I could have figured out some better names (although I must admit that I probably couldn't, but then again, I pretty much suck at coming up with cool names). Overall, this was far from impressive.
Rating:**

Pact of Ghosts (Adamant Entertainment) - The idea of the ghost pact is great, and there is a good flavor to the powers. I could see myself tempted to use this for something. The problem is the crunch. I feel like a parrot at times, but it is really the same issues over and over again. Encounter powers that last and give bonus for the whole encounter - that's basically a permanent bonus, and not really a good idea to hand out like candy. Same with sustainable encounter powers that allow repeated attacks. Stuff like that is just broken. Pact of Ghosts however does have some very cool powers as well (I think I love Your Cold Hand in Mine); it does have some interesting mechanics vis-a-vis powers that grants options when using AP's and the PP included not only looks fun, but also fairly balanced. Also the pact has some new thinking. When you trigger your pact, you phase in an out of reality. 1 attack before the start of your next turn, you get a save against. if you make the save, you are not hit. The At-will very controllery - force enemy to roll twice on his next attack, and take lowest. Not quite as powerful as Illusory Ambush in one way (only 1 attack and until the start of your next turn), but in another, a good deal more powerful (re-roll is much worse than -2). Pact of Ghosts is one of the better "Pact of ..." for a while, but it still lacks a certain standard in the crunch to really make me happy. Good potential however.
Rating:***

Raiders Guild Player Guide (Axe Initiative Games) - The Raiders Guild Player Guide at first made me think two thoughts. First thought was:MMOPRG raid guild for D&D. The second thought was that this the fantasy version of Mongooses Wraith Recon. Luckily, when reading on, there is noMMORPG -vibe, and while there are definite similarities to Wraith Recon, Robin D. Laws doesn't go on and change the basic premise of the game, which is to kill monsters and take their stuff.RGPG is mostly fluff, explaining the inner workings of the guild, how to become a member, what kind of members there are, etc etc. It also sets up a furious competition with rival guild the Archivists, who due to a (purposely) misunderstood vision do everything in their power for dungeons to stay buried. It's well-written, settings-neutral and thus very easy to fit into any campaign. I love the little boxes with different inspiration for your charactervis-à-vis the guild. Sadly it ends poorly with a new race, the Skreek (bat-man) which is too weird for my tastes and has less than stellar crunch (awesome bonuses like darkvision and tremorsense 10 offset by penalties - becoming dazed when hit with thunder attacks). Just ignore the new race and you will have a great product. I for one am looking forward to the first Raiders Guild adventure.
Rating:****

The Scouring of Gate Pass (EN Publishing) - The first installment of the War of the Burning Sky AP has arrived! The adventure kick-starts the saga with the heroes of the story being caught in a small mountain-pass town, which is about to be overrun by the army of the neighbouring empire. They are quickly embroiled in the resistance against the magic-user-hunting empire, when they are hired to help a local cleric leave the town. Before that is possible, they must hunt down vital information that is getting stolen back and forth amongst some of the factions involved in the coming war. All this an more happens while their town in under siege and crawling with bounty-hunters, assassins and other nefarious personages that are sympathetic to the other cause. There are plenty of non-combat skill challenges, lots of opportunities to roleplay with interesting NPC's and plenty of combats that are nicely spaced out, so that the heroes can catch a break once in a while, without straining credulity. It's just too bad that they chose to make most NPC's as classes NPC's instead of as monsters. There is just so much more freedom to make interesting powers when you make them as monsters (not to mention the saving of space - 2½ pages of various stat blocks seems a lot, even for an important NPC). Also, quite a few seem in the low end of the power scale (for example a solo with a 1d10+4 damage attack, and only a rechargeable attack to affect more than one creature), while quite a few make little sense (skirmisker that deals more basic damage than the brute, but has lower to hit). There are also a few places where the editing failed, with stat block calling the NPC's powers one thing (changed due to GSL reasons I assume?) while the text calls them their original name; slightly confusing. Overall SoGP is a really good adventure (that can easily be made great) to start a 4e campaign with, especially if you are not overly fond of dungeon-adventures.
Rating:****

Eberron Player's Guide (WotC) - The EPG does it's job. It provides enough information about the world of Eberron for a player to get a general feel of the setting and enable him to make a character which aligns with the world. How useful the book will largely depend on whether you play in Eberron. Most people who play D&D most likely do not play in Eberron, and neither do nor will I. So just how useful is this book? Well, I guess it's usefulness to non-Eberron players is directly related to the artificer, the PP's and ED's, the new pantheon and the related feats, the 3 new races (2 really, since we already have warforged in eDragon). I must admit that in that regard, the book surprised me. I had only briefly looked at the artificer playtest, as the prior version never caught my interest. But I really like this new artificer. It appears to be a solid and flexible (a great mixture of weapon melee or ranged attacks, magical ranged attacks and summons) class, with lots of potential for roleplaying quirks (lunatic gnome tinkerer anyone?). The Pantheon is really awesome, and it's different from the core and FR pantheons, making it even more interesting. I am not quite sold on the Kalashtar (although it does have some interesting mechanics) and the Warforged (I doubt I ever will though), but the changeling is definitely becoming a permanent fixture in my campaign. Last but not least, the PP's are very flavorful and interesting (God I love the chameleon - was that you Ari?), especially those tied to Eberron. But it should be fairly easy to file of the serial numbers and use them in your own campaign. Overall, and even though I really like the swordmage and FR, I think that I will get more mileage out of the EPG than I have gotten out of the FRPG and it is thus a book that I am not afraid to recommend to any DM, whether he plays Eberron or not.
Rating:*****

Kingdom of the Ghouls (WotC) - With the last instalment (E1 -Death's Reach) one of my complaints was that it didn't feel epic enough. Either the guys at WotC thought the same, or they read my little reviews (okay, I need to learn to keep that ego in check). Either way, they have totally redeemed themselves with KotG. Sure, at it's heart, it's still just another classic "Sorry, your princess is in another castle"-adventure, much like Thunderspire Labyrinth, but Kingdom of Ghouls is however in a different league than TL. Deal with an ex-exarch of Vecna, check; strike a deal with "Death", check; travel through an undead the size of a mountain, check; battle on the edge of the infinite vortex that is the Abyss (yep, if you fall, you FALL!), check; and last but not least, face of the exarch of Orcus and his pet Balor on top of a sea of ghouls, CHECK! Except for a non-rail-roady story, KotG has it all. Some very cool new monsters with nasty abilities. What looks to be very cool skill challenges (negociating with Vocar, travelling through the White Kingdom, travelling through the undead mountain and negociating the heart of a player with an ancient ghoul), awesome combats -The hydra on the lake of necrotic acid, the ghoul minions re-enacting Hamlet with a demilich(!), the surprise in Sigil where everyone on the market square turns out to be angels sent by Vecna and of course the final spout with Doredain, which as mentioned takes place on a sea of living (okay okay, undead) ghouls. Had the adventure been more sandboxy and had a few more of roleplaying opportunities, it would have been near perfection. But it's still darn good.
Rating:*****

Codex Venenorum (One Bad Egg) - To use poison or not to use poison, that is the question. The latest product from OBE breaks down the poison creation process into easily followed steps, giving us a system to create an endless stream of poisons to use on our players (or our DM's monsters for that matter). The system is smooth, and absolutely open for abuse, but they admit as much. It's still a really good system, you just need to "check" and "evaluate" the poison as a whole before you use it. Along with the rules for poisons, we of course also get a long list of nasty new poisons (more than 80, from Arsenic to Blue Deception, new mechanics to end (save ends, short rest ends, extended rest ends - it's even better than it sounds - very cool mechanics there) the effects, new conditions (exhausted and muted), a long list of special qualities to make greater variations in our poisons and a lot of fluffy advice and knowledge about how to describe the very diverse poisons, the different poison families, how to harvest poison from poisonous creatures and the rules for it, exposure, decay and antidotes. We also get tables for creating cool names and determining things like process and components and much more so that they sound and feel like real fantasy poisons. Seriously, it's poison galore, and if you like to use poisons and are tired of just ongoing 5 or 10 damage and never get to "tick" more than once, this PDF is simply a must have. But Mr. Hicks, please add a list of the poisons indexed by level in the PDF, for an easy overview!
Rating:******

Monstercology - Orcs (Goodman Games) - The newest from Goodman Games takes us behind the scenes of one of our oldest and most common enemy. We get a new (?) take on the origin of orcs (they are the result of a failed attempt by the elves to kill all dark elves with a ritual). We learn about how orcs are, their coming of age rituals (the common orcsuperstitions are fun) and how they treat their old and young. The interaction amongst tribes and the different positions in a tribe (I like how they use the 4e orc names to do this, makes it easy to incorporate in your campaign) are also covered, as well as a few example tribes. We are also given a quick overview of how orcs interact with most other humanoid races and we get a look at the orc subspecies andhalfspecies (feral orcs, cave orcs, greater orcs and lesser orcs, including a few different half-breeds). There is some crunch as well, with new weapons, new armors and of course new feats andPP's. The feats look a bit boring but mostly balanced. Some of the PP's are pretty nasty. Bloodrage Alcolyte becomes the new de -facto must have PP for all rangers or tempest fighters. + 6 damage per attack against bloodied targets and +2 AC with light armor - yes thank you very much. The UnholyAmbusher is just nasty as well, since (from what I can see) you can get +7 to hit any creature you have CA against. Couple that with frost cheese, and you have a character that will ever never miss. There is a lot more in this 91-page PDF, including orcish religion and advice on how to implement orcs in your campaign and of course a lot of orcstatblocks . I was very much looking forward to this release, and while I can't put my finger on why, I must admit that the writing a several of the chapters didn't do it for me. Also it seemed a little light on new thinking. Overall, a bit disappointing.
Rating:***

Attention: Jack99's Ultrashort Reviews has moved to http://4eultrashortreviews.blogspot.com/ - All reviews are now indexed by company and rating.
This blog will no longer be updated.
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Jack99

Attention: Jack99's Ultrashort Reviews has moved to http://4eultrashortreviews.blogspot.com/ - All reviews are now indexed by company and rating.
This blog will no longer be updated.

Short reviews explaning what I think about a product. If you think it is a stupid concept, let me know. Well, if you like the concept, feel free to let me know as well.

All products are graded with stars, from * to ******.
*: For the love of God and all that is holy (and I do not even believe in God), do not buy this product.
**: I wasn’t impressed, but maybe other people could find it interesting.
***: It has some decent things, but overall there is room for a lot of improvement.
****: Good solid product.
*****: Great product, a must buy. You shouldn’t be playing 4e without.
******: If you haven’t bought it yet, you are a fool

One thing worth noting about my system is that the numbers of stars given is relative to the type of product. For example, if you make an awesome class, with great fluff and interesting mechanics and release it on PDF, you might get 5 or 6 stars. On the other hand, if the same class is released within a 240 page product which is really bad, the class will probably be mentioned but the final rating will still be much lower. On the other hand, I also realize that it is far harder to make a 240 page product than making a 10 page PDF that is useful. In short, the smaller a product is, the higher are the expectations of a "flawless" product.

I am in no way involved in the making with any of the products reviewed, and should it ever happen, it will be clearly stated in the individual review.

Wraith Recon (Mongoose) – Wraith Recon is a supplement for all that want the opportunity to run a different campaign. With Wraith Recon, your players will be able to play a different brand of heroes. Here nothing matters beyond the next mission. No one cares who you kill, as long as you get the job done. Looting every creature or running around searching every single room is a thing of the past, as all you need will be provided. All you need to worry about is putting together a kickass team, and getting ready to follow orders.
Wraith Recon provides a really good framework for making a campaign where the players are part of an elite strike team. With some sort of game-mechanics innovation in it, it would have scored higher, but sadly there is none. Also, do not expect too much from the art…
Rating: ****

The Linotaur (Adamant Entertainment) - Maybe it is just me, but, as mentioned when I talked about the Apelord, I have always had a thing against talking animals as player races. The Apelord won me over, so I thought, why not expand that even more. However, four legged talking animals are just not doing it for me, apparently. I never was a fan of the centaur as a player race. I guess there is nothing wrong with the Linotaur per say, aside from the fact that I would probably not have chosen to copy-paste the gnoll’s racial power, ferocious charge. Originality is a great thing. While I won’t allow my players to play one, I kinda like the fluff and feel of the race, so I will most likely use it and create some barbaric tribes roaming the savannahs of the south.
Rating: ***

Anthropophagi (Alea Publishing Group) – As I see it, there are several issues with these monsters. First of all, the crunch seems a bit off. Maybe it is just me (I haven’t compared to other than a few monsters), but 1d8+4 and 1d6+4+weaken for a mere level 4 brute seems nasty. Also, the aura will be a killer, for players that go below 0. The Marauder is also a bit odd, with an immediate reaction that is a bit cryptic. Also, I find the fluff hard to swallow. I mean, in what kind of world are official papers granted to undead, so that they can prowl the battlefield, looking for corpses. Maybe it fits Alea’s world, but it seems hard to fit in a “normal” campaign world.
Rating: **

Forges of the Mountain King (Goodman Games) – FotMK is an oldschool dungeon crawl if there ever was one. No roleplay, many rooms, many monsters in small rooms (9 monsters in a 3x5 room!!) and extremely lethal traps, all of it sprinkled with a riddle and an ancient evil. Liking that is a matter of taste I guess. I <3 the lethal traps, which incidentally are very fitting with the whole dwarven theme, but the lack of room to move around during many of the fights create some very static encounters in 4e. There are some random editing (?) issues, like an item power that should be a free action and not an immediate reaction, and also a referral to the wrong room at a point, but overall, I didn’t notice any huge problems on my first read-through.
I must however mention how very impressed I was with the int 1 zombies’ ability to perform a circling move, in order to be able to ambush the players from behind. That’s putting very little to very good use
Rating:***

The Unbroken (One Bad Egg) – I have two words for you guys. Must. Have. The Unbroken is a paladin paragon path simulating a paladin that has broken with his god, but wants to do things that must be done, be they good or evil. Thematically, it’s hardly breaking new ground, but it is IMO a very important option to have in your campaign. But the best thing about this short PDF is that it gives you a smart way to not only handle the paladin code introduced, but that you can easily use it with the normal paladins and their relationship with their god. Hell, it could fit for any character that wants some sort of code. At $1.49, it’s worth every penny several times over.
Rating: ******

King of the Trollhaunt Warrens (WotC) – Following the Pyramid of Shadows, but not really linked in a significant way, WotC finally get their adventure-writing together and brings us one of the best adventures in many years. The premise is simple. A little town is threatened by trolls and their new troll king. The heroes arrive and must find the secret warrens, kill the troll-king only to haste back to town to foil an attack by the troll-king’s “army”. After the attack, they find out the troll-king is not dead, and return to the warren, killing the troll king again, only to have to follow him into the Feywild, where he has now been reborn as the ancient troll-king Vard, first king of Vardar. Good stuff all around. Skill challenges, fights and role-playing opportunities are all there in good amounts, with seeds for much more.
Rating: *****

Punjar - The Tarnished Jewel (Goodman Games) – While made for their 4e OGL DCC line, PtTJ is easily adapted to any game system, as it has absolutely no crunch in there. The only 4e-ism in there is one mention of the dragonborn. This large city (75k) is run by a former thief turned Overlord is a haven for scum, bribery, murder and other nefarious pursuits and beings. Even the council-seats are as default buyable. Aside from the council, there is little centralization. Each of the wards of the city is run in it’s own fashion, with a common theme of brutality and hopelessness permeating them. Goodman Games and Mr. Stroh have created the basis for something truly great, and this appetizer has definitely let me wanting for more information about the Tarnished Jewel.
Rating: ****

The Demigod (LPJ Design) - Hi, my name is Jack, and I am an 11th level demigod fighter, and I can't die.. what? No seriously, The Demigod race has it's moments. Three things really annoy me though, when I read it. First of all, divine nature? C'est quoi? Well, one must assume that it's mr LPJ dodging the GSL. Fair enough I guess, it just annoys me that the terminology changes from product to product. Second thing that annoys me, is the name. I mean, come one, DEMIGOD? I realize that it is what they are, but in D&D, when someone says demigod, you immediately think of someone extremely powerful. Not to mention the epic destiny from the core rules. So Jack the 11th level demigod fighter/vanguard becomes Jack the 21th level demigod fighter/vanguard/demigod? Say what? Last, but not least, can you spell B-R-O-K-E-N? Well, not the race in itself, but rather one of the paragon feats. Treat any roll of 10 or lower on a death save as a 10? First of all, there is no limit to this, so I guess that makes me pretty hard to kill, unless someone beats me down to below minus bloodied. Also, why would I need a feat to treat a roll of 10 as a 10? Hmm... There is some good stuff in there, I like the feel they got going, but it needs some work.
Rating: ***

The Half-Dead (One Bad Egg) - It had to happen I guess. With The Apelord and The Unbroken One Bad Egg had raised my expectations to a unreasonably high level. Yet, there is something intriguing about the Half-Dead.The concept and flavor really appeals to me, but I am never going to use it as a full player race. I think that is the biggest hurdle of the Half-Dead. I do not see it as a race that many will use. I will however use it at some point, where one of my players die, as some plot device. We will have to see. Overall it's a well designed race, but I do have some concerns about the racial ability. +5 to all death saves is too much (I think, but haven't had time to do the math yet).
Rating: ****

The Death-Mother (One Bad Egg) - "A mockery of motherhood, the death-mother appears a rotting, clawed zombie with an enormous, bloated abdomen that splits open to reveal rows upon rows of sharp, needle-like teeth. A single long tentacle emerge from that maw on occasion; striking a foe, the death-mother exerts a momentary control over the victim’s mind and feeds its gestating get with leeched life-force" - If that just sounds cool, nay awesome, it is because it is. Between producing undeads during combat and devouring more corpses during combat to produce even more undeads, this monster can be a truly horrifying experience for your players. Do not deprieve yourself of the pleasure of using this against them!
Rating: *****

Critter Cache: Big Bugs (Blackdirge Publishing) - So, finally we got us some more monsters! And they even have descriptions! Okay, I must admit I have never been the biggest fan of bugs, but there are some real gems in this product, as long as you do not look too much at the art. It looks like 1e stuff. Okay, I guess some people might dig it, I sure as hell didn’t. We got ant soldiers that frenzy (get more attacks when they are bloodied), we got an ant queen whose pheromone burst has not one, not two, but three different applications, both offensive and defensive, making it an awesome controller/leader hybrid. There are a few places where the author went a bit overboard, such as a beetle (level 6 brute) which does 2d10+10 damage when it has a target grabbed. Ouch. All in all, a good solid product, filled with some nasty critters to dispense of your pesky players. If you feel that 4e is just incomplete without these kinds of monsters, add another star.
Rating: ****

Tankard Tales: Willowbark (Myth Merchant Press) - Okay, so Willowbarks is a tavern at the edge of civilization. It is an interesting, if not completely innovative concept. The PDF describes the owner and his employees, as well as sets up some rumors and adventure hooks and some small adventure ideas. While I think that the author should have included stats for the owner and his friends, I like parts of the adventure seeds and the small adventures in Willowbarks. One sees the players being stuck in an alternate pocket-plane/dimension, due to a gnomish device gone awry. They must repair the device to return to their own plane, but unfortunately a portal to the Feywild is acting up and monsters are literally pouring in through the portal. Fun times, except that if the players fail, we are told that they just wake up unharmed, back at the inn. That’s kind of weak.
Rating:***

Lands of Darkness #2: The Cesspools of Arnac (XRP) - I think I won’t buy any more of the Land of Darkness series. Either they are extremely boring, or the whole concept just doesn’t suit me. The encounters seem repetitive and the new monsters seem without soul. Don’t get me wrong, there is some good, most notably a nasty level 5 disease which leaves you perma-dazed with a hefty penalty to AC and Fortitude defense. I am however not a fan of assured TPK’s which is what has been put in there. Sure, there is a skill challenge which allows you to avoid the encounter, or rather, resolves the encounter without bloodshed. A failed skill challenge is however a sure TPK. Against a level 3 a level 12 controller, 91 hps, insubstantial, flies, phases, and every 3rd round on average, he can make a close burst 6 attack that does 2d8+1 damage, pushes 5, and immobilizes (save ends). Of course, they can flee, I guess, but still...
Rating:**

Paths to Prestige: The Fell Knight (Blackdirge Publishing) – First of all, despite the price tag of $1.50, you aren’t getting a whole lot. A prestige class, the corresponding template for monsters, and an example of a MM monster with the template slapped upon, along with a little fluff. Or maybe I am just spoiled. Anyway, the idea of the fallen paladin is fine, because we do not have it per say. We have the evil paladin via the core books, and the paladin that has given up on the gods via the Unbroken of One Bad Egg. So it’s filling a gap, although a very small gap. The problem I have with the Fell Knight is the implementation. For example, at 11th level, all powers you have that deal radiant now deal necrotic; except (because it is a class feature and not a prayer) your divine challenge. Then at 16th level, targets that are affected by your divine challenge take ongoing necrotic takes some ongoing necrotic damage. So your DC deals radiant damage and necrotic ongoing. Not really smooth in my book. Why not have DC do necrotic damage instead?
Rating:***

Gods of the Shroud (One Bad Egg) - Let me start out by saying that if what you are looking for is a replacement pantheon for your high-magic campaign, this is probably not a product for you. It is however the perfect set of gods for a gritty, dark world on the edge of civilization or humanity. Baring running such a campaign, the Gods of the Shroud should be perfect as Ancient gods, still worshipped by barbarians, various humanoid tribes or really anyone living on the fringe of society. I must admit that I would have liked more fluff, but the fluff gotten was very evocative and sparked a lot of great ideas - just as it should be. The Channel Divinity feats are mostly great, and quite fitting. Overall a product I will be using a lot.
Rating:*****

Martial Power (WotC) – Expectations from my side were both high and low at the same time. High because it is the first real splatbook of 4e, low because it is a splatbook. I was not disappointed. I was not let down by what some claims to be a corporation of evil money-grubbing suits without soul. Martial Powers promises more options for my martial powers, and options it delivers in spades. Sure, not all are equal, and there might even be something horribly broken, but from a first quick read-through, Martial Power is just made of win. You get many new powers, many new class features, and quite a few new builds for greater variety. At a glance, I can easily see the beastmaster ranger becoming a favorite. I know I would like to play a ranger now. I can’t give it 6 stars, but since it is all crunch, I do not feel that I can do that without extensive testing. When that is said, this is a must have, if not only to give your players more options with regards to powers and feats.
Rating:*****

The Kroola (Poison Ivy press) - Okay. I knew I shouldn't have bought it. I mean, jolly but aggressive crocodiles that walk upright, live in swamps or play pirates on the Seven Seas? Maybe it is just me, but it just didn't do anything for me. Fluff aside, one could hope for some decent crunch, but alas. While they probably fit some world, the Kroola are just too powerful for your average campaign. The "no-granting-CA-while-prone" and "the improved unarmed attack" are nice and fit thematically, the Kroola's racial power is just.. well powerful. As an encounter power, spend a healing surge for con modifier + ½ level regen that lasts for the encounter as long as you are not "not-bloodied" or unconscious. Sure, there will be times where you waste it, if ennemies disengage you soon after you are bloodied, but often it will be godsent. Imagine a Kroola Infernal Warlock (I actually have a hard time imagining that, but anyway...). 20 con and at 2nd level that's 7 hp regen per round. He could almost easily play tank with that.
Rating:**

Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons(WotC) - The 4e version of the Draconomicon is here. As opposed to the 3.5 version, it is only about the chromatic dragons. Now, this may not please everyone, just as the omission of the metallic dragons in the Monster’s Manual did not please everyone. Want to know everything about the psychology and physiology of the chromatic dragons? Want help on integrating dragons into your campaigns? Want dragon traps? Want dragon rituals? Want page after page of dragon lairs and a large variety of dragons? The Draconomicon is however full of all sorts of all the goodies you will need for running evil dragons. I can’t wait for Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons.
Rating:*****


The Quintessential Wizard (Mongoose) - QW is essential a book of crunch. While it does have some decent fluff here and there, I am evaluating it based on the crunch. All I can say is that not much have changed. The Q-series had a reputation of being unbalanced, and even though it is a completely new group of designers, not much has changed. This book has more broken feats than all other 4e books put together. Several of the PP's are also really, really good (trying to avoid using the word broken again). The powers vary more, but seriously, sleep as an encounter power at level 5? Sigh. Oh and what the hell is the "held" condition (I understand what it is, but I shouldn't have to make even educated guesses)? Arguably there is stuff you could find useful in the book, but considering the size and the number of broken stuff, I cannot recommend it in any way shape or form. I expect more, and so should you!
Rating:*

Heroes Handbook: The Dragonborn (Goodman Games) - A lot of people have been complaining that 4e lacks fluff, myself included at times. Well, if it’s fluff you want, it is fluff you will get. The dragonborn are here described as an ancient races steeped in tradition and honor. A sort of samuraiesque-indian hybrid race, divided into very distinct clans, each with their own history and traditions, each with their own interpretation of the Code of the Dragon, the cornerstone of dragonborn society; Courage, loyalty and integrity.
Each clan (8 are described in detail) comes with it’s own paragon path and feats. There is also a whole chapter of feats fitting any (well, there are prereqs) dragonborn character. Overall, it is great stuff, and while there are a few feats you as DM might need to take a look at (as well as a few PP’s), overall the stuff appears to not be completely unbalanced. Not everything has been the subject to the dreaded power-creep, and there are plenty of options for those who wish to build on their dragonborn character, making him even more distinctly dragonborn.
The book has around 60 pages of almost 100% fluff, 10 pages on how (tables) to make a engaging and interesting family history for your dragonborn, 20 pages of monsters (mostly different dragonborn) and finally around 10 pages of new magical items.
While I am 100% sure you could play 4e without this book, I would definitely not be without it.
Rating:*****

Scions of Punjar (Goodman Games) - Scions is a 4th-6th level urban adventure crawl where players are hired by a minor noble family to find out how a pendant, which is supposed to be entombed in the family tombs, has made its way to a local pawn shop. Soon the heroes find themselves embroiled in a tale of revenge, because the slighted and thought-to-be-dead deranged daughter of the family has returned, now an insane necromancer. She has amazed a secret army of undead in the depths of the city of Punjar, and wants her family dead.
As usual, Goodman Games gives an adventure full of deadly traps and nasty combats. However, and this is a big plus, many of the encounters have a non-violent solution, so it’s not all hack and slash. There are a few twists, and room to expand the adventure significantly, if that is what you want. They are also kind enough to provide a flowchart of the major encounter areas, since not all encounters need to be taken in a definite order.
Sadly, there is some editing that really annoys the hell of out me. Wrong xp for some monsters and some 3.x-isms in the fluff, like the rogues having a few wizard or warlock levels to enhance their abilities. Maybe it’s just copy-pasting that hasn’t been caught by the editor, but none the less. I expect more from GG. There are also some parts of the adventure that can’t be copy-pasted, what’s with that. But worst of all is their use of the skill challenge… 6 diplomacy checks and nothing else in a skill challenge? 8 intimidate checks and nothing else in a skill challenge? My advice would be to subscribe to DDI and thus be able to read the advice Mearls gives on skill challenges, or read the DMG. Because that’s just poor use of a great system. Anyway, if you are willing to look past the crunch, add another star.
Rating:***

Critter Cache: Prehistoric Beasts (Blackdirge Publishing) – Yeah. More monsters. One can never get enough monsters. Blackdirge brings us 11 brand new spanking dinosaurs, with 3 variants of each. And as a bonus, at least one of each type of dinosaur is suitable as a mount, and they still all come with a description. Yes thank you. Overall I would say there is little groundbreaking, but the monsters have cool thematically appropriate powers, although, if someone would like to be critical, there seems to be a little issue of damage-inflation. Some of these monsters do quite a lot of damage. But who wouldn’t want a mount at 5th level that can daze and stun (save ends). I know my rogue would .
Rating: ****

Manual of the Planes (WotC) – The 4e MoP follows the trend started with the 4e FRCG. WotC provides the structure, with enough info to set the correct tone, and leave enough room for the DM to stretch his creative muscles and make it his own. If you are the type that needs to have books with answers for every single question, then this probably isn’t the book for you. If you on the other hand want a framework on which to base your own stuff, to help those C-juices get flowing, then the 4e MoP is an invaluable tool. I am not going to give it six stars, mostly because you can get by without, if you have a lot of material from prior editions. But it’s a damn good investment, if you ask me.
Rating:*****

Demon Queen's Enclave (WotC) - The heroes find themselves (depending on which hook you use) heading to a drow settlement in the Underdark in order to stop a greater evil brewing. An rebellious drow has been lured to the dark side (as if Lolth doesn’t qualify as the dark side already) by Orcus. The drow, now a vampire, has taken over a domain in the Shadowfell which used to be ruled by an exarch of Orcus. From there, it has launched an attack on the drow settlement, breaching it defences.
So when the players arrive, they find a town-battlefield, infested by undead and demons. And drows, of course. The goal might be to stop the nefarious plans of the Orcus worshipping vampire-drow, but how do you do that. Do you ally with the lone drow necromancer, with the failed drow commander that thinks of himself as dead man walking, or do you see out the matron mother in the temple of Lolth, and strike a deal with the most unholy of all. Or maybe you just plow through everything. That would of course be a pity. Once an alliance has formed, how do you proceed to enter the realm of Orcus? There is also a personification of the plane that has its own agenda, and an artefact that doesn’t quite want what everyone assumes it wants.
The adventure is choking full of interesting encounters, awesome settings, meaningful choices, cool application of skill challenges and interesting NPC’s.

DQE (P2) is by miles the best adventure WotC has ever produced. In fact, I will go so far as to say that it is probably one of the best adventures made for D&D in many years. Buy now!
Rating:******

Wyvern Mountain (Goodman Games) - Wyvern Mountain is the latest adventure from Goodman Games. It is an extremely linear adventure that sends the heroes to Wyvern Mountain to investigate what shenanigans are afoot. They follow the road (and monsters on the road) to the former dragon lair, now occupied by a goblin tribe. They kill the goblins, solve the riddle to enter the real lair that has been in temporal stasis, and defeat the guardians and master of the lair. Game over.

Overall I am disappointed. While there are some cool (read nasty) traps (7d10 at 4th level – OUCH), they are never part of an encounter, so unless players die from it, they are never really in any danger. There are some crunch issues, as well as some odd suggestions of tactics (like a monster starting by using a close burst power that makes its allies regain hit points). Worst of all is the lack of interesting terrain or features in combats with high level/high hp opponents. On the positive side, there are some nice puzzles and we get two new cool monsters, the vargouille and the barghest – yeah, when I say new, I mean 4e-style obviously.
I get that DCC's are supposed to have that oldschool hack and slash feel. Screw the roleplaying etc, but where is the harm in making interesting combats, if combats is all there is. Way too often they resort to using one type of monster in their combats. Only once in the whole adventure do they meet more than 2 different monsters at the same time, and that's when they encounter a ranger with his pet dire wolf and eagle. Diversity FTW.
Rating:**

The Shroudborn (One Bad Egg) - The Shroudborn gives us a new multi-class option full of flavor and role-playing abilities that any semi-sane DM should at least consider to introduce in his campaign. Now, not all DM’s will feel that The Shroud fits in his campaign, but no problem there either. The Shroud could really be anything. You could simply be attuned to the Spirit-World. Or you could be cursed by the Gods. Or yet again, you could be touched by the Fey. (Okay, maybe not that one, but you get the idea I am sure). Oh and it works great for NPC’s as well! It's a good way to inject some flavor into that boring Orc chieftain or Hobgoblin captain.

So what does it mean to be touched by the Shroud? Well, first of all, you can swap one of your +2 stat modifiers for a +2 Int modifier and one of your racial skill modifiers for a skill for a +2 stealth modifier. You also acquire some minor physical changes, like milky white skin or pale eyes. After spending a feat, you get to choose another ability (from a very short list, based on race), and qualify for further multi-classing. Which is probably a good idea, if you want to expand on your character’s connection to the Spirit-World.

The powers are cool, thematic and flexible. None seem obviously broken, and OBE even introduces a new key-word: Arena, which pulls you, your target(s) and possibly your allies to a closed off demi-plane sort of place, where you can continue to fight. What can I say? Yet again, OBE delivers.
Rating:*****

Pact of the Vermin Lords (Adamant Entertainment) – The idea is good, no doubt about it. For the most part, the power s fit well thematically, and there are some great ideas in the fluff. AoE spells become a spreading contagion, healing becomes shedding the husk, zone spell becomes a cloud of nasty tomb insects, ongoing damage a parasite worm etc, etc. Overall some very cool fluff for a very dark character. The issues I have with PotVL come from the crunch. First of all the at-will is extremely controllerish. I know that the warlock is strike with a tad of controller, but that at-will should be a controller at-will. Oh and did I mention that it is very good? There are also a few powers that look broken and/or weird (You Are My Host, I am looking at you), but overall, it’s fairly solid.
Rating:****

Pact of the Angelic Choirs (Adamant Entertainment) – I was very much (okay moderately) looking forward to this one. I have a thing for angels, and if done right, it would definitely be something that would be incorporated very quickly into my campaign. But alas, it wasn’t. There are some decent ideas in the fluff, but the crunch is just horrible. Some of the issues are small, things that annoy more than anything, but when you couple that with a good deal of powers that look horribly broken, it’s kind of hard to ignore. Small stuff includes the at-will dealing radiant damage, despite being described constantly as a fire attack. The constant use of willpower instead of will. Then again, that’s probably because it’s not released under the GSL. Also, Truename. Good idea, poor implementation. I mean, why give penalties to monsters’ defenses (and thus give the DM more work) when you can give the player unnamed bonuses that stack with everything else. Anyway, as I said, mostly small stuff, so let’s move to the bigger issues. How about a level 2 utility that gives 1+int mod to AC, all defenses and resistance 1+int mod vs. fire, acid, radiant and lightning. For 5 minutes… Or how about a level 6 utility that as a minor action gives 1+cha (main stat) modifier to a roll. But it can be any roll used within the next 5 minutes. Or how about a level 10 utility (immediate reaction) that when used gives you temp hit points and an action point. Or how about an immediate interrupt that “rewinds the clock” to before the event, and lets you cut in with a minor, move and standard action. Seriously? A level 5 close burst for 3d10+modifiers+ knock prone? Or a level 29 burst 5 that can do 10d10 (of no less than 3 different types of energy) + knocks prone? Sure, you might have to hit yourself, but still? Too much work in this one, in my opinion.
Rating:*

Attention: Jack99's Ultrashort Reviews has moved to http://4eultrashortreviews.blogspot.com/ - All reviews are now indexed by company and rating.
This blog will no longer be updated.

Jack99

Attention: Jack99's Ultrashort Reviews has moved to http://4eultrashortreviews.blogspot.com/ - All reviews are now indexed by company and rating.
This blog will no longer be updated.

Short reviews explaning what I think about a product. If you think it is a stupid concept, let me know. Well, if you like the concept, feel free to let me know as well.

All products are graded with stars, from * to ******.
*: For the love of God and all that is holy (and I do not even believe in God), do not buy this product.
**: I wasn’t impressed, but maybe other people could find it interesting.
***: It has some decent things, but overall there is room for a lot of improvement.
****: Good solid product.
*****: Great product, a must buy. You shouldn’t be playing 4e without.
******: If you haven’t bought it yet, you are a fool

One thing worth noting about my system is that the numbers of stars given is relative to the type of product. For example, if you make an awesome class, with great fluff and interesting mechanics and release it on PDF, you might get 5 or 6 stars. On the other hand, if the same class is released within a 240 page product which is really bad, the class will probably be mentioned but the final rating will still be much lower. On the other hand, I also realize that it is far harder to make a 240 page product than making a 10 page PDF that is useful. In short, the smaller a product is, the higher are the expectations of a "flawless" product.

I am in no way involved in the making with any of the products reviewed, and should it ever happen, it will be clearly stated in the individual review.

Keep on the Shadowfell (WotC) – The Darkness of Shadowfell Keep is looming over the surroundings lands. All clues concerning foul things happening to the region lead the heroes there, where they battle kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins and undead, in order to stop the nefarious high priest of Orcus from opening a portal to the Shadowfell.
Not the greatest adventure ever made, even by a long shot. The dungeon is way too big to get through in anything but many days, requiring the heroes to rest either inside, or go in and out multiple times. There are too few opportunities for great non-combat interaction. However, some truly lethal fights earn it a star more, just because I like deadly adventures.
Rating: ***

Thunderspire Labyrinth (WotC) – Following the trail picked up in KotS, our heroes are led to an ancient underground minotaur complex, now a semi-secret tradepost run by a group of wizards. The heroes pursue the trail of a renegade wizard attempting to size control over the small community, through 4 distinct dungeons, where they battle hobgoblins, duegar, gnolls, demons, evil wizards, and of course a dragon.
The dungeons in TL are of a much more manageable size than in KotS, with plenty of interesting fights, and via The Seven-Pillared Hall, there are plenty of opportunities to create some great roleplaying moments.
Rating: ****

Pyramid of Shadows (WotC) – Following TL, the heroes are drawn towards the Pyramid of Shadows, an ancient pyramid that has entrapped Karavakos, a tiefling of considerable arcane ability. PoS has a kind of old-school feeling to it. You have a lot of very different monsters, in a very small area, just like in the good old days. At least the writers have tried come up with an explanation as to how it is possible, but I must admit that the whole non-stop dungeon-crawling doesn’t appeal to me another. There are however plenty of very interesting encounters to steal and use in your homebrews. So all in all, worth buying for inspiration and the encounters, but it would require too much work to make a great adventure.
Rating: ***

Adventurer’s Vault (WotC) – AV should have been the 4th core book. There is no way around this book, and even though it does have it flaws with some items that can cause problems in the game, this is simply a resource that is too good to pass up. It brings new weapons, new armors, mounts, vehicles and alchemy (non-magical rituals) to your table. Not to mention hundreds and hundreds of magical items. And when I say hundreds, I do mean it. The index of magical items is 24 pages long!
Rating: *****

Advanced Player’s Guide (XRP) – Written by Ari Marmell aka Mouseferatu, this book brings the monk, the barbarian, the bard, the druid and the illusionist to our tables. The 1e feel promised is delivered to the best of my knowledge, and apart from the barbarian the savage warrior, the classes are awesome, and ready to be used in your campaign. Definitely one of the best third party products made for 4e at the time of writing.
Rating: *****

Plague (XRP) – Everything you ever wanted and needed to run a plague in your 4e games. Lots of great fluff and information on plagues, as well as the crunch needed to make them truly lethal, even for epic level characters. Buy it and release death in your campaigns!
Rating: *****

Lands of Darkness #1: The Barrow Grounds (XRP) – The Barrow Grounds is basically a cemetery you can put anywhere in your campaign, more or less. The idea is great; however the result is less than stellar. They have 12 encounters, and most are pretty boring. Rats and undead! I dunno, but a product such as this, which basically is a list of encounters, should give me more than I can think up in 20 seconds. There was some good stuff in there though. As the place is made for levels 1-3, each crypt/area has its encounter(s) adjusted depending on what level your players are when they arrive. One of the encounters, with a guardian golem could also lead to some great roleplaying. This saves the product from being a *.
Rating: **

Forgotten Heroes: Fist, Fang and Song (Goodman Games) – I think this was easily the biggest disappointment yet. Goodman Games are to me one of the best 3rd party publishers out there. It’s not that FH:FFaS is a bad product. It’s just not what I had expected. You see, they had the opportunity to make some great versions of the old classes, more than 5 months before WotC does their version. However, instead of making real 4e versions, their classes feel like 3.5 versions, with 4e rules; needlessly complicated. I am sure some (lots of) people will enjoy those versions, but to someone who really has embraced the smoothness of the classes in 4e, they are a disappointment.
Rating: **

Anointing the Seer (Unicorn Rampant Publishing) – AtS is an adventure, where the heroes are pursuing an evil family (the mother: the witch, the son: the warlock, the father: the dragon!) that have kidnapped the beautiful priestess and turned many villagers into pigs. They go from the town, to the mother’s hideout, to the son’s hideout, ending in the father’s hideout. It is simple and straight forward. There are some interesting opportunities for roleplaying and skill challenges, so with a little work, it could be a decent adventure. However the editing is atrocious. In fact, I will go as far as say that anyone asking money for a product, should be ashamed delivering one of such quality. Not only is the spelling bad, but it is full of 3.5-isms, and it is quite clear it was written as a 3.5 adventure, and then hastily converted in order to cash in on the October 1st date. Now, $5 isn’t much, but it is the principle. When you ask people to pay for your stuff, certain things are expected.
Rating: *

Noble (Alea) – Noble is a multiclass, with a class that doesn’t exist. The idea is brilliant, and my bet is that we will see many of those in the future. However, when I read this the first time, I wasn’t sure if it was a joke, or merely of poor taste. Names like “Tongue Lashing” and “Courtier’s Retort” didn’t help I guess. However, as I read more, I realized that the names didn’t really matter, because the noble multiclass is a great way of handling such things. Noble comes with a full set of powers (38) ready to buy with your feats. Also included in the pdf, are power cards, ready to print out. That’s just great.
Rating: ****

Peasant House (Alea) – Peasant House is not really a 4e product, since it works equally well for all editions of the game. However, it was listed under 4e products, so I bought it. And I wasn’t disappointed. The first two chapters, who describe how the different classes and races interact with serfdom and peasants, were a bit weak. Not poorly written or anything, just not interesting. However, the next chapters, describing the day to day life of the peasants, the atmosphere of their home and such, made it worth buying. I have always had problems with describing accurate peasant homes, and this product really gives a good picture of how they lived.
Rating: ***

The Apelord (One Bad Egg) – Have you ever wanted to play an intelligent animal in D&D? I haven’t; in fact, I have never allowed such races in any of my campaigns during the 20 years I have been running them. However, this is about to change. The Apelord is simply full of win.
Rating: *****

Sellswords of Punjar (Goodman Games) – SoP is a dark urban adventure that pits the heroes against a possessed Beggar-King and his shadowy allies, in order to avoid the spread of a shadow-plague. Goodman Games have here created a solid adventure with a distinct old-school feel. It has an interesting plot and some good set pieces. There is some innovation with regards to the rules, for example with regards to the shadow-stuff toxin which worsens your condition each time a save is failed, up to 5 times. It’s a mix of the normal poison rules and the disease track. Good stuff.
Rating: ****

Isle of the Sea Drake (Goodman Games) – The heroes find themselves stranded on a jungle isle, and find themselves in the middle of a small war between two ancient tribes. One tribe is since recently in control, after striking a deal with an evil wizard and his pirates. The wizard is there to gain control of a magic item that would allow him to control the local sea-drakes. Overall IotSD is a decent adventure with a great tone, and some opportunities for role-playing. It’s also fairly different from the standard urban or dungeon feel that we encounter in 90% of all adventures.
Rating: ****

Phrenic Shards (Dreamscarred Press) – Much like the Noble multi-class from Alea Publishing, Phrenic Shards uses a wide array of feats in order to simulate a class that does not exist. In this case, it is the psion. While the idea has merit, and there is definitely possibilities (Alea proved that), Phrenic Shards falls short. Way short. This is mostly because they are so many broken feats in there. “As One” gives you +2 to hit and +2 damage with your shard when you use a martial power. Two other feats buy you an aura (50’ radius) that gives you a surge or an AP every time an ally uses an AP or a surge within your aura – seriously?
Rating: *

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (WotC) – After reading this book was the first time in more than 10 years that I have considered running a campaign in what was one THE campaign of choice for me. The book does a great job at describing the Realms, in a short and to the point way. It gives you an awesome framework for a campaign, with lots and lots of plot hooks, without going so much into detail that you have no room to maneuver. If you are one of those who think a campaign book should tell you everything, down to the price of inns in the different wards of Waterdeep, or the color of Manshoon’s underwear, this is not a book for you.
Rating: ****

Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide (WotC) – I am one of those people that the idea of breaking campaigns up in a book for the DM and a book for the players is a great idea. The FRPG gives the players all the information they need to create a character in the Realms. You get two new races (Drow and Genasi), a new class (Swordmage), Realm-specific feats, and a host of paragon paths, also specific to the Realms. You also get an overview of all the major areas of the Realms, and the knowledge someone native to those parts should have. Even if you do not run a FR campaign, the book is worth the money. The drow and genasi could appear in any campaign, and the Swordmage is an awesome gish-class, even better when multi-classing into wizard. The paragon paths are easily made more generic to fit any campaign.
Rating: *****

Reviews continue in the next blog, due to wordcount.

Attention: Jack99's Ultrashort Reviews has moved to http://4eultrashortreviews.blogspot.com/ - All reviews are now indexed by company and rating.
This blog will no longer be updated.

Jack99

I have realized it is quite boring to recap every single session in a blog, so I won't do that anymore.

Last time we played, the players arrived at Danar Hold (aka KotS) and started to clear it. It went quite well, as the guards, the torture chamber and finally the Chieftain's Lair fell to the onslaught of the players.

I wasn't too happy about the last fight, mostly because I made a mistake. When the goblins started to pour out from behind the curtains, the players retreated back in the corridor, which made them able to control the battle much better. Instead of just throwing the goblins at them, I should have had Balgor and a few goblins use the secret door in his room, to get reinforcement or to get around and attack them from behind.

Also, another thing I learned in that fight. Moderation with the number of different creatures. I had changed quite a few, so I had around 6 different goblins in that fight. That is a lot of different abilities and powers, at least for my still relatively inexperienced 4e brain. I forgot some stuff they could have done, and in general it took a bit too long for my liking (after getting used to quicker combats - it was still lightyears quicker than our 3.5 combats).

Now, for the next time, we will see what happens. The players are after 4 hard encounters on the same day, badly in need of an extended rest. One of them had 0 surges left when they entered the Chieftain's lair, and I doubt he wants to try that again.

However, how will the remaining goblins react? There are still a few left down in the excavation site. But I haven't quite figured out what they will do, with their leader gone. Retreat to level 2? That would mean going through the undead area, not something I imagine a bunch of lowly goblins doing? Flee? That's probably the most realistic. But I guess they could also try to "take" over. Maybe they figure that the players aren't coming back. Or of course, they could reason that the players are wounded and need rest, and go patrolling, using the drakes to sniff them out.

Suggestions (if anyone reads this before monday night) are more than welcome.

Jack99

Rescue at Rivenroar is WotC's first stab at an adventure path. They have chosen to base it in Elsir Vale, which many of us remember from the Red Hand of Doom. The tie-in and setup is simple. Sinruth, a hobgoblin wanna-be, grew up on the stories from the Red Hand of Doom. He is now an adult, and wants to assemble his own army and carve out a fiefdom. After having done some networking and picked up a nice lair, Sinruth sends his hobgoblins to throw a party at Brindol, where they pillage and burn, before kidnapping 7 people. Now it is up to the players to track down the culprits, and return with the kidnapped people. They follow the hobgoblins to an underground lair, where they face (aside from hobgoblins) a decent variety of monsters, before they kill Sinruth and find out that he was nothing but a small part of something much (much) bigger (I bet you didn't see that coming, now did you?)

The Good
* I like the fleshing out of the 7 NPC's (6 actually, one of them croacks before the players can do anything), there is a lot of potential roleplaying fun in the 6 NPC's. Or of course, they can just shut the hell up and tag along.
* Magic item parcels fleshed out by the DM - very good, i often find myself changing most stuff in adventures anyway.
* The combat encounters. In general, they are varied, interesting and look fun. The Ogre encounter has great potential. Many of them have gimmicks, or interesting terrain, or just a surprising combination of monsters.
* The Skill Challenges. The council man and the treck through the woods look good. The interrogation might be a tad weaker, but still has decent potential.
* I love the way the adventure starts, that while they introduce themselves to each other, they get assaulted by hobgoblins. I usually start my campaigns by initiative as well


The Bad
* Rescue is nothing but an old-fashioned rail-road. The players' choices consist of going left or right inside the dungeon. Well, they do have the option at first of not interrogating the captured hobgoblin, but that is hardly a choice.The reason why this isn't under "Ugly" is because most adventures are just that. It seems very few can handle making stuff that is "off the rails".
* There is no background story, or anything else why the players are in Brindol. Of course, it is not needed, since they are litterally thrown into the adventure, when hobgoblins burst through the door of their (favorite) tavern while they are getting to know each other (supposedly).
* The fact that each NPC knows exactly where (at least) one other captive is, is a bit too sought for my taste. Plus it's quite needed. No player worth his salt will not investigate the whole dungeon. Speaking of which, did i miss them, or is there not a single secret door?
* A few of the combats seem a little sought? Like the Chamber of the Unbound Flame - Seriously, who makes stuff like that to impress others? Or the oneway portal from a place in a swamp.. I mean, come on.
*They put an encounter with not one, but two Needle Fang Drake swarms in there - Sounds like a TPK waiting to happen. That monster just looks broken.


The Ugly
* There is coming background support via Dragon! But it won't be there until August. Sigh. So you make us an adventure, but if we want to use the support of Dragon, we have to wait for a whole month (if not more) before we can start? I believe this could have been planned much better.
* It's downright silly that the rules for the torch that the goblins in the first combat throw is found 2 pages further on, without a reference for it.
* The map of Brindol has numbers on it, but there is no list that explains what those numbers are. Looks like a sloppy cut and paste from RHoD.
* Crypt guardian chamber - they forgot to update the evistro's claw damage as per errata to 1d12+5
* Rivenroar is nowhere to be found on the map of Elsir Vale.


Now, there is probably more, but these are just the things I noticed myself, after skimming it, and then reading it through. Overall, let's just say I am not impressed. While WotC certainly doesn't have the best track record when it comes to adventures, I expected more, especially considering that this is suppose to entice players to play the adventure path for a wooping 18 months. This is not saying that the AP can't turn out to be made of cool with extra awesome-sauce on top, but this first adventure certainly didn't convince me that I will be using it ever.

Overall, I will give it 3 out of a possible 6. Because the basics (great encounters, interesting skill challenges and good opportunities for interesting roleplay) are covered more than decently. Had all the stupid mistakes not been there, it would definitely have been a 4, and had the format been as in KotS, it would probably been a small 5, but a 5 none the less.

Here's to hoping they get better, or that Clark and Scott give us that AP we were promised, come october.

Cheers,

Jack99

Tuesday 8th of July (Elar, Muffin, Eric, Brocun, Torn, Torinn, Nadarr)
So the heroes press on, heading north-west, eager to find Danar Hold and see what it is. As they get closer to the area where it is supposed to be, they hear some someones or somethings digging in the stone with picks.

Elar and Muffin scout ahead, and stumble over a clearing in the forest (just where the forest meets the hills) where 4 burly humans are digging in a large hole. A halfling is casually sitting on a rock, surveying them, smoking a pipe.

Elar and Muffin return to the others, and inform them of what they have discovered. It is decided to just march out and see what it is. As they approach, they are spotted by the halfling. He calls them over, saying he has made an amazing discovery, dragon bones. Muffin walks over to the halfling and follows him towards some bones on the ground. However, as they approach the bones, the halfling puts his arm around Muffin, and Muffin is stricken by panic, thinking that the halfling is out to steal his gold (I wonder why Muffin would think that). Either way, Muffin looks away, down on his gold pouch to check if it is there. As he does it, the halfling rewards him with a dagger in the stomach.

Combat is joined, and shortly more combatants arrive, another halfling with a nasty sling and an Ogre with a big cleaver. Also, a fey gnome pops out from behind some boxes in a corner and joins the fray.

The combat is short and bloody, mostly for the others.

Encounter: The Burial Site (874 xp, Gnome Skulk (200 xp), 2*Halfling Slinger (200 xp), Ogre (350 xp), 4*Human Rabble (124 xp)) (0 dead, 0 unconscious)

After the fight, one halfling is still alive, as is the ogre. Brocun decides on his own that the Ogre will be useless for interrogation, and chops off it's head. The halfling is woken up, and asked a few "nice" questions. They learn several interesting things:

* Asprin, the gnome, was the leader of the band.
* He had hired Sigurd (the halfling) and his brother, along with the human workers
* They had been digging here for a week or so, looking for some kind of relic.
* The relic was supposed to go to Danar Hold, to someone up there, who had hired Asprin to do this.
* Danar Hold is located in a canyon with very steep sides, making it very hard to get there, except by the tunnels
* The tunnels are located behind a waterfall a bit to the north east of here (this is also shown on a map they find on the gnome

They also find a Longsword of Lightning +1, as well as a Fireburst Robe +1

After the little chat with the halfling, they have a vote on killing him or not. 4 against 3 to let him live. As he runs for the forest, Eric blasts him in the back, killing him. This prompts a heated debate, and in the end, it is decided to designate a leader to make these calls, instead of voting. Nadarr is voted as leader of the group, with 3 votes. Muffin and Brocun did not get any votes, Torn voted a blank.

Nadarr's first rule, is that the next person who goes against the group's or leader's wishes will receive no loot for a while.

After the dispute is resolved, they head north-east to find the small river, which should end (start) at the waterfall. As they approach it, they can hear voices speaking Draconic.. More kobolds!

Encounter: Outside The Kobold Lair (875 xp, 6*Kobold Minions (150), Kobold Skirmisher (150 xp), Kobold Dragonshield (175 xp) 2*Kobold Piker (250) Kobold Verminhandler (150 xp)) (0 dead, 0 unconscious)

Towards the end of the fight, one kobold tries to escape as the verminhandler yells "Warn Irontooth", but Nadarr and Torinn manage to stop him right before the waterfall. Another kobold is kept alive to interrogate about the layout of the tunnels and the strength of the kobolds inside. Unfortunately, he gets to yell before they can silence him, warning the inside. The heroes still try to bluff a bit, yelling (through the waterfall!) that they are coming from Asprin, with a message to Irontooth, but it fails, the kobolds are ready for them, and a long and involving battle is engaged...

Encounter: Inside the Kobold Lair (1825 xp, 11*Kobold Minions (275), 4*Kobold Skirmisher (400 xp), 4*Kobold Dragonshield (500 xp), Kobold War Priest (200 xp) Kobold Wurmpriest (150 xp), Irontooth (300 xp)) (0 dead, 0 unconscious)

After the fight, the tunnels are searched, as well as the different rooms. Some money is found (650 gp), as well as a gem worth 200 gp. The exit from the tunnels, leading to the canyon with Danar Hold is also found.

DM's notes
Okay, so much worry for nothing. The big thing of tonight was of course the Irontooth encounter. For those (if any) who reads this, and do not know the Irontooth encounter, let's just say that it is a very rough encounter, that according to a poll here have caused a TPK in something around 40-50% of all the fights. In other words: N-A-S-T-Y!

First problem was adjusting it. Irontooth is originally a 1250 xp encounter, against a level 1 party. This means that it is effectively a party level +5 encounter. Next up, it is made for 5 people. My group is level 2, and 7 players. So, going by the math, it should have been upgraded to a 2100 xp encounter. That's a lot of monsters.

However, asking around these boards, most if not all suggested that I do not upgrade the encounter that much. Some thought that it was hard enough as is, while some advocated for different degrees of upgrading, up to around 1700 xp combat. I ended up making it a 1825 xp combat, and.. well, let's just say that my players have been in a lot fights that were tougher on them.

Several points though:
They played superbly. For years I have been telling them that they make too many stupid tactical choices, that they too often think too much of themselves. 4e has completely changed that. I don't know if it is because the system demands/encourages it, or because my nagging has finally gotten through to them (probably the former, as I doubt they listen much to my rants), but they have been really good lately, starting during the playtesting, and topping yesterday. Keywords were focused fire, helping each other and great placement/use of terrain.

They rolled like gods. All made crits during that 7 round combat, some made more than one (Irontooth received around 80-90 damage before he got the chance of hitting anyone). Crits from a vicious greataxe is just plain nasty. Also, all saves were made on the first try, except one (and there were a lot)

I was also very impressed by the time it all took. Total fighting clocked in at 3 hours and 15 minutes for all 3 fights. Considering there is 7 players and there were more than 40 monsters in those three fights, I think it was pretty awesome, and if the length of encounters doesn't increase as they level, the game will indeed be perfect for me.

The evening was a bit light on roleplay, but the whole debate and vote on party leadership was very funny. I love when my players argue ingame, they get really nasty, it's fun.

I am not sure how much of KotS will be run as is. I am not quite grokking the fights at this point, as in, I fail to see how to make it good combats for us. Luckily it is not all of it that we will play at first, since we have 2 times left before I head to Crete for a couple of weeks of R&R with the wife and gnome, err I mean daughter, so there will be plenty of time to ponder on how to change them.

Jack99

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, my players are rapidly approaching the mysterious Danar Hold mentioned on the ancient dwarven tablets that they found in the dwarven crypt during the first session of our campaign.

Danar Hold is (drumroll) nothing other than Keep on the Shadowfell.

Since they have just reached level 2, there will obviously have to be some tweaking when it comes to the encounters (not to mention that I have 6-7 players most of the time, although this is luckily only during the summer. As soon as soccer practice begins, one of our players drops out, as his private life doesn't leave room for both).

Anyway, I was looking at the burial site encounter, and I decided that the party will stumble upon it on their way through the Silent Forest, and find some clue that hints about what goes on in Danar Hold.

So what does go on in Danar Hold, and how does it tie in with Castle Whiterock and the kidnapping of the players in session one?

Mr Jacoby has through a thieves guild called the Dark Finders made contact with the kobolds of the Green Lizard tribe. Together they have set up a slavery "ring", where Jacoby sets up adventurers (by poisoning food that he gives them when they accept their "mission") to be kidnapped by the kobolds. The kobolds drags them to Castle Whiterock, where some other associates of the Dark Finders and Mr Jacoby have set up camp. Those same associates further sells the slaves to the orcs (this might change though) in the deeper levels, who uses them to dig for an artifact that they are looking for.

The kobolds, who are supposed to deliver all prisoners to Castle Whiterock, are also involved with the Orcus Priest who is buying some of their prisoners, since he needs an awful lot of blood for the ritual that opens the rift to the Shadowfell.

Both Danar Hold and Castle Whiterock (both ancient keeps) both holds a portal to a forgotten keep in Qu'orath, although the one in Danar Hold is damaged and doesn't work. However there will be clues that there is a similar portal in Castle Whiterock, and where it leads. Neither the Orcus priest of Danar Hold, nor the Dark Finders at Castle Whiterock have any clue that their are literally sitting on a portal connected to an unexplored area of the new world.

Anyway. Back to the first encounter, at the burial site. The gnome skulk struck me as kinda boring, even though he has a nifty racial ability. So I decided to give him a slightly more old-school feel, by leveling him to level 4, and making him a wizard (illusionist) instead. I guess I could just have used the gnome arcanist from the MM instead, but I had completely forgotten that it was there..

Gnome Wizard (Illusionist) Level 4 Controller
Small fey humanoid XP 175
Initiative +2 Perception +1; low-light vision
HP 38; Bloodied 19
AC 18; Fortitude 15, Reflex 18, Will 16; Speed 5

m Dagger (standard; at-will) Weapon; +6 vs. AC; 1d4+1 damage.

R Illusory Ambush (standard; at-will) Arcane, Illusion, Implement, Psychic; Ranged 10, +8 vs Will, 1d6+6 psychic damage, target takes -2 to attack rolls to the end of your next turn.

R Grasping Shadows (standard, encounter) arcane, illusion, implement, Psychic; Area burst 1 within 10 squares. Target: Each creature in burst; +8 vs Will, 1d8+6 psychic damage, and target is slowed until the end of your next turn. Effect: Any creature that enters the area of the grasping shadows takes 5 damage and is slowed until the end of its next turn.

R Phantom Chasm (standard, daily) arcane, illusion, implement, psychic; Area burst 1 within 20 squares. Target: Each creature in burst; +8 vs Will, 2d6+6 psychic damage, and target is prone and immobilized until the end of it's next turn. Miss: The target is immobilized until the end of it's next turn.

Fade Away (immediate reaction, when the gnome wizard takes damage; encounter) Illusion. The gnome wizard turns invisible until it attacks or until the end of its next turn.

Reactive Stealth If a gnome has cover or concealment when it makes an initiative check at the start of an encounter, it can take a Stealth check to escape notice.

Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Elven

Skills Arcana +14, Bluff +10 Stealth +9
Str 10 (+2) Dex 11 (+2) Wis 12 (+3)
Con 14 (+4) Int 19 (+7) Cha 16 (+5)
Equipment robes, dagger

After having made the gnome, I must admit I am not too happy about him, but for now, I will keep him to harass the party, while they deal with the other "monsters" at the burial site. But I guess I should really let go of the old ways of "stating up" full NPC's and instead just go the monster route. In this case, I should probably go with the arcanist and modify his powers a bit. Hmmm..

Let's see if we can't whip up another NPC that we will need, by using the monster building blocks instead. I am thinking of Melchin, the guy in charge of the Dark Finders at Castle Whiterock. I am thinking he will be the first solo the party will meet. (Yes, that means there is a monster or two from Keep that will be removed.

Melchin, Level 4 Solo Controller
Medium natural humanoid
Initiative +5; Perception +10
HP 216; AC 21, Fortitude 20, Reflex 18, Will 18; Speed 7;
+5 to saves; Action Points 2

Unarmed Attack (standard; at-will) +9 vs AC, 1d10+4 damage

Monk’s Surge (usable only while bloodied; encounter) Melchin makes a basic attack and heals 54 hps.

Flurry of Blows (standard; at-will) Melchin makes two basic attacks against one or two targets

Stunning Fist (standard; recharge 5, 6) +7 vs Fortitude, 1d10+4 damage and target is stunned (save ends)

Circle Kick (standard; recharge 4, 5, 6) +9 vs AC, 3d10+4 damage. Target is pushed 3 and knocked prone.

Whirling Kick (standard, burst 1, recharge 6) +7 vs AC, 3d6+4 damage

Deflect Arrow (Immediate Interrupt, at-will) Melchin deflects an arrow, bolt, dagger or other ranged weapon that will hit him (I have a bit of trouble formulating this one, but the intend should be clear enough - am a bit uncertain about this one though, as it will only affect the ranger and possibly the rogue, but it will hurt them a lot)

Str 18 Con 14 Dex 15 Int 10 Wis 15 Cha 11

Jack99

I figured I would post the complete price list by level, in order to save others from needing to go look for it, in case someone makes their own rituals.

Level - price
1: 50
2: 100
3: 125
4: 175
5: 250
6: 360
7: 520
8: 680
9: 840
10: 1000
11: 1800
12: 2600
13: 3400
14: 4200
15: 5000
16: 9000
17: 13000
18: 17000
19: 21000
20: 25000
21: 45000
22: 65000
23: 85000
24: 105000
25: 125000
26: 225000
27: 325000
28: 425000
29: 525000
30: 625000

There are at the present time, 3 exceptions to this table:
Level 1 Silence costs 75 instead of 50.
Level 4 Arcane lock costs 150 instead of 175
Level 5 Brew potion costs 75 instead of 250

Why oh why. I looked over the rituals, and I do not see why they should be any cheaper than the others. I sense a house-rule incoming.

Jack99

I was looking over the rules concerning the creation of NPC's, and I started to wonder if they were balanced. I do like stating out NPC's though, since making them help me focus on how they work and how they affect the world around them, more so than writing up a background or some notes. I guess I am weird that way.

I thought I would give it a whirl. The NPC I had in mind, is the secret leader of an yet undecided thieves guild in Drahar, by far the biggest city in the world that the players know off, which isn't hard, since they only know of three cities..

I was thinking of doing something new (for me at least). In the past, I have mostly used rogues (duh!), wizards, clerics (Mask!) mindflayers, dragons, beholders (wait, or was that something stolen from FR? - can't recall) and even the occasional monk in 3.x, as guildleaders of my thieves' guilds. I looked over the classes, and thought that a Warlord would make a cool new spin on it. He is smart, he is charismatic, he is basically the born leader. Sure, he can't do all the thieving himself, but that's why he is guild leader, not a burglar. And when the [censored] hits the fan (ie, when the players bust through his doors), he can actually stand toe to toe with them, and make his minions (not necessarily literally) better. That should work pretty well. A quick glance over the races, and I decided to make him stand out even more. I would make him a minotaur. This of course would not be known by many outside of the guild, in fact, I think it has possibilities. Maybe rumors circulate that the guild leader of X guild eats babies or something.. Because he literally does so!

Also. Being a major NPC that I plan the players to fight at the end (his or theirs, not the campaign) he should be an elite.

Goth, Elite Level 11 Warlord
Medium Natural Humanoid
Initiative +6, Perception +5
HP 210; Bloodied 105, see also ferocity
Speed 5
AC 28; Fortitude 28; Reflex 23; Will 26
+2 saves, Action Point 1

m Oversized Maul (standard; at-will) *weapon* +17 vs AC; 2d8+10 damage

M Wolf Pack Tactic (standard; at-will) *weapon* +17 vs AC; 2d8+10 damage and one ally adjacent to Goth or his target shifts as a free action before the attack

M Warlord's Strike (standard; encounter) *weapon* +17 vs AC; 4d8+10 damage. Until the end of Goth's next turn, all his allies gets +4 damage against his target.

M Lion's Roar (standard; recharge when bloodied) *weapon* +17 vs AC; 4d8+10 damage. Goth or one ally within 5 squares can spend a healing surge.

M Knock Them Down (standard; daily) *weapon* +17 vs AC; 6d8+10 damage. All allies within 10 squares can move 3 squares and hit someone as a free action. A hit gives no damage, but knocks the target prone.

M Inspiring Reaction (Immediate reaction, encounter) *Healing, Martial* Melee touch. Trigger: Goth or an ally takes damage. Effect: Goth or an ally can spend a healing surge and regain additionally 3 hps.

C Defensive Rally (Standard, daily) *Healing, Martial* Close Burst 5. Each ally in the burst can spend a healing surge and make a saving throw against any single effect. They also get +2 to all defenses until the end of Goth's next turn.

C Inspiring Word (Minor, encounter - special, twice per encounter) *Healing, Martial* Close burst 10. Goth or an ally can spend a healing surge and regain an additional 3d6 hps.

Combat Leader Goth grants +2 initiative to all allies within 10 squares

Ferocity (when reduced to 0 hps) Goth makes a basic melee attack

Alignment Unaligned Languages Common

Skills Diplomacy +13, Intimidate +13

Str 21, Con 17, Dex 12, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 16

Equipment Large Maul, Chainmail, Handaxes (2)

Okay. Wow. I made him based on the NPC rules in the DMG (p. 187-188) and then applied the Elite Template (p. 185). I chose Lion's Roar to be rechargeable when bloodied, as per the rules of adjusting powers, in relation to the whole "an elite monster counts for two" issue. I did not however give him double attack or an immediate at will, which they (also) suggest. Yet, comparing him to other level 11 elite monsters, he does seem quite a bit stronger. But maybe they are just supposed to be more powerful. You know, feature, not bug.

Then again, I just realised that the poor sucker only has two surges, so he can't really benefit from all the potential healing he has. Still, 2 surges is 104 hps more, not too shabby, and some of his attacks are absolutely devastating.

Maybe I ought to take a look at his powers another day, and switch a few of the healing ones, to something else, so that it doesn't all get wasted..

Jack99

First of all, sorry for the abrupt ending, but we did stop there, as I had to run and pick up my daughter. That and I was at my 10.000 letter limit in the first blog.

Anyway. My impressions from the wrong side of the screen, compared to normally (second time in 14 years that I am actually a player).

First of all, it was a blast to roleplay again, and not having to think too much, being able to focus on one story, instead of seven stories. I have really been looking forward to playing, not just because of 4e, but that did have something to do with it as well.

We played for around 8-9 hours, although we had lot of cigarette breaks (as we weren't where we usually play) and generally took it very easy. It was the DM's first stab at 4e, and last he DM'ed was sometime around 94, so all things considered it went extremely smoothly. Actually come to think of it, it went amazingly smoothly. Of course, two players isn't much to handle, but the fact that he only had to ask about one rule in 8-9 hours of play, and that he didn't make any mistakes (from what I could see) rulewise coupled with the fact that all encounters were fine and fun.. well it does say something about the accessibility of the system. Or maybe he is just brilliant.. No, trust me, it's the system.

Now, where was I? Ah yes, my paladin and his build. All I can say is OMG he is one sticky and durable mother. Between Divine Challenge (7 damage and -2 to hit others) and Enfeebling Strike (another -2 to hit everyone), bolstering strike to provide some cushion and an AC of 21 (at level 2) he just seemed to be able to go on and on, while keeping the monsters on him. Working as intended. I can't recall ever playing or seeing in play a melee character (during the last 20 years) that could accomplish that to any degree remotely near of him. It was made of awesome-sauce and all those other fancy internet lingo stuff. And it was fun. Even though I was playing a low-level melee, I had several choices to make every single round, and several options to accomplish what I wanted done. It was just great, I am still on a bit of a high because of it. I simply can't wait to play this character again.

What else... Yes, the encounter by the river, first against the goblins, trying to get it done before the fire caught us, then struggling to stay afloat in the river, and finishing by getting surprised by the crocodile was just superb as well. It got extremely close, mostly because it rolled a 20 twice in a row on its special attack, causing 20 damage each time. The only way the cleric stayed alive was by burning all his healing in the meantime. I like that my character, even though wearing plate, could swim some (I lost 3-4 surges, due to missing checks), while it probably isn't very realistic, it felt much more heroic, and I like that a lot.

I could probably go on and on, but in general I will just say that 4e really makes it possible for interesting and varied combats, even when the party is very small (2 players) and low level. I was very impressed with the dynamic of the encounters, and even though we were as mentioned only two players, there was still plenty of movement. Well, except in the fight against the ghoul, since it was immobilizing us, then we immobilized it, etc etc, but it was still an okay fight. Mostly because I haven't really read the MM from front to cover, so I had no idea what the ghoul could do, which added to the suspense and the tension.

Okay, I think I have rambled enough for today, if you made it all the way here, thanks for reading my blog.

Jack99

Very shortly after I posted the character that I would play if I ever got to, one of my players suggested that we get together a few of us, and do some off-beat rolling of the dice, when there was the time for it, in addition to our weekly game, run by yours truly. I wonder, does he read my blog. Merely coincidence I hope.

Anyway, I ran Zzaz by the DM, and it was all good. The other player was going to make a dwarf (laser) cleric, so he decided to adopt the faith of the Raven Queen, in order to facilitate some common ground.

After leaving the temple, Zzaz had adventured some, along with 3 other companions. Not long ago, they were charged with clearing a forest of goblins (it can't have been a lot of goblins, since Zzaz was still level 1 ). Unfortunately (for them anyway), all of his friends died. Zzaz collected the pay, and roamed around on his own for a while. One day, he came to a small (unnamed) village on the edge of civilization. There, he ran into the local herb-woman (Witch? warlock? poisoner? these days, an old woman could be just about anything, but really, who cares...) called Madam Mim (chuckle) who needed a love letter transported to the man she loved. He worked in a mine-town (literally, a town down in a coal-mine).

So Zzaz took off, at his usual leisurely pace (10 str + plate + heavy shield tends to do that) and headed down to deliver the love letter (can you imagine the look on the guy's face when a tiefling delivers a love letter). Anyway, returning to the village with no name, with an answer, Zzaz is disappointed when he finds that Madam Mim is not at home. But, asking around (the local tavern), he finds out that it is fairly common for the Madam, err for Madam Mim to take week-long trips to a secret place, in order to collect some herbs which the towns uses to brew it's world?-famous brew - Something with 70% alcohol (that's 140% for the US guys I believe).

With no options, Zzaz installs himself at the Inn of the town, a few hours from Madam Mims house. There, after a few days, he meets and drinks with Grib, a fellow follower of the Queen.

Grib comes up from the south, where he has been searching for a necromancer that kidnapped some of his former friends' (they are dead now) family.

While sitting there, drinking the world?-famous brew, they overhear a local farmer complaining that one of the other farmers hasn't shown up with the sheep that he (the first farmer) has bought of him (the second farmer). As he (the first farmer) hails from a farm near Madam Mim's, Grib and Zzaz offer to check it out, as they are heading to Madam Mim's anyway.

As they arrive at the farm (Madam Mim wasn't home either), they find a starved dog chained to a wall, a broken door that has been kicked in, a bloodstain that looks like someone has had their head smashed into the floor, as well as a general sign of combat.

Despite neither Grib nor Zzaz being especially apt at finding and following tracks, they still manage to find some horse tracks that leave the farm and head west, towards a wood. Having made a new friend (the dog was fed), all three head out to the wood, which lays a few hours away. As they enter it, darkness begins to fall, and a camp is made.

Just in case there are wild animals around, they decide to collect a lot of spare wood. No sooner are they done collecting and eating, before the first howls begin. They (the howls) go on for a while, and Grib and Zzaz get ready to rumble. As the 3 wolves jump out of the shadows, Grib drops his torch, and creates a protective circle of flames, keeping one of the wolves at bay. After a short but fun battle, the wolves are all dead, but the dog has run away.

The next morning, the odd pair return to town. There they encounter a woodsman/guide (ranger) that is in the middle of telling the interested towns-folks of his brush with death. Until a few days? ago, he was leading a caravan from the south, up north. About a day's walk from the wood to the west (the one with the wolves) they were traversing a river, when suddenly he hear some noise from one of the boxes the horses were carrying. Before any of the guards or the owner noticed, he opened the box, and found there to be a man inside. The he was noticed by his employer, and had to flee in order to stay alive.

The 6 horses carried 18 human-sized coffins/boxes..

Grib and Zzaz, smart as they are, immediately put two and two together, and realized that some of the people missing from the area, probably had been kidnapped, and were in the boxes. Especially after Zzaz made one of the other local farmers describe the missing farmers to the ranger. One of them definitely sounded like the man he saw in the box.

Grib and Zzaz quickly promised to find the missing people, and had the ranger draw them a map to the place (an old Keep) he was supposed to lead the group.

After traveling the rest of the evening, Grib and Zzaz once again came to the wood where they had encountered some wolves the day before. The next day, they turned north and as it was time to make camp once again, they came to the river where the ranger had discovered his employer's secret. They found a really nice spot, with cover, overlooking the river. As they began to cook, they could hear the thunder starting. Hours passed, and the thunder grew louder, even though there was still no rain. Suddenly Zzaz (Grib was sleeping) realized that the smell of smoke was getting quite a bit too powerful for such a small campfire. Climbing up and looking over the rocks they had camped behind, he could see that the savanna was on fire. and there was goblins coming their way, fleeing from the fire. Of course, this (the fire quickly approaching) didn't really stop the goblins from taking a shot at Grib and Zzaz.

Although Zzaz managed to wake up Grib before the goblins (there was 5 of them) closed in on them, there was no way to get his armor on him in time. Fighting without his trusted scalemail and shield proved quite hurtful on Grib, and none the less, they managed to dispatch the goblins, right before (as in seconds) before the fire overtook their camp. Having little choice, they had to jump out into the river, which btw had quite a strong current here.

Zzaz, even though wearing his trusted plate, managed, after getting his head underwater 2-3 times, to swim and climb onto a rock about 25 feet out in the river. Grib had more trouble (good thing that he wasn't wearing his armor) and he was about to be overtaken by the current, when an almost miraculous throw by Zzaz landed a rope in his hand. By the help of the rope, he got to the shore, as the fire had died out near the shore, where there wasn't much that could burn for long.

Now, you would think that this was it, but as soon as Grib got to the shore, Zzaz spotted another danger. A crocodile was closing in on Grib, and Zzaz had all but the time to warn him. So, the crocodile grabbed Grib's leg, and tried to pull him out in the river. Zzaz was still standing on a rock, about 40-45 feet from Grib, and in the middle of the river. The crocodile was almost crushing the life out of Grib, who was only still alive due to his dwarven resilience and his magical healing, so Zzaz so no choice, and jumped into the water, getting close enough to the other two, so that he could use his holy powers to attract the attention of the crocodile, while getting near enough to actually attack it. At the end, the odd pair prevailed, but it was very very close that the dwarf had joined his Queen in the Shadowfell.

They decided to rest a bit longer, so that at least Grib would rested. Zzaz was still a bit worn out from the night's extreme waterfun, but they decided (naturally) to press on.

The next day, they quickly found a place where one could traverse the river on foot, and on the other side, they found tracks of the horses. They followed the tracks into a forest, which apparently was inhabited by elves, because suddenly they were faced with 3 elves who had mutilated themselves) shooting arrows at them. The dwarf, a man of nature (cough) noted that this was something that elves did when they faced a great sorrow. Luckily Zzaz could speak elven, and since he had an extremely well gifted tongue, he naturally tried to calm the elves, and explain that whatever had them cut themselves wasn't his nor his dwarven friend's fault. Either those elves didn't listen, or they simply didn't understand Zzaz' very polished elven, because they kept attacking, and actually hurting both Zzaz and Grib quite badly.

Naturally, neither had any plans on meeting their Queen face to face anytime soon, so the elves were killed.

After leaving the 3 dead elves behind, Grub and Zzaz soon stumbled over an empty elven village. They noticed that there were few corpses, and one of the huts/houses was burning. As they approached it, they heard the sound of eating. They found 4 man-sized beetles in the process of devouring a dead elf.

Both figured an easy fight, but it turned out that the savage beetles could breathe fire, much like a dragon. Zzaz thanked his ancestors many times after that fight, because had he been any other race, he would have been dead several times over.

They once again started to feel the weight of the day's battles, but decided to keep going. The theory was that the necromancer that Grib originally was looking for was somehow connected to all this, and that the kidnapped people were taken to this keep, to be turned into undeads.

After a few more hours of following the trail, it started to lead underground, in what Grib identified as possibly a Green Dragon cave. Following the trail inside, Grib and Zzaz got sidetracked when they suddenly heard noises from a barred door. Unfortunately for Zzaz, there were no beautiful human or elven virgins behind the door, but instead a ravenous ghoul!!! That died as well. (End)

Jack99