Bastards and Bloodlines

The d20 core rules let you play half-orcs and half-elves, but why stop there? Bastards & Bloodlines gives you nearly 30 new half-races to play, including half-trolls, half-nagas, half-giants, and even half-umber hulks! Over a dozen new templates, including half-medusas and half-beholders, add even more options to the mix. As if that wasn't enough, Bastards & Bloodlines also offers players new feats (including "bloodline" feats), new spells, and prestige classes like the Brood Warrior and the Changeling. Designed by noted Star Wars and Everquest author Owen K.C. Stephens, Bastards & Bloodlines is a rules toolkit that opens new realms of possibility for your d20 campaign.

"Are You Ready To Get Freaky?" asks the back of the entertainingly titled Bastards & Bloodlines. I suppose it’s fair enough, some of the crossbreed races presented by the book are freaky; especially those half-Beholders depicted on page 4. The freak factor isn’t anything to sing about though. I’m much more impressed by the book’s professional shine and player friendly vibe. Bastards & Bloodlines is concerned with those half-breed fantasy races that could be used as a PC or NPC race, it’s more of a handbook than it is a beastiary.

Okay, so it’s a crunchy book. There are lots of game rules for new half-bred races, a new type of magic and plenty of templates. Despite all the numbers and dice in the 112-pages the book is pleasant and easy to read. The introduction contains an intelligent discussion on the merits and flaws of having half-breeds in your campaign world. Most D&D games do run with half-breeds; half-orc and half-elf so why not half-goblinoids (halfling-goblin, for example) or half-ogre? There’s plenty of inspirational flavour in the Specific Half-Breed chapter too. Each half-bred race introduced by the book has an introduction which explains why or how the half-bred race came into being (divine magic, polymorph spell, sexual compatibility, etc), a nicely written description (which accompanies excellent artwork for each), plenty of information on the racial demeanor, typical backgrounds for members of the race and their role as adventurers. The stats include favoured class (often the first thing forgotten by third party publishers) and level adjustment notes for powerful half-breeds.

Bastards & Bloodlines is one of those books that invites you to flick through it, ogle at the artwork and then get sucked into the text. The illustrations are great; people will call the Lurker (half gnome, half cloaker) and mind ripper (half humanoid, half mind flayer) as freaky but I think they’re the good sort of freaky. No one will call the houri (half elf, half nymph), piper (half halfling, half satyr), or trixie (half gnome, half pixie) freaky though. If anything, there’s more eye candy than nightmare in the book. James Ryman and Julian Allen are artists I’ll remember. I already look out for the name Macbin on books (chiefly thanks to Spaceship Zero).

The Specific Half-Breed chapter is about half of the book. It finishes on page 63 and with the Wyrd (nice name ) As a half-elf half-ogre mage the Wyrd has an effective level of +6. That means a level one Wyrd is about equal to a level 7 "normal" character. Ouch. That’s really awkward for a GM to handle, effective levels really are cumbersome mechanic. The Wyrd isn’t even the highest EL in the book; the Fire Jovian (half-human, half-fire giant) boasts a mighty +7. There’s a couple of +0 EL half-breeds, a few +1 and little more +2s and certainly no -level EL breeds. One of the reasons your players will read the book and opine "Cool!" is because the characters are more powerful. The good news for the GM is that all these ELs are nicely summarised in tables at the back of the book along with other charts. The most important thing, in my mind, in the Specific Half-Breed chapter is that, again and again, I found myself thinking o O ("Yes, I can see that half-breed in play. I can use that.") That is true even with the more exotic and alien of the half-breeds. This is an important success. It’s a book you’re going to use.

In many ways Bastards and Bloodlines is a GM’s book more than it is a players’. The summary tables at the back and the high Effective Levels are just two symptoms of this. There’s no room for sample characters for each Specific Half-Breed in the book but there are sample characters for each of the crossbreed templates. The templates cater to the stranger of the half-breeds (differentiating between half-bred and crossbred, even). There’s the half-beholder, half-creature (biped), half-creature (quadruped), half-doppelganger, half-medusa, half-rakshasa, half-titan, half-vampire and even half-elemental. I scoffed at the half-elemental too and then read it. It’s more like a quarter-elemental. Some powerful (god-like being) infuses an elemental with something else to create a powerful hero or guardian – but that’s not the half-elemental, any kids that being might sire are the rarities known as half-elementals. In the case of many of these half-breeds the very nature of their half-breeding is likely to be a key plot device (an evil half-titan is twice as interesting because it’s a half-titan). For a GM to be able to quickly grab some stats (a half-titan minotaur in this case) from the book means she’ll be able to quickly grab a memorable NPC and still have room for fleshing out the details later.

The templates aren’t as good as the specific classes. I think that’s just because the specific classes are the cream of the crop, the most interesting combinations and then the templates work with one interesting parent and let you fill in the blank. The strength of the template is, of course, that it can be applied to any other creature you’ve got rules for.

Weakest still are the rules for half-breeds where the book doesn’t offer either a specific half-breed or template. The making your own half-breed chapter can be rather succinctly summarised as "use your best judgement." I totally agree, however (and as is my beef with books like Savage Species) I don’t want to pay for a product just to tell me that. Bastards and Bloodlines offers up some help, some guidance and then swiftly moves on. Buy the book for the specific half-breeds, the templates, the new magic rules, prestige classes and feats – but not for the making your own half-breed rules.

There are new feats and prestige classes in Bastards. These feats and prestige classes are undeniably best suited to half-breeds. It seems like every second review that I point out feats and prestige classes are ten a penny and every third review that I point out there’s this under catered to niche for which the book’s feats and prestige classes help support. This is true with Bastards and Bloodlines; there aren’t many half-breed styled prestige classes and these ones are good. I’m rather taken with the Spells of the Blood section in this last chapter though. The premise is simple; you have to have the right heritage to cast the spell. If you’re not (at least) half-nymph then you can’t cast this spell. Simple. A great GM tool to boot.

Bastards and Bloodlines is a rare thing. It’s a crunchy (game mechanic heavy) book than manages to inspire me with plot ideas. It’s a good-looking book and an easy book to use. Comparisons with Mongoose’s Encyclopaedia Arcane: Crossbreeding seem to be as inevitable as they are inappropriate. Apples and Oranges. EA: Crossbreeding is about wizard PCs putting together crossbred creatures, Bastards and Bloodlines is about playable character races.

* This Bastards & Bloodlines review was first published at GameWyrd.

The work of Owen K.C. Stephens isn't unknown on the net. Why, just over here, http://www.d20weekly.com/login/article.cgi?505 [sub req to D20 Weekly], we've got a sneak peak at some of the ideas and information that Bastards & Bloodlines brings to the table.

How does the actual book hold out in play though?

It gets off to a good start with some ideas on how and why to incorporate these new races into the campaign, as well as some ideas on how to model a new campaign based off the strangeness of the races presented here.

The majority of the book is dedicated to providing us with new half breed races. Each race starts off with name, parent races, size, common information, appearance, demeanor, background, adventurers, and ends with racial traits. Most of these headings are self explanatory. Adventurers provides a paragraph or two about how these characters might start their adventuring career and how they fit into a regular party.

The racial traits include the stat modifications, size, base speed, special abilities, favored class, and level adjustment. Special abilities are fairly standard in most casses like racial bonuses to skill checks or minor spell like abilities as a free action.

For the lower level creatures, those that only have an ECL of +1 to +3, the balance seems pretty on target. A Watcher, a creature crafted from the soul of a dwarf and a bonding to a gargoyle without a spirit, for example, is an ECL of +2 so it starts off as 1 level of whatever class it has and two levels of its race.

The breakdown happens at higher levels. Because all of the races here are 1 HD races, unlike Ogres, Trolls, and Bugbears who get bonus hit points, feats, and skill points, the creatures are perhaps a little too easy to kill. Take the Jovians. These half breeds are part giant and part human with massive strength bonuses (ranging from +10 to +14 depending on parent), but because they have no bonus hit dice, and their Con bonuses are no where near their strength bonuses, they'll usually die in one hit if facing something of equal level, which ranges from +5 to +7, meaning that they'll start first level as 6th to 8th level characters.

Game Masters might want to add some base hit points and abilities to these creatures. I tend to agree with the Monster's Handbook by Fantasy Flight Games when it states, “To keep a creature balance, you should almost always grant it additional HD as its CR increases.”

Another strange factor is that the races have no CR adjustments. Not necessarily a bad thing, but when the author does templates like half-titans, they get a CR rating and a Level Adjustment. Rarely is this number the same. In this example, the half-titan is +5 CR and +8 Level Adjustment. Big difference in the experience awarded for killing the creature and for one trying to gain levels.

The book doesn't just focus on templates and races though. We also get ideas on how to make our own half breeds with advice on advancing challenge ratings and level adjustment factors, as well how how to determine if a race is suitable for players.

Those looking for more mechanical crunch will enjoy the bloodline feats. Most often these act to augment part of a being's natural arsenal like bite or claws or to grant the character the abilities of one of his parent races like Elven Senses.

Those looking for prestige classes to truly make their characters different have more options here. The Autarkic is a survivor with abilities geared towards avoiding being hit and the hit points to survive being hit. The Brood Sorcerer blend their heritage towards new abilities in the field of magic and get brood powers every other level. These abilities function as metamagic feats. The Brood Champion, a leader whose abilities with her natural heritage makes them dangerous combatants are the opposite of the Changeling who seeks strength in having numerous forms.

While the section on spells and magic items isn't vast, it does provide new options. The Blood Spells require the caster to have a specific ability or heritage and add a nice touch to the game without being overbalanced. The weapon properties include Angered, an orc property, that provides a bonus to strength and constitution when in a barbarian rage to Strafing, a halfling property that allows the thrown weapon to utilize the full attack action.

Editing is good as is the use of white space. Layout is standard two-column. What makes the book are the visuals. James Ryman, Toren Atkinson and Julian Allen don't provide a single bad or even 'okay' piece of work. All illustrations are top notch and worthy of breaking out to players and saying, “You see this.”

Some of the material may require playtesting before final approval is given as each group's dynamics may vary and GMs may want to reference Mongoose Publishing's Crossbreeds and Fantasy Flight Games Monsters Handbook for further options. Those looking for new options that weren't satisfied by the Book of Templates should definitely consider this book in their quest.

This is not a playtest review.

Bastards & Bloodlines is a sourcebook on half-breeds, for Green Ronin Publishing's 'Races of Renown' series.

Bastards & Bloodlines is a 112-page mono softcover product costing $19.95. Font and margins are fairly standard, though the font used for titles and subtitles takes the equivalent of two or three standard lines. There is little wasted space (one ad at the back). As the back cover proclaims, the art is very evocative, and the various half-breeds are all illustrated alongside the text sections. The writing style is engaging, and the editing generally sound.

Chapter One: Halfbreeds In Your Campaign
This chapter looks at the logistics behind the existence of more half-breeds than just half-orcs and half-elves. Further discussion looks at the role of the half-breed in society and offers a dozen or so roleplaying archetypes (e.g. brooder, lone wolf, survivor, etc.) to back this up. Unlike Mongoose's archetypes, these have no game-related advantages or disadvantages.

Chapter Two: Specific Half-Breeds
This chapter offers twenty-eight specific half-breeds and includes information on appearance, demeanour, background, suggestions for why these half-breeds might be found adventuring, and game rules for racial traits (including favoured class and level adjustment). All of them are based on at least one humanoid parent. A set of tables at the beginning of the chapter summarises ECL, Ability adjustments, parents' races, lifespans, and height and weight. Examples include the Alicorn (elf/unicorn), Blinkling (blink dog/halfling - yes, the rumours are true!), Grendle (dwarf/troll), Lurker (cloaker/gnome), and Green Folk (human/lizardfolk).

Chapter Three: Making More Crossbreeds
Most of this chapter uses templates to create such crossbreeds as half-beholders, half-doppelgangers, half-vampires, and half-elementals. These are presented in standard monster template format along with examples such as the half-beholder hill giant, half-doppelganger lizardfolk, half-vampire human Rog3/Ftr3, and half-water elemental nymph. The remainder of the chapter gives advice on designing your own half-breeds, discussing the differences in outcome between using the template system (as this book does) or an averaging of stats (which Mongoose's 'Crossbreeding' product does). The advice mainly centres on template design with a few generalised paragraphs on melding creature's stats.

Chapter Four: Using The Blood
This chapter begins with a range of bloodline feats - feats that are usually taken at 1st level and are only available to certain races. For example, the Elven Senses feat is only available to those with some elven blood running through their veins and already have a racial bonus to Listen, Search and Spot checks. The feat increases the bonuses to +2 (max.) and adds the elf's ability to spot secret doors into the deal. There are also a number of general feats that are available to any race but give benefits related to a racial ability or quality.

Four 10-level prestige classes are presented available to half-breeds only:
* Autarkic - sly survivors with a set of class abilities designed to aid survival in combat and harsh environments.
* Brood Sorcerer - these sorcerers claim monstrous magic as their heritage and gain class abilities commensurate with their heritage such as channeling spells through innate abilities such as a gaze attack, breath weapon or touch attack. They also gain school specialisation.
* Brood Champion - the fighting version of the brood sorcerer, the brood champion uses the natural weapons and senses of his monstrous forebears.
* Changeling - variety of shapeshifting abilities capture this PrC's focus on spying and infiltration.

Fifteen new spells are also provided which require certain racial blood to be flowing through one's veins to be able to cast. Examples include harden steel (spell granting a +2 enhancement bonus to armour, must have dwarven blood) and wrath of our fathers, a touch spell that sends the creature touched into a barbarian rage (requires orc blood). Magic items with similar restrictions are offered such as the dwarven stonecutting weapon, and the gnomish ioun gem that holds ioun stones inconspicuously but still allows them to function.

The book ends with a summary of the tables from the book and an index.

The High Points:
This product really opens up the possibilities for playing half-breed PCs or creating half-breed NPCs. Mixing standard PC races and 'savage' species provides a proliferation of choice for GMs and players who like to play something a little different. The feats, spells and magic items specifically designed for half-breeds expand these possibilities further by allowing a player to revel in his choice rather than regret it.

The Low Points:
As the author decided to use the template system or otherwise create half-breed creatures, and despite the explanation of logic at the beginning of the product, I sometimes found my suspension of disbelief crashing to the ground as I tried to imagine the processes of crossbreeding between two very different species. Whilst some of the mixes seemed reasonable, others seemed to stretch the imagination to breaking point. Maybe my imagination is lacking (or maybe I just don't want to go there), but sex between a treant and an elf, a beholder and a hill giant, etc. is intimated in the descriptions and it just doesn't fit with my concept of racial interbreeding - it suffers from often using sex as a basis for crossbreeding rather than magical transmutation. But, horses for corsairs, and all that - others may find it fine. In addition, the section on creating your own half-breeds came over weaker than the actual examples given. Unlike Mongoose's 'Crossbreeding', the rules given here are more nebulous and less helpful, leaving a lot to the GM's judgement.

Conclusion:
'Bastards & Bloodlines', as might be expected, is more player friendly than Mongoose's 'Crossbreeding' with lots of choice, ideas and rules for players wanting to run PCs of unusual mixed races. Like 'Crossbreeding', it gives some unusual and interesting NPCs for a GM to play with. Unlike 'Crossbreeding', it suffers from somewhat nebulous rules for mixed race creature creation and a shaky basis for its explanation of mixed race creation for some of the more unusual creatures. The back cover proclaims "Are you ready to get freaky?" If you are, this book is worth picking up.

*Note: We have two staff reviews of this product.

By Brad Mix, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
This review is for the 112-page Bastards & Bloodlines: A Guidebook to Half-breeds written by Owen K.C. Stephens. It is published by Green Ronin Publishing and retails for $19.95.

First Blood
I have never really thought about half-breeds other than the half orc and half elf, except to wonder why there were no half halfings. It stands to reason that almost any two races could be combined to create half-breeds. This book goes a long way to provide some very interesting and useful examples of these new genetic wonders.

Chapter one starts off with information of how to introduce more crossbreeds into a campaign. Deciding on how much interbreeding should be allowed sets the tone for the campaign world. In a world where half beholds are common, this would have to allow all kinds of other creatures as well. Limiting the more obscure half-breeds seems to fit most campaign worlds.

Half-breed archetypes are also introduced. These are a start to give the player some ideas on how to run a character that usually does not feel at home with either parent race. The Drooder hates people and really just wants to be left alone. The Builder has problems with his unusual shape and decides to start making items or building for himself. The Explorer thinks the world is full of stranger things other than the character, we hope, and he decides to go look for them. The Gentle Giant is usually good-natured but don’t get him angry, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Gruff Faker decides not to show his feelings. The Heart of Hate believes that everyone must pay for his condition. The Hunter lives for the hunt. Everything he does revolves around hunting. Killer has the need to kill bred into him. The feral blood is stronger than his will. The Lone Wolf feels more at home being alone than in a crowd. Simpering Cur is the only worried about survival and not getting anyone mad at him. The Survivor has survived life’s difficulties, barely. Plus you have the scars to prove it. The Warlord leads and others follow. There is no problem that can’t be solved with enough soldiers. The Wide-eyed Innocent is new and can’t understand why everyone wants to sell him swampland and bridges. These are meant to give a little bit of a different personality to each character.

Chapter two gets into specific half-breeds. Each one has information about its appearance, demeanor, background, adventures, and racial traits. More on the specific breeds is covered in Critical Hits.

Templates are also included and can be added to almost any race. One of the most interesting is the half titan. This template was added to a minotaur and the picture is really great. A sample of what this new creature’s stats are, is written in text block form and any special modifiers are also listed. The half vampire, half elemental, are also included.

Information on making your own half-breeds and templates is included. Size, type speed, AC, attacks, damage special attacks, and abilities are discussed in detail. The pro’s and con’s of making any new half-breed a PC is discussed.

Bloodline Feats are only available to descendents of a particular race. Like Elven Senses adds +2 to Listen, Search and Spot checks. If the racial ability is all ready +2 then it does not get any higher. Several more like Claws, Mystic Legacy, Prodigy, Scent and Surefooted are included.

The appendix includes several tables that offer the information at a glance. Ability adjustments, Life spans, average height and weight, and new feats. The index gives the page number for each new half-breed.

Critical Hits
There are some great and unusual half-breeds listed. The Elf/Eagle drawn to the sky and has wings to get there. The Blinkling is a blink dog/halfling. Quite unusual but a great protector. The gnome/umber hulk is a one man digging machine. The decataur a centaur elf. A nice twist on the standard centaur. The dwarf/troll is kind of disturbing to think about. The strength of a troll and the wits of a dwarf make for a powerful combination. The Mind Ripper is half humanoid and half mind flayer. The dwarf/gargoyle is truly an imposing figure. While the wings do not allow for true flight great leaps and glides can be accomplished. The Wendigo is a cross between dwarf and winter wolf. Twenty more crossbreeds are also detailed.

Critical Misses
This book is a power gamer's dream. Not there is anything wrong with power gaming, but if that is not your style of play, then be warned about this book. The first thing I noticed is that the best of each race is included. Only a few negatives are listed, usually –2 str for the smaller races. I am reminded of a story I heard about Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein. Supposedly the two were talking and Marilyn wished that they two of them could have a child together. With his brains and her looks it would be a true prodigy. Einstein countered that maybe the child could have his looks and her brains. Not a very happy thought. This book takes Marilyn’s approach to genetics.

Take the Alicorn for example. It is an elf/unicorn. The alicorn gains +2 str, +4 dex, +4 con, +4 wis, +6 cha. That’s + 20 to the stats. Then it gains: +2 to natural armor class, low light vision 60’, +1 to spot, search and listen checks, Gains a slam attack for 1d6 damage, Detect evil as a free action, A spell caster of any class can sacrifice a spell of 1st level or higher to cast cure light wounds, and gains a +4 bonus to all saves against poisons and enchantment spells or abilities. The level adjustment is +5. Preferred class is Paladin. A first level character would have an ECL of 6. This presents some serious balance issues. Assigning a high level adjustment does not make up for the super character this will create. The highest level adjustment in the book is 7.

Then if we combine this with the new prestige class Autarkic then we have an uber character. The Autarkic is the master of self-reliance. Here is what he gets. Uncanny dodge at first level. Starting at first level and every other level there after the autarkic can pick a survival trait. These traits are: Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, Heal Self, Immunity and Regeneration. Then at second level the character gains Evasion. 4th level grants the Will to Live. This little ability allows the character to avoid death by desire alone. The character automatically stabilizes when bleeding to death, gains a +3 on all Fort checks against death effects, and doesn’t die until he is brought down to negative hit points equal to his con score. At 6th level Improved Evasion is gained. At 8th level Defensive roll is added. This ability allows the character to roll with a melee attack and only take half damage. This can only be used once per day and only if the total damage would bring him below 0 hit points. And last but not least is the Spell Resistance. This bonus is 10+autarkic level+con modifier. This could easily result in a 25 spell resistance for the character. The other prestige classes aren’t as overbalanced as this one but are fairly powerful.

Coup de Grace
Overall the ideas and unusual class combinations make for some great roleplaying encounters. There use as PC’s could quickly overbalance any standard party though. The artwork is outstanding through out most of the book. The titan/minotaur picture is awesome. You really get a sense for the creature. The book is well laid out with only a few descriptions flowing into the next page.

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By Bruce Boughner, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
Bastards & Bloodlines: A Guidebook to Half-Breeds is a 111-page soft-cover accessory published by Green Ronin for their Races of Renown series. The author is Owen K.C. Stevens. The cover is done by James Ryman and shows a drow/illithid cross battling a troop of Dwarf/Gargoyle with a fireball and it is available for $19.95.

First Blood
While part of the Races of Renown series, Bastards & Bloodlines: A Guidebook to Half-Breeds is NOT a part of the OGL Interlink with Paradigm Concepts' Races of Legends series. On a recent Mortality.net program, I interviewed Chris Pramas, editor of Green Ronin Publishing about this and he stated that they wanted to pursue other ideas that don’t always fit the OGL Interlink pattern and made sure to mention the next of the series, Fang & Fury: A Guidebook to Vampires would fit that format with Paradigm Concepts doing the opposite number with Lycanthropes.

Owen K.C. Stevens attended a TSR Writer’s Workshop in 1997 and sometime later had his first work published in Dragon magazine #250. He moved his family to Seattle along with the game when absorbed by Wizards of the Coast. He worked on several projects including Star Wars and the Wheel of Time role-playing Game. He returned to his home in Oklahoma and resumed freelance work where he worked on several d20 products including the Everquest Role-playing Game from White Wolf.

I am amazed at this series, it takes a very simple subject and throws enough plot hooks at you to keep you busy for years. Dwarves, Illithids and Drow have graced this series by Green Ronin Publishing in the past and each successive book brings so much to recommend it. New feats, new monsters, new prestige classes and most importantly, learning to think outside of conventional D&D methods and into some of the most interesting ideas to come down the pike in years.

There are only four chapters in this book, a brief introduction challenges Dms and players to thinks outside the norm, in a world where polymorph spells, shapeshifters and divine intervention are commonplace, where unconventional combinations of Centaurs, Chimeras, Griffons, Harpies and Hippogriffs occur as part of common game play, why could these combinations also not exist?

Chapter one opens with a drawing of a pair of giant-beholder crossbreeds annihilating a party of adventurers. The text then delves into how to introduce these wild combinations into your campaign. Some of these ideas are common sense things. One example give is introducing a Half-Troll population into areas already well known to your players is probably not a good idea for continuity. Moving your players into new areas (always a good idea) would solve your problem better. Many of the feats in the book can be used by the standard half-breeds; half-elves and half-orcs and much of the material can be used to flesh out existing PC’s ancestry giving them obscure ancestral blood many generations removed. This can drive future stories at the same time as you introduce the new material of this book. Where do half-breeds come from leads off the next section, going on to expound on the fecund nature of humans. Readers of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony knows all it takes are 2 creatures and a love potion to make half-breeds. Various ideas for using half-breeds follow, backgrounds, in society, as a family or a post-apocalyptic scenario before moving on to arch-types. Brooders, hunters, killers or wide-eyed innocent, half-breeds are every bit the same as any other race for motivations.

Chapter two deals in the breeds them selves, 28 of them in fact. The chapter leads off with how the entries are laid out, name, appearance, demeanor, background, adventurers and racial traits, then moves on to languages before giving a page and a half of half-breed charts. Starting with an Elf/Giant Eagle mix called the Aellar, the chapter explores some expected and unexpected crossbreeds. Alicorns, Elf/Unicorns, mix with Blinklings, Halfling/Blink Dogs and Burrowers (take that Dexter!) Gnome/ Umber Hulk mixes. These classes are fully realized, such as the Burrower’s religious fervor or the Grendle’s, Human or Dwarf/Troll, serious need for self-sufficiency. Each breed demonstrates a niche that makes you go, Hmmm, what if?

Chapter three shows you how to make even more crossbreeds. This is done via the template system. Examples are given to show this process in action such as a Half-Beholder, Half-Creature (biped and quadruped) and Half-Medusa for starters for a total of 9 different templates (more if you break down the Half-Elementals) before launching into rules for the DM to create their own templates.

The last chapter deals in using the half-bloods, in other words, Feats. There are some that could be considered predictable, Claws, Bite and Rake for example but many are unique to the crossbreed, such as Mystic Legacy, Prodigy and Focus Bloodright. Then the chapter adds four new Prestige classes all themed to the bloodline of a crossbreed. Autarkic and Brood Champion are samples of these classes. Crossbreed spells and magic items round out the chapter. The book ends with three pages of charts for the system.

Critical Hits
Great art, great subject matter, crunchy bits, these are becoming a cornerstone of a Green Ronin product and something I come to expect from them. They have come a long way from the Madness at Freeport modules and continue to improve their quality standards. Bastards & Bloodlines: A Guidebook to Half-Breeds shows how far they have come, this could have been a schlock book of slapped together crap and instead it was intelligently presented with some logic to the pairings.

Critical Misses
It is hard to find a reason to knock this book. Granted there are already enough monsters, races, feats, spells and Prestige classes then an average person will ever use, but the quality made this stand out in a crowd of Bestiary and Class books.

Coup de Grace
When I was raving about Hammer and Helm, I didn’t think they would be able to top it but they have and did and continue to do so. I find myself looking forward more and more to each new Green Ronin product each month. Bastards & Bloodlines: A Guidebook to Half-Breeds is a must have for any serious DM’s library.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

Bastards and Bloodlines

Bastards and Bloodlines is a rules supplement in Green Ronin's Races of Reknown line detailing options for character races. Bastards and Bloodlines approaches the rather broad topic of half-breeds between different races.

Bastards and Bloodlines is written by Owen K.C. Stephens, contributor to the Star Wars RPG and Everquest RPG, and oft-times columnist is various RPG magazines and websites.

A First Look

Bastards & Bloodlines is a 112-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $19.95. This price is about average for a d20 product of this size and format.

The cover of the book is illustrated by James Ryan. The cover depicts two of the book's unusual races (the half-mind flayer mind ripper and the dwarf/gargoyle crossbreed called the watcher) locked in mortal combat.

The interior is black-and-white. Interior artists include James Ryman, Toren "Macbin" Atkinson, and Julian Allen. The art is generally decent, and all three authors seem to have a talent with detailed pencil sketches. I think I appreciated Ryman's pieces the best, particularly his full page picture of a half-elf/half-naga Sthein in combat with three warriors.

The interior body text uses a conservatively sized font, though the paragraphs are double spaced and there is a larger leader space than I am used to from Green Ronin. The header text is stylish is readable.

A Deeper Look

Bastards and Bloodlines is organized into four chapters.

The first chapter is entitled Half-Breeds in Your Campaign, and it discusses the topic rather generally, outlining a few ideas and principles for how a DM might approach the topic of racial crossbreeds.

Stephens outlines two major options for handling half-breeds in the campaign. The first is the idea that humans are a rather fecund race and that certain racial combinations are possible. The other major option is a rather more "anything goes" approach, where any two races might be able to interbreed in the right circumstances.

This started the book off on a sour note to me, as this seemed to appeal to the most simplistic sort of handwaving that occurs in the game and ignores some more compelling possibilities that try to better justify why such creatures exist and add deeper campaign implications. For example, what about the classic plot of a wizardly empire that used magical techniques to create soldiers for their armies, and leaving such races behind as a legacy? What about magical accidents, or divine creations?

The text alludes to some of these sorts of possibilities and ad hoc examples of this sort exist in the races chapter, but it seems a major omission to me to not include these sorts of justifications in the general discussion of integrating halfbreeds into the campaign.

The chapter also includes ideas for campaigns that are mostly or exclusively halfbreed characters, and a number of "half-breed archetypes" that you can use as baselines for the personalities of half-breed PCs or NPCs. More in line with the level of imagination and thoroughness I expect from Stephens, these descriptions include some good ideas.

The second chapter is the largest, taking up almost half of the book. The chapter is a collection of various specific half-breed races, written up in PHB-style. Each description is complete with possible origins of such races, appearance, demeanor, background, and game mechanics.

The game mechanics appear solid and complete, with level adjustments for powerful races. The only thing I question in the mechanical implementation is that the races with higher level modifiers don't have any starting "monster" hit dice, skills, or feats. This will make these more powerful creatures difficult to play, as they will be easily taken out of the fight for campaigns appropriate to their minimum starting level.

The choices for half-breeds vary from the reasonable (half-elf/half-nymph or half-halfling/half-harpy) to the bizarre (half-elf/half-giant eagle or half-dwarf/half-roper). Stephens gives these halfbreeds their own racial names. For example, the half-halfling/half-harpies are called "kestrels." In some cases, the chosen names are those of common fantasy concepts and might overlap with those of creatures that appear elsewhere.

If chapter three's approach was fundamentally similar to the PHB, chapter four is a bit more like the MM. Chapter four, Making More Crossbreeds has some specific halfbreed templates (half-beholder, half-medusa, half-rakshasa, half-doppleganger, half-titan, half-elemental) as well as two general halfbreed templates in the same vein as Tome of Horror's abomination and Monster Manual II's tauric creature template. There is a half-creature (biped) template and a half-creature (quadruped) template, each of which use two creatures to create the final result.

The chapter also has a few pages of sensible advice on making your own half-breed creatures from scratch, including the how's and why's of mechanical sticky points like odd attribute modifiers, racial abilities, and CRs, and possible approaches to handling these issues.

The final chapter, Using the Blood, has the type of content you typically see in other race-oriented books: character options like feats, prestige classes, spells, and magic items.

There is a good degree of variety in the feats, but most fall into two categories. Many feats allow a half-breed to exploit their ancestry to obtain a racial ability (such as skill or combat bonuses) normally restricted to full-blood members of a race. Most of the remaining feats allow a character enhance their existing racial abilities, such as spell-like abilities.

There are four prestige classes in the book, all only available to half-breed characters:
-Autarkic: The autarkic is a hardened survivor. All of the autarkic's class abilities are defensive in nature, and the class has all good saves (like a monk.) Some autarkic class abilities are survival traits which can be selected from a list. One survival trait concerns me, the damage reduction. This ability grants DR equal to one half the character's base fortitude sav; unless this is limited to the fortitude save from the class only, it seems entirely too powerful to me.
-Brood Sorcerer: Brood sorcerers are sorcerers that draw power from the nature of their bloodline (such as dragon blood). The brood sorcerer progresses at 2/3 the normal rate as a spellcaster, but has better HP and a number of magic-related class abilities.
-Brood Champion: The brood champion is a warrior who develops a fighting style around their more bestial aspect. As the brood champion advances, they gain bestial characteristics like improvements to natural weaponry and damage reduction. They also gain feats at the same rate as a fighter, but only have moderate BAB advancement.
-Changeling: The changeling is a class reserved for characters with innate shapechange abilities. The class abilities provide benefits when using such racial abilities, such as additional uses or circumstantial modifiers.

The magic items and spells revolve around racial abilities. The spells are called blood spells, and each spell requires the caster to have the blood of a certain type of creature. For example, the spell elemental immunity is a dragon-blood spell, and can only be cast by characters with draconic blood.

Finally, the book has an appendix collecting pertinent details about the races and feats in the book.

Conclusion

I have mixed feeling about this book. Most of the mechanics are solid, and I found many of the ideas compelling. At the same time, I felt that a lot of the more compelling explanations for halfbreeds in a campaign were ignored, and many of the halfbreed races were too bizarre for general use.

I think that if you pick up this book knowing how you want to use it already, are tolerant (or desire) really strange races, and/or are comfortable with simpler "handwaving" explanations of crossbreeding, that you should be fairly satisfied with the content of this book. However, if you are like me, you may that you will only be salvaging a few ideas from the book.

Overall score: C+

-Alan D. Kohler

Psion Wrote: "The only thing I question in the mechanical implementation is that the races with higher level modifiers don't have any starting "monster" hit dice, skills, or feats."
I noticed this as well. I also have a character that is going to start playing a Wyrd (although we decided that the alternate Deimos sounded much better) and I am not quite sure how to handle this. Any suggestions?

Correction: I have a Player that is going to start playing a Wyrd... (As an aside, is there any way we can edit our comments after posting them?)

I usually enjoy your reviews, but feel you are way off base on this one. Bastards & Bloodlines is one of the most interesting and well-executed d20 books I've read of late. I'm surprised that someone of your experience would bemoan the lack of hand-holding. Any GM worth his salt could integrate anything in this book into his campaign with five minutes of thought. What the average GM can't do is design as mechanically solid a book as Mr.Stephens and that's where Bastards & Bloodlines delivers. It offers players and GMs a ton of new options, and not the type of thing you see from most d20 companies. How many reviewers complained that FFG's Mythic Races book was too bland? This is the antitode.

VecnaJR,

As always, please read my last section. I don't pretend to make my readers subscribe to the same weighting criteria I have and I think I have spelled out pretty clearly who this book should appeal to, and apparently you are one of them. I do find it annoying, however, that you presume to tell ME that MY weighting criteria are wrong and I am not entitled to them.

I personally cannot find the books handwaving approach to crossbreeding as anything less than jarring. It's doubly disapointing because in d20 Weekly, I have really come to appreciate his work and know he can do better.