Strange Tribes, Lost Tribes of the Scarred Lands
Strange Lands, Lost Tribes of the Scarred Lands, is the last book in the Scarred Lands setting. Clocking in at 288 black and white pages for $34.99, this book focuses on the remaining continents of the Scarred Lands, Asherak, Fenriilik and the Dragon Lands.
From a role-playing prospective, it fails. Much of the book is concerned with the game mechanics of those lands and a large section of it, almost one third, is devoted to new monsters, plus an appendix that covers new game mechanics including details for avatars and PrCs that didn’t fit into the other regions.
It’s almost like this book is a combination of Relics & Rituals III and Creature Collection IV with a few campaign notes added in for extra measure. How about an example? Well, the book starts with Asherak and not counting the map or the page and a half of handwritten details, it’s just fewer than eighteen pages. Now that doesn’t count the new race, the Wrack Elves or the Ubantu, it doesn’t count the prestige classes like the Acolyte of the Shell, a survivor of the harsh wastelands of Asherak or the Adept of the Rent Shield, spellcasters who worship Vangal and gain access to the Destruction Domain or the Avatar of Chaos, divine spellcasters who worship Enkili, or members of the Unseen Eye, clergy that operate as hidden police of the feats of the land, nor all of chapter two, magic of the wasteland, which includes new equipment magic items, spells, and rituals.
The point being is that there are 18 pages of background with perhaps twice as much in terms of game mechanics, do not make for a detailed campaign setting in brand new territories. Now the game mechanics aren’t all details, and some do refer to campaign elements but for the most part, I see no reason why things like Bound Weapons, weapons where outsiders have been fused into a weapon, would only be native to Asherak or why feats like Primal Might, where the druid calls upon the power of Scarn itself to augment their Strength and/or Constitution scores, wouldn’t be applicable for other areas of the setting.
The short view of these lands is as follows. Asherak is highly religious with several gods unknown elsewhere, but is a wasteland. Long ago some terrible event almost destroyed the lands. The Land of the Wyrms has lots of dragons and the humanoid societies are given broad strokes of Samurai culture. Fenrilik, the least of these lands with some odd five pages of background, is a frozen wasteland. Ironically enough, I feel that due to products like Frost & Fur by Monkeygod and Frostburn by Wizards of the Coast, it’s probably the easiest to expand and the quickest to take advantage of some potentially unused game mechanics.
So what about the monsters? Well, one failure is that there’s no master list of creatures so you can’t quickly see what the CR ranges are or what page number something is on. The artwork varies tremendously. Some of it by RJT is top notch and is joined by fan favorites like Eric Lofgren and another artist, whose name I can’t read, but who adds power to illustrations like the Canopy Drake, Ashwyrm, and the Undying Prince Suuvarros. Others though, I can’t imagine someone going, “Yeah, that’s good, go with it.” For example, the King’s Hound on page 155. Man, someone put that dog out of it’s misery eh? Or the nebulous Wind Demon that looks like a fifth grader quickly sketched it.
Overall, the monsters have some good details and descriptions to them. Several unique creatures are included like Gommog, a unique giant-dragon who clocks in at CR of 15. He has a bad that he throws his victims into and then smashes the bag. Others like the Demon Prince Suvarros aren’t quite as cool as their official counter parts like Orcus, but do a nice job of filling up those upper levels of villain. Strangely, one of the more interesting monsters, the Dustrack Dragon, has no name of his own despite being the last of his kind.
Monsters are broken up by region and generally stay one to a page although there are exceptions. Monsters include all 3.5 stats like base attack and grapple, along with full attack and movement in numbers and number of squares.
After the monsters, we get “Gathered Lore” some near sixty pages of new rules. These rules for enhancing a familiar with feats, similar to how Kenzer has done it, and then moves onto spells for familiar such as Shield Familiar, a 3rd level Wizard spell that makes the familiar immune to damage from the character’s own spells, so you never have to worry about lightning bolting your own familiar to Familiar Teleportwhere the caster may teleport to his familiar’s side or have the familiar teleport to the caster.
New artifacts are included along with Scarred Lands Avatars. Both have some interesting uses, but for some, the idea of avatars that differ from the original source, like how Ne Morga now has several different faces like Kadeshu, Otossal and others, to the returned Jandaveos.
A few other monsters are included here, which is okay, but a little odd, as they could’ve probably fit elsewhere. The book closes out with three new PrCs. The Prodigalist, an arcane spellcaster who masters his bonds with his familiar, the Shadow Walker, a spellcaster of Drendari, the goddess of shadows, that masters stealth and continues spellcasting at a reduced pace, and the Zathiskan Binder, a spellcaster who binds Genies.
The book can be looked at in two ways. One, if you are a loyal Scarred Lands fan and were expecting to see at least 32 pages of clear background material not tied to any game mechanics with a solid map of the world and some sample city maps, you’re going to be crushed. For me, since my SL campaign has died off, the game mechanics in this book will quickly make it into my own campaign. The new monsters have a wide range of CRs. Some of the new magic items are easy to insert into similar themed settings. The spells work well with casters of all types.
Reviewer’s Note: Here’s a breakdown of creatures by name, cr, and page reference.
Name CR Page
Dragoneet 1 185
Wollahog 1 225
Piradun 1 263
Dragon Lice 2 177
Golem, Bamboo 2 188
Sand Serpent 2 161
Spitter Newt 2 197
Ashworm 3 171
Cactus Imp 3 131
Dreamthief 3 149
Frost Maiden 3 206
Frost Moth 3 207
Laughing Drake 3 192
Rock Burbear 3 266
Dire Camel 4 145
Glaciad 4 212
Razor Eel 4 195
Shimmer Snake 4 220
Sprite, Iccree 4 213
Ghoul Ooze 5 186
Kelklic Sand Beetle 5 154
Swarm, Godfly 5 165
Wisp Drake 5 201
Blood Gardener 6 202
Boneweed 6 173
Daemon, Beguiling Merchant 6 133
Demon, Oculus 6 138
Devil Ray 6 175
Fossil Ghoul 6 151
King’s Hound 6 155
Mountain Nautilus 6 194
Storm Harvester 6 198
Void Wight 6 169
Darkmoon Slayer 7 135
Ice Warden 7 216
Panacea Spirit 7 159
Rekirrac 7 218
Skerrai 7 221
Swarm, Drought Beetle 7 164
Winter Wraith 7 224
Canopy Drake 8 174
Serpent Spy 8 196
Stealer of Children 8 162
Glass Scorpion 9 152
Daemon, Eyethief 11 134
Garamond 11 209
Rime Witch 11 219
Swarm, Voracious Fang 11 166
Devil, Academician 12 141
Drowning Hole 12 150
Fell Deer 12 205
Babroline 12 208
Sand Eagle 12 160
Gelidiceph 13 211
Snowstorm Elemental 13 223
Swarm, Wind Demon 13 167
Unholy Chorus 13 168
Avion 14 172
Brince Dragon 14 179
Demon, Bellowing 14 137
Dragavial 14 176
Dragon, Fireglare 14 181
Giant, Ophidic 14 187
Gommog 15 191
Ice Phoenix 15 214
Na’Heem Sample 15 157
Devil, Diabolic Enforcer 16 143
Dragon Snake 17 178
Divine Envoy 18 146
Dragon, Dustwrack 18 147
Golem, Mountain 18 189
Gorjada 19 153
Valuga 19 199
Crawling Glacier 23 204
Demon, Suvarros 24 139
Nether Dragon 26 183
Templates
Rock Goblin +1 266
Nether Dragon +2 184
Na’heem +4 157
Aquan Creatures V 268
Auran V 269
Exemplar V 270
Ignan V 271
Pandemoniac V 272
Terran V 273
