So I have got back from my FLGS with Gloomwrought in tow. I must admit it wasn't an easy purchase, as I was most disappointed with Heroes of Shadow and there was the new version of Betrayal at the Haunted House. After careful consideration, DnD won out but it was a very tough decision. In any event, I have had a good look through and opened the box (obviously). I haven't read much of the fluff yet, but I am reading the monsters and once again as always: I am impressed.
I don't know what it is with Wizards, but their monsters never fail to disappoint and I noticed in the encounters book numerous "silent" updates to older monsters. The Oblivion Wraith for example gets some damage increases, some powers changed but sadly not the new insubstantial quality that others have (Taking full damage from force and radiant negating the insubstantial until SoNT). It was immensely pleasing to read through the encounters book and see that where they used older monsters, they got updates to be in line with MM3+ creatures. Well done here to them! This is something that really aggravated me about Tomb of Horrors, where some older monsters were used but not really updated to be in line with current mechanics.
In terms of monsters there are so many good ones I don't know where to begin! There are some interesting general trends that I want to talk about though: Crit ranges. Pre-MM3 I think there were a handful of monsters with expanded crit ranges in 4th edition. Here? They are coming out of the walls and some of them are pretty mechanically interesting. A good example is the Berserker who gains a whopping 18-20 critical range whenever he has temporary HP. He'll be hilarious to slap on a vampire like template and then get a way to generate some temp HP. Or demon him up and then replace variable resistance with the power that lets them regenerate encounter powers (his close burst in particular). So many good options, born from solid A+ mechanics as all the monsters I've looked at seem terrific fun.
The thing that I love most? The Ebony Thurifer. This creature has one of the most amazing auras I've seen, restricting an enemy within it to only attacking during their own turn. This creature is a skirmisher who will be a fast friend to any defenders or out of turn attackers like the ranger I feel. Really creative looking monster as well - I must say that I'm really enjoying the art of the monsters as well.
I could go on more, but the mechanics are delightfully varied and interesting - something that paragon monsters (which 90% of them are) should have. There are very few creatures in this book I would describe as boring in any manner. Interestingly they get quite a bit of fluff each. I would say around 3 pages of fluff with 3-5 stat blocks or so each. I haven't actually read any of the fluff yet, but the mechanics are so good I could see myself using these monsters in lots of other contexts.
There are a lot of specifically named creatures in the book as well. They are very shadowy themed, but I can easily see using them in other contexts easily with some changing up of damage types. For example Veleris would make a solid template for a defiler in my Dark Sun game. Just need to give him an arcane defiler equivalent, or just add the defiling monster theme and I'm good to go (probably change him from Eladrin to an Elf as well to fit with DS more). There is a pretty interesting solo, who I anticipate is supposed to be more of an annoying hazard or obstacle than something the PCs have to fight.
Overall very solid, though I wish they had included more general undead monsters and similar threats like the golems (who are fantastic). The actual stuff in the box was pretty good as well. The book itself is actually a lot better than I was anticipating. It feels hefty and is quite sturdy. The encounters book is the usual flimsy affair, but it can be easily spread out to look at the encounters while running the game. Reading over the encounters they look well thought out and the skill challenges are decent as well. Pretty happy to see some older monsters get an update too, like the aforementioned Oblivion Wraith.
It comes with 2 "things" of tokens as well, although on the bloodied side the tokens all clearly write on them what they are. I found that kind of annoying actually, because often I don't want my PCs to know what they are fighting without knowledge checks (or similar). I don't remember if the MV tokens did this or not and they are currently in NZ (so I can't check, DOH), but it is quite irritating. The poster map for several of the encounters is one of those wonderful "generic" maps that will be useful in all kinds of contexts. It shows a dirty looking street and two floors of an inn. I am already going to use this as an area in Sigil. The other map of the entire city is pretty nice as well. I must say that I would have liked the encounter map and city map separate. So I don't have to keep unfurling and such the city map. Would be nice to put up somewhere or affix to some board for safe keeping. Oh well.
Finally the Despair Deck. Personally having a flick through the cards I still don't really see the point of this. It's cute yes, but it doesn't really excite me in any way and provides yet more things to keep track of (in a tier where you're starting to really ramp up the stuff to keep track of). While the cards are nice physical reminders, like fortune cards I don't see a point for them really. Some of the effects I feel are a bit brutal, but then again some of the positive effects are really good (like rerolling a natural 1 each encounter you have before an extended rest). In the end I am just not enthused with this and will probably just shelve it somewhere, who knows I could think of a use for it at some point.
Overall I'll have a sit down and proper read of it later, but my initial impressions are extremely positive. It was a lot better than I was expecting and particularly the excellent new array of antagonists added to the game. In what I have read of the fluff though, Gloomwrought REALLY reminds me of Sigil. It has weird dabus like fellows who roam around it reorganizing things, streets that twist into new directions and it gives me almost a "Victorian Era London by Night" vibe. It looks immensely prime for lots of different adventuring and intrigue though, so I am just wondering to myself what kind of campaigns I could run using it. Ultimately, that's the best sign of a successful product - when it gives me good ideas and direction on using it as a DM.
I give this product an A for any Dungeon Master. Unless you just hate the whole shadowfell fluff thing. Then, well there isn't anything I can say that won't make you not hate it!
Edit: Oh yeah, it comes with a neat bit of new design as well. Minion traps! I was quite impressed with the general idea here and it works out pretty logically. Plus stone tentacles are never a bad thing.
I don't know what it is with Wizards, but their monsters never fail to disappoint and I noticed in the encounters book numerous "silent" updates to older monsters. The Oblivion Wraith for example gets some damage increases, some powers changed but sadly not the new insubstantial quality that others have (Taking full damage from force and radiant negating the insubstantial until SoNT). It was immensely pleasing to read through the encounters book and see that where they used older monsters, they got updates to be in line with MM3+ creatures. Well done here to them! This is something that really aggravated me about Tomb of Horrors, where some older monsters were used but not really updated to be in line with current mechanics.
In terms of monsters there are so many good ones I don't know where to begin! There are some interesting general trends that I want to talk about though: Crit ranges. Pre-MM3 I think there were a handful of monsters with expanded crit ranges in 4th edition. Here? They are coming out of the walls and some of them are pretty mechanically interesting. A good example is the Berserker who gains a whopping 18-20 critical range whenever he has temporary HP. He'll be hilarious to slap on a vampire like template and then get a way to generate some temp HP. Or demon him up and then replace variable resistance with the power that lets them regenerate encounter powers (his close burst in particular). So many good options, born from solid A+ mechanics as all the monsters I've looked at seem terrific fun.
The thing that I love most? The Ebony Thurifer. This creature has one of the most amazing auras I've seen, restricting an enemy within it to only attacking during their own turn. This creature is a skirmisher who will be a fast friend to any defenders or out of turn attackers like the ranger I feel. Really creative looking monster as well - I must say that I'm really enjoying the art of the monsters as well.
I could go on more, but the mechanics are delightfully varied and interesting - something that paragon monsters (which 90% of them are) should have. There are very few creatures in this book I would describe as boring in any manner. Interestingly they get quite a bit of fluff each. I would say around 3 pages of fluff with 3-5 stat blocks or so each. I haven't actually read any of the fluff yet, but the mechanics are so good I could see myself using these monsters in lots of other contexts.
There are a lot of specifically named creatures in the book as well. They are very shadowy themed, but I can easily see using them in other contexts easily with some changing up of damage types. For example Veleris would make a solid template for a defiler in my Dark Sun game. Just need to give him an arcane defiler equivalent, or just add the defiling monster theme and I'm good to go (probably change him from Eladrin to an Elf as well to fit with DS more). There is a pretty interesting solo, who I anticipate is supposed to be more of an annoying hazard or obstacle than something the PCs have to fight.
Overall very solid, though I wish they had included more general undead monsters and similar threats like the golems (who are fantastic). The actual stuff in the box was pretty good as well. The book itself is actually a lot better than I was anticipating. It feels hefty and is quite sturdy. The encounters book is the usual flimsy affair, but it can be easily spread out to look at the encounters while running the game. Reading over the encounters they look well thought out and the skill challenges are decent as well. Pretty happy to see some older monsters get an update too, like the aforementioned Oblivion Wraith.
It comes with 2 "things" of tokens as well, although on the bloodied side the tokens all clearly write on them what they are. I found that kind of annoying actually, because often I don't want my PCs to know what they are fighting without knowledge checks (or similar). I don't remember if the MV tokens did this or not and they are currently in NZ (so I can't check, DOH), but it is quite irritating. The poster map for several of the encounters is one of those wonderful "generic" maps that will be useful in all kinds of contexts. It shows a dirty looking street and two floors of an inn. I am already going to use this as an area in Sigil. The other map of the entire city is pretty nice as well. I must say that I would have liked the encounter map and city map separate. So I don't have to keep unfurling and such the city map. Would be nice to put up somewhere or affix to some board for safe keeping. Oh well.
Finally the Despair Deck. Personally having a flick through the cards I still don't really see the point of this. It's cute yes, but it doesn't really excite me in any way and provides yet more things to keep track of (in a tier where you're starting to really ramp up the stuff to keep track of). While the cards are nice physical reminders, like fortune cards I don't see a point for them really. Some of the effects I feel are a bit brutal, but then again some of the positive effects are really good (like rerolling a natural 1 each encounter you have before an extended rest). In the end I am just not enthused with this and will probably just shelve it somewhere, who knows I could think of a use for it at some point.
Overall I'll have a sit down and proper read of it later, but my initial impressions are extremely positive. It was a lot better than I was expecting and particularly the excellent new array of antagonists added to the game. In what I have read of the fluff though, Gloomwrought REALLY reminds me of Sigil. It has weird dabus like fellows who roam around it reorganizing things, streets that twist into new directions and it gives me almost a "Victorian Era London by Night" vibe. It looks immensely prime for lots of different adventuring and intrigue though, so I am just wondering to myself what kind of campaigns I could run using it. Ultimately, that's the best sign of a successful product - when it gives me good ideas and direction on using it as a DM.
I give this product an A for any Dungeon Master. Unless you just hate the whole shadowfell fluff thing. Then, well there isn't anything I can say that won't make you not hate it!
Edit: Oh yeah, it comes with a neat bit of new design as well. Minion traps! I was quite impressed with the general idea here and it works out pretty logically. Plus stone tentacles are never a bad thing.
