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Kingdoms of Kalamar Players Guide
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<blockquote data-quote="Crypt King" data-source="post: 2009041" data-attributes="member: 21"><p>Players Guide to Kalamar</p><p>272 pages, $29.99</p><p></p><p>4 out of 5 stars.</p><p></p><p>Now, I am not normally a person to give a general review of a product, beyond telling my friends "Hay this is cool, "or, "This sucks", but I felt the need to review this rather nice, albeit full of reprint info supplement. Due to Kalamar being licensed, it pulls form multiple core and variant sources, which is the books biggest selling point.</p><p></p><p>First I am not a fan of Kalamar, I find the world boring and the world book a poor resource, reading like a history text instead of a game aid. I use my own campaign world, and have done so for over 15 years, and plan to for some time to come. Despite that, I'm a big fan of options, the more the merrier. I purchased this book with the sole purpose of using it for my existing world, not using Kalamar. So with that I am reviewing this book as an aid to other games.Now past that, I was rather impressed with the Players Guide to Kalamar, but it's not a perfect supplement, hence the 4 star rating.</p><p></p><p>Okay first the basics.</p><p></p><p>Art: Well the art could have been better in some places, it seems smudged or out of focus with the line work but it is better then some supplements I have seen from other companies. What art there is is black and white, which irritates me especially with the cover price. At 30 bucks, it would be nice to have some color to the book.</p><p></p><p>Layout: Standard layout, very similar to the WoTC PHB. In some places over a quarter of the page is just one word, on a big grey box, which I feel is a waste of space, similar to the Mythic Races supplement. Tables are laid out well, blocked in to help prevent run on which I do like. Font is very basic, easy to read.</p><p></p><p>The chapters breakdown as follows:</p><p></p><p>Intro: Basically "Why you should like Kalamar, let me praise ourselves here." Really unneeded, if you're a Kalamr fan you'll love it, if your not, this guy isn't going to sell the book.</p><p></p><p>Ch 1: Races: The races section is basically the reprint of the PHB races, with the subraces (grey, dark, wood, etc) and a few new subraces (stone dwarf, golden halfling, etc,) plus new races representing the hobgoblin factions. I did not really care for the alterations to the core subraces for the most part, but it gave me ideas on what to do with them, such as the elves, to vary them more in abilities. The new subraces, were hit and miss, once again based on personal taste. Some seem rather balanced, while others seemed for better term of the word Hosed, with so little benefit that most players, even the die hard plumber role players won't touch them. The hobgoblins are interesting, but they once again fall into the balance issue. Too much was done to make them playable, when in the DMG they are already a 0 increase ECL race. The hobgoblins of Kalamar are dumber, less observant and less intimidating then normal hobgoblins. The human races are also defined, with no variant rules just background info which can come in handy fleshing out the human population of your game.</p><p></p><p>Ch 2 and 3: Classes and Prestige Classes: There's world specific info for each core class is here as well as the new classes (Gladiator, Basiran Dancer, Brigand, Infiltrator, Shaman and Spellsinger,) and world specific prestige classes in Ch 3. The new classes vary in ability, mostly being low key compared to other supplements. The gladiator seems rather pointless, especially the condescending tone the author takes in the reasoning for their inclusion, such as comments to the prestige class in Sword and Fist. It seems the author doesn't understand the prestige class is for skilled gladiators, not beginning ones. Gladiator = Fighter in my book. </p><p></p><p>The brigand is another class that can be simulated through the Fighter/Rogue. I do not care for the Saving Throw progression for one, and most of the brigands abilities can be simulated through feats.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the classes however make for nice additions. The Basiran Dancer is basically a dancing bard with some nice extras. The Infiltrator is basically a Rogue/Ranger but is just different enough to make it worth inclusion. They fill the role more of a raider/saboteur then hunter of whatever. The shaman is basically the druid, with a couple of changes (Animal Totem, Fetish, lower saves, lower BAP, domain spells similar to the OA shaman) and spellsinger is basically a variant sorcerer, with Perform skill and no need for somatic/material components and less spells per day. </p><p></p><p>Prestige Classes follow and they range from poor to good. Most of the spellcasting prestige classes have very poor spell progression, with the range 4 to 5 levels, which is hard to discern due to the format of the class tables, the only place the format breaks down in the supplement, which I don't think would have been a problem if they gave themselves more room with shrinking the chapter title blurbs. Some seem more suited towards NPC characters, then PC characters, such as the Merchant.</p><p></p><p>Ch 4: Skills. A lot of reprint of skills, but some new uses for them and a VERY nice list of craft, knowledge and profession skills beyond the handful of skills found in the PHB. This is the nicest aspect of the chapter.</p><p></p><p>Ch 5: Feats. Another big selling point of the book is the feats section. Well the huge number of feats publicized to be here are in fact reprints of various feats from the FR Handbook, and the various class books, with a helping of new ones. Now if you don't own these supplements, having most (not all) of the feats from those books is worth the cover price (figuring 40 dollars for the FR handbook and 20 dollars per class book) especially if you like to have everything in one source like I do. The new feats run the gambit of +2 to two skills, to new combat feats (Immovability, +4 to opposed overrun/knockdown checks, Iron Touch of Kruk-Ma-Kali, -1 factor to all critical hits you suffer, i.e. x3 becomes x2) and many more. There are about 99 new feats in the book, but some are variations or identical to existing feats, with just the names changed to protect the innocent.</p><p></p><p>Ch 6: Religion: Once again a nice area because it includes the FR domains, Defenders of the Faith domains and a few new ones to expand your domain list. This section also defines the gods, and gives them the domain lists that were missing from the old Kalamar book, and good thing too since the domains are different here. The deities themselves are more definitions then actual named gods, such as "Knight of the Gods," instead of Hextor for instance, which doesn't suit me but may help define your existing gods by comparing titles.</p><p></p><p>Ch 7: Equipment: Tones of new equipment, old and new, with new alchemical and poison materials, armor and weapons. The slave cost bothered me, since player characters are traditionally heroes. There are a few new weapons, the obligatory funky double weapon (Malakbar) and new ammunition very reminiscing of 2nd edition with different arrow types. There are also new armor types, which depending on your campaign may be nice additions or unwanted add-ons.</p><p></p><p>Ch 8: Combat: A list of various career paths (feat chains) for world specific fighting styles. It would have been nice to have special abilities, similar to the OA martial styles to represent those who master the combat styles. They also add 4 new combat maneuvers, Kick, Shield Disarm, Throw and Unbalance.</p><p></p><p>Ch 9: Adventuring: What its like to adventure in Kalamar, with new diseases and nobility.</p><p></p><p>Ch 10: Magic: Another great area for enhancing your campaign. New uses for channeling (turn undead), that make for interesting uses of channeling but some of the abilities are downright nasty. You get an ability, based on your religion and only if you take the feat Channel Positive(Negative) Energy. Also there is a section on the Divine Right of Kings, with how the gods protect nobility, giving the nobility special abilities (bonuses to saving throws, damage reduction).</p><p></p><p>Ch 11: Spells: This is the chapter that contains the new and reprinted cleric Domains, including reprinted spells such as Bolt of Glory for the Glory domain, and a slew of new spells. Some spells are victims to the "dumb name," syndrome such as "Appear as a Wizard," among others. No spell jumps out and says Boo, being grossly out of balance compared to other core products. Draw Forth the Oak Spirit is a nice spell, that allows druids to create dryads in trees. </p><p></p><p>Ch 12: Magic Items: A slew of new items, new additions to weapons (Blinding, Champion, Shield Breaker) and armor and new specific items. A few new artifacts round out the chapter. The last two sections seem to point to Kalamar containing just as much magic as any other world (well maybe not the FR.)</p><p></p><p>Pages 205 to 276 contains appendices for the products that the players guide contains (what came from where) as far as published products, a glossary of terms, master feat list, place of origin tables, character sheet, spell planner (including sources from the Class Books, Forgotten Realm books, Manual of the Planes, WoTC adventures and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, and an index. </p><p></p><p>Overall the book is full of juicy tidbits as well as a mass consolidation of Core material. This is the books strength, and weakness. For those who already have it all, it's not as useful except for the new material, and at 30 bucks, I don't know if there is enough there. For those who don't have it all, or like everything in one source, this is a nice guide and addition to your gaming book stack. The art could be better, and color couldn't hurt. The prestige classes need a little work and a couple of the new "core," classes are redundant. But overall it's a nice product, just not perfect. </p><p></p><p>For the Kalamar players, well it's your Players Handbook, no need to say anything more.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crypt King, post: 2009041, member: 21"] Players Guide to Kalamar 272 pages, $29.99 4 out of 5 stars. Now, I am not normally a person to give a general review of a product, beyond telling my friends "Hay this is cool, "or, "This sucks", but I felt the need to review this rather nice, albeit full of reprint info supplement. Due to Kalamar being licensed, it pulls form multiple core and variant sources, which is the books biggest selling point. First I am not a fan of Kalamar, I find the world boring and the world book a poor resource, reading like a history text instead of a game aid. I use my own campaign world, and have done so for over 15 years, and plan to for some time to come. Despite that, I'm a big fan of options, the more the merrier. I purchased this book with the sole purpose of using it for my existing world, not using Kalamar. So with that I am reviewing this book as an aid to other games.Now past that, I was rather impressed with the Players Guide to Kalamar, but it's not a perfect supplement, hence the 4 star rating. Okay first the basics. Art: Well the art could have been better in some places, it seems smudged or out of focus with the line work but it is better then some supplements I have seen from other companies. What art there is is black and white, which irritates me especially with the cover price. At 30 bucks, it would be nice to have some color to the book. Layout: Standard layout, very similar to the WoTC PHB. In some places over a quarter of the page is just one word, on a big grey box, which I feel is a waste of space, similar to the Mythic Races supplement. Tables are laid out well, blocked in to help prevent run on which I do like. Font is very basic, easy to read. The chapters breakdown as follows: Intro: Basically "Why you should like Kalamar, let me praise ourselves here." Really unneeded, if you're a Kalamr fan you'll love it, if your not, this guy isn't going to sell the book. Ch 1: Races: The races section is basically the reprint of the PHB races, with the subraces (grey, dark, wood, etc) and a few new subraces (stone dwarf, golden halfling, etc,) plus new races representing the hobgoblin factions. I did not really care for the alterations to the core subraces for the most part, but it gave me ideas on what to do with them, such as the elves, to vary them more in abilities. The new subraces, were hit and miss, once again based on personal taste. Some seem rather balanced, while others seemed for better term of the word Hosed, with so little benefit that most players, even the die hard plumber role players won't touch them. The hobgoblins are interesting, but they once again fall into the balance issue. Too much was done to make them playable, when in the DMG they are already a 0 increase ECL race. The hobgoblins of Kalamar are dumber, less observant and less intimidating then normal hobgoblins. The human races are also defined, with no variant rules just background info which can come in handy fleshing out the human population of your game. Ch 2 and 3: Classes and Prestige Classes: There's world specific info for each core class is here as well as the new classes (Gladiator, Basiran Dancer, Brigand, Infiltrator, Shaman and Spellsinger,) and world specific prestige classes in Ch 3. The new classes vary in ability, mostly being low key compared to other supplements. The gladiator seems rather pointless, especially the condescending tone the author takes in the reasoning for their inclusion, such as comments to the prestige class in Sword and Fist. It seems the author doesn't understand the prestige class is for skilled gladiators, not beginning ones. Gladiator = Fighter in my book. The brigand is another class that can be simulated through the Fighter/Rogue. I do not care for the Saving Throw progression for one, and most of the brigands abilities can be simulated through feats. The rest of the classes however make for nice additions. The Basiran Dancer is basically a dancing bard with some nice extras. The Infiltrator is basically a Rogue/Ranger but is just different enough to make it worth inclusion. They fill the role more of a raider/saboteur then hunter of whatever. The shaman is basically the druid, with a couple of changes (Animal Totem, Fetish, lower saves, lower BAP, domain spells similar to the OA shaman) and spellsinger is basically a variant sorcerer, with Perform skill and no need for somatic/material components and less spells per day. Prestige Classes follow and they range from poor to good. Most of the spellcasting prestige classes have very poor spell progression, with the range 4 to 5 levels, which is hard to discern due to the format of the class tables, the only place the format breaks down in the supplement, which I don't think would have been a problem if they gave themselves more room with shrinking the chapter title blurbs. Some seem more suited towards NPC characters, then PC characters, such as the Merchant. Ch 4: Skills. A lot of reprint of skills, but some new uses for them and a VERY nice list of craft, knowledge and profession skills beyond the handful of skills found in the PHB. This is the nicest aspect of the chapter. Ch 5: Feats. Another big selling point of the book is the feats section. Well the huge number of feats publicized to be here are in fact reprints of various feats from the FR Handbook, and the various class books, with a helping of new ones. Now if you don't own these supplements, having most (not all) of the feats from those books is worth the cover price (figuring 40 dollars for the FR handbook and 20 dollars per class book) especially if you like to have everything in one source like I do. The new feats run the gambit of +2 to two skills, to new combat feats (Immovability, +4 to opposed overrun/knockdown checks, Iron Touch of Kruk-Ma-Kali, -1 factor to all critical hits you suffer, i.e. x3 becomes x2) and many more. There are about 99 new feats in the book, but some are variations or identical to existing feats, with just the names changed to protect the innocent. Ch 6: Religion: Once again a nice area because it includes the FR domains, Defenders of the Faith domains and a few new ones to expand your domain list. This section also defines the gods, and gives them the domain lists that were missing from the old Kalamar book, and good thing too since the domains are different here. The deities themselves are more definitions then actual named gods, such as "Knight of the Gods," instead of Hextor for instance, which doesn't suit me but may help define your existing gods by comparing titles. Ch 7: Equipment: Tones of new equipment, old and new, with new alchemical and poison materials, armor and weapons. The slave cost bothered me, since player characters are traditionally heroes. There are a few new weapons, the obligatory funky double weapon (Malakbar) and new ammunition very reminiscing of 2nd edition with different arrow types. There are also new armor types, which depending on your campaign may be nice additions or unwanted add-ons. Ch 8: Combat: A list of various career paths (feat chains) for world specific fighting styles. It would have been nice to have special abilities, similar to the OA martial styles to represent those who master the combat styles. They also add 4 new combat maneuvers, Kick, Shield Disarm, Throw and Unbalance. Ch 9: Adventuring: What its like to adventure in Kalamar, with new diseases and nobility. Ch 10: Magic: Another great area for enhancing your campaign. New uses for channeling (turn undead), that make for interesting uses of channeling but some of the abilities are downright nasty. You get an ability, based on your religion and only if you take the feat Channel Positive(Negative) Energy. Also there is a section on the Divine Right of Kings, with how the gods protect nobility, giving the nobility special abilities (bonuses to saving throws, damage reduction). Ch 11: Spells: This is the chapter that contains the new and reprinted cleric Domains, including reprinted spells such as Bolt of Glory for the Glory domain, and a slew of new spells. Some spells are victims to the "dumb name," syndrome such as "Appear as a Wizard," among others. No spell jumps out and says Boo, being grossly out of balance compared to other core products. Draw Forth the Oak Spirit is a nice spell, that allows druids to create dryads in trees. Ch 12: Magic Items: A slew of new items, new additions to weapons (Blinding, Champion, Shield Breaker) and armor and new specific items. A few new artifacts round out the chapter. The last two sections seem to point to Kalamar containing just as much magic as any other world (well maybe not the FR.) Pages 205 to 276 contains appendices for the products that the players guide contains (what came from where) as far as published products, a glossary of terms, master feat list, place of origin tables, character sheet, spell planner (including sources from the Class Books, Forgotten Realm books, Manual of the Planes, WoTC adventures and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, and an index. Overall the book is full of juicy tidbits as well as a mass consolidation of Core material. This is the books strength, and weakness. For those who already have it all, it's not as useful except for the new material, and at 30 bucks, I don't know if there is enough there. For those who don't have it all, or like everything in one source, this is a nice guide and addition to your gaming book stack. The art could be better, and color couldn't hurt. The prestige classes need a little work and a couple of the new "core," classes are redundant. But overall it's a nice product, just not perfect. For the Kalamar players, well it's your Players Handbook, no need to say anything more. [/QUOTE]
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