John Cooper
Explorer
SECRETS OF XEN'DRIK
By Keith Baker, Jason Buhlman, and Amber Scott
Wizards of the Coast product number 953727200
160 pages, $29.95
Secrets of Xen'drik is the latest sourcebook in the Eberron campaign setting, this one detailing the mysterious continent of Xen'drik, home of fallen giant civilizations, jungle-dwelling drow bands, and strange and powerful magics found nowhere else in the world.
The cover art is a piece by Wayne Reynolds (but of course!), this time depicting a scene of a quartet of iconic adventurers (human paladin, warforged spellcaster, axe-wielding shifter, and female spellcaster in face paint) in battle against a very angry-looking fire giant. Of course, they've got more to worry about, as some of the new creatures in this book make an appearance: the drow-scorpion hybrid scorrows and a cluster of alchemy beetles. As is traditional with Eberron cover artwork, the painting has been split up into chunks and rearranged on the front and back covers, while the intact artwork is provided on pages 2-3. Wayne does another great job with this one; I especially like the way the fire giant's black skin and red veins make it look as if he were made of crusted magma (an appropriate look, I must admit!), and the way the scorrows are shrouded in shadow, making them all that much more mysterious. Detail is good in the adventurers, as usual.
The interior artwork consists of 49 full-color illustrations by 11 different artists, as well as 15 full-color maps by 3 different cartographers. The maps are universally well-done - clear to read, easy to follow - although you can tell that they aren't all done by the same guy, as some are much higher in quality than others. The artwork is also of pretty high quality, with my favorites being Mark Tedin's cyclopean ruins on page 9 (very evocative - you can feel the many centuries they've been untended); the warforged in the spear gauntlet trap on page 89 (artist unknown - he signs his name with a rune of some sort - but the coloration is fantastic and the carvings in the background look very authentic); and Ron Lemen's "Last stand of the Templebound Raiders" on page 105 (I like the fact that the light is fading on the scene, as it just enhances the "we're so screwed" aspect of the poor Raiders). The new monsters and prestige classes all got their own illustration, which is good, but there were a few mistakes there: the scorrow on page 82 is shown with a drow's arms and hands and a scorpion's pincers, when only the one or the other is possible (according to the creature's description); and Wayne England gave the dream serpent on page 76 a non-forked tongue (I thought all snakes had forked tongues).
While I'm at it, there were a few map errors as well: the Dreary Marsh map on page 33 is missing location numbers 3 and 5 (you can figure out where they're at, but still), and according to the written description, the two stone heads on the Ziggurat Ruins map on page 49 should be facing upwards, towards the viewer. But still, taken as a whole, the artwork and cartography of Secrets of Xen'drik are well above average.
Secrets of Xen'drik is laid out as follows:
Since Xen'drik was originally supposed to be the "hands off" continent which each individual DM could design as he best saw fit, the fact that there's a sourcebook about Xen'drik might cause some Eberron DMs to worry. Fortunately, any concerns that Wizards of the Coast has now "superseded" whatever material you might have created about the Xen'drik of your campaign are unfounded: the authors have provided a whole bunch of cool materials about Xen'drik, but did so in such a way that the continent still manages to be unknown, mysterious, and completely within the DM's own purview. One of the cool things I like about Xen'drik is the "Traveler's Curse," which causes spatial fluctuations and distortions, so an excursion that took one week there might take three weeks back, even though the exact same ground is being traversed. (It's also a good reason to hire native guides, as they are generally not as affected as are visitors.) There are also waves of instability that can randomly move or change terrain types, and the local flora and fauna along with it. That means you can crest a sand dune in the middle of a desert and find a glacier on the other side, along with the cold-based creatures you'd expect to be living there. You can also be stalking a tiger through the jungle, be affected by a changing wave that transforms the patch of jungle you're in to an arctic field and the tiger into a smilodon, just like that. There's also a cool little sidebar on page 59 suggesting changes you can make to existing animals to make them better fit into different terrain types.
While most of the continent is left uncharted (all of the adventure sites in chapter 2 are "generic" and can be plugged in wherever you want), there's enough detail of the city of Stormreach - the main city in Xen'drik, and the place where most Xen'drik adventures are liable to start - that the DM can run a stable place for the PCs to make contacts, hire guides, trade goods, and so on. I like a lot of the little touches about Stormreach, like the fact that the most powerful spellcaster for hire is a kobold, and the fact that the whole city is made of whatever building materials were at hand (including wrecked ships and the rubble of the fallen giant city that once stood where Stormreach is located).
The new material is all pretty fitting, from the 3 new prestige classes to the new weapons and feats. Of the prestige classes, I really like the landforged walker the best. You know how some warforged can be psionic in nature (as per the psiforged from Magic of Eberron, in which psionic crystals are used in their construction) instead of the normal, plain old wood-and-metal living constructs that we've all come to associate as such a major part of Eberron? Well, the landforged walker takes a warforged into a completely new (and somewhat unexpected) direction: it starts to grow a covering of plants on its body, giving it a unique nature focus, something I wouldn't have expected from a living construct. The scorpion wraith is also pretty cool, but then I really like the Eberron take on the drow over any other campaign's drow, and the scorpion wraith (a prestige class primarily for drow rangers, making them stealthy, elite warriors) is suitably dripping with flavor. The primal scholar is just kind of so-so, basically being a Xen'drik-flavored loremaster of sorts. It didn't strike me as being particularly exciting or groundbreaking.
The drow also seem to get the coolest new weapons, armor, and feats. Drow long knives combine the best qualities of short swords and daggers (as they're weighted for throwing); chitin and scorpion breastplate armor is sure to make any Eberron drow the height of fashion and the envy of his Vulkoor-worshiping brethren; and the drow also rake in the only racial feats in the book. They're also tied into the coolest new monster, the scorrow, the Eberron version of the scorpion-man tlincalli of previous editions of the (A)D&D game. (I think Forgotten Realms has "stingers," their version of tlincalli.) Just like "drider" = "drow + spider," "scorrow" = "scorpion + drow," although since there's always such an argument about how to pronounce "drow" (does it rhyme with "cow" or "show?"), there's liable to be a big row over how to pronounce "scorrow." (Does it rhyme with "Zorro" or "score-how?" Still, I suppose it could be worse: they could be called "drorpions," after all!)
As for the other new monsters, I rather like the alchemy beetle, a Small construct with variable energy damage, and the warforged scorpion (which is exactly what it sounds like). The dream snake doesn't seem all that exciting for as much attention it gets in the book - after all, it's revered by both drow and yuan-ti, prized for its venom and its scales (which can be used to make dreamhide armor), and so on. The quorcraft warforged is a template that is applied to a warforged, and it's actually an "earlier version" of the standard warforged, for it strips it of its "living construct" type and reverts it to a construct (thereby also stripping it of Intelligence and Constitution scores, feats, skills, and so on) - yet oddly enough, the sample provided is of a barbarian, which seems like a pretty odd choice for a standard construct.
And that brings me to the monster stats, doesn't it? Sadly, as excited as I got over the leap in quality that Monster Manual IV had over recent books, with Secrets of Xen'drik, Wizards of the Coast leaps right back to where they were. (Or almost, anyway. I've seen much better, but I've also seen worse.) Oddly enough, the new monsters were pretty well done; it was the NPCs that seemed to give developer Andy Collins and development manager Jesse Decker the most trouble. I recommend making the following changes:
I give Secrets of Xen'drik a final rating of a low "4 (Good)." Despite the poor stats, I really like the way the authors have decided to "flesh out" Xen'drik - or more accurately, allow each DM to "flesh out" Xen'drik in his own way - and the drow material alone makes this a worthwhile book for DMs running an Eberron campaign. Best of all, there's also plenty of pilferable material for DMs running their own homebrew campaigns or adventures in a different campaign setting; there's no reason why the sections on the encounter traps wouldn't work just as well in the Forgotten Realms or Kalamar, and any campaign world with a mysterious, untamed land should find something of interest in Secrets of Xen'drik.
By Keith Baker, Jason Buhlman, and Amber Scott
Wizards of the Coast product number 953727200
160 pages, $29.95
Secrets of Xen'drik is the latest sourcebook in the Eberron campaign setting, this one detailing the mysterious continent of Xen'drik, home of fallen giant civilizations, jungle-dwelling drow bands, and strange and powerful magics found nowhere else in the world.
The cover art is a piece by Wayne Reynolds (but of course!), this time depicting a scene of a quartet of iconic adventurers (human paladin, warforged spellcaster, axe-wielding shifter, and female spellcaster in face paint) in battle against a very angry-looking fire giant. Of course, they've got more to worry about, as some of the new creatures in this book make an appearance: the drow-scorpion hybrid scorrows and a cluster of alchemy beetles. As is traditional with Eberron cover artwork, the painting has been split up into chunks and rearranged on the front and back covers, while the intact artwork is provided on pages 2-3. Wayne does another great job with this one; I especially like the way the fire giant's black skin and red veins make it look as if he were made of crusted magma (an appropriate look, I must admit!), and the way the scorrows are shrouded in shadow, making them all that much more mysterious. Detail is good in the adventurers, as usual.
The interior artwork consists of 49 full-color illustrations by 11 different artists, as well as 15 full-color maps by 3 different cartographers. The maps are universally well-done - clear to read, easy to follow - although you can tell that they aren't all done by the same guy, as some are much higher in quality than others. The artwork is also of pretty high quality, with my favorites being Mark Tedin's cyclopean ruins on page 9 (very evocative - you can feel the many centuries they've been untended); the warforged in the spear gauntlet trap on page 89 (artist unknown - he signs his name with a rune of some sort - but the coloration is fantastic and the carvings in the background look very authentic); and Ron Lemen's "Last stand of the Templebound Raiders" on page 105 (I like the fact that the light is fading on the scene, as it just enhances the "we're so screwed" aspect of the poor Raiders). The new monsters and prestige classes all got their own illustration, which is good, but there were a few mistakes there: the scorrow on page 82 is shown with a drow's arms and hands and a scorpion's pincers, when only the one or the other is possible (according to the creature's description); and Wayne England gave the dream serpent on page 76 a non-forked tongue (I thought all snakes had forked tongues).
While I'm at it, there were a few map errors as well: the Dreary Marsh map on page 33 is missing location numbers 3 and 5 (you can figure out where they're at, but still), and according to the written description, the two stone heads on the Ziggurat Ruins map on page 49 should be facing upwards, towards the viewer. But still, taken as a whole, the artwork and cartography of Secrets of Xen'drik are well above average.
Secrets of Xen'drik is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: 3 pages of text giving an overview of the book
- Chapter 1 - Welcome to Xen'drik: Traveling to Xen'drik; the cities of Stormreach and Dar Qat; the lands of Xen'drik; and the Traveler's Curse
- Chapter 2 - Adventure Sites: 13 generic adventure locales (Ancient Harbor, Colossal Monument, Desert Canyons, Dreary Marsh, Fog Lake, Forsaken City, Honeycomb Caverns, Mountain Glacier, Old-Growth Ruins, Primitive Camp, Quori Outpost, Volcanic Fields, and Ziggurat Ruins), each with details of the area but without specific creatures, so you can populate them as best fits your own campaign
- Chapter 3 - Encounters: NPC stats for all types of people and creatures you might meet up with in Xen'drik, followed by 9 new monsters (alchemy beetle, dream serpent, jungle giant, primordial giant [template], scorrow, tentacle spider, quorcraft warforged [template], warforged scorpion, and yuan-ti wretchling) and encounter traps (with 4 examples and 2 "classic" traps)
- Chapter 4 - Adventures in Xen'drik: Actually, these are 16 adventure seeds, where you plug in the location (often from chapter 2) and monsters (often from chapter 3); there's also a 2-page table of 100 adventure ideas you can develop on your own
- Chapter 5 - Xen'drik Unveiled: 3 prestige classes (landforged walker, primal scholar, and scorpion wraith), 10 new feats, 6 new types of armor, 8 new weapons, 7 new types of adventuring gear, 6 magical/psionic locations, 5 artifact spells, 12 new magic items, 11 new artifacts, and 2 artifact components
Since Xen'drik was originally supposed to be the "hands off" continent which each individual DM could design as he best saw fit, the fact that there's a sourcebook about Xen'drik might cause some Eberron DMs to worry. Fortunately, any concerns that Wizards of the Coast has now "superseded" whatever material you might have created about the Xen'drik of your campaign are unfounded: the authors have provided a whole bunch of cool materials about Xen'drik, but did so in such a way that the continent still manages to be unknown, mysterious, and completely within the DM's own purview. One of the cool things I like about Xen'drik is the "Traveler's Curse," which causes spatial fluctuations and distortions, so an excursion that took one week there might take three weeks back, even though the exact same ground is being traversed. (It's also a good reason to hire native guides, as they are generally not as affected as are visitors.) There are also waves of instability that can randomly move or change terrain types, and the local flora and fauna along with it. That means you can crest a sand dune in the middle of a desert and find a glacier on the other side, along with the cold-based creatures you'd expect to be living there. You can also be stalking a tiger through the jungle, be affected by a changing wave that transforms the patch of jungle you're in to an arctic field and the tiger into a smilodon, just like that. There's also a cool little sidebar on page 59 suggesting changes you can make to existing animals to make them better fit into different terrain types.
While most of the continent is left uncharted (all of the adventure sites in chapter 2 are "generic" and can be plugged in wherever you want), there's enough detail of the city of Stormreach - the main city in Xen'drik, and the place where most Xen'drik adventures are liable to start - that the DM can run a stable place for the PCs to make contacts, hire guides, trade goods, and so on. I like a lot of the little touches about Stormreach, like the fact that the most powerful spellcaster for hire is a kobold, and the fact that the whole city is made of whatever building materials were at hand (including wrecked ships and the rubble of the fallen giant city that once stood where Stormreach is located).
The new material is all pretty fitting, from the 3 new prestige classes to the new weapons and feats. Of the prestige classes, I really like the landforged walker the best. You know how some warforged can be psionic in nature (as per the psiforged from Magic of Eberron, in which psionic crystals are used in their construction) instead of the normal, plain old wood-and-metal living constructs that we've all come to associate as such a major part of Eberron? Well, the landforged walker takes a warforged into a completely new (and somewhat unexpected) direction: it starts to grow a covering of plants on its body, giving it a unique nature focus, something I wouldn't have expected from a living construct. The scorpion wraith is also pretty cool, but then I really like the Eberron take on the drow over any other campaign's drow, and the scorpion wraith (a prestige class primarily for drow rangers, making them stealthy, elite warriors) is suitably dripping with flavor. The primal scholar is just kind of so-so, basically being a Xen'drik-flavored loremaster of sorts. It didn't strike me as being particularly exciting or groundbreaking.
The drow also seem to get the coolest new weapons, armor, and feats. Drow long knives combine the best qualities of short swords and daggers (as they're weighted for throwing); chitin and scorpion breastplate armor is sure to make any Eberron drow the height of fashion and the envy of his Vulkoor-worshiping brethren; and the drow also rake in the only racial feats in the book. They're also tied into the coolest new monster, the scorrow, the Eberron version of the scorpion-man tlincalli of previous editions of the (A)D&D game. (I think Forgotten Realms has "stingers," their version of tlincalli.) Just like "drider" = "drow + spider," "scorrow" = "scorpion + drow," although since there's always such an argument about how to pronounce "drow" (does it rhyme with "cow" or "show?"), there's liable to be a big row over how to pronounce "scorrow." (Does it rhyme with "Zorro" or "score-how?" Still, I suppose it could be worse: they could be called "drorpions," after all!)
As for the other new monsters, I rather like the alchemy beetle, a Small construct with variable energy damage, and the warforged scorpion (which is exactly what it sounds like). The dream snake doesn't seem all that exciting for as much attention it gets in the book - after all, it's revered by both drow and yuan-ti, prized for its venom and its scales (which can be used to make dreamhide armor), and so on. The quorcraft warforged is a template that is applied to a warforged, and it's actually an "earlier version" of the standard warforged, for it strips it of its "living construct" type and reverts it to a construct (thereby also stripping it of Intelligence and Constitution scores, feats, skills, and so on) - yet oddly enough, the sample provided is of a barbarian, which seems like a pretty odd choice for a standard construct.
And that brings me to the monster stats, doesn't it? Sadly, as excited as I got over the leap in quality that Monster Manual IV had over recent books, with Secrets of Xen'drik, Wizards of the Coast leaps right back to where they were. (Or almost, anyway. I've seen much better, but I've also seen worse.) Oddly enough, the new monsters were pretty well done; it was the NPCs that seemed to give developer Andy Collins and development manager Jesse Decker the most trouble. I recommend making the following changes:
- p. 55, Low-Level Caster, half-elf druid 3: Skills lists "Listen +4" twice. (Okay, that was pretty picky, even for me. I'll tell you what, I won't even count this one when I do my error percentage calculation at the end.)
- p. 55, Badger Animal Companion: There's no reason for Weapon Finesse to be a bonus feat when normal badgers have it as a standard feat. I suggest dropping Agile, and lowering Balance to +4 and Escape Artist to +8.
- pp. 55-56, High-Level Caster, half-elf druid 15: He should have 6 3rd-level spells/day, not 7 (5 as a Drd15, +1 for Wis 22). He should also only have 2 7th-level spells/day, not 3 (2 as a Drd15, +0 for Wis 22). Skills should include Ride +4 (0 ranks, +2 Dex, +2 synergy bonus from Handle Animal).
- pp. 56-57, Mid-Level Leader, shifter ranger 5/horizon walker 3: Skills should include Knowledge (nature) +2 (0 ranks, +0 Int, +2 synergy bonus from Survival). Survival should be +12 (+14 to avoid hazards and getting lost) due to a +2 synergy bonus from Knowledge (geography). Shifting should last for 4 rounds, not 5 (3 + Con bonus + number of shifter feats = 3 + 1 + 0 = 4).
- p. 57, Hawk Animal Companion: There's no reason for Weapon Finesse to be a bonus feat when normal hawks have it as a standard feat. I suggest dropping Alertness, which lowers Listen to +2 and Spot to +14.
- pp. 57-58, High-Level Leader, shifter ranger 5/horizon walker 10: Skills should include Knowledge (nature) +2 (0 ranks, +0 Int, +2 synergy bonus from Survival). Survival should be +18 (+20 to avoid hazards and getting lost) due to a +2 synergy bonus from Knowledge (geography). Shifting should last for 5 rounds, not 6 (3 + Con bonus + number of shifter feats = 3 + 1 + 1 = 5).
- pp. 59-60, Belericax, male old green dragon: Skills should include Diplomacy +8 (0 ranks, +4 Cha, +2 synergy bonus from both Bluff and Sense Motive) and Gather Information +6 (0 ranks, +4 Cha, +2 synergy bonus from Knowledge (local)). Intimidate should be +35, not +33 (29 ranks, +4 Cha, +2 synergy bonus from Bluff).
- p. 63, Blackscale Lizardfolk Leader, blackscale lizardfolk barbarian 5: When raging, grapple should be +21, not +19 (+9 BAB, +4 size, +8 Str). When not raging, grapple should be +19, not +17 (+9 BAB, +4 size, +6 Str). Skills should include Knowledge (nature) +1 (0 ranks, -1 Int, +2 synergy bonus from Survival). When raging, Jump should be +18, not +12 (0 ranks, +4 racial, +8 Str, -2 armor check penalty, +8 speed). When not raging, Jump should be +16, not +10 (0 ranks, +4 racial, +6 Str, -2 armor check penalty, +8 speed).
- pp. 66-67, Yak Folk Puppeteer, male yak folk sorcerer 2/stone giant vessel: "Speed 30 ft." should be followed with "in hide armor (6 squares); base speed 40 ft." As a Sor2, he should only know 5 0-level spells, not 6.
- p. 67, Revealed Yak Folk, male yak folk sorcerer 2: Will should be +9, not +11 (+4 as a 5-HD monstrous humanoid, +3 as a Sor2, +2 Wis). As a Large monstrous humanoid, Space should be 10 ft., despite what Monster Manual II says. As a Sor2, he should only know 5 0-level spells, not 6.
- p. 68, Magebred Viper: Base land speed should be 20 ft. (4 squares), not 30 ft. (6 squares) - the same as a normal Medium viper, since this particular magebred viper is of the tracking breed, not the swift breed.
- p. 68, Drow Lookout, drow warrior 1: Search should be +3, not +2 (0 ranks, +2 racial, +1 Int).
- p. 69, Drow Disciple, drow adept 2: Listen, Search, and Spot should all be +3, not +2 (0 ranks, +2 racial, +1 Int/Wis)
- p. 69, Tiny Monstrous Scorpion Familiar: Will should be +3, not +2 (+3 as Adp2, +0 Wis). Skills should include Concentration +7, Heal +5, Knowledge (religion) +3, and Search -2 due to its status as a familiar.
- p. 71, Drow Firebringer, drow sorcerer 7: Will should be +6 (+8 against spells and spell-like abilities), not +8 (+10) - (+5 as a Sor7, +1 Wis; plus the +2 racial bonus for the parenthetical stuff).
- p. 71, Tiny Monstrous Scorpion Familiar: Skills should include Concentration +10, Knowledge (arcana) +8, and Search -1 due to its status as a familiar.
- p. 71, Drow Poisoner, drow rogue 5/assassin 1: Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 13 (due to uncanny dodge). Skills should include Diplomacy +2 (0 ranks, +0 Cha, +2 synergy bonus from Bluff) and Intimidate +2 (0 ranks, +0 Cha, +2 synergy bonus from Bluff). Search should be +4, not +2 (0 ranks, +2 Int, +2 racial).
- pp. 73-74, Drow Aquasa, drow fighter 8/ranger 5: Touch AC should be 14, not 13 (+3 Dex, +1 deflection). Feats aren't alphabetized. Skills should include Knowledge (nature) +2 (0 ranks, +0 Int, +2 synergy bonus from Survival).
- p. 78, Jungle Giant: The "Jungle Giants as Characters" should point out a +6 Con bonus, not a +3 Con bonus.
- pp. 79-80, Primordial Sun Giant Warlock, male primordial sun giant warlock 5: Skills should include Survival +4 (+6 on other planes) - (0 ranks, +4 Wis, +2 synergy bonus from Knowledge (the planes)).
- p. 81, Scorrow: When using Two-Weapon Fighting, the secondary drow long knife damage should be 1d8+2/19-20, not 1d8+5/19-20 (half of its +5 Str bonus = +2).
- pp. 84-85, Quorcraft Warforged Barbarian, male personality warforged barbarian 4: When raging, flat-footed AC should be 16, not 15 (due to uncanny dodge), and when not raging, its flat-footed AC should be 18, not 17 (for the same reason).
- pp. 85-86, Warforged Scorpion: Listen and Spot should each be +2, not +0 (0 ranks, +2 Wis).
- p. 86, Yuan-ti Wretchling: Listen and Spot should each be +4, not +3 (2 ranks, +0 Wis, +2 from Alertness).
I give Secrets of Xen'drik a final rating of a low "4 (Good)." Despite the poor stats, I really like the way the authors have decided to "flesh out" Xen'drik - or more accurately, allow each DM to "flesh out" Xen'drik in his own way - and the drow material alone makes this a worthwhile book for DMs running an Eberron campaign. Best of all, there's also plenty of pilferable material for DMs running their own homebrew campaigns or adventures in a different campaign setting; there's no reason why the sections on the encounter traps wouldn't work just as well in the Forgotten Realms or Kalamar, and any campaign world with a mysterious, untamed land should find something of interest in Secrets of Xen'drik.
