This is not a playtest review.
This review contains spoilers for the Dragonlance novels - beware!
Age of Mortals is a companion volume to the Dragonlance Campaign Setting (DLCS), with information on play during Krynn's Fifth Age for D&D 3.5. It is released by Sovereign Press as a WotC licensed product, and contains no OGC.
Age of Mortals is a 224-page colour hardback product costing $39.99. The layout is very similar to the Dragonlance Campaign Setting product with a wide right-hand margin featuring a dragonlance surrounded by Celtic knotwork, no spaces between paragraphs and a standard font, but this product does have white space at the end of each of the six chapters and a few other occasional places. Also, the chapter number and title are retained all the way through the book on the top margin. The artwork retains the same flavour as the Dragonlance Campaign Setting too, with the welcome addition of a few Elmore pieces - the front cover by Matt Stawicki is stunning, filled with emotion and bleak power, showing Mina standing over the corpse of Takhisis laid out on a sarcophagus. The few maps are fairly plain with no scale. Writing style is less formal than the Dragonlance Campaign Setting and the book benefits from the more descriptive style. Editing seems good with minor occasional errors.
Chapter One: Characters
This chapter begins with supplemental material regarding the races of Krynn during the Age of Mortals, and includes stats for some NPCs from the Fifth Age novels, with information on running Tarmak/Brutes as PCs, and a new race, Half-Kender, who gain a bonus to Spot, Open Locks and Sleight of Hand checks as well as Will saves against fear effects. Sidebars in this section cover the story of the Kagonesti known as the Lioness, a discourse on the state of the elves after the War Of Souls, and some information on Tasslehoff.
The second section covers classes and provides a new 20-level class, The Mariner. The Mariner has an average BAB and good Fort and Ref saves. He gains a bonus feat every 3 levels from a select number of appropriate skills. He also gains a feature called dirty strike that allows for extra damage to an attack using such underhanded attacks as hitting below the belt and head butts. They also have a feature called sailor lore, which works a bit like Bardic Knowledge but is limited to the sea, ports, etc. A couple of new weapons for mariners, the cutlass and belaying pin are also statted out.
Twelve new prestige classes are also provided:
* Academy Sorcerer - a student of the Academy of Sorcery, minimum 5th level entry, this 10-level PrC provides bonuses to magic through research and study. The spheres of sorcery first seen in the Fifth Age products are provided here for this prestige class to gain the equivalent of school specialisation.
* Citadel Mystic - student of the Citadel of Light, minimum 5th-level entry, this 10-level PrC gains an additional domain from the list of mystic spheres first seen in the Fifth Age products as well as a bonus to a saving throw from Charisma and a virtual metamagic feat at higher levels.
* Kender Nightstalker - This 10-level PrC details kenders who seek out the spirits of the dead, befriending them where possible. They gain spells from a small spell list, and gain class features such as detect undead, resistance to necromantic spells and a spirit companion who can merge with the kender on occasions at the highest level. 5th-level minimum entry.
* Legion Mystic, Sorcerer and Scout - these three 5-level PrCs work for the Legion of Steel and focus on infiltration and information gathering. They tend to have slightly higher minimum entry levels around 7th-8th level.
* Master Ambassador - 10-level PrC, essentially a diplomat with bonus languages, and abilities to gain insight into the local court and command a retinue. Minimum 5th-level entry.
* Nomad Shaman - 10-level PrC, shaman who deals with spirits and continues to gain divine magic. Also gains a feature that enables him to attack spirits with the equivalent of ghost touch at later levels. Minimum 5th-level entry.
* Rogue Knight - an ex-member of a knighthood who has broken an oath. Gains the ability to deal with the underworld at the cost of his honour, fights more ferociously when outnumbered and gains extra abilities depending on his previous knight level. 10-level PrC with a minimum 5th-level entry.
* Solamnic Auxiliary Mage - 5-level PrC with minimum 5th-level entry, mages who work for the Solamnic Knights, whose magic is boosted by honour, courage and justice.
* Spellfilch - 10-level PrC with minimum 7th-level entry, uses magic to steal magic, and gains a signature spontaneous spell and additional sneaking features.
* War Mage - 5-level PrC with minimum 5th-level entry, specialising in battle magic, allowing less restrictive spellcasting in armour and bonuses to damage from spells.
Sixteen new feats are also introduced, most of which are bonuses for similar skills or related game effects.
Chapter Two: Magic
This section begins by providing rules for the growing unreliability followed by the loss of magic during the Age of Mortals before the rediscovery of wild magic. One of the interesting possibilities for this era was the ability to leech magical items of their power to boost spellcasting ability and a large sidebar gives two new feats that allow this process to be used in D&D 3.5. Stats are background are given for Dalamar and Palin.
Two new mystic domains are offered - Channeling and Sensitivity. Well over a score of new spells are described including nine levels of Call Undead (from tiny zombies to nightwalkers), a number of spells that affect the ethereal such as Part Death's Shroud (causes ethereal creatures to become visible), some new variants on the Spiritual Weapon spell particular to Krynnish deities, and the interesting Trace Magic spell, which allows the caster to detect faint traces of magical auras, but actually track it to its source.
The chapter ends with description and stats of some famous and infamous magical items including the glaive of Grimwulf, the Sword of Tears, and the Device of Time Journeying.
Chapter Three: Life In The Age Of Mortals
The chapter begins with a more in-depth history of the last 40 years than the DLCS. It then moves on to give an overview of the climate, topography, flora and fauna, architecture, government, civilisation, and nobility of Ansalon.
Chapter Four: Cities, Stronghold, And Ruins
Again, this takes a more in-depth look at locations than the geography chapter in the DLCS did. It drills down to the communities, fortresses, and ruins of past civilisations giving information on such aspects as population, history, important locations, occasional maps, and NPCs. A few sidebars offer new magical items or information on characters from the setting. Locations include Hylo (the kender capital, where we have stats and description for the kender leader Belladonna), the Citadel of Light, with info on Lady Camilla Weoledge and Blister Nimblefingers), and The Lake of Death (once Qualinost, we also see stats for a 16th-level Laurana). Most of the heroes from Jean Rabe's Fifth Age novels can be found here if not already covered by the DLCS.
Chapter Five: Gods & Religion
This chapter begins with an overview of religious history during the era. It gives information on the worship of The One God along with the secret behind that worship. Stats and background for Goldmoon are also given. Further detail on the role of each of the deities in the new Ansalon is provided, including Paladin and Takhisis (this section includes stats and background on a 20th-level Mina, including information on the Medallion of the One God).
Chapter Six: Monsters & Dragons
Creatures covered are the Bound Spirit template (essentially one of the souls bound to Krynn during the War Of Souls), and Ogre Titan template (including the magical process required to transform an ogre into an ogre titan). The section on dragons and dragon overlords includes discussion of Advanced Dragons (including rules for spawn creation) and Skull Totems (including three new draconic feats - create skull totem, draconic vampirism and undead battery), before giving stats and information on the Sea Dragon and Shadow Dragon. The Overlords that are covered are Brine, Khellendros, Malystryx, and Onysablet. Strangely, the rest of the chapter is dedicated to the blue dragon Razor and his partner, Marshall Alexius Medan, and finally the blind silver dragon Solomirathnius. In a section covering the Dragon Overlords, one would expect to find Beryllinthranox and Gellidus. The other minor dragon overlords from this era can be found in the Dragonlance Web Enhancement on the WotC website.
High Points:
The prestige classes provided were appropriate to the setting and well designed. In fact, I preferred all of them to the 'Other' prestige class section in the DLCS - my favourite was the nomad shaman. The information in Chapter Three was welcome and a needed addition to the sparse coverage in the DLCS of life and society - in fact, I would have liked to have seen more detail in this section. More detailed information on some of the locations of Ansalon was also useful.
Low Points:
Considering the release of the bestiary in the near future, I would have preferred to have seen the extra space used to bring additional creatures to the gaming table now, used to cover the missing Dragon Overlords. I would also have liked to have seen campaign and adventure ideas linked to the more detailed information in Chapters 5 and 6. In fact, my biggest disappointment with the product was the lack of directly given adventure ideas.
Conclusion:
This product is subtitled the Dragonlance Campaign Setting Companion and it fulfils this role well - it brings more detailed information and choices for PCs and GMs to round out the information provided in the DLCS. The quality of the prestige classes is probably its biggest strength and the lack of adventure ideas its biggest weakness. The two missing dragon overlords are a noticeable anomaly, as well as again no index or overall world map. Overall though, a worthwhile addition to the Dragonlance line that will see use for both players in terms of the prestige classes and GMs in terms of the detailed locations presented and the background information on politics and society.
