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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2011312" data-attributes="member: 172">Anger of AngelsAnger of Angels is a sourcebook for playing games involving angelic beings using d20 System fantasy rules, principally in the role of PCs, though other uses are possible as well. The book is written by WotC alumni author Sean K. Reynolds and published by Malhavoc Press, and is currently available in both PDF and print versions. This review concerns the PDF version.The book is written to 3.5 standards.A First LookThe PDF version of Anger of Angels is 130 pages long including color "cover" pages. The price listed in the document is $13, though there is almost always some discount at RPGnow.com.The cover is illustrated by Alan Pollack and depicts an angel in the sky, plummeting in pursuit of another angel whose leathery weak betrays some sort of corruption.The interior is black-and-white and features the talents of David Hendy, Sam Wood, and Kieran Yanner.A Deeper LookReynolds begins his books by discussing the cultural origins of angels in our society. He states plainly that his presentation is well rooted in Christian and Jewish underpinnings that are the basis behind most western conceptions of angels, and proceeds with something of a disclaimer.In the first two chapters, he describes the history and the nature of angels. The first chapter is the much more true to the cultural origins of angels, and tells a hypothetical history of angels that very strongly resembles the one I learned in Sunday school, with one third of the host of heaven turning against a singular god. Other cultural references include jealousy of mankind as a motivating factor, much akin to the way angels are depicted in the apocalyptic horror movie, The Prophecy.Indeed, the author cites a good amount of bibliographic material in the book, so if you are looking for something a bit closer to the traditionally accepted image of angels in western theology, you may be impressed.The second chapter hews a bit closer to angels as they are depicted in d20 fantasy. As he describes them, angels are immortal sexless beings, living spirits given form. Despite being sexless by default, angels with humanoid forms may "assume" a gender and even reproduce with mortal beings (thus half-celestials and aasimar.) Other aspects of angels discussed include free will, service to deities, becoming "fallen", angelic bodies, and equipment.To this point, the chapter is primarily expositional text, but where needed, it is followed by appropriate game mechanics, such as physical traits of planetouched beings descended from various angel types and traits associated with corruption. The major game rules content of this chapter is the introduction of a variety (11 to be exact) of angel races. These races all have racial hit dice and level adjustments stemming from their powers. However, these numbers might be quite a bit lower than what you are used to in angelic races in the d20 System, with possible starting levels as low as 5. The main reason given for this is to allow you to play using these rules over a wide range of levels by using the classes.As a side note, the only class that any of these races feature as a favored class is their own racial HD; the author states this was specifically intended that way. That decision I question; these races will never advance their racial HD again, so the racial levels as a favored class should be considered a gimme. Any of these races could reasonably have a standard class as an additional favored class.The third chapter is entitled Campaigns and continues to explore the ramifications of playing with angels. The section actually suggesting the variety of campaign approaches you may wish to take when running a campaign involving angels, most of the chapter actually concerns itself with deeper aspects of the campaign, including some variants from traditionally accepted d20 canon. For example, traditional D&D canon has it that spirits in the afterlife lose all memory of their former self, though this chapter discusses some possibilities if you do not follow that paradigm.One mechanical inclusion in this chapter that will intrigue some players is a "leveled" version of the celestial and half-celestial templates, allowing their benefits to gradually be introduced into a game.The fourth chapter, Planar Geography, presents details of heaven and hell as planar locales. While it would be possible to extract some concepts herein to use the more traditions d20 planar cosmology, the planes as presented here are almost a cosmology of their own. Much like the earlier planar material, this take on the planes draws more strongly from Judeo-Christian tradition, including features such as Jacob's Ladder and Purgatory.The fifth chapter presents a small miscellany of "famous" angels. All angels have name, alignment, angelic race, and class. The Eight archangels have the longest descriptions and have clerical domains that allow them to function as patrons granting spells if the GM so desires. All angels herein have at least 10 class levels, and the archangels are well into epic levels.The sixth chapter presents three organizations in the mortal realm but otherwise related to angels. These organizations are good starting points for campaigns involving angels or angelic beings. For example, the Brotherhood of the Pure Spirit blames the fall of angels on consorts with mortals and acts to eliminate celestial blooded creatures like half-celestials and aasimar.The seventh through ninth chapters provide new character options specifically for angels, including feats, prestige classes, magic items, domains, and spells. Many of the feats are exclusive to angels. Some are in a new category of feats called dominion feats. These feats must be specifically granted by a higher power, and are title by specific duties or sphere that the angel now has dominion over (such as angel of chance, angel of light, etc.) These feats grant spell like abilities once a day, but the angel may use it more times per day at the cost of gaining negative levels.Of the remaining feats, many expand or enhance the racial abilities of the angel. For instance, the aligned damage reduction ability gives DR only negated by weapons of the opposing ethos, and extra spell like abilities does just that. Such feats would be beyond the pale of normal characters, but considering the hit dice and racial adjustment investment of angels pay, it's probably not inappropriate here.Most of the prestige classes are similar in nature to dominion feats in that they take on a title corresponding to some aspect, like Angel of Death or Angel of Fury. All the classes are five level classes, perhaps to compensate for the fact that with many angels having so many effective levels, there is little room for a 10 level class.The tenth chapter provides a variety of creatures appropriate for angelic campaigns, primarily as opponents, such as fiends, fallen angels, and other abominations. Many of the entries are template creatures (with an example of each), and include such oddities and nephilim (cursed offspring of a specific family on angels and mortals) and Vrykolaka (the corpse of a being animated by a fiend.)In addition to these new creatures, the creatures chapter provides stat blocks for an unclassed version of each of the angelic races introduced earlier.ConclusionOverall, this is a very well done resource if you want to highlight angels in your campaign. The lower level assumptions and the more friendly to PCs composition makes them far more accessible as PCs than in existing angels, and the book supports the concept well with a nice mixture of rules material and expositional background.The default Judeo-Christian model, though perhaps unavoidable, could make it more difficult to integrate these creatures into a game that uses a more typical D&D pantheon of deities.Overall Grade: B+ –Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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